Champ and Colcannon Recipes

MiamMiam

School of Cookery

Here they are :

Pea and Spring Onion Champ

1.5kg Potatoes, scrubbed

100g butter

500ml/18 fl oz milk (or if a richer consistency

75% milk to 25% double cream)

450g frozen peas

75g spring onions, chopped

4 tbsp chopped parsley

salt and black pepper

Cook the potatoes in salted water until tender, drain, peel and mash. You could use a ricer for absolute “lump free”. Add half the butter – 50g, after mashing or ricing. Place the milk/cream in a pan with the peas and onions and boil, gently, for 4/5 minutes. Add the parsley, take off the heat.

Add the potatoes, keep some of the milk back – you may not need it all. Season to taste and beat until creamy and smooth – add more milk if required.

Serve piping hot with a knob of butter melting in the centre.

P.s. If you wish you could add grated mature cheddar cheese.

Colcannon

Savoy cabbage, finely shredded – half a cabbage

approximately 350g in weight

30g butter

Bunch of spring onions finely chopped

1.5kg Maris piper potatoes,

Salt and black pepper

There are no exact weights here – you may have leftover mashed potatoes and cabbage – it really doesn't matter.

If you've not got leftovers, cook the potatoes in salted water until tender, drain, peel and mash. You could use a ricer for guaranteed lump free.

Put the cabbage in a pan with the butter and cook over a low heat for 2-3 minutes until tender, stirring frequently.

Add the spring onions and cook for another minute or two. Mix with the mashed potato and season well.

If you've cooked your potatoes ahead or are using leftovers, pop the completed dish into a pre-heated oven (180 fan) for 20 minutes. You could use oven-proof ramekins and serve straight to the table.

Both of these potato dishes are quick and easy but, above all, delicious!

Fast Food for Easter – mains – my second thought

For the meat eaters – keep it simple – lamb shanks. Seal the shanks in a large frying pan and slow cook in lamb stock – as a guide, 4 shanks – cook for 4 hours. They can be cooked ahead and set aside, covered, to cool. When you are ready to serve place the shanks in a foil tray or any dish that has sides and brown in a pre-heated oven 180fan/200c/Gas 6 for 20-25 minutes. Check after 20 minutes - the shanks should have a roasted, crispy skin.

Serve the lamb with Pea and Spring Onion Champ or Colcannon. If you like the thought of either, the recipes for both are up next. If you don't want to be bothered then you can't go wrong with good old mashed potato, add salt and pepper, a generous knob of butter and add a couple of cloves of roasted garlic.

To serve - a generous helping of potato and then place the shank on top. The pinnacle of this gloriousness is the onion sauce that you're going to pour over the top.

One of the great marriages in my view – lamb and onions, particularly in sauce form. It may be considered old fashioned – don't knock it until you've tried it. Here's my recipe – there's nothing like making a sauce to sooth and take away the stresses and strains of life. Don't panic it really doesn't take long.

Quick Onion Sauce

3 medium onions, peeled and chopped – you should

see pieces of onion so not a fine dice

Glug of rapeseed oil and generous knob of butter

30g plain flour

500ml milk

Salt and white pepper

Freshly grated nutmeg - optional

Soften the onion in the oil and butter, sprinkle over the flour and stir continuously for 2/3 minutes to cook the flour. Gradually add the milk, stirring continuously. Use a heatproof spatula to stir, you'll cover the base of the saucepan and stop the sauce from going lumpy.

Let the sauce boil when you've added all the milk, then remove from the heat and season with salt, pepper and nutmeg. When cooled slightly place a sheet of clingfilm on top of the sauce to prevent a skin forming.

If you're not familiar with nutmeg have a go in this recipe, it really does work.

Happy Easter!

Fast food for Easter – mains

Just a couple of thoughts you might find appealing – there is only one connection between the two – they are both easy.

My first thought :

Fast and fancy fish pie

All the following elements can be prepped ahead.

Serves 4

2 large baking potatoes – stab carefully with a

paring knife, wrap in foil and bake for 1 hour at

180fan/200c/Gas 6

Set aside to cool then slice thinly – skin on or

off – personal choice

Whilst your potatoes are baking wrap 400g of fresh

fish in foil and bake for the last 15 minutes of your

potato baking time – use a timer!

Set the fish aside to cool

Your fish can be a mixture of whatever you choose – for example, mix smoked haddock or cod with salmon and prawns – it's whatever floats your boat.

Make a batch of Alfredo Sauce (see “The hot idea”) for your fish.

When you're ready to assemble :

Preheat your oven 180fan/200c/Gas 6.

As you know I use foil trays – in this case 24x24cms – available from Wilkinsons if you wanted a supply – otherwise a square casserole.

Open up your foiled fish and tip it into a large mixing bowl. Break the fish into chunks, gently, then season with black pepper. There will be jelly from the cooked fish – discard or include – it's all flavour and will combine with the sauce you've made. If you've not used any smoked fish then you may want to add a sprinkle of salt. Add your Alfredo sauce and fold together, gently. If you've made your sauce the day before it will have set – if you want to make life easy then warm the sauce gently to loosen (in a saucepan, not the microwave) and then add to the fish.

Tip the mixture into your tray or casserole. Add the sliced cooked potatoes, add a knob or two of butter and ground black pepper. If you're feeling really decadent then sprinkle grated Parmesan over the top. Bake for 25 minutes until golden brown.

If fish is not your bag, take a look at my second thought!

The hot idea …

… is one of my favourites – basically mushrooms on toast – or a bowl of mushrooms with the fresh soda bread to dip in – don't forget a fork to spear the mushrooms!

You have two choices - for a creamy hit – make the Alfredo Sauce – whenever you've got five minutes. Bake 500g of chestnut mushrooms, halved, with a drizzle of rapeseed oil for 10 minutes in a pre-heated oven 180fan/200c/Gas 6 so they release the mushroom liquor, lift the mushrooms from the liquor and set aside. Make a batch of Alfredo Sauce to your taste. Place the mushrooms in a warmed bowl and add the Alfredo to taste. Cut thick slices of soda bread to tear and dunk! The traditional route is to toast the soda bread and place the mushrooms and Alfredo on top but you will need a knife and fork.

To save you time, the Alfredo recipe :

Alfredo Sauce

2 tbsp unsalted butter (50g)

400ml double cream

100g freshly grated Parmesan

freshly ground black pepper

Gently heat the butter and the cream together, stirring, until the butter has melted, then stir in the Parmesan. Slowly bring to a gentle boil, turn down the heat and simmer, stir continuously for a minute or so until you have a smooth, creamy sauce.

The sauce can be made ahead and fridged.

For a sharper, zingy hit try Mushrooms in Balsamic :

Mushrooms in Balsamic

4 tbsp rapeseed oil or similar

500g chestnut mushrooms, halved

4 cloves of roasted garlic or crushed cloves

pinch of salt

4 tbsp Balsamic vinegar

2 tbsp soft dark brown sugar

60g grated Parmesan

In a medium size frying pan heat the oil, add the mushrooms, garlic and a pinch of salt. Cook on high for 5 minutes until browned. Mix the vinegar with the sugar and pour over the mushrooms. Stir until syrupy – 1-2 minutes. Serve on toasted soda bread and sprinkle with Parmesan to serve or in a bowl with sliced soda bread ready to tear and dunk.

Make sure you have a bib ready!

Who knows what …

...will take your fancy over the Easter holidays when you've a long weekend to please yourself -

more to the point who knows what the weather will do this year – today it's snowing, with more promised and plummeting temperatures yet again.

It certainly doesn't make you think about Spring and the food you'd associate with it. It's difficult to strike the right note when you could be wearing thermal underwear and freezing or a sleeveless T shirt, shorts and flip flops!

We've covered all things chocolate for Easter, time to turn our attention to a few savoury bits and pieces to tempt you.

I'm sticking with the comfort theory and revisiting an old favourite or two.

There's nothing that says comfort better than home made bread – Soda Bread in particular.

Check out the Bread Label on the Blog – Saturday 19thNovember 2016 “Nothing is ever straight forward!” for the Soda Bread recipe or check out “I promised Easter treats and so …”  for a Cheese and Onion Muffin Loaf recipe too.

Two ideas to go with the bread – one cold, one hot.

The cold is the fastest paté you'll ever make.

Smoked Mackerel Paté

250g smoked mackerel

250g plain quark

2 tsps of creamed horseradish

glug of lemon juice

black pepper

Skin the mackerel, break up into small pieces and put into food processor. Add the quark and blitz with the mackerel then add the lemon juice, black pepper and horseradish, blitz again. You can gauge the consistency to your personal taste.

After you've made the paté you could add any of the following :

finely chopped sweet onion

finely copped black olives

chopped flat leaf parsley

finely chopped capers

Cut thick slices of soda bread, tear and spread liberally with the paté – that's lunch sorted.

If you've not come across quark it's a soft cheese made from skimmed milk – not nice on its own but a great product to use in this recipe – you'd never know it's healthy I promise you – it tastes great. You can use cottage cheese if you can't find quark.

The hot idea next …

The nincompoop – aka the fool!

I thought this little missive might make you smile.

It may not have escaped your notice that the weather in the UK has been the absolute pits - the worst we've had for a decade at this time of year.

Horrible weather makes you want comforting food, sweet or savoury.

This weekend, snowed in, was not going to be good and to prove my point here's my back garden (yard) :

Never wanting to waste good cooking time I decided to make Grandad Jack's Tea Loaf and so weighed out the fruit, added the mug of strong tea, covered it and left it to do its magic overnight.

A spot check revealed I only had one egg – not a problem, the following morning I attach my snow grips to my boots and trudge to the village shop where they sell fresh eggs – dedicated or what.

How virtuous am I – not only fresh eggs but hard exercise in the snow too.

Back home on went the oven to pre-heat – it takes 5 minutes to mix the cakes and away we go … or so I thought.

You know how I'm always droning on about store cupboards and fully stocked freezers, not to mention planning blah, blah.

Having soaked the fruit and climbed Mount Everest – the equivalent in my world anyway – I only needed three more ingredients – optional cherries, check - one mug of soft light brown sugar, check - two mugs of self raising flour – you have got to be kidding. I keep my flour(s) in large glass pots for two reasons, one – I use both so frequently it makes sense and two I can see at a glance how much flour I've got left – OR NOT!

I had only one mug of flour. I'm struggling to decide which expletive would best suit my discovery – upset puts it mildly – stamping feet and throwing toys out of pram would be better. It just serves me right.

Just in case you think I'm making this up – here's a photo of the empty jar :

What's that expression “necessity is the mother of invention”? Having resisted the urge to retire to a darkened room with a bottle of gin and a straw (just joking) I went rooting in my pantry instead. The flour fairies had not been – no reserve bag of self raising flour had materialised. What I did find was a bag of organic self raising wholemeal flour. It's worth a shot – hey it could turn out well.

It did – here's the proof and a photo of the sliced cake.

The moral of the story – we all need a kick in the pants occasionally.

Some things are meant to be – another tweaked recipe.

P.s. If you'd like the recipe check out “Cake” label – Sweet week Grandad Jack's Tea Loaf.

Veggie Rendang – the shucking and the photos

The shucking stuff

Tip your chick peas onto a shallow tray lined with kitchen roll. Add another layer of kitchen roll and move the kitchen roll using the flat of your hands for 30 seconds. Lift the kitchen roll and you'll see the outer husk of the chick pea comes away. You don't have to do this if you don't mind the husks – I think it's worth the effort and you can shuck whenever you have five minutes. This is all stuff that you can prep when it suits you.

It's academic anyway if you choose to use other veggies – the choice is yours!

The photo stuff

This curry really appeals to me – the ultimate in “feet up in front of a boxed set” food – a bowl of curry, bread and a spoon … what more could a girl want!