Time on your hands – lets not waste it!

Wasting food is bad at any time – even more so at the moment.

I'm as guilty as the next person. Here's my latest “rescue”. I'm keeping track of what fresh fruit I have and particularly which perishes first. I forgot to check the apples. I suppose I thought they'd have a longer “fruit bowl life” than grapes – oops!

Enter my four Pink Lady apples – they were not as fresh as they could have been - here's my solution based on my “I'm not wasting food” philosophy - “Toffee Apples” :

Toffee Apples

4 Pink Lady apples, peeled, cored & sliced

60g unsalted butter

656g soft dark brown sugar

2 tbsp of orange juice

Cook in a large frying pan for 10 minutes, and you get these :

Shazam!

My four apples gave me 466g of toffee apples which I divided into two boxes and popped into the freezer. Serve warmed for a few seconds in the microwave, over vanilla ice cream.

I cannot tell you how good it feels to rescue food and turn it – in this case – into a yummy pud!

A Croque, the relish and a wedge

Cooking doesn't have to be complicated – the simpler the better. Here's an example - recipes for a sandwich, with two sides.

The beauty of these recipes are that they are straight forward – the Croque can be made ahead, ready to fry whilst your wedges are in the oven.

I know the Croque is indulgent – it's meant to be – perfect for the weekend in front of your favourite film.

The Croque :

Croque Monsieur

4 slices of medium sliced wholemeal bread

2 tsp Dijon mustard

75g (3oz) Gruyere cheese (grated)

2 slices of ham or try 45g of cooked ham hock

if you can get it – omit the ham for the vegetarians

30g (1½oz) unsalted butter

Preheat oven to 160fan/180c/Gas 4

Spread ½ tsp of mustard over each slice of bread.

Spread half the cheese on two slices of bread followed by the ham, remaining cheese on top. Sandwich together with the other two slices of bread.

Heat the butter in a frying pan until foaming – fry your Croque Monsieur for 1-2 minutes on each side. If your frying pan is suitable for the oven then pop in for 4-5 minutes. If not then transfer the Croque to a baking sheet.

If you haven't got or can't get hold of Gruyere then use Mature Cheddar instead – nothing is set in stone!

Adaptable for meat eaters and vegetarians too.

The relish :

Bazzin' beetroot relish

300g vac pack of organic cooked beetroot

drained and cut into small cubes

1 sharp eating apple, peeled, cored and cut

into small cubes

1 medium onion, finely chopped

75g soft dark brown sugar

1 tbsp balsamic vinegar

1 tbsp olive oil

salt and black pepper

Don't forget to use gloves when prepping your beetroot!

Mix well and place all the ingredients in a medium saucepan – 16cms in diameter. Simmer on a low heat, uncovered, for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally until all the liquid has been absorbed.

Take the pan off the heat and allow to cool. Box up and fridge until ready to use.

Finally the wedges :

You can use Charlotte or any waxy potato for wedges. If in doubt check the instructions on the bag. King Edward potatoes are great too – crispy on the outside – fluffy on on the inside. Cut your wedges into similar sizes and place on a large baking tray, drizzle with rapeseed oil and pop into a pre-heated oven 180fan/200c/Gas 6 – 20 minutes then shake and repeat. The more wedges you have the longer it will take for them to be crispy and brown. Tip into a bowl and sprinkle with a seasoning of your choice – Chinese 5 Spice, Chilli Flakes, or Classic Paprika & Onion, to name but three. Shake again and serve.

The dumpling stuff!

Vegetarian suet is a truly wonderful product and dumplings are really easy to make.

100g/4oz of self-raising flour

50g/2oz of vegetable suet

large pinch of salt

80ml cold water

Mix the flour, suet and salt with the water

Divide and shape into four for large or eight for smaller versions

Drop into simmering soup and cook for 20 minutes

Here's the thing … traditionally dumplings are placed on top of a casserole with a tightly fitting lid. Casseroles have a thicker consistency than soup and obviously, usually, slow cooked in the oven. Soup simmers on top of the hob and saucepan lids “sit” on top of the pan and are not what I'd describe as “tightly fitting”. Here's my tip - tear off a sheet of foil large enough to overlap the pan, push down slightly and then secure with the lid. Make sure your soup is simmering gently before you add the dumplings and seal with foil. 20 minutes later you'll have dumplings the size of which you wouldn't believe!

A bowl of soup with dumplings – what's not to love and it can be veggie or not!

Radio Information

As promised here are the labels to be found on the blog and recipes and the bits and pieces mentioned too during my chat with Bernie Keith, on his Radio Show, The Bernie Keith Show, BBC Radio Northampton on Thursday 2^nd April, 2020 at 11.45am

Veggie label

Dressings and home-made mayo

Halloumi

Bazzin' Beetroot relish using

Vac pack beetroot

A roast or a pie?

Jack Fruit

A raw slaw

Pasta

Fettuccine Alfredo – the ultimate

pasta and sauce

Orzotto – fast risotto – no rice involved!

Comfort Food

Rummage Pie

Champ or Colcannon?

Soup

Chowder

Cream of Chicken

Carrot, Coriander and Chickpea

Pastry

Where has all that flour gone? If you have some :

Wholemeal pastry

Fast Flaky pastry

Pasty Pastry

Bread

Beer bread

Soda bread

Cheese & Onion Muffin Loaf

Fish

Fish Mornay

Fish Pie

Fish Cakes – the best ever!

Asian Spiced Salmon

Smoked mackerel paté

Beef label

Posh Chilli – doesn't have to be steak, mince

will do!

Posh Cottage Pie

Steak pie filling – slow cooker style

Stew and dumplings

Burgers and meatballs

Desserts

Where would life be without a sweet treat?!

No-churn ice creams – check out the Ice Cream label too

Cakes

Compotes

Chocolate stuff – Bark and Rocky Road

Sticky Toffee Sauce

A Muddle or a Hodgepodge (aka a Mess)

Tiramisu – NOT coffee

Microwave Lemon Curd

There are Labels for Meal Planning and Hints and Tips too.

None of the above is exhaustive, it's just to give you ideas.

Time on your hands – roasted garlic photo guide

I had a larger foil tray so roasted three bulbs -

it never gets wasted

consider it therapy

I love saving time!

I filled eight pots which I bagged in Bacofoil SafeLock bags – four pots in each. Handy to stash in that small freezer tray that never gets used because you never have anything small enough - another problem solved.

The best garlic - no bitterness - sweet and ready to use. Just think how easy it is to make your own garlic butter with a sprinkle of celery salt - don't forget to add a handful of chopped flat leaf parsley too - ready to bake with mushrooms and/or to spread on a French stick, wrap in foil and bake for your own garlic bread … just another thought or two!

How about a recipe for leftovers?

Time on your hands … roasted garlic recipe

You might think this recipe is a faff in itself since you have to “pop” the garlic cloves from the bulb and box in your tiny pots – messy I know - I can only say it's worth it.

Roasted Garlic

2 bulbs of garlic

olive oil/rapeseed oil for drizzling

2-3 sprigs of fresh thyme - optional

salt and black pepper

Pre-heat your oven to 200c/180f/Gas 6.

Slice the tops off the bulbs or not, as you wish and place in a small ovenproof dish, garlic roaster or foil dish so that they fit snugly. Drizzle with oil and season with thyme, salt and black pepper.

Roast in the oven for about an hour – until the garlic has softened.

Squeeze the garlic cloves out of the bulb. It's a good idea to wear gloves and to have a compostable bag ready for disposal. To store in the fridge, add a little more oil and keep in a screw top jar.

You can use the paste in the same way as you'd use fresh garlic – the difference is that the roasted version is sweeter and ready to use!

The paste will keep in your fridge for one to two weeks or you can freeze in the baby pots mentioned.

If, like me, you forget to take stuff out of the freezer another plus here is that because the pots are so tiny they don't take long at all to defrost!

Next up ... the photo guide

Time on your hands?

We're all in the midst of “Corona virus” and lets hope that we all keep well.

We need to turn a negative into a positive – if we're staying indoors or out of the way generally then lets make the most of the time.

We'll do a series of a sort of back to basics recipes and may even be motivated to do those jobs we've been putting off for ages - mainly because we've never got the time – then we'll move on to a spot of reorganisation.

My first back to basics recipe is roasted garlic.

I hate wasting time and believe in having all the ingredients ready to roll for any recipe. On that note – who doesn't hate faffing with peeling and chopping 1 or 2 cloves of garlic for one recipe?

There is an answer – the obvious being to cheat and buy any of the ready-made versions available in the supermarket. Personally I prefer to roast whole bulbs of garlic at the same time. If you use garlic regularly this paste makes life so easy especially when you've no time.

You can keep it in a screw top jar in the fridge or decant into tiny pots and freeze.

I use the “tiny pots” and freeze option. If you're interested check out the baby aisle in the supermarket/cheap shops for tiny pots – inexpensive and don't take up space in your freezer. If they are safe enough for a baby then they are perfect for other uses too.

Here's a photo of my “baby pot” :

a neat piece of kit

the measurements are 5cms x 4cms x 3cms deep

or 2”x 1½”x 1” in old money

You probably won't be surprised to know that I've had mine for years. If you're interested you can buy Baby Freezer Cube Trays, BPA Free from your favourite on-line grocer!

A hint and a tip – bear in mind you won't be able to use the pots for anything other than garlic. I use hot water and washing up liquid, as hot as I can bear - when you've emptied a pot make it the last item you submerge so that it doesn't taint anything else. Shake the pot when clean and rest, upside down on kitchen roll. I then bag and clip all the pots together, ready for the next garlic roast!

Recipe and photos up next ...