Faff Free Friday

It's the end of the working week and the last thing you need to be doing is faffing around in the kitchen, so, invite Alfredo to supper!

Alfredo is the best sauce if, like me, you prefer a cream sauce with your pasta. Traditionally Alfredo sauce is served with fettuccine or if you fancy a treat you could add some peeled cooked prawns (or other seafood of your choice - defrosted from frozen). As a rough guide 50/75g of prawns per person is more than generous with the pasta – it really is a matter of size of appetites – although I have to say it makes a pretty good lunch the following day if there are any leftovers.

Alfredo Sauce

1 tbsp unsalted butter

200ml double cream

50g freshly grated Parmesan, plus more for sprinkling

Salt and 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. Taste and adjust salt seasoning if required – you shouldn't need it since there's salt in the Parmesan. Add black pepper to taste.

This sauce can be made ahead.

The above recipe would be sufficient for two servings – enough to coat 225g uncooked pasta – it doesn't have to be fettuccine.

You can mess with the sauce if you wish by adding eggs or cornflour to thicken, or even sour cream. I'm of the view “if it ain't broke don't fix it” although I might be tempted to add a tsp of garlic paste. It's very satisfying mopping up any leftover sauce with bread of your choice.

A perfect faff free supper!

Mildreds

The latest addition to my bookshelves is “Mildreds”

“Mildreds” is a vegetarian restaurant in Soho – 45 Lexington Street, London W1F 9AN – www.mildreds.co.uk. I can't comment on the food as I've not sampled it yet but rest assured it's on my list!

If you don't possess a vegetarian cookery book then this is a candidate. On the face of it it's full and great ideas and recipes – what I also liked is that it gives you guidance on Gluten Free and Vegan options too.

The first recipe I tried was Garlic Rotis :

20g unsalted butter

3 garlic cloves, finely chopped (or paste)

½ tsp dried chilli flakes (or a pinch of powder)

200g self raising flour (plus extra for dusting)

50g wholemeal self raising flour

80-100ml water

vegetable oil

Warm the butter in a small saucepan over a low heat, add the garlic and chilli and cook, stirring, for a minute until the garlic begins to release its flavour but not coloured. Tip into a mixing bowl with the flours and gradually add the water, using a wooden spoon, until you have a moist (not sticky) dough. Knead the dough for a few minutes until smooth and then cover with a clean damp cloth and leave to rise for 30 minutes until nearly doubled in size.

Divide into 8 pieces and form into balls. Dust with a little flour and then roll into thin circles of about 5mm (¼ inch) thick. Use a heavy based frying pan - add a drop of vegetable oil to grease. Cook the rotis on a medium heat – one at a time for 2-3 minutes each side until puffed up and brown. Serve immediately or cover with a clean tea towel and reheat in a low oven when needed.

I made them ahead and then reheated before serving and my only addition was to finish them off with a brush of melted butter and a sprinkle of garlic salt.

I have a feeling that we'll be sampling more from “Mildreds”!

Thoroughly Thifty Thursday – Soup and dumplings

Remember way back when – “Fall week – Autumn here we come” during the MTM I suggested you prepare and roast twice the amount of vegetables and par boil Charlotte potatoes.

Now's the time to use them. Set down below is a recipe I use all the time and add and subtract as my leftovers dictate.

Carrot, Coriander and Chickpea Soup

1lb/500g Charlotte potatoes, peeled and diced

l large onion, finely chopped

4 large carrots, peeled and diced

2 stockpots, vegetable or chicken

1 litre of water

1 tsp mild curry powder

1 heaped tsp coriander

Salt and black pepper

Rapeseed oil

1 can chick peas, drained

Soften onion and carrot in drop of rapeseed oil for approx 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Add curry powder, coriander and black pepper, cook the spices with the onion and carrot for 2 minutes so that the flavours are released.

Add the stockpots, plus 500ml water and simmer until the pots have melted.

Add the diced potatoes and the remaining 500ml of water, bring to the boil then simmer for 10 minutes until the carrot and potatoes are cooked. Taste, then add salt to personal taste.

At this point you can set aside the soup until you are ready to serve.

Before serving pop 3 ladles of soup into a food processor/liquidiser and blitz. Tip the thickened soup back into your remaining soup, add the chick peas, heat and serve.

By blitzing a portion of the soup no artificial thickening is required. You also get visible vegetables with your chick peas.

Note

Don't put potatoes in with the carrots, onion and oil – the starch that is released from the potatoes means that they will cement themselves to the bottom of your saucepan!

You've got your cooked vegetables and your potatoes, just follow the method and it's ready. You don't have to include the chick peas – you could add leftover chicken – bear in mind the same principle applies – don't add chicken until after you've thickened the soup.

The flexibility with this supper is that it can be meat free or not.

Vegetarian Dumplings

100g (4oz) Self Raising flour

50g (2oz) vegetarian suet

pinch of salt

cold water to mix – enough for a firm mixture

Mix the flour, suet and salt with the water. Divide into 8 portions and form into balls. Place on top of your simmering soup and cover, cook for 20 minutes.

Beat that when it's a miserable, damp day. I know that there's fat in vegetable suet but the soup is healthy – assuming of course that your vegetables were roasted in rapeseed oil!

Leftovers for lunch tomorrow – absolutely.

Mr. Potter's Emporium

These days it's nigh on impossible to find a real butcher. In our village we're really lucky to have Mr. Potter – aka Chris.

C.R. Potter & Sons is a family business and has been around for many years – more accurately it should be “Chris Potter & Daughters” since both Cass and Kelly are involved in the business! Chris is famous for home-made sausages and burgers, marinades – everything you could want for the BBQ and then some. There's every cut of meat you could wish for and if you can't see it, ask! You'll always be assured of a warm welcome from Chris and his guys – Gary, front of house, who has been with Chris boy and man – I've never seen anyone tie a boned loin of pork so fast! More recently Alan became a valuable part of the team and Shaun looks after my beef cheeks order. These guys are really good at what they do and if you want help they'll gladly give it. You're also guaranteed a smile.

Interestingly Chris has had deals for years that the supermarkets have copied – a choice of any 3 trays for £10 and the choice is varied from braising steak, to pork loin chops, to rump steak and the home-made sausages.

On a humorous note, a while ago Chris was kind enough to let me loose where all the work happens – for a vegetarian it was work experience like no other! I needed a stool to reach the mincing machine and the guy who taught me how to link sausages had the patience of a saint!

Oh – by the way – if you want the more exotic meats, that's no problem either.

The major supermarkets have swallowed up a lot of quality businesses. Those that have survived should continue but will only do so if we support them. So, if you're passing, go visit the guys at C.R. Potter & Sons, 22 Spencer Parade, Stanwick NN9 6QJ 01933 622232.

GOM Chapter 25 : A quart into a pint pot!

Cast your mind back to GOM Chapter 9 when I mentioned the GOM going off into the wild blue yonder to do battle changing a car. I should have finished the story and said that my friend ultimately sold his car – the good cop/bad copy routine worked a treat – and he got a great deal. Erm, the one thing that no-one thought about at the time was that the new car is a coupé, somewhat smaller than his former vehicle.

“So what” I hear you say. It now dawns on us that we're all driving North – including Choo Choo who will be staying with my friend's daughter and son-in-law whilst he is away.

Common sense prevails and we have a committee meeting and decide that we should have a “dummy run” to see if we can actually fit everything into the new car.

What follows is like a scene from a Brian Rix farce (I hope there are some of you out there who will remember his brilliantly funny theatre!)

Here's the list:

3 cases to stow, 3 carry-on bags, Choo Choo's cage (which thankfully does collapse flat), her bed and food for two weeks. Miscellaneous bits – i.e. Choo Choo and me – plus a survival kit for the journey, blah, blah, blah.

To make the dummy run authentic Choo Choo and me decide the obvious place for us is in the car – a very good move on our part. We are keeping schtum (say nothing – especially in circumstances where saying the wrong thing may get you into trouble). We are keeping our heads well below the parapet.

After much huffing and puffing (and the obligatory strong language) surprisingly the dummy run works although Choo Choo and me now have several additional bits and pieces that wouldn't fit in the trunk.

It's a good job I'm vertically challenged!

I think they deserve a beer after all that work and I can return the tea towel to the kitchen which I used to stifle my giggles.

We are ready to roll tomorrow.

Health and Pastry!

My fab Pilates Teacher, Karen, recently asked me to contribute to a Newsletter – food related of course. What came up during our brain storming session as to the possible content of my missive was she had struggled to make an acceptable Gluten free pastry.

Here's an extract from my piece which you might find of interest. What is definite is that the pastry is really good.

Try this on for size :

Phil Vickery's gluten free

shortcrust pastry

Mix A

350g fine white rice flour

100g potato flour

50g tapioca starch or flour

Mix thoroughly (can do in a food processor)

Store in an airtight container.

225g Mix A as above

pinch of gluten free baking powder

½ tsp xanthan gum

2 pinches salt

110g stork margarine

1 medium egg, beaten

cold water

Method :

Place flour, salt and margarine in a bowl and mix well.

Rub into fine breadcrumbs (you can use a food processor).

Add egg and a drop of water, mix well. The texture should be nice and soft – add a drop more water if required.

Roll out and use straight away.

Xanthan gum gives your pastry a stickiness – a substitute for gluten, it will tighten.

Here are my tips :

Be precise with your measurements – it's a science!

Texturally it reminds me of making dessert pastry – it's fragile so take it easy – be gentle.

Roll out your pastry onto baking parchment into your required shape and size then flip the parchment over onto your pie filling. The recipe given is perfect for a pie lid measuring 24x24 cms. If the pastry breaks don't panic – use the pieces to patch any gaps in the edges.

I used this pastry to top a cheese, potato and onion pie and the verdict is lovely. A light tasty pastry with a good colour.

If you want to try the pastry I can save you time – all the ingredients are available from Daily Bread Co-operative Limited, The Old Laundry, Bedford Road, Northampton, NN4 7AD – www.dailybread.co.uk.

Have a go!

Wednesday supper – Spice up the beef!

Tonight's the night for using up your leftover roast beef.

Slice your beef as thinly as possible – hopefully you'll have approximately 200g (8oz). Make a marinade of 2 crushed garlic cloves (or paste) with 1 tsp of powdered star anise (or one star anise) with 1 tbsp of dark soy sauce. Place the beef in the marinade, turning to ensure it's covered. Place in fridge for 30 minutes.

Soak your noodle nests as mentioned in “Thursday supper and stir fry” - set aside.

Stir fry sauce

2 tbsp vegetable oil

1 bunch spring onions, sliced

1 tbsp dark soy sauce

1 tbsp Chinese rice wine (or dry sherry)

1 tsp sweet chilli sauce

150ml /¼ pint water (50ml to mix with cornflour)

2tsp cornflour

Additional vegetables

baby corn, cut in half lengthways*

mange tout*

sliced water chestnuts*

red or yellow peppers, de-seeded and sliced thinly*

carrots, cut into small batons – similar size as peppers*

bean sprouts (small bag)

Heat the oil in a pre-heated wok or large frying pan. Add the spring onions and all the additional vegetables marked * above and cook for 3/4 minutes. Add the sauce ingredients (excepting the 50ml water and 2 tsps cornflour) together with the beef and the marinade, toss thoroughly on a high heat. Mix the cornflour and the water and stir into the wok, bring to the boil mixing until the sauce thickens and clears, finish off by adding the bean sprouts.

Serve straight from the wok.

Happy Wednesday!