Category: Food

Not-at-all Cottage Pie: Recipe

Not-at-all Cottage Pie: a vegetarian alternative

Serves 4

Ingredients: (for the base)

  • 300g Quorn mince
  • 300g tin of chickpeas
  • 8 medium sized mushrooms cut into chunks
  • 1 small (or half a large) brown onion, diced
  • 1 clove of garlic
  • 1/2 tsp cumin
  • 1/2 tsp mixed herbs
  • 1/2 tsp oregano
  • Salt and pepper
  • 1 oz (30g) butter (or butter alternative) to make a roux
  • 1 dessert spoon of flour (I use rice flour, but plain is fine) for the roux
  • 600ml of vegetable stock

For the mash:

  • 2 large sweet potatoes
  • Olive oil
  • Salt and pepper
  • Mixed herbs

Method: (for the main)

  • Melt the butter and soften the onion, add the garlic and cumin and fry for around a minute
  • Make a roux by adding the flour then gradually add the stock until it is all incorporated and smooth
  • Add all remaining ingredients and cook gently for 10-15 minutes

Method: (for the mash)

  • Peel and chop the sweet potatoes and boil them until soft (around ten minutes)
  • Drain and mash with around 1 tbsp of olive oil, salt and pepper to taste and a sprinkling of mixed herbs

Put the main mix in an oven proof dish and spread the mash evenly over the top, using a fork to rough the potato into peaks.

Cook in a pre-heated oven at 190°C (fan) for 30 minutes and serve with fresh greens.

This recipe can easily be gluten free and vegan by using rice flour, checking to make sure your vegetable stock cube (if used) is gluten free and vegan (you’d be surprised how many aren’t) and by using a dairy alternative ‘butter.’

 

Click here to read my short blog on how the name for this recipe came about

 

 

Tales from the kitchen: Roast beef and an unexpected walk

Today, mum popped over to mine, for various reasons, one of which was for us to amble over to a local village to find a stockist of a soap she was interested in. The soap in question was made of goat’s milk and could be used as a shampoo. As one of many of us who are trying to go as plastic-free as possible, this was something we had both talked about perhaps trying – although, not necessarily one as a by-product from a goat. I remain to be convinced, purely because somehow, anything made from this animal tends to carry with it a strong residual scent of its maker.

It was a moot point in the end, anyway, as the shop was closed and so we decided we would have a quick look around the nearest village, Kersey. Considering it is pretty much, just around the corner from me (probably five minutes, as the crow flies, although 15-20 in the car once you have negotiated many bends on a one-track road) it seems rather silly that I haven’t been there before. As is so often the case, we don’t take time to be a ‘tourist’ in our own local area.

Kersey is a tiny hidden gem and stunningly beautiful – if you like old and rural and picturesque things – which I do. It probably helped, as it usually does, that the sun had finally made an appearance after a grey, windy and rather cold start.

Tucking mum’s tiny blue car (so small you wouldn’t believe the spaces it can be parked in) into the side of the road next to an old iron and wood pump, we thought we’d just investigate a small path leading upwards out of the village – just to see.

But it was a nice day and we were in an enchanting little village and found a footpath sign – so what were we to do, but to follow it.

People think that Suffolk is flat, but it is not. Suffolk is the land of hidden ups and downs and concealed dips, copses, woods and undulating fields. As we headed down a grassy decline we passed a man peddling upwards on his bike with his dog trotting along by his side on a lead. I was impressed; cycling uphill and on a rough footpath next to a field is no mean feat.

Levelling out and starting across a small bridge over a stream, I was startled by a slow worm who in turn had been surprised by our footsteps. Speedily heading off under a bush, I was annoyed I had not got my camera switched on. Mum was more annoyed as, being in-front of me, she hadn’t seen our strange reptilian friend.

We passed cows and their calves, we got stung by nettles and picked up crow’s feathers. We stood on a steel girder over a stream and came across the remnants of an old barn. It was a lovely unexpected walk and two hours later we returned to the village, crossing the ford and arrived back at the little blue car.

Once home (later than either of us expected considering we had only gone out for a bar of soap), it was time for me to start cooking tea: roast beef. Perhaps an unusual choice for a Thursday evening, but these days, MOTH and I live a topsy-turvy schedule compared to most. With both of us working weekends, one of us days and the other nights, we try to fit in our days off, sometime during the week. It is a strange thing, that after 14 years having worked the 9-5 (or often the 8-6) office staple, I still can’t get out of the habit of considering Friday evening to Sunday being the end of the week. This means that when we have our ‘weekend’ during the week, it somehow feels like ‘bunking-off.’

We were, of course, and as ever, plagued by the plight of small and shouty cat as we ate. Anyone would think that we never fed him and his brother, the way he carries on sometimes. Big cat, I feel has it sussed by continuing to sleep and letting his brother do all the bothering and then reap the rewards as they both, inevitably, get a little tit-bit. (The origin of this phrase I once had to look up. Having heard both ‘tit-bit’ and ‘tid-bit’ spoken I always wondered which it was. So similar to say, it is easy to fudge and so never be quite sure which one has been used. It turns out that, and simply put, ‘tit-bit’ is English and ‘tid-bit’ is American, both of which refer to a small amount.

As I’ve been writing this, I’ve been listening to the, quite frankly, bonkers singing of the song thrush that, has-at-it, in the garden every evening. To me it sounds like one of those 1980’s keyring toys which had several buttons that produced a different sound effect each and makes me giggle. I feel very lucky to live in a county with so many wonderful natural things to see.

I shall leave you with a cow that mum and I saw on our walk, which we are pretty convinced has a perm…

Lentil, tomato and spinach soup with popped pumpkin seeds

Makes 2 large bowls

Ingredients:

  • 150g red lentils
  • 600ml vegetable stock
  • 1 tbsp vegetable oil
  • 1/2 brown onion
  • 1 garlic clove, finely chopped
  • 1/2 tin chopped tomatoes (around 200g)
  • 1 tsp paprika
  • 1/2 tsp turmeric
  • Salt and pepper to taste (I prefer lots of black pepper and only a little salt as the stock cube will have salt in too)
  • 1/4 tsp dried oregano
  • 1 large handful of spinach, finely chopped

Method:

  • Heat the oil gently and soften the onions
  • Add the paprika and turmeric and cook for 1-2 minutes, stirring
  • Add the garlic and tomatoes, cook for 3-4 minutes then blitz/blend and return to pan
  • Add the stock, lentils, salt, pepper and oregano, cook until the lentils are soft – around 20 minutes, stirring occasionally (lentils can have a habit of sticking to the bottom of the pan).
  • Add the finely chopped spinach and cook for 1-2 minutes
  • Serve with popped pumpkin seeds sprinkled on top

Popping pumpkin seeds:

  • Heat a non-stick pan on a high heat, dry (no oil or butter)
  • When hot, add the pumpkin seeds, stir or flip regularly so they don’t burn, until they stop popping
  • Put the popped seeds in a bowl and season with salt and pepper. (You can add other spices such as paprika or chilli for extra flavour and heat.)

 

To read my blog about cooking this in deep winter, click here

Tales from the kitchen: The Beast

As I write, we are in the clutches of the beast; that is, The Beast from the East, as the very cold weather we are having this February and March has been dubbed. I admit to being cynical about just how bad it would be, let’s face it, it wouldn’t be the first time something was over-hyped, but for once, it seems the predictions were correct.

We are currently snowed in. Not into our house per se, but the small rural village we live in is inaccessible from either side, residing as it does, at the top of a hill. Despite the efforts of the local farmers going out to try and clear the roads, the wind is continuously blowing banks of snow back again This has resulted in a tailback of stationary cars at the bottom of the hill, unable to proceed.

As lunchtime approached, let’s face it there was only one thing to be done: soup. I fancied something thick and hearty and with a good bit of flavour – if only to try and penetrate through the horrible cold I have been sneezing my way through for nearly a week.

So, I set abut a lentil, tomato and spinach soup (a link to my recipe is included below) but, distracted by Big Cat, who is momentously bored due to being stuck indoors because of the snow, I had a false start. Perhaps I should begin the recipe instructions as follows: once you have set your onions softening, do not get distracted trying to find various bits of string, elastic, beads and the such to make further impromptu cat-entertaining toys to hang from various door frames etc – because your forgotten onions will burn and you will have to begin again.

Big Cat is a very amiable fellow and will often spend hours during the day running around the garden chasing mainly leaves and insects. He is not a natural hunter and when he does catch something, he tends to wander around with it in his mouth, unharmed, looking at you as if to say, ‘This is mine. I don’t know what I do with it  now, but it’s mine, yes?’ The general rule of thumb in our house is, if we manage to get a caught critter from Big Cat, it will be happily and healthily released back into the wild. If Small Cat (who is quite possibly 89% evil) catches something – there is no hope for it, whatsoever.

Big Cat has been mooching about, following me around for the last two days, shouting at me as if I were deliberately not clearing the snow away so he can go out and play. Small Cat just sleeps, demands food and occasionally pulls drying washing off the rack to attack it before chasing his brother around the house.

As the soup steamed up the windows and filled the house with gentle spice aromas, it was time to pop the pumpkin seeds. If you have never done this, I suggest you give it a go. Not only does it result in a tasty snack or topping – but it is fun too. As they heat, puff and then split they tend to jump skyward, left and right as they pop. Enthusiastic errant seeds can zoom across the room a good couple of feet if they are feeling particularly feisty. When the outer layers have split and you put them in a bowl with a little seasoning, they make a wonderful crunchy popping, sizzling sound as they cool.

It may be -14 out there with the wind chill today, I may be wearing six layers, plus three pairs of socks, scarf and hat in the house and had to scrape ice off the inside of the windows earlier, but it is all worth it because it made me make this lunch. I love it when food is a pleasure and is somehow fitting to the occasion. There would have been no satisfaction eating this on a hot summer day, but today, it couldn’t have been more perfect.

For my lentil, tomato and spinach soup topped with popped pumpkin seeds recipe, click here

Add some relish to your beige

img_2175_fotor-tom-and-onion-relish-pic-for-blog

If you’re anything like our household you are still mainly eating ‘Christmas food’ i.e. all the extras and nibbles you bought in the strange belief we all have that, at the magical time of year, we will suddenly be able to eat three times as much as usual.

By this stage most of the best bits like the cold meats have gone and things have largely petered out to the ends of crackers, cheese, pâté, crisps, pork pies and of course – mountainous tubs of sweets and chocolates.

Barring the latter, things can seem a little beige in the food department by now and so something is needed to help things along which is why I recently made a few jars of tomato and onion relish – my recipe for which I’ve included below.

I’ve started to crave ‘normal’ food and with each Christmas item that is finished up I am almost sighing with relief. The crackers are starting to be less crack and more soft and yet hating to throw anything away we are soldiering on through them – besides – there is still an unopened smoked cheese as well as all of the three-quarters eaten, clingfilm wrapped blocks to go. And I’ve just remembered the pickled onions I bought perhaps even last year that I completely forgot to get out!

A lot of people talk of starting diets in January and I can’t help wondering – how? Do they manage to binge their way through everything by the 31st December or do they have a complete banishment of anything left over consigning it to the bin for a fresh start?

For the first time, I cooked Christmas dinner this year, just for six and I found myself worrying about – would there be enough? Which was ridiculous, I’ve cooked for that many people and more on many occasions so why did I feel the need to just do a bit more here and there than I ever would normally? The Yorkshire puddings were perhaps a very indicative example. I made them ahead to go in the freezer until the day but being someone who doesn’t actually like them (yes, that’s right, I don’t like Yorkshire puddings, I’m sure I can’t really be the only one) I completely overestimated how many everyone else would have and made well over twenty! MOTH helped out somewhat by eating five straight out of the oven, but even despite this, we still have some in the freezer. There was even enough batter left over to have a few rounds of pancakes as well – a happy unexpected aside allowing for more gorging.

But I think while we sink into the long months of inevitable drabness where the hours between morning and night are often indistinguishable due to the persistent grey, it is the perfect time to embrace happy, hearty comfort food.

I have the slow cooker on the go today which always drives small cat crazy. The delicious smell that emanates and pervades around the house causes him to not wander far from the kitchen and to shout even more than usual whilst looking pointedly at his food bowl. You can’t blame him, I find there is a lure to stand over the hot pot of yumminess and inhale generously as if in a kind of food meditation. It can seem a strange thing to be browning meat and cooking onions first thing in the morning, but it is a glorious treat to know that tea is taking care of itself and there will be nothing to do later other than dish it up into bowls, grab a spoon and perhaps some bread and butter and dig in.

Food really can be a mood changer and I love eating and cooking in equal measure. If time, money and waistline allowed I would probably spend a large part of every day cooking, baking and eating. It has been pointed out jokingly (I think) that I may secretly be a feeder. I am of course, nothing that extreme, but I really do enjoy giving people something nice to eat – nothing fancy just good tasty grub.

At the start of this year one of my sisters and I had to take a 600 mile round trip to Durham and back for our Grampa’s funeral and to pass the time on the trains I took with me Jay Rayner’s ‘The Ten (Food) Commandments’ that I had been given for Christmas. On the return leg of our journey we had to stand for two and a half hours on an incredibly packed train and after a day which started at 4:50 a.m. and had comprised of small nibbles of easy to carry food, the high emotions of a funeral and the tiredness from public transport, I found the imagery of his descriptions of food rather visceral. I think I shall be forever left with a strange memory of being nose to armpit (neither my sister nor I top five foot three leaving our head height reaching to around other’s shoulders), sweltering in funeral clothes and barely able to move to take my coat off and reading about him cooking and eating one of the most delicious sounding steaks I have ever heard described. I had to console myself with some sugared jelly sweets we had grabbed before our third train of the day – not quite the same! I feel steak must be bought soon.

But today, I have slow cooked beef to look forward to, a delightful change from Christmas leftovers – which will, of course, be tomorrow’s lunch.

My recipe for tomato and onion relish

Ingredients:

  • 700g tomatoes
  • 350g brown onions
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 3 tblsp caster sugar
  • 1 tblsp dark brown sugar
  • 3 tblsp balsamic vinegar
  • 1 tbsp white or cyder vinegar
  • Tomato puree — about a table spoon
  • Pepper to season

Method:

  • Blanch and peel the tomatoes and roughly chop
  • Gently fry the onions in a little oil until soft
  • Add the sugar and cook for a couple of minutes, stirring occasionally
  • Add all other ingredients and simmer for 20-25 minutes until the consistency is thick and not too runny.
  • Spoon into sterilised jars as full as you can make them and seal shut