kitchen

I have cleaned today for several hours with a toothbrush and a metal scrub. There will be no cooking tonight for fear of dirtying my happy, shiney kitchen!

Saturday 30th January 2010 Curried Parsnip Pie

Saturday is traditionally a lie-in day in our household. But as there is a by-election in the neighbouring District, we went out leafleting with Comrade K.

On our return we decided to have a chip butty and a drink down the Oss. We used to go down the Oss a lot - perhaps too much. It was always a busy, friendly village pub.

But over the last few months it has declined. K is a big fan of real ale, but increasingly the real ale is not on. Traditional beer has been replaced by super-chilled pump. I drink red wine, but prefer a decent glass. Sometimes there's none on at all - and recently there has been a French Merlot that I'm not keen on. We have mentioned this a few times... Inevitably, our visits to the pub have declined.

However yesterday we were dismayed to see that they had now put a pool table in the centre of the main room of the pub, where most people like to sit. It dominates the room, and seemingly on Friday night some regulars were unable to take their favourite spots.

Usually if we go for a chip butty we might stay for two, three drinks, but yesterday I think we were so depressed about the way the pub was going that we had our chips (reduced portions)and went home after one. It's a shame. It could be a brilliant pub with a bit of enthusiasm.

Back at home, it was a sorting out day. We're still not straight from the holiday. We put some of the photos on a USB stick to drive one of the two digital frames which people have bought us.

For dinner, it was Parsnip pie - mainly because I boughta bag of parsnips reduced from the Co-op on Thursday. There is a recipe for Curried Parsnip Pie in Roz Denny's Ultimate Vegetarian Cookbook which I've made before.

But is it a pie? Frankly the recipe is more like a stew with a crust on top, though in this recipe the filling is part cooked under the pie. I prefer my pies to be a bit more solid and have a bottom crust as well as a top. So the recipe was modified. I also left out the curry as hubs isn't good with trigeminal flavours. Instead I subbed coriander, cumin and paprika which are spicy without being hot.

I was quite pleased how it turned out. I'm getting more confident with pastry. My photos are all in the same style though. Hubs received a book about photography at Xmans. Perhaps I had better have a look!!!!

Friday 29th January 2010 Aubergine and ricotta cannelloni

Today started off early with a trip up to Middlesborough. I picked up DJP at Meadowhall Park and Ride and headed north. As it was dark, I had difficulty not falling asleep.

As we approached Teesport there was a flurry of snow in the air.

DJP's car was not working and he had been trying to call me the night before to get a lift from his house. Unfortunately we had left the phone off the hook and did not get the message. So he had had to get up early without breakfast to meet me at the other end of the city from where he lives. On arriving at destination, he therefore wanted breakfast. We bumped in to two Rotherham colleagues, also in search of sustenance and headed across the road to ASDA - which seemed to be the only option around.

There was no cafe in the ASDA but we were directed to a cafe in the complex next door. It was shut. My Rotherham comrade spotted someone inside who tried to ignore us but eventually came to the door. She told us the cafe wasn't open but she would make us a cup of tea.

The cafe was a bit basic and the floors and tables hadn't been cleaned from the previous day. We looked for the least messy table and sat down. Eventually she brought cups of lukewarm tea as "the boiler had not got going yet." It was all a bit grim, but funny in a perverse sort of way.

Anyway, enough said about that.

DJP and I made it back home earlier than expected. The A1 was clear and Sheffield wasn't too busy. So I bit the bullet and got out my pasta roller. I do this approximately every second year.

I'd chosen a Jamie Oliver recipe which required 16 sheets of fresh pasta, but decided it to make it myself. What made the difference from the times before is that I shaped the pasta into an oblong before I rolled it, and also lightly floured it before rolling. Three out of four sheets worked and I managed to get them quite thin.

Ja
Jamie recommends that you use the crumbly ricotta that you can buy in Italian delis. There aren't many Italian delis around here. The recipe wasn't that clear but I think we got there. (It seemed to miss out a crucial step.) Also I'm not keen on his habit of saying a handful of this, or a good glug of that. I like precision.

Still it tased good and encourages me to make pasta a bit more often.

Thursday 28th January 2010 Leek and stilton bread pudding

A fairly full on day at work. Though I was home by six, I could not face the pasta maker. Patience is not one of my virtues!

Kevin had stopped off at our allotment on the way home. Our leeks are looking thin, so he took a couple from his father's plot (with prior permission, of course.) The white bit wasn't very big, so I added some red onion to the dish.

I sed mini baguettes for the bread, smeared with grainy mustard. The rest was a custard with pepper and ntmeg. Perhaps next time I'll add Bayleaf or cloves. The cheese was Stilton, crumbled over the top. I did individual portions and probably (definitely) overcooked the dish. Still it tasted good.

The sprouts are ours as well. Also picked from the plot.

Wednesday 27th January 2010 Spinach pancakes and mushrooms

Spinach and nutmeg. What is it that they are made so much for one another.

I love nutmeg. I suppose when I was little the only time I had nutmeg was on egg custard or maybe rice pudding. Nowadays if its cheese sauce, aubergine or spinach, nutmeg has to be involved.

Up until about six years ago I would grate nutmeg with my finest grater. Then I visited Rheged!

Rheged - just off the M1 on my way to Allerdale or Copeland.

I was planning a St george's Day dinner and needed some unusual English cheeses. I had raided the local farm shops for real sage Derby, tasty Lancashire, even a bit of Dorset Blue Vinney. However I was working in the West lakes and I had driven up with two of the lads from work. We'd finished our meeting and the buffet had failed to arrive. Wanting to be back home, we decided to stopp off at this Rheged place we had seen on the way up. Someone had said they did good food.

I can't recall precisely, but we might have paid £8 for a parsnip soup and a roll. But then came the food shop attached. There were more obscure English cheeses than you could shake the proverbial stick at. The best was a deliciously gooey specimen called Stinking Bishop. With a name like that how could one not buy it? Plus there were English wines a dozen and other delicacies. Maybe I'll write about the St George's dinner another time. What this is really about is my nutmeg grater.

Peugeot designed!! For a Formula One fan, this was a must. A perspex gobe with the grinding mechanism in the centre and designed so you could show off your whole nutmegs in the upper hemisphere. The price was ridiculous - on the potato masher scale - but it was duly purchased and has been a source of joy ever since. Even when it clogs up. You can see my pride and joy to the right of the mushroom and spinach pancakes I made tonight.

Sunday 24th January 2010 Mushroom & nut wellington

Sunday started late as I had spent most of the day either sleeping or reading in bed. Hubs even brought me breakfast in bed and stated it wasn't worth getting up as the weather was poor.


About four I got up, and asked husband what he wanted for dinner. He had looked through one of my scrapbooks of recipes and chose a nut and mushroom wellington that had appeared in the Co-operative members' mag last year.

As most of the supermarkets were shut we head to the Co-op at Creswell for the bits we needed. What we couldn't buy there, we bought at Spar. However I had to substitute cream sherry for the Marsala - I don't know anywhere nearby that would sell that.

The recipe is quite long as it involves slow cooking onions and also the mushrooms. But it is simple to make and tastes nice.

I made an accompanying sauce from shallots, red wine, stock, cranberry jelly and Henderson's Relish, as well as huge Yorkies!

On the plate, everything just looks kind of brown. It was served with roast parsnips that were postively caramelly, roast potatoes, carrots, swede and sprouts. But we liked it. A traditional veggie Sunday lunch at none o'clock at night.


Just for the record, I also made a celery and celeriac soup from the slightly sad vegg left over from last week. It will go in our lunchboxes next week.

On Monday I had a meeting, so we just ate a McSween's Haggis, and on Tuesday, time caught up with me so we had the Wellington again.

We also ordered some chickens!

Saturday 23rd January Beans and tomatoes with a Brie topping

No cooking for four days. Tuesday I was working in London late and so bought some pumpkin npasta from Waitrose. It was awful as the filling fell out when it was cooked. Also - they let me down - they do not sell cornmeal.

Wednesday was the branch AGM, so we got something out of the freezer. Thursday I was away at the King's Arms in Abergavenny, and Friday I was travelling back from Wales, so it was another meal out the freezer.

On Saturday, it was mild so we spent the time sorting out the leak on our roof and starting to clear the front garden of ivy and coniferous trees. Red Brick gave us some egss from their hens and said they would be down the Oss later. We thought we might go along, so I made a quick supper of beans and tomatoes topped with a Brie crust with homemade garlic bread. It was really easy to make - it took about five minutes preparation, and was sweet and juicy.

Went down the Oss - the neighbours didn't turn up, but others did. Usuall situation. We had decided to go home only to be told there was a drink in.......... disaster!

Monday 18th January 2010 Mushroom risotto

Spent the morning at Matlock and the afternoon in Stoke. I called hubs on the way back home. He's still poorly but said he would try to eat something, so I made a mushroom risotto as rice is easy on the stomach.

This was not a delicate risotto, like the ones that look and taste like baby food. This had big chunks of mushrooms, made robust with ceps and Henderson's Relish and made creamy with brie. He managed a few mouthfuls which I was pleased about.

Retired to lounge and found out Hustle was on. I guessed the con, and do not think this programme is as good as it was with Marc Warren.

Sunday 17th January 2010 Mushroom and mustard pasta

Poor hub is not feeling well. He was sick this morning and dodn't get out of bed till mid-afternoon.

I got up late myself, but did not feel like eating so instead I cleaned the house - not my favourite job, but it kept me occupied.

When he did get up, hubs only wanted a cup of tea. He made me a "cafe con leche" which has become my morning drink since we went on holiday.


I tidied the bedroom, stripped the bed, hoovered.... Why are vacuum cleaners so cumbersome, and so ill-designed for doing the stairs?

Eventually I dressed and went out to Creswell Co-op, which being small, is open till ten on Sunday. I bought hub some crumpets and a bottle of Laphroaig in the hope he might fancy something.

Back at home, all he wanted was a hot chocolate. He did not want anything to eat. So now feeling a little hungry I cooked some pasta and ate it with a mushroom and mustard sauce.

I sat at the table and ate it by candlelight, and though it was delicious, somehow could not stomach it.

Hubs has gone off back to bed and I'm writing this.

Saturday 16th January 2010 Mushroom Pudding

We were awoken by the front door bell. It was 11.30 and the lady from next door had called to drop off a large package that had been delivered in our absence.

For the first time in over a month, we had a veggie sausage sandwich sat in the window, looking out over our garden. Hub always has Lincolnshire sausages and I have Cumberland because they are more peppery.

Three Bullfinches were eating the seeds left on the blackberry bush, and five fat pheasant hens were perched on or around our collapsed fruit cage. The weight of the snow has brought it down.

One cheeky pheasant even perched on our nut post!

The snow is all but gone now and I picked up my car from the garage. The flat roof above the front door started to leak just before we went on holiday, and is now a mouldy mess. We decided to try and put some temporary cover on it, before it can be reroofed. So this would include a trip to Sutton-in-Ashfield.

I asked the hub what he wanted for dinner. He wanted "something nice." And to be precise, what he wanted was Gary Rhodes's "Layered Mushroom and Onion Suet Pudding with 'truffle' cream sauce" with potato gratin.

I first had to find the recipe. I have four Gary Rhodes cookbooks and it wasn't in the ones I thought. It is in "At the table." For someone who loves cooking, I am not that keen on watching cookery programmes. But whenever I have caught of glimpse of Gary Rhodes, I am always taken in by his twists on traditional British food.

OK, most of his recipes are meat based but his veggie recipes are very good - a rare thing amongst chefs who seem to despise vegetarians and fob us off with pasta or risotto, and then charge us the same as they would for a fine cut of meat.

His recipe is for one grat pudding that feeds 4-6, but I scaled it down to make two individual puds. Lemon thyme is a key ingredient, and as you do not tend to get lemon thyme in our local shops, last year I dried some which I had bought from Waitrose.

Waitrose! Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? One of the great thing that came out of the demise of Safeway and its buy-out by Morrisons, was that we got Waitrose up north. In the past the nearest was a 49 mile round trip to Newark - and I have done that! But now there is one in Sheffield and another in Buxton. Whether it be lemon thyme, Jerusalem Artichokes or quinoa - I have faith that Waitose will stock it. Why can't other supermarkets have such a diverse range of stock?

Anyway, less of that fawning about Waitrose.

It must have been around six when I started cooking. Hub used the mandolin to slice too much potato - a deliberate ploy on his part, so I would make extra gratin for freezing. I'm not sure what he likes more - chipos or gratin.

For once, I carefully sliced the onion, browned the mushrooms and read the recipe! The suet pastry was chilled and then rolled delicately thin so it didn't stodge out the dish, and I took care with my truffle sauce. It requires quite a reduction. I even blitzed it at the end to make it frothy.

At the same time I steamed a "Steamed date pudding with toffee Grand Marnier sauce" - another Rhodes recipe that I hadn't tackled before.

In fact, I was really chuffed with myself today. It may have taken 3 and a half hours to make, but it deserved the Casillero del Diablo Riserva Privada Cabernet Sauvignon and Syrah 2007 that we had splashed out on to accompany the meal.

The downside? At six a.m. on Sunday morning, poor hubs was sick. He's still in bed now.

Friday 15th January 2010 Spinach and Gorgonzola pasta

Whilst we were in Argentina, we had a lot of "pasta casera" - that is, home made pasta. Whilst what we had might have not been as delicate as the stuff you get from the chiller cabinet in the UK, it was at least filled with flavours that had a bit of punch. Sometimes I reckon that if one did a blind tasting of shop bought pasta, you wouldn't be able to tell what they were.

Anyway inspired by this, I have decided to have another go at pasta. I have this anbition approximately every two years - make it once and then give up. I have a pasta rolling machine, an electric pasta mixing and extruding machine, and a ravioli tray. The first has been used four times in twelve years, the next has been used once and the tray with its dinky pasta roller has never been christened.

At work I looked up a recipe in one of the cookbooks that have pride of place behind my desk - to the chagrin of the boss who is positively dismissive of what he consideres to be my bourgeois foody-ism. I chose a recipe with home made tagliatelle and a spinach and Gorgonzola sauce. (Bolsover's new Co-op miraculously sells Gorgonzola and, to our joint delight, a Chilean Free Trade Carmenere.) Knowing I would be late home, I emailed hubs with a shopping list.

However when I arrived home, I discovered that I had no pasta flour in the cupboard. Obviously the last lot had been thrown out for being out of date. Tired, I decided not to use strong white flour, but to opt for some dried pasta shells in the cupboard. The sauce was made in a second, and was lovely and tasty - and yes, comforting! Served with a Co-op flatbread, what could be lovelier for a Friday night?

Thursday 14th January 2010 Celeriac & Celery Nut Crumble

Today was never going to be an easy day. Don't get me wrong - I love my job, and its not usually stressful - but some days, for certain reasons, you know it won't be good. Today was shaping up to be one of those days!

This is important as it has an adverse affect on my ability to cook.

I am on the bus and train this week, so get to work early and leave early so hubs doesn't need to make a special journey down icy roads to pick me up from town. For some archaic and uncapitalist reason, Barnsley market doesn't open on a Thursday. Don't people need food on Thursday? I have never mastered yet what days are "full market", "indoor market" and "second hand market" though I have worked here 13 years!

Busy at work, so it was a quick dash across town to Morrisons, though for some reason Barnsley Morrisons brings out the worst in me as there always seems to be people blocking my way with trolleys or indecisively hovering in front of the chill section when I know exactly what I want. I really should not be so grumpy!

Back on the train, a bit wound up by the day. At home a stiff Dry Martini was in order - and the hubs makes a fine Martini, albeit today it was without an olive. Dry Martinis - ideally made with Bombay Sapphire and Noilly Prat for me - are delicate and delicious. But they do make me tipsy!

My kitchen - which is quite small - was a tip with pots and pans from the night before. The living room was upside down as I opened all my council correspondence when I got home. It was a month's worth. I never like to start cooking in chaos, but in order to eat at a reasonable time, mistakenly began. Because of work, my head was all over the place.

I had a recipe for oven baked rosemary and Parmesan chips that I had cut out from yesterday's Yorkshire Post. I thought it sounded nice. However, I failed to read the instructions and instead of blanching them for a couple of minutes, boiled them until they were soft.

Had another Martini - bad idea!

As we had the best part of a bunch of celery left, I close to make Celeriac and Celery Nout Crumble, from Leith's Vegetarian Bible. I love the combination of celery, celeriac, apple and sage. It is definitiely comfort food for a frosty day. The crumble more or less went to plan, but crumles rarely look good in photos - they are just brown.

The chips meanwhile were not browning evenly and were becoming soggy. My fault! Always read the recipe in advance!

By the time dinner was served, they looked unappetising - like chips from a bad chippy. The actually tasted all right and I may try to do them correctly next time. However, by this time, I had lost patience and just threw everything on to the plate, and had a glass or two of red.

Wednesday 13th January 2010 Veggi Bourgignon

The melt has begun followed by a freeze. The hubs gave me a lift to the bus stop today as my "electric skateboard" (as the garage call it) turns into an ice skate when it freezes. (And I was never any good at iceskating) On the one passable way out of the village we came a cross a huge lorry who was trying to get up the lane to deliver some feed to a local farm. The lane is not fit for HGVs and has a restriction on it. At the best of times it is single lane with passing points. But a big lorry in icy conditions. We advised him to turn back as chaos would ensue.

Sometimes it's weird being with the hubs as we think the same thing, choose the same food in a restaurant. Today I had brought out with me a cookery magazine so I could look at recipes on the train. This was a 1994 edition of the BBC Vegetarian magazine that has One Pot Wonders on the cover. On the cover is a perennial favourite of ours - vegetarian bourgignon. It is easy to make - especially in a slow cooker - and rich and yummy too- especially on a cold day. We even had it at our wedding, as an option. On the way down the lane I asked hubs what he fancied for dinner and, yes, he asked for veggie bourgignon with dumplings!

I bought the veg from Barnsley market. There is something about asking for veg and receiving them in brown paper bags which feels more authentic somehow. Perhaps it's me being pretentious. The downside is that when you get home, you see the greengrocer has slipped in two huge woody parsnips that you wouldn't feed to a horse!

Is it true that the rest of Europe think of parsnips as cattle fodder?

Back at home, the hub had made a second Pisco Sour - this time with less cane syrup. I prefered it.

Made the bourgignon to recipe, but had run out of garlic and I swapped in Sheffield's finest Henderson's Relish for veggie Worcestershire Sauce. It contains mushroom, carrots, shallots, celery, parsnips and herby dumplings in a red wine, bayleaf, tomato, Henderson's relish stock.

I went out into the garden where it was snowing quite heavily. It was hard locating the herbs under the drifts. The thyme still had snow on it, and the sage had collapsed under the weight.

Dinner went to plan and was served with fluffy mash.

Though I have a ricer, I prefer my sturdy Rosle masher. I use mashers a lot, for mashing pumpkin, celeriac, swede, carrots as well as potatoes. I never used to find mashers strong enough, and even the stainless steel ones that you buy in most stores distorted under pressure.

A few Christmas Eves ago, the hub and I were staying at his parent's holiday bungalow in Scarborough on Knipe's Point (another story.) As we do not like Christmas shopping, I persuaded him to come to York with me and we would get it done all in one day. We'd do a bit of shopping, stop for a drink, carry on a bit, etc. As alcohol was involved, we caught the train. In York, I came across this emporium of a kitchenware shop laden with things that I never knew I needed. I carefully examined all the potato mashers, for strength of handle, size of head, two connectors to the handle to avoid it dostorting. Eventually I decided the Rosle looked the toughest, and took it to the cash desk. It was rung in and it was £35! I couldn't really afford it at the time but was too embarrased to say so.

Today, I love using it. It is a wonderful piece of kit and hopefully will last me forever. How can one be so attached to a potato masher?

Tuesday 12 January 2010

Worked at home today and started work on clearing the 192 work emails and 200+ County Council emails. Quite a few complaints about gritting in there.

My friend, Margaret, and her family are coming to dinner in a couple of weeks. I think she is expecting us to do a veggie Burn's Night like we did a couple of years back. However instead we are doing a meal based on our recent holiday to Chile and Argentina.

Tonight was the first practice run and I tried to recreate a meal that we had last Thursday in a film themed restaurant on the Avenida de Mayo. Butternut squash a la Milanesa on a bed of creamed spinach.

As I have never made creamed spinach before, I looked on Google and decided to go for Hugh Fearnley-Whittenstall's recipe from River Cottage.
http://www.channel4.com/food/recipes/chefs/hugh-fearnley-whittingstall/ultimate-creamed-spinach-recipe_p_1.html


The hubs rang from Asda to say they were out of butternut squash so I swapped the squash for aubergine. I love aubergine and its black skin. I sometimes just buy aubergines because they look so good.

We bought a bottle of Pisco back with us and hubs - an ace cocktail waiter - was practising for the dinner party. I had my first Pisco Sour in Argentina - though it is the national drink of Chile and Peru (Pisco is in Peru). He did well but it was not as frothy as the one I had in Bariloche.

It involved two measures of Pisco, the juice of half a lime, one teaspoon of cane sugar syrup, half an egg white, a dash of Angosturas bitters, shaken with ice and strained into a glass with a rim coated in sugar.

More investigation required.

I made the creamed spinach. I had only asked hubs to buy spinach, not baby spinach, so I had to destalk each leaf. Yawn! HFW's recipe required the milk base for the sauce to be an infusion of bay leaf and onion. I love that smell. It reminds me of bread sauce at Christmas. Next time I might drop in a clove or three.

In all I found the HFW recipe a bit stodgy and will mostlikely make it again with a cream base rather than a white sauce.

The aubergine? It was 10 mm slices, egged and crumbed, deep fried for about three mins. Deep fried aubergine is evil. It soaks up all the fat and delivers a deliciously different, biteworthy delight! Not for weightwatchers.

All washed down with a bottle of Crozes Hermitage, followed by a plummy Carmenere.

Bliss!

Monday 11 January Burned cheese pie

Spent the day clearing the drive of snow. Just back off holiday. My car is still at Reg's garage, and I can't remember if I insured it before we went on holiday.

The house is slowly warming up after being empty for a month. I even put the oven on full blast to warm the place.

Made it to Shirebrook Co-op to buy some basics in the hubs car. He wanted a cheese and onion pie for dinner. He loves home made, homey food.

Made said pie in the wonderful pie dish he bought me a few years ago, Short pastry made with wholemeal flour and butter. Boiled chunks of potato, grated Cheddar and home grown onions. Put in oven, but forgot it was on full blast. Rang Rose and had to cut her off in mid flow when a burning smell pervaded the room. Pastry was blasted! Still the filling was OK, but said husband prefers it when I mash the potato rather than boiling it. I prefer it when I add basil or pesto. Accompanied by home grown runner beans and peas, and washed down with a couple of bottles of Chilean Carmenere.

Went to pub in the snow.