Penelope's Pantry

Meal Planning Monday: The healing edition

2012-01-30T21:11:00.001Z

After last week's slightly incoherent, rambly post about the ills of hospital food, I'm still at home and slowly getting back to full strength. I'm hoping to go back to work next week, but have to get checked out by the doctor to say that's OK first. Consequently this week features a lot of comfort food, as demanded both by the weather and by the slowly healing system of this poorly person.

Breakfasts are 0% Total Greek yoghurt with some lightly stewed eating apples that I cooked down this evening with about 100g of sultanas soaked in orange juice and zest. I'm planning on making some granola to add some crunch - apparently crunchy foods increase serotonin and I've been craving them since my release last week.

Lunches for me are another batch of Nigella's split pea and frankfurter soup, with a good spoonful of lazy chilli stirred through.

Dinners, as I say are full on comfort food. It's not so much about calories, but about needing that soothing unctuousness that comfort food provides. M has work and Welsh this week so I'm getting the slow cooker back out for a hearty, warming casserole:

Monday: Toad in the hole, mashed potatoes and vegetables

Tuesday: Chicken and sweet leek pie with vegetables- cauliflower and spring greens I think

Wednesday: Chicken, butternut squash and barley casserole - I'll blog this as it's a long standing recipe I've been using for years that doesn't seem to have made the blog as yet

Thursday: Leftover casserole

Friday: Apparently I said we'd find out when we got there which means my brain was addled after thinking up four dinners. The fact that I just had to ask M this is evidence that I really am not on form yet.

I should be getting beetroot in my veg box tomorrow so M has requested Jenny's Beetroot chocolate cake, and I have a bit of a craving (is it the crunch again?) for Eccles cakes, so will be breaking out my t&t Delia recipe.

I've promised M a roast on Sunday as he's at archery in the morning, so will either do the slow roast pork from the other week, or go steady on the cauliflower in the week and do roast beef and cauliflower cheese. Oh I think I've just decided! Beef it is, with a mustardy crust. Yum.

Post hospital update

2012-01-27T09:00:00.000Z

I'm attached to the sofa once more, laptop on, telly on - catching up on essential viewing. "The story of musicals" I'm looking at you.

Following on from my last post, I've returned home, still nursing the tail end of a migraine that had affected my occipital nerve (I think) and that was not responding to analgesia. A week of fluides and exceptional care has meant I really do feel better, even if I am still in pain and am incredibly fatigued.

Fortunately whilst I was away M stocked up the freezer with food - as a non foodie/ cook he perfers to 'throw and go' and looks for food that is unprocessed which can be cooked from the freezer. Normally I would bustle around the kitchen indignantly but I currently have neither the energy nor the inclination so will be working with those as they really are easier for us both right now.

Flavour is a huge thing for me at the moment, I feel a little like the hospital food has left a patina of flavourlessness in my system, that if I could I would scrub clean. Instead I'm trying to ensure that what I am eating is strong in flavour, be that irony spring greens from my veg box, or a bowl of Vanessa's Borscht with horseradish that I made pre hospital to use up the last of the Riverford beetroots that had been hiding in the fridge as I tried purposelessly to ignore them over Christmas. Somewhere in the bright colours, and strong flavours of the food I'm craving I am sure lies the way back to health.

Lying in my bed in hospital I was sure that I'd be well enough to bake when I went home, and was planning a sticky marmalade cake to take to the in-laws this weekend. As it is I'll be travelling up in my pyjamas and lucky if I manage to be awake whe we meet. So I'm guessing all baking exploits are on hold until I'm back on my feet a little bit more. I do have a Valentines cake up my sleeve that I was hoping to post pre St Dwynwen's day but the next week or two will do me. And then of course there's a birthday afoot... I was going to make another of Ruth's fruit cakes, but instead I've got another plan. Time and health permitting of course.

In line with a dear friend's New Year's resolution for me this will hopefully be the only hospital based post this year. Fingers crossed and all that. Onwards and upwards.

Meal planning Monday: the hospital edition

2012-01-24T10:27:00.001Z

First off, please bear with me through this post. I wouldn't have the inspiration to write it were I not seriously poorly, and I know from previous experience that once discharged my impetus to write lessens as I focus on returning to health & work. also I'm dictating it through dragon as my eyesite is somewhat restricted.

I've been an inpatient for 7 days now and I'm not eating a great deal, which, whilst not a problem for me clearly could be for other patients. Now contrary to what the government might have you believe this has nothing to do with nursing care which has been fabulous. Nurses sit and help those too frail to feed themselves and encourage those who are disinclined to eat because of illness or pain. And that is without exception on both wards i've been on thus far

However, the food is not good, in quality, in terms of nutrients, flavour, texture, and what is on offer.

Breakfast: cornflakes, rice krispies or ready brek. Bread and jam or marmalade. Tea or coffee to drink

Lunch and dinner are selected from something called a Steamplicity menu. I'm having trouble seeing but from what I can understand instead of microwaved the meals are reheated/ finished off in an industrial steamer.

I'm alternating between poached salmon & cabbage and roast(?) chicken and carrots. Both dishes come with potatoes but I feel no need for extra carbohydrates as I'm doing little other than taking painkillers.

I've been having sandwiches, either chicken (roll I think it's called) or cheese and tomato with a yoghurt. There is cup a soup on offer but I'm having fruit juice cups that I dilute with water instead.

Mass catering is difficult, especially to the restrictive budgets set by the government. I think it's fair to say I've seen it done far better from the eating perspective and suspect that in newer hospitals the infrastructure isn't there for the development of properly healthy tasty food.

I don't claim to have all (or even any) of the answers, but hoped this would raise the question of the affect of a diet of hospital food on ones well being. I certainly don't feel any better or particularly nourished in any way and am craving fresh fruit, vegetables and textures desperately.

A person can develop a bad, bad cold: Split pea soup and soda bread

2012-01-24T09:00:00.000Z

If you follow me on twitter you'll know this has been a poorly week in Penelope's Pantry. I've been completely wiped out by a virus/ infection that's manifesting itself through recurrent migraines. As you can imagine all thoughts of food and cooking have long gone out of the window, but by Friday I was just starting to feel a bit less like death warmed up. Then M came home from Newcastle. With the same bug/ virus. Now despite the fact that I have no energy, I've turned on Accu Broadway and am cooking my little heart out. I knew we needed some hearty, easily digestable, healing food and so I turned to Nigella. I knew her recipes wouldn't fail and that I was bound to find something in one of her books that would sound attractive and not require much brainpower. Soup it was.

I've added this to Maison Cupcake's Forever Nigella blog hop for January - be sure to pop over and have a look at all the entries.

Nigella's Split Pea and Frankfurter soup (with a couple of Pantry amendments)

2 cloves garlic
1 celery stick
1 carrot, peeled
1 onion, peeled
500g yellow split peas
1250ml vegetable stock
Pack of frankfurters - I used Waitrose's own brand
1/2 tsp ground mace
3 tablespoons of rapeseed oil

Blitz the vegetables and garlic up in the food processor, and tip into the warmed oil in a large pan
Soften gently, but don't allow to colour
Add the mace, and stir in so it's evenly distributed
Add the split peas and stir in
Add the stock (I just used 4tsp of Marigold veg bouillon in a litre and a quarter of water)
Bring to a gentle boil, pop a lid on your pan and turn the heat down and cook for an hour
I found I needed to add another half a pint of water as my lentils had absorbed all the water making this more like a casserole in consistency than a soup
Add your chopped up frankfurters, then adjust your seasoning to taste (as they're quite salty I found)

At this point I felt that the soup was missing something so added a teaspoon of lazy chilli, once stirred through you don't get a huge kick of chilli but it adds a much needed warming depth. You could equally add fresh chilli at the start but it retained some of it's freshness by not cooking it through.

Serve hot with soda bread.

No Knead Soda Bread, based on this recipe but amended slightly

300g malted grain bread flour
1 pot buttermilk 284ml (isn't that an odd amount?)
1 dsp baking powder
1 tsp sea salt

Preheat your oven as hot as it will go
Put the dry ingredients in a mixing bowl and mix through roughly with clean hands
Add the buttermilk and mix (again, by hand) until you have a soft, pliable dough. I needed all the buttermilk, despite the original recipe stating less, but flour is a moveable feast, so if you don't need it all don't fret, everything just needs to come together.
Dust your worktop and hands lightly with more malted flour, and shape the dough into a round (now, if I can manage this with one arm in plaster anyone can)
Cut two dints in the loaf with either your spatula or a sharp knife

Bake for 20ish minutes - I do this on a pizza stone, as it normally results in a nice crispy bottom for loaves that aren't in a tin. Mine today took about 40 minutes, but that's probably down to having a slightly wetter dough. It's done when you can tap on the bottom and it sounds hollow, and when the top is lightly crusted.

That's our poorly Pantry tea tonight, it'll be served cwtched up on the sofa, under blankets hopefully with a shockingly fabulous film on in the background.

Where did I go right: Herman, but Light at Heart

2012-01-20T09:00:00.000Z

Following on from my Herman ze German post, this weekend I bakend up the leaven, substituting the cooking apples and sultanas for pears and crystallised ginger. However, I'd also been sent some Light at Heart a new sugar and stevia blend from Tate and Lyle. The information said to use half as much as you would usually, so with a little trepidation I did just that (I had run out of caster sugar) using the white sugar in the cake and the brown to sprinkle on top before cooking.

The result was simply a lovely pear and ginger cake, Herman always bakes up beautifully, and the Light at Heart sugar really has made no difference to the taste at all, which was a lovely surprise.

You'll note it's slightly overcooked *ahem* I was mildly distracted doing Follow Fridays on Twitter, and forgot about it somewhat. But we'll just ignore that. Slightly. *ahem*

For those of you who follow me on twitter, this was the photo I was trying to take when my landlord caught me leaning precariously out of a window with a camera in one hand and a plate of cake in the other!

More Marmalade: Sevilles not required

2012-01-18T09:00:00.000Z

Last weekend I knew I wanted to stay in, stay warm and potter. Hopefully you've already read the slow roast shoulder of pork that was one part of the outcome of this. If not, please do - it really was a simple, slow cooked wonder.

I found myself in that post Christmas position of having a fruit bowl with clementines, lemons, limes and oranges in. Also, randomly a grapefruit, which I don't eat, because the fruit and juice make you metabolise medications more quickly which can a real risk with some conditions. I guess it turned up in a veg box and I hoped that inspiration would turn up for it, hence it was starting to look slightly sad in the fruit bowl. My original plan for this week just gone being that I was going to be working away all week I didn't want them to go to waste.

Post Christmas my jam cupboard was looking somewhat bare, preserves had been sent out as Secret Santa presents, gifts to my assistant Guiders and pretty much anyone else I could foist some off on! I was originally holding out for the Seville's but Mark's mum had mentioned to me a five fruit marmalade and I thought I'd give it a bash.

I didn't use a recipe as such. but used my original post on Marmalade as a guideline, ending up with gloriously rosy marmalade punctuated by the green and yellow shreds of the different fruits. It's lovely on toast, and my Great British Bake Off book has a lovely recipe for a Sticky Orange Marmalade cake that I think it would work beautifully in. I'll link back when I make that.

Fruitbowl marmalade

2lb of mixed citrus fruit - I used oranges, satsumas, limes, and a grapefruit
4lb of sugar
4 pints of water
3 lemons, juiced

You will also need:

Sterilised jam jars
Either lids or waxed discs and cellophane toppers
Heavy based pan and long handled wooden spoon
Muslin and string.
Sharp knife (I used a paring knife which was perfect for the job)

Wash your fruit.
Now cook the fruit (except the lemons) whole in 4 pints of water for 2 hours on a low heat. This softens everything and gives you your liquid for later (you need at least 2 pints left at the end of the cooking time, so top it up as necessary).
Take your oranges off the heat, and out of the pan using a slotted spoon or similar, and pop them on a chopping board. Quarter them as this will cool them down faster.

Take out the pips and pop these in a saucer or dish - you'll need them later

Scrape out the flesh from each quarter and pop that in the pan you're going to cook the jam in
Then really really finely (unless you like chunky marmalade of course) shred the skin. Because you've cooked the oranges this is much much easier than it would be otherwise, but it's still fiddly and takes a while. I have to admit my fruit is a bit randomly shredded as one arm is still in plaster.

You need to do this to all the oranges. Yes, all of them. Time to start up http://broadwayworld.com/radio.cfm

Ok, so the oranges and the flesh is all in the preserving pan. Add 2 pints of the water from the water you used to cook the oranges in (you can top it up if you've not got enough) and bring to a boil. You do need some extra pectin and for this I just added the lemon juice, I left out the pips as I completely forgot about them.

Add the sugar - just granulated is fine.

Put an old saucer or little plate in the fridge now
Put the pan on the heat and bring to the boil whilst stirring. You want a rolling boil - biggish bubbles that pop on the surface.

Continue to cook whilst it bubbles, stirring all the while until it 'flakes' This took about 40 minutes in total, although I tested after half an hour despite knowing it was still too light in colour, but not wanting to wreck it I thought I should check. Depending on the fruit you use, it will be faster or slower - If I remember rightly the Seville Orange and Whiskey marmalade only took about 20 minutes.

Once it's done this, take a teaspoonful or so and put it on your saucer that's been in the fridge. You want after a minute or so, the top to wrinkle as you run your finger over it but the underneath to be jam like in consistency.

While all of this is going on, sterilse your jars by washing them in hot soapy water and then drying in a low oven. Fill them with the marmalade and when slightly cooler, add lids or waxed circles and damp cellophane.

Mine is unlabelled as yet (I'm embarrased about my handwriting because of my broken wrist) but be sure to label it with the date, year and what it is.

I find that I always have a tiny bit left over that I pop in a ramekin and eat on toast over the coming days (keep it in the fridge). If I know if it's sharp or sweet or how it tastes I'm going to be able to give it to the right recipient - or keep it for myself.

There you have it, one Saturday afternoon happily spent preserving in the warm. Result, jars of Fruit bowl marmalade in my jam cupboard.

Meal Planning Monday: The Poorly Pantry edition

2012-01-16T09:00:00.000Z

Last week there was no meal plan from the Pantry as initially I was supposed to be working away all week and then I was felled, swiftly and painfully by a migrainey virus thing. That's right folks a week of migraines. I seem to be doing better now, and am chancing my arm at a meal plan for next week, despite only having eaten toast and marmite this week.

Guides and Brownies are back this week, and I think M returns to Welsh too, so normal levels of hectic-ness have been resumed. Also, January is January and I am seriously skint, so am eating my way through the freezer and pantry. Care packages may be required by the end of the month.

I've checked what's in my veg box next week, so have planned with that in mind.

Lunches are soup, I made a batch of fridge bottom soup the week before last which owing to being poorly ended up being frozen.

Monday: Pantry pasta

Tuesday: Leftovers

Wednesday: Stir fried veg, chicken and noodles. I use rice noodles for this as I much prefer them to egg noodles. Instead of buying a sauce I use soy, sherry and honey to make a home made stir fry sauce. I know I've got onions and peppers in the fridge, but could do with picking up some cheap greens to bulk it out.

Thursday: Is it too much to hope for leftovers? If not, M is at Welsh so I might have an omlette

Friday: Reverting to student standbys is normally my 'too much month at the end of my money' standpoint but I've got some green lentils doing very little in the pantry, so I think it's time to bring the lentil ragu out from retirement and may even splash out on some chorizo! Madness I know.

Be sure to pop on over to At Home with Mrs M to see what everyone else is cooking this week. And while we're at it, what are your frugal, end of the month standby dishes?

Five hundred twenty-five thousand six hundred minutes - seriously slow cooked Pork shoulder

2012-01-14T09:00:00.000Z

OK, it didn't take that long, that's 8 thousand, seven hundred and sixty hours (or a year for those familiar with Rent).

This is a recipe I dreamt up last weekend courtesy of a vague memory of a television programme from some years ago (something about eating British Pork). Do you ever have that? Or is it just me? You know where you wake up thinking about something and know that you 'need' to cook it just so that your internal dialogue stops prodding you and suggesting - try slow cooked shoulder of pork, try slow cooked shoulder of pork.

Truth be told I woke up last weekend in serious need of comfort food, the cold I had had over Christmas has alarmingly mutated into one of those viruses I get from time to time that fells me completely and on Saturday my need for comfort food was immediate and clear. M was working and so I spent my day indoors, pottering around the kitchen (in a vague attempt to ignore the need to hoover. I capitulated on Sunday) I believe that the slow cooked, hot food really helped although I was lost to the virus, hence the quietness on the posting front this week.

So Slow cooked shoulder of pork. I asked my butcher to score the fat as I definitely wanted crackling (diet? What diet? This virus is doing it all by itself). Normally I'd ask him for cooking tips, but the plan in my head was already fairly formed.

I started by rubbing the pork skin with salt (generously) and seasoning the meat with salt and pepper. It then went into a preheated Gas mark 7 (225 degrees ish) for about 45 minutes, after which I turned the oven down to Gas mark 3 (150 degrees ish) and covered the meat tightly with a double layer of foil. The high heat at the start was to get the crackling well and truly started, and I felt that by then covering the meat over it would prevent the juices/ fat from evaporating in the oven. I'm not very scientific I could be completely wrong.

I left the pork in the oven cooking for 4 hours, whilst I napped, tidied and generally pottered (I love days like that, it could have only been better if I'd stayed in my pyjamas. But don't tell M, I don't think he's picked up on my slattern-like tendencies yet). I think this is what makes this an ideal weekend recipe, once it's in and the oven turned down, you can just leave it be.

After 4 hours I basted the pork with the fat that had rendered out from the joint and turned the oven back up higher to cook the roast potatoes. I popped the pork back in, minus the foil, but on some veggies - celery, carrots and onions, just roughly chopped, a bulb of garlic broken down into cloves (the cast is good for something) and a couple of bay leaves. This was purely because that was what I had in the fridge, you could easily amend it to suit you. I intended to recreate my get-ahead gravy by bashing these into submission with my potato masher to make gravy, but next time I might add butternut squash and parsnips which I would take out first.

When the meat went back in, I turned the oven back up to crisp up the crackling - and as a happy accident the edges of the meat. About 15 minutes before the potatoes were done I took the meat out, wrapped the joint back up in the foil and left it to rest. I added about a pint of water to the meat tin, and as with the get ahead gravy, bashed 7 bells out of the veggies, scraping up the goodness from the bottom of the tin, until it was all combined, and then strained it through a colander into a jug. I didn't add flour this time so it was more watery gravy than the Christmas one, but I enjoyed this as it was.

I served the meat and potatoes with some steamed savoy cabbage and carrots, tart applesauce and it made a lovely, undemanding comforting dish. Just what is needed at this time of year. And cheap, as I didn't buy any veggies or anything other than the pork. The meat was so well cooked that it just fell apart and I shredded it with 2 forks (bearing in mind one of those is still encased in purple plaster) before serving. The combination of the soft yielding meat with crispy crackling, flavourful gravy, with lightly steamed veggies and crispy potatoes was just what the doctor ordered. Although not quite enough to ward off the virus it did set me up for a week in which my staple diet has been marmite toast and tea

This would work equally well with a lamb shoulder, although I'd be inclined to make small cuts and put extra garlic and rosemary inside them.

Penelope's Pantry patient pork
(picture free, because it was just that good, that we started picking as soon as I put it on plates)

Shoulder of pork - ask your butcher to score the skin, and to advise you on how much - I went by size which is probably of little help but it was about a six inch wide piece
Sea salt
Pepper
Vegetables: I used celery, carrots and onions
Bulb of garlic
Couple of bay leaves (truly I added these because the packet keeps falling over in the cupboard and annoying me. I keep adding them to things at the mo purely for that reason)

Apple sauce, I cooked down 2 eating apples because that was what I had. Just peel, chop and cook with no sugar until they're pulpy.
Vegetables and potatoes to serve.

Make sure your fat is scored and rub in salt
Cook in a preheated (225 degrees) oven for an hour
Turn the heat down (150 degrees) and cover the meat in foil tightly
Put back in the oven for 4 hours
Baste the pork with the fat from the tin
Remove from oven, put veggies, garlic and bay leaves on the bottom of your roasting tin and put the pork back on top
After an hour (or so, I went by eye) remove the pork, wrap tightly in the foil and add water to your baking tray. Put it on the heat and bash the veggies, garlic et al up with a potato masher. When you're happy with the consistency strain through a seive or colander and pour into a warmed jug.
Shred the pork with 2 forks (remove the crackling first)
Serve with your chosen veg, potatoes and applesauce.

Iced buns - a Tea Time Treat this weekend?

2012-01-07T09:00:00.000Z

I don't normally hold with reposting, but Karen from Lavender and Lovage mentioned the Tea Time Treats challenge on Twitter, and although I'm going to make some eccles cakes tomorrow I think of these iced buns as the ultimate tea time treat - in a real regresssion to my childhood. They're also ideal as a weekend project if you want to stay in the warm, and busy yourself in this post Christmas lull.

Making the buns was straightforward, as regular readers know, I like breadmaking - I find the kneading and proving a soothing, restful process (I never said I was normal) and despite these being a fairly vigourous knead, I spent a happy afternoon pottering in the kitchen.

I love that the icing is water icing (I think the adults amongst you call it glace icing, but I call it water icing with the Brownies and so that's what we're calling it here) as it just reinforces, what a lovely, family bake these are. Kids could easily help with kneading, shaping the dough and icing the buns. It's only when you start to want to pipe the cream and jam that this becomes properly technical.

As I may have mentioned on twitter I was blown away by the evenness of my bake, and how lovely the buns looked when they came out of the oven. It was quite a pull to leave them to cool.

I used home made jam from earlier in the summer, and because I like things jammy, refrained from piping this on, instead spreading the cut inside of the bun with the warmed, fruity jam.

Because 12 buns is simply too many to have in my house at any one time, I gave 8 of these away as a Random Bake of Kindness, to my upstairs neighbours. I've saved 4 for Mark and I though.

Ingredients

Dough

2tsp salt

150ml/5fl oz warm milk

140ml/4½fl oz water

Icing

200g/7oz icing sugar
5 tsp cold water

Filling

Method

Preheat the oven to 220C/425F/Gas 7.

To make the dough, place all the ingredients into a large bowl, holding back a quarter of the water. Stir the mixture with your hands, then slowly add the remaining water to form a dough and knead in the bowl for four minutes.

Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead well for 10 minutes or until the dough is smooth and elastic.

Return the dough to the bowl, cover with a damp tea towel and leave to rise in a warm place for one hour.
Divide the dough into 12 pieces, each about 70g/2½oz, then roll into balls and shape into fingers about 13cm/5in long.
Place the dough fingers onto a greased baking tray, leaving space for them to double in size, then set aside in a warm place for 40 minutes. They should just touch each other when they’ve risen.

Bake in the oven for 10 minutes then set them aside to cool.

For the icing, sift the icing sugar in a wide bowl and gradually stir in the cold water to form a thick paste. I needed far less than 5tbsp of water to get the thickness needed to coat the top of the buns. Well, actually a lot more than 200g icing sugar as I blithely trusted Paul Hollywood and added all the water.

Dip the top of the cooled fingers into the icing, smoothing it with your finger, then leave to set on a wire rack

Lightly whip the cream and spoon it into a piping bag fitted with a small nozzle.

Sliced the iced fingers horizontally, leaving one long edge intact.

Warm 1tsp of jam per bun and spread one side of the iced buns with the warmed jam

Pipe in a generous line of whipped cream into the middle of each finger, Dust the iced fingers with icing sugar and serve (or give away)

Meal planning Wednesday: The midweek edition

2012-01-04T19:19:00.000Z

You may have noticed that it's not Monday, and I'm not trying to sidle in late to Meal Planning Monday with a note from my Mum. It's midweek, and I'm proudly only just doing my meal plan.

Wednesday: Nasi Goreng
Thursday: Fridge bottom soup (swede, parsnip, carrot and celery) with Herman bread
Friday: Is it cheating to say leftover soup & Nasi Goreng?
Saturday: Bratwurst, baked potatoes and red cabbage
Sunday: Chicken and leek pie

Baking: A Herman, and a beetroot chocolate cake

Lunches this week have been mainly fruit based, but once I've made the soup, it'll be that in my new flask.

My main reason for lateness is that I've been teaching in Kent this week, and I'm disorganised, and seem to be suffering with some kind of permanently full up and slightly nauseous thing. Anyway, the Riverford veg box arrived today and I made good use of it, and a leftover sauce from my Fusion Foods challenge in a protein and veg rich Nasi Goreng.

Nasi Goreng

1 cup brown, basmati rice. Cooked
2 cloves garlic, crushed
Dried galangal to taste
1 red chilli, chopped
250g chicken
100g cooked prawns
1 cup edamame beans
1 cup sweetcorn
2 sticks celery, chopped
2 carrots, diced
1 red pepper, diced
1 tablespoon rapeseed oil
1 jar WorldFoods Fusion nasi goreng sauce

Heat up the oil in a large pan or wok and add the spices, cooking until they sizzle
Add the chicken and cook until browned
Add the vegetables and stir fry until lightly cooked
Stir the sauce through
Add the cooked rice and stir until combined
Serve, on the sofa, in a bowl, with a large glass of water, wearing pyjamas.

Herman ze German

2012-01-02T09:00:00.000Z

I've posted before about Amish Friendship Bread, also known as Herman the German, a travelling sweet leaven that in feeding and baking produces more of himself to share with friends and loved ones.

My upstairs neighbour Rachel gave me some a couple of months ago and he's been baked and baked, with some given to Mark's mum, one batch given to one of the Guides, and another spilled in the car. Sorry Mark.

Anyway, I've noticed on facebook - speaking of which, have you seen the Penelope's Pantry page yet? Please feel free to like, I tend to do updates and general whittering on there.

Where was I? Oh yes, well, I've noticed on Facebook that Herman is doing the rounds, and I know that many Guide units are becoming beset with Hermans too so I thought I'd give some ideas for ways with Herman, as well as type out the original recipe in case you're a recipient without instructions.

OK, first to dispell some myths:

if you miss a feed Herman won't die
You don't need to stir out all the lumps when you feed Herman
If you get a bit bored, Herman is quite happy to nap for a bit on your worktop
You don't need to follow the recipe exactly, Herman is fairly forgiving

Now... here's the recipe. And much like the recent post on hot chocolate, I'll add some ways you can adapt Herman to suit your own tastes.

Day one: Put Herman in a big mixing bowl on your worktop (not in the fridge)
                Cover loosely with a tea towel
Day two: Stir Herman and peer in to see what's happening
Day three: Stir Herman and grumble a bit about about the worktop space he's taking up
Day four: Feed Herman
                 115g plain flour
                 240g caster sugar
                 250ml milk
                 Now just give him a little stir, ignore the lumps
Day five: Stir Herman, be amazed at the bubbles
Day six: Stir Herman whilst wondering if you'll ever get to eat him
Day seven: Stir Herman
Day eight: Stir again, despair of this ever becoming cake
Day nine: Feed Herman as above
Day ten... BAKING DAY!

First you split your mix into four containers and give three away to friends/ suckers/ baking nerds (delete as appropriate) then keep one and supplement that mixture as follows:

240g caster sugar
230g plain flour
1/2 tsp salt
160ml oil (it needs to be tasteless, so no extra virgin olive oil here)
2 eggs, beaten
2 cooking apples, peeled, cored and diced
160g sultanas
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 heaped tsps cinammon
2 heaped tsps baking powder
60g brown sugar

Grease and line a roasting tin, or a couple of brownie tins - yes you read that right, there's a lot of mix here.
Pour your batter in, and sprinkle with brown sugar
Bake for 45 mins at 180 degrees C
This makes a lot of cake - it both travels and freezes well.

OK, so now you have Herman coming out of your ears (not literally I hope, I'd see a doctor about that). Do you want to do keep another Herman to keep going? If so, try these additions:

Instead of apple, sultana and cinammon, try plum, prune and ground cloves
Or pear, ground ginger and stem ginger
Dried fruit, apricots, prunes, dates or mixed fruit would all work well
Berries, blueberries, or a bag of frozen (drained) berries
Raspberries and ground almonds (instead of some of the flour)
Changing the sugar to brown will make the cake more treacley
Switching the sugar and blitzing down some dates and prunes, with cinammon and ginger would make a lighter version of parkin
Warm slices through and have with ice cream as a quick and easy pudding
Top with a mix of butter, sugar and cinammon and grill for a take on cinammon toast (an old uni favourite of mine)

The nice thing about Herman is that you always have cake, it works out cheaper than buying cake for lunches, and you know what's in it. I love the idea of sharing it with friends and family, that said I'm lucky to be able to foist it off on Guides as otherwise I'd be losing popularity with people swamped by Herman left, right and centre. That said if you want some and aren't close enough to get some from me, then try my post on Amish Friendship bread, when I made the starter myself. Sometimes, when ill I just have had too much free time it would seem!

Who can take a sunrise? Epic Hot Chocolate Jamie Oliver style

2011-12-31T09:00:00.000Z

Who can take a sunrise
Sprinkle it in dew
Cover it in chocolate
and a miracle or two?

Well, apparently Jamie Oliver can. He's my man of the moment, after the stunning success of the Get ahead gravy, his was the original inspiration for the Leftover turkey surprise pie, and now this. Epic Hot Chocolate.

All being well M and I are planning on heading out tomorrow night, and following our trip to Cologne earlier this month I wanted to recreate some of that magic with flasks of hot drinks; Gluwhein mit amaretto for me, and Cocoa for Mark. However, I wanted to make his hot chocolate more akin to what we were drinking in Cologne. Thick, creamy and luscious. My mum originally dissuaded me from having a bash at this hot chocolate by daring me to "think of the calories!" and truly it's not something I'd recommend drinking every day. But it's New Years Eve, it's going to be flipping freezing and we're going to be outside for a fair old while. So hang the calories (it'll be made with skimmed milk too)

The recipe is so simple, and would be a perfect gift for a chocolate lover, if done up in a kilner jar, with the instructions added on a luggage label, tied with ribbon or string. Mine is in an old nutella jar, so has been hastily prettied up with some spare gingham fabric and a bit of ribbon.

We'll be taking around half a pint of cocoa with us tomorrow, so the quantities below make plenty, that we'll be able to dip into again should the need arise. We'll only be using 5 tablespoons of mix at the most.

Epic Hot Chocolate a la Mr Oliver - my alternative (equally epic) suggestions below

2 tablespoons Horlicks
2 tablespoons cornflour
3 tablespoons icing sugar
4 tablespoons quality organic cocoa
100g quality dark chocolate (70% cocoa solids), finely grated OK, Pantry admission here - I had no dark chocolate in the house, so grated 100g of a chocolate santa one of the Guides gave me for Christmas. Oops.
a pinch of ground cinnamon
a pinch of sea salt

Penelope's Pantry amendments...

I've added the leftover pieces of nutmeg as well as grating half a nutmeg into my mix as I love the way it tastes in anything with milk.
Why not try with grated dark chocolate that has chilli in? Or you could add whole, dried chillis to the mix - to infuse their flavour
Cardamom would make this amazingly scented and much more grown up
On a grown up theme, a shot of rum, Baileys or brandy would give this one hell of a kick!
Of course if serving to littlies, squirty cream and marshmallows are must haves
Green and Blacks' flavoured chocolates would all add a little something extra; Butterscotch, the Mayan Gold - all yummy in this.
These are just suggestions I've thought of since making it about an hour ago... why not do whatever you like and suits you the best... the world really is your oyster with this. And as I say, it has amazing gift potential!

Put all of these in a jar, put the lid on and shake to mix.

Warm up the amount of milk you need (250ml milk is a rough measurement for a mug) and before it boils, turn the heat down to low and whisk in 5 tablespoons of mixture per pint of milk until it's smooth and thick.

We'll be decanting into warmed thermos flasks and enjoying (fingers crossed) under the London fireworks. So with that I bid you a Happy New Year! I hope it brings you everything you wish and hope for.

The Pantry Christmas, picture edition

2011-12-30T21:02:00.000Z

Leftover leftovers? Read on...

2011-12-29T09:00:00.000Z

30th December - picture update, please ignore the dirty cooker!

Still picture free, hopefully the last post in this state, before an influx of beautifully shot, framed and focussed photographs. Well, one can hope. I'll still be taking them, so let's just go for non blurry and vaguely pretty.

Last post we looked at turkey leftovers and some easy recipes to use them up. Now despite having only bought an 8lb turkey, both leftover dishes, and the original Christmas roast and two days of sandwiches still left me with a carcass and some meat. What to do? Well, read on for starters

Turkey soup

For me, Christmas isn't Christmas without turkey soup. For years after she enjoyed making it I would cajole, sweet talk, and berate my mother into making it, mainly so that I could live off it for most of January. We would eke it out farther using red lentils, but this recipe (or guideline) doesn't add those, purely as I didn't have any. It also thickens it up beautifully if you want it to have a bit more oomph.

First off, take any leftover veg and pop them in your food processor (or even use a stick blender and a bowl) to puree. Set this aside.

Soften an onion, carrot and bay leaf in some hot oil in a big pan, Add in any leftover meat (really go to town and remove every scrap you can from the carcass), season, and add turkey stock - see below - and bring to a simmer. Cook until everything is soft, then add your pureed veg, and blitz with a stick blender until you reach a consistency you're happy with. Bring back to the boil and serve with fresh bread.

Turkey stock

Normally I make stock in a pan with 4 pints of water on the hob. Sometimes I just don't have the energy for even that. Christmas is one of those times. Just put your carcass in a slow cooker, fill it with water, and a small handful of peppercorns, pinch of salt, a bay leaf (or any herbs you have lying around) and an onion chopped into quarters, and a carrot broken into two. Leave on high for 4-5 hours or low for 8-10. The strain off the bones and there you have it, stock.

This stock is great in the risotto I talked about yesterday, and makes a great base for the turkey surprise pie, or the soup above. If you don't want to make any of those, then freeze it, and any leftover meat until you're ready to.

Also, it's just worth bearing in mind the expense of a turkey - all in all, this will work out at around 24 portions of varying meals from an 8lb turkey. That's value for money in my book.

Who will buy? My leftover turkey surprise pie

2011-12-27T09:00:00.000Z

So you've had your turkey, and now you're surrounded by leftovers. What do you do with them?

Sandwiches

Try adding mango chutney if you have some lingering around the cupboards or fridge, we find it adds a fruity edge to turkey. I like one with a good kick of chilli to it, but all the supermarkets sell them so you can easily find one to suit your tastes.

If you're trying to eke the turkey out further, try chopping it up small and mixing it in with something like mayonaise or salad cream (this is a bit of a Guiding trick to make things feed more girls). Don't forget to add a bit of seasoning.

I am a sucker for homemade bread, and over Christmas have been using the breadmaker (it's normally ignored in favour of doing it by hand, but y'know the wrist is still plastered and everyone's busy enough, it's so easy to run the breadmaker overnight while we are all sleeping. And you have the added bonus of waking up to the smell of fresh bread.

Turkey pie

I use this recipe as my basic guideline, as it's a favourite pie of ours. But.. it's not just any turkey/ chicken pie from the archives, but with the addition of a few more leftovers becomes

Boxing Day Surprise Pie

To the leek/ shredded turkey filling, add - fried up bacon snipped into little pieces, leftover stuffing, rolled into balls, and mushrooms (leftover from the Cottage pie on Christmas Eve)

Cook as for the regular pie, and serve with roast potatoes, and lightly cooked veggies. I deliberately piled my plate high with the veggies to balance out the heaviness of yesterday and todays dinners.

The fact that this has it's own gravy that's made as part of the cooking process made me feel less guilty for agreeing to throw the leftover gravy away yesterday

Turkey risotto

I'm a big fan of risotto, and it's always one of my go to's for using up leftover roast chicken, in the same way as I did above, you could add bits of bacon, extra veggies etc to the dish, as you soothingly stir quietly away in the kitchen whilst listening to Radio 2. Just me then?

Here is the recipe for risotto bianco, just stir in your shredded turkey where I've used chicken in that post, and any other ingredients you have to hand.

Shredded brussels would cook down beautifully in this, and if you added some leftover smoky bacon would taste amazing.

Tomorrow I'm going to post recipes for Turkey soup and stock. Just to continue the trend and not make this an encyclopedia of 101 ways with leftover turkey!

A quick review of Christmas dinner

2011-12-26T20:25:00.000Z

We're going to be photo free in the Pantry for the next few days, as... wait for it, I have a new camera! And I've taken some pics with it, but (cleverly) came away without my laptop so have pics of my leftovers and Christmas dinner will have to wait. Sadly.

Christmas dinner was wonderful - if I do say so myself. Four empty plates, four full tummies, and dinner dished up only 5 minutes later than planned. I'm impressed. And modest. As you can probably tell.

The 'it'sjustaroast' mantra worked wonders, and I didn't get at all stressed until everything was just about done, and all needed things doing to it at once. I was very grateful for Mark's top oven, and was using both on at full capacity. However, I have to say that Mark came into his own, patiently stirring gravy and listening to occaisional outbursts of mild swearing.

I forgot to warm the plates, but other than that there were no ommisions, burnings, or otherwise disastrous occurences.

Particular successes were the roast potatoes - a dripping cup really is as good as goose fat, the stuffing, which I supplemented with sausagemeat on Christmas eve, and the veggies. Next year I would add honey to the parsnips, and maybe parboil them before roasting so that they are quicker to cook as the added sugar that will caramelise them.

The Christmas pudding was lovely, again I would do that the same, but just to my preferences omit the candied peel and sub that with extra glace cherries.

Next post will be Things to do with your leftovers. We've had turkey surprise pie today, I've made soup, and stock, and the last bit of the meat will be turned into risotto.

I hope you're having a lovely time with families, friends and loved ones.

We wish you a Merry Christmas

2011-12-24T09:00:00.000Z

True to form, I have sherry on the go and we're putting the finishing touches to some of our decorations.

Today so far:

I've finished off a Ham in Coca Cola

Made a Cottage pie and apple crumble for tomorrow

Got the stuffing, and bacon for the pigs in blankets out of the freezer

The veg and fruit is in boxes in the cupboard under the stairs

The Christmas cake has been iced

I am repeating to myself "It's just a roast" while listening to Christmas radio and thinking about heading off to bed but before I do just that I wanted to wish all my readers (and Readers) a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. I'm going to try and have a mainly proper break over the festive period but will try and do and update on the justaroast at some point.

Having just searched for the link, I realised that I've never actually posted the full recipe, just repeatedly told you that it comes from an ancient Good Housekeeping cookbook of my Mum's. So here, as a bonus, somewhat randomly in Christmas week is my tried and tested, can be increased to serve up to 24, can be made with leftover roast beef, roast lamb or mince depending on what you have to hand at any time, recipe. Erroneously called Shepherds Pie, it is nearly always Cottage in this house.

Penelope's Pantry does Shepherds Pie

2 Carrots, diced
1 Onion, finely chopped
1 tblsp plain flour
1 pt beef stock
Approx 1/2 lb minced or leftover finely chopped beef
1 tsp dried thyme
1 tblsp Worcestershire sauce
Salt and pepper
Mashed potatoes to top

Cook the carrots and onion in oil for 3 or 4 minutes until softened, add the flour and cook out whilst stirring.
Add the beef, if mince, cook until browned, if leftovers just stir in.
Add the stock, thyme, Worcester sauce and leave to simmer for about 1/2 hour.
Check seasoning and add to taste.
Top with mashed potato, you can sprinkle or stir in cheese here. Tonight I've used a mix of winter vegetables to top.
Bake in the over at about 200 degC for about 1/2 hour.
Serve with green veg and embarrassingly, if you are me, ketchup

Be sure to have a lovely time with your nearest and dearest. If I don't see you before, I'll see you in the New Year with some posts on frugal food no doubt.

My letter to Santa...

2011-12-22T09:00:00.000Z

Dear Father Christmas,

I know this is late, and you are probably packing your sleigh by now, but this month has been crazy for me (I can talk, I know) ...

This year I have been a very good girl, I have volunteered for approximately eleventymillion hours with the Brownies and Guides, started to blog regularly, been nice to M and worked hard. In case that means you're coming to my house this weekend (I have no chimney do we need to make special arrangements?) here is the list of Things I Would Like... There is Christmas cake you can help yourself to, and sherry too.

A Kenwood mixer - truth be told it's a toss up between this and a Kitchen Aid I wouldn't kick either out of bed for eating crackers.

A new pinny, I love my floral one, but have been dribbling over the Cath Kidston ones. In my ongoing bid to be a domestic goddess I feel this is only fitting.

I've been lusting after a pair of Prince Design's Lovebird Bowls for the longest while. I'm not sure whether it's the blue ones or those with hearts that I really love and they're probably a little too small to be truly useful which has left them relegated to my favourites for months.

A Lakeland preserving pan. It's such an extravagance but having taken to preserving so well this year I really would like to expand my repertoire of jams and jellies further, and although my Ikea pan really does rock I really would like a pan with a slightly sturdier bottom as I'm always living in fear of my jam catching.

I use Ikea plain storage jars for everything, dried fruit, rice and pasta, anything really that's in a packet. For years I smile every time I see an Alessi storage jar with the little man inside, but again can never justify buying myself one

Salted caramels, I would like to try these as I know I would like them. But am not sure what to try, Father Christmas I'm happy to leave the decision in your hands.

And cookbooks, how could I forget cookbooks?

Dan Lepard's Short and Sweet - I am still kicking myself for not getting a copy at Let's Make Christmas, it would have made a fantastic pressie for Mark's Mum.

Or Mary Berry's baking bible. Need I say more?

And having spotted this, and not been able to justify buying it for myself, some Marmite XO would be a-mah-zing *channels Seth* I'm a marmite aholic and suspect this would keep me in soldiers for a long time!

The usual Lush, a Naked pallette and my arm out of plaster would also be amazing. I'm not just a foodie you see, beauty and makeup always put a smile on my face.

So that's me Father Christmas, I would be a brilliantly grateful blogger

Yours, Penelope

Get ahead Christmas: Jamie's gravy

2011-12-21T12:01:00.000Z

Dear Reader, I thought I would start this post with a confession. I have more than a soft spot for Jamie Oliver. It was his recipes that got me interested in trying to cook new and different things. Before then I was very much a family cook in the same ilk as my Mum, but Jamie made things like Thai Green Curry and risotto accessible. I was still in the concious competence stage of learning to cook and believed I needed every ingredient and to follow recipes to the letter. Oh how times have changed. What hasn't has the soft spot for the Naked Chef. Whether he's revamping school dinners, or working with young people at Fifteen, I admire his social awareness, as well as his cooking. Oddly during the riots in the summer, I nearly got caught up in them by wanting to go and eat at his Italian in Birmigham, thankfully a burly Police Officer dissuaded me of that plan!

So Saturday afternoon just gone I was found bashing 7 bells out of chicken wings, veg and spices in the name of Jamie's gravy. Mum had wanted to try it, and when I read that you could make it ahead and freeze it I was won over. Whilst as I've already said this week, that Christmas dinner is just a roast - albeit as one commenter mentions, with a paper hat - getting things done ahead of time will reduce the amount of space I need on the oven or hob, which is a huge tick when you're working in a tiny kitchen, and also it's one less thing to worry about. I just need to get it out of the freezer the night before and heat it through with the turkey juices for extra flavour. That said, if you don't fancy any faffing on Christmas day it really doesn't need it, this gravy really packs a punch.

I haven't got a copy of the recipe to hand, and made 2 batches together so this makes a lot - I would say enough for 12-16 (more if you're feeding littlies) the Pantry take on Jamie's Gravy.

Jamie & Penelope's festive gravy

2 onions, peeled and quartered
4 sticks celery roughly chopped
4 carrots, roughly chopped
Handful of rosemary sprigs
Handful of sage leaves
Some bay leaves (fresh if you have a bay tree. Santa, if you're listening?)
16 chicken wings, bashed a bit
Salt
Pepper
Olive Oil
8 tablespoons flour (I used cornflour, that's just what we had, I wasn't being cheffy!)
4 litres water, recently boiled
120 ml sherry

Put the veg and herbs in a roasting tin, and top with the bashed up chicken wings (I put them in a sandwich bag and hit them with a rolling pin)
Sprinkle with salt and pepper, drizzle with olive oil
Cook in a gas mark 6 oven for about an hour - until it's nicely cooked but not burnt. In Mum's oven this took an hour and a half
Put your roasting tin on the hob, and light a burner. With a potato masher bash 7 bells out of the contents of the roasting tin, until it's pretty much a mush. I kept turning the roasting tin around as one burner didn't heat all of it, and two was too much for me to manage.
Add your flour and keep bashing until it's all combined
Add the water and sherry and stir in so that everything is all covered
Turn up the heat, bring to a gentle boil
Turn down the heat and simmer for about half an hour
I was shattered then, so we covered it and left it overnight before draining through first a colander and then a seive into large bowls.
This made 4 pints of amazing gravy. We froze them in freezer bags flat so they take up less room in the freezer and defrost quickly.

A note from mum and I, this smelt (so I'm told) amazing at the end of roasting, and I could easily have eaten it as a dinner. I suspect it's going to taste like a roast dinner in itself. It's thick and luscious.

Another note, if you used thighs not wings and stopped after roasting this would make an amazingly simple and tasty dinner.

Another another note, if you stripped the meat off the bones after cooking and blitzed with a stick blender, then added the water this would make the most amazingly healing soup.

Because of room, I'm just going to heat this through and add a few spoons of turkey juices to it, but mum is going to reheat hers in the turkey pan (after draining off the fat) I have no doubt hers will be amazing, but I'm going for the easy to manage with one working arm option.

Apologies for lack of photos, but mushed up veg really isn't that pretty. I'll work on that.

Easy Christmas stuffing

2011-12-21T09:00:00.000Z

So it's now 5 days until Christmas, how are you feeling? Have the children broken up from school yet? Or did they break up last week and have already declared themselves as bored? This post is a recipe - shocker I know, and also a way to get ahead ready for the weekend that family can help with - both Guides and Brownies (so 7-14) really enjoy the ickiness of helping out with this. One more thing to tick off that to do list.

Stuffing. I love it, it's not a roast without it - which is how Mark feels about Yorkshire puddings. My lovely sister (the gorgeous one in the picture up top) is half of the inspiration for this recipe. Last Christmas she made a fruited stuffing from scratch and I really enjoyed it. She won't be with us this Christmas as she's at her inlaws, but when I pop this in the oven I'll be thinking of her.

However this version is becoming known as Division Commissioner stuffing. And to explain that I have to tell you a little story. Two years ago I applied for my Guide holiday licence, prepped a GFI Glamorama themed holiday and worked incredibly hard to make it a success. Alison, our Division Commissioner was our QM - who saw I had bought a leading brand of dried stuffing and promptly declared "we won't be using that!" At this point she knocked up stuffing for 20 people using 'stuff' lying around the Guide kitchen. I was slightly gobsmacked to say the least. And it was yummy, much wetter than packet stuffing ever is. Fast forward 2 years and the older guides in a much bigger Guide unit wanted to know if we were having Alison's stuffing? So I picked up the phone and got the recipe. Well I say recipe, it's more of a guideline.

Now for Guides I made this vegetarian, leaving out the sausage meat, however for Christmas in our house it is firmly carnivourous, and I used skinned lincolnshire sausagemeat to increase the herbed flavours, if you like it peppery try cumberland, and if you prefer a simple flavour then any good pork sausagemeat will be great. I get mine from the butchers around the corner, as they make their own sausages and the quality is immense. If I were using one from a Supermarket it would be a Sainsbury's TTD as they are amazing quality (and gluten free)

I should say, that this is a really easy recipe for children to help with. Use the food processor if you're not happy letting them loose with knives. I would use the food processor with my Brownies, but with supervision my Guides are fine with knives. Make sure their hands are clean and get them to smush up the sausagemeat.

Division Commissioner's Stuffing (this quantity serves about 8, it doubles or even triples beautifully)

2 onions, blitzed in the food processor
25g butter
1 Bramley apple, peeled, cored and diced (I confess, I blitzed it with the onions)
800g Lincolnshire sausages, skinned and smushed up
Handful of sage leaves, chopped up
4-6 slices of stale brown/ wholemeal/ granary bread, crusts cut up and blitzed into breadcrumbs

Fry the onion in the melted butter until it starts to soften
Add the apple and cook for a little while longer
Leave the pan on one side to cool down (it need to be easily handle-able)
Mix with the remaining ingredients and seasoning - do this with clean hands in a big bowl
Make into balls and put on a buttered baking tray, and cook for about half an hour

If I'm doing this at home I then pack it into a foil lined 1kg loaf tin and freeze it until it's needed.
Take it out of the freezer on Christmas eve, and when defrosted, cook as above but for about 40 minutes.

If you want a veggie version, add extra apple and onion and breadcrumbs to make up the weight.

This is what we're having on Christmas Day with our turkey. Just think if you make it today (you could easily sub the apples for eating apples and use any sausagemeat you have in the house), freeze it you don't need to even think about it again until Saturday evening.

Christmas week hints and tips: It's just a roast

2011-12-20T09:00:00.000Z

I don't have any photos of me red-faced and sweating over the stove, (although I do have these over a fire, but how many people are about to attempt their Christmas roast on an altar fire?) but if I did that would be an attractive and appropriate shot, for here. Because that's how so many people feel this Christmas week, all of a sudden flinging the need for 'perfection' around the kitchen and the interwebs as we prepare to be descended on, en masse by our nearest and dearest. You know, those that love us most, those who ate the pies we made up in foil containers when we were insisting aged 6 they play 'Restaurant' with us (true story folks, you heard it here first).

Now, I may have mentioned once or twice on here, facebook and twitter that this year is a bit odd for me, for a number of reasons:

For the first time I'm cooking, for someone else's family. I mean, with any luck they'll be mine too one day. But right now? They're his. And his mum? Can cook. We're talking WI here. Damn.
I have my right arm in plaster. Chopping? Nope, Dicing? Nope, Kneading? Nope, Doing that thing where you put butter under the turkey skin? Not a chance.
No one needs me to bake. This is all cooking. Proper cooking. Savoury stuff.
Mark has a small house. From the kitchen everyone can hear me scream.
As I type this I have a streaming cold and no sense of smell
Mark has the smallest kitchen in the history of the world, and no accessible window for an emergency exit.

When I first typed these out, I considered pouring a very large sherry, leaving the country or eating my own bodyweight in Christmas cake (I still have 2 in the kitchen). So I called my Mother... here is the rough transcript of our conversation:

Me: Ican'tdoitJoancancookthey'llallhearmeandthere'snomusictosingalongto. WHY DID I OFFER?
Mother: Oh stop fussing, it's just a roast, you've been cooking those since you were at Brownies.
Me: Did you not hear me? These are my possible future inlaws. MY WHOLE WORLD MAY BE ABOUT TO COLLAPSE (when stressed I go in for capitals and overstatement)
Mother: Yes, now if you put the kettle on we'll do a list.
Me: A what? I've done the shopping, the menu's planned... what are we going to put on a list?
Mother: taps nose... (well I imagine she did) wait and see.

So here you have Mother Morris' list of wondrousness:

Penelope's Pantry Christmas cooking/ menu plan

Make ahead and freeze:

Stuffing*
Gravy *

Prep ahead:

Get the stuffing out Christmas Eve
Potatoes, parsnips, carrots (Delegate these to Mark on Christmas Eve)
Bread overnight in breadmaker
Sausages in bacon (get bacon out of freezer Friday night, roll up around sausages on Saturday)
Turkey can be prepped with a herb butter, clementine, carrot and onion in cavity on Christmas Eve, then wrapped in foil and put in fridge/ somewhere cold
Put Christmas Pudding in slow cooker on Christmas Eve, add 1 pint of water in main dish, turn on timer switch so it goes on at 6am Christmas Day (I will still be in bed at 6am let me assure you)
Ask Mark's mum to make brandy butter
Put wine in fridge (a Guide mum gave me a bottle of Prosecco as a thank you last week, I shall be adding a splash of sloe gin to mine)

I thought about what Mum had said and realised, that I have been helping with the roast since Brownies, and certainly making most of it since I was about 9. And Christmas dinner is just that. A roast. Albeit a big one, with lots of trimming, it's still. Just. A. Roast. Most of my friends will attest to the fact that I can knock up a roast anywhere, for 4 to 24 people, over a fire, in the rain, while drinking, in the world's tiniest kitchen. I'm not saying Christmas dinner is going to be a walkover, but you know what - I can take some of the pressure off myself and make it much easier by remembering that fact alone.

When you take all of those extra bits that I've seen people try and do on Christmas morning, with no help, whilst trying to remain tidy, it does just become a roast dinner, that most people could make stood on their heads.

Other tips:

Don't stuff your turkey, cook the stuffing separately, in balls, in a loaf tin/ pyrex dish (butter it first to make it easy to wash up). How you want. Nowhere does it say in the bible that Turkey must be stuffed
Use your freezer, I have made the gravy and the stuffing already (It's a week before Christmas as I'm typing this) I did them both when I had time and popped them in the freezer where they'll stay till I need them
Christmas pudding was made in half term, it's currently maturing with Mark's parents, they'll bring it. Mr Crock Pot will cook it/ keep it warm until we want it.
I have a dripping cup I use to make my roasties - each time I finish a roast, I tip the leftover fat from the roasting tin into an old mug. This lives in my fridge and each time I roast I empty it and refill it. It makes amazing roasties. I never shell out for goose fat. (Although I do love my Mum's roasties that she uses foose fat for). This is more of a cost thing as I was astounded that the supermarket were selling goose fat at £5.99 for a tin the other day. Gobsmacked
Remember that it's December - it's cold outside, put bottles of wine, Schloer, orange juice etc in a box outside if you've got the space and it's safe. We've put ours on the back step for YEARS. Randomly we also have one cupboard that is much cooler than anywhere else in the kitchen, we use this at Christmas as an extension of the fridge/ a traditional pantry. If you have a secure garden, use a crate with a squirrel proof lid as a fridge extension too (unless you're in Australia/ New Zealand, Then you need a box covered witha big bit of muslin/ net curtain with one end sat in a bowl of cold water. Voila! Camp fridge.)
Christmas dinner is a big meal. You really don't *need* a starter.
Boyfriends (non cooking OHs) were designed to peel vegetables. When I'm training new managers we look at why people don't delegate - it's all about control. The sureness that no one can do it as well as you. Quite frankly if the end result is there when I need it to be, I don't care how people get there - those are their choices to worry about.It's one meal in the year, if it all goes haywire you'll have something to talk about come Easter.
Sherry is a girl's best friend. I need it for the gravy (hic)
Have a bowl of hot soapy water in the sink all the time. Even if you have a dishwasher. It just makes life easier.
Don't pick now as the day to try every new recipe you've seen on telly this month - if you want to reinvent yourself as Jamie Oliver then do as much as you can ahead, and if not, subject someone you love to a practice Christmas dinner in advance. Those episodes of Come Dine with Me where it's a disaster because they're doing something FOR THE FIRST TIME on their episode. Don't let that be you
That said, feel free to experiment a bit. Don't buy clementines to put one in the turkey when no one likes them. Retrieve the lemon from your gin and use that. Don't race out on Christmas eve thinking you'll get cramberries, buy them now. And make Nigella's cornbread stuffing, or Christmas morning muffins with them

Please don't think I'm saying I know it all/ have it all/ can do it all. I just think that taking a step back and delegating/ organising/ making a list won't hurt, and may make life a bit easier. I know someone who one Christmas smashed pretty much all of her Mum's crystal because she had told her to be careful, and worried over her the whole time she was washing up. Yet forgot to mention that crystal hates hot hot washing up water. Another Christmas the oven door jammed, had to be released with a screwdriver and a hammer. Another Christmas the stuffing was found 4 days later in the top oven. My first 'Christmas dinner' I cooked with my friend Nicki at uni, I was convinced we had poisoned people as the dark meat was well, dark... these were not disasters. The only disaster was the first Christmas after my Dad died when I waited for him to ring and tell me it was a mistake. Culinary cock-ups do not count as disasters, they are all things we laugh about.

Enjoy your day. Enjoy your time with your family. Raise a glass to those loved ones who aren't with you for whatever reason.

Remember: It's just a roast. Use this as your mantra whilst necking sherry if necessary.

Meal Planning Monday: The Christmas Edition

2011-12-19T00:51:00.001Z

Hi there Meal Planners, long time no see. A broken right wrist and a hectic work and volunteering schedule have made for a ridiculously difficult couple of months. Still, with Dragon installed on the laptop and a Blogger app on my phone, I'm hoping to be a bit more productive and interactive over the coming weeks and months.

This being the last week before Christmas is no different to the last few, and I'm even training twice. But fortunately no overnight stays mean that I'm in control of my food a bit more, that said you may wish to put your fingers in your ears and shut your eyes when it comes to Wednesday's dinner.

I should add a small caveat to this, I seem to have lost my appetite. It happens from time to time, normally in line with a med change (gotta love those anti-convulsants) but I think this is down to a(nother) cold which has completely shot my sense of smell. I could just make out that Mark was wearing my favourite scent of his (Lush, Dirty) but had no idea that the roast dinner was nearly done earlier.

OK, so here we have it... Christmas week in the Pantry:

Monday: Work Christmas lunch (which I may or may not stay for as a) I don't want anyone to have to cut my food up for me. Did I mention it's my right wrist? I'm right handed and b) I'm full of cold) and then leftover curry before heading up to my upstairs neighbour's for drinks. I'm taking Stollen which isn't homemade, but a Sainsbury's Taste the Difference one. It looks amazing. I may bash it up a bit and have no shame try and pass it off as my own. *flutters eyelashes*

Tuesday: Mushroom soup for lunch and then pork and roasted veg (peppers, beetroot and anything else standing still in the fridge) for dinner

Wednesday: Chicken kiev, oven chips and veg

Thursday: Beef casserole (we're at Mum's so this is up to her) which will be helpful as I'm anaemic again - don't worry, it happens, I get run down, tired, forget to eat properly and anaemia follows. I shall try not to do a Miss Bergman and die... *channels Groff* "...of ANAEMIA!!!"

Friday: Freezer surprise... I quite seriously have no idea, and seem to have taken a Russian roulette approach to labelling. There is none. It could be stewed fruit, curry, anything...

Saturday: I will make a big pan of something up *vague* Either a chilli con carne, or a sausage casserole. Mark's parents are going to midnight mass, so something we can either have hot at lunchtime, and then make a Nigella ham and have sarnies later. I'm quite set on the chilli actually. Maybe the butternut squash and cannelini bean one I've done before. Whichever way I do it, I'll make it on Friday.

Sunday: I'm staying in bed. Oh OK, I'm going to pop the breadmaker on overnight to make a loaf, then Mark and his parents will have warm bread and jam/ honey/ marmalade. Then a roast for lunch. See people. It's *just* a roast. I will be telling myself that all week, and turkey sandwiches and picky bits for supper.

I've got a few posts lined up for this week, hopefully to take the stress out of what is essentially a week where lots of people come together and eat a roast dinner. I have been making roast dinners since I could see over the oven. Please don't get anxious or worried about it.

Silent Sunday

2011-12-11T13:30:00.001Z

Say I'm the only bee in your bonnet: Christmas cake

2011-11-24T22:25:00.000Z

The part of writing and being Penelope's Pantry that I love the most is being able to give people cake, I suppose for me it's a bit like giving people a part of myself. An edible version of love if you will. Like the little boy in the John Lewis ad it's giving presents that I love the most, presents that have something of me in them.

This year I've made three Christmas cakes, one for Mark and myself (and anyone who pops in over Christmas) one potentially for the Guides Winter Weekend, and one for my Mum. I posted here about Ruth's boozy fruit that I adapted to my own tastes (cherries, lots of glace cherries) and put in a cupboard dutifully stirring for 6 weeks. Naturally, come baking time my hand was borked so Mark's mum helped me to bake the cakes. The bee in the bonnet in this post's title comes from a comment from Laura of Hungry and Frozen which was exactly how I felt about making these. I HAD to do them and then when I read her comment the song was stuck in my head *sings* Say you're a little birdhouse in my soul.
I carried on with Ruth's recipe, lining the tins with greaseproof and double thickness of newspaper (thanks Lush for the Lush Times I could put to new use). Mark's mum also gave me a hint to put the cake tins on newspaper in the oven as a way to protect the cake from burning. It's just worth bearing in mind with this for the recipe, in Mark's the cakes took 4 hours, and in mine the last one took 3. I think Louise's took a similar amount of time - had it been just mine, I would have put it down to my dodgy oven, but lots of people were saying that the cake had taken longer to bake than expected so I'm just putting it down to one of those things. I will say this for it, there is nothing quite like the smell of Christmas cake baking, and this smelled amazing. A bit like the real beginning of Christmas.

This is Ruth's recipe, I actually stayed almost true to it (using all soft brown sugar), although I had already adapted the boozy fruit to suit myself

Ingredients:
225g butter, softened
225g soft brown sugar
2 tbsps treacle
2 tsps sweet mixed spice
285g plain flour
5 large eggs, beaten

2 pints of Boozy Fruit already prepared.

150ml brandy for feeding.

This recipe will make an 8″ round Christmas Cake

Preheat oven to a low 150c Fan/170c/Gas Mark 3.
Double line your tin
Cream together butter and sugar
Add the treacle and beat until combined
Add the beaten eggs a little at a time, adding a spoonful of flour after each addition (This actually prompted an interesting discussion between Mark's mum and myself, didn't your cake curdling seem to be the worst thing EVER, Home Ec teachers would threaten our cake mixes with the bin if it even looked like it was going to curdle. Yet now we just don't seem to worry so much... why the change we wondered? Possibly because it's purely aesthetic?)
Sift in the flour and spice and fold that in
Remove the cinammon stick from your fruit - or all 3 in my case and then add your fruit to the bowl. As I had three quantities of fruit, I measured out roughly 2 pints for each cake
Put in your prepared cake tin, double lined and wrapped in newspaper and bake until a skewer comes out clean

Then pierce the top of your cake with another skewer and feed over the next weeks with brandy - keep it stored in an airtight tin and wrapped in baking parchment and foil
Then you're ready to marzipan and ice - I'll do a full post about decorating, as this is the first year I've really worked at prettifying, normally I just leave them covered in white fondant and let other people do the fancy stuff.

I've finished my first cake which is up for a raffle in aid of Janie's School, here it is wrapped and ready to go. I've used some of the pins from my bridesmaid's bouquet to secure the ribbon for luck.

I declare it Gin o'clock: Sloe gin

2011-11-18T10:00:00.000Z

It is with much interest that Mark and I follow @Queen_UK on twitter, she never ceases to amuse us with her acerbic wit and sardonic asides. And my promise does say that I will "serve my Queen and my country" so naturally the possibility of making sloe gin was not to be turned down.

Like the recent Elderberry cordial sloe gin was something where there was no one definitive recipe for - although at least I didn't need to check which bits were poisonous with the sloes! Last year I held out to wait for frosted sloes, only to find that the blackbirds had thoroughly filled their tummies. This year Mark's parents helped me out when they came across some on a walk, which was a relief as I couldn't fimd any locally. (Damn living in town)

So without a definitive recipe, here is my general
Penelope's Pantry Sloe Gin Guidelines...

Wash and prick the sloes (you could miss this step by freezing them overnight to split the skins) and then put them at the bottom of large kilner (or any) jars.
I had 2 pints (1 litre) of gin and so split the sloes in half between 2 kilner type containers
Add 12oz sugar (I just used granulated)
Top with the gin, screw the lids on tightly and leave in a dark cool place

For the first 2 weeks (or until the sugar dissolves) shake your containers every day. Then just give them a turn over or shake as you remember.

At some point you will need to strain the berries out of the gin, from all the guidance I've had (both internettty and real life) it seems that whenyou do that is entirely up to you. the lovely man I spoke to at the Newbury show drains his after six weeks, other people wait up to a year. I think I'm going to strain mine relatively soon so that I can bottle it before Christmas.

Again when you drink it is up to you - all my research indicates that older sloe gin matures into a soft madeira like flavour, whereas when it's newer, it retains the tartness of the fresh fruit. Personally I prefer younger gin in a champagne cocktail at Christmas, and the older is an amazing after dinner drink - or one to secrete about your personage in a hip flask for a winter walk!

Make of our hands one hand: Let's make Christmas

2011-11-12T14:38:00.001Z

I was so very excited when Vanessa Kimbell announced Let's Make Christmas, I had allsorts of ideas for my contributions, and had planned to spend some time making things over the last week. Then I got a cold, which was uncomfortable, and annoying, but ultimately not the end of the world. Then I had a fit and broke my wrist, which was also uncomfortable and annoying and felt like the end of the world. I wasn't sure I was going to be able to participate as I had planned to utlise Fourth Friern Barnet Guide power (TM) at the sleepover we had planned this weekend as I was planning to contribute things to make with your children. And not having children, Guides are the next best thing.

So Plan A was, to put not to fine a point on it, stuffed. Some tears and a small tantrum were had, before Mark and his mum came to the rescue. I'm not submitting the planned liebkuchen, but we put our heads together and thought, well what can you do with a borked wrist and a stinking cold if you are planning to Make Christmas? And then we realised - raid your cupboard of jam. Having spent a large part of this year practicing preserving I thought instead of struggle to make something and be dissapointed in it. I would do exactly what I will do if I'm still splinted/ casted up come Christmas, and that is use the things I've been putting by. But prettify them for Christmas.

So my first submission (yes, there's more than one!) for Let's make Christmas is a terrific trio:

My first jam, jelly & marmalade.

Seville Orange & whiskey marmalade

Strawberry jam

Crabapple jelly - the recipe for which I haven't blogged, so will add it here when I'm back home <watch this space> as I'm currently being looked after by Mark.

2 3/4 lb Crab Apples
3 Cloves
1 lb sugar per pint of extract

Cut the crab apples into quarters. Don't bother to try and peel them, they are far too small and will be straining anyway so will lose the skin, pips etc.
Put the fruit in a pan, with cloves and 1 1/2 pints of water.
Bring to the boil and simmer gently for about an hour until soft and pulpy. Stir from time to time to make sure it doesn't catch on the bottom of your pan.
Spoon the pulp into your incredibly effective, purpose built pillowcase filtration device or jelly bag if you use one. Personally the swearing and bulldog clips involved in getting a pillowcase to stay on an upturned chair on my kitchen table and not fall in to the mixing bowl just adds to the experience for me. No, really.
Strain for at least 12 hours, DO NOT STIR. What you want is a gloriously clear jelly and giving in to the temptation to push the pulp through will make your jelly cloudy.
Measure your extract, and for each pint weigh out 1 lb of sugar (when you get to half pints, find someone friendly who can do maths if you are anything like me).
Stir and heat gently until the sugar is disolved.
Turn up the heat and boil rapidly until setting point is reached. This took about 10 minutes, but will depend on how wet your fruit is.

I only got 3 jars of jelly from these quantities, like quinces, crab apples clearly don't like giving up their wares. That said, this is lovely, slightly tart jelly that goes really well with a ploughmans or pork dishes.

The blacker the berry the sweeter the juice: elderberry cordial

2011-10-27T21:26:00.000+01:00

This post is fairly long awaited for which I'm sorry, but hopefully it's worth it. Preserving has been an amazing new skill to learn this year, and I am loving my jams and jellies, but as the autumn rolled in I started to think about casting my net wider, towards foraging and alcohol.

I haven't done any foraging before, and Mark's parents actually did this for me because of my unpredictable health, much like the sloe gin I still have to post about the elderberries were something I had wanted to try for a long time, I'd originally planned to make this last year but Essex seemed to suffer some kind of freakish cold snap where we went from there being an abundance of berries in the hedgerows to there being none overnight. It's been less sudden this year, but the fruit has seemed to be around a little longer (there were still crabapples on the trees whe I started this post)

Elderberries are more interesting to me that their blossomy overblown precedent, elderflowers. I find cooking with those odd, their floral aroma overpowering most other flavours. That said, I do want to try making cordial, as that in a gin based cocktail I can manage. Actually I suspect I could manage aubergine in a gin based cocktail.

Elderberries however, the aura of mystery that surrounds their poisonousness, like blackcurrants the juice that runs deep red, their beauty as the last rays of summer sun leave us and the leaves start to turn. And they're free. Who doesn't love free stuff.

Importantly though, elderberries are poisonous, the calyx - or little stem at the top of the berry contains cyanide, and as such it's vital that you either pick these over incredibly carefully before starting this recipe, or strain it trhough a pillow case so that none of the calyxes get through (if you have a proper jelly bag that would work too).

A friend of mine who blogs at The new Mrs P recommended her recipe, but as things are of late I felt obligated to tweak it. I don't know when I turned this corner but I never seem to cook exactly what's prescribed any longer, I'm always tweaking and adapting recipes to suit either my current tastes or whims, or what's in the fridge so I don't have to supplement my beloved Riverford veg box unless absolutely necessary.

The fantastic thing about this cordial is that it is so versatile, you can make it into a tea and drink whenfeeling poorly or just in need of a pick me up. Also you could take a tablespoon of this daily as a traditional way of warding off winter coughs and colds. I say this having bottled most of what I made up for gifts, and now suffering from the end of a rotten cold and regretting making it for gifts.

This is my second gift for Let's Make Christmas, and Mark's mum helped me to prettify up the bottle with a festive necker!

Elderberry cordial

Take all your berries, rinse in a seive or colanderand then put in a big pan
Cover with water and add some cloves, cinammon sticks and star anise
Bring to the boil and simmer for about an hour
Leave overnight, and strain in a highly technically suspended (on an unpturned kitchen chair) pillow case or jelly bag

I ended up with about 3 pints of juice at this point (the next day)
Return to pan with around 450g sugar per pint of juice - I used slightly less, partly to taste, and partly because that was what I had inthe house.
I added another handful of cloves as I'd strained out the spices I had boiled up the fruit with earlier
Bring back to the boil and simmer gently until all the sugar is dissolved. Again I'm highly technical with this and wait until I can't hear the sugar on the preserving pan any longer.
Then strain into sterilised bottles, adding around 4-5 more cloves per bottle.

The wonders of the interwebs tell me that this will last for roughly 2 years, but as someone who's only keeping the spare bits, I've enjoyed it so much that I've finished the cordial I had kept for myself, and not earmarked for gifts!

Meal Planning Monday: baking central

2011-10-24T21:06:00.001+01:00

It's Monday evening and I've just sat down to write my meal planning Monday post. Which isn't a good start really. That said, I knew at 7am this morning what I would be having for dinners this week so it's not too much of a crisis.

It's another truncated week in the pantry, but to make up for that I seem to have squeezed as much baking as possible into this evening - not only a brilliant stress reliever (sleepless night last night and very busy at work) but also productive too.

I do have a veg box coming tomorrow, but whilst most of the fruit will be comandeered to come with me to Poole, the veg will be left in the fridge, awaiting a more domestic week next week.

Also this weekend I received a fantastic box of freefrom goodies from Sainsburys, Mark is taste testing the coffee and walnut slices in his packed lunches, and as yet his only comment is that they're 'too small' which is clear praise. Next week I'm going to try the bagels (and will be treating myself to some smoked salmon and cream cheese to really enjoy them as they're meant to be).

So, after four hours of sleep, seven hours at work, 50mg sumatriptan, too many tastes of golden syrup, one evening, two parkins made and baked, one cottage pie, an exploding potato and Herman being fed - what does my meal plan look like?

Monday: leftover roast beef, baked potatoes, carrots, sweetcorn and broccoli

Tuesday: Cottage pie (made with the rest of the roast beef) and topped with some of our homegrown potatoes, cooked and mashed with their skins on, with brocolli and sweetcorn

We'll also be making Herman the leaven into cake tomorrow. Herman is a German friendship cake (much like the Amish friendship bread I made some time ago) leaven that was given to me as a thank you by my upstairs neighbour for her iced buns last week. We're going down the traditional apple route tomorrow, then will give away one and I'm going to experiment on the last batch and try and turn it into a sourdough leaven like Mabel.

Wednesday - Thursday I'll be working away.

Friday & Saturday we'll be visiting Mark's parents and I'll be lining up another first for the blog - Christmas pudding! I'm already excited!

So that's my week in the pantry, be sure to pop over to At Home with Mrs M to see what everyone else is up to

4th Friern Barnet Guides do Random Bakes of Kindness Part 4

2011-10-23T22:00:00.000+01:00

Barbara is a new Guide with us, one who throws herself into everything we do with gusto and enthusiasm, so her keenness for this Challenge wasn't unsurprising. She quite literally bounded into view, her hand waving in the air as I asked "So, who wants to do their Random Bake of kindness next week?"

Barbara chose Gingerbread easter bunnies - sometimes it's best not to question the thought process of your average 10 year old. And it's actually very seasonally appropriate taste-wise, if you ignore the Easter part of the equation. I think I might use this recipe again if we do Christmas bakes as part of our weekend away in December. I think these would make brilliant tree decorations, iced with white water icing and silver balls, and gingham ribbon through the top of star shapes. Plan!

Ingredients

250ml honey
250g soft brown sugar
150g softenend butter
100g ground almonds
400g plain flour
1 tsp cinammon
1/4tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp ground cardamom
1/4 tsp ground mixed spice
4 tsp ground ginger
2 tsp lemon zest, grated
1 egg
1tsp bicarbonate of soda
2tbsp water

Method

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C/ Gas mark 4

Heat the honey, sugar and butter in a pan on a low heat, stirring until the sugar has dissolved (we had adult supervision for this bit, obviously) Remove the pan from the heat and pour it into a bowl to cool
Add the ground almonds, flour, spices, lemon zest and egg to this bowl and mix well
Stir in the bicarb and knead with your hands until the dough is shiny and stops sticking to the bowl
Roll out the dough on a floured worktop to a thickness of about half a centimetre
Cut out your shapes, rerolling until you've finished the dough
Place on baking trays lined with parchment and and bake for 14-18 minutes
Remove from the oven carefully and cool on a wire rack

Decorate with water icing.

We found these spread more than we would have liked so if the girls decide they want to do a weekend of Christmas prep then I might do a trial run in the coming weeks mixing it up with my gingerbread recipe that I've used for Christmas Gingerbread Guides previously.

Great British Bake Off - Technical Challenge: Iced Buns

2011-10-21T10:00:00.000+01:00

For the record, these are NOT Iced Fingers. They don't have cream and jam in. These are iced buns. So there Great British bake off. I know this as I was never allowed the ones with cream and jam, as 'they weren't for children' so this was a natural place to start my investigation into the Great British Bake Off technical challenges. I will be ignoring the macarons. Macarons terrify me. If you start talking macarons I WILL hide behind the sofa.

Inspired by Utterly Scrummy and the post show masterclasses, I thought I'd have a go at some of the technical challenges from the Great British Bake Off. No I'm not practicing for next year before you ask, and yes there is more than a passing resemblance between me and Jo, and yes we're both from Essex, I'm just blonder.

Making the buns was straightforward, as regular readers know, I like breadmaking - I find the kneading and proving a soothing, restful process (I never said I was normal) and despite these being a fairly vigourous knead, I spent a happy afternoon pottering in the kitchen.

I love that the icing is water icing (I think the adults amongst you call it glace icing, but I call it water icing with the Brownies and so that's what we're calling it here) as it just reinforces, what a lovely, family bake these are. Kids could easily help with kneading, shaping the dough and icing the buns. It's only when you start to want to pipe the cream and jam that this becomes properly technical.

As I may have mentioned on twitter I was blown away by the evenness of my bake, and how lovely the buns looked when they came out of the oven. It was quite a pull to leave them to cool.

I used home made jam from earlier in the summer, and because I like things jammy, refrained from piping this on, instead spreading the cut inside of the bun with the warmed, fruity jam.

Because 12 buns is simply too many to have in my house at any one time, I've given 8 of these away as a Random Bake of Kindness, to my upstairs neighbours. I've saved 4 for Mark and I though.

Ingredients

Dough

2tsp salt

150ml/5fl oz warm milk

140ml/4½fl oz water

Icing

200g/7oz icing sugar
5 tsp cold water

Filling

Method

Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead well for 10 minutes or until the dough is smooth and elastic.

Bake in the oven for 10 minutes then set them aside to cool.

Dip the top of the cooled fingers into the icing, smoothing it with your finger, then leave to set on a wire rack

Lightly whip the cream and spoon it into a piping bag fitted with a small nozzle.

Sliced the iced fingers horizontally, leaving one long edge intact.

Warm 1tsp of jam per bun and spread one side of the iced buns with the warmed jam

Pipe in a generous line of whipped cream into the middle of each finger, Dust the iced fingers with icing sugar and serve (or give away)

Satsuma and cardamom drizzle cake - shouldn't a fruit that's so good inside have a matching exterior?

2011-10-19T10:00:00.000+01:00

A couple of weeks back my regular fruit bag from Riverford Organics arrived, apples, a mango and a lot of green skinned satsumas - green miyagawa satsumas. And a note, explaining that these satsumas would stay green, so not to wait for them to ripen as they were ripe already. Now, never one to discriminate against someone(thing) for having a touch of 'verdigris' I was happily snacking on them at work. Slightly tart, but these are early satusumas as they're a fruit I normally associate with winter. And then I had a 'vision, almost like a prophecy'... Satsuma drizzle cake. I know, it sounds truly crazy, but bear with me

I duly kept 5 of these aside to, when blessed with time, turn into a satsuma drizzle cake. Having been overwhelmed by the success of the lime drizzle, I thought I'd follow Vanessa's recipe more closely and deal with one of my issues. Cardamom. I love the scent. But, it smells like perfume to me, not like a spice and I actively avoid it because much as I don't want to wear perfume that makes me smell of biscuits, neither do I want to eat food that smells of Chanel.

But, much like the pastry and the repeated attempts at aubergine (still not winning) I felt like I needed to address this. So...all right, why not... into my mixture went 5 green cardamom pods, lightly crushed, the outers discarded and the seeds pounded to a powder in my pestle and mortar. I actually really like it. There is the faint sugesstion of perfume in the cake, but the robust tartness of the satsumas works with it really pleasingly to take that edge away.

The recipe is exactly as the Lime Drizzle cake, but with the zest and juice of 5 satsumas (they were tiny) and the cardamom folded in with the flour. I used a square cake tin this time to see if a slightly flatter cake would alter the absorbtion of the drizzle. Still yummy, but I really must buy a skewer at some point soon.

And this time, as there's only me at home... pictures!

*This post is brought to you courtesy of myself, The Wizard and I from Wicked. If you had to be told, really? REALLY?

4th Friern Barnet Guides do Random Bakes of Kindness: Part 3

2011-10-17T10:00:00.000+01:00

Hollie is one of those Guides I've known for a long time. Pretty much on her seventh birthday she walked into Brownies, confident, self assured and one of the nicest whilst very competitive children I've ever met. She started asking me about Guides six months before she even turned ten and had planned to come up bang on her tenth birthday so that she could combine moving up with her first sleepover. When you're working with children people often think it's the loudest, or the quietest that get the most attention, and as a Guider it's hard to balance those in tears, or those yelling with those getting on in the background. But you know what it's something I try to do, to make sure that they all get that validation from our leadership team, in whatever way is right for them. Hollie is adamant she's no good at crafts, yet the patch she designed for our quilt recently was beautiful. Truth be told I wasn't sure how she'd take to a baking challenge, but she embraced it head on, last week when I asked who wanted to bake this week her arm sprang into the air much as it would if I'd asked who wanted to be cat or mouse. She chose to make Rocky mountain cupcakes, and was the only Guide who asked if it was OK to split her Random Bake of Kindness up, because "there are lots of people who love me and make sure I'm OK." Hence the cupcakes I guess.

So this week at Guides was a tricky one, I was coming down with a migraine and we were a leader down. Sometimes I'm so proud of having grown the unit to the size it is now, but sometimes they're just so loud - and it was a windy day - which as anyone who works with kids will tell you, somehow gets under their skin and makes them noisier than ever - which is a lot if you have 27 in one room. Still we managed two more Random Bakes, some quilting, Community Action to save our local library, making pinatas, drama games and a fashion show for teddy bears. Extra points if you can guess which Go For It's! the girls have chosen to this term.

Rocky mountain cupcakes

200g softenend butter (from here on in this butter = Stork)

140g caster sugar

1tsp vanilla extract

3 eggs, lightly beaten

150g self-raising flour

55g cocoa powder

Topping

Chocolate buttercream

85g mini marshmallows

55g milk chocolate broken up and melted

I thought something else was going on top, but apparently the toppings were heavily sampled and didn't quite make it on the cakes!

Preheat the oven to 180degreesC/ Gas Mark4

Line a 12 hole muffin tin with paper cases

Beat together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy

Beat in the vanilla extract

Gradually beat in the eggs adding a spoonful of flour each time to stop the mixture from curdling

Fold the sifted flour and cocoa into the mixture

Spoon into the paper cases

Bake in the preheated oven for 20-25 minutes until springy to the touch, transfer to a wire rack to cool

Spoon or pipe the buttercream onto the cakes and top with the marshmallows, nuts and anything else you like in rocky road

Top with drizzled, melted chocolate and leave to set.

Meal Planning Monday: A truncated week take 2?

2011-10-17T00:01:00.000+01:00

Well last week was, what I think is called in the industry, a complete and utter unmitigated disaster! Those of you who follow me on Twitter will be aware that on Tuesday night I came down with a migraine, and pretty much as soon as I took my sumatriptan had a seizure, and then another one whilst still post ictal. This meant an admission to hospital and poor Mark had to take the lead on cooking.

So we're going to try and do better this week at Pantry HQ, I have rested all weekend, and apart from baking and some pottering, done very very little in a bid to boost my energy and general wellbeing. I don't know if it's going to work, but I'm exercising, eating healthily and resting - what else can I do?! Answers on a postcard please.

Right, where was I? Oh yes, meal planning

Monday: Chicken and spinach curry (still to be blogged)

Tuesday: Well, Tuesday is my slightly belated birthday present (my fault, I just couldn't get organised - there's irony in there somewhere) so we're off for Afternoon tea at the Ritz, I suspect we won't need or want dinner.

Wednesday & Thursday - I re-embrace the joy that is a Beefeater.

Friday: I think I'm going to do my Fusion Taste Team challenge of Tom Yum rice that was ousted by an Indian takeaway that I nearly fell asleep in this week.

Saturday: We're out with friends

Sunday: We're at my Mum's so I'm hoping for her roast beef

I'm sticking with lots of raw foods, so salads and fruit at lunchtime, and yoghurt, fruit, grape nuts and raw honey for breakfast.

Oh and lots of satsuma and cardamom drizzle cake, and Iced buns to eat too! Oops...

Silent Sunday

2011-10-16T12:21:00.001+01:00

Beetroot purple, with chocolate cake

2011-10-14T10:00:00.000+01:00

It scans beautifully with the Paintbox lyrics if you remember that from your school assemblies. If not, youtube it. My favourite harvest song. Although it's a close run thing with the adaptation of We plough the fields and scatter from Godspell.

Now I should explain about the proliferation of baking posts this week. I was recently invited to a party. Kavey's birthday party. But, owing to my supreme levels of stupidity. No, really I'm not kidding. I wrote it down on the calendar as Sunday. So whilst I was happily baking my little heart out in the heat on Saturday, that was when the party was. This recipe was my second of two cakes I had planned to take, the lime drizzle from the other day being the first, and chocolate beetroot with a ganache topping being the second.

I've been thinking about adding beetroot to chocolate cake for a while now, I love it's earthy flavour, and have often wondered when I've heard other people saying that they've used it in chocolate cake, how it works - if it tastes beetrooty, or if cooking it out changes it in anyway. Well now I know. I was a bit naughty with this bake (well it was supposed to be for someone else) and bought the beetroot specially - you know me, I'd have waited until next year for it to come around in the veg box normally. Our little Greek grocers near my house sells huge cooked beetroots from a stainless steel bowl by the till so off Louise and I popped to top up on my shopping.

Because I don't use social media whilst I'm working, I often find myself in the position of favouriting tweets for later to read in hotel rooms, and this is how this bake came about, Jenny Eatwell had tweeted about it earlier in the week and it was the prompt I finally needed to try it.

When I realised what had happened with the party, I hastily turned my bakes into a Random bake of Kindness and gave half of each to Louise to take home with her. I take my thinking of others before myself very seriously I'll have you know. I also was a bit naughty and failed to mention he secret ingredient to Mark who wouldn't normally touch beetroot with a ten foot bargepole. He wolfed it down happily and I can safely say it was a hit.

I've amended Jenny's recipe slightly, as I tend to so here is what I did.

CHOCOLATE & BEETROOT CAKE (serves 10-12)

Ingredients

250g cooked beetroot, grated in the food processor
125g softened butter
75g milk chocolate, broken into pieces (this should have been dark, but it makes Mark unwell so I wanted to see how it would work with milk)
300g soft dark brown sugar
3 large eggs at room temperature
225g self-raising flour (you're supposed to sift this, if anyone could find my seive that would be terrific)
a quarter of a tsp salt
50g cocoa powder (again this should be sifted... see above)

Method

1. Pre-heat the oven to 160degC fan/gas 4. Grease and fully line a non-stick loose-bottomed tin with baking parchment.
2. Grate, or blitz in a food processor, the beetroot until coarsely chopped. You are definitely not looking for a puree! Set aside.
3. Place a small saucepan on the heat with some water inside and place a bowl on top, so that the water doesn't touch the bottom of the bowl. Put the chocolate pieces into the bowl and melt by allowing the water to simmer, which in turn will heat the bowl, causing the chocolate to melt.
4. Beat the butter, sugar and eggs and until lighter and fluffy (as it's dark soft brown sugar you're using, it won't go completely pale as though you were using caster).
5. Mix in the melted chocolate, then fold in the flour, salt and cocoa powder with a large metal spoon.
6. Finally, stir the beetroot gently into the mix. I wish I had taken a picture at this stage as the pink beetroot looked beautiful against the dark brown mixture
7. Transfer the mixture to the cake tin, flattening out the top. Bake for an hour, or until a skewer comes out with just a tiny bit of cake mix still attached.
8. Leave the cake to cool for 10 minutes in the tin, then remove from the tin and place on a cake rack to cool completely.

I didn't ice it, but any chocolate ganache/ frosting would be a lovely addition, plus you could then decorate it. Again I was a bit worried about the quantity of chocolate and Mark as I wasn't sure if it would make him poorly, but I'd just realised I'd got the date of the party wrong and was having a bit of a huff.

This is definitely on my to make again list, it was great with ice cream, and then in packed lunches for the rest of the week, and the beetroot seems to cook down in some way so that it just adds a lovely fudginess to the cake - there's no trace of vegetabliness (it's a word) whatsoever.

Jenny found lots of recipes that used vegetable oil instead of butter, so it looks like this would be a fairly easy one to make dairy free (not egg free though) if you needed or wanted to. Certainly Green and Blacks dark chocolate always used to be dairy free - I don't know if it still is.

Preserves round up: home made and well preserved

2011-10-13T10:00:00.000+01:00

I was chatting on twitter a while back about the preserving I've been doing (I'm waiting on my badge that says I'm preserves queen) and realised that since first attempting marmalade I've done a fair bit. Susan of A Little bit of heaven on a plate tweeted back to tell me about her post on preserving. So I thought I'd take the opportunity to link up with another blogger, and do a round up of everything I've been up to.

If you bear in mind that roughly this time last year I was too anxious of boiling sugar to do anything other than preserve some redcurrants in rum (and leave that shrub in the dark to steep, for ooh too many months to mention) I think the learning curve I've been on this year is fabulous. Most recently this hit home when I knocked up a sugar syrup for my Christmas cake fruit and barely even blinked. One of the best things about blogging is that you can see yourself growing and developing and being someone that spends most of my waking hours doing that with and for others, be they adults at work or Guides or Brownies in my free time, it's lovely to have that reflection about yourself.

I thought it might be useful as even with the search function and some fairly detailed tagging on my part I can't get everything to come up in an accessible fashion (another reason to go to WP perhaps?) to link to all my preserving posts - and I'll add to this post and link to it in the sidebar, so you can always find it as I do more.

So here's my round up of my preserves so far:

Green tomato chutney

Seville orange and whiskey marmalade

Strawberry jam

Gooseberry jam

Apple and mint jelly

Plum jam

Spiced redcurrant rum

You put the lime in the coconut... or cake: Lime Drizzle cake

2011-10-12T10:00:00.000+01:00

As regular readers will know I have the innate ability to fangirl; Idina Menzel (should I ever brave a stage door after she performs), Michael Crawford - I actually spoke to him, and of course Jonathan Groff (although that's less fangirling, and more just friends chatting about Mary Poppins). I feel a little like recent posts are tending towards the fangirly of Vanessa Kimbell. Her book Prepped is beautiful, and recently she's provided me with inspiration for the Guides through her Random Bakes of Kindness, and now a drizzle cake, that she posted on her blog in response to my request for a recipe I could amend to a lime drizzle one last weekend.

As I may have mentioned whilst normal, sane people spent last weekend in the sunshine, getting their last dose of vitamin D - Louise and I were in the kitchen baking. After our epic work on the Christmas cake fruit we began two cakes, a lime drizzle and a chocolate beetroot cake. As my first random bake of kindness I gave Louise half of each, and Mark ate a lot of the rest.

My request was in order to use up some limes I had bought when reduced, thinking that my Worldfusion Taste team challenges would require them, as it was I hadn't felt the need to add extra zing to any of the meals so far so they were lingering in the fruit bowl and starting to look a little sad. Vanessa's recipe was a Tangerine and cardamom cake, but I replaced the tangerine with lime and omitted the cardomom - after much sniffing of the jar and trying to work out if it went with the fresh lime. Our conclusino was no, but I am inclined to try it just to see.

Vanessa's recipe is here but this is what I did with the limes...

Lime sponge

Finely grated zest of 2 limes

200g unsalted butter, cubed and softened 

200g caster sugar 
3 medium eggs
175g self-raising flour
25g cornflour

Lime syrup

Zest and juice of 2 limes

5 tbs caster sugar

1 Preheat the oven to 180°C, gas mark 4. I used the fan in my oven as I don't know how to turn it off(!)

2 Grease a 20cm, round, loose bottomed cake tin and line with baking parchment.
3. Place the sugar, softened butter and lime zest in a mixing bowl and beat with a wooden spoon or an electric hand mixer The result should be pale in color, with a really light and fluffy texture. I hadn't thought of adding the zest to this stage of the mix previously, but the vigourous mixing releases the oils from the zest into the mix thus making the final sponge much more limey.
4. Add the beaten egg,
5. Sift and fold in the flour, the mixture is thicker than a regular sponge batter, but this is what you want for the end result.
6. Spoon the mixture into your prepared tin and bake for 35–45 minutes until it is shrinking away from the side. Test it with a skewer to see if the mixture is cooked in the centre; it should come out clean or with crumbs, not with any mixture. Remove from the oven and, if it is done, prick all over with a cocktail stick about 20 times.

As an aside, this week Dan Lepard had tweeted about taking cakes out a little earlier than usual as they continue cooking in the tin from the residual heat - I tried it out with this, taking it out after 35 minutes and the sponge was lovely and soft. It was a complete fail with the beetroot chocolate one though so the jury is still out on that one - in this house at least.

7 Squeeze both limes and pour the juice into a small saucepan, 5/6 tablespoons of caster sugar. Heat and stir for about a minute until dissolved. A bit like in preserving, you can hear and feel when the sugar is dissolved so don't worry about sugar thermometers.

8. Leave to cool, then drizzle the syrup over the cake, slowly, waiting a few moments before adding more, so that it all sinks in. It should leave a crust on the cake as the juices sink in.
9. Wait until completely cooled, then remove from the tin and transfer to a wire rack.

This cake is lovely, perfect with a cup of tea, and sturdy enough to accompany a packed lunch. Flavour-wise the freshness of the limes contrasts beautifully with the gentle sponge, and the sharpness of the pockets of syrup and sweetness of the crust juxtapose with the soft, dense cake beneath. This is definitely one of those cakes which improves the day after baking.

I would also say don't overestimate just how easy this cake is to make, it's quick and a really straightforward bake. Don't be put off by the use of sugar syrup it's so easy and goes down really well, I imagine it would be perfect if you need to take a cake into work - I'm already planning on making it again to take into Poole this week to thank someone for doing an enourmous amount of photocopying for me.

Doorbells, and sleighbells and schnitzel with noodles (ish): Worldfoods Challenge no 2 - Pad Thai

2011-10-10T10:00:00.000+01:00

I'm now happily singing My favourite things while I type this out, sadly I'm not in my nighty, nor am I surrounded by many small children harmonising beautifully with me. Still, you take what you can get.

Last week I was visited by my friend Louise, this week it's Lauren's turn, and last night I made us the second of my Worldfood fusion taste team challenge meals. Pad Thai. I was slightly concerned again as to the sweetness of the sauce, and the inauthenticity (it's a word) of my recipe, but without blowing my own trumpet it was fab. And made whilst exhausted, so doubly impressive when you think about it.

I should add a disclaimer here. I love Pad Thai. A lot. It's my favourite thing to order in Thai restaurants, and I never make it because I just think it won't live up to my expectations. Plus the ingredient list to make it from scratch is more offputting than sugar syrup ever was.

I really didn't want to have to shop specially for this, but have to recommend Waitrose's Thai section. Bearing in mind that the Whetstone Waitrose is tiny, I managed to pick up rice noodles, dried galangal, fish sauce and palm sugar. I then failed to use any of them save for the rice noodles. Fail. But I was pleased I picked those up, as the need for beansprouts, limes and peanuts escaped my tiny brain entirely, so as you will notice this recipe is utterly without them.

Pantry Pad Thai

2 cloves garlic
1 red chilli chopped
4 spring onions, whites finely chopped, greens sliced up like you would green beans
1 red pepper sliced
1 sweetcorn
300g mushrooms sliced
3 chicken thighs thinly sliced
flat leaf parsley
1 head brocolli
1 bottle Worldfood Pad Thai sauce
Juice of 1 lime
2 eggs, beaten
200g rice noodles cooked as per pack instructions

Stir fry the garlic, chilli, and spring onion whites in a flavourless oil until you can start to smell them
Add the chicken to the pan and cook until browned
Add the vegetables and cook lightly, stirring all the while
Shift the contents of your pan to one side and pour the eggs in and cook, then stir through
Add the cooked noodles, and stir through
Add the sauce, parsley and lime and serve. I kept the fish sauce and palm sugar on the side meaning to add them if I felt it needed a bit extra but it really didn't, the sauce had enough tang from the tamarind to mean that I didn't need to adjust the seasoning.

Quick and easy, and as I used the end of my veg box as well as some chicken in the freezer, a really well priced meal. What I made served three of us generously with a large tupperware of leftovers for Mark's lunch today. Perfect.

Despite loving this (and I actually hesitated to offer Mark the leftovers as I would have quite happily demolished them) I would like to try it again with prawns, coriander, beansprouts and peanuts as it was so tasty that I think the additions would really set it off. It's rare you'll see me say this, but I would happily go out and buy this again purely to the ends of adding Pad Thai this way to my simple suppers, as even with a bought sauce it's cheaper and healthier than my local Thai takeaway.

Meal Planning Monday: a somewhat truncated week in the pantry

2011-10-10T00:01:00.000+01:00

Hello. I've had a couple of weeks off meal planning as life has just been too hectic here at Pantry HQ. That's not to say that meal planning hasn't been taking place - it has to, in order for me to budget and shop, but it's had to be flexible as I'm still in the completely exhausted camp. Any suggestions for overcoming permanent and overwhelming tiredness are incredibly welcome.

This week and next week are somewhat short weeks in the Pantry due to my work schedule, once again I'll be at the mercy of Premier Inn and their fantastic breakfasts, yet somewhat dubious and bland dinner menus. That said, the steak was lovely last time but I'll start mooing if I eat steak every night!

Monday: Chorizo, Butternut Squash and Cannelini bean chilli (possibly with cornbread depending on when I get in tomorrow)

Tuesday: Probably leftovers, although if not it'll be freezer surprise.

Wednesday - Thursday I'll be working away

Friday: I have a packet of lovely local bacon to use, so possibly Nigella's carbonara

Saturday: I'm not sure what we have planned this weekend so possibly a casserole of some description and on Sunday I've promised Mark the roast he missed out on tonight.

So that's us, hopefully the freezer surprise, and using up what's in the fridge and pantry will keep costs down, as well as make life a bit easier for me. Be sure to head on over to At Home with Mrs M to see what she and everyone else is up to.

Christmas is coming, the fruit is getting drunk

2011-10-08T10:00:00.000+01:00

*ducks and hides*

I know Christmas isn't everyone's cup of tea, truth be told for the last few years it's not been mine. But this year I've decided to put on my big girl pants, and get involved. Clearly the hottest weekend of the year was the ideal time to start my prep (sense the tone).

Having my broadband back has meant I'm doing a lot more blog reading, and as always being late to the party means I've recently started following Ruth at The Pink Whisk and a couple of weeks back she posted here about putting her fruit into soak for her Christmas cake. This prompted me to get my posterior into gear and my friend Louise and I got organised.

I'm making three cakes - one for me, one for Mum and one for the Division Christmas do, Louise is making one. Clearly this called for one thing. Spreadsheet! Duly organised off we pottered. Lou was substituting figs for brazil nuts and almonds and we both added extra glace cherries in.

We're roughly following Ruth's quantities, although I did the brandy by eye and added in the juice of the oranges and extra spices, nutmeg, cloves and sweet mixed spice.

Ingredients:
Fruit
200g raisins
200g sultanas
175g dried figs, chopped
100g dates, chopped
55g glace cherries

Soak
55g caster sugar
55ml water
170ml brandy
Zest and juice of 1 orange
1 cinnamon stick
Half a nutmeg, grated
1 tsp sweet mixed spice
5 cloves

I have to say a year ago I wouldn't have attempted this, owing to the need to make a sugar syrup - and I'm really proud of the fact that this didn't phase me at all on Saturday, I just got on with it, making a sugar syrup and then cooling it slightly before adding it to the brandy, orange juice and spices.

It's living in the cupboard with my kilners of sloe gin that's nearly ready to strain into pretty bottles. I've stirred it every day this week and will soon start forgetting but it smells amazing already - really Christmassy and I get a little smile every time I haul it (it's heavy) out to stir.

We're planning on doing baked bean tin Christmas cakes with the Guides, so the week before half term will be doing this en masse and without alcohol! Wish us luck, I'll be sure to put some pictures up, and document our progress as we bake, marzipan and decorate.

4th Friern Barnet Guides do... Random Bakes of Kindness (part 2)

2011-10-07T10:00:00.000+01:00

So here we are again... part 2 of our ongoing series of Random Bakes of Kindess. Inspired by Vanessa Kimbell's idea earlier this year, Fourth Friern Barnet Guides will be baking, and blogging a bake each week for someone who has touched their life in some way; be it big, or small.

Today's bake was chosen and made by Maria (see below) and she gave it to Jade one of our other Guides. No words were exchanged at the giving, but these two are inseparable, lovely girls. Look at the pride here!

Maria chose to make Mocha vanilla latte cookies that she cut out into star shapes - what you can't see here is that she made small stars, and big stars too, some were vanilla, others coffee

1 sachet instant latte

1.5 tsp hot water

225g softened butter (again, Stork)

140g caster sugar

1 egg yolk lightly beaten

250g plain flour

1tsp vanilla extract

3tbsp cocoa powder

Pinch of salt

Preheat the oven to 190 degrees/ Gas mark 5

Make the instant latte powder into a paste with hot water in a little bowl

Beat the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy, then beat in the egg yolk.

Divide the mixture in half, beat the latte into one half, and add half the flour and salt into the mixture and stir until combined

Shape the dough into a ball, wrap in clingfilm and chill in the fridge (allegedly for 30-60 minutes, but we popped it in the freezer for half an hour - we only meet for 2 hours and need to clear up too!)

Beat the vanilla extract into the other half of the mixture, then add the rest of the flour and the cocoa powder and salt

Stir until combined and again shape the dough into a ball, wrap in clingfilm and chill.

Unwrap both flavours of dough, roll out and cut out cookies.

Bake in a preheated oven for 10-15 minutes.

*Guides pictured have full photo permissions

4th Friern Barnet Guides do... Random Bakes of Kindness

2011-10-05T20:35:00.002+01:00

Apologies for the quietness on the blog this last week, as usual I've been working away, but also have been cooking and baking quite busily - so much so I've run out of time and energy to blog. I've also been a bit lax on the piccy taking front (and almost entirely blame M as he's normally my prompter to take pics but bless him, he's been doing overtime too).

Tonight my aim is to catch up and schedule some posts for the coming week, but those are fatal last words so lets see how I go. Cross your fingers for me!

As you know I run a busy Guide unit, and this term is no exception, my planning co-incided with Vanessa Kimbell of Prepped launching her Random Bakes of Kindness project. This is such a Guide-like project that I immediately thought, fantastic! And a terms worth of inspiration was borne. Each girl has chosen her bake and identified who it's for. We've asked them to think about people they want to say thank you to, people who touch their lives in some way. Their choices have been extraordinary, from Jennifer, our Assistant Leader, to their Librarian, to friends and family. As always, they surprised me with their sensitivity, insight, sense of humour and ability to be utterly candid.

Being Guides however, organising them is a little like herding spaghetti so despite being a month into the term, last night was our first 'bake' (says she, ruthlessly stealing the term from the Great British Bake Off)

Lucy (below) had decided to make double chocolate cupcakes for Jennifer - a true baker in the making, she had adapted her recipe to alter the tricky ganache to a more straightforward buttercream - which I can certify as being very tasty.

125g softened butter (we used Stork as butter is just too expensive for use with 27 Guides!)
125g caster sugar
2 medium eggs
90g self raising flour
30g cocoa
100g white chocolate drops

175g butter softened (again we used Stork, and added vanilla essence)
60g milk chocolate melted
350g (ish) icing sugar (there was quite a lot in the kitchen!)

Preheat the oven to 190 degrees C/ Gas mark 5
Beat the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy
Add the eggs and then sift in the flour and cocoa
Beat the mixture until smooth
Stir in the chocolate drops
Divide the mixture between paper cases in a bun tin and bake for 15 minutes

Top with chocolate buttercream, and white chocolate buttons - and in our case - give to your lovely Assistant Leader who is definitely deserving of them!

*All Guides pictured have full photographic permissions

Meal Planning Monday: Leftovers galore

2011-09-26T00:01:00.000+01:00

As anyone who follows me on twitter will know, Mark and I harvested (is that the word?) his homegrown potatoes today, and as a treat I roasted some tonight with a chicken, and basically the works, butternut squash, steamed spinach and brocolli, and stuffing. It was yum. However, I'm working away from Wednesday so we have basically half a chicken (and then some) to use up before then. Cue immediate flailing panic!

Here's the potatoes - the margarine tub is what we thought we would fill - the hastily located washing up bowl is what we did fill!

So this week's meal plan, will take us up to Wednesday and then pick up again on Saturday morning.

Monday: Leftover roast chicken, in sandwiches with leftover sweet potato and ginger soup. (I made this on Saturday, it is also known as Lifechanging Soup (TM) in this house - it's a Skye Gyngell recipe that I adore)

Tuesday: Was going to be butternut squash and chorizo chilli with cornbread, but I think more leftover chicken with buttered and minted potatoes and veggies. I also need to make the stock from the chicken carcass after Guides.

Wednesday: I may take chicken salad with me to save me from hotel food.

Friday: I'm meeting a friend to go out, but as I'll be coming straight into London and out with her I'm not sure what I'll get to eat.

Saturday: There's every possibility that I'm going to be flat out exhausted on Saturday - yesterday I looked and felt dreadful, and the housework alone wiped me out, so we're going to see - if I'm shattered, I'll probably do the chilli and we'll watch trashy tv/ DVDs but if not we're going to the theatre. Ghost and Rock of Ages are on my shortlist. Mark is going to kill me if we end up with tickets to see Ghost.

Sunday: I honestly don't know. Leftover chilli maybe?

Lunches for me will be chicken salad, and lots of fruit.
Breakfasts - well I'm still trying to finish up the neverending box of the world's dullest museli, but should I ever finish that then it's back to fruit with Total Greek yoghurt and a little bit of raw honey. Which is officially my favourite breakfast. Ever.

Which takes us into next week - thankfully a week at home.

Global Fusion Taste Team: Garlic, chilli and ginger

2011-09-25T22:14:00.001+01:00

There's been a little bit of excitement in the Pantry of late, which should hopefully produce some interesting posts going forwards. Today is the first in a series of posts in my role as a member of the Global Fusion Taste Team. I answered a callout on Twitter for team members (I'm always a bit reticent to do that as I'm never sure I'm 'good' enough - well that's not true, I know I am, I just know that this blog and it's little following *waves* aren't up there with the big hitters) Anyway, this week a big box arrived, which had he been here would have led Mark to roll his eyes and ask if I've been online shopping at Lush again. In it was, a pinny, a recipe notebook (stationery and a pinny - can Worldfoods read my mind?) as well as a huge range of sauces and dips for me to try, work with and feed Mark with over the coming weeks. Excited? I am.

So Wednesday night loomed and courtesy of a meeting at work being cancelled we had a night in together. Off to Sainsos we went with the first challenge looming in my mind. It involved a garlic, chilli and ginger, dipping, or stir fry sauce. Having spent much of the recent weeks in hotels a stir fry really appealed, with lots of veg and some brown basmati rice.

Ginger, garlic and trinity are often hailed as the 'holy trinity' (apologies for the blasphemy) of Chinese cooking, and if I'm just doing a bog standard stir fry I will press or chop a couple of cloves of garlic, grate variable amounts of ginger and chop up a chilli as my base. Initially I thought the jar would work as a sub for these, but on sniff test and finger taste I felt it needed a bit more oomph for my tastebuds. On investigation, the recipe suggestion was to add more, so lesson learned - READ things in advance Penelope. I should also say that the last time I did a stir fry out of a jar it was about 10 years ago and I intially worried that it was going to be that incredibly cloying sweet synthetic taste I remembered, however this was light, fresh and not at all syrupy.

I should point out here that Mark likes things significantly milder than I do so I actually made two generous dishes from one jar of sauce, and both those dishes did two solid meals. Mark had his leftovers for lunch the next day, and mine went in the freezer for a later date.

Pantry Prawns; courtesy of Worldfoods

1 clove of garlic, pressed
Large peice of ginger grated
(to my shame) teaspoonful of lazy chilli
250g prawns (Mark had 2 chicken thighs finely sliced, and cooked until brown)
Red pepper chopped
Courgette chopped
Onion finely chopped
Spinach
Sweetcorn
(I forgot I had edamame beans and green beans in the freezer, but had I remembered I would have added those too)
Half a jar of Worldfoods Chinese ginger, garlic & chilli sauce

In a large pan or wok, heat up some flavourless oil and add your garlic, chilli, ginger and onion. Sweat the onion off, stirring constantly
Add prawns, and cook until they turn pink,
Add vegetables and cook until they just start to soften
Add sauce and reduce down

It took, less than 10 minutes to cook this, bearing in mind I also did a chicken one that was missing the extra spices, and rice as well. Perfect for a quick, easy supper when you've been at work all day and done battle with Mr Sainsburys to boot. You'll see from the pic, that I had got out soy sauce to use as a condiment as I hadn't added salt at any point, but really didn't feel that the dish needed it - I'm terrible for underseasoning things though so do a taste test yourself, and add soy or salt to taste.

The only thing I think I would do different again, would be to add some coriander at the end to freshen it up.

So, there you have it, my first challenge as a member of the Global Fusion Taste Team... watch this space for more installments, including my favourite - Pad Thai!

Preserves part 4 million and twelve: mint and apple jelly

2011-09-16T10:00:00.000+01:00

More preserves... yes there are more things I can be given free (or nearly free) and turn into jams, jellies and cordials. I just tweeted Jules of Butcher, baker to say how satisfying I'm finding it being able to turn free (or nearly free) food into something that will last me long after the fresh ingredients would have found their way into the compost bin.

Last time Mark went home his Mum sent him back with a pillowcase, bag of crapapples, a large bunch of mint and the instructions for 3 different types of preserves. I've already blogged the plum jam, and so this is my first experience of a jelly. It's very similar to a jam except that you strain the fruit after you've cooked it down, so that when you boil it up with the sugar, it's a clear liquid. What you end up with is beautiful, an amazing amber colour in the case of the crabapples and an almost clear set with tiny flecks of mint for the apple and mint. Just gorgeous, as the sunlight catches them they actually twinkle.

I made this with Bramley apples, that had been epically reduced in Sainsburys - I am such a fan of the reductions in their fruit and veg departments for preserving - the other week it was strawberries for 19p and this was 9p for 4 huge Bramley apples (the last 2 I've just stewed up with some spices and a little sugar, then frozen to have on porridge as it gets colder).

Apple and Mint Jelly

Ingredients

2.5 lbs cooking apples
1 pint distilled white vinegar
Sugar
3-4 taablespoons chopped mint

Equipment

Preserving pan
Pillowcase
Chair
Bowl
Measuring jug
Wooden spoon
Saucer
Jam jars

Method

Wash and chop the apples (don't bother to peel or core) then put in your preserving pan with 1 pint of water and bring to the boil. Simmer for about 45 minutes - until they're soft
Add the vinegar and boil rapidly for another 5 minutes (beware, it smells really really strong)
Spoon the pulp into the pillowcase - which you've suspended intricately on an upturned chair over a bowl and allow the pulp to strain for at least 12 hours. You mustn't squeeze the pillowcase no matter how much you want to or feel like no liquid is coming out as that'll make your jelly cloudy. I was incredibly restrained and managed not to.

After the 12 hours, put your saucer in the fridge
Now measure the strained liquid into a measuring jug and for every pint of liquid add 1lb of sugar to your preserving pan. I ended up with 1lb and 12oz of sugar in mine.
Heat the liquid and sugar gently, stirring all the while until the sugar has dissolved
Now boil it rapidly for about 10 minutes until the setting point is reached - test using your saucer
Stir in the chopped mint, jar up promptly and there you have it - apple and mint jelly. Ideal with your next roast pork (personally, I'm planning a roast shoulder of pork just so I can try it)

And my alter ego is...

2011-09-14T10:00:00.000+01:00

Snowy Owl...

Last time Mark and I were at Borough Market we picked up these Owl, biscuits. Buttery shortbread with chocolate button eyes and a half almond for a beak they were tasty and impeccably made to resemble myself on Thursday evenings.

If you like me are an Owl on the side, I would replicate them with any shortbread recipe, cut out in rounds and prick for the shapes. Shortbread is so quick and easy to make, my Brownies did it on our Scottish themed pack holiday, and you could easily do this in a meeting. This is my shortbread recipe, that I use regularly.

Super-easy Shortbread (suitable for Brownies)

Ingredients

4oz butter
2oz caster sugar
6oz plain flour

Method

Preheat the oven to 190 degrees C/ about Gas mark 5
Beat the butter and sugar together until smooth and fluffy (Brownies love doing this with electric beaters, but if you're on Pack holidays it's great fun to get them to do it in small groups with wooden spoons and race to see who can get there's to smooth and fluffy first!)
Stir in the flour spoon by spoon until you have a smooth paste.
Turn out onto your worktop/ table (make sure it's clean) and roll out until the past is 1cm thick
Cut out rounds/ triangles/ fingers (whatever you want really) and put on baking trays. If you're doing this in sixes, you can write the six name in pencil on the baking parchment/ greaseproof and it doesn't come off when cooking.
Now chill in the fridge for 20 minutes or so - it's this that makes shortbread really melt in the mouth-ish
Bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes or until pale golden in colour. Cool on a wire rack, and have with squash for threesies.

If you're going to decorate the shortbread to owls, then do so before cooking.

Just a quick post and run really as I'm working away this week. But

Meal Planning Monday: Wandering free...

2011-09-12T10:00:00.000+01:00

Last week's Meal Planning Monday post remained in draft all week - it was just that successful. This week I'm going to try and do better, so I'm starting by writing it on Sunday and for once, after I've done a shop. I know, wonders will never cease.

This week, is another busy week for me at work, so it's really only a part week of planning, but that said - some is better than none, so here goes.

Monday: Was going to be courgetti spaghetti, but we were at Mum's today helping around the house and have the leftovers of a roast chicken to use up. We'll be having a curry, that my Dad taught me how to make, it's a quick cook, chicken and spinach. And there's a recipe for lentil daal (or is it just daal?) in this month's Red Magazine that I'm going to try aswell. Blogpost to follow. Promise.

Tuesday: I'm at Guides, so I'm going to whack some potatoes in the oven (a la Delia) to bake and have them with leftover chicken, salad and some veggies. I've got a fennel bulb to use up, so could do with something nice to do with that to go with. *Googles*

Wednesday & Thursday: I'm working away from home so no cooking will be taking place - I'll be taking my own fruit supplies though, as I'm still finding opportunities to eat fruit or veg are severely limited when staying in hotels.

Friday: We're off to M's parents so will be eating with them when we arrive.

Lunches will be - chicken salad for me, and sarnies for M.

Breakfasts will be - fruit, yoghurt and grape nuts. Although this morning was so cold I made up some oatmeal porridge with the bag of coarse oatmeal I had popped in the pantry for Parkin making. It made really tasty, more textured porridge, so I'll pop the recipe in a post this week.

I also need to make the chicken carcass into stock, but if I don't get a chance, I'll pop the whole thing in the freezer and do it when I do have some time.

A bit of a mad dash through the week there. Be sure to pop over to At Home with Mrs M to see what everyone else is up to.

Jam, jam, jam, jam, jam, jam, jam, jam: Plum jam

2011-09-11T21:09:00.000+01:00

Or, what to do when all the stirring in the world doesn't seem to be enough. Preserving for idiots (namely me) continues...

So this return to the preserving theme (which, I admit has met somewhat of a hiatus of late, owing to a lack of glutting fruit - on that note, where are the blackberries?) Mark's Mum - she of WI and preserving fame gave me about 4lb of Victoria Plums that she had been given recently. Jam was clearly the way forward, as pots and a recipe arrived at the same time.

So, following a bad day I decided the best way to restore normality was to make preserves. I never said I was thinking rationally.

Before I get to the recipe, it's important to bear in mind the conditions the fruit has come from, this has been a very wet (is that the understatement of the century?) summer and so the fruit we were cooking down took ages to reach setting point - 50 minutes. I may have panicked once or twice during this period - called Mark's Mum 3 times and handed the whole process over to Mark declaring (with a small stamp) that, "I can't make jam anymore!"

If you've not made jam before I would read one of the first of Penelope's Preserves series either, Seville Orange Marmalade, or Strawberry jam, just to get a feel for preserving. Similarly, read this recipe through a few times, get your equipment - big pan, spoon, colander, jars, lids, saucer out and to hand. I wash my jars before I start and put them in the oven on a low heat to sterilise while I'm cooking the jam.

So, today Penelope's Pantry's Plum Preserve

3lb plums (put in a colander and rinse, then chop and stone)
3lb granulated sugar - still no need for jam sugar
Knob of butter
3/4 pint water

Put a saucer in the fridge
Put the plums into a big pan, add the water and cook until soft and pulpy. This took about half an hour.
Remove from the heat and add the sugar, stir until it's dissolved
Put back on the heat, bring to a rolling boil and cook until setting point is reached. This took me about 45 minutes of a rolling boil. Seriously, the summer has been so wet that to reach setting point was a bit of an epic task of endurance (thanks Mark)
Add your butter to disperse any scum
Remove jars from the oven, and put on something heat proof, then fill with jam
Seal with lids, or waxed circles and cellophane
When cool label up and put in your jam cupboard. Not that I have one of those. Nope.

Next up, crabapple jelly, then Bramley apple and mint jelly, then a break from preserves I promise!

Salad Days: Beetroot, green bean and feta salad

2011-08-26T02:00:00.000+01:00

The eagle (owl) eyed amongst you will notice that there is, no photo of this meal. That is because this is quite possible the least photogenic thing I have ever made. Literally. I always thought that casseroles with their brown colours and squishy ingredients were unattractive, but that was before I made this salad. To read the ingredients you would think (as did I) that it had the potential to be stunning, that the verdant greens of the leaves and beans would contrast stunningly with the white goat's cheese and ruby beetroot, all annointed by the faint pink blush of the dressing.

However what I ended up was a tasty mush of goats cheese squished over the beans and leaves, with the beetroot that bloody red that's almost black. The Chanel Rouge Noir of vegetables. I would absolutely recommend you make and try this salad as it is gorgeously tasty, but photograph the ingredients beforehand - do some tasteful arranging on a wooden chopping board, or worktop.

This recipe is a Riverford veg one. I came to it following the second delivery this season of beetroot. I cooked the first batch and left it in the oven to cool, wrapped in foil. At which point I promptly forgot about it for the best part of the rest of the week. Yes, my name is Penelope and I have scatty, slatternish tendencies. What a waste! I was so cross with myself as I love beetroot - there's something about the earthiness of the flavour that seems such a contrast to it's sweetness - which is why I've often used it in cakes, in a similar way to the courgette brownies I made here - which, oddly was also a Riverford recipe.

On a side note, what's quite nice about going back to that post is that my photography skills are actually beginning to improve - at least slightly!

So today Penelope's Pantry brings you... the world's least attractive salad:

Summer salad with beetroot, goat’s cheese + Frenchbeans

Roast or boil the beetroot - to do that, wash and trim them (keep the leaves for the salad) then place in a dish in a preheated oven (200 degreesish) for about 45 minutes. Riverford suggest adding water to the dish and covering with foil - but in the Pantry we fly by the seat of our pants and just wallop them in and take them out when they're softened. This will take about 45-60 mins, depending on size Oh and if you don't want to go out looking like you've committed murder, then wear clean marigolds, or latex gloves. Scrubbing with salt and lemon juice works if you ignore this advice. Said as one who knows!

Ingredients

300g mixed summer salad leaves

150g French beans, trimmed

200g cooked beetroot, cut into 2cm cubes

4 tbsp olive oil

1 tbsp good-quality red wine vinegar or sherry vinegar

Salt + pepper

100g soft goat’s cheese, crumbled

Salad leaves - I used the beetroot tops and some bagged salad that had come in my Riverford box last week.

Method

1. Wash the salad leaves and dry well. Cook the beans in boiling salted water for 3–4 mins, until just tender, then drain, refresh in cold water and drain again.

2. Put them in a large bowl with the salad leaves and beetroot.

3. Whisk the olive oil, vinegar and some seasoning together to make a dressing.

4. Toss with the salad then sprinkle with goat’s cheese.

Step 4 is where I came unstuck. My goat's cheese didn't exactly sprinkle per se. More squished. Maybe you have a more gentle touch than me. Here's hoping yours doesn't turn out mushy as it's lovely, really fantastic contrasting tastes and textuertures.

I used the beetroot while still warm, partly due to time pressures, partly because that was what I fancied. As the other ingredients were fridge cold or room temperature this again made for a nice contrast.

The Riverford recipe suggests that this serves 4 as an accompaniment to lamb - but I had it as a standalone dish, but this meant it did 2 portions instead of the 4.

Other suggestions are to swap out the beetroot when it's not in season for butternut squash and I'll definitely be trying that, although I'll have to ask a beauty blogger for some help with nail polish names to match that!

Next up - some jams and excitingly my first jellies; plum, and crabapple and mint.

Nasi Goreng: add your own showtune here...

2011-08-19T10:00:00.000+01:00

It's that time of year again when our thoughts turn to new shoes, a new pencil case, and of course - what to put in our packed lunch box. For me when I was at school it was always sandwiches - peanut butter and banana were my favourite - and one of my best friends Liz, taught me well that you add the banana at lunchtime so it's not brown! These days I really struggle with sandwiches - Mark has them every day, and when I try I just find them dull. As an alternative I tend to go for salads in the summer (this week, pea shoots, feta, prawn, tomato and sprouted seeds - also known as everything that was reduced in Sainsburys).

In the colder months, I have a lot of homemade soups, sometimes with homemade bread (when I'm watching what I eat, without), also leftovers. Now these aren't practical for a child's lunchbox unless you have a thermos - Lakeland do some pricy, but wide necked ones that I think would be amazing for my lunches, actually I look at them and think about ordering every time. There has to be a cheaper alternative for kids out there and I'll keep my eyes peeled.

With my lunch I have fruit - a lot of fruit, this week it's black grapes, plums, a banana and an apple and normally a Nakd bar. This allows me to graze throughout the day at work, which works for me if I don't have time for a proper lunch break. Mark has crisps, a sausage roll, peice of cheese, cereal bar, a banana and some dried fruit. We're quite different, but it's what suits us best.

This week, I'm having a Pantry take on Nasi goreng - an Indonesian rice salad. Unusually for me, I'm straying into the realms of cooking with tofu for the first time. Now, I had most of the base ingredients in my fridge and pantry, but had to buy the tofu, and edamame beans. However the amount of lunches this has made is extraordinary. There's definitely enough for the rest of the week, and I'll portion out the rest in the freezer for next week too. You could serve this hot - in a thermos or if your office has a microwave, or eat it cold as a rice salad.

Penelope's Pantry does Nasi Goreng

Light olive oil
2 cups of brown basmati rice - cooked and cooled
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 tsp lazy chilli
2 thumb size peices of ginger grated
4 spring onions finely chopped (all the way up - use the green parts too)
1 cup of chopped red pepper
1 cup of edamame beans (I used frozen)
1 cup of sweetcorn (again I used frozen)
200g tofu (I used smoked) finely chopped
2 eggs beaten
3 tablespoons of soy sauce

Cook the rice in double the volume of boiling water (I use Delia's infallible absorbtion method) and leave to cool down.
Heat up some olive oil in a big wok or large pan, and when it's hot, add the spring onions, garlic, chilli and ginger. Cook through until this mix becomes aromatic - stirring all the while
Add the rice, and stir through so that the base ingredients aren't stuck on the bottom of the pan, but are mixed through (this way your garlic won't burn and go bitter)
Add the pepper, edamame beans, sweetcorn and tofu and cook through, stirring for about 5 minutes
Make a well in the middle of your pan and add your beaten eggs. Stir them so that they scramble and then mix through the rest of the rice
Cook through for another couple of minutes and then add the soy sauce.

Now I've tasted this and feel it's missing something - thinking back to my Lifechanging soup (TM) I think it's the sourness that it needs an edge - a friend has recommended adding a tablespoon of the pickling vinegar from a jar of pickled veg. I don't have any in, so will go without but would add that as a change for next time.

I think it's worth mentioning that traditionally Nasi Goreng would have chicken and prawns added, but costs at the moment mean I'm reducing my meat intake again. The tofu worked out far cheaper for the quantity that this made. Whilst the eggs make this unsuitable for vegans, those could easily be left out, and if you're a hardened carnivore or pescatarian again, amend it to suit you.
So that's my packed lunches sorted for the forseeable. A tasty, veggie alternative to sandwiches.

Grazing at your desk? Offer from Groupon

2011-08-18T10:27:00.002+01:00

A while back I reviewed my regular Graze box here A fantastic way (if you don't get sidelined like I did into the flapjacks!) to up your fresh and dried fruit intake, they are a convenient way to try a portion controlled approach to snacking healthily. If Mark were office bound I'd get them for him as he loves dried fruit, and needs a bit of a prompt to eat more fresh and this would be just the thing.

It's actually a good precursor to tomorrow's post on Nasi Goreng and packed lunches for the new academic year. Which for me is still a time for starting afresh despite being long out of school and college.

Anyway, Groupon have an offer on today for 4 Graze boxes for £5 for all new customers, which saves nearly £9. I know this isn't the sort of post I usually do, but in the interests of taking a bargain opportunity to help yourself be healthier I thought I'd post about the offer. Click here to take it up, and remember - even I could only kid myself the flapjacks were healthy for a little while!

Home is where the heart is meant to be: Couscous salad

2011-08-17T11:08:00.001+01:00

The thing about working away from home and eating restaurant food is that I find I crave vegetables (yes I know I'm weird), food I can eat from a bowl on my lap, in my pyjamas. I just don't think they'd be down with that in a Harvester. Although I should say - Harvester for the win at being able to eat what you want as it suits you - sadly though, still not in your pjs.

So, it probably makes me something of a sad loser to admit that I spent a large part of Friday daydreaming about a couscous salad. Yes, I know. Something spiked with brightly coloured, fresh veggies, with lots of protein and flavour that tasted - wholesome. I know that's not a flavour, but that's what I wanted.

So Friday afternoon came and I popped up to Waitrose, as my fridge was almost completely bare - I would have added a picture here, but that would have entailed showing you the fact that it also needs a clean out with some bicarb in hot water and I'm not keen on my slatternly tendencies being on show for the whole world to see. I picked up some couscous and feta (both from their essentials range), working on the basis that I was sure I had odds and sods to use up in a fridge-bottom style...

However, the fridge wasn't completely bare - here's what I found in it:

A handful of dried up fresh mint
Two handfuls of equally dried up parsley
A tomato
Half a red romano pepper
Some spring onions that were only slightly wilted
Garlic
Lazy chilli
Half a cucumber that was looking very sorry for itself
A centimetre or so of homemade salad dressing in an old jam jar
And a bottle of rose with one glass left in it!

Also in the pantry I found the end of a packet of pine nuts, and some Marigold bouillon

I boiled the kettle and measured out 1 cup of couscous into a salad bowl
I added 2 teaspoons of bouillon and 2 cups of boiling water, stirred it all in, covered with a clean, dry tea towel and left for 10 minutes
Meanwhile, I chopped up the tomato, cucumber, pepper, spring onions and feta up into a small dice
I finely chopped the mint, parsley and garlic
I toasted the pine nuts in a dry pan until lightly browned

When the couscous was cool I added all the ingredients above, a teaspoon of lazy chilli and the leftover (shaken up) vinagrette. Everything was stirred in and served in a large bowl with the rose. It was exactly what I wanted - and made loads - which meant both Mark and I had it for dinner on Friday, and lunch on Saturday and Sunday.

On Monday I did a discount run around Waitrose, picking up a packet of prawns and a packet of feta, and a bag of peashoots - I added half of each of these to the remaining cous cous and had it for dinner on Monday. As an added bonus, packed lunches on Tuesday and today were the remains of all of those and some cherry tomatoes and alfalfa/ radish sprouts as an undressed salad. Yum.

I know it's not exciting to talk about those meals we make at the end of the month to make the budget stretch further, to use up the odds and ends from a veg box or a shop, and it's not a recipe per se as you could use anything languishing in your fridge but this is real life - we can't all be knocking up Jamie's 30 minute meals or Delia's suggestions every day - sometimes we just need something that nourishes us, that is tasty and that doesn't cost the earth. I know I do.

Coming up... Mark's mum sent me back a whole load of plums from their tree, mint from the garde and crabapples she was given, so for the cost of some sugar I'll be presrving madly this week. Also a long awaited foray into a nasi goreng inspired by something I saw on the Food Channel when I was off sick before I changed jobs.

Meal Planning Monday: A week at home!

2011-08-15T18:26:00.000+01:00

I feel like I should preface this post with saying just how much I'm loving my new job. It's taking me to different parts of the country, meeting new people and trying new things. In this economic climate I recognise just how lucky I am as for so long I've been so miserable and stayed in a job that continued that. What it hasn't done thus far is let me have time to cook. This weekend however, I've blitzed the house, and whilst I have an empty fridge, the clean, ironed washing, and clean, tidy rooms will allow me the time over the next few nights to make some jam and jelly, turn museli into cookies for the office, and try some new recipes. Exciting stuff!

Breakfasts: fruit, yoghurt and a sprinkling of Grape nuts.

For lunches this week I'm going to make a rice salad with tofu, soy sauce and veggies.

Monday: Leftover cous cous salad (blogpost should be up on Wednesday) mixed in with prawns, pea shoots and feta

Tuesday: Beetroot, goats cheese and feta salad with roast chicken (peices if I get to the butcher)

Wednesday: Leftover roast chicken/ Sausages, sweetcorn and baked potatoes and salad

Thursday: I'm out Thursday night, but depending on when I get home and if I've eaten will either have an omlette or toast and marmite

Friday: We're off to Mark's parents for the weekend

I'm waiting on delivery of some Gourmet Raw brownies that I ordered last week. I know it's probably not the best introduction, but I've really got into Nakd bars of late and have been reading up on raw food. I eat a lot of fruit as you can probably tell and for snacking they're tasty, convenient and don't have that horribly processed aftertaste I find in a lot of cereal bars. I'm hoping the Gourmet raw brownies are similar, only slightly more decadent. Review to follow when they arrive. Not that I'm impatient or anything *taps foot*

Whatcher gonna do? Make courgette fritters...

2011-08-14T10:00:00.001+01:00

I can't believe that actually scans... clearly I missed my vocation. Anyway, when not listening to the National theatre cast recording of Oklahoma! or catching up on all the Groff based episodes of Glee I've actually managed to do some cooking. I know, I was shocked too.

It's that time of year again when the veg are glutting (is that even a word?) but inevitably whatever you choose to grown in your allotment, veg plot, the pots on your balcony, patio or drive has gone mental. Courgettes, runner beans tomatoes all seem to pick the same time and just produce loads and loads of veg. Normally I do a lot of blanching and freezing, but that demands you pick things just as they're ripe and as I've mentioned recently I've just not been around enough to be able to time that well enough.
Instead I've found myself looking for new ways with old favourites - courgettes normally become courgetti spaghetti or get used up in ratatouille that I then freeze as a base for bolognaise or pasta bakes when it's colder and I need the comfort of carby, cheesy goodness.

However, even in my house there are only so many times you can rustle up aforementioned pasta dish before Mark looks at you with despair in his eyes. So with four courgettes languishing, unloved in the veg drawer I turned to recipe books with no luck - well I did contemplate resurrecting courgette brownies, but as I keep harping on, I'm trying to be healthy and as Mark can't eat dark chocolate (don't even ask) that would have meant either foisting more cake off on my landlord, or eating it myself. Such hardship. Well, not fitting into my jeans is.

So to google it was - and surprisingly Courgette fritters were the answer to my prayers. The web is practically teeming with recipes for them - who knew? Allrecipes was the recipe I chose, and despite not having half the ingredients (more on this presently) they were an indupitable success.

The other thing that's going on for me at the moment, is a shortage of funds. I've been in my new role for a month but am yet to have a full salary, that plus this being the first time ever I've had to work with expenses (or expensives as they're known in our house) and it's meant I'm cutting costs. So, my fridge is currently bare save for some Greek yoghurt, a bottle of cider left over from the Hertfordshire County show, 2 Lush solid perfumes and an eye mask that helps with my migraines. Anyway, this has meant aside from bare essentials I'm trying not to shop.

So here are Penelope's penniless Pantry courgette patties.

4 courgettes, grated (I use the food processor)
2 eggs, beaten
1 red onion, peeled and chopped
8 tablespoons of plain flour
200g mature cheddar grated
Pinch of salt
Teaspoon of chopped red chilli
2 tablespoons of light olive oil

I prepped the courgettes, cheese and onion in the food processor (you could easily chop and grate but it was Friday and I was tired), and tipped them out into a big mixing bowl
Add the eggs, flour, salt and chilli and stir until you get a thick mixture
Heat the oil in a non stick frying pan, when hot, drop heaped tablespoons of mixture into the pan, and leave for about 3 minutes before turning over and cooking on the other side.
As I finished each batch of three, I popped these in the oven on a low heat until we were ready to eat.

We had them with Greek potato salad, sausages and regular salad.

This easily made 12 large fritters, you could use a dessert spoon and probably nearly double this if you wanted more, smaller patties, or make one large fritter that fitted the pan, and slice it up. I had all these ingredients in the house, so this was incredible economical for me. You could follow the original recipe and use a mix of mozzarella and parmesan, and omit the chilli but for me these were tasty and moreish.

Apologies for the lack of picture, the camera has gone a bit strange and a whole load of pictures I took have just vanished. I'm bound to make these again soon and will update when I do. Guides honour.

Over the Rainbow: Red Skye

2011-08-12T10:00:00.001+01:00

Updating made me realised that I hadn't told you about my favourite place to eat on Skye. Surprisingly we didn't make it to the Three Chimneys, despite being poised to go. We went to Red Skye twice instead. As I say all too frequently, I'm not really in the practice of reviewing, I'm kind of old fashioned in the thought that you either cook or eat out, and it's rare for me that I mix the two. I have more to say about things I've made, I can find my 'voice' as it were more easily when I'm writing what was in my head whilst pottering around in bare feet and my Cath Kidston pinny in the kitchen.

Sometimes I do break that rule, and this is one of those occaisions. Red Skye was Mark's choice, as he had spotted it on our way to the cottage. It's an old school building and has a really laid back feel to it. I love it when somewhere has amazing food but doesn't make you feel like you should be grateful for that, you are paying after all! Homemade bread, with butter, or olive oil and balsamic was our starter (as I'm sure you've guessed by now I'm much more of a pudding girl).

Mark is more of a meat fan, and so he went for the Oven-Roast Chicken which had a rosemary jus, whilst I was all about the fish, and had an amazing halibut fillet on top of a prawn and pea risotto. Pudding for Mark was the most amazing sticky toffee pudding, and I had a raspberry cranachan pudding. Lovely.

The second time we ordered from the early evening menu which was bargainous as well as tasty, and Lauren our waitress remembered us - we weren't the only return visitors, as I recognised at least one other couple from our first visit. Mark had a beautiful burger with the most amazing hand cut chips, and I went for fish pie. This time I had the sticky toffee pudding which was still gorgeous.

I would definitely recommend Red Skye if you're on the island. Quietly beautiful and understated, definitely my favourite place we discovered.

Vanilla Ice Cream - Minchellas

2011-08-10T10:00:00.005+01:00

Not making, although Mark's mum was telling me about making ice cream the other weekend - seriously she makes the best lemon flavour. Almost like a cross between lemon curd and ice cream. Just gorgeous. And that's in the face of eating her homemade Bailey's icecream. Quite, quite gorgeous. Watch this space.

It's a well known fact about these parts that ice cream is my downfall. Faced with a bowl of chips, large bars of dairy milk, or anything else and I would take the ice cream any time. It needs to be good quality, but apart from that I'm not too fussy. I have to restrict myself, not have it in the house as I will just eat it otherwise.

On the way back from Skye, we dropped in on my friend Louise, and the weather being just so balmy and sunny, with gentle sea breezes* that we had to drop by her local ice cream parlour. Decorated in a simple fifties style with pastels adorning the walls, we went to Minchellas. A South Shields institution this was amazing ice cream. The sort I remember from childhood. I had a knickerbocker glory, the layers of ice cream separated by fruit, green jelly, raspberry sauce, sprinkles and topped with whipped cream. This was lacking nothing save for a glace cherry.

Mark had a plain ice cream & smarties topped with marshmallows and a flake, and Louise had a choc nut sundae. Seriously all were amazing. Last week Louise posted me a picture of her sundae as I was missing it. Truly.

If you're in or around the South Shields area - run, don't walk to Minchellas. Ice cream as it should be.

*I may have taken artistic licence with the description of the weather. Blowing a gale, thunder, lightening, and the heaviest rain I have seen in a long while.

Meal Planning Monday: the Beefeater conundrum

2011-08-08T10:00:00.000+01:00

It's that time of the week again, and normally I'm super excited to plan my menus and shop for Mark and I, using my veg box to ensure what we're eating is healthy, seasonal whilst enabling us to try different things. However, in contrast to my usual geeky 'what shall I cook this week?' excitement, this week and last I've been working away and owing to my inability to drive have been limited to the restaurant adjacent to the hotel. This has been my introduction to the wonderful world of the Beefeater. Now, whilst I like good food I've never thought of myself as a food snob. Until now. Which makes me sad.

I have to say that the breakfasts were great, fresh and dried fruit, yoghurt and granola were on offer as well as the more traditional cooked offerings. For me though, the former is the ideal start to the day, and pretty typical of what I have at home. Which was a promising start. If only it had been followed up on.

The menu for the Beefeater looks impressive, and the selection of grilled meat is varied. However, if you have a budget to stick to as I do, you are limited in your choices - for me, chicken seemed the best place to start. The waiter couldn't confirm if the chicken was free range, which is always a concern as I'm keen not to OK battery farmed meat by consuming it.

As I'm still dieting, I was hoping that salads or veggies would be on offer, but Beefeater it seems is all about the carbs; chips, baked potatoes, boiled potatoes. And everything was so salty. Really quite unpleasant.

Salad bowls were tiny, predominantly slightly sad lettuce and chopped onion, with a vinegary dressing and veggies just weren't on offer. The vegetarian options on the menu were predominantly cheese and pasta/ rice based and as part of my dieting I'm trying to keep carbs relatively low. I'm hoping that this week will bring better things. Last week I tried to cram a week's veggies into Friday night dinner. No, seriously. Fortunately I can snack on fruit during the day, but I am desperate for my usual regular intake of veggies.

It's such a shame as the idea of well cooked meat with vegetables would be terrific - ideal in fact. If they were to add in some halloumi and some more fish, and could verify the provenance of their meat I wouldn't resent paying the prices. As it is, it seems ridiculously high and underwhelms.

I won't be cooking again until Friday, this week I think I'll celebrate my weekend with roasted vegetables, couscous, feta and salad. A whole lot of salad.
Saturday M is out for the day, so I'm going to do some shopping and housework, and I think I'm going to have a bash at something along the lines of a Tom Yum soup, unless it's sweltering, then more salad will be the name of the game. Sunday I think I'm going to roast a chicken as I'm hoping to be around a bit more next week.
Hopefully everyone else's week's are more interesting than mine - don't forget to pop over to At home with Mrs M and see all the linkies.

Goodbye to blueberry... muffins?

2011-08-07T20:26:00.000+01:00

I know, I know, long time no post. Sadly there' s a huge difference in the time I have to write when working my notice and learning a new role. There's a huge difference in spare time all in and this evening I'm sitting writing with a practically bare fridge, and no intention of shopping until Friday (which is approximately the same time as I have a minute unaccounted for). It's all good and I'm really enjoying what I'm doing, but I'm going to have to ask regular readers to bear with me whilst I get into my stride.

There has been some cooking going on, here are my blueberry muffins - sadly without picture as they were inhaled greedily, their dense almondy-ness (it's a word) contrasting with the sharpness of the fresh fruit. I've also put together another courgette recipe for those gluts, this time a traditional fritter, with a spike of chilli.

I've also had the fortune of being out and about at the weekend a little, last weekend the Foodie festival at Battersea Park, and yesterday a potter down to Brighton with a tasty lunch at Bill's Place which I had seen mixed reviews about but I really enjoyed.

So, blueberry muffins, pantry style. Before being food aware if you will, I used to love shop/ cafe bought muffins, their sticky (almost claggy) cakeness being a signifier of a trip out, or a treat. And then I realised that I really don't like cake that sticks to the roof of my mouth much like peanut butter. The synthetic taste the fruit seems to take on, and the oversweetness combining to turn me off them completely. In fact I pretty much gave up on muffins in their entirety. I tried baking my own - Nigella's Christmas ones, but found they didn't live up to their hype (I've since discovered I like my spicing heavy in some recipes - that being one of them). And so, much like the shop bought pasta sauces, muffins were left on the back burner, cupcakes being my treat of choice.

A couple of weeks back I had bluberries in my veg box, I'm sure there's plenty of exciting, challenging things I could have done with them, but I fancied muffins and wanted to pair the sharp fruit with some dense ground almonds. I couldn't find a recipe, so looked around and developed one that did what I wanted it to, and I have to say I was impressed - as were Mark and my landlord.

Blueberry Muffins - Penelope's Pantry style

This easily made about 12 regular sized muffins - I would say it would do about 6 - 8 massive coffee shop style ones, and you could easily stretch the mixture to 24 smaller ones for a children's party or if there are more people in your office (says she, speaking from experience!).

Ingredients

200g self raising flour
100g ground almonds
1 tsp baking powder
50g unsalted butter (cold from the fridge)
80g caster sugar (I used golden)
150g fresh blueberries
2 eggs, lightly beaten
225ml milk
1 teaspoon almond extract/ essence

Method

Preheat your oven to 200 degrees or Gas 6, and line a 12 cup muffin tin with cake cases.
In a mixing bowl, mix the flour, baking powder and ground almonds together.
Add the butter and rub in as you would for crumble topping, until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs
Stir in the sugar and blueberries
In a jug, mix the eggs, milk and almond extract together
Pour all of the wet ingredients into the mixing bowl and as quickly as possible stir until it's just combined
Spoon the batter into muffin cases - about a tablespoon per case
Bake for 25 minutes until golden, cool in the tin and then tip out onto a wire rack

These went fantastically with coffee, the sweet muffins contrasting with the coffee - add a dash of almond essence (or amaretto!) to your coffee to bring out the flavour further.

I think these would work really well with raspberries and am a bit annoyed I realised this just as the raspberries were coming to an end. I'm thinking of what to do with blackberries next.

Meal Planning Monday: A place to lay my head

2011-07-25T21:50:00.001+01:00

Well it's good that my first week has gone well. Not so good that so much new information and learning to take in has meant that I'm exhausted and sleeping when I should be cooking and blogging. This is the first time in a while I've only managed one post in a week. That said, last week's meal plan went largely to, well, to plan really. At times of chaos is when I think they come into their own really, meaning that I don't have to think, to do extra shopping or even contemplate a takeaway. Although I did, seriously consider a pizza on Wednesday, but I knew that there were the delights of something in tupperware waiting for me in the fridge.

This week, now today is done, should be easier as I'm mainly London based, although I'm anticipating the tiredness from taking in so much new information will still continue. I've also got what I suspect are the beginnings of a sinus infection so am doing my damdest to keep that in check with a small case of fruit overload.

Anyway, so this week's meal plan... I'm still waiting on my first payday so the freezer is still my shopping trolley.

Monday: leftover chicken curry with brown basmati rice. This is my Dad's recipe and I really must blog it soon, I've been cooking it for years and it seriously never fails.

Tuesday: Salmon and greens (pointed cabbage this time) - an attempt to bludgeon the oncoming infection with garlic, chilli and ginger.

Wednesday: Leftovers for me, for M, sausages and wedges

Thursday: Some kind of salad I think. With griddled courgettes, mint from the plant I'm reviving and maybe some feta

Friday: If I'm back from work in time, then maybe some steak? It's something I rarely cook but we had some at a friend's barbecue this weekend and I really enjoyed it. Hopefully the butcher has something tasty in.

That all goes with fruit and yoghurt for breakfast and either fruit or salad for lunch. Yes, I'm still eating healthily, although I'm letting myself have the odd treat.

Make sure you head over to At home with Mrs M to see what everyone else is up to this week.

Meal planning Monday: my week as a headless chicken (not for eating either)

2011-07-18T21:32:00.000+01:00

Hello all, I know I'm late again, I do have a(nother) good excuse, this is my first week in my new job. Truth be told I had intended to just schedule posts for this week, but last week I was ridiculously busy and disorganised and utterly failed to do that.

This week I'm not anticipating having loads of time to cook, plus being between jobs for a few weeks has meant that money is tight(er than usual), so it's a bit of an empty the freezer week in the pantry. I'm lucky in that I keep the staples for things like Pantry pasta in my storecupboard so it's not as if I'll be going hungry and I'm a thrifty soul, good at freezing my leftovers, making stock out of chicken carcasses and the like so I have a healthy freezer. It's just a case of using that up rather than making fresh.

So this is what the week looks like in the Pantry:

Monday: Leftover Broadbean risotto

Tuesday: I'm at Guides, so possibly the last of the salad in the fridge with some cheese.

Wednesday: Baked potatoes, with defrosted ratatouille and grated cheese

Thursday: Sausages, homemade potato wedges and beans

Friday: we're at M's parents this weekend so I'm not sure.

Hopefully it's a nice cheap week for the Pantry, and then we'll look at next week. My main expense this week was fruit and yoghurt for breakfasts and lunches. My aim is not to do a top up shop and ideally to only need essentials (as in milk) next week. Fingers crossed.

Be sure to pop over to At home with Mrs M to see what else everyone else is up to this week.

Over the Rainbow: a round up of food and drink on Skye

2011-07-15T12:17:00.001+01:00

Mark and I had a lovely holiday recently - a week on Skye, where we ate, drank, walked and generally pottered in the sunshine (I know, I was shocked too).

I thought I'd do a bit of a round up as we ate so well, we had chosen to self cater so breakfasts, packed lunches and a couple of suppers were down to me (bacon and eggs, sandwiches or salad, courgetti spaghetti and chilli since you ask). Outside of that we picked where to eat purely on the basis of somehwere that looked nice, or that caught our eyes as we passed.

Our first stop for morning coffee was at the Glencoe visitor centre, this is a very family friendly venue, offerring 'Explorer backpacks' with quizzes, binoculars and magnifying glasses to entertain their smaller visitors. To say I was disappointed that 5 foot 4 doesn't count as a smaller visitor is an understatement. Us big people made do with tea and coffee. My first hint I was going to love Scotland? Proper milk, none of this UHT stuff that everywhere seems obsessed with that makes tea taste foul. The visitor centre is tucked away, and we made the most of the weather, sitting outside and watching the birds flit, and fleetly fly around our heads. Treats here included a new discovery for me - one which was going to be repeated a few times during our trip. Homemade versions of shop biscuits! I know! So pick something you like, but (like me) don't eat because of the transfats, general rubbish within, then imagine it made out of shortbread, filled with homemade jam and a list of 4 ingredients. Butter, sugar, flour, jam. That's it. God they were good. Here I had a Vienese Whirl.

Goodness, now I'm wracking my brains... our second stop was for an afternoon tea (are you seeing a pattern here?) Not on the same day I might add. We stopped at the Blue Shed Cafe on our way back from Ergol. Slightly sunburned, and squeeish with delight having seen a multitude of seals as well as enjoyed a lovely walk and clamber around the loch, we were definitely in need of refreshment. The blue shed, is just that - a blue shed. Inside, an eclectic mix of tables and chairs, artwork, postcards, and homemade cakes were to be found. Two pots of tea, an enormous slice of Victoria sandwich (you know when you can tell it's homemade. Yep, that good) and some rocky road. Also blatantly homemade, no vegetable oily mouths here. Again, proper milk, tea in a pot and tasty coffee.

Other places we stopped for snacks and coffee were Jan's Cakes in Dunvegan. This tiny shop come tea room (that also sold chocolates, of which I sadly did not partake) was amazing. The confections were truly breathtaking and truth be told a little overwhelming. There is no denying the artistry that had gone into the making of them. I'm afraid to say that it being elevenses, we opted for a simpler accompaniment to our tea, lavender and heather honey shortbread. These seemingly simple biscuits were a revelation, honey, instead of sugar used to sweeten was a beautiful floral flavour, in the short crumbly biscuit, with a more, earthy undertone from the lavender. It illustrates my ignorance that I had expected these to be the other way around. I had a really personal interest in this as I made lavender sugar a while back for my sister's birthday present to go with her copy of Vanessa Kimbell's Prepped (I don't think she reads this blog so hopefully the surprise isn't spoiled).

We were staying close to Armdale and in our eternal quest to find an otter we went on the otterly delightful (see what I did there!) woodland trail that takes you up through the woods and to the hide by the seashore. Sadly once again we saw no otters, but did manage to get another delightful cup of tea and some cake at The Shed - possibly the tiniest cafe I have ever eaten in. Oh and from the gift shop nearby, an owl suncatcher for me! It's a guiding thing - you become a Snowy Owl and all of a sudden owls are amazing, plus I could hear them at night from our bedroom. Once again, good tea, and coffee, but the highlight has to be the slice of peanut butter and chocolate cake I had. Best described as a light sponge, topped with a peanut butter and chocolate fudge. The combination of sweet and salty is one I am pretty much gaga for at the moment, and it seriously worked here. Much like my peanut butter and jam bars I made for the Cherry working day and Guide camp in May actually. I am thinking of recreating this with a digestive biscuit cheesecake type base, but am still looking for a decent fudge recipe. Recomendations welcome.

One of our happy accidents was to go to Columba 1400 - I had read about it, and being the misplaced youth worker I am at heart was keen to go. I had however completely forgotten about this until we were passing, when I demanded we "Stop! In the name of goodness..." Mark totally doesn't get my Wicked references, but they do make me happy. Once again, tea, coffee and homemade shortbread were the order of the day and owing to a chaotic attempt at ordering as part of a tourist group (that we weren't a part of) we were so thoughtfully given an amazing slice of an apple and cinammon cake that I have to say, albeit sadly - was better than mine. Organisations like Columba 1400 do amazing work within communities and I think their cafe and enterprise are an amazing example of what youth integration and engagement can do when there is access to external support.

Well that's my rundown on places to go for tea, coffee and cake on Skye, still to come in parts two and three of Over the Rainbow... are Red Skye (the only place we went back to) and ice cream at Minchella's in South Shields.

Meal Planning Monday: Better late than never

2011-07-12T22:39:00.001+01:00

*scooting in, trying to remain unnoticed*

Well that didn't work did it? Sorry for the late post, but yesterday was M's birthday, and amongst other things we spent much of the day trying to sort the car out. Anyway, veg box is here - M is back to work, I am getting ready to go back to work and so meal planning is back at the fore.

Monday: Spaghetti carbonara (Nigella's recipe, but without the whole packet of spaghetti she reckons on.)

Tuesday: Was supposed to be risotto, but has ended up being a hot chocolate and 2 biscuits.

Wednesday: Risotto - using my bianco recipe, but adding chorizo and roasted butternut squash

Thursday: Sausages, corn on the cob and baked potatoes

Friday: We're hoping to catch Harry Potter, homemade pizza

Saturday: I'm at camp training all day, so right now I'm not sure... maybe Salmon and greens?

Sunday: I'm quite fancying Pasta Puttanesca, there's a Jamie Oliver recipe I like so I think I will whack a pot of that on.

Lunches are smoked salmon and cream cheese, or Greek salad.

Breakfasts for me are fruit.

Don't forget to pop over to At Home with Mrs M for more meal planning inspiration from all of this week's participants.

Dorset Cereal Little Blog Awards: the pantry is nominated!

2011-07-11T18:27:00.002+01:00

I'm not great at winning things, before a team victory in a Baden Powell challenge on Brownsea Island last year, the only thing I had won before then was a Dress your teddy competition at Brownie Revels aged 7-8. I can't remember what I won either which is sad. Being a Guider I tend to be in the background, encouraging my units to do their best and forget about myself - so on returning from holiday it was utter delight, that meant I noticed I had been nominated for a Little Blog Award, at Dorset Cereals.

http://www.dorsetcereals.co.uk/fun-stuff/little-blog-awards

I would ask if you're a regular reader if you could vote for me, and even if you're not it would be lovely. And who knows what might happen. If you look for me under Food and Drink, I'm there. Squeeing excitedly.

There are upcoming posts on Skye, and this week's veg box as well as some belated meal planning for the week and possibly carbonara.

Riverford veg box: Week four

2011-07-07T10:00:00.002+01:00

I do like the veg box arriving, if it weren't for the email each week announcing my debit card being charged I'd persist with the view that it feels like a present arriving.

This week was a bit odd, truth be told. I felt so let down by last week's fruit bag that I really wasn't sure what to expect and was worrying about the content quite considerably. However, I needn't have worried as the produce that arrived was of a lovely quality. There's two things this week that I'm not sure what to do with. I wonder if you can guess what they are?

Blackcurrants
Melon
Salad bag
Cherry tomatoes
Courgettes
Head of broccoli
Bunched beetroot
Broad beans
Apples

I just had to go and check I hadn't forgotten some fruit, but nop that's everything. An easy to use week - Mark loves brocolli, as do I. And courgetti spaghetti is a firm favourite on our menu plan. Melon is lovely to use as a simple, fresh breakfast, and cherry tomatoes when not used up in lunches tend to be my 'hovering around the fridge' snack of choice.

A nice week, nothing explosively surprising, but all good quality and not overripe which is a key thing for me.

Next week a break - but week five will be back soon.

Good Morning, Good Morning to you! Scottish Morning Rolls

2011-07-05T10:00:00.000+01:00

Welcome to part three of my series of recipes from Bread Matters by Andrew Whitely. If you haven't seen the other insallments, then look here, and here for Wholemeal Bread and Milk bread, which introduce you to my somewhat wittery prose, and also two different ways of making bread. This post looks at using a sponge and dough method.

Well I have to say I could get used to not working, it's only day four, and I've been so busy. Naturally I've injured myself, but that aside, I've been swimming each day, run errands, done lots of walking and have got myself closer to up to date on life, the universe and everything. It's surprising how much there is to do and being poorly has naturally got in the way of late.

Anyway, as Monday dawned, bright and beautiful, I was already ahead of the game, the sponge for my Scottish morning rolls was merrily doing it's thing on the window ledge. I'd made it Sunday afternoon, in pretty much minutes, covered it with a carrier bag, and left it be until the morning. Like sourdough, a sponge appeals to me because a lot of the work is done by the dponge itself, my intervention is practically nil. Not that I'm completely lazy or anything. Well not much.

Anyway, Andrew says in the book that this recipe can be applied to all kinds of bread - and I think I'll try it with a loaf next week sometime. What you'll notice, in comparison to both the wholemeal and milk breads is the reduction in the amount of yeast and the extension of the initial prove. This for me is brilliant, and for people like myself who avoid eating bread because of that bloated feeling commercial bread can give you, this doesn't. At all (for me, anyway) because the yeast has fed upon the sugar available. The recipe makes a dozen rolls (although if you made slightly more even sized ones than I did you could easily get a baker's dozen)

The overnight sponge

1tsp fresh yeast
130ml tepid water
50g stoneground strong wholemeal flour
100g strong white flour

Dissolve the yeast in the water, and add it to the flours
Mix until all the ingredients are thoroughly combined (I do this with my hands) You don't need to knead the sponge, since the gluten develops over time.
Put this into a big mixing bowl
Cover with a lid or poythene bag, and leave at room temperature for 12-18 hours. As it was so hot last weekend, I left it on the window ledge so that it was slightly cooler.

Off to bed for me, only to wake up in the morning (very geekily) super excited about my sponge and dough. Yes I know I need to get a life. What can I say!

The final dough

Overnight sponge
350g Strong white flour
100g Stoneground strong wholemeal flour
1 tsp salt
270g water
1 tablespoon olive oil

So Andrew says (I'm calling him Andrew now, I figure three recipes and repeated bedtime reading, we're past Mr Whitely these days) to have a good sniff of the "fruity, beery, slightly vinegary aroma" Don't do this too early in the morning. Certainly not before your first cup of tea. The reason it's collapsed down (that's what's supposed to happen) is because the yeast has run out of food, and the gluten collapses because the enzymes have stretched it beyond where it wants to be during fermentation. The enzymes working like this, so slowly really soften the gluten.

Mix the ingredients together into a soft dough
Knead until it is silky and slightly stretchy - I needed to flour my worktop more than usual as this was a sticky dough for me. I expect the heat didn't help.
Leave to rise for 1 hour - this gives the yeast an opportunity to use the fermentable sugar in the new flours.
Divide the dough into 12 equal pieces (if I could find my baker's friend, this would be ideal, but it seems to have got lost in the move so I used a sharp knife. Something tells me that tearing at the dough would knock too much of the air out of it).
Mould each one by rolling it on the work top. I rolled them into a round between my (floured) hands much as you would playdough. Then dip it into a bowl of flour - I used the malted flour I haven't used since the first wholemeal loaf.
Place the rolls about 2cm apart on a lined baking tray. Give each roll space to rise.
Cover the tray with a loose polythene bag, I left them to rise until doubled - this took about an hour in my very warm flat. You know they are ready when they are touching their neighbours.
Bake in a hot oven - 230 degrees - for 5 minutes, then turn the heat down to 210 degrees and finish off. Mine took about 20 minutes.
To check, tear one bap away from the others, and check it's top and bottom crust. I know Andrew says not to, but I tap the bottom and if it sounds hollow then that to me says it's done.

These have been great. Kept in the breadbin, they've lasted beautifully over the week. Mark has had them for lunch each day, and I had them yesterday, somewhat overfilled with pulled ham from the hock mixed in a mustardy mayonaisse. A slightly sweet, malty roll that's soft but not pappy, and has a tasty but not mouth killing crust. Definitely a winner.

Spiced redcurrant Rum Tum Tugger

2011-07-03T10:00:00.001+01:00

I have a Musical Theatre confession to make. I hate Cats. It terrifies me. I think it's the makeup. And the fact that it has Memory in it. Oh there are so many reasons. I could go on all day, but the opportunity to throw in a character name was too good to miss.

Last year, I randomly got a punnet of redcurrants in what I think was my last veg box before the move of doom. Much in the same way of last week's gooseberries, I had no idea what to do with them. I'm generally not a fan of meat and fruit on the same plate which were a lot of Google's suggestions. When I say not a fan, I actually mean slightly afeared and trepidatious. My foodie friends came up with some amazing suggestions, although I convinced myself that making jam required a sugar thermomenter so didn't try. Oh what a fool I was. What I did do though, was add them to alcohol! I know. I am contemplating this with all veg box leftovers from here on in. Swede sherry anyone?

Spiced redcurrant shrub

The recipe is called Currant Shrub, I just adapted it.
Stage one - to make the basic juice:
1kg redcurrants
400ml water
You don't have to top and tail the currants or even take them off their stalks. (Can you see why this recipe appealed to me?)
Wash them then put in the pan with the water and simmer until they are very soft and have released all their juices. This will take about 45minutes, I kept it on a low heat, but didn't stir.
Strain through a jelly bag (or muslin) for several hours, or overnight.

Stage two

300ml strained rudcurrant juice
600ml rum or brandy
finely grated zest of 1 orange
1 tbp grated nutmeg
300g granulated sugar

Mix the juice, rum/brandy, orange zest and nutmeg together in large widenecked jar. (I used a kilner)
You may find the mixture of acid and alcohol forms a gel. Don't worry the mixture will become liquid again when you add sugar.
Seal jar and leave for 7-10 days in cool, dark place. Surprisingly I used the pantry. I do have an admission to make. After moving (which was about 8 days after making this, I left it in the fridge for a while. A few months. Until this week)

Transfer the currant & alcohol mixture to a pan, add the sugar and heat gently to about 60oc. (I just brought it up to a gentle simmer stirring all the while so that I could feel when the sugar had dissolved.)
When sugar has dissolved strain the liqueur through the jelly bag or muslin. I fixed a muslin over the neck of a big kilner and let the mixture strain through that.
Decant the strained liquid into a sterilised bottle and seal. Store for several months in a cool dark place so the shrub can fully mature. Use within 2 years.

Beans mean(s) risotto?

2011-07-01T10:00:00.000+01:00

No, wait, that's not right. One of the reasons I'm drawn to the concept of a veg box is the way it pushes me to try new things, either vegetables I haven't cooked previously or ones I wouldn't necessarily buy if left to my own devices at the shops.

Broad beans are just one of those veg - I love them (I'm a double podding fiend) they're so green, verdant in their freshness. Their presence introducing the start of the summer, yet even yesterday when pottering around Waitrose, I completely forgot to pick any up. Riverford had sent me lots so, on Wednesay evening I returned home from work and made a start on double podding the Elphaba-esque vegetable.

To cook these (at this stage of the season) I just add them to the dish late on, but towards July or even later, they will need bringing to the boil. Oddly, like gnocchi, once they're floating at the top of the water in the pan, they're cooked - normally it only takes a few minutes.

I love broadbeans, blitzed with some light olive oil and a grated clove of garlic as a side dish for any main meal, or spread on thick slices of french bread, lightly toasted as you would for bruschetta. However, this week required more gutsy, warming food as the rain was pelting down as though it were still April. Comfort food was called for, and what is more soothing and comforting than risotto.

I always use the same recipe for risotto, just substituting the flavours and herbs depending on what way I'm going with it. If you think of a basic risotto recipe as a 'bianco' and then you change up what you add to it depending on what you fancy/ have in the fridge.

Risotto bianco

1 onion, finely chopped
1 cup/ 250g arborio rice
1 glass white wine, I use a fairly dry one
Olive oil
Chicken/ vegetable stock - 500ml(ish) I use chicken stock that I make myself - eeking out the frugalness of my roast chicken even further.
Parmesan
Salt and Pepper
Butter

Sautee the onion in a little olive oil, cooking until it goes translucent.
Add the white wine into the hot pan, and let it bubble down, stirring all the while.
Heat your stock through in a separate pan, bringing it to a gentle boil
Add the stock, ladle by ladle, stirring until each is absorbed, and only then adding the next
Once your stock is all absorbed, check that your rice is cooked, it should be soft with a little bite (not mush!)
Remove the pan from the heat and add butter, grated parmesan and pepper. Taste, and if it needs it add salt. Parmesan is quite salty so sometimes you only need a little.

For the Broad bean risotto, I added a little garlic to the cooked onion (if you add it earlier it runs teh risk of burning), and lots of shredded mint, a little thyme and then the broadbeans at the end, just with the last ladle of stock.

I didn't use pecorino, but whilst I was cooking I thought how well this would have gone with the broad beans. The sharpness of the sheep's cheese contrasting with the soft sweetness of the little beans. I also didn't have any white wine in, as I don't tend to have it in the house, I diluted half a glass of sherry with water and used this at the same point in the dish as I would the wine. Similarly you could just add an extra 250ml of stock.

I had intended to add bacon to this, as I think the salty crispness of well cooked, crumbled in bacon would have been lovely - but I think it must have evaporated as there was none in the fridge, instead, I chopped up a chicken breast that was leftover from the previous night's Guide Division BBQ. It wasn't quite the same, flavour wise, but did provide some extra protein, and an extra dimension texture-wise.

I made this risotto in less than an hour (and that includes double podding millions of broad beans) so it's a perfect midweek dinner; tasty, soothing and on a wet, cold June evening - just what the doctor ordered.

Drink, drink, Drink some port wine with me: Drink, Shop, Do.

2011-06-29T10:00:00.002+01:00

I heard about Drink, Shop Do around a year ago (I know this as I was looking for somewhere to go for my second date with Mark) and have been developing a hankering to go, drink cocktails and eat cake whilst knitting. Because, y'know I can do all those things. At once. Actually, I think I probably can? And who knows what that says about me.

A few times through the year I've planned to go with a friend (Jennifer, I'm looking at you) but the fates have conspired against us. Luckily Ruth and I didn't suffer the same fate. Cake and cocktails were awaiting us on our arrival (I say that like we are people that Drink, Shop Do should have known were coming. We aren't) Arriving at the shop? bar? sadly on an evening when no crafts were planned we declared the combination of cake and cocktails to be perfect. On a wet and cold Monday evening what more can you ask for? Two cocktails?

The inside of Drink, Shop Do is decked out beautifully in a combination of eclectic and kitsch homewares, ornaments and quite randomly - paper aeroplanes. I was very taken by some 60's milk bottles on the shelves above my head - taken and at once terrified that I would stand up and smash the lot. Well my reputation for clumsiness does preceed me. Fortunately I didn't, and the space was so relaxing that I stopped worrying quite quickly. After all, did someone mention cocktails?

Being an absolute sucker for windows I have to just say that the building is such a shock, walking through the front part and upa small flight of stairs up to the most amazingly light, high ceilinged airy room, crammed full of tables, chairs and people. Not what I expected when I walked through the doorway, or from a shop on the Caledonian Road.

Onto the cocktails, Coolers were the name of the game for me, served over crushed ice, with mint, brown sugar and bourbon - these made me feel like I was on holiday somewhere gloriously sunny (and not sheltering from random rainstorms on the Caly Rd) Whilst not being overly sweet and sickly it had a definite kick. Ruth had an espresso martini, something which I always look at longingly but never order as I always think the coffee will be to pervasive. I have to say they're beautiful though, adorned by a circle of coffee beans, we chatted for hours, feeling no pressure to move on, or order anything else.

I have to say that for me Drink, Shop Do is a revelation, the sort of place where I can go purposely for a night of knitting or crochet, but also just to catch up with friends for a drink. As a woman sometimes I just don't want to go to a pub, and this seems to blur the line between independent cafe and bar so that I feel comfortable to sit, drink and chat.

Although my friend and I went in for cocktails, the afternoon teas looked delicious - served in vintage tea cups and pots. Proper tea pots! In central London, thank heavens for sanity. And a quick mention should go to the traybaked cakes - just the sort of thing I make at home and had I not been watching what I eat they would definitely have been an accompaniment to my Cooler.

I would definitely recommend taking in Drink, Shop, Do if you're in the area. I loved it and will be definitely going back to sample afternoon tea - or just cocktails and cake. It's definitely up there as my new favourite place.

Meal Planning Monday: demob happy

2011-06-27T10:00:00.004+01:00

Well, as anyone who follows me on facebook or twitter will know, Friday was my last day at work. In three weeks I start at a new organisation, specialising in working with people with Learning Disabilities. It's an exciting time for me, contrarily to my normal attitude to change I'm embracing this, closing my eyes and leaping into the new. Please keep your fingers firmly crossed for me, I'm really hoping that I'll enjoy the new role, that working closer to home will help with my wellbeing, volunteering, and naturally blogging.

This week is my first week off - today I've baked banana bread, started a sponge to turn into Scottish Morning rolls quite appropriately tomorrow morning. I'll blog about those later in the week. Thursday is also going to be my day to do the cooking for holiday - we're off to Skye next week, and I'm already excited about the break.

This week will naturally be a busy one - my aim is to do all those things I've been trying to do since moving and just haven't had the time or the inclination to get around to.

Monday: Leftover sausages and spicy lentils

Tuesday: Courgetti spaghetti

Wednesday: Chilli con carne I think... it's a bit weather & veg box dependent at the moment. But if the forecast is to be believed, chilli with guacamole, soured cream and grated cheese.

Thursday: Something quick and easy - takeaway or leftovers maybe?

Friday: We'll be in Scotland... not quite at Skye but nonetheless, something holidayish

So that's my week - I'm leaving the weekend free but am planning on taking some bread, cake and a ham in coca cola (for sandwiches) up with us.

So, there we have it, my meal plan for the week - be sure to head over to At Home with Mrs M for some other inspiration.

The distance you have come: Harissa lentil salad

2011-06-26T10:00:00.003+01:00

My second lentil based post in a week. Clearly they're like buses.

I really love the music of Scott Alan, his music allows one to be contemplative and is often what I listen to when I'm feeling low. Late last year when I was verging on homeless and things weren't great, friends Louise and Karen suggested listening to The distance you have come and it really seemed to sum up what I was thinking.

Anyway, this week I've left my job of nearly five years working for a local authority, for an opportunity to develop my skills and take some new chances working in the Learning Disability sector. It's a big jump, scary and exciting all at once and I hope it's going to afford me the opportunities for happiness at work, which in turn will mean for more settled, less emotional blogging. Fingers crossed and all that.

So this was my last week of work - as always Sunday night found me up later than planned, multitasking in my pyjamas: breaking in new shoes I wanted to wear on Monday, making lentil salad, talking to Mark on the phone - all of which I did with aplomb and finnesse, surrounded by a lot of wet washing (what IS up with the weather lately?). The lentil salad was another I'd offered to test for Helen at Fuss Free Flavours and I'm pleased to say it was without the drama of the spicy tomato lentils.

It was surprisingly low faff, and easy I popped half a cup of lentils into the stock in my big pan and let that reduce down for just under half an hour, then added chopped cucumber, finely shredded greens, red and green peppers, and some mushrooms (I like my lunches to be as good for me as possible - it justifies afternoon cake). I stirred this in until the greens had wilted, and added the amazingly scented harissa powder, lemon zest and juice and a tablespoon of olive oil. Suddenly what had seemed fairly plain and ordinary was lifted into something extraordinary, fragrant and lightly spiced, with the zing of the lemon behind the harissa. I'm really looking forward to trying it for lunch tomorrow, but I have to say, tasted from the pan in my pyjamas and heels I give it a thumbs up.

The recipe is here, and I think really flexible - as you can see I upped the veggies considerably, and you could easily change them for ones you like -I just used what was lurking in the fridge.