Meal planning Monday: the spring edition

I'm sure that should mean there should be pictures of lambs, and grass and things, but we're sadly lacking in those in Barnet, so the normal badge will have to do. 

Last week was a fantastic week (not so much in the Pantry, but what can you do) topped off by a visit to Leith's cookery school on Wednesday for an Extra Special Easter evening with Asda. Lots of fun first making our dinner, and then eating it. Look out for a post tomorrow with a giveaway of a hamper of Asda Extra Special goodies. 

The weekend went a bit haywire and plans down the drain, but in good news my Mum can now use her laptop which hopefully means she might pop by a bit more often, and in better news M really helped out cleaning the flat. I've still lost a knitting needle though. Just the one! So Mandy's baby blanket is on hold until I can get some new ones. 

This week is a quieter week  only one hospital trip is planned - for physio, and the Guides and Brownies break up for Easter. I'm re-starting my Couch to 5km programme (thank you NHS) and hopefully - headaches permitting - will get to the swimming pool for a splash. 

On the health front, my headaches have been really bad, both last week and over the weekend, which again has led to the dearth of posts. I've had my nerve blocker injections and hopefully they should kick in soon as I have lots of things I want to bake and blog. 

Anyway, this week's meal plan:

Breakfasts: I'm sticking with the 0% fat greek yoghurt, with either fresh or frozen fruit, and a sprinkle of flaxseeds

Lunches: Sainsbury's Moroccan houmous, with carrot sticks, celery, tomatoes and peppers. And some cheese if I'm still hungry

Baking: I've still not made the simnel cake, so that. And also maybe a satsuma and cardamom drizzle cake 

Dinners:

Monday: Roasted squash, peppers, fennel and leeks, with chorizo, garlic and olive oil. Served with rocket as a warm salad for me, and with pasta for M. If this is as nice as I hope, I'll blog it as a midweek dinner. 

Tuesday: Cauliflower cheese, with chorizo and tomatoes. I'll probably portion off M's and do it as a caulimacaroni affair.

Wednesday: Roast chicken with veggies and roast potatoes

Thursday: Leftover chicken with veg and baked potatoes

Friday: More leftover chicken, in a risotto

I'm actually not sure what we're up to this weekend, but I'll be making stock out of the chicken carcass as I'm out of homemade stock at the moment.

Be sure to pop over to At Home with Mrs M to see what everyone else is up to

More Marmalade: Sevilles not required

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.

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

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?