Funny you should mention flans, @churchgeek - a friend was telling us yesterday about a local bakery that does very good flans and quiches (not quite sure of the difference), and we're thinking of getting one for Sunday's lunch. I know it's cheating to buy one, but it's been a busy week ...
My original intention was to do a lamb shank, but D's had a bit of a gyppy tummy and wasn't sure that something that rich would be wise.
Needing a snack after church today, I found an old - I wouldn't like to say how old - piece of Shropshire blue lurking far back in the cheese drawer. It was disgusting to behold - going sort of grey as well as still a bit yellow and blue. It tasted sublime. Also had a bottle of Bowmore with a little left in the bottom that needed to be tidied up. Not exactly the kind of thing you really ought to do for Lent, I suppose, but it cheered up a cold and rainy afternoon quite satisfactorily as I sat back to think about the sermon.
Needing a snack after church today, I found an old - I wouldn't like to say how old - piece of Shropshire blue lurking far back in the cheese drawer. It was disgusting to behold - going sort of grey as well as still a bit yellow and blue. It tasted sublime. Also had a bottle of Bowmore with a little left in the bottom that needed to be tidied up. Not exactly the kind of thing you really ought to do for Lent, I suppose, but it cheered up a cold and rainy afternoon quite satisfactorily as I sat back to think about the sermon.
Sounds like a wonderful addition to your gut flora.
Being wore out with putting the house back after the builders, dinner consisted in bunging a chunk of lamb into the oven followed, about an hour later, by a tray of oven chips.
And it was delicious. Probably because the lamb was from our local butcher and therefore home grown.
My mum used to do a pudding that we called raspberry flan - it wasn't really a flan, as the base was a sponge cake, spread with whipped cream and topped with tinned raspberries (it was the 1970s - that's my excuse).
You could easily substitute fresh or frozen raspberries, and sprinkle the base with a little liqueur.
For a proper flan, I'd have thought peaches, apples or plums, like a tarte tatin, might be your best bet.
Flan de naranja is, I discover, a custard. I have just made a batch for a dinner party tomorrow and it is majorly delicious.
I imagine it would make an excellent filling for a pastry case - but I’m not sure how you would reconcile the cooking times, as they take an hour and a half in a slow oven
I suppose I have been cooking steak and chips most Saturdays for the last decade or so. I think I may have cracked it. The meat was sirloin from Lidl, so nothing out of the ordinary.
Trim the fat and render in a pan, then drain off the fat leaving just a slick. Sear the steaks for about 90 seconds, turn, 60 seconds and add a glug of whisky to the pan, ignite, once the flames go out put in a warm place to rest for 5 to 10 minutes. Dish up, add a knob of butter to the pan juices, reduce briefly over a high heat and pour over.
Sorry for double-post, but we just had the second huge lamb-shank and, inspired by @Lothlorien's tomato idea, I adapted a Moroccan-inspired recipe and it was lovely.
Serves two, with leftovers
1 huge lamb shank
Olive oil, salt and pepper
I large onion,
2 large cloves of garlic,
2 chunks of roasted red pepper from a jar, all chopped
A splash of white wine
Half a jar (340 ml) tomato and basil pasta sauce
1 large beef tomato, cored and chopped
1 can chickpeas, drained
1 tsp each of ground cinnamon, cumin and coriander
A small handful of raisins
Heat the olive oil in a frying-pan over medium heat, season the lamb-shank with salt and pepper and sear it on all sides until it begins to brown.
Remove to a plate and saute the onions and garlic in the oil in the pan, adding the red peppers, then transfer to the slow cooker. Deglaze the pan with a splash of wine, then add the chopped tomato and let it heat through. Add the tomato to the slow-cooker along with the tomato sauce, spices, chickpeas, a scant cup of water and the raisins.
Put the lamb into the slow-cooker along with any accumulated juices, and spoon some of the veggie mixture on top.
Cook on Low for 8 hours or High for 4 hours, turning occasionally, and serve with mashed potatoes.
Soup and meat balls here tonight. I had achicken carcase for stock from two nights ago and out it on to make broth. Son is cooking tomorrow and took meat from freezer to thaw. He found another chicken with a good deal of meat on the bones, he added it to stock pot.
People here like chilli, very much although i prefer not as much others. I made pork meatballs to serve with the soup and added chilli to them.. on adding veges to cook, i tasted soup stock to see if more salt was needed. I think the second chook must have been stuffed with chilli flakes. It nearly blew the top of my head off.
We have both sour cream and plain cream in fridge. I will add these to condiments on table. Hopefully they will help. Even son remarked on the chilli when i asked him to test soup.
Soup is more of a weekend meal here, but weather is cooling and we had lots of bits and pieces leftover in fridge.
Bump. Anyone experienced with spaghetti squash? I'd like to give it a shot with some favorite sauces, but I understand wrestling with it can be a bit tricky. Some people bake it and then split it. Some split it and then bake it. Or nuke it. And what kind of knife would be most effective? Serrated? Smooth? A cleaver?
I have grown spaghetti squash in the past,but have never found a really successful way of cooking it. It is just too wet!
I would be pleased to be proved wrong.
I find serrated knives for hard to cut items easier and safer, if that's helpful. No experience with a spaghetti squash but tried and tested on butternut.
I have found a really easy vegan 'chocolate ice cream'. Basically it is a banana sliced and frozen, a tablespoon of peanut butter and two teaspoons of cocoa. These are put in a blender and blended and served immediately!
The first of the runner beans are ready! None of them longer than 4-5 inches, beautifully crisp without being fibrous: plunged into boiling water for 3 minutes, drained, arranged in a pile topped with a knob of butter, lots of black pepper and a poached egg. Heaven on a plate
I examine the runner bean flowers every morning - no baby beans at all so far. No pollinating insects about that I've noticed, either Too hot, too wet or too windy for them so far this year.
We've let the lawn grow very long so the clover can flower to encourage them, but only the occasional bumblebee visits. This is a rather barren garden as far as wild life goes - we throw a party if we come across a worm.
On the other side of the garden wall to the beans our neighbour has a philadelphus and a honeysuckle just coming into bloom, so I am hoping for a few more insect visitors soon.
I find serrated knives for hard to cut items easier and safer, if that's helpful. No experience with a spaghetti squash but tried and tested on butternut.
I made a surprisingly tasty dish yesterday, for two people:
Gently sweat a chopped onion in some oil. Add chopped chorizo & garlic. Sweat a little longer. Add 2 sliced courgettes, a few mushrooms, 150g pasta, 200 ml coconut milk, 300 ml vegetable stock, dried mixed herbs, ground pepper & salt. Simmer until pasta is soft and sauce reduced.
Serve with grated cheese on top.
I have found a really easy vegan 'chocolate ice cream'. Basically it is a banana sliced and frozen, a tablespoon of peanut butter and two teaspoons of cocoa. These are put in a blender and blended and served immediately!
This works even with just banana slices. My granddaughters used to be at my place every second weekend and loved doing this. Not really a recipe, but suggestions for school holiday activities. Two weeks of holidays here.
We also did melted chocolate and pieces of fruit on toothpicks dipped into chocolate. Messy but enjoyable. One night they hsd visitors so I sat them on my balcony with thin wooden skewers and marshmallows. They toasted the marshmallows over tealight cndles. One candle per child. It was wildly successful, but next morning took me ages to cleen drips of melted marshmallow from my black glass outdooor table and from tiled balcony floor.
I have had a disaster and can't work out where I went wrong. The recipe was for a "pizza" with an alternative base.
The recipe stated to grate 1lb of courgette, 1lb of raw potato, mix, season, and spread over a pizza tray. Then add toppings as per a normal pizza and bake at 180 for 20 mins.
It was obvious once I'd made the mixture that if I spread it on my pizza tray, bits would fall through the holes in the bottom. So I used a flan dish instead and carried on.
After 20 mins in the oven, the top looked good, but the base was still soggy. So I gave it another 20 mins. By this time the toppings were starting to look dry, but the base was basically a puree.
Is there any way that a mixture of grated raw potato and courgette can be baked into a crust? Or is this recipe a dud? If I'd used a pizza tray, on top of a baking sheet, would that have worked? The recipe didn't mention peeling the courgette, but I did. Would grating it whole have made a difference? We've had a glut of courgettes in the veg box and I was trying to use up last weeks courgettes to make way for this weeks. Would it have helped if my courgettes had been fresher and firmer?
(I am going to dump the whole sorry mess into a pan, add a pint of stock and call it soup.)
Don't know if this would apply, but when I make rosti I squeeze the water out of the grated raw potato by placing it in a tea towel, gathering up the edges and squeezing hard. Lots of water comes out! Courgettes are also very wet, so maybe a bit of squeezing wouldn't hurt?
Dormouse and Cathscats both offer good instructions. Finely grated cauliflower is used here at times and that stays dry. Certainly rosti or similar needs to have moisture removed. Were you doing this to make it low carb or just for variety?
Definitely squeeze the veg. Possibly pre-heat the baking tray? (I do that for standard pizza - seems to give a crisper bottom). Or spread it in a frying pan, cook until the underside is done, turn (plate over, invert, slide back) then add toppings and finish in oven?
I always find rösti takes longer to cook through than I think.
If you looking for ways to use courgette, what about moussaka with them in place of aubergine?
I like them diced, sautéd, few prawns or salmon (tinned or fresh), dollop of half-fat creme fraiche and over pasta.
The North East Man didn't fancy the idea of soup and suggested I cover it with puff pastry and bake. And it worked! Perfectly acceptable veggie pie.
Were you doing this to make it low carb or just for variety?
I was looking for an idea to use up a glut of courgettes. I've got a lovely courgette and walnut cake recipe which freezes well, which has been my go-to recipe in the past but I was looking for something less calorific.
If you looking for ways to use courgette, what about moussaka with them in place of aubergine?
There were aubergines in the veg box last week and this, so I'm sorted for moussaka.
I have quite a few recipes for a surfeit og courgettes, many of which came from this book which was loaned to me by a friend some years ago.
I see there is another courgette book, of more recent vintage, (available on the usual website) which I might investigate.
If I'd used a pizza tray, on top of a baking sheet, would that have worked?
Along with squeeze drying the veg, this is probably what I would have done - placing the pizza tray on a higher rack of the oven and the baking sheet covered in aluminum foil on the rack below it.
If you're ready to laugh about it, I confess that your post made me think of this: https://youtube.com/watch?v=0MpL1KfYEJg Ah yes... grated cucumber for an authentic and robust mozzarella experience!
I find myself with a very large harvest of basil. Other then pesto, any ideas on how to use and store it? I have given a lot away and still have what looks like a shopping bag full ready to pick.
@Graven Image I make herb butter with basil, rolled into a log and wrapped in aluminium foil or wax paper, then stored in a freezer compartment. When I want to use it in tomato soup or with a tray of roasted veg, I just slice off a round or two, reseal and keep frozen.
And I use fresh basil each summer to make a very good basil oil to drizzle (*trendy word*) over grilled lamb, fish or oven-roast tomatoes. I simply blend two packed cups of basil leaves with one cup olive oil and a pinch of sea salt. It keeps in the fridge for a few weeks.
There's also a basil and lemon ice cream I've made, but the flavour isn't for everyone. I found my recipe in Diana Henry's Crazy Water, Pickled Lemons on Middle Eastern food. To make a non-churn version (no eggs) I use whipping cream, a small can of condensed milk, the zest of two lemons, a small cup of basil leaves, a little splash of vanilla extract and a pinch of sea salt. Then I heat the basil leaves and zest in the cream, let it cool and infuse, throw out the basil leaves and combine with the condensed milk, vanilla and salt. It takes about four or five hours to freeze and I take it out early to soften slightly before serving.
If I'd used a pizza tray, on top of a baking sheet, would that have worked?
Along with squeeze drying the veg, this is probably what I would have done - placing the pizza tray on a higher rack of the oven and the baking sheet covered in aluminum foil on the rack below it.
If you're ready to laugh about it, I confess that your post made me think of this: https://youtube.com/watch?v=0MpL1KfYEJg Ah yes... grated cucumber for an authentic and robust mozzarella experience!
The texture at the end, when he was scooping up the gloopy mess was exactly my experience with my "pizza".
I'm just about to make a big batch of hummus, and I usually add herbs such as coriander or basil to smaller amounts of it. It freezes well, but will go mouldy if left fresh for too long. (I also make a year's supply of pesto in July and freeze it). When I smell fresh basil, I think I know how the cat feels when he gets some catnip...
The hummus turned out really well. I had some coriander left over from a curry, and added a little ginger as well as the usual cumin, and then a good pinch of WMD grade chilli powder. It sat overnight to let the spices blend, and by morning it was quite heavenly.
I bought a bottle of blackberry brandy on sale, thinking it would be a sweet after dinner drink. I hate it. Not much blackberry flavor and very strong alcohol punch on the tongue. Any suggestions how I might use it in cooking? I am thinking it might burn off the alcohol, and leave the blackberry flavor, or should I just pour it out as a bad, you get what you pay for mistake?
You could try getting fresh blackberries, add to empty bottle, add sugar to taste, top up with the blackberry brandy. Leave until Christmas. That would get you the sweet and fruity degestif you were after.
That would probably still leave you with about half a bottle of the stuff. You could use to flambé fruit, or in hot baked fruit salad. Or tip it into or over the Christmas pud. Anything in fact which requires a shot of spirits, but has an inherently strong flavour.
IT WORKED. I needed lime juice and when I went to get the lime it had dried up. I soaked it in a cup of water for 30 minutes while fixing the recipe then took it out and put it in the microwave for 30 seconds. When I cut it open I was presented with a juicy lime. I might even try this on a fresh lime and see if it produces more juice.
Comments
Funny you should mention flans, @churchgeek - a friend was telling us yesterday about a local bakery that does very good flans and quiches (not quite sure of the difference), and we're thinking of getting one for Sunday's lunch. I know it's cheating to buy one, but it's been a busy week ...
My original intention was to do a lamb shank, but D's had a bit of a gyppy tummy and wasn't sure that something that rich would be wise.
Sounds like a wonderful addition to your gut flora.
And it was delicious. Probably because the lamb was from our local butcher and therefore home grown.
Tomorrow - swordfish. I have absolutely no idea.
Sweet.
You could easily substitute fresh or frozen raspberries, and sprinkle the base with a little liqueur.
For a proper flan, I'd have thought peaches, apples or plums, like a tarte tatin, might be your best bet.
I imagine it would make an excellent filling for a pastry case - but I’m not sure how you would reconcile the cooking times, as they take an hour and a half in a slow oven
Trim the fat and render in a pan, then drain off the fat leaving just a slick. Sear the steaks for about 90 seconds, turn, 60 seconds and add a glug of whisky to the pan, ignite, once the flames go out put in a warm place to rest for 5 to 10 minutes. Dish up, add a knob of butter to the pan juices, reduce briefly over a high heat and pour over.
Serves two, with leftovers
1 huge lamb shank
Olive oil, salt and pepper
I large onion,
2 large cloves of garlic,
2 chunks of roasted red pepper from a jar, all chopped
A splash of white wine
Half a jar (340 ml) tomato and basil pasta sauce
1 large beef tomato, cored and chopped
1 can chickpeas, drained
1 tsp each of ground cinnamon, cumin and coriander
A small handful of raisins
Heat the olive oil in a frying-pan over medium heat, season the lamb-shank with salt and pepper and sear it on all sides until it begins to brown.
Remove to a plate and saute the onions and garlic in the oil in the pan, adding the red peppers, then transfer to the slow cooker. Deglaze the pan with a splash of wine, then add the chopped tomato and let it heat through. Add the tomato to the slow-cooker along with the tomato sauce, spices, chickpeas, a scant cup of water and the raisins.
Put the lamb into the slow-cooker along with any accumulated juices, and spoon some of the veggie mixture on top.
Cook on Low for 8 hours or High for 4 hours, turning occasionally, and serve with mashed potatoes.
People here like chilli, very much although i prefer not as much others. I made pork meatballs to serve with the soup and added chilli to them.. on adding veges to cook, i tasted soup stock to see if more salt was needed. I think the second chook must have been stuffed with chilli flakes. It nearly blew the top of my head off.
We have both sour cream and plain cream in fridge. I will add these to condiments on table. Hopefully they will help. Even son remarked on the chilli when i asked him to test soup.
Soup is more of a weekend meal here, but weather is cooling and we had lots of bits and pieces leftover in fridge.
he'p (whimper
I would be pleased to be proved wrong.
We've let the lawn grow very long so the clover can flower to encourage them, but only the occasional bumblebee visits. This is a rather barren garden as far as wild life goes - we throw a party if we come across a worm.
On the other side of the garden wall to the beans our neighbour has a philadelphus and a honeysuckle just coming into bloom, so I am hoping for a few more insect visitors soon.
Thank you. That makes sense.
Gently sweat a chopped onion in some oil. Add chopped chorizo & garlic. Sweat a little longer. Add 2 sliced courgettes, a few mushrooms, 150g pasta, 200 ml coconut milk, 300 ml vegetable stock, dried mixed herbs, ground pepper & salt. Simmer until pasta is soft and sauce reduced.
Serve with grated cheese on top.
This works even with just banana slices. My granddaughters used to be at my place every second weekend and loved doing this. Not really a recipe, but suggestions for school holiday activities. Two weeks of holidays here.
We also did melted chocolate and pieces of fruit on toothpicks dipped into chocolate. Messy but enjoyable. One night they hsd visitors so I sat them on my balcony with thin wooden skewers and marshmallows. They toasted the marshmallows over tealight cndles. One candle per child. It was wildly successful, but next morning took me ages to cleen drips of melted marshmallow from my black glass outdooor table and from tiled balcony floor.
The recipe stated to grate 1lb of courgette, 1lb of raw potato, mix, season, and spread over a pizza tray. Then add toppings as per a normal pizza and bake at 180 for 20 mins.
It was obvious once I'd made the mixture that if I spread it on my pizza tray, bits would fall through the holes in the bottom. So I used a flan dish instead and carried on.
After 20 mins in the oven, the top looked good, but the base was still soggy. So I gave it another 20 mins. By this time the toppings were starting to look dry, but the base was basically a puree.
Is there any way that a mixture of grated raw potato and courgette can be baked into a crust? Or is this recipe a dud? If I'd used a pizza tray, on top of a baking sheet, would that have worked? The recipe didn't mention peeling the courgette, but I did. Would grating it whole have made a difference? We've had a glut of courgettes in the veg box and I was trying to use up last weeks courgettes to make way for this weeks. Would it have helped if my courgettes had been fresher and firmer?
(I am going to dump the whole sorry mess into a pan, add a pint of stock and call it soup.)
I always find rösti takes longer to cook through than I think.
If you looking for ways to use courgette, what about moussaka with them in place of aubergine?
I like them diced, sautéd, few prawns or salmon (tinned or fresh), dollop of half-fat creme fraiche and over pasta.
Were you doing this to make it low carb or just for variety?
I was looking for an idea to use up a glut of courgettes. I've got a lovely courgette and walnut cake recipe which freezes well, which has been my go-to recipe in the past but I was looking for something less calorific.
If you looking for ways to use courgette, what about moussaka with them in place of aubergine?
There were aubergines in the veg box last week and this, so I'm sorted for moussaka.
I see there is another courgette book, of more recent vintage, (available on the usual website) which I might investigate.
If you're ready to laugh about it, I confess that your post made me think of this: https://youtube.com/watch?v=0MpL1KfYEJg Ah yes... grated cucumber for an authentic and robust mozzarella experience!
And I use fresh basil each summer to make a very good basil oil to drizzle (*trendy word*) over grilled lamb, fish or oven-roast tomatoes. I simply blend two packed cups of basil leaves with one cup olive oil and a pinch of sea salt. It keeps in the fridge for a few weeks.
There's also a basil and lemon ice cream I've made, but the flavour isn't for everyone. I found my recipe in Diana Henry's Crazy Water, Pickled Lemons on Middle Eastern food. To make a non-churn version (no eggs) I use whipping cream, a small can of condensed milk, the zest of two lemons, a small cup of basil leaves, a little splash of vanilla extract and a pinch of sea salt. Then I heat the basil leaves and zest in the cream, let it cool and infuse, throw out the basil leaves and combine with the condensed milk, vanilla and salt. It takes about four or five hours to freeze and I take it out early to soften slightly before serving.
The texture at the end, when he was scooping up the gloopy mess was exactly my experience with my "pizza".
That would probably still leave you with about half a bottle of the stuff. You could use to flambé fruit, or in hot baked fruit salad. Or tip it into or over the Christmas pud. Anything in fact which requires a shot of spirits, but has an inherently strong flavour.