Oven baked Lamb with sliced potatoes

One of my mum's recipes :) Really easy, very tasty!

• 4 lamb chops or lamb steaks (if big, one each, if small, 2 each!)
• 4-5 medium to large potatoes
• 1 onion (optional)
• 1 garlic clove
• 2 oxo cubes (either 2 lamb, 2 veg, 2 beef or a mix)
• water

Put on oven at 170 degrees C.

Thinly slice the potatoes with the skins still on. Cut the onion in half and slice, if using. Slice the garlic as fine as possible.

Start layering the potatoes on the bottom of a small casserole dish (you want the lamb to cover the dish if laid side by side almost). Once the bottom of the dish is covered, sprinkle over some of the garlic and onions. Keep on layering like this until all potatoes, onions and garlic are used.

Lay the lamb on top of the potatoes.

Make up the stock and pour into the casserole so it comes about 2/3 of the way up the potatoes.

Cover the dish with tin foil or a lid and place in oven for 90 minutes.

After 90 minutes, remove lid or foil and leave to cook for another 30 mins so the lamb gets crispy.

Serve with gravy and veg.

Celery and Stilton Soup

This is one of my very own :) Love celery and stilton together and this seemed a nice soup to try - even got people eating it who hate celery and stilton!! Nice starter for Xmas Day I think, although a little thinner and smaller portions.

(yes the pic is a small spoonful in a ramekin, I took the first pic of the big bowls before I ate it, and the card wasn't in my camera. Doh!)

• 2 leeks
• 1 bunch celery (ordinary bunch, no need for hearts or anything)
• 1 celeriac
• 40g flour
• 40g butter
• 290ml (1/2 pt) semi-skimmed milk
• 190g Stilton
• 1.2l vegetable or chicken stock (Knorr stock pots again)
• Cutting celery
• salt and pepper

Chop up leeks and slowly saute in a pan until soft. Chop up celery and add, including leaves. Peel the celeriac (you will lose quite a bit of it here, don't worry), chop into cubes and add to pan. Cook all ingredients until soft.

In a separate pan, melt the butter and mix in the flour over a low heat . Stir until the mix forms a smooth paste which comes away from the sides of the pan. Cook for a minimum of 2 minutes, stirring to avoid sticking. Pour in 1/5 of the milk and allow to boil without stirring. Then mix well until the mix is smooth and slowly add the rest of the liquid.

Crumble up the stilton and add to the thickened milk sauce.

Make up the vegetable stock.

Add the thickened stilton sauce to the vegetable pan and mix well. Then add the vegetable stock.

Finally add the cutting celery and salt and pepper to taste.

Allow to simmer for 1-2hrs, until all vegetables are soft and then blend to leave a smooth soup.

Serve with a swirl of cream and garlic croutons.

Tarty Lemon Tart with Cheesecake Cream

This is a recipe by James Martin although the cheesecake cream is mine :)

• 5 free range eggs
• 190g caster sugar
• 250ml double cream
• 4 lemons, juice and zest
• butter, for greasing
• 225g ready made shortcrust pastry (I cheated, ask Tracie, I'm rubbish at pastry!)
• 50ml natural yoghurt
• 50ml low-fat creme fraiche
• 125g marscapone cheese
• 2tbsp icing sugar

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees

Crack the eggs into a bowl and whisk to break up yolks. Add sugar and beat well. Add the cream and the lemon juice and stir. Add the lemon zest and set aside.

Grease a 20cm flan ring (removable base) with butter. Roll out the pastry on a floured surface until big rnough to fit over the flan ring. Press the pastry into the ring and allow to overhang the edges slightly. Line with a circle of greaseproof paper and fill with rice or baking beans.

Transfer to oven and bake for around 15mins. remove from oven and remove beans and return to oven for 5mins, or until case is lightly browned (don't wander off and do something else like I did and come back in a panic 15mins later!)

Turn oven down to 150 degrees and pour lemon mixture into case. Bake in oven for 1hr or until filling is set and pastry is golden brown.

Remove from oven and trim edges off pastry. Leave to cool completely then place in fridge to chill.

Place the yoghurt, creme fraiche, marscapone cheese and icing sugar in a bowl and mix well. Keep in fridge until needed.

Do I need to tell you how to cut it up? Do it as the mood takes you and enjoy ;)

Suet Puddings - Venison and Wild Mushroom, Steak & Kidney, Liver & Bacon

Each type of pudding I made, I managed to make 9 individual puddings in moulds. I only had 9 moulds and by sheer luck each recipe made just enough to fill them, genius :) You could just make one large one in a pudding basin but I like the individual ones, the idea of being able to cut into each one!

For the suet pastry

• 225g suet
• 450g self-raising flour (I choose to use wholemeal as it doesn't settle so heavy on the stomach but tastes the same)
• 300ml water

Mix together the suet and flour then add the water, combining together until it forms a dough. If it seems too sticky and wet add more flour, too dry add a little more water. Once all combined and smooth and stretchy, wrap in cling film and put in fridge whilst making fillings. I did cheat, I used my Kenwood for the pastry with the dough hook on, did I mention how much I love my Kenwood Chef ;)

For the fillings (remember, each one makes 9 puddings)

Venison and Wild Mushroom

• 2 onions
• 2 cloves garlic
• spoon of butter
• 250g chestnut mushrooms (or other wild mushrooms e.g. Cep, ASDA only had chestnut)
• 8 chestnuts
• 500g venison
• seasoned flour
• Fresh thyme
• beef stock (I used 2 knorr jelly packets)
• 200ml red wine
• 2 tablespoons redcurrant jelly
• Gravy powder
• water

Put the chestnuts in a roast tin in the oven at 170 degrees.

Add the onions and garlic to a pan with the butter and cook on a low heat until soft. Once done, remove from pan and place in a bowl.

Next fry the mushrooms slowly in butter, again once cooked remove from pan and place in bowl.

Chop the venison up into small pieces (remember how small the pies are). Put flour into a shallow bowl and add salt and pepper and mix. Then add the venison and toss in the flour until it is all lightly coated. Add some olive oil to the onion pan from early and cook the venison until it is brown on all sides. Add this to the bowl.

Once the chestnuts have been cooking for around 30mins, take out of oven, peel, chop and add to the bowl with 4 sprigs of thyme leaves. Mix everything together well.

In a pan melt down the stock and add the redcurrant jelly and the red wine. Then add water and gravy powder until a nice thck gravy is made up.

Steak and Kidney

• 2 onions
• butter
• 300g braising steak
• 200g kidney
• 200g mushrooms
• Flour
• Salt & Pepper
• Beef stock (again 2 Knorr stock cubes)
• 200ml Guinness
• Gravy powder
• Water

Add onoins to pan with butter and cook on a low heat until soft. Add to a bowl.

Cook off mushrooms slowly in pan with butter. Add to bowl.

Chop up steak and kidney into small pieces. Put the flour in a shallow bowl and add salt and pepper and mix. Toss the steak and kidney in the flour until well coated and then cook off in onion pan until lightly browned. Add to bowl.

In a pan melt down the stock, add the Guniness and then make up a thick gravy with the water and gravy powder.

Liver & Bacon

Follow the instructions for the steak and kidney, but subsitute 400g liver for steak, 200g bacon (chopped and thick if possible) for the kidney and remove the mushrooms entirely (yes I'm bored of typing.......).

Making the pies/puddings

Right, next get the suet dough out of the fridge, leave out on side to get back to room temperature.

Grease the inside of each of the moulds with butter or just the one big pudding basin.

Find a biscuit or cookie cutter that is round and is about 1cm bigger than the moulds.

Cut a quarter off the dough. Roll this out on a floured surface and cut out 9 circles (or however many puddings you are making). Put these to one side.

Cut the rest of the dough into 9 equal piece and roll each one out to around 3-5mm thick circles (obviously larger than the moulds). Line the mould with the pastry, squishing it together where overlaps occur (suet dough is really forgiving). Scoop in one of your fillings so it reaches just below the top of the mould, do not press down or compact. Ladel in some gravy and shake the mould so the gravy sinks to the bottom and repeat until the pudding seems full. Then place one of the dough circles over the top and press round the edges to seal the top on. either cut round the edges with a knife or press hard when sealing and the excess pastry should fall off.

Cover the top of the pudding with cling film to protect the pastry. Repeat this for all the filling and moulds.

Once done either cook in an electric steamer or a steamer on the hob for 1hr.

Once cooked, remove from steamer, peel off cling film and upturn onto a plate, serve with fresh veg, mash and leftover gravy from the filling.

To freeze - if you want to freeze the excess puddings to use later then upturn them out onto a baking sheet, leave in kitchen to cool then put into fridge (cooling them makes them go more solid), leave for a couple of hours then wrap each pie individually in clingfilm and freeze.

To reheat - place in a shallow bowl (still in clingfilm) with some water in the bottom, cover whole bowl with clingfilm and put in microwave for around 5-6 minutes until hot.

Garden week of 24th October

Winter is truly upon on - good news in that I no longer have to water the veg, that is done for me. Praying the celeriac are going to expand, looking forward to pulling them up.

New greenhouse has arrived and is in pieces in the garage, have to wait and see when that gets put up. Still not bought the polytunnels yet, but that is the next task!

Managed to put a couple more sprout plants in with the hope they might grow for Xmas as the other two will be ready long before them, in fact I ate some of them last night!

The corn was both a joy and a disappointment. Joy when I stripped the plants down and got 11 cobs from them, disappointment when I stripped the husks and saw white kernels. Nevermind at least we know we can do it, better luck next year!

Picked - corn on the cob, sprouts, kale

Planted - sprouts, cabbage, turnip

Petes flu defeating Chicken Broth

Take this germs!!


50g pearl barley
50g green lentils
4 small onions
4 cloves of garlic
Chicken (as much as you want preferably with the carcass)
4 large potatoes
dried shitake mushrooms to taste
6 bay leaves
2 Chicken oxo cubes (or other stock)

Cook your pearl barley and lentils as per the packet instructions until soft.
Chop your Onions and garlic roughly and soften in a large pan. Once slightly soft add your chicken cut into nice chunks. If you have the carcass put this in as well. Chop your potatoes into cubes the same size as the chicken and add along with the pearl barley and lentils and bay leaves. Add a couple of chicken oxo cubes and cover with water. Add the dried shitake mushrooms about half an hour before you serve. Leave to slowly simmer for as long as possible. Remember to take out the chicken carcass and bay leaves before you serve!

I recommend loads of soda bread, generously buttered!

Enjoy!

Rich Steak and Kidney Pie

After a visit to a local farm shop i managed to get hold of some fine ingredients for this excellent winter warmer. Enjoy

These are the ingredients for one smallish pie, will feed two hungry people.

200g Diced steak
200g of pigs kidney
One large red onion
6 bay leaves
A beef stock cube
Salt and pepper to season
Worcester sauce

roughly chop the onion and put it in a large pan with a small glug of worcester sauce. When the onion starts to soften add the steak and brown slightly. Chop the kidney into chunks the same size as the steak and add to the pan. Once the kidney is added put in the stock cube and cover with water. This needs to be left untill the steak becomes melt in the mouth soft.

For your pasrty:
About 125g of butter (you can substitute part of this for lard if you want)
125g of Flour
Pinch of salt

Cube the butter whilst still hard and rub into the flour. Once it starts to bind into a doughroll into a ball and place in the fridge till the steak and kidney is ready.

Once the steak is soft (leave for as long as you possibly can) use a slotted spoon to move the meat into your pie case. Add some of the gravy to the case but not too much and then top with your pastry. Pop in the oven till your pastry is golden brown. Whilst the pie is baking, reduce the remaining gravy to be served with the pie.

I recommend big servings of mash!!!

Charlie's Lasagne

• 1kg mince (or mince your own from steak)
• 3 onions, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic
• olive oil
• 4 sticks celery, chopped
• 3 peppers (red and green), chopped
• 200g mushrooms, chopped
• 1 Knorr beef stock gel packet (or 3 oxo cubes)
• 3 jars tomato sauce (I like Dress Italian slow cooked)
• 250ml red wine
• Salt and pepper
• Chopped basil and cutting celery
• Dried lasagne sheets or fresh made lasagne
• Jar of lasagne white sauce (I know, I cheat)

Fry the onions and garlic in a deep frying pan until soft, add the mince and cook until brown.

Add the peppers, celery and mushrooms and cook off.

Melt down the beef stock and then add the tomato sauces and wine and simmer for 10 minutes, finishing off with salt and pepper, basil and cutting celery.

If making own lasagne, roll pasta through machine to make sheets and then boil in water for 2 minutes to make them more workable. Take sheet out of boiling water and place in cold water until needed.

Once ready to make up lasagne, get a deep casserole dish, take out a lasagne sheet and allow the water to drain off and then lay in bottom of dish, cut to fit and place a sheet alongside until the whole of the bottom of the dish is covered. Then cover in the meat mixture, smooth out and drizzle about 1/4 of jar of white sauce over meat. Lay lasagne sheets across the meat layer again cutting to fit and making sure all meat is covered. Cover again in meat mixture and drizzle 1/4 sauce again. Carry on with this layering until the last layer of pasta is 1cm from top of dish. Then cover lasagne layer with rest of sauce, chop up mozzeralla and sprinkle on top. Cook in oven at 200 degrees for 30 minutes.

Pasta Dough

• 500g type '00' flour (found it in Tesco's Oldham on the baking aisle, McDougall's '00' flour for sauces and pastry)
• 5 large fresh free range eggs

Mixing by hand

Place the flour on a clean surface, make a well in the centre and add the eggs. Using a fork break up the eggs slightly and then bring the flour into the middle, mixing it around until it forms a semi-soft dough. Knead the dough hard for about 3 mins until smooth, silky and elastic.

In a mixer

Use the dough hook. Add the flour to the eggs and mix at medium speed for 3 mins or until it forms a tight dough. Remove from mixer and knead on a surface for about a minute until smooth, silky and elastic.

In a food processor

Put it all in and turn it on. Within 30 seconds will look like chewy breadcrumbs. Leave it a little longer and it will start to turn into a dough. Take it out and work it by hand for 2 minutes until smooth, silky and elastic.

Whichever way you do it, once done wrap in clingfilm and put it in the fridge for 60 minutes.

Then use a pasta machine and work smallpieces of the dough through the settings until it is 1-1.5mm thick.

Spicy Squash Tortelloni

Another fantasic Jamie recipe starts this one off. Spicy Roasted Squash

• 1 medium/large squash
• 2 tsp coriander seeds
• 2 tsp dried oregano
• 1/2 tsp fennel seeds
• 2 small dried red chillis or small amount chopped chillis
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp freshly ground pepper
• 1 clove garlic
• 1 tblsp olive oil
• 1 batch pasta dough (see other recipe)
• 150g Boursin cheese
• Chopped fresh basil

Cut squash in half, remove the seeds with a spoon and then cut the squash into wedges or segments. Place in a bowl or bag.

Toast the seeds in a dry frying pan until you can smell the spices, then add to a pestle and mortar or flavour shaker with the dried herbs and pound. Then add the salt, pepper, garlic and olive oil. Add the paste to the squash and mix it round until coated thoroughly.

Place the squash pieces in a casserole or on a baking tray skin side down and roast in oven at 200 degress for about 30 minutes.

Once cooked scoop the squash flesh away from the skins into a bowl. Add chopped basil and the boursin cheese and mash until combined.

Using a pasta machine or rolling pin roll the pasta dough out into sheets then use a cicular cookie cutter (about 4-5cm diameter) to cut circles out of the dough.

Place about a third of a teaspoon of mixture in the centre of a circle. Brush water round the outside edge and fold the circle in half, sticking the dough together at the edges. With this semicircle, bring the two corner points together in the middle and squeeze to make a slight barrel shape. Put onto kitchen roll (drying them out makes them easier to handle) and carry on making the rest!

Once all are made, boil a pan of water and add to pan for just 3-4 minutes. Place in bowl and drizzle on melted butter mixed with pesto as seasoning. Serve with fresh parmesan cheese.

Jamie's Meatballs

My favourite all time Jamie recipe from his Naked Chef book

Serves 4-6

900g/2lb mince (If its for a special occassion then I buy good beef or steak and mince it myself)

2 slices bread (blitz to make breadcrumbs)

1 onion, finely chopped

1 clove garlic

1 tblsp olive oil

1 tblsp dijon/wholegrain mustard

2 tblsp dried oregano

1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds

1/2 teaspoon coriander seeds

1/2 teaspoon mustard seeds

1/2 small dried chilli or a little chopped fresh chilli

1 tblsp chopped fresh rosemary

1 egg yolk

salt and pepper

4 tblsp olive oil

2-3 jars Tomato sauce (I buy the new Dress Italian slow cook jars cos I'm too lazy to make my own!)

250ml red wine

2 handfuls fresh basil leaves, torn

Mozzarella ball

Fresh Parmesan (grated)

Add olive oil to frying pan and saute the onion and garlic, once soft add the mustard and leave to cool.

Put the minced meat and breadcrumbs in a large bowl.

Put the cumin seeds, mustard seeds and coriander seeds in a dry frying pan and lightly toast for 2-3 minutes until you can smell the spices. Place the toasted seeds in a pestle and mortar or a flavour shaker and pound until powder like.

Add these spices to the meat along with the dried oregano, chilli, rosemary and the egg yolk. Add some salt and pepper and finally add the cooled onions.

Wash your hands then stick them into the bowl and mix all the ingredients together. Then with wet hands roll the mixture into meatballs of any size you like. I prefer smaller ones, but thats my choice ;)

Preheat a frying pan or a griddle with some oil in and lightly fry off the meatballs to brown the outside and keep them together. Keep turning them to make sure they brown all over.

Put the meatballs in a casserole dish.

In a pan put your tomato sauces and the red wine, mix together then pour over the meatballs. Then tear up basil and mozzarella and sprinkle over the top.

Cook in oven at 200 degrees for about 25-30mins until golden brown.

Serve with your choice of pasta.

Garden week of 11th October

Been a long time since I've done a garden update, apologies ;) Been a crazy month!

Garden is getting ready for the winter at the moment, the top two beds have been tidied up and the pea supports taken out. Courgette plants have also gone into the new compost bin. Winter cabbages and lettuces have been put into the top beds and I've found some polytunnels that will fit over the top of them perfectly, next purchase I think!

Sadly the greenhouse was a victim of the stong winds and blew down a week ago, not strong enough to survive the fall it had to be dismantled. However, a new 8 x 6 greenhouse turned up in the post this week and is the next challenge to build!

Picked -corn on the cob, kale, munkin squash

Planted - winter cabbages, kale, brussel sprouts, cauliflower