Quick, tasty & frugal - Tortilla Española (Spanish Omelette)

I wanted to whip up a quick lunch yesterday and was going to make an omelette when I remembered there was half a *tins worth of potatoes in the fridge to be used up.  I love Spanish Tortilla so it was a bit of a no-brainer decision what to do with them.
This is quick, easy and cheap yet satisfying and a bit more of a meal than just an omelette would be.  In fact really this makes enough for a snack later too.  As the Spanish generally advocate serving it at room temperature this is most definitely not a problem for me!
So - what do we need?

1 small onion, halved and sliced finely
Half a tin potatoes- use the value ones
2 eggs
EVOO
Fresh parsley
S+P

Heat a slug of EVOO and sweat down the onions whilst you slice the potatoes.  You can make them thick or thin - it' a matter of personal choice. I've seen recipes for both ways on line and they all claim that theirs is the 'authentic' way of doing it.
Add the potatoes and a pinch of salt and cook gently, half covered, until nicely softened, getting a little colour and taking on all the lovely oniony flavours.
Beat the eggs, add plenty of salt and pepper and pour swiftly into the pan.  Throw in the chopped parsley and give the whole lot a very quick stir so everything is coated in the egg, then cover and leave to cook.
Once you judge the bottom is cooked through, cover the pan with a plate and quickly invert the lot, then slide the tortilla back in to finish cooking.
Serve.  That's all there is to it.  J

You could add other bits to this depending on what you have lying around to use up.  You could also add another egg for an even more substantial final product if wanted.  It's one of those very un-strict recipes.  Have a play with it!

*I don't normally use tinned potatoes but had wanted to experiment with them for my lunch at work.  Our work kitchen is woefully under equipped - there's a coffee maker and a boiling water tap and that's it.  No microwave, toaster, kettle, anything of that sort.  This can make it a bit of a challenge (and one I embrace) to come up with hot food for lunch in the winter.  One day I might get round to a mini-series of posts on 'cooking without a cooker' or something along those lines.

I'm adding this to Chris's Bloggers Around the World - Food World Cup challenge.  Do check it out - there's going to be a lot of posts for this one!

'Baking' for insomniacs - quick (non-baked) breakfast muffins

By muffins here I mean English ones - hence the 'breakfast' in the title - not the overpumped cake mix ones that seem to come in childs head sizes nowadays.  Ooh wait - I had this rant before right?

This recipe also isn't technically baked but it was made at some godawful hour of the morning. Just gone 5am really but as we switched to BST yesterday technically it was just after 6am. Either way my brain was WIDE AWAKE so that was that.
Now this month I have been tardy with my blog challenges – random recipes should have been in 2 days ago although in my defence it was with some surprise I realised it was April 1st today and not March 31st – oops! One of the other challenges I like is Turquoise Lemon’s ‘No Waste Food Challenge’ which for March was hosted by Elizabeth’s Kitchen and had the theme of eggs.

 One of the *freebie books I downloaded to my kindle some time back was the intriguing ‘Many Ways for Cooking Eggs’ by Mrs S.T. Rorer, a book from the late 1800’s / early 1900’s written by the cook for a substantial household it seems, and I think, in America. It’s one of those old books that have been converted to a digital format by volunteers who don’t want to lose these historical records. I’m fascinated by old cook books as much for the social history they tell you as for the (sometimes hilarious) recipes and thought I’d have a quick skim through that in search of an intriguing egg recipe. Although it’s packed with really random ways to serve eggs they all seemed to take the form of ‘make a sauce with X in it, hard boil / shirr etc your egg. Serve on sippets of toast in a platter and cover with the sauce and send to the table at once.’ Not really the inspiration I was looking for. Until I happened upon the ‘Eggs Benedict’ recipe and saw that it gave a quick muffin method that’s then cooked on a flat griddle on the hob. This was more like it. So – quick non-baked breakfast muffins it is for my entry (if they’ll still let me link in) to March’s egg themed no waste food challenge.
Made 8 muffins
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1.5 cups plain flour
0.5 tsp salt (after tasting the first one I’d up this to at least a full teaspoon)
1 tbsp melted butter
2 tsp baking powder
 >I then also added 0.5 tbsp wholegrain mustard to the mix for 2 muffins and a whole lot of ground pepper and some finely grated strong hard cheese to the mix for another 2.

Separate the eggs. Beat the milk into the yolks, then sieve in the flour bit by bit and beat this in. Add the salt and butter and beat in. Finally beat in the baking powder. The recipe calls for level teaspoons; my BP was out of date so I used slightly rounded ones.

In a separate bowl beat the whites vigorously – I did mine by hand and got them to what I believe would be called ‘soft peaks’. Fold them into the yolk/flour mix.
Cook in very well greased muffin rings on a griddle. I don’t have a griddle so used the frying pan I know has the most even heat distribution. Added a little olive oil and keep re-greasing the rings between batches; due to the size of the pan I could only do 2 at one.
The mix rises as it cooks – if you overfill the rings it will spill over the top! Oops!

About 2/3 full is right I found. Once the underside is nicely golden brown and the mix has risen ease a small knife around the inside of the ring before turning the whole thing over. Then carefully using a glove/ cloth etc ease the ring off – you’ll need to use something like the handle of the knife to press the muffin out from the ring at the same time.

>Once I had the second batch in the pan I split what mix was left and added the wholegrain mustard /cheese and pepper as mentioned above so had 4 plain and 2 in each flavor. I used to love the cheese and pepper muffins S’burys used to do so this is very exciting for me! You could also try adding a pinch of herbs or spices too – endless possibilities.

I had a plain one with a little cheese melted on. Very good indeed and pretty quick and easy – in fact it’s the cooking that took me the time – and cost me a few burnt finger tips – be careful breakfast buddies!
*It’s now 77p. In my version this recipe is 52% of the way into the book.

'There I fixed it' - boring biscuits blinged

Although neither the Chap nor I have much of a sweet tooth occasionally the urge takes you.  I succumbed a few weeks back and (lured in by the price) picked up a multipack (5x normal packs!) of what turned out to be disappointingly flavourless boring biscuits in a local shop.  I guess at a quid for the whole lot I should have known better...  Now; I'd managed to get rid of the majority at work and the Chap has had a few and even I have occasionally dipped back in - more in that hope that something magical has happened to transform them in the interim into something you'd actually want to eat but alas no, they remained boring, dry and tasteless.
So today - inspiration struck!  Also everyone wittering about chocolate as easter is nearly on us.  So it got me thinking that chocolate can brighten pretty much all foods up right?  (And for anything it can't handle we have cheese?)  So - lets Choc-O-Late up those boring biscuits people! (Imagines that to a snappy little tune and a happy dance that swoops us over to a demonstration table.) 
Melt choc in the microwave. (I used S'burys basics dark chocolate that I had in the cupboard.)  Don't melt your choc on full power as it'll burn it.  Half power and patience my dears.  Then 'drizzle' over the biccies with a spoon.  Ok - more like 'fat lump' it on the biccies but I'm not about to do that pro-chef flicking it thing - it'd only mean me cleaning chocolate off the walls afterwards right?
Then add whatever bling you want / have to hand and ta-da - no more boring biscuits for us and with all that choc lovingly lumped on they should taste somewhat better.  Win!
You could even make something like these to give away (perhaps utilising better biscuits though) instead of overpriced and over packaged eggs.  They take no time either so ideal for a last minute thing if you forgot.  Just need the time to set - not a problem in my frigid kitchen at the moment I can assure you!

Enjoy easter whatever version of it you follow / don't.  We're not doing choc eggs but hopefully the Chap will like the biccies.  I will be decorating my 'artistic twigs' with various painted eggs just because, hey, it's an excuse right?  Who said an art degree was a waste of time...

Marmalade Ice-Cream, a No Waste food challenge

There's a No Waste food challenge set up over at Turquoise Lemons new for 2013.  Inspired by the 'love food hate waste' campaign Kate has come up with the spiffing idea of picking a common 'leftover' as the ingredient each month to use up.  This month's theme is preserves.  So I humbly offer - marmalade ice-cream.  I have adapted the original recipe but this came from the Observer Magazine colour supplement sometime in the late 90's; I think most likely to be '95-'97 but that's based on where it appears in my little notebook in comparison to where others are against my memories of what was in there when I went to uni and what got written in later.  If that makes sense.  So with appropriate thanks to the original author* this is my adapted version.  I feel the original recipe which just used orange marmalade and cream could be a little too rich so I use lemon or lime marmalade, or both, plus fresh zest and juice to zing it up.  It will depend what you have in that needs using up though.  This recipe uses nigh on a whole jar.  It's super easy to make and pretty quick; it's also pretty cheap, especially if you get the fruit on Aldi's super 6 or just get the cream only.  Massively unhealthy so enjoy in moderation!
*With thanks to Phil in the comments I am now sure this was originally a recipe of Sophie Grigsons from 'Sophie's Table'.  Originally published in 1990 it seems to have a second edition in '98 so I'm guessing that's when and why her recipe was in the mag I saw it in.

375g marmalade - this time I had lemon to use
2 limes
300ml double cream

Put marmalade in a bowl or - I used the container I will freeze the ice cream in.  This recipe makes one of these standard litre-ish sized containers full.
Zest the limes in then juice them really well into the bowl / container.  I use the 'microwave for 10-20 seconds then roll on the counter top' method before cutting the fruit open to get the most juice from lemons and limes.  Squish the pulp in too - it all means more flavour and less waste! 
Remember that frozen foods dull the taste sense which is why recipes always call for more sugar and more flavour than you'd think in ice-cream.  So don't be worried if you think it's too limey - it needs it.
Beat the cream until stiff - I used my FP here, bit easier on the arm muscles!
Fold it into the marmalade.
Freeze. 

That's it - none of that beating every few hours to keep the crystals small.  Every time I've made this previously I haven't and it's turned out fine, I think because you whip the cream and marmalade first.  It can be a little on the firm side so I'd advocate removal from the freezer 10 mins before serving.**  Yum!

**Edit - it wasn't nearly as solid this time, I think because I used the whisk on the FP where I've done it by hand before so it was undoubtedly better beaten.  As it is now I wouldn't stand it for any time, and 10 mins would make it a bit too melty!

Random Recipe - Store Cupboard Stuffing Bake

With all this time on my hands recently I've been blog surfing a lot more than I normally do and have stumbled across many new to me fab blogs.  Several of which have been inspiring me in different ways and one of those is the lovely Belleau Kitchen blog and the monthly challenge 'Random Recipes'.  
Now normally this involves picking a recipe at random from a cookbook; similarly picked at random, and having to make it. (Assuming I've understood that correctly, I have a feeling that there may be themes involved sometimes too.)  This month however is slightly different in that it's a store cupboard ingredient that must be picked, then you make something with that.  Now although I had more random items available than the stuffing mix I used, everything else needed me to visit the shops for additional ingredients which as I'm off my feet as much as poss at the mo didn't seem like the best of ideas ever.  It's not quite an 'essential' trip like the doctors is you know?
So - I decided to use up a couple of the 5 packs of stuffing mix I had in the upstairs store cupboard from a past Approved Foods order.
Right - next step - find a recipe - from your cookbooks. Hmmm - now surprisingly enough none of my cookbooks have any recipes listing 'packet mix stuffing' in the ingredients list, not even quasi healthy 'mixed seed wholemeal' stuffing.  I know - I'm as shocked as you right?

So I thought (in an admittedly slightly tortuous justification after the fact sort of way) that I could treat my blog as a recipe book too - as a load of the stuff on here I scribble down very roughly as I make it then transcribe to here which is then it's lasting format.  And enough people seem to search my slow cooker carrot and coriander soup for me to feel the reference aspect could at least be argued for, if not fully justified.  So - I'll go ahead and we'll see if I'm allowed in the challenge.  This is all quite apart from the fact that today is the deadline.  By which I'm not sure if it means submissions should be in by today or up to and including today.  Yes - I'm a pedant when it comes to language and that's just waaaay too open to interpretation for this virgo!  :-D
So - witteringly long intro / justification / obfuscation in the hope the host will give up and just allow my submission through out of pure boredom aside - here's my frugal, quick and simple 'store cupboard stuffing mix bake'.  As 'inspired' (ahem) by this one I previously made, with the added advantage of also using up some of my stocks of cheese, or 'dairy crack' as we now prefer to call it in our household, the need for which was highlighted in my last post.

Vaguely Italian themed Stuffing Mix Bake:
2 packets stuffing mix - or you can make this with one if you don't have a massive overstock of stuffing in your cupboard like me
0.5 tbsp dried basil
0.5 tbsp dried oregano
Boiling water - amount as per packet instructions
2 tbsp tomato puree
Black pepper
Cheese - I used about half to 2/3 of a 300g tub of soft cheese.  You could totally use a harder cheese grated here, whatever you need to use up really.  Some parmesan over the top would work too.
Little butter for greasing dish

 Put oven on to heat as per instructions on the pack of stuffing.  Put kettle on to boil.
Put stuffing, herbs and a few grinds of black pepper (to taste) in a large bowl and give them a quick mix.
Add water as per the stuffing packet instructions.
Add the tomato puree and stir really well.

Grease your ovenproof dish; I use a ceramic one, and spread half the mixture evenly over the base of the dish.

Evenly spread your cheese over - a little easier said than done using this soft cheese as it wanted to move the existing layer of stuffing about.  I found leaving it resting on top of the hot stuffing for a few seconds softened it a little and made it easier to spread out; as did placing it on in smaller amounts than the big dolloping spoonfuls I started out with!

Spread the second half of the stuffing over and place in the oven for the time specified on the stuffing packet.

Ta daa!!  Bit messy to serve and please bear in mind I'm not a professional food photographer but served with a little refreshing salad this was a nice wee snack.
Very cheap to make with items you're likely to have in the house already and taking little time this ticks both the £'s and time frugality boxes.  You can jazz it up as pleased - I'd perhaps add more tom puree next time.  Oh - and if you want to photograph it letting it cool and firm up for a few minutes would be a good idea.  Not one I had until after my messy photo efforts mind you...

Baking for Insomniacs - Easy honey buns

Having woken up just past the 3am mark on Monday morning and having very quickly recognised it as one of those times that the possibility of getting back to sleep was most definitely negligible (and this on a bank holiday.  Truly I must have done something awful in a previous life!) , my thoughts turned to baking.  As they do at 3am eh?!  I had been meaning to make a batch of buns / muffins whatever for some time for one of the Chaps work colleagues in return for a box of unopened store cupboard type things he gifted us when he moved including a full sealed bottle of EVOO, various herbs, a similarly full and sealed jar of curry sauce, some tins of chopped tomatoes, some cake cases and a sealed bottle of white wine vinegar accompanied by the immortal words - "You have it - I won't drink it"!!!  Part of the deal was that I filled the cake cases and returned them to him.  Not being someone who does an awful lot of baking I do have to be in the right mood for it.  As it seemed I was this morning I finally hauled my weary self out of bed around the 4am mark to embark on a spot of 'Baking for Insomniacs'.  (I think we need a catchy little tune there - if possible played on one of those tiny electronic keyboards you used to be able to get in various pastel shades back in the mid-late 80's.)
So - firstly a quick trawl of the recipe books as I really wanted a simple recipe without lots of faffing about.  Well - I say firstly - actually firstly was more like- trot downstairs and casually flick on the light switch without thinking about it then spend the next 30 seconds clutching your tear stained face whimpering 'my eyes, my eyes' quietly so as not to wake the Chap up.  Durrr!
Having recovered sufficiently from that to read the sodding recipe books I pulled 'Easy Cooking - Baking' off the shelf and had a quick leaf through the cake section.  Although I tend to make small individual buns/cakes rather than 1 big one there's nothing to stop you using a big cake recipe for little buns - just remember they will take less time to cook.  I adapted their recipe for honey cake; their's was topped with almonds which I didn't have plus I tweaked the spice amount; and I used this to make small buns on the basis that the recipe sounded like it would be nice plus it was an easy one to do and therefore should be fairly quick as well.

Easy honey buns
2oz butter
1oz sugar

4oz honey - they specify clear - I tend to use the S'bury basics runny stuff for baking which does happen to be clear but I can't imagine it matters that much.  Incidentally I found the easiest way to measure this out was to put the small pan I'd use to melt it in on the scales, zero them then weigh it straight in.  Just don't go too fast so you don't get too much in.  As you can see mine was somewhat crystallised but don't worry - the melting will fix that.
6oz plain flour
0.5tsp Bicarbonate of Soda (I upped this as I realised on getting the bicarb out of the cupboard that it was in fact out of date and I know this impairs it's efficacy.  I also know that too much can give a nasty taste so I added another scant 0.5tsp and it was fine.)
1tsp+ mixed spice
1 egg (They said medium, I had large)
2tbsp milk

Preheat oven to 150c.
Melt butter, sugar and honey together.  You don't need to get the sugar totally melted but the butter should be so it all mixes together well.
Sift the dry ingredients together.
Crack the egg into a cup or similar and add the milk and beat together to mix well.
Make a 'well' (if you're new to baking pretend you're making a volcano shape complete with crater) in the flour in the bowl and pour the butter mix in.
Gradually stir in the flour pulling it in from the edges.  As with many other recipes this one specified using a wooden spoon for this.  Now - having done a minimal amount of googling on the matter I see that there are circumstances where a wooden spoon would be necessary as opposed to a metal one.  (Hot sauces, acidic ingredients &c.  More info here amongst many other places.)  I can however see no need for it here other than the somewhat hazy notion that the rounded edges are gentler on the ingredients than a metal spoon's edges would be.  Whatever the pseudo science / old wives tale behind it I did make use of a wooden spoon and mixed the stuff together.

Next beat in the egg mix so it's all well mixed together.  You end up with a fairly liquid mixture which I then glopped into individual bun cases; fill each one about 2/3 and check at the end they're all more or less equal.  This recipe makes 12 regular size buns.  IE not the massively oversized muffin style cases that seem to have taken over these shores in recent years.  When I was a kid it was a fairy cake or for special a butterfly/angel cake where you took a circle off the top of the cooked bun and cut it in half and stuck it back in on opposed sides like wings with the aid of a little butter icing.  That was for special occasions only though.  We didn't have a head sized wodge of undercooked chocolatey sugar rush available at the drop of a hat then.  I'd imagine as a country we were also rather lower on the world index of obesity as well.  Make of that what you will.  [Clambers down off high horse.]
Bang them in the oven and sit back for 12-15 mins.  Test with a skewer once they're a nice golden colour and leave in the bun sheet to cool for a few mins before removing and popping them on a wire rack to cool fully.

Verdict - well I had to try one didn't I.  I liked these as a simple little light bun.  The honey wan't the most obvious taste - perhaps as I'd upped the spices but I didn't feel they were too overpowering either.  Just a nicely deep taste to them from the combination of honey and spices.  They were also nice and quick to make without the creaming step that's in a lot of recipes so if you're in a rush these are suitably time-frugal.
Verdict from the recipient was received via text: "Thank you for my cakes.  They're well yummy!"  I'd say that's a win.  :-D
Oh - and this is what you get when trying to photograph the finished product so therefore not paying nearly enough attention to your resident furry Zeke.  Think he's checking out the cool retro *plate too?

* These are bona fide old plates we used to use as a family.  I rescued the last 2 of them from the parents garage a year or so back where they were retired and had been relegated to plaster mixing and plant drainage duties.

Meat cooking for the faint hearted #4 - Chinese Roast Chicken - w' oyster sauce and honey no less!!

After a slack section in my blogging recently I am returning with - what's this?  A meat recipe??!!  Yes - sorry m'dears but I figured it was a post I could hopefully write up fairly quickly as there's not masses to the recipe.
I get oodles of emails along the lines of 'visit our sparkly website and buy our shizzle' as I am in the habit of signing up for all the freebies I can find left, right and centre which invariably means giving them an email address in return.  Still - if you want free stuff (and after all - there's enough free providers of email addys out there that you can set one up specifically for this kind of sign up) I don't see the issue.  Sometimes you even get something that interests you pop into your in-box.  Hence this recipe which came from the Chinese food company Lee Kum Kee as part of their suggestions for mother's day.  It's easy, the ingredients aren't massively expensive; the chicken forms most of it but do get a decent welfare one and make sure you get your soy sauce from a Chinese supermarket - this recipe does us half a litre of the stuff!!  Most importantly for the beloved meat eater in your life it is; according to the Chap, most yum indeed.  [I'm fairly sure as a burly builder type he didn't utter those actual words - but don't you wish he had?!  That was certainly the sentiment he expressed anyway.]
Here goes then:

Chinese Roast Chicken with Honey and Oyster sauce  [I've linked the original recipe here but as it's listed under the mother's day options I'm unsure how long it'll stay on their site so I'm putting it here too - I figure me mentioning the company a few times over the course of this post is fair exchange for promoting their recipe don't you?  Especially as said recipe was on the web for purposes of monetary gain in the first place.]
1 chicken - approx 1.5 kg in weight
500ml soy sauce
2 fat cloves garlic - minced
1.5l water

10 'slices' ginger - don't ask me what this measurement is - I guess depends how much you like ginger.  I peeled a bit of root and did lengthwise slices of the section.
4 star anise
100g Oyster sauce
60+ ml honey - the recipe says 1/4 cup which is 62.5 ml.  Use 4 tbsp and you won't be far wrong.

The more observant of you may have noticed that the last 2 ingredients are in a diff colour - they are the 'glazing' ingredients.  The rest are the 'seasoning mix'  - boiling ingredients.

 
Put all the boiling ingredients (bar the chicken) in a pan large enough to hold them all and the chicken and bring to the boil.  Carefully manoeuvre your chicken into the mix [I declined to just 'drop' it in as the recipe said - fearing a soy sauce splash back incident!], cover and reduce the heat to a simmer.  Simmer for 30 minutes.

Put oven on to heat at 160.  Mix together the glaze ingredients of oyster sauce and honey.  As it turned out both the soy sauce I already had and the oyster sauce I purchased for this recipe from my local Chinese supermarket were the Lee Kum Kee people's products but any would do I'm sure.  The honey I used was just S'burys basics stuff - perfectly good enough for cooking and baking with I find.
Carefully remove your chicken from the water - at this point I realised that perhaps you're supposed to leave the damn thing trussed up as it comes in the packaging rather than carefully snipping through it's ties before boiling the thing as I did.  Legs and wings were flopping about everywhere I tell you!* 
Lay in a baking tray and pour the glaze over ensuring evenly covered as much as possible.  It does all slide off into the tray as it warms though.  The recipe suggested uing a brush here - I didn't bother as I found spooning it over and spreading it with the back of the spoon was adequate without having to thoroughly gunge up my pastry brush.

Cook for 30 - 45 mins (the recipe says) - I did 45 mins basting with the glaze every 15 mins.  Check the chicken is cooked through properly usng the old 'juices run clear' technique.
Serve.  Apparently this was authentically like the 'Chinese' chicken bits you can get pre-done in the shops and was thoroughly enjoyed by the Chap.  It's a low prep recipe so easy to do with little time having to be spent watching over it.
* [This bit did make me a bit uncomfortable - the whole 'recognisable shape' thing I guess that did a good job at eroding the distancing I use when cooking meat for The Chap.  It was the way the limbs moved - far too easy to see the form of the hen it once was bounding about a yard somewhere.]

Pimp my noodles

You know they're rubbish food but they're cheap and easy so there tends to be a few packs lurking in your cupboard.  Those cheapo noodles that are loaded with calories and often really eco-unfriendly palm oil.  :-(

Sometimes it's what there is to hand though and as I was running out the door for work this morning this very quick make for my lunch turned out to be surprisingly nice - so I thought I'd share it.  It's a way of making cheapo instant noodles palatable with very few ingredients or time needed.

1-2 packs instant noodles depending how hungry you are / size of the pack - the cheaper they get the smaller they tend to be.

Thai green curry paste

Creamed Coconut - the solid block kind
Sweetcorn - handful frozen / tinned - your preference
0.5 fillet white fish (optional)
Mushroom ketchup

Boil the kettle and add the required amount of hot water according to the instructions on the noodle pack to a pyrex jug / bowl / microwaveable container.

Add a teaspoon-ish of the TGC paste - to your taste considering that strengths seem to vary wildly.  I've got a big tub of the stuff we got in one of the local asian food shops for about £1.69 that's vastly superior in flavour and value than what you'll get for twice the price for a quarter the amount in the stupormarkets.  It's also dead strong!

Add the noodles, fish and sweetcorn and pop in the microwave for about 2 mins.

Remove and flake the fish through the dish.  Ensure it's totally cooked through as you do so.  Judicial stirring should accomplish this - no need to burn your fingers!  [You can use pre-cooked fish; mine was.  I just flaked it in at the start.]

Grate a little of the coconut block in then stir through.  If needed pop back in the microwave for a minute or 2 longer.

Add a little splash of mushroom ketchup just for the depth and stir.

That's it - easy!  As mentioned it surprised me how good it was for a very simple dish - I think it's down to the flavours zinging out from the Thai green curry.

Well - that's all I've got time for, I'm off for the next three days - maybe see you at the Respect Festival?  So glad it's finally summer weather - yay!!

Meat cooking for the faint hearted #1 - Slow Cooker Sos

Don't fret - I haven't fallen off any wagon and am still a non-eater of meat [although I am an eater of fish making me a pescatarian not a true veggie.]  The Chap is however an eater of meat and it struck me that apart from bacon or a steak I really know naff all about cooking actual meat dishes.  Granted I could probably muddle my way through a roast with the help of instructions on the back of the label but it's not something I know - which irks me somewhat considering how much I like cooking.  I went nearly all veg at 16/17ish so before I really started cooking for myself, only returning to eating fish at uni.  [Prawns were the only thing I never gave up - one Marks & Spencer Prawn and Mayo sarnie a month kept me on the straight and narrow the rest of the time.]  Not having eaten the stuff for so long whilst I learnt most of my basic cooking skills means there's a distinct lack of meat dishes in my repertoire.
This is all kicked off due to the Chaps rather good haul of CFC bargains from the Co-op the day before they were shut for easter.  He got a plethora of sausages, ox liver, lambs liver, diced beef as well as a gammon joint and a couple of big rump steaks.  Nearly all of it ended up in my freezer and when it started to become impossible to fit my frozen sweetcorn in I decided it was time I did something about it and cooked some of the damn stuff for him.  First up then was a basic sausage [sos / snag / banger - you're choice of colloquialism] casserole.  Long ago I'd kept a recipe from a jar of sauce of some kind and this then was my basis for this slow cooker dish adapted to fit the ingredients to hand.

4 sos - ours were Lincolnshire ones [whatever that signifies - I'm afraid the niceties of that side of it are a bit of a closed book to me]

1 red and 1 white onion - it's what I had - or use 1 large white one etc, chopped
1 clove garlic, finely chopped / minced
EVOO
Mushrooms, chopped (3ish)
Tin chopped toms
0.5pt veg stock
White wine
Red lentils - 2 wee scoops - which was 6 tbsp
1tsp dried thyme
1tsp smoked paprika
Small handful greens - spinach / chard / sea beet / whatever you have to hand

Cook the sausages a bit - to help them keep their shape in the SC.
Heat the EVOO and add the onion and garlic.  Fry gently to soften.
Add the mushrooms and cover then cook gently a few minutes more.  Tip the lot into the SC and whack it on High to heat up.
Add the toms and juice from the tin, a splosh of white wine and the stock; made with boiling water as this will help the ingredients get up to heat faster.
Add the lentils and the thyme and paprika and stir all together.  Judge the amount of liquid in there; the lentils will swell so if necessary add a little more wine and/or stock to ensure there's enough to cook them in.
Chop the sos into inch-ish long chunks and add to the SC.
Cover and turn to medium or low depending how long you've got.  Mine ended up having rather longer than needed with 6 hours but it won't harm it.  Just make sure the lentils are properly cooked through.
Stir your greens in and re-cover to let wilt for a few mins before serving.

See - it's easy!! Admittedly using a pre-formed thing like a sausage seems a wee bit cheaty but it was what we had to hand after the CFC sweep bargain night - these cost us 40p a pack of 8 making this a deffo tick in the 'frugal' box.  They seemed quite 'solid' sausages - not too spongy - actually containing some meat!  Which I think will have helped them keep their form in the SC.  Otherwise the chap enjoyed it and I can [just about] claim that I can make sos casserole.  Kind of...  ;-)

Slow Cooker Carrot and Coriander Soup

Short on time and heavy on carrots?  [They were on the Aldi super 6!]  Knock up this slow cooker soup with a bit of chopping and finish it off when it's wanted.  Time frugal as well as cost frugal!  I'm good to you aren't I?  [Well - to myself!!] Although carrot and coriander is one of my favourite soups I realised I don't have a single recipe written down for it, the horror!!  I made this up with a bit of looking at a parsnip recipe from Sophie Grigson's veg book.  It can just as easily be made conventionally on a hob as well as in a SC [in fact I finished it off on the hob] - just simmer for long enough until the veg are soft enough to blend rather than leaving them in the slow cooker for several hours.
Carrot & Coriander Soup
2 red onions (or use one decent medium sized yellow one - I happened to have red ones in the cupboard)
2 lg / 4 sml cloves garlic

1 tbsp EVOO
'Thumb' of fresh root ginger*
1.5 lb / 700g-ish carrots
0.5 lb / 225g-ish spuds
1.5pt veg stock plus 0.25pt or
0.25 pt milk to slacken soup if liked
Living plant coriander (69p-ish Aldi!) / big bunch of it
Knob butter
S + P
0.5 tbsp lime juice
A little grated cheese - medium - mature cheddar or red leicester I'd suggest

Put the oil in the SC and turn it onto 'high'.
Roughly chop the onions and add them to the SC.  Add the finely chopped garlic and stir.
Grate / zest or finely chop the root ginger and stir into the SC pot.

Roughly chunk the carrots - being frugal aware make sure you get all the veg from round the tops - see pic.
Peel and chunk the spuds.  (Most of the time I don't bother peeling veg but for a smoothish soup you're blending you really need to.)
Add both to the SC and pour on enough stock to cover.  Mine needed 1.5 pints.

Trim the leaves from your coriander and put them in a glass of water in the fridge.  Chop the rest of the stalks (you've probably got about 2-3"), ensuring you get all you can from the pot and stir them into the SC.
Turn the SC down to medium or low, depending how long you've got / are out of the house for.  Mine was on low for 6.5 hours.
Blend.  Don't be disappointed by the taste at this point.  Once we add the seasonings it comes into it's own.
When ready to eat retrieve the coriander leaves from the fridge, reserve a few for garnishing if liked and chop the rest.  Stir into the soup and gently reheat on the hob. 
It'll be quite thick so slacken with a little more stock / milk at this point if liked, or leave thick if that's your preference.  I added 0.25 pint milk.
Stir a knob of butter in and add salt and pepper to taste.  It did need salt to bring the flavours out.
Remove from the heat and stir the lime juice through. 
Serve scattered with a little grated cheese and the reserved coriander leaves.

This was really good - the zing added by the lime worked so well but next time I'd up the amount of ginger used.  Guess it depends how big your thumbs are!!* Adaptable too - just leave out the cheese, butter and milk for a vegan dish.  I can also see it working with a little coconut milk in place of the extra 0.25 pint liquid at the end.  As ever with any 'recipes' I make up it's adaptable as you wish / are dictated to by the fridge & cupboard contents.  More of a guideline than a strict recipe.  Just so long as it's enjoyed.  :-)
[I've noticed this post gets a fair few hits, if you try it out - and I hope you do, please leave a comment and let me know how you got on.  It'd be nice to find others enjoyed it too!]

* What in the world is a 'thumb' of ginger?  It really is one of the most useless measurements in the world.  What if you're a big burly bloke or a dwarf - the size of your piece of ginger will bear no relation at all to each others.  I can cope with a 'knob' of butter and a 'glug' of olive oil - in fact I now believe them to be measurements which mean 'enough to add the desired flavour to the dish and that you're comfortable with in relation to your waistline' but a 'thumb' of ginger?  I ask you!  (Although I suppose that it could be argued there's a potential for difference in 'knob' size as well...)

Veggie 'meat' FTW

I finally got round to trying out home made fake meat using the wheat gluten Littleblackfox so kindly sent me a little while back. I used this recipe on the net I've had kicking around for some time. It's got a lot of ingredients but that's essential for the flavour - you can experiment and adapt to what works for you or what you may need for a specific recipe / cuisine. The lovely Jeni from the Heathen Vegan site has very kindly given me permission to post the recipe so here it is, in her words:

Quick Homemade Seitan
Dry Ingredients
1 cup wheat gluten
1/4 cup nutritional yeast flakes
1 tsp garlic salt
2 tsps pepper (I use white)
1/4 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp rosemary

Liquid Ingredients
3/4 cup Bisto gravy (made really thick) [Red bisto is veggie - fact!]
2 Tblsp Tamarind Sauce
2 Tblsp Olive Oil
1/2 Tblsp Soy Sauce
1 Clove of garlic squeezed through a garlic mincer
2 Tblsp Water

Mix dry ingredients in a bowl, really well. Mix liquid ingredients in a separate bowl then add to dry ingredients. Whisk well with a fork so as everything is incorporated and forms into a dough. Knead dough for a few mins.
Double wrap in lightly oiled tin foil. If you want to shape the dough into a sausage then do so, rolling the foil round tightly and then twisting the ends.
Bake in a pre heated oven at 200 degrees [Gas 6] for 90 mins - turning over halfway through. Unwrap the seitan and leave to cool completely.

When I got to the kneading stage I halved the mix and left one half as was and added to the other half:
0.5 tsp basil
0.5 tsp smoked paprika
0.25tsp cayenne
0.25tsp fennel - I had seeds rather than ground and am similarly bereft of a pestle and mortar so did my best to crush them in my fingers. Needless to say the result wasn't exactly even but hey - I'm sure I keep seeing 'rustic' on menus these days so it's virtually de rigueur to have lumps nowadays isn't it? :-D
The idea of this was to get some sort of spicy Italian sausage style end product.
Now I'd never made this before so had no idea how, or indeed if, it would work. I was very hopeful that it would prove to be tasty, have a good texture and be versatile enough to use in a variety of dishes. This would then mean I had a whole new panoply of fake meat options to explore!
Well - I like it. It was very very easy to make, took hardly any time to mix up, a quick and easy knead [I did add a sprinkle or so extra wheat gluten at the kneading stage as I found it quite sticky] then was happily bunged in the oven. They mention turning half way through cooking - I think this is a 'needed turn'; my 2 foil wrapped sausages were turned after an hour and there was a detectable difference in colouring from one side to another so I think if they were left for the whole cooking time unturned the difference would be too much. ['Needed turn' as opposed to things like oven chips / hash browns which tell you to turn them but I routinely ignore. Life's too short y'ken?]
I have to say I will be tweaking the flavourings next time - halving the tamarind as 2 tbsp means you can taste it too clearly in the end product, rather than amalgamated into part of the overall flavour. Also at least halving the white pepper - this much was a bit hot for me at the expense of the other aspects. The Italian type I made was pretty spicy - I guess having used half the mix with the original flavourings already in and then adding cayenne to it might have something to do with that...
All in all a very definite win for the 'fake meat' brigade - even the meat eating Chap gave grudging approval - meaning that he'd eat it rather than it being totally minging like some pretend meat products are, as we all know. [Linda McCartney - I'm thinking of your sausages here.] This was so quick and easy I'm looking forward to experimenting with flavour combos and cooking methods. So far we've tried it fresh roasted as it came out of the foil, and thickly sliced then oven braised with celery and leeks as part of a roast. Both worked. As long as you can get your hands on the *wheat gluten I urge you to try this. I can see it becoming a bit of a pet project with me!
*Wheat Gluten seems to be one of those things widely available in America [where many of the recipes I've seen come from judging by their use of cups as measurements] but not however quite so easy to come by here in the UK. Littleblackfox kindly told me they sell it online at The Flourbin, although it must be said they have a minimum order value of £10 (at time of writing) and you'll need to add £6.95 P&P to that. Otherwise search it out locally or there is a manual extraction method that I don't know and am hoping to get away with not knowing. Good luck. ;-)

Slow Cooker Barley Lentil Stew

Had a busy weekend down at the allotment so decided to knock up a quick (in prep terms) dish in the SC for dinner after a hard days graft. This came out thicker than I expected so you could add up to another half pint of stock to loosen it a little. Could also be adapted to your preferred flavour / herb combo; just use the recipe as a blueprint and adapt away.

SC Barley & Lentil Stew

2 small onions

2 cloves garlic

1 tin tomatoes

1.5 - 2 pints stock - see note above

2 bay leaves

1tsp rosemary

1tsp parsley

1tsp oregano

2 sticks celery

1 large carrot / 2 smaller

0.5 cup pearl barley (approx 3oz/75g)

0.5 cup red lentils (approx 3.5oz/100g-ish)

S+P

Chop onions. Crush and finely chop garlic, add both to SC.

Drain tin tomatoes - if ready chopped add pieces to SC, if whole ones slice into about 6 pieces each and add to SC.

Chop celery and carrot into small dice and add to SC.

Add barley and lentils, herbs and stock and cook on High, at least 4 hours.

I cooked for 6 hours in the end which was a little too much - one edge was starting to stick. As mentioned this turned out pretty thick - adjust the amount of stock used to your preference.

All in all tasty, ideal for cold evenings, filling and very time frugal to make. You could add more veg as well - a good recipe to use up odds and ends in the cupboard and fridge.

Slow cooker spicy root soup

I adapted an old favourite of mine - this spiced carrot and lentil soup recipe - for the slow cooker. Piece of piss; if you'll pardon the expression. I'm loving the SC more and more!
It ended up being carrot & swede as I had less carrots than I thought but once blended I'm not sure you could even tell. I think it's a good base recipe to use with most root veg to add some warming flavours in the winter months.

Spiced Carrot & Lentil Soup - the SC way
400g carrots }
200g swede } Or 600g carrots in original recipe
2tsp cumin seeds
0.5tsp dried chilli flakes - or adjust to taste
2tbsp EVOO
1l veg stock
140g red lentils
125ml milk

Dry fry cumin and chilli together for a few mins to release the flavours. Keep an eye on them to ensure they don't burn - give them a shake around every half min or so.
Meanwhile stick the kettle on for the stock then peel the swede and chop this and the carrots into chunks. Place in base of SC.
Add the spices and all the rest of the ingredients and switch on. I put mine on high and it had about 6 hours in the end.
Walk away.
Several hours later return and blend soup. This came out quite thick so I added another 0.5 pt veg stock but let your tastes guide you here. And that's it. YAY for Slow cooking!!
This is a nice simple but tasty recipe. It's cost effective too; especially if you keep your eyes peeled for deals or CFC bargains. This week Aldi has both carrots and swede on their Super 6 for 39p. Just remember to pick the biggest one you can find! :-D

Pressies - the materialistic bit of chrimble

Yes - it's a post about stuff. But this bit of stuff is a help for both money and time frugal peoples. Also it's only a short post. So read on...

I was overly excited to receive a slow cooker this year [Amazon wish lists are great] from *mini-big sis - I am in love with this already. I hummed and hawed about one of these for a while as worktop space is, to say the least, at a premium in my kitchen as is storage space for when it's not in use; but it's just brilliant. Simple, time saving, the long cooking time develops and blends the flavours together - I could go on and on but doubtless you will be seeing some recipes for this in the weeks to come. So far I've made a veg stew - first thing to try it out; a fish stew and a big batch of leek, potato and stilton soup adapted for the slow cooker from the recipe here. All have been great - if you're thinking about it I urge you to get one. Having looked into them before and from my meagre experience so far I would say go for one with different heat settings - mine has 3. This allows you to adjust the cooking time dep how long you've got / you're at work for without making the food too much like mush - as I don't eat meat and will be using this predominantly for veg it's a fairly important consideration.

*Mini-big sis: I have 2 older sisters and this is the next one up from me. She's also pretty short. Sorry!

[I also got various other lovely items over chrimble but I'm not about to harp on about them here. This space is to share ideas / experiences &c not 'this is what I've got.' Suffice to say I love all my gifts and all the givers dearly. Thank you. x]

Souper Sunday!

I know, I know, I should be writing for a parish magazine with titles like that eh? It's more of a wry nod to Red Dwarf than a crap pun all of my own though, honest.

Anyway, I made 2 lots of soup on Sunday; an Iranian Barley soup and a Leek, Potato and Stilton one. The Iranian one I've been meaning to try for some time whereas the other's a recipe I've made before and I had leeks to be used up in the fridge. As the barley effort takes a long time simmering I thought I could make the other in between as it were. I'll post them seperately to avoid any confusion though. Most likely mine rather than yours... ;-p

Ash-e-jow, Iranian barley soup

2 tbsp EVOO

2 onions

1 litre veg stock*

0.5 litre water*

0.5 tsp black pepper

1tsp turmeric

1tbsp parsley - dried [or mint but I used parsley]

1 cup pearl barley

0.5 cup lentils [I used green]

Put oil in big soup pan and put on low-medium heat. Chop onions and add to oil.

Put kettle on.

Cook onions for a few mins to soften.

*Recipe calls for plain water but I was a little concerned at that as I thought it may give a bit of a bland dish so I made mine with 1.5l water and 2 cubes designed to make 450ml (or near enough 0.5l) stock each. So in essence 1 litre veg stock and 0.5 litre plain boiling water. Whichever way you want to do it add this now. [You may want to try with 1 stock cube and taste further on in the cooking process to see if you think it needs the second cube. I used Quixo veg stock cubes from Aldi as seen in this pic, I find they're not so distinctive in flavour as Oxo's. Previously discussed here and since down in price to a bargainous 65p for 12.]

Add the rest of the ingredients and bring to a boil.

Reduce to a simmer and simmer covered or 1.5 hours. Stir every so often.

Expect it to get thick and frankly not very soup like to my western eye.

Hmm - I was hoping for more from this I must admit. It was nice and simple so bonus points there - another time-frugal thing really, though you must stir it so it doesn't stick on the bottom of the pan. I just thought it a bit lacking on flavour really, it needs something extra. Looking at some reviews on another site it seems some people agree with me. What I may try is adding the half tin of chopped toms I've got in the fridge and some extra spices with a squeeze of lemon and see what that gives us. Hey ho, we have to try these things!