Wednesday 1 June 2011

a few foodie successes from the past fortnight

The day before Big'Un was due to go off on her first school trip away, we made Calzone for dinner, with left over ragu sauce, mozzarella cheese, and the usual pizza dough done in the bread machine. Big'Un loved it so much she asked to save one for her packed lunch on the way to the activity centre. I was part proud mama, part embarrassed at how middle class mama!
Anyway, it meant I didn't have to make a sarnie, so I didn't mind that much!

Littl'Un was looking forward to a few unusual meals with her big sis away, so we had a prawn rich paella, thanks to Nigella, and mussels another evening, where she shared a kilo with myself and Papa, and we definitely got the less generous part of the deal!

Gammon steaks fried up with roast potatoes and greens were delicious, and a very simple tofu noodle stir fry was a huge hit, probably more for the fun kiddie chop-sticks Littl'Un uses for these type of dishes...

Godmama gave us a lovely Waitrose recipe for a creamy chicken dish that we revisited along with a spinach and sweetcorn dish my mother often makes and some buttery pilau rice.
To make the spinach dish:
fry slices of garlic in a pan with a little oil. When soft, add a spoon of ground cumin and a spoon of ground coriander, or garam masala if you prefer. Some tiny dried red chillies would be nice here if you are so inclined.
When the spices are fragrant, chuck in a few lumps of frozen spinach, and a handful of either frozen or canned sweetcorn. Dribble on a little hot water, cover and simmer until the spinach is cooked. Season with black pepper and salt if necessary.

Another day out in half term and we needed a quick supper, so I quickly chopped up the left over gammon steaks, and roast potatoes, and fried them with some onion in some butter. When it was cooked thoroughly, I squirted on ketchup and brown sauce, yes really, and mixed it all up.
Delish with a quickly thrown together salad.

Finally, we had the gorgeous brainiac nephew over for supper before his return to the Far East. I'd asked him what kinda meal he wanted, and Big'Un was delighted when he asked for sausages and yorkshire pudding with gravy!
I was less delighted, as recently my yorkshires have NOT been working properly. Time for drastic action.
I altered the recipes I've used in the past. I used 6oz flour (with a pinch of salt) with 2 eggs and 7fl oz milk. Heated my muffin tin with dripping, and then divided the batter between the 12 recesses.
Oven at 220 deg, 20 mins later, OH WOW, best yorkshires EVER! Finally!

I suppose I should make a little mention of the egg mayo that Littl'Un helped me make to go with jacket potatoes, snipping the cress and cracking the eggs and seasoning the final dish. She now loves the filling, which is handy as she's stopped eating baked beans at all, which is the other standby on jacket spud days. But as I'm not a fan of the musical fruit either, and I DO love an egg mayo, I'm happy! :)