Some of you may recall that our household doesn't do roast turkey at Christmas, so we don't always have a lot of leftovers, but this year my parents were unable to fly south to warmer climes for the winter, so they came to join us on Christmas day. This made us 5 adults and 3 kids of varying ages, all of whom like their roast dinners.
It is quite hard to find a chicken that will feed that many, and particularly if you are looking at free range or organic. For that reason, I bought 2 chickens, and roasted them together, using some tandoori paste butter on one to baste the breast under the skin. Of course I wanted to get similar sized birds, so they would cook evenly, but this did mean we had a proper amount of meat left over. We decided to cut ourselves some slack and we bought in a lot of the accompaniments, such as the red cabbage, bread sauce, and yes, the gravy. (Don't judge!!) It was all really tasty, (thank you Sainsbury's, much tastier than Waitrose or M&S last year!) and it meant we had all the delicious pan juices to use another day. These were poured into a pyrex jug and put in the fridge to separate.
So 2 days after Christmas, I scooped the fat from the jug into a container, and melted some with some olive oil in my lidded sauté pan. I fried some chopped onion and garlic until soft and added some frozen veg. A sprinkle of marigold powder went in of course, and then some of the rich jelly stock from underneath the fat in the jug. Once that had melted, I sloshed in a little white wine, reduced it down slightly and then stirred in the chopped up leftover chicken as required. This then simmered to absorb the flavours for a few minutes, with the lid on. Right before serving, I swirled in a little soured cream. Yoghurt, cream, creme fraiche or plain cream cheese would do if those are what you have to hand, just a couple of teaspoons.
I then served this with rice and buttered greens.
Complete hit!!! Almost a free meal!
Oh and in case you are wondering, the full Christmas meal I did, including all the preprepared items costed out to £6.55 per head. Not bad for the fact of splashing out for the special day!!
menus and recipes for budget family cooking, plus a bit of wittering as is my wont...
Saturday 28 December 2013
Post-Christmas leftover yummies
Wednesday 11 December 2013
Gobble gobble turkey
I've been buying turkey meat recently and really enjoying it. It is cheap and tasty, especially if you go for the dark, leg meat.
I had used a lot of turkey as a student, but mainly white breast meat, and I really went off it. We never have turkey at Christmas, I find the roast bird dry and gamey, and not to my taste. But the dark meat is lean and succulent and cooks up very similar to goat or spring lamb.
Three recent dishes have been great successes; all very different, and none left ius feeling we were about to turn into a turkey...
I first made turkey mince keema a few months ago, the recipe is given in a previous post, but recently I used turkey leg mince to make a simple ragu for pasta. It was very tasty, with my usual addition ofaniseed flavour, in this case, a piece of cinnamon, and a drop of marmite.
The following weekend, I pressure cooked a turkey leg. I had to trim the bony bit to get it to fit well so I could brown it a little, then I added quartered onions, chunks of celery, lots of chunks of carrot, a bag of organic spuds from Abel and Cole, chopped up, a little wine, some stock. Really really basic and simple. But oh so delicious! The meat was so tender, just falling off the "dinosaur" bone. Littl'Un had a blast fishing out the bone and gnawing on it.
Today's turkey meal was made from a pack of pre-cubed leg meat. I know prediced meat costs more, but most weekdays, I save so much TIME with these, time I just don't have what with listening to Littl'Un read her reading book, and making sure Tiny doesn't get left out, and waiting to see if Big'Un needs picking up after school, especially when she's got rugby after school...So i choose to save money elsewhere, and on the days when I am not time-poor.
So I made a middle Eastern inspired stew type thing, using chopped onions, ground cumin and cinnamon, tinned tomatoes, frozen griddled aubergine slices which I snipped up with scissors. Then I chucked in a tin of chickpeas and let it simmer while I toasted some couscous in butter, then cooked it in stock. By "cooked" I mean stir stock powder through and then add boiling water, simmer for 10 seconds and then switch off and steam for a few minutes. This whole meal was luscious and enjoyed by all. The meat was tender and soft and the aubergines were melty and a delicious extra dimension.
If you haven't tried turkey except at Christmas, give it a go! It's cheap, tasty and pretty healthy too!
Saturday 24 August 2013
raw tomato sauce for pasta and meatballs.
If I have a glut of tomatoes that need to be used, I often blitz up this sauce for pasta, and that makes this meal ready in no time at ALL.
Put the water on to boil. Add your pasta when the water is ready. I don't have to tell you how to make pasta. Yes, you can do this with gluten free pasta, any shape of pasta, wholemeal pasta - in fact I often use a mix of basics and wholemeal spaghetti.
Put all the tomatoes into the beaker for your stick blender, or into the jug of your blender, or bowl of your food processor. Add 2-5 cloves of garlic, and at least a teaspoon, maybe more, of salt, depending on how many tomatoes there are. Blitz it all up. If you have some basil, add it if you feel like it. A drop of nice olive oil and maybe of cider vinegar, or a pinch of brown sugar can all add a little zing. Maybe you like spicy, in which case some chilli - powder, sauce, Tabasco, whatever will be good here too.
Pour the meatballs into a microwaveable dish and heat for as long as the packet says.
Drain the pasta, and serve the 3 together. If you have some green veg you want to eat too, that would be nice, but you won't die if you don't have any. Enjoy, it shouldn't take more than about 15 mins to get to the table.
foraging is fun in summer
I roasted a chicken (from the 3 for £10 promotion in Sainsbury's) with a little butter mashed with garlic and cumin, pushed under the skin of the breast. I just boiled some salad potatoes and steamed some broccoli to go with the chicken, but I also made a salad using a bag of mixed watercress, baby spinach and rocket, added a handful of blackberries, and made a dressing of finely chopped shallots, cider vinegar, good olive oil and a squirt of SweetFreedom. Of course I used the stuff in the roasting tray (I had the chicken on a rack) to make a nice thin jus (or gravy, as we call it!) Glorious glorious comfort food, and the dressing and the gravy mingled to make a luscious sauce with a tang and a good hit of savoury satisfaction.
For pudding we had two different fools. So easy to do, and no time at all take, really. I simmered a punnet of gooseberries in a frying pan with about 60-70g of golden sugar. When they were bubbling, I mashed them lightly with a fork until really soft, then poured into a jug and put to cool in the fridge. I quickly washed out the pan, and put in all the blackberries we had. It was probably slightly more than the goosegogs, but I added the same amount of sugar and did the same.
When we were ready for pudding, I whipped up a BIG tub of double cream in my Bosch, and divided the softly mounded up cream between 2 glass bowls. Into one I gently folded the gooseberry mush, and into the other I mixed in softly and dramatically most of the blackberry mush. (I kept some of the quickjam as there was a LOT, and it will be nice in porridge!) The blackberry fool went such a gorgeous deep colour, but I was careful to keep streaks of white and swirls of purple still separate.
Both were a total hit, and a really luxurious way to finish off a lovely summery family comfort food meal together.
Sunday 9 June 2013
Backwards jeera chicken in a hurry
Wednesday 20 February 2013
Birthday Mango Cake for Big'Un
While I had the yorkshires in the oven, I used the Bosch to make a quick cake mix, which I baked while we ate dinner.
I did an enriched sponge mixture - 3 of everything, - eggs, ounces of flour, caster sugar and butter, plus a spoon of baking powder. I spooned some mango puree from a can into the mix also, and baked it into my heart shaped silicone cake form. I think that takes a normal 3 egg sponge mix, looks too small to fit a 4 egg mix.
When the cake was done, out and cool, I used the Bosch again to whip up some double cream, which was done beautifully in minutes, and then I swirled through some more mango puree*.
I splodged the cream onto the cake and served the excess cream alongside for extra dolloping. We had received some fresh mangos from my aunty and also a couple from Abel and Cole, so Godpapa peeled the ripest one and we ate slices of the sweet fruit with the cake. They were the less sugary South American mangoes, so made a lovely fresh accompaniment to the cake.
Needless to say, it was a success!
*A note about mango puree - it's available from Indian shops in quite large tins. I had opened the tin and used about 2 thirds the day before to make mango lassi.
Tuesday 12 February 2013
Shrove Tuesday something different
First off I sliced up some nice organic chestnut mushrooms and fried these in a pan with some butter and a glug of garlic oil. I sprinkled in some tarragon after a while. I left these slowly frying towards intense umami deliciousness.
I then made a triple batch of the following recipe which I have used for nearly 20 years, from the Good Housekeeping cookery book. My cookery bible which was a 21st birthday pressie and is still my most reached for reference book.
4oz plain flour
pinch of salt
1 egg
half a pint of milk.
drop of veg oil.
As I did a triple batch, I used a mix of full-cream and semi-skimmed milk, and water. It worked absolutely fine. I usually either whisk this by hand in a big jug, or whizz it up in the Bamix and its jug. But for this large a batch I did it in the Bosch, though I wouldn't say it was especially quick or smooth. Perhaps I should have tried doing it in the blender attachment.
In the meantime I microwaved 6 or 7 lumps of frozen chopped spinach and put them in the Bamix jug. Once the batter was mixed, I took about a third out and added it to the spinach and then blitzted it all together.
(The rest of the batter was used to make the pancakes for the church pancake party.)
I then made 2 pancakes at a time for speed, just like ordinary pancakes, using a small ladle to measure out the right amount to coat the pan not too thickly, on a medium heat so it doesn't set so quickly that you can't tilt it to coat the base.
No, I didn't toss them. I have very weak wrists and need to save my strength in them for typing these blog posts or knitting! ;oP
I served these up with some of the mushrooms and a dollop of soured cream.
I won't pretend every one loved these, but I certainly did, and I'm sure many of my readers will too. Yes, I know it's Lent, but who actually gives up the ingredients of pancakes in Lent anyway??!!
Cookies galore!
Wednesday 6 February 2013
garlic tofu and veg
1 pack tofu
1 tbs cornflour
2 tbs garlic oil
2 tbs kikkoman soy sauce
1tsp salt
ground black pepper
2 heads pak choi
1 cup of soy beans
handful of mushrooms
Start by dicing the tofu and placing in a dish to marinade. Pour the garlic oil over and season with soy sauce, salt and some freshly ground black pepper. Mix the cornflour with 5 tbs water in a cup and then pour this over the tofu too. Leave to marinade. 10 mins is fine, longer won't hurt.
Chop the mushrooms and the pak choi, separating the green leaves from the white stalks.
Heat some more oil, groundnut or more garlic oil, in a wok and using a slotted spoon to drip off excess marindae, fry the tofu in batches until crispy on some of the sides. You can be careful and crisp all the sides, or just crisp some and move on, depends how much time you have, or what texture you are going for. Remove with a slotted spoon when done and reserve on a plate. Do not pour away the marinade though!
Next fry the mushrooms, soy beans and whites of the pak choi for a few minutes, and then add the leaves of the pak choi. Once these are wilted, pour in the whole of the marinading liquid. The liquid will thicken up and look glossy very quickly. Stir it all around and switch off heat when desired thickness of sauce is acheived.
I preferred to keep the tofu separate, some for nibbling and some placed on top of all the veg. I had steamed some rice simply to accompany this.
Big'Un scoffed 2 big bowlsful, Littl'Un made a valiant effort given she isn't very well anyway, and Tiny scoffed every soy bean he could find and even ate some of the crunchy pak choi stalks. Naturally he loved the rice, and he even ate a bit of tofu, but he's never been a big protein eater in the evenings.
A big hit all round, and took around 20 minutes to make from start to finish.
Monday 4 February 2013
Oriental inspired chicken burgers and crispy noodle salad
The burgers were a hit with everyone, and Tiny ate more than Littl'Un, which was a great surprise!
I was given money for my big birthday this weekend, so I treated myself to a couple of new kitchen gadgets I'd been hankering after, so this meal was partly an excuse to play with them, to be honest!
Firstly I minced up a pack of chicken breasts (I had bought them in a multi-meat discount purchase, 3 for £10 or similar) and then I added in some shallots and spring onions (if I'd had more spring onions I would have just used those) and whizzed them up together. For this I used the SliceSy attachment for my Bamix, and it was amazing, I did cut each breast in half and only processed 2 at a time, because I wasn't certain how it would cope, but I needn't have worried, I had perfect mince in seconds.
I enjoyed the lifting plate design to empty the SliceSy, and put the meat and onions into a pyrex bowl. The blades really are sharp, I managed to cut my finger when really carefully drying the chopping blade! The kids luckily ignored my colourful language! I'm glad it comes with a blade guard for storage.
I then added 2 tbs cornflour, 1 tbs dark soy sauce and 1 tbs kikkoman soy sauce and 1 tbs shao xing rice wine and mixed really well with a spoon. I left this to marinade a little while I made the salad.
Using the shredding attachment on my Bosch Mixer, I very easily shredded up a mini white cabbage and 3 large carrots. My Sis-In-Law also suggests using mushrooms, red cabbage and spring onions too, but I didn't have them to hand, and it was still delicious. I put about a third of the carrot/cabbage away in the fridge to make coleslaw later in the week, and put the rest in a salad bowl. I called in Big'Un and made her smash up a pack of noodles, the kind that has a sachet of soup base or seasoning, I used this one which is actually marketed as to be eaten dry as a snack, but any would work the same.
The smashed up noodles were then emptied out into the veggies, and mixed in, and the sachet was opened and put in a small jug. I then added olive oil, sesame oil, soy sauce, lemon juice, sugar and pepper to the seasoning to make a dressing. This is then poured over the salad shortly before serving. Not so long that it makes the noodles (or doondles as our household calls them) soggy, but long enough for the flavour to soak in. Mix well and garnish with toasted almonds and/or sesame seeds.
While Big'Un was smashing out her troubles, I got on with frying the burgers. I used 2 metal spoons to dollop and flatten portions of mix into a preheated oiled frying pan, turning after a few minutes. I like these patties to be thin so they cook well but try not to dry them out.
I served this all with pitta pockets. Some people stuffed salad in with their patties, others kept the salad for separate eating, some did both!
Tuesday 29 January 2013
Aldi half leg of lamb, slow cooked
I seared the joint on all sides and then put it in my slow cooker. I then quartered a couple of onions, added some olives that had been hanging around - some from the fridge and some from a jar at the back of the cupboard, and then I sprinkled over some ground cinnamon and marigold powder and finally added a tin of chopped tomatoes. I did swill the tin round with some red wine that was already open and set aside for cooking, but this wasn't exactly necessary. I then put the lid on and set the cooker onto high, and then left it alone.
I was then out for most of the day, which is good as I do sometimes find if I'm in the house while the food is cooking all day I sort of "go off" the flavour from smelling it all day. I left instructions with GodPapa as to what to do to make the accompaniment for the 2 littler children who were at home with him, as I realised Papa, Big'Un and I would be out past our usual supper time.
About 10 minutes before they wanted to eat, GodPapa toasted a premeasured amount of couscous in the pan in which I had previously seared the lamb joint. He added some marigold, a can of chickpeas and then the same volume of water, or slightly more, brought it to the boil and switched the heat off, covering the pan. After 5-6 minutes the couscous had fluffed up, and he stirred through some sour pomegranate seeds which had been peeled the day before but were too sour to just eat as a fruit.
The whole dish was comforting, hearty and bursting with flavour and incredibly low in actual work to cook it! There was also plenty of meat left after we had all eaten our fill, which I'm planning to reheat and serve with tagliatelle and some extra veg.
Monday 21 January 2013
Indo-Chinese not so chilli paneer
1 pack paneer (I use Long Clawson from the supermarket which is 227g I think)
3 or 4 cloves garlic (or 1 clove and 1 large cube frozen garlic puree)
1 inch ginger, grated (or 1 large cube frozen ginger puree - often in supermarkets with ethnic foods)
half a bunch of spring onions
1 small red onion
1 cup of frozen sweetcorn
2 tbs ketchup
2 tbs soya sauce - Kikkoman
1 tsp vinegar, malt is fine
2 tbs groundnut oil or similar
salt, pepper, chilli flakes
1 tbs cornflour
Start off by dicing up the paneer and putting it in a dish in one layer. Finely chop or grate 1 clove of garlic and spread over the paneer. Season with salt, pepper and the chilli flakes to taste. I used VERY little.
Put the cornflour in a mug and add 5 tbs of water. Mix well and pour over the paneer, toss them around briefly and ensure it is still in one layer. Leave to marinade for 10 minutes.
Use the 10 minutes to chop the spring onions separating the white and green parts to use separately. Chop the red onion too. At this point I defrosted the frozen ginger and pureed the remaining garlic also.
Now heat a nonstick frying pan or saute pan with 1 tbs of the oil and fry the paneer, reserving the marinade. Make sure you turn the pieces so 2 or 3 sides are browned and crisp. At this point, try not to have no one but BigUn looking after Tiny, and Tiny has a nosebleed and BigUn isn't sure what to do or your paneer might burn. Luckily, BigUn was fine...and so was Tiny, and so was the paneer...
Remove with a slotted spoonand set aside, and add the 2nd tbs of oil if needed. Now on a lower heat, fry the red onion and the white part of the spring onion until the onion is soft and transluscent. Now add the garlic & ginger purees and fry on a slightly higher heat until the garlic no longer smells raw. Now add the sweetcorn (or vegetable of your desire!) If you were wanting to spice things up, now would be a good time to add some chopped green chilli, or red chilli etc.
Add the ketchup, soy sauce and vinegar, and add the paneer back in. Stir and coat well and add half a mug of water. Heat the sauce up and then add the marinade too. The sauce will thicken up very quickly, but you can always thin it down or add more of any of the sauces to taste. Add the green part of the spring onion to serve.
We had this with bought naan bread and pitta breads, it is dryish, but you could as easily toss it through some noodles. Big Un split her pitta and stuffed it full of paneer and ate it faster than a blink! I will admit Tiny Un really didn't even try this, but he enjoyed his pitta bread. I guess it wasn't a protein day for him! Can't win them all. Papa loved it and said he could easily have eaten the whole panful...
So who's wondering about Littl'Un? Thank you for asking! She was at Rainbows and had had cheese on toast before hand!
Wednesday 9 January 2013
Oat Frackles (strawberry banana)
The baby likes to copy his sisters and eat a banana, but after the novelty of the first time, he never has more than a few bites. I also noticed the strawberry melts in the cookie cupboard and thought they'd make a nice twist to a plainish idea. This is what I came up with, it was a great little midweek pudding.
Somewhere between a flapjack and a fairy cake with a cookie like crust.
A great way to use up some of that bag of jumbo oats I bought instead of regular porridge oats which no one will eat for breakfast cos they turn out too chewy and husky.
6 yellow scoops (my yellow scoop is a coffee scoop we measure the girls' porridge with, it's over a tablespoon) jumbo oats
2 heaped Chinese spoons SR flour (I have plastic Chinese spoons in my flour containers, a heaped spoon is about 2oz usually)
3-4 tbs sugar 1 mashed banana (minus the bit baby nibbled)
2 squirts stork liquid
Some strawberry melts
Mix all together, mashing banana as you go. Spoon into 12 fairy cake cases Bake 15-20 mins at 200 deg.