Saturday 5 October - Fillet of Beef

We visited our favourite butchers in Titchfield, and came home with the most expensive piece of meat we've ever bought - on investigation when we got home we realised we had bought far too much for 3 people so half of it went straight into the freezer.


We found a recipe in one of the Masterchef books for Beef with leek and cheese souffles, wilted spinach and watercress, potato rosti and a madeira jus. This is what it should look like

 

First stage was to roll the beef in chopped rosemary and thyme, then wrap it in bacon - we used pancetta for this - a layer of cooked mushrooms and ceps was also added to the meat.

The souffles were made with baby leeks, goats cheese and some Lancashire (which was rather hard to come by in Gosport) and were twice baked - so the first cooking was in ramekins in a water bath

 

They were then turned out, sprinkled with cheese and baked quickly a second time while the meat was resting - at this stage we reheated the rostis that we had made earlier, and also made some jus from madeira and beef stock .

The meat was roasted for 12 minutes - for my taste I would have done it for a few more minutes, but it went down very well with every one else.

Friday 4 October - Chicken Kiev and Bread and Butter Pudding

Chicken Kiev was requested by George - seemed like good Friday night food to me!

The filling was butter, garlic, parsley and grated lemon rind - Bob used his special method to fill a slit in the trimmed chicken breasts.

These were dipped in flour, egg, and panko and left in the fridge for an hour or so to chill down.

They were shallow fried, then finished in the oven, and served with roasted vine tomatoes, mashed potatoes and some very out of season asaparagus.

For afters we messed about with bread and butter pudding - and came up with Black Forest Brioche and Butter Pudding.

Made in the usual way, but using chocolate chip brioche in place of the bread, and dried cherries and chocolate chunks in the layers

I cooked this in a bain marie to keep the custard a little bit softer.

Enough left over to eat out of the fridge when no one is looking too!

Sunday 22 September - Lamb Schwarma

I don't like lamb very much, and so we hardly ever cook it. However, I found this recipe by Yotam Ottolenghi in his Jerusalem book, and it had to be tried. This is the third time I've cooked it now, and it's delicious. The marinade contains and astonishing range of different spices - these are the whole ones that were toasted and then ground,

Other spices, chopped coriander, oil and lemon juice were added and the lamb was rubbed in the mixture and left to marinate. The smaller piece of meat is a chicken breast as George won't eat lamb. The lamb itself was a frozen leg from Lidl, as fresh was far too expensive!

The marinaded lamb was covered in foil and roasted for 4 hours in a low oven.

To serve with it a salad with a base of Fireek, or Freekeh

I cooked this for about  30 minutes, and added some chopped cucumber and tomatoes, loads of coriander and mint, preserved lemons, feta pieces and some pomegranate seeds - all dressed with lemon juice and some olive oil

The lamb was served with the salad, some home made houmus and some Turkish Flatbreads to scoop everything up.

Saturday 21 September - Hairy Bikers Beef Biryani

I spotted the Hairy Bikers making this on TV during the week and really liked the look of it. I found the recipe in their Curry book so it had to be tried - also Curry is one of the few things that I can guarantee George will eat.

It was quite a long winded recipe with lots of stages to it.

First stage was the beef- a paste was made in the food processor of onions, ginger, garlic and chillies

Freshly ground spices were added to the onion paste - coriander, cumin, cardamom, nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves and salt

This spice paste was fried, and then seared braising steak was added to it, along with some yoghurt and water, and it was left to simmer for a couple of hours

The other layers were prepared - basmati rice was part cooked and mixed with some chopped coriander, and some finely sliced onions were fried until golden.

Once all the components were ready, the dish was assembled.

First layer was half the beef.

  

 On top of that went half the rice, then half the fried onions - this was then drizzled with milk and saffron infusion. Then the layers were repeated.

The top layer was dotted with butter, then wrapped tightly in several layers of foil and into the oven. Garnishes were sultanas, toasted flaked almond and boiled eggs.

 We served this with popadoms, coriander chutney and cucumber raita and some home made onion bhajis.

Friday 30 August - Tomato Ketchup

A bit of a tomato glut, and this year I'm trying not to waste anything, so thought I'd have a go at Ketchup - using the vinegar bottles kindly supplied by The Bytham Kitchen for storage.

I based this on a Jamie Oliver recipe, with a few tweaks.

Firstly onions, garlic, ginger, basil, fennel, celery seed, cloves and cardamoms were sweated in a pan.

Then in went the tomatoes and some water and it all bubbled until reduced by half.

 

Then the mixture was blended and seived.

 

Finally, sugar and vinegar were added, and it was all reduced again, before being poured into sterilized bottles

Saturday 24 August - Pork Pie and Piccalilli

Last weekend was spent in Lincolnshire, and we had a visit to Melton Mowbray where we bought a delicious pork pie. I've made them before, but not for years, and as we had picked up some mini springform tins (childrens cake tins!) we thought we'd give it a go.

We read up lots of recipes, and came up with a sort of hybrid recipe of our own - the meat we used was shoulder, and we just cut this into small cubes, rather than mincing it.

The meat was seasoned with ground mace, mustard powder, a tiny bit of cayenne, salt and pepper and fresh chopped sage and thyme.

For the pastry we used Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstalls recipe for hot water crust - this is made with half butter and half lard which seems to add a bit more flavour than just using lard.
The tins were lined, and then packed with the seasoned pork.

We had to guess a bit on the cooking time, as the tins were quite small, but when they looked ready (after about 90 minutes) we took them out of the tins, and brushed them all over with egg, then cooked for another 15 minutes.

When they were nearly cool, the jelly was added - this was made by boiling pigs trotters in water flavoured with onion, carrot, bay leaves, sage and peppercorns.

We used a meat baster to add the jelly through the top of the pies - a lot of boiling was needed to make the jelly. and not much of it was used up.

While the pies were in the oven, we made a batch of piccalilli - we used onions, cucumbers and green beans from our allotment, and added some cauliflower from the market.

The vegetables were all chopped up into quite small pieces, and then left for an hour with some salt sprinkled over. They were then rinsed and left to drain.

The sauce was vinegar and sugar which was boiled and then mixed with a paste of mustard powder, turmeric, cornflour and I also added a big pinch of chilli flakes.

The was poured over the veg and popped into kilner jars. This won't keep too well as the veg weren't cooked in the vinegar.

Everything was left in the fridge overnight, and we've just tried the pie for lunch.

The best pastry I've ever made, and the meat was lovely and tender - tastes quite different from a bought pork pie - but in a good way!

 

Monday 29 July - Crispy Chicken and Puttanesca Potatoes

This meal was invented after George said he was bored with potatoes - I have to admit that we've been having them with everything as we have so many on the allotment, and it seems a shame not to eat then while they are so delicous!

The chicken was dipped first in flour, then a mixture of beaten egg and mustard, and finally some dried white breadcrumbs - these were browned in a frying pan, then finished in the oven for 20 minutes.

Now to the potatoes  - they were cut into even sizes and once cooked were cut up roughly with a sharp knife - skins and all.

Stirred through these - chopped deseeded and peeled tomato cubes, fried red onion, garlic and chopped red chilli - I added a spoonful of anchovy paste to the fried mixture while it was warm but you could add chopped tinned anchovies here, black olives and capers, and loads and loads of basil.

Once we'd tasted it we added the juice of half a lemon to brighten the flavours up

The potatoes were served warm with the crispy chicken, drizzled with some home made basil oil that was left over from Saturdays meal - and for once three completely clean plates at the end of the meal.