Saturday 26 September - Steamed Suet Puddings

Bob is off to work in France for 10 days, so I decided to make his favourite - Steak and Kidney Pudding. George is off meat at present, so an alternative Mushroom version was made for him.

We went to the lovely butchers in Titchfield for the meat, and bought some beautiful braising steak.

However, there was a kidney shortage, and we had to go to Wickham to find some frozen kidneys from the butcher there.

 

I decided to cook the meat first rather than cook it in the pudding, so made a standard stew, frying the meat then adding onions, garlic, beef stock, red wine and simmering for a couple of hours before leaving it to cool

 This was then packed into a bowl lined with suet pastry.

The top was added, and the pudding was steamed for about an hour and a half before turning out.

For the veggie version a  huge amount of onions were fried until slightly caramelised.

Big flat mushrooms were softened in olive oil, these are the 'meat' in the pudding.

The onions and mushrooms were then layered into the lined pudding bowl and it was steamed in the same way as the meat version.

The finished pud - went down a real treat too, don't think anyone would miss having meat with one of these on offer.

Thursday 24 September - Fig Tatin

On offer in Lidl at the weekend were figs - so as usual I bought more than I could possibly need because they looked so beautiful.

I also had a pack of puff pastry to use up, so decided to make a tatin with them.

The caramel was butter, honey and vanilla pods cooked together.

Then in with the halved figs - cut side down. They were cooked until tender.

I left these to cool a bit before topping with the pastry and into the oven.

The tart was turned out and served with some creme fraiche.

Sunday 21 September - Cherry and Almond Cake

This was my second attempt at making this cake - last time I used a silicon baking tin and it was a bit of a disaster. I spotted a fine tin in TK Max and snapped it up in order to have another go.

A pretty straightforward all in one cake mix, but with some ground almonds and lemon zest added to the batter.

The cherries were quartered, and then washed thoroughly to remove the sugary coating that was on them, and these were then folded into the cake batter.

Once the cake was cooked, it was cooled before icing.

Finally the decorations, some toasted flaked almonds and reserved glace cherries.

Saturday 20 September - Involtini and Polenta

This weeks challenge in the Dinner Group was 'Hearty Italian' - so we decided to go for Involtini - beef olives basically in a tomato, wine and mushroom sauce.

I bought cheap frying steak for this, and bashed them out to tenderise them.

They were then seasoned and sprinkled with parmesan, chopped rosemary and garlic before rolling up.

These little rolls were browned in olive oil, and added to the sauce.

Onion, chilli and celery and fennel seeds were fried and then red wine was added along with some more chopped rosemary.

Finally in went some chopped tomatoes and it was all left to simmer.

The beef was served with some soft, cheesey polenta.

For afterwards tiramisu. Egg yolks and sugar were whisked together, and then in with some marscapone, and finally egg whites folded in.

Sponge fingers were dipped in a mixture of espresso and Tia Maria and then I made layers of sponge and the creamy mix.

This was left to firm up in the fridge, and then sprinkled with drinking chocolate before serving.

Saturday 13 September - A Birthday Meal

Bob had a bit of a milestone birthday this week, so we decided to cook on Saturday rather than go out to eat.

For a starter I remembered a ham hock that was in the freezer, and found a recipe by Tom Kerridge that sounded ideal to use it up.

The hock was simmered for several hours with carrots, celery, bay leaves, clove studded onions and a dash of vinegar.

Once the meat was tender, it was shredded away from the bone, and all the fat was discarded.

Gelatine was added to the stock, along with chopped tarragon, and some toasted mustard seeds. The meat was then packed into the serving ramekins and left to set in the fridge.

To serve with this some toasted bread, and some pickled beetroot.

I roasted the beetroot in foil, and then peeled - I picked a variety of different colours from the garden, although they all taste pretty similar.

This was again a Tom Kerridge recipe, the pickling liquid was a rather unusual mixture of red wine vinegar and redcurrant jelly, reduced to a syrup, and mixed with dijon mustard.

We also added some piccalilli to the plate for colour.

For the main course, a simply fried fillet of salmon, which was served on a bed of samphire, peas and asparagus.

I added a champagne and chive sauce from one of Rick Steins books to add an extra dimension to the dish.

I decided on lemon tarts for the next course, and was rather anxious about making individual ones as I didn't want the pastry to be too thick. I made a sweet shortcrust using egg instead of water to bind it, and was pleased to find it didn't shrink in the tins when it was blind baked.

No soggy bottoms on these, and apart from the cracks that appeared when they cooled down I was really pleased with the end result.

Finally, because it was a special occasion, the only way to finish the meal for me was with a lovely bottle of port, and a big piece of stilton.

Saturday 6 September - Meatballs in Lemon and Wine Sauce

We decided to have an Italian themed meal, mainly because it's fig season and this means one of my favourite starters.

No cooking involved, just fresh figs, parma ham and some walnuts drizzled with honey.

After this some giant meatballs - these were made with veal and pork mince, with some milk soaked bread added for body, and flavoured with garlic, parmesan, nutmeg and parsley. An egg was added to bind and they were formed into large meatballs and topped with a thin slice of lemon.

After baking in a hot oven for 15 minutes they were transferred to a roasting tin, and some more lemon slices, bay leaves and white wine were added. This was all then cooked for two hours in a very low oven.

These were served with potato puree.

For dessert I had come across a recipe for something called Bonet which was new to me -  a sort of chocolate creme caramel but with amaretti bicuits in it.

First of all a rich caramel was made and placed in the tin.

A paste was made from cocoa powder, chopped plain chocolate, rum, espresso, eggs and vanilla, and hot milk was poured onto this.

Into this went crumbled amaretti, which were left to soak before whisking again. This mix was poured into the caramel lined tin, and it was baked in a bain marie

We could only manage a tiny portion of this, it was so rich, and possibly too chocolatey.
It needed cream to make it easier to eat! Interesting to make, but don't think I'll do it again.

Friday 5 September - Goan Chicken Curry

Having made and frozen all that curry sauce last week, the time arrived to use some of it.

We decided on a different curry this week that we hadn't tried before - Goan Chicken Curry, which had the addition of coconut.

First stage was to cook the chicken in the green curry cubes. I used both lots of sauce straight from the freezer and didn't bother to thaw them out.

The green curry sauce cubes were added to some oil and turmeric, and cooked for a few minutes.

Then cubed raw chicken was cooked in this paste for around 20 minutes until cooked through.

For the main sauce first some whole spices were ground up - cumin, coriander, fenugreek, fennel, cardamom, cinnamon, cloves and peppercorns

This spice powder was fried and then salt, chilli and paprika were added along with the frozen tomato sauce.

This was cooked for a few minutes until thickened, and then coconut cream was added.

Finally, the cooked chicken and some tamarind went in and it was all warmed through.

We also served some vegetable dishes with this - Mustard Seed Potatoes and Lentils, and also Garlic Rice and Parathas