Hangover Brunch

In anticipation of some cider induced hangovers, I thought I would give you my hangover brunch recipe.

The tomato sauce part of this recipe is not as fiddly as it may sound. However, if you really can't be bothered, use ketchup or slices of tomatoes. This sandwich contains carbs, fat, sugar, iron, tons of protein, Vit c, so should be everything you need to help you recover. You may also notice a serious lack of meat. I would never say that adding sausages or bacon or both would ruin this brunch, it would only make it better, but this is just how I like it :)

For 2
2 Crusty bread rolls
2 Portobello Mushrooms
A few large handfuls of spinach
1/4 Pack of Feta cheese
For tommy sauce -
4 Tbsp of chopped tinned toms
1 tblsp of tomato puree
1 tbls of Balsamic Vinegar
1 tsp Sugar
Pinch of salt
Pinch of chilli flakes

1, preheat the oven, 180 degrees
2, into a saucepan add all the ingredients for the tomato sauce, bring to the boil and then simmer low until the mushrooms are ready.
3. Put the mushrooms on baking tray, season with salt and pepper and drizzle with olive oil
4, roast in oven for 20 mins
5, in the meantime, stir the sauce occasionally
6, About 5 mins before mushrooms are ready, wilt the spinach (i usually use a wok) once wilted, pop in sieve and drain excess water, add back to the pan with a very small glug of olive oil and then crumble in the feta. stir for a couple of mins to combine and so the heat melts the feta slightly. Make sure it does not catch on the bottom of the pan.
7, when the mushrooms are ready, spread the sauce on both halves of the roll, and the cheesey spinachy bit and then top with the mushroom.
8, eat whilst watching some really mindless morning telly :)

To help, drink gallons of tea during cooking process to keep you going. My first rule of a hangover is to avoid coffee, it dehydrates you even further!


Note - I used large field mushrooms as I couldn't get a portobello this day, but it works just as well

Cider Making

Following a visit to Mr H's dad, we came home with a huge bag of cooking apples from his tree. We brought them home and as I was plotting all sorts of jam and chutneys, Mr H had a very different idea. Cider!

I can not deny I think this is highly dangerous. Irresponsible drinking is the norm in this household, and I think a home brew could be suicide. But, what can I do? Of course, I also think it would be great fun to have our own brew :)

In our usual haphazard attempt to being as self-sufficient as we can, we followed no recipe or guidelines to the letter, but instead amalgamated several! This obviously adds to the danger, but most of our "experiments" have been relatively successful, so what the hell.

So, we have some brewing kit donated by Mr H's Dad, which we used to make the elderflower champagne, but we were short of a cider press. As these cost money Mr H "fashioned" his own. 2 G Clamps and 2 pieces of wood. This cost £11. Hooray. We cheated by grating the apples in a food processor before putting in a muslin bag and pressing (very haphazardly) in Mr H's cider press. We now have a demi john filled with fermenting apple juice. Here it will stay for a couple of months before transferring to another demi john, minus the sediment. Then we leave it until it is clear and this should be followed by the tasting.

Chopped Apples before Shredding

Mr H's Cider Press - Genius!



The Pressed Juice
Looks disgusting... watch this space!

Steak & Cheese Pie

Whilst out for a glass of wine with my good pal from New Zealand, she told me about Steak & Cheese Pie's which she had back home. She spoke of them like a national legend, and the description made my mouth water a little and my belly grumble!

So I googled them and found a few recipes, most of which seemed to be the same, one of the main ingredients being a tin of tomato soup. The website I finally settled on is from a company called Woolworth's, according to my friend they are a Supermarket and not like our UK Woolworth's.

I was extremely proud of myself when I told her that I had made her home pie, and how great it was. It was really good, so many favourite combinations - pastry & Steak, Steak & Mushrooms, Tomatoe & cheese, cheese & steak, cheese & Pastry........ I could go on. However, on discussing it, she doesn't remember the "pie juice" being tomatoey, but more gravy like :( Bugger!

I will make her one and she can tell me if its traditional or not, either way it was divine and ever-so-slightly-naughty :) So good Mr H nearly proposed. (My original intention was to take her a slice but I ended up with none left as he scoffed the lot!)

Attached is the link to the recipe and a picture of my one :)

http://www.woolworths.co.nz/Traditional_Steak_and_Cheese_Pie_Recipe_63.htm

Whats happening in the garden....

The best crop of 2008 is definitely the chilies! The crop has been massive and we have eaten loads, dried them, frozen them, given them away. The tomatoes have done well too. The crop of plum tomatoes are just beginning to turn red, so I can't wait for them to be ripe. We had more strawberries than we thought we would get, about 10 now I think! Plus a handful of raspberries.

We had a dinner out of the broad beans, not as many as I hoped. I love broad beans. Mr H made a concoction with them, unfortunately I forgot to photograph as i was starving. They were eaten al fresco and with a nice cold bottle of white.

We have a few barlotti beans, but not huge amounts. We have salad leaves, and a couple more cucumbers. A few green peppers, we ate one yesterday. The parsnips, despite the foxes are doing well, we hope these will accompany our turkey later in the year. Broccoli and beetroot are coming up nicely. I'm really looking forward to them both. Mr H and I have never had a successful broccoli crop, and fresh beets are one of my favourite veggies.

We got some free seeds, rhubarb chard, so we planted those yesterday.

There is one crop which has disappointed Mr H. That's an understatement. He is devastated. I am referring to the melons. There were a couple of flowers, but they are all boys. Some of the leaves are going mouldy now but it is very tall and looks impressive growing up the conservatory wall and across the ceiling. He doesn't give up though.... but I think I might have. It would be cruel to admit I never thought they would work, but as he says I am a fair weather gardener, in fact he even said I was a fair weather forager yesterday when out picking berries. There maybe a little truth in this, I think I picked one to many wormy ones, and then there was the occasional wasp.... it doesn't motivate you!

All in all, for a small London garden, we have done very well. It is extremely gratifying picking and cooking veg you have grown from seed. When I reflect on this, I am sure fair weather gardener is an appropriate description of me, most of the hard work has been by Mr H. He says I have green fingers, but he supplies the muscle, and most of the knowledge.

Anyway, here are some pictures of the crops.....

The Melons

The Chilies

Beetroot


Alpine Strawberry


Broccoli

Barlotti Beans



The Flower Bed

Drunken Mess!

This is my version of Eton Mess. I obviously prefer it as it contains booze, lots of it :)

I'm afraid I can not give you any amounts for any of the ingredients, this is one which has to be purely your intuition, and how much you like each ingredient. One thing I would say, is be easy on the cream, too much will make the dish so rich, 4 mouth fulls and you will be done. At least double the amount of fruit to cream is a good general guide.

Double Cream
Berries (i love raspberries in this, however a mix of straw, blue and rasp is always good)
Caster Sugar
Champagne or Cava
Creme de Cassis
Brandy
Meringue

1, Soak the fruit in a couple of glugs of each type of booze, and a light sprinkling of sugar. Think here.... you definitely want to be more generous with the champagne than the other 2. The creme de cassis gives colour and sweetness, and the brandy gives that fantastic boozy taste.

• Also, this is always even better if you soak the fruit overnight.
  

Stir it all well.
2, Whip the cream until firmish. You don't want it too stiff!
3, Mash the fruit with a fork. Pour into a sieve, and reserve the liquid that comes through.
4, Mix the fruit into the cream. You can either totally combine or "ripple" it. To be honest, I always intend to ripple it, get a little overexcited and blend the lot. It still tastes nice!
5, Spoon over a little of the boozy goodness and stir through.
6, break up meringues and combine, then serve. (preferably with a glass of champagne!)

Broccoli & Feta Soup

It be a wild and woolly day! I started to crave broccoli soup, and as I had a ton of feta in the fridge I thought.......... why not! I usually like cheese scones with broccoli soup, but as I had put cheese in the soup I decided garlic toast was the way forward.

This is definitely one for the autumn, but the weather is such today, no harm can come from eating this, comfort food after all is suitable in all weathers!

Soup (serves 4-6)
2 head of broccoli (stalks 'n' all)
1 medium onion, chopped
3 cloves of garlic, chopped
Handful of frozen peas
Handful of Fresh parsley, chopped
1 tbls olive oil
Knob of butter
salt & Pepper
3rd of a pack of Feta
1.5 pints of vegetable or chicken stock

Garlic toast
1 slice of bread per person
1 level tbls butter per person
1 clove of garlic per 4 tbls
Pinch of course salt

1, break off the broccoli florets, and chop up the remains stalk
2. Fry the onion and garlic in the olive oil for a couple of minutes
3, Stir in the broccoli and then add the stock.
4, bring to the boil, then lower to a simmer, mix well and leave for 25 mins
5. Add the seasoning, peas and parsley and cook for another 5 mins
6, Blend the soup, then crumble in the feta as small as possible and blend again.
7, put back on the heat to warm trough stirring well. You may need to add a little more water if too thick
8, to make the garlic butter, pound the garlic clove/s with a little salt and the butter. Loosen with a dash of olive oil. Mix well making sure there are no large lumps of garlic left.
9, Whilst soup is heating, toast one side of the bread. Turn over and on the uncooked side spread your garlic butter and then toast till golden.

Jammy Goodness

Our local woods have a wealth of edible berries. During the brief sunshine yesterday we went and collected blackberries, mulberries and elderberries.

It hurts more than I can say to admit that Mr H makes much better jam than me. Mine is good, but somehow he has some magical power for making the finest jam known to humanity. On the plus side I get to eat it all :)

Fairtrade organic sugar (to add to the wild, organic element of this batch of jam), boiled with the fruits and da daaa - Jammy goodness.

What a finer breakfast than fresh bread, toasted, smothered in butter and then topped with home-made jam. I am a happy girl :)

Easy Peasy Chocolate Cake

This is so easy, yet lovely! Life is sweet!

4oz SR Flour
4oz Caster Sugar
4oz Butter
2 Eggs
1oz cocoa

For the topping
100g Dark Chocolate
3 tbls Cream
1 tbls Syrup
Flaked Almonds - how many do you want!

preheat oven to 180
1, Cream the sugar and butter together
2, Whisk the eggs separately until really light and fluffy.
3, Add the eggs to the sugar and beat until very smooth
4, fold in the flour and cocoa. Mix well.
5, add mixture to a buttered 7" tin
4, Cook for 30 mins
5, Once the cake is cooled, remove from tin.
6, break the chocolate up into small pieces. Melt in a saucepan with the cream and syrup. Once everything is melted and combined pour over the cake. Spread evenly over the top and round the outside of the cake. Sprinkle flaked almonds over the top.

Bacon & Onion Toad

This dish seems so wartime, and it probably is. I haven't eaten this in about 15 years, and following a conversation with my mum earlier, I got a craving! Perfect for a rainy August day!

4oz Plain Flour
2 Eggs
150ml Milk
8 Rashers Bacon
1 Large Onion, cut into thin slices
Sunflower Oil

1, Make the batter as in advance as possible. Whisk eggs for several minutes so frothy and full of air.
2, whisk the milk in and then the flour. Beat well until there are no lumps
3, In a baking tin (i use a 7" cake tin) cook the bacon and onions on the hob until the bacon is cooked.
4, Add a tbls of oil and put back on heat (really watch your hands, it will spit) you only need a minute of heating the oil as the pan should be pretty hot.
5, add the batter and put into an oven that has been pre-heated to as high as the dial goes. Once the toad is in, you can lower the heat to 180.
6, Cook for 30 mins.

Im serving mine with garlic mash, roasted carrots and steamed broccoli.

Childhood revisited :)

Dinners for Kids

My Nephew is currently staying at my parents. He is not too finicky, but like most 8 year olds there is usually a bit of a struggle to get him to eat veg. Mum asked me for some child friendly recipes which are healthy, yummy and full of hidden veg. I gave her Hommity Pie, Sausage Casserole and Mediterranean Pie, as well as these :)

Hidden Veg Lasagna
minced Beef
2 tin of toms
1 carrot
1 stick celery
onion
5 cloves of garlic
handful of mushrooms chopped into tiny pieces
1 red pepper
1 tsp sugar
salt & pepper
tomato puree, 2 tbls
lasage sheets
cottage cheese
1 egg
grated cheddar

1, grate the carrot, celery, onion, pepper, chopped garlic. Fry in olive oil for about 5-10 minutes, they should be soft but not coloured.
2, Brown the mince, then add the veggies, mix well.
3, and the tin toms, sugar, mushrooms and concentrate. Mix well, and reduce heat to a simmer. Cook for an hour. Stir in chopped basil at the end of cooking.
4, layer the meat and lasagna sheets.
5, loosen cottage cheese with a little milk and whisk in an egg. Spread over the top layer of lasagna sheets and top with grated cheese
6, bake in the oven for 30 mins

The meat recipe can also be used for bolognese.

Feta and Broccoli Quiche

Pastry
4oz white flour
4oz wholemeal flour
4oz butter
salt and pepper

You know how to make pastry :)

For the filling

1, steam the broccoli for about 3-5 mins and put in the tart shell
2, crumble over about 1/2 a block of feta
3, whisk 3 eggs with a couple of lugs of milk and pour over
4, Cook in the oven for 30 mins

Burgers and Wedges

Mince beef
2 cloves of garlic
1 onion, grated
1 Egg

Jkt Potatoes
Olive Oil
Salad

1. Grate the onion, and fry with the chopped garlic for a couple of minutes to just take the heat off the onion
2, season the mince and mix in the onions. Add an egg to bind. Shape into burgers, and pop in the fridge
3. Chop the potatoes into wedges, pop them in a bowl, and pour over a good glug of olive oil
4, season with salt and pepper and mix well. Put them on a baking sheet and bake for 30-40 mins
5, grill the burgers, pop into buns with some cheese and serve with salad

Fish Pie
My adult version has wine and cream, and shell fish... but for the kids something tasty and not quite as rich....

White fish (this is a great recipe to use Pollock, its cheap and environmentally friendly) If your kids like smoked fish then do a combination of smoked fish and plain fish.
1 Onion grated
1 Celery Stick Grated
Few Handfuls of peas
A good handful of green beans chopped (same sort of size as the peas)
2 Cloves of Garlic, chopped
2 Boiled Eggs, cut into slices
1 Pint milk
1oz Plain flour
1oz Butter
4oz Cheese
Potatoes, boiled then mashed
1/2 Pint of vegetable stock
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 Tsp Mustard

1, Fry the onion, celery, green beans & garlic in olive oil for a couple of minutes in a saucepan, when its softened add the stock and peas, bring to the boil then simmer for 5 minutes. Strain and put to one side.
2, Cook the fish in the pint of milk, strain and reserve the milk
3, Melt the butter and stir the flour into it. Gradually add the milk on a low heat, stirring all the time to make sure it doesn't catch on the bottom of the pan, once all the milk is in, add nutmeg and mustard, then keep stirring until the sauce is thickened.
4, Put the pieces of fish and the bottom of an ovenproof dish. Add the vegetables amongst the fish, and top with slices of boiled eggs
5, pour the sauce over and then top with mashed potato. Sprinkle grated cheddar over the top. Bake in the oven for 30 mins

My Favourite Burger

Everyone likes a burger. The possibilities are endless; chicken, beef, lamb, cheese, mushrooms, chili, bacon, ketchup, mayo, mustard.... I could go on. This one is my current favourite...

Chili Lamb Burger
To make 6 Burgers
750g Lamb Mince
1 Medium Red Onion
2 Cloves of Garlic
2 Chillies
1 Tbls chopped rosemary

For the Tzatziki
400g of Natural Yogurt (Greek is best)
1 Clove of Garlic
2 tbls Olive Oil
Squeeze of Lemon juice
4-5" piece of cucumber
2 tbls fresh chopped mint
1 tbls fresh chopped dill

6 Pitta Breads

1. To make the burgers, grate the onion and garlic. Finely chop the chili. Throw them all into a frying pan with a good glug of olive oil and the rosemary. Fry ingredients for just a couple of minutes.
2. Put the mince in a bowl and season well, and then mix whilst breaking up the meat.
3. When the onion, chili and garlic mixture has cooled, add the mince, and an extra glug of olive oil. Get your hands in there! Mix it all really well, ensuring the meat oozes through your fingers.
4. Make 6 burgers with the mixture

Tzatziki
1, Crush a clove of garlic in the olive oil. Add lemon juice and season well
2, Grate the cucumber into the mixture, and add the herbs. mix well
3, add the yogurt. mix well. serve at room temperature

So, all you need to do is throw the burgers on the bbq, toast the pitta breads and serve with lashings of tzatziki. Greek salad is the obviously best accompaniment, and no-one is going to hate you if you sneak a slice of grilled halloumi in there too :) In fact you might just be declared a hero!

The Beauty of Borage

Whats more perfect in Summer than Pimms? You wouldn't have a pimms on Christmas day, but a nice sunny Saturday afternoon it's wonderful. Pimms is like strawberries, it should only be enjoyed during the summer, any other time and there is a distinct lack of magic.

If you go out and order a Pimms at a bar it will have cucumber in, but the original Pimms recipe contained no cucumber but borage flowers. Borage grows wild everywhere, its very easy to find and it tastes like cucumber, note the modern substitution. For those of you who take vitamin supplements, you will not be a stranger to star flower oil, this is basically borage oil, and it is high in GLA. It is also used as a massage oil, and great for preventing those wrinkles.

I spent a whole Saturday afternoon, painstakingly picking borage flowers from our over-grown borage plant. We have cut it back to the roots twice since then, still it comes back in abundance! Currently those borage flowers are sat in the freezer, awaiting that sunny day. I was planning on pulling them out for a BBQ tonight, but from looking out the window, I think they will be staying in their arctic home a little longer!