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 :)