Apple And Plum Crumble

I bought a rather large punnet of dark plums from the supermarket last week and honestly they refused to ripen nicely and they didn't taste of anything. Now I know that we really shouldn't buy fruit or veg out of season but that can be very limiting in the UK in the winter, my own fault as I just liked the look of them. Anyway - a way to use up useless fruit - I bought myself a couple of nice big bramley apples and headed into the kitchen to make a nice buttery crumble.

Preheat oven to 350f / 180 c / gas mark 4

Ingredients for filling

2 large bramley apples peeled and thinly sliced

10 or so plums, de stoned and sliced

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

3 tablespoons plain flour

3 tablespoons soft brown sugar

Juice of one lemon

Mix all ingredients together and place in a buttered ovenproof dish.

Ingredients for crumble

175g plain flour

75g rolled oats

75g soft brown sugar

125g butter

Make crumble as pastry, mix dry ingredients into a large bowl, rub in butter  with your fingertips until a nice crumbly texture - it doesn't have to be fine here as a nice crunchy texture is good for a crumble.

Spoon the crumble mix onto your filling mix and sprinkle a little brown sugar on top, bake in the oven for approx 40 minutes or until golden on top and fruit is all bubbly.

Serve with cream or custard or ice cream - proper cold winter pudding

Chinese Chicken Curry

 I really love to make authentic Indian style curries and they're always my go to for when I need something really full of flavour but ...every now and again I yearn for the flavour of a Chinese takeaway curry. I know you can buy the ready made sauce ( and I do have a packet lurking in the cupboard ) but I like to cook and this way I know exactly what is in my food! I found this recipe a good few years ago when dieting ....again !! .... I don't do that anymore for so many reasons but some of the recipes are still  absolutely worth sticking to, this is one of them.

There is a great site called SLIMMINGEATS, I think that it is based in Canada and this recipe comes from there, when you first look at the recipe you really can't imagine how this comes together but it really does and it's worth going back to time and time again.

Ingredients for sauce

100g (3.5oz) of onion, chopped
150g (5.5oz) of courgette chopped
200g (7oz) of butternut squash, chopped
2 cloves of garlic, crushed
1 teaspoon of grated fresh ginger 
1.5 tablespoon of curry powder ( hot or medium, depending on how hot you like it)
1 tablespoon of tomato paste
1 tablespoon of soy sauce (not dark)
1/2 teaspoon of Chinese five spice
3 cups (720ml) of chicken stock
spray oil 

Now, I don't actually use curry powder as I have all the spices, but this is a good fix if you don't want to invest in all the necessary spices for this dish.

Ingredients for curry

450g ( 1lb chicken breast ...I used thighs )

1 large green pepper chopped into chunks

1 large onion chopped roughly into chunks

1/2 cup frozen peas

Spray a frying pan over a medium high heat with spray oil
Add the onion, courgette and butternut squash and fry for 2-3 mins to soften.
Add the garlic and ginger and fry for 1 more minute.
Add the curry powder, Chinese five spice, tomato paste and soy sauce and stir to coat.
Pour in the chicken stock, bring to a boil, then cover and simmer for 20 mins.
Add sauce to a blender and blend until smooth. Set aside.
Spray frying pan with spray oil, add chicken and fry for approx 5 mins until lightly browned. Remove and set aside.
Spray frying pan again with spray oil, add the onion and green pepper and fry for 2 mins.
Add back in chicken,  pour in the sauce, stir to coat, add peas, bring to a boil, then cover and simmer for about 5 mins, till chicken is cooked through.

As I say, I have changed some of the quantities to better suit my taste, I certainly always want more garlic and ginger than the recipes call for but this is pretty close to the original recipe, it tastes amazing, we have it served with plain boiled rice.

Breadmaker Fruit Cake

 I've had my breadmaker for a good while now and honestly never thought to make anything in it other than bread ! Feeling a little bored the other day I had a go at making a cake in it - so far so ok....I considered ginger cake as its a favourite but I just couldn't find any ground ginger - can't quite believe it as I make curry a lot so - fruit cake it was. I followed the recipe to the letter ( unlike me too ) which meant combining all the ingredients outside of the machine and then pouring them into the machine to cook. 

It's a long cook ( 3.10 minutes ) and it seemed that for the first 2 hours the mixture just sat around bored. It just seemed to sit there, I was unconvinced at this point that anything was happening in there at all!! But - with about an hour to go it started to smell quite cakey in my kitchen.... after 3 hours I was pretty excited as it was definitely a cake taking shape.

Amazing - it turned out really very good indeed, not the lightest of cakes but delicious and fruity and very well received .

Now every machine is going to be different so I'm just going to post a picture of my mixture from the leaflet but I'll definitely give this a go again - so easy - I'm just sorry that I didn't have a go earlier -

Off to try a lemon drizzle cake I think .......

Fish Pie

 I made this a couple of weeks ago and completely forgot to mention it on here, I wrote up the cheese sauce recipe and then clean forgot the actual pie ..... anyway ....here is the recipe. Now I kind of make this up depending on what fish is available so any mix of fish is good, a little bit of smoked fish always adds to the taste and we always like some little scallops when we can find them.

Ingredients

I quantity Delia Smiths cheese sauce 

Approx 300g Smoked haddock

Approx 300g Cod

Approx 300g Salmon

Approx 300g Prawns

Approx 300g Small scallops

Salt and Pepper

These are all approximate weights but enough fish to feed 4-6 people

6 large potatoes, peeled, boiled and mashed until creamy.

Handful of strong cheddar cheese for the top

Arrange fish in an ovenproof dish

Season well with salt and pepper and pour over cheese sauce

Top with mashed potato

Sprinkle cheese over the top and place in a hot oven for 45 minutes until golden brown on the top.

Rick Stein Secret France Meatballs

I was bought the cookbook to accompany this series the first time around but have never got around to making anything from the book until watching it again on TV. It's a lovely series, I do get a bit miffed with himself banging on about how ' you'd never get that in the UK ' and not understanding why more people are cheffing ( terrible wages...long hours....) but - all in all I like Rick's recipes.

There are actually lots of things that I want to have a go at this time so this meatball recipe looked good plus I made the Bullfighter Stew from another book.

Ingredients

400g Minced beef

400g Minced pork

2 Onions finely chopped

1 Egg

3 Cloves Garlic finely chopped

Handful flat leaf parsley roughly chopped

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon piment d’Espelette (page 306 of Rick Stein's Secret France) or pimentón

2 Tablespoon plain flour

3 Tablespoon olive oil

Salt and pepper

For the sauce

1 Tablespoon olive oil

1 Onion finely chopped

100g Smoked lardons ( or streaky bacon )

1 Teaspoon piment d’Espelette (page 306 of Rick Stein's Secret France) or pimentón

1/2 Teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 400g tin chopped tomatoes

1 Tablespoon tomato paste

150g pitted green olives

1 400g tin haricot beans ( I used cannellini ) 

In a large bowl, mix the minced pork and beef, egg, garlic, parsley, cinnamon, sweet paprika and two tablespoons of plain flour. Season with the salt and pepper and blend well. Using your hands, shape the mixture into golfball-sized balls, adding another tablespoon of flour if the mixture feels too wet to form into balls. Roll the balls in flour to lightly cover. Heat the oil in a large, preferably shallow, flameproof casserole dish, and brown the meatballs all over. Set them aside.

For the sauce, heat the tablespoon of olive oil in the same casserole dish and fry the onion and the lardons or ham until the onions are softened. Add the sweet paprika and cinnamon and cook for a minute, then add the chopped tomatoes ( or in my case a 400g tin of chopped tomatoes ) , tomato paste and 250ml of water. Season with salt and pepper and bring to the boil. Turn the heat down, cover the pan and simmer for 15 minutes. 

Add the olives, haricot beans and browned meatballs to the sauce, together with any juices they have released.

Cover the pan and cook over a low heat for 30 minutes, then remove the lid and simmer for 10–15 minutes. Check a couple of times during cooking and add a little more water if the sauce looks as if it is getting too thick. Serve as a tapas or as a lunch or supper dish with pilaf rice.

Now this was delicious but I did change a couple of things, I added a tin of tomatoes where the original recipe called for fresh tomatoes, I added sweet paprika rather than Rick's spice mixture. Next time I'll add a teaspoon of chilli powder as I feel that this recipe needs a kick! 

Quiche Lorraine

 I've made quiche Lorraine for so many years, in fact I think I made it for my GCE many many moons ago among other cheese based offerings. We went to a little tea party recently and my lovely sister in law made the most perfect quiche that I had to make one for a Friday night tea. Very often I make mine a little too cheesy ( if that is possible ) and I think over the years my quantities have leapt around so it was time to revisit a proper recipe and try it out - never too late to learn.

Ingredients

1 Pack shortcrust pastry

200gms smoked streaky bacon chopped and fried

50gms Gruyere cheese

200mls creme fraiche

200mls, double cream

3 free range eggs well beaten

pinch nutmeg

Line a 23 x 2.5cm flan tin ( or glass pie dish in my case ) , easing the pastry into the base.

Put a baking sheet in the oven and heat oven to 200C/fan 180C/gas 6. Line pastry case with foil or baking parchment, fill with dry beans and bake on the hot sheet for 15 mins.

Remove foil and beans and bake for 4-5 mins more until the pastry is pale golden. If you notice any small holes or cracks, patch up with pastry trimmings. You can make up to this point a day ahead.

While the pastry cooks, prepare the filling. Heat a small frying pan, tip in 200g chopped bacon and fry for a couple of mins. Drain off any liquid that comes out, then continue cooking until the bacon just starts to colour, but isn't crisp. Remove and drain on paper towel.

Cut three quarters of the 50g Gruyère into small dice and finely grate the rest. Scatter the diced Gruyere and fried bacon over the bottom of the pastry case.

Using a spoon, beat 200ml crème fraîche to slacken it then slowly beat in 200ml double cream. Mix in 3 well beaten eggs. Season (you shouldn’t need much salt) and add a pinch of ground nutmeg. Pour three quarters of the filling into the pastry case.

Half-pull the oven shelf out and put the flan tin on the baking sheet. Quickly pour the rest of the filling into the pastry case – you get it right to the top this way. Scatter the grated cheese over the top, then carefully push the shelf back into the oven.

Lower the oven to 190C/fan 170C/gas 5. Bake for about 25 mins, or until golden and softly set (the centre should not feel too firm).

Let the quiche settle for 4-5 mins, then remove from the tin. Serve freshly baked, although it’s also good cold.

Now - this was probably the closest recipe that I've ever used that tastes like an authentic French quiche. It had a fantastic set quality ... it did need 45 minutes honestly and even then it was soft set. Next time I would use a tiny amount of nutmeg and more cheese but otherwise it was a good foray into authentic recipes.

Thank you to BBC Good Food for this great recipe , I did change it a little to suit me ( so many good recipes ) this one was amazing.