Turned Out Nice Again!
It is so satisfying to make a recipe, and have it 'turn out well' - both in the sense of working as a recipe, and in the sense of 'turning out of the bowl without sticking/breaking/disintegrating'.
I like reading Felicity Cloake's recipes in the Guardian. She published one at the weekend for a marmalade steamed pudding. I followed the instructions to the letter- but steamed it for 3 hours in my slowcooker- much more efficient than using a pan on the stove. Look at this! Perfectly turned out.
This will serve 6, so I've portioned it and frozen it [otherwise we'd be tempted to it the whole thing in one go]
I also made Tom Kerridge's butternut squash and chickpea curry. A very satisfying dish for a cold winter's day. I couldn't find black mustard seeds, but Liz suggested Nigella [black onion] seeds instead. They worked equally well.
I'm enjoying his current series, and admire the families who are genuinely wanting to learn to cook from scratch and eat more healthily. He's amazingly patient [and good with involving the children too]
I also made some "Sunday-lunch-minestrone", using stock from Sundays chicken plus a blitzed can of tomatoes as the base- then I cubed leftover carrots, parsnips and potatoes and chopped the cabbage- and threw in a handful of macaroni. With a ham sandwich, that turned out to be a satisfying lunch. I froze half for another day. Notice the 'headspace' in the box. When I froze my carrot soup the other week I foolishly filled one screwtop container to the top. The freezing soup expanded and the plastic top cracked all round in a neat circle.
One more picture
These are four Bonne Maman jars from my fridge. They show the importance of labelling, it would be so easy to hurriedly grab the wrong one...chicken stock - vegetable gravy - fig conserve-St Clements Marmalade
That list is almost bizarre enough to be from a Farrow and Ball Paint chart.
Are you making any nourishing, ribsticking meals in this cold weather?
I’m cooking lots of soups and stews. We had an oxtail casserole cooked in the slow cooker on Monday. We ate half and Youhave reminded me to put the other half in the freezer. Also a thick pea and ham soup made with dried split green peas. My mother used to use dried Marrowfat peas but I managed to find some split green peas in a shop selling organic produce. That was after I had tried several supermarkets. Anyway,it finished up the Christmas ham stock from the freezer and the rest of the meat too. Half was eaten and half back I the freezer!
ReplyDeleteI've used yellow split peas in the past, but never green ones. Freezers and slowcookers are wonderful imho!
DeleteThey give a good colour although both taste good.
DeleteI'd never even thought of steaming a pudding in the slow cooker - what a brilliant idea! Thank you.
ReplyDeleteI'm annoyed that I have not done it before- so efficient in terms of energy, no need to worry about 'topping up' - and the kitchen stays steam free!
DeleteI'm so glad that everything turned out so well! The pudding and the curry look delicious! Unfortunately, I am trying to eat a low-carb (not necessarily no carb) diet for health reasons. So, no puddings! Although, the link to the curry recipe also featured a "quick chocolate mousse" made from avocado and banana (plus other ingredients) that have me thinking!
ReplyDeleteI, too, reuse jam jars to store various items in the fridge! As you say, labelling is very important!
Squash works so well in a curry. I hope to grow more this year than than the one I managed last year!
ReplyDeleteI have learned to do a better job of labelling after mistaking certain items in the freezer!
ReplyDeleteOn Monday I made a pot of mushroom barley soup (froze 3 portions) - chicken thighs in a sweet & sour sauce (froze 1 portion) and a cranberry/apple crumble (froze 3 portions). No sooner do I get a few items out of the freezer than I add more back in!