Northumberland Gazette Article 25th Sept 14

Hello again! It's been a while! I'm afraid my busy life has interrupted my column a bit and I'll be writing on a monthly basis for a while. Thanks for all the great feedback I've had. It's lovely to hear!

Without a doubt the key to lowering your food budget is to learn to love your leftovers and use every last tiny bit of your ingredients and leftovers, not wasting a single thing.

Roast dinners are definitely the best way to work this strategy. Spending a few pounds on a joint of meat will give you multiple delicious meals, each one completely different. It will also provide you with the most amazing cooking fats and stocks.

I often buy joints of meat that are in the reduced section of the supermarket or I buy them when they're on special offer and freeze them for later. A roast dinner makes everything better so it’s good to have one in the house for when you need some TLR (tender loving roast).

I hope you were all able to get out and support theAlnwick Food Festival last weekend! It was great. The market place was a hive of activity with lots of delicious food and gorgeous crafts for sale.

I did a budget cookery demonstration on a Sunday which was terrifying and brilliant in equal measures!  There was a great turn out so I wanted to thank everyone for supporting the festival, to Karen Larkin for asking me to take part and to all the lovely people who were there helping me, particularly my lovely friend Gail for braving the stage with me!

I had a lovely time cooking for a lovely audience and chatting away – the hour went by very quickly.

I showed how to make some quick and easy meals from a leftover roast chicken. I promised that I would share the recipes with you all. So here goes!  Now you’ve got no excuse for wasting any of your lovely roast chicken from now on! 

Chicken Stock

Simply put the chicken carcass in a large pan and cover with boiling water.  Add carrot, celery and onion, roughly chopped into large pieces, along with 2 bay leaves and about 1 tsp of whole black peppercorns.

Bring to the boil and then reduce heat and leave it to simmer for about an hour and a half.

Sieve the stock into a large bowl and leave to cool before either using for a recipe straight away or freezing for later.

Chicken Rogan Josh

Heat some oil in a large frying pan or wok. Groundnut or vegetable oil would be best.

Add a chopped onion, a chopped red chilli, 2 chopped garlic cloves and 1 tsp of salt to the oil and cook over a low heat until the onion has softened.

Add the following spices to the pan: garammasala, turmeric, ground coriander, ground cumin and mild curry powder. Stir in to the onion to create a paste, adding extra oil if necessary.

Let it cook for a few minutes and then add the chopped chicken and some leftover gravy, if you have some. Stir it all together. Add a tin of chopped tomatoes and a little water. Let it cook for a few minutes and then add about 5 or 6 tbsps of natural yoghurt. Let it simmer for 10 minutes. Use this time to get your rice on.

Add 1 or 2 tbsps of mango or apple chutney and a handful of chopped coriander. Stir in and remove from the heat. Sprinkle more coriander over the top and serve with the rice.


Chicken and broccoli gratin

Steam some broccoli and reserve the cooking water.

Heat some butter in a large frying pan or casserole over a very low heat so as not to burn the butter.

Add a couple of tbsps of flour and stir into a roux. Let it cook off for a few minutes and add the chicken. Stir it all together well.

Add the cooking water, gradually, stirring all the time. Season with some salt and pepper.

Add about 1 heaped tbsp of wholegrain mustard and a large handful of grated cheese. I used a mix of grana padano and cheddar.

If you have any chicken skin left, chop it into small pieces and fry in a dry pan until very crispy.

Pour the chicken mixture into an oven dish,sprinkle toasted breadcrumbs and cheese onto the top and dot with butter.

Grill under a medium heat for a couple of minutes.

Special fried rice

This recipe was used as a way of using left over chicken but also left over rice from the Rogan Josh. This can be adjusted to include almost anything you’d like and is great for left over vegetables from your roast dinner too.

This is a very basic and very quick recipe that you can have on the table within minutes.

Fry off some chopped chorizo in a dry pan and as the fat starts to render, add chopped mushrooms.

Let this cook off for a couple of minutes until the mushrooms start to soften.

Add the leftover chicken and heat through.

Now add some rice, spring onions and peas and stir to combine the flavours and heat the rice up. Season with salt, pepper and a few chilli flakes.

Finally, make some space in the pan and add a beaten egg.  Let it slightly set on the bottom, giving it a light stir, as if you are making an omelette.  When it’s still soft but starting to set stir it through the rice.  

 

 

 

5 ways with.....eggs (for Easter, geddit?!) (sorry!)

As we have hens, eggs are a big part of our weekly diet. Even if you don't have hens, eggs are relatively cheap, make super-quick meals and are good for you. 

Here is some Easter eggspiration! 

Toad in the hole

Serves 4 (but easily doubled)

Quick prep, easy, comfort food! 

Preheat the oven to gas 8/ 230c. 

Pop some sausages and oil, in an oven dish, into the oven for around 10 mins until just starting to brown. 

While the sausages are cooking, mix up 4oz plain flour, 3 eggs, 1/2 pint milk and a pinch of salt. 

Pour the batter over the sausages and put it straight back into the oven for around 25 mins. Don't open the oven before 20 mins or they'll deflate. 

You could make individual toad in the holes by making them in a Yorkshire pudding tin. Great for kids. 

Heat oil in the tin until very hot. When it's ready, add half-cooked sausages, chopped up, into each portion and pour the batter over the top. Cook for 20-25 mins until golden and HUGE! 

Serve with mash, peas and gravy! 

Frittata 

Serves 4 

Speedy, easy, one pan dish. 

A great way to use leftovers or sorry-looking veg and cheese that might, otherwise, have ended their days in the bin. 

I like to use cooked potatoes, chopped into chunks, pretty much any cooked veg, chorizo, chilli flakes, spring onions and herbs. 

Cook the chorizo, potatoes, and veg in some oil in a frying pan. When the potatoes are starting to brown, turn the heat down and add 6 beaten eggs (seasoned with salt, pepper and chilli flakes). If you're not as greedy as we are, you might get away with 4!

Sprinkle in some herbs of your choice. Some chopped chives or dill, or dried mixed herbs or oregano are nice. 

I often pop in some halved cherry tomatoes at this point too. Sprinkle cheese over the top. Any cheese is fine. I love feta. 

Cook for around 8-10 mins until the the bottom and sides are set. Then pop it under the grill for a couple of minutes until the cheese is melted and the egg is cooked. 

Serve warm or cold. Great for picnics. 

Pancakes 

Quantities can be made according to how many servings you need.

Great for a comforting weekend lunch. 

Savoury or sweet. Both amazing and seriously quick and easy. 

I love to make a sort of cheesy, pancake bake... Bear with me! 

Preheat the oven to gas 6/ 200c

Make a good pile of pancakes. See recipe on the blog. 

Sauté some sliced mushrooms and leeks in some garlic, butter and herbs.

Rustle up lots of cheese sauce. 

Put some of the mushroom mix into each pancake and roll. Put each rolled pancake next to each other in an oven dish. A bit like making cannelloni. 

When you've used all the pancakes, pour the cheese sauce over the top. Shuggle the dish so that the sauce makes it into the pancakes. Pop some sliced tomatoes on the top and some grated cheese. 

Bake for around 25 mins until bubbling and golden. 

Quiche 

Perfect freezer food! I made loads when I was pregnant for quick suppers after the twingos appeared!

I love a Quiche Lorraine. This is pretty similar to how I make it. I use the food processor to make the pastry though #lazy. And I use oregano ('cause I flipping love it). Don't be put off by the long recipe, it's really easy and freezes fantastically. 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/quichelorraine_71987

Ingredients

For the pastry

- 175g/6oz plain flour, plus extra for dusting

- salt

- 75g/2¾oz butter, plus extra for greasing

- (alternatively use ready made pastry)

For the filling

- 250g/9oz English cheddar, grated

- 4 tomatoes, sliced (optional)

- 200g/7oz bacon, chopped

- 5 eggs, beaten

- 100ml/3½fl oz milk

- 200ml/7fl oz double cream

- salt

- freshly ground black pepper

- 2 sprigs of fresh thyme

Method

1. To make the pastry, sift the flour together with a pinch of salt in a large bowl. Rub in the butter until you have a soft breadcrumb texture. Add enough cold water to make the crumb mixture come together to form a firm dough, and then rest it in the fridge for 30 minutes.

2. Roll out the pastry on a light floured surface and line a 22cm/8½inch well-buttered flan dish. Don't cut off the edges of the pastry yet. Chill again.

3. Preheat the oven to 190C/375F/Gas 5.

4. Remove the pastry case from the fridge and line the base of the pastry with baking parchment and then fill it with baking beans. Place on a baking tray and bake blind for 20 minutes. Remove the beans and parchment and return to the oven for another five minutes to cook the base

5. Reduce the temperature of the oven to 160C/325F/Gas 3.

6. Sprinkle the cheese into the pastry base and add the sliced tomatoes if you are using them. Fry the bacon pieces until crisp and sprinkle over them over the top.

7. Combine the eggs with the milk and cream in a bowl and season well. Pour over the bacon and cheese. Sprinkle the thyme over the top and trim the edges of the pastry.

8. Bake for 30-40 minutes or until set. Remove from the oven and allow to cool and set further.

9. Trim the pastry edges to get a perfect edge and then serve in wedges.

Fool-proof eggs benedict 

A real weekend breakfast/ brunch treat

My perfect poached eggs:

Use the freshest eggs possible.

Bring salted water to the boil. Add a capful of white wine vinegar. 

Break your eggs into the pan. 

Turn off the heat immediately and pop a muffin or bread in the toaster. When they pop up, the eggs should be ready. 

Fool-proof hollandaise:

Melt 100g butter in the microwave. 

Separate 2 eggs. Put the egg whites in the fridge or freezer, for future use. 

Add juice of half a lemon, salt and pepper to the egg yolks. I also like a dash of Tabasco sauce. 

Using an electric whisk, beat the egg yolks on a medium speed until they go paler and start to thicken. 

Up the whisk speed and gently pour the melted butter into the egg mixture until you've got a nice thick, creamy consistency. 

Assemble:

Butter the muffin or toast. 

Drain the eggs on a piece of stale bread (or kitchen roll).

Put the eggs on the muffin/ toast. 

Spoon the hollandaise over the poached eggs. 

Grind some black pepper over the top and serve. 

I warn you that, when you realise how easy this hollandaise is, you will need to stop yourself from making it every day! 

Just a few suggestions here but the list of possibilities is endless (well, almost!) 

My week of meals

Weekday breakfasts are cereal, bread/ toast and eggs

Monday

L: leek and potato soup

S: Ian and I had a full-on leftover meal. Yorkshire pudds, sausages, roasted veg and gravy. The kids were at Lucy's (their amazing childminder) for tea. 

Tuesday 

L: Ian had sandwiches (with homemade bread, of course!) with ham and my speedy coleslaw. I ate out. 

S: kids had mince and mash. I couldn't face it after eating too much for lunch (out with my family).  So i had wild garlic and mushroom soup, topped with toasted seeds and breadcrumbs and crumbled feta and served with homemade bread. 

Tip: I made a large pan of mince from 500g beef mince. I made it with garlic, finely chopped onion, celery, mushrooms and carrots, lots of beef stock (2 cubes), 2 tbsp flour and a few tbsps breadcrumbs to bulk it up a bit. 

Split leftovers and make half of it into bolognese sauce, bulked up with lots of tinned tomatoes and have as Spag Bol or lasagne (make loads of cheese sauce to bulk it up further) and make the other half into cottage pie, covered in lots of cheesy, garlicky (i add my wild garlic butter) mash and topped with crunchy breadcrumbs. 

Wednesday

L: me - toasted sandwich. Ian - ham, cheese and coleslaw sandwich 

S: lasagne with baked potatoes and wild garlic focaccia 

Tip: when the oven's on for the lasagne (or for the homemade bread) chuck in a few potatoes to have for lunches or as a healthy side at supper. 

Thursday

L: Ian and I - baked potato with cheese and coleslaw 

S: cottage pie with garlicky, crispy crumbed grated turnip, cheesy leeks and carrots. 

Tip: make extra (buttery 😄) mash and use it for fish cakes 

Friday

L: Ian and I - soup from freezer 

S: leftover lasagne with salad. 

Saturday

B: poached eggs on toast

L: tuna fish cakes. 

Sauté a chopped onion and garlic. Combine with a drained tin of tuna, the mashed potato, a beaten egg, a good grating of cheese, 2 tbsps breadcrumbs, a tbsp mayo and salt and pepper. Shape and cover in more crumbs. Fry or bake. Serve with peas! I'm going to cook them with some mint from the garden and crush them slightly. 

S: homemade sweet and sour chicken with rice. 

Tip: use chicken thighs. They're much cheaper, won't dry out and have loads more flavour. I very rarely buy chicken breast. 

Make stock out of the bones. Freeze them if you can't make it straight away.

Sunday

B: bacon croissants (both from freezer)

L: fried rice (leftovers from sweet and sour) with ham, peas, mushrooms and leeks and a beaten egg. 

S: tomatoey pasta 

Middle eastern style lamb - leftover heaven

I had defrosted some lamb chops that I'd found in the bottom of the freezer and I needed to use them so I marinated them in lots of grated ginger, fresh mint, garlic, chilli, ground cumin and oil and fried them on a griddle pan then i put them in the fridge until i was ready to use them. I then stripped the meat off them and used them in this recipe. 

Ingredients

1 onion, sliced

1 clove garlic

1 tbsp coriander seeds,

1 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp chilli flakes

1 tsp fresh ginger, grated

I used the meat from 5 lamb chops

1 tin chopped tomatoes

1 tin chickpeas 

Leftover gravy from the roast chicken we had the night before but you could use stock

Serve with couscous 

Method

Fry the onions and garlic in some oil until soft. 

Pound the dried spices up in a pestle and mortar. Add them, together with the ginger, to the pan and stir. Add the meat, tomatoes and gravy or stock. Bring to the boil. Reduce heat and simmer for about 20 mins. Add chickpeas and cook for a further 10 mins. 

If I had had any fresh herbs handy I would have added some at this point - coriander or mint would be best. 

Serve on a bed of couscous. 

Love leftovers...eat curry! Lamb Rogan Josh. Versatile and family friendly!

Well, this is the second time I've written this because I managed to delete the last one, by accident. Grrrr. Technologically challenged, clearly :-(

So, I've been delving in my freezer to get me through my £50 month! To my delight, I had a small joint of lamb. I roasted it last week and we had it with Yorkies (eggs from my hens) and roasted veg. Anyway, to make the most of my leftovers we had a luscious rogan josh made with storecupboard ingredients and remnants of bits and bobs in my fridge. 

You really can just use what you have to hand with this as long as you have some spices and tinned toms!  I've made this so many times and I pretty much never have the same ingredients.  It's a brilliant mid-week supper. 

What I used last week....

1 tbsp groundnut or veg oil

1 onion, chopped

Half a red chilli, chopped (you can use dried chilli flakes)

1 clove of garlic, crushed

A handful of mushrooms, quartered (these are easily omitted)

2 tsp garam masala

1 tsp mild curry powder

1/2 tsp turmeric

1 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp ground coriander

1 tsp salt

1 aubergine, chopped into inch size cubes

1 tin tomatoes

Lamb stock (vary this if using a different meat). I use the tomato tin to make this. 

Any leftover gravy 

Leftover lamb, chopped

I used some cream, but I prefer natural yoghurt or you could use coconut milk. Use whatever you have

Fresh herbs, chopped. I used a mix of coriander, mint and parsley, whizzed up. 

(All spices are heaped teaspoons)

Method

Heat up a large frying pan or wok. Add the oil. 

Fry the onion, chilli, mushrooms and salt until softened. 

Add the spices and mix. 

Add the aubergine and fry for a few minutes until covered in the spices and a bit softer. Add the tomatoes, stock and any gravy. Bring to the boil then lower the heat and leave it to simmer for about 15 mins. 

Mix in the fresh herbs and add the cream (or whatever you're using) and take off the heat. 

Serve with basmati rice. I use 1 mug of rice and 2 mugs of boiling, salted water. I pop a star anise or a cinnamon stick in with it. Bring to the boil, stir, turn the hob down to low, cover and leave until the rice has soaked up all the water and has the right amount of bite. 

It is so tasty that you'll want to make it all the time with any leftovers and I also do a variation of it with no meat. I just do everything as above but when the aubergine softens I add the rice directly to the pan with all the liquid and and have it as a one pot rice dish instead. Cheap, easy and gorgeous and the whole family loves it. Very child friendly!