Archive for the 'Meal Ideas' Category

Olla Gitana is a typical soup of Murcia in the South East of Spain. Its combination of ingredients makes it practically a meal in its own right – and it is absolutely delicious and extremely filling.

It can be served with or without the addition of pork – and although many of the more traditional ingredients rule out this rich stew for vegetarians – with some careful fiddling it could be made suitable. Packed with beans and vegetables it is truly one of the best spanish stews / soups I have tasted. It is particular suited for the cold winter nights we are experiencing at the moment – yes, its true, even here we are having some seriously cold weather.

Ingredients::
2 x 14 oz tins chickpeas, drained and rinsed (or the equivalent dried, follow inst on pack)
2 pieces of pork shoulder
1 carrot, peeled and sliced on the diagonal
4 pints of chicken or vegetable stock
1 lb butternut squash, peeled, deseeded and cut into 1 inch chunks
10 oz French green beans, trimmed and cut into 1 inch long pieces
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
3 tbsp olive oil
3 garlic cloves, crushed and chopped
1 handful of blanched skinned sweet almonds
1 Spanish onion, chopped
1 tsp pimienton (or to taste)
2 ripe plums tomatoes, skinned and finely chopped
1 pinch saffron threads, crushed and added to 3 tbsp hot water
3 tsp red wine vinegar
Toasted Spanish peasant bread
Garnish – 2 tbsp fresh mint leaves, rolled and thinly sliced

Method::
Put the chickpeas, whole pieces of pork and sliced carrots into a deep cassrole or pan, add sufficient stock to come three quarters way up the casserole then place over a medium beat, bring up to the boil, add the butternut squash, French green beans, season and gently bring up to simmering point, cook for 15 minutes
Add the olive oil to a frying pan (with a nob of butter for extra taste) set over a medium heat, add the garlic and almonds, cook for about 2 minutes, keep moving all the time, remove from the heat and transfer to a bowl lined with kitchen paper to remove as much oil as possible
Add the onion to the frying pan and cook until softened but not browned, about 3 to 4 minutes
Add the pimienton, stir then add the tomatoes and 2 tablespoons of the stock from the casserole, continue cooking until the tomatoes soften, reduce and deepen in colour, this should take about 5 to 6 minutes, while stirring add the casserole then stir in the saffron
Cook over a gentle heat until the vegetables are tender, the butternut squash should have begun to disintegrate, add more stock should the soup become too thick
When ready remove the meat from the soup, cut up into pieces and serve separately
Put the almonds and garlic in a food processor and blitz until finely ground, gradually add the red wine vinegar while stirring, then add to the soup, simmer for 5 minutes then transfer to a serving dish

Ingredients::
8 oz smoked streaky bacon, in one piece
8 good quality sausages
1 onion, peeled and thickly sliced
8 large potatoes, peeled and quartered
Chicken or vegetable stock, as needed
To garnish – freshly chopped parsley

Method:
Place a frying pan over a medium heat, add a little oil and fry the bacon
When the bacon is cooked, slice it into chunky pieces and place in a casserole dish sufficiently large to hold all the potatoes and water so that it doesn´t boil over

Brown the sausages in the bacon fat, add to casserole

Sweat the onions in the frying pan, when translucent and soft add to the casserole along with the prepared potatoes

Pour in sufficient vegetable or chicken stock to cover the potatoes

Place a lid on the casserole and bring up to the boil

Reduce the heat and simmer for between 60 and 90 minutes, or until the potatoes are tender

Transfer to a serving dish and sprinkle with fresly chopped parsley

Feeling the cold this winter? Are you like thousands of Brits and completely snowed in? If so, then this is most certainly a recipe for you!

I love a lamb hotpot when the winters start to really set in. Of course my family have always traditionally served this with Yorkshire Pudding, but these days I find it far too heavy and tend not to combine the two. It is lovely with a great chunk of homemade bread. Incidentally this is also my first entry written with Windows Live Writer. I will let you know how it goes!

Ingredients:

1 lb neck of lamb
2 large onion
2 stalks of celery
1 small white turnip
2 carrots
4 medium potatoes
6 oz pearl barley
Chicken stock
Sprigs of thyme and bay leaves – place in a muslin bag
White pepper
Parsley leaves

Preparation:

Preheat an oven to 160 degrees Celsius

Peel the onions, halve and thickly slice

Peel and cut celery stalks into 4 pieces – diagonally

Peel the turnip, carrot and potatoes and cut into chunks

Place the vegetables and pearl barley into a casserole dish, put the neck of lamb on top then add the thyme and a bay leaf in a muslin bag tied with string

Pour in sufficient stock to cover the meat and vegetables then season with white pepper and salt

Bring slowly to the boil

Skim off any impurities

Cover the top of the stew with a circle of greaseproof paper, then a lid

Put into the lower part of a preheated oven for two hours

Remove the casserole lid, greaseproof paper and muslin bag

Sprinkle over the chopped parsley and gently stir

Check seasoning and adjust if necessary

I love quiche, but I do not always want the added calories of pastry – with this recipe you really can have your quiche and eat it!

Another handy tip for avoiding the use of pastry is from my adopted new home in Spain.  Frequently seem them remove crusts from white bread, roll out until thin and line a lightly oiled (olive oil is preferable) tin with the bread.  Add further pieces of bread if holes develop.

Generally speaking you can blind bake the bread a little to make sure you dont get a soggy bottom! Lets face it, none of us like one of those…

Ingredients

4 oz grated Cheddar cheese

6 rashers of bacon

1 medium red onion – finely chopped

1 tbsp olive oil

2 large organic eggs

¼ pint milk and single cream

Salt and pepper to taste

2 tomatoes, thinly sliced – optional

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius

Lightly butter a flan dish

Method:

Sprinkle half the cheese on the bottom of a flan dish

Fry the bacon and onion together until just cooked, spread over the cheese

Whisk together the eggs, milk/cream and seasoning, pour over the mixture and then sprinkle over the remainder of the cheese, lay the sliced tomatoes on top

Bake on the middle shelf of a preheated oven for 30 minutes, or until set

Serve with a mixed salad and crusty bread

You can vary the quiche by replacing the cheese, onion and bacon with the following:

Mushroom: 6 oz mushrooms, 3 oz bacon lardons – fry the mushrooms and lardons in little butter, place in the bottom of the flan dish and continue from addition of eggs

Salmon: 8 oz flaked freshly cooked salmon – put the flaked salmon into the bottom of a flan dish, continue as above from addition of eggs

Tuna and cheese: 8 oz can tuna and 4 oz cheese – sprinkle half the cheese in the bottom of a flan dish, add the tuna (flaked), the continue from the addition of egg mixture

I am celebrating the latest reincarnation of The Recipe Blog with my Grandmother´s recipe for beef stew – a wonderfully warming and hearty stew, perfect for the cold winters of Yorkshire!

Ingredients
1 lb shin beef – diced
Seasoned flour – plain flour, salt and white pepper
2 tbsp beef dripping
2 large onions, quartered
2 large carrots and a half of a turnip, peeled and diced
1 bottle of Newcastle brown ale
10 fl oz beef stock – add more if required
10 fl oz light vegetable stock or water
2 lb potatoes – peeled cooked and diced

Method
Place the seasoned flour into a plastic bag, add the meat and shake to coat, retain flour

Add the beef dripping to a large ovenproof casserole, melt then add the onion quarters and cook until lightly browned, remove and put to one side

Add the beef and brown all over, remove beef from pan, pour dripping into a bowl and put to one side

Return the beef to the pan, adding the onions, vegetables, ale, stocks and potatoes

Bring up the boil, cover and transfer to a preheated oven, cook for 90 minutes

Mix the flour with the dripping and add to a little of the stock, pour into the pan while stirring, return stew to the oven for 30 minutes

Serve with Yorkshire Pudding or Dumplings

Handy tips

A handy tip for thickening stews or gravies in our family is to use Yorkshire Pudding Batter. Traditionally we rarely had a stew that was not served with Yorkshire Pudding in our family. In place of mixing the flour with dripping my grandmother used to make the Yorkshire Pudding batter, and ladle a little into the stew (about half a soup ladle). Then continue cooking the stew. It really added something!

The Beauty of a traditional stew is you can add any veggies that strike your fancy.

Ingredients::
4 tbsp olive oil
1 cup plain flour
1 rabbit, cut into serving pieces, washed and patted dry
½ tsp salt
¼ tsp freshly ground black pepper
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp butter
1 large onion, finely diced
2 cups dry white wine
6 black olives, pitted and quartered
6 fresh sage leaves – finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
¼ cup red-wine vinegar

Method::
Heat 4 tablespoons of the olive oil in a large frying pan or casserole over a high heat.

Flour the rabbit pieces lightly, when the oil is very hot, add half of the rabbit portions to the pan – do not ‘crowd’. Season with salt and pepper and cook – turning once – until golden on both sides – this will take about 8 to 10 minutes. Transfer to a platter.

Discard the oil and place the frying pan back over a medium heat, add the remaining oil and an equal amount of butter, when it is hot – but not yet smoking, add the onion and cook gently, scraping the bottom of the pan to pick up the residue, until the onion is lightly golden and soft – about 6 to 7 minutes.

Return the rabbit to the pan, raise the heat to high, and add the wine. As soon as the wine begins to bubble, cover and reduce the heat to low. Simmer, stirring from time to time and turning the rabbit once, until the wine is almost all evaporated and the rabbit is tender when pierced with a fork, about 45 to 50 minutes.

Transfer the rabbit to a serving platter, cover loosely with foil, and keep warm in a low oven.

Add the olives, sage, and garlic to the pan, and stir over medium heat until the garlic gives off its fragrance, about 1 minute. Add the vinegar and stir quickly until the pan juices have thickened, about 2 to 3 minutes. Taste and adjust the seasoning. Spoon the pan juices over the rabbit and serve whilst hot.

I use an ovenproof dish, cover and cook in the oven for 45 minutes at 180 degrees Celsius

You have no idea how delighted I was when I received this message from twitter user @tastechristmas -the official twitter of this seasons greatest restaurant festival – Taste of Christmas 2009!

“Congrats, you’ve won a pair of tickets to Taste of Christmas. we just need an address them to send them to thanks!”

This was for my entry in the sprout story/tips/recipe competition. Since I absolutely adore sprouts I just had to enter, and my christmassy version of Bubble n Squeak with shredded sprout was chosen. Woo!

Here is the original entry – (thats 140 character limit is challenging at times!).

@TasteChristmas Also mashed potato & root vegetable bubble & squeak with shredded sprout. Made into small cakes.

I´m not going to go into measurements now, as really, its not required. So here is a basic outline.

Ingredients:
Mixture of root vegetables (potatoes, parnsnips, carrots – you get the idea, basically whatever you fancy, or have left over!)
Sprouts! (sorry, for me, not christmas without sprouts!)

Method:
Create a mash out of the mixture of root vegetables. This should be a relatively simple task if they are left overs.. Try not to make them too smooth of course as you want a degree of texture.

Add shredded pre-cooked sprouts (not cooked until they are soft, but al dente). Season with salt & pepper to taste.

Mix together and form into small cakes. Lightly pan fry or griddle until golden brown (and yes for the health fantatics you can cook in oven, but it just doesnt seem right for bubble and squeak to me).

The rest is up to you. Just a quick idea which can be easily adapted to suit your own tastes. Its great for hiding sprouts from those misguided individuals who just dont like them!

Ingredients::

16 oz – chuck steak in large cubesSeasoned flour
1 onion – thinly sliced
1 garlic clove – crushed
5 fl oz strong ale
5 fl oz beef stock
1 tsp brown sugar
1 tsp of sherry vinegar
Grain mustard
1 bouquet garni
Butter and Olive oil
1 stale French stick – 2 days old

Method::
Heat the oil in a casserole dish, add the onions and garlic and sweat off until translucent

Put a frying pan with equal amounts of butter and oil over a medium heat, when hot add the steak coated in seasoned flour to the pan and brown in batches, add to the casserole dish

Add a little more oil to the frying pan and sprinkle in a teaspoon of the seasoned flour while stirring

Gradually add the beer while continuing to stir with a wooden spoon – scraping the bottom of the pan to loosen the juices

Add the stock, sugar, sherry vinegar and mustard and bring to the boil

Pour into the casserole dish

Add the bouquet garni and cook in a medium oven for two hours

Cut the bread into slices and spread with the grain or Dijon mustard, place over the casserole and return to the oven to crisp up the bread

Pancake batter:
4 oz self-raising flour
½ tsp salt
1 medium egg, lightly beaten
1 oz melted butter
Milk to mix

Scrambled eggs:
4 medium eggs, beaten
4 fl oz whole milk
Salt and black pepper
8 thin slices goat’s cheese, lightly grilled
50 grams ham, cut into strips

Sift the flour and salt into a bowl, gradually whisk in the egg, melted butter and milk to form a batter – consistency of double cream. Refrigerate for 30 minutes

Heat a little oil in a small frying pan and add a small ladleful of the batter. Gently cook for 1 to 2 minutes until the bubbles come to the surface and burst. Flip over and cook for 30 seconds. Repeat until the mixture is used. Wrap in a warm clean tea towel to keep soft

Whisk together the eggs, milk and seasoning and pour into a small pan. Cook gently, stirring constantly until scrambled. Spoon on top of the 8 savoury pancakes. Add the goat’s cheese and place the ham on top. Serve warm

Ingredients::
1 lb lean mutton, cut into 1” cubes and tossed in seasoned flour
6 oz red onion – chopped
2 large cloves garlic – finely chopped
5 oz bacon lardons
¼ bottle full bodied red wine
¾ pint chicken stock
4 oz chorizo – diced or sliced (to taste)
¼ tsp each – allspice, cinnamon, freshly grated nutmeg
Pinch of cloves
1 preserved lemon – finely sliced, pips removed with a little of the preserving juice
Finely grated zest and juice of 2 oranges
Handful of finely shredded parsley leaves
3 oz lightly toasted pine nuts

Method::
Heat some olive oil in a large solid saucepan and brown the lamb in batches – put aside

Add the onion, garlic and bacon – sauté for five minutes, add the wine, bring to the boil and reduce slightly, return the lamb to the saucepan and add the stock

Bring up to a simmer, reduce the heat and simmer gently for 60 minutes, or until the meat is nearly ready

Add the chorizo, spices, preserved lemon, orange zest and juice

Cook for another 15 minutes

Transfer to a serving dish and sprinkle over the parsley and pine kernels

Serve with couscous