Asia de Cuba

I am less than a week away from becoming a homeowner.   This is exciting for all number of reasons, particularly because I want to start throwing more dinner parties and will finally have some proper space to do so, including a balcony with lots of room for summer barbecues. But before any of that good stuff can happen, there are a lot of things to be done.  Including using up as much of the food in the house as possible.  Given the random collection of items in my freezer, this has led to some unusual dinners over the past few weeks.  Some more successful than others.  But this is one that I might actually try again: a Mexican-Chinese mash up that worked surprisingly well.  Also very quick and easy for nights when you don't feel like putting a lot of effort into cooking but don't necessarily want to buy takeout.

Chinese-style tacos

4 taco shells/soft tacos
1 red onion
1 green pepper
500g diced beef steak
4 tbsp black bean stir fry sauce
sour cream
handful of grated cheddar cheese, to serve
guacamole, to serve (if desired)




In a large saucepan or wok, heat a splash of oil and fry the onion in until it starts to turn golden.  Add the diced beef (you could substitute with other types of meat here) and then cook until there is no pink showing.  Drain the fat from the pan, and then return to the heat and throw in any other vegetables you like.  I used a green pepper for colour contrast and texture, but you can definitely be creative with alternatives here.

Here's where I deviated from a more traditional taco - by adding a few tablespoons of garlic black bean sauce to the mixture.  Cook for a few minutes, during which time you can heat the tacos, if desired.  I would recommend doing it in an oven if possible - I warmed mine up in the microwave and they went a bit soggy.

To serve, scoop a few spoons of the beef mixture onto one side of the taco, and either serve plain, or with condiments.  I had sour cream, grated cheese and guacamole, so I used a little of each.  Slight overkill perhaps, but it was delicious.  I also chopped up a few cherry tomatoes and threw them on for good measure.  Et voila, a slightly unusual but still very good fusion taco!

Suggestions welcome on what to do with the remainder of my freezer: a fillet of lemon sole, half a ciabbata loaf, frozen vegetables galore, and some frozen bananas. Preferably not all in the same recipe!

p.s. Apologies if a half finished version of this post showed up in your inbox last week.  I had it saved to post later, but Blogger decided to publish the draft on its own schedule!

Never apologise lasagna

 'Never apologise, never explain'.  These words of my mother's still ring in my ears, decades after I was exhorted not to overly excuse or give elaborate explanations for what I was doing.  When the lady doth protest too much, people stop believing and lose interest.

And so it is with recipes.  Put down something in front of a hungry family saying that it 'doesn't  look very good but if probably tastes fine or 'sorry I sort of messed up the top' doesn't make them tuck in with enthusiasm.  When we sat down to the results of this one last week and I said 'sorry but I think perhaps....' I was shouted down with a chorus of 'never apologise, just eat it'.  And, in fact, it was good.

Everyone has their own favourite lasagna recipe.  I have a wonderful lower fat quick version which I can do without a thought.  This one is a slightly more complex version of the low fat one but it's not the all singing, all dancing, every pan in the kitchen type that can take up an afternoon.

Stevie was the photographer so even if the recipe doesn't appeal (ooops, there I go again) the pictures will be of a better standard than usual and I'm including them all as she takes great food shots.

Sorry!

9 lasagna noodles (get the kind that don't need precooking)
1 tblsp olive oil
1 onion, diced
500 g turkey mince (any other is fine but turkey has the least fat)
750 ml passata or tomato sauce
175 g sliced fresh mushrooms
2 tsp Italian seasoning
good grinding of black pepper
pinch of garlic powder
250g chopped fresh spinach but I used lamb's lettuce equally successfully.
500 ml low fat cottage cheese
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
500 g grated sharp cheddar or mozzarella


Heat olive oil in frying pan over medium heat.  Cook onion until softened but not browned, then add turkey and continue to cook for another 5 to 7 minutes until lightly browned.  Add tomato sauce, mushrooms, and seasonings, stir together well and simmer for about 10 minutes.











 

 
 In another bowl, combine spinach, cottage cheese and nutmeg.

 

Now layer the casserole in a 9x13 baking dish:  sauce, spinach,  noodles, cheese, sauce, spinach,noodles, sauce and top with cheese.  Any variation of this is fine but noodles need to be next to the sauce so they cook and the top should be a layer of cheese.  Play with it as you would any layered casserole to get it right for your own tastes.

Bake at 180ºC for about 20 to 30 minutes until sauce is bubbling.  Cool for a few minutes before serving.

 

Comfort(able) Food: Mac & Cheese and Peanut Butter & Oreo Pie

Random Monday plans got accidentally rescheduled into Valentine's Day plans, and it seemed like the perfect excuse to deploy two of my favourite, and most completely indulgent, comfort food recipes.

I call this comfortable food because I've made it so often I don't need recipes; and of course it's delicious. I don't believe there's any such thing as unhealthy food - all things in moderation, and what might not be good for the body is more than likely good for the soul.

Dessert comes after the main course, of course, but the pie needs at least three hours in the fridge, preferably more, so that comes first. HOWEVER, I should point out that serving both of these for the same meal makes for a very rich very filling dinner.

And so, without further ado:

Peanut Butter & Oreo Pie
This is adapted from an original recipe by the glorious Pioneer Woman (who also has an utterly incredible mac & cheese recipe of her own - her site is well worth a roam). These measurements make six generous mini pies in creme-brulee style ramekins and ought to be enough for one plate-size pie.

1 packet of Oreos (in the UK the basic pack that I've seen in most supermarkets contain 15 - if you're using more adjust accordingly)
100g of butter (margarine works fine)
100g of peanut butter (crunchy or smooth according to taste - most people I know are quite firm in their preference)
150g of cream cheese
75g of icing sugar (this avoids the pie being too overwhelmingly sweet - adjust for taste, you'll probably want a bit more sugar if you're using crunchy peanut butter).
100ml of single cream

If you have a food processor (and can be bothered cleaning it afterwards), use it to crush the Oreos. Or, do what I do and improvise a pestle and mortar with a mixing bowl and (clean) wine bottle...

Blend until the white filling has been mixed in with the biscuit crumbs. 

Melt the butter, mix into the biscuit crumble.

Spread the mix onto your dish(es). (Pro tip: if you're using little ramekins, the bottom of a small glass does a perfect job of flattening the pie base; if you're using a pie dish, anything flat and round slightly smaller than the dish circumference - pan, plate, whatever).

Bake for 5 minutes.

Leave to cool.

I'm impatient, so I put them outside (and stood guard for seagulls).

Mix the peanut butter and cream cheese together.

If this photo grosses you out, this is probably not the recipe for you.

Add the cream and sugar a bit at a time, checking for taste and texture (you want it stiff enough to keep it's shape but not an effort to spread).
Mix thoroughly.
When the base is completely cool, spoon the mixture on and smooth over.

Refrigerate for at least three hours. The topping sets quite quickly, but the longer you leave it, the more the base softens - it's just as tasty but harder to serve and eat when the base is still crispy, but if you prefer it that way then serve within a couple of hours. I've eaten this after nearly a week in the fridge - much softer, still good! It's never lasted long enough to go off but I'd say a week is probably as long as you want to leave it.

Enjoy!

Mac & Cheese
[Notes: a) The photos here are of me making an industrial sized double portion for several meals including a potluck, so don't use them as a gauge; b) I have never in my life actually measured the quantities of anything that goes into this, so the amounts below are my best estimates - adjust according to taste. c) The veg is entirely optional. Also delicious with bacon (with or without the veg too).]

1 packet of macaroni (usually 500g) (I've made this with all kinds of pasta imaginable, but the particular texture of the macaroni really is best)
Approx 300g of mature cheddar (or roughly 150g each of mature and extra mature for a sharper taste - using only extra mature doesn't work as well, I find, as it doesn't blend quite so smoothly)
1 veg stock cube
1 small onion (optional)
Garlic according to taste - I'd probably use 4 or 5 cloves, but I really like garlic (optional)
150g of mushrooms (optional)
3 tablespoons of plain flour - approximately, adjust as you prepare the sauce to achieve the texture described below.
50g of butter (margarine works fine too)
150ml of milk (I use semi skimmed but whatever you have in the fridge!)
Dijon mustard (about 3 teaspoons but this is very much a matter of taste)
Breadcrumbs (probably a few tablespoons but this'll depend on the surface area of the dish you use)
Black pepper to taste

Preheat the oven to 200c.
Boil the water for the pasta, with the stock cube.
Chop the vegetables into roughly macaroni-sized pieces.

Fry the vegetables over a medium heat. A dab of the butter or a small amount of olive oil will work equally well.
Cook the macaroni - stirring regularly (it sticks much more than other types of pasta), until it's just shy of done - it should be soft enough to bend rather than break when pressed, but still firm. It will cook more in the sauce in the oven.
Here's a nifty trick that makes it extra awesome: drain the water from the pasta into a bowl and set aside. You'll use it for the sauce, which makes it lighter than using milk but thicker and more flavourful than just water or stock (this is true of all pasta sauces).

The vegetables should be ready about the same time as the pasta - you want them fully soft but not browning. Put both into the dish you'll be baking the mac & cheese in. Add a dab of butter or marge to stop the pasta congealing.
To make the sauce (if this explanation doesn't work for you, look up how to make béchamel - don't let the fancy cuisine word alarm you, it's just cheese sauce!):
If the cheese isn't grated already, grate it now, set aside.

Melt the butter in the bottom of a saucepan on a low/medium heat.
When it's completely melted but before it starts sizzling, lift off the heat, and slowly add the flour, mixing vigourously. You should end up with a gold-ish-coloured mix with no excess moisture - it's rather hard to explain, but I'd say it has the rough consistency of pureed veg, maybe a bit dryer.
Let this mixture cook, stirring continuously. Keep an eye on the heat - don't let it burn or stick.
Slowly add the milk, still stirring to keep the mixture as smooth as possible. Don't panic if you end up with lumps, they're usually quite easy to break down. The mixture will thicken as you stir.
Slowly add the pasta water - you probably won't need all of it - until the sauce has the consistency of thick soup.
Add about a third of the grated cheese, stir until melted.
Add mustard. Like I said, I use about three teaspoons, but it's entirely a matter of taste. If you've never made it before, go a teaspoon at a time and taste, bearing in mind you'll add more cheese before the dish is done.
Add black pepper to taste.
Keep on the heat and stirring until you're ready to add to the pasta.
Mix straight into the pasta in the dish.
Add another third of the cheese and mix thoroughly.
Spread the final third of the cheese on top of the dish.

Sprinkle breadcrumbs over the top.
Bake for 25 minutes at the top of the oven.
For a crunchy golden finish, turn on the grill for 5 minutes (keep an eye on it so the top doesn't burn).

Serve hot! 

If you're not serving immediately: if keeping for less than 24 hours, cover but don't refrigerate. If refrigerating, serve within three days. I would recommend microwaving individual portions rather than reheating the whole dish in the oven as it will dry out rather.

Empty cupboard salmon and vegetable frittata

We've discussed the value of back pocket recipes, of those 'what to eat when there's nothing (or almost nothing) to eat' meals that work out so well but often can't be recreated.  Usually those 'what to eat' evenings have me scouring the cupboards for tins and packets, and the freezer for vegetables that will add colour and another of those all important five-a-day items to my mish mash meal.

Our grandparents solved the 'what to eat' evenings with bread and dripping and a hot cup of strong tea.  The fate of so many made alarming cardiac statistics fifty years ago.  Our parents' generation was a little more switched on to nutritional values and health issues and their taste buds were not about to be insulted with dripping, so they went for scrambled egg on toast.  It's a good standby, comfort food of the highest order and makes a great breakfast, but feeding two hungry men and a moderately hungry woman after a long day can't adequately be done with breakfast food.  Why not have a bowl of cornflakes and be done with it?

Yet eggs have all kinds of beneficial properties and they are enormously versatile.  Whipping up a quiche is all well and good but this isn't about quiche:  now we're talking odd items which need to be combined into a cohesive and palatable whole.

Enter FRITTATA:  easy, quick, endlessly versatile and elastic when it comes to amounts. 

My inclination would have been to put a tin of tuna into this one, but I discovered to my surprise and dismay that Kit had scarfed the one tin of tuna in a sandwich a few days ago so all I had in the arsenal was a tin of salmon.  So be it.  A root round in the fridge produced a few more ingredients and away I went to produce



Salmon and vegetable frittata

I've tried to get the amounts in some reasonable proportion but really, as long as you can adequately cover the base with the egg topping/filling, the gram amounts are not too important.


5 good sized potatoes, peeled, sliced and boiled
200g mushrooms, sliced finely and sauteed in a mix of olive oil and butter
2 green onions (more if you like onion), chopped finely
200g cherry tomatoes, halved
1 - 240g tin red salmon, drained and flaked
5 -7 eggs beaten lightly with 150 ml milk (the more eggs the more milk)
100g grated cheese (cheddar is as good as any but really any mild cheese will do)

 
Assemble ingredients and then layer first four in a greased oblong casserole dish.  Pour egg mixture over all and let it run into the corners, then sprinkle grated cheese on top.  Bake in a 190ºC oven for 15 - 20 minutes until cheese is melted and slightly brown and the whole has a 'set' look to it.  The above amounts serve four comfortably.

Apologies, dear readers, to the strict vegetarians among you.  It will be just as good if you leave out the salmon and add another vegetable.  But I've included this recipe in the Vegetarian section of the index simply because it doesn't fit neatly with the fish category (have we even got one yet?) and it so easily could be a veggie option.

Chicken cobbler

Isms.  We all have them.  But now and then we ought to step out of our comfort zone, perhaps take a brief leap of faith and put aside pre-conceived notions.  I did last night and the results were extremely good.

As a rule, when scanning recipes for potential attraction (the recipe for me, that is) I switch off the minute I see any of the following:  tin of soup, can of pie filling, package of pudding mix/taco seasoning/onion soup or salsa mix, box of devil's food or angel food cake mix.

Oh, and,I didn't go a heap on artichoke hearts although I'm changing my tune on those ones and you'll be getting a post soon that includes them.  I have yet to convince my resident taste testers though.

Anyway, you get the idea.  I don't 'do' prepared food.  I don't buy it, use it, like it or serve it. Ergo, I don't use it in my recipes as it gives it a 'prepared' flavour and a walloping dose of chemicals and preservatives.

And if I see the word 'cheesy' in the title of any recipe, I run screaming off into the night.

So why is it that when I was flipping through a magazine a few weeks ago and came across 'Cheesy chicken cobbler' I didn't turn the page at once and move on?  Why, when the third item in the recipe list was 'a tin of tomato soup', did I not utter a snort of derision and ignore the rest of the recipe?

Dunno the answer to either of those, but for some reason the concept of this one attracted me, and my inclination for substitution kicked in big time and I tore the page from the magazine, determined to make it at some point.

I reached that point yesterday evening.

Like me, please turn a deaf ear to your 'isms' when you can, use tins and packets if you absolutely have to, but better still substitute with fresh, and surprise yourself and the rest of us.
Forget the original title, omit the offending adjectives and have fun with this 'back pocket recipe'.  And please, to all dear readers, report back when and if you try any of the posts with success.



200g cooked chicken, skinless of course and cut into cubes or chunks (light or dark, either leftover, or raw and microwaved for a few minutes as the original method of cooking is not crucial to the whole)

200g mixed frozen vegetables (carrots, corn, broccoli, peas, whatever you have in the freezer) but if you want to use fresh then by all means but it loses the convenience and back pocket factor at this point.


Deep breath and here we go:  300g tin of undiluted tomato soup (use the soup if you have it and want to and are happy) but Passata or Napoletana, fresh or from a jar, are perfect here and we can do away with one of the verboten ingredients.

175g self-raising flour

2 tsp baking powder

50g grated cheddar cheese

75ml milk

1 egg, lightly beaten

2 tsp olive oil 

This is just so so easy:  In a bowl, mix together cooked chicken, vegetables and tomato whatever (soup, or fresh pasta sauce).  Spread mixture evenly in the bottom of a shallow casserole dish (see pic for approx size of dish) and set aside.

Sift flour, baking powder and a large pinch of salt into a bowl.  Add grated cheese.  In another bowl (this is like my banana muffin recipe isn't it?) beat together milk, egg and olive oil.  Add liquid mixture into the flour and use a pastry blender or two knives to mix together into a sticky dough.  Add a little flour or water to make it easy to work with.  When dough clumps begin to form, turn onto a floured board and form a circle, square or rectangle.  The shape will probably reflect your personality!  Cut your total shape evenly into about 8 pieces:  rounds, pie shapes, squares, it doesn't really matter as they all become amorphous blobs in the oven.

Arrange these shapes evenly on top of chicken mixture.  Brush each 'scone' or 'dumpling' shape with a little milk and you can grate more cheese over the top if you like.

Bake in a 200º oven for about 15 to 20 minutes until the cobbler bits brown and the chicken mixture is bubbling. 

Shoot-myself -in-the-foot real Baked Potato Soup

OK so the last recipe for BPS was great and we all enjoyed it, but I couldn't help feeling that it was a bit of a cheat as there was no 'baked' about the potatoes or anything else in that recipe.  It was potato soup with toppings that would be appropriate for a baked potato and it worked.  It worked very well in fact.

But I wanted more. I wanted that baked potato taste in the soup itself so went out on a limb and tried something else which really does impart the comfort flavour of a good jacket potato with warm, creamy surrounds.  And it works very well with the lower fat version of some of the ingredients.


4 baking potatoes, about 1 kg total weight
80g plain flour
1.2 l milk (skimmed is fine)
100g grated sharp cheddar cheese
salt and pepper to taste
250 ml reduced fat crème fraîche

To garnish:

70 g diced and fried pancetta
snipped chives
freshly ground black pepper

Prick potatoes, rub lightly with olive oil and bake at 200ºC for about an hour until soft inside.  Cool slightly and then mash roughly with skins on.

Mix flour with milk in a heavy saucepan on hob.  Heat slowly, stirring frequently, until thick and bubbling.  Add mashed potatoes, 3/4 of the cheese and seasonings and stir until cheese is melted.  Remove from heat.

Stir in crème fraîche.  Cook over low heat for a further few minutes until thoroughly heated but do not boil.  Ladle soup into bowls and garnish with the rest of the grated cheese, chopped chives, pancetta and pepper.

I served this with yet another loaf of bread, made like the rosemary one of the other day, but without the herbs.  It went down a treat with all my fellow diners (family, but I take what I can get!).

Of cabbages and kings

Kale. Not a vegetable I was familiar with before stumbling across this recipe on my favourite cooking blog sometime last year. I even had to google it to find out which vegetable family it belonged to (most closely related to the cabbage, in case you wanted to know). I made that Orangette recipe once or twice and enjoyed it, but then kind of forgot that kale existed again. Until this week. Now that I'm getting into cooking in a big way I've started perusing the blogosphere again, and on the front page of one I found a recipe for kale and winter squash salad which sounded delicious.

Well, I made this salad for myself earlier in the week, tested it out on some friends tonight, and plan to make it for dinner with the family on the weekend. I'm not often moved to make the same recipe three times in one week, but this is just so good that right now, I want to eat it every day. Very simple to make, but the combination of flavours elevates it into something special. I promised lots of recipes involving cheese on this blog, and this fits the bill (and forget about the half-fat mild cheddar for this one - it needs something crunchy and sharp to cut through the caramelised sweetness of the butternut squash).

Kale and butternut squash salad
(Adapted from Northern Spy's kale salad)

1/2 cup cubed butternut (or other winter) squash (I also added some sweet potato)
salt and freshly ground pepper
2 1/2 cups curly kale
1/4 cup pine nuts
1/4 cup crumbled or grated cheddar cheese
1 tbsp lemon juice
2 tbsp olive oil
parmesan, for shaving (optional)

Heat the oven to 425° F. Toss the squash cubes in just enough olive oil to coat, and season with salt and pepper. Spread on a baking sheet, leaving space between the cubes. Roast in the oven until tender and caramelized, about 40 minutes, tossing with a spatula every 10-15 minutes. Toast the pine nuts on a baking sheet in the same oven until they start to smell nutty, tossing once, for about 10 minutes. Leave to cool.

In a large bowl, mix the kale, pine nuts, cheddar cheese and squash, and toss in approximately 1 tablespoon lemon juice and 2 tablespoons olive oil. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Garnish with shaved parmesan cheese and serve. This should do for about two people as a main dish, but will serve more as a starter or side salad.

Best served with champagne and enjoyed with friends on a good news day, which was what today was for me!