This week in my kitchen :: Trying New Things

 

Weekdays are busy. I'm always looking for new recipes for those days. New favourites are Jamie Oliver's Sweet Potato Muffins and Hugh Fearnley-Whitingstall's Beetroot Burgers and Spinachy wraps. If you like beetroot and felafel, you will love these. I found another simple breakfast recipe for baked oats here. I made it the night before, leaving it in the fridge overnight, and then popped into the oven to bake whilst making morning coffee. Cut into squares and then served warm with butter melting on top it makes a delicious alternative to porridge or cereals. The little squares are good to eat on the go too, and would make great lunch box deserts. 

• Mango and avocado salad with Jamie Olivers sweet potato muffins video and recipe 
• Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's Spinachy Wraps. These chick pea (garbanzo bean/gram) flour wraps with a spinach filling are extremely more-ish and very easy to make. The chick pea flour adds a nutty dimension. I've also made them with left over salad leaves like watercress and rocket instead of spinach, they are just as tasty. I love them with baby gem lettuce leaves, cottage cheese and green olives. 
• crunchy pears
• this turkey mince bake but with a potato and not squash mash
• stocking up on omega three. Cheap and cheerful. I love the vintage style packaging and wish I could do something withe them...some kind of Christmas decoration? 
• Labeling what's left of the original sweet cherry wine to squirrel away for Christmas
• Hugh Fearnley Whitingstall's beetroot burgers. These along with the spinach wraps are my favourite new recipe, made by grating raw beetroot, carrot, onion, garlic with cooked chickpeas, spices and seasoning. Just blitzed together and combined to make tasty little burgeers, these are amazing. 
• Baked oats. Love this easy recipe. It's one that you can vary depending what's in your store cupboard.

Weekend now and time for a bit of slow cooking...

Hope you have a good one, 

debx

Garden Alchemy :: Basa Potato Cakes with Sweet Pepper Sauce

Maybe it's because I was born and raised in the city, that I get stupidly excited when a shrivelled old potato that started to sprout angry purple roots in the vegetable rack can give me back a whole colander full; if I just dig a little hole, bury the potato and water it every so often...Don't you think it's amazing. Or is it just me?

Or that a green vine with cute curling tendrils and golden flowers would emerge when I planted the seeds, saved from a butternut squash that we'd eaten.  Even when the flowers dropped off and I had to take off some of the leaves and prop it up on Bababozorgs old walking stick and the sunflower stalk and follow wise advice from the lovely Jane, to give it a good talking to...Gently but firmly...And guess what...It produced more flowers and they are still in tact. There's even a cute little bulbous protrusion on one of them. MY FIRST SQUASH...Can you see it?

Yesterday the wind blew most of the leaves off the plum tree and wafted the scent of the sweet peas and the honeysuckle around the garden. It was mild and balmy and smelt like spring all over again. A robin landed on the fork handle and I heard what I thought was someone cutting branches with an electric saw to fill up their woodpile. The buzzing got louder and an enormous bumble bee buzzed by my ear. The robin lingered to keep me company. Or probably just waiting for fresh worms, whilst I weeded the vegetable plot and dug up the potatoes and found the squirrels treasure trove of cobnuts. I even sneaked a peek at the baby carrots...They are growing with the fruit bushes in another bed but I'll leave them in the nursery to get a little bigger. 

While digging I remembered the piece of garden that was mine when I was seven. How I planted a potato and maize seeds, watering them with a can that was almost as big as I was. I checked them every single day until I couldn't wait any longer and impatiently dug up those minuscule pearls. Washed them and put them into my tiny silver toy saucepan with the shiny red lid and begged granddad to let me cook them on the stove... It's still just as magical to me today...

This is how I used some of my lovley homegrown potatoes... 

Basa potato cakes with sweet pepper sauce

Ingredients to make two small or one large cake each for two people: 
( I made two small and one large)

• One basa or any other fish fillet. I like basa because it's creamy and milky in flavour, melts in your mouth and has few bones. Also because it's a not too fishy, fish that I feed Ahmad, who likes fish in theory, but not in practice.(About 120g for the two)
• Two large potato (about 360-400g) Basically about three times as much potato as fish.You will need a floury not waxy potato that mashes well. A good all rounder is Morris Piper.
• A little milk of any kind to poach the fish and then add to the potatoes
• Sea salt and black pepper
• A small piece of horseradish root
• A bay leaf
• Fresh herbs or leaves if you have any. I used chives, parsley, or spinach would be good too.
• A little flour of choice, I used chick pea (gram/garbanzo bean) flour

Optional for a crumb coating:

• Bread crumbs
• An egg

Method:

1. Peel the potatoes,and cut into small pieces. The smaller the better as they will cook quicker.
2. Place them in a saucepan. Cover them with cold water. Not too much, just enough to cover. Season and put them on the hob. 
3. Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat to a simmer. Cover and cook until tender enough to mash. 
4. Whilst the potatoes are cooking place the fish into a shallow pan if you have one. A small frying pan is perfect for this. Cover with a little milk, season and then poach the fish until tender. 
5. Alternatively, as I've done may like to cook the fish on a plate on top of the pan whilst the potatoes are cooking.
6. Drain the potatoes when cooked and place them into a bowl. 
7. Remove the cooked fish and reserve to cool down a little for later.
8. Mash the potatoes adding some of the milk (remembering to remove the bay leaf)and beat it really well so that there aren't any lumps. Don't make the mash too runny as it will be difficult to form the fish cakes. If it is too soft you can add a little of the flour to the mixture. 
9. Flake in the fish and roughly mix. Don't mash it up too much it's good to keep a little texture. Grate in a little of the horseradish root for heat.
10. Chop any herbs or chives and then add to the mixture. As all the ingredients are cooked you may like to check the seasoning and adjust if necessary. 
11. Divide the mixture into as many cakes as you want. I am sometimes a bit overgenerous with sizes. Form each one into a flat cake. Dust with a little flour then place on a plate lined with baking parchment. If making lots I would layer them up with paper in between each layer. Put in the fridge to chill for a little while before cooking.
12. If using crumbs. Prepare your crumbs. Beat the egg and pour onto a plate. Then dip the floured cakes into egg and then crumb mixture. Then chill
13. Finally pour a little oil into a frying pan and cook the cakes for a few minutes on each side until golden brown and crunchy. Leave on each side at least two minutes before turning as they will break up.

Sweet Pepper sauce. 

Ingredients:

• Four small or two medium sized peppers. About 200-220g. Choose red, yellow or orange peppers for a sweet sauce. Green ones are not as ripe and consequently not as sweet. They have a slightly bitter taste.
• Tomato puree
• One banana shallot
• Two cloves of garlic
• Sea salt and fresh black pepper
• A little oil of choice. I used olive oil

Method:

1. Peel the shallot and slice finely. Pour a little oil into a frying pan and cook until tender.
2. Peel and crush or finely chop the garlic, add to the pan and cook.
3. Wash, deseed and finely chop the peppers and add to the pan. Spoon in some tomato puree and cook until tender. You make like to add a little hot water or stock. If making to serve with the fish cakes, you could use a little of the potato water.
4. The sauce is ready when all the ingredients are soft and unctuous. You can blend it to a smooth sauce or keep it rustic as I did. 

This is a sweet sauce but you can soon pep it up with by adding either fresh or dried chillies when cooking. It works well with the crunchy fish cakes and other seasonal vegetables, and would be just as good with pasta. 

... I must look for that little pan...sure I saw it when we were unpacking...
dx

in my kitchen :: thrifty finds, comfort food and repurposing an old pine wardrobe

Did you know that potatoes are related to tomatoes? I didn't. I suppose the clue should have been in the name...the 'toes' bit. After our potatoes flowered we noticed two little green fruits that looked just like tomatoes growing on one of the plants...curious. A quick google query 'fruits that look like tomatoes on a potato plant,' revealed that they are the poisonous fruit of the potato plant that carry seeds. Apparently they only produce this fruit when growing conditions are perfect and if you sow the seeds they'll  produce a variety different from the one that you planted and it might be difficult for them to germinate. I think that I'll stick to planting potatoes when they start shooting out little roots in the vegetable basket the same as we do with the onions. 

In case you wondered...also in the kitchen:

• Quick summer crumbles. Lots more, including peach, egg plum and cherry. I think apricot is still the favourite. I have to stop now before I get crumbled out...
• Bay leaves from the garden to stock up kitchen herb supplies. 
• Vintage shopping...I can't resist white pillow cases. Especially if there's a lace border or even a peep of broderie anglaise to be seen. And a cute little stoneware pie funnel. It will hopefully encourage me to move on from crumbles to pies.
• The teeniest, weeniest frog spotted jumping on the kitchen floor. It must have hopped in when the door was opened. I began to think we had a mini plague after we rescued two on subsequent evenings. Now I think it was the same one that just liked our kitchen so much that it popped back in again...
• A solid old pine wardrobe that was a real bargain from a charity shop. I have been scouring the auctions for months since I left a bid on a larder cupboard and lost it for just £2 above my bid. Had I been there I would have gone much higher and still had an amazing bargain. But this one is still very cheap even though more than twice as much as the one in the auction sold for and the money will go to a good cause. With the clothes-rail removed and shelves added it makes the perfect pantry. Hey presto from wardrobe to larder cupboard in an hour. We're not quite sure whether to paint it to blend in with the rest of the kitchen. What do you think?
• Seeds collected from the garden ready for next year. My mission is to avoid buying as many seeds as possible. (Do you like my classification? 'green spiky')
• Comfort food...more risotto. Another green one, this time with spinach and mange tout.
• Haleem, Persian chicken porridge...more comfort.
• Mini omelette made from lovely local free range eggs.
• There's also been lots of sewing but I'll show you that later...

Haleem, Persian chicken porridge

To make enough for three to four people place a teacupful of oats into a saucepan or porringer and a good pinch or twist of sea salt. Poach a chicken breast in salted water until just tender but not dry. (I usually reserve the cooking liquid to make chicken stock.) When cool, shred the chicken with your finger or two forks using the same method used in Chinese restaurants to prepare duck with pancakes. Add this to the oats in the saucepan.  Gradually add  cold water into the oats and cook over a moderate heat, feeding the water in, in the same way that you would a risotto.  This is one of those dishes where you need to stand and stir...a bit of cooking therapy...After a little while you can add milk instead of water to give a much creamier texture. Cook until the oats are broken down into a smooth porridge.  

I like to eat it with the traditional spoonful of butter. It's also served with the addition of a little cinnamon and sugar or clotted cream stirred in but I prefer to keep it savoury.

That's just a bit of my kitchen chaos...I wonder what's going on in yours. 

Oh and about painting the pine cupboard. I really would appreciate your advise...what do you think? To paint or not to paint? 
debx