Tuesday 26th of March 2013

A favourite recipe tonight, or a riff on it at least, adapting it for the slow-cooker... This is based on Mary Berry's 'Chardonnay Chicken with Artichoke Hearts' from Cook Now, Eat Later, but is very much my lazy-arse 'distracted' version.  Somehow all my regular 'book recipes' suffer this fate eventually, with the exception of those written by my kitchen God, the sainted Mr Simon Hopkinson (or Si-Ho, as he is very affectionately know at Distracted Towers).  I simply do not muck about with his recipes; he wrote them that way for a reason and I love every single one of them just the way it is, whether for late-night, drool-inducing bedtime reading or for spattering with butter, flecks of chopped herbs and roasting juices while I cook yet-another much loved favourite.

200g slow-cooked onions or 1 can EAZY fried onions
250g small chestnut mushrooms
8 chicken thighs, bones left in but skin pulled off
2 x 280g jars of chargrilled artichoke hearts in oil
200ml dry white wine 
1 tbsp cornflour
3 tbsp crème fraîche

Put the onions and the mushrooms in the bottom of the slow-cooker pot.  Add the chicken thighs in as close to a single layer as you can manage, then add the drained artichoke hearts (I recommend saving the oil to use in salad dressings).  Whisk the wine, cornflour and crème fraîche together, adding a twist or three of pepper, then pour this into the pot.  Cook on LOW all day.

I served this with couscous and a big green salad, but a bowl of rice or some crusty bread, along with a green vegetable of some sort, would be an equally good option.

Cath xx

Slow and Spicy

Anyone who might be reading my blog with anything approaching interest and/or regularity will have realised by now that I love and rely quite heavily on my slow-cooker and have done for a long time.  It never ceases to surprise me with some of the lovely things that can so easily be made and I never seem to stop recommending to people that they should get themselves a slow-cooker, pronto!

This morning I threw this little number together.  The really great thing about using a slow-cooker (apart from the food, natch) is that nearly all of it is that lovely throw-it-together sort of cooking; no stress, no fuss. A 'proper' recipe is a bit difficult to give (hence why I haven't written about it before), because every time I make this sort of curry in the sainted machine I use just what we have in the house, vegetable-wise.  In other words I don't shop specifically for it.  So I've finally decided just to give you tonight's interpretation; what follows is just one version of an ever-changing favourite.

Slow Vegetable Curry

I should probably note here that I used frozen cauliflower today. I usually put some frozen veg in these curries, but no more than one sort, generally.

1 tbsp fat (oil, butter, ghee, whatevs)
2 onions, halved and sliced
3 tbsp curry powder, or to taste (I used Steenberg's Tikka Masala, choose your favorite)
2 carrots, chopped 
2 sticks celery, chopped
150g-ish mushrooms, quartered
200g-ish cauliflower, in small florets
 can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
 can chopped tomatoes
80g creamed coconut, chopped and dissolved in 200ml boiling water

Soften the onion in the fat.  I have to say that I always pre-soften onions for slow-cooker dishes in the popty ping (Welsh slang for microwave),  which is actually one of the very few times I use it.  Stir the curry powder into the onions.  Put these, and all the other prepared vegetables, into the slow cooker.  Mix really well, then pour over the creamed coconut liquid and pop the lid on the cooker.  Cook on LOW all day, or HIGH if you start it at lunchtime.  Serve with rice or bread if you like (my hubby and children do), or just eat a bowl of it on its own, which is what I do.

Cath xx

Here comes the sun?

This is one of my little 'Ha! Summer's on the way' suppers that needs a little bit of easy kitchen action; just right to prepare, glass of wine in hand, with the back door open while the children play in the garden.  Turn the music up to drown out the sound of them arguing and pretend that la-la-la you can't hear them... Chin chin!

Cheesy Stuffed Aubergines

2 aubergines

250g minced lamb

50g couscous

1 onion, finely chopped

1/2 tsp ground cumin

1/2 tsp ground  turmeric

1 tbsp lemon juice

3 tbsp finely chopped fresh parsley

150ml lamb (or vegetable) stock

50g Brazil nuts, chopped (optional,  v. yummy!)

50g Parmesan cheese, grated

Cut aubergines in half lengthways and scoop out the flesh, leaving about a half-centimetre's border around.  Dice the flesh and set aside.  Put the 'shells' in an ovenproof dish and season the inside surfaces with salt and pepper.

Fry the lamb and onion for five minutes, until the lamb is browned and the onion softened.  Turn the couscous in the pan to coat the grains in fat.  Mix in the diced aubergine and the remaining ingredients, bar the  cheese.  Use the mixture to fil the aubergine shells, then top with the cheese.  Cover the dish with foil and bake at 180c for 30 minutes; uncover and bake for a further 10 minutes.

This meal needs very little in the way of accompaniment, as it has a little of everything therein; some warm bread rolls are just right.  Happy weekend!

Cath xx

Busy, Busy, Busy!

We've had an incredibly busy week with one thing and another, and it shows no sign of letting up over the weekend or beyond. I'm taking the boys to see my parents next Friday, so I'm definitely hoping for a bit of a rest! It's times like these when I'm really glad to have a pretty extensive back catalogue of basic, no-fuss meals, because sometimes, as Nigella Lawson once wrote you really do "have to hit the kitchen running".

On Wednesday night, a friend who I hadn't seen since before I was married (over six years ago - eek!) came to supper. We only recently found out that we both live in the area (!). Hubby was at work, so we had dinner with Christopher and James; I cooked a big dish of my Vaguely Middle-Eastern Couscous, accompanied by pitta bread, yoghurt and a minted tomato and cucumber salad I followed this with a plate of Fabulous Chocolate Brownies. After the boys were safely tucked up, we settled down to a great evening of gossiping and poring over photographs. It's been so long since I had a girly night in with a friend!

I needed more brownies for Thursday, when thay were my contribution to a serious play-fest with the children at another friend's house, followed by lots of errand-running all over town on my part. For dinner I cobbled together a Potato and Bacon Layer, always popular and very straightforward, thank goodness.

Now that Christopher has reached the milestone of a - drum roll please - china plate at dinnertime, rather than his plastic ones, I wanted to cook him a favourite meal to celebrate, and to relax after the hectic last few days. He's always loved sausages (as, I think, do all children) and these Sweetcorn Pancakes go very nicely alongside some oven-cooked bangers. Liberally lubricated with ketchup (for Christopher), with fruit to follow, they made for a balanced meal that the boys could both eat without any assistance. After I get them off to bed tonight, I'm going to collapse with my knitting and enjoy some time off my feet before it all starts again tomorrow. Still, can't complain - I'd much rather be busy than bored, wouldn't you?

Cooking by the seat of my pants...

This afternoon I took the boys to a friend's house to celebrate her birthday by eating chocolate cake while the children played in the garden/ran around shouting. We nipped to the shops beforehand as I needed some shoes. I have rather large feet (size 10 until recently, but they seem to have shrunk a size after having the children and losing quite a lot of weight), so shoe shopping has always been a nightmare for me, but today was the first day of the rest of my life! I walked into Brantano and found a substantial display of shoes in my size, not only suitable for my needs, but which I actually liked! This could be the start of a horrible problem...

We were quite late back from town, so dinner needed to be a fairly quick production. I had some minced lamb in the fridge, which I originally bought with the intention of making burgers, but instead I used it to make this rather snappy couscous dish. It was inspired by the growing selection of Middle-Eastern titles in my burgeoning library of cookery books. I shan't pretend that it's even remotely authentic, but it does taste good.

Vaguely Middle-Eastern Couscous

250g minced lamb
large pinch each of ground cumin, ground coriander, ginger and cinnamon
200g couscous
400ml hot stock (I used some lamb stock, but vegetable stock would be fine)
3 fat spring onions, chopped
handful of sultanas
handful of flaked almonds, toasted in a dry pan
small bunch of parsley, finely chopped

Put the couscous into a large bowl and pour over the hot stock. Cover the bowl with a plate or something and put it to one side for 10 minutes while you get on with the rest. Fry the lamb, with the spices, in a non-stick frying pan (no need to add extra fat) until brown. Add the sprimg onions and sultanas. Fluff the couscous up with a fork, then stir in the lamb mixture and the chopped parsley. Turn into a serving dish and scatter over the toasted almonds.

Very good, even if I did make it up as I went along. I served it with some toasted pitta bread and a salad of tomatoes and cucumber. Some natural yoghurt to dollop on top would have been lovely, but we had none. Eschewing the idea of Petit Filous, we made do with some sour cream, which worked just fine.

This wasn't really suitable for James; for him, I soaked a little couscous in some stock I'd made earlier in the day from pea-pods and a chunk of onion. I then whizzed it briefly in the mini-blender with a bit of cooked broccoli and a small spoonful of fried lamb held back from our meal. After some initial uncertainty, he cleared the bowl, then howled for pudding. He ended up on his Dad's lap again, this time chewing a bit of pitta bread, while I ate my (by now cold) supper.