Salmon cured with beetroot and vodka, with cream cheese on malted toast

Overly luxurious brunch, this is what happens when I am left to my own devices

There was beetroot in the vegebox  .Curing salmon is so easy and this  beetroot and vodka marinade,  gives a beautiful colouring , rich tasting not really alcoholic more smokey. It needs 48 hours to cure properly the fish becoming  firm, and  though purple on the outside the centre will remain lightly pink . It makes a fantastic starter or canape with a really wow factor. First made for Valentines Day 2008 served with horseradish cream

Beetroot and Vodka Marinated Salmon

For each 100g salmon fillet

Marinade

50g of fresh beetroot
20g  sea salt
20g  brown sugar
1/2 tsp peppercorns, crushed
50 ml  of vodka

1. Grate the beetroot and mix together with the other ingredients to make the marinade
2. Pour over the salmon , refridgerate and leave cure for 48hours
3. The serve discard the marinade and thinly slice the salmon.

For breakfast this was delicious served on homemade granary toast with soft cheese and  sprinkling of dill. I have perfected a delicious dense malty granary loaf that is perfect but bagels or rye bread would also work well.

Wild Apple and Blackberry Crumble

With this dish I welcome autumn

Massive shopping centre opens round the corner from my flat so I hopped on a bus and escaped to the countryside for the day wondering round foraging .

I have been really sad that the blackberries one of my favourite fruits have not been plentiful this year with the huge amounts of rain and tiny amount of sun they have mostly been either watery or rotten . These were even guided by spiders.

Happily close to my favourite apple scrumping tree there were some lovely bushes with just enough blackberries to fill my bag and stain my lips purple.

The cows generously moved aside to let me get some cooking apples off the trees as well and today so today forgoing dinner in favour of pudding only , with a healthy dose of fruit it doesn’t seem too bad

I like making crumble in ramikins living alone it means I make portions sizes and the spares can go straight into the freezer

Apple and Blackberry Crumble

Per 20cm diameter ramikin

1 handful of apple , thinly sliced
1 handful of blackberries

Crumble Mix

1 tbsp of butter
3 heaped tablespoons plain flour
3 heaped tablespoons of oats
2 heaped tablespoons of vanilla sugar

1. Preheat the oven to 180degC
2. Layer the apple into the ramkin interspersed with blackberries right to the top of the dish
3. Mix together the crumble ingredients to a breadcrumb
4. Press the crumble mixture into a mound at the top of the dish
5. Bake in the oven for 20 minutes

Roasted Vegetables on Toasted Ciabatta

So September is sunny , the last crop of tomatoes from Nicks dad, these little yellow cherry tomatoes are so sweet , this was lovely simple and tasted fantastic

Once roasted all the vegetables become unctuous , when served the bread soaks up all the roasting juices, you could probably skip the anchovies / feta for a vegetarian/ vegan options but I was feeling decadents

Roasted Summer Vegetables

1 medium Augergine , cut into 1cm cubes
2 handfuls of Yellow Cherry tomatoes
2 cloves of garlic
1 Red Pepper , cut into chunks
1 tbsp of anchovy fillets
1 tbsp Capers
Slosh Olive Oil
Salt and Pepper
Fresh thyme
3 tbsp of feta

To serve

Ciabatta Bread
Rocket and Basil Leaves

Balsamic Dressing
5 tbsp of balsamic dressing
1 tbsp of honey
1 tsp Wholegrain mustard

In a large roasting tin mix aubergine , pepper , garlic,
Season with salt pepper and fresh thyme
Slosh over the olive oil , roast in the oven at 250degC for 20 minutes
Add the tomatoes , capers and anchovies
Roast for another 15 minutes
Just before serving crumble in the feta

Serve on top of warm toasted ciabatta
with rocket and basil leaves dressed with balsmic dressing.

Corn Chowder and My Fridge

I don’t really get much of a chance to work from home anymore ,even though the commute to London is a bit of a hassle I have really loved being part of a team again especially being part of the tea round . Working from home today meant on my 50 trips to the fridge for milk for my tea I had a good chance to contemplate my fridge door quite by coincidence A Wee Bit of Cooking (one of my most read blogs) is running a competition for readers to post pictures of their fridge doors so here is mine and a few notes of explanation .

I am not massively into fridge magnets, I once lived with someone who collected 3D magnets that fell off every time you opened or closed the fridge door , the guilt at breaking such precious things remains with me. I have also had those magnetic poetry on my fridge but I found it meant the fridge door was very hard to keep clean and eventually these began to rust onto the fridge.

I like the little hand magnets I have now and they do actually hold things onto the fridge though I have no recollection how I came to own them .

Clockwise from the top left hand corner

• Photo of two snails meeting on a leaf . I took this photo in a wood near Gloucester and it was on the first card I gave my boyfriend , he still has a copy on his fridge too.
• ” Asylum for Teaching Young Females Household Work” , this fridge magnet plaque is a witty reference to my lack of natural housework abilities .
• Fungi Photo , another photo I took . I am never happier than kneeling in leaf mould getting shots of tiny fungi and flora. I do also forage a lot for wild food , which often end up in the fridge for cooking
• Photo of the lovely boyfriend and I on holiday , we are seperated by a hundred miles or so in the week , this is so I don’t forget what he looks like.
• Turkish evil eye , this charm wards off evil …. scary things can live in fridges . If you have seen Ghostbusters or my vegetable drawer after a weekend away you will know what I mean.
• Thank you card was from my former work colleagues who I left just a few months or what feels like a hundred lifetimes ago , it there to remind me not to lost touch.

Enough about my fridge this a food blog & working from home also meant the chance for some breif cooking at lunchtime. Two small corn on the cob in the aforementioned vege-drawer which I had planned to devour freshly steamed and dripping in butter where a little dried up. Cursing my wastefulness I decided to turn them into soup from very few ingredients and a little internet research I made a large bowl of corn chowder which turned out creamy and delicious though I am sure not authentic

Corn Chowder
Fresh corn from two small corn on the cob
1/2 pint of vegetable stock
1 spring onion finely chopped
1/2 pint of milk

1. Simmer togther the corn , spring onion and vegetable stock for 15 minutes
2. Blend together and simmer for a further 10 minutes this brings the starch out of the corn and thickens the soup.
3. Add the milk and serve with fresh chives or parsley

Lamb , Olive & Tomato Stew with Olive Bread

This lamb stew was supposed to be eaten yesterday but we found chanterelles growing in the woods and went for a lighter chicken dish . This was going to be a thick lamb stew with potatoes but the weather bizarrely has turned very summery so after a morning wondering over the library an reading the papers in the library , so I lightened it into a Mediterranean dish with tomatoes and olives.

This dish uses a shoulder of lamb which is a cheap cut, it needs long cooking so I do it in two stages cooking the night before ( then it can be frozen ) and a second stage on the day of eating

Lamb and Olive Spicy Stew

1/2 shoulder of lamb
1 bottle of wine
six larges onions
Six gloves of garlic

1. Place the lamb onions garlic and wine in a lidded oven proof dish
2. Bake with the lid on in a oven at 200deg C for an hour.
3. Leave in the oven over night
4. The next morning remove the meat from the dish it should almost fall off the bone and can be cut into chunks and put back into the dish
5. The lamb can now me made into this tomatoe and olive stew with the steps below or put into the freezer for use in other recipes

Olive and Tomato Stew

800g of plum tomatoes
3 handfuls of black olives stones
3 tsp of black olives
2 tbsp of paprika
1tsp of dried chilli
Finely chopped fresh parsley

1. Add all the ingrdients above to approx 400g of the lamb , onion and wine mixture
2. Simmer gently for 40 minutes with the lid on for the first 20 minutes , off for for the final
3. Taste you may wish to add more paprika
4. Serve with a sprinkling of fresh parsley

This meal is perfect example of how much I love olives , olives in the stew olives in the greekish salad ( previously posted as Greek Salad and Three Seed Rolls. ) and olives in the bread I had made on Friday and was delicious in sandwiches walking yesterday.

Olive Bread

400g of white bread flour
1 tsp of dried yeast
380ml of warm water
1 tsp of sugar
20ml of olive oil
1 handful of black olives stones

1. Mix together all the ingredients except the olive
2. Knead for 5 minutes
3. Leave to rise for 40 minutes somewhere warm
4. Knead once more adding the olives
5. Leave to rise for another 20 minutes
6. Bake at 220decC for 30 minutes.

Roasted Chicken with Chanterelles

We worked really hard all last weekend while its rained .The promise of dry weather this weekend meant we had to go out for a nice walk in the Forest of Dean , ancient woodland criss- crossed with waterstreams and large oak trees.

Lurking next to one stream were a cluster of egg yolk yellow chanterelles its the first time I have found these little babies, they love to be near streams and a few were nibbled beyond repair. So keen was I to pick them I even forgot to take any photos in situ. I had some chicken thighs out of the freezer so from wood to plate in a few hours quite delicious

A simple one pot recipe with earthy zesty tastes for perfect autumn dish

Roasted Chicken with Chanterelles

6 Chicken thighs ( I remove the skin otherwise it is a little greasy )
3 handfuls of cooked new potatoes , cut in half
3 handfuls of chanterelles
2 cloves of garlic peeled & roughly chopped
1 handful of flat parsley , finely chopped
1 cup of water
1 tbsp of wholegrain mustard
1 lemon – cut into quarters

1. Mix the chanterelles , potatoes ,lemon , mustard and parsley
2. Place in a oven proof dish , layer over the chicken thighs
3. Roasted in the oven at 220degC for 35 minutes without a lid
4. Half way through cooking mix the ingredients together again, cover the dish for the remaining cooking time.

P.S If you live in the US Marx foods are currently running a contest with prize of a chanterelles for the best chanterelle recipe so so there are plenty of other ideas Marx Foods Blog

Pork and Herb Chipolatas & Roasted Vegetables

Its been chucking it down with rain which meant Nick got on with tiling the bathroom while I caught up on work . The reward was a sticky dinner of sausages and roasted vegetables ( fresh from Nicks dads garden ). Inspired by the Distracted Housewife who has given up on summer food for trays of sausages too

This is cooking made incredibly easy ,& the only input required after roughly chopping all the vegetables and & putting them in the oven is a vigrous shake every so often to ensure the potatoes absorb the juice from the cooking sausages & sweet liquor from bursting tomatoes

Your are left with a sticky unctuous dish that requires no accompaniment , serve just heaped onto a plate and scoffed down with a hearty glass of red wine .

Sausages and Roasted Vegetables

Pork and Herb Chipolatas
Courgettes
Golden cherry tomatoes
Red Peppers
Boiled New potatoes
Onions
Garlic
Slosh of balsamic vinegar
Salt and Pepper
Lemon Thyme

1. Mix together all the ingredients in a roasting dish
2. Place in the oven at 200degC for 40 minutes shaking every after twenty minutes to ensure all is well mixed

Sag Paneer

I

I am using up the remainder of the home-made paneer and making a few dishes for the rest of the week Sag Paneer is my standard side order from the indian take away so it seemed sensible to have a go at making my own , this is improvised from 100 samples over the years

Sag Paneer ( Spinach and Cheese)

4 large handfuls of spinach
30g of paneer cubed ( recipe here)
1 tsp of cumin seeds crushed
1 tsp of coriander seeds crushed
1 tsp of mustard seeds
1 green chilli finely chopped
1 small white onion finely chopped
1 tsp of garamasala
1 tbsp of lemon juice
2 tbsp of milk

1. First cook the spinach in boiling water until wilted , in a food processor blent
2. Heat oil in a non stick pan and fry the paneer til golden , remove from the pan
3. Add cumin , mustard & coriander seeds roughly crushed and fry until fragrant add the onion and garlic
4. Add the ginger and chilli
5. Add the spinach and cook for 30 seconds with a splash of water
6. Simmer for a few minutes add the garamasala and milk
7. Stir well add the lemon juice and paneer
8. Serve