1. Salt Fish , Chorizo , Onions and Red Pepper,2. Homemade Burgers and Buns, 3. Liver with Chorizo Mushrooms and Onions, 4. Forced Rhubarb and Ginger Cake, 5. Roast Lamb Shoulder, 6. Chinese Braised Beef Ribs, 7. Black Bream, 8. BBQ Razor Clams with chorizo , garlic and parsley, 9. Baked Figs with Serano Ham , Goats Cheese and Thyme, 10. Roasted Butternut Squash with toasted chick peas , chilli grilled haloumi with coriander and tahnini dressing, 11. Salmon in Prosciutto with Broad Bean, Courgette and Fennel Salad, 12. Roast Pork with fennel served with rhubarb sauce, 13. Spiced Lamb Shanks Slow cooked with dates, 14. Sardines with Fregola Sarda Salad, 15. Pork , Chorizo and Bean Stew, 16. Roasted Grey Mullet with tomatoes and celery, 17. BBQ Lambs Liver, 18. Oxtail Braised in Soy and Star Anise, 19. Gnocchi with Kale Anchovy Chilli and Garlic, 20. Sardines with , Salt , Smoked Paprika , and Parsley, 21. Apple and Blackberry Galette, 22. Lamb Shanks in White Wine and White Beans, 23. Wild Watercress Soup, 24. Brinjal Pickle, 25. BBQ Rib of Beef, 26. Barnsley Chops with kidneys and spring bubble and squeak, 27. Aspargus with Poached eggs and Grilled Bacon, 28. Pot Roased Beef Brisket with vegetables, 29. Apple Tart Recipe, 30. Pork Belly with Celeriac & Potato Mash , Cobnut Gremolata, 31. Beetroot Cake, 32. Scotch Eggs -Pre Baking, 33. Stuffed Squash, 34. Salmon Fishcakes with Wood Sorrel Dressing, 35. Rabbit with Prunes and Onions, 36. Field Mushrooms Created with fd’s Flickr Toys

This is a really nice tradition of mine to create a mosaic of dishes from the Year , this is my third , others 2009 and  2008 . It’s been a strange old year a lot more meat and fish probably due to moving  somewhere with a proper market, butchers and living with a carnivore.

Been away for Christmas seeing the Lake District, it was my first visit and I have to say I fell more than a little in love with the place it is just beautiful even covered in a foot of snow.

Of course we had Turkey for Christmas dinner , I love the leftovers from a large bird , and as with any  roast , one of the best leftovers is stock,  which I made and froze on Boxing day, having stripped the bird.

But not wanting to fill the freezer on our return I decided on risotto  but the vegebox is looking a little sparse other than the ubiquitous cauliflower, and a perfect time to try out a recipe by Jamie Oliver for a Cauliflower Risotto with Anchovy Crumbs.

The risotto was delicious but the real revelation was the anchovy crumbs , very unami and I now want to eat them on everything , thinking baked potatoes, macaroni cheese. Tip from LBFs Mum,   you can do something vegetarian but unami by replacing the anchovies with dried porcini mushrooms , you will need to add some drops of olive oil though.

Cauliflower Risotto with Anchovy Crumbs

To serve two

1 cauliflower cored and cut into 1/2cm tiny pieces
200g of risotto rice
1.5 pints of chicken/vegetable stock – I used leftover Turkey stock
1 tbsp of butter
1 medium onion finely chopped
2 garlic cloves finely chopped
2 tbsp of fresh parsley finely chopped
2 tbsp of grated Parmesan

Anchovy Crumbs
2 handfuls of stale bread, torn into pieces
1 small tin of anchovies, oil from tin reserved
1 tbsp of dried chilli flakes

1. Fry the garlic and onion in the butter , but do not allow to colour
2. Add the risotto rice , stir to coat well in the butter for about a minute
3. Heat the stock with the cauliflower in until simmering
4. Add 1/4 of stock to the rice until absorbed add the rest of the stock in ladles full stirring continuously
5. Finely stir in the cauliflower , parsley & parmesan

To make the anchovy crumbs

1. Place the bread in the food processor with the anchovies including the oil , pulse until crumbs
2. Fry in a hot pan until golden brown , add the chilli flakes

I have had flu for nearly the best part of a week,  the worst part has been I have had to work from home , missing the build up to Christmas and even the work Christmas do . It also means that none of my colleagues will get the Mince Pies I so diligently baked last weekend using my homemade mincemeat. Though on reflection I was probably incubating this virulent form of flu so it’s just as well I could have taken down our whole team.

Today would be my last day in the office before Christmas as it is I am at home awaiting my last teleconference of the year

So this post is for all my work chums of the past year , I love you all , and if I seem a bit chunky in the New Year it’s because I had to eat all 24 of the Mince Pies meant for your lovelinesses.

Merry Christmas ,  Happy New Year … oh and here’s the recipe in case you want to make your own!

Mince Pies

100g cold butter , diced
200g plain flour
25g golden caster sugar
zest and juice of 1 satsuman
50ml of water
100g of mincemeat ( recipe below)
1 small egg , beaten

1. Rub the flour into the butter to form crumbs slowly add the water, zest and juice to make a dough
2. Form a bowl and leave to rest in the fridge for 20 minutes
3. Meanwhile preheat the oven to 180degC
4. Roll out the pastry and cut 2inch diameter disks to fill  a 12 hole tart tray
5. Fill the pies with mincemeat , a heaped teaspoon in each
6. Cut out stars or other shapes to cover
7. Brush with a little beaten egg
8. Bakes for 12 minutes until golden brown and remove to cool

Serve warm with plenty of cream

Mincemeat

1kg of Mincemeat
100g seedless raisins
100g sultanas
100g currants
25g cut mixed peel
25g chopped dried prunes
100g soft brown sugar
500g cooking apples – peeled, cored and grated
100g shredded vegetable suet
grated rind and juice of 1 oranges
1 tbsp mixed spice
1/2 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
a good slosh of brandy

Method

1. Place all the ingredients except half the brandy in a large ovenproof bowl cover and leave to stand overnight.
2. Place in a owen proof lidded dish and place in the oven at 100degC for 1 hour
3. Allow to cool, then mix in the rest of the brandy and put into sterilised jars.
4. Leave the mincemeat needs to mature for at least two weeks before using. Once sealed, it can keep for at least a year.

I’m home alone tonight and in late so getting something needed to be quick so I am falling back on a storecupboard classic  anchovies,  chilli  & garlic , perfect unami and heat. They perfectly complement iron rich vegetables like kale, broccoli or spinach but perfect too with starchy pasta. Or both and since I am emptying the freezer to make way for Christmas goodies, I found a bag of home-made gnocchi.

Delicious  starchy salty , garlic and chilli pillows of gnocchi with ferrous chewy kales. Ready in minutes and even eaten in seconds.

I have not been the most successful in making pasta but gnocchi is easy, but one tip and one of my most embarassing cookery mistakes. Should you make gnocchi in advance put it in the freezer leaving it in the fridge overnight you will wake up to grey gnocchi.

Gnocchi

1kg of potatoes
400g of flour ( but you may not need it all)
1 egg
Pinch of salt

1. Peel the potatoes, cut into quarter a place in a pan of boiling salted water.
2. Simmer until the potatoes are softened.
3. Mash until fine , or use a food processor or ricer
4. Add the egg salt and slowly add the flour.
5. You want a bread dough texture but depending on the wetness of potatoes you may not need all the flour.
6. Remove a golf ball size of dough, roll into a sausage shape on a lightly floured surface.
7. Cut into 1.5cm sized pieces with a fork roll it over.
8. Place well spaced on a tray or baking sheet before cooking

Cooking instructions

1. You can cook the gnocchi immediately by cooking it in boiling salted water until the gnocchi rise to the top . This usually takes just a few minutes
2. To freeze place on a baking tray and place in the freezer, once frozen they can be placed in a freezer bag and will keep for months and can be cooked as above straight from frozen

Gnocchi with Anchovies , Garlic , Chilli and Kale

30g tin of anchovies in oil
2 cloves of garlic finely chopped
2 tsp of dried chillis
4 handfuls of Kale roughly chopped

1. Heat the oil from the anchovies tin until sizzling add the the anchovies, chilli and garlic cook until the garlic has softened not browned
2. Add the kale , stitring cook for a few minutes until softened, meanwhile cook the pasta.
3. Add the cooked pasta/gnocchi and stir well.
4. Serve.

Stuffed squash is really just a poshed up baked potato. But love filling the squash with leftovers , odds and ends from the vegebox,  the end of a loaf of bread toasted and made into breadcrumbs , some slightly hardened cheese of lone slice of bacon .

Lovely

Stuffed Squash

1 medium squash ( spaghetti , butternut squash)
1 tsp of butter
1 large leek finely chopped
1 clove of garlic finely chopped
100g of wholemeal breadcrumbs
4 tbsp of Cheddar Cheese grated
4 tbsp of parsley finely chopped
1 tbsp of wholegrain mustard

Cut the squash in half, scrape out the seeds and place in the oven for 35 minutes at 200degC
Meanwhile sautee the leeks and garlic until soft, mix with the cheese , mustard breadcrumbs & parsley together
Fill the squash cavity with the stuffing and return to the oven for 10 minutes until brown and toasted

After the success of a Brinjal pickle over the summer I wondered if I could repeat the success with another Indian pickle favourite Lime Pickle. I am guilty of sneaking a teaspoon or two from the fridge, and it’s lovely in cheese sandwiches. However the shop versions have a lot of oil which is sometimes a bit off putting so I wanted to make something a little lighter , I wondered around the internet looking for recipes .

When I made this up from a few recipes I was a little worried , it looked very liquid but left over time , like preserved lemons the texture thickened and the limes softened.

Producing a spicy salty pickle lovely with some hot poppadoms .

Spicy Lime Pickle

6 fresh lime
1 tbsp cumin seeds
1 tbsp of coriander seeds
1 tbsp mustard seeds
1 tbsp fenugreek seeds
2 dried chillis roughly chopped
1 tbsp ground tumeric
6 tsp of salt
6 tsp of sunflower oil

Take 12 limes. Wash and pat them dry cut two slots half way down
Roast together cumin , mustard , fenugreek , chilli powder , turmeric.
Mix the roasted spices with the oil and salt
Fill the slots in the limes. Push the limes into a preserving jar
Leave the limes for at least a month to mature
You can then finely chop to form a pickle

Tonights dinner was inspired by recent brief trips to Morroco and France. In Marrakech I had a lovely lamb with onion and prune tagine heaped with saffron-sweet caramalised onions. It was so good I had it two days running.   I wondered if it had been inspired by a classic French dish – Rabbit with prunes.

Although I have cooked with Rabbit successfully before in Barley Stew  and with Chorizo and Mushrooms  ,however my last encounter did not go well , so badly in fact it got binned it smelt bad .  So it was with some trepidation I experimented with this dish. Jointing the rabbit is hard it smells pretty strong and meaty.

The results were worth the risk ,  tender melt in the mouth rabbit,  soft onions and sweet prunes with just a hint of alcohol from the brandy.  Dish wipingly delicious

Rabbit with Onion and Prunes
1 large rabbit jointed
5 onions finely sliced
10 strands of saffron
50ml of french brandy
25 dried prunes
2 pints of boiling water
1 tbsp of butter

1. Fry the onions in half the butter on the hob in a cast iron pot, cover and occasionally stir . Cook for  long enough to allow the onions to soften & caramalise.
2. Remove the onions set aside , add the rabbit  to the pot , turning the pieces to allow to brown on all sides
3. Pour  boiling water over the saffron in a mug
4. Return the onions and rabbit into a cast iron cooking pot
5. Pour over the saffron water ,  brandy and add the prunes
6. Cover , place in the oven and cook for at least 2 hours at 180degC
7. Allow to rest covered for 30 minutes before serving  .

Serve with warm french bread and peas

After Marrakech another French-speaking long weekend . I had been really enjoying London foodbloggers posts on trips to Lille , Brussels &  Paris as part of  Eurostar Little Break Big Difference Campaign , then London Eater announced  two free Eurostar  tickets – if you could say why you were most deserving ? Well  I had promised my mum a girly weekend &  I commute through St Pancras everyday jealously eyeing the people heading to more glamourous destinations than the East Midlands  so I made my pitch  .  I was delighted when I was picked by the lovely people at We are Social. A few week later following a few grumpy looks from my abandoned  boyfriend,  I was meeting my mum at St Pancras station   we passed over the champagne bar in favour of Prosecco at Sourced.

Once we boarded the lovely Eurostar train &  settled in with another glass of wine and magazines , we even got some delicious food in fact I so busy munching away  I managed to miss the point we went into the tunnel.

We arrived the other side super-relaxed  and I was ready for a packed weekend of mooching and feasting . We had a lovely two days wandering around  Lille is very beautiful lots of grand &  higgledy piggeldy buildings & markets.

But first some dinner  I was delighted to see bone marrow on the menu, a first for me but lovely on french baguette , later I had langue de Beouf ( Beef tongue, braised in wine ) I was chuffed  it tasted very similar to dish I cooked at home , though more piquant with  capers and a little chilli.

You cannot really start the day in France without coffee and croissants, even though I am an exclusively  tea drinker  at home  I was really craving plenty of bowls of milky coffee.

Saturday night was Moules and Frites, Lille is very close to the Belgium border, so the food has that edge to it , plenty of garlic , celery and parsley , with cooking liquor to dip your chips in . Accompanied by Belgium Beer Chimay.

My favourite day in France though is Sunday when it seems everyone hits the patisserie and flower shop to buy goddies and then heads off to visit their Mum . The store with the biggest queue though was Patisserie Aux Merveilleux de Fred , where you can watch them make signature Meringue cakes

The markets in France are something to aspire to and I think England is getting there but still nowhere near the variety and they get it every week , where we get Farmers Markets once a month , I can see why people hop over on the Eurostar and stock up eveything is so vibrant and everyone is as food obsessed as I am.

I am feeling culinarily  inspired following  my trip and after a longer than planned gap the blog juices are flowing again. Merci France and thankyou agin Eurostar Little Break Big Difference Campaign , London Eater and  We are Social.

Somehow desite not having summer holiday this year I managed to book two long weekends in two weeks Marrakech and Lille , I picked Marrakech because I was thinking of my stomach. Marrakech is a massive culture shock it is impossible to walk down the street without being hassled dragged into shops or asked to smell something.  Though it’s hard to browse it’s real experience, pottery , leather & spices.

The food was delicious expected tagines slow cooked  with plenty of preserved lemon , saffron ,olives and spices. The ingredients vary slightly meat is chicken or lamb cooked with vegetables, turnips, onions , courgettes , peppers and carrots.  The spices cardamom, clove, cinnamon,  paprika, coriander, cumin, nutmeg, peppercorn, and turmeric forming Ras el hanout.  One stallholder told me his had 24 spices in it. Spices are sold whole then ground to your specifications ensuring they are as fresh as possible.

Moroccan Bread is delicious,  walking down side-streets you see tiny bakeries almost under the floor and everywhere there are people driving scooters or pushbikes,  loaded with Moroccan loaves of bread, which is delicious, a little sweet like pizza dough. Lovely with jam for breakfast though pancakes were popular too.

Moroccan Salad , I am not sure how authentic it is, but it was served everywhere a nice counterpoint to a hot tagine .  Light and fresh salad of tomato , green peppers, onion,  garlic , coriander and lemon juice

Grilled Meats mixed lamb or chicken, cutlets and kebabs all spiced and barbequed, sticky fingers ensure but worth it.

As mentioned before I found shopping pretty stressful and the markets in Marrakech itself look pretty European . However one day we went walking in the Atlas Mountains & our driver  stopped off at Ismil a small weekly market visited once a month by inhabitants of the surrounding Berber villages .

Men travel for hours by  donkey , men only women stay in the homes.  tiny smokey restaurants cooked the meat for the men who ate before journeying home. Amazing to see the halal butchers , complete with goat heads on the floor of the market to show how fresh the meat , lots of offal . You got the sense it hadn’t changed for hundreds of years and showed no signs of changing .

Around the river in the Atlas mountains ever inch is used for farming , apples , walnuts , olives every inch terraced and harvested by hand.

After the massive activity in Marrakech , it was really lovely to sit on a sunny terrace with a cup of sweet mint tea and some delicious honey-almon pastries. These pastries are everywhere often served by the 10pcs or kilo.

In fact the one slightly difficult thing about Marrakech is it is dry city, though alcohol can be found it tends to be at horrible touristy restaurant nights complete with bellydancing. In fact walking in the main square , you are constantly approached by people saying “Beer ,Wine , Nice Restaurant…?” Although I think a drink with a Tagine would be nice it’s better to do without.

My halloween always involves carving a pumpkin. Cutting a lid &  scooping out some of the flesh and seeds , and carving a rough approxiamation of a scary face   and setting it in the window lit by a single tealight.

However being a food-obsessive my favorite thing finding new things to do with the leftover pumpkin in fact one of my first ever blog posts is about the Death of a Pumpkin
which features Pumpkin Risotto, Roast and a Laksa.

On Halloween  I made some Roasted Pumpkin Seeds . This is very simple just ensure you remove any strands of pumpkin from the seeds, spread them out on baking sheet sprinkle with just a little sea salt and smoked paprika . After just 15 minutes in  hot oven ( 190degC) they are delicious.

The next days the pumpkin lid was a little scorched so I discarded it but the rest of the pumpkin  was perfect for trying a  Saturday Kitchen there was a nice recipe for Sausage, Pumpkin and Sage Casserole . This is think would work with any squash , most of the ingredients we keep in the storecupboard and my sage plant is still clinging to life.

The only change I made to the recipe  adding  a dash of sherry which works well with pumpkin. I am cooking a lot with sherry sweeter than wine is seems to give a instant slow cooking taste to quicker dishes

After cooking the pumpkin and beans produce a thick stew they will definitely be a regular ,  think it would work well with chicken thighs too.