Leek & Bacon Risotto

Yes, I know, another flipping risotto recipe.  I know I've inundated you with them, so much so that you probably think I've got shares in arborio rice, but the truth of it is that I just really like risotto.  Sorry about that.  If it's any consolation, I promise that this is the simplest risotto recipe you will ever encounter, using just a couple of core ingredients, and it's awesome.  I promise.  (The recipe is via Nigel, although I can't remember which book.  You might know by now that I have a lot of Nigel in my life). 

Here's how it goes.  Sweat two large, finely chopped leeks in some butter until soft.  Add the rice, and ladlefuls of stock and vermouth (or white wine, whichever), stirring and adding more liquid as needed.  Meanwhile, grill six slices of smoked streaky bacon until crisp.  Chop (or snip with scissors) and add to the now-cooked risotto.  Stir through a smidge of grated Parmesan, some black pepper, and serve.

Somehow, this method of cooking keeps the leeks the most beautiful shade of green, so that the finished risotto looks perky and glowing with general health-giving properties.  They also taste sweet and soft, which works gorgeously against the smoky bacon and the creamy rice.   Delicious, and even if you're not a risotto fanatic (why not?), you'll think so too. 

Off The Wagon....

....SAUSAGES.

Oh - um - yes, now that you mention it, those are my festive pyjamas that you can see in the photo above.  There is nothing wrong with eating sausages and mash in front of the telly whilst wearing your Christmas pyjamas.  Nothing at all.

Ham Hock Slow-Roasted in Apple Juice

We're lucky enough to live within walking distance of Victoria Park, which means we have the following wonders on our doorstep:

1.)  Coffee at the Pavilion Cafe.

2.)  The Ginger Pig, where, it turns out, you can buy a ham hock for £4.  Yay!

We studded the hock with cloves, then nestled it carefully into the slow cooker, where it got covered with apple juice and surrounded by shallots and garlic.

Slow cooker on, sofa and telly action for us.  After about five hours, the hock looked like this:

SCRUM.  Some roasted parsnips and cabbage completed the meal.

The best thing about a roast hock?  Cold ham for the next couple of days for sandwiches.  A ham, tomato and mustard sandwich takes some beating, I think you'll agree.

Roasted Squash With Sausage Stuffing

Oh dear. I've been very neglectful of this blog over the last week or so. I've just been super-busy, and haven't had much of a chance to write.....but fear not, because I still made plenty of time to eat.  You know me!

November is the month of the squash.

We ordered a Riverford box of nothing but squashes, and when it arrived, it was a beautiful thing to behold - cute, fat-bellied butternuts, an alien-looking, pale greeny-blue crown prince, a stripey harlequin.  We've set ourselves a challenge to make a different recipe with each squash, so here is effort number one.

Roasted Squash With Sausage Stuffing

First, prepare your squash.  Split in two and scoop out all the seeds and weird stringy bits, so you're left with a good big receptacle for your stuffing.

For the stuffing, we emptied three Lincolnshire sausages out of their skin into a big mixing bowl, and added one chopped onion and a couple of cloves of finely-diced garlic.  Also into the mix went two teaspoons of dried sage, and two of English mustard, plus a good grinding of black pepper (no salt - you'll have enough from the sausage meat).  Mix well.

We then packed the stuffing into the hollowed-out squash, and put them into a low oven (about 160 degrees). 

Give the squash a good hour-and-a-half in the oven - they need to cook right through until soft and delectable, and that can't be rushed.  Pour yourself a large glass of wine and stick on the X Factor while you're waiting. 

Check that the squash is cooked through by testing the flesh with a sharp knife - it should be super-soft.   Serve with a leafy green salad.

Full disclosure:  the squash itself, especially near to the skin, was a bit dry and crumbly.  You could probably get around this by drizzling the squash with olive oil before putting it in the oven, or by making a couple of slits in the sides and popping in a slice of butter.  This should keep the squash lovely and moist, which would be perfect against the savoury juiciness of the stuffing.  

So that's recipe one from the November Squash Challenge!  Keep your eyes peeled for the second installment next week.   You know, just in case you also have a surfeit of bizarre yet beautiful squashes on top of your fridge!  We can't be the only ones!

Posh Sausages & Beans

Remember this entry, where I ranted about sausages only coming in packs of six?

Well.

In Tesco this week, I found sausages in packs of ten.  This must be due to one of two reasons.

1.)  My lobbying for more sensible quantities of sausages has triumphed in the face of big business, and the supermarket giants have changed their ways in face of my excellent reasoning;

or....

2.)  Sausages have always been available in packs of ten, and I've just been unobservant all this time.

Anyway, I celebrated this discovery by buying more sausages. 

B was at a late meeting and wasn't sure what time he'd get away, so I wanted a quick and easy dish that I could just stick on the stove and forget about, whilst I caught up on all the TV I can't watch with him (Don't Tell The Bride, Sex & The City repeats).   We had a big bag of kale in the fridge that needed eating, and a quick Google search of sausages + kale revealed this lovely-sounding number (another version of this recipe can be found here.)  I didn't chop the sausages into chunks (honestly, why bother - that's what teeth are for) and I omitted the cream, and it turned into a no-fuss, no-frills dinner, soothingly bland and sufficient stodgy for a winter's evening. 

Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go and chuck some more mini Mars Bars into the mouths of the baying trick-or-treat mob outside our door.  The kids along our street don't really have the Hallowe'en spirit, if you ask me.  Half of them aren't even in costume, and they bellow "MONEY OR SWEETS!" before the front door is even halfway open.  Ah, so charming.

Toad in the Hole

Have you noticed that the weather has suddenly turned Arctic on us?  No more sunny day picnics for us - autumn is properly here, and I've had to bust out the duffel coat and gloves for the first time since spring.  But I can't be too sad about it - because the colder weather is the perfect excuse to make filling, warming, stodgy dishes....like toad in the hole.  Yay!!!

Because it's a hearty, calorie-heavy dish, it is quite clearly a man's responsibility to cook toad in the hole.  I sat at the kitchen table and enjoyed a glass of cider while I watched B work.

He makes a Yorkshire pudding batter following the classic Delia Smith recipe, and pours this around the sausages into a hot baking tin.  The smell of this cooking in the oven is officially the most mouthwatering smell ever. 

By the way, the sausages we used were from Waitrose and had apricot, ginger and thyme in them.  I only bought them because they were reduced, but people, they rocked. 

Sides were steamed broccoli (you've got to have some healthiness in there somewhere) and onion gravy.

It was a little bit of autumn heaven on a plate.

Pudding was some late British strawberries (Waitrose again, gah) which I marinated in lime, sugar and gin. 

They balanced out the waistband-expanding first course perfectly.  Come on autumn, I'm ready for you. 

Ham, Egg & Chips

It was one of those days when B and I just couldn't agree on what to eat. Anything that one of us suggested, the other immediately shot down immediately.

- Spaghetti bolognaise?

- NO. I'M SICK OF PASTA.

- Some nice fish?  

- NO HEALTHY RUBBISH.

(I'll let you guess who said what.  This really continued for quite some time.  An entire tube journey home, in fact.)

So we ended up wandering around the supermarket in a hunger daze, up and down the aisles like zombies.  Until we chanced down the fresh meat section and lo, a bright light did shine from the sky and lo, verily did we exclaim in unison HAM AND CHIPS!

There was some nonsense from B about having ham, chips and peas, but I soon put him right.  Because everyone knows the only proper accompaniment to a plate of ham and chips is a fried egg.  And lots of ketchup.

Home-made chips with plenty of salt.  Potentially heart-attack-inducing, but soooo good. 

Slow-Cooked Pork Chops In Milk

So, it's raining again.  What's up with that, London?  You're rubbish sometimes.  Still, do you know what cold, rainy weather gives you the perfect excuse to have?  Some slow-cooker action, oh yeah.

We had some pork chops in the freezer, left over from our last trip to the butcher's, and so we decided to have them as a mid-week treat.  Pork chops are a new dish for us - we've only made them once before - so I trawled the Internet for some ideas on how to cook them.  I came across this, and after some initial reluctance from B ("cooked in what? Milk?  MILK?!"), we gave it a try. 

WARNING - THIS RECIPE REQUIRES ADVANCE PLANNING

You will need:

2 pork chops (1 per person)
1 onion, chopped
5 cloves garlic, chopped (feel free to use less, if you're not a garlic fan, or none at all, if you're a vampire)
Salt & pepper
3/4 pt skimmed milk

In the morning before work, chop your onion and garlic and arrange them in the bottom of your slow cooker.  Pop your pork chops on top, and sprinkle liberally with salt and pepper.  Pour in the milk, replace the lid on the slow cooker, switch the machine to low, and off you go to work.  That's all the prep you need to do, and it takes about ten minutes max.  You could even do it the night before if, like me, you're like a sleepy bear coming out of hibernation in the morning.

When you come home, you'll be greeted with a joyous sight like this:

YES YES YES.

We served ours with some Ebly to soak up the sauce, and some green vegetables on the side.  I bet some mushrooms cooked in with the sauce would be lovely, or  follow Epicurious' example by cooking potatoes in the pot. 

The pork comes out beautifully tender, and falls off the bone as soon as you look at it.  It was a little bit dry, which is strange, but there was plenty of liquid in the pot to make a gravy.  The milk cooks down to a nubbly, sweetish sauce, which sounds bizarre but goes very nicely with the meatiness of the chops.

Then we closed the windows against the rain and huddled up on the sofa with fruit, tea, and How I Met Your Mother re-runs.  Whenever you want to come back, summer, we'll be ready for you.

Rainy Day Barbeque

Oh, the joys of a British summer.  Rain on a Saturday when you're attending a long-planned and long-awaited barbeque?  Why not!  Luckily, our friends who had organised the barbeque are intrepid and hardy souls who blithely ignored the pouring rain and fired up the barbeque under the cover of their garage door.  By the time we arrived, the rain had paused and the sun was even trying to make a tentative appearance. 

They know how to throw a barbeque, as well.  We were served lots of lovely salads and bread, as well as joints of beef and pork which were barbequed whole, and then sliced into fat chunks for us all to drool over. 

We also did a wine-tasting challenge....

...in which I improved on past performance by identifying two out of the six wines served.   Last year I scored zero.  Not my proudest moment.  This year I did better by copying the answers of those around me. 

When the rain began again, we retreated indoors for dessert: 

Ahhh, Eton Mess.  Is there anything that can beat a huge bowl of creamy, meringue-y, strawberry goodness on a summer's day?  I think not. 

There was cheese too.  My happiness was complete.

Bangers & Mash With Red Wine Gravy

Ugh.  It was One of Those Days.  The tube was delayed so I was late to work.  I went out without a coat and the weather turned Machiavellian on me and I froze to death walking home.  Gahhhhh.  But you know what?  Food cures all bad-day blues.  Particularly food like this:

Oh yes, my friends.  Those are Gloucester Old Spot sausages from the Ginger Pig.   Served with mashed potatoes, roasted cabbage, and a thick, gloopily delicious gravy made with red wine and a chopped onion.  Food to make you smile. 

For pudding, we ritzed up a box of £1-from-the-fruit-stall strawberries:

Mojito Strawberries

Wash and de-stalk your strawberries.  Slice the large ones in half and pop into a nice serving bowl.  (Isn't mine pretty?  So yellow!)  Liberally sprinkle with sugar and the juice from half a fresh lime.  Pour over a capful of rum (or gin...really, whatever liquor you have in the cupboard.  We used sloe gin!  We've got to use up that bottle somehow!) and leave the strawberries to marinate for half an hour or so.  Then eat quickly for maximum yumminess. 

The Big Feastival

It's festival season in London town, and we got involved yesterday by heading to Clapham for Jamie Oliver's Big Feastival. The common had been set up with music stages, kitchen tents, and all sorts of different food outlets. 

There were several bar tents too, so we were able to enjoy some girly fruit cider whilst making our all-important food decisions.

I went for the Locanda Locatelli tent, which was doing a roaring trade in little dishes of pasta and flatbreads topped with parma ham and rocket.  The parma ham was being freshly sliced as required, and was as salty and succulent as you could wish for.

My only complaint was the size of the portion - I could have eaten twice what I was given, and for the £5 price tag I definitely expected more.  Still, the flatbread was puffy and perfectly cooked, the rocket fresh - good quality food when you think it was being produced on a grand scale.  

Fresh cherries (cherries! yay!) on the grass whilst listening to the live bands.

The Holiday Files Part Two - Home Cooking

We were lucky enough to be renting a small apartment for our holiday, which meant we had a kitchen at our disposal when we didn't want to go out to eat.  There was a fantastic food market in Palma and the local supermarket had all kinds of lovely local produce that we really wanted to try, so we jumped at the chance to cook a couple of meals for ourselves.

Oooh, pie.

For some reason, pie has become our go-to holiday food - we once found the chilled, ready-made and ready-shaped pastry on sale in France and since then it's become a bit of a tradition.   You don't need to do anything to the pastry at all, which is perfect when you don't want to faff about in the kitchen for too long.  We didn't have a proper pan, so B fashioned one from tin foil.  Intrepid, no?  The pastry case got filled with a combination of  mashed avocados, local goat's cheese, tomatoes, and olives, and then the whole thing went straight into the oven.  We fell asleep while it was cooking, so perhaps it was a little overdone, but let's call it caramelised. 

The spontaneous napping may or may not have been caused by some cheap and potent sangria.  I can neither confirm nor deny.  

Another night, we had sausages from the butcher's counter of the supermarket, which cost us all of 2 euros.   They were spicy with paprika and cooked in minutes.

We roasted some vegetables to have alongside - aubergines, courgettes, tomatoes and onions - and mopped up the juices with lots of chunky bread.

 For our last home-cooked meal, we chose some thin cuts of lamb (as it turned out - we only knew what it was when we took it home and I looked up the words on the label in our phrasebook.  Luckily we both love lamb!) and pan fried them with some chorizo, before deglazing the pan with a splash of wine to make a lovely gravy.  We had roast potatoes and salad alongside. 

Sneaky midnight feast....delicious, locally-made orange sorbet.

And possibly more wine.  Oh dear.

Classic Pork Chops With Greens

Hello! How was your weekend?  Mine involved a lot of awesome eating.  Yay!

On Saturday we headed over to the butcher's to buy us some meat.  I could have bought pretty much everything in there, but in the end we decided some enormous pork chops.  We've actually never cooked these before, so we thought we'd give ourselves a challenge.

Since it was Saturday, we thought we'd get all fancy and have a starter too.

This is our first crop of fresh peas from the garden, which haven't been cooked - they're so fresh and small you can eat them raw, and they taste like sweets.  Honestly!  I sprinkled them over some salad leaves (which came straight out of a packet), with a few shavings of cheddar.  I dressed the salad with just a splash of olive oil and another of balsamic - I didn't want anything to overpower the lovely summery taste of the peas.  It was delicious.

Next came the pork chops.  We cooked them the Vefa way - seasoned with salt and pepper, then browned in hot oil for a couple of minutes on each side.  Once browned, we reduced the heat, added wine, water, torn sage leaves and some streaky bacon pieces, and let that simmer away for about 20 minutes.  We cooked a big pile of greens in olive oil and nutmeg to have alongside.

People, it was AMAZING.  Forget all the childhood memories you have of pork chops being tough, dry and weirdly fibrous (urk).  These were melt-in-the-mouth piggy goodness.  And I think that sentence says it all. 

Sausages with Onion Gravy & Roasted Vegetables

I know, I know, we're in the middle of a heatwave.  I know we should be cracking open a tinnie and throwing some prawns on the barbie.   But sometimes you start thinking about dinner and your mind, despite the balmy weather, whispers mmm sausages.

And then it's only logical to make roasted vegetables and onion gravy to have alongside.  Eat whilst curled up on the sofa with the curtains blocking the glorious evening sunshine, saying things like brrr, it's nippy and I think the nights are drawing in again.