Cranberry Sauce

It’s a Nigel Slater unadulterated original, not too sweet, amazing colour, takes minutes, so easy you wonder why you haven’t done this for years.  Definitely a Christmas tradition to continue.

250g Cranberries

100g Sugar

100g White wine (last night’s cava)

6 ultra-thin shreds of Satsuma skin

Boil up for a few minutes – about 10, don’t stir too much.  Put in Jar.  Keep in the fridge, serve warm - much much nicer than Ocean Spray, and a very lovely colour. 

TIP.  Keep a few berries back so you can put them on the top of the Christmas pudding as our holly NEVER has any berries on it, and real cranberries are much bigger and better (and safer) than poisonous holly berries anyway. 

Excellent with turkey bread sauce, stuffing and sprouts, (and in Brevilles with the aforementioned) but also amazing all year round with chicken, ham, duck and cheese……  

Mushroom Stroganoff

Great when you feel that you have over indulged in meat, but need a tasty comforting meal, which isn’t too heavy.  Serve with green petit pois and creamy mash, the ultimate comfort food after a walk on the cliffs.  Quick to prepare, a good way to use up a mushroom situation (which is why I have recorded it!).

Olive oil, a glug

Onions, chopped, half small one per person

Fry the onions until softened, about 5 mins.  Add:

Mushrooms, handful per person, I use chestnut, sliced

Garlic, half a clove per person

Stock cube, chicken (or veggie), in turkey stock (or water)

White wine, a glug (or flat rose cava)

Tomato Puree, half a tablespoon per person

Lemon, small squeeze of the end

Boil for about 5 minutes, add:

Salt and pepper

Paprika, preferably smoked, a sprinkle to taste, approx. half tsp

Worcester Sauce, slosh, but not if doing veggie

Cornflour, 1 tsp, mixed into some cold water, stir in to thicken

Boil for a minute or so, and take off the heat.  Stir in:

Crème Fraiche, half table spoon per person

Sprinkle with:

Parsley, fresh and chopped

29^th December 2013

Mulled Wine with Caramelized Chili and Spices

Mulled Wine with Caramelized Chili and Spices:

This is the Olly/Jamie version where the sugar is caramelized and the spices are ‘fried’ in the sugar before adding the liquid.  Allow an hour to mull over.  Everyone likes the sweetness of this, but if I was making it just for myself, I would put 4 of sugar instead of 6.

6 heaped desert spoons of light soft brown sugar

1 chili, whole fresh, cut down centre and in half, use seeds’n’all

6 all spice balls

2 cinnamon sticks, broken into 3

2 nutmeg, whole

20 cloves

Fresh root ginger, 1 inch, sliced

Zest and juice of 2 oranges (use potato peeler for thin layer of zest, no pith)

400ml water

1 bottle red wine

Put sugar in the pan and heat.  As it starts to melt WATCH IT doesn’t burn, and add all the spices and orange zest.  ‘Fry’ spices for 5 minutes, adjust heat to stop any burning, stir occasionally.   Carefully add the water.   This will splutter, so be careful and the chili may burn your eyes if they are too close!  The sugar will set rock hard, but then re-dissolve back into the water, heat slowly.  Add wine and orange juice.  Do not boil.  Mull for about an hour, strain before serving.  Makes about 1.2L, 10 small glasses, 120ml. 

Good Humous

Found this note on my desk to myself, thought I had better blog it for safe keeping…

Salt, ½tsp

Chick Peas, I can, including the water

Lemon, Juice of 1

Tahini, 4 heaped tsp

Garlic, 2 cloves crushed

Olive oil, a dash

Mush it.

Matar Paneer - Barny’s Classic Pea & Feta Cheese Curry Recipe

Serves 4 as a main meal or up to 15 as a side dish (with 2 other main dishes).

Our family have been making this for years, it is a real classic, and a good veggie option (Vegan option suggested below).  It is really good for cooking in advance and chilling or freezing.  It travels well as solidifies when it is cold.

Ignore this if you are going for tinned tomatoes (recommended).  If you are using fresh tomatoes, before you start, boil the kettle and soak the 3 large tomatoes in the boiled water so that the skins come off easily when you need them to.

Ginger, fresh, 1½inch, grated

Garlic, 2 cloves, grated

Oil, for frying

Fry the ginger, garlic in the oil gently for 2 minutes - don't burn the garlic!  Add:

Chilli powder or flakes, ½tsp

Cardamon, 1 level tsp of the inside black seeds, crushed

Tumeric, 1½tsp

Coriander, ground, 1½tsp

Fry gently for a few minutes.  Then add 

Peas, fresh or frozen, 700g

Cover with boiling water so that the peas are just covered (ie not too much!).  Boil for 5 minutes until they are cooked.  Then, “Lob in”:

Tomatoes, 1 400g tin of cherry tomatoes (or 3 large, fresh, peeled, diced)

Feta cheese, 3x 200g packs (600g), diced into 1-1½cm cubes.  

For a Vegan option you could leave out the cheese and add a can of coconut milk, some butter beans and 1 tsp of salt.

DO NOT STIR.  Turn off the heat until you are ready to eat.  You want to retain the fragile pretty red tomatoes and classic lumps of white cheese.  A few minutes before serving gently heat through until a little of the cheese melts stir in SLOW motion to retain the distinct colours and shapes.  Check the seasoning, you shouldn't need to add salt as the feta adds enough.

It is so nice, even cold on toast the next day, but usually there isn’t any the next day…..

Updated 25/11/23

Flapjacks

With thanks to Katie Stewart and AA Milne who made some good recipes in very small quantities – this multiplies their ingredients by 6.  It is Pooh’s recipe, from the Pooh Cook Book, given to me by the Elliots for Christmas in 1973.  I was 6, they were nice people, and this was a very good present.  The page is much marked – a bit like ancient parchment - and Cai has signed his name on it in 2008, an old family favourite you might say.  It is a good one to make with small children, as it is so simple (but you do have to breath deeply when the oats start scattering – and call in the dog – and sometimes when the golden syrup ends up in the pigtails, there is nothing for it, but bath time).  This was one of the few dairy free, egg free things I could make for my allergic babies - now of course they can enjoy it as Pooh intended (full of butter).  However, as there is so much of it, you could dilute the butter with sunflower oil – that is, if you have a guilty conscience.  I don’t actually think Pooh had a conscience ……….

Butter, 12oz (1½ pks, or dairy free margarine or 6oz butter & 6oz sunflower oil)

Golden Syrup, 6 rounded tbsps

Sugar, soft brown, 6oz

Melt the sugar and butter into the syrup.  It doesn’t have to boil, but make sure there are no granules and it is a smooth caramel.  Mix in;

Oats, rolled porridge ones, 24oz

Salt, big pinch

Eat some mixture ‘raw’ (essential tradition – but beware, as you can get carried away and it might not even make it into the oven - these things have happened – oh yes).  Press the remainder firmly into a small roasting tin (20x30cms), lined with non-stick baking parchment, and bake for 20 minutes on 150C.

It should have a pale golden crust.  Let it cool a little in the tin, and mark out - about 24 squares - with a sharp knife pressing down any wrinkles.  Leave it to cool completely before attempting to remove from the tin.

25 February 2013

I had to make this today as Cai ‘needed’ it after a frosty football practice under arctic floodlights and it distracted his torrent of moaning about his woeful new position and craving for ‘proper’ chocolate bars, which aren’t organic…. This, a small snapshot of our life as it is now, and a glimpse of the consequence of a little too much maternal brainwashing and the emergence of a nearly 12 yr old backlash as the realisation dawns that there is ‘another world’ out there.  That of Cadbury’s and Nestle and Coke, ah well 12 blinkered years, not bad really. 

Amanda at Nantgwynfaen Organic Farm

Nantgwynfaen Porridge with Whisky and Cream

For Lucia and Marie and anyone else who likes their porridge creamy with Welsh whisky and 2 kinds of sugar...

Porridge oats (one handful per person), I use Essential Trading organic oats
Milk, semi skim or full cream - approximately 6 times the amount of oats... approx...
Salt, a small pinch, I use Halen Mon Welsh sea salt

If you remember, soak the porridge in some milk over night.  I never do this as I am too forgetful, but it will make it quicker.  Slowly heat the mixture, stirring occasionally to stop it sticking, allow a good half an hour to make this properly, don't let it boil.  You keep adding the milk until the oats are plump and saturated and when you drizzle a spoonful over the top of the mixture, it immediately sinks in and disappears.  You want it quite runny, if it isn't quite done it has this amazing habit of thickening when you put it into the bowl and instead of being creamy, smooth, and molten, it is rubbery and chewy, not good....

When you are satisfied that you can't fit any more milk into the oats and you have let it have come to the boil for a second, stirring all the time, serve into hot bowls and sprinkle with the following, in this order:

Muscovado Sugar, 1 - 2 tsp per person, sprinkle between your fingers.  This is the very very dark brown sugar and it will melt into a dark sweet syrup.
Demerera Sugar, 1 tsp per person, this will add a definite crunch to an otherwise smooth experience (I personally don't like the crunch and don't put it on, but Ken goes wild for it and insists that it is essential!)
Whisky, 1 tsp per person, I use Welsh Penderyn whisky, but Ken likes rum, or you could add your favourite tipple (but actually gin would be wrong, so stick to the dark stuff).
Cream, thick & double, 1 dsp

Serve immediately!

Some hardy sorts like to have this before their full fry up, but they are the exception, a bowl of porridge is normally quite satisfying enough on it's own!