Having spent the last week or so trying out different recipes for pumpkin I've come to a conclusion - it tastes of nothing. I tried roasting it, mashing it, souping it and despite my best efforts it still tasted of very little. The only recipe I used it in that actually tasted of anything was pumpkin curry when the spices and coconut cream helped to mask the fact that pumpkin doesn't actually taste of anything. This was a bit disappointing to find out, especially seeing as we have another one lurking in a cupboard waiting to be turned into a lantern for a Live Action Role Play event that we're going to over the Halloween weekend.
I did however find out that home roasted pumpkin seeds are lovely. I'll definitely be doing these again.
Roasted Pumpkin seeds
After chopping the pumpkin scoop out the seeds and place in a colander. Wash to get rid of all the gunk then dry with kitchen towels.
Place in a high sided baking dish and coat with oil and whatever spices take your fancy, I used salt and paprika. Roast at 200 for 15-20 minutes.
With the berries and pears that we gathered I made a lovely autumn jam which I'm hoping will go down well as a little extra Christmas present this year.
Autumn Jam
500g Pears, peeled and chopped
400g soft berries, I used a mixture of blackberries, strawberries and raspberry's
1kg Jam sugar
Place a saucer in the freezer; this will be used to check the readiness of the jam later on. Put jars in the over to sterilize. See here for more details.
Place the pears in a large pan with a bit of water. Cook under a medium heat for 10-15 minutes until soft then add the berries. Simmer for 10-15 minutes until all the berry juices are released.
Add the Jam sugar and bring to the boil. After 10 minutes take the saucer out of the freezer and place a blob of the jam on it. Leave it to cool for a few seconds and if it's ready a skin will form on the surface that will wrinkle when pushed with your finger. If this doesn't happen let it bubble away for another few minutes until it passes the saucer test.
Once the jam is ready put it in the sterilized jars and store in a cool place.
Tuesday 12 October 2010
Monday 4 October 2010
This weekend was marked by two foodie expeditions. The first was the Wing Yip, the Chinese supermarket on the outskirts of Croydon. The place is a mecca for the bargain hunting foodie - it has exotic ingredients (chicken feet anyone?) Chinese cookery essentials and purse friendly spices. Oh and lots of brightly coloured sweets with their Manga inspired packaging which appeal to the barely suppressed 5 year old girl that lurks inside me.
On Sunday we decided to take advantage of one of the few free weekends we have over the next couple of months and do some Autumnal fruit picking. I found a place called Garson's which seemed to be one of the few places that is still doing pick your own this late in the year so on Sunday we trekked over there. Little did I realise that it was not that far from Hampton Court Palace, which is about 20 miles away from where we live. C was not impressed.
The weather was less than pleasant throughout the journey and it looked as if the entire trip might be a bit of a washout but luckily before too long the rain turned to sunshine and the day decided to be a nice one after all. F managed to find every puddle in the place and I was very glad that I'd thought ahead and dug out his wellies. Bloody Peppa Pig has a lot to answer for! At one point he had muddy water on his forehead which I thought was fairly impressive.
We came away with two nice sized pumpkins, corn on the cob, raspberries, strawberries and blackberries. We were all rather surprised to see strawberries this late in the year and most of them were a bit ropey but we were able to get a number of nice ones.
One of the pumpkins will be turned into pumpkin curry tonight, I plan on roasting some to go with chicken later in the week and there'll probably be soup at some point. The other we'll be keeping until Halloween when we'll have a go at carving.
The berries I'm planning on using in a number of ways - we have friends coming round to play Dungeons and Dragons tomorrow night and I thought that seeing as I have some egg whites frozen after doing ice cream a couple of weeks ago I'd turn them into meringues and have Eton Mess. The rest I'll turn into autumn jam along with some of the pears from the outlaws tree. I've never had a go at jam so it should be interesting!
On Sunday we decided to take advantage of one of the few free weekends we have over the next couple of months and do some Autumnal fruit picking. I found a place called Garson's which seemed to be one of the few places that is still doing pick your own this late in the year so on Sunday we trekked over there. Little did I realise that it was not that far from Hampton Court Palace, which is about 20 miles away from where we live. C was not impressed.
The weather was less than pleasant throughout the journey and it looked as if the entire trip might be a bit of a washout but luckily before too long the rain turned to sunshine and the day decided to be a nice one after all. F managed to find every puddle in the place and I was very glad that I'd thought ahead and dug out his wellies. Bloody Peppa Pig has a lot to answer for! At one point he had muddy water on his forehead which I thought was fairly impressive.
We came away with two nice sized pumpkins, corn on the cob, raspberries, strawberries and blackberries. We were all rather surprised to see strawberries this late in the year and most of them were a bit ropey but we were able to get a number of nice ones.
One of the pumpkins will be turned into pumpkin curry tonight, I plan on roasting some to go with chicken later in the week and there'll probably be soup at some point. The other we'll be keeping until Halloween when we'll have a go at carving.
The berries I'm planning on using in a number of ways - we have friends coming round to play Dungeons and Dragons tomorrow night and I thought that seeing as I have some egg whites frozen after doing ice cream a couple of weeks ago I'd turn them into meringues and have Eton Mess. The rest I'll turn into autumn jam along with some of the pears from the outlaws tree. I've never had a go at jam so it should be interesting!
Friday 1 October 2010
Preparing for Christmas (yes I know it's only October)
We recently got given a bag of pears by C's parents who have a tree. I've never been much of a fan of pears – I'll eat them if given them but they're not something I'd actually go out and buy. I wanted to do something different with them rather than doing the obvious thing and using them in a crumble. For the past few years a couple of weeks before Christmas I'd start thinking 'I should have done some chutney's or jams or something like that' but because these things need to be started well in advance by the time I'd thought of it it was inevitably too late. This year, inspired by the pears, I decided to actually do some canning rather than just thinking about it and a quick google bought up several interesting looking recipes for pear chutney. I looked through them and decided to use a James Martin recipe as a basis but change it a bit to suit my tastes (and budget)
Pear and raisin chutney (made 3 jars)
2 onions
1 tsp butter
100g raisins
100g sugar
500g pears
300 ml vinegar
tsp cloves
tsp chili powder
tsp mixed spice
1 star anise
Finely slice the onions. Heat some oil in a pan along with the butter – putting the oil in will help prevent the butter from burning. Put the onions in the pan under a medium/low heat and cook with the lid on for 10 minutes. This will caramelise the onions and bring out their natural sweetness.
After 10 minutes add the raisins and sugar and a splash of water. Again put the lid on and simmer for 10 minutes.
Add the pears, vinegar and spices and bring to the boil. Allow to simmer for an hour, stirring occasionally to make sure it doesn't stick. Once cooked fish out the star anise and spoon into sterilised jars.
How to sterilise jars
Wash the jars in hot water and rinse to get rid of the bubbles. Place on a baking tray and put in a warm oven for 20-30 minutes. Use immediately.
Tuesday 28 September 2010
Good Intentions
My determination to re-start the diet yesterday was unfortunately thwarted by the fact that it was mine and C's one month wedding anniversary. This naturally called for a celebration in the shape of sausage and mash, lovely Aspall's cider and the Strictly Ballroom DVD.
Food seemed to go down well at the weekend and the pie was (I think) a success. For something I made up as I went along it seemed to work quite well.
Slow cooker chicken
1 Chicken
1 onion
1 carrot
chicken stock
1/2 bottle red wine
black pepper corns
Roughly chop the carrot and onion and use these to form a trivet in the bottom of the slow cooker - this prevents the chicken from sticking to the bottom and burning. Place the chicken on top of the veg and pour over the wine. Top up with the stock; how much will depend on the size of the slow cooker as you want to more or less cover the chicken in liquid. Add the pepper corns and any other spices or herbs you fancy. Cook on high for an hour and then low for 6.
Cooking the chicken in the way makes the cooked meat fall off the bone and getting all the bits out of the slow cooker can be a bit of a yucky job. The easiest way I've found to get it all out is to fish out the largest bits out with a ladle then take out some of the stock - this makes a wonderful sauce if you're planning on using the chicken to make a pie. I took about a litre of stock out of the slow cooker for the sauce. Once the stock's been taken out of the slow cooker I use a colander in the sink to get the rest of the chicken out.
Once the chicken's cooled enough to be handled, shred it into bite size pieces. Put the reserved stock in the fridge; this will make the stock separate into two parts, the bottom lovely, lush wine tinged chicken stock, the upper a solid lump of chicken fat - not very appetising but worth saving for cooking roasties in.
Slow cooker chicken and chorizo pie - serves 6
1 slow cooked chicken, shredded into bite size pieces
1 litre of chicken stock
45g butter
45g plain flour
Worcester sauce
balsamic vinegar
1 chorizo ring
1 red pepper
1 pack puff pastry
Melt the butter in a pan. Once it's melted add the flour to form a roux. Let this cook for a couple of minutes then begin gradually adding the stock. I've found that a silicon whisk is an absolute Godsend when doing sauces, before I got one my sauces were always lumpy messes but now I have hardly any disasters! Keep adding the stock until it's all incorporated then let it reduce down. Add a couple of splashes of Worcester sauce and the same of balsamic vinegar. I happened to have a glass or so of red wine left over so that got chucked in as well.
Chop the chorizo into slices approximately the same thickness as a pound coin. Dry fry these in batches being careful not to crowd the pan. This will release all the wonderful red, paprika spiced oil.
Quarter the red pepper and put on a baking tray with a drizzle of oil and balsamic vinegar. Put under the grill for 10 minutes.
Once the sauce is finished stir in the shredded chicken, fried chorizo and oil and the grilled pepper. Put into a pie dish and top with the rolled out puff pastry. Put in a pre-heated oven at 200C/400F/gas mark 6 for 25-30 minutes. When ready serve with whatever veggies you fancy.
Food seemed to go down well at the weekend and the pie was (I think) a success. For something I made up as I went along it seemed to work quite well.
Slow cooker chicken
1 Chicken
1 onion
1 carrot
chicken stock
1/2 bottle red wine
black pepper corns
Roughly chop the carrot and onion and use these to form a trivet in the bottom of the slow cooker - this prevents the chicken from sticking to the bottom and burning. Place the chicken on top of the veg and pour over the wine. Top up with the stock; how much will depend on the size of the slow cooker as you want to more or less cover the chicken in liquid. Add the pepper corns and any other spices or herbs you fancy. Cook on high for an hour and then low for 6.
Cooking the chicken in the way makes the cooked meat fall off the bone and getting all the bits out of the slow cooker can be a bit of a yucky job. The easiest way I've found to get it all out is to fish out the largest bits out with a ladle then take out some of the stock - this makes a wonderful sauce if you're planning on using the chicken to make a pie. I took about a litre of stock out of the slow cooker for the sauce. Once the stock's been taken out of the slow cooker I use a colander in the sink to get the rest of the chicken out.
Once the chicken's cooled enough to be handled, shred it into bite size pieces. Put the reserved stock in the fridge; this will make the stock separate into two parts, the bottom lovely, lush wine tinged chicken stock, the upper a solid lump of chicken fat - not very appetising but worth saving for cooking roasties in.
Slow cooker chicken and chorizo pie - serves 6
1 slow cooked chicken, shredded into bite size pieces
1 litre of chicken stock
45g butter
45g plain flour
Worcester sauce
balsamic vinegar
1 chorizo ring
1 red pepper
1 pack puff pastry
Melt the butter in a pan. Once it's melted add the flour to form a roux. Let this cook for a couple of minutes then begin gradually adding the stock. I've found that a silicon whisk is an absolute Godsend when doing sauces, before I got one my sauces were always lumpy messes but now I have hardly any disasters! Keep adding the stock until it's all incorporated then let it reduce down. Add a couple of splashes of Worcester sauce and the same of balsamic vinegar. I happened to have a glass or so of red wine left over so that got chucked in as well.
Chop the chorizo into slices approximately the same thickness as a pound coin. Dry fry these in batches being careful not to crowd the pan. This will release all the wonderful red, paprika spiced oil.
Quarter the red pepper and put on a baking tray with a drizzle of oil and balsamic vinegar. Put under the grill for 10 minutes.
Once the sauce is finished stir in the shredded chicken, fried chorizo and oil and the grilled pepper. Put into a pie dish and top with the rolled out puff pastry. Put in a pre-heated oven at 200C/400F/gas mark 6 for 25-30 minutes. When ready serve with whatever veggies you fancy.
Friday 24 September 2010
Experiments with Pie
Once again I'm spending today preparing for the BWOG. As hubby, F and I are planning a day out in Tilgate Park near Crawley tomorrow I won't have much chance to cook in the day so I'm slow cooking a chicken ahead of time. The plan originally was to make chicken and bacon pie but unfortunately I forgot one vital ingredient when doing Wednesday's big shop - the bacon. So the pie has been metamorphosed into an experimental chicken and chorizo pie.
I'm cooking the chicken ahead of time in the slow cooker for a few reasons. Firstly to save on time. Secondly cooking a whole chicken in the way is more economical than using breasts which are too expensive if you're on a budget. And thirdly (and probably most importantly) it tastes nice. When I normally do it I cook it in chicken stock - when you slow cook a chicken you're essentially poaching it for hours. This time because I'm planning on teaming it up with chorizo I'm cooking it in a mixture of red wine and stock. I'll use this cooking liquid to make the sauce for the pie. I'll put up a proper recipe once it's done as at the moment I'm kind of making it up as I go along!
I'm cooking the chicken ahead of time in the slow cooker for a few reasons. Firstly to save on time. Secondly cooking a whole chicken in the way is more economical than using breasts which are too expensive if you're on a budget. And thirdly (and probably most importantly) it tastes nice. When I normally do it I cook it in chicken stock - when you slow cook a chicken you're essentially poaching it for hours. This time because I'm planning on teaming it up with chorizo I'm cooking it in a mixture of red wine and stock. I'll use this cooking liquid to make the sauce for the pie. I'll put up a proper recipe once it's done as at the moment I'm kind of making it up as I go along!
Thursday 23 September 2010
Popcorn!
I'm determined that Monday will mark the re-start of my on-again-off-again diet. I've found that following the WeightWatchers point plan works for me - I lose weight but as soon as I stop counting points I put the weight back on. I know exactly the reason behind this - I'm a snacker. I tend to snack when I get bored and as much as I love F he's not always the most stimulating conversationalist!
For the wedding I managed to lose about 2 stone in about a year and got down to my pre-F weight of 10 stone. For the first time in ages I was happy about my weight but unfortunately the wedding and then the honeymoon caused me to put some of the weight back on, a week of Full Englishes and eating out will do that to you! The chocolate afternoon was probably one of the major culprits....
Because I'm a snacker I'm trying to find some low fat alternatives to the biscuits and chocolates I normally have in. I remember reading on the WW website that popcorn was a good alternative and couldn't help but recall the wonderful toffee coated popcorn my Nan used to make for me. Just had a bit of a play and came up with this recipe.
Cinammon and mixed spice coated popcorn
80g popcorn kernals
50g low fat spread
50g brown sugar
ground cinammon
mixed spice
Put the popcorn kernals in a medium sized pan and heat with the lid on over a medium/high heat for 10-15 minutes (F was fascinated by this bit, he loved watching kernals popping all over the place) Make sure that it's stopped popping before you take the lid off or you might end up getting popped on the nose ;)
In a second pan (or in the microwave) melt the spread and sugar. Once melted add the cinammon and mixed spice.
Drizzle the spread and sugar mix over the popcorn, replace the lid and give the pan a good shake to mix.
For the wedding I managed to lose about 2 stone in about a year and got down to my pre-F weight of 10 stone. For the first time in ages I was happy about my weight but unfortunately the wedding and then the honeymoon caused me to put some of the weight back on, a week of Full Englishes and eating out will do that to you! The chocolate afternoon was probably one of the major culprits....
Because I'm a snacker I'm trying to find some low fat alternatives to the biscuits and chocolates I normally have in. I remember reading on the WW website that popcorn was a good alternative and couldn't help but recall the wonderful toffee coated popcorn my Nan used to make for me. Just had a bit of a play and came up with this recipe.
Cinammon and mixed spice coated popcorn
80g popcorn kernals
50g low fat spread
50g brown sugar
ground cinammon
mixed spice
Put the popcorn kernals in a medium sized pan and heat with the lid on over a medium/high heat for 10-15 minutes (F was fascinated by this bit, he loved watching kernals popping all over the place) Make sure that it's stopped popping before you take the lid off or you might end up getting popped on the nose ;)
In a second pan (or in the microwave) melt the spread and sugar. Once melted add the cinammon and mixed spice.
Drizzle the spread and sugar mix over the popcorn, replace the lid and give the pan a good shake to mix.
Amazing new discovery
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