Liv & Paul’s Web Page

A summary of the recipes that are popular with the kids. Well popular with Henry at least, May only seems content with munching through a pork pie.:

• Macaroni Cheese [H & M]
• Carbonara – Jamie’s Courgette version [H & M]
• Spaghetti Carbonara [H & M]
• Noodles with Cream [H & M]




• Shepard’s Pie [H]
• Fish Pie [H]
• Porridge [H]
• Roast Dinner Vegetables [H]
• Cauliflower/Broccoli Cheese [H]
• Fish Finger’s and Veg [H]

Henry definitely prefers mild flavours, anything too flavoursome is ‘too spicy’, from tomatoes to bacon. Or anything that cannot be chewed to a paste (meat for example, stringy vegetables).

With no hob or oven, need a repertoire of simple meals that we can cook in the microwave (which also has a basic grill).

Beans on Toast
Spaghetti Hoops on Toast
Fishfingers, peas & sweetcorn
Burgers
Noodles, peas & sweetcorn
Rice & Naan bread
Tinned Spaghetti Sausages
Soup
Creamy parmesan, quick cook macaroni
Chicken Pie ready meal & peas

Take away pizza / fish n chips

Pre-cooked meals:
Wraps with frozen Chilli Mince
Frozen Fish Pie

Going to try classic Delia Roasted Stuffed Goose with Prunes in Armagnac from Delia Smith's Complete Cookery Course.

I’ll be cooking:

• Roast Goose – 5lb Goose takes 1/2 hour @ 220C 3 hours @ 180C
• Apple Stuffing (in Body Cavity)
  • Bramley Apples
  • Prunes
  • Onion
  • Armagnac
  • Cloves & Mace
  • Salt & Pepper
• Forcemeat Stuffing – Neck End
  • Goose Livers
  • Cox’s Apple
  • Minced Pork/Saucemeat
  • Onion
  • Breadcrumbs
  • Dried Sage
  • Salt & Pepper
• Prunes in Armagnac
  • Prunes
  • Sugar & Armagnac
• Roast Potatoes (Maris Piper)

Plan:

• Christmas Eve
  • Prepare Prunes in Armagnac
• Christmas Day
  • 8:00am, chop Onion, Apples, Prunes – mix Apple Stuffing, tuck into Goose.
  • 8:15am, chop Goose livers, apple, onion, mix Forcemeat stuffing, tuck into Goose.
  • 8:30am, put Goose in oven @ 220C
  • 9:00am, lower oven to @180C
  • 11:00am, peel potatoes and put in pan of boiling water
  • 11:10am, bring potatoes to the boil for 10 minutes
  • 11:20am, drain potatoes, put roasting tray in oven with fat (from Goose)
  • 11:30am, put potatoes in heated roasting tray, cover and toss all pots., put in the top of the oven
  • 12:00pm, remove Goose from oven, turn up to 220C, toss pots.
  • 12:30pm, remove roast potatoes

Not as painful to do as I thought. Partly because I spread the chores over a few days. On Tuesday get the bottles ready and fill with sterilising solution, Wednesday add the Finings to the brewing bin,Thursday 16th rinsed the bottles and finally bottle the beer (7 days after putting in the brew bin).

Beer is now sitting in a warm cupboard for a couple of days before going back out to the garage. Got another 30 empties in the garage, so once we are through the first 10 pints can start a new brew kit.

We’ve been in the new house for a couple of months now so have been wanting to get some beer on the go. So ordered the tried and tested “Woodforde’s Wherry”, one of Woodforde’s Norfolk Ales’ brew kits. I ordered it online this time for a good price of £15.73 from Brew It Yourself.

Done the easy bit of getting it into the brewing bin after sterlising everything, annoyingly broke my thermometer so not sure it’s at the ideal temperature for the yeast. Going to bottle this one so have got the unenviable task of sterilising 40 odd bottles in the next few days…

A new developmental step? Well more of a regression… Henry has started sucking food off the table cloth, ummm yum (Not quite as disgusting as it sounds as it is one of those plastic coated cloths). But it sure looks disgusting. Henry face down, nostril deep in custard, slurping away trying to get the very last morsel of food is a joy to behold.

We are going to have to put a stop to it before we eat out in public again, but I am finding it difficult to chastise him. He has never been a big eater and any show of interest in food should definitely not be discouraged. Especially as he only does it with food he really likes, so its kind of a complement to the chef.

Henry’s favourite foods so far, to receive this special seal of approval, include Macaroni Cheese and Banana and Custard.

Must get a picture of this one…

Guide on how to make melted snowman cupcakes.

Here’s my effort, took me absolutely ages to do, and I gave up after the third one. Tasted lovely though! Using Mr. Beaton’s Victoria Sponge (with cherries) recipe.

Another favourite from Jamie at Home, cooked by David using courgettes from the garden, delicious.

Recipe is available on Jamie Oliver’s website

Pollo alla Cacciatora (Hunter’s Chicken Stew) (Serves 4)

A great traditional recipe, from Jamie's Italy, published in the Guardian, which is where I first found the recipe.

1 Chicken, jointed,
8 bay leaves, 2 sprigs rosemary,
3 cloves of garlic – 1 crushed, 2 sliced,
1/2 a bottle of Chianti,
6 Anchovy fillets
Handful of stoned green and black olives
2 x 400g tin of plum tomatoes.

Season chicken with salt & black pepper.
Add bay leaves, rosemary, crushed garlic & the wine.
Leave overnight to marinate.

Remove chicken, pat dry, dust with flour, then in oven proof dish brown the chicken all over and put aside.
Fry garlic till golden brown, add anchovies, olives & tomatoes (broken up), chicken & marinade. Bring to boil, cover and put in oven for 1 1/2 hours.

Skim off oil, stir, season, remove bay and rosemary, serve with salad or cannellini beans.

Good recipe from the Observer magazine (would have to be Nigel Slater wouldn’t it):

• Garlic – 2 plump cloves
• Carrots – 2 medium sized
• Smoked bacon – 150g
• Savoy Cabbage

Chop garlic finely, Cut carrots into matchsticks, chop up bacon, shred the cabbage finely and wash.
Cook bacon in frying pan, add garlic till it colours, then add vegetables, cook until cabbage is bright and tender.

Other vegetable ideas: Cabbage/Cauliflower with Fennel/Caraway seeds, Carrots in butter with Ginger/Garlic.

Done this recipe a couple of times, nice straightforward alternative to roast potatoes, been sitting in my inbox for ages time to give it a proper place on the net. Turned out pretty well, lovely roasted potatoes, with deliciously caramelized onion, with the last of our brussel sprouts and some ‘Roasted chicken joints with lemon and cracked pepper’ from Nigel Slater's 'The Kitchen Diaries' - p. 138.

Thanks to Helen & Andy Tate for this one:

There are a couple of variations on a theme that we use, neither of them ours originally.

First Antonio Carluccio’s Monk’s Potatoes (from his Italian Feast book):
You peel and halve the potatoes then chop them into thick slices. Chop up an onion and throw all into a roasting dish with about 3 sprigs of fresh rosemary, salt pepper and olive oil. Then roast in oven.

Other recipe comes from mum & dad. We call it Belmont Potatoes (after the street they used to live in!). Very similar but I think cooks better:

Peel and chop potatoes into smallish chunks. Par boil for 10 mins. Meantime, chop an onion and some garlic. Fry in olive oil until starting to soften. Add a large handful of oregano. When the potatoes are done, add them to the frying pan and stir round to coat with oil, herbs etc. Tip the lot into a roasting dish and roast until done.

Our potatoes are often a mix of these two. For a number of reasons: I think parboiling the potatoes makes them roast better. Frying onion seems to ensure it cooks rather than burns. Slicing potatoes is a bit more fiddly and they fall apart more easily if they stick to the dish, so you can end up with roasted mashed potato! As for the herbs, it really depends on what I’m cooking it with as to what I use.

Left the beer in a ‘warm place’ for slightly longer than it should have been, nearly 7 weeks, expect it to be too fizzy and too dry. Now moved it under the stairs to settle, before first tasting.

Everyone says that the Sunday roast is a really easy meal to do, but I have always had problems getting everything just right.

Well I finally managed to do it to my satisfaction at last, since we got Parsnips and Brussel Sprouts in the veg. box really had to be done. Picked up a small piece of topside of beef from Owl’s barn, simply cooked for 40 minutes in the middle of the oven. Brussels cooked to Delia’s specification (Delia's Complete Cookery Course), carrots quickly boiled, then finished off with a quick warm in butter with garlic.

Roast Potatoes and Parsnips, done just how I love them, crispy, salty and loads of flavour, enhanced by the jar of Goose fat provided by Pom & Roger, delicious. Cooked as per Nigel Slater (Appetite).
Gravy was made from some well cooked onion, some beef stock, then blended, and finally poured in the beef pan with a little red wine at the end, just to pick up the tasty bits from the meat.

Delicious Christmas desert, much better than the usual Christmas fair, from “Good Cooking with Wine” by Mary Reynolds.

Ingredients

• 4 oz Gingernuts, crushed
• 2 tbsp Castor Sugar
• 2 tbsp Oil
• 1 egg white, whisked till stiff
• 1/4 pint double cream
• 2 tbsp brandy
• 1 rounded tsp Icing sugar

Mix the ginger nuts, oil and sugar and spread half over bottom of baking tray, lined with baking paper. Whip the cream with the Brandy until thick, fold in the icing sugar & egg white. Pour into the tin then sprinkle the rest of the biscuit mix onto the top. Freeze until firm.

Was too busy in September to get down and bottle my beer, so unfortunately it went off in the barrel and had to chuck it all away.

Bought a new brew kit from the brew shop in Ringwood, Easybrew. It’s moved to much larger premises since I last went, smaller selection of beer kits though.

Went for one of Woodforde’s Norfolk Ales’ brew kits, “Woodforde’s Wherry”.

Started the kit about the 5th November, left for 17 days, added finings on the 24th and bottled it on the 26th, (red crown corks).

Browsing Roger’s many cookbooks came across this recipe to try with the stuff from our veg. box. It’s from Sophie Grigson's "Eat Your Greens" p. 82.

Ingredients

• 10oz sliced parsnips
• 10oz cauliflower florets
• 12oz sliced carrots
• 1 sliced medium onion
• Finely chopped ginger root, 2 cloves of garlic & green chilli
• 1 1/2oz ground almonds
• 1 tbsp cumin, 2 tsp coriander, 1 tsp cinnamon & 1 tsp turmeric
• 300ml greek yogurt
• Coriander/Parsley to garnish

Fry onion until golden brown, stir in spices, then add garlic, ginger & chilli. Stir for 1 minute. Slowly stir in yoghurt, then almonds, cook for 2 minutes.

Stir in 300ml water & some salt, add vegetables, cover and simmer for 20-25 minutes, until veg almost done. Uncover and simmer for another 5 minutes, season and add coriander to serve.

In an attempt to eat a more balanced and healthy diet we have started getting an Organic Veg box from Owl’s Barn Organics delivered to our door every fortnight. For £7 we got:

• a selection of potatoes,
• carrots,
• onions,
• brocolli,
• tomatoes, a cucumber and a pepper,
• green beans,
• a leak and
• half a butternut squash

I’ve used up everything except the leak, the Butternut Squash and the beans (which I don’t like so will probably go spare). So a quick surf on the internet for recipes (Nigel Slater let me down) revealed Jo Pratt’s ‘Roasted butternut squash and sage risotto with pinenuts’. An pretty good match as I’ve been meaning to use some Sage from the herb garden for a while now, and I had half a pack of streaky bacon to use up as well. Unfortunately no Risotto rice or Pine Nuts, so compromised with brown basmati rice instead.

Overall not bad, very filling, and difficult to pick out the sage (probably too much parmesan), but the roast squash smelt great, so may use that in another recipe in the future.

In case the BBC lift the recipe, repeated here in brief:

Slice the Squash and smear with a paste of garlic, lots of sage, salt, pepper and olive oil, roast for a good 40 minutes in the oven. Mash when done.

Fry onion in butter and olive oil, add rice, stir in a couple of glasses of wine, then some stock and more chopped sage. Cook the rice till done, adding more stock as required.

Once the rice is done, stir in the squash and parmesan, leave to soften for a couple of minutes, then serve topped with crispy, fried smoked streaky bacon.

We had a power cut all morning on Sunday, so took the opportunity to start off my latest batch of beer, bought from the brew shop in Salisbury (On Fisherton Street). Its a kit called “London’s Proudest”, consisting of:

• 2 Tins of Scotmalt
• 1Kg Bag of Burton Bridge Beer Enhancer (Malt & Dextrose)
• Satchet of Hop Extract
• Satchet of Brewers yeast
• Satchet of Finings
• Satchet of ‘Creamy Top’

Most of these are from Ritchie Products.

I’m going to try and keep a record of as many recipes that I cook on the site, so that when I’m trying to rack my brains for “that great Mackerel recipe I cooked last year” I can just browse through this blog, and find out where I got the recipe from.

Anyway, this is the second time I’ve done this one, and its still great, never thought I’d like Mackerel, reminds me of baiting fish hooks on the Pembrokshire coast.

The recipe is from Nigel Slater's "The Kitchen Diaries - p. 222., and is very simple, a bed of sliced ripe tomatoes, with some Mackerel cooked under a very hot grill then dressed with olive oil, garlic, lemon juice and thyme. Delicious, (need more practice with the photos though).

For Liv I baked some Bream, roughly following what the chap at Fishworks recommended. Put the fish on some baking paper, drizzle with olive oil, sea salt, garlic and a squeeze of lemon, wrap in tin foil and bake in a very hot oven for 20 minutes. I had some fresh parsley, so sprinkled a handful of this on top and baked open for a further 5 minutes. Not bad, served with some oven baked tomatoes (with Olive Oil, Thyme & Seasoning, another Nigel Slater recipe).