Spicy Chicken

Spicy Chicken and Sticky Date Pudding

Chicken and chorizo, chick peas and smoked paprika…some ingredients will just, you know, taste lush together.

A massive pot of spicy chicken awaits the birds. This pot is an orange beast so big and heavy a man is required to lift it from the oven to the table. Those rich flavours were delicious, the birds were divided over the brave addition of raisins. Mmmm, I’m undecided, quite liked them.

Next up, whisky soaked dates added to a classic sponge recipe. Potentially a weird culinary cock up but, as luck would have it, a hot butterscotch sauce simply added to the sticky, spongy, date-y, whiskyish delight. I can confirm – these tasted even better the next day.

Local recipe book

A friend's business is up for nomination for the Bristol Independents Award and obviously I went on to cast my vote and I came across this brilliant recipe book, 'A Taste of the World from One Community'. The recipe book, which you can download here, is a compilation of local food made by local people and reflects the world in our city. I'm hoping to try out  the Kiwi Pavlovas and the Karelian pies on the ladies one Thursday. Watch this space...


Alli x

 

Murmuring Raspberries...

It was cold, winter fuel needed, so pulses were on the menu! I remember back in the day, soaking pulses and spending hours cooking them and am grateful that you can now buy them in tins! Sadly, in the supermarket there were no tins of aduzki beans, so I had to buy dried beans and get back to basics by cooking my own!

Sarah Brown's Vegetarian cookbook was a must for any veggie in the 80s and I cooked up a staple for tonight's main, Red Dragon Pie; it's red, there are no dragons in it and it is a bake, not a pie, but who am I to argue with the 80s vegetarian guru? 

Red Dragon pie: Ingredients

2 x 410g tins of aduki beans, drained (or 200g dried beans, soaked and cooked according to packet)

1 large onion, diced

2 cloves garlic, chopped

250g carrots, diced

½ pint tomato passata

¼ pint stock (I use 1 large teaspoon of vecon which has a fabulous flavour)

1 tsp fresh thyme, chopped (or a generous teaspoon of mixed dried herbs)

1-2 tbsps soy sauce

black pepper

450g potatoes, sliced thickly

25g butter

olive oil

Method

▪                Preheat the oven to 200°C

▪                Fry the onion and carrot in a little olive oil until softening, add the garlic and fry for a further minute

▪                Add the beans, tomato passata, stock, herbs, soy sauce and freshly ground pepper to taste, bring to the boil then simmer for 5 minutes with the lid on before removing the lid and reducing the liquid to a thick delicious sauce. Pop into a pie dish (mine is 23cm)

▪                Parboil the potato slices for 5 mins, refresh under the cold tap and then arrange on top of the filling

▪                Dot with butter and a drizzle of olive oil

▪                Bake in the preheated oven for 30 minutes or until the potatoes are nicely browned

Steve made one of those vegetable soups that is made up of the dregs of the veg in the house with lashings of gorgeous stock and for pud I made a Nigella staple, Damp Lemon & Almond Cake from The Domestic Goddess

The sponge is created with almonds and a small amount of flour, so it is perfect for a wheat-free version, I used 50g of rice flour instead of the plain flour.

Nigella's recipes pop up regularly during our evenings and we love the anecdotes and stories behind the food she cooks. My favourite line from this recipe is when Nigella writes about how to assemble this cake, icing sugar etc and she writes...'I can't stop myself murmuring 'raspberries' to you, either.' We know what you mean, I served it up with mascarpone and raspberries and we murmured 'raspberries' too!

Happy December 

Alli x 

Bird’s blog

Tonight was a meat fest as Alli ( the vege) could only get here in time for pud. So …. The star of the show was made the evening before – Chinese braised beef ( from Good Food mag). Flavours set to infuse for 24 hrs – yum!

A busy day at work and then parents evening – went well which is always a bonus! Time for a quick coffee before settling down to the task.

As Alli was only coming for pud I thought it only fair that I did something decent rather that my usual quick ice cream & fruit or fail-safe Eton mess. Nigella came to the rescue with Glitzy choc puds topped with crunchie.

Trying to be seasonal I went for a starter of celeriac remoulade courtesy of Nigel Slater off the tinternet – thanks Nige! Served with ham. The Chinese beef was accompanied by braised bok choi & rice. All very nice & mucho appreciatoed by the birds which is always very satisfying.
Great conversation and ripples of laughter and everyone seemed happy upon departure. I’m knackered – but it was worth it – as always!!! :)

Oh no . .we have no hot water

I have been gladly torn away from abusing a broken boiler to cook the birds a slap up dinner. These days I like to see them as my little white lab rats.

This week’s experiment, “Chicken cooked in Sherry vinegar and Tarragon sauce” was delicious although in my view, less of the vinegar and more of the sherry. I do enjoy the odd sherry of a lunch time. . . (is that allowed?)

Alli arrived after the chicken but snacked on boiled quails eggs dipped in crushed cumin seeds and salt, there is something so pleasing about shelling these mini speckled eggs.

Dessert’s “Fried apples with brown sugar and crème fraiche” became apple mush, due to my son objecting to his mother diverting her attentions, but still tasted great.

Today, I’m wondering how I can slip a sherry tasting into forthcoming festivities? And, how long will my family last without becoming a health hazard with no hot water?

The grim reality is terrifying; I may be forced to take part in excercise just to get a shower.

Sorry no pics this week, will try harder next time.

The Holy Bible - Henk cooked, Alli blogged!

Wheat-feast at the ready - Sally's on holiday!


'The Holy Bible', otherwise known as the Good Housekeeping Vegetarian Cook Book, makes a regular appearance on these nights; easy and tasty veg fayre which the birds all approve of.

Tonight Henk's main course, taken from the hallowed pages of  the holy book, was a spicy filo, spinach and lentil pie served with a selection of salads - clean plates all round and Anna asked for, and got, more! Or check out this recipe for Halloumi & Pepper Bruschetta - it's a Good Housekeeping original!

We had already noshed our way through halloumi, sun-dried tomatoes and chilli flake-topped bruschetta for our starter - don't think this was taken from 'The Holy Bible', more of a Henk creation.


It was the school holidays, so talking went on after midnight and surprisingly we didn't all turn into toads, mice or pumpkins! We save that one for Halloween...


Happy noshing and 'Bless you'....


Alli x

The Birds

Autumn is here - Alli cooks

The heating has gone on, Autumn has finally arrived so thoughts of a nut roast crossed my mind for tonight's meal, but I changed my mind when I looked for inspiration. I love goats cheese so I was drawn to 'Goats Cheese purses w roasted red pepper sauce' from New Food for Thought - I didn't have any sun dried tomato condiment, so I just left it out...still tasted lush! 

The dish was accompanied by root veg roasted in a greaseproof paper package - new pots, carrots, baby parsnips, garlic, shallots - sprinkled with some olive oil and a sprig of rosemary chucked in. Wrap them up, roast and dish them up in their packets (watch out for the steam!) The little packets went down well with the birds...tweet!


For desert it was the turn of Nigel Slater to provide the recipe - Poached pears with Florentines - full of naughty cream. You can watch the recipe being made her - cheers Nige! We chatted about you, 'Toast' and the TV film of your autobiography - we loved it!


A world gone mad with an obsession for plastic surgery was on the agenda tonight, with one solution to the madness being enforced watching of the movie 'Brazil' by Terry Gilliam - that should sort things out!

Wheat-friendly version - an individual ramekin of the pie filling with a rich tomato sauce, baked. Leave the Florentines out of the cream.


Happy half term Alli x

You have to start somewhere...Alli cooks

The somewhere, this Thursday, is my house. I'm cooking. I'm waiting for a close group of friends to turn up and share the food, booze and spend time chatting, laughing and catching up with each other.


I say 'this Thursday' because we meet up every Thursday, as a group and have done for years. We are all old enough to be post-feminists and we call our night, tongue-in-cheek, 'Birds' Night', and it's a night that is very special to us all.


Taking time out of prepping & cooking 'family meals', to make something more adventurous for the birds, is a pleasure. But the evening is not all about the food - the company is the best aspect of our gatherings and over the years we've seen each other through all sorts of 'life-stuff', chewed the fat about all subjects and prattled on about twaddle as well, and without each other things just wouldn't be right. 


So, what did we prattle on about? I'm not saying. What did we eat? I'll tell you now.


When considering the menu we have to consider a wide range of food needs. I'm the vegetarian and Sally doesn't eat wheat. If I can't make it along to a night then it's a 'meat-fest' in my absence and if Sally can't make it then there's a 'wheat-fest'! You get the idea.


Tonight, it's a full house!


To start: nibbles including olives, vegetable crisps (there would have been some Kettles cheesy crisps but I was so ravenous when I got home from work that I polished most of them off! Sorry birds!)


Main: (Here, I have to admit, that Steve cooked the main meal tonight)

Delicious individual Souffles 

with mature cheddar, Port Salut & Roquefort -

 cooked in their own little ramekins

steamed green beans (from our very own allotment!)

a tomato compote 

a lightly dressed bag a green salad

(from the supermarket, which is near the allotment!) 

Dessert:

Blackberry and Cinnamon Torte

Use rice flour & baking powder to make it wheat free.

I've been making this torte for years as it is easily made by pressing a button on the food processor and pulling out a bag of frozen fruit from the freezer...the neighbours got to the blackberries before me this year. You could experiment with other fruits. Let me know how you get on.

Food can sometimes be tied in to our memories and events in our lives. One of the first nights I made this pie was in September 1997. I know this because I was pregnant with my son, Princess Diana had died and my father had been dead for less than a year. Why are these details important to the recipe? Well, grief hits us all in a million different ways and when Lady Di died the nation went into mourning, but it got to the part of me that was mourning my fathers' death and on the day of the televised funeral of Di, I was desperate to get my large pregnant body, with raging hormones, well away from the funeral...so we went and picked blackberries. Those berries made their way into the pie when a group of friends got together for a meal. It became known as 'Di Pie'...and has stuck!

Here's the original copy from the pages of my first recipe book - handwritten recipes from pre-computer, internet days.

I copied this recipes from a magazine, wish I'd bought the book as now it sells for over £30! Ursulas-Italian-Desserts

The souffle recipe is from the Anton-Mosimann-Naturally.

So, we eat, we talked and we had a good time. Till next Thursday, have a good week. 

Alli x

Thank Goodness it's Friday! Lucy Cooks

Delia’s veggie moussaka seems like the perfect dish for an Autumn eve.. lentils, aubergines, peppers galore with a fluffy ricotta toppping.  Delish.  The birds rated it a winner.  Salad and warm bread on the side.  Laura and Henk approved so it must have been ok.  

Sally pitched up later after a (tense, sweaty Open Evening).  The joys of choosing A levels with your teenagers.

Check out the tart tatin.  Raymond’s instructions proved rather over- prescriptive so I went free- style on the apple arrangement.  The caramel didn’t burn and the (frozen) puff pastry puffed so a result.  Lovely with single cream.

Conversation turns to the highs and lows of parenting.  How is it that you might know (in theory) about the right thing to do but get it so wrong in the moment?  Apologising to your kids “Hmmm I’m sorry, I was wrong to say that …’ can be hard to do we think.

Enough for now.  Glad to see that there is still a slice or two of tart left over.  A nice Friday breakfast.

Lucy.