Fresh sweetcorn soup with tortillas a la Nigella

Yum. I can't think of anything better than this for a quick healthy supper in the middle of the week, and so frugal too! This soup is my version of the inimitable Nigella's sweetcorn chowder from Express. I do borrow from (or lean heavily upon) the original, but...dare I say it...think this recipe is nicer! Mind you, it isn't quite so express... But what brain food!

Ingredients

• 1 small onion, peeled and finely chopped
• 1 large carrot, peeled and grated
• 2 celery stalks, peeled of the long fibrous threads, and very finely diced
• 2 heads of sweetcorn
• Veg stock
• Splash milk or cream
• Cheese tortillas
• Mature English cheddar

Method

• Heat a tablespoon of oil in a wide-based saucepan with the onion, carrot and celery. Sweat the veg for 10 minutes until they are very soft but not coloured.
• Meanwhile, cut the sweetcorn kernels off the cobs (in a large bowl, hold the corn cob at a low angle and cut down through the base of the kernels with a sharp serrated knife).
• Add the sweetcorn to the vegetables, stir well, and pour over hot vegetable stock to cover by about 1cm.
• Bring the soup to a gentle boil, then turn the heat down to a good simmer and leave to cook for 20 minutes while you unwind a bit and think about which bubble bath to use tonight.
• Once the sweetcorn is nice and tender, take the pan off the heat and leave for 10 mins for the temperature to drop a bit.
• Preheat the oven to 200C/390F.
• After 10 minutes, arrange a handful of tortilla chips per person on a baking tray, grate over as much of the cheese as you want, and pop in the oven. Cook for about 5 minutes - you will smell when they are ready.
• Meanwhile, remove a couple of spoonfuls of sweetcorn kernels from the pan, then tip all the rest into a blender. Blend to a smoothish soup (take out the central lid or your blender will explode like mine did once...) then return to the pan with the reserved vegetables.
• Reheat the soup gently for a few minutes. Add a splash of milk or cream if you think it needs it. It should be sweet and vegetabley. Serve in wide bowls with the cheesy tortillas on top and relax in front of a Nigella DVD.

Sausage and leek pie

Sometimes you just need pastry.

As I was moaning to my culinary compatriots at Nigella.com earlier, I was struck by a bubble of PhD blues today, a chronic condition suffered by masochistic folks who put themselves through an extra 4 years of university than is entirely necessary... In my experience there are 3 successful ways to pull yourself out of this malaise: prayer (probably most effective!), long walks (the healthy option), and cooking (not always the healthy option). I went for cooking today, prayer will come tomorrow morning...

Ingredients

• 240g plain flour
• 120g butter
• 3-5 tablespoons iced water
• 6 good beef sausages, skins removed and broken into small lumps
• 3-4 small leeks, rinsed well and finely sliced
• 1 onion, peeled and finely chopped
• Zest 1/2 lemon
• Good bunch flat leaf parsley, finely chopped
• 1/2 cup grated Parmesan
• 2 large eggs, beaten

Method

• Cut the butter into small lumps, mix through the flour and freeze them together for 10 minutes.
• After 10 minutes tip the whole lot into a food processor and blitz to rubble, then add tablespoonfuls of icy water, pulsing, until the pastry comes together.
• Turn out and knead briefly, then divide into 2 disks, wrap them in cling and leave to rest in the fridge for 20 minutes.
• Preheat the oven to 200C/390F.
• Cook the onion, leek and sausage together in a large frying pan until the veg are softened and the meat cooked and getting slightly crispy. Pepper well and set aside.
• Mix the egg with the parsley, lemon zest and Parmesan.
• Using one disk of pastry, line a 20cm pie plate or low sided cake tin, leaving a little overhang of pastry.
• Tumble in the leek and sausage mixture, spreading it evenly in the pasty base, then pour over the egg mix.
• Roll out the second pastry disk to form a lid, and attach it to the overhang of the base using a little cold water. Cut off the excess pastry and crimp all round the edges to seal the lid. Made a hole in the centre of the pie with a fork to release trapped steam.
• Sit the pie plate or cake tin on a baking tray and cook in the middle of the oven for 30 minutes until golden.
• Let sit for 10 minutes before eating.

A tray of veg in the oven...

We love roasted vegetables, they are a very regular fallback, and a most enjoyable one, in our house. They can be delicious just as they are, or with some halloumi cheese sliced on top, or with sausages... Or use them to accompany a plain meal of chicken... And so flexible, the wonderful thing about these veg is that you can add all kinds of wonderful flavours to them too.

In the context of this blog, roasted vegetables are also the ultimate frugal solution. Just use whatever you have left in the fridge!

Ingredients

• Small butternut squash
• 2 red onions
• large punnet cherry tomatoes
• Good sprig rosemary, needles separated from the stem
• 2 fat garlic cloves
• Medium red chilli
• Pasta for 2
• 1 ball mozzarella

Method

• Preheat the oven to 190C/370F.
• Peel the butternut squash, scoop out the seeds with an icecream scoop (really, it is the BEST tool for the job),, and cut it into rough 1/2" dice.
• Tumble into a roasting tin and drizzle over some olive oil. Give it a good stir to coat, then roast for 15-20 minutes until softening and slightly charred at the edges.
• Add the tomatoes and onions, peeled and cut into wedges, to the tray.
• Very finely chop the rosemary, garlic, and chilli, and scatter over the veg. Add a little more oil and stir again, then pop back into the oven for another 15 minutes.
• Cook the pasta, keep it a little under al dente as it will continue to cook when mixed with the hot vegetables.
• Once the veg are softened but not overly charred, tip in the drained pasta and stir everything together. Tear or slice in the mozzarella and add a good grinding of fresh black pepper.
• Let it sit for a couple of minutes for the mozzarella to begin to soften and oooooooze beguilingly, then serve straight from the tray.

Weeknight fish and chips

My goodness it has been a corker of a week, I am shattered. So tired, in fact, that I have just woosed out of doing the food shop, despite a distinct lack of essentials in the kitchen such as eggs, milk, and musli!

Well, this is a lovely recipe for such a tired night - suitably easy, appropriately delicious. Hugh FW calls it 'roast fish fillets with roast potatoes'. But that seems a little clinical to me, so I'm going with weeknight fish and chips.

Ingredients

• A good handful of new potatoes per person, cut in half if large
• 2-3 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 2 fat fish fillets per person - choose a sustainable variety if you can, I used farmed halibut (avoid wild like the plague), the recipe suggests gurnard, bream, pollock or mackerel.
• A few bay leaves
• 1 unwaxed lemon
• Sea salt and fresh black pepper

Method

• Parboil the potatoes until just tender to the point of a sharp knife.
• Put the oil in a baking dish and pop in the oven. Preheat the oven to 200C/Gas 6.
• When the oil is smoking hot, tip in the tatties and give them a good stir. Bake the potatoes in the hot oven for 20 minutes.
• After 20 mins give the potatoes a stir, then make a space in the middle for the fish. Add the fish to the tin, then tuck the bay leaves in around the fillets and finely grate over some lemon zest, and season.
• Return to the oven for 10-15 minutes, depending on the fish, or until the fillets flake easily at the point of a knife. Serve at once with sea salt and lemon wedges.

Lemon and sultana wholemeal drop scones

These wholemeal drop scones make a very substantial breakfast, and are super-quick to whip up in the morning. Next time I'm tempted to replace half the flour with plain self-raising rather than wholemeal, to make them a little lighter. But as they are they are delicious, and would also be good at teatime or after a swim.

Ingredients

• 250g wholemeal self-raising (or plain wholemeal flour with 2 teaspoons baking powder)
• Pinch baking powder
• Pinch sea salt
• 25g caster sugar
• 2 medium eggs
• 275ml milk
• Grated zest 1 lemon
• 50g butter, melted
• Sultanas

Method

• Sift the flour, bp and salt into a large bowl and stir in the sugar. Make a well in the centre.
• Break in both the eggs, add about half the milk and start whisking. Add more milk as you go until you have a thick, smooth batter. This is very easy, and you may not need all the milk.
• Grate in the lemon zest and leave the batter to sit for a bit if you can.
• Melt the butter and whisk it into the batter. I always use my pancake pan for this, and then wipe out the excess with some kitchen paper leaving a beautifully prepared cooking surface.
• Dollop heaped desert-spoon-fulls onto your hot pan or griddle, and sprinkle on a few sultanas. NB - I found each pancake spread a lot so leave plenty of room for flipping.
• After about a minute, when small bubbles start to appear, flip the pancakes over with a spatchula or pallet knife and cook the other side until the pancakes are springy to the touch and no longer oozing batter.
• Transfer to a waiting plate, cover with kitchen paper to keep them soft and warm, and carry on with the rest of the batter.
• HF-W recommends serving these with sugar and cinnamon, or fresh fruit jam. But I'm afraid Dr K and I inhabit a more vulgar household, and we ate them with golden and maple syrup respectively.

Tag for tea

Well this won't be a new one to any Nigella.com reader, but in the spirit of frugality it had to crop up at some point. The delicious Tagliatelle from the Venetian Ghetto, featured in How to Eat, has become one of the Domestic Goddess' most popular recipes...and it isn't even her's! You can find the original in the inimitable Claudia Roden's The Book of Jewish Food: an odyssey from Samarkand and Vilna to the present day (London 1999) - if you don't have this book, pleeeeease buy it. It makes such a fantastic read, the telling of the Jewish migrations through the evolution of their food, that even if you don't have a religious or ethnic affinity with the subject matter you will be seduced by descriptions of spices, celebrations, and spirituality.

Here is how I do it for an easy Friday night supper for 2.

Preheat the oven to 200C/390F. In a small roasting tin, sprinkle 3 or 4 chicken thighs (bone in, skin on) with sea salt and rub on some olive oil. Roast them for about 40 minutes until the skin is golden and crispy and the meat very tender.

Meanwhile soak a handful of sultanas in hot water, lightly toast 1/4 cup pinenuts in a dry frying pan, and very finely chop the needles of a hearty sprig of rosemary.

Boil a big pan of salted water for the pasta.

When the chicken is ready, remove the thighs to a board and leave to rest for a minute. Add your tagliatelle nests to the water to cook (make sure they stay al dente!).

Pour the chicken roasting juices (yes all of them) into a small saucepan. Add the rosemary, pinenuts, and drained sultanas, and heat the sauce to bubbling for a few minutes. Taste, and add a little concentrated chicken stock if you think it needs more flavour. Take all the chicken meat off the bones and chop up, including the skin. Add to the sauce.

When the pasta is ready, or maybe slightly before, drain it, and quickly toss it back into the same hot pan with the sauce. Lift and stir until every sweet, chewy thread is coated.

Eat with a little more sea salt and plenty of fresh black pepper. Delicioso.

Hugh's Carrot Cake

Well, my version of it anyway, which doesn't deviate too much from the original, just enough to reflect different tastes and what I keep in the larder on any given day.

This is the beautiful recipe from Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's lovely River Cottage Everyday ( GB 2009, p. 376). I was drawn to it by the idea of piercing the hot cake and trickling over warm honey by way of a glaze, much as you would with lemon drizzle. And it really does work, the cake is light and moist and could fool you into thinking it was a healthy snack for breakfast (don't let it seduce you, cake is not sufficient for breakfast time whatever it may be whispering to you in dulcet honeyed (sic.) tones)...

To make the original, use 4 medium eggs instead of 3 large, replace the flour and oats with 300g wholemeal self-raising flour, leave out the baking powder, and increase the honey to 150g.

Ingredients

• 3 large organic free-range eggs
• 150g golden caster sugar
• 300ml sunflower oil
• 250g self-raising flour
• 50g porridge oats
• 1/2 teaspoon good sea salt
• 1/2 teaspoon each bicarb and baking powder
• 3-4 large carrots (350g total) scrubbed and grated
• 100g runny honey

Method

• Grease a 23cm tin and line the bottom with paper.
• Pre-heat the oven to 180C/Gas 4.
• Beat the eggs and sugar together really well (I used a processor) until thick and pale. Add the oil and beat for another minute or two.
• Add the flour, oats, raising agents and salt and give another whirr to combine (or fold if making by hand).
• Finely, gently fold through the grated carrot.
• Spoon the mixture into the prepared tin, smoothing the top, and bake for 45-50 minutes until the cake feels springy to the touch, and a skewer comes out of the centre of the cake clean.
• Put the tin to one side whilst you gently warm the honey in a saucepan over a medium heat.
• Stab the cake all over with the skewer and pour over the honey in a thin trickle, making sure to cover the whole surface of the cake.
• Leave to cool slightly before diving in. Please note, this cake will not last long...

One month later..

Oh dear, I'm so sorry, I confess it... I am a bad blogger (BAD). In my defence, I have, in the last month, gone back to full time education (PhD ARGH!) AND started a new job... Plus I'm trying to kick start the year with a big exercise push. So, please be gracious with me, I have every good intention!

And actually I have been thinking of you. I have been cooking lots of lovely frugal food, making notes and everything...

In an effort to be a better blogger I may try the more freestyle approach, less long recipes and more hurried comments on the lovely food coming out of the kitchen next door... And in that vein see below for tonight's supper - salmon with lemon gnocchi - super rapido and fairly frugal. I'll be back soon, I promise.

This is so yummy and quick, perfect to sustain you after a hard working week.

• Put a large saucepan of water on to boil for the gnocchi.
• Heat a good knob of unsalted butter with a little olive oil in a saute pan, and add a peeled and squashed garlic clove.
• Once the butter is foaming add your salmon fillets and cook on all sides.
• Once the salmon is seared, grate over the zest of half a lemon and add a good slosh of white wine. Quickly bung a lid on the pan and let the salmon cook in the liquid for a couple of minutes.
• Cook the gnocchi.
• Remove the salmon from the pan into some tin foil, loosely crimped into a bag, and put to one side to keep warm.
• Remove the garlic from the syrupy wine juices in the saute pan, and add a lovely splosh of cream. Stir calmly together and taste. Season (well) with salt, and add some more lemon zest and a couple of squeezes of juice until it tastes how you want it.
• Drain the gnocchi and stir them into the cream. Serve with the salmon fillets and greens, with plenty of black pepper.

Pea, broad bean and feta salad

After the excesses of the celebratory season, some good green fun is probably in order.  For the last few days, although I remain unable to resist the lure of the Christmas Rocky Road tin, I have been craving fresher flavours.

This is a lovely salad, even better the day after (the afternoon after the night before in this case) with a packet of crisps and a pint of water.  A good way to start the new year!

Ingredients

• 1/2 packet baby spinach/2 heads baby cos, leaves roughly torn
• 2 red onions
• 4 tablespoons caster sugar
• 2 tablespoons good olive oil
• 75ml balsamic vinegar (use red wine vinegar if you don't have balsamic)
• 1 cup frozen broad beans
• 1 cup frozen petit pois
• Good olive oil
• Juice 1/2 lemon
• Packet feta cheese, cubed

Method

• Heat the oven to 180C/350F.
• Peel the red onions and slice into 3mm rings.  Lay flat in an oven dish and sprinkle with the sugar.  Season with salt and pepper.  Pour on the vinegar and olive oil, give everything a stir, and pop into the oven.  
• Roast the peppers for 30 minutes, stirring half way through.  Once done they should be sticky and soft, sour and sweet.
• Cook the broad beans in boiling water following the packet guidelines.
• Cook the frozen peas.  Whilst they come to the boil and simmer, squeeze the beans out of their skins.
• Mix the peas and beans in a bowl with the lemon juice and olive oil to taste.  Stir together with your hands and leave to cool in the dressing, absorbing the flavours. 
• Once the peas and beans are no longer very hot, add the cubed feta.
• Just before eating, arrange the salad leaves in a bowl, top with the peas, beans and feta, and lastly with the red onion rings.

Christmas cut-out biscuits

Edible presents are the best - suitably frugal for the purposes of this blog, and the pocket.  These bikkies are lovely and spicy.  If you want to make them into hanging tree decorations, cut a hole for a ribbon with a piping bag nozzle from the soft cookies as soon as they come out of the oven.  Once cool, ice them with a not too runny icing made from icing sugar and boiling water, and decorate with edible glitter.  But personally I like them just as they are...

Ingredients

• 200g plain flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 2 tsp ground ginger (use a good one, like Barts Spices)
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp ground cloves
• 1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
• 75g unsalted butter
• 75g golden caster sugar
• 3 generous tablespoons golden syrup

Method

• Pre-heat the oven to 180C/350F.  Line a baking sheet with greaseproof paper.
  
• Put the butter, sugar and golden syrup in a saucepan over gentle heat and melt together.
• Whilst they melt, sieve the flour, baking powder, and spices into a mixing bowl.  Grind in the pepper.
• When the butter and sugar mix is runny add to the flour and beat in thoroughly.  You may need to add a little milk to make the dough sticky enough, but it is a crumbly mix.
• Gently kneed the dough together, it may keep falling apart in an annoying way, stay with it.
• Once all the biscuit dough is together, start to roll it out on a lightly floured surface.  Don't try and move it around, it won't stick to the surface.
• When you have it rolled to 1/2cm thickness (no less), dip the cutters in flour and cut your biscuits.  The dough will take a lot of squidging together and re-rolling, don't be timid.  Use a pallet knife to move the cookies to the tray so they don't collapse.
• Bake the biscuits for 6 minutes until golden round the edges.  Don't overcook, they will harden on the tray.  Leave to cool and snaffle..
• 

Joy to the world...

Oh I have that Christmas feeling for sure now. All the twinkling lights, my new 'Home for the Holidays' Yankee candle, the ice cold air... I am full of seasonal cheer - my little heart is jumping at the joy of it all. Yes, Christmas truly is my FAVORITE time of year!

And how better to celebrate the daily advance of 25/12 than by filling the kitchen full of the heady scent of cloves and orange, and baking up a storm of little star-topped cranberry mince pies? And please note the nod to Channukah, starting tomorrow night, in the choice of a star of David. Well these will be going to my in-laws on Monday after all...

This cranberry mincemeat recipe is from Nigella Christmas (London GB, 2008) p. 189. It is lighter and sprightlier than traditional apple and suet mincemeat. I thoroughly recommend it, as I suspect many mince pie haters could be won over by these...

Ingredients

• 60ml ruby port
• 75g soft dark brown sugar
• 300g cranberries, fresh or frozen
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
• 75g currents
• 75g raisins
• 30g dried cranberries
• Finely grated zest and juice of 1 clementine or satsuma
• 25ml brandy
• few drops almond extract
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 x 15ml tablespoons honey

Method

• In a large saucepan, dissolve the sugar in the ruby port over a gentle heat.
• Add the cranberries to the saucepan and give them a good stir, then add the spices, dried fruit, and zest and juice of the clem.
• Simmer the fruit for about 20 minutes over a moderate heat, until everything looks pulpy and most of the liquid has been absorbed. Squash any rebellious cranberries with the back of your wooden spoon (note - this doesn't work with red silicon spatulas, however festively appropriate they may be!).
• Take off the heat, and once it has cooled a little beat in the brandy, extracts and honey.
• The mincemeat can be stored in sterilised jars for a month, or be frozen for 3 months. I made mine on Monday and kept the saucepan in the fridge, removing it to make a batch a day until it was all used up.

The Pastry

• This is not the exact pastry Nigella Lawson recommends (on page 187 of the same book) but it is how I like to make it. You will need two batches of this to use up all the mincemeat, making 48 cupcake sized mince pies.
• Measure out 480g plain flour. Cut 240g unsalted butter into small cubes and stir through the flour. Freeze the whole lot for about 20 minutes.
• Remove the flour and butter from the freezer and pour into a food processor fitted with a double blade. Zest in 2 clementines and pulse the whole lot until it resembles dry sand.
• Squeeze the juice from the 2 clems and add to the flour. Pulse again.
• Add teaspoons of ice cold water down the funnel, pulsing cautiously, until damp course sand forms.
• Empty the whole lot onto a cold surface and kneed firmly to bring it together - don't over-knead!
• Divide the pastry into 2 disks, wrap them in cling and let them rest in the fridge for 30 minutes before rolling and cutting.
  

Autumn fruit cupcakes

My my, where does the time go? 2nd December already...and I have that Christmas feeling! Yesterday morning there was a white frost on everything, outlining every tiny leaf and pine needle, and snow on the Hillfoots. I bought 3 bags of cranberries from the local deli to cook up Nigella Lawson's cranberry mincepies, and lit a cinnamon scented candle.

But today is back to the soggy, muddy, 'this is Scotland and don't you forget it' form of winter weather, so baking these little cupcakes has created a pleasantly spicy fug for me to hide myself away in. A last taste of autumn before the Christmas excesses really begin.

The cupcakes will keep for 2 days in an airtight tin - after that they become a little sticky.

Ingredients

• 115g unsalted butter, softened
• 115g golden caster sugar
• 115g self-raising flour
• 2 large eggs
• 115g stewed apple (about 1 large desert apple, peeled and cored and cooked down)
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 125g ripe pear, peeled and cubed

Method

• Preheat the oven to 175C/350F. Line a 12-bun muffin tray with cupcake papers.
• Cream the butter, sugar, flour and eggs together with an electric beater until very smooth.
• Beat in the apple sauce.
• Carefully fold the pear cubes through the batter with a metal spoon.
• Spoon the batter into the cases - about 2 desertspoons for each cupcake.
• Bake for 25 minutes until golden and cooked. They will be very soft initially so let them stand in the tin for 5 minutes before carefully moving them to a wire rack to cool.

For the icing -

• Sieve 1/2 cup icing sugar to remove any lumps.
• Add 2 teaspoons maple syrup, 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon, and a dribble of recently boiled water. Beat well until a thick, smooth icing forms - add a little more water if it is too thick to drizzle, or more sugar if it is too runny to sit on the cake and set.
• Using a teaspoon, drizzle the icing over each cupcake, and allow to set.
  

A proper beef stew

I cannot think of anything more comforting on a cold Saturday night, at the end of a long week of work, than a delicious, bubbling, fragrant casserole of beef and red wine. This one uses a whole half bottle - don't be stingy, sometimes it's just not worth it! Yum...



Ingredients

• 4 fat garlic cloves, sliced
• 1 onion, coarsely chopped
• 3 sticks of celery, sliced
• 4 medium carrots, peeled and sliced
• Rosemary needles, a scant dessertspoon-full, very finely chopped
• 2 braising steaks, trimmed of fat and cubed
• 1 tablespoon plain flour
• Good pinch smoked paprika
• 1/2 tin chopped tomatoes
• Tin kidney beans, drained and rinsed
• Half bottle of good red wine

Method

• Pre-heat the oven to 160C/320F.
• In a cast-iron casserole on the hob, heat a tablespoon of olive oil.
• Add the garlic, onion and rosemary and cook, stirring occasionally, until soft and fragrant. Add the celery and carrots and cook for another few minutes until the vegetables begin to soften.
• Remove the vegetables to a bowl and return the casserole to the hob, adding a little more oil if you think it needs it.
• In a shallow dish, mix the plain flour with the paprika and a good seasoning of salt and pepper. Stir the beef through the flour. Shake off the excess.
  
• Add the beef to the hot oil and sear on all sides.
• Return the vegetables to the pan, along with the kidney beans and tomatoes. Pour over half the bottle of wine and stir well. Bring to a bubble, cover and put in the oven.
• Cook the casserole for 2 1/2 - 3 hours. After the first hour give the stew a good stir. After the second add the rest of the wine. The stew is cooked once the sauce is thick and winey, and the meat is very tender. You may like to turn the heat down after the second hour if your oven is very fierce.

Feeds 2 with greens.

Warm chicken liver salad

Chicken liver is the epitome of frugal food - barely £2 for 400g, and so versatile.  I love making pate or chopped liver at the weekend, or a delicious chicken liver sauce with linguine for a tv dinner.  This is a wonderful salad for the mid-week munchies.

Ingredients

• 400g chicken livers, washed and patted dry.  (To kosher the livers, sprinkle with salt and grill over a rack for 2 minutes a side to draw out the blood).
• 2 garlic cloves, 1 finely chopped and 1 peeled and squashed
• 1 small brown onion, peeled and finely chopped
• 2 tablespoons Marsala wine
• 2 handfuls very small salad potatoes
• 1/2 bag washed baby spinach leaves
• 2 handfuls cherry tomatoes, halved
• Juice of 1/2 lemon

Method

• Put the potatoes in a saucepan of water, bring to the boil, then simmer until just soft to the point of a knife.
• Meanwhile, heat a good knob of butter with a little olive oil (or just oil) in a broad based pan.   Add the chopped garlic and onion with a pinch of salt, and saute gently until soft and translucent.
• Turn up the heat a little and add the dry chicken livers.  Cook the livers, turning often, until they have lost all their rawness and are cooked through.
  
• Add the Marsala and let it bubble away until reduced to a thin syrup.  Set the pan to one side.
• Arrange the salad and tomatoes on two plates.
• In a frying pan, heat a slosh of olive oil with the squashed garlic clove.  Drain the potatoes well and add them to the hot oil.  Stir and turn them for about 5 minutes until the sides begin to brown and crisp.
• Quickly remove the potatoes from the oil onto the salad.  Share out the livers and onion mush between the plates.  Finally, squeeze over a generous amount of lemon juice and eat.

Pumpkin and goats cheese lasagne

We have builders in at the moment, restoring our bathroom after a deluge from a faulty shower in the 'Willy Wallace Backpackers' above us.  Thankfully it is all being paid by the insurance, which is quite a blessing!  However, I'm good with neither disorder nor dust, so this week is a real opportunity to develop some patience and good humour through a bit of 'stretching'...

I think this supper may help to restore my emotional equilibrium though: it is a bit of a crib from Nigella Lawson's Christmas book, released last year.  Her recipe consists of three sauces - a smooth tomato passata, pumpkin cooked in tomato, and a goats cheese and ricotta topping.  It also feeds about 20 people!  My version is greatly scaled down, it feeds 2 generously, and is rather more abstemious in the ingredients.  However, don't be put off!  It is perfect for a frosty autumn night.

A note on the pasta - I used dried lasagne sheets and was disappointed by the resulting clagginess.  Nigella uses fresh sheets in her recipe and I would recommend you do the same, as I will next time - they don't have to be hand made, check the chiller cabinet at the supermarket.

Ingredients

• 1/2 teaspoon dried sage leaves, or a few fresh
  
• 1 onion, finely chopped
  
• 2 plump cloves of garlic, squashed
• 400g pumpkin (peeled and deseeded weight), chopped into 1 inch squares
  
• Tin good quality chopped tomatoes
  
• Pinch sugar
  
• 1/2 bag prepared spinach
• 2 teaspoons unsalted butter
  
• 1 tablespoon plain flour
  
• 400ml full fat milk
  
• 1/2 cup grated parmesan
  
• Fresh nutmeg
• Sheets fresh lasagne ( how many you will use will depend on the dimensions of your dish)
• 1 goats cheese (I used a fairly soft rindless one from Somerset)

Method

• Heat a little olive oil with the sage leaves in a large saucepan.  Once the heat and scent rise up, add the garlic and onion with a pinch of salt, and cook gently for about 5 minutes until the onion is translucent and soft.
• Add the cubed pumpkin and stir to coat with oil, then throw in the chopped tomatoes.  
• Season the tomatoes with a little sugar, and some salt and pepper.  Depending on the brand of tomatoes you may want to add about 1/4 cup water.
• Bring the pumpkin to a hearty simmer, and allow to cook for about 30 minutes, until the pumpkin is soft to the point of a knife but not collapsing, and the tomatoes have reduced a little to form a thickish sauce.  Once it is ready, add the spinach leaves, gently stirring and tamping them down with your spoon until they wilt into the sauce.
• Meanwhile, heat the milk gently to body temperature.
• Melt the butter in a small saucepan.  Stir in the flour until a smooth paste forms, then cook, stirring, for a couple of minutes until the colour darkens slightly.
• Start to add the milk, stirring well after each addition so that no lumps form, until all the milk has been incorporated.
• Keep the heat steady and stir continuously for around 10 minutes until a thick bechamel has formed.  The white sauce will form a coat on the back of a wooden spoon when it is ready.
• Remove the sauce from the heat and quickly beat in all the parmesan, with nutmeg and salt to taste.
• Pre-heat the oven to 200C/400F.
• In your favorite lasagne dish (we all have one) start to layer the pasta - start with a good slosh of the pumpkin, top with pasta sheets, then smooth on some bechamel and crumbled goats cheese, top with some more pumpkin and lasagne.  Keep layering - how many layers you make will depend on whether your baking dish is wide and shallow or narrow and tall.  Finish with a good covering of the last of the pumkin.
• Finally, break up the remaining goats cheese all over the surface and pop into the oven.
• Cook for 20 minutes or until the tomato and bechamel sauces are bubbling up the sides and the goats cheese is brown.

Orange and cranberry chocolate brownies

First off the bat, please let me apologise for my unscheduled absence of 2 weeks and counting.  I never meant to let my posts lapse to this extent, but starting some part-time voluntary work has rather knocked me for six over the last couple of weeks, and my cooking has likewise suffered*.  I had a baked potato and cheese for supper tonight...

However, I fully intend with the enthusiasm of fresh resolve never to leave so long between culinary experiments again.  And here is my (re)starting offer - a chocolate brownie to 

begin the gentle count-down to Christmas.

Now, yes I know that Christmas is still 50 days away.  And more importantly as far as

 this blog is concerned, chocolate brownies are not cheap to produce!  However, in answer to the first criticism I would argue that good things should never be constrained by dates on the calender - such as the sublime combination of orange, almond, cranberry, nuts and chocolate.  And to the second I would say that although, yes, the initial financial outlay for the ingredients is not cheap, these brownies are so rich, and keep so well, that you should be able to make several gifts for deserving friends out of them, thus keeping to the frugal ideal of my blog.

*Gosh, quite a cricket-metaphor heavy opening paragraph - Dr K will approve!

Ingredients

• 200g light muscovado sugar
• 100g golden caster sugar
• 250g unsalted butter
• 200g very dark chocolate, broken into squares
• 3 large eggs + 1 extra yoke, lightly beaten
• 60g ground almonds
• 40g very good cocoa powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• Zest of 1 orange (unwaxed or well scrubbed)
• 50g dried cranberries
• 50g hazelnuts, brazil nuts, or macadamia nuts (or a mixture), roughly chopped

Method

• Line the base of a square brownie tin.
• Pre-heat the oven to 180C/350F.
• Beat the butter and sugars together very well until really soft and fluffy.
• Meanwhile, melt the chocolate in a bowl suspended over (but not touching) some lightly simmering water.  Make sure no steam mixes with the chocolate (which could cause it to seize) by covering the bowl with a saucepan lid.
• Once the butter and sugar is well creamed, gradually beat in the egg in increments.
• Fold in the melted chocolate with a large metal spoon, and then the ground almonds, cocoa, and baking powder, with a pinch of salt.
• Lastly fold through the dried cranberries and chopped nuts and pour the brownie mixture into the tin.
• Smooth the surface, and bake the brownies for 40 minutes, though start testing after 30 if you have a very hot oven.  When they are ready the brownies should have lost their wobble, but a skewer inserted into the middle of the cake should still come out a little sticky.
• Cool in the tin.  Once cool cut into 20 little squares.

(Please note, this recipe is adapted from Nigel Slater's 'My very good chocolate brownie recipe' in 'The Kitchen Diaries', published by Fourth Estate in London in 2005, p.325-6.  All recognition for the original recipe should go to the author.)

Hefty meringue cake for 2

Another exercise in pleasurable frugality today. I made baked custard for pudding earlier in the week and was left with 3 egg whites in the fridge.

There are many sorrowful little packets of frozen egg white in my freezer, languishing there as an eternal monument to good intentions. For that very reason I did not freeze these three, but kept them in a desert bowl on the first shelf of the fridge to glare at me accusingly whenever I searched for a yogurt.

Saturday seemed as good a time as any to indulge, and although I did fleetingly consider making lots of little meringues to give, generously, to all and sundry at church tomorrow, greed prevailed, and Dr K and I will be sharing this monster tonight, all by ourselves...

Ingredients

• 3 egg whites
• 1 pinch of salt
  
• 180g unrefined caster sugar
• 1 heaped teaspoon corn flour
• 1 scant teaspoon white wine vinegar
• Few drops real vanilla essence
• Whipped cream and fruit to fill

Method

• Pre-heat your oven to 180C/350F. Line a baking sheet with parchment.
• In a clean, dry bowl, start whisking the egg whites with the salt (using an electric whisk unless you want to risk a nervous breakdown).
• As the whites start to form satiny peaks, sprinkle in the sugar. Add in three increments, whisking well after each, until you have a very stiff and shiny meringue. The great test is to hold the bowl upside down - the meringue should not budge.
• Sift the cornflour over the meringue, and drip in the vanilla and vinegar. Fold through gently with a large metal spoon.
• Dollop the meringue onto the parchment in two equal mounds. Using a pallet knife, shape each into a rough circle and smooth the surface.
• Pop the tray into the oven and immediately turn the heat down to 150C/300F.
• Set a timer for 40 minutes. When it goes off, turn off the oven, but don't open the door until it feels completely cold.
• Once cold, invert one meringue on to a serving plate and fill the cavity with whipped cream. Pile on your fruit (you might like to try the last of the summer berries; baked plums and a little of their juice; peeled and cubed ripe pears with a dark chocolate sauce; or ripe mango with finely diced stem ginger and a drizzle of the syrup from the jar).
• Finally, spread some more cream on the underside of the second meringue disk and top the base.
• Dive in.
  

Two tomatoes for a TV dinner

I wanted to counger up a little domestic warmth this weekend, and perhaps the scents and sense of a more Mediterranean climate as the barometer drops outside.



In the spirit of frugality I am attempting to limit my fridge waste. A treaty packet of mi-cuit tomatoes has done us well recently, with delicious stuffed chicken breasts, mozzarella and basil sandwiches, and a tasty rice stuffing. I thought of making tomato bread with the remainder, but when it came to it I found I was without yeast (a shocking kitchen omission I know). So the bread turned into scones, and was paired with this yummy soup, another exercise in 'waste not want not' using half a bunch of coriander left over from a Friday night curry.

Tomato, Lentil and Coriander Soup

Ingredients

• 1 fat garlic clove, squashed
• 1 onion, finely chopped
• A small bunch of coriander, stems separated and chopped finely
• 1 cup split red lentils
  
• 1 tin cherry tomatoes in juice
• 1 tin good quality chopped tomatoes
• 750ml chicken or vegetable stock
• Juice of half a lemon

Method

• Heat a little oil in a saucepan with the garlic, until the smell wafts up.
• Add the chopped onion and coriander stems and cook gently, stirring often, until soft but not golden.
• Add the lentils and stir well to cover in a slick of oil.
• Add both the tins of tomatoes and the stock, bring to a boil, and then turn down and simmer for 20 minutes or until the lentils are very soft and the liquid has reduced.
  
• Add the coriander leaves. Turn off the heat and allow to cool.
• Once cooler, remove three cups of soup to a blender and pulse until smooth.
• Return the puree to the saucepan and reheat gently. Season with a good squeeze of lemon to taste before serving.

Feeds 2 hearty eaters for a TV dinner.

Cheese and Tomato Scones

Ingredients

• 250g plain flour
• 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
• 1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
• 2 teaspoons cream of tartar
• 40g unsalted butter
• 150ml milk
• Handful of mi-cuit or sunblush tomatoes, chopped roughly
• 40g grated mature cheddar

Method

• Preheat the oven to 210C/410F and line a baking sheet with parchment.
• Sift together the flour, salt and raising agents.
• Cube the butter into the flour and rub in well using the pads of your fingers until fine sand forms.
• Add the milk all at once and bring the dough together, first with a wooden spoon and then with your hands. Try not to work it too much.
• On a floured surface knead in the cheese and tomatoes.
• Roll out the dough to a thickness of 3cm and cut 6cm rounds using a metal cookie cutter. Place them on the baking sheet. With re-rolling you should get 6 scones.
• Bake in the oven for 10-12 minutes until golden on top and cooked through.
• Allow to cool on a rack before eating.

Makes 6.

Plum crumble cake for pudding

Autumn is here. Clear blue skies and frigid mornings, a blanket on the bed at night, and warming, stodgy food. We seem to instinctively crave the food which will support us through the seasons. I have been dreaming of rice pudding - sweet and creamy with a generous dusting of nutmeg.

But this week I had 4 wrinkly purple plums blaming me from the fruit bowl for their sad state. Baking fruit has always been a favorite trick of mine to restore less than perfect specimens. These were cooked slowly with honey and cranberry juice until soft and fragrant but holding their shape.

Unfortunately three days in bed feeling very sorry for myself found the plums still in the fridge, uneaten. What an opportunity to create a lovely pudding cake - and I'm genuinely very pleased with this one, with the sweet but tart fruit cutting through the vanilla sponge and nubbly almond topping. Enjoy with cream, or for the real Autumn experience, custard.



Ingredients

• 4 plums, halved and stones removed, and baked until soft.
• 125g unsalted butter
• 125g unrefined caster sugar
• 125g self-raising flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 2 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon real vanilla essence
• For the topping: 1 cup plain flour, 1/2 cup ground almonds, 3 tablespoons caster sugar, pinch salt, large slice (c. 40g) unsalted butter.

Note: I give the topping ingredients in very rough proportions as that is the best way to make crumble in my opinion - some like more butter, others a very fine crumble, and it really has a lot to do both with personal taste, and the qualities of the flour you are using. Use your instinct.

Method

• Pre-heat your oven to 180C/350F. Line the base of a square baking tin with parchment.
• In a processor or by hand, cream the butter and sugar until fluffy.
  
• Sift the flour together with the baking powder. In a separate bowl beat the eggs together loosely.
• Add alternating increments of the flour and eggs to the butter sugar cream, beating well after each addition. With the last of the egg add the vanilla extract.
• Pour the cake batter into the tin, spreading evenly into the corners. Place the plum halves, cut side up, into the cake.
• Make the crumble topping: mix together plain flour, almonds, sugar and salt; rub in the cold butter with the pads of your fingers until all the flour mix is incorporated and you have a texture you like. Scatter the crumble evenly over the surface of the cake.
• Bake the cake for around an hour, until the crumble is golden and the sponge is cooked through.
  

Grannie's sticky ginger cake

Another family recipe for you, to counger up the nostalgia of history's kitchen. My maternal family is known for its fondness for spicy, not too sweet, cakes and biscuits. I can see from Grannie's notes that the original recipe called for about a third of the spices used, and topped the cake with candied fruits not stem ginger. This version is a dark delight, very moreish....


Ingredients

• 50g butter
• 1 rounded tablespoon treacle
• 25g soft brown sugar
• 125g stem ginger, drained of syrup and sliced into thick coins
• 125g self-raising flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 3 level teaspoons ground ginger
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon each ground nutmeg and ground cloves
• Pinch salt
• 125g caster sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 125g very soft unsalted butter

Method

• Preheat the oven to 180C/350F
  
• Melt the butter, treacle and sugar in a saucepan.
  
• Arrange the ginger slices on the bottom of a loaf or cake tin (21cm diameter is about right). Pour over the treacle mix and tip the tin from side to side a little to spread the sticky goo over all the ginger.
• Sift the flour, baking powder, spices and salt into a mixing bowl or the bowl of a food processor.
  
• Add the caster sugar, eggs and butter, cubed, and beat thoroughly for 2 minutes until a smooth batter forms.
• Pour over the ginger and treacle, which will spread around and up the sides of the tin, carefully covering all the ginger, and smooth the top.
• Bake for 35-40 minutes until the cake is firm to the touch, and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.
• Invert the cake onto a plate and cool before eating.