STUFFED PEPPERS

• 8 sweet peppers
• 2-4tbsp oil
• 1 leek sliced
• 2 cloves of garlic, sliced
• 125g long grain rice
• tomato sauce or chopped tomatoes
• 1 bay leaf
• 125g coarsely chopped parsley
• 1tbsp thyme
• 2-3tbsp parsley
• 200g grated cheese
• salt & pepper
• 

1. Slice the tops of the peppers off at the stalk end and discard the seeds and membranes.
2. Heat 2 tbsp of oil and fry the onion and garlic for approximately 5 minutes. 
3. Then add the rice, tomato puree and bay leaf, stir everything thoroughly and add approximately 3½ decilitres of boiling water. Allow the rice to boil for approximately 15 minutes until cooked. Take the pan off the fire and remove the bay leaf.
4. Add the nuts, marjoram, thyme, parsley and cheese to the rice mixture and season.
5. Spoon the stuffing into the peppers, putting tops back on. Line the oven dish with nonstick baking paper and place the peppers in the dish. Add a little water and a dash of olive oil to the dish, cover the peppers with foil and bake in the oven set at 200ºC/Gas 6 for approximately 25 minutes.
6. Remove the foil and bake the peppers for another 10-20 minutes until they are soft

Taken from: https://realfood.tesco.com/recipes/stuffed-sweet-peppers.html

Today is going to be Meat Free Wednesday.  It doesn't quite have the ring of 'Meat Free Monday' so perhaps I'll change it in future.
So yesterday I bought a carton of mushrooms and some low fat fromage frais and have been looking for recipes.  The BBC Good Food is always great for ideas and has come up with this recipe. 


Mushroom Stroganof (serves 2)


Ingredients:

• 2 tsp olive oil
• 1 onion , finely chopped
• 1 tbsp paprika
• 2 garlic cloves , crushed
• 300g mixed mushrooms , chopped
• 150ml beef or vegetable stock
• 1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce , or similar
• 3 tbsp half-fat soured cream
• small bunch parsley , roughly chopped
• Cooked rice

1. Heat the oil in a large non-stick frying pan and soften the onion for about 5 mins. Add the garlic and paprika, then cook for 1 min more. Add mushrooms and cook on a high heat, stirring often, for about 5 mins.
2. Pour in the stock and Worcestershire sauce. Bring to the boil, bubble for 5 mins until the sauce thickens, then turn off the heat and stir through the soured cream and most of the parsley. Make sure the pan is not on the heat or the sauce may split.
3. Heat rice, then stir through the remaining parsley and serve with the stroganoff.

PER SERVING

329 kcalories, protein 11g, carbohydrate 50g, fat 9 g, saturated fat 1g, fibre 4g, sugar 8g, salt 0.7 g

http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/1898646/mushroom-stroganoff?beta=1&utm_expid=13353178-7&utm_referrer=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bbcgoodfood.com%2Fcontent%2Frecipes%2Fingredients%2Fmushroom%2F

Recipes for SAM


Vegetable Soup

1 onion
1 carrot
1 potato
1 tin tomatoes.
other vegetables: swede, parsnip, cabbage stalks, broccoli stalk, anything which you have or is left over, could be mushrooms, courgettes.

1. Fry onions in oil, perhaps adding some garlic.
2. Add rest of vegetables and some stock and some herbs and cook until ready.
3. This can either be eaten as it is or can be whizzed for a smoother soup.
4. For a more 'hearty' soup, add some lentils and some split peas after frying the onions (or if you don't have that then a handful of porridge oats is grand too).

See also the article 'January means soups' for other ideas, such as Kidney Bean Soup.


Mince for cottage pie

• Fry mince, pour off any fat.
• Add chopped onion and perhaps some garlic.
• Add a little flour, then a tin of tomatoes, some gravy browning or a beef stock cube, some mixed herbs.
• Perhaps add a little red wine.
• If you like, you can add some chopped vegetables such as carrot and celery.
• Cook, adding more stock if necessary.

Tomato Sauce

1. Fry an onion (with some garlic if liked).
2. Add a tin of tomatoes and some tomato puree.
3. Optional: add a splash of wine.
4. Add some mixed herbs or basil or marjoram.
5. Cook.
6. Season to taste, perhaps adding a little sugar, depending on the tomatoes used.
7. Other chopped vegetables may be added to this mixture.
8. This sauce can be served with pasta or spread on a pizza base, then topped with cheese and other delights!

Crumble pudding

• Put some fruit* in dish with a couple of teaspoons of water, cook in microwave for a couple of minutes.
• Top with mixture of 5oz (140g) sugar, 5oz (140g) butter and 8 oz (220g) flour.
• Cook at 180C for about 40 minutes.
• Eat warm with custard, ice cream or evaporated milk.

* rhubarb, apple with other fruit such as raspberries, strawberries, pineapple.


For when times are tough - or you just feel like it ......

French Toast (or Eggy Bread)

1. Dip slices of bread (halved or quartered) into a mixture of egg beaten with a little milk.
2. Fry the bread pieces gently on both sides in butter/margarine/oil depending on your taste.
3. Eat. Ideas: eat with salad or fruit; spread jam on top; serve with a bowl of soup.

Dustin Hoffman cooked this in the film Kramer v Kramer, which starred him and Meryl Streep.


Vegetarian Sausages


130g fresh breadcrumbs
100g mature cheese, grated
1 small leek (sliced) or onion, (finely chopped)
1 - 2 tsp chopped herbs
s&p, 1 tsp mustard
2 eggs

To dip: flour, egg, breadcrumbs 
To fry: oil

1. In a large mixing bowl stir together breadcrumbs, cheese, onion, herbs, mustard and seasoning.
2. Beat in two eggs and mix well.
3. Using your hands, divide the mixture into eight and make into sausage shapes.
4. Cover and put in fridge for about an hour.
5. Three bowls: flour; one egg lightly beaten; breadcrumbs
6. Dip sausages into each in turn.
7. Heat some oil in a pan, cook the sausages in the oil 'til crisp and brown.
8. Drain on kitchen paper and serve.

... and from The Times (18.5.13)
(Four things you need to know to ...

Cook like a professional:

1. Season more. When Gordon Ramsay cooks broccoli soup he seasons the water, seasons the broccoli, seasons the stock and then seasons the soup.  And it tastes great.  You get the idea.
2. Use more heat.  Home cooks never get their pans hot enough.  Searing temperatures are what give food colour and flavour.  Accept that there will be smoke and open the windows.
3. Taste more.  Always, always taste your food.  Not just at the table, when it's too late, but all through the cooking process.  Then you can adjust as you go along.
4. Accept more help. Chefs have brigades; you have family and friends.  Get them to drain vegetables, etc. as you finish the gravy.  Not even a chef would try ot do sunday lunch completely on is own.

Cook fish:

1. Sprinkle fillets with salt about 30 minutes before cooking to firm them up and make them hold together better in the pan. Rinse and dry before seasoning again and cooking.
2. Fry fish in oil first, adding butter for the last couple of minutes.  Once it foams, tip the pan and use a spoon to baste the butter over the fish as it finishes cooking.
3. Cook fish skin side down for three quarters of the cooking time, pressing it down at first to ensure a crisp skin.  Flip over only for the last minute or so (If roasting, cook skin side up to protect it from oven heat).
4. Always finish fish with a squeeze of lemon juice.  It will brighten the flavour and cut the richness of the butter.

Cook meat:

1. Store meat unwrapped in the fridge or larder.  This will help it dry out, which makes it cook better (see 3, below).  If it's clammy, dry it on kitchen towel before seasoning.
2. Make sure meaty is at room temperature before adding to pan.  Otherwise it'll cook unevenly and there is a danger that the outside will burn before the centre has cooked.
3. The key to flavoursome meat is to caramalise the outside to a dark rich colour.  This will translate into extra flavour.  The meat should sizzle as soon as it hits the pan.  You can turn the heat down once it has reached the right colour.
4. Do not keep fiddling.  Meat needs time to sear and the more you move it, the more likely it is to lose its juices and boil rather than brown.  This applies especially to mince.

Cook vegetables:

1. Use large quantities of salted boiling water so it comes back up to temperature quickly after adding the vegetables.  This will help vegetables to retain their bright colours.
2. When frying vegetables, cut them into equal sizes so that they cook evenly.  This is especially true for onions.
3. Cook potatoes at a gentle simmer,m not a rolling boil, or the outsides will become soft and waterlogged.
4. Vegetables such as peas and carrots can be part-cooked in advance.  Then heat for a minute or two in the microwave with a spoonful of water and a large knob of butter.

See also 'The only recipes you'll ever need' published by quadrille.


And whilst on the subject of being careful with money when buying food, here's a site with suggestions of how to keep food:
http://www.diyncrafts.com/3363/lifehacks/40-diy-tricks-make-groceries-last-long-possible/5

This is always a popular dish when vegetarians (and others) come to visit.  Today, as well as carrot, celery and onion, I'm making this pie using butternut squash, green pepper and a couple of lettuce leaves instead of courgette, as any mixture of veg is suitable.

'The' Pie, complete with circular decoration

Vegetable and Couscous Pie
Serves 6

Ingredients

1 pack ready-made Puff Pastry

Filling
1 oz butter/oil
1 tsp each Tumeric, Cumin and Coriander (or some Curry Powder)
1 Onion, chopped
1 Carrot, chopped
1 stick Celery, chopped
1 small Courgette, chopped (or Butternut Squash)
1 small cup Couscous, cooked (or Bulgar Wheat or Rice)
2 Eggs, beaten (or three egg yolks)
1 tbsp small seeds

1. Melt butter/oil, add onions, cook until soft, add spices and cook a bit more.
2. Cook rest of ingredients in a little water.
3. Turn on oven and set at 180C (gas 4).
4. Roll out puff pastry and cut into two large rounds.
5. Drain vegetables, keeping the liquid, add couscous and some salt.
6. Cool a little, add the eggs.
7. Egg the edges of pastry circle.
8. Pile on the vegetable mixture, leaving a 1" border.
9. Top with other piece of pastry, knock back the edges to seal.
10. Brush with egg and milk mixture.
11. Sprinkle on some poppy seeds or similar.
12. Cook for about 40 minutes.

The left-over vegetable mixture - it's always difficult to be exact with vegetables - I made into soup, before adding the couscous and eggs, using the vegetable 'water'.


Oven conversion table: http://www.onlineconversion.com/cooking_gasmark.htm

Carrot and Cheese Pasta Bake

4 medium leeks, sliced
1 kg carrots, grated
6 cloves garlic
1 cup fresh basil
8 eggs, lightly beaten
100ml milk
400ml double cream
Seasoning
12 sheets instant pasta (500g pasta shapes)
350g grated cheese, plus 50g Parmesan for the top

• Par boil leeks and garlic.
• Add carrots and cook 20 mins
• Drain, reserving stock.
• Combine cream eggs, pepper, add a little stock.
• Cover base of dish with half pasta, then half mixture, half cheese, rest of pasta, rest of mixture, top with cheese.
• Pour the egg mixture over
• Cook 170C* for about 40 mins
• Serves 10.

Vegetable Lasagne

4 oz butter

 4 oz flour

2 tins tomatoes

1 onion

1 pepper

cucubits 

herbs, pepper

2 tsp mustard

8 oz grated cheese

20 sheets lasagne

Serves 10

* http://www.onlineconversion.com/cooking_gasmark.htm

Famly Favourite

Vegetable Pie with a Herby Crust

2 leeks, 2 courgettes or similar, sliced

2 tbsp olive oil

2 cloves garlic

grated zest of a lemon

4 ripe tomatoes, sliced

1/4 pt vegetable stock

2 tbsp sundried tomato paste

1/4 pt double cream

3 tbsp ch mixed parsley and oregano

Topping

8 oz SR

3 oz butter

1 tbsp chopped basil

2 oz red Leicester or Cheddar cheese, grated

3 - 4 tbsp milk 

• Heat oil in pan, add leeks, garlic, lemon zest, fry gently 5 mins. 
• Add courgettes and cook 5 mins, until softened.
• Add tomatoes to pan with stock, tomato paste and cream.
• Cover, simmer gently 20 mins. 
• Add herbs, season.
• Topping: sift flour and rub in butter. 
• Add basil and half cheese and enough milk to form dough.
• Roll out dough to 1 cm thick. Using 5cm pastry cutter, stamp out round, making 12.
• Put vegetable stew in dish, arrange scones around the edge of dish, overlapping slightly. 
• Brush scones with milk, sprinkle with cheese.
• Bake at 220 C (No 7) for 20 - 25 mins.
• 4 January 2014: I made this dish today.  However, we don't have a proper kitchen at the moment so had to make some 'adjustments':
• No scales so when it came to making the scones, guessed the ingredients. 
• Then realised I had no baking powder. Looked up on the internet and found that for 8 oz plain flour use 1 tsp bicarb and 1 tsp vinegar.  So added these but then worried that it wouldn't rise properly, so added an egg.  And it was fabulous!  Certainly worth making again.
• I had no marjoram so used some fresh basil which I'd bought and didn't know what to do with.
• The other 'adjustment' was using low-fat creme fraiche instead of cream and it was just as good.