Week 17- Going Green

One good thing about all this wet and cool weather we have been having this Spring, is that everything everywhere is so green! All the trees are sparkling and bright and the bushes and plants are looking lush.

Seasonal veg is looking good too- salad leaves are sprouting madly and herbs are flourishing.

Looking back on my last few blogs, the food all seems a bit beige- so I thought it's time to green things up a bit!

I'm indebted to a blog follower for today's starter recipe- Courgette and Coconut soup. I do love it when you send me recipes, because I need inspiration as much as the next person. Keep 'em coming!

I'm following this with lasagne verde, served with rocket salad- and pudding is filo baskets filled with yoghurt  and topped with kiwi slices and elderflower syrup.

For the soup, dice 4 small courgettes, 1 small potato and 1 leek or some spring onions..Soften gently in some butter or oil. Add 2 cups of chicken stock, 1 can of coconut cream and a good pinch of salt and pepper. I added chopped parsley, but the recipe suggests thyme or dill too. Simmer gently until the veg are tender, then blitz with a stick blender, thin down with some milk if too thick and serve with croutons or toasts.

Courgette and Coconut Soup

For the main course, I made a ragout with 450g minced beef, 1 onion gently softened, 1 carton chopped tomatoes, 1 tablespoon sliced stuffed green olives, 1 tablespoon red wine, 1 tablespoon tomato puree and some beef stock or gravy- all simmered together for about 25 minutes until reduced and thick. I then layered this in a gratin dish alternately with lasagne verde sheets, bechamel sauce, steamed leeks, and finally topped with some grated mozzarella.

Bake in a hot oven (200 degrees) until golden and bubbling (about 30 minutes). Serve with a green salad of rocket or watercress and some bread for the sauce.

Lasagne verde

Layers of leeks

This makes enough for 6 - and both freezes and reheats well.

Mmmmm..

For the dessert- thoroughly grease a muffin tray or individual tartlet tins,  take 2 spring roll wrappers or small squares of filo pastry per person. and lay them in the tins at 90 degrees to one another so they form little pointy star shaped baskets. Brush with melted butter or Flora cuisine and bake in a hot oven (190 degrees) for about 10 minutes until brown and crispy. (Watch carefully, you don't want them to be too brown and bitter.) Allow to cool, fill with Greek yogurt and slices of kiwi (or mandarin, strawberry, raspberry, rhubarb etc)- whatever you want to use up!

For the elderflower syrup- take 2 tablespoons of  elderflower cordial and 1 tablespoon of water and boil together in a small pan until reduced and syrupy (about 10 minutes). Allow to cool and then spoon over the fruit in the baskets and serve.

Kiwi and Elderflower baskets

As for the leftovers- freeze the lasagne. have any leftover yoghurt and fruit for breakfast, and the courgette soup goes well stirred through pasta with a good grating of cheese on top.

Hope these recipes make you green with envy rather than green around the gills.

I'm hoping for strawberries and cherries to be in season next week- so we'll be seeing red soon!

Apero Time!

My favourite way to entertain- and be entertained- especially in the summer, is to host an apéro dinatoire. (Posh drinks and nibbles- or tapas or canapés- call it what you like). Essentially, it is gorgeous little nibbly things to go with drinks which can last ( or be replenished as the evening goes on.)

The great thing about these evenings is that they are often spur of the moment invites- which means you have to raid your cupboards and fridge and rustle up some nifty nibbles from nothing. No planning. No fuss. Just whatever you've got.

So here are my speedy suggestions:

Toasts/ Croques

If you have a loaf of bread ( or ready made toasts) then you can make a start. Just slice, toast,  rub with a cut clove of garlic and top with whatever is handy- sardine, tuna or liver paté, grated fresh tomato, or a caviare d'aubergines if you have a bit more time.

Prick 2 aubergines all over and rub with some olive oil then roast whole in the oven for 25 minutes or so until soft and wrinkly.

Aubergines looking tired and emotional

Scoop out the flesh and mix it with 1-2 crushed cloves of garlic, 1 tbsp honey, some lemon or lime juice, salt and pepper. Spread onto garlicky toasts.

Aubergine Toasts with Gazpacho Verrines

I also like to make mini croques-messieurs, toasting little bits of bread with cheese, ham and mustard. (Or make full-sized ones and cut into bite-sized pieces.)

Mini Croques-Messieurs

Verrines

Cold soups in little glasses go down well and are quite fashionable. Gazpacho ( as shown above ) is always popular      http://lizsleftovers.blogspot.com/search?q=gazpacho or try a Courgette and Coconut Velouté

http://lizsleftovers.blogspot.com/search?q=courgette+and+coconut+

Courgette and Coconut Verrine

Dips and Chips

If you have a bottle of mayonnaise, a natural yoghurt or some crème fraiche then you have the makings of a dip.

My favourites are mayo mixed with mustard ( great for dipping mini frankfurters), crème fraiche with chilli sauce and chopped coriander or chives for dipping veg  or yoghurt with chopped gherkins and olives for a tartare sauce dip.

Or try this hummus-y style dip - made from leftover baked beans!

Blitz 2 tbsp beans with 2 cloves of garlic, juice of a lemon, 1 tsp chilli paste and 2 tbsp olive oil

Baked Bean 'Hummus'

Lovely for dipping baby potatoes, courgettes, radishes or tortilla chips

Dips and Chips

Incidentally the chips are made from sliced tortillas ( straight from the freezer), tossed in olive oil and seasoning and baked for 5-10 minutes in a hot oven:

Baked Tortilla Chips

Pastry Bits

It's always worth having a roll of puff pastry in the fridge or freezer for making impromptu titbits. You can make savoury croissants, straws or puffs in a matter of minutes.

For croissants- use a circle of pastry, cut into 16 triangles and each triangle spread with a topping of your choice- sundried tomato paste, pesto, tapenade, curry paste, even Marmite (although Marmite croissants might be a step too far for French guests!)

Croissants spread and ready for rolling

Roll up into croissant shapes from the outside of the triangle into the centre. Brush with egg or milk and sprinkle with sesame seeds or parmesan. Bake at 200 degrees until risen and golden.

Mini croissants and cheese straws

Or use a rectangular sheet of pastry, cut into smaller rectangles for Ham and Cheese Puffs:

Lay a slice of ham and some grated cheese on top

Fold in the edges and seal, bake until golden brown and puffy:

Ham and Cheese Puffs

Cheese Tuiles

I make these with St.Nectaire but it would work with Manchego, Comte, Cantal or Port Salut too.

Just slice some cheese into small cubes:

Dice the cheese

Lay little piles of the cubes on some baking paper:

Make little piles of cheese

Put in a hot oven to melt and meanwhile crush a tablespoon of hazelnuts:

Crush hazelnuts for sprinkling

As the cheese melts, sprinkle on the nuts to toast in the oven.

Sprinkle on the nuts as the cheese melts

When the cheese is bubbling, take out the tray, allow to cool slightly then loosen the tuiles and place on a rack to cool.

Tuiles au Saint-Nectaire

Phew! That's enough for now I reckon. Time for a drink.

What- no nibbles?

Week 35- Harvest Festival Recipes

We've ploughed the fields and scattered...well, I haven't personally, but good people have on my behalf...and now it's time to reap the harvest.

This really is the best time for fruit, veg, fish, shellfish, nuts and seeds. Take a look at your local farm shop or fishmongers- virtually everything you can think of is either coming to the end of its season, or coming into season. Hence the celebration in many cultures and countries of plenty from the land.

Traditionally, harvest festivals occur in the week following the Harvest Moon- whether that is Jewish sukkoth, Chinese Autumn Moon celebrations or any number of similar feasts and thanksgivings. This year the Harvest Moon was early- 18th September- so I'm a bit late with this blog but, a bit like Bonfire Night, here in Sussex we spread these things out over a period of a month or more.

Golden Vegetable Soup*

Chicken and rice Soup*

Spicy Pumpkin Soup*

Bloody Mary Soup*

Celeriac Soup with bacon*

Hot and Sour Soup*

Leek and Watercress Soup*

Miso Ramen Soup*

This week has been a tricky one for me, as I had my wisdom teeth out and have been existing on soup sucked through a straw for a few days now- but soup is a good thing at this time of year with so many vegetables to choose from. So it gave me a chance to re-visit many of the soups which have featured on the blog: spiced pumpkin soup*, french onion soup*, courgette and coconut* aubergine and white bean, golden vegetable*, chicken noodle*, miso ramen* and many others featured in these pix.

Chicken Noodle Soup*

Carrot and Cumin Soup*

Aubergine and White Bean Soup with croutons

Courgette, Pea and Mint

With soup, and with harvest, you need bread. I've already featured soda bread* and corn bread*- so now we let's have some focaccia- to soak up our soup.

Focaccia

(All recipes starred with * can be found in the cloud above or by using the Search option)

Soda bread

Corn bread

Focaccia is one of the easiest breads to make. I've flavoured mine with chopped fresh rosemary- but any herbs, olives, garlic etc go well.

Warm 250g bread flour for 1 minute in the microwave and add some salt, pepper and chopped rosemary. Mix in a tbsp of olive oil. Mix a sachet of yeast with 150ml warm water and then add to the flour. Mix in well with a knife and then turn out onto a work surface and knead well until smooth and elastic. Put in a warm place to rise. When it has doubled in size, turn out again and knead again. Then place it on an oiled baking sheet, make dimples in the surface with your fingers, spray with water and leave to prove again until it has re-doubled. Bake at 200 degrees for 25 minutes or so.

For main course, I have made stuffed marrow and/or courgettes. (These latter are getting quite large now and easily substituted for marrow if you prefer). Stuff either with beef ragout (leftover from lasagne or bolognaise earlier in the week perhaps) and slather with cheese sauce or make a cauliflower cheese (with or without bacon) and do the same.

Courgette stuffed with ragout

Topped with cheese sauce

For either recipe you will need a good cheese sauce- and this is simple to make yourself:

Melt 20g of butter in a saucepan, mix in a tablespoon of plain flour and stir quickly to absorb. Then splash in a cupful of milk and keep stirring over a low heat until it thickens. Add more milk, stirring all the time until you are happy with the consistency- a good coating sauce is needed, not too runny. If it goes lumpy, just whisk with an egg whisk until the lumps disappear.
Season well with salt, pepper and a teaspoon of mustard and then add 1-2 cups of grated cheese (mature Cheddar or Emmental). Stir to melt.

Slice your marrow or courgette in half lengthways and into smaller chunks if it's a real giant.

Steam for 15 minutes or microwave for 6 minutes and then scoop out the seeds (if it's a marrow) or the flesh (if it's a courgette) until you have a fillable trench. Keep the courgette flesh and use it for soup- as I did with the above pea, mint and courgette soup.

Fill your trenches with either beef ragout or steamed cauliflower (with fried bacon lardons if you want) and pour on the cheese sauce. Bake in a moderate (180 degree oven) until brown and bubbling. Lovely with garlic bread and salad.

Cauli cheese and bacon stuffed courgettes

Dessert is plum clafoutis- made with autumn plums.

Grease a pudding dish well with some butter and lay about 8 plums, stoned and halved in the base. Make a pancake batter from 50g of flour, 50g of caster sugar, 2 beaten eggs, a pinch of salt, 1 tbsp vegetable oil, 1 tsp vanilla extract and 275ml of milk. Pour it over the plums and finish with a dusting of brown sugar. Bake in a hot (200 degree oven) until risen and golden. Serve warm with custard, cream or ice cream. Equally good the next day cold for breakfast!

Plum clafoutis

So, a harvest menu to celebrate all that's good from the land: vegetable soups, bread,  stuffed vegetables and autumn fruit.

Happy Harvest Time!

Tropical treats

My daughter has just arrived in Martinique.

This was no ordinary arrival though- she came all the way across the Atlantic from Cape Verde with a crew of just 3 others- on a catamaran.
And this is no ordinary tourist trip.
Intrigued?
You can read all about it on their Facebook page
 https://www.facebook.com/missionocean06/

In their honour we broke out the rum and coke - and I made a Caribbean themed meal.

To celebrate the food of Martinique I am making a Chicken Colombo with vegetables, a Baked Banana Tart and a Flan Coco-Anis, along with links to other Caribbean themed recipes previously on the blog. I also used the leftover Colombo in a tagine.

Colombo spice is a mild curry powder, made from cumin, coriander, turmeric, fenugreek and  paprika- you can make your own with a teaspoon of each of these plus a teaspoon of madras curry powder- or you can buy a Colombo spice mix (readily available in France- and the Levi Roots Caribbean spice powder is an acceptable alternative in the UK).

To serve 2 (with leftovers) you will need- 2 chicken breasts, 1chopped onion, 1 tsp chopped garlic, 1 tsp chopped red chilli, 1 courgette, 1 sweet potato, 1 carrot, 2 bay leaves, juice of 1/2 lime and 3 heaped tbsp of Colombo powder plus 500 ml vegetable or chicken stock .
Begin by preparing your veg-  part-peel and slice the courgette and chop the carrot into batons,then steam until just tender.

Stripey peeled courgette

Bake the sweet potato ( 5 minutes in the microwave ) in its skin- then peel it and slice it.
Fry the onion, garlic and chilli until the onion is translucent, then add the spices. Next add the chicken and brown it lightly.

Brown the chicken, onion and spices

Put the meat and veg into a casserole dish, along with the bay leaf.
Deglaze the pan with the stock and pour over the meat.

Ready for the oven

Cook for 2 hours until everything is tender. Finally add the lime juice and adjust the seasoning.
You can thicken it with cornflour if you wish- I left it runny to soak into the rice.

Chicken Colombo with Rice

You can make different versions with whatever meat or vegetables you have to hand. Here are a veal and aubergine version, and a pork and potato version.

Veal Colombo with Veg

Pork Colombo with Potatoes

The leftovers were mixed with some chopped tomatoes, leftover mango and apple chutneys and sultanas ( soaked in a little Earl Grey tea to plump them up) to make a tagine served with couscous.

Now, here are two puddings to complement the main course.


Flan Coco-Anis

Heat 1 400 ml can of coconut milk with 100g of sugar and 3 star anise
When the sugar has dissolved, put to one side to infuse and cool a little.
Beat 4 eggs with a tsp of cornflour until smooth.
Discard the star anise ( or keep them for garnish) and pour the milk onto the eggs, whisking all the time.

Whisk the infused coconut milk into the eggs

Pour the mixture into 6 ramekins (lightly oiled in preparation with a neutral veg oil)

Custards ready for the oven

Put the ramekins into a baking tray, half filled with hot water to make a bain-marie.
Bake at 200 degrees for 25 minutes and then 170 degrees until set. (Another 15 minutes or so).
Leave to cool and then serve either turned out of the moulds onto a plate - with a fruit salad on the side- or glazed with vanilla sugar and blow torched or grilled to make a crème brulée.

Flan Coco-Anis Brulée

Baked Banana Tart

First bake a pastry case blind and leave to cool.

Blind baked pastry case- you can tidy it up later!

Take 2 bananas- slice one thinly and mash the other one with a fork.
Spread the banana mash onto the pastry case then beat 3 eggs with 60g of sugar, a splash of milk or cream and a teaspoon of vanilla extract.
Pour the custard into the pastry case and then arrange the sliced banana in the custard.

Carefully place in the sliced banana

Grate some nutmeg over the top and bake in a moderate oven (170 degrees) until the custard is set.
Sprinkle with vanilla sugar and serve with ice cream

Baked Banana Tart

And served with ice cream

A couple of other ideas from the blog- Pina Colada Crumble

Pina Colada Crumble
https://witness.theguardian.com/assignment/53cfca4be4b052b219fcaaef/1077175

 and good old Ginger Cake.

Ginger Cake
http://lizsleftovers.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/ginger%20cake

I hope this tropical post has brightened up a dull February day for you- and has you dreaming of warmer days to come.

Who know where in the world my culinary odyssey will take me next.

That's up to Mission Ocean!