Apple-Pay

The crypto-currency of the Auvergne!




Sorry to go on about my glut of fruit and veg this year- but in addition to everything else, it has proved to have a surprisingly good exchange rate. Certainly a lot better than poor old sterling!

So far, I have exchanged my trays of excess fruit with friends and neighbours for : marrows, tomatoes, courgettes, blackberry cordial,  3 dozen eggs, two boxes of jam jars, eau de vie, more tomatoes and 5 tubs of donkey manure. Not to mention bringing a smile to the faces of our wood supplier, boiler service engineer and electrician when presented with gifts of jam.

Thanks for the poo Josephine!

Only a week left before we return to the UK so I will be looking for profitable transactions on my pears, cabbages, chard and potimarrons before I go.

However, I am still using up the fruit that wouldn't fit in the freezer- spreading it over the top of cheesecakes, baking cakes and clafoutis and making chutney.
Here are a few recipes to take you into October.

Apple Clafoutis

2 apples
100g flour
50g sugar
400ml milk
20g butter
1 sachet of vanilla sugar
pinch salt

1. Separate the eggs and beat the whites until they form soft peaks

Beat the egg whites to soft peaks

2. Beat the egg yolks with the sugar, milk and melted butter
3. Beat in the flour until you have a smooth batter
4. Pour half the mixture into a buttered oven dish
5. Add slices of peeled apple
6. Gently fold in the whites into the remaining batter and pile on top of the apple mixture

Mix the egg whites into the remaining batter

7. Bake at 180 degrees until risen and golden.

Apple Clafoutis

Chestnut and Cherry Bars

125g unsalted butter

175g sugar

1 egg

250 g crème de marron

1 tsp vanilla essence

375g plain flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

pinch salt

200ml  cherry jam 

150g roasted peanuts or hazelnuts, chopped

1. Preheat the oven to 160 degrees

2. Cream together the butter and sugar, then mix in the vanilla essence , egg and chestnut cream and beat with an electric mixer for 2 minutes

Cream the butter, sugar, eggs etc with an electric mixer

 3.Sift in the flour, baking powder and salt and mix until combined
4.Grease and line a baking tray or gratin dish and spread 2/3 of the dough along the bottom

Spread two thirds of the dough over the base of the lined dish

5. Spread the jam evenly over the dough
6. Drop blobs of the remaining dough randomly over the top

Spread with jam and the remaining dough in blobs

7. Sprinkle with the chopped peanuts and bake for 45 minutes until golden on top and cooked underneath.

8. Cut into slices when cool.

Chestnut and Cherry Bars

Jam Duffins

We made these little buns at Cookery Workshop this time. I have made them again at home using rice and cornflour mixed to make a gluten free version and they were just as good.
They are a cross between a doughnut and a muffin. What's not to like?

To make a dozen:

150g of flour
2 heaped tsp baking powder
1 pot natural yoghurt or milk
1 egg
40-50g sugar
75g melted butter
2 tsp vanilla essence
jam of choice

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees
2. Beat the egg and the sugar together

Beat the egg and sugar together

3. Add the yoghurt/milk, butter, flour and baking powder and beat well

Beat in the other ingredients

4. Add the vanilla
5. Butter the insides of a muffin tray and half fill the cups with the mixture

Half-fill the muffin cups with batter

6. Add 1 spoon of jam to each cup

Add 1 spoonful of jam

7. Cover  with the remainder of the mixture and bake for 15 minutes until (you guessed it) risen and golden.

Cover with the remainder of the mixture

8. Leave to cool before unmoulding so the jam can soak well into the cakes.

Jam Duffins

And so, if you are looking for a safe investment I can thoroughly recommend Auvergne Apple-Pay. It looks like the best bet at the moment!

Poor old Pound!

Herby-dacious!

.

Herby-dacious!

"Herby-dacious!" was the password that opened the gates to the magic herb garden in Oliver Postgate's 'The Herbs' back in the 1970's. It featured Parsley the Lion, Dill the Dog, Sage the Owl et al


In those days, I didn't even know dill was a herb.

Now I have my own magic herb garden.

Mint has its own bed

Thyme aplenty

Rosemary galore

And a bay tree too!

And the annuals are in full leaf- parsley, chives, lemon balm....

So my thoughts have turned to how to preserve these treasures to add to soups, stews, sauces....you name it...throughout the year ahead.

As I was busy with preserves, I added thyme to my apple jelly- which featured in last month's blog but it also enhances marmalade too- as here:

Orange and Thyme Jelly

Ingredients: (to make 4lb of marmalade)

6 oranges

1 lemon

1.2 kg sugar

570 ml water

1 bottle liquid pectin

1 tbsp fresh chopped thyme

1. Wash the oranges and lemon, halve them and squeeze out all the juice

2. Chop roughly and place in a heavy pan with the water

3. Bring to the boil and simmer for 10 minutes

4. Strain the fruit and put the liquid- 

made up to 570 ml again with the fruit juice, along with the sugar, back in the pan.

5. Cook over a low heat and dissolve the sugar then bring up 

to a rolling boil and boil for two minutes.

6. Add the thyme and continue to boil for another two minutes

7. Add the pectin and boil for a further minute

8. Test a spoonful of the mixture on a cold saucer to see if it is setting.

9. If not, continue to boil, testing every minute or so for a 'set'.

10. Skim the surface and strain the mixture once again to remove the thyme

11. Pot up in sterilised jars and label

Mint is another herb that goes well in a jelly- to serve with lamb or mix with yogurt for a dip for poppadoms.

Keep a container in the freezer for lemon shells, and when you have squeezed the lemon juice out, freeze them to use for flavour and added pectin for your jellies.

Leftover lemon shells

To make mint jelly ( or rosemary jelly- equally good):

Ingredients:

A good bunch of mint

4 lemon shells

750 ml water

6 tbsp white wine vinegar

500g sugar

1. Chop the lemon shells in a food processor and then simmer in the water in a saucepan for 15 minutes

2. Strain the mixture through a clean jelly bag for 3-4 hours

3. Make the liquid back up to 500 ml if necessary

4. Put back in the saucepan with the sugar and vinegar and heat until the sugar dissolves

5. Chop the mint, add to the pan and bring the mixture to the boil for 3 minutes

Chop the mint 

6. Strain off the mint and continue to boil until the mixture reaches setting point (as in above recipes)

7. Quickly skim and pour into hot sterilised jars, then seal.

Mint jelly

An obvious way to keep herbs handy over the winter is to keep bunches of dried leaves in the kitchen- thyme, rosemary, bay, sage and oregano survive well like this.

Dried herbs for the kitchen

But softer herbs like parsley, basil, chives and mint are not so great dried. They do well if chopped and frozen in ice cube trays ready to use. Basil and oregano do well frozen like this, but also you can freeze them in olive oil so they can be dropped into pasta dishes.

Mint, chives and parsley for the freezer

Herb butters, sugars and vinegars make a little go a long way too.

Mix herbs of your choice with butter and place on cling film, roll up into a sausage using the cling film, briefly unroll it and slice into portions then wrap it up again and freeze it.

                                     Herb butter

Mint and lemon balm flavour sugar nicely, for adding to cakes and puddings. Simply pour caster sugar into clean jars and poke in some sprigs of your favourite herb. Screw the lid tightly and leave for the flavours to develop over the next few weeks.

               Mint sugar

Other herbs, like rosemary and thyme add flavour to vinegars.

Measure out some white wine vinegar to fill your sterilised bottles- bring it to the boil and pour into the bottles, press in a sprig of your chosen herb and seal. Great for salad dressings.

Rosemary vinegar

Now your herbs are all safely dried, frozen, jellied and otherwise preserved- it's time to make them the stars of your recipes.

 

Rosemary and Olive Sables

http://lizsleftovers.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/olives#uds-search-results

                         Lemon and Chive Hollandaise

http://lizsleftovers.blogspot.co.uk/2015/07/oranges-and-lemons.html

                    Sage and Onion Cornbread

http://lizsleftovers.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/corn%20bread

And finally- work some fresh herbs into your next batch of pastry- either add them at the rubbing in stage, or press them into ready made short crust pastry.

You can then go on to make flavoursome quiches like this Courgette and Tomato Tart- very simple but the genius lies in slicing your courgettes thinly

then rolling them up cigar fashion to build your tart

then add three beaten eggs, salt and pepper, a dusting of Parmesan and bake at 170 degrees until set.

Courgette and Tomato Tart

No magic word needed!

Ready Steady Cook!

Do you remember this TV programme? It was hugely popular in the Nineties and Noughties and launched the career of many a TV chef.
People used to hold 'Ready Steady Cook' dinner parties too- where the guests brought bags of random ingredients for the host to rustle up into something fab.





I caught an episode of this programme again recently- as it is still going strong - and it got me thinking about a revival. After all, it is pretty much what this blog is about- using up ingredients from your cupboard and fridge in a tasty way.
So, for this month's post I want to take a selection of ingredients- and make two suggestions as to how they could be used. Firstly, the obvious choice and secondly something a little more unexpected.

Let's take these ingredients by way of an example and an introduction:

Tuna, eggs, anchovies, olives, potatoes and bread.

First lot of ingredients

To me, that immediately cries out 'Salade Nicoise'.

Salade Nicoise
http://lizsleftovers.blogspot.co.uk/2015/04/specialities-of-nice.html

But no.... I'm going to make fish cakes instead.

Ingredients:

200g cold mashed potato
1 tin tuna*
2 slices stale bread, soaked in water and then squeezed dry
1 egg
1 tbsp chopped parsley
1 tbsp lemon juice
3-4 anchovies, snipped up small
8 green olives, chopped roughly
salt and pepper
50g toasted breadcrumbs

Mix all the ingredients well (keeping back the breadcrumbs for coating) together in a bowl.

Mix it all up

 Shape with wet hands into patties and coat with the remaining breadcrumbs,

Shape into patties and coat with breadcrumbs

 Place on a lightly oiled baking tray and bake at 160 degrees for 15-20 minutes until golden.

Bake until golden

Mediterranean Fish Cakes

*NB: This recipe works just as well with any tinned fish- sardines, crab or salmon for example.

But does tuna, anchovies, olives, garlic and onions make you begin to think of pasta?

next bag of ingredients

Just add  some rich tomato sauce for a delicious pasta dish.

Add tomato sauce and hey presto....

Spaghetti Marinara

But for me however it says - Pissaladiere- a famous onion tart from Nice.

Gently slow cook the onions and garlic in a little olive oil until golden and meltingly soft. Spread these over either a  prepared pizza base or a puff pastry rectangle.
Criss cross with anchovies and dot with olives (you can add or leave the tuna as you wish)
Bake until the edges are golden and the pastry or dough is cooked underneath.

Pissaladiere ready for the oven

Pissaladiere ready to eat!

Now, how about celery, apple,walnuts and grapes?

Bag 3

Are you thinking Waldorf Salad?

Waldorf Salad

A classic dish of chopped celery and walnuts with crisp green apple, grapes and mayonnaise- made immortal of course by Fawlty Towers.

Well, how about making a Waldorf Soup instead. (Thanks to Hugh F-W for the idea).

Gently cook some onions, 1/2 tsp minced garlic, 4-5 sticks of celery ( chopped), 1 potato (diced) and 1 apple ( peeled and chopped) in some light vegetable oil. Add 500 ml chicken or vegetable stock and simmer until tender.
Blitz to a puree and adjust seasoning to taste.
Garnish with some finely chopped walnuts, grapes and apple dressed with some cream.

Waldorf Soup

Hugh serves his chilled- but in homage to another great comedy hero I am serving mine piping hot Arnold -Rimmer-Gazpacho style.
This recipe works well with celeriac too- just substitute it for the celery and potato.

Now a packet of peanuts might not be very inspirational. It might make you think of making a satay sauce or a Pad Thai.

Pad Thai

http://lizsleftovers.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/pad%20thai

However, I took my lead from Ina Garten (who else?) and made Peanut Butter and Jelly Bars and I can't tell you how successful they were!

Ingredients:

125g unsalted butter

175g sugar

1 egg

250 g peanut butter

1 tsp vanilla essence

375g plain flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

pinch salt

200ml jam (fig or raspberry are good choices)

150g roasted peanuts, chopped

1. Preheat the oven to 160 degrees

2. Cream together the butter and sugar, then mix in the vanilla essence , egg and peanut butter and beat with an electric mixer for 2 minutes

Cream the butter, sugar, eggs etc with an electric mixer

 3.Sift in the flour, baking powder and salt and mix until combined
4.Grease and line a baking tray or gratin dish and spread 2/3 of the dough along the bottom

Spread two thirds of the dough over the base of the lined dish

5. Spread the jam evenly over the dough
6. Drop blobs of the remaining dough randomly over the top

Spread with jam and the remaining dough in blobs

7. Sprinkle with the chopped peanuts and bake for 45 minutes until golden on top and cooked underneath.

Golden from the oven

Peanut butter and jelly Bars

And finally, taking a pot of creme fraiche and some bacon

- are you thinking of a Pasta Carbonara?:

Pasta Carbonara
(This is Jamie Oliver's pic- not mine)

Pasta is cooked in lots of boiling salted water, drained and then creme fraiche, an egg yolk and crispy bacon are stirred through with a little of the cooking liquor to make it silky.

Well instead, I thought of a Flammekueche- an open tart from Alsace made with onions, creme fraiche and bacon and baked in the oven.

Spread a thin pastry base with creme fraiche and onions (cooked as for the Pissaladiere above or you can use tinned for a shortcut as in the bag of ingredients). Dot with thin matchsticks of bacon and bake at 200 degrees until the pastry is golden round the edges and cooked underneath. The lardons and cream should be beginning to 'catch'.

Flammekueche

(I sometimes make a really speedy version of this using sandwich thins as flatbreads too).

Flammekueche Flatbreads

Whether you're a red tomato or a yellow pepper- I hope you've enjoyed the choice of recipes in this month's blog.

Now it's your turn - get.....