No-Meat November

So, you managed a Dry January and survived being Sober for October. Just one more life-style changing month before plunging headfirst into Decadent December.




For health reasons, we are cutting right back on meat and processed foods for a month. Perhaps you would like to join me? I am aiming for a veggie vingtaine- 20 out of the 30 November meals to be meat-free.

I estimate that it will be not just better for our health, but also better for our budget and for the planet.
So here goes.

In addition to the usual pasta, quiches, soups, salads and stir fries which make up our standard meat-free meals- I am looking to expand my repertoire with some new recipes too.
I began with a Vegetable Satay Chow Mein- a selection of veg from the fridge ( courgettes, spring onions, bean sprouts, red pepper, mushrooms ) fried in a wok with some cooked egg noodles added in. The Satay sauce is made quickly from 2 tbsp peanut butter, 2 tbsp chilli sauce, 1 tbsp lemon or lime juice, 2 tbsp soy sauce, 200 ml coconut milk and 2 tbsp boiling water. Mix it all up and add it to the stir fry. Add more chilli or soy to taste.

Vegetable Satay Chow Mein

The leftovers will go into a Miso Noodle Soup

'Leftovers' Miso Soup

and these yummy little pancakes - Ban Khoai.
Make a pancake batter with 1 egg, 1 cup of plain flour, 1 1/2 cups of milk, a pinch of salt and a pinch of turmeric for colour.
Fry little saucer sized pancakes and stack (keep warm)
Fill each one with a spoonful of the re-fried noodles and veg. Fold and serve in a lettuce leaf with a chilli dipping sauce.

Ban Khoai

Next challenge- a really good veggie burger.

I think I've found it in this 5-a-day Burger.
Ingredients:

150 g  fresh mushrooms
50g dried mushrooms
2-3 spring onions
1 clove of garlic ( finely chopped)
1 cup cooked Puy lentils
1tbsp hummus
1 cup grated fresh carrot
1 veg stock cube
1 cup soft white breadcrumbs
1 cup toasted breadcrumbs ( for coating)

1. Soak the dried mushrooms in a tbsp boiling water.
2. Blitz the fresh mushrooms, spring onions and garlic in a food processor

Blitz the mushrooms

3. Squeeze out the soaked mushrooms (keep the liquid), chop and add to the fresh ones.
4. Fry the mushroom mixture, adding a crumbled stock cube and the (filtered) mushroom liquor
5. Cook rapidly until all the moisture has evaporated.

Fry the mushroom mixture and season well

6. Allow to cool and then place in a bowl along with the hummus, carrot and lentils.

Your 5-a-day in a bowl

7. Mix well and then add the soft breadcrumbs to soak up any liquid.
8. Chill for an hour or so, then coat in the toasted breadcrumbs.

Toasted breadcrumbs on

9. Fry in hot oil

Looks like the real thing!

and serve with chips and extra salad.

Now, how about Carrot, Sweetcorn and Courgette Fritters with Fried Halloumi?

Put 1 grated carrot, 1 grated courgette, 1 cup of sweetcorn, 1 tsp ground cumin, 1 tsp turmeric, 1 egg and 1 heaped tablespoon of plain flour in a bowl.

Mix to a batter and then fry spoonfuls in hot oil until golden.

Fry until golden

Serve with slices of fried halloumi and a salad with a lemon vinaigrette.

Carrot, courgette and sweetcorn fritters with fried halloumi

Next, Miso Aubergine with steamed rice.

Slice 2 aubergines, brush with oil and bake in a hot oven for 30 minutes or so until tender. Mix up 2 tbsp miso paste, 1 tbsp soy sauce, 1 tbsp chili sauce, 1 tsp sugar, 1 tbsp sherry ( or mirin or Muscat depending on whether you're in the UK or France). Pour over the aubergines and continue to cook in the oven until the sauce becomes thick and caramelized (15 minutes or so). Sprinkle with toasted sesame seeds and finely chopped spring onion. Delicious!

Miso Aubergines

And final dish this month- Butternut Falafel.

Steam or roast (whichever you prefer) 500g of butternut squash, then mash it with a potato masher until it makes a coarse puree.
Blitz to a paste a can of (drained) chick peas with 2 tbsp olive oil, 2 cloves of garlic, 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda, 1 handful of chopped parsley, 1 tsp each of ground cumin and coriander, juice of 1/2 lemon and a pinch of salt and pepper.
Mix together with the squash and shape into patties ( an ice cream scoop does this well).Place on an oiled baking tray and chill for half an hour or so.

Scoop out your falafel onto an oiled baking tray

Bake for around 20 minutes in a hot oven until golden and firm.
Serve with salad, pitta bread and hummus.

Butternut falafel- yum!yum!

And so, how did it go? Did you manage to resist meat? We are finding that we love this new diet.It seems a shame to go back to eating meat- even though Christmas is coming. 

Perhaps we won't.

If he can do it....

Camp fire Cookery

If cooking on a camp stove means corned beef hash or sausages and beans to you, I thought I might try to inspire you with something a bit different this summer.
After a weekend of fun and frolics canoe-camping in the gorgeous Wye Valley a few weeks ago, I was myself inspired by my fellow campers.






So, I'm offering you Halloumi and Chutney fritters with couscous, Couscous Chicken Doris and Chocolate Orange Bombes for dessert. How does that sound?

Halloumi and Veg kebabs

Halloumi cheese is great for cooking on the BBQ- lightly oiled, sliced and cooked with peppers, tomatoes and mushrooms as a kebab.









Or, made into crispy fritters to fry in the pan over the camping stove:

Halloumi and Chutney fritters

1. Slice the halloumi into 1 cm thick slices
2. Beat 1 egg with a tablespoon of chutney
3. Lay out 3 dishes- 1 each of flour, the chutney/egg mix and breadcrumbs

Ready to coat

Halloumi and Chutney Fritters

4. Coat the slices first in flour, then egg mix, then breadcrumbs and fry in hot oil
5. Serve with salad and couscous

Make the couscous with boiling water as directed by the packet
Thanks Ainsley!

The leftover couscous makes the perfect coating for Chicken Doris (named after the skinny chicken who was the mascot for the weekend).

Chicken Doris

1. Marinade chicken breast fillets in 2 tbsp of natural yogurt

mmm..doesn't that look appetising?

2. Coat the yoghurty chicken with leftover couscous, pressing it on all over.

Chicken coated in couscous

3. Either fry in hot oil over the camp stove until golden and crispy or ( if you are at home, bake in a hot oven 190 degrees for 20 mins or so).

Chicken Doris
(Sorry it's a bit blurry- too much wine went in at this point- into the cook that is, not the food.)

Of course, if you would rather have Corned Beef Hash or Sausage and Bean Stew, the recipes are here on the blog too:

http://lizsleftovers.blogspot.co.uk/search?q=corned+beef+hash

http://lizsleftovers.blogspot.co.uk/search?q=sausage+and+bean+stew

And for dessert, I was very taken with this dessert prepared by my camping neighbours:

Chocolate Orange Bombes

1. Cut a lid from the top of each of 4 oranges and hollow them out, using a sharp knife. Keep the juice and pulp to one side.

Preparing the mix

2. Mix up a chocolate cake mix using eggs as directed, but substitute orange juice for the water.
3. Spoon the mix into the hollowed-out oranges
4. Wrap them in aluminium foil and place on the BBQ to cook ( for at least 30 minutes )

Orange Bombes on the BBQ

5. Unwrap and serve.

Chocolate Orange Bombes

The result is a gooey, Brownie-like pud that tastes like a Terry's Chocolate Orange( but one you don't need to share).

http://lizsleftovers.blogspot.co.uk/search?q=clementines

The pulp and leftover juice from the oranges makes a nice breakfast with yoghurt - or mix it with caramel sauce for another pud:












All too soon, the camping weekend was over - as is this post.

Thanks to Steve for the photos, Paula for the pud recipe and Doris for the entertainment!

Can you spot Doris?

Fresh Ideas

I'd like to say that life is getting back to normal here, after our French adventure, but what with one thing and another, it just hasn't.
However, it's definitely time to restock with some fresh fruit, vegetables, meat and fish. Even reading last month's blog back to myself leaves me with a feeling of Vitamin C deficiency!


So, this time I'm giving you some soup recipes, some starters, vegetable sides and a meat and fish dish with the aim of offering you a more balanced diet than last time.

To start, I've made an Asparagus Charlotte. This is a pretty little starter, featuring a smoked mackerel mousse surrounded by a guard of honour of new season asparagus tips. Very cheffy-looking- but simple to achieve.

Asparagus Charlotte

Ingredients:

1 bunch of asparagus (you will use the tips and save the stalks for soup)

3 smoked mackerel fillets

1 tub of cream cheese with chives

Juice of half a lemon

2 tbsp creme fraiche

4-5 spring onions ( chopped)

Salt and pepper

Chives for decoration.

1. Steam the asparagus over a pan of simmering water until just tender but not floppy. Plunge into iced water to keep green colour vivid.

Chilly asparagus!

Reserve the cooking water for soup.

2. Trim the tips. Again reserve the stalks for soup.

3. Slice the tips lengthways in half

4. Blitz the mackerel, creme fraiche, cream cheese and lemon juice in a food processor .

5. Add the finely chopped spring onion and season well

6. Spoon or pipe mixture into chef's rings or scone cutters and chill until firm

7. When ready to serve, unmould and arrange the asparagus cut side out in a guard of honour around the mousse.

8. Tie a chive around each one to hold it all in place.

Asparagus and Smoked Mackerel Charlotte

Hopefully, you now have some leftover asparagus stalks and poaching water to make soup. The next recipe makes a creamy asparagus veloute- made delicious with coconut cream:

Asparagus and Coconut Veloute

Ingredients:

1 bunch of asparagus (whole or just the stalks)

1 bunch of spring onions (chopped)

1 small pack of frozen peas

1 litre of vegetable stock (including the water used to steam the asparagus)

1 small tin of coconut cream

1 tbsp chopped dill

Salt and pepper

Oil for frying

1. Steam the asparagus until tender over a pan of simmering water.

2. Reserve the cooking water and add it to the vegetable stock to make up to 1 litre

3. Chop the asparagus and put it with the spring onions and peas in a little oil in a saucepan. Sweat gently for a few minutes.

4. Add the dill, stock and coconut cream and simmer gently for 15 minutes to let the flavours mingle

5.Blitz with a blender, adjust seasoning and serve.

Asparagus and Coconut Veloute

Next, I've made a vegetarian starter using halloumi cheese, aubergines, mushrooms and tomatoes.

Halloumi and Vegetable Tian

A tian is a layered vegetable dish named after the Provencal earthenware vessel in which it is baked. Originally, these were conical in shape but nowadays those sold in kitchen shops tend to be more like gratin dishes. I've recreated the 'stacked' look with roasted vegetables interleaved with halloumi, using a skewer to hold them all in place in the oven.

Serves 4

Ingredients:

4 portobello mushrooms

4 slicing tomatoes

1 large aubergine

250g halloumi cheese, sliced into 8 pieces

2 crushed cloves of garlic

salt and pepper

fresh thyme sprigs

olive oil for marinading and roasting

1. Remove the stalks from the mushrooms, slice the tomatoes thinly into 4 slices per fruit, slice the aubergine thinly (you are aiming for 12 slices if possible)

2. Mix the crushed garlic and thyme sprigs with 2-3 tbsp of olive oil

3. Put the mushrooms, tomatoes and aubergine slices into the oil to marinade. Coat well with your hands, adding plenty of salt and pepper. Add more olive oil as you need it.

4. Leave for 1 hour or so.

Marinade the vegetables

5. Pre-heat the oven to 200 degrees.

6. Pan fry the halloumi briefly until you have a golden crust on both sides.

7. In the marinading dish, assemble your tians: mushroom cup first, then alternating layers of aubergine, tomato and halloumi, finishing with a tomato cap.

8. Secure in place with a bamboo skewer (or use chef's rings if you have them)

Hold the tians in place

9. Roast for 15 minutes until all the vegetables are soft and beginning to caramelize.

Halloumi and Vegetable Tian

I also used up any remaining aubergines in one of my favourite soups:

Aubergine and Butter Bean Soup

Anyone would think this smooth and delicate soup is rich with butter and cream- but in fact it is completely dairy-free and owes its silky texture to the butter beans which both thicken and enrich. The aubergines? Well, they lend a delicious, fragrant flavour to the ensemble!

Ingredients:

(Makes a litre and a half of soup)

2 medium aubergines

4 cloves of garlic

2 tsp honey

olive oil

juice of half a lemon

1 onion

1 litre of hot chicken or vegetable stock

1 400g tin of butter beans

salt and pepper to taste

1. Prick the aubergines all over, slice in half lengthways and lay cut side down in a baking dish lightly oiled with olive oil. Put the garlic cloves in too, in their skins.

2. Bake at 200 degrees for 15 minutes, then add the honey to the hot pan and swirl around. Continue baking for another 10 minutes or until the aubergines are soft and wrinkly. ( It happens to us all!)

3. Allow to cool enough to be handled, peel off the skin and chop roughly. Squeeze the garlic from its skin and do the same.

4. Soften the onion in some more olive oil in a saucepan, add the aubergine, garlic and drained butter beans and fry gently.

5. Loosen the sticky honey and aubergine juice from the pan with 2 cups of hot water. Add to the vegetables in the pan.

6. Pour on the chicken stock and simmer for another 10 minutes to amalgamate the flavours.

7. Blitz with a hand blender, adjust seasoning and serve with croutons.

Aubergine and Butter Bean Soup

Now for some main dishes- starting off with rabbit:

Rabbit in Cider

This is a version of the French classic 'Lapin Au Cidre'. Fresh rabbit is widely available in all supermarkets in France (including my local Lidl)- but I have found that this is not the case in the UK. If you can source it at your butchers, it is well worth the effort as the combination of rabbit, cider, cream and tarragon is such a good one. If not, the dish works well with chicken or pork too.

Traditionally, it is made the day before so the flavours mingle well and then the sauce if finished off just before serving- which makes it an ideal dish if you are serving to guests.

(Serves 4-6)

Ingredients:

1.8 kg of fresh rabbit, jointed

100g of smoked bacon lardons

200g of button mushrooms

2 carrots

1 onion

2 cloves of garlic (crushed)

70 cl of chicken stock

15 cl of dry cider

40g flour

10 cl of creme fraiche

90g butter

2 cloves

1 bay leaf

1 tbsp fresh tarragon

salt and pepper

1. Peel the carrots and onion and puncture it with the cloves

2. Season the rabbit and brown the pieces in 20g of butter, along with the lardons

3. Place in a casserole dish or slow cooker with the crushed garlic, carrots, bay leaf and onion

4. Deglaze the frying pan by boiling the cider in it and scraping with a spatula

5. Pour this over the rabbit, along with the chicken stock and cook for 1 hour in a casserole in the oven at 170 degrees or 3-4 hours in the slow cooker.

6. To finish the dish, add the button mushrooms either half an hour before the end of cooking, or as you reheat the next day. Remove the bay leaf and onion.

7. Make a roux with the flour and the remaining butter and strain in the hot cooking liquor. Heat, stirring constantly as it thickens. Adjust the seasoning. Add the cream and tarragon- and the rabbit pieces- and serve.

Rabbit in Cider

Next I braised some fennel to go with a fish dish. Usually I cook this recipe (Slow Braised Fennel) with olives and orange juice- but this time I left out the olives as I was serving it with Tapenade Crusted Fish.

Slow Braised Fennel

1  large bulb of fennel

250 ml orange juice

splash of white wine

salt and pepper

1 tbsp chopped parsley

1. Slice the fennel bulb thinly, reserving the feathery fronds as garnishes.

2. Place it in a slow cooker, or heavy bottomed saucepan along with the orange juice, wine, parsley and seasoning. Cover with a lid and braise until tender- about 20 minutes in a saucepan or 2-3 hours in the slow cooker.

Slow Braised Fennel

As I mentioned, I intended serving this fennel with fish. I chose firm white fish fillets (cod or hake) and placed them on baking parchment with a splash of white wine and some chopped parsley. I then sealed the parcels up like Cornish pasties, twisting the paper together to form a seal.

Wrapping up the fish parcels

Bake in a hot oven (180 degrees) for 20-25 minutes. Then lift out the fish pieces and spread each one with some olive tapenade. Top that with some breadcrumbs and finely chopped chive or spring onion and flash under a hot grill until crisp.

Serve with the fennel and other veg of your choice. (I usually bake some tomatoes on the vine along with the fish)

Tapenade Crusted Fish

Finally, with the leftover fennel I made another soup: 1 onion and 1 clove of garlic softened, 3 small potatoes (chopped), fennel slices, orange juice, chicken stock and parsley- simmered and then blitzed.

I usually sieve the finished soup to remove any fibrous bits of fennel or potato skin, add a little milk or cream and serve garnished with the fennel fronds which were saved as a garnish.

Cream of Fennel Soup

So, all in all I feel a bit healthier now. Lots of nice spring veg and fresh meat and fish working their magic.

I thought coming back to the UK, I'd find myself fresh out of ideas for the blog- but it seems the opposite is true!

Hope this week's blog has refreshed the parts that other blogs didn't reach..

Week 48- A Flash in the Pan

Not everyone wants to have the oven on- it's expensive and it takes time to bake things.

A lot of my recipes call for oven baking- so this week I have changed tack and deliberately sought out a menu which can be made on the stove top.



I'm starting with halloumi and chutney fritters, followed by cod wrapped in bacon with mushy peas on black pudding mash with a tomato butter sauce, and finishing up with chocolate brioche pain perdu.

Whilst I think all of the above components are pretty tasty, I'm particularly pleased with the halloumi fritters, the genius tomato sauce and the black pud mash- but take a look for yourselves.

Halloumi cheese is a lovely ingredient- salty and dense with a delicious crispy crust when fried. For this recipe, the chutney adds a salty-sweet contrast and the breadcrumbs add to the crunchiness.

First, beat 2 eggs in a bowl. Take out a large tablespoonful and put in another dish. Keep the majority of beaten egg for the pain perdu later.
Slice the hallomi into tranches about 1 cm thick. Dip them in flour. Mix the tablespoon of beaten egg with a tablespoon of chutney (fig, plum or even mango). Dip the slices into the egg mixture, then onto a plate of breadcrumbs. Coat well.

Flour, egg/chutney mix, breadcrumbs

Fry until golden

Heat a tablespoon of vegetable oil in a non stick frying pan and fry the slices quickly until golden brown on both sides. Serve with a spinach salad.

Halloumi and chutney fritters 

For the fish dish, first make your tomato sauce. This is so simple- but it makes the best tomato sauce for pasta or fish. Gently fry 1 small finely chopped onion with a little minced garlic. Put it in a slow cooker or heavy saucepan along with 2 cans of chopped tomatoes, seasoning and 100g of unsalted butter. Cover and leave to simmer for as long as you like.

The result is an unctuous, creamy tomato sauce - which you can sieve if you like it smooth, or leave chunky.

Tomato butter sauce- three (or four) ingredients!

Now make your mash- fry some slices of black pudding (leftover from a breakfast fry perhaps) and crumble into a bowl. Add 300g of mashed potato (or the equivalent of 1 baking potato per person ) and combine the two. Adjust the seasoning to your taste and either keep warm over a pan of simmering water or microwave for 1 minute per portion when you are ready to eat.

Right- mushy peas. OK- I bought mine tinned. They are excellent as they are.

You can make your own by blitzing some cooked peas to a puree (this has a fresher taste and a more vibrant colour).

Fresh blitzed peas and tomato sauce

To make authentic mushy peas from scratch, you need  225g dried marrowfat peas.
Place the peas in a large bowl or stock pot, the peas will swell and so need plenty of room to expand.
 Add 2tbsp bicarbonate of soda and cover with 300ml / ½ pint boiling water and stir to make sure the bicarbonate has dissolved. Add the peas and leave to soak overnight, or for a minimum of 12 hours.
Drain the peas in a colander, then place in a large saucepan, cover again with cold water and bring to the boil. Lower the heat and simmer for approx 30 mins or until the peas have softened and turned mushy. You could use your slow cooker for this if you prefer. Season with salt and pepper to taste and serve hot.

You can see why I prefer to use tinned!

Mushy peas- the easy way!

Finally, cook your fish. 
Wrap the fillet in bacon or pancetta and fry on all sides until the bacon is crispy all over. Turn off the heat, cover with a lid to allow the fish to cook through in the residual heat and assemble your dish.

Place a round of mash, topped with mushy peas in a dish. Place your fish on top and drizzle tomato sauce all round.

Bacon wrapped cod on black pudding mash with mushy peas and tomato butter sauce

Lastly, the pud.

Take 2 slices of chocolate brioche per person and spread one half of the 'sandwich' with Nutella, jam or fresh fruit puree. Sandwich together.

Beat the reserved egg with a splash of milk and some vanilla essence and then soak the sandwiches until all the egg has been absorbed.

Soak the sandwiches in the egg mixture

Melt a small knob of butter in a frying pan. Fry the sandwich quickly on both sides, cut in half and serve with cream, or ice cream and a dusting of icing sugar.

Chocolate brioche pain perdu

Any leftovers from this meal can be put to good use-  tomato sauce has a plethora of uses from pasta dishes to chilli to salsa to baked potato fillings and 

you can't beat fish and chips with mushy peas...