A Dutch Christmas in Portugal

Several new motorhomes joined us since my last post so there's a bustling little community

A busy Serro da Bica 

of nine campers here now, 17 people including Herman and Albertje. Everyone is Dutch apart from us, one other English couple and Frithjof who is German, but all the Dutch people speak good 'Engels' and are more than happy to switch between languages.

I'm glad we didn't follow my whim of spending Christmas day on the beach though. I know the weather in Portugal isn't anywhere near as bad as it has been back home, but heavy rain set in at about 5pm on Christmas Eve and just kept coming - all night! We managed maybe a couple of hours sleep between us as, with the awning blowing around and the rain thundering on Bailey's roof, it sounded like a hurricane outside. The awning escaped most of its pegs before morning so water got in. However, Bailey coped just fine and we stayed cosy and dry, if wearied.

Christmas Day began with coffee and Buterkoek in the bar. One of the other campers, Peter, had his birthday and joining a group for coffee and cake is a traditional Dutch way to celebrate. We braved the much-lighter-by-then rain afterwards for a hour's walking which meant I got the chance to try out my new Marmot waterproof trousers. They're perfect - comfortable, warm and stayed completely dry throughout the walk which is more than my previous Peter Storm pair ever managed. Well worth the price!

The house at Serro da Bica 

Highlight of the day was our Christmas meal for which we (almost) all gathered in the bar at 5pm. The other English couple won't come to the bar because 'they all speak Dutch' but everyone else was there. Albertje and Herman had arranged the tables with cloths and candles, red and green Christmas napkins and it looked lovely. I wrote out the menu afterwards and all the courses took up two days of my pocket diary - coincidentally, we both felt as though we had eaten a good two days' worth of food! First course was Albertje's homemade Hummous with mini toasts. Then we had Herman's Soup which was similar to a minestrone but with chourico pieces and meatballs in it. Everyone had seconds. Then the main course was a delicious Hachee which is a thrice cooked thick beef stew, vaguely similar in taste to the Greek Stifado. Albertje had been cooking this over the previous two days so we all already knew how good it smelt! The meal is traditional Dutch cuisine, but not traditional for Christmas Day. However, with so many mouths to feed here, it has become the Serro Da Bica tradition and several of this year's guests have been previously and returned. The Hachee was served with roasted rosemary potatoes, rice, spiced red cabbage, pears poached in red wine, and stewed apple. Everyone had at least seconds of all this as well. Then, when you would have thought no one could eat any more, our hosts served a rich dessert of whipped cream with multi-coloured jelly cubes, topped with a conserve of Albertje's homegrown strawberries. Phew! The Dutch have a fantastic word (which I've probably spelt wrongly) - 'outbouken'. It means to sit back and let your stomach hang out after having eaten too much. We all practised 'outbouken' with a small liqueur to finish! Dave had a Portuguese cognac and I had a white port.

We rolled back to Bailey and slept for about ten hours!

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Bread Soup recipe

At the time of writing, on the Serro Da Bica campsite in Ourique, Portugal, we were getting a

 delivery of a small loaf of freshly baked brown bread six days a week. Most days we ate about three-quarters of the loaf so I started to look around for recipes to use up the remainder. Waste not, want not and all that. This frugal bread soup recipe is vaguely based on an idea in the book Portuguese Homestyle Cooking that I first mentioned when we tried its Baked Salmon recipe. The soup recipe in the book is called Acorda a Alentejana (page 44) although if you know the original, you might not recognise what I actually ended up creating here! The texture of my soup as I served it was similar to a coarse mushroom soup and it was delicious!

Ingredients:

3 inch pieces of chourico (ends and curve of a ring)
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 tsp dried basil
1/2 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp dried parsley
salt and pepper
1 vegetable stock cube
1 pint water
day-old brown bread (I had about half a small loaf)

Heat the chorizo in a saucepan until the oils start to run.
Add the garlic, herbs, seasoning and crumbled stock cube. Add the water and cover the pan. Bring to the boil, then lower the heat and simmer for about 15 minutes.
When the stock is simmering, remove the crust from the bread and tear into roughly inch-square pieces.
Remove pan from the heat and add the bread, pushing it under the liquid. Recover the pan and leave for five minutes so the bread can soak up the stock.
When the bread cannot absorb any more stock, stir it to break up the bread into a thick sort-of puree.
Serve immediately while soup is still warm.

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Italian stewed octopus recipe

Italian stewed octopus 

A very delayed recipe post here because Dave first cooked this Italian-inspired meal while we were still in Spain and I've been meaning to blog it ever since because this is a delicious dinner. I am surprised at myself that I am happy to eat octopus because I am quite squeamish about things like cooked fish 'looking at me' during my meal and octopus isn't the most visually appetising of seafood, but when it's cut into pieces, it doesn't look too scary! I think I first tasted it in a rice stew when we were in Croatia. The dish contained a few whole baby octopi so I could see exactly what I was eating. One of the main reasons to travel for me though is to try new foods so I was very brave!

It is possible to buy small packs of about 300g of pre-cooked octopus pieces in Spanish supermarkets and this worked perfectly for the first time of creating this dish. For the second time I think we were already in Portugal and had to buy frozen raw octopus instead in order to get little enough for just the two of us. Most meat and seafood in Portugal seems to be sold in quantities suitable for feeding your extended family at every meal. The raw octopus tasted just as good in the end but took a lot longer to cook.


Ingredients:
300g octopus pieces (or enough for two people)
olive oil
2-3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
200ml tomato passata or tinned chopped tomato
100ml white wine
1 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp dried dill
2 tbsp dried parsley
1 tsp chilli powder
salt and pepper

If your octopus is raw, boil in in a large pan of salted water for 1-2 mins, then drain, cut into large pieces, and saute in olive oil for 2-3 minutes. If it's already pre-cooked, ignore this stage.
Heat oil in a large pan and add the octopus pieces. Add chopped garlic and saute for 2-3 minutes.
Add the wine and bring to the boil over a high heat. Stir well and allow to cook for about five minutes. Add tomato and chilli powder then bring back to a simmer.
Add sugar and a scant tsp of salt.
Mix well, cover and simmer for about half an hour.
Check if octopus is done. If it still needs more cooking time, add half the dill and parsley at this point, re-cover pan and allow to continue cooking for up to 45 minutes. Check every 15 minutes or so. Add remainder of dill and parsley when it is done.
If octopus was already cooked at the end of the 30 minutes, add all the dill and parsley together, leave the pan uncovered and turn up the heat for an additional ten minutes to slightly reduce the sauce.
Serve with pasta penne or hunks of fresh bread.

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Chicken tikka masala recipe

Chicken tikka masala 

So I promised a Chicken Tikka Masala recipe during my first Ourique post and then completely forgot to publish it. D'oh! Here goes ...

This is my interpretation of a recipe by +Elaine Lemm - her original recipe is here but I had to amend a few bits to suit what we can find locally in Portugal. Dave doesn't like food too spicy so I reduced the chilli making this version less hot than would probably be served in a UK restaurant. Plus life is too short to zest a lime and I always ending up grating my knuckle instead!

There appears to be an almost total dearth of Indian restaurants in Alentejo. You need to travel right down south to the Algarve (and all the holidaying Brits) to find one. Strangely, there are Chinese-run shops in practically every town but hardly any Chinese restaurants either. 


Ingredients:
2 chicken breasts, diced (or enough for 2 people)
1 tsp ground ginger
1 garlic clove, finely diced
salt & black pepper
1 tsp ground coriander
juice of half a lime
olive oil
1/2 tsp chilli powder
1 small onion, finely diced
1 tsp turmeric
1 tsp cumin seeds
200ml double cream
2 tbsp tomato puree
1 tbsp lemon juice

Put the diced chicken in a bowl with the ginger, garlic, salt, pepper, coriander, lime and 1 tsp olive oil. Mix well, cover and leave to marinate for as long as possible. We left ours for about ten hours in the fridge.
When ready to begin cooking, heat more oil in a saucepan and brown the chicken pieces.
Remove the chicken from the pan, lower the heat and fry the onion with the chilli powder until the onion is soft.
Add turmeric and cumin and cook for one minute. I used whole cumin seeds because we didn't have any ground cumin.
Add cream and cook for five minutes. Pingo Doce sells cream differently to what we find in the UK. I used a 200ml carton of cooking cream which most closely resembles double cream. I think you could use plain yoghurt instead.
Return chicken to the pan and cook for five minutes.
Add tomato puree and lemon juice and cook for one minute.
Check chicken is piping hot, then serve immediately with rice.

Interestingly (or not), 'tikka' in Finnish means 'woodpecker'.

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Jambalaya recipe

Today's the last evening before our departure and I'm catching up on things I meant to do but haven't quite gotten around to - one of which is posting this recipe. We spent a few hours earlier stowing away as much as we can in Bailey. It was surprisingly straightforward and we do have some space left, although there's only grams remaining on the weight allowance. (Note to BeValued staff: there's not enough room for stowaways!) So I've got time this evening for a bit of blogging.

This jambalaya recipe is my interpretation of a recipe card from Waitrose and Tilda Rice. Dave says it's a waste of prawns because they don't add much to the flavour but I think the seafood and meat combination is essential. We agree to disagree. It's not essential to sing the Jambalaya song as you cook, but I usually do. I've put a YouTube of Hank Williams singing it at the end of this post in case your memory needs refreshing!

Ingredients (serves 2):
as much rice as you usually serve yourselves
pinch of turmeric
chicken stock
olive oil
2-3 shallots or a small onion, finely chopped
1 red pepper, chopped
offcuts of chorizo (about 60g), chopped
1 tbsp Schwartz Cajun Spice blend
2 tomatoes, chopped
100g large prawns
fresh chopped parsley

Add the turmeric to the rice and boil in the chicken stock until the rice is cooked. Set aside.

Heat the oil in a large frying pan and cook the shallots/onion, pepper and chorizo until the onion has softened. Stir in the spice mix, tomatoes and prawns and cook for 2-3 minutes. Add the pre-cooked rice and continue to fry until all the ingredients are cooked through and piping hot. This should only take another 2-3 minutes but double-check the prawns. Stir in the parsley and serve immediately.

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Cauliflower and lentil soup recipe

A real end-of-the week recipe this one as we had half a cauliflower to use up which I paired with the end of a pack of lentils. This was our Saturday lunch yesterday, served with slices of hot buttered toast. The lentils make quite a thick soup that's perfect comfort food for chillier autumnal days.

Ingredients:
olive oil
6 shallots
1 tsp dried basil
1/2 tsp dried oregano
half a cauliflower
60g puy lentils
1 pint chicken stock
salt and pepper

Heat the oil in a saucepan and add the shallots, roughly chopped. Add the herbs and fry until the shallots have softened and are beginning to brown. Meanwhile cut the cauliflower into small florets and rinse the lentils. Add both and stir to coat with oil before adding the stock. Cover the pan and simmer until the lentils are soft. Set aside to cool and then blend until smooth. Reheat until the soup is just starting to bubble. Season to taste and serve.

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Grape Sauce recipe

The grape vine in our garden went mad this year and produced so many grapes that there was no way we were ever going to be able to eat them all straight off the plant. I searched around for some good recipes but, surprisingly, there weren't many that appealed. Wine-making is far too much faff. Hmmm.

Then I stumbled across this Concord Grape Tart recipe on a website called Splendid Table. The instructions looked weird as I didn't think I'd actually want the skins in the filling. They have a bitter taste even when the grapes are very ripe. So I changed the recipe to make the filling in the way I would have made crab apple jelly, had any crab apples grown this year.

Ingredients:
2.5 lb grapes
grated zest and juice of half a lemon
5 tbsp caster sugar

I put the grapes into a saucepan and cooked them until they had all softened and burst. This took about ten minutes. I put the result through a fine sieve and added the lemon zest and juice. I then boiled the grape liquid and added about 5tbsp of caster sugar. There was a lot of liquid from the grapes. I wasn't expecting them to be so juicy! I misjudged this stage because I hoped the grapes would set as they cooled. They didn't so I poured the liquid back into the pan and boiled it again for a good twenty minutes. This time it started to set ... however having made the pastry in the same way as for the Pear Tart, rolled it out and poured in the grape filling, everything went wrong!

The oven was set to 200C and I baked the tart for 20 minutes. By this point, the grapes were boiling (again) and the pastry was getting very dark. I took the tart out of the oven and left it to cool but, an hour later, the filling was still liquid. Grrr. 

The coated pastry was quite tasty - waste not, want not. And we put the filling into the fridge with a plan of changing its purpose to a fruit sauce. Today we bought a block of vanilla ice cream from +Sainsbury's.  I didn't know that it was still possible to buy blocks, wrapped in card instead of tubbed in plastic , so that brought back childhood memories. And the combination of ice cream topped with tangy grape sauce is delicious! 

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Pear and almond tart recipe

Having baked little Blackberry bakewell tarts intending to use up blackberries in our garden, I was left with a redundant part-bag of ground almonds. Not to worry, I thought, something will soon come along to suggest itself and what did was a windfall pear! Pear goes beautifully with almonds, even the very unripe pears that our tree always produces.

Ingredients:
For the pastry:
4oz plain flour
2oz butter
2 tbsp cold water

For the frangipane:
100g butter
100g caster sugar
1 large egg
50g ground almonds
50g and 1 tbsp plain flour
1 tbsp almond liqueur

For the topping:
2 pears

I started by peeling and coring the pears and sliced each one lengthways into 8 segments. I then put these into a saucepan of barely simmering water for about half an hour until they were softened but not slushy. They kept their nice pale colour and ended up pretty much like you'd get with tinned pears. I ran them under cold water and popped them in the fridge until needed.

Next the pastry. I wanted one large tart this time so made only half the quantity I had for the blackberry bakewells. (It was still too much and 3oz flour with 1.5oz butter would have done.) I cubed the butter and rubbed it into the flour until the mixture resembled breadcrumbs. Then I mixed in the water with a knife, clingfilmed the dough and put it into the fridge too.

The oven went on at 180c because it's a fan (200c/Gas 6 otherwise). Then I beat all the frangipane ingredients together in my lovely +Mason Cash mixing bowl. I hadn't thought of it before but this is something else that I might miss. I realised with a jolt of dismay that there was only 50g of almonds left, not another 100g of almonds as I had previously used. I made up the difference in weight with extra flour and added a (slightly) larger tbsp of almond liqueur to compensate the flavour.

Retrieving the pastry from the fridge, I rolled it out thinly to line an 8 inch pie dish. The dish has holes in the bottom to aid pastry crisping so I didn't bother with blind baking. Then I spooned and smoothed the frangipane into the pastry case and arranged the pears on top. I baked the tart for 35 mins nearer the top of the oven and it turned out beautifully! Again, it tasted much almondier when cold than when hot.

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Blackberry bakewell tarts recipe

I walked along the Cuckoo Trail into Hailsham this morning and, along the way, saw a couple of women picking blackberries which reminded me that I had not yet gotten around to posting this recipe. I found it originally on the +BBC Good Food website and baked the little tarts pictured for when our friends Andy and Barbara came round for dinner. They went down so well that the plate was cleared within a few minutes! Dave and I had 'tested' a few straight from the oven earlier in the afternoon - purely to make sure they were up to standard you understand? I think they actually taste almondier when cold than when hot.

Ingredients (made 18 tarts) Apologies for the mixed measurements - I always make pastry in imperial!

For the pastry:
8oz plain flour
5oz butter
3-4 tbsp cold water

For the filling:
100g butter
100g caster sugar
1 large egg
100g ground almonds
1 tbsp plain flour
1 tbsp almond liqueur (optional)
Blackberries

Start by making the pastry. Chop the butter into cubes and rub in into the flour until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Add the water slowly and mix it in until you have a soft-but-not-sticky dough. Chill the dough in the fridge while you make the frangipane filling.

Preheat the oven to 200c / 180c fan / gas mark 6.

Put the chopped butter, caster sugar, egg, almonds and plain flour into a large mixing bowl. If using the almond liqueur, add it now too. (Dave had a bottle of +DISARONNO so I 'borrowed' some!) Beat all the ingredients together until combined and fluffy. Don't overmix though.

Roll out the pastry into a thin layer and use a 8-9cm pastry cutter to get circles. (The pastry in the phot was a bit too thick.) Grease a bun tin and line each of the indentations with a pastry circle. Fill each pastry case with a good tsp of frangipane and push a blackberry into the centre. I intended to use the blackberries from our garden, but there weren't enough so we got a punnet from +Waitrose instead. They were huge.

Bake the tarts for about 15 mins and try not to serve them ALL immediately!

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Sweet pepper soup recipe

This recipe makes my favourite end-of-the-week soup and is a frequent Saturday lunch for us served with slices of hot buttered toast.

Ingredients 
1 tbsp olive oil 
1 small onion, chopped
1 tsp garam masala spice mix
2 red, yellow or orange peppers, roughly chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
500ml chicken stock
Salt & pepper 

Heat the olive oil in a saucepan. Add the onion, garlic and garam masala and fry until the onion is soft. 

Add the peppers and stir to coat everything in the oil. The pictured soup was made with one red and one yellow pepper. I find the yellow ones are usually the sweetest, then orange, then red. I try to avoid making soup with green peppers, especially if they are dark green because they have quite a bitter taste that takes a lot of spice to disguise.

Add the stock and bring to the boil. When boiling reduce to a simmer and cover the pan to prevent too much evaporation. Simmer for about 20-30 minutes or until the pepper pieces are very soft. Remove from the heat and season to taste.

When cooled enough not to scald if it splashes, blend the soup and reheat until almost boiling. Serve with plenty of hot buttered toast!

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Thinking about what I might miss

We had what might turn out to be the last firebowl of the season yesterday. Hopefully there will be more warm, still evenings but there’s a definite chill in the air in the mornings now and a real sense of autumn approaching. Watching the wood burning and chatting with Dave got me thinking about things that I might miss while travelling because sitting by our firebowl would be one. Dave pointed out this is daft because we don’t sit out in the winter months!

Obviously it will be strange not having our families and friends around and I do have some guilt about being away for the first Christmas without Mum. Several people have expressed the intention of coming out to meet up with us for a few days though so that will be nice and there’s always Facebook and Twitter and Google+ for keeping in touch.

I definitely won’t miss getting up to an alarm clock before I’ve had enough sleep, or sulky Stagecoach bus drivers and their unique style of timekeeping. There’s a pretty good chance that I won’t miss my actual job – sorry Ewelina – only the people with whom I work. Perhaps someone could Facebook the mad stuff Yelda says?

Foodwise, I’m reliably informed that there are Cake Shops in Portugal so that’s a relief! But I’m not sure if they have +HARIBO Tangfastics so I might take a secret stash. And tubs of Horlicks. And boxes of +Twinings because Fermin, who is Spanish, says the tea is awful. On the plus side, I’m looking forward to the fresh markets, stacked high with bright colours and real flavours, and trying lots of new recipes.

My beloved theatre trips will be pretty pointless because of the language barrier, although we might be able to catch an +National Theatre Live screening if we’re in the right place at the right time. I don’t know whether other cinema trips will be possible. I’ve read that films in Portugal are often shown in their original language with subtitles, but as we watch a lot of European cinema this might just mean two languages we don’t understand well enough to keep up. However, there is still music and dance as well as the art and architecture that we both love. 

Tiny technology means that most of what I would have really missed can be taken with us in our home-from-home. I’ll have my +Audible.co.uk talking books and campsite book exchanges will help me discover new authors. And, of course, all our music is on an iPod and we're taking an old laptop with a few DVDs (just in case of occasional boredom). Plus sporadic wifi means I’ll be able to blog about our experiences and make you all jealous! 

Can't wait!

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Almost vegetarian mixed bean chilli recipe

When I served up this chilli last night, Dave's first reaction was to call it a sneaky trick because it didn't contain any meat. He did admit that it tasted good though so hopefully I'll get to make it again sometime! I found the original recipe here on allrecipes.co.uk and amended it slightly to make two portions. In reality, this ended up being three portions though so the freezer got one as well.

Ingredients:
2 tbsp olive oil
1/2 a large onion, diced
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
1 red pepper, diced 
2 tsp ground coriander 
1 tsp chilli powder 
2 tbsp tomato puree 
2 tsp ground cumin 
1/2 tsp paprika 
1x 400g can chopped tomatoes 
1x 400g can mixed beans 
250ml stock 
1 bay leaf 
salt to taste

Heat the oil in a large saucepan.

Fry the onion, garlic, red pepper, coriander and chilli powder until the vegetables are soft, stirring occasionally.

Stir in the tomato puree, cumin and paprika, and heat through.

Add the tomatoes, beans, stock and bay leaf. This step is why my chilli was only 'almost vegetarian'. I used a beef stock cube but the original recipe lists vegetable stock.

Bring to the boil then reduce the heat, cover and simmer gently for 30 minutes. Season with salt. It was a bit too runny at this point for our taste so I then kept the pot on a low simmer but uncovered for a further 30 minutes to thicken the sauce.

I served our chilli with steamed basmati rice. If I was serving this regularly and wanted to ring the changes, I could add minced meat but I think I would probably choose bacon bits or chopped smoked sausage instead. Smoked paprika would add a lovely flavour too but we only had regular.

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Foraging for food in the garden

Fruit growing has been disappointing for us this year. The apple tree has precisely three apples on it, the crab apple tree hasn't fared much better, the pear tree only has around half a dozen pears and there's not more than a couple of dozen plums. We ate plums ad nauseam last year! The strawberry patch did manage to give a respectable haul during its month of glory, but the rhubarb, while tasty, gave up far earlier than usual.

However, there's an area of wild brambles across the end of the garden and the first blackberries are just ripe so we've picked a couple of handfuls to add some nice colour to a blackberry and apple crumble. We nipped out this morning, taking advantage of a patch of blue sky in case it decides to rain again all afternoon. It IS a Bank Holiday weekend after all! I can't believe it was May when I last made crumble. This one will be similarly made to the rhubarb and apple crumble recipe I already posted. There's lots more blackberries on their way too which is good to see. It's just a shame that so many of them will be dangerously out of reach but the birds will get to enjoy those.

We also have a fantastic potential harvest of grapes on the vine we planted I think about five years ago now. The vine was originally in a pot but it got very upset by our cold, damp winters. It remained stubbornly tiny and eventually looked as thought it had given up altogether. But we gave it one more chance and re-planted it directly in the ground and now look at it! If it wasn't such a long process, I would be tempted to consider making our own wine. 

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Other new caravan toys we tried out this weekend

The cutest little travel kettle jumped into my trolley at +Sainsbury's last week. It was just over £20 so not particularly cheap but looked perfect for Bailey! We tried it out this weekend just gone and it is much better than the full-size one we had taken to Bosham. It hardly takes up any room and boils exactly enough water for two mugs of coffee. However, the automatic cut-out when it's boiling doesn't work so whoever is brewing up needs to stay close at hand.

We also took our Kindle which I tried out for the first time. Dave's already read Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn which he says is very good and he likes that the Kindle is bright enough to read outside when it's getting dark. I've resisted getting one for ages because I love actual books, but a few titles I've wanted to read recently that are only available in this format so I've been persuaded and we went halves! I downloaded an Eastbourne-based thriller, Devil's Chimney by Tin Larrick which I'm about half-way though at the time of writing. I'll review it on Theatrical Eastbourne soon.

Not so much a new toy as a new way of cooking because I tried out pasta in the caravan microwave for the first time. We conscious that Bailey only has a limited gas supply and the supplied cylinders are UK specific. If we were only ever going away for a week or so, or were staying in the UK, this probably would never be a problem, but as we're planning an extended jaunt in Europe, replenishing the gas supply is going to be an issue. One way of delaying the inevitable, especially as we'll nearly always be paying for an electric hookup anyway, is to use the microwave a lot more than we do at home. I tried out both pasta and rice at home. 6oz of pasta penne needed 680ml water and took 8 mins on full with 5 mins standing to be perfect. It wasn't quite cooked after this in the caravan so I think next time '7 mins full, 5 mins standing, 2 mins full' will do the trick. It's boiling over at around 8 mins so just going for 9 mins straight isn't really an option.

My final new toy that I didn't start using is a posh moleskine journal courtesy of Glenfiddich Explorers. I signed up for their mailing list ages ago in the hope of winning one of the 500 they were giving away, but then totally forgot about it. The unexpected parcel arrived in the same week as I had finally confirmed to work that I wanted to take a sabbatical break. It is such a big decision that I was feeling quite nervous and wondering if we had made the right decision. Seeing your own job advertised is a weird experience! But then the blank journal arrived, ready to record our adventure and I took this as a sign that the fates were with us and we'd made the right decision. (Superstitious? me?) Perhaps there'll be a book in it by the time we get back!

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Balsamic salmon recipe with new potatoes and cherry tomatoes

I thought I must have already blogged this recipe as it's a favourite summer meal of ours, but I was surprised to see that I haven't! It's really easy to cook, takes less than an hour and all goes in one dish which can be brought to the table to serve if you are entertaining. The original idea came from the +goodtoknow website a few years ago and I've adapted it since. The ingredients below serve two people

Ingredients:
2 tbsp olive oil
10 pieces new potato
1 tsp dried basil or mixed herbs
2 salmon fillets
12 cherry tomatoes
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar

Preheat the oven to 190C.

Put 1 tbsp of the olive oil into a baking dish that is large enough for all the ingredients. Roll the potato pieces in the oil to thoroughly coat them and sprinkle with the 1 tsp dried herbs. Put the herby potatoes into the oven for 30 minutes.

Remove the dish from the over and nestle the salmon fillets in the centre. You might need to move some of the potatoes to the edges. Put the tomatoes in the dish as well and drizzle the remaining tbsp of oil and the tbsp of balsamic vinegar over the salmon. Return the dish to the oven for 15 minutes or until the salmon is cooked through but not overcooked.

Serve immediately.

Any dried herbs will probably work well with this dish. I like dill or basil with salmon, and parsley goes nicely with the tomatoes. I haven't tried coriander yet but that might be nice too - experiment with whatever you've got in the cupboard. 
You can serve the meal with a green vegetable or a leafy salad. I like green beans or asparagus, but think that peas don't work as well. Not sure why.

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Honey mustard glazed gammon recipe

We don't usually eat gammon but were recently kindly given two joints so I tried out a couple of ideas. The first time, I glazed it with hoisin sauce which gave a nice tang but did make it very salty. Also, the first piece was kept whole with glaze just over the top so most of the meat didn't have the added flavour. The second piece got a honey mustard glaze instead and I glazed each slice. No oversalty taste and sweet glaze flavour in every bite - much better! 

Ingredients
800g gammon joint
2tbsp honey
1tsp English mustard

Cook gammon according to pack instructions. I had an 800g piece which I baked in a lidded pyrex dish at 190C for (ten minutes over) 1 ½ hours (yes, I forgot it was in the oven!).

Leave gammon to cool. I then refrigerated ours overnight. You could continue without this stage if you wanted to eat the gammon the same day, but it’s easier to slice when it’s cold.

Preheat oven to 190C.

Mix 2tbsp runny honey with 1tsp English Mustard to make a glaze. I used +Sainsbury's own-brand honey and Colman's English mustard.

Cut gammon into 1cm thick slices. Lay the first slice at one end of a shallow and brush with honey-mustard mixture. Lay a second slice partly over the first and brush visible surfaces with honey-mustard. Continue until all slices are in the dish and coated. I ended up with seven neat slices and a couple of smaller odd-shaped bits.

Bake for about 20 minutes until gammon is piping hot and there is still some glaze liquid in the dish. Serve immediately, trickling any remaining glaze over the gammon slices.

The accompanying photo is what we had left over because I couldn’t wait to take a picture of my plate before eating! I served the gammon with new potatoes fresh from our garden and with peas. The remaining glazed slices were excellent cold, cut into small cubes and mixed into my lunchbox salad.

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It's such a perfect day

Feeling inspired by Robert MacFarlane’s book The Old Ways, which I had finished reading the night before, I set out on foot on Saturday morning towards the great metropolis that is Eastbourne for an art exhibition. I was accompanied on my wanders by the poetry of A F Harrold - Cats Are Better Than Fish - and, once the traffic got too loud for spoken word, Rebecca Pronsky’s Only Daughter album. I love Harrold’s over-the-top use of rhyme in his poems. The Plankton Party is a fun example.

Under a little time pressure because Dave was cycling to meet me near the Art, I took a ‘short cut’ through Ocklynge Cemetery when non-stop traffic prevented me crossing the road. It’s a beautiful place, serene and calming and I like that some areas are neatly kept whereas others are wildlife havens  - all tall meadow grasses and flowers. The route change turned out to be a mistake though as the top pedestrian gate to the cemetery was open and the map showed exits, but, depressingly par for the course, the lower gate was securely padlocked with no obvious alternate way out. Back up the hill again then!

Dave & I liked Barry Wilson’s paintings at the Birley Centre although he was even less impressed by Dependent Rational Creatures at the Towner than I had been previously! We had a delicious lunch at the Barley Sugar café. Dave had garlic mushrooms on toast with delicate flakes of cheese and I had a salami, Emmental and gherkin sandwich. The bread was particularly good, very fresh and with a good flavour made by the Lighthouse Bakery?

On to +Waterstones where we struggled to find a second book to take advantage of their buy-one-get-one-half-price deal. Then Dave decided to set off home as the sky was darkening and the forecast rain looked imminent. It pretty much was. I just got to the +Oxfam GB bookshop door as the deluge began. Dave was still mid-journey and got drenched. Oops! Five book purchases later – always an interesting selection at Oxfam if you don’t mind your books second-hand – and rain was still pouring so I legged it across Grove Road to Beanzz.

I hadn’t been in since the cafe changed hands a short while ago, so was pleased that it still has the same welcoming atmosphere and high standard of coffee. For once, I managed to resist their cake – I had only recently had lunch. Beanzz is hosting an exhibition of John Hesse photography as well as showing four large Gillian Toft paintings. I hadn’t knowingly seen Hesse’s work before so need to do a bit of research for a +Theatrical Eastbourne post. It was sweet that when another customer popped out for a smoke, the staff rushed up with an umbrella for her to borrow. I finished my coffee as the rain ceased so I walked back home too. I loved seeing water vapour rising from walls and roads making them appear to smoulder. Plus I spotted happy sunflowers peeping over a fence which made me smile.

The evening saw us driving through yet more rain to The Palmeira in Hove (actually) for a sold-out Tom Russell gig. He is an amazing songwriter whose lyrics are about very different subjects to the norm. Several songs have a strong Mexican-Spanish vibe to them and the album we recently downloaded has great brass instrumentation. Sadly Tom had not brought the brass band with him but was instead accompanied by talented guitarist Thad Beckman. We hadn’t seen either musician before. Their harmonies were gorgeous and Tom has great stage presence – “Bastardos!” It’s a little bit of a trek, but I’ve Liked the Palmeira’s Facebook page. They specialise in Americana music and we will no doubt want to know about other musicians playing there.

So, in one day, I can tally eight miles walked, three art exhibitions visited, five books queued (plus borrows from Dave), one poet appreciated, one album marched to, one gig danced through, two cafes and a pub patronised, and one soggy boyfriend (now dried out!) consoled.

Love my life!

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Lamb and rhubarb tagine recipe

Another favourite tagine recipe! This one is particularly good at this time of year as its unusual blend of flavours make the most of Spring lamb and sweet early rhubarb. It's good anytime you can get rhubarb but tends to get a sharper flavour as the stalks get older. I love meat and fruit tastes together, especially slow cooked, so traditional tagine recipes like this  are perfect for me! We've eaten the meal twice in three weeks, partly because it's delicious and partly because I forgot to take any photos last time - too eager to get eating!
The ingredients below serve two.

Ingredients:
Olive oil
1 onion, sliced and diced
1-2 garlic cloves, sliced
1 tbsp plain flour
salt and pepper
300g lamb neck fillet, cut into bite-sized pieces
1 tsp ground coriander
2-3 rhubarb stalks
200ml stock
2 tbsp dried parsley
1 tbsp dried mint

Preheat the oven to 150C.

Heat a glug of olive oil in a frying pan and fry the onion and garlic until softened and starting to brown. Transfer to the tagine.

Place the flour in a bowl with plenty of salt and pepper. Dredge the lamb through the flour and shake of the excess. Brown the lamb pieces in the frying pan with the ground coriander. I usually sprinkle the coriander over the lamb as the first pieces start to brown so it mixes in with the flour coating. If there is any of the flour/salt/pepper left over after dredging, add it to the tagine. When browned, transfer the lamb to the tagine.

Peel the rhubarb and chop into inch-long pieces. Stir them around the hot frying pan for a few minutes then transfer to the tagine. Hopefully this will pick up the last of the lamby-coriander mix that might have stuck to the frying pan. If not, swizzle a splash of the stock around to loosen it and then pour all the stock into the tagine.

Add 2 tbsp dried parsley and 1 tbsp dried mint to the tagine and mix gently until all the ingredients are combined. If you have managed to get hold of fresh parsley and/or mint, keep them until near the end of the cooking time and add them with maybe 10 minutes to go.

Put the lid on the tagine and cook it in the preheated oven for about one and a half hours. Serve with cous cous or rice.

I normally use lamb neck fillet because it is a cheap cut that I can buy in a small pack. Any cut will do though and the photo above actually shows chump steaks because they were on special at the Co-Op! You'd just need to bear in mind that generally cheaper cuts take longer to cook so the timings might need to be adjusted accordingly.
Also, most of the versions of this recipe I've seen say that the rhubarb should be put in towards the end of the cooking time so it still has 'bite' and is in chunks. We prefer it to have almost completely disintegrated as this helps to thicken the sauce and disguise the fruit content - Dave doesn't like rhubarb. He does like this dinner!

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Turkey Tagine recipe

A chance to show off the gorgeous tagine my Dave got me for Christmas a couple of years ago. This turkey recipe is a variation on the very first meal I cooked in it and has become a regular addition to my repertoire. Once the prep work is done, it's basically a leave-it-to-cook recipe - which is what I'm best at.

Ingredients
olive oil
1 turkey breast fillet
1 onion, finely sliced
2-3 garlic cloves, finely sliced
1 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground coriander
pinch ground cinnamon
good pinch saffron
1 chicken stock cube, dissolved in 200ml hot water
20ish pitted green olives, halved
6 lemon slices
1 tbsp dried parsley

Preheat oven to about 150C. Ours is a fan oven. You might need to set the temperature a little higher if yours is not.
Add the saffron to the stock and leave to infuse.
Cut the turkey into bite-sized pieces and heat the oil in a frying pan. Brown the turkey then put it into the tagine.
Add the sliced onion and garlic to the pan and fry slowly until softened and lightly browned. Stir in the ginger, coriander and cinnamon and heat through for another minute or two. Add the onion mix to the tagine. If the spices seem to stick to the pan, add a little stock and stir it round to loosen them, then pour the spiced stock into the tagine.
Stir the stock into the tagine, making sure the turkey pieces are covered and put the lid on. Cook the tagine in the oven for about an hour.
Stir in the olives, lemon slices and parsley. Return the tagine for another 45 minutes to an hour.
Serve with cous cous.

The olives contain quite a bit of salt so I don't normally add any extra. Chicken works just as well but turkey is cheaper! Sainsbury's sell a 1kg bag of turkey breast fillets which contains several individually wrapped for £8. It's good value as I only use one for the both of us and the rest keep in the freezer. I also use a small pot of basics green olives - about two-thirds is enough for the recipe and the rest pep up salad lunchbox the next day. The lemon slices are Opies and are in a jar that lasts for ages in the fridge.
This recipe tastes even better if it's cooked one day and served reheated the next. If we're going to do this, I stop cooking just before the add olives stage and extend the second half of the cooking time to an hour to ensure the meal is piping hot throughout.

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Chicken and Chorizo Stew recipe

Another Spanish-inspired dish today and one that was originally created by us to use up leftovers so it's both tasty and thrifty. We like pasta penne with tomato and chorizo but a whole chorizo ring is too much for one meal so about a third gets put back in the fridge. Also, a whole chicken - even a small one - will do us for its original roast dinner with plenty of good white meat left to make this stew. The leg meat is also fine to use in the stew if you want, but Dave's not so keen on it so I normally use that up in a lunchbox salad for me. A pint of stock made from the chicken bones and that's a pretty good £6 worth. The quantities below are for two but are quite vague as it depends on how much of each ingredient we have. Experiment to find the flavour combination you like best.

Chicken and Chorizo Stew

Ingredients:
olive oil
6-8 inches of chorizo sliced into half-cm thick rounds
half a large onion, fairly finely chopped
small new potatoes, cut in half (or left whole if they're really tiny)
400g tin chopped tomatoes
200ml chicken stock
left over roasted chicken, cut into bite-size pieces
salt, pepper, dried mixed herbs

Pour a glug of olive oil into a saucepan and heat. Add the chorizo and fry for a couple of minutes until the oil starts to colour. 
Add the onion, lower the heat, and cook until the onion is soft.
Add the potatoes, tomatoes and stock and bring to the boil. Add the chicken and simmer for about an hour or until the potatoes are cooked through. 
Season to taste and serve.
 
I've submitted this recipe to Credit Crunch Munch which is a fun initiative from Fuss Free Flavours and Fab Food 4 All to find budget-conscious recipes, saving some money whilst still enjoying good food. I've followed Fuss Free Flavours for a couple of years but this is the first recipe I've submitted. There's several blogs taking part in Credit Crunch Munch and I always find great ideas for new meals and flavours.

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