Rosies Bread and butter pudding

Usually, once a week a buy bread for the animals called Pain Dur, Hard Bread, Normally I but from the bread shops, I get a bag of stale baguettes and other breads, I grind a couple down for bread crumbs for use in the kitchen, the rest I feed to the chickens, ducks and turkeys. Sometimes I buy from the supermarket, now this can be a mixed load of bread stuffs, occasionally pain au chocolate, croissants and Swiss fruit cakes, the load could include fruit cakes and grain breads as well, the beauty of the supermarket breads is that they are normally in date. Today I bought a bag of bread from Intermarche, nearly all sliced loafs and dated 25th August, today is the 23rd, so I'm making bread puddings, 1 sweet and 1 savoury. I've also put 4 loafs in the freezer for another day, the rest in the animal feed store.

Just because you don't have all the ingredients listed here shouldn't necessarily stop you from cooking this, this recipe calls for sultanas and dates, after it was cooked I realised I had a couple of bananas, I would have liked now to have done banana and date, maybe you could try cooking that. Let me know how it turns out.

Ok, glass of wine in hand, the recipe;

Sliced bread (enough to put 3 layers in your dish.)
Butter for spreading
Seedless dates, chopped
Raisins and sultanas
4 eggs
450ml milk
2 tablespoons sugar
Vanilla essence
Ground hazelnuts.


Butter bread both sides, I keep the crusts on (according to my mother keeps your hair curly), remove stones from dates and chop.

Put a layer of the buttered bread in an oven proof dish, spread the dates over the bread, then put on another layer of bread and put sultanas and raisins on top of this.
Cover with last of the bread.

Beat eggs, sugar and milk together, add vanilla and pour over your pudding, pressing the bread down to help soak up the milk, its important the top layer gets some of the milk, add more milk if necessary. sprinkle with hazelnuts and a little sugar and bake, for about 15 mins till golden brown at 200c.

Rosies savoury bread and butter pudding.

This could be called an English breakfast bread and butter pudding. As I posted on my last posting you don't have to stick to my recipe here, have a look in the fridge and see what you can use. Slightly different to a sweet pudding, no sugar and less milk, I've added an extra egg and crème fraiche to give it more of an omelette taste.

350ml milk
3 good tablespoons crème fraiche
5 eggs
Enough bread to cover an oven proof dish twice
Butter
Black pudding
Bacon
Mushrooms
1 Onion
1 Courgettes
Emmenthal cheese grated.


Chop the onions and fry slowly.

Slice mushrooms, black pudding,
bacon and courgettes and fry all together.

Butter bread both sides and put a layer in a oven proof dish, spread the fried meat and vegetables over the bread , season and put another layer of the bread on top.

Mix together the milk, crème fraiche and eggs and pour over the bread,
Sprinkle grated Emmenthal cheese over the top.
Bake at 200c till golden brown about 15 mins.

Rosies Tartiflette

A Recipe for Tartifeltte

Tartiflette is a French dish from the Savoîe region.

The main ingredient is Reblochon cheese, the cheese is widely available in France and the USA , it is stocked by Tesco's and Safeways (and specialist cheese shop) in the UK.

We eat this dish at least once a week, more in the winter, it is easy to make and served with a fresh crunchy Baguette and beer or white wine.

Ingredients

• 1 Reblochon cheese
• 1kg Potatoes
• 2 Onions
• 400 g bacon bits
• 500g tub of crème fraiche
• salt and pepper
• Optional grated cheese.
  

Method

Wash and cut into thick slices and boil the potatoes. When cooked arrange half the potatoes in an oven proof dish.

Fry the onions and bacon together put them on the top of the potatoes in the dish,

slice the Reblochon cheese and put that on top and then arrange the other half of the potatoes on top of that,

Pour on crème fraiche and season with black pepper and salt

You can bake this now, but if you wish put some grated cheese on top. I do.

- bake in the oven at 200c till golden brown.

Serve!

There are various methods to cooking Tartiflette, try frying the potatoes instead of boiling, use a little less crème fraiche and add a glass of white wine.

Rosies shortbread treat with rosemary-infused salted caramel.

225g plain flour
85g caster sugar
315g unsalted butter (200g for the shortbread, 115g for the caramel)
2 x 397g can sweetened condensed milk (original recipe called for 1 tin, after I put it on the shortbread I decided to add a second tin)
4 tablespoons golden syrup
2 fresh rosemary sprigs
1 teaspoon sea salt
200g good-quality plain chocolate, at least 70% cocoa solids

Preheat the oven to 170c

Mix flour, sugar and rub in the butter


Push into dish, (you may want to line it with grease proof paper) then prick with a fork. Cook till golden brown, Allow to cool.


Melt butter in a saucepan, pour in condensed milk, golden syrup and rosemary.


Cook over a medium heat, stir constantly about 10 minutes till thickened and the milk becomes a light caramel colour, be careful not to burn it.


Remove the rosemary and pour the caramel over the cool biscuit base. spread it evenly. Sprinlke with salt.




Melt the chocolate over a bain marie or microwave for about 1 minute 30 s second stir half way through.


Spread the chocolate then allow to cool, put in the fridge to set. Cut into portions, you can serve from the fridge but if you leave them at room temperature for a while the caramel goes lovely and gooey.

Rosies Bannoffi pie

Put tin of sweetened condensed milk in a pan of boiling water, then simmer for between 3 or 5 hrs depending how caramelised you want it.

Well you can if you want, but you will find this method a lot easier;
200gr pack of biscuits, (digestives are best)
250gr butter
Tin of condensed milk
175gr sugar
3 Bananas



Put the biscuits in a freezer bag then smash to crumbs with a rolling pin, put the crushed biscuits into a bowl and pour 100gr of melted butter over and mix well.


push the biscuit /butter mix into the bottom of a cake tin, then put in the fridge to set.



Pour tin of condensed milk in to a saucepan.


Along with the butter 150gr and 175 gr sugar.



Bring to the boil, stirring constantly, till its caramelised, 5 to 7 mins, your better off under cooking than over, getting this right is a bit of trial and error.


Cut up two of the bananas and place on the chilled biscuit base.



Let the caramelised milk cool slightly then pour over the bananas. once its cool place in the fridge to set.

That is the basic pie, use the extra banana and cream to decorate, try using melted chocolate, I saw a recipe that used cream in the bottom with coffee sprinkled onto it, as I try different ideas I will post the results, if you have any ideas, let me know how they turn out.

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Rosies Chicken Korma

CHICKEN KORMA ( for 4 people)

4 boneless chicken breasts

500g natural yoghurt

Large tin of coconut milk

120g of ground almonds

3 tablespoons garamasala, 3 tablespoons curry powder

2 large onions.

Method

Chop the onions and lightly fry in butter till soft but not brown.

In a bowl mix natural yoghurt, coconut milk, ground almonds, garamasala, curry powder.
I used four of these pots




Add onions and using a blender whiz till smooth.


Chop chicken breast into small pieces and place in mixture.


Transfer into an oven proof dish.

I usually make it early and cover dish with cling film and place in fridge enabling the chicken to marinade in the sauce.

When ready to cook, place in oven 180c about 1hr, check to see if its cooked

When serving add some flaked almonds and coriander to garnish

Rosies Courgette and Pea Soup

• 1 kg courgettes, (I swapped 6 chicken eggs with my neighbour for mine)
• 250g Peas (the only veg I like to buy frozen)
• 2 cloves garlic, peeled & crushed
• 2 medium onion, peeled & chopped
• small knob of butter
• Thyme, Basil and bay leaf (from my tree) salt and pepper
• 1 1/2 pints water (or mild-flavoured stock)
• cream (optional)

Cook everything together till tender; remove bay leaves, blend with hand blender, simmer for about 10 minutes, serve with a splash of cream, if you have any left over, allow to cool, put in in a freezer bag and freeze.

Rosies Tomato soup

Tomato soup;
A simple recipe for a delicious warming tomato soup;

Ingredients;
1kg Tomatoes
1 med onion
1 chicken or vegetable OXO
1 teaspoon suger
500ml milk
1 tbsp Balsamic vinegar
1 clove of garlic (optional)
1 tbsp Tomato purée
Salt and pepper

Method;
Quarter the tomatoes, finally chop the onions, place in a good size saucepan and cook, add salt, pepper and garlic, keep stirring and break up the tomatoes, when soft remove from heat and liquidize the tomato onion mix, sieve to remove skin and pips, put back in the pan, and heat, add oxo and dissolve, add balsamic and tomato purée and milk, simmer for 15 mins, adjust seasoning to taste. Serve with a little crème fraiche, crusty bread and a glass of red wine.

Rosies Lemon Cheesecake

Ingredients Pack of biscuits
500gm Mascarponi cheese
Butter
half a mug sugar
2 Lemons
Chocolate


Crush biscuits
Melt enough butter to bind the biscuits
Spead into cake tin, (I use one with a loose bottom so I can lift the cake out of the tin.) and chill.

Put cheese into a bowl
With sugar
Zest of lemons
and Juice

Mix

Spread over biscuit base


Grate chocolate

Serve