Pumpkin Soup

Getting ready for winter, Pauls bringing his vegetables up as there ready, I'm cooking what he brings but started doing my winter soups.

A large pumpkin,

Cut into half and scrape out the seeds, 

Cut into wedges then peel

This next photo shows the pumpkin in a pan to boil with chicken stock with garlic, onion and curry powder, but after I did this I decided to roast the rest, gave a much nicer flavour.

The seeds were washed and dried, I'm going to save some for planting next year, the rest I will roast to eat later.

Once the pumpkins were roasted I put the pumpkin I boiled with chicken stock and the roasted pumpkin in my blender.

I bagged up a lot of the puree and put the bags in the freezer, 

Then used the left over chicken stock to thin the puree I had left into a lovely soup.

Serve with ground black pepper and crunchy bread

Pauls Green Bean soup

I'm getting my winter soups ready; Pauls grown loads of beans but some have been a little "woody", so rather than boil and eat Paul made a soup.

Trim and dice the beans, put them on to boil.

Slice up a couple of leeks

I used a small ammount of yellow courgette last night so Paul peeled and diced the left overs and roasted them.

Paul fried the leeks

Bacon bits

and the roasted courgette, with a good spoonfull of paprika and parsley.

And blended, using a little of the chicken stock I had left over from my pumpkin soup.

Its a bit thick, but I will bag and freeze it, when I use it on a cold January evening I will adjust it then.

Pauls Feta and Aubergine tart

Mix 200ml of yoghurt and 200gms of feta chesse together with a good sprinkle of thyme.

Roll the edges of puff pastry (Paul put emmenthal chesse round the edges before rolling the pastry giving a cheesy crust)

Put the cheese yoghurt mix into what is now a pastry case and arrange the sliced aubergines on top, drissle with olive oil.

Bake at 200c till the pastry and aubergines are a golden brown.

While its still hot drissle with a spoonfull of honey.

Lovely hot or cold, but next time I think I will peel the aubergines.

Rosies Moutabal

Moutabal is an Armenian dish using aubergines, versions of this dish are found all over the world and is used by the Spanish in tapas, in Turkey it includes Tomatoes and grren peppers the Bulgarians add red peppers, but the recipe here is my take on the Armenian one.

First you need to make Tahhini paste.

 Grind down a good hand full of Sesame seeds.

Add sesame seed or olive oil and salt then make into a paste with warm water, thats the paste made.

Pierce the Aubergines and toast over a flame, about 5 mins, what you want is a slightly burned aubergine, to give you a smokey flavour.

Then bake them in the oven till they are soft, 

If you have a Noddy plate next to the oven use that but its not essential. 

When they have cooled, peel them.

Blend the peeled aubergines, the Tahini paste, 2 crushed garlic cloves, the juice of a lemon and some olive oil till you get a smooth(ish) paste.

Gorgeous spread on toast or as a dip for bread sticks.

Rosies Beef Moussaka

Normally cooked with lamb, but Paul bought the veg up from the garden that was perfect for a Moussaka and I had some minced beef. 

I sliced then baked the aubergine in the oven with a little olive oil drissled on top, fried the courgettes boiled some taters, fried mince beef, added a tin of toms, garlic and herbs, put the cooked mince in a dish with the courgettes and boiled pots, covered with sliced aubergine, mixed natural yoghurt with an egg, spread on top and dotted with feta cheese, into the oven, Rosies take on Mousaka.

Rosies savoury bread

ROSIES KITCHEN 1

Rosies Peach Cobbler

Although this is a peach cobbler it could just as well be a pineapple, cherry, apple, pear cobbler. I'm going to try a banana one, I will let you know how it turns out.

Peach Cobbler

( so simple)

250gm sugar
250gm flour
250gm milk
100 butter, melted
2 tsp. baking powder
couple of drops of vanilla essence

Big tin of peaches (I think it was 500gm)

Put the melted butter in a bowl

mix in the sugar, vanilla essence,flour, baking powder then slowly add the milk.

pour into a oven proof dish

cut up the peaches into smaller pieces and spread on top

Bake at 200c till golden brown (about 40 mins)

Serve with ice cream, whipped cream or as Paul would like it, custard (I think it would make it soggy)

I got the original recipe from Cooking with Libby

Yorkshire pudding

PERFECT YORKSHIRE PUDDINGS
For 8

1 mug of flour
pinch of salt
1 mug full of eggs (beaten)
Half mug of water, add a little more if needed.

Mix together and let it rest for 30 mins.
Put a little very hot oil from your roast in a non stick tin,either a large one or small ones like these, if you want add sausage.

To making perfect puddings you need;
Very hot oil,
a well rested mix
and a clean oven glass so you see if they are cooked without opening the door.

Cook at 220 - 230c
till brown about 30 mins.

If your baking a large pudding you need to cook it darker and crispier than these otherwise it may collapse when you take it out of the oven.

Basic Bread Making

How awful is this weather, instead of sun bathing I've been baking, last week it was cakes, today I decided to make some bread.

Now normally I just use the bread maker and often prepared mixes from Lidl, today I wanted to make some bread rolls.

You can use a mixer with a bread hook or as I did I used the bread maker to mix the dough, so in this order you need.

300ml of cold water

10g Salt

500gm bread flour

2 satchets Levure boulangére (dried yeast)

Mix the ingredients together, then place onto a floured surface and knead well.

Put the dough in a bowl, cover and leave in a warm place, guard dog is optional.

Leave till it doubles in size.

Knock it back on a floured surface.

Put the dough in a tin, or make into bread rolls or a long baguette and put on lightly greased paper or a baking tray, if your doing rolls make sure you leave plenty of room around them.

Like this.

Cover with a clean cloth then put them back in a warm place to double again.

Put them into the oven at 200C till golden brown, about 20mins

Guard dog still optional.

For a loaf like this use the same ingredients but only one satchet of levure, bake in your bread maker on the FRENCH setting.

Summer food

I love this time of year , no more stews or soups, winter is about winter warming foods, food that makes you feel good on a cold dark winters evening, but now the summer is here and now its about taste and colour. Using produce fresh from the garden and each week having something new ready to pick. 

In the garden now I have 3 types of lettuce, strawberries and radish, add melon and ham, the sweet melon and the strawberries, the salty ham, peppery lettuce drizzled with extra virgin olive oil, and crunchy radish.

Cold pork with apple

Buffalo Mozzarella, tomatoes and spring onion.

Slice everything up, sprinkle with Basil and pour on olive oil and leave in the fridge for an hour.

Serve any of the recipes with a medium Rosé or a Kir made from Muscadet, its what summers are made for.