Sunday, 17 July 2011

Stuffed Tomatoes and soup

Some large firm tomatoes.

Turn upside down and slice of the bottom.

Scoop out the insides, but leave the flesh intact.

I boiled up some rice in water with curry powder, then used sausage meat and chorizo, I fried the meat with a little curry powder, when cooked added the cooked rice and mixed it together will a little of the chopped tomato pulp, just enough to make it moist.


I then filled the tomatoes with the rice sausage mix, and put the "lids" back on.


I also stuffed a few tomatoes with mozzarella, basil and a little of the tomato pulp.


I put Olive oil and the tomatoes in a roasting dish and gave the tops of the tomatoes a spray of basil flavoured extra virgin olive oil. These went into the oven at 180c.

The rest of the pulp, some courgettes and a parsnip were used in a soup,then I followed my soup recipe HERE

Steamy picture.
After making the soup , blending it.

After blending you can add any rice left from the stuffed tomato recipe.

Checking my recipe

Check your tomatoes after 15 minutes and every five minutes, you want them cooked without collapsing, it will depend on how soft your tomatoes were before you started.

Serve with fresh bread and a rosé

Sunday, 8 May 2011

Veroniques Galettes.

750 ml water
3 egg
3 grams sea salt
250 grams buckwheat flour (farine noir)
50 grams all purpose flour
50 grams melted butter or olive oil

Whisk 250 ml of the water with egg and salt to combine.
In a separate bowl, mix both flours together. Make a well in the centre. Gradually whisk in water mixture. When you have a smooth paste, whisk in remaining water to make a thin batter. (The consistency similar to 35% cream.) You may not use all 500 ml . Set aside at room temperature for 2 hours.
Stir melted butter or oil into batter when ready to cook galettes.

Filling.
Make a bechamel sauce and add the ingredients you want, bacon, boiled potatoes, sausage, or vegetables. Try a full English breakfast on/in a galette, or a Toulouse sausage with ketchup wrapped as Breton hot-dog.








Sunday, 6 February 2011

Rosie's Chicken Stew and Dumplings.

Real poor man's fare, I'm sure you all know why the "upper crust" are called that, for those who don't most bread was made in a cottage loaf style, after baking the upper crust was pulled out including the soft middle, leaving a bowl shaped lower crust, possibly very thin, maybe a little burnt.


As part of my winter food recipes I wanted to do a typical peasant dish, Paul killed two old chickens and removed the breast and the legs, these went in my slow cooker with onions, potatoes, leeks and carrots, I added half a bottle of wine (but this is optional) then topped up with stock till everything was covered, then cooked for 12 hours, After cooking I pulled the legs out and the meat fell off the bone, I then transferred everything into a large saucepan, made my dumplings from flour, baking powder, dried mustard powder and enough water to bind it together and put them in the stew, I also added some tinned peas I had left over in the fridge, some thyme, garlic and seasoning, I simmered it all till the dumplings looked cooked.
I had just been to the bread shop to pick up a sack of stale bread from the bakers, as usual it wasn't stale but would be no use to the shop the following day, amongst all the usual breads was 2 cottage style loaves, I hollowed these out and used them as serving bowls.

Saturday, 29 January 2011

Rosies recipe, Confit de Canard, out of a tin.

Confit de Canard

Have you seen these in the shop and wondered what to do with them?

Buy a tin and a selection of root veg and leeks.

Scrape the fat out of the tin into a saucepan, no need to use it all save some for your roast potatoes on Sunday.

Chop your vegetables into good size chunks and fry in the hot fat.


I like to take my duck off the bone, its up to you,
Add about half a litre of stock (or water and a chicken stock cube), enough to cover the veg. Bring to the boil, add the duck and simmer, takes about 1 hour, as soon as the veg is cooked its ready.


If you want to add dumplings now's the time.


Suet free dumplings, Mix flour (use a sachet of levure chimique, baking powder if not using self raising flour), salt, mustard powder (optional) and a little water, mix into a dough, in mine and Paul's opinion these are nicer than suet dumplings.
Add your dumplings, remember they will swell to 2 - 3 times the size so be careful. cook for a further 15 minutes.

Serve, this will feed about 6 people, a lot depends on how much veg you use, or in our house food for 3 days or maybe freeze some, I would suggest that you use up the dumplings and make fresh when you reheat the confit, they can go hard otherwise.

Rosies Bicuits

Biscuits

Ingredients

  • 325g plain flour
  • 200g chilled salted butter
  • 125g caster sugar
  • 2 tsp vanilla flavouring
  • 2 large egg yolks


Mix the flour, butter and sugar together
Add the egg yolks and vanilla, bind everything together till its like a bread dough.

Roll it into a sausage shape, how large depends on what size biscuits you want to make.
Wrap in cling film and put it into the fridge to let the butter set and make slicing easier, slice into thin slices and place on foil or grease proof paper and bake at 200c, about 15 mins.
Alternatively slice a little thicker, make a well in the centre and add a dollop of jam.

Why not try these made with coconut, or chopped cherries.

Sunday, 23 January 2011

Rosies Rabbit Stew

1 portioned rabbit
Root vegetables, roughly chopped.
4 med sized Potatoes
2 onions, (I used a couple of leeks instead as I was short of veg)
Chicken stock
Optional, Garlic and Chilli.


Roughly chop any root vegetables, keep potatoes separate, I've used Celiriac and carrots, but had I have had any to hand would have added swede and turnip. put them in a good size saucepan (not the potatoes) I also chopped some leeks as well, with a enough chicken stock to more than cover the veg and bring to the boil.
I've used leek in my recipe, but if I hadn't I would have sweated some onions in a pan, add some chopped garlic, and then the portioned rabbit and seal the meat very quickly. You can also add chilli now if you wish.
Put the rabbit in the pot with the vegetables and stock, bring back to the boil.
Simmer for an hour, then add the diced potatoes, simmer for another 45 minutes.
Thicken the sauce by mixing cornflour with a little water then slowly pouring into the stock till its the consistency you want.
Serve