Green...It's the new black.
And it was the theme of this week's cooking. First up I made Lamb koftas's with green sauce. This is an indian dish of mildly spiced lamb meatballs in a yoghurty-herby sauce. It was something I found here on the BBC website and I've been meaning to make it for a little while. It makes a good winter night dinner with its comforting blend of warming spices and the creamy yoghurt sauce. You can make most of it ahead of time so it can be made quickly when you're ready to eat. Its definitely a tasty dinner, but not extraordinary in any way in my opinion.
Then at the weekend I made slow-cooked courgettes with lemons and dill to have on toast for lunch. This was from the Riverford Farm cook book, and can also be found here on their website. It was very good. I love the distinctive flavour of dill, so perhaps its unsurprising that I enjoyed the dish so much.
Not green, but a new twist on an old favourite, was a goats cheese souffle topping for fish pie. It worked well. Dan really enjoyed it. Because the souffle only needs a short time in the oven everything else does need to be cooked before you put the topping on - it doesn't spend long enough in the oven to cook the other ingredients.
Hope you enjoyed bonfire night!
Showing posts with label courgette. Show all posts
Showing posts with label courgette. Show all posts
Sunday, November 7, 2010
Monday, August 30, 2010
More Riverford recipes
I'm still working my way through the Riverford Farm cook book which I bought in Devon. Its an amazingly useful book. I LOVE the fact that its full of fantastic ideas for vegetables.
So...ta dah! This week we had Mexican one-pot courgettes. I only made one amendment to the recipe, and that was enforced; the cream we had in the fridge had gone off so I used sheep's yoghurt instead.
Sorry, no photos - I was too hungry! We had our courgettes (cooked up in one-pot with cinnamon sticks, cloves, pepper, chilli, coriander and mint, yoghurt and tinned tomatoes) with pork loin chops and new potatoes. We both thought this would be great with chicken and rice, and possibly also good cold for work lunches.
It was easy. It was pretty quick. Low effort. Tasty. What's not to like?
I forgot to post last week's recipe - One of my Dad's recipe cards picked up in the supermarket a while back. It was lemon and basil chicken with pasta. It meant that we could have the first crop of peas grown by my own fair hands in our little vegetable plot.
Here's the recipe:
Lemon and basil chicken (for 2)
2 chicken breasts
Handful of basil leaves
Approx 50g fresh peas (or defrosted frozen ones)
Juice of 1/2 lemon
1 tablespoon yoghurt or creme fraiche
Enough pasta for 2 people
Dice the chicken then stir fry it until there is no more pink showing. Stir in all of the other ingredients. Season with salt and black pepper. I also added a pink of smoked paprika but you don't need to. Heat through. Serve with cooked pasta.
It was easy, quick, filling and refreshing on the tastebuds.
PS You will notice that a lot of my recipes recently have been low-effort quick dishes. My explanation (excuse?) is that I'm currently training for a half marathon in 4 weeks time. I'm spending silly amounts of time running, which doesn't leave a lot of energy for complicated cookery!
Next week marks the 52nd of this project, ie a WHOLE YEAR. Who'd have thought I'd keep going for so long? Lobster here I come......
So...ta dah! This week we had Mexican one-pot courgettes. I only made one amendment to the recipe, and that was enforced; the cream we had in the fridge had gone off so I used sheep's yoghurt instead.
Sorry, no photos - I was too hungry! We had our courgettes (cooked up in one-pot with cinnamon sticks, cloves, pepper, chilli, coriander and mint, yoghurt and tinned tomatoes) with pork loin chops and new potatoes. We both thought this would be great with chicken and rice, and possibly also good cold for work lunches.
It was easy. It was pretty quick. Low effort. Tasty. What's not to like?
I forgot to post last week's recipe - One of my Dad's recipe cards picked up in the supermarket a while back. It was lemon and basil chicken with pasta. It meant that we could have the first crop of peas grown by my own fair hands in our little vegetable plot.
Here's the recipe:
Lemon and basil chicken (for 2)
2 chicken breasts
Handful of basil leaves
Approx 50g fresh peas (or defrosted frozen ones)
Juice of 1/2 lemon
1 tablespoon yoghurt or creme fraiche
Enough pasta for 2 people
Dice the chicken then stir fry it until there is no more pink showing. Stir in all of the other ingredients. Season with salt and black pepper. I also added a pink of smoked paprika but you don't need to. Heat through. Serve with cooked pasta.
It was easy, quick, filling and refreshing on the tastebuds.
PS You will notice that a lot of my recipes recently have been low-effort quick dishes. My explanation (excuse?) is that I'm currently training for a half marathon in 4 weeks time. I'm spending silly amounts of time running, which doesn't leave a lot of energy for complicated cookery!
Next week marks the 52nd of this project, ie a WHOLE YEAR. Who'd have thought I'd keep going for so long? Lobster here I come......
Sunday, August 15, 2010
Daring Cooks Challenge August
May I present this month's Daring Cook's challenge; pierogi.
Bear with me here. I know they don't look that tasty.
Pierogi are basically a heavier version of stuffed pasta as far as I can tell, although they were described in the recipe as a dumpling. They seem to be a Polish thing. The filling was a free choice but was meant to reflect your locality. I went for garlic, basil, goats cheese and whizzed up courgette. It may be tenuous, but we have a lot of basil in the garden right now and courgettes seem to be in season. The stuffing mix was a bit too liquid really but just about manageable.
Given how like a heavier stuffed tortellini pasta this was, I made a tomato sauce and toasted some pinenuts to sprinkle over the top.
I think I'll experiment with other fillings. I have a hunch that roast squash, garlic and pancetta would be a good combo.
The really good thing about this dinner was that the work could be done in advance leaving just boiling the pierogi for when you are ready to eat.
The August 2010 Daring Cooks’ Challenge was hosted by LizG of Bits n’ Bites and Anula of Anula’s Kitchen. They chose to challenge Daring Cooks to make pierogi from scratch and an optional challenge to provide one filling that best represents their locale.
Bear with me here. I know they don't look that tasty.
Pierogi are basically a heavier version of stuffed pasta as far as I can tell, although they were described in the recipe as a dumpling. They seem to be a Polish thing. The filling was a free choice but was meant to reflect your locality. I went for garlic, basil, goats cheese and whizzed up courgette. It may be tenuous, but we have a lot of basil in the garden right now and courgettes seem to be in season. The stuffing mix was a bit too liquid really but just about manageable.
Given how like a heavier stuffed tortellini pasta this was, I made a tomato sauce and toasted some pinenuts to sprinkle over the top.
I think I'll experiment with other fillings. I have a hunch that roast squash, garlic and pancetta would be a good combo.
The really good thing about this dinner was that the work could be done in advance leaving just boiling the pierogi for when you are ready to eat.
The August 2010 Daring Cooks’ Challenge was hosted by LizG of Bits n’ Bites and Anula of Anula’s Kitchen. They chose to challenge Daring Cooks to make pierogi from scratch and an optional challenge to provide one filling that best represents their locale.
Friday, July 30, 2010
Moroccan Pancakes, completely ignoring the written recipe!
We had a vegetarian dinner tonight and Dan didn't even complain. I'm getting there - I'll win him round eventually!
It was a Moroccan recipe of stuffed pancakes, but given that I amended every constituent of the recipe I'm not sure if I should be counting it. Still, it was rather tasty, and I think the filling could be used for other dinners too, maybe mixed with rice for a pilaf style dish.
The filling was 1/2 onion chopped and fried gently until soft, then I added 150g spinach and let it wilt. I then chopped that all up finely and mixed it with some mashed up chickpeas (a 200g can should do it), a good handful of coriander leaves, 1 grated courgette and 1 beaten egg. Season to taste and add a shake of ground cumin and ground coriander.
I used 4 gallettes (which I have posted about before) and spooned the mixture in, wrapped them up and put them in a baking dish. I spooned 100g sheeps milk yoghurt over the top and baked them for about 15 mins at 180C.
(The original recipe used a bechemal sauce rather than yoghurt, no spices in the mix, and normal pancakes instead of gallettes.)
It was a Moroccan recipe of stuffed pancakes, but given that I amended every constituent of the recipe I'm not sure if I should be counting it. Still, it was rather tasty, and I think the filling could be used for other dinners too, maybe mixed with rice for a pilaf style dish.
The filling was 1/2 onion chopped and fried gently until soft, then I added 150g spinach and let it wilt. I then chopped that all up finely and mixed it with some mashed up chickpeas (a 200g can should do it), a good handful of coriander leaves, 1 grated courgette and 1 beaten egg. Season to taste and add a shake of ground cumin and ground coriander.
I used 4 gallettes (which I have posted about before) and spooned the mixture in, wrapped them up and put them in a baking dish. I spooned 100g sheeps milk yoghurt over the top and baked them for about 15 mins at 180C.
(The original recipe used a bechemal sauce rather than yoghurt, no spices in the mix, and normal pancakes instead of gallettes.)
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Recreating that holiday feeling...
When we were in Italy last autumnn Dan and I treated ourselves to a wonderful meal on the last night of our holiday.
The restaurant was down on the shores of Lake Garda, tucked away under Malcesine Castle. It was still just warm enough to sit outside in the evening, but no longer high season, so it wasn't crowded.
We gorged ourselves on lovely wine and several beautiful courses of Italian food. The courgette-stuffed tortelloni with ham and pinenut sauce sticks in the memory, as does Dan's dessert of semifreddo with peach compote.
This week I decided to take the flavours of the pasta dish and make something a little bit similar (although not as delicate, silky or delicious!). My version was a much more rustic and hearty. A quick and easy pasta bake, though not a refined culinary masterpiece!
Here's the method.
Courgette and Goats Chees pasta bake with bacon and pinenuts
Enough pasta for 2 people
2 small courgettes
1 or 2 garlic cloves
A handful basil leaves
50g goats cheese
salt and pepper
4 rashers smoked bacon
15-20g pinenuts
Put the oven on to heat up to 180C
Put the pasta on to cook in salted water.
Meanwhile whizz up the courgettes with the basil leaves, garlic and soft goats cheese. Season it.
Check if the pasta is cooked, drain in if it is and rinse in cold water.
Mix with the courgette mix. Turn into an oven proof dish and place in oven to bake for 20 minutes. Check regularly so that it doesn't scorch. Cover it if its browning at at the edges.
After about 10 minutes dry fry the pinenuts in a hot pan.
Then fry or grill the bacon. Cut the rind off and chop it into bite-size pieces.
Take the pasta out of the oven. Scoop it onto plates or into bowls.
Scatter bacon and pinenuts over the top.
Serve.
The restaurant was down on the shores of Lake Garda, tucked away under Malcesine Castle. It was still just warm enough to sit outside in the evening, but no longer high season, so it wasn't crowded.
We gorged ourselves on lovely wine and several beautiful courses of Italian food. The courgette-stuffed tortelloni with ham and pinenut sauce sticks in the memory, as does Dan's dessert of semifreddo with peach compote.
This week I decided to take the flavours of the pasta dish and make something a little bit similar (although not as delicate, silky or delicious!). My version was a much more rustic and hearty. A quick and easy pasta bake, though not a refined culinary masterpiece!
Here's the method.
Courgette and Goats Chees pasta bake with bacon and pinenuts
Enough pasta for 2 people
2 small courgettes
1 or 2 garlic cloves
A handful basil leaves
50g goats cheese
salt and pepper
4 rashers smoked bacon
15-20g pinenuts
Put the oven on to heat up to 180C
Put the pasta on to cook in salted water.
Meanwhile whizz up the courgettes with the basil leaves, garlic and soft goats cheese. Season it.
Check if the pasta is cooked, drain in if it is and rinse in cold water.
Mix with the courgette mix. Turn into an oven proof dish and place in oven to bake for 20 minutes. Check regularly so that it doesn't scorch. Cover it if its browning at at the edges.
After about 10 minutes dry fry the pinenuts in a hot pan.
Then fry or grill the bacon. Cut the rind off and chop it into bite-size pieces.
Take the pasta out of the oven. Scoop it onto plates or into bowls.
Scatter bacon and pinenuts over the top.
Serve.
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