More chav

Did greens again (spring greens from the local veg shop and a lettuce), boiled for five minutes, then added single cream, mustard, parmesan.  Served with torn mozzarella ad chips again (!!).  How sad – Nigel Slater wouldn’t allow such rubbish be on his kitchen diaries, would he?

Yorkies

Grandma is here for the annual Christmas shopping extravaganza.  So for Sunday dinner I did my normal roast potatoes, carrots, parsnips, with boiled sprouts and a big Yorkshire pudding.  Stuffed now.

Black cabbage pesto

I minced boiled cavallo nero, mixed with some fried onions, garlic, potatoes (leftover jackets), cream, parmesan and spaghetti.  Nice, and I think very good for you ( not that I care a great deal about that).

Box

The box had

• Sprouts


• Half butternut squash


• Potatoes


• Leeks


• Onions


• Carrots


• Cavallo Nero

Bubble and Squeak

Well, fried onion, leftover sprouts and carrots, added two eggs, some chopped olives and a slug of homous.  Not bad, but N and S were not that impressed.  Also cooked four big red beetroots, for Tuesday night.Bubble and

Too many sprouts

So I have got a little overkeen on the sprout idea.  I cooked far too many (Yorkshire puddings, roast potato and parsnip, boiled carrot, boiled sprout and onions, gravy) for Sunday dinner.  So I need to come up with some recipe for sprout and carrot.  I was thinking of a ‘Bubble and Squeak’ cake.  Will report back.

In the box

In the box:

• Savoy cabbage


• Butternut squash


• Potatoes


• Carrots


• Onions


• Sprouts


• Lettuce

Italian greens, mozarella and chips

We had a real treat tonight.  A mix of Med and Chav.  I chopped quite thinly a spring cabbage, some Savoy cabbage and an onion.  I boiled them (until fairly soft) then mixed in some cream and mustard.  Served with halved mozzarella and a portion of chip shop chips.  Great! We all ate all of it.

Salmon, prawns and Jamie Oliver

N made some really nice poached salmon, with a creamy prawn dressing, leek cous cous and carrots.  Jamie Oliver showed last night how Italian 4 year olds can name fresh vegetables (aubergine, tomato, and fennel).  N said ours already know their veggies, so I’m going to ask them next chance I get.

Making a dent in the carrot mountain

Had a shed-load of carrots to use up.  So grated about 10, and fried with onions and garlic, added risotto rice and cooked.  Served with grated blue Wensleydale (Grommet) and a knob of butter.  The girls enjoyed it, I thought it just tasted of boiled carrots.  Oh well…

Sprouting success

I love roast dinners.  I think, during the summer, we avoid the stodgy hot foods.  But, now the cold air has finally arrived, it is time for roast Sunday dinners again.  I did my big Yorkshire pudding in a roasting tin.  Then roasted some potatoes in butter, and the green pumpkin.  That was really nice, much better than the horrid Halloween pumpkins.  But the real success was roughly chopped sprouts, blanched for four minutes, added to slow fried onions (lots) and some grated ginger and squeezed lime.  It was really tasty.  The kids ate it even.

Squid and black cabbage

Becky brought some squids and prawns around.  For the kids we had spaghetti, with a cavallo nero pesto.  I made that with chopped black cabbage, which I whizzed up in the pan, then drained thoroughly and mixed with olive oil, cream, fried garlic, parmesan, spoon of mustard.  Mixed with pasta.  I then fried the squid tubes and tentacles, and prawns.  Then added a little lemon juice.  N wouldn’t eat the tentacles – she called them “monsters”.

Piiza

Jeremy made some very nice pizzas.  The dough was very thin, with a plain passata, grated cheddar, chopped mozzarella, and then topping added by the kids.  We had mushrooms and black olives.  Then the secret ingredient: Jeremy had a piece of limestone tile in his yard, which he has cut and uses for a pizza stone.  This is heated in the oven and cooks the bases very nicely.

Box

In the box this week

• Cavallo Nero


• Bag of sprouts


• Green Beans


• Half of a Green Squash/pumpkin?


• Onions


• Carrots


• Potatoes

sausages and mustard

Roasted butternut squash, and carrots with leek cous cous and sausages.  Needed lots of mustard.

Basil

Basil seems to be in the market at the moment.  N used up a bunch of basil with spaghetti, pesto, grilled pine nuts, roast tomatoes and some garlic bread.  Warming now the cold weather has set in.

1st Cavallo Nero recipe

We used the Cavallo Nero.  I looked through the River Café Cookbooks (original and Green) and it seemed that most recipes included cream, and some also whizzed into a pesto.  So, I cooked for 10 minutes (RCC suggested 3) and then mixed with cream, parmesan and spaghetti.  Might try adding garlic also next time.  The RCC suggested that it should not be picked until after the 1st frost – which we have not had yet.  It should then be sweet and nutty.  It tasted more like a cross between cabbage and spinach.

Bonfire soup

Made a tomato soup for bonfire night.  It is the 400th anniversary of finding the plot.  We’re off to Andy and Becky’s, so made a soup.  In negotiation with kids, decided on tomato.  Roasted tomatoes with some garlic for ages then skinned and whizzed with water, salt, pepper, and a dash of cream.  Added some fresh basil.  Really tasty.

Friday night is curry night

N got it into her head she wanted to make curry.  I’ve often tried to avoid making curry, partly because my attempts haven’t been very good, partly because I always have the excuse that curry houses do it so much better than I ever could..  But N went with it.  She made spinach and potato (fry in butter mustard seeds, cumin seeds, fennel seeds, onions, added potatoes to fry, then added water spinach, turmeric, chilli and simmered for one hour).  Also had a green lentil dhal.  Would have been better with stronger tastes in curry, and orange lentils.  But really nice, and she will do again.

Black cabbage box

• Black cabbage [edit] also known as Cavallo Nero


• Potatoes


• Carrots


• Leeks


• Onions


• Winter cabbage


• Butternut squash

We had to ring to ask about the black cabbage name. Not used yet…

Tortilla

Faced with hungry children, I made a tortilla.  Too much vegetable, not enough egg.  But it went down well.  Fried onion (slowly, long time), leeks, garlic, boiled cubed potatoes, grated carrot and egg.  Grilled to cook top.  Kids loved it.  Served with loads of Savoy cabbage.

Milk lakes

We’ve had a few problems getting through our milk deliveries, mainly due to being away for whole weekends.  Even though we cancelled one lot, I still ended up pouring 4 pints (!!!) down the drain as they had gone off.  Not good.  Hopefully we are now back on track.

Fry-up Monday

Can’t beat a fry-up.  B and S had eaten, so after bed-time I fried some thinly sliced jacket potatoes (in butter of course) then added some eggs to fry (easy-over, all white cooked) and beans and toast.  Lardy is not the word!!F