Left overs week

With 9 adults for Christmas lunch, not much of the turkey left. 4kg of Sandridge Farm smoked gammon on Christmas Eve (baked then glazed with soft brown sugar, mustard and studded with cloves) for just 4 adults leaves plenty for sandwiches etc.

Turkey, ham and mushroom pie
Crispy turkey with chinese pancakes
Turkey curry
Ham, egg and chips

Turkey

15 pounds cooked to this recipe for the first, and not last, time.

Mango chutney

Just dug this out for my m-in-law. So the next time I come across Mangoes on offer.....
http://www.curryfrenzy.com/curry/recipes/Mango-Chutney.html

Menu for w/c 16th Nov

Assuming Gammon for lunch tomorrow

M Cannelloni stuffed with cooked ham and tomato sauce
T Fish fingers and chips (Mr B revisiting childhood?)
W Jacket potatoes with either sliced ham, if enough left over, or sausages and coleslaw.
Th Stuffed chicken in parma ham
Meatballs and spaghetti (have some lamb mince in the freezer to use up)


Stuffed chicken
Will stuff each chicken breast with mozzarella and basil leaves, wrap in parma ham and then cook in a hot (200 degree C) oven for 20 minutes.

Leftover Ham recipes

Canelloni stuffed with ham and tomato - from '100 best pasta recipes' book
Chicken, Gammon and Egg pie
Pasta with Saffron, Ham and Peas

Chicken and Turkey Leftover recipes

Chicken in Barbeque Sauce
Chicken and Sweetcorn Enchiladas
Chicken and sweetcorn soup
Chicken, Gammon and Egg pie
Chicken and Leek pie

Chicken Rissoles

Coronation Chicken
Crispy Turkey Pancakes
Portugese Chicken Soup
Turkey and Pasta
Turkey Curry

Menu for w/c 9th November 2009; Tomato and Goat's Cheese crumble

M Pasta with Tuna and tomato sauce
T Tomato and Goats Cheese Crumble (see below)
W Tex Mex - Nachos (uses up the rest of the guacamole and salsa), BBQ Ribs and Sweetcorn
Th Duck and Chips (as requested by the birthday boy)
F Pork and Apple Bake

Tomato and Goat's Cheese Crumble

1kg tomatoes - mixed varieties including cherry tomatoes, roughly chopped with some cherry tomatoes left whole
Olive oil
225g goat's cheese (ideally half firm and half soft but full amount of either fine as well) cubed
50g pine nuts
100g fresh breadcrumbs
50g parmesan cheese, freshly grated

Preheat oven to 180C

Heat 2tbsp olive oil in a pan over medium heat; add tomatoes, apart from cherry tomatoes, and cook for about 10 minutes until soft. Add cherry tomatoes for the last minute.

Meanwhile, in another pan heat 2bsp olive oil and fry the breadcrumbs and pine nuts until golden (if anything I use less than 100g of breadcrumbs).

In oven proof baking dish layer tomato sauce and cubes of goats cheese.

Cover with breadcrumb/pine nut mixture and sprinkle over parmesan.

Back in the oven for 20 minutes or until golden


Serve with crusty bread and a green salad

Chicken and Sweetcorn Soup

A must do soup in the Brode household from stock created from the carcass of a roast chicken.

First make chicken stock: put carcass of chicken (stripped of most of the cooked meat) into a large saucepan and cover, just, with water (include vegetable cooking water and any left over gravy of making from a roast chicken). Bring to boil then simmer for about an hour. Longer is even better. Strain off the stock. Leave the carcass to cool and pick off any remaining meat to add to the soup.

For basic soup simply add the pieces of chicken to the stock, add a tin of sweetcorn (preferably one that it is in just water, no salt or sugar added) and briefly blend. Do not blend until smooth. The aim is to have recognisable bits of chicken and sweetcorn.

Favourite is to also add chopped spring onions (aka scallions), simmer for at least 5 minutes, the briefly blend.

If you like a thicker soup, blend cornflour with the contents of tin of sweetcorn before adding (ie with the water in the tin) before adding to stock and chicken. Stir until soup has thickened. Blend further if need be.

Ideal seasoning for this soup is a dash of soy sauce.

Menu for w/c 12th Oct

Roast chicken for Sunday lunch and some cooked gammon in freezer leading to a couple of supper/salads

Suppers

M Spag Bol
T Baked baby squash
W Chicken, Gammon and Egg pie. No pastry involved will make onion sauce, stir in cubes of cooked, chicken and gammon, sliced boiled eggs. Top with a mix of cornflakes and grated cheese and crisp under grill
Th
F From freezer: Pork with mushroom and cream sauce

Lunches
Egg salad
Spicey marinated Prawn salad (not sure what in marinade just yet!)
Coronation chicken salad

Soup - has to be a batch of Chicken and Sweetcorn!

Pork and Apple Bake

Another good recipe for the remainder of a Pork roast

Preheat oven to 180C
Finely chop 2 medium onions
Cut 2 medium carrots into fine (julienne) strips
Cook onions and carrots in rapeseed/sunflower oil over medium heat until onions are transparent.
Cover base of baking dish with the onions and carrots
Thin slices of cooked pork (about 8oz) and arrange in layer ontop of the carrots and onions
Peel, core and slice a cooking apple and arrange on top of the pork.
Pour over enough cider to a level just below that of the layer of apple
Sprinke soft brown sugar (about 2tbsp - less if you use a dessert apple) over the apple

Bake in oven for 20-25 minutes

Serve with mashed potato and a green vegetable

Menu for w/c 5th October 2009

Pork roast today. Fresh coriander in the reduced cabinet at the supermarket yesterday so a batch of carrot and coriander soup made as well (some for the week, the rest for the freezer).

M Quiche (Gammon and Onion)
T Pork and Apple Bake
W Chicken stir fry and ChowMein
Th C Pie
F Pizza

Salads
BBq pork and coleslaw
Cottage cheese with toasted pinenuts and chopped spring onion
Quiche

Sloe Gin

Never made it before, but the sloes are also cropping well in the hedgerows this year!

Combination of recipe here and input from a friend who makes sloe gin annually:

Fill a container a third-half full of washed and pricked sloes - I am using a 4l plastic bottle (used to contain water) - add some sugar (about 500g) then fill with gin. Agitate bottle once a day for a week then once a month for 2-3 months. Decant! Making it end of Sept/start October means it should be ready to drink this Christmas.

Nuts

Carrying on the foraging theme - good crop of cob nuts from the hazels lining the various fields and bridle paths around here. A number of recipes out on the 'net that I was going to try with them, but they are being eaten as a snack by themselves even though they are 'green' (Mr B reckons they taste like chestnuts).

The walnut tree that overhangs the garden also has a good crop this year.

Maybe I'll have some left of each type in the bowl at Christmas!

Rosehip and Apple Jelly

The autumn foraging has been good this year. Have been picking rosehips from the wild rose bushes over the last few days when out with the dog.

Basics for any fruit jelly are:
- cover fruit with water and simmer until soft
- mash lightly if needed (as is the case for rosehips)
- pour into a jelly/muslin bag hung over a clean bowl and leave to drip overnight. You must NOT prod the mixture or bag otherwise you will not have a clear jelly at the end.
- measure the resulting liquid and put into preserving pan/large saucepan
- for each pint of liquid add 1lb of warmed sugar
- bring to boil, stirring until sugar is totally dissolved
- boil vigorously until set (number of websites that tell you how to test for this. If one of my children don't remember how to do this - shame on you!)
- pot into hot sterilised jam jars and seal (everything you use should be sterilised -again look up tips on this on websites)

For this jelly the quantities of fruit are twice the weight of apples (cooking, crab or dessert) to the weight of rosehips. No need to peel the apples, just chop. I am told, that you can also use fallers - would remove any bruises etc if you do. Rosehips take longer to cook than apples so give them a good 30 minutes of simmering prior to adding the chopped apples. Otherwise follow as above!

This jelly goes well with meat.

Menu for w/c 12th Sept

Finally managed to turn off the large freezer in the garage (it has been on max freezer to keep the three top shelves forzen. I know that cold air sinks, but didn't seem to work in this ancient beast). So this week was a final items that wouldn't fit into the smaller freezer in the kitchen.

Lamb roast on Sunday.
M Chicken and mushroom pie and chips
T Lamb Meatloaf with tomato sauce
W Toad in the hole (used James Martin recipe - need to do half quantities next time!)
Th Barbeque - chicken with piri piri sauce and burgers
Fr 'Slugs'

Millionaire's shortbread

The best recipe for this is from the queen Mary Berry


A variation is:

Put

• 225g plain flour
• 100g caster sugar
• 225g butter
  
• 100g semolina

into a food processor and 'pulse' until dough is formed.
Press mixture into a shallow tin and prick all over with a fork
Cook in pre-heated oven (160C) for about 30 minutes (until lightly golden)
Leave to cool

When cool, spread over a tin of 'Dulche de leche' or the toffee sauce in Mary Berry's recipe in the link above. (The latter is to gently heat together 175g butter, 175g sugar, 4tbsp golden syrup and 1 can of condensed milk.)

Melt 200g of good quality milk chocolate in a bowl in the microwave (see your microwave instruction booklet) or over a pan of hot water and spread over the caramel

Menu for w/c 31 August and Cannellini Bean Bake

M Beef and Chorizo
T Duck and Chips
W Lamb and Feta
Th Fajitas
Fr Cannellini Bean Bake

Cannellini Bean Bake

Slice an onion and poach in water until tender
Drain, reserving the liquid
Put the liquid into a measuring jug and top up with milk to half a pint

Make a white sauce:
Melt 1oz butter and stir in 1oz plain flour and cook, stirring, for a couple of minutes
Gradually add the half pint of onion cooking liquid/milk mix stirring constantly until smooth and thick

In the bottom of an oven proof dish put 2 (or 3 if feeding a hungry four) drained tins of cannellini beans. Top with the cooked onion followed by a tin of chopped tomatoes. Pour over the white sauce and cover with grated cheddar cheese. Cook in preheated oven 180C for about 20 minutes, until bubbling and cheese is golden.

Serve with salad and, optionally, crusty bread

Quiche

Used my 9"x 6" (2" deep) rectangular baking dish for a quiche for a change and think it will be something I repeat regularly. One packet of shop bought ready rolled short crust pastry fits nicely. (Don't tell my grandmother that I don't always make my own pastry!). Alternatively use an 8" flan dish.

Recipe

One pack of ready rolled short crust pastry
3 eggs beaten
300ml milk
Filling of choice
Grated cheddar

Heat oven to 180C
Line baking tray/flan dish with the pastry. Prick the base all over with a fork and brush with egg (taken from the beaten egg for the filling).
Bake 'blind' (ie with no filling) in oven for 15 minutes.
Remove from oven and add filling and cheese
Mix together the beaten eggs and milk and pour over filling
Put back into oven and cook for 30-40 minutes (until skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean)

Filling ideas
Fillings without the grated cheese should come to about half way up the dish (loosely added, ie not pressed down in any way)

• Gammon/ham and onion (fry onions until transparent)
• Asapargus (suggest use flan dish rather than deeper baking tray)
• Caramalised onions (finely chop 1.5lb onions and cook long and slow in 2oz butter until caramalised, ie deep brown)

Soups

Soups
- Asparagus
- Carrot and Coriander
- Chicken and Sweetcorn- Curried Parsnip
- Lamb and Pearl Barley
- Leek and Potato
- Lentil
- Mushroom
- Nettle
- Portuguese Chicken Soup
- Refrigerator
- Thai: Sugarsnap and Beansprout Laksa
- Tomato

Meat Rissoles

I was looking for my recipe for rissoles on this blog and couldn't find it. As it is one of the ultimate uses for 'left over roast' of any form...

Basics recipe is

8oz cooked meat minced with 1 small onion and a clove of garlic
Stir in:
1.5 oz breadcrumbs
1 beaten egg
2 tbsp parsley
salt and pepper

and add spices/seasoning depending on the meat (eg cumin and coriander - half tsp max of combined - for lamb)

Make into 6 - 8 thick rounded burgers (aka 'patties'). Coat with seasoned flour and then shallow fry for about 5 minutes on each side.

For chicken/turkey - I don't add anything else
For lamb - as suggestion above ie cumin and coriander (serve with yogurt and rice)
Other cold meat - too many other recipes for me to have tried rissoles with them!

Salads for this week

Have been picking a selection of differing leaves from the garden daily for the last few weeks. Rocket, chard and lettuce being the main ones

M: Gammon, celery and green pepper
T: Beef and beetroot in horseradish and yogurt dressing
W: Broad bean and butterbean
Th: Egg and anchovy (using up anchovies from warm pea, tomato and potato salad)

Lentil soup

I cook gammon joints in my trusty pressure cooker. The cooking liquid I then turn into lentil and gammon soup:

500g red lentils - rinse in seive until the water runs clear
2 onions chopped
5 carrots chopped
3 pints of cooking liquid topped up with water or stock and water

Bring slowly to the boil then simmer for 20-25 minutes until the carrots are cooked.
Liquidise when cool enough to do so.

If sufficient gammon left over from joint (and I try and make sure there is), shred and add to the soup.

Redcurrants

Picking redcuarrants this weekend. I love them fresh dipped in white sugar. Rest of family not so sure. So a collection of ideas for trial over the next week:

Warm redcurrant dressing (this recipe is with goats cheese salad)
With duck breast
Redcurrant compote with baked cambemert

Later update: I made something that took elements from all of the above recipe links:
200g redcurrants
dash of olive oil
2tbsp balsamic vinegar
1tbsp dark brown soft sugar

Put all into saucepan and cook gently for a couple of minutes.

Not perfected as yet, but a very good first pass if I do say so myself. I added half of the above quantity (cooked) to deglaze pan used for cooking lamb chops. Yum. Used the rest to serve with cold gammon and new potatoes. Double yum.

Warm potato, pea and tomato salad

A friend gave me this recipe some years back, but I can't find her version. I made the following from memory; it turned out just fine:

15-20 cherry tomatoes halved
8 oz frozen peas (fresh will of course be fine, just cook for less time)
half a tin of anchovies (about 3) roughly chopped
2 tbsp olive oil
6-8 new potatoes scraped, halved and boiled.
Bunch of mint chopped (have a feeling original recipe used basil)
1 tbsp balsamic vingegar
Black pepper (NO salt - the anchovies provide this)

Heat olive oil and lightly fry anchovies with peas until anchovies have 'melted' (about 15 mins)
Mix in with potatoes, tomatoes, mint, vinegar and season with pepper.
Serve!

A platter of this salad (the above does for two if served this way) topped with barbequed chicken and lamb goes down well and is also simple as nothing else is required to accompany it.

Otherwise the above quantities will easily serve 4 with other salads etc.

Rhubarb Icecream

My rhubarb in the garden is having another good year (maybe due to the wet summer last year?). Combined with an abundant supply of eggs I have been experimenting with a number of ice cream recipes.

Here's the favourite to date:
http://www.chefdecuisine.com/dessert/icecream/RHUBARB_ICE_CREAM.asp
Although used a bit more rhubarb and made the custard by whisking the egg yolks with the sugar, bringing the milk to the boil, adding to egg/sugar mixture and then back into the pan (it gets to coating consistency quicker this way and no need to strain.

No Pastry quiche aka Frittata with a twist

As we're getting at least 3 eggs a day from the new hens I have spent some time working out how to try and keep at least only slightly behind the supply without resorting to cakes.

This recipe is perfect for lunch either at home or in the office as it is lovely eaten at room temperature with a green salad.

Having been making this every other week for the last couple of months, refining as I go along, am now ready to record/share!

Heat oven to 180C

8 eggs whisked until lightly frothy
100ml milk
- Add milk to eggs with seasoning depending on filling (eg less salt when using home cooked gammon)
- put other filling ingredients (see below) into dish aiming to fill two thirds of the dish loosely.
- Pour over milk and egg mixture
- cook in preheated oven for about 25 minutes or when egg mixture is set

Size of dish: the above is for 12" quiche dish. For 9" quiche dish use 6 eggs with 75ml milk. 10 eggs etc if large lasagne dish. The egg mixture should not quite cover the other ingredients. If unsure on how many eggs needed it is easy to quickly whisk up more eggs to get to the right level in the dish. Adjust time of cooking accordingly.

So far I have included new potatoes in all fillings, well they are in season, about 250g scrubbed, sliced into about 1cm pieces then cooked.

Unless otherwise indicated, another common ingredient is at least one onion chopped and fried in oil until soft.

Successful fillings to date

New potatoes, sliced chorizo, halved cherry tomatoes, fresh marjoram, cubed feta (no onion)
New potatoes, asparagus spears (cooked), grated cheddar
New potatoes, cubed home cooked gammon/bacon joint, extra fried onion, parsley, grated cheddar [Frittata Lorraine?!]
New potatoes, broccoli and blue cheese (stilton or danish blue and quite a bit of it to get the bite of the 'blue' coming through)

As the vegetable patch starts to produce then bulk of potatoes is likely to be replaced by courgette etc

Two excellent soups

Asparagus Soup from James Martin

and Nettle soup - yes you have read that right. The only recipe I wear gloves to prepare!

Heat 2 tbsp oil in a large saucepan
About 8 good handfuls of nettle tops
Sweat with 1 chopped onion and 2 peeled and chopped potatoes (about 1lb).
Then add about 1.5 pints of vegetable stock.
Blend. Taste and add s&p as required
Add 4 tbsp of cream/sour cream

Menu for week starting 6th April 2009

Large leg of lamb on Sunday - the family who were coming for lunch cried off last minute, so a good salad and 'left over' meal planned.

M Spaghetti and 'quick' tuna sauce Update from Mr B - very fiddly so not quick and although tasty not worth the effort put into it
T Mozzarella and Asparagus bake Update - recipe is for 2, we ended up with 5 in the house. Added pan grilled chicken in with the recipe and the bake stretched to 5 and then some
W Jacket potatoes - x 15 year olds due to be here for the evening so a stack of potatoes, sausages and coleslaw in stock as the numbers fluctuate by the hour
Th Lamb with piquant sauce
F Fajitas

Menu for week starting 30th March

Beef brisket slowly pot roasted in red wine on Sunday. Makes a brilliant steak sandwich phili style

M Turkey lasagne
T Phili Steak sandwich
W Gammon and chips
Th Something special (it's a family birthday)


Salads
Tomato and Mozzeralla
Pastrami and Coleslaw
Bean saladx2

Menu for w/c 23 March

Mr B cooked 'proper' potato salad with chicken schnitzel , as detailed in the Sunday Times magazine from a few weeks back, on Saturday. It has gone straight into my top 10 favourite meals!

M Beef and chorizo (from freezer), rice and salad
T Stir Fry chicken and noodles
W Leftover beef recipe
Th Slugs or Curry (if M is babysitting)
F Burger and chips


Salad
Cheese and carrot
Beef and blue cheese or blue cheese and walnut (if not enough beef left)
Tuna
Tomato and salami

menu for week 16th March

M Baked gammon with parsley sauce
T Pork chops in mustard and sugar
W Chicken and Ham pie
Th Spagetti bol
F Duck mini fillets

Salads
Avacado and mushroom
Pork and coleslaw
Chicken and new potato

Recipe: Sage and Onion Stuffing

Mince 1 onion in food processor

Heat 1 tbsp oil in frying pan and gently cook onion until soft

Put 3oz white bread and 1 tbsp of fresh sage leaves into food processor and process to get breadcrumbs

Add to onion with a lightly beaten egg and mix all together. Make into stuffing balls and cook for 30 minutes alongside roast/potatoes.

Recipe Collection: Lamb - roast leftover

This collection is to use up anything left over from a roasted lamb joint

Lamb Meatloaf
Potato Boulangere with minced cooked meat

Recipe Collection: Beef (cooked)

This collection is to use up anything left over from a roasted beef joint

Cheesy Beef Pie
Potato Boulangere with minced cooked meat

Recipe collection: Pork - cooked

This collection is for using anything that might be left from a roasted pork joint

Pork Shepherd's Pie
Pork in a piquant sauce
Pork and Apple Bake
Pork in sweet and sour sauce

Recipe collection: bread

Bread past its freshness can be used in numerous recipes. If none take your fancy immediately, create breadcrumbs (process slices torn into chunks in a food processor) and freeze them.

Cheese Pudding
Monmouth Pudding
Meat Rissoles
Oven baked Potato Croquettes
Sage and Onion Stuffing
Schnitzels

Recipe: Cheesy Beef Pie

10 oz Cooked beef
8oz cooked potatoes
Process the above so minced together.
Stir in
2 oz grated cheese, 2 egg yolks and salt and plenty of pepper.

Whisk the 2 egg whites until stiff. Stir in 1tbsp into the meat mixture then fold in the rest.
Put into a greased baking dish and scatter a further 2oz of grated cheese on the top. Bake in oven preheated to 180C for 30 minutes until cheese on top has browned.

Serve with green veg (and tomato ketchup!)

Menu for w/c 9th March

Made, and froze, about 4 pints of curried parsnip soup over the weekend using the last parsnips from the garden.
Aim for next few weeks is to eat up a good number of the meals we have frozen over the past few months as we have been adding more to the freezer than we have been taking out! Also for this week: hopefully enough pork left over from the roast on Sunday for one evening meal and one lunchtime salad.

M Cassoulet (from freezer) with salad
T Slow cooked lamb and vegetables (from freezer) with baked potatoes
W Sweet and sour pork with egg fried rice
Th Spaghetti with pesto chicken and pine nuts
F TBD

Salads
Blue cheese and walnut
Carrot, cheese and pumpkin seeds
BBQ coated pork with coleslaw
Tuna nicoise

Menu for w/c 2nd March

Very good, if I do say so myself, roast beef yesterday. So some left over beef recipes later in the week!

M Meatballs in tomato sauce. Taglietelle to accompany
T Fatty Pork and Lentil stew
Belly pork was on offer and found this very good looking recipe in one of my Nigel Slater cookbooks (can't find it referenced online) Update: very similar to a cassoulet. Next time, it is definitley a repeatable recipe, will add half again more lentils
W Quorn escalopes and chips
Th Cheesy Beef Pie
F Take out - it's someone's birthday!

Salads
Coronation Chicken Portion of Chicken Pasanda made on Saturday, with added yogurt and sulatnas served with rice salad and shredded iceburg lettuce
Beef and Blue Cheese
Rice Salad and Ham
Beef and Beetroot with an attempt at making a better horseradish based dressing than last time. Update: dessertspoon of horseradish sauce to about 3tbps of yoghurt with half tbsp oil and a splash of white wine vinegar/lemon juice worked a treat

Recipe: Root Vegetable Bake

Selection of root vegetables (parsnips, carrot, turnips, potatoes etc) - cooked and mashed
Leeks - sliced and cooked
Cheddar Cheese

Stir cooked leeks into the mashed root vegetables and put into oven proof dish. Cover with grated cheddar cheese and bake in oven preheated to 180C until cheese is bubbling. Serve with a green veg and chutney.

For the carnivores this also goes well with cold ham.

Menu for w/c 23rd Feb

Start of Lent this week

M Jacket Potatoes, sausages and coleslaw
T Root veg bake - followed by pancakes of course
W Slugs (common name Tortellini!) and sauce
Th Risotto Milanese with Lamb Ossobuco
F Coq au vin (from freezer)

Salads
- Chicken and Ham with beetroot
- Mozzorella and Oven baked tomatoes Halve a punnet of cherry tomatoes, scatter with torn basil leaves, drizzle with olive oil and cook in a medium oven for about 30 minutes. Cool
- Ham and Coleslaw
- Tuna Nicoise

Recipe: Monmouth Pudding

My variant of an easy, and cheap, pudding

450ml milk
35g sugar
35g butter
Zest of lemon
175g fresh breadcrumbs
2 eggs lightly beaten
5 tbsp strawberry jam

Put milk, sugar, butter and zest into a saucepan, bring to boiling point. Take off the heat and stir in breadcrumbs. Leave to cool slightly before stirring in eggs. Whilst this is happening melt the jam either in microwave or in small saucepan.

Place half the mixture in the bottom of a greased 2pint oven proof dish. Spread over half the jam then repeat with remaining mixture and remaining jam.

Cook in oven preheated to 170C for 40 minutes or until a knide inserted into the centre comes away clean.

Serve with ice cream

Menu for w/c 16 Feb 09

M Chilli con carne
T Piri piri chicken in pitta bread

Coated pieces of cooked chicken with home made Piri Piri sauce put into pocket of toasted pitta with salad

W Frankfurter and potato goulash trialing new recipe

Th I'm out so suspect boys will have a salad (not)
Fr Chicken and leek pie

Using up the rest of the cooked chicken. Make up a white sauce mix in par boiled leeks and chicken. Cover with puff pastry and cook in oven

Recipe: Soups

Soups are SOOO simple to make. We always have pots of soup in the freezer ready for lunches at work/weekend or starters for when we have people round for supper. I still have the hand-blender that I bought to create weaning food for first child - ie it is approximately 17 years old and still going strong. Here are some recipes. I am sure I will add more later!

Carrot and Coriander
Based on one from BBC Recipes online . If you have cooked carrots and/or swede leftover from Sunday lunch, or other meal, add just before the ground coriander. If making day after a Sunday lunch then the vegetable cooking water can make up some of the stock.

Roughly chop a large onion and 1lb of peeled carrots
Fry in 1 tbsp rapeseed/sunflower oil for 5 minutes on medium heat
Add 1 tsp ground coriander and cook for a further minute
Add 2 pints vegetable stock and cook for about 15 minutes until carrots are tender
Add bunch fresh coriander, roughly torn or chopped

Blend using handblender
Taste and season with s&p if necessary

Curried Parsnip soup
Will soon be making a large batch of this for the freezer as I need to clear the part of the vegetable patch that the parsnips are in.
1 large onion chopped
1lb parsnips washed, peeled and chopped
1tsp curry powder
2pts vegetable stock

Fry onion and parsnips in oil for a few minutes. Add curry powder and cook for further minute. Add stock and cook until parsnips are tender. Blend with hand-blender. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Spot the similarity as we move onto...
Mushroom soup
1 large onion chopped
10oz - 1lb mushrooms roughly chopped
1pt vegetable stock
Half pint (max) milk
Fry onion until softened. Add mushrooms and fry gently for a further 2 minutes (until juices beginning to flow from mushrooms). Add vegetable stock and simmer for 10 minutes. Blend and add milk to required consistency. Taste and season with salt and pepper.

Left over soup my take on 'refrigerator soup', as my mother in law would call it
Take all the left over vegetables from Sunday Lunch (cook extra if you are planning on doing this soup)
Left over Gravy
Bring to simmer with enough
Water the vegetables were initially cooked in

Blend with hand-blender adding more of the aforementioned water to get desired consistency.
Taste and season with one of the following:

• Salt and Pepper
• Mushroom Ketchup
• Soy Sauce

Recipe: Pork in a piquant sauce

Left over gravy as well as roast pork? Either use the gravy as a base for soup or in this recipe.

Half pint of gravy
1 small onion finely chopped
1tbsp oil
2 tsp capers chopped
1tsp mustard (Dijon or whole grain)
2 tbsp redcurrant, or similar, jelly
2tbsp red wine
Sliced cooked pork (enough for 4 people)

Gently fry onion in oil until beginning to brown. Add all other ingredients (apart from the meat) and cook gently until the jelly has melted. Put the slices of meat in the base of a shallow oven-proof dish (single layer or slightly overlapping) and pour over the sauce. Heat through in oven preheated to 180C for 15 minutes.

Server with boiled small potatoes and seasonal vegetables.

Recipe: Pork Shepherd's Pie

Good use of leftover from Sunday roast pork

1 large onion - minced in food processor
10oz cooked pork - minced in food processor with
- a large fresh sage leaf and
- half tsp of fresh rosemary leaves (if using dried herbs use quarter tsp of each)
1 tbsp oil
8oz tin tomatoes
1lb potatoes cooked and mashed

Gently fry onions in the oil until beginning to brown. Add meat mixture and cook for a further couple of minutes over high heat. Add tin of tomatoes, salt and pepper and cook, breaking up the tomatoes if not pre chopped, until most of the tomato juice has been absorbed/cooked off.

Put into an oven proof dish and top with the mashed potato. Cook in oven (pre-heated to 180 C or 170C for Fan oven) for 40 minutes.

Serve with green vegetable (and tomato ketchup of course)

Menu for w/c 9th Feb

Slight change in plans due to adverse (for UK) weather means I only need half a week of lunch and supper menus.

Supper

W Pork Shepherds Pie (a 'left over' recipe)
T Jacket potatoes with sausages and coleslaw
F Cassoulet or Coq au Vin (both pre-cooked and in the freezer)
S Turkey Curry (M is out and he doesn't 'do' curry. Turkey because have some turkey breast 'steaks' in the freezer)

Salads
Beansprouts and carrot x2:
Basic components - 'sprout' a batch of beans (I use the bean sprouter I got from Lakeland . Have sprouted mung beans this time but aduki beans are also very good), add grated carrot (about half the volume of the sprouted beans)
Version 1: add chopped celery, a scattering of pumpkin seeds, a small amount of finely sliced lettuce and serve with salad cream (or other dressing)
Version 2: as above but also add chopped green or red peppers.
Planning on the 2 variants works better if there is a requirement for a full week of salad lunches rather than just 3 days.

BBQ Pork and Coleslaw
Inspired by a barbeque party we held last summer (will have to wait until barbeque season hits before I refine the hot version of this) and another good use of cold roast pork
Fine strips of cooked pork (ensure all fat removed) mixed with bbq sauce (out of a bottle from shop) to coat.
Combine with salad leaves and finally chopped cucumber. Top with a good dollop of coleslaw

Recipe: Chocolate Brownies

I was away last week so just spending some mother - son time making chocolate brownies. I scrabble around for a recipe without nuts every time we make brownies as not all the family enjoy nuts. I might add to this post later as we try out differing ones. Todays are from Nigel Slater

Post cooking and tasting: we used basic cocoa powder and chocolate with 70% cocoa solids. Tasted great! In our oven (a fan oven that has fan element broken so acts as a tempremental 'conventional' oven) 25 minutes was a touch over the time needed so will go for 22 minutes as first time check when we cook these again.

Menu for the week 26th Jan 2009

Burns night yesterday. Kids have never had haggis so, we're opening the week with ...

M Haggis (tatties and neeps to accompany of course)
Mr B has treated himself to a single malt.

T Chicken fajhitas.
Great standby for when staggered family eating is required (various evening activities happening). Used to be a sneaky way of getting salad into the menu as well - but now they are older...

W Pork rissoles - going to try with mushrooms. If it works will write up recipe later in the week
(Sunday roast was boned, rolled leg of pork, ie this is one of my left over recipes). Post trial feedback - it didn't work well enough for me to write up recipe.

Th Freezer meal

F Chicken and pesto pasta.

Recipe: Lamb Meatloaf

10 oz cooked lamb
3 oz bacon (depends on how lean the lamb is to whether I use streaky or back bacon)
1 large onion
1 tbsp parsley
2 fresh sage leaves
2 eggs
2 tbsp tomato juice (from a tin of tomatoes if making tomato and onion sauce to accompany)
salt and pepper.

Mince the lamb, bacon, onion and herbs together in a food processor.
Beat the eggs, tomato juice, salt and pepper together in a separate bowl and then mix into the meat mixture.
Grease a 2lb loaf tin and line the bottom with greaseproof paper.
Cook in oven preheated to 200C for 35 minutes (it is cooked if a knife put into the middle of the loaf comes away clean)

Serve with a tomato and onion sauce made from the rest of the tin of tomatoes, new potatoes and a seasonal green vegetable.

Salads

Lunch at work is salad and soup (home made of course) for Mr B and salad for Mrs B. The exception is on a Friday when Mr B treats himself to something from the sandwich van (all day breakfast bap I think is a favourite) to celebrate the end of the working week.

Last week salads:

Lamb and new potato
Egg
Parma Ham and Porcini topping (remaining from the Jamie Oliver recipe)
Blue Cheese and Walnut

This week potential salads:

Tuna Nicoise
Feta Cheese and Olive
Pork and caper
Sprouted beans (must go and set some going)

Menu for last week

Last weekend Mr B cooked his brilliant cassoulet. It fills our largest casserole dish, and that's BIG, so stocks the freezer for a number of future 'freezer' meals. It contains lamb, pork (belly pork and sausages), chicken and duck on the meat front. This time it also contained a very local pheasant as well. A large cock pheasant made the mistake of deciding that the food we give our chickens was also for him. He made a good addition to the pot.

A leg of lamb was our Sunday roast, so the menu for the week contained a lamb meat-loaf.

M Jamie Oliver's (yes still delving into his At Home recipe book) Pasta with Leeks and Prosciuto
Can't find a link to the actual recipe - go buy the book, highly recommended. The feedback from family: 'yum', 'you can't taste the leeks' the latter being from a leek cynic.

T Lamb Meat Loaf
One of my 'left over sunday roast' recipes. Will type it up later.

W Chicken Stir Fry
Buy pack of chicken breast fillets, a stir fry vegetable mix that takes your fancy, medium egg noodles and, if you haven't got the inclination to make, a stir fry mix (eg sweet and sour). Result - sweet and sour chicken and vegetable chow mein. If you really want to have recipe for this then add a comment or, in the case of my kids, ask your father.

Th 'Sea' Pie
Not what you're thinking: I thought it was a fish/seafood based pie when I married into this family. Turns out it is a posh version of corn beef hash. This recipe is part of Mr B's repitoire. Recipe will be added to blog at a later date.

F Freezer meal.
Great standby either for when we can't think of anything else or evening plans change!

Recipe: Cheese Pudding

I am ending the week on a cheap classic (as in I remember it being made by my mother on a regular basis). Definatley one for the kids when they get to college.

Preheat oven to 200C
Half pint of milk - heat to boiling point.
Add 4oz fresh breadcrumbs (small cubes of white bread do just as well) and 1oz of butter.
Stand for 5 mins
Add 4 oz grated cheddar cheese and season
Mix in 1-2 eggs (I normally use 2 medium)
Pour into greased 1 pint dish and cook until risen and brown on top (25-35mins depending on depth of dish - insert a skewer and it will come out clean if it is cooked)

In summer server with new potatoes and a green veg
In winter serve with baked potatoes and a green veg


Probably worth noting at this point that I have 3 chickens who between them produce an egg a day in the depths of winter (2 or 3 per day during the summer). Free range eggs are therefore readily available in this household. With teenage son still in rapid growth mode, we also have numerous ends of bread loaves. These ends only get fed to chickens as a very last resort. You'll spot the theme!

What we ate this week

The aim is to have the menu set up at the start of the week rather than reporting on what it was! However, prior to me throwing away the piece of paper with the menu on for this week just gone...

Monday: Red Onion and Goats Cheese Tart (brilliantly simple, loved by the whole family and they even eat salad with it! Recipe to follow in future weeks)
Tuesday: Meatballs in tomato sauce on pasta. I made the meatballs prior to Christmas and froze so another relatively simple meal. Well we are all just back to work/school.
Wednesday: Pork Shepherds Pie (Using up rest of roast pork from Sunday - again recipe will follow as this is a family favourite)
Thursday: Turkey curry aka freezer meal. Home made curry sauce with left over white meat from the christmas turkey. Doubt if I will ever get round to typing up all my left over turkey meals - making them is a day after Boxing Day task.
Friday: Cheese Pudding - see next post for the recipe.

An aside (and note to self for next year): great leftover recipe for the dark meat from the remains of the turkey inspired by the Jamie Oliver recipe (OK so I didn't have anywhere near the right ingredients to do Jamie's recipe so had to adapt.... considerably)

Shred, using your fingers, the remainder of the dark meat from cold turkey
For each 'handful' (will weigh out what a 'handful' is next year) add a teaspoon of five spice powder and dry fry (aka cook in frying pan on medium heat with no oil). Stir or shake every now and then until it resembles crispy duck shreds

Serve as if the turkey is crispy duck, in wraps with hoi-sin sauce, shredded cucumber and spring onions.

Starting post

At some point I will add this to the About this Blog panel!

This is a blog aimed as a place for me to record menu plans for family of four, somewhere to store the recipes I have on scraps of paper (such as my mothers wonderful recipe for marmalade - seville oranges in season soon!) and potentially where kids can access their mothers recipes when they attempt flying the nest. I have been meaning to start this for months. New Year resolution - maybe!