Wild Garlic Pesto

Either with all wild garlic OR add some young nettle tops OR add some basil leaves. Nuts can be varied, as can the cheese. If using fresh lemon than add zest to the mix before blitzing.

Wash 150g wild garlic leaves and roughly chop
Grate 150g Parmesan
Lightly dry fry 50g pine nuts
Chop a clove of garlic
Blitz to rough paste in a food processor
Add most of 150ml rapeseed oil with machine running slowly.
Season and add a few squeezes of lemon juice

Put into clean jar and top with rest of the oil.
Will keep in the fridge for a couple of weeks - if it lasts that long.

Slow cooked roast Leg of Pork with Fennel seeds - this time with crackling

It appears that I keep being drawn to recipes that combine pork and fennel seeds at the moment.

This slow cooked leg of pork recipe from Able and Co https://www.abelandcole.co.uk/recipes/tuscan-slow-roasted-pork was the one tried on Sunday. 1.75kg leg of pork used with same cooking time. If I do it again I will wrap the lower part in foil. The crackling was prefect, the  outside of the meat was crisped just a tad too much.

Might try this one next time: https://www.abelandcole.co.uk/recipes/roast-pork-with-rosemary-fennel-crackling. It's a faster cook time, less time at high temperature.

Roast Pork - no crackling - with Chickpea 'stew'

For 600g boneless, skinless pork joint

Crush 2 tsp fennel seeds and heaped tsp coriander seeds using pestle and mortar (not too finely). Pat dry the pork and roll in the seeds  ensuring all surfaces have seeds pressed into them.
Sear the pork in a frying pan (ideally one that is oven proof). Transfer to a plate.

In the pan add a finely chopped onion, finely chopped carrot and a couple of sprigs of rosemary and cook until the onion is translucent.

Add quarter cup of balsamic vinegar, two tins of chopped tomatoes and one tin of chickpeas and one tin of borlotti beans (tin = 400g) and good splash of water. Bring to the boil then put pork on wire rack on top and cook in 180C oven for 20 minutes. Turn the pork and cook for a further 15 minutes.

'Rest' the pork prior to carving. Serve with green veg.

Vegan and Vegetarian recipes

Vegan Haggis
Vegan Burger  from Living on the Veg. This includes recipe for the incredibly good roast red cabbage coleslaw

Vegan Haggis

From Cerys Matthews' recipe. So simple and so good. 
Serve with swede and carrot, mashed potato and gravy.
Those that weren't eaten have been frozen for veggie alternative to a roast.

Cook 125g Puy lentils according to packet to give 250g cooked lentils.

Gently fry 1 finely chopped onion in tbsp of oil until just about to turn transparent. Add a finely chopped medium carrot and 100g finely chopped mushrooms and fry for further 5 minutes.
Take off the heat and leave to cool whilst assembling other ingredients and heating the oven.

In a food blender put 100g rolled oats (jumbo if you have them), 1 tsp ground cumin, 1tsp ground nutmeg, 2 tsp freshly ground black pepper, pinch of salt and 3 tbsp  pumpkin seeds (or sunflower seeds).

Mix 1 tbsp miso paste into 200ml vegetable stock (I made my own stock from carrot, potato peelings and leek trimmings).

Add stock and vegetables to the blender and pulse. You want a rough mixture, as in not too smooth.

Stir in the lentils.

Grease a 12 hole muffin tin and fill with the mixture. Press down lightly.

Cover tightly with baking parchment and then foil. Bake in 180C oven for 20 minutes. Take off parchment and foil, brush with oil and bake for a further 20 minutes until lightly browned.

Roast Pork Loin - no crackling

For when the bit of pork is skinless

Dry rub: Mix together equal quantities of dried thyme, paprika and garlic salt (I used large tsp of each for 2lb pork loin)

Rub all over the meat. Sear on all sides.
Put in foil lined roasting tray (not too big)


Mix Honey, soy sauce, dijon mustard, crushed garlic, olive oil. Use some to toss parsnips in (or other vegetables). Brush the rest on the top of the meat.

Cook meat in 180C. 30 minutes prior to the end of cooking time, take out. Put the parsnips under the meat and cook for 30 minutes. (Roast potatoes with rosemary go in at this time as well)
Remove the meat and leave to rest whilst the parsnips (and potatoes) finish cooking.

Turkey and Spinach Curry

Another good one for left over turkey.

Gently fry in a couple of tablespoons of oil :
6 whole cloves
10 green cardamom pods (bashed)
1 cinnamon stick broken in half
2 green chillis quartered lengthways
Then add 2 finely chopped medium onions, four crushed cloves of garlic and 1 tbsp grated fresh ginger and cook until the onions are just turning golden.

Mix together 1 tsp each of ground cumin, ground coriander, ground turmeric and garam masala. Add to the pan with half tsp of salt and 1 tbsp tomato puree. Stir and cook for a couple of minutes.

Stir in 200g Greek yogurt, 100g baby spinach and a handful of chopped coriander leaves. Gently cook until the spinach has wilted.

Pick out the whole spices (as many as you can find).
Season with a dash of lemon juice and serve with rice, toasted flaked almonds and extra coriander leaves.