Focaccia, sausage and tomato bake

This is based on Jamie Oliver's Comforting Sausage Bake recipe. 

Home made rosemary and garlic focaccia was a first. I used the bread maker recipe and used garlic infused oil to drizzle on the top having studded with rosemary. Was eaten as an accompaniment to a soup. JUST managed to have enough left for this recipe. Himself was so so close to being in trouble!

In theory the below is for 4. There are three of us here at the moment. I'll say no more.


Heat the oven to 180C (fan)

Put into a roasting tray 600g halved cherry tomatoes, 4 finely sliced cloves of garlic and 200g rosemary focaccia that has been torn into bite-sized chunks. Pour over a tin of cannellini beans - water/juices and all. Drizzle with 1tbsp olive oil and 1tbsp red wine vinegar. Mix it all together.

Now to the sausages - you need 12 chipolatas. Pinch and twist each one in the middle to make two mini ones. Dot around the bake, pressing lightly into the beans and tomatoes.

Roast for 45 minutes.

Wild garlic stuffed conchiglioni

Based on a recipe by Rosie Birkett in The Sunday Times magazine a few weeks ago. It fits well in my large oval clear pyrex dish. The recipe has whole fennel seeds, but crushed or left out completely fits certain taste buds better. 

Heat the oven to 180C (fan)

Slice 1 large red onion and 2 cloves of garlic. Gently cook with 1 tbsp rosemary leaves, pinch of dried chilli flakes in 2 tbsp olive oil for 10 minutes until softened. Add 2x400g tins of tomatoes and cook on medium heat for 6 mins until reduced. Blitz with hand blender until smooth. Season to taste.

Bring large pan of water to the boil. Separate stalks from florets of 250g purple spouting or tender stem broccoli. Roughly chop the stalks and cook the stalks for 2 mins then add the florets and cook for another 2 mins. Remove with a slotted spoon and allow to cool. Finely chop the stalks and two thirds of the florets.
In the same pan, parboil 30 conchiglioni pasta (about 200g). You want them to cook to just before the al dente stage. Drain and plunge in iced water to stop them cooking further.

Chop a handful (about 10g) of wild garlic leaves. Fry for a couple of minutes in 2bsp olive oil with 1tsp crushed fennel seeds and 1 deseeded chopped red chilli on medium heat. Split and squeeze the meat from 6 good quality sausages (Italian - I wish - or Cumberland) into the frying pan. Turn up the heat and break up the sausage meat into small pieces using tip of a wooden spoon - bear in mind you will be stuffing this into the pasta. Cook for five minutes until the meat browns. Add in the broccoli - except for the whole florets - and 2tbsp pine nuts and fry for a further two minutes. Stir in 2tsp white wine vinegar and remove from heat.

Pour the tomato sauce into a heatproof dish large enough to hold the sauce and pasta. Stuff the broccoli and sausage mix into the pasta (fingers work just fine) and 'nestle' into the tomato sauce. Scatter the remaining broccoli florets across the top, drizzle with olive oil and bake for 20 minutes.

Then arrange a few more wild garlic leaves on the top followed by sliced mozzarella (from one ball). Bake for another 10 minutes.

Serve with grated parmesan and a green salad.

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.