Vegetarian Sausage Rolls

Due to pork issues, I needed an alternative to the traditionally British sausage roll for a pot luck carol singing event. Delia raves about these but I have to confess to being a little sceptical. When I told my other half what I planned to make he couldn’t quite get his head round the fact that they were sausage rolls without the sausage.

These are amazing and even the most die-hard meat lover would be hard pushed to admit that they missed the meat. I served these with some Thai sweet chilli sauce for dipping  – easy and delicious!

These are simple to make using bought puff pastry (although Delia provides a recipe for quick flaky pastry which I am sure is excellent). The “sausage” element is more like a veggie stuffing mix with breadcrumbs, onion, herbs and cheese.

They will keep a couple of days but be warned the pastry will lose its crunch and flakiness if stored too long. They freeze beautifully (uncooked) so I would recommend having some in the freezer ready to bake when required as fresh from the oven is definitely best.

I am a convert and will be adding these to my Christmas baking repertoire from now on. Recipe can be found in Delia’s cookbook “Delia Smith’s Christmas” and on her website here.

Cottage Cooking Club – December 2014

Wow, oh wow there was a delight in this month’s offering. In the hectic December feast month I managed to squeeze in two recipes from the list, Skanakopita and Curried Sweet Potato Soup. Both were a hit with my family and both were easy to make.

1. Corner Shop Skanakopita (p.54)

I especially liked the store cupboard challenge that prompted Hugh to create this easy version using frozen spinach and ready-made puff pastry. I love the way he provides options in his recipes, in this instance I chose fennel seeds – I had all three in stock but fennel is a favourite. I also opted to increase the feta cheese. Firstly, I didn’t think I would use the small amount leftover from the carton and secondly, when I spread it over the spinach it didn’t seem like a lot. Definitely a make again recipe.

2. Curried Sweet Potato Soup (p.166)

This was delicious and probably our favourite recipe in this book so far. The only change I made was to omit the fresh chiles so that my children would eat this, oh and I didn’t have any cilantro – I don’t think it was a big loss, it still tasted fantastic. Incredibly fragrant and a great combination of flavours with the ginger, coconut milk, curry spices, sweet potato and squeeze of lime at the end. I am definitely adding this to my favourite recipes.

Check out what the rest of The Cottage Cooking Club made in December here.

Smitten Kitchen Cookbook

A new bookstore has opened up near the supermarket I frequent. Sadly, the book section is smaller than the stationery section and the English book section is even smaller still. But, it does have a row of cookbooks. The selection is bizarre and mainly those cookbook magazines or books that are mass produced by who knows who on world cuisines. But sometimes there’s treasure to be found.

Last time I popped in I was excited to find a copy of the Smitten Kitchen cookbook, and even more excited to see that it was 50% off (a good thing here where books are expensive). So, naturally I just had to buy it.

I love this book. Lots and lots of recipes I will cook (and eat) and a large baking and dessert section – disproportionately large which is fine by me. This book has been on my bedside table since I bought it and my husband is puzzled that a cookbook can make me laugh out loud. Anyone familiar with Deb Perelman’s blog and book will understand, she’s a great writer and a person who you wish would come over for dinner and hang out in your kitchen.

If it ain’t broke…

I recently made an apple cake with rum; a winning recipe from Dorie Greenspan which was consumed eagerly by my family with cries for more.  But, I had to try a different recipe… I couldn’t just rest that I had found the nirvana of simple rustic country apple cake recipes.

So, I tried this one pinned from the fabulous Leite’s Culinaria site. It was good, very good, but it didn’t turn out for me as I think it was supposed to. The recipe describes part of the cake as almost pudding like in texture, mine was dry, no hint of gooey pudding. The apple mixture looks plentiful in the recipe, layers upon layers of thin slices of moist apples. In fact, more apple than cake. But, the instructions said to cut the apples into eighths which left big sections of apple – I cut them in half again but I still didn’t get the layers of apples I expected, they seemed to mysteriously clump together in the middle.

Many times I think that it is not so much the recipe as the interpretation. Which is why we all have our favourite cookbooks, where the writer/chef/cook seems to have a similar style of cooking and the recipes just work.

This wasn’t a keeper for me, I will stick with Dorie’s recipe – which was simpler to put together and had better texture and flavour. This one was good, it just wasn’t as great.

One Pot Pasta

These one pot pasta miracles show up on Pinterest regularly. With a bare cupboard and limited time to cook dinner it seemed like the perfect time to try one.

This particular recipe is from Martha Stewart’s new cookbook “One Pot”. However, if like me you don’t have the book, the recipe is available on the website here.

My other half was hugely sceptical, especially when all the ingredients were in the pan and there didn’t seem like there was going to be enough water to cook the pasta. But there was and the end result was surprisingly good. I have no idea if they cook pasta this way in Italy or if it is some sort of pasta travesty but it seemed to work.

The dish was delicious eaten immediately but I did notice that any leftovers had a slightly mushy texture. This could be down to the fact that I used regular spaghetti instead of the linguini called for in the recipe (quicker cooking time?).

Would definitely make this again – a fun recipe for rental vacations or even outdoor cooking where cooking utensils and kitchen space are limited.

Apple Puff Pancake

I have several of Sheila Lukins’ cookbooks and love them. In fact one of my very first cookbooks was a gift from a wonderful family I knew during my college days in the US – it was “The New Basics Cookbook” and inscribed inside was “all the cookbook you will ever need”.  Clearly it wasn’t, as I now have over a hundred cookbooks on my shelves and a wishlist that grows larger by the day, but I think that book started it all.

This recipe is from Sheila Lukins’ “U.S.A” cookbook (p.29) in the aptly named Pancakes, Waffles and Sides chapter. We love pancakes in this house but it always feels like your eating in turns as a pancake is cooked. This Apple Puff Pancake sorts out that problem as it is baked in the oven and served puffed and golden to share. The combination of apples and cinnamon is always a winner. I tweaked the recipe slightly by adding less butter to the apples and using only 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon and cooking the apple mixture longer. The recipe serves four but it is so good that I might try doubling it so that there is some for seconds because everyone wanted more.

This would be a good dish for a brunch so going to see if it works as a make ahead dish by making the apple mixture and pancake batter in advance and holding them in the fridge to throw together and bake later. . I know it has to cook and be eaten immediately but wondering if the prep can be done in advance…

The dish I chose was too large and the batter spread too thin – resulting in less Puff. Next time, if I don’t double the recipe I will use a deep dish pie pan (which is what the recipe calls for).

The golden puff of the pancake is similar to a Yorkshire pudding but it deflates a little as it comes out of the oven so you definitely want to serve and eat immediately. My favourite part is the clafouti textured pancake you get in the middle with all the wonderful cinnamon-y apples.

The Cottage Cooking Club – November

This month wasn’t a great month for River Cottage Veg. Not that there was anything wrong with the selection or the book, but rather I didn’t get round to making the dishes I planned.  I have no excuse and can’t explain the reason but the only thing I whipped up was the Twice-Baked Potatoes (p. 226). The Stuffed Cabbage Leaves and Patatas Bravas were the things I most wanted to try but it just didn’t happen – they are definitely going to be on my catch-up list (which embarrassingly seems to be getting longer and longer).

The potatoes scraped in probably because they were easy and a kid-friendly dish. Although, ironically I could have made life even easier for myself and skipped the twice baked part as both my children only ate the filling! My other half really enjoyed this although I thought it could do with  something more – paprika? Mustard? Or a leek and bacon and cheese combo? Hugh does provide alternate fillings and this is a recipe that could lend itself to all sorts of combinations and really could be whatever you have in your pantry.

My potatoes weren’t the best. I used local (from Lebanon) and the skins were very thin which made it difficult to scoop and they didn’t retain their shape well; I had to cram them together in the pan so they could stay upright and not collapse.

Will definitely make these again although I will tweak the filling and choose a different potato with a sturdier skin.

To see what recipes the other members chose for this month, check out the Cottage Cooking Club website.

Chocoflan

I have a confession, I am addicted to Pinterest – seriously addicted.

This is one of those Pinterest recipes that you see, pin and just have to make. I have also pinned several other versions of this cake (also called Magic Cake) because that is the beauty (or waistline downfall) of Pinterest, it suggest similar pins and you just can’t stop pinning. I am surprised I have time to actually make anything.

We love flan (really, who doesn’t) and we love chocolate cake (again, who doesn’t) so a combined two-for-one sounded like a result. This recipe is from Food Network’s Marcela Valladolid and can be found here.

This cake was a big hit despite two major errors in the making of it.

Firstly, I completely spaced out on the 12 cup bundt pan – who knew bundt pans came in different sizes? I had the foresight to check my pan and it was only 6 cups (a 12 cup bundt pan must be ginormous). Luckily, I have two of them 6 cuppers – great, two cakes to eat.

Secondly, I don’t know how, but I completely forgot to cover the bundt pans with foil as they went in the oven. The result is they overcooked and the cake was a little dry and the flan a little too set.

Amazingly, the cakes survived these bungles and were not only edible, but delicious. I can only imagine how fantastic this cake is when made following the recipe!

Personally, we preferred this cake cold from the fridge as warm or room temperature flan is just odd tasting. We also omitted the nuts and extra caramel, it didn’t need it and I didn’t think the chopped nuts sounded appealing.

This was a big hit in our house and the magic part of it makes for a clever and delicious desert. I am now on the hunt for a 12 cup bundt pan…

Raspberry Buttermilk Cake

After the very successful apple cake recipe from Dorie Greenspan, I didn’t expect to find another cake that was so easy to make yet produced such wonderful results. Yet here it is…

Fresh raspberries in Abu Dhabi are on a par with gold prices. So, when my local supermarket had a special offer I bought two punnets on the spot. After agonising over what to do with this precious ingredient (this is where EatYourBooks is a godsend), I decided to make this gorgeous Raspberry Buttermilk Cake from “The Epicurious Cookbook”.

It is one of those recipes where it almost looks too simple, that perhaps the quantities are incorrect – only 1 egg? I feared it was not going to produce enough cake to satisfy my hungry hoard but it does, and it does it beautifully. This is a fuss free cake that is light, has just the right subtle vanilla flavour along with the lovely raspberries to add tartness. The sugar sprinkled on top just before it goes in the oven leaves a lovely crunchy, shimmery top to counterbalance the glorious soft texture of the cake – ah, the wonders of buttermilk.

My two year old helped make this cake by adding the raspberries to the batter in the tin. The idea is to randomly drop the raspberries not push and squish them – the latter action means the batter rises around the raspberries too much and you don’t see them in the finished cake. The taste is the same, it’s purely a looks thing. We also had some sugar sprinkling issues but we lived.

A note in the cookbook mentions that tart cherries and almond extract in place of raspberries and vanilla is delicious too – sounds divine. Cherries are on a par with oil prices so I am on specials standby for this version.

I can see why this is a “four forks” recipe – I have already made it twice this week.

Winter Minestrone Soup

Or rather what to eat to use up all those vegetables you bought for your new juicer after you discover you don’t like juices that contain spinach and other greens.

I have discovered that the only vegetable I like in my juice is carrot and they are so delicious and sweet that they probably shouldn’t be a vegetable. I also bought a large container of dried wheatgrass… what was I thinking? There is probably no way I am going to be able to disguise that in anything… I have a fairly heightened sense of smell and a vivid imagination and no matter how healthy something is if I don’t like it then I am unable to eat or drink it. Apologies to all the wheatgrass fans but it reminds me of mucking out horses – it has that straw smell. I like horses but not sure I want to drink something that has an aroma of wet straw.

My health kick lasted all of two days and my downfall was a delicious, simple, homemade rice pudding that I made for my children.  It seemed downright unjust to not be able to eat it, so I did. But I am not posting on the rice pudding (in my haste to consume it I forgot to take a picture), I am posting on a fantastic soup I made using all those vegetables.

This recipe is from Barefoot Contessa’s “Foolproof” and like most of Ina’s recipes is very straightforward. I made one change, I put the pasta into the soup to cook instead of cooking it separately (the only reason for this was laziness – I didn’t want to wash the extra pan). This recipe was delicious but the addition of the pesto and parmesan and a drizzling of olive oil to serve is what really makes it go beyond vegetable soup. Most of the ingredients are store cupboard or standard vegetable drawer fare which makes it very easy to put together. Because of the spinach, this soup isn’t really a keeper and wasn’t as vibrant when we had leftovers the next day; it still tasted delicious but on the looks front it had lost its pizzazz.

A delicious soup hearty enough for supper with a slice of cottage loaf slathered with butter.