Happy Hallowe'en! and more autumn fun

So as you may have gathered by now I love autumn... a lot. Mainly because the fatty inside me loves hearty traditional food and also because nothing says themed cooking like a hallowe'en / bonfire night extravaganza. There have been a lot of articles on how you should be careful about not eating too much sugar around this time of year, etc etc etc blah blah blah. The great debate being taken up by the LA Times here, I would like to know how their children react to being banned from eating sweets. I completely ignored all these helpful healthy tips as everybody knows that hallowe'en snacks don't count. Obv.

 So I made a suitably cosy and throughly soul warming Sunday meal, drawing on the best of traditional British autumn fare and extremely sugary seasonal pudding. Steak and Offal Pie followed by toffee apple and pear crumble. The very best of nursery food and both extremely simple to cook - hurrah!

Steak and Offal Pie
Serves 4 - a twist on the normal steak and kidney pie

Ingredients:
500g chuck steak diced (or beef shin)
200g rump/ribeye steak
200g lamb/pork/veal kidney
1 lamb heart
2 onions roughly diced
2 cloves garlic
30g plain flour (Doves gluten free plain flour is very good)
Salt and Pepper
Worcestershire Sauce to taste
Tabasco to taste
125ml red wine
750ml pints beef stock
1 Tbsp Oregano
1 Tbsp Thyme
Vegetable Oil
Puff pastry to measure dish
1 egg - beaten

1. In a casserole brown the beef in the oil and then set aside
2. In the same pan brown the offal and add the onions and garlic. Cook for 5 minutes until it starts to soften.
3. Add the beef back into the mix and dust the flour over until it coats everything. Add the red wine, simmer for 3 minutes, add the beef stock, simmer gently for 1 1/2 hrs over a low/medium heat. Add the herbs 1/2 way through and top up the stock if you need. At the end add the tabasco, Worcestershire sauce, salt and pepper.
4. Remove the mixture and place into a deep baking dish, allow it to cool slightly.
5. Preheat the oven to 200deg Celcius.
6. Roll out your pastry and place over the top of the sidh using a rolling pin to hold it. Pinch in around the edges and brush the beaten egg over the top.
7. Cook for 35 minutes in the oven until the pastry is puffed and deep brown on top.

Serve immediately with seasonal veg.

Toffee apple and pear crumble
Serves 4-6 : for those who don't like calories look away now!
Inspired by Sophie Dahl, which is a little wrong as she is stick thin, she must have never eaten this... ever.

(pre topping pic!)

Ingredients:
4 large seasonal apples, peeled, cores out and chopped into small chunks
4 large pears, peeled, pips out and cut into 8ths
Handlful of dates roughly chopped (stones out)
200g butter (unsalted) 1/2 in small cubes, slightly soft
6 very heaped tbsp brown sugar
250g plain flour (more may be needed)
1 tsp cinnamon powder

1. melt half the butter in a pan, mix in 2 heaped tbsp sugar. Once this is dissolved add the apples, pears and dates. Simmer together for 10-15 minutes until it is all soft but not mushy.
2. Place in a shallow pie dish and allow to slightly cool.
3. In a mixing bowl rub the flour and butter together between your fingers until it becomes like bread crumbs, add the flour bit by bit without measuring too accurately, you will see when it is right. Add the sugar and cinnamon along with this mixture.
4. Preheat the oven to 180DC
5. Top the apple/pear/date/cholesterol mixture with a deep layer of crumble mixture, pressing it compact as you go.
6. Pop in the oven for 25- 30 minutes.

Stand for 5 minutes or so to make sure nobody burns their tongue. Either serve onto plates with custard/cream/ice cream (I recommend ginger), or give everyone a spoon and share out of the dish. Delish!

Stay posted for toffee apples, toffee apple muffins and general bonfire night fare (may include more toffee apple themed things, I must stop!)

Oh the glorious Shire!

I seem to have got myself somewhat of a backlog of things to write about. The day job having taken over my life I haven't had much of a chance to remember what I've been doing outside the office - such is life I guess. However on a rare day that I was allowed away from my computer I managed to escape home to my parents house in Yorkshire for the weekend and it was glorious.

I know, being British, that all I should care about is chasing summer and then moaning about the lack of it for the rest of the year. However, I defy anyone who has lived in Yorkshire, or in fact anyone who has been there in autumn when it isn't raining constantly (which is rare, I give you that) not to be in love with autumn. The garden is overflowing with delicious veg and fruit, my god, the fruit.

I am a bit of a geek and love nothing more than taking a stroll through Mum's immaculate vegetable garden and the orchard. It does look fantastic, not just because I want to eat everything in it but also because there is something very comforting and quite beautiful about it. Maybe it reminds me of reading Beatrix Potter.

This is not the only thing I am jealous of my mother for though. She actually gets to eat these delicacies, every day, it doesn't seem fair. The kitchen is brimming with delicious things I want to cook with or eat. Also, just to rub salt in the wound, she seems to display all these things in a way that makes them look like something out of Country Life's lifestyle section. It would be vomit-inducing if it were not for the fact that I genuinely would rather like my kitchen to look like that. Don't get me wrong ours is lovely, for London, but I don't go around with pears displayed in quaint pots.

So, my jealously put aside I decided to actually enjoy the weekend. And what says countryside like an enforced walk up a ridiculously steep hill? So off I dragged (or by the end, off they dragged me) up the old drovers road that starts near Olstead to John Bunting's chapel. If you've ever done this walk you will know that it is not for the faint hearted. As I lied steadily to Bianca that each steep bit was the last and she screamed at me that I had lost all credibility and that she "didn't even believe that it was downhill on the way back" anymore, I questioned whether this was a wise call, but we made it in the end.

However, the real reason for this gruelling stomp up the hill was to justify a trip to the North's latest Michelin Star pub - The Black Swan, at Oldstead. I cannot recommend anywhere more. It may have been the extreme hunger after the trek but I think it genuinely was as good as I remember. I should have more pictures but the food was so tasty that I forgot. I had the most delicious game terrine to start, with some very fancy raisins (at least they must be, they were named after something other then Sun Maid), the chutney to accompany it was also perfectly both sweet and tangy. The next course was a knockout, shin of beef with creamed potatoes, spinach and mushroom puree. I'm sure it was much more complicated than that but it was truly delicious. We had a long discussion about the value of cuts of beef that need to be slow cooked. Everyone was a fan of a still mooing steak but this shin was just so rich in taste and so succulent in texture that all of us were convinced of its superiority. The pudding really knocked us back and sent us into a food induced stupor. I had a special gluten free Chocolate Delice with peanut crisp - WOW. So rich but so amazing.

Yep, it was that good.

But the really amazing thing was the price, £25 a head for the 3 course lunch menu. How crazy is that?! I could not recommend this place (maybe not the walk) more.

Oh I do love yorkshire.

Comfort Chicken

OK, I know every single person who has ever written about food has talked about the comfort factor of delicious roast chicken. There is a reason, sometimes you just need it. However, what they fail to mention everytime is the horrific dry, slightly sticky, flavourless, bland chicken shaped white meat that you are often given, usually in sub-par pubs or restaurants, but more worryingly by people you know and like. There is nothing more upsetting and off putting than bad roast chicken. I actually went through a few years where I thought I didn't really like roast chicken as a result of these catastrophes. Panic not, I have seen the light.

I would love to have the time to be like the Dowager Duchess of Devonshire, she loves and understands chickens to a level I couldn't imagine. She may be ever so slightly eccentric but it is fabulous. Read her book Counting My Chickens it is so enjoyable. I just love her. Her other fabulous book is her cook book "The Chatsworth Cook Book",  bear in mind that this is a woman who has not cooked since the war, and doesn't hide it. It simply contains her favourite "receipts" by those who have cooked for her, and they are delicious. It was this woman's love and appreciation of the chicken that got me back into the delight of eating roast chicken. Sadly to be truly like her you can't shop in Tesco for your chicken as they certainly don't tell you what breed they are etc. However, I live in Brixton, and Tesco will do well for me in comparison to the boiling chickens I see at every butcher on Electric Avenue, heads still on.

My mother has gone utterly chicken mad and so I can't write about chickens without showing a picture of our chickens in Yorkshire, they are rather fabulous.

So yesterday was a lovely relaxed Sunday, I woke up not particularly hungover, which is always a bonus on the weekend. However I just felt like haveing something comforting and soothing. The night before I had chatted to significant other no 2 (the Scot still ranks no 1 for now), he was out in Afghanistan with a stinking cold and sounded like he was already asleep on the phone, poor thing. That made me a little glum and because he couldn't have comforting roast chicken I thought I would have some for myself. It completely hit the spot. I'm actually amazed I didn't eat the whole chicken myself.

Cooking a chicken isn't that hard, the only thing that I have found when it comes to cooking the meat is LISTEN TO DELIA. Let the chicken rest after cooking for 20 minutes under some tin foil, it makes all the difference. Otherwise you just need to cook for 20 minutes at 220 Celcius, then turn down to 180 DC and cook for 20 minutes per 500g. It's more about what you do to flavour the bird that makes it. So this is what I did yesterday, I'm still thinking of the gravy now.

Roast Chicken with Lemon, Orange, Thyme and Tarragon


Ingredients;
1 chicken - size dependent on how many you are feeding
1 lemon
1 large orange
good bunch of fresh tarragon
2 tsp fresh thyme
2 cloves garlic
50g butter
4 slices streaky bacon
drizzle Olive oil
Salt and Pepper

For gravy:
small glass red wine
250ml chicken stock
2 tbsp cornflour

1. Cut the lemon in half, squeeze out all the juice over the chicken and into the roasting tin. Put half inside the bird.

2. Cut the orange in half, squeeze the juice of half over the bird, cut the other half into slices and sit the bird on top of them
3. Drizzle a little olive oil over the top of the chicken, season with salt and pepper and put the bacon over the top.
4. Finely chop all the herbs and roughly chop the garlic. Mix together with the butter (slightly soft) and place well in the cavity of the bird.
5. Put in the oven and cook for the appropriate time (see above), every 20 minutes spoon a little of the juices over the bird.
6. When cooking time is up, tip the bird, by inserting the wooden spoon into the cavity, and collect all the juices in the roasting tin.
7. Let the bird rest for 20 minutes under foil.

Then make the gravy
1. In the roasting tin scrape all the bits stuck to the bottom so they become part of the mixture.
2. Spoon off most of the fat.
3. Over a very low heat whisk the mixture together, gradually adding in the wine and chicken stock.
4. Lightly sprinkle in the cornflour and whisk so it is smooth.

I love chicken with Redcurrant jelly, homemade of course! My sister is obsessed with bread sauce. However you like it I can promise that eating this will make you a little bit happier!

Just an electric grill, toaster and microwave - work lunch

So for those of you who like fad diets or are French, you will know that today is the dreaded standard "protein only thursday", worshipped all over the world by successful Dukan dieters. I have to say that I really really love meat, in fact, all protein really. The Scot looks at me like some strange alien as I suggest adding T.O.F.U. (It is a dirty word apparently) to dishes. Now, unlike, the Atkins diet you can't just gorge yourself on bacon, which would be my idae of heaven, you have to have low fat protein... hmmmm.

So faced with such strict rules I thought about how I could make a pure protein lunch (aside from onions and herbs, they let you have them) for Elena and I at work today that wasn't just a packet of 80% water ham and some cottage cheese. There was a further spanner in the works when it came to this, the only cooking utensils in the office are a George Forman grill, a toaster, a microwave and a kettle. This is not the place to whip up your greatest culinary feat.

So I had a think and found the following to be tasty and makeable between the grill and microwave, I'm rather proud actually.

Lunch for 2
2x cuts of raw turkey breast
1x pack cooked king prawns
bunch spring onions
1 chilli
1 clove garlic
1 lemon's worth of juice
1/2 tsp dijon mustard
dollop of Total 0% Greek yoghurt
Some cheat's Cajun seasoning
10 basil leaves
couple of sprigs of mint

1. scatter the cajun seasoning over the turkey steaks and grill them for 5 minutes. At the same time put the prawns in a bowl with the chilli and garlic and a good twist or two of black pepper, microwave for 1 minute.
2. Chop up the spring onions into small slices and tear the herbs and put in a big bowl.
3. Cut up the turkey into bits and put in the bowl with the herbs, onion and add the prawns. Toss together.
4. Juice the lemon and swirl in the dijon mustard, add a touch of sweetner if you want. Mix in with everything else.
5. pop in a bowl with a dollop of the yoghurt.


Now this isn't reinventing the wheel, or even something I would give to friends for dinner at home, but when you are faced with a pack of ham and yet another tub of cottage cheese on a Thursday you'll understand!

mmmmmmmm salad... really?!

I have to say I never thought I would write something about salad. The Scot and I are both on the same page when it comes to eating leaves, they are an excellent thing to have with a real meal but certainly not one themself... or so I thought. In the bizarrely unseasonal summer that we experienced over the weekend I actually found myself craving the watery crunch of a refreshing crisp lettuce.

Aside from rocket, watercress and lambs lettuce I am of the opinion that you can leave your soft frilly salad leaves, they add very little to the dining experience apart from awkward situations when you can't quite get the whole thing into your mouth, you smear salad dressing all over your face and get tickled by a stray strand. I love a good bit of crunch and flavour, although don't mention the I.C.E.B.E.R.G. word near me, it isn't salad, it is water - green, solid water. When I was at university the only place I would eat salad was the incredible Alpha Bar in Oxford's Covered Market, mainly because you could have something that you could argue was healthy but without a leaf in sight. However, I digress.

On Saturday I had a lovely lunch of a crispy, zingy, meaty, salty, salady goodness. I've became slightly obsessed with pomergranate (predominantly as a homemade mojito ingredient) so had to include it. So here is my try at a non-boring chicken salad. Apparently it is going to be frost and snow this weekend so I'll be reverting to shepherds pie in no time.

Chicken, feta and pommergranate salad

For 2.
Ingredients:
2 chicken breasts shin off
Olive Oil
thyme
sage
paprika
salt & pepper

1 organic Romaine lettuce
handful rocket
handful of cubed feta
seeds of 1/2 pomergranate
15 fresh anchovies (not tinned, ick)

dressing
juice 1 lemon
glug olive oil
tbsp cider vineagar
tbsp condensed milk
salt and pepper

Instructions:
1. mix the marinade for the chicken together and cover the chicken for 30 minutes
2. Put the chicken breast under a pre heated grill for 5 or six minutes each side
3. Chop up the chicken breast into strips and plonk on top of shredded lettuce and rocket
4. Scatter the anchovies, feta and pomergranate over the top
5. Mix the dressing up in a jar and pour over




At the end of the day it is still a salad but for a salad it tasted good!