Beyond the Call

December 9th - The pressure was on. I knew I needed to make a new recipe because I was going away for the weekend to get some Christmas shopping and I would be out at the panto for the next two nights. Having got to this stage in my resolution I was determined not to blow it now! But I was feeling awful and pretty much off food altogether. Decided on a soup. I'd been meaning to make a lakhsa for ages (had seen them on Masterchef!) so I found a recipe for Squash Laksa Soup by Jamie Oliver online. First I chopped up a butternut squash, drizzled it with olive oil and chilli flakes and put it in the oven. Then I whizzed a couple of red chillIt's, three cloves of garlic, some fresh ginger and a handful of coriander stalks in the food processor before adding some fish sauce, sesame oil, lime juice and zest. This paste was cooked in some oil in the pan before chicken stock and a tin of coconut milk was added, adjusting the seasoning to suit. The flavour was intense! Finally after 15-20 minutes of cooking I added some noodles and the cooked butternut squash. My other half was impressed...making new recipes while feeling poorly is definitely beyond the call. But I will try this again when I'm better.

Fudging the Results!

December 4th - I've been doing a topic on Charlie and the Chocolate Factory with my class in school (note to self never to do that again....I am absolutely scunnered of sweets!) and we decided to sell homemade sweets at the Christmas Fair. I started to worry when I asked my colleague J, who is a fab cook, about recipes and she said that sweets are notoriously difficult to make!! I immediately rated my chances of success as pretty low. Anyway I got hold of a sweet recipe book for kids- all easy, no boiling required so decided to give that a go. Microwave fudge. Didn't set. Jazzies looked a bit like dogs dinners when the kids made them. Jellies looked lovely till we sprinkled them with sugar and they melted. Buying ingredients was costing me an arm and a leg and the Fair was looming. Eventually we ended up with some sellable sweets...but as yet no fudge or honeycomb. Needs must. Had to do it myself. After a great deal of sweat I ended up with some fudge and honeycomb to sell....it there were tears and tribulations along the way. Here are the final scores. Fudge attempts 3 Fudge success 1; Honeycomb attempts 3, Ruined baking trays 2, Edible honeycomb 1. However this tale has a silver lining- all this sweet making has quite put me off sweets.....very good for the diet!

Quick and Easy Treat

December 3rd - Mid week dinners have to be speedy, especially in the business of school life in December. I had been lucky enough to grab some duck breasts from the butcher at the weekend because I'd seen a recipe that I really wanted to try in a Delicious Magazine. Five-Spice Duck with Ginger, Onion and Orange Salad.  What's not to like about that combo of ingredients....and a bonus when you don't need many ingredients in a recipe. The skin on the duck was slashed and rubbed with Chinese five-spice powder then cooked skin side down for 10 minutes first, then drained of fat and drizzled with honey and put in the oven for another 10 minutes. Easy. The red onion was finely sliced and covered in boiling water for 5 minutes while 3 oranges were sliced (or segmented). The salad was dressed with 4 pieces of crystallised stem ginger, 4 tablespoons of ginger syrup, a tablespoon of white wine vinegar that had been heated through then the whole lot garnished with coriander. Gorgeous.

Trial and Error

November 29th - My other half loves a tart! He's always bemoaning the fact that I don't cook apple or treacle tarts any longer. In fact, an apple tart was his first ever present from me......and I got a rolling pin in return! Those were the days. Anyhow I still had some filo in the fridge left over from the spinach pie and a quick search for 'healthy and quick pudding recipes' brought up a recipe for Apple and Pecan Strudel - assuredly quick and easy by Jamie Oliver. The lack of pecans didn't put me off. Apples were chopped and sliced and put in water and lemon juice to stop them going brown. In a separate bowl I mixed Demerara and caster sugar with cinnamon and nutmeg and then the apples were dried and tossed in this. I did not have much filo left...not as much as the recipe needed but I layered it up, brushing each sheet with butter as I went. I piled in the filling and rolled it all together. Not very neat, but hey! 20 minutes in a hot oven resulted in a crispy pie, filled with autumny goodness. Pie man was well impressed! And the error....well what the photo does not show is the gaping hole in the back of the strudel....as usual I did not read the recipe through to the end so didn't do the tea towel thing to roll the strudel without holes!

One for the Queen of Spinach

November 26th - I cannot believe that I am here at the end of November, still going strong with the resolution..and only a month to go. Here's my latest offering. One for my daughter, who adds spinach to everything, especially smoothie type things (not my cup of tea...in fact I'd rather have a cup of tea!) It's another of Jamie Oliver's recipes. Spinach and Feta Filo Pie. The recipe called for 400g of fresh spinach but my bag was only 100g so I used some frozen spinach that I had in the freezer. I steamed that to defrost/cook it. In a separate bowl I added 3 eggs, about 100g of feta, some cheddar cheese, dried oregano, some lemon zest and olive oil. I'd never used filo pastry before so I layered it into a small baking tray, brushing the sheets with a bit of oil. Then the spinach was added to the egg mixture and the whole lot put into the tin and the filo sheets pulled over the top. It cooked in about 30 minutes in a hot oven and was really tasty.

Needs Must

November 19th - I hate wasting food and have been trying really hard to use everything in the fridge before going to the shops and using leftovers. Well I'd bought some hot smoked salmon, thinking of fish cakes, and a slightly out of date tub of ricotta cheese....and a need to finish them all off....and do a new recipe for the resolution since I'd be away at the weekend! Pressure. I had seen a recipe for Salmon Canelloni in a magazine that I thought I could adapt (massively) so decided to give it a go. Canelloni tubes were fashioned out of lasagne sheets that I cooked long enough for them to be rollable. The filling was ricotta, a handful of breadcrumbs, some lemon zest and juice, some grated Parmesan and the hot smoked salmon.  In the absense of marscapone for the topping I substituted Greek yogurt and grated some cheese through it. I had some spinach that needed using so I steamed that a little and put it on the base of my dish, with the rolled pasta and the topping over it and baked in the oven. Not too shabby.

Halloween Leftovers

November 16th - I'd meant to try making a pumpkin pie this year for the first time because one of my colleagues at work makes an absolutely awesome pie with a gorgeous texture and a beautiful flavour of cinnamon. It's a delight. Anyway, you know what they say about the best laid schemes..... The pumpkin sat sad and lonely on the top of the fridge and Halloween and passed a fortnight before. Another Internet trawl yielded a recipe for Pumpkin Soup.  A couple of onions were chopped and gently fried before adding the chopped pumpkin and sweating a bit more. Then some chicken stock (or water and veg. stock) added and the whole lot simmered until tender. Finally the soup was blitzed and double cream added. I even managed the croutons and a dash of chilli oil on the top to spice it up. Lush. And I promise to try the pumpkin pie next year.