Welcome Hungry Boy!

So, on 16th September the Hungry Boy was born and all my spare time spent thinking, planning and cooking interesting food is gone. The tone of my blog entries is much more likely to be focussed on quick lunches. All useful stuff though!

First Salad Harvest.

First humble Salad harvest of the year.

The chard is beautiful, can't wait for the big leaves for steaming and stir frying. The colours are amazing.

Hairy Bikers Beef Olives

Some beaten out steaks, stuffed. From the Hairy Bikers Food Tour of Britain. Yum.

Note the Curly Kale for extra iron.

Another from the series of Recipe Fridays.

The Infamous Spinach Smoothie.

Sounds like a bad idea? I haven't managed to convince everyone (anyone...), but I for one am sold on this.

There is a new arrival expected in the Hungry House; a Hungry Boy. Very exciting, but boy am I looking forward to eating brie again. (And smoked salmon, and rare steak, and soft eggs... the list goes on.)

Under instruction from my midwife I'm pushing my iron intake. And so the Spinach Smoothie was born.

Blended fresh spinach, some kind of fruit, some kind of juice.

Any fruit will do, but after many different combinations I've found something very sweet works best. Like Mango. Or peaches tinned in grape juice.
If the combination is not sweet enough it is somehow very confusing for the taste buds.

And the Vit C in the orange juice and fruits helps to absorb the iron. Winner.

Easter Eggs!

Just thought I'd share the results of the annual pantomime of me trying to make eggs for loved ones. Filled with Mini Eggs- just like the good old days.

Good for a giggle and keeps me out of mischief.

Beef Bourginon and Spuds en Pappillotte

Continuing our Recipe Friday Series I thought I'd have a bash at a classic- Beef Bourginon. Amazingly there were three whole red onions in the pot but by the time it was cooked they had completely disintegrated into the rich, glossy, sauce (a whole bottle of wine went into that yummers sauce).

I roasted some new potatoes wrapped in baking paper, with plenty of butter, a sprig of thyme, a bruised garlic clove and some lemon zest. They went in the oven along side the casserole at about Gas 4 for one and a half hours. A kind of braising in butter method of cooking! No low calorie options in the Hungry House.

Recipe Friday

Mr Hungry and I started cooking a new recipe on each Friday but having fallen out of the habit we are making a big effort to start again.

We started last friday with A Chickpea And Carrot burger, flavoured with sesame, tahini and cumin- yummers. Served elegantly by Mr Hungry on toasted wholemeal toast with a dollop of natural yoghurt.

Tonight Mr Hungry made Chicken Cacciatore from the GoodFoodWebsite. It was yummers. Served with crushed new potatoes. Fab. Think this will become a firm favourite. Thanks Mr Hungry. XXx

(Waking up the next morning to no bread and very little butter I had the left over Mascarpone spread on toasted malt loaf.... decadent eh?)

Tapas Tapas

Well, to celebrate my Ma in law's birthday, we're cooking dinner here before a surprise theatre trip.
I have information that the said Ma in Law isn't a huge fan of meat and enjoys picking through different dishes of vegetables and a small amount of meat. So a tapas style meal is in hand.

I wanted to share with you some of my favourite dishes I make on these occasions.

A New Potato Salad with Grilled Halloumi (pictured without Potatoes, I pop them in warm just before serving). This also includes lemon juice and zest, shredded mint leaves, black pepper and olive oil... I just love any excuse to eat grilled halloumi- who thought that a foodstuff somewhere between caramel and cheese could be so perfect?

Another salad of Roast Squash with Cashew and Sesame. The squash has been roasted with wholegrain mustard and honey, the cashews and sesame seeds both have been toasted. I will add to this either couscous or some of my new favourite thing- Merchant Gormet's ready to eat mixed grains- vacuum packed Quinoa, Wheat, Soya Flakes and Lentils, all cooked and ready to go.... yummers!! Perfect for lunch box salads.

Mr Hungry says I get a bit 'brand loyal' and I love Merchant Gormet stuff... but I really think they make some good food.

Also on the menu tonight, a Chorizo and Mozzarella Tart, Olives, Hummus, Pitta, Cured Meats, Mixed Roast Veg, Pork Meatballs with Spicy Tomato Sauce. Followed by icecream at the theatre!

The Handmade Bakery

Wow, what a day.....

Yesterday I took part in the Handmade Bakery's Baking at Home course and it was Brilliant.

Dan and Matt led most of the course, and we all learned so much from their experience and knowledge. I came home with an enormous amount of bread, inspiration, excitement and a new apron (Bonus!).

We started the day with bread and butter and discussion about different techniques of bread making and introductions by the class. The class were very enthusiastic to learn to bake better, healthier bread and this enthusiasm only developed during the day as we made a white dough and granary dough by the sponge and dough method, a fruited and spiced dough and came home heavily laden with a baguette, a rosemary fougasse, white seeded rolls, granary rolls, a granary baton and two fruited loaves.

Am on a campaign to get Mr Hungry to let me book onto the next course in June......

Watch this space.

Springtime Ahoy!

As the snow has finally melted away thoughts turn to the hope of Spring and planning out the best use for the humble estate at the Hungry House (by humble I mean miniature). Have ordered seeds and will soon be making paper pots with my Paperpotter (a brilliant wee gadget which helps to make seedling pots out of strips of old newspaper- genius. Take a look at http://www.thegardenersshop.co.uk/paper-potter---seed-pot-maker-75-p.asp).

So I'm waiting on a big parcel from Thompson and Morgan of Broad Beans, Peas, Mangetouts, Nasturtium (first time I've grown these as a salad crop), Courgettes, Chard, Rocket, Shallots, Radish (also my first time*), Garlic and many many more.

Exciting. Now I've just got to wait for Spring to happen (and as today has been one of those days where the sun seemingly comes up but it never gets light- I may be waiting some time).

*My sister one year accidentally managed to grow 17lb of radish.... being an imaginative individual she soon brought round radish wine..... in a big demi john.... 8 pints of it. Peppery. Odd.

Bread Bread Bread!

Am so excited, am going on a bread course at the Handmade Bakery this weekend.... Can't Wait!! Watch this space for photos of my creations!
Check out their website via the link on the right hand side of this page. They make such amazing bread, can't wait to pick up some tips.

Granola

Thinking of toasted oats today so decided to make Granola, seems fitting to the hibernation mode I find myself in.

In a big bowl mix together 12oz Rolled Oats, 5oz Wheat Bran, 5oz Seed Mix (Pumpkin, Sesame, Sunflower, Linseed), 5oz Pecans and 1 oz Brown Sugar.

Then combine in 6 floz Maple Syrup and 4 floz Olive Oil in a jug and pour onto the dry ingredients.

Mix thoroughly and toast under the grill in batches.

Very moreish, great for nibbling as well as having on yoghurt with fruit for breakfast.

School Dinner Nightmares.

I was thinking about the way sprouts were so ruined for me by school dinners. Similar thoughts do come up in conversation occasionally and having made no new years resolutions I'm thinking about tackling some of these ruined foods and reclaiming them. For instance- its taken me a long time to manage to eat a fish cake. Anyone else remember those grey patties of unidentifiable stuff? Grim. Very grim.

My husband loved the 'Chicken' pie (there's no way those cubes were actual chicken....). And I have lovehate feelings towards those enormous pieces of sponge (plain, ginger, chocolate, treacle, lemon) smothered in quickly congealing custard, on special days this might even be pink custard- what was that about- really... Remember cheese pinwheels? And bad bad bad macaroni cheese. Also, cauliflower- why take a wonderful vegetable and boil it to within an inch of its life- why why why do this to us?

I took advice recently to try thinly slicing Spam and frying it, I was told this would be just like bacon. Not true. It is still as bad as you remember- the spam fritter has now been identified as one item I never never never ever need to re visit.

So I may undertake a small project in 2010- to recreate quality versions of those awful foodstuffs eaten off plastic plates in noisy rooms, with not quite clean cutlery, sitting opposite a child who's parents haven't seen fit to teach it how to blow their nose, tottering with a tray laden with runny gravy and toxic orange squash, skidding on trodden on chips and spilled custard.

Any ideas? Anything you think I should have a go at? Fishcakes is easy place to start.... watch this space.

Greens Wonderful Greens, The Answer to the January Blues?

As supplies of Christmas chocolate dwindle so begins the inevitable return to the daily task of cooking for sustenance. Cripes. Have I forgotten how to do this?

So I turn to my old faithful friends the green vegetables- my favourite to turn to in times of culinary crisis.

I love cabbage, any kind of cabbage or related veg (including Sprouts- although I found a love for these later in life- if you hate sprouts try halving them and flash frying them in plenty of butter with a generous sprinkle of pepper. The memories of the mushy grey threat of school dinner sprouts will melt away in the face of these fresh nutty crunchy little morsels of yumminess! Give it a go- it might just change your view of the mini cabbage heroes.)

To give my daily cooking a kick start into the new year a big pan of green soup is on the go, taking advantage of the brilliantness of frozen veg too. I'm going for Onion, Garlic, Spinach, Brocoli, Mange Toutes and the new kid on the block but proving very popular Curly Kale. Yummers.

To go with the green soupy saviour I'm making some cornmeal muffins. Again these are real comfort food for me. My mum was a great believer in keeping up blood sugar levels and would always feed me when I got home from school (to this day my blood sugar is always at its lowest around 3pm and I feed myself a treat at this time of day to get me through the last couple of hours of work) and cornmeal muffins were a favourite. These are also very good for breakfast, alongside a poached egg and some crispy bacon. I love the grittiness of the cornmeal between my teeth.


To make the muffins;
Mix together 100g Plain Flour, 100g Cornmeal, 1 tablespoon Baking Powder, 75g Grated Cheese, Seasoning (i've used Smoked Paprika and Wholegrain Mustard). Add to this 300ml Milk, 50ml Olive Oil (or melted Butter), and 2 Eggs. Mix quickly and pour into 6 large muffin tins. Bake at gas 7 for 20 mins.

Pop open and spread with butter while still warm. Divine.

Christmas treats!

These were brought to us by a lovely friend....

A lot of them got eaten before I could take a photo though.

The epitome of Christmas charm.

Thanks Mate
XXx