Get Set Ready.....

BAKE!


Choco Cherry Cake. Black Forest Stylie.

While The Boys Work On The Walls of My Hall.....

I had the kitchen to myself this morning. And cooked....


Made a dish of Braised Red Cabbage to go alongside some pork chops and jacket potatoes. The red cabbage is something I always make this time of year even though the weather demands salads. WHAT is going on here? It's positively balmy, warm, sunny, quite glorious for October.
But salads have never been a huge favourite of mine and even though we're all rather warm I felt the need for some comfort food and nothing comforts like red cabbage with apple onions and lots of spices. And the beauty of today's menu is that it's all cooked in the oven.
Potatoes on skewers. Chops in a tin. The casseroled cabbage and on the floor of the oven; a creamy rice pudding made using evaporated milk and infused with lemon rind.
Perfect.... and easy too.

Mr Horsehound and I had Mr Hairy Suit and his wife for tea. I made Bean Goulash with spiced couscous and for pudding, my version of a Black Forest Cake served with Carte D'Or Mascarpone Ice Cream. If you haven't tried it. Then do. It's incredibly scrummy.

My cake was fantastic too, I made it up as I went along.
A chocolate cake made using oil instead of marg, milk and cocoa and the usual flour and baking powder and bicarb and eggs. All spooned into two 20cm tins and baked for 35 mins.

Cooled.
Then on one of the sponges I spread blackcurrant jam, topped it with mashed tinned black cherries and whipped double (heavy) cream, then the other sponge made the roof....
And as soon as my chocolate icing had thickened a little I spread it over the entire cake then decorated it with a precarious looking mound of well drained and dried cherries.
Everyone loved it. I don't think a cook can feel more pleased than when she hears the oohs and sighs of satisfied guests.
I'll post a pic later today.

Veggie Day

On today's menu:


Bean Goulash (Flagelot and Borlotti)
Garlic and Coriander Pittas ( Morrisons)
Spiced Couscous

It's refreshing having an occasional meatless day. I'll add some chopped frozen green and red peppers to the two beans and stew it all in a rich paprika flavoured tomato sauce. A dollop of Morrison's basic natural yoghurt at the end cools things down a bit.
The little pittas will be torn so they can be dipped in yoghurt and sauce. Couscous will be flavoured with veg stock, garlic and a mild curry powder. Nothing overwhelming just scrumptiously simple.

This morning I bought a small pack of spicy Mexican style cheese, a Matteson's pork ring sausage and a pack of ham off-cuts in Poundland. And as I dropped them into my basket I created menus. A ham and tomato quiche. A sausage bolognaise. A batch of hot and spicy cheesey rolls.
Poundland coming to the rescue as my purse cried in hunger.


I hade a stinker of a dinner last night.
Tinned ham, mashed potato and tinned broad beans. Only highlight in this travesty was a spoonful of Branston pickle.
Pudding was the remainder of the previous evenings Apple and Blackberry Crumble. Served with a glug of cream.
Talking of Berries. I bought Mary Berry's autobiography today. (secondhand of course) Packed with pictures and recipes and her rise from suburban cookery demonstrations in the 1960's to mega stardom in the 21st century
It's my bedtime reading for sure.

Last night's Bake Off was great.
So great in fact that at the weekend I'll be baking a sweet loaf laced with Nutella and hazelnuts. The doughnuts featured in the show however are for another day.
Talking of nuts. In the Daily Mail today a journo has laid into the prime time show saying it is smutty and overloaded with inuendo. Occasional references to 'nuts', 'baps' and 'cherries' is hardly likely to turn viewers off. I'm keen. I love it. And I can't get enough of rolling pastry to a good length.

Paul. Good at hand manipulation.

Mary. Knows what she likes.

Sue. "Baps? The heavier the better."

Mel. "That is the nastiest thing I've had in my mouth for a very long time".

The Brilliance of Basa

Basa fish has become a firm favourite in the bungalow. Mr Horsehound often mistaking it for Plaice.
I've posted about this succulent fish before, so scrawl through all my posts and find it because I'm not writing it all again.
For sweet: I really will open a tin of fruit tonight. Last night I felt in dire need of stodge., so deserted the fruit dessert in favour of a bread and butter pudding. Gorgeous.
Layers of jammy bread baked in a rich vanilla custard. What could be better?
Answers on a postcard please.

The Power of Lentils...updated

For tea tonight..

Red Lentil Bolognaise with a buttered Cheese Poppy Seed and Sunflower Seed Scone. For pud, probably fruit. Been using a lot of fruit lately, very unlike me.

Gone are the days of the ever present sponge pudding. I havn't gone off of it, will never do that, but I've taken a liking to the cleansing properties of a nice fruit cocktail.


I've made a blackcurrant jam bread and butter pudding.... 

Spiced Chickpea Fritters or Felafel....Updated

Whatever I call them they taste fabulous.

And so easy to make. I sometimes use dried chickpeas but  today I've plumped for canned chickpeas.
Mash the drained peas with finely chopped and fried onion and green pepper and  add to the peas.
Sir in two tablespoons of thick natural yoghurt, a light squeeze of tomato puree and either some ground cumin and coriander or medium strength curry powder. Season well.
Mix well. Form into balls then flatten into patties. Chill for a couple of hours. Dust in flour or coat i breadcrumbs and fry till warmed through and crispy.
I serve these yummy cakes with wholemeal pittas, tomato salsa, green salad, lemon couscous and more yoghurt on the side. You can add mint sauce to the yoghurt too.
All lovely. And vegetarian too


For sweet...
Milk Chocolate Cake made with drinking chocolate instead of pure cocoa (I'm expecting it to be much sweeter) and an icing made using evaporated milk.
It's just come out of the oven and rather than the usual dark brown cake this one is paler, more mocha than very dark brown.
The icing I've made isn't as thick but there's plenty.

Yesterday I bought four very small rolled and stuffed breasts of lamb for a very reasonable £2:50. They're tiny and will probably disappear all together once roasted but I do love lamb and to find it at my kind of price was very exciting.
As there won't be much meat I'll puff out the dinner with lots of vegetables.

The cookery writer Shirley Goode extols the virtues of thrift by making use of scraps and left overs to make tasty meals. One of her recipes, Lamb and Lentil casserole is my favourite, I've only ever used shoulder chops, I can't bring myself to fight with the bones on a piece of scrag end.

Back to today's animal friendly fare. Felafel.
A delicate little supper. Finger grub. Making up little wholemeal pitta pockets oozing with yoghurt, salsa and chickpea fritters. So easy so purse friendly and so blooming delicious.

Cream topped chocolate mousse with chocospoon

Roman Cobbler

A tasty mixture of cubed fried pork shoulder, garlic, chestnut mushrooms and sage will be topped by a gnocchie made with semolina, milk, egg and cheese.
Cook for about 45 minutes till crispy. Can be kept warm for ages with no ill effects.
I always serve corn with this as it adds a dot of sweetness, I will though tonight, add some peas.

Pudding tonight is simplicity itself. I almost feel guilty because of the ease with which it's made. When assembled daintily it looks very professional no-one would guess it took only a few moments to make.

The scoundrel in question is Chocolate Mousse.

All you do is melt some dark chocolate over a pan of simmering water. Add a nut of butter and four egg yolks and stir. Slowly.
Then whisk the egg whites till peaky and stir into choc mixture with a metal spoon.
All that's left to somehow do is to ladle it into four small glass dishes or pretty tea cups leaving an inch of space for some whipped cream.
If you use tea cups, and are lucky enough to have matching saucers, a crisp biscuit in the saucer along with a small spoon, looks lovely.


The Apricot Oaty Choc Bars I recently made were scrummy. Not too sweet but a real heavenly mouthful.

Chocolate and Apricot Oat Bars

I've tweaked a simple oaty crunchy chocolate bake recipe of Mary Berry's by adding snipped dried apricots. I hope she won't mind.
I do that a lot. Tweaking. Adding stuff or subtracting bits hoping the result will be superb.
As it's Mr Horsehound's birthday I thought I'd make him a little sweet something. So along with his blackcurrant jelly and fruits of the forest dessert he'll be able to nibble on one of my fancies while checking the interweb.

His Birthday Tea tonight is Steak on a plate surrounded by sweetcorn peas tomatoes and chips.

Talking of fine fare I had dinner at Two Ducks today. A terrific affair of buttered rolls, a pork, mushroom and tomato casserole and for pud two plums.

Now I must fly......... my oaty bars need icing...
Chocolate of course.