Pickled green tomatoes, bacon moussaka

I was googling this morning looking for things to do with green tomatoes, of which we have loads.  I don't particularly want to make chutney as we don't eat much of it nowadays, and I still have several jars in the pantry cupboard from 1, 2 or even 3 years ago.  And sorry to American friends, but I'm not very keen on fried green tomatoes.  Or even fried red ones, come to that.  Well, I came across several recipes for pickled green tomatoes - simply sliced or quartered tomatoes preserved in a briny spiced vinegar, just like pickled onions or gherkins.  What a brilliant idea, they'd be lovely with cheese for a Ploughmans, or in a salad or sandwich.

So that's what I've done this morning.  Washed and thickly sliced a load of tomatoes and packed them into a large sterilised jar (an empty gherkin jar).  Used 2 cups white vinegar and 1 cup of water, heated in a saucepan to dissolve 4 tsp sugar, 3 tsp salt, 2 tsp black peppercorns, 1 each of yellow mustard seeds and black onion seeds.  Poured over the tomatoes right to the top of the jar, stretched over a cellophane cover and screwed on the lid.

Apparently they lose their bright green colour, but remain crisp, which is good.  They're ready after about a week and keep well in the fridge for up to 6 weeks, so I've read.  I guess you could add chillies or herbs to the pickling liquid, and put sliced onions in as well if you wanted.  I'm looking forward to trying them with cheese....I like pickled gherkins but not onions, they disagree with me.

I'm doing a sort of moussaka for dinner tonight, but using diced bacon instead of lamb - as I have no lamb but do have bacon cubes in the freezer.  On which note, must go and slice/grill the aubergine.  

Quiche and spicy wedges

Thank you Joy and TA.  In answer to your question about the beets, TA - no I don't peel them first when I roast them.  I simply scrub then top and tail them, cut into quarters if small, or eighths for bigger ones, drizzle with oil and roast for about 40 mins or so, until done.  I shake them about or give them a stir to turn them over once or twice during cooking.  They're delicious hot or cold.

Lunch today will be mashed avocado and poached egg.  I stir a little Philly-type cream cheese and a sprinkle of smoked paprika into the avocado, along with a splash of lime juice.  Husband will have his on toast, no toast for me, our own fresh tomatoes (thankfully now ripening fairly quickly) sliced on the side.

For dinner I'm doing quiche with roasted spicy wedges and coleslaw.  Pretty traditional quiche Lorraine with cubed bacon, mushrooms and lots of cheese (we like it very cheesy).  The wedges are our own homegrown new potatoes, scrubbed and quartered, tossed with olive oil and that season all spice mix.  The coleslaw will be homemade - white cabbage with our own carrots and yellow courgette grated, dressing of mixed mayo, Greek yogurt and grainy mustard.  Husband wants a pud, so it'll be stewed apples as we have plenty of our own now, with yogurt.

Beetroot & feta salad, chicken risotto, baby corn

Husband cooked Sunday lunch, he did well, roast chicken with roasted carrots and beetroot, new potatoes and broccoli.  The carrots and new potatoes were our own homegrown.  

We had roasted beetroot wedges left over, so we had them for lunch today in a salad.  I mixed them with halved cherry toms, cucumber, crumbled feta and walnuts, on a bed of watercress.  I made a dressing of mayo mixed with Greek yogurt and horseradish, it was lovely.

Plenty of roast chicken left, so for dinner I chopped some up and fried it with a little bit of bacon, shallot, yellow courgettes, sliced baby corn (all the veggies from our garden).  Mixed in one of those fancy rice packets (brown rice, quinoa, pumpkin & sunflower seeds) and some pesto sauce, with a blob of Philly-type cream cheese, and a splash of water to loosen it.  Delicious.

With the remaining chicken I'll make a curry tomorrow.

The baby corn we've grown for the first time this year (I say we, I just chose them at the start of the year, husband does the growing) and it's really nice, we only grew a dozen plants as an experiment.  We've had 3 meals from them so far, with at least another couple to come.  We'll definitely grow them again next year, they're a keeper.

Tomato & bean soup and a spice mix

TA - Eloise's suggestions are good, I've used couscous in peppers, and those packets of flavoured couscous/grains/rice you can get nowadays are very nice.  Or what about mashed cauli or broccoli with cheese and bacon?

Joy - no I didn't defrost the sprouts first before roasting them.  They were fine - not brilliant but perfectly edible, and certainly much nicer than boiling.  

It's definitely turning into soup weather now, so that's what we're having for lunch today, I'm making a tomato and bean soup which I've made loads of times before, it's cheap, quick but very tasty.

Chop and soften an onion in a little oil in a large saucepan.  Add 2 tins of chopped tomatoes and a tin of baked beans.....you could use any canned beans, actually, rinsed of the salty goo.  Add a big squirt of tomato puree and a splash of balsamic vinegar or Worcestershire sauce, to give depth of flavour.  Sprinkle in herbs of choice - I've used basil and coriander, and half a teaspoon of smoked paprika.  Cook for about 10 mins.  Leave to cool a bit, then whizz up with a stick blender.  Reheat gently and serve with a swirl of cream or a dollop of Philly-type cheese or a sprinkle of grated Cheddar.

I often use SeasonAll on mixed roasted veggies or roast potatoes or in mince or pasta dishes....anything really.  For overseas readers, it's a little jar of mixed spice and herbs, a kind of multi-purpose seasoning.  It's a bit pricy for the size of the jar, averaging around £1.  Anyway, a few weeks ago I found a huge plastic jar of a similar thing in Lidl:-

It's a kilo in weight (about 20x the size of the little jars I normally buy), I can't remember how much it cost but I know it was really economical, because I remarked on it to husband and bought it.  Well, after using a couple of teaspoonsful of it a couple of times, I discovered why it was so cheap....everything tasted incredibly salty and a bit sweet.  On looking at the label, I saw the first ingredient is salt....59% of it!  Closely followed by sugar, 15%, and then assorted herbs and spices in unspecified amounts, as well as a few chemicals or e-numbers.  Not so good then - that'll teach me not to read the label before buying.

Well, I didn't really want to chuck it, so had an idea to make it better.  I did throw away about a third of it - goes against the grain but we can't use it in its present state.  I bought 2 supermarket value pots of mixed herbs and smoked paprika, decanted the remaining 2/3 of the spice mix into a large bowl and added the herbs and paprika.  I also added some opened stuff I had in the cupboard - some onion granules, some parsley and half a pot of sumac (I'm not keen on the taste of that by itself).  Mixed the whole lot together and then added it back into the jar.  It tastes a lot better now, and will last us a long time....provided the flavours don't fade, I do keep it in a dark cupboard and not on the worktop in the light.

Stuffed peppers

My stomach is gradually settling down, with the sensible good food we're eating.  

Tuesday I did stuffed peppers.  I fried a chopped shallot and some chopped chorizo until the fat ran, then added a few diced mushrooms and a couple of snipped sundried tomatoes.  Stirred it into cooked brown rice, with a tablespoon of corn kernels and a handful of grated Cheddar, then stuffed two red peppers which I'd cut in half and deseeded and quickly softened for a couple of minutes in the microwave.  We had them with frozen Brussels sprouts, which I roasted in the oven as an experiment, as the oven was on for the peppers.  We really like fresh Brussels roasted, so I wondered what frozen ones would be like done the same way....they were ok, not as nice as fresh obviously, but better than boiling them, frozen boiled sprouts are just mushy and tasteless.  I drizzled them with oil and sprinkled with SeasonAll before roasting.

Yesterday we had chicken stirfry - just sliced chicken breast with lots of veg - carrot, cabbage, red onion, peppers, mushrooms, beansprouts, with soy sauce and some powdered ginger....I completely forgot I've got lots of fresh ginger root in the freezer, never mind, I'll remember next time.

Today we're having fish....I'd bought a pack of 4 frozen salmon fillets - well, they're not very nice, not a patch on fresh.  So the remaining 2 I'm going to cut up and cook in a fresh tartar sauce (bought and frozen last week, reduced to 20p), along with a small piece of fresh haddock I bought yesterday that had been reduced to £1.  We'll have it with our homegrown baby corn cobs, French beans and courgettes.

A healthy picnic

Thanks for your comments, the monster butternut squash will ripen over the next couple of weeks on the sunny windowsill.  We always grow these squashes every year, and towards the end of the season each year we have several which clearly won't ripen on the plants, due to the lack of prolonged sunshine and shortening days.  So we pick them all and put them in the utility room, leaving a couple of inches of stem otherwise they start to rot, they ripen up in due course.  Husband brought a smaller unripe one in 2 or 3 weeks ago, another one he'd accidentally knocked off (he's very clumsy, unfortunately), that's now ripened and we'll be eating it this week.

We need some time out so will be going to our favourite beach for a walk and a picnic lunch today, to make the most of a lovely day before the forecast not so good weather later in the week.  A couple of weeks ago I made some cheese & bacon topped bruschetta, using a ciabatta loaf that I bought reduced to pennies, I froze all the slices.  I'll take some of those (I'll have just 1 or 2) along with a tub of carrot, cucumber and sweet pepper sticks, some cooked chicken and a little pot of mayo for dipping.  We'll have one of our homegrown apples for dessert, and a flask of coffee.  Hopefully, most of the holidaymakers will have gone home, so the beach should be back to the usual calm and peaceful state.

A monster butternut squash

Huh, typed a post complete with photos and it suddenly completely vanished before I'd finished it!  No doubt I did something by mistake.

Anyway, husband brought in a massive butternut squash yesterday, it wasn't ripe but he'd accidentally snapped it off so had to bring it in, it's on a sunny windowsill.  It's the biggest one I've ever seen....the orange (a normal size orange, not a satsuma) is there for comparison purposes, it dwarfs our kettle:-

And here it is being weighed:-

The display on my scales is a bit faint, but it shows a weight of 4.27kg or 9lbs 6oz!  How I'm going to cook the monster yet I haven't decided, but it will certainly do us for several meals.  We like it cubed and simply roasted with smoked paprika, or in a risotto with bacon and sage.  There's soup, of course, we especially like it with blue cheese in, or a curried version.  And oh yes, butternut squash curry is delicious.  Or I just boil and mash it sometimes, with some herbs, as an alternative cottage/fish pie topping.

And we have loads more of these squashes to come yet, a few of which will be just as big.  It's a good job they store well, they'll keep us going all through winter.