Savoury mince in a big Yorkshire pud

Thank you for comments, as always, I've answered them.  I'm bad at replying to comments, I know....I have a little run of answering and then not so much.  I will always try to answer any queries in a blog post, if not the actual comment - give me a prod if I don't!  Welcome to some more new followers too, it's lovely to have readers of my previous blog, plus some new ones.

Well, the mystery quiche turned out to be roasted squash, blue cheese and sage, delicious.  We're having the other half for lunch today, must remember to get it out of the fridge before we go shopping, I like it cold but room temperature, not fridge cold.  Think we'll have a mug of soup (bought one, there's a few in the cupboard) with it, we'll be cold when we get back as it's not going to get much above freezing today, apparently, with a very cold wind.  Snow is forecast for late this afternoon/early evening, it doesn't look like it'll be a lot though and there's no more forecast for tomorrow.

Dinner tonight will be the rest of the savoury mince I made a couple of days ago.  Incidentally, I was going to make a cheesy cobbler topping but husband decided he'd like dumplings, so I made cheesy dumplings instead.  Made double quantity and froze the extras, I'll probably make a tomato and lentil soup to have them with, it's definitely soup weather at the mo.  I'll do Yorkshire puds to go with the mince tonight.

I have some apples to use up, haven't decided what to do with them yet.  Went to a garden centre the other day, they were selling bags of about a dozen Cox's apples, which are my favourite.  Should have known better, really, I like them when they're first ready to harvest, when they're very crisp, sharp and juicy....these ones have clearly been stored for a few weeks and they're no longer sharp or crisp, very disappointing.  I expect I'll put them in a cake.

Quiche, wedges and homemade coleslaw

We're going out today so it's something out of the freezer for dinner tonight....an anonymous quiche (I forgot to label it when I made and froze it a few weeks ago), bought spicy wedges and homemade coleslaw.  The coleslaw is white and red cabbage and carrots - although I usually finely slice the cabbage and grate the carrots, for quickness today I shall be whizzing them in my food processor - yes it chops rather than shreds or slices (my grater attachment broke ages ago), but we don't mind, it all goes down the same way.  I'll add a handful of grated cheese too.  Incidentally, I buy big blocks of Cheddar when on offer, grate it myself and keep it in plastic bags in the freezer.  You can use it straight from the freezer, it stays free-flowing and defrosts in no time if you want it as is.

I don't put onion in coleslaw as raw onion doesn't agree with me, gives me stomach trouble.  

The dressing will be mayo and Greek yogurt, half and half, with a spoonful of grainy mustard, salt & pepper and a sprinkle of paprika.

An anonymous reader asked about reheating frozen veggy cobbler so that the scone topping doesn't burn.  Yes, reheating in the microwave would be fine, or do it in the oven if you like but cover the dish with foil, that should stop the scones burning.  That's what I do.  Or you could always take the scones off, reheat the casserole and then add the scones back on top for the last 5 or 10 minutes.

I'm happy to allow anonymous comments if people don't have a Blogger account (provided they're polite comments, of course).  But would you anonymous commenters mind putting your name at the end of your comment, especially if you ask a question?  It's a bit disconcerting replying to someone who's a complete stranger, just as it would be in real life face to face.

A freezer food week and Minced Beef Cobbler

My main food focus this week is making inroads into the freezer stuff.  Yesterday's bubble & squeak used up leftover veg from Sunday dinner, along with various bits of cooked veg I'd saved up in bags in the freezer.  We'll be having beef mince on 2 days, a previously made quiche (should have labelled it, I can't remember what I put in it), chicken pasta bake, diced beef and sliced turkey, both left over from Christmas.  I'm also going to use quite a bit of frozen shop bought veggies, along with fresh veg.

I want to have a baking day soon, making a couple of loaves of bread, some cakes and some savoury things, sausage rolls, cheese scones and the like, to put in the freezer, so I need the space.  But the big upright freezer in the utility room needs defrosting before I put anything else into it, hence the need to use up as much as I can of what's in it.  

Minced beef cobbler for dinner tonight, that's savoury mince with lots of frozen veggies added, with homemade cheese scones (you Americans call them biscuits, I believe) on the top.  Funny how food names vary in different countries....biscuits are something entirely different here in the UK, I guess you call them cookies - flat crunchy (sometimes soft and chewy) baked things you (well, we!  you might not) dunk in your cup of tea.

Gemma's Person, you asked about baked beans - yes, they're out of a tin, I think they're haricot beans here, in a thick tomatoey flavoured sauce.  I do make my own sometimes, using dried beans, chopped canned tomatoes or passata, tomato puree, brown sugar, onions and spices, I make it in the slow cooker.  

Meat free Monday - Veg soup and Bubble & Squeak

Today I'm making a veggie soup for lunch, using a pack of ready diced carrot & swede, 40p in the supermarket.  40p is cheap anyhow, but it's an absolute bargain for the convenience of having it peeled and diced ready for use.  I'll add a couple of handfuls of red lentils and a chopped leek, with some homemade stock from the freezer, it'll give us 2 or 3 days' worth of lunches.

For dinner it'll be bubble and squeak, with a fried egg and baked beans.  Bubble and squeak, for overseas readers who haven't heard of it, is cooked leftover veg, from Sunday roast dinner usually, chopped up, mixed together and fried until crispy.  It almost always contains roast and/or boiled potatoes and Brussels sprouts, but can use up any cooked veg you have kicking around.  I freeze even small amounts of leftover veg until there's enough to make a decent bubble.  You can add shredded leftover roast meat, or chopped bacon, or serve it alongside sausages.  It must always be drizzled with spicy brown sauce, though!  (Well, it's a must for me, husband hates brown sauce).  Today's B & S consists of cooked roast spuds, parsnips, sprouts, cabbage, broccoli and carrots.  Sometimes I cook it all together as one big mash up, sometimes I form it into individual patties...today it'll be all done together.  It's proper old fashioned comfort food and is worth cooking extra veg for, just to make sure you have enough and a good excuse to make bubble and squeak!

Thank you for comments.  Marlene made a comment yesterday about the recipe I'd used for my risotto being different to the one she'd used - it was the same recipe actually, I'd just added a few different things.  More often than not I'll change a recipe....leave out something I don't like or don't have, and substitute something else.  Or just add something I think will also work well in it.  I suppose I view recipes as an idea - that's not to say the original recipe won't work, I'm sure it will and no disrespect to the writer of the original.  It gives me ideas, I suppose, and I like experimenting.

Husband cooking dinner today

The fish finger butty was lovely, as usual.  I like Little Gem lettuce in it but had forgotten to buy any so went without, husband had watercress, which I'm not keen on, in his.

Took a couple of bites before remembering to take a photo

The sprout and Dolcelatte risotto was gorgeous, the cider and blue cheese really made it.

Frying the leek, sliced sprouts and courgettes

Adding the blue cheese when the brown rice was nearly cooked

The finished dish, with pecans stirred in at the end to retain the crunch.

We're having belly pork slices today, with assorted veggies.  Husband's cooking it, so I'll leave it up to him to choose which veg and how he's going to cook the pork.  I've suggested a cider sauce, as there's half a bottle left from the risotto....he's not keen on making sauces so I'll probably do that.  He doesn't do a lot of cooking, although usually prepares the lunch (quite often it's soup that I made earlier, or he makes a sandwich for us), but likes to do Sunday dinner sometimes.  It's nice to have a day off cooking occasionally, and he does do a good job....even if he makes a bit of a mess in the kitchen!

Fish finger butty, Sprout & blue cheese risotto

A butty, for overseas readers, is a filled bread roll or sandwich.  We like MaccyD's filet o fish, but rarely buy them, cheaper to make our own.  So this is what we're having for lunch today - a wholemeal seeded roll filled with grilled fish fingers, slice of Swiss cheese, mayo and salad leaves, with sliced gherkins on the side (they tend to fall out if you put them in the butty, which is pretty messy to eat anyway).

Risotto - we have risottos quite often, we really like them, and it's a good way of using up leftover veg or meat.  As for the rice....I don't use proper risotto rice, just ordinary bog-standard brown rice.  Sacrilege, I know.  And using ordinary rice means you don't get the soft creamy stickiness you have with proper risotto rice.  But we don't care, we still like it anyway.  The reason I don't use risotto rice is partly cost - it tends to be dearer than ordinary rice - and partly because risotto rice generally is white.  As a diabetic, white carbs aren't good for me at all so I have brown by preference.  You can get brown risotto rice, but not generally in the shops (none of our local supermarkets stock it, nor does the health food store in the town) so have to order it online and it's a lot more expensive.  So brown ordinary rice it is.  I have a big 3kg bag of brown basmati which I bought cheaply from Approved Foods some while ago (Approved Foods is an online retailer of short- or out-of-date dried, tinned or packet foods), but today am using brown easy cook rice, slightly shorter grained, which one of the supermarkets had on offer a few weeks back.  

Marlene S mentioned a Brussels sprout and cheese risotto she made from a Miguel Barclay book, he used Stilton but Marlene's family aren't keen on it so used goats cheese instead.  We do like blue cheese - I haven't got Stilton but do have a pack of Dolcelatte I picked up yesterday on a yellow sticker.  As a soft cheese, it needs to be used quickly, so that's going in the risotto.  I'll also use sprouts (of course), one of our homegrown leeks, some mushrooms, sun dried tomatoes (there's a half full jar in the fridge that I keep forgetting about, hope there's no mould!) and some cider as the stock - we have a couple of bottles in the utility room bought when we had friends round ages ago that have been there ever since...the cider that is, not the friends!  Garlic bread from the freezer (still trying to make inroads into the freezer stuff).  I'll try to remember to take photos later.

Comments and yesterday's food photos

Several new followers already, welcome everyone.  Thanks for comments, think I'll answer some of them here.  

Rosemary (what a beautiful blog you have, so much colour!) said about finding out how so many veggies can be roasted successfully - yes, I've been finding the same, who knew!  I too roasted beetroot for the first time last year - it really brings out the flavour and they taste delightfully sweet.  I've also recently started roasting cauliflower - rather than breaking it into florets, I slice it into thick 'steaks', spray them with oil and sprinkle with paprika then roast until browned.  Delicious.

Marlene J asked about recipes for lentils/pulses.  I don't tend to make meals using lentils as the main ingredient, as husband's not keen on them - he says they taste too earthy.  But I do use them a lot in my cooking.  I put a couple of handfuls of red lentils into stews, mince dishes, curries and the like to thicken them and make them go further, you hardly notice they're there as they disintegrate when cooked down.  I also make soup with them, lentil and bacon or tomato and lentil, or carrot and lentil.  The little blue/green Puy lentils I cook first, a whole packet at a time, and freeze in portions.  I like a heaped tablespoon of them added to a risotto, they seem to pair quite well with rice.  I also do a sausage and lentil dish...cut sausages into chunks (I use scissors to cut each sausage into 3 or 4) and fry with sliced onions or leeks, mushrooms and any other veg you have knocking around.  Add some wine if you have it and sizzle to cook down, then throw in the Puy lentils and a tin of chopped tomatoes and whatever herbs you fancy, simmer until thickened.  This also works really well with chicken pieces, breasts or thighs.  I'll have a think about recipes for pulses, none immediately spring to mind, well, other than hummus and split pea and ham soup.

Marlene S - your sprout and cheese risotto sounds delicious, I'll have to try that.  

TA - no darling, there's not much room for a food processor in your kitchen is there?!  Small but perfectly formed!  And yes, I do know how you feel about courgettes....plenty of other things to try instead though.

Photos:-

The breakfast muffins I made the other day.

Potatoes boiled and smashed.

Brushed with melted butter and cheese sprinkled on, prior to roasting.  I made plenty, the rest will be saved for the weekend, we'll have them with beans for lunch on Saturday.

Cheese sauce added to the smashed potatoes, honey roasted carrots and parsnips, and Brussels sprouts roasted with dried cranberries and pecans.  Yummy and filling and we didn't miss meat at all.