SALMON WITH BRAISED CABBAGE AND BACON

The weather has cooled down a lot and although there are some warmer days forecast it definitely feels autumnal now and we feel more like "proper cooking" as opposed to barbecues, quiches and salads.

This is a version of something I cooked a few years ago to a much more involved recipe.  

The sauce is one we make regularly which also works well with chicken or pork.  It’s a method we call "camp cooking" as that’s how we used to cook ourselves a decent dinner while on holiday - chicken in a creamy sauce done in a frying pan, having brought a separate pan of potatoes up to the boil and left to cook by themselves.  It’s amazing what you can do with a one burner camping stove with a little imagination.

For this version, the cabbage was cooked until just done then stirred through the hot sauce.  The salmon fillets were cooked plain and simple in the air fryer, or you could oven bake or fry them.  I added some courgette just because we have so many to use up but you could leave that out.  We had ours with plain boiled potatoes as the dish is already very rich - and delicious!

Ingredients 

half a small hard white cabbage, roughly shredded

1 small courgette, diced (optional)

a splash of vegetable oil

1 onion or shallot, chopped

a small pack (125g) lardons (we prefer smoked)

2-3 tblsp full fat crème fraîche

2 small salmon fillets

a few snipped chives

Method

Cook the shredded cabbage in boiling water until just tender.  Drain and set aside.

Cook the salmon fillets separately using an air fryer or by baking in the oven or in a frying pan.  They will  take 12-15 minutes.  Keep your eye on them as it’s easy to overcook and they’re best if just done and flaky.

In a deep sauté pan or large frying pan heat a splash of oil and add the onion, courgette and lardons.  Cook on medium heat until the onion and courgette are just tender.

Add the crème fraîche a spoonful at a time, stirring on low heat, until you have plenty of sauce.  Season with black pepper but very little salt.  Tip the drained cabbage into the pan and stir through the sauce.

Place the salmon on the bed of cabbage, sprinkled with snipped chives.  Serve with plain potatoes or pasta.

Serves 2.

COURGETTES ON TOAST #2

Blogger friend Angela recently posted about leftovers, how not to waste them and how to make a delicious meal from what could easily be just thrown away.  Sometimes it takes quite a bit of imagination to do that.  See here.

Whilst on holiday in our gite in Brittany on a rainy day we decided to stay indoors and do some painting.  The gite was a long way from any shops so I aimed to produce lunch from what we had in rather than go on a long trek for supplies.  What we really fancied was beans on toast but we had no beans!  We did have sliced bread for sandwiches but also had half a baguette from the day before, so I decided to use that.

It turned out really well, almost like ratatouille on toast!  Very tasty and something I would do again.

However, on return from our holiday we found that our rogue courgette plant had produced these monsters!  Even with quite a bit of imagination I'm not sure we can keep them from the compost heap!

Ingredients 

A splash of olive oil

Half a small courgette 

Half each of a small red and a small green pepper, de seeded 

Four mushrooms 

Two small tomatoes 

1 tsp herbes de Provence (or a dash of chilli flakes or Worcestershire sauce would work)

A sprinkle of grated parmesan

Two eggs

Half a stale baguette

Method 

Wash and dice all the veg.  Heat the oil in a small saucepan and add the veg and herbs, adding the tomatoes last and cooking gently until soft.  Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Cut the baguette into four chunks.  Slice through into halves vertically and remove the crust.  Toast.

Serve the veg piled onto buttered toast, sprinkle with parmesan and topped with a fried egg. (Or poached, or scrambled if you prefer, but sometimes only a fried egg hits the spot.)

Serves 2.

TOMATO SAUCE

Our tomato harvest has been less than normal this year, as we only planted four plants, but we are still not keeping up with the supply.  So as per previous years I have been hunting for ways to use them and this time, I decided to make tomato sauce.

I found a recipe for a simple tomato sauce on the internet and adapted it, as always, to what I had in stock.  I used most of our home grown tomatoes, reserving a small dishful for use in salads and sandwiches.  The original recipe was for 500g of tomatoes but I had three times that when I weighed the ones that were ready for using so I scaled it up.  You can see the recipe here.

1½ kilos of tomatoes made a full litre of the most delicious garlicky sauce, perfect for pasta or for adding to pies, stews and soups.  After using some straight away I divided the rest into 300g portions using ziplock bags for the freezer.  If you flatten the sealed bags before freezing they take up less space in the freezer.

Ingredients 

500g / 1500g ripe home grown tomatoes 

2tblsp / 6tblsp extra virgin olive oil

4 / 12 cloves garlic, peeled and finely chopped 

a good handful of fresh basil or 3 tsp dried basil

Salt to taste

Method

Roughly chop the tomatoes, removing any scarred or damaged bits.  No need to peel.

Heat half of the olive oil in a large saucepan on medium heat.  Add half of the tomatoes, turn the heat down to low and add the garlic.

Add the remaining tomatoes and cook gently until they begin to break down, stirring regularly.

Add the remaining olive oil and salt to taste and cook on a low heat for 20-30 minutes, stirring regularly.

5 minutes before the end of cooking add the torn basil leaves and/or dried basil.

When cool transfer to a food processor and process until as smooth as you want it, or use a stick blender in the pan (be aware it may splatter and tomato stains can be very stubborn).

Makes 33cl / 1 litre of sauce which will keep for a week in the fridge.  Freezes well.

You might be interested in other ways I have used tomatoes:

airport potatoes

preserved roast tomatoes

ratatouille

roast salmon with courgettes and tomatoes

gazpacho soup

smoked salmon and halloumi stuffed courgettes

roasted cod with potatoes and tomatoes

stuffed chicken fillets

tomato, ham and goat's cheese tart

noggle end tomato tarts

roasted tomato soup

courgette and tomato gratin

easy tomato and cheese tart

green tomato chutney

QUICK AND EASY LEMON MERINGUE PIE

Lemon meringue pie was a real treat when I was a child and my mum usually made it using a Green's pie filling mix.  I was reminded of this when reading a recent post in "Lavender and Lovage" about the Be-Ro recipe for it (see here).

Hence, on my recent trip to the UK I bought some of the packet mixes and I was keen to relive the memories.  Using ready made pastry it was done in no time at all and was exactly as I remembered it, especially as I made it in my ancient Pyrex pie dish, just like Mum would have done.

Of course, she always made her own pastry as I'm not sure there was any other option in the 50’s and 60’s and in any case, shop bought would have seemed far too extravagant!

It’s a delicious, quick and easy dessert and there was that glorious crunch when I cut the first slice - something that I always think of as a "Mary Berry moment"!

Ingredients 

1 pack of ready made, ready rolled shortcrust pastry

one sachet of Green's lemon pie filling (each pack contains two sachets)

2 medium eggs, separated

280ml (half a pint) cold water 

110g caster sugar

Method 

Remove the pastry from the fridge about 15 minutes before you start to bring it up to room temperature.

Preheat the oven to 200°C / 180° fan / gas mk 6.  Grease a 20cm pie dish and line it with the unrolled pastry.  Trim and crimp the edges then prick the base with a fork.  Line it with the baking parchment that comes with the pastry, fill with baking beans and blind bake for 15 minutes.

Reduce the oven temperature to 160°C / 140° fan / gas mk 3.

While the pastry case is baking, make the filling according to the packet instructions:  

Tip the sachet contents into a small saucepan and stir in the water until it's smooth.  Add the egg yolks and heat gently until it comes to the boil.  Cook for one more minute and allow to cool slightly.

Remove the pie dish from the oven, remove the baking paper and beans and pour in the lemon filling.

To make the meringue, put the egg whites into a clean bowl and whisk until stiff.  Add the sugar one spoon at a time and whisk again until stiff and glossy.

Spoon the meringue mixture over the lemon filling beginning at the edges.  Spread the meringue out to fill in the gaps and swirl to level and make a few peaks.

Bake for 25 minutes until the meringue is golden brown.  Allow to rest for 15 minutes before serving.

Serves 5-6 portions.

BEEF STROGANOFF

Back home in the UK for one of our regular visits, I met my brother at a quaint little Italian restaurant near Nottingham where I chose beef stroganoff from the menu.  I hadn’t had this for years and it was utterly delicious.  The steak was as tender as tender could be and the sauce rich and silky.  The restaurant owner said it’s not very Italian but when they try to take it off the menu people ask for it so they have to bring it back!

Back in France I was keen to recreate it for Nick and myself at home.  A short break in the current heatwave gave us a cooler evening when we could sit out in comfort and enjoy it.  Followed by cheese (using my new cheese plates) and plum and apple crumble using fruit from our own trees.  

I adapted this recipe from the Good Food website.  The break in the heat was all too brief and we were soon back to bbq and salad.

I found these cheese plates in a UK charity shop and acquired a second set so eight in total.  Perfect for a dinner party!

Determined to get them back to France I carried the boxes of them in my hand (under the seat in front) luggage and as predicted, they caused some confusion at the security scanner.  I suspect they might have looked like land mines!

Ingredients

1 tblsp olive oil

1 onion, sliced

1 clove of garlic, crushed or grated

1 large knob of butter

a handful of mushrooms, cleaned and sliced

1 tblsp plain flour

300g fillet steak or good quality frying steak, sliced

2 tblsp crème fraîche

1 tsp French mustard

100ml beef stock (or dry white wine) I used ½ a beef Oxo cube dissolved in boiling water

Method

Fry the onion in the olive oil on medium heat, until softened.  Add the garlic and fry briefly.

Add the butter to the pan then the mushrooms.  Fry until soft (about 5 minutes).  Tip everything out of the pan onto a plate or dish and set aside.

Put the flour into a dish and tip in the sliced steak, toss around to coat the steak.

Add a little more olive oil to the pan and fry the steak for 3-4 minutes until browned.  

Tip the onions and mushrooms back into the frying pan and add the crème fraîche, mustard and beef stock or white wine.  Stir and cook for another 5 minutes, season well and serve with chopped fresh parsley if you have any and an accompaniment of your choosing.  This could be rice, mashed potatoes, chips or pasta.  Anything goes.

Serves 2-3 portions. 

NOGGLE END TOMATO TARTS

Our tomatoes have started to ripen but although they taste delicious they would not win any beauty contest!  They are a bit "noggly" - lumpy and bumpy with the odd split.  With a pack of puff pastry in the freezer I decided to use some of them for little tarts.

There was also a selection of bits of cheese in the fridge - we call those "noggle ends" - bits you would put under the grill on toast or in a quiche.  I used Camembert and something called Tome aux Fleurs, a hard cheese with a crust of flower petals, which you can read about here.  Grated cheddar would have worked well.

Also lurking in the fridge was a small pack of cocktail frankfurters, purchased for some long forgotten event and never used but fortunately well within date. 

I used my free Yorkshire pudding tin (see here) to make four tarts but this time used a slightly bigger template to cut the pastry allowing me to crimp the edges more neatly.  (It's actually something I spotted in Ikea, is meant to be the base for one of those stainless steel kitchen tool holders and I had a hunch it would be just the right size.)

My pastry made four tarts and eight cocktail sausage rolls (recipe here) from the trimmings.  All fun to make and very tasty - a nice way to entertain children on a wet afternoon in the school holidays I think - they are very adaptable and bake in just the right amount of time to clear up then heat up a tin of baked beans!😋

Ingredients 

1 pack of ready made, ready rolled, oblong puff pastry

2 tsp French mustard (or brown sauce, onion chutney or ketchup if you prefer)

6 thick slices of tomato

Thin slices of any cheese you have (or grated cheddar if you prefer)

1 egg, beaten (optional but worth using if you are also making the sausage rolls)

Fresh or dried thyme

8 cocktail frankfurters (or one large frankfurter cut into bits or the filling from a sausage)

Method 

Preheat the oven to 200°C / 180° fan / gas mk6.  Grease the four holes of a Yorkshire pudding tin or four small tart tins (or use four ovenproof saucers placed on a baking sheet).

Allow the pastry to thaw and come up to room temperature.  Unroll and cut four circles about 2cm bigger than the holes using anything you have that’s the right size as a template.  Lay the pastry into the holes and crimp the edges.

Using the back of a teaspoon spread 1/2 tsp mustard over the base of each tart.  Add the slices of tomato, cutting to fill the pastry.  Arrange thin slices of cheese on top but leaving gaps as the cheese will melt and spread.

Brush the pastry edges with beaten egg (optional).  Sprinkle with fresh or dried thyme and bake for 20 minutes until the pastry is crisp and golden brown and the cheese has melted and bubbled.

Use the pastry trimmings to make little sausage rolls which can go into the oven at the same time.

Makes 4 tarts and 8 cocktail sausage rolls

APPLE CHUTNEY

Every year our apples fall from the tree too soon, heaps of them.  Most are unusable due to insect damage and end up in the compost but most years I manage to salvage some.  This year I decided to make some chutney.

I adapted a recipe on the Good Food website to what I had in stock, using Melfor vinegar instead of cider vinegar, demerara sugar instead of light muscovado and a mixture of raisins and sultanas.  You could also add other spices than just ginger: maybe cinnamon or even curry powder.

Peeling and chopping so many apples is not my favourite pastime so I've given it two stars for the amount of tedious work but it's a delicious chutney.  It goes well with our new favourite French cheese - Laguiole, which is not dissimilar to a strong cheddar and can usually be found amongst the Cantal cheeses as it’s from the same region of France.  

I'm sure it would go equally well with pork pie, sausage rolls and cold meats.

It’s ready for eating straight away but can be left to "mature" for a few weeks.

There was such a huge quantity of ingredients that I had to cook mine in two separate pans, dividing them equally between the two.  Interestingly, one lot cooked quicker than the other, the wider, flatter pan finishing first by several minutes!

I remembered a tip from, I think, a James Martin recipe on how to tell if your chutney is ready.  It should be nice and thick and when you drag your spoon through it there should be a clear trail which only fills with liquid very slowly.  If it refills immediately cook for longer, in five minutes intervals.

At the time of writing you can see the original recipe here.  The comments suggest it’s a very popular and successful recipe and there are interesting tips and ideas.

Ingredients 

1.5 kg cooking apples (prepared weight) I had about 1.7kg.

750g demerara sugar

500g mixed raisins and sultanas

2 medium white onions

2tsp mustard seeds

2tsp ground ginger

1tsp salt

700ml Melfor or cider vinegar 

Method

Put all of the ingredients into a large saucepan (or divide equally between two), bring to the boil gently then simmer uncovered for 30-40 minutes or until thick and ready (see picture above).  Stir frequently and adjust the heat so that that the chutney doesn’t catch on the bottom of the pan.

While the chutney is cooking sterilise eight suitable jars by washing in hot soapy water.  Rinse well and put jars and lids on a baking sheet in the oven set at 140°C for 20 minutes.

Allow the chutney to cool then fill your jars and seal tightly.  Once opened they should be kept in the fridge.

Makes 6-8 jars of chutney.