Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Butterless tea loaf

This is an old recipe that I have had for ages - the origin is lost.

1/2 lb mixed fruit
4 oz sugar
10 fl oz warm tea
1 egg
1 tablespoon marmalade
1/2 lb SR flour

Soad the fruit and sugar in the warm tea - if I don't have half a pot of tea leftover I just put a teabag into the basin with the other ingredients and pour over the 10 fl OZ of boiling water(Sorry this is in old measures but since my measuring cup and scales can cope I don't convert)

Leave this to cool - overnight - over 2 nights or half a day - it doesn't seem to matter.

Stir in the beaten egg and marmalade and add the sifted flour.

Until I was given my wonderful silicon 'tins' I always used a piece of greaseproof on the bottom of a greased loaf tin. The recipe I have says bake at 325 degrees F for 1 3/4 hours. In my oven it is 155 degrees C for about 1 hour 25 minutes until the skewer comes out clean.

Leave in tin to cool for 15 minutes. (Silicon until quite cold) It can be served warm or cold with butter. I usually make one, slice it up and then keep a few slices in a tin while I wrap each of the others in gladwrap and store in the freezer. 12 seconds on high in the microwave defrosts one slice quite nicely and it tastes as good as freshly baked. It can last for ages in the freezer

Tomato Pork Cutlets

No, we have not eaten takeaway for the last 3 weeks! I have just been lax! Actually I have been busy keeping up with my other blog - maggies-textiles. I seem to have trouble in doing both at once.

Last night's dinner was just barbecued lamb loin chops for the non-semivegetarian and boiled vegetables with a sprinkling of tuna (Sirena in oil) for me - I enjoyed my dinner no end. Sometimes one just needs the taste of vegetables unadorned. However the previous night the main dish was pork cutlets baked in tomatoes - definitely not unadorned veges.

6 nicely trimmed pork cutlets
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 cloves chopped garlic
a couple of tablespoons of chopped herbs - I used rosemary, thyme and parsley
2 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar

I mixed the last 4 ingredients together and poured over the cutlets in a large greased casserole dish and left to sit for 30 minutes.

I peeled and chopped 3 zucchini (1 inch slices)
1 capsicum (2 inch squares)
3 small eggplant (1 inch slices)

These then went around the cutlets in the dish and were stirred in the marinade also.
I emptied a small tin of crushed tomatoes, into which I had stirred 1 dessertspoon of brown sugar, onto the lot.

I drizzled another tablespoon of oil on top and put in a 190 degree C oven for 45 + minutes until the pork was done. (This was cooked without a lid)

This was served with plain couscous to absorb the liquid.

I had vegetables and couscous and enjoyed it. There are still 2 dinners of cutlets in the freezer for repeat performances.

Just a footnote! Since I finished the bottle of balsamic vinegar that evening the next day I was surprised and delighted to find as well as, a choice of brands, also, in one brand, a choice of 1, 2, 3 , or 4 leaf. The 4 leaf is labelled as vintage. I have only used ordinary one leaf previously and, since I could get a 500ml bottle just slightly cheaper than a 250 ml of vintage in the same brand, 1 leaf was the one I put in the trolley. However Mike persuaded me to get a small bottle of the vintage as well. We have not yet tried the difference. With so much balsamic in the cupboard I hope vinegar is not like olive oil, which Patrice Newell (I am reading her Olive Grove at the moment) tells me goes off very quickly so must be used asap! Not sure the nonvintage oils I buy seem to change that quickly but I will now be conscious of this fact in the future.

Monday, January 7, 2008

Kevin's Sauce

This is a lovely tomato, caper, olive sauce that was served to us on pasta with barbecued salmon for Christmas Eve. Very Yummy! Kevin's recipes are a little like my mother's -

Cook some onions in plenty olive oil until transparent. Add some garlic, then enough tomatoes (Kevin uses Roma or cherry- when I made it a week or more later I used a can of crushed tomatoes plus a dessertspoon of sugar). Cook until tomatoes are soft and add some capers, and sliced olives.

When I tried this I added it to a prepared dish of Ainsley Harriott's Tomato Tango packet couscous (I prefer this and the Citrus Kick couscous to any couscous I can make) and served with reheated barbecued lamb leg (recipe to follow!). I added some basil and parsley .

Kevin had another great recipe - capsicum risotto with prawns and scallops. I want to try this sometime.

Saturday, January 5, 2008

Second's Pizza

Well, Christmas has left me with quite a few entries to make. However I will do one at a time and start with last night's dinner - our first vegetarian for some time.

A week or so ago I bought some vegetables from the seconds table (from our Feast on Fruit these are as good as most greengrocers' normal produce!) - some long pretty eggplant (can't remember the variety - I knew it in the days when I studied the seed catalogues but have forgotten in the meantime), zucchini and yellow capsicum. The vegetables were just what was needed for a great pizza topping.


3 Roma tomatoes cut into 6,
2 zucchini, sliced 1/2 inch thick
2 eggplant, 1 inch slices
1 red and 1 yellow capsicum diced in quite large pieces
1 onion cut into 8 slices
1 bunch of asparagus cut into 2 inch lengths

I could have omitted any of the above, except perhaps the tomatoes, and replaced it by 100 g defrosted and drained frozen spinach (I love those packets where the spinach is packaged in little portions - would probably use about 3 or 4) ,or by some thinly sliced pumpkin . (I had a great roast pumpkin and buffalo mozzarella pizza at Riverbend cafe one night which I want to try to duplicate one day)

I put all of the veges (not the spinach ) into a plastic bag and tossed them in about 1 1/2 tablespoons of olive oil. The vegetables were roasted at 200 degrees C. for 35-40 minutes (until just soft). Allow to cool for 10 minutes.

On 2 pizza bases (I used the Panasonic breadmaker recipe) spread 1/3 cup of tomato paste. (I ran into trouble here as I had only one sachet of tomato paste in the store cupboard - so I refrigerated half the dough and half the roasted veges until I can replenish supplies soon).

Sprinkle the base with a handful of chopped basil leaves and spread the vegetables evenly.

Crumble 100 g feta and combine with 150 g grated cheddar cheese to sprinkle on top. I added 3 or 4 sliced boccocini (since there were some in the refrigerator - thankyou Trit!)

Sprinkle 1 tablespoon of pinenuts over each and bake for about 20 minutes until cheese has melted and the base cooked.

Add chopped parsley to serve.