SEEDLING UPDATE

I never tire of watching this.

How are yours doing?

Mini triffids!!

GYROS, OF A SORT

Last summer, our family holiday was a fortnight in Greece.  Lots of memorable foodie moments,

one of which was the delicious 'Gyros' street food.

 Traditionally made with pork but I made mine with beef skirt - as I said, Gyros, of a sorts.

Pretty darn good, if say so myself.

If you fancy a try, this is how 

I marinated 1.5Ib of beef skirt in finely chopped clove of garlic and a table spoon

of red wine vinegar and left for an hour.

 Meanwhile, I made up a few pizza bases in the bread maker 

but you could just buy some round pittas.

And made a kind of guacamole dip by mashing four cloves of chopped pickled garlic
with one avocado and a simple onion and Greek yogurt dip.

Char grill the beef skirt in a griddle pan for 3-4 minutes each side depending on

how rare you like your meat. 

Remove from the pan onto a chopping board and thinly slice.

Load up with the dips, a few leaves of rocket, sliced tomato and cucumber and

top with the beef skirt and a handful of chips - homemade or from the local chippy!

BUTTERNUT SQUASH AND CELERIAC CURRY

A tasty vegetarian curry with rice and homemade onion bhajis

As hot as you  like! This one was pretty spicy but you can tame it down a little by adding

 less fresh chilli and chilli powder.

This is not an authentic recipe, its just mine but its very good.

Curry first and then the bhajis....

Ingredients

1 butternut squash

1 celeriac

1 large parsnip

6 tomatoes

1 large red onion

Fresh ginger (approx 40mm piece)

2 cloves garlic

1 red chilli

1tsp ground coriander

1tsp garam masala

1tsp ground paprika

1/4 tsp chilli powder

1/4 tsp cinnamon

600ml vegetable stock

200ml coconut milk

Fresh coriander to sprinkle

Peel and chop the red onion into large chucks and pop into the blender with the garlic, fresh chilli and all the spices.  Whizz until smooth, adding a splash of water if necessary (a drop at a time) to get a paste like consistency.

Peel and seed the vegetables and chop into large chunks

Heat two tablespoons of vegetable oil in a large pan and then add the curry paste, cooking for 5 minutes whilst stirring.  Stir in the chopped vegetables and cook on a medium heat with the lid on, regularly stirring. After about 5 minutes, add in the stock.

 Simmer until the veg is cooked through but not breaking, approx 30 mins. 

Add the quartered tomatoes and cook for another 2 minutes.

Lastly, stir in the coconut milk and 

serve with rice and onion bhajis (see recipe below)

Garnish with chopped coriander and a drizzle of coconut milk.

Onion Bhaji Ingredients

2 large onions

100g self raising flour

1tsp of cumin seeds or ground cumin

1tsp turmeric

pinch of salt

Finely slice the onion into a bowl and add the flour, salt and spices and mix together.

Once combined, start squeezing the ingredients together . This will squeeze the moisture out of the onion into the flour to help bind.   

Mix in three tablespoons of water, so that the mixture has a wet stretchy dough consistency. 

To shallow fry, cover the bottom of a frying pan with a cm of oil and heat to a medium high heat .

You want the bhajis to cook through without burning on the outside so the oil should be just hot enough to bubble when you add the mixture and not be smoking.  You can test this by dropping a small piece of the onion in.

When ready, take a heaped spoon of mixture and drop into the hot oil.  Choose the size of spoon to the size of bhaji you want to make.  We used a teaspoon. 

Cook until golden brown on both sides.

Take out of the pan and lay on a plate covered with a piece of kitchen roll.

Put into a low oven to keep warm.

WILL'S APPLE & CINNAMON CRUMBLE WITH HOMEMADE LEMON ICE-CREAM

Ingredients

300g plain flour

150g soft brown sugar

150g chilled butter (cubed)

3-5 bramley apples

1/2 tspn cinnamon

Extra sugar to sweeten the apples

In a mixing bowl, put the flour, sugar and butter and rub together with your fingers

until all crumbled together.

Peel, core and slice the apples and fill a deep baking dish with the prepared apple.

Spoon over a generous amount of sugar and the cinnamon. 

If you prefer, you can pre-cook the apple a little by stewing in a saucepan.

We find though that uncooked, the apple is soft but still formed and not mushy.

Evenly sprinkle the crumble over the apple and then a desert spoon of brown sugar over 

the top for a sugary crunch.

Pop into a pre-heated oven for 35-40 mins at 180°C

 

 Use a skewer to check the apple is cooked through, if not turn the temperature

down to 140°C for another 10 minutes or so.  More if needed.

We had already made some lemon ice-cream in an ice-cream maker that was lent to us to try.

First time we've ever used one and rather impressed - we followed the recipe that came with it. 

You might think lemon is the wrong flavour to put with apple crumble but not at all, it was absolutely delicious!

 

VENISON LEFTOVERS

Many of you will have seen my previous post on venison, a roast haunch for Sunday lunch on the BBQ.  Well, as is usually the case with a roast dinner, there was plenty left over which we ate throughout the week - and it was just as good cold.

Apart from cutting a slither off every time I opened the fridge, we've had a lunch of

stuffed venison pitta breads and a meal of cold venison with char grilled Mediterranean veg.

Toast and split the pitta bread

 Stuff with the cold sliced venison, red pepper, spring onion, tomato and goats cheese

And drizzle over some sweet chilli sauce for an extra something

This one is locally handmade from Gulls Cottage, Dedham, bought from our local deli.

Warm and crunchy with a spicy hot kick!

Use any other cold meat or remove altogether for a vegetarian option

For the venison with charcoal grilled Mediterranean veg.....

Grill three peppers on all sides until the skin has charred and is bubbling away from the flesh. 

Put into a plastic bag for 5 minutes to allow to sweat.   

Remove from the bag, peel off the skin, de-seed and thinly slice. Put to the side.

Steam a handful of green beans and put to the side.

Slice one courgette and four mushrooms and toss in a desert spoon

of olive oil with six whole trimmed spring onions.

Char grill in a griddle pan, placing just a few slices in at a time and cooking on both sides.

No oil required.

Press them down as they cook to get an even colour.  

In a separate bowl add a desert spoon of chopped chives and one of chopped lovage.

(two chives if you don't have the lovage)

Add eight finely chopped black olives and a teaspoon of finely chopped capers

and then mix in one teaspoon of dijon mustard and a tablespoon of raspberry vinegar

or good red wine vinegar.

Throw in the char grilled vegetables, sliced peppers and green beans and toss together.

Serve with slices of cold venison and cous cous

 So, all in all its fed the family well for the last week and it didn't cost a bean!

VENISON ON THE BAR-B-Q

I have a friend who regularly hunts deer and last week, I helped him joint his latest bag.

In return I was rewarded with a months supply of meat. A great trade I think.

From the selection of cuts, I chose 'haunch' for this weekends Bar-B-Q, the first of many.

Venison is a particularly lean meat, especially this time of year, coming out

of the winter and can easily dry up if cooked too long.

A little preparation before the cooking - I had decided to bone and roll the haunch

To help baste the meat and keep the moisture in, I wrapped some beef fat

from the local butcher, around the joint.

And then on to the barbie for an hour....ish!

We have a converted oil drum and use wood not charcoal mainly because I

have an endless supply of it but I also like the way it cooks and the smokey flavour it adds.

Use a meat thermometer with large joints.

Core temperature should be between 50-55 degrees for red meat.

Beautifully succulent with just an ever so slight game taste.

With the juices from the meat, I made a red wine and cranberry jus

and served with a fig and cashew nut cous-cous, mixed leaves and green beans. 

Perfect for a sunny Sunday afternoon