Salaric Cooking

Leopard Pie (Serves 6) * 675 g/1.5 lbs shortcrust pastry, thawed if frozen * 225 g/8 oz dried macaroni * 350 g/12 oz fresh spinach leaves * half a fennel bulb, diced * 50 g/2 oz pine nuts, fried until golden in a little oil * half a red pepper, seeded and sliced * 90 g/3.5 oz feta cheese, cubed * 1 tbsp drained capers * 200 ml/7 fl oz single cream * 3 eggs * 1 tsp vegetable concentrate * 1 tbsp cornflour, blended with 2 tbsp water * 1 tbsp caster sugar * 1 tbsp ground cinnamon * seasoning

1. Preheat the oven to 190 C/375 F/Gas 5. Roll out 2/3 of the pastry on a lightly floured surface and line a 22 cm/8.5 inch springform tin.

2. Cook the macaroni until al dente. Drain and set aside. Wash the spinach and discard thick stalks. Cook in a large pan until soft; drain and squeeze out excess water, then chop roughly.

3. Put 1/3 of the macaroni into the pastry case. Seasoning well between the layers, add half the fennel, pine nuts, half the remaining macaroni and the spinach. Finally top with macaroni, pepper, feta and capers.

4. Beat together the cream, eggs, vegetable concentrate, cornflour paste and seasoning in a small bowl until evenly combined. Pour into the pastry case.

5. Roll out the remaining pastry to make a lid. Press the pastry firmly down over the filling and trim the edges. Roll out the trimmings and decorate the top of the pie. Sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar, and bake for 1 hour 15 minutes until golden.

6. Rest for 15 minutes to serve hot, or leave until totally cold.

Recipe: Miso Fish Soup

Another one from Becca – she is a rally good and inventive cook.

This is the really tasty soup that seems to [cheese] off everyone on all floors of PSSRI and ppl in the chemistry depatment. It is like these ppl have a fish phobia or something!!!! 4 portions

Ingredients: 2 garlic cloves finely sliced 5cm fresh ginger grated (i use a cheese grater!) 3 packs of miso paste (some brands contain yeast – i use Blue Dragon brand which is yeast free. you can find it in the supermarket aisle with other oriental sauces/noodles etc) 200g cod (or other white fish) cut into chunks 2 red peppers deseeded and chopped 3 pak choi sliced 2 handfulls mangetout or sugar snap peas 100g Fresh peas 4 spring onions

• Bring 1 and 1/4 litre water to boil. Add garlic, ginger and miso, boil for 1 min then add fish and the mangetout/sugar snap peas and pepper. Bring to boil then simmer.
• Skim off the foam, cook for 2 mins.
• Add pak choi & spring onions and cook for a further minute
• Place into bowls add raw fresh peas, stir and serve.

Tips: • Add thin rice noodles to cold soup that contains a lot of liquid, reheat in the microwave for 3 mins and voila – a homemade pot noodle or more substantial meal…. • I add all sorts of veg like runner beans instead of mangetout or sweetcorn instead of peas etc

Recipe: Aduki Bean Stew

From Becca

4 portions Ingredients: 200g AdukiBeans 2 wheat/yeast/dairy free stock cubes 1 finely sliced onion 3 carrots sliced 1 leak sliced 1 butternut squash peeled and cut into chunks 1/2 tsp cumin 1/2 tsp tumeric 250g kale

• Soak the beans in cold water for 12 hours or overnight.
• Drain the soaked beans, rinse well with cold water. Place in saucepan with cold water and boil hard for 15 mins (removes toxins)
• Drain water and rinse the beans well.
• Place 1 l fresh cold water in the saucepan with the beans & stock cubes. Bring to boil then simmer for 10 mins.
• Add the remaining veg (except the kale)and spices, simmer for 15 mins
• Add the kale simmer for 2 mins.
• Serve.

Tips: • I sometimes use chopped parsnip instead of carrots

Salmon with Citrus and Soy Sauce

This is from Becca.

4 portions Ingredients: 4 spring onions or two leeks 4 tbsp wheat free soy sauce Zest and juice of one lime 2cm fresh ginger grated (use a cheese grater!) 2 cloves garlic finely sliced 4 boneless and skinless salmon fillets

• Mix soy sauce, zest and juice of the lime, ginger, garlic and leeks.  Place the salmon fillets in a dish/bowl and spread the mixture all over them. Marinate in the fridge overnight.
• Preheat oven to 200oC
• On shets of thick foil place each salmon fillet with some marinade and a feww slices of leek. Wrap up well in foil, place on a baking tray and bake for 15 mins.

Tips: • Instead of the zest and juice of one lime, use an orange • Instead of salmon try using chicken • Serve the baked salmon on rocket & spinach salad leaves or with noodles

Recipe: Perfect Roast Potatoes

From my friend Becca.

Ingredients: peeled and chopped potatoes animal fat  (fat or roasting juices from roast chicken/meat/duck etc) or Olive oil for a more healthy option! Salt Pepper

• Boil the potatoes in a sauce pan till soft and fluffy on the surface
• Drain the water and put thepotatoes back in the sauce pan.  Add the oilive oil or roasting fat/juices to th saucepan and replace the lid.  Carfeully shake the pan in a circular motion to coat the potatoes with oil.
• Place the potatoes in a roasting tin, sprinkle with salt and pepper
• Place in a hot oven (180oC) till golden brown

Recipe: Perfect Honey Roast Parsnips

This is my friend Becca’s Recipy.

Ingredients: Parsnips Animal fat (fat drippings from roast chicken/duck/meat) or olive oil Salt Pepper Honey

• peel the parsnips and slice into long wedges
• Place in a bowl and add animal fat/olive oil and mix till all parsnips are coated
• Place parsnips on a baking tray and sprinkle with salt and pepper
• Place in a hot oven (180oC) for 15 mins or untill golden brown
• Remove from oven and drizzle honey over the parsnips, mix well till parsnips all coated.  Return to oven for a futher minute.

Tasty Savoury Pastry (Wheat and Dairy Free!)

This recipy belongs to my friend Becca.

Filed under: Savoury recipes, Becca on the 15th April 2007 at 4:44 pm After much searching for recipes and experimenting by baking one pie a week i have discoverea very tasty savory pastry recipe. Of course olly and i were both getting fatter from eating all the pies i was making, so i have now had to limit pie making to just once a month.

Ingredients: 75g rice flour 75g cornmeal 75g potato flour ~ 1tsp xanthan gum 1 pinch salt 150g soya butter 1 egg whisked

• Sift the rice flour, cornmeal, potato flour, salt and xanthan gum into a large bowl and mix well.
• Add chunks or cubes of the soya butter and rub into the flour (or use a pastry cutter) to make “breadcrumbs”.
• Add enough of the egg to bring the pastry together but make sure it isn’t too wet as it will shrink in the oven.
• On a lightly potato/rice floured board knead the dough. Roll into a ball slightly flatten it, wrap in cling film and chill in the fridge for a minimum of 30 mins but best left overnight.
• When chilled roll the pastry out between two baking sheets and use as required.

Tips • I brush a bit of whisked egg over the top of the pastry after it is half cooked, it makes the pastry go golden. • if cracks appear in the raw pie casing smooth pastry dough with a little water to fill in the gaps. • Always use a pie funnel to stop pastry collapsing and filling from boiling over.

This recipy has been sent to me by my friend Ella 🙂

You need 300g plain flour 50g butter some milk Baking soda raisons golden syrop cinnamon (if u like it)

1. Sift 300 g of flour throgh a seive into a big bowl, add 50g (about an inch block cut off a standard size pack of butter) chopped into bits, 2 teaspoons of bakin soda and cinamon.

2. squish hte butter between you fingers in the flour (this bit can be messy!) until you have a mixture that looks like bread crumbs (funny that) i.e. all hte butter is mixed up with flour.

3. In another bowl add soem treacle (50g or a bit) and some milk (50g or a splash). Whisk these together until the milk is treacle coloured and the treacle is no longer stuck at hte bottom of hte bowl.

4. Add milk / treacle mixture and raisons (as many as you like) to hte breadcrumbs. Mix to makea sticky dough like thingy.

5. plop (it doesn’t really pour, its kinda sticky) the mixture into a bread tin/cake tin/thing that has been greased with butter then covered ina bit of fluor.

6. put into hot oven… er can’t remember temp, was between 180 C – 200 C with a bit of foil on top for 40 minutes or until brown on top and smells nice

7. After 20 minutes of cooking time remove hte foil

8. remove from pan and wait to cool

9. get impatient and eat it hot with butter!

Dandelions

Well we are pretty much burried under dandelions here. Tthe fields that surround us are just covered in the things, so I thought, why don’t we do something useful with this little lot! So out came the herb books, the food for free books and the wine- making books!

Since then (which was about a month ago) I have been drying the petals for wine., I have quiet a lot now but it still wont make much wine. My plan is to steadily pick and dry them all throughout the summer this way it doesn’t matter if I can’t pick enough to start the wine off straight away. Having said that, I still hope to make a batch from fresh dandeilion flowers so that we can compare the two wines when they are ready!

I had a few demijohns already (thanks to dad!) and then Barbara has lent us the stuff that Ron (Al’s step- granddad) used to have for wine-making. This basically includes everything we were missing, including a big bucket that is graduated (has measurements on) with a lid, and a corking machine!

I am very excited and can’t wait to get going with this properly!

The leaves have made their way into many a salad we’ve been eating and now I am drying the roots to make a coffee substitute. I will also be drying the leaves as a herb in its own right and making tea from the leaves and roots -– dried again. The main reason for the tea is that it is a diueretic that helps and is prescribed for people with gout, and as poor mum has gout -– not nice, not pleasant and very painful -– I thought it might help her!

So the dandeilion problem is still a problem because they are everywhere, including blocking the doors to the little garage, but I will be making much use of them:

Wine Herb Salad Root vegetable Tea Coffee

Pretty good for one plant that is seen as a weed!

Important lessons

Well I have been making preserves again. 🙂

The important lessons I have learnedt are:

Do not fill my my preserving pan up with more than 9 pints of strained juice –- I put 12 in, thinking it would be ok, not realising exactly how much space the sugar would take up!

Lesson No. 2: – Aalways scaled the jelly straining bag -– I am actually using a wine sieving bag, but hey, same priniciple. I couldn’t work out why the first lot I strained went through brilliaently whilst the second lot was still straining! Drip, drip… and drip again it went. This was becuase with the first lot, I poured boiling water through it to sterialise it in a fit of hygiene paranoia. Where as the second lot went into a cold, damp bag. I have since found out about ‘scalding’ jelly straining bags/seieves -– this is where you pour boiling water onto the bag in order to allow the fluid to drain through it, rather than being absorbed by the bag, which then acts as a sort of seal for the liquid left in the bag.

Lesson No. 3: – Make sure that when dealing with fermentation buckets full of juice for jam- making or preserving pans or anything else –- do it, especially any pouring -– over a plastic matt.

Lesson No. 4: – Make sure that when Al is helping you pour hot liquids that he is wearing shoes! It saves on moaning!

Lesson No. 5: No matter how many jars you think you need -– it will not be enough -– so double the number!!!

Lesson No. 6: Recipey books have a strange idea of temperature converstions! 220˚ F apparently equals 110˚ C -– yeah right, on whose scale? Not that this actually matters but it just annoyed me -– I am awear it’s the same magnitudte, but still!

Lesson No. 7: Make sure that there are enough tea towles clean.