Vegetable Curry

There are occasions when you just need to use up all of those vegetables that are in the fridge.  I'm not advocating cooking without due care and attention.  I am advocating making the most of the food that is to hand.

After checking the store cupboards it was clear that a curry was the way forward.  I wouldn't call it an authentic curry but I did choose the spices with the vegetables in mind.  Most curries I cook start with mustard seeds but not tonight.  I felt that the flavour would have been to earthy and mask the sweetness of the veg.

The base of the sauce consisted of a finely chopped red onion, garlic, ginger, coriander, cumin, turmeric and chilli.  These were fried together with a tomato which added liquid and thickened the mixture.  The first of the vegetables, butternut squash, along with a tin of chick peas and some water was added and left to simmer until tender.

The curry was then finished with a tin of coconut milk some leftover roast sweet potato and two bunches of spinach.  If I had planned this curry and been out to buy the ingredients I probably would have omitted the squash and sweet potato.  I would have included paneer and fresh coriander and ended up with a completely different meal.  I'm glad I didn't because this curry was great.

Pumpkin Risotto

Tonight's challenge was to use the final foodie spoil from this weekends Cornucopia, Pumpkin Oil.  I knew that there would be a pumpkin oil vendor at the event from the pre-show media but I wasn't ready for how good it is.  I was expecting something on the lines of Rape Seed Oil. 

We all know rape seed oil is sustainable, good for you and locally produced.  But it is pricey and it doesn't really taste as inspiring as such an expensive product should.  I was right on a few of these points.  Pumpkin oil is sustainable, although it is imported from Slovenia, so if you're on a local food diet it's not for you.  It is good for you, high in those important Omega oils that we don't eat enough of.  It is pricey.  £4.50 for 100ml is more than I would normally pay for any oil.  Yet I still bought a bottle and it was well worth the cash.

I bought a bottle due to the incredible nutty favour.  If you have ever put roasted pumpkin seeds into a salad then you will have tasted something similar, but nowhere near as intense.  It is almost like liquid toast with peanut butter.  Forget the fact that it manages to be both red and green at the same time, that's just witchcraft.

When trying a new ingredient it's often easiest to use it in something that you can cook with your eyes closed, for me that means risotto.  I tried to keep the flavour of the risotto simple. I used a light vegetable stock, an onion and half a small butternut squash so that the sweetness of the pumpkin was through the dish.  I used the oil as a dressing along with some pumpkin seeds.  I am not exaggerating when I say a little goes a long way.  The nutty flavour really shone and the risotto was the best I had cooked for a long time.

Roast Pork

SNOW DAY! Now that I've got that off my chest I can return to the important task of cooking and feeding the family.  I'll admit to being one of the few people in the country who was willing the snow to fall.  If my wishes, crossed fingers and promises to live a better life did contribute to the snow and you were somehow inconvenienced, then I am sorry. 

I'm not sorry, I lied.  I am sorry about that.  I have had such a fun day in the snow that an extra hour to your journey means nothing to me.  We have built snowmen, smashed them to the ground and started again.  I've used a sledge for the first time in years, and got "air" going over an aptly named speed bump.

Back home, in the warm, the Sunday roast is pork shoulder from Swillington Farm.  It's a bit later than anticipated but we were having so much fun outdoors it was worth the delay.  The trimmings for the meal were spring greens, boiled new potatoes and roast parsnips with dill seeds.

As we are eating early* we have also decided to have pudding.  One of our spoils from Cornucopia yesterday was a bunch of Yorkshire rhubarb.  It is in such good nick that we decided not to mess about with it.  Simply roasted in honey from Swillington and served with creme fraiche. Delicious.

*for us.

Chorizo and Bean Stew with Gurnard

I decided not to write this until events fully unfolded.  As well as being enthusiastic about food, one of my other passions in life is sport.  I'm not adicted to the extent that I subscribe to the sports channels but if it there is any sport on terrestrial channels then, the chances are, I'll be tuning in.  There are certain things that I will actively seek out. 

I'm a Leeds United Fan, so the events of the last week have left a bad taste in the mouth.  Today's victory has, in my eyes, not justified the sacking of Simon Grayson.  This was not my match of the day.  Football aside, my favourite sport is Rugby Union.  I was brought up in a house where rugby was the most important sport.  It's not club rugby that I'm interested in but International rugby and today saw the start of this season's Six Nations.

Anybody that has read more than a handful of these posts will know where my allegiances lay in today's Calcutta Cup match between Scotland and England.  For anybody that's unsure, allow me to spell it out.  I'm the product of a Scottish Father and a Welsh Mother.  The 6 Nations (5 when I was growing up) was the only sporting event that brought all of the family around the telly.  Although my loyalties were split (Mum or Dad) there was always a common enemy, England.

This year's Calcutta Cup match did not go as planned.  A series of errors by the Scotland team, that wouldn't have been welcome at school level, and a gifted England try gave England the victory.  It's fair to say that I was in a mood as foul as the forecast snow-mageddon.

Fortunately we'd had a brilliantly foodie day in the run up to the start of the match.  We'd spent the afternoon at Cornucopia, an independent food fair at Leeds Corn Exchange. We had taken the decision to seek inspiration from the event and Kirkgate market for our evening meal and we found inspiration in abundance.

The real find was pumpkin oil.  I'd never seen or tasted it before and it is incredible but it's not on the menu tonight so I'll come back to it later.  For tonight we found Yorkshire Chorizo.  There were three varieties on offer and like a child in a sweet shop I bought one of each.  With our spicy Spanish sausage bought we started to pull a meal together.  A trip to the market for the final ingredient was hardly a chore at all.

I made the stew before the match kicked off so that I wasn't distracted.  Once we were ready for it all it took was reheating with the gurnard fillets on top to steam.  This gently cooks the fish and allows the flavours to mingle.  All a stew like this needs is a good hunk of bread.  We got ours from Cornucopia too, it's great what you can find in Leeds when you're looking for inspiration.

Friday Night Take-away - Pizza

Z was late home from work tonight.  I could hardly begrudge her some post work drinkies as one of her best friends is leaving Leeds for a life down under.  I was sad not to be going along but somebody had to hold the baby.  By the time she got home from The Adelphi, R had had his supper and was ready for bed and I had made a quick tomato sauce for the base of two pizzas.

We had pimped a shop bought pizza for a quick meal last weekend and fortunately, we had some of the salami left over.  This, along with olives were the star of the first pizza.  The second one was veggie with peppers and char-grilled artichokes.  Just in case there wasn't enough bread on offer I baked off some dough-balls as pre-pizza nibbles.

Baked Rainbow Trout

I like fish.  In fact I like all of the watery edibles that I have tried so far.  There are some odd creatures in the depths of the ocean, like the sea cucumber, that even I might turn my nose up at.  But closer to home I don't think there are many creatures that I wouldn't be happy to have on my plate.

This is not true of all of my friends however.  A close friend of mine went on a fly-fishing trip, which was organised by and for a gang of lads.  Part of the day's fun was the guarantee that even if you didn't catch anything, you would come away with two lovely fresh (farmed) rainbow trout.  This sounds great to me but Pablo doesn't eat fish.  He didn't let on to his mates, or to the owner of the fish farm.  He had a good day out, caught nothing, and went home with his fishes.

This is how I have come to have a trout in the freezer.  Baking the fillets in a tin foil parcel with sliced onions, lemon and parsley is simplicity itself.  Getting the fillets off in the first place was more of a struggle.  Today's division of labour meant that Z was prepping the meal while I went on a late dash to the supermarket.  I like to think that I keep our knives reasonably sharp but clearly I need to do better.

Still, by the time I had returned the fish was filleted and pin-boned and ready for the oven.  By the time all this had taken place, it was late.  We spent the rest of the evening listening to music and compiling playlists on any number of themes, but that is a different blog altogether.

Bangers and mash

Now we are in February and life has normalised itself, after Christmas and New Year, we have received a lovely delivery.  Our first meat box from Swillington Farm.  When we first ordered an organic, local, rare bread meat box from Swillingon we decided it would be a good test to see if we could go a month without buying meat.

I think it's fair to say we passed, but not with flying colours.  There was always an occasion, visitors or a desire for bacon when we had already had our months allowance.  We've loosened our strict meat embargo and now allow ourselves to buy extra without feeing guilty, but only if we fall on bargains, or really want steak.

In our experience, there are a couple of givens in the boxes.  Bacon, pork loin steaks and sausages.  The sausages, all be it ever present, have never been the same, two boxes in a row.  This month we received pure pork sausages.

Given the wonderfully seasonal weather we've been having it was no surprise that Z wanted sausages and mash.  I've not analysed why mashed potato is so comforting but I'm willing to accept that it is.