Best of British

We seem to have a lot of cooking books of regional cooking & I thought a nice way to start making more use of them was to pick a country for a Saturday night meal.  Last weekend we had two British meals which provided two midweek meals as well.  I also thought it would be a nice idea to have a seasonal arrangement of those charming mini pumpkins on the sideboard.  I just buy a couple each week & we eat our way through them.
The first British meal was venison loin with barley risotto & roasted roots.  Start with the barley because it takes a while.  Saute a thinly sliced leek with a little butter & oil & a sprig of thyme until softened.  Stir in 250g pearl barley with 1/2  the hot  chicken stock (500ml of 1 litre).  Put the lid on & simmer 20 minutes or so until all the stock is absorbed. Just keep adding stock over the next 40-60 mins until the barley has the consistency you like to eat.
While that is cooking, heat the oven to 200 & dice 1/2 a swede, 1 red onion, 1/2 large carrot & 2  turnips into 1-2cm cubes.  Toss in a roasting dish with 2 rashers chopped streaky bacon & a couple of sprigs of rosemary.  Season well & drizzle over some olive oil.  Cook 30-40 mins until the vegetables are done.
Put the leaves of two rosemary sprigs in a pestle & mortar with 5-6 juniper berries & salt & pepper.  Bash them then mix in a splash red wine vinegar & a swig of olive oil.  Rub all over your venison loin.  We had 400g for two & that stretched to 2 meals.  When you think you are 20 mins away from dishing up, heat a little olive oil in a pan to a high heat.  Cook the loin around 18 mins turning every 2 mins.  Do not overcook.  You want it rare to medium rare. Place on a warmed plate & rub it with a little butter while it rests.  Get up the roasties & stir through some marmalade which will give it a lovely gloss.  Serve it all with a few handfuls of watercress & other green leaves dressed with a little oil & balsamic.
Later in the week make a rustic huntsman's pie with the leftovers.  This is just shepherd's pie with venison.  I made a sofrito with onion, carrot & celery then added the finely chopped venison & left over barley & veg.  I topped with a mash of swede, pumpkin & potato because that is what I had in my cupboard.  You might have a different combination.  I had too much mash so I froze the surplus for another day.  My freezer is full of surplus mash which is great for a potato topped dish & sometimes I forget to label it so I am not sure which vegetable I have until it is done.
On Sunday we did Jamie Oliver's empire roast chicken. I served this with peas - it felt like the right thing to do. You could expand this if you had a crowd maybe with a variation on dhal & some spicy beans.
Leftovers became a pilaf the next day & Peter took the remainder for his lunch the day after.  For that I adapted an old favourite.  I left out the pine nuts & the preserved lemon and added a little garam masala with the turmeric.  I just added the shredded cooked chicken & peas with the rice.  I used 1 cup rice & 2 cups stock.  We served it with the cranberry sauce that needs to be used. Meals like this make weekday eating so easy.

Strange Fruit

Summer fruit, like summer, lasted well into autumn this year but when we had farewelled the last of the plums it was time to welcome the autumn comers.  This year we added dragon fruit to the list.  I had never seen this before, but like many new things, as soon as I discovered it I encountered it everywhere.  The first time I saw it at Moore Wilson I had to buy one and remembering my earlier error with persimmon, where I didn't realise that they should be eaten firm, I looked up what to do.
Luckily I found a helpful video on You Tube.  I was slightly bemused that I was watching an instructional video on how to eat an item of fruit!  Later that week I unintentionally turned the television to one of those cooking competitions where a group of contestants had to make a dessert using a specific set of items & one of those items was dragon fruit.  And then later in the same week I tuned in to Come Dine with Me to see a contestant there serve a fruit salad containing dragon fruit.  This must be the fruit of 2013.  Try one when you get the opportunity.  I really like it.
If you like puff pastry, try this delicious tart which we had first with tomatoes & then used up the rest of the pastry & ricotta with a broccoli version. You could make your own but I would buy a really good puff pastry - we like Paneton.  As an aside try their spinach & feta Danish.  One pack of pastry will make two tarts.  Roll out half the pack about 4mm thick & cut out a 30cm circle.  Put the pastry on a prepared baking tray & refrigerate while you make the filling.  Put 275g ricotta & an egg into a bowl & mix well to combine.  Spread this mixture over the pastry base leaving a 2cm border.  Fold in the border to form a rim.  Bake at 200 for 12 minutes.
Remove from the oven & arrange 200g halved cherry tomatoes cut side up over the tart.  In the summer, look out for Curious Croppers.  They should be available in Moore Wilson later this year. If you are using broccoli, blanch for 3 mins before arranging small florets on the tart.  Drizzle with a little oil & bake a further 10 minutes.  Nestle some torn mozzarella in among the tomatoes & cook a further 2 mins.  Spoon over some basil pesto, scatter with fresh oregano, season with salt & pepper and enjoy.
We have been enjoying little treats.  Phoebe gave Peter some amazing coloured pasta for his birthday.  She prepared it for us with a simple carbonara sauce (sans pancetta) and I do think this was the best way to enjoy the subtle flavours of the pasta.  In a mixing bowl large enough to accommodate the pasta, lightly beat 2 eggs with 3tbsp grated Parmesan & 1 tbsp grated pecorino, finely chopped parsley, salt & pepper.  When the pasta is cooked according to the instructions on the pack, drain it & add to the bowl & toss until mixed through.  Serve immediately because the sauce isn't hot to start & it will cool quickly.  If you want to add pancetta cook it while the pasta water is boiling, in a little butter & olive oil to which you add a splash or white wine & reduce.  Add the pancetta to the pasta at the end.
We had an outstanding crop of broccoli this year.  Those green caterpillars enjoyed it too & we had a struggle keeping them down but a visitor recommended a garlic spray which helped. We celebrated the first of the crop with roast chicken served with broccoli & carrots from the garden.  The first picking of any new crop always seems the best one.  I had wanted to serve this with my cranberry/crabapple sauce - remember cranbapple.  However the crabapples which appeared to be a bumper crop were all rotten in the core.  So disappointing.  I had already bought the cranberries so I made a cranberry sauce that was outstandingly simple.
Tip a packet of fresh cranberries in a pot with the juice of two oranges.  Bring to the boil & simmer until the cranberries start to pop. Just get it to a consistency you like then add 1/2 the amount of sugar to the cranberries & stir till the sugar has dissolved.  Pour into clean jars.  This will keep in the fridge a couple of weeks.  I was so astounded by its simplicity & wonder that I bought another pack of cranberries & tossed it in the freezer for Christmas. We ate the sauce with the chicken, the left over chicken pilaf, potatoes & in fact everything I could think of where sauce might be appropriate.
The broccoli recipe of the season has however been Hugh's variation on pasta with greens - pasta with broccoli.  This takes no time to throw together on a week night & there is something amazing about how all the little broccoli bits cling to the pasta.  The chilli gives just the right degree of heat and it is a most satisfying meal.  I also highly recommend the original version and we do this with whatever greens we have to hand.  Frequently rainbow chard, because it just grows & grows & we need to eat at least one chard recipe most weeks.
Another find to showcase chard is a simple dish with butter beans.  If I can, I buy Navarrrico beans but they are expensive & hard to come by so tinned will do.  My only comment is I use the liquid from the jar & drain the tinned beans & add a little vegetable stock.  Tip a jar or tin of beans into a pan with the liquid from the jar or stock.  Add a pinch of salt, bring to the boil and simmer for a few minutes then add a 1/2 dozen or more quartered cherry tomatoes to the pan with a knob of butter, a splash of white wine vinegar, a squeeze of tomato paste & a generous splash of Tabasco or other hot sauce.  Mash a few of the beans with a potato masher & stir it all through.  This will make the dish creamier.  Bring back to the boil & simmer 10 mins or so until creamy & delicious.  Then stir through some shredded greens.  Spinach only needs a minute, chard two or three minutes & cabbage or kale around five.  You could stop here and serve just like this as a side dish but if you want this to be dinner, sprinkle with fresh breadcrumbs and some grated cheese and bake at 180 until the cheese is golden.
Lastly one of my followers gifted us a subscription to the New York Times (thank you)  and I happened upon a recipe for the best ever mushrooms on toast.  This may seem extravagant but I urge you to try it.  These may be the best mushrooms you ever eat.  As I am writing this I am recalling this meal and I can feel mushrooms on toast coming on for lunch tomorrow.  The New York Times food section has some of the best recipes of any newspaper. (I think this recipe is available outside the subscription but if you have trouble with the link give me a yell & I will send you the recipe.)