December Favourites

 I hope to be along  with some Christmas cards from throughout the year before I go back to work and get busy again, but here are my favourite creations from throughout December. 

The theme for this one was based on the Greek legend of Pandora's box, expressing hope for next year. So folded up, it is more box-like...

  

This one is a mixed media canvas, so it's about 8" x 10".

This is the one I made for C to give me, rather than go over to the stores to try to find something. I made it in a bit of a hurry, but I was still happy with it. I love the little dog. 

A recycling theme: an old National Geographic, an even older page from a calendar, and a beer can

My individual Baked Alaska for our Christmas dessert turned out very well - I used plain vanilla icecream and added some black cherries. The only problem is that the next time C asks for it, I will no longer be able to use the excuse that I can only make it when we have guests for dinner.  

I made my second batch of mince pies today. This year's mincemeat seems particularly nice and I'm not sure why. The recipe calls for apple jelly and peach jam (I use an old recipe from The Heritage Collection of Home Tested Recipes, compiled by the Chatelaine Institute. No date inside it, but the other Chatelaine collection I received from Canada the same year was printed in 1978), but I tend to use whatever jars of jam have been sitting in the fridge that need using up. This year a jar of rather runny marmalade went in. I also wasn't sure if I'd added the brown sugar, as there was a bag sitting on the counter the next day. It tasted sweet enough, so I made the assumption that I had actually added it from my sugar jar, which would be possible. 

2 cups suet

3 cups coarsely grated cooking apples

1 cup apple jelly

2 pts grape juice or cider

1 pt peach jam

3 cups brown sugar

2 lb raisins

1 lb currants

1 tsp salt

1 tblsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp nutmeg & 1/2 tsp cloves

Grated rind and juice of 2 oranges & 2 lemons

This month's header is a January evening sky from last year. 

Warm off the needles, recipe time

C took this photo - so it's not the best, but it's better than the one I took of the tunic laid on the floor. Sorry -  I'm not looking my best  either, it was housework day, I'm pretty tired at the moment and the sun was shining right into my eyes. 

I had bought some lovely undyed natural Blue-Faced Leicester yarn  (made by the West Yorkshire Spinners Ltd) in a closing-down sale last year, and the time had come to use it. Each hank came with its own  numbered certificate of authenticity.  Now that I think about it, when I worked in Yorkshire over thirty years ago I took a trip to the Dales to visit some relatives and I remember seeing Jacob's sheep in various shades of brown. I decided to buy a pattern produced specifically for the brand of wool and it turned out well - though I didn't read it properly and my back is patterned the same as the front, while it was meant to be plain. I had plenty of wool, not a problem.

Recipe time: when I was at the greengrocer's last weekend, there were some lovely beef tomatoes and I thought they looked really nice. When I got home, in spite of the fact that it must be over  20 years since I last made this recipe, I knew exactly where to look - in Rose Elliot's The Supreme Vegetarian Cookbook. And they were very nice. 

Tomatoes with spicy stuffing:

4 large beef tomatoes

4 tblsp oil

1 large onion, chopped

450g / 1lb potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/4" / 5mm dice

2 cloves garlic, crushed

2 tsp cumin seeds

1/2 tsp turmeric

2 tblsp roughly chopped coriander/cilantro

salt and pepper to taste

Cut off and reserve the tops of the tomatoes. Scoop out the pulp (I missed my old curved serrated grapefruit knife for this, but I managed). Discard any woody bits and roughly chop the rest. Season with salt and pepper, and put in the base of a dish the right size to take all four tomatoes.

For the stuffing, fry the chopped onion in the oil over a medium to low heat till soft but not coloured. Add the potato and garlic and cook for another ten minutes. Add the spices and coriander/cilantro. Cook for another 5 minutes, or till the potatoes are fully tender. Season as required with salt and pepper.

Use this to fill the reserved tomatoes, and cover them with their lids. Place over the chopped pulp in the dish.

Bake for about 20 minutes at 200°C/400°F, till the tomatoes are just tender. I cooked some spicy yellow rice to serve with ours.

I forgot to change the blog header over yesterday. It's some New Zealand Flax, growing along the seafront in Greystones. 

Recipe Time

I recently tried this recipe from Yottam Ottolenghi's The Cookbook. I had my eye on two sweet potato recipes in it, and this is the one that I went with. He attributes it to Epicurious originally, though I imagine he's added his own twist.

Dice about 2lb /850 g sweet potatoes UNPEELED into 3/4" cubes. Toss in 3 tblsp olive oil, season with salt and pepper and back at 190C for approx 30 minutes till just tender, turning over gently half way through.

When you first put them in, toast 35 g pecans for about 5 minutes, then chop coarsely.

Dressing: 

4 tblsp olive oil (I used half olive, half sunflower)

2 tblsp maple syrup

1 tblsp sherry vinegar

1 tblsp lemon juice

2 tblsp orange juice

2 tsp grated fresh ginger

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

salt and pepper to taste.

Whisk together.

When the potatoes are ready, put in a large dish.

Add the nuts, along with 

35 g golden raisins

4 spring onions coarsely chopped

4 tblsp chopped parsley

2 tsblsp chopped coriander leaves

1/4 tsp chilli flakes

Add the dressing, toss and season with more salt and pepper if needed. Serve straight away or at room temperature.

I think it should be lovely at room temperature, but so far we've managed to eat the entire lot hot, so I haven't got to try it yet. The first time I had no cilantro (coriander) and used mint instead, which was very nice. 

Friday night was a warm, balmy evening. We went for a walk in the park. They'd been cutting the long grass now that the fawns are growing up - reminded me of the time I was lucky enough to go for a walk there a few years back when they were baling it. It's only the second time ever I've heard the deer making so much noise - the other time was when I had to walk home from work in the snow. They sound like a flock of birds mewling. The workmen must be getting the Papal Cross (from Pope John Paul's visit) ready for the upcoming papal visit.

Recipe Time

...and a card.
Last week's mixed media challenge on Splitcoast required us to choose three different types of tutorial from the resources section, bingo-style. I was short on time so selected scraps from my scrap box which covered various tutorials and put them together to create a little scene - and searching for a sentiment to finish it off with, this one from Art Neko seemed to work well.

The embossing-folder-stamped background was originally intended for a sea scene, that's one of the folders you gave me, Lorraine!

Blue birds on my card, and here a couple of photos not of the baby bluetits still very much in evidence in the garden but of a young robin, moulting into his adult plumage. I always feel they almost look as if they had some sort of disease at this stage!

And I promised a recipe. I had some sweet potatoes sitting in the cupboard since before we went away, and it was high time to use them. I often make soup, but wanted some different today, so I looked online for some recipes and found several which I bookmarked into my Recipes folder.

The one I tried came from the BBC Good Food website, Moroccan chicken with sweet potato mash.

I chose this recipe because I always have ras-el-hanout in my cupboard, and was able to take chicken out of the freezer so it was a meal I didn't need to go shopping for. I have been buying my ras-el-hanout from Seasoned Pioneers for about twenty years now, going back to the days of dial-up internet and long before it was trendy. In fact, I first read of it back in the days when I used to buy the BBC Good Food magazine.

Moroccan chicken with sweet potato mash: serves 4

1kg sweet potatoes, cubed
2 tsp ras-el-hanout, or a mix of ground cinnamon and cumin
4 skinless, boneless chicken breasts
2 tbsp olive oil
1 onion, thinly sliced
1 fat garlic clove, crushed
200ml chicken stock
2 tsp clear honey
juice ½ lemon
handful green olives, pitted or whole
20g pack coriander (cilantro) leaves chopped.

Cook the potatoes for about fifteen minutes, till tender.
Meanwhile rub the seasoning into the chicken breast fillets and fry them for about 3 minutes a side, till browned, in 1 tblsp of the olive oil. Remove the chicken, lower the heat and cook the onions and garlic till soft.
Add the stock, honey, lemon juice and olives, return the chicken to the pan and cook till the sauce is reduced and thick, and the chicken done. Stir in the coriander.

Mash the potatoes, season, add a spoonful of olive oil or butter. Slice the chicken breasts into thick slices, and serve on top of a bed of sweet potato mash with the sauce poured over.

I left out the olives, as C is not a fan of them and they are not something I tend to keep in the house. I did mean to substitute dates, but forgot - I've made a note on the recipe to include them next time. Because we both enjoyed it, there will definitely be a next time - perhaps with couscous rather than the mash.

Hot Off the Needles

...and a recipe recap.

A friend asked me if I would knit something for her to give her niece, expecting a first child. I gave her a book (Vogue Knitting on the Go) of baby blankets, and a few loose patterns, and was very happy when she chose this sweet blanket with a flock of sheep on it. It's self-edged with a moss-stitch border, and has a flock of blackberry stitch sheep on reverse stocking stitch. The book is old and I couldn't get the same wool, but was able to find an alpaca/acrylic mix which was a pretty close match. The idea was to find something machine washable. Since I hear that blankets I have made are still kept (one travelled to Africa 27 years ago and is still safely stored away), I hope that this too will be a keepsake once it's no longer in use. The tag has care instructions on the back.

Do you ever find that leftovers generate leftovers? Last week we had risotto, and I had a surfeit of basil, so I made a spur-of-the-moment decision to make a ratatouille on Saturday. I've shared the recipe before, you'll find it HERE. These are photos from this time - I was using the FOOD setting on my new camera, but didn't get the colour balance right on the first one - evidently. As Saturday was grey and non-stop rain, it was a very nice dish to have for lunch. With it, we had some gougère, made to use up the Gruyere left from a cheese soufflé. Originally we were just going to have the gougère for lunch and something else for dinner, but the two combined together very well to make a substantial midday meal. I like ratatouille hot, warm or cold so it will be my lunch most days this week.

The first photo shows the tomato sauce simmering away, and the onions, courgettes and aubergines frying. The second is after cooking, with basil and tomatoes all ready to stir in for the last few minutes of cooking time. And now I know how to work the easy colour-balance settings on the camera!!

Choices

I needed to make bread for C's lunches this week...
I wanted to make doughnuts because I put fresh oil in the deep-fat fryer yesterday and I usually take that as a chance to make them...

So I made both.

We slept too late this holiday Monday for me to make the doughnuts for morning coffee and I was going to leave them. The bread baked while we had lunch, and then C contacted the friend he was hoping to visit this afternoon and found it didn't suit...so I started the doughnuts and we had them for afternoon coffee. Knowing C, he's quite likely to broach the bread and have a slice or two later on, though.

My current recipe uses the two flours shown - 4/5 white to 1/5 malted. Even when used on its own, the malted isn't what I would call very malty (but it has nice flakes of wholegrain in it), so I also add a big tablespoon full of barley malt extract, and it's making a very nice loaf.

I'm afraid to admit that out of a batch of 8 doughnuts there are only 2 left because C thinks they are nicest fresh from frying. (I'm not averse to leftovers warmed in the microwave for breakfast). The only place I've ever had doughnuts that match homemade ones is from the doughnut sellers on the beaches in Crete and Corfu - but there's no jam in those ones. And possibly we might have had some pretty good ones in Paris too.

My doughnut recipe is an old one which pre-dates the easy availability of instant yeast, meaning no mental debate over how much to use. We recently bought some flour advertised as "French Baguette Flour", but the recipe on the back of the package is less than useless as it says 2 tbslp of yeast - fresh, instant, or active dried. Only one of those is going to be right...

Bread:
50 ml boiling water, 100ml cold water, teaspoon of sugar 1 tblsp active dried yeast.

400g strong white flour, 100 malted flour
75 ml boiling water with 1/2 tsp salt and 1 tblsp barley malt extract stirred into it.
125 ml milk
1 tblsp oil - or an egg.

After the yeast has been activated, mix everything together and knead till smooth and elastic. Cover and allow to rise till doubled.
Shape, place in a greased tin and leave to rise till doubled.
Bake in a hot oven for about half an hour.

Old recipes, fresh pictures.

Christmas baking: both recipes have been posted before, but the photos are brand spanking new.

Mincemeat
Pears preserved with ginger

Freshly baked for seasonal treats - one batch on Christmas Eve, one batch on St. Stephen's Day

The tags were also cooked up quickly on St. Stephen's Day morning, along with the mince pies!