Baked Pumpkin Gratin with Rosemary and Goats Cheese

Recipe from Waitrose here http://www.waitrose.com/content/waitrose/en/home/recipes/recipe_directory/b/baked_pumpkin_gratin_with_rosemary_and_goat_s_cheese.html.  I substituted a teaspoon of paprika rather than cumin seeds and garnished with dried chilli strands.  I used a soft goats cheese and crumbled that in rather than a hard cheese I could grate.  The last cooking time was nearer 20 minutes for me.  And wow, the sudden wafts of melted goats cheese in that last 10 minutes ;-d

Verdict?  A beautiful, very very tasty, creamy dish - I liked the squash and goats cheese and am a big fan of rosemary.  I'll no doubt cook a variation of this again.  But, for me, for the calorie count of this recipe, it just wasn't filling enough with a crisp green salad.  As butternut squash is already a starchy carbohydrate, then I wouldn't want to add crusty bread to bulk it out as suggested.  If you're having a starter or dessert as well, then with a crisp green salad it's fine (but key point even with a starter or dessert - the recipe serves 2, not 4, unless you eat it with baguette). 

Creamed Spinach

On cold, wet and windy days like this weekend, I love to go to the supermarket and then cook for the freezer.  Today, being just after Christmas, I bought 800g of sliced smoked salmon for about £9, a real bargain:-)  This I have packaged up in greaseproof paper slices and frozen.  Luckily I love smoked salmon...

Anyway, I was also in the mood for freezing some vegetable dishes, and so one of the things I made was this creamed spinach which freezes well.

Ingredients
500g spinach
75g shallot, chopped
1 tsp olive oil
150g half fat creme fraiche
1 rounded tsp ground nutmeg
good grinding of black pepper

Nutrition Info (for whole 500g spinach)  
Calories:495
Protein: 21g
Carbohydrate: 45g
Fat: 30g
Dietary Fibre: 11g

Method

• Wash the spinach.  Pour boiling water over to blanch, then strain in a sieve.  Press out as much water as possible.
• In a saucepan, saute the chopped onion in the oil over a medium heat for 5-10 minutes until golden.  Add the freshly ground pepper, ground nutmeg, and stir in the creme fraiche.
• Mix well with the spinach.
• To serve, heat through in a saucepan.
• Freeze in small portions, or flat freeze in cooking rings or silicone cupcases then store in freezer bags in the freezer.

Notes
You could also make this with cream, mascarpone or coconut milk instead of the creme fraiche.   If you don't want to freeze it, then yoghurt would also work well.  To freeze, you need a good proportion of fat (...in the recipe...).

Squirrel tendencies

When I grow up, I'm going to be a squirrel I think...

I eat a lot of vegetables...  But even for me, when I buy vegetables, it tends to have to be two or three different kinds that I then have to eat for the rest of the week so that I eat them whilst they're fresh.  Or else they have to be thrown out.  The vegetables I eat most of are spinach and kale, I make a mean spinach smoothie with various added ingredients, and love using kale as a stir fry base.  The other day, packs of asparagus were on a 3 for 2 offer, so I automatically bought 3 packets, chopped them up and froze them. 

But I'm not so good at variety.  Since I've been in the UK, I kept looking at huge savoy cabbages and thinking that I didn't want to eat it every meal for a week.  (Food was sold in smaller portions in Japan).  I love cooking, but when I'm ravenously hungry, I'm inherently lazy and impatient.  So it dawned on me this morning that I should chop and freeze a lot of vegetables, so that they're just ready to throw in.

Today, shopping and two hours later, any squirrel would be proud of me.  I now have an entire freezer full of chopped vegetables - red onions, shallots, savoy cabbage, leeks, carrots, asparagus, broccoli, spring onions, mixed mushrooms.  On the fruit side - blueberries, blackcurrants and blackberries.  I really enjoyed preparing all that, and knowing it's going to make cooking even more fun, and probably cheaper in the long run!

Red Grapefruit Water Ice

This idea came about by chance, as I left a grapefruit too close to the back of the fridge, and it partially froze. If you freeze a whole grapefruit, run it under hot water and cut the peel away, it can be sliced and eaten like sorbet - very refreshing. I've also just tried freezing segments of satsuma on a tray and then putting them into bags - works the same way, but much easier to eat! They would also be nice instead of ice cubes in a drink.

Freezing Food

I'm going to start this post now, and update it as and when...

Avocados
Usually, I buy avocados for a recipe either too far in advance and so they go bad in the duration, or on the day and I buy them overripe and so they're also already going bad. So today I mashed 2 nice ones up with 1 tablespoon of lemon juice and some mixed ground pepper, put them in small plastic bags, getting rid of all the air, and froze them. They will keep for 3-6 months in the freezer.

Creams etc
This works well for double creams, mascarpone, creme fraich etc.  Freeze in ice cube trays and use as and when.  Brandy cream only semi-freezes because of the alcohol content.

Lemons
Whenever I use a lemon for juice, I always zest it and add the zest to a freezer bag in the freezer. But, there are many times when I need lemon juice and don't have it. Freeze lemon juice as ice cubes and then put in a freezer bag.

Sausages
When you buy a pack of these, it's worth cooking them all and then freezing them individually wrapped in foil, in a freezer bag. Take them out as required the night before. I chop some of them up before I freeze them too, to make preparation of some dishes even easier.  In the UK, you can also but tubs of 50 chipolata ready-cooked sausages which are perfect for freezing.

Mixed Bean and Chicken Green Curry

This is in fact an 'everything' creamy curry! I wanted to make something delicious and easy, in a large quantity to freeze for work. This did the job very well!






Nutrition Data (per portion, excluding rice)
Calories 245
Protein 15.9g
Carbohydrate 25.3
Fat 9.4g
Dietary Fibre 7.2g

Ingredients
1 large onion, chopped
1 teaspoon olive oil
400g can red kidney beans, drained
400g can borlotti beans, drained (also known as cranberry beans or roman beans)
200g can sweetcorn, drained
130g frozen green peas
140g skinless cooked chicken breast, chopped
210g pack generic packaged green curry mix (I used S&B Green Curry)
150ml canned coconut milk
brown rice to serve
lemon zest for garnish

Method

• Cook the rice.
• Meanwhile, fry the onion in the oil until golden brown.
• In a large saucepan, add all the other ingredients except the green peas. Add the onion.
• Cook over a medium heat for about 10 minutes until hot. About 2 minutes before the end of cooking time, stir in the peas.
• Serve on a bed of rice and garnish with lemon zest.
• This freezes well.
  

Chilli Bean Dip

Ingredients
400g can red kidney beans, drained
1/2 onion, chopped
3-4 tablespoons of non fat set yoghurt or yoghurt cheese ( made from about 250g non fat regular yoghurt)
1 teaspoon chilli powder (I used chipotle powder - souvenir from a friend!)
Freshly ground pepper

Method

• Drain the kidney beans.
• Put everything in a blender and blend until smooth.
  

Low Fat Lemon & Pepper Houmous

High in fibre, this is a nice snack with crisp breads or vegetable sticks, spread onto bread, or just on its own! It freezes well.

Ingredients (serves 2)
400g can of chickpeas (garbanzo beans, ceci)
3-4 tablespoons of non fat set yoghurt or yoghurt cheese ( made from about 250g non fat regular yoghurt)
Juice and zest of 1 lemon
Freshly ground pepper

Method

• Drain the chickpeas.
• Put everything in a blender and blend until smooth.
• Serve with crispbread, pitta bread, or vegetable sticks.
  

Mixed Beans with a Soy Sauce Gravy

Nutrition Information
315 calories
19.2g protein
16.2g fibre





Ingredients (serves 1)
60g each of drained red kidney beans, chick peas and butter beans from cans
1 teaspoon of olive oil
1 tablespoon each of soy sauce and mirin
1 boiled egg, sliced
120g wilted spinach to serve

Method

• Wash the spinach and pat dry with kitchen paper. Wilt in a saucepan over a medium high heat for about 1 minute (do not add water). Put the spinach on a large plate.
• Put all the beans in a saucepan. There will probably be enough liquid still on the beans not to need to add any more. Heat until the beans are hot.
  
• Drain if necessary, and add 1 tablespoon each of water, soy sauce and mirin. Mix and cook rapidly over a medium high heat until the sauce has reduced slightly and coats the beans.
• Put on top of the spinach leaves and garnish with slices of boiled egg.

Note
Chick peas are also known as ceci or garbanzo beans, butter beans also known as lima beans. If you don't usually eat so much fibre, it might be worth halving the number of beans and adding a serving of pasta or rice. This will approximately halve the fibre proportion. The remaining beans can be mixed with more sauce and frozen in individual portions.

Sweet Potato, Carrot, Apple, and Red Lentil Soup

Credit: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Sweet-Potato-Carrot-Apple-and-Red-Lentil-Soup/Detail.aspx

Serves 6

INGREDIENTS (Nutrition)

• 55 g butter
• 2 large sweet potatoes, peeled and chopped
• 3 large carrots, peeled and chopped
• 1 apple, peeled, cored and chopped
• 1 onion, chopped
• 90 g red lentils
• 0.9 g minced fresh ginger
• 1 g ground black pepper
• 1 g ground cumin
• 1 g chili powder
• 1 g paprika
• 950 ml vegetable broth
• plain yogurt

DIRECTIONS

1. Melt the butter in a large, heavy bottomed pot over medium-high heat. Place the chopped sweet potatoes, carrots, apple, and onion in the pot. Stir and cook the apples and vegetables until the onions are translucent, about 10 minutes.
2. Stir the lentils, ginger, ground black pepper, salt, cumin, chili powder, paprika, and vegetable broth into the pot with the apple and vegetable mixture. Bring the soup to a boil over high heat, then reduce the heat to medium-low, cover, and simmer until the lentils and vegetables are soft, about 30 minutes.
3. Working in batches, pour the soup into a blender, filling the pitcher no more than halfway full. Hold down the lid of the blender with a folded kitchen towel, and carefully start the blender, using a few quick pulses to get the soup moving before leaving it on to puree. Puree in batches until smooth and pour into a clean pot. Alternately, you can use a stick blender and puree the soup right in the cooking pot.
4. Return the pureed soup to the cooking pot. Bring back to a simmer over medium-high heat, about 10 minutes. Add water as needed to thin the soup to your preferred consistency. Serve with yogurt for garnish.