Winter Warmers

Before I reply to your comments, just wanted to say that yesterday watched the new Hovis advert all the way through. A real journey through the ages since Hovis started making their loaves. Very interesting until it got to World War II and the scenes of the blitz. My goodness me, how it took me right back to when we lived in Coventry and my parents took me with them when they went into the town to see the damage after one horrendous night. It was so like the scene in the ad. and watching it even the smell came back into my mind. Possibly the low plane flying over in the ad was a Spitfire, but because we lived on the edge of town, one road away from field, the German planes used in day-time to fly low (called hedge-hopping) and rise up over us as they reached the houses, nearly clipping our chimneys en route to the factories that made the planes. Several times I had been in the garden and seen one fly over, could even see the pilot inside. As a small child, growing up in times like that, it seemed almost normal, but now remember how abnormal it really was and extremely frightening at times.
Have mentioned all this before some months back, in far more detail, but just for that few moments whilst watching the ad it made me realise how we should all be glad of what we have now, even though life seems very bleak at the moment. Only those who have lived in war-torn Britain at the time of the Blitz will probably understand what I mean, but we could be so much worse off. Compared to the years of rationing, we are knee deep in foods, and if we managed on short-rations then, we will come to no harm if we eat a little less now. As I remember (even as a child) our parents having to manage with no gas, electricity or even water, then a few hours of electricity cuts now are hardly worth bothering about.
Worth taking a moment to say that is we do get electricity cuts, no good expecting our gas central heating to keep us warm as this is switched on and off by electricity. Same with gas hobs, the ignitions switch that lights the hobs won't work either, but a match will still like the gas when the knob has been turned on. Like the scouts and guides, be prepared. Buy candles now, torches and extra batteries - keep these where they will be needed, preferably a torch hanging from your belt if a cut is expected. Not joking, trying to find something when the room is pitch black is not funny, more bones broken through falling over stools and rugs etc. Place a torch in all rooms that are used. Keep candles and matches away from children.
No problem re fridges and freezers for cuts are usually no more than 4 hours and we usually have warning. So get out what you need before the cut and leave the doors to the cold stores firmly shut. Freezers can keep the food frozen for at least a couple of days. Longer if you have the forethought to fill the spaces in the fridge with duvets (chest freezers) or even stuff with teatowels (uprights).

There was an article in the paper recently about how we should cut down on our meat and milk, as in a few years time there will be less to go round. They say we should eat meat only four days a week (alternate days seems about right) and that 4 oz (100g) meat would be all we would need per head per serving. Does that sound familiar? Haven't I said we should do that anyway to cut costs? At least this proves I have not been attempting to starve you all. Was not too happy to read that we should have only a quarter of a pint of milk a day per head. It used to be "drinka pinta milka day" (remember that ad?). They would need to dish out free calcium tablets if we need to cut down milk. Preferably subsidise cattle feed so that farmers can afford to keep more milk-producing cows. Make the supermarkets pay a sensible price to the farmers even if it brings up the stores price per litre. Maybe that way we will get more milkmen delivering to the doorstep.

Have had my moan for today. So onto replying to your comments.
Yes Kathryn, that easy way to make pancakes as given by Jamie Oliver (one mug flour, one mug milk, one egg) is a brilliant way to remember how to make the batte, and worth mentioning again Brian Turner's method of making Yorkshire Puddings is use one measure (this could be a mug, teacup, pint jug or something as small as an eggcup - just as long as the same measure is used for everything) of flour, milk and this time eggs (so could be several eggs) then when beaten together and poured into very hot fat will rise up amazingly and make the crispiest Yorkshire Puds.

Sorry to hear about the redundancy at work Sharon, but you will get redundancy pay and hopefully a part-time job so that you can have more time with your family. As to the cold, know what you mean. It can get quite bleak up here in t'north. There is nothing like a warming bowlful of porridge (one of the cheapest breakfast cereals) to start the day. Quick to make if you have a microwave, put the portion in a bowl, add milk and heat on Full for 3 minutes or until it has risen up around the edges. Stir in extra milk or cream if needed or to cool it down slightly and maybe sugar or honey to sweeten it. If no microwave, pour the milk over the oats and leave to stand overnight in the fridge (or cold kitchen) then they will heat up in a few minutes on the hob or take even less time in the microwave. Pre- soaking almost any grain will shorten the cooking time, and often quite dramatically.

Now Julie, when it comes to making buttercream, many recipes include raw egg yolk and this I have never done, taking the easy way of working enough sifted icing sugar into softened (but not melted) and preferably unsalted butter, until it has reached a spreadable consistency. Thicker if you wish to use it to pipe decorations. As the butter chills down, it will become firmer. A drop of colouring or flavouring can also be added, extra icing sugar needed to take up the liquid. Do not really think it needs to be any more complicated than that.
Have looked up Viennese Biscuits and these seem similar to what we used to call Swiss Tarts, although it is the latter that is made using cornflour. The Viennese biscuits are piped into fingers, the Swiss Tarts piped round into paper cake cases with a little bit of jam or a glace cherry in the centre. Will give you the recipe for both. There is a recipe that I posted up on 2nd January of this year ('08) called Alexandra Biscuits made with custard powder (which is just a flavoured cornflour). You may like to look this up and see if these would tempt you. Do use butter unsalted butter if you can for the following two recipes, but always butter and never margarine.
Viennese Fingers:
4 oz (100g) butter, softened
1 oz (25g) icing sugar
4 oz (100g) plain flour
quarter tsp baking powder
2 oz (50g) dark chocolate (opt)
Beat together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Sift together the flour and icing sugar and beat this into the creamed mixture. Place in a piping bag fitted with a medium sized star nozzle and pipe the mixture onto a couple of greased baking trays into 3" (7.5cm) fingers - keeping them well placed apart as they will spread. Bake at 190C, 375F, gas 5 for 10 - 15 minutes until pale gold, then cool on a cake airer. Traditionally, once the fingers are cold, both ends are dipped into melted chocolate and left to set. This is optional. For economy use half the chocolate and dip in only one end.

Swiss Tarts: makes approx 18
8 oz (225g) butter, softened
3 oz (75g) icing sugar, sifted
7 oz (200g) self-raising flour
2 oz (50g) cornflour
jam
Beat the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Sift in the two flours and stir into the creamed mixture until smooth. Spoon mixture into a large piping bag fitted with a large star nozzle. Stand 18 paper cake cases into bun tins, and pipe circles of the mixture into the base of 18 paper cakes cases until all the mixture is used up (you can return to the cases and top up with more as necessary.
Bake at 180C, 350F, gas 4 for about 15 - 20 minutes until pale gold. Leave to cool in the tins then put a dot of red jam in the centre of each. Dust each lightly with icing sugar.

To pipe out the above biscuits to give a professional look we really need a nylon piping bag and a couple or so star nozzles of different sizes (these can be plastic or metal) . At a pinch, a good strong plastic freezer bag could be used as a piping bag with one corner cut off and a nozzle pushed down, or if no nozzle and the plastic is firm enough (you could stick several layers of sellotape around the outside of the corner before cutting), snip away little triangles away from the corner so that when the mixture is pushed through the bag it will come out slightly 'ridged'. This has worked for me. Using a proper bag and nozzle these can be washed and reused again and again, the completely home-made one would have to be discarded after use.

Returning to the Jamie Oliver programme, however much the programme itself is disliked, at least two of you have commented on useful recipes he has shown or mentioned. If nothing else, this makes it worth watching for the more we learn the easier things can become. But for those who cannot grit their teeth and force themselves, those of us that stick with it will be able to pass on any of his 'useful ideas'.
There are several cooks that I cannot myself bear to watch. Gordon Ramsay is one, mainly because of his language, but even so his style of cooking does not really appeal. There was another lady, a roly-poly one whose name I have forgotten, but it was her laugh - she laughed and laughed so loudly and could not bear to listen or even watch her cook. Perhaps I should have turned the sound off. Strangely, there are very few female cooks that I like to watch other than Rosemary Shrager, Clarissa Dickson Wright and Sophie Grigson. Could it be because they are all plump and cuddly? Like moi? At one time Ainsley Harriot used to annoy me, but he is very much a 'domestically inclined' cook than most other chefs - by this I mean passing on useful information and opening a packet or tin when it saves time - so now he is high on my list of favourites.

At the present time am enjoying watching The Restaurant, mainly because I find morbid enjoyment when the chefs get themselves into such a mess. Either they are very organised, then get themselves in a pickle when cooking, especially getting dishes out on time, or cook admirably, but make a mess of the shopping, spending far too much, or as often happens, not buying enough or the right food in the first plae. Like to believe I could make a better job of it myself. Easy to say, but it is like watching EggHeads or some other quiz show. We know all the answers when watching, but if put in front of the cameras, every bit of knowledge flies right out of our heads.

Yesterday cooked the red beans and made quite a large pot of chilli con carne, and not in the usual way, but simmering the minced beef in a little water with a spoonful of AWT's gravy mix, rather than frying it (saves oil), and later adding a can of chopped tomatoes (as I do). Did not even use an onion (more money saved) as regular readers may remember me sieving out a pack of 'Beanfeast Bolognaise Mix ' and keeping the solid (dry) pieces - some of which were onion. So added those to the minced beef. Finally added the chilli powder and cooked it until the beef was tender. By then the beans were cooked through and added these to the pot, so plenty left after we each served ourselves.
The surplus has been chilled, so that today it can be frozen for another meal. But thinking about food in bed last night (as I do) thought that if blitzed in a processor it could turn it into an excellent filling for sausage skins. In other words: Chilli Bangers. OR - mixed with breadcrumbs it could turn into: Chilli Burgers. OR: - again mixed with crumbs, the beans mashed in, could be rolled into small balls to be reheated in a tomato sauce to make: Chilli Meat Balls. OR - blitzed again and diluted with some passata or even cream and re-heated, would make a good chilli flavoured pouring sauce to serve with pasta in a similar way to Bolognaise. Just love the way one dish can turn into umpteen others.
For those who feel they haven't enough time to think about cooking, use those few minutes before dropping off to sleep to plan meals ahead. Read cook books in bed instead of novels. Some are more like novels than cookbooks. Just enjoy the read, the cooking part will be absorbed into the subconscious.

Winter food makes us think of warming casseroles, and anyone with a slow-cooker will probably be taking it down from the shelf and dusting it off now the days are cooler. Sometimes though we prefer to cook a meal in a shorter time, and often we can make and freeze part of it well ahead of time. All we need to do is bring out the necessary from the cold store and let it thaw out in the fridge overnight. When the weather is colder and the kitchen is also cool, the thawing can be done (in a covered container) over several hours at room temperature.
This next recipe is quite a handy one in that the meatballs can be made and frozen uncooked (as long as the meat used is fresh - so will not be refrozen uncooked). The completed cooked dish (without the eggs) would also freeze or kept chilled in the fridge overnight (it would be alright to use thawed frozen uncooked meat when making it in this instance). It also uses those grains that many of you tell us via your comments that you now keep in store (ground rice or semolina - and to that I can add cornmeal/polenta as an alternative).
Moroccan Meatballs: serves 4 (F)
12 oz ( 350g) minced lamb
1 oz (25g) ground rice or semolina (or..see above)
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 clove garlic, crushed
salt and ground black pepper
1 egg, beaten
2 oz (50g) butter
1 tblsp tomato puree
1 tsp paprika pepper
5 fl oz (150ml) water
4 eggs
Blitz the meat in a food processor to make it as smooth a paste as possible (if no processor, either mince it twice again, or if no mincer, put into a bowl and bash with a wooden spoon or end of a rolling pin, or use the pestle from a pestle and mortar).
When soft and smooth, mix in the chosen grain, the spice and garlic and half a teaspoon each of salt and black pepper. Bind the mixture together with the one beaten egg. Wet hands and roll small amounts of the mix between the palms of the hands to make small marble-sized balls. Can be frozen at this point. Thaw spaced apart (free flow) before bagging up, this way they will take less time to thaw out. Thaw at room temperature for 15 or so minutes).
Melt the butter in a frying pan and fry the meatballs until browned all over, then remove and place in a wide, shallow heatproof dish or roasting tin, pouring the fat from the frying pan over the top. Mix together the tomato puree, the paprika and the water and pour this over the meatballs. Cover and cook at 180C, 350F, gas 4, for 40 minutes. Remove the cover and make four little hollows in the dish. Into each break an egg, cover the dish again, and continue cooking for a further 8 minutes or until the whites are just set. Up to adding the eggs, the dish can be made in advance and either kept warm, or re-heated, and the oven turned up to the required heat when so that the eggs are to be added.
Serve with couscous, rice or salad.

This next dish on its own, is perhaps more suitable for autumn than a winter supper, but if the chill is taken off with a bowl of warming soup, and perhaps a good hot pud to follow, then it would easily be acceptable even if snow is lying on the ground. The great thing about this dish is that it is both easy and speedy and with a little advance planning (soup already made and a bread and butter pudding soaking all day in its custard prior to cooking), a fairly substantial meal can be served up within minutes. Needs thought - begin baking the pudding, then preparing this dish, and re- heating the soup as they both cook...). Otherwise a doddle. For economy, when jointing your own chickens, use the breast fillets and other chunky pieces of chicken taken from the carcase to use instead of using all breasts.
Rosy Sauced Chicken and Mushrooms: serves 4
12 oz (350g) boneless chicken breast, skinned
zest and juice of 1 lemon
2 tsp paprika pepper
2 oz (50g) butter
8 oz (225g) mushrooms, finely sliced
half pint (300ml) single cream
chopped parsley
salt and pepper
Slice the breasts across thinly, and put into a bowl with the lemon zest and juice , sprinkle over the paprika and season with a pinch of salt and plenty of ground black pepper (or to taste). Stir well to combine. If this can be left to stand for 15 minutes all well and good (the pudding could be put into the oven to cook, and the soup put in the pan ready to reheat and the table laid). Melt the butter in a frying pan over medium heat, and stir in the chicken, then lower the heat slightly and cook gently, for about 15 minutes, stirring from time to time. Add the mushrooms, stir in so that they absorb some of the juices, then pour in the cream and heat gently, without boiling, for a couple or so minutes. Always taste before serving, so that extra seasoning can be added if you feel it needs it. Pour into a warmed serving dish and sprinkle with chopped parsley. Serve with pasta or rice and a salad, or instead of the salad choose a cooked green veg such as peas or broccoli.

Perhaps one of the best dishes to warm us up is a bowl of piping hot soup. This can easily be taken to work in a flask, and if you are as Nigella is inclined, can drink it on a bus, in a taxi, or on a park bench. But even before we make our own soups, we would be wise to first make up a batch of stock - this (as well as the finished soups) can be stored in the fridge and dilulted as required - but unless re-boiled to keep it pure, is best frozen. In the Goode kitchen, chicken stock is ALWAYS made, and vegetable stock occasionally made from the oddments in the veggie drawer with the Holy Trinity of veg: carrots, onions and celery, forming the base. A good beef stock requires bones that require quite a bit of attention, so myself tend to rely on using a good brand of stock cube or bottled gravy mix.

To give a cheffy version of how to make vegetable stock requires quite a large amount and variety of vegetables, but to keep it simple - when intending to make a vegetable stock - begin with the carrots, onions and celery (not too much celery as it is strongly flavoured) and - as you will see from the following recipe some or all of the following can be added (and here I say only if you have them): leeks (all parts but roots trimmed off), cabbage leaves, green lettuce, parsley, thyme, bay leaf. Do not add root veggies such as parsnip, turnip, potato or similar when making stock. These prevent a clear stock and should be diced and ADDED to the required amount of stock when making vegetable soup which can then be pureed or eaten as a chunkier soup.
Here is the full recipe to make the stock, but as long as the three main veggies are included, some of the others can be omitted - but make up to the total weight with veggies used or just make sure what you use is covered with plenty of water. If you haven't a big enough pan, make half the amount. About a third of the liquid will be lost by evaporation during the cooking process. The secret of making any good stock is to leave it undisturbed when cooking, apart from any skimming needed - and this is barely touches the surface.
Vegetable Stock:
3 onion, roughly chopped
4 large carrots, roughly chopped
2 - 3 leeks, sliced
3 ribs celery, chopped
6 cabbage leaves, sliced
1 full head soft (not iceberg) lettuce, sliced
6 sprigs parsley, including stems, chopped
5 sprigs fresh thyme
pinch salt
6 pints (3.5litrs) cold water
Put everything into a large saucepan or stockpot. Cover and heat gently to a simmer. Remove any scum that rises to the surface, then replace lid leaving it slightly ajar to allow steam to escape. Keep checking and remoing any scum, and simmer for a full hour. Do not, at any time. stir or disturb the veggies as they cook.
Strain the stock through a sieve without pushing any of the ingredients down into the sieve. The aim is for a clear stock. Leave to cool and keep in the fridge, covered for up to a couple or so days. If wishing to keep longer, then freeze is usable amounts.

Think that is enough recipes today. Am realising that basic recipes are possibly more use than many others we see published these days, as almost all recipes begin with the basic and it is then up to a cook to extend and improve. Have a bit of a deja vu feeling re the stock recipe given today, so apologies if it has already been posted. If any reader want to know how to make any basic recipe, send a comment and I will do my best to get the reply/recipe to you by the very next day.

Hope you all have a pleasant day. Until tomorrow...