Finding the Time
Sorry that your main comp. had died a death Marjorie, it might be just the screen? If so the hard-drive will still hold all your files. Our son fitted a box onto mine that updates and stores via a 'back-up' disc all that is on the comp. (at least up until we moved and then he took it back) so that it can be transferred to another comp. if necessary and nothing up till our move will be lost. It is the detailed data base of my recipes that are most important to me, and without those I would have to retrieve each again by visiting this site on a different comp. and how long would that take?
Nowadays almost everything is being transferred to the screen, be it books, recipes, instructions etc. And like the old days, always worth getting it back into the printed form if at all possible, either still buy the book, or print off from the screen. Electronic gadgets break down - often - but the printed word (with care) can last generations. Probably why I still keep account books and other details, all hand-written, as never trust the comp. as in the past it has failed me when needed most.
Thanks also to Ciao and Kathryn for letting me know the word verification is easy enough to cope with. Do not have to use this myself to get into my blog. As to the incoming mail under the name Anonymous, many of you do send mail that comes in via my personal email this way, but when read usually find a name given at the start or end of the comment so I do know who has sent it. Very few people write in leaving no name at all, sometimes this may just be an error and have forgotten to include their name with the comment, or it may be someone who does not wish me to know who they are. This I always find a pity, for myself like the personal touch.
Do remember Bruccianis starting up in Leicester when I was a 'gel', Cheesepare. It was the meeting place for all us teenagers. Very much in the American style of an ice-cream parlour if I remember, although most of the time we just dropped in to meet up with friends and have a cup of coffee. Perhaps it is still there. SweeterRita will let us know. Good to know it is still in the hands of the same family. Maybe there are only the two branches and not a whole chain as I was beginning to wonder - being surprised to see it here in Morecambe of all places, for if family businesses are bought out but still keep the name, they unfortunately go downhill - Harry Ramsdens famous fish and chips being an example.
The beetroot cooked in the oven was not using a bain marie CP, (this method being standing a dish containing food in water rather than putting the food directly into water), the beets bing cooked rather in the the way you suggested (wrapping each in foil and then baking), but this time just putting all the beetroot into a roasting tin and covering the lot with just the one sheet of foil. The little water was put into the pan for the beets to sit in and prevent them sticking to the base of the pan, and also to help steam as well as roast.
No spam or ads today unless you count a useful email sent in by a new name who I feel we should welcome: Daniel Carruthers, who points us in the direction of a useful site for people who have problems with their butts. Thanks for that.
After a miserable few days, have awoken fairly late this morning to a cloudless blue sky and wall to wall sun. Am wondering whether it is worth taking a trip out to Aldi, the one near the prom. So many of you rate it as a store with low prices, and it looks small enough for me to cope with leaning on a trolley. Might take my zimmer frame just in case they only have hand baskets.
At least now my blue disabled badge has arrived and we can now park closer to the doors of any store we visit.
For the last few minutes, intermittently I have been trying to back-space and remove a full-stop that was sitting at the bottom of this page almost on the extreme left. It had started to annoy me very much and would not go despite all attempts, and now, on removing my glasses and taking a closer look saw it was a speck of dust sitting on the front of the screen. A quick blow got rid of it. What am I like?
Obviously this room needs a dust!
B informed me last night that our daughter and friend will be dining with us with a couple of other friends of hers. "Oh you mean that will be 6 guests for Xmas lunch" I replied. "No" he said, "you said you wanted to start entertaining again, and they will all be coming before Xmas".
As long as I have a week's notice, for the two extra guests are owners of a Morecambe restaurant that serves wonderful meals, and so I have to work hard to keep what little reputation I have.
Yesterday was searching for the TV programme mentioned in an earlier posting called "Restaurant in Your Living Room" and was sure I had seen it on one of the Beeb channels. Maybe I had, but only the once. Now it seems it is only on a digi channel, Virgin 1 (Freeview 20) at 9.00pm - twice a week, the one on Sunday (yesterday) being a repeat of the previous Friday episode.
It is worth watching for those that love to cook and entertain. Briefly yesterday's episode showed two couples competing with each other, both being given £500 in cash to spend on the food. It was up to the couples to fit in as many diners as they could in their own homes and spend the money as wisely as possible. There were two sittings to each meal, and the diners would be leaving as much money as they thought the meal was worth.
One couple cooked for 44 people (over two sittings), the other 36. It was incredible how different the meals were. The first pair with the largest number of customers got the meals on the table within minutes. That was the only good thing about it, for it appeared all the ingredients had been bought from Makro - and as far as we could see, as they loaded their trollies, everything in catering sized tins or packs. Even veggies. It seemed there was no fresh produce at all. Naturally the first course (soup) also came from catering sized tins. Chilli con carne was one of the main courses, and fresh fruit salad was the only dessert offered.
The 'cook' (if you can call him that) got all the meals plated up in advance and each was reheated in four minutes in one of the five microwaves he had borrowed from family and neighbours. Goes without saying that apart from the speed of the 'bistro meal' (as it was advertised) which pleased the customers, very few people felt the meal was worth paying for, the average being just over £6 a head.
What was rather sad was that most customers said it was just the type of food that they normally would cook at home, which says a lot about home-cooking today.
The second couple sourced their food from farm shops and had quite an extensive menu compared to the above. Lamb shanks were the favourite choice of many diners, the chicken alternative dish was more the "we could cook this ourselves at home" type of thing. But overall winners as the average amount paid was nearly £15 a head, and as though some of those who had the lamb paid a lot more, others who were not happy with the chicken, paid far less.
It does seem there are always people who are happy to criticise the food. One man not happy after eating part of his chicken meal (nothing wrong with it) said he would have ordered the lamb if he had known how good it was, and they took the remains of his chicken meal away and replaced it with the lamb shank and all the trimmings, so hope he at least put his hand in his pocket and paid for that bit of good service.
In both instances, virtually all the £500 was spent on the food and to me that seems quite a lot. This time they were serving 'house-wine', lager and bottled water, so some money had to go for that, and not sure how they fixed the rules and regs to allow this. Perhaps because it was not priced as on a menu, and people paid only what they wished, this was the way to do it.
The next episode will be this Friday and do hope I manage to watch it, if not will see the repeat on Sunday. Hope some of you will also give it a viewing, it would be interesting to hear what you think.
When we enjoy entertaining (or even if we don't but still do it), it really helps to watch programmes like the above for it highlights many problems we get in our own domestic kitchens. So often food can be prepared ahead, in many cases most dishes prepared up to some point, and this cuts down a lot of labour. Practically all restaurants (including the top ones) pre-cook their vegetables almost to the point of being tender, then immediately strain and plunge them into iced water. Then, when ready to serve, these only need straining and plunging into boiling water to heat through and cook for a further minute. Eggs can be poached, removed with a slotted spoon and treated in the same way, again to be reheated through in hot water for just one minute before serving.
Lamb shanks, cooked properly, take about 3 - 4 hours of slow cooking, so again a job that can be done a few hours in advance, the shanks then kept hot in a low oven until ready to serve. Casseroles, curries and chillis improve by being cooked in advance and then reheating, and something like a steak and ale pie can be made by filling the dish with pre-cooked meat and gravy, topping with pastry and then baking as when needed. With three courses, and a pie order, the pie goes in the very hot oven before the first course is served, then very little waiting time before the second course is ready. With many cookery/trainee restaurant progs (as with the current "The Restaurant", so many customers are seen that wait for over an hour before they have the meal served to them, or have to wait up to an hour between the first course and the second.
To avoid this - just take time to plan the meal ahead, know how long things will take to prepare and cook, and if necessary change the menu. When entertaining at home, normally we do not give a choice of first, second and third courses, so it is far easier to judge the timing, but often one guest might be vegetarian, or vegan, or have an allergy to one food or another, so whenever possible find out likes and dislikes before planning, and give alternative choices. AND GET THE TIMING RIGHT.
Another prog. we enjoy watching is "Come Dine With Me", and this again highlights many problems, especially in a domestic kitchen. Anyone watching yesterdays programme (Channel 4) will remember the live snake, and possibly the (dead) squirrel pie. Apparently it is now possible to buy squirrel meat (they came in a pack looking a lot like skinned rabbit). And there is me not yet managing to get around to tasting ostrich.
Perhaps I am too keen on watching other 'cooks' make glaring errors. Maybe it then makes me feel good about my own meagre efforts. Doesn't stop me almost panicking about serving a meal to professional cooks which I expect to be doing in a very few weeks. It is the old Aries thing - want to be better than those I compete with. If I can't be sure, I never compete. Is that vanity, big-headedness or what? Just know that being a failure is something I can never handle. Must have failed hundreds of time during my life but usually manage to find a reasonable excuse why it happened. The only way to succeed is to blindly believe in myself. Sometimes then it works.
Robert the Bruce I am not, he kept trying until he succeeded (due to meeting up with that spider), Try once and fail and never try again is more like me. Unless I HAVE to, like flicking a duster round when someone is coming. Although have been known to have many trials when it comes to piping out mashed potato for instance, mainly because failed attempts can be gathered back up, and popped back into the piping bag for second, third or fiftieth attempt. As long as no-one is watching can pretend the perfect end result was my only attempt.
Many of our books still remain in piles by our chairs with empty shelves waiting in the bookcase - and the reason for this is that it is quicker and easier to reach down and pick up a book than get up from the chair, walk across the room and open the bookcase door, choose a book, close the door and walk back to the chair. Time and motion study helps with this sort of reasoning, and this study tends to rule a lot of my life. Also the constant wearing out of carpets by walking over them can prove costly in the long run, so a good reason not to. See - I can always come up with the perfect excuse.
An old tip for walking up and down stairs is not always walk up the middle of the stair-carpet, but try to alternate by walking up one side, then come down walking close to the other side, and occasionally up and down the middle. This makes the carpet last longer. Also the first few bottom treads always seem to remove most of the dirt from shoes, so when vacuuming, clean the bottom half of the staircarpet more often then the rest.
Back to my comfort zone - food!
A speedy recipe given today for making sausage rolls. Take the Nigella tip and use a pack of cooked pork cocktail sausages, then just wrap these in the cheese dough (recipe given below). These when freshly baked, cool slightly but eat with still a bit of warmth and these make good buffet fare.
To make it even easier, make the pastry 'dough' in advance and keep it in the fridge, then bring to room temperature when wishing to use. It goes without saying that boxes of already grated cheese (a mixture of hard cheese is fine) should always been ready and waiting in the fridge or freezer. Or the sausage 'rolls' can be assembled, chilled then baked prior to eating.
If you normally use semi-skimmed milk (as most of us do these days), stir in a teaspoon or so of dried milk or double cream to enrich it, or use two parts semi-skimmed and one part single cream.
Sausage 'Packets' : makes 50
13 oz (325g) self-raising flour
1 tsp salt
1 oz (25g) Cheddar or Red Leicester cheese, grated
7 fl oz (200ml) full-fat milk
1 large egg
3 tblsp sunflower oil
1 pack 50 cooked pork cocktail sausages
Put the flour, salt and cheese into a bowl and mix together using a fork. Put the milk into a jug, add the egg and oil and beat together, then pour this into the dry ingredients, mixing with the fork as you pour.
The dough needs to be soft but not too sticky to be rolled out. If too dry add a little more milk, if too sticky add a little more flour.
Divide the dough in half and roll one piece out fairly thinly on a floured board, aiming to make a thin rectangle. Cut this into 4cm wide strips, then each strip into 4 - 5 cm oblongs.
Place a sausage on the edge of each strip, slightly on the diagonal, and roll it up. Dampen the cut edges and squeeze them shut and place edge-side down on a non-stick baking sheet (or one lined with baking parchment), and repeat with the second piece of dough. You will probably need to use three baking sheets to hold all the sausage 'rolls'.
Give a golden glaze to the dough by brushing with egg yolk beaten with a teaspoon of milk and a pinch of salt. Then bake at 200C, 400F, gas 6 for 12 - 15 minutes until puffy and shiny gold. Remove from oven and cool on tray for a few minutes before serving.
Most people love to eat sausages, and nowadays there seems to be a very wide variety of flavours on the market. Always buy the best you can afford, for the cheaper ones are not worth the money. We may not even wish to know what meat is used to fill their skins. Edible of course, but possibly unmentionable.
An easy way to make meat balls to serve with pasta is to remove skins from quality sausages, break each into three or four pieces, roll into balls and fry these off then finish cooking in a good sauce.
This next recipe is a doddle to make, and has plenty of flavour. It feeds four, but by adding extra beans (giving extra vegetable protein) and more of the other ingredients but still keeping the original weight of sausage, it can be stretched to feed six or more.
Also a good recipe if wishing to serve only one as a single leftover cooked banger can be used to make a good lunch or supper dish. Just adjust the amounts of the remaining ingredients.
Sausage Stovies: serves 4
2 large onions, sliced
2 lb (1kg) potatoes, cut into half inch (1 cm) slices
2 oz (50g) butter or beef dripping
half pint (300ml) beef stock
3 tblsp tomato relish or pickle
salt and pepper
1 lb (450g) herby sausages, cooked, cooled and sliced
2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
1 x 397g (14oz) can red kidney beans, drained
Put the butter or dripping in a pan and heat, then fry the onions and potatoes until browned. Add the stock, relish or pickle, adding seasoning to taste, then simmer for 15 minutes.
Stir in the sausages, W.sauce and the beans and cook for a further 10 minutes or until the potatoes are tender.
Spoon into a warmed bowls and serve hot with a green vegetable.
Recently had a go at making the old-style beef dripping (left from cooking a roast), using the clarified beef dripping bought from a supermarket, melted and with Bovril stirred in. Not a success in that the Bovril refused to emulsify with the fat, although as it cooled down a certain amount seemed to be taken up. The end result having rather a marbled appearance.
Discovering the pot sitting by the bread bin, with most of it gone, realised B had been eating it spread on toast and asked him what he thought about it. "Not enough beefy flavour" he said, "otherwise not bad". Thinking about how I eat buttered toast spread with Marmite, suggested it might taste more like the real thing if B spread his hot toast first with the clarified beef dripping and then spread a thin layer of Bovril on top. So far not sure if he has tried this, but not a bad idea. Will report back if successful.
In any case, beef dripping is perfect for frying chips and roasting potatoes, so the two big blocks B brought will not be wasted.
Am only suggesting the above to those who crave beef dripping on toast, and who are prepared to eat it come what may, as we all know we should not be eating dripping, butter, cream, and all good things... What next will we be told we should not eat for our health's sake I wonder. Am pretty sure soon we will be again be told that now we can eat something once forbidden, as now they have found out it was good for us after all. What will it be I wonder. Any guesses?
The last time I looked at the comp. clock it was not yet 10, and now it is well after 11am with the blue sky still with us, and B said we had a frost! Yippee, now I will regain my energy. Hope to get out and about today. Maybe even take Norris for a run. Back with you again tomorrow, if everything still works, me included. See you then.
Nowadays almost everything is being transferred to the screen, be it books, recipes, instructions etc. And like the old days, always worth getting it back into the printed form if at all possible, either still buy the book, or print off from the screen. Electronic gadgets break down - often - but the printed word (with care) can last generations. Probably why I still keep account books and other details, all hand-written, as never trust the comp. as in the past it has failed me when needed most.
Thanks also to Ciao and Kathryn for letting me know the word verification is easy enough to cope with. Do not have to use this myself to get into my blog. As to the incoming mail under the name Anonymous, many of you do send mail that comes in via my personal email this way, but when read usually find a name given at the start or end of the comment so I do know who has sent it. Very few people write in leaving no name at all, sometimes this may just be an error and have forgotten to include their name with the comment, or it may be someone who does not wish me to know who they are. This I always find a pity, for myself like the personal touch.
Do remember Bruccianis starting up in Leicester when I was a 'gel', Cheesepare. It was the meeting place for all us teenagers. Very much in the American style of an ice-cream parlour if I remember, although most of the time we just dropped in to meet up with friends and have a cup of coffee. Perhaps it is still there. SweeterRita will let us know. Good to know it is still in the hands of the same family. Maybe there are only the two branches and not a whole chain as I was beginning to wonder - being surprised to see it here in Morecambe of all places, for if family businesses are bought out but still keep the name, they unfortunately go downhill - Harry Ramsdens famous fish and chips being an example.
The beetroot cooked in the oven was not using a bain marie CP, (this method being standing a dish containing food in water rather than putting the food directly into water), the beets bing cooked rather in the the way you suggested (wrapping each in foil and then baking), but this time just putting all the beetroot into a roasting tin and covering the lot with just the one sheet of foil. The little water was put into the pan for the beets to sit in and prevent them sticking to the base of the pan, and also to help steam as well as roast.
No spam or ads today unless you count a useful email sent in by a new name who I feel we should welcome: Daniel Carruthers, who points us in the direction of a useful site for people who have problems with their butts. Thanks for that.
After a miserable few days, have awoken fairly late this morning to a cloudless blue sky and wall to wall sun. Am wondering whether it is worth taking a trip out to Aldi, the one near the prom. So many of you rate it as a store with low prices, and it looks small enough for me to cope with leaning on a trolley. Might take my zimmer frame just in case they only have hand baskets.
At least now my blue disabled badge has arrived and we can now park closer to the doors of any store we visit.
For the last few minutes, intermittently I have been trying to back-space and remove a full-stop that was sitting at the bottom of this page almost on the extreme left. It had started to annoy me very much and would not go despite all attempts, and now, on removing my glasses and taking a closer look saw it was a speck of dust sitting on the front of the screen. A quick blow got rid of it. What am I like?
Obviously this room needs a dust!
B informed me last night that our daughter and friend will be dining with us with a couple of other friends of hers. "Oh you mean that will be 6 guests for Xmas lunch" I replied. "No" he said, "you said you wanted to start entertaining again, and they will all be coming before Xmas".
As long as I have a week's notice, for the two extra guests are owners of a Morecambe restaurant that serves wonderful meals, and so I have to work hard to keep what little reputation I have.
Yesterday was searching for the TV programme mentioned in an earlier posting called "Restaurant in Your Living Room" and was sure I had seen it on one of the Beeb channels. Maybe I had, but only the once. Now it seems it is only on a digi channel, Virgin 1 (Freeview 20) at 9.00pm - twice a week, the one on Sunday (yesterday) being a repeat of the previous Friday episode.
It is worth watching for those that love to cook and entertain. Briefly yesterday's episode showed two couples competing with each other, both being given £500 in cash to spend on the food. It was up to the couples to fit in as many diners as they could in their own homes and spend the money as wisely as possible. There were two sittings to each meal, and the diners would be leaving as much money as they thought the meal was worth.
One couple cooked for 44 people (over two sittings), the other 36. It was incredible how different the meals were. The first pair with the largest number of customers got the meals on the table within minutes. That was the only good thing about it, for it appeared all the ingredients had been bought from Makro - and as far as we could see, as they loaded their trollies, everything in catering sized tins or packs. Even veggies. It seemed there was no fresh produce at all. Naturally the first course (soup) also came from catering sized tins. Chilli con carne was one of the main courses, and fresh fruit salad was the only dessert offered.
The 'cook' (if you can call him that) got all the meals plated up in advance and each was reheated in four minutes in one of the five microwaves he had borrowed from family and neighbours. Goes without saying that apart from the speed of the 'bistro meal' (as it was advertised) which pleased the customers, very few people felt the meal was worth paying for, the average being just over £6 a head.
What was rather sad was that most customers said it was just the type of food that they normally would cook at home, which says a lot about home-cooking today.
The second couple sourced their food from farm shops and had quite an extensive menu compared to the above. Lamb shanks were the favourite choice of many diners, the chicken alternative dish was more the "we could cook this ourselves at home" type of thing. But overall winners as the average amount paid was nearly £15 a head, and as though some of those who had the lamb paid a lot more, others who were not happy with the chicken, paid far less.
It does seem there are always people who are happy to criticise the food. One man not happy after eating part of his chicken meal (nothing wrong with it) said he would have ordered the lamb if he had known how good it was, and they took the remains of his chicken meal away and replaced it with the lamb shank and all the trimmings, so hope he at least put his hand in his pocket and paid for that bit of good service.
In both instances, virtually all the £500 was spent on the food and to me that seems quite a lot. This time they were serving 'house-wine', lager and bottled water, so some money had to go for that, and not sure how they fixed the rules and regs to allow this. Perhaps because it was not priced as on a menu, and people paid only what they wished, this was the way to do it.
The next episode will be this Friday and do hope I manage to watch it, if not will see the repeat on Sunday. Hope some of you will also give it a viewing, it would be interesting to hear what you think.
When we enjoy entertaining (or even if we don't but still do it), it really helps to watch programmes like the above for it highlights many problems we get in our own domestic kitchens. So often food can be prepared ahead, in many cases most dishes prepared up to some point, and this cuts down a lot of labour. Practically all restaurants (including the top ones) pre-cook their vegetables almost to the point of being tender, then immediately strain and plunge them into iced water. Then, when ready to serve, these only need straining and plunging into boiling water to heat through and cook for a further minute. Eggs can be poached, removed with a slotted spoon and treated in the same way, again to be reheated through in hot water for just one minute before serving.
Lamb shanks, cooked properly, take about 3 - 4 hours of slow cooking, so again a job that can be done a few hours in advance, the shanks then kept hot in a low oven until ready to serve. Casseroles, curries and chillis improve by being cooked in advance and then reheating, and something like a steak and ale pie can be made by filling the dish with pre-cooked meat and gravy, topping with pastry and then baking as when needed. With three courses, and a pie order, the pie goes in the very hot oven before the first course is served, then very little waiting time before the second course is ready. With many cookery/trainee restaurant progs (as with the current "The Restaurant", so many customers are seen that wait for over an hour before they have the meal served to them, or have to wait up to an hour between the first course and the second.
To avoid this - just take time to plan the meal ahead, know how long things will take to prepare and cook, and if necessary change the menu. When entertaining at home, normally we do not give a choice of first, second and third courses, so it is far easier to judge the timing, but often one guest might be vegetarian, or vegan, or have an allergy to one food or another, so whenever possible find out likes and dislikes before planning, and give alternative choices. AND GET THE TIMING RIGHT.
Another prog. we enjoy watching is "Come Dine With Me", and this again highlights many problems, especially in a domestic kitchen. Anyone watching yesterdays programme (Channel 4) will remember the live snake, and possibly the (dead) squirrel pie. Apparently it is now possible to buy squirrel meat (they came in a pack looking a lot like skinned rabbit). And there is me not yet managing to get around to tasting ostrich.
Perhaps I am too keen on watching other 'cooks' make glaring errors. Maybe it then makes me feel good about my own meagre efforts. Doesn't stop me almost panicking about serving a meal to professional cooks which I expect to be doing in a very few weeks. It is the old Aries thing - want to be better than those I compete with. If I can't be sure, I never compete. Is that vanity, big-headedness or what? Just know that being a failure is something I can never handle. Must have failed hundreds of time during my life but usually manage to find a reasonable excuse why it happened. The only way to succeed is to blindly believe in myself. Sometimes then it works.
Robert the Bruce I am not, he kept trying until he succeeded (due to meeting up with that spider), Try once and fail and never try again is more like me. Unless I HAVE to, like flicking a duster round when someone is coming. Although have been known to have many trials when it comes to piping out mashed potato for instance, mainly because failed attempts can be gathered back up, and popped back into the piping bag for second, third or fiftieth attempt. As long as no-one is watching can pretend the perfect end result was my only attempt.
Many of our books still remain in piles by our chairs with empty shelves waiting in the bookcase - and the reason for this is that it is quicker and easier to reach down and pick up a book than get up from the chair, walk across the room and open the bookcase door, choose a book, close the door and walk back to the chair. Time and motion study helps with this sort of reasoning, and this study tends to rule a lot of my life. Also the constant wearing out of carpets by walking over them can prove costly in the long run, so a good reason not to. See - I can always come up with the perfect excuse.
An old tip for walking up and down stairs is not always walk up the middle of the stair-carpet, but try to alternate by walking up one side, then come down walking close to the other side, and occasionally up and down the middle. This makes the carpet last longer. Also the first few bottom treads always seem to remove most of the dirt from shoes, so when vacuuming, clean the bottom half of the staircarpet more often then the rest.
Back to my comfort zone - food!
A speedy recipe given today for making sausage rolls. Take the Nigella tip and use a pack of cooked pork cocktail sausages, then just wrap these in the cheese dough (recipe given below). These when freshly baked, cool slightly but eat with still a bit of warmth and these make good buffet fare.
To make it even easier, make the pastry 'dough' in advance and keep it in the fridge, then bring to room temperature when wishing to use. It goes without saying that boxes of already grated cheese (a mixture of hard cheese is fine) should always been ready and waiting in the fridge or freezer. Or the sausage 'rolls' can be assembled, chilled then baked prior to eating.
If you normally use semi-skimmed milk (as most of us do these days), stir in a teaspoon or so of dried milk or double cream to enrich it, or use two parts semi-skimmed and one part single cream.
Sausage 'Packets' : makes 50
13 oz (325g) self-raising flour
1 tsp salt
1 oz (25g) Cheddar or Red Leicester cheese, grated
7 fl oz (200ml) full-fat milk
1 large egg
3 tblsp sunflower oil
1 pack 50 cooked pork cocktail sausages
Put the flour, salt and cheese into a bowl and mix together using a fork. Put the milk into a jug, add the egg and oil and beat together, then pour this into the dry ingredients, mixing with the fork as you pour.
The dough needs to be soft but not too sticky to be rolled out. If too dry add a little more milk, if too sticky add a little more flour.
Divide the dough in half and roll one piece out fairly thinly on a floured board, aiming to make a thin rectangle. Cut this into 4cm wide strips, then each strip into 4 - 5 cm oblongs.
Place a sausage on the edge of each strip, slightly on the diagonal, and roll it up. Dampen the cut edges and squeeze them shut and place edge-side down on a non-stick baking sheet (or one lined with baking parchment), and repeat with the second piece of dough. You will probably need to use three baking sheets to hold all the sausage 'rolls'.
Give a golden glaze to the dough by brushing with egg yolk beaten with a teaspoon of milk and a pinch of salt. Then bake at 200C, 400F, gas 6 for 12 - 15 minutes until puffy and shiny gold. Remove from oven and cool on tray for a few minutes before serving.
Most people love to eat sausages, and nowadays there seems to be a very wide variety of flavours on the market. Always buy the best you can afford, for the cheaper ones are not worth the money. We may not even wish to know what meat is used to fill their skins. Edible of course, but possibly unmentionable.
An easy way to make meat balls to serve with pasta is to remove skins from quality sausages, break each into three or four pieces, roll into balls and fry these off then finish cooking in a good sauce.
This next recipe is a doddle to make, and has plenty of flavour. It feeds four, but by adding extra beans (giving extra vegetable protein) and more of the other ingredients but still keeping the original weight of sausage, it can be stretched to feed six or more.
Also a good recipe if wishing to serve only one as a single leftover cooked banger can be used to make a good lunch or supper dish. Just adjust the amounts of the remaining ingredients.
Sausage Stovies: serves 4
2 large onions, sliced
2 lb (1kg) potatoes, cut into half inch (1 cm) slices
2 oz (50g) butter or beef dripping
half pint (300ml) beef stock
3 tblsp tomato relish or pickle
salt and pepper
1 lb (450g) herby sausages, cooked, cooled and sliced
2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
1 x 397g (14oz) can red kidney beans, drained
Put the butter or dripping in a pan and heat, then fry the onions and potatoes until browned. Add the stock, relish or pickle, adding seasoning to taste, then simmer for 15 minutes.
Stir in the sausages, W.sauce and the beans and cook for a further 10 minutes or until the potatoes are tender.
Spoon into a warmed bowls and serve hot with a green vegetable.
Recently had a go at making the old-style beef dripping (left from cooking a roast), using the clarified beef dripping bought from a supermarket, melted and with Bovril stirred in. Not a success in that the Bovril refused to emulsify with the fat, although as it cooled down a certain amount seemed to be taken up. The end result having rather a marbled appearance.
Discovering the pot sitting by the bread bin, with most of it gone, realised B had been eating it spread on toast and asked him what he thought about it. "Not enough beefy flavour" he said, "otherwise not bad". Thinking about how I eat buttered toast spread with Marmite, suggested it might taste more like the real thing if B spread his hot toast first with the clarified beef dripping and then spread a thin layer of Bovril on top. So far not sure if he has tried this, but not a bad idea. Will report back if successful.
In any case, beef dripping is perfect for frying chips and roasting potatoes, so the two big blocks B brought will not be wasted.
Am only suggesting the above to those who crave beef dripping on toast, and who are prepared to eat it come what may, as we all know we should not be eating dripping, butter, cream, and all good things... What next will we be told we should not eat for our health's sake I wonder. Am pretty sure soon we will be again be told that now we can eat something once forbidden, as now they have found out it was good for us after all. What will it be I wonder. Any guesses?
The last time I looked at the comp. clock it was not yet 10, and now it is well after 11am with the blue sky still with us, and B said we had a frost! Yippee, now I will regain my energy. Hope to get out and about today. Maybe even take Norris for a run. Back with you again tomorrow, if everything still works, me included. See you then.
posted by Shirley at 8:22 AM
4 Comments:
If cooking lamb shank should it be browned first/
Hi Shirley
Christine here - had a small bout of the pest but recovering nicely.
Had my swineflu jab just over a week ago and am wondering if the cold could be attributed to that. Here in Germany anyone can have
the swineflu jab and with working for the local doctor thought I'd set a good example by being one of the first.
Thanks for the onion marmelade recipe am looking forward to giving a try at the weekend.
Speak to you soon
Christine
Hi Shirley and gang, Eileen here.
Nothing to do with cooking at all but I felt I wanted to warn people. I had a phone call today from someone with an Indian/Asian accent who said they represented BT. The man asked if I was troubled by phonecalls from people trying to sell me things and services. When I said yes he said that BT and my bank had formed a new initiative to prevent this happening and that if I joined I could stop all the nuisance phone calls. I felt sure that something was not quite right about this and asked how much this would cost, he said £39. He could not give me a phone number so that I could ring him back and when I rang off and did 1471 the number was unavailable. This is a scam to get hold of bank details so please dont get caught out by this and pass it on so others are not scammed.
I phoned BT and told them. The man I spoke to said they were aware that this was happening and the police also knew about it. It seems that there is nothing they can do as it is being run from abroad. I think there is something they could do though and that is give this scam more publicity. Make people aware that this is happening. So I am doing my bit and making people I know aware.
Cheers, Eileen.
Thanks to Eileen for her warning over the latest scam; forewarned is forearmed. When I was a child beef dripping on toast was a real treat, today the food police would be round threatening to take the children into care for being given such naughty food.
Thank you Shirley for the recipe for sausage packets, I shall be trying those as they sound really tasty party food for Christmas. Hope you enjoyed a trip out in the sunshine with Norris. It was miserable here, cold and misty all day and the same today.
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