COOKBOOKS GALORE

Had a good time in the UK at Christmas, but came back with bronchitis. Am feeling fine now, so thought it was time I started to post on here again. Am trying to use up the food in the freezers, so found some beef and decided to make a casserole. It's bitingly cold here today, so just right for a nice tasty casserole. Having looked at lots of recipes, nothing really inspired me, so I decided to make my own recipe.  It's for 2 very generous portions and is a meal in itself. Maybe some nice crusty bread to mop up the sauce? Here it is ready to cook. 200g beef 2 leeks sliced 3 carrots chopped tin chickpeas 2 tbspn tomato puree bouquet garni 1 cinnamon stick 250ml beef stock 200ml red wine s&p Brown beef in a casserole dish. Add chopped eeks and carrots and cook gently for 2 minutes. Add the rest of the ingredients and simmer gently until beef is cooked - the time depends on the cut of beef you're using. I used beef shin and it took 11/2 hours. That...

My first post for a while. Lost my enthusiasm! Hope to get it back soon!. Off tomorrow to the UK for 15 days. Have a very Happy Christmas.

This post was intended for yesterday, Halloween, but for some reason I was unable to post it. This is the lovely pumpkin I bought for a euro. There was a great pile of them, and the lady in front of me in the queue took one from underneath, and you can guess what happened - yes, we chased pumpkins down the road! This recipe is from yesterday's 'Saturday Kitchen'. here I changed the recipe a bit by using a tin of baked beans instead of the cannellini beans and I didn't add the tin of tomatoes or the white wine vinegar. We found the sauce too thin, so I thickened it with cornflour. Doesn't look very appetizing, but it was delicious. I still have a lot of pumpkin flesh left to make some soup.

Like many others, we planted too many tomatoes this year, so we have lots of green tomatoes. Today I made some chutney with some of them. This recipe made 2x 500g jars and a small jar [one used for baby food]. It's from a French cookery magazine. 1kg green tomatoes, finely chopped 500g onions, finely chopped 500g cooking apples, peeled, cored and chopped 2 fresh green chillies, deseeded and finely chopped 2 cloves garlic, crushed and chopped 1 tspn powdered ginger 1 good pinch ground cloves 1 good pinch turmeric 50g sultanas 250g brown sugar [use muscovado if you want a darker chutney] 30cl white wine vinegar Mix the tomatoes, onions, apples and chillies together in a large pot. Add the garlic, ginger, cloves and turmeric. Then add the sultanas, sugar and vinegar. Stir it all together. Bring to the boil then reduce the heat and cover. Let it simmer for about 11/4 hours, till the chutney has thickened and is soft. Put into sterilised jars and label. Leave it f...

I've read about the name of these cookies, how at the tollbooths on the roads people would stop and buy a drink and a cookie. This version comes from Hannah Miles' new book 'The big book of cakes and cookies' which has 365 recipes for new cakes and well-loved favourites. Hannah was a finalist in Masterchef 2007, and has a lovely blog which is on my list of favourite blogs - Hannah's country kitchen. Here's the recipe: 125g butter 350g plain flour 1/2 tspn bicarb. 2 tspns cinnamon 100g caster sugar 100g soft brown sugar 1 tbspn golden syrup 1 large egg, beaten 100g chocolate chips 100g chopped walnuts Preheat oven 180C/350F/gas4 Makes 20 cookies Sieve flour, soda and cinnamon into a bowl. Melt the butter and syrup in a saucepan. Add the choc. chips and walnuts and egg to the flour mixture and then add the butter mixture. Mix it all together with a wooden spoon. Divide the dough into walnut sized pieces and put onto greased baking trays. Mak...

I haven't posted in a while because I couldn't add photos, but now it's sorted. It's a glorious autumn here, still warm, and the trees are now beginning to turn colour. It's the time of year when we gets lots of fruit and veg. from our neighbours and friends, things we've not grown or haven't room to grow. We've had lots of figs, quinces, cabbages, leeks and beetroot. Have already posted about the fig and almond tart I made, and I've been trying out new fig recipes. We loved Nigella's 'Figs for 1001 nights' and I also cooked them with honey, cinnamon and a little orange liqueur. Tonight I'm going to use them as starter with parma ham. As for the quinces, think I'll try to make some quince jelly from Jane Grigson's great 'Fruit book'. It's supposed to be good with meat. I love Jane Grigson's recipes as they're very straight forward and I've always had good results with them. I have her 'Vegetab...

Am on a roll today! Yesterday our lovely neighbour Maurice, aged 86, gave us a tray of figs. They were very ripe so had to do something with them quickly. Last night I cooked some with honey and served them with mascarpone - delicious. Today I made a fig and almond tart. I bought ready made pastry so it didn't take long to make. I found the recipe on the good food channel site.It's by David Massey. for 6 350g shortcrust pastry 100g ground almonds 10g flour 100g caster sugar 100g unsalted butter 2 eggs 9 figs halved preheat oven 180C/gas4/350F Roll out pastry to fit a 23cm flan tin and bake blind for 15 mins or till base is firm. Beat butter and sugar together till fluffy. Add the eggs. Fold in flour and ground almonds. Spoon the mixture over the pastry and arrange the halved figs on top. Turn oven up to 190C/gas 5 and bake tart for about 35 mins. or until almond fillings has set. Serve with mascarpone. When you take the tart out of the oven, you can glaz...