GNUGI- Or something like that
This was a recipie I had taken a shine to in one of my Mum's sunday supplement magazine. One of those that the chefs make look too easy to go wrong and are illustrated with mouth watering photographs. Anyway, as is the way, I lost the recipie and cobbled together something from memory and the internet (which requested an overnight chilling period- not practical but maybe another day
250g cream cheese
50g parmesan
1 egg 1 yolk
300g spinach (I used frozen)
Some plain flour
Seasoning
1 garlic clove
Blitz cheese, egg and seasoning.
Wilt spinach in some butter and garlic then try to get rid of as much water as possible.
Mix spinach and cheese and add flour until able to form sticky balls. I used about 4 tablespoons.
Make golf sized balls and coat with seasoned flour
Bring salted water to the boil. Stick in batches of balls and boil until they float plus one minute further.
I then put in garlic butter in oven until all were ready and served with garlicy tomato sauce.
They were fine but a bit doughy- I think different cheese such as feta may be better so I'm going to try them again as think they have a future when cream cheese is on offer and frozen spinach is dead cheap.
Try no.2- this involved more straining of the spinach- quite successful for limiting the amount of clag inducing flour needed and adding feta as no parmesan avaliable. The fact these things look nothing like the sunday supplement dainty photos and more like something a penguin returning form its marathon fish finding mission has regurgitated for its your has not put me off. I think I am still a little taken with the fact they actually do bob up to the top of the pan when done thats got me hooked. I will persevere- back to the parmesan I recon. It is, currently as my father in law would say 'very filling' (!)
Pain au Chocolate a la Omletitti aka Not my finest hour.
There are times in life when a girl needs some pudding...or some cake...or ice cream. Basically somthing sweet that you wouldn't find in a diet book. On the Omletitti occassion this was further fuelled by the fact I was entertaining a pregnant lady. Pregnant ladies in my opinion should eat cake every day purely because they have a decent excuse.
My problem on Omletitti day was that having recently moved more rural and with 3 sleeping babes in the house, there was not the facilities or opportunity to meerly pop to the shop. So, with an experimental approach to all things culinary, I headed to the larder. For larder, read large cupboard. The ingrediants and concept was promising but fell down somewhat in the final stages.
Pain au Chocolate a la Omletitti:
2 pain au chocolate
milk
an egg
sugar
The concept being soak Pain in an eggy milky sugary mixture and fry...like french toast. It turns out this doesn't work as the Pains are not absorbant enough and what you are left with is a sugary Pain (all very good) and an ugly and unappetising custardy omlett somewhat resembling milk vomit (less good). I recon tho with a bit of work and more time to bake it all, a tasty bread and butter pudding type creation could emerge. Watch this space
Tasty (my foot) Fish Bites
So, these were another Cbeebies creation- adapted with the addition of a pastry case as we didn't have bread. I don't think I have eaten anything so bland and claggy in some time. Mr Anonimum however pointed out the theory was sound and Laurie enjoyed making them, (the fish is satisfactorily squashable and he enjoyed breaking eggs etc) so we will try again but adding different ingredients and a bit more kick.
I cod or trout fillet
2 eggs
milk and a little cream if you have
a scoop of cream cheese
seasoning (clearly more than I added)
Chives
Pastry- I used Nigella's Pizza Rutica alla Inglese version which works great in that recipie but was a bit too claggy once made and positioned by a tot so will prob reasses for next time for something lighter.
Melt a little butter. Put it in a cup with a pastry brush for tot to paint into muffin tin.
Mix pastry ingrediants, wizz and roll into big rounds
Squish pastry into cases- careful its not too thick (ours was def over 5mm once Laurie had finished)
Blind bake with baking peas for 15 mins.
Mix together milk, cream, cheese,eggs and seasoning
Carefully chop in chives
Chop (and squish) fish
Stick fish in cases and pour around milky swimming pool.
Bake for 20 mins- (don't forget about it and bake for longer as it will be dry and tasteless)
Next time:
Add some curry paste to the fish to marrinade in before hand
Use cheese and bacon maybe with something wet like roasted perrers too.
Keep an eye on pastry thickness or make as a quiche- I think curried fish quiche might be a goer.......
Balls - Chicken.
This was meant to be chicken noodle soup or chicken soup with dumplings. My efforts were stumped by having neither noodles or butter for dumplings....or chicken for that matter but I was always going to use turkey mince which is cheaer and easier to find/less messy than mincing chicken...really who would bother mincing a chicken anyway. So I was going for a more poultry stew version of Delia's braised meatballs . It was fine but seemed a bit too delicate for stew. I recon a bog standard casserole would be fine (just chuck in chicken pieces) as the sauce is luch. Will persevere with noodle soup tho as balls stayed together well and had a nice flavour.
1 pack turkey mince
some arsley and sage
an onion and couple of cloves of garlic
pepper and lemon juice for seasoning (I read somewhere lemon acts as a flavour enhancer and works nicely in this recipie)
Chicken stock
Misc veg- I used a carrot a parsnip and a few flat mushrooms.
Method-
Stick baked suds in oven
Chop herbs half the onion and garlic fineley and mush with turkey.
Form into gold ballsize balls- dust with seasoned flour
Chop rest of onion and garlic and fry off a bit
Add stock and veg and get nice and hot
Add turkey balls and cover . Cook for 30 mins
I thickened the sauce with cornflour but I dont think it's really necessary.
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