Category Archives: Aga cooking

What to do with some much produce…apple, honey and rosemary jam 

I first tasted this delicious combination at a friend’s house a couple of years ago. Whenever they visited some friends in France they would come back with a jar of loveliness called: Confiture de pommes au romarin et au miel de montagne. I acquired a recipe and then promptly forgot about it until recently. Recipe translated and tweaked resulted in 5 jars of apple, honey and rosemary jam in my kitchen yesterday. I resisted the urge to taste it until today to allow the rosemary to infuse the jam…delicious.

This is what I did:

Ingredients:

2kg of cooking apples – peeled, cored and chopped in to small pieces (pips saved)

100g sugar

250g honey – I used set

Juice of 3 lemons – keep pips

20 ml of water.

Rosemary sprigs – washed and dried

Method:

Put the sugar, water, lemon juice and honey in a large pan and bring to the boil – stirring frequently. Put the apple pieces in to the syrup mixture along with the apple and lemon pips wrapped in a piece of gauze. Bring back to the boil and simmer gently for about 15 minutes or until the apples are soft. Remove from heat and mash about half of the apple mixture down – I used a potato masher. Put back on the heat and simmer for anohter 5 – 10 mins.  Put in to prepared jam jars and push a sprig of rosemary in to the mixture ahead of sealing the jar.

I have no idea how long this will store  – probably quite irrelevant as one jar has nearly gone already. I didn’t treat this like an ordinary jam, cheese or jelly in that a setting point wasn’t reached. The consistency is of a very, very thick sauce. Delicious on toast but I would imagine equally scrumptious with pork or game.

Spiced lentil / quinoa balls in a roasted butternut squash sauce

Posted in Aga cooking, coconut oil, coeliac, food, food is medicine, functional food, ginger, gluten free, healthy eating, healthy fats, home cooking, mains, meat free, recipe, specialised diet, turmeric, Uncategorized, vegetables, vegetarian by

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Preheat oven to 180 C / Gas mark 5.    Line a baking tray with greaseproof paper

Ingredients:

For the ‘meatballs’                                              For the sauce

1 cup quinoa                                                           Medium butternut squash

1 cup green / puy lentils                                     About 400 ml vegetable stock

1 tsp ginger                                                             4 spring onions (coarsely chopped)

1 tsp turmeric                                                         10 cherry tomatoes (chopped in half

2 tsp coconut oil                                                    About 100 ml coconut milk

1 egg                                                                          Spinach (large handful)

(Chick pea flour)                                                    Coconut oil

1 tsp cumin seeds                                                  1 tsp cayenne pepper

Method:

Deseed and chop the butternut squash in to medium-sized chunks. Drizzle with coconut oil and pop in the oven for 30 mins to soften

Rinse the quinoa and lentils and put them in a pan with 3 cups of water and the cumin seeds. Bring to boil and cook until soft. Drain any excess water.

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Allow to cool. Add all the other ingredients (except chick pea flour) and mix thoroughly. If the mixture is loose add a desertspoon of chick pea flour and mix again. You may have to do this a couple of times. Take a generous desertspoon full of mixture and roll in to a ping-pong sized ball. Lay the balls on the prepared tray

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and cook in the oven for 10-15 mins.

When the butternut squash is roasted, put half in to a blender along with the vegetable stock – you want a thick sauce consistency so add the liquid a little a time until this is achieved.

Fry the spring onions until soft. Add the cayenne powder and stir for a minute. Add the tomatoes and cook for another minute. Add the butternut squash sauce

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and once heated through add the spinach and allow to wilt.Stir in the coconut milk.

Place the ‘meatballs’ in to the sauce and simmer gently.20160916_180635Prior to serving pop the remaining butternut squash chunks in to the sauce.

I served this with naan bread. Enjoy.

If the egg was replaced with tofu, this would be a vegan dish.

Ginger cookies   – gluten free 

So…when is it a biscuit or a cookie?  These do not have the crack / snap of a biscuit but instead have the delicious chewy and slightly bendy quality that I think a  cookie should have (apologies to all biscuit and cookie aficionados). If left in the oven longer I am sure they would have been more like a ginger thin. The stem ginger chunks give a lovely warmth.

Preheat oven to 180 C / Gas mark 4      Makes  18 cookies  Lightly grease/ line a large baking tray

Ingredients:

350 g self-raising gluten-free flour        150 g dark muscavado sugar

100 g butter                                                    1 large egg

4 desert spoon golden syrup                     2 tsp ground ginger

5 pieces of stem ginger coarsely chopped

Method:

Put the butter, sugar and syrup in a pan and melt on a low heat. Remove from the heat and mix in all the other ingredients.  Spoon the mixture on to the prepared tray – allow for spreading. Bake for 10-15 mins. Leave to cool before removing from tray.

 

 

 

The Black Cat, Blue Sea Blogger Award

Posted in Aga cooking, food, food is medicine, functional food, home baking, home cooking, The Black Cat Blue Sea blogger award, Uncategorized by

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Thank you very much to What Katie Did Next who has nominated me for the wonderful Black Cat, Blue Sea Award.

“This award is for bloggers who strive to write for everybody, and no matter how many viewers they get, make an impact on a reader. This award is an expression of gratitude to the nominee.”

A wonderful gesture from Katie whose blog is both insightful and a fascinating read 🙂

Anyone nominated has to answer three questions, set by the person who nominated them, and then nominate their own recipients whilst also setting them their own three questions to answer.

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The questions set for me to answer are:

1. If you could swap lives with someone for a week, who would it be and why?

It doesn’t say the person has to be living – I would have loved to swap places with Charles Darwin, as he spent time on the Galapagos Islands. Why – because his finds on the island supported his theory that species of living things have changed over time leading to his publishing of The Origin of Species and his theory of evolution by natural selection. Life changing.

2.What is your favourite book, movie and CD?

Favourite book – very difficult to narrow it to one book: To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee (just beats A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth)

Favourite movie – Old: Breakfast at Tiffany’s   Recent: Pretty Woman

CD – this is so difficult… Pink Floyd – Dark side of the moon.

3.Where do you see yourself in 10 years?

If I’d been asked this 2 months ago my answer would have been very different but having been diagnosed with Breast Cancer and undergoing chemotherapy, radiotherapy and drug therapy…I just want to be here.

I would like to nominate the following people:

Sara Ms.Health-Esteem

Laura Feast Wisely

Fran Nelipot Cottage

Sumith Keralas.live

Dolly Koolkosherkitchen

Grace wingingitbygrace

Deborah and Charlotte Desires of the Foodaholics

My questions for you are:

1.If you were an animal what would you be and why?

2. What is your favourite book?

3. Who is your hero / heroine?

 

 

Apple, cinnamon and sumac loaf (gf)

Posted in Aga cooking, cake, coeliac, eggs, functional food, gluten free, healthy eating, home baking, home cooking, recipe, specialised diet, Uncategorized, vegetarian by

The flavour combination of delicious lemon from Middle Eastern sumac with cinnamon and apple really blend well in this loaf.

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Prepare a 2lb / 900 g loaf tin

Preheat the oven to 180c / Gas 4

Ingredients:

150 g gluten-free self-raising flour       120 g butter

130 g light muscovado sugar          3 eggs (2 if not using gf flour)

1 cooking apple – cored, peeled and finely chopped

2 tsp cinnamon powder    2 tbsp sumac

Method:

Put the flour, 2/3 sugar, butter and eggs in a bowl mix well until smooth. In another bowl mix the remaining sugar, apple, sumac and cinnamon. Add 2/3 of this mixture to the cake mixture and ensure all mixed in. Put the mixture in the prepared tin and place the remaining apple, sugar and spice mix on the surface of the mixture.

Place in the oven and cook for 30 – 45 minutes – until a skewer comes out clean. Allow to cool before turning out.

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Mushroom ‘stroganoff’

Posted in Aga cooking, cheese, coeliac, food, fructose free, functional food, gluten free, home cooking, mains, meat free, recipe, Uncategorized, vegetarian by

A thoroughly delicious but incredibly simple meal. I used full fat everything…but all the relevant ingredients could be substituted for reduced calorie if so desired.

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I didn’t really measure anything so this is rough guide:

Ingredients:

Punnet of button mushrooms                          Parmesan      Butter/oil to cook

Brie – chopped into chunks                               Single cream

Garlic clove – finely chopped                            Onion – finely chopped

Method:

Saute the onions, garlic and mushrooms in butter/oil.

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Add the brie and stir until melted.

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Stir in sufficient cream to make a sauce – do not boil.

Serve immediately. Sprinkle with parmesan.

Delicious on naan (gf) bread.

 

Banana cake -gluten free

Posted in Aga cooking, cake, eggs, food, fruit, functional food, gluten free, healthy eating, home baking, home cooking, recipe, specialised diet, Uncategorized by

The perfect way to use up the last, lonely bananas sitting in the fruit bowl looking brown and not remotely appetising.

Prepare an 18cm square tin or 2lb / 900 g loaf tin

Preheat the oven to 150c / Gas 2

Ingredients:

170 g gluten-free self-raising flour       140 g butter

100 g light muscovado sugar         4 eggs (3 if not using gf flour)

1 large /2 small ripe bananas – 5/6 slices for the top and the rest mashed (I leave mine quite chunky) or 1 large mashed and 2 split in half for the top of the cake if making a square cake.

Method:

Put all the ingredients (except banana) in to a bowl and mix well until smooth. Add the mashed banana and ensure all mixed in. Put the mixture in the prepared tin and place the sliced banana on the surface of the mixture.

Place in the oven and cook on the low heat for about 45 minutes – until the mixture is firming up. Then increase the heat to 180 C / gas mark 4 and cook until a skewer comes out clean – about 1/2 hour.

Turn on to a rack and allow to cool – or eat as a delicious pudding whilst still hot from the oven!

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Vegetarian chilli

Posted in Aga cooking, casserole, coeliac, food, food is medicine, functional food, gluten free, healthy eating, home baking, home cooking, meat free, recipe, specialised diet, Uncategorized, vegan, vegetarian by

This is my go to speedy chilli dish. One pot does the cooking so limited washing up – always a bonus. Have played around with my spice mix and this is a moderate chilli- the addition of the cayena guindillas do give it an additional punch so can be omitted. Chewing on a hidden gem does give your tongue a bit of a zap!

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Serves 4

Ingredients:

1 tbsp coconut oil       1 white onion – chopped

1 pepper – deseeded and chopped

250 g of vegetarian mince

1 large can of kidney beans – washed and drained

1 large can of chopped tomatoes      1 can of water

5 guindillas chopped (optional)

Spices: 2 tsp chilli powder, 1 tsp oregano, 1 tsp cayenne pepper, 2 tsp of cumin and 1 tsp of raw cacao powder

Method:

Saute the onions and pepper until softened.

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Add the vegetarian mince and stir until heated through.

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Add the tinned tomatoes and kidney beans.

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Stir through and fill the tomato can with water and add to the mix.

Add the spice blend, stir thoroughly, cover and allow to heat through thoroughly.