tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-79967376441060498332024-03-13T11:30:48.236+00:00VegBoxBoyWell, it used to be how I got on cooking my VegBox. Now it's more how I'm doing trying to grow my own box. And cooking. Basically anything I cook that's new to me or I think is special...either in a good way or not.VegBoxBoyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03847099136710136981noreply@blogger.comBlogger303125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7996737644106049833.post-23456046701701668912013-02-18T16:50:00.001+00:002013-02-23T09:58:28.191+00:00287: Far East Food-a-logueAs irregular readers of this very irregular blog will know, I love a holiday. I have just returned from a cruise from Singapore to Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand. Wasn't bad if you like luxury, interesting sights and sunshine.<br />
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But what dear readers, I'm sure you're all keen to know is - what did I stuff my face with en-route? Some of the delights, I managed to photograph, so here goes.<br />
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In Pennag there's a food market which instantly makes you feel like Rick Stein. It's an open market and down each side there's stalls all of which served different dishes. By most people's standards I'm a pretty adventurous eater, but there were a few things a little too out there for me, fish head soup and chicken feet with mystery accompanyments.<br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-dMNJNYPdwOU/USJJ5TO1nZI/AAAAAAAACBg/dA4EqNgVY7c/s1600/chicken+feet.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-dMNJNYPdwOU/USJJ5TO1nZI/AAAAAAAACBg/dA4EqNgVY7c/s200/chicken+feet.JPG" width="200" /></a>I settled myself for some noodles, which were simply marked as being 'special'. They were pretty nice for a pound but special might be over-egging it a bit. Speaking of which, everywhere out there seemed to go along with my own view that a fried egg improves most things.</div>
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We had a trip to the Batu caves just outside Kuala Lumpur. Which in the best possible way was quite an assault on the eyes. Here's the sweeties in the market. But everything else was beauttifully bright too. There had seem a festival at the weekend which involved giving milk as an offering, so the whole place was a bit whiffy. </div>
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On to Thailand, I had more noodles, but I was most impressed with the ice-delivery man, the observant will also note that he's got a fag on. An extra touch of class that, I thought.</div>
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The market stalls were pretty interesting. Plenty of them sell Durian fruits. Which are so stinky that apparently some hotels charge an excess if you take one to your room. Apparently they taste nice, but it appears quite a risk. But these things looked much nicer, although I'm not sure what half of them are.</div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-U4PWaqPYUu4/USJKphV869I/AAAAAAAACCc/c1pIy-axQp4/s1600/thai+bbq.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-U4PWaqPYUu4/USJKphV869I/AAAAAAAACCc/c1pIy-axQp4/s200/thai+bbq.JPG" width="200" /></a>In Thailand the street bbq wagons are pretty good. It's 50p a stick, unless you go for a chicken leg which are a pound. There's options of beef, pork, chicken, chicken wing, chicken leg for flash harrys and then at the back chicken heart, lung and livers. Nice!</div>
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In Singapore I had some Hor Fun noodles, which from the vast description appear to be legendary. Being an ingrate I couldn't understand a word of it. But I did get to understand they were beef and once again came with a fried egg on top. Another win, although Edwina Curry would've had a hear attack seeing the egg: it was the egg equivalent of a blue steak.</div>
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Last of all, here's a Singapore Sling - which was the only time I felt ripped off all trip. But you've just got to have one while you're there.</div>
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Apologies for the poor layout of this, somehow I seem to be struggling to get the pics to go where I want them to.</div>
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<br /><div class="blogger-post-footer">Feel the love from the Veg Box Boy. x</div>VegBoxBoyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03847099136710136981noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7996737644106049833.post-40027051366930266222012-12-09T08:50:00.003+00:002012-12-09T08:50:52.505+00:00286: Baked Pork with Mustard and DillI've got it in my head that I once cooked sometihng very similar to this from Bridget Jones's Comfort Food book. However, I can't find it in my list of posts and I didn't refer to any recipe when putting it together.... so it's kind of approaching my own recipe. I seem to remember it being rather a faff first time out. <br />
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As every on a sunday I wanted something hearty, tasty and with a good prospect of being just as good served as leftovers on the Monday evening. <br />
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Ingredients, enough for 4 *cough* healthly sized portions:<br />
<ul>
<li>1 packet of 8 pork chop steaks. </li>
<li>1 big onion</li>
<li>2 cloves garlic</li>
<li>1 big handful dill</li>
<li>3 or 4 medium carrots</li>
<li>About a dozen Maris Piper potatoes </li>
<li>Mustard powder</li>
<li>~2 pints chicken stock (although I guess pork stock would've been better)</li>
<li>1 tea spoon cornflour</li>
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Method:<br />
<ul>
<li>As ever all my recipes start with chopping (small) and slow frying the onion adding the chopped garlic towards the end</li>
<li>While this was frying I chopped the carrots, parsnip and half the potatoes into 3/4" bite sized chunks</li>
<li>Once done, plonk all these into a big casserole dish</li>
<li>There's little less appealing than pasty pork. Well apart from Coronation Chicken. So, into a hot pan with the pork steaks until they've got a little colour; trying to stand them on their ends to ensure the fat gets nicely coloured too</li>
<li>Into the casserole with them too</li>
<li>Make some stock and put some mustard powder in it. Cover all the lumps. Stir, put the lid on and into a low ~150c oven for a couple of hours</li>
<li>Slice the rest of the potatoes thinly</li>
<li>Have yourself a minute; there's nothing to do for a while</li>
<li>Once the vegetables have softened a bit in the stock. Mix the cornflour, with some more mustard (to taste) and some of the liquid from the pot. Add the dill. And then stir in</li>
<li>Arrange the thinly sliced potatoes on the top</li>
<li>Back into a hotter ~200c oven, until the potatoes are golden</li>
</ul>
And here you go:<br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ZRUclGrTT-4/UMRQo9YfXiI/AAAAAAAACA8/RZvHgIOTWT0/s1600/Baked+Pork+with+Mustard+and+Dill.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ZRUclGrTT-4/UMRQo9YfXiI/AAAAAAAACA8/RZvHgIOTWT0/s320/Baked+Pork+with+Mustard+and+Dill.JPG" width="320" /></a>Crispy spuds on top. Rich sauce underneath. Just the thing for a cold winter's night. </div>
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<br /><div class="blogger-post-footer">Feel the love from the Veg Box Boy. x</div>VegBoxBoyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03847099136710136981noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7996737644106049833.post-2902322968131244132012-10-20T09:53:00.001+01:002012-10-20T09:54:37.450+01:00285: Goose Breast in tomato and chick peasTime seems very short for blogging and cooking these days. I have managed to do a bit of cooking, I'll shall try to catch up a little.<br />
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My Mum knows a man with a shooter. Which makes her sound rather more well 'connected' than she is, but did explain the slightly random phone call of "Do you want a couple of goose breasts?". Well, never one to look a gift horse or a gift goose breast in mouth, I of course accepted. Turning to my normal mechanism of google for a recipe, I found it sadly lacking; stumbling across such weirdness as Bear chilli. So, I resorted to trying to think about this for myself. Scary biscuits.<br />
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The only guide I'd had was from my Mum who said to cook it slow, so I fell back onto my trusted method of red wine and tomatoes as a base for anything.<br />
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Ingredients:<br />
<ul>
<li>2 Goose breasts (each a good sized portion of meat for one)</li>
<li>~12 very small onions (mine were small onions which hadn't grown very well. Obv. if you were buying - Shallots)</li>
<li>4 cloves garlic</li>
<li>1 tin chopped tomatoes</li>
<li>1 tin chickpeas</li>
<li>1 handful sage leaves</li>
<li>2 medium carrots chopped small (I just had them in, so why not?)</li>
<li>250ml red wine</li>
<li>20-30 blueberries (game and berries supposed to be a good combo right?)</li>
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Method:<br />
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<li>Sealed the goose breasts in a hot pan and transfer to large casserole dish</li>
<li>Peel the onions, but leave whole and brown in pan</li>
<li>Add the Garlic, trying not to burn it. </li>
<li>Drain the chick peas add everything to casserole</li>
<li>Cover and bob in the oven @150c. I cooked for 5 hours</li>
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And here it comes, *drum roll* I served with a jacket spud. Which was rather unimaginative of me I think.<br />
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All ths liquids had slowly reduced down to a thick sauce. The goose breast, was lovely and soft. I couldn't notice the berries, they'd melted into the ether of the sauce; maybe more were needed.<br />
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Not sure if/when I'll ever have a goose breat again; but I'd more than happily repeat this one; indeed these quantities did enough for two portions and I'm very much looking forward to the second.<div class="blogger-post-footer">Feel the love from the Veg Box Boy. x</div>VegBoxBoyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03847099136710136981noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7996737644106049833.post-87173669652518504872012-09-22T08:16:00.001+01:002012-10-01T15:01:54.472+01:00284: Chocolate, Rapsberry and Marshmellow BrowniesSound nice, don't they?<br />
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I'm afraid it's another tale of cake based woe. Let me take you back to last saturday. I may have mentioned that I like to do the Great North Run, Sunday's was my 6th. This left me last saturday with plenty of time on my hands as I was neither running nor drinking in preparation for sunday. Recently a tradition has grown where several of us bake and then after the run, we all eat cake on the bus ride ride.<br />
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Again, sounds nice doesn't it? I've got time and the inclination. I knew the easy flapjack option was already taken, so I searched out a Brownie recipe and adapted it to use the fresh rapsberries I'd just picked from my garden. Very carefully I doubled all the ingredients to there was enough to go around a whole coach:<br />
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Here's the recipe I used:<br />
<ul>
<li>50gs fresh rapsberries</li>
<li>50gs small marshallow pieces</li>
<li>100gs good quality dark chocolate</li>
<li>8oz butter (jeez you need to hve just run a half marathon to eat this stuff)</li>
<li>16oz Brown granulated sugar</li>
<li>4 large eggs beaten</li>
<li>4oz Self-raising flour</li>
<li>2 teaspoons baking powder</li>
<li>2 teaspoons salt</li>
</ul>
Anyone spot the issue(s) yet?<br />
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Method, really easy:<br />
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<li>Melt over a pan of lightly simmering water the butter and chocolate</li>
<li> Mix everything else</li>
<li> Onto a tray lined with greaseproof paper and into over @ 180c, for 25 minutes, removing while the top is springy to the touch</li>
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Other than the fact my oven seems to be a bit hotter on the right hand side. I thought this looked practically perfect. Crusty at the top, light in texture, squidgy in the middle. Just like you'd want a brownie.<br />
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However, the mistakes were:<br />
1) What I'd actually written was 1/2 teaspoon of salt but because it was under the 2 teaspoons of baking powder I'd missed the top line '1' - all you could taste was salt, this mistake ruined it.<br />
2) All the raspberries sank to a goo on the base, which made it very messy. This may well be why no one else even tries to make raspberry brownies<br />
3) The marshmellows had completely melted; so something of a waste<br />
4) I should have used plain flour, but I didn't have any - but the texture was good, so I seemed to have got away with that one<br />
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So, all in, a pretty bad waste of a fine bar of chocolate. But definately one to be repeated (sans raspberries and excess salt) for the texture was bob on.<br />
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Now, I've been accused of boasting about my Basil growing prowess. Which wasn't my intent. However *fanfare* I did manage to get under the 2 hour mark for the first time at the Great North and that I am sufficiently pleased with to boast about! <br />
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PS: Other cakes on the bus were: flapjack, lemon drizzle (excellent), brownies and a tea loaf. Good cake eating times!<br />
<br /><div class="blogger-post-footer">Feel the love from the Veg Box Boy. x</div>VegBoxBoyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03847099136710136981noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7996737644106049833.post-57298545687959272192012-09-08T07:53:00.000+01:002012-09-08T10:09:35.216+01:00283: Caprese SaladThis is just so simple it's nearly not a recipe, given as complicated as it gets is a few cuts.<br />
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This year for the first time I've been successful in growing basil. Basil can be a little tricky; it doesn't like the cold and it likes plenty of water but only from the bottom it seems. I'd encourage other people to grow some on a window ledge, such is the niceness of fresh basil and the flexibility of just being able to rip off a few leaves as required.<br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-B81WJUpWIEc/UErpO-U6ZGI/AAAAAAAAB_w/AZRLwUzmbkc/s1600/IMG_1636.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-B81WJUpWIEc/UErpO-U6ZGI/AAAAAAAAB_w/AZRLwUzmbkc/s320/IMG_1636.JPG" width="240" /></a><br />
All this makes me sound like I've got one of those kitchen's like off the telly, brimming with fresh 'erbs. Well... I have my moments; mostly with this here basil!<br />
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Quite a big boy isn't he? The leaves seem to last a good while on there and even the big ones don't seem to go tough. I guess fairly soom when the temperature drops it'll die off; but I might have a go at freezing some of the leaves then.<br />
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Back to the salad. Although, not back for long such is the simplicity:<br />
<ul>
<li>Slice a big tomato into about 1/2 cm strips</li>
<li>Slice a mozzarella ball to about the same width</li>
<li>Layer tomato and mozzarella with basil leaves</li>
<li>Repeat until you've got as much as you'd like</li>
<li>Drizzle a little olive oil and add some salt and pepper (optional this one: I like, Mrs VBB doesn't)</li>
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Here we are - his n hers matching salads; mine's the bigger salty-peppery one on the right. Very nice indeed. Definately one to be repeated at home, now that I know just how easy this is, I can't really imagine ever ordering it in a restaurant (although regular readers would probably correctly guess I'd be unlikey to order this in any case) but jolly nice nonethless.</div>
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<div class="blogger-post-footer">Feel the love from the Veg Box Boy. x</div>VegBoxBoyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03847099136710136981noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7996737644106049833.post-81551220795001983112012-07-15T08:51:00.000+01:002012-07-15T08:51:04.764+01:00282: Chicken and Cashew curry with Black SpicesThe switched on, may already have guessed that this isn't a recipe of my own devizing and possibly also guessed that the source is Camellia Panjabi's 50 Great Curries of India. Through preference (chicken bits & chillies) and ineptitude (cloves) I have tweaked the recipe. I did though try to faithfully follow the method. Camellia is pretty big on method, but not quite so big on explanation about the method so what the benefits of it are and so I'm not certain I was successful in doing so.<br />
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Normally, all my blog posts follow the same format -> blurb -> ingredients -> method. I'm going to deviate a little this time as I took a few pictures. First up, the spices went into an un-oiled pan:<br />
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In order to get a photo, I tried to be neat here, clockwise from the top:<br />
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<li>12 far cloves garlic</li>
<li>7 fresh chillies (I upped this from 4 in the recipe)</li>
<li>1 teaspoon chopped ginger</li>
<li>2 1/2 teaspoons coriander seeds</li>
<li>1 1/2 teaspoons cumin seeds</li>
<li>1 teaspoon cinamon</li>
<li>100gs dessicated coconut (is that the same as grated the recipe asks for?)</li>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-A_cY95odXMI/UAJxPCtOWlI/AAAAAAAAB9k/5Y8Fr08zddk/s1600/Chick+Cashews+Spices+%25285%2529.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-A_cY95odXMI/UAJxPCtOWlI/AAAAAAAAB9k/5Y8Fr08zddk/s200/Chick+Cashews+Spices+%25285%2529.JPG" width="150" /></a>All these were cooked slowly for ten minutes to toast the spices I guess - although this isn't explained. After this initial cooking, the mix was looking and smelling pretty good. Next up was adding two thinly sliced onions along with a quarter of the cashews (from a total of 200gs).<br />
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Somehow the mix was by this stage looking a little less appealing. Once the onions were cooked, add 1/4 pint of water and blitz. This is supposed to be until smooth; but with my hand blitzer it was as smooth as I could manage.<br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-jncaEl-_u6U/UAJxA8OwAwI/AAAAAAAAB9c/JYywrO8PaWg/s1600/Chick+Cashews+Spices+%25283%2529.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-jncaEl-_u6U/UAJxA8OwAwI/AAAAAAAAB9c/JYywrO8PaWg/s200/Chick+Cashews+Spices+%25283%2529.JPG" width="200" /></a>Doesn't look very nice at this point does it? In addition a seperate paste is made up of 25gs of the cashews and a little water. This one, I really did fail to make smooth at all - there wasn't really enough stuff to get the blender working properly. What the point of these uncooked cashews is, is not explained.</div>
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The previously hot paste is left to cool, so essentially all this stuff is preparation. Now, onto the cooking of the curry proper. Into a hot liberally oiled pan with the big paste mix for 5 minutes or so, then add the uncooked cashew paste for another 5 minutes. Then turn down to a simmer, adding 1 pint of water, a kilo of chicken and the remaining whole cashews.</div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-17tWDLg3PyQ/UAJxUzEvgzI/AAAAAAAAB9s/_xRvu82Ygz0/s1600/Chick+Cashews+cooked.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a></div>
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-17tWDLg3PyQ/UAJxUzEvgzI/AAAAAAAAB9s/_xRvu82Ygz0/s1600/Chick+Cashews+cooked.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-17tWDLg3PyQ/UAJxUzEvgzI/AAAAAAAAB9s/_xRvu82Ygz0/s320/Chick+Cashews+cooked.JPG" width="240" /></a>And this is what you get at the end. Camellia's descibes a dark curry - possibly this is because I forgot to buy cloves and they colour it. Possibly because I should have got some more colour into the coconut at the initial cooking stage. It looks rather too pasty for my eyes.<br />
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However: tasted bloody good. The coconut gave the sauce a nice texture, the cashews added some crunch; which was pleasing. The curry doesn't contain the normal curry staples of curry powder or garam masala but somehow it still retains an essential curry-ness. By my upping the number of chillies I produced a better result for me; this was nudging madras heat hot which is how I like it.</div>
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There are many more stages in this cooking than I normally bother with. I'm not sure all of them are worthwhile. This is a recipe to be repeated; but next time I shall attempt to simplify.</div>
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<br /><div class="blogger-post-footer">Feel the love from the Veg Box Boy. x</div>VegBoxBoyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03847099136710136981noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7996737644106049833.post-21155651815469030732012-07-02T15:46:00.000+01:002012-07-03T19:58:50.885+01:00281: Random Recipes #18 - something a little differentI've long thought I ought to get involved in the fun of such challenges; either from Dom @Belleau kitchen or Choclette @ChocLogBlog - but somehow I never have up until now. The reason I am doing now, is because this one just couldn't be any easier. The challenge (<a href="http://belleaukitchen.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/random-recipes-18-something-little.html">Dom's random recipes challenge no 18</a>) involves taking a picture of your recipe books, so here it is:<br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-MVNN6jytCOA/T_GvGEfQi5I/AAAAAAAAB8k/yr6mj13aqs0/s1600/IMG_1123.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-MVNN6jytCOA/T_GvGEfQi5I/AAAAAAAAB8k/yr6mj13aqs0/s400/IMG_1123.JPG" width="300" /></a></div>
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Ok, here's points of interest (or not, decide for yourselves):</div>
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1) I designed the cabinet myself. It cost about the same as any similar high street solid wood cabinet but is perfectly sized for my interests of booze, books and telly. I should have added some holes in the back so the wires are a bit tidier</div>
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2) I've not used my Wii since Christmas Day 2010<br />
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3) It's still on standby. I'd not thought of that before now.<br />
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4) I should maybe have moved the James Martin book from the top; but any attempt I make to be cool is doomed to failure so not to worry<br />
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5) My ancient copy of Larousse Gastronomique cost me £1 which I considered a bargain. My french isn't quite good enough though to follow the recipes, so maybe it was not a bargain.<br />
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6) My mother bought me the frog motif salt and pepper shakers for Christmas. I've no idea why. I have a proper twisty cruet and I'm uninterested in frogs. It amused her; and somehow it also amuses me now.<br />
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7) The Yottam Ottolenghi book is beautiful but never quite inspires as well as his Saturday Guardian recipe<br />
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8) I nearly always have a full wine rack (only ever red wine on here). I get a bit twitchy if the house is short of wine, (or indeed: bread, eggs or cheese).<br />
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9) Cooking from Silver Spoon can be hard yards<br />
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10) If my wife looks at this she'll kill me for not going round with the Mr Sheen first.<br />
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That's all. Sooner or later I'll get back to some proper cooking, peace and love, peace and love.<br />
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<br /><div class="blogger-post-footer">Feel the love from the Veg Box Boy. x</div>VegBoxBoyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03847099136710136981noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7996737644106049833.post-33085616454867062462012-06-28T12:55:00.000+01:002012-06-28T12:55:53.812+01:00280: Strawberries 1 - Tomatoes 0As the title says I've had my first strawberry of the year. What a beaut it was too. <br />
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I added my thumb to the picture to give some scale. However, thumbs aren't standard but I can reassure readers my thumbs are man sized normal thumbs; no Sissy Hankshaw freakery here. No sniggering at the back; this isn't a metaphor.<br />
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Maybe I should have added something with a known size to the photo. But it's too late now, I've eaten it and the internet with be now forever wondering how big was my strawberry and have them hands ever done a day's work?<br />
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Happily there appear to be plenty more straws where that one was and the bird's have yet to find their way under the netting despite the gaping big holes in it. So, very hopeful of some home grown jam and deserts in the near future.<br />
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Tomatoes though are a different story. I planted these good and early put them on the kitchen window sill where they get plenty of sun through the afternoon. <br />
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I seem to have missed the small text on the packet that maybe said 'bonsai tomatoes'. At this rate at some stage next year they'll produce enough to make a micro-cherry tomato salad.<br />
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Next to it, is my special Olympic torch Coke can/bottle; which I've saved in case it's worth a fortune in the future. Unlikely, given it was a sunny day when the torch came past and I drank it. Good times none the less though!<div class="blogger-post-footer">Feel the love from the Veg Box Boy. x</div>VegBoxBoyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03847099136710136981noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7996737644106049833.post-23426403071810755232012-06-05T20:01:00.001+01:002012-06-09T07:55:12.708+01:00279: Jubilee Victoria CrumbWhen I write this, sometimes I think I give a rather misleading impression of my life as all rather lah-di-dah. I shall reaffirm any such misconceptions now.<br />
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The other thing (are there any?) any regular readers may have noted is that I tend to cook big pans of stews, curries roast dinners and pies. There is a reason for this.<br />
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Monday saw our street having a jubilee party and you were supposed to bring your own food. I thought I'd have a go for a jubilee based cake. I was inspired by <a href="http://belleaukitchen.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/jubilee-celebration-cake.html">Dom @Belleau Kitchen</a> who recently cooked this multi-coloured beauty:<br />
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Serendipity to the fore this Saturday James Martin gave a masterclass in cooking a Victoria Sponge. I also have his book. I didn't even need to google! Following somewhere between the reccipe from the telly and the one from the book, I proceeded merrily along...<br />
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Instead of going for colour blocks like Dom, I thought I'd go for swirly colours - so once I'd made the cake batter I put a few drops of red and blue food colouring in, and then tried to only stir a few times to ensure the colours stayed reasonably seperate.<br />
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At this stage, it was already looking pretty unappealing.<br />
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Lovely Jamesy as my wife calls him, says that the cake should take 25 minutes. 25 minutes in, it still looked fairly raw - which probably only shows that my oven doesn't cook hot enough. After 15 minutes saw the cake turn to springy when prerssed; which is the sign of done-ness.<br />
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Time to turn the cake out...<br />
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And this was the best I could manage. The second one was even worse. I can easily accept that my cake didn't rise much and I should have lined the tin better, but I'm not sure how the bejaysus my blue and red food dye came out orange and green.<br />
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There was simply no hope of trying to ice it. As soon as I touched it, it crumbled. To be fair, the crumbs tasted nice! I ended up arriving at the jubilee bash with a packet of bird's eye burgers - very poor indeed.<br />
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So, this is the reason I cook stews and curries - 'cos I'm bloody rubbish at cake.<div class="blogger-post-footer">Feel the love from the Veg Box Boy. x</div>VegBoxBoyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03847099136710136981noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7996737644106049833.post-23905481308799266842012-05-22T21:15:00.001+01:002012-05-22T21:15:38.313+01:00278: Beef BourgignonI bet you all thought I'd left town. I might as well have done for all the cooking I've been doing recently. The people that pay me, are being dashed unreasonable - they are expecting me to work for it! Its dreadful.<br />
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However this weekend found me with both time and motivation to cook. Saturday morning I had a trip to the butcher's for beef with which to make some form of stew. Somehow I decided upon Bourgignon, which is something I've not attempted for many years. I seem to remember my previous effort being somewhat below par; and I was keen to make amends.<br />
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As ever (despite owning a fair selection of cookbooks) my recipe search started with Google. I used my normal method of combining what I arbitrarily decided were the best bits. Luckily & happily Sainted Delia suggested Boulangere potatoes as an accompanyment; this was good.<br />
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Bourgignon ingredients:<br />
<ul>
<li>1 kilo beef cut into 1 inch cubes (I halved these from the size the but</li>
<li>1 medium onion</li>
<li>250gs or ~1 dozen very small - forkfull sized - onions (there weren't any shallots in the shop)</li>
<li>200gs streaky bacon</li>
<li>500gs chestnut mushrooms</li>
<li>2 cloves garlic</li>
<li>2 table spoons flour</li>
<li>2 x bay leaves, 2 x bouquet garni tea bags</li>
<li>1 x bottle Bordeaux </li>
</ul>
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Method:<br />
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<li>Finely slice the onion and slowly fry in a little oil </li>
<li>Chop and add the garlic and continue frying until the onion is nice and soft. Add to a big casserole pot</li>
<li>Cut the streaky bacon and fry until brown and crispy</li>
<li>Steal a couple of bits; this isn't going to be ready for hours yet. Add to the pot</li>
<li>Stir flour and meat together so all the meat is coated. Add to pot</li>
<li>Half mushrooms. Add to pot</li>
<li>Brown then onions, then guess what's going to happen with the onions? - Add to the pot</li>
<li>Add the wine and herbs, give it all a stir (being careful not to break the tea bags)</li>
<li>In the oven for at least 2 hours, preferably longer at 140c. Stirring every time you pass for a cuppa</li>
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Some recipes were part and part wine and stock. I chose all wine option as I wanted something a rich sauce rather than a gravy. I wasn't disappointed. The wine I'd had for a little while; all the while deferring drinking it as I thought it might be a bit heavy weather. However for this it was just the job and it was well worth using the good stuff for.<br />
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Like Delia I cooked boulangere potatoes (I may blog my version of boulangere's later; but this post has rambled along quite enough already). Well done Delia for that suggestion. Perfect together.<br />
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This perfection was only improved upon through the fact I then rounded proceedings off with a rhubarb crumble made from my own rhubarb.<br />
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Right that's all folks, it's now time for me to go to the Dordogne for some real french food!<br />
<br /><div class="blogger-post-footer">Feel the love from the Veg Box Boy. x</div>VegBoxBoyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03847099136710136981noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7996737644106049833.post-78400205356470945342012-05-02T19:57:00.000+01:002012-05-02T19:57:03.650+01:00277 Pea and Ham soupI wasn't going to blog this, as I've done a pea and gammon soup - and it's this isn't a million miles away. But it was just so nice I thought I'd treat myself. Although, if truth be told I'm scratching for anything else to blog about such is the paucity of my recent cooking efforts.<br />
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The other side effect of not planning on blogging this is that I recipe is even more slap dash than normal. Hey-ho. I can but persevere. At least with such half-arsedness I can't be accused of stealing content!<br />
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I don't think I'm tight, but I do hate to waste food. So the inspiration from this came from having the remains on an on-the-bone piece of ham. So after both literally and metaphorically butchering the ham (good butties!), there was a bone with quite a lot of small bits of ham on. Clearly a better butcher than I would have removed these without fuss.<br />
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Ingredients:<br />
<ul>
<li>One ham bone</li>
<li>One onion</li>
<li>Two cloves of garlic</li>
<li>Half a bag of marrowfat peas ~500gs</li>
<li>Some water</li>
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Method:<br />
<ul>
<li>Roughly chop the onion and garlic.</li>
<li>Put ham bone, onion and garlic in a pan. Cover with water. </li>
<li>Simmer</li>
<li>Allow to cool, so's not to burn my handies on the next bit</li>
<li>Messy bit this, sieve retaining the liquid and the remove the bone and any gristly bits</li>
<li>Add the ham lumps to the liquid</li>
<li>Add the peas, bubble until cooked, adding extra water if needed</li>
<li>Blitz, taste and add salt to taste</li>
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I like my soups thick, so maybe I should have added more water. The combination of the peas and the gelatin(?) coming out of the bone meant that this stuff was solid at room temperature - now that's a thick soup!<br />
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Kind of looks like ice-cream doesn't it? Ham ice-cream - not good!<br />
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Anyways, once again happy if rather trumpy days.<br />
<br /><div class="blogger-post-footer">Feel the love from the Veg Box Boy. x</div>VegBoxBoyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03847099136710136981noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7996737644106049833.post-13500075992875287542012-04-24T19:20:00.000+01:002012-04-24T19:20:55.083+01:00276: Mushroom and Mead SoupThis was a masterwork of using up of ingredients,. Even though I say so myself. The ingredients were:<br />
<ul>
<li>500gs mushrooms</li>
<li>1 red onion</li>
<li>1 1/2 pints chicken stock</li>
<li>100ml clotted cream (I just happened to have this in; it would be tremendously decadent to buy clotted crean just for putting in soup)</li>
<li>50ml mead</li>
</ul>
Method:<br />
<ul>
<li>Chop and fry onion, add stock</li>
<li>Roughly chop mushrooms and add</li>
<li>Simmer</li>
<li>Blitz</li>
<li>Add mead simmer a little more to take the sharpness of the alcohol off</li>
<li>Stir through the cream</li>
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I've not floured this recipe up. Basically, 'cos its so simple. The booze and cream added a touch of richness to set it apart from just ordinary soup. I like my soup thick* and maybe I should have cut down the amount of stock a little. <br />
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Another happy result.<br />
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* - I've got a proper thick 'un to blog next<div class="blogger-post-footer">Feel the love from the Veg Box Boy. x</div>VegBoxBoyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03847099136710136981noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7996737644106049833.post-4301955170491100162012-04-08T09:52:00.002+01:002012-04-24T18:57:01.574+01:00275: Roasted Paprika Chicken and Saffron Vegetable RiceBoth my cooking and blogging has been rather slack recently, my time being taken up with: work (boo!), running training for the London marathon (boo, it's not gone well) and massages to try to enable to keep on running. Oh and spend far too much time watching Pointless; which I'm enjoying but I'm not sure it's doing either my work or marathon prospects any good.<br />
<br />
Finally last weekend I got the required to chance to attempt to cook something new. A roasted chicken is always a good thing. But I didn't wash mash, as sausages and mashages were slated for the next day. So, variety being the spice of life and all I tried for a rice-y roast.<br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Mbxo__weQFQ/T4FI2_C0JGI/AAAAAAAAB6k/Z7EhtJhPq4E/s1600/Paprika+Chicken.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Mbxo__weQFQ/T4FI2_C0JGI/AAAAAAAAB6k/Z7EhtJhPq4E/s320/Paprika+Chicken.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
Ingredients:<br />
<ul>
<li>1 Biggish chicken</li>
<li>Rice </li>
<li>2 medium onions</li>
<li>2 courgettes</li>
<li>3 peppers</li>
<li>Spices: Saffron, garlic, chilli and paprika</li>
</ul>
Method:<br />
<ul>
<li>Wipe chicken with olive oil (so the spices stick) and dust with chilli flakes, paprika and salt and pepper. Dusting the cavity also. Into the oven at 180c until cooked ~ 1 hour 3/4s in my case</li>
<li>Have a cup of tea and an episode of Pointless, after which there was about an hour to go for the Chicken</li>
<li>Return: baste the chicken</li>
<li>Stick the peppers on a tray at the bottom of the oven and roast them. Then shortly afterwards add the courgettes. </li>
<li>Chop the onions and set onto a slow fry. Likewise chop the garlic</li>
<li>Getting towards the end now, set the rice on to cook - adding a pinch of Saffron.</li>
<li>Cook a cup full of peas</li>
<li>I wanted both crispy chicken and some colour on the courgettes, so out with the chicken to rest and then vegetables moved up to the top of the oven and the oven up to 220 (only for the last ten minutes or so; otherwise it would all burn to a cinder)</li>
<li>Drain rice, stir through veggies. Serve. Grab myself a leg and a wing.</li>
<li>Happy days</li>
</ul>
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Once again, I'd failed to use enough saffron to make the taste noticeable. I had though used enough garlic, chilli and paprika to give plenty of taste to the chicken.<br />
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I enjoyed it hot on the night and it was just as nice the next day having it as a cold rice salad; I think it helped that I'd roasted instead of fried the peppers and courgettes.<br />
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Left to my own devices I'd have put mushrooms in this; which I think would have been an improvement. However I was out-voted on the mushroom front 3 v 1. Shame that.<br />
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Happy Easter y'all. xxx<div class="blogger-post-footer">Feel the love from the Veg Box Boy. x</div>VegBoxBoyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03847099136710136981noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7996737644106049833.post-12152979797265959902012-03-25T08:56:00.001+01:002012-03-25T08:56:39.241+01:00274: Chorizo Rice SoupMy recent lack of bloggering has been caused by holiday preparations, holiday (much joy), and then having nothing much in the house post-holiday. However, this lack of food in the house proved to be the inspiration for this dish. Due to this, both my good lady wife and I found ourselves seperately lunching in Pret A Manger and returning home to discuss the high price and ordinaryness of their soups. (To be fair to Pret, they are only getting a mention here as they are the best soup/sandwich emporium in Leeds.)<br />
<br />
Even so, there was a strong focus on our producing ourselves some soup which would suffice for an entire lunch. Two forces combined (1) We had some chorizo in (2) We've always both liked M&S's Chicken and Rice soup. So, there it was, our plan and our lunches to be: Chorizo Rice Soup.<br />
<br />
Ingredients:<br />
<ul>
<li>One Chorizio ring, outer skin peeled and chopped into ~1cm cubes (quartered across wise)</li>
<li>Two Medium onions chopped reasonably small</li>
<li>2 medium carrots diced</li>
<li>3 cloves garlic, again chopped</li>
<li>1 courgette, again chopped into ~1cm cubes</li>
<li>Basmati Rice about a cup full</li>
<li>2-3 Pints stock</li>
<li>Spice: hot paprika</li>
</ul>
Method:<br />
<ul>
<li>Fried the chorizo and onions together. I did not add any further oil, as enough would be released from the chorizo</li>
<li>Added the garlic</li>
<li>Added and fried off the courgette to give it a little colour</li>
<li>Added rice and gave it a good coating in all the spicy oil</li>
<li>Added the carrot</li>
<li>Started adding stock and simmering, ladle at a time - risotto style</li>
<li>Once the rice was cooked, we took it off the heat and then decided it was too far along in the direction of sloppy risotto; so we added more stock until we achieved the right consistency. </li>
<li>A taste test showed that it would be improved by additional spice, so some paprika was added (and salt and pepper of course)</li>
</ul>
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The overall effect was much as we'd been after; somewhere between a soup and a risotto in consistency. I think it would've been improved by some chilli; but then I think that about most food stufffs. <br />
<br />
From this pan we got 6 portions costing around £3, while Pret soup is likewise around £3 but for each. I wouldn't claim this soup as a masterpiece or any such; but it was every bit as nice as the one I'd bought. So, all in we can consider this to be a pretty good result!<br />
<br /><div class="blogger-post-footer">Feel the love from the Veg Box Boy. x</div>VegBoxBoyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03847099136710136981noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7996737644106049833.post-30582086968940645352012-03-18T18:36:00.001+00:002012-03-24T07:48:26.219+00:00273: Rhubarb RhubarbFirstly, specially for Dom at Belleau kitchen. Here's my daffodils. Now, I'm not trying to make this into any kind of daffodil off here. Dom's are the clear winners. I just thought I'd take the opportunity to show them.<br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-EWWKXJL2jHs/T2YkIBR1S9I/AAAAAAAAB54/GlXtbWenhOU/s1600/IMG_1004.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-EWWKXJL2jHs/T2YkIBR1S9I/AAAAAAAAB54/GlXtbWenhOU/s320/IMG_1004.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
This is the first time I've planted daffs and they've duly appeared. So, this must count as a good result. Sadly some careless reversing seems to have done for the poor little fella bottom left.<br />
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This may, I confess have been me.<br />
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Onwards, forwards, backwards to something vaguely cooking and gardening related. I promised in my new year's blog-isutions to cook my deserts. Thus far I far failed to do so, and I was rightly upbraided on this by the lovely - and quite correct - Choclette. And, all I can do is promise to do better. The that end, last year I planted some Rhubarb. Through the summer it looked like a good strong plant; but over winter it disappeared to nothing and I thought I'd blown it. However, it's reappeared. Super yay! </div>
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</div>
</a>Given it's year two for this plant I believe I'm allowed to reap the (currently meagre, but improving) harvest. I'm very much looking forward to doing this. The first thing I shall be cooking will be a rhubarb crumble. Which is as unimaginative as it is delicious. I cannot wait. Thence forwards to delights I have not yet thought through, but I also have the buds on my apple tree and raspberry plants sprouting all over the place.<div class="blogger-post-footer">Feel the love from the Veg Box Boy. x</div>VegBoxBoyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03847099136710136981noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7996737644106049833.post-73664610885475181982012-02-13T18:09:00.002+00:002012-03-24T07:51:39.708+00:00272: Spanish Beef StewI've made plenty of stews before, which are lovely for cold days but somehow I was fancying a nice comforting stew and at the same time something a little new and different. Googling for 'spanish beef stew' - I found this: <a href="http://www.topspanishtapas.com/2008/01/estofado-andaluz-andalusian-beef-stew.html">Estofado-andalusian-beef-stew.html</a> and it seemed to be exactly what I was looking for. Although it goes without saying that I adjusted the recipe somewhat.<br />
<br />
Ingredients:<br />
<ul>
<li>1,125 grammes stewing beef (I know this is an improbable quantity, but there was some confusion in the butchers), cut into 1/2" cubes</li>
<li>Olive oil for frying</li>
<li>2 tablespoons plain flour</li>
<li>1 medium onion, chopped fine</li>
<li>300gs shallots</li>
<li>1 bulb garlic</li>
<li>8 medium carrots, cut lengthwise and then ascross into bite sized bits</li>
<li>5 medium desiree potatoes, cut into 1" cubes</li>
<li>5 tomatoes - roughly chopped</li>
<li>3 peppers - once again, chopped bite sized</li>
<li>1/3rd bottle of portugeese Mourais red (Nice. And it was the closest I had to spanish)</li>
<li>Spices: 1/3 teaspoon of saffron - more of this later, 1/2 teaspoon cinamon, 2 1/2 teaspoons paprika, 2 bay leaves, salt and pepper</li>
</ul>
<br />
Clearly there are some spanish influences here - tomatoes and peppers in a stew! - Betty would turn in her grave. First up though, was going to purchase the saffron. It took me quite some finding and there was a choice of just one, even though my Tesco's is a super-carbuncle sized one. Here's what I got:<br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-9BN9gEZY_eY/TzlNRUn3lxI/AAAAAAAAB5U/MN6ps-ps2FE/s1600/Saffron.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-9BN9gEZY_eY/TzlNRUn3lxI/AAAAAAAAB5U/MN6ps-ps2FE/s200/Saffron.JPG" width="150" /></a></div>
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I was prepared for Saffron to be expensive. It is famously so. What I hadn't realised was that for £3.50 I wouldn't even get enough to register on the scales - not even a gramme! Now that's expensive.</div>
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Method:</div>
<ul>
<li>Place garlic into medium oven to roast (I'll come back to this)</li>
<li>Chop onion, slowly fry and add to a big pan</li>
<li>Coat meat in flour and fry on a hot heat until sealed and add to big pan</li>
<li>Fry the shallots also, until coloured a little on the outside, again of course adding to the pan</li>
<li>Into the pot with all the vegetables. </li>
<li>Add wine and then water to cover</li>
<li>By this time (~30 miuntes) the garlic should be soft, squeeze out the garlic from it's skins and mix with the other herbs. Again - add to the pot</li>
<li>Bring to a slow simmer and continue to simmer it for a couple of hours or longer if you've got time</li>
</ul>
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So at the start this looks like:</div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-fFwKRFnpmv0/TzlPo0VVmVI/AAAAAAAAB5g/hW3HaDEhRmU/s1600/Span+stew+just+started.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-fFwKRFnpmv0/TzlPo0VVmVI/AAAAAAAAB5g/hW3HaDEhRmU/s320/Span+stew+just+started.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-GgGOOKCHU9U/TzlQU_Q1LfI/AAAAAAAAB5o/al3QagHSZes/s1600/Span+Stew+served.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-GgGOOKCHU9U/TzlQU_Q1LfI/AAAAAAAAB5o/al3QagHSZes/s320/Span+Stew+served.JPG" width="320" /></a>Now, this was deeply lovely. Really good. Quite the best thing I've cooked in a while (although the competition is not high). It did though taste mostly of stew; with just a little hint of Spain. If I try this again somehow I need to up the spanish-ness of it. Maybe I just need to purchase a whole gramme of Saffron.</div>
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And for anyone worrying that I'm a bit poorly and off my dinner - there's not much stew on that plate - do not fret, that was my attempt at taking a pretty photo. Them lumps were quickly sorted and seconds were much enjoyed.</div>
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Peace out.<br />
<br /><div class="blogger-post-footer">Feel the love from the Veg Box Boy. x</div>VegBoxBoyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03847099136710136981noreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7996737644106049833.post-25385873539110061262012-01-24T09:01:00.002+00:002012-01-24T09:01:26.648+00:00271: Life's a riot with Saag versus SaagMy good friend Big Bad Bri would appreciate the post-title Billy Bragg reference. However, given he's a man that considers warming his Ginsters pasty sophisticated he's unlikely to be passing this way again. <br />
<br />
In an accident formed by a lack of planning and presence of a bargain, during my shopping I ended up with, a particularly large butternut squash and 4 bags of spinach. I also had a load of spuds. So, using my tried and trusted use-everything-I've-got recipe chosing method, that'll be Chicken, saag, squash and potato curry coming up. A purist would say this is one or two ingredients too many. Tish & piff!<br />
<br />
As regular visitors will know, I love a curry. The more attentive may have also spotted that basically I have only the two methods of cooking currys - using water/stock and with tomatoes. As a result of this, the heated debates in the VegBox household have been:<br />
<ul>
<li>The efficacy of fiscal easing</li>
<li>Just when am I going to put those curtains up?</li>
<li>And getting back to the plot - and the truth - which is best the stock or tomato-ey curry?</li>
</ul>
So I decided to test it (not fiscal easing, nor my rudimentary DIY skills). Reason being there was too much to fit in to even my largest pan. Cooking both together was a winner, because it seemd a lot quicker than cooking two seperately. Trying to do the recipe in a time-line style:<br />
<br />
1) Halve and deseed the butternut squash. Dust with salt, pepper and cumin seeds and in the oven to roast <a href="mailto:~@180c">~@180c</a><br />
2) Choppped 6 medium onions and slowly fried. Then adding in garlic, chillies, curry powder, garam masala. Split this into two big pans adding extra tumeric for stock curry and ginger and paprika to the tomato-ey curry base<br />
3) Chopped ~12 medium potatoes in to bit sized bits. Par boiled half of them<br />
4) (whole lot-a chopping going off here) Chopped and fried 8 chicken breasts to seal and add a little colour<br />
5) Add enough chicken stock (2-3 pints) to cover and add potatoes and chicken to one pot. Add 2 tins of chopped tomatoes, par-boiled potatoes and a pint of water to the other. Bring to a simmer<br />
6) With any luck the butternut squash should be soft by now. If not have yourself a cuppa. When it is soft, remove the skin, chop and then add to the a-simmering curries. Simmer some more. By now the chicken will be cooked through, so check the taste and adjust with extra spices if needed. Repeat until happy.<br />
7) Add spinach 5-10 miuntes before the end; depending on how much bite you want to it.<br />
8) If you've got one, squeeze a bit of lemon in to the tomato one right at the end<br />
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Making myself a rice levee, here are they are. Cooking two curries at once was definately a winner; it seemed to take only 1 1/2 times as long as cooking one curry on its own. Which is a result. You can just about tell from the photo that the spinach went in to the tomato curry earlier than it did in to the stock one. <br />
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Somehow in describing this, it looks like I just cooked two curries and them we ate twice as much. I would like to point out that I there ended up being 10 meals in this lot. <br />
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So, building this story to it's not so exciting climax *drum roll*.... what was the result, which curry won? <br />
<br />
Well, everyone had a favourite - but it came out at two votes each - so looks like both will be repeated alternately going forward. <br /><div class="blogger-post-footer">Feel the love from the Veg Box Boy. x</div>VegBoxBoyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03847099136710136981noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7996737644106049833.post-2835273226471346192012-01-16T17:03:00.001+00:002012-01-16T17:03:12.465+00:00270: VegBoxBoy: never gonna be a carrot farmerMy mate rthat knows about this stuff is always telling me that I should do more google friendly post titles. But really, who out there is going to google for spannering growing carrots?<br />
<br />
In line with my oft stated aim to attempt to grow my own Veg Box, back in September I planted myself some Carrots. The type I chose allowed such late planting and said they'd be ready in a speedy 12 weeks. Brilliant I thought; my own Christmas carrots. At this stage of the game, this appeared to be quite a cohesive plan. <br />
<br />
However, Mrs VegBox ended up doing the Christmas veggies shopping and forget about the my carrots and bought a bumper bag. No worries thought I, I'll leave mine in the ground a bit longer - they'll just grow a bit more. Or maybe not:<br />
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The tops of plants wilting = never a good sign.<br />
<br />
So, after seeing this, yesterday became the day to reap my harvest. You may notie a slight white tinge to the soil, which is frost. I hadn't quite realised just how hard the digging would be; even though the carrots are obviously right at the top.<br />
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What I realised I'd forgotten though as soon I turned the first forkfull over, what that they were chantenay carrots - which was why they were supposed to grow so quickly in the first place.<br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/--tXFXsDucho/TxRWVaiFEkI/AAAAAAAAB44/ZqVljdjYgU0/s1600/2012+Carrot+crop.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/--tXFXsDucho/TxRWVaiFEkI/AAAAAAAAB44/ZqVljdjYgU0/s320/2012+Carrot+crop.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
Here they are. Some tiddlers. Some chantenay giants. All with lots of little bits of stringy root growing from the sides, which was fiddly to remove.<br />
<br />
But where I'd really gone wrong, was that through leaving them too long, the green stalky bit at the top had grown down in to the carrot. So not only are these short carrots to start with; but I've got to take a big slice off.<br />
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Now, if only I kept some sort of online diary... maybe I might remember such things and be such a forgetful spanner.<br />
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<br /><div class="blogger-post-footer">Feel the love from the Veg Box Boy. x</div>VegBoxBoyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03847099136710136981noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7996737644106049833.post-10215067239715928002012-01-11T18:07:00.000+00:002012-01-11T18:08:05.405+00:00269: Sticky Baby Back RibsBoomshak-alak, how'd you like these babies?<br />
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<br />
<br />
That's the end of the story. Want the recipe? - boy-oh-boy-oh-boy it's a winner. A little teasy pre-amble first mind...I wasn't sure how many racks of ribs were required. In the end I went for 7 between 4 of us. Which turned out to be 1 too many, for even us when we're hungry. Even so, this was still a pretty cheap dinner at only £6.50 for the whole lot. (and I got to eat the spare the next day, more winningness).<br />
<br />
So, I've got some ribs. Next thing is to marinade them. Otherwise they wouldn't be sticky, would they? Marinade ingredients, all of which were are very approximate - I mixed and stirred until it tasted right (hot, sweet and sticky) and I had a bowl full:<br />
<ul>
<li>2 parts dark soy sauce</li>
<li>2 parts tomato ketchup</li>
<li>1 part honey</li>
<li>5 clovess garlic, roughly chopped</li>
<li>2 teaspoons ginger (again, clearly it was a lazy day) roughly chopped</li>
<li>2 star anise (even this is approximate, as one of them was broken)</li>
<li>A very big squeeze of super hot chilli sauce</li>
</ul>
For a day, it all looked a bit like this:<br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-EQXvO1ijC4g/Tw3IDbfSgUI/AAAAAAAAB4g/Ihy9asLokNk/s1600/Marinading+Ribs.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-EQXvO1ijC4g/Tw3IDbfSgUI/AAAAAAAAB4g/Ihy9asLokNk/s320/Marinading+Ribs.JPG" width="240" /></a>Periodically, I'd move the ribs around a bit and re-coat them. The ribs were frozen - despite my buying them from a proper butchers. By the next day when I was ready to cook them the marinade had gone quite runny with the water coming out of the ribs as they defrosted. To cook them, I covered them and cooked @150c for two hours. After this I poured all the sauce off, turned the heat up to 200c and uncovered - in order to make them go good and sticky, which took about another half an hour.</div>
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The sauce I (after removing the fat), I reduced down to serve on the side. I've already shown the end result, definately one to be repeated. Possibly very soon.</div><div class="blogger-post-footer">Feel the love from the Veg Box Boy. x</div>VegBoxBoyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03847099136710136981noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7996737644106049833.post-66454193653399134642012-01-01T22:57:00.000+00:002012-01-05T06:28:25.418+00:00268: Quick Advocat Ice-Cream<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-CytRhrvnWgc/TwDeUIE0DyI/AAAAAAAAB34/fCXgi3G2kkA/s1600/Advocat+Ice+Cream.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-CytRhrvnWgc/TwDeUIE0DyI/AAAAAAAAB34/fCXgi3G2kkA/s320/Advocat+Ice+Cream.JPG" width="320" /></a>As well as my half dozen cook-books, I also got an Ice-Cream maker for Christmas. This is was my first foray in to ice-cream making. For first time out, I took the easy/quick option which is to start with ready made custard. </div>
<br />
This recipe is lifted straight from the Andrew James Ice Cream made easy book.Ingredients, I just tried to Christmassy it up by throwing advocat in at the end:<br />
<ul>
<li>425ml custard</li>
<li>284ml double cream</li>
<li>1 tsp vanilla extract</li>
<li>3 table spoons caster sugar</li>
<li>50-75ml's advocat (~1 inch's worth out of the bottle), which was my own addition</li>
</ul>
Method:<br />
<br />
<li>Mix the liquids and sift in the sugar</li>
<li> Then pour into the maker, and switch on. 15 minutes later, and lo it was ice-cream</li>
<li> It seems to be done when it's thicken in consistency and increased in volume. </li>
<li> It's still quite sloppy at this stage, so it needs to go in the freezer for 2 - 3 hours. This bit is quite messy, I seemed to end up with ice-cream everywhere.</li>
<br />
<br />
After this, it's a normal / slightly firm ice-cream texture. The advocat was insufficient to make much difference to the taste, so that was rather a waste. What is different, is that it's super-creamy. It tastes almost more creamy than cream. I realise even as I write that, that this doesn't really seem to make sense. This might be to do with the texture, it's got much less air in it that normal shop bought ice-cream. Which is pretty good; it tastes like super luxury ice-cream. Nice!<br />
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Since I've made this, I've been taking every opportunity to eat it - here's some from a hot-choc ice-cream float that rounded off a very soggy New Year's day walk.<br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-FlnrDb5L5Tw/TwDji9QDEVI/AAAAAAAAB4M/IKkK34lGhOk/s1600/Hot+Choc+Float.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-FlnrDb5L5Tw/TwDji9QDEVI/AAAAAAAAB4M/IKkK34lGhOk/s320/Hot+Choc+Float.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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<br /><div class="blogger-post-footer">Feel the love from the Veg Box Boy. x</div>VegBoxBoyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03847099136710136981noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7996737644106049833.post-84408035687787060672012-01-01T09:41:00.003+00:002012-01-01T09:41:55.574+00:00267: 2012 Bloggy-isutions.Hap, Hap, Happy New Year. New year, time for new year's resolution, and they are:<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>Proof read each new post at least once before publishing (hasn't always happened in the past)</li>
<li>Cook something from each of the recipe books I was given for Christmas</li>
<li>Get competent at Ice-cream making, sufficiently to be able to stop buying Ice-Cream</li>
<li>Enter some bloggy/cooky competitions; because I've never done it</li>
<li>Eat more fish (I've not told the wife this yet, I'm still working up to it)</li>
<li>Eat more noodles.</li>
<li>Bake more cake. Good cake is hard to come by. But maybe I should eat less cake. It's not 10 o'clock on New Year's day and I'm already conflicted.</li>
<li>Blog at least weekly</li>
<li>Grow sufficient fruit to get close to jam based self-sufficiency</li>
</ul>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-9hm2MNuSMrs/TwAn56o3bTI/AAAAAAAAB3s/btK87mxRWko/s1600/2011+Christmas+Books.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-9hm2MNuSMrs/TwAn56o3bTI/AAAAAAAAB3s/btK87mxRWko/s320/2011+Christmas+Books.JPG" width="240" /></a></div>
In other resolutions, what I'm after for 2012 is:<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>I've got a place in the London marathon. I'd like to get round that in a reasonable time and feel ok at the end. </li>
<li>Go watch Mark Cavendish win </li>
<li>Beyond that, I'm just going to try to be happy and healthy</li>
</ul>
<br />
Here's hoping all your 2012's are happy and healthy too.<div class="blogger-post-footer">Feel the love from the Veg Box Boy. x</div>VegBoxBoyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03847099136710136981noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7996737644106049833.post-10513244654671267052011-12-29T15:47:00.000+00:002011-12-29T15:47:25.188+00:00266: Mead Mince PieMerry Christmas.<br />
<br />
Here was a little of my Crimble preparations. This is so simple it's not really even a recipe. But... it's not so simple that I didn't make somewhat of a mess of it. Yet another to be filed under Close but no Ceegar. I like a mince pie. I like booze (probably more than mince pies). It's Christmas so normal drinking rules are somewhat relaxed. And so, I thought up mead mince pies.<br />
<br />
As the name suggests - it's a mince pie with mead in it. I thought this would be good as mead would add a boozy touch, whilst also being very sweet. And sometimes mince isn't that sweet.<br />
<br />
So ingredients:<br />
- 3/4's jar of mince<br />
- 2 table spoons mead<br />
- 1 packet jus-roll puff pastry (see, told you it wasn't a proper recipes)<br />
- 1 egg<br />
- 2 table spoons demerrera sugar<br />
- dab of butter<br />
<br />
Method:<br />
- mix mince and mead<br />
- cut out pastry, and slightly smaller lids to appropriate size for your bun tray<br />
- grease baking tray with butter**<br />
- fill with the meady mince-y mix ***<br />
- add lids and squeeze to join to bases with eggy wash glue<br />
- cut steam escape hole in to lid<br />
- eggy wash the top<br />
- dust with demerrera sugar<br />
- in the oven 20-25 minutes at 200c<br />
<br />
That nearly went like a proper recipe at the end, there. I'll get back on track with the photo which shows why it was close-no-cigar.<br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-8Fn1FBUvmw0/TvyJwXE9n9I/AAAAAAAAB3g/-QFNvHelqKM/s1600/IMG_0902.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-8Fn1FBUvmw0/TvyJwXE9n9I/AAAAAAAAB3g/-QFNvHelqKM/s320/IMG_0902.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
** - be generous here, I didn't grease the tin enough so they got stuck. Although this may have had something to do with:<br />
<br />
*** - don't be generous here. Overfill and the lids will explode off the bases and dribble down the side so as to keep everything hard stuck to the tray. Probably didn't help that the mead adds extra runny-ness too.<br />
<br />
On the plus side though, the mead did as I thought it would and gave the mince pies a nice lush indulgent feel. The sugar and the eggy wash on top were winners. And best of all fresh pastry - what could be finer?<br />
<br />
Happy New Year everyone, all 28 of you! x X x<br />
<br /><div class="blogger-post-footer">Feel the love from the Veg Box Boy. x</div>VegBoxBoyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03847099136710136981noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7996737644106049833.post-39749576193615547682011-12-19T20:55:00.002+00:002011-12-19T20:55:34.303+00:00265: Raspberry & Plum JamAfter my hard-disc induced hiatus, I'm long overdue a new proper posting. Instead you'll get something much more typical of me; something a little half-arsed. Throughout the late summer and all of autumn my raspberry canes have continued to produce raspberries in much that same half-arsed manner that I blog.<br />
<br />
A couple of times there were enough raspberries to have with ice-cream. But most of the time there wasn't really enough to do anything with - so I froze them. Evenutally ending up with about a kilo. I'd enjoyed making strawberry jam last year and always had in mind to make jam. I had both jam and preserving sugars. The top google recipes all had normal jam. Which I found a bit weird. Possessing presrving sugar, I was not going to be deterred from using it.<br />
<br />
So, I just made it up. <br />
<ul>
<li>Nearly a kilo of raspberries</li>
<li>With nearly a kilo of preserving sugar</li>
</ul>
This I heated until the sugar all dissolved and I simmered it for 5 minutes. This being raspberries there wasn't really any semblance of fruit left by this stage. What I'd planned to do here was the thing where you see if the jam wrinkles when a dab is placed and smudged on a cold plate. However.... it was about now that Mrs VegBox rang and reminded me we had some stewed plums (bought from Tesco's and had overnight gone from uniped hard to too squidgy overnight). So, a quick weigh (~300gs) and in they went, followed by the same of preserinvg sugar.<br />
<br />
Bringing this to a simmer again, getting back to where I'd been 15 minutes earlier. There was a hint of wrinkle so in to the jars.<br />
<br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ORQ9DhVRWdw/Tu-gey0zXrI/AAAAAAAAB2s/6EDYqWOjuw8/s1600/IMG_0875.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" oda="true" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ORQ9DhVRWdw/Tu-gey0zXrI/AAAAAAAAB2s/6EDYqWOjuw8/s200/IMG_0875.JPG" width="200" /></a></div>
Here it is. The plum bits floated to the top a little. But don't the lumps always float to the top?<br />
<br />
And below on toast, just in case anyone is unsure what to do with jam and bread. Before last year's first attempt at jam, I'd always considered it very much something out of the advanced class and assumed major machinery would be required. I wouldn't claim this would win prizes down the WI - by the time I'd got past half-way down the jar it hadn't set very well at all. But it tasted super fresh, the plum lumps were an enjoyable bonus. Seems to me, you can't go wrong. Every egg a bird!<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-8jCiSrobfuE/Tu-hKf8D04I/AAAAAAAAB20/4rLlFUvxURw/s1600/IMG_0883.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" oda="true" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-8jCiSrobfuE/Tu-hKf8D04I/AAAAAAAAB20/4rLlFUvxURw/s320/IMG_0883.JPG" width="240" /></a><br />
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<div class="blogger-post-footer">Feel the love from the Veg Box Boy. x</div>VegBoxBoyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03847099136710136981noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7996737644106049833.post-41042961903163509542011-11-23T09:31:00.001+00:002011-12-12T18:26:27.829+00:00264: Food Blogger's UnpluggedSometimes it's hard to be a woman as Dolly Parton would have it. I wouldn't know; I'm not even slightly effete. It is though hard to talk about yourself without coming across as a know all, however I shall try. Lovely Dom from Belleau Kitchen nominated me for this; which is lovely for his is a proper blog and he clearly puts an awful lot more effort in to proceedings than I do. I don't read many blogs (as will be obvious at the end), but whenever I do, Dom has invariably already been there and posted some encouraging comment. It's the same story with my other two favourite bloggers: Kath the unordinary cook, and Mrs Choclette. <br />
<br />
<strong>1: What, or who inspired You to start a blog? </strong><br />
My friend Evil Mik. I stopped working with Mik some years back, but on any given day I could tell you what he had for his lunch and dinner. With the amount we talk about food, he suggested repeatedly that I blog. I enjoy it, but confess I still don't really understand why people read blogs all that much. <br />
<br />
<strong>2: Who is your foodie inspiration? </strong><br />
I've seen a few of these things filled in and 'my mother' often comes up as an answer. It's this one for me, she'll have a go at anything cooking or eating. And it's that general spirit of adventure that I like. I just try to keep things interesting. <br />
<br />
<strong>3: Your greasiest, batter splattered Food/drink book is?</strong> <br />
Brian Turner's, probably. But I don't tend to use cook books much. I tend to decide what I want to cook and then google until I find the recipe that's got the most chilli in and/or most closely resembles whatever ingredients I've got in. <br />
<br />
<strong>4: Tell us the best thing you have ever eaten in another country, where was it, what was it?</strong> <br />
BBQ Chicken sandwich Koh Samui, 1991. Cost less than a pound. Freshly cooked chicken pulled off the bone crispy duck style, Thai style salad, proper hot and sweet chilli in warm fresh crusty bread. Eaten with a Singha beer, sat on the beach watching lightning storms over the sea. Oh how I bloody wish I'd followed that up by writing 'The Beach'<br />
<br />
<strong>5: Another food Blogger's table you'd like to eat at is?</strong> <br />
I don't know; I've not met any in the flesh. Pretty much everyone that blogs looks like they can cook; I'd go with whoever was going to be the most fun. <br />
<br />
<strong>6: What is the kitchen gadget you would ask Santa for? </strong><br />
Gadgets I can - just about - afford. I'd ask Santa for a bigger kitchen which faces the afternoon sun with doors out to the garden. This, I cannot afford. After that, I'd happily enough take care of the booze chiller fridge and whatever else gadget winks at me.<br />
<br />
<strong>7: Who taught you how to cook?</strong><br />
I can't really remember anyone teaching me, my Mum I saw cooking often but we didn't cook together. But I've always been confident in the kitchen. (probably in excess of my ability).<br />
<br />
<strong>8: I'm coming to you for dinner what's your signature dish?</strong><br />
Slow roast belly pork if I've got the time. With loads of roasted veg. Don't come if you're dieting.<br />
<br />
<strong>9: What is your guilty food pleasure?</strong><br />
None. I'll admit to guilty pleasures in music where I've gone from a Smiths loving angsty teen (still love 'em) to really liking Girls Aloud & Katy Perry. I know they're rubbish really; I just like upbeat cheese. Food wise I really love a Greggs's Apple Turnover but I feel in no way guilty. They are a thing of wonder.<br />
<br />
<strong>10: Reveal Something about yourself that others would be surprised to learn:</strong><br />
My name is Adrian. When I signed up to UKFBA and started blogging I wasn't sure what would happen. I feared the internet heckling so I invented a nom de guerre - Alan Lupton (which my wife thinks sounds like a right sad sack's name. She's right too. Anyone remember what programme this character comes from? - I'll be very impressed). Looking back now this seems very silly; everyone has been so very nice. <br />
<br />
And now, thinking I could edit and re-edit this for the rest of the night I'll slightly embarassedly click publish. I thank you all.<br /><div class="blogger-post-footer">Feel the love from the Veg Box Boy. x</div>VegBoxBoyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03847099136710136981noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7996737644106049833.post-34915963429125402032011-11-19T11:52:00.000+00:002011-11-19T11:52:40.152+00:00263: A Picture is worth a thousand words...And I'm currently struggling to get my photos from my camera to blogger. Which is stopping me off from blogging. Kind of a shame I'd used my camera instead of my phone. And even if I could replace a picture with a thousand words; life's too short to type them on an iPad.<br />
<br />
My laptop is banjaxed with a broken hard-drive and I'm currently mid-fight with Tesco to get them to repair/replace it. It's 16 months old and they are acting like they're doing me a big favour. The more they stall, the more determined I am to make them fix it. I've spoken to Consumer Direct who were brilliant and with this confidence, vengeance or at least a new hard-drive will be mine.<br />
<br />
In the meantime I've still been cooking and once repaired shall have stories of:<br />
- plum and raspberry jam. A success<br />
- reinventing baked beans. A waste of time<br />
- pot roasted Silverside of beef. Lush<br />
<br />
Hopefully back soon. Peace and love, peace and love. X<div class="blogger-post-footer">Feel the love from the Veg Box Boy. x</div>VegBoxBoyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03847099136710136981noreply@blogger.com5