Ernie strikes again

I bought Ernie for Brendan last April for his birthday. He was only a few weeks old. We fed him by hand, with plastic pop bottles full of milk. He and Arthur were the best of friends.

Then he grew up. And he got big, then he got bigger, then he got even bigger, and then he got bigger still.

And when he got big - he got territorial, he got a bit aggressive with certain people who he just decided that he did not like the look of.

In December 2009, when we were all calling him Ernie Ba$tard, we put him in the freezer. A ginormous chest freezer that the neighbours lent us. He almost filled it.

And now that chest freezer has died. We suspect that the mice have nibbled through some of the essential bits of wiring. Is is stored in the barn after all.

Today I have been desperately trying to move the last bits of Ernie from the chest freezer into the upright, but having managed to squeeze various bits of him in, I have not been able to get all the veggie harvest in around him. Not surprising considering I have managed to freeze 10 bags of courgettes, and 9 bags of green beans, as well as several large carrier bags full of broccoli, cauli and cabbage.

This afternoon whilst stuck in the house waiting for an important phone call from the UK (that never came due to the staff shortages caused by the inclement weather according to the email I eventually received), I have been cooking up various veggie dishes to try to use up the veggies that I cannot store any longer. Luckily as the weather has not been above freezing all day I can still leave all the left over bits in the chest freezer for now.

Brendan and Thea are already sick of cauliflower cheese and courgettes and pumpkins, and they have not even had to eat any of them yet.

Cabbage and bacon tomorrow. Followed by beetroots and carrots.

Perhaps I should mention that I also found the secret stash of Magnums from the summer - or perhaps not.

101 ways with filo pastry

Lovely lamb fillet courtesy of our lamb Ernie last year

....not really 101 ways, but my favourite, samosas.

Filo pastry is very hard to find in our neck of the woods, in fact it is as rare as rocking horse doings, but yet again my lovely north African supermarket came to the rescue, and nestled in the back of their fridge there was a sole pack of filo.

So I grabbed it and ran from the shop, throwing a few coins at the poor bemused girl at the till on my way past, cackling and caressing the packet all the way. Err - may be a while before I am welcome there again.


Over the last few days as I have been cooking for an army again, I have been using the leftovers in samosa fillings, experimenting with various spice combinations to get a lovely curry flavour.

Here are a couple of my favourites:

Traditional Indian Lamb Samosa filling

500g of left over meat or fresh minced lamb
1 onion
2 cloves of garlic crushed
1teaspon curry powder
½ teaspon chilli powder
1 teasmon ground tumeric
½ teaspon gorund roasted cumin seeds
1 fresh chilli finaly diced
1 teaspoon fresh coriander or ½ teapsoon ground coriander
1 cm of fresh grated ginger
salt and ground pepper to taste
juice of half a lemon

Combine all the spices with the juice of the lemon to make a paste, fry the onion and garlic, add the meat and fry until cooked through if using raw meat, then stir through the paste.

Place a tablespoon of mixture onto the edge of your filo pastry strip and fold as per the photos above, always folding the long edge at right angles.

In an attempt to be slightly healthier, I don't fry my samosas but oven bake them, they only need 5 minutes each side at 220°C, but do remember to turn them otherwise you'll have one crisp side and one soggy side.

Alternative Veggie Samosa filling 


½ cup cooked green beans or peas or carrots or any other left over cooked veg
4 medium cooked potatoes
1 fresh green chilli
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon cumin
½ teaspoon garam masala
½ teaspoon ground coriander
handful of raisins
handful of sliced almonds


and if you have it
½ teaspoon dried mango powder


In a bowl, combine all the ingredients together then fold as above, and oven bake as above.




None of the snow from yesterday has stuck, but it has just started snowing again, looks like a peaceful afternoon of cross stitch for me, and hopefully I can get my second knitted hat finished today.

I went to the market and I bought ....... some aubergines

I went to the flea market this morning and apart from some more material, some shoes for me, some shoes for Bren, some shoes for Thea (my - that's a lot of shoes!) I also bought a couple of kilos of aubergines.

I like aubergines, but not everyone else does, so I have to be creative in how I use them.

One of our favourites is Moussaka - just like lasagne but different.

Here is my quick and easy recipe - I normally make enough for two, freeze one and eat one.

Moussaka

For the base:

2 chopped onions
4 crushed garlic cloves
2 generous glugs of olive oil
1kg lean lamb mince - or whatever you have, but lamb is more authentic
1 glass red wine
2 tbsp tomato purée, or one of those little 40g tins
400g can chopped tomatoes
2 tbsp chopped fresh oregano
3 large aubergines

 OK - this is not exactly one pot cooking - but almost - 1 frying pan and an oven proof dish.

Slice the aubergines and fry for a couple of minutes each side in olive oil, place in the bottom of the pan and ditch the oil.  In fresh oil fry the onions and garlic then add the meat.
If your mince is fatty, drain some of this off as it cooks - I know my dog loves a bit of extra fat on his boring biscuits.
Layer the meat onto the aubergine, then in the frying pan add the red wine, tomato purée, canned tomatoes,  and oregano, just heat through, stirring to mix it all together then pour over the meat and aubergines.
If I have a couple of soft tomatoes in the bowl I normally slice them in now as well.
 

For the topping:

75g plain flour
600ml milk
50g Parmesan, finely grated
pinch of freshly grated nutmeg
2 medium eggs, beaten

Melt the butter over a gentle heat, then add the flour, stirring all the time with a whisk until you get a thick paste, turn off the heat and pour in the milk a bit at a time, whisking all the time, add the parmesan, and season - I normally chuck in a couple of pinches of dried oregano too, just because I like the green flecks in the sauce.  When the sauce has cooled slightly and thickened, add the eggs, then pour over the base.

Bake at 180C for an hour.