New paintings and regular art updates.
Queen scallops on lettuce with glass noodles, and Seabass in a rich sauce.
We also had pork and pak choi with noodles and spicy sauce. When you are too tired to cook after a long day this is heaven. My hubby was so tired he almost fell asleep after the food, but we had a brisk walk home as there was quite a chilly breeze. For once it was great to sit down and watch some TV.
Now its three hours later and I’m off to bed for a rest. Goodnight.
X
There is a place in Hartshill in Stoke-on-Trent that opens on a Friday and they sell Babka’s.
It’s called Bread in Common and they bake delicious bread but also babka buns, tea cakes and other delights.
I’d never tasted a babka before, they are apparently made in many places, as far apart as Poland and Israel. They are folded in layers and rise because they have yeast in them. The ones we bought have a sweet mixture including poppy seeds folded into them. They are cooked in little tin trays and when they come out of the oven they have swollen and spread out so that they are a spongy, bready consistency. They are delicious.
When I got in from choir last night my hubby was standing in the kitchen looking perplexed. He had some bread dough in a tin because he’d decided to make a loaf. He had attempted to light the oven but it would not light. It’s a double oven with a small oven/grill at the top and a main oven. He was convinced we would have to contact the shop we got it from or get hold of a repair service. I said let me have a look…
What I saw was an egg timer symbol and another one of a casserole dish. I tried pressing the ignition. Nothing happened. I looked again at the clock display. It was several hours out? Something was clearly wrong. I asked him if he had pushed any buttons? Yes to set the timer. I looked again and realised there must be a delayed start on the main oven as it showed a casserole dish shape with a little clock face on it. I dialled that down to zero, and the egg timer down to zero. Then I tried the ignition again… It lit! I checked why the top oven was blowing out hot air… He had the grill on with the door closed and he had thought the heat had been from the main oven, so he didn’t understand why the bread hadn’t started to cook. Finally he put the dough back in the oven. The resulting loaf (which is nice and tasty) is in the photo…
Fast, old fashioned food.
The Staffordshire oatcake (words in brackets are my attempt to write it in a Stoke dialect).
Oatcakes in Staffordshire are thin, lace like and tasty. Unrolled they fit on a small dinner plate. They can be eaten with various fillings including savory ones like cheese, cheese and bacon, cheese and sausage (I feel a theme developing). Or you can have them sweet with jam or marmalade which is probably unacceptable to traditionalists. Oatcakes are food or ‘snappin’ to be eaten for breakfast with a strong cup of tea. They are tasty and if you are lucky to have an oatcake shop nearby they are delicious hot from the griddle.
They are an inexpensive meal and can be filled with your own fillings, perhaps chilli con carne or crispy duck? I guess you could even cook them with stewed apple and cream.
I cooked mine in the microwave rolled with grated cheese and added brown sauce. If you grill them you are better heating them flat to make them hot and crispy. Then sprinkle your filling all over like on toast so that the edges don’t burn. They can then be folded in half and finished under the grill. You can eat them with a salad garnish or coleslaw.
You never know you might enjoy them.
X
Experiment.
I used,
4 yellow bell peppers with their tops cut off and de-seeded.
Small amount of lean minced beef (I could have used quorn mince). 600 grams.
1 corgette finely chopped. (after I cooked this I suggest 1/2 instead)
8 baby corn cobs, finely chopped. (after trying this use 4)
1 small onion, finely chopped.
The tops of the yellow peppers, finely chopped.
1 small jar of Bolognese sauce.
A cup of brown rice. (1/2 a cup instead)
Garlic olive oil (or 3 garlic cloves and ordinary olive oil)
Grated cheese
Salt and pepper to taste.
Method,
Fry off the mince and vegetables till softened and cooked.
Boil the rice in water until aldente (cooked but still a bit hard)
Once the meat and veg are cooked add the bolognese sauce and the brown rice.
Spoon the mix into the peppers. Cook them in a gas mark 6 (medium hot) oven for 15 minutes then check and if not cooked put them back in for 5 minutes.
Eat …
Fingers crossed.
Result: very tasty but a bit too much for two! Use less brown rice, half a courgette (zucchini) and 4 baby corn instead. (I’ve altered the amounts in the recipe) the original amounts would do for 3 or 4 people. 
Ingredients
We used..a lot of carrots, half an onion, 3 large cloves of garlic, some garlic olive oil and plain olive oil. A knob of butter, a bit of flour, a bit of ginger powder, a couple of pinches of salt, some crushed black pepper, luck….
Mix the chopped up carrot onion and garlic in a blender with water and oil. When its blended cook for 20 mins….
Added black pepper, ginger and salt to taste. We tasted as we cooked and gradually added more flavouring as it was a bit bland to start. My blender does not completely pulp vegetables so it’s a bit chewy.
No chick peas, fish food or UFOs were used in the soup. My hubby was wearing a tweed but you dont need that either for flavour!
Downside…I took over a bit, should have let him do it all…
This is my part cooked pie!
I will add a photo when its cooked. I’m pretty sure it will have a soggy bottom. I’m using pre made puff pasty and some eating apples we got last week that needed using up. I lined a glass pie dish with foil and used butter to stop the pastry sticking. I had raised up the sides of the pastry and bent them in at the top over the top of the apples. I have put it in the oven on gas mark 7 for half an hour.
I can’t eat much sugar so have used a synthetic sugar substitute but because the apples are quite sweet I only used a couple of teaspoons of it.
Used one egg to glaze it, then realised there was too much so poured the rest into the pie through the holes in the roughly made lattice! So basically it’s thrown together, and with the puff pastry it might be a bit flaky!
Will edit when its cooked!
Cooked a little bit burnt…….
Now to make custard!
