Roasted Artichokes in Butter, Garlic and Mustard Vinigrette

We've just spent the afternoon in Highgate Cemetery looking around the old graves and had a really interesting guided tour before the sun set over the ivy ridden headstones. I've never been before to Highgate Cemetery, but I've always meant to after studying a little about it and knowing that Lizzie Siddal, the muse of the Pre-Raphaelites, is buried there. I didn't find her grave today though. The whole experience was strangely romantic and I felt I learnt a fair bit too. Beats Come Dine with Me on the Sofa for sure!

Anyway, back to our roast. It's been a busy week this week.  Finished on one job last night and start a new one tomorrow. And,  as I've been a bit under the weather I'm going to make something quick and easy tonight. I'll be making roasted artichokes which I'll serve with a napkin to clean our hands (as it will be messy), and a cheese board. Perfect Sunday comfort.

For two people:

3 medium/ small artichokes
1 clove of garlic
Several glugs of olive oil
mustard
Juice of 1 Lemon
Knob or two of butter
Salt and pepper to Season

First Cut the Artichokes in half and scoop out the hair if necessary. Use a spoon for this. My artichokes were small and so there was no hair in the middle. Bonus.

Then boil them for 6 minutes with one crushed garlic clove, drain and place in a baking dish faced down.

Meanwhile, make a simple vinaigrette from the mustard, olive oil and lemon ( see notes below) and pour over the artichokes, as well as putting on the butter. Save some vinaigrette for serving so you can dip the leaves into it. Yummy.

Bake for 30 minutes on 180 degrees

Serve with a nice cheese board and some slices of fresh lemon. Off now to gorge and watch a film :)

Notes for the vinaigrette:

Start with a tablespoon of Dijon Mustard and keep adding small glugs of olive oil until the mixture thickens. Then squeeze in the juice of your lemon until it's vinaigrette consistency. Season with salt and pepper.

Stuffed Mini Squash with a Caramelised Onion and Tomato Stew

It's been freezing outside this week, and I've spent quite a lot of time outside in it. This meal is going to be a heart warmer and make us forget about this good typically British weather.

It has been brought to my attention that I have strayed rather (too?) far from the idea of a Sunday roast. And, as it's been a sufficient amount of time, I'm in the mood for a good roast! I really wanted to do something with butternut squash  but also something that works well as individual portions. Often when roasting and stuffing a butternut squash the portions can be massive, or look messy when served. I've found some lovely little squash and intend to fill them with garlic rice and peas and roast them whole. Each squash will be an individual portion.

I really want to keep this roast simple and so I'll serve the squash with roast potatoes and a caramelised onion and tomato stew, which will serve as a side dish as well as being the gravy.  It's also a chance to get out my little Le Creuzet casserole pots I got for my birthday last year.

Put the whole squash in the oven for about 10 minutes to slightly soften them. Then cut off the tops and scoop out the middles.

Drizzle on some Olive oil and season. Place on a baking tray and cook on 180 degrees for a further 10 minutes. Take them out of the oven ready to be filled.

Meanwhile prepare the filling: In a frying pan, lightly fry your garlic in olive oil. Before the garlic burns, add the rice and fry for about a minute before adding the stock. Let the rice bubble for 10 minutes.

Fill each squash with some frozen peas at the bottom and the rice mixture on top  until full. Pour in the excess liquid from the rice so that the rice can carry on cooking in the oven.

Put the filled squash in the oven (still on 180 degrees) with their lids on and bake for 1 hour to 1 hour and a half. I put some foil over the top half way through.

For the gravy/stew I caramelised some onions in a frying pan by frying in olive oil, butter, a teaspoon of sugar and seasoning.  Then add the tomatoes and let them caramelise too. Pour on a good splash of white wine and a teaspoon of vegetable bouillon and let this bubble and thicken for 10 minutes or so.

In fact, what I did here was put all of the ingredients into my mini Le Creuzet pots which I baked at the same time as the squash.

Serve with roast potatoes and anything else you fancy. Will put on the recipe soon!

Amaretto Sour Cocktail

Recipe:

1. Amaretto
As much Amaretto as you fancy- I'd say 3 shots should be enough for two people which is how many we are this evening.
2,. Juice of 1 lemon
3. 1 Egg white
4. Sugar- only a teaspoon, that's if you have a sweet tooth.
5.Ice

Shake all of the above ingredients together with the ice. Pour into the glasses through a seive so as not to include the ice. Or, if you have a cocktail shaker that'd be better. I've not yet got one. If you wish serve it with the ice or on ice...whichever way you serve this it's lovely.

Drink!

Lemon and Honey Panna Cotta with a Rich Cherry and Amaretto Syrup

Anyone who watched my rather hilarious appearance on 'Dinner Date' a few years ago, might remember me doing this recipe for my ever-so (un)charming date. As I've not made a pudding in so long I decided to do so this week as a bit of a change. I also chose to do this because at the car boot sale  I went to last weekend, I acquired a lovely plate with a turquoise detail on it. I thought the cherry sauce would look lovely against that colour.

This is an easy recipe which looks effortlessly impressive- especially if you serve it with an Amaretto Sour cocktail, which I definitely intend to do! I loosely based this recipe on Simon Rimmer's Vanilla Panna Cotta recipe on BBC Food (see in my 'Related Links section if you want to refer to his recipe too). I've tarted mine up a bit with some lemon and honey,  and I've replaced the gelatine for Vegetarian Gelatine from ASDA.

My Recipe (makes 4 small Panna Cotta):
For the Panna Cotta:
150ml milk
250ml thick double cream 
zest of half a lemon
half a vanilla pod
teaspoon of nice honey
About 6g Vegetarian Gelatine

For the Cherry Sauce:
Cherries
juice of half a lemon
1 tablespoon of sugar
Glug of Amaretto (I put in quite a big glug)

Put the cream, milk, sugar, lemon zest, vanilla pod (with scraped out seeds) and honey into a pan and heat at a medium temperature. I in fact bought extra thick double cream so I had to give the cream and milk a bit of a blend before heating.

Heat until the cream mixture comes to the boil and at this point add in your vegetarian gelatine.

Stir in and let this simmer for a minute or two. Not long.

Once it's bubbling take the pan off the heat

Pour the hot mixture into a jug so that it's easy to pour into moulds. At this point you could sieve this mixture so that it is smoother once set, otherwise the lemon zest will be bitty.

Divide the mixture out evenly into four moulds and let them cool down to room temperature before putting them in the fridge- They'll probably need an hour or two in the fridge.

For the cherry sauce, throw all of the ingredients into a pan, along with your Amaretto.

Let it simmer for about five minutes and it'll be ready. You cannot fail with this one.

Once the Panna Cottas have cooled and set,  turn them out onto your plate and serve with this sauce, which you can reheat if you like. 

This was the first trial for the Veggie Panna Cotta. It didn't have the usual consistency and richness I so like in a Panna cCotta. I feel it needs a bit more work on getting the quantities right, taking into account that there is no gelatine and instead the gelling agent is Agar.  As with the Veggie Burger this will have to be an ongoing quest. But it was nice enough, so if you fancy giving it a go I'd be interested to hear your feedback and suggestions.