Christmas Cranberry Gin

I wanted to do a few home made Christmas gifts this year and what better than a Christmas tipple. My friend Sarah gave me a recipe she found in a magazine, which of course I've now lost. But I tweaked the recipe slightly anyway so see below how Billy and I made this rather pleasing looking drink.

Start by pricking each cranberry. Yes this is as tedious as it sounds. However, it's necessary for the gin to go in and the juice to come out. Then put the cranberries into your sterilised bottles. Divide as evenly as possible and if you have smaller bottles as well then fill as much as you can. Then add your orange and lemon  peels.

Put your sugar into the gin and stir it until the sugar is dissolved. Then using a funnel, pour the sweet gin into the bottles until full.

Seal and keep in a cool place for two weeks, after which you can pop it open and enjoy however you wish. Think I'll be doing a classy G & T with ours!!

Ingredients (makes 2 and a half litres of gin)

300g Fresh Cranberries
2 Litres Gin- It doesn't need to be that great a Gin. And, you might not need to use all of it.  The size of your cranberries and the bottles you use might mean that quantities slightly differ. As I packed my bottles with lots of peel (because I liked the look), I ended up with a bit of spare Gin. You can always add some more peel to this and make up and extra bottle. It looks great even with just the peel and no cranberries. 
Zest of 2 oranges and 2 lemons, sliced nice and thinly.
400g Caster Sugar to dissolve into the Gin

Filo Fiorentina: Like the Pizza but in a Filo Case

On Friday nights, I've started to go swimming after work. Such a nice way of finishing the week and leaving all the stress behind. Mind you this Friday was hardly stressful: a recce around London for my current job, ending up at the Park Plaza hotel in one of their penthouse suites. I'm not complaining!

Not with this view! Anyway, going back to the swimming, I used this time to come up with my roast recipe. Partly because I was hungry, I started thinking about pizza. And, my favourite pizza is the Fiorentina. I love the baked egg on the top.

I wanted to do an open Filo tart, using the Fiorentina Pizza ingredients. Instead of doing the tomato layer on the bottom, I thought that doing the spinach and goats cheese layer on the bottom would mean that it wouldn't go soggy.

Start by preparing the spinach filling: Saute a clove of garlic in olive oil. Then add your spinach to the pan, salt, pepper and nutmeg to season. Let this cook for 5 minutes with the lid on. It'll be very watery and so you need to (in a sieve) drain off all of the excess water. Make sure you really press the spinach against the sieve so that there is really no excess water coming out. I keep this spinach juice in a Tupperware as a stock in the freezer but if you don't want to keep it then discard it.

Once the spinach has cooled, add your goats cheese and mix it together. This will be the bottom layer of your Filo tart. You also need to toast a good handful of pine nuts to throw over the top at the end. For the tomato sauce layer, I made a rich sauce of my own but you could buy a nice Italian pasta sauce and use that instead. It mustn't be too wet that the only thing.  Leave all of your Filo fillings to one side for later. Now preheat your oven at 190 degrees centigrade.

Then prepare your Filo pastry cases: Melt some butter and brush the inside of 6 ramekin dishes and around the tops with it. On a board, put your first Filo sheet. Brush with melted butter and place on the next sheet. Brush again with melted butter and cut into squares (roughly 15cm x 15cm depending on your ramekin). Then, stuff (gently) each ramekin with a square of prepared Filo. Bake for 10 minutes and then take them out of the oven. Let them cool and take each case out of the ramekins.

You're then ready to put together your Filo case. Compile your tart starting with the bottom layer of your spinach mixture. Followed by the tomato sauce. Make sure you leave enough room for the egg to go on top- I'd say don't fill the case more than two thirds. Bake for ten minutes on 190 degrees. Then crack one egg on each Filo tart and bake for another 10 to 15 minutes until the egg whites are cooked.

Season with salt and pepper and sprinkle on some toasted pine nuts. Top with peppery rocket and serve as you like. I served it with some roast potatoes, a light gravy and a crunchy green salad. It's the kind of dish that could be served as a wintry roast with veg and gravy,  but could also quite easily be a summery lunch dish with a light salad. Either way I think it looks impressive and you already know the flavours work a treat together.

Ingredients (Serves 6):

Jus Roll Filo Pastry, 6 sheets. I only used 4 sheets but you could, if you wanted layer up three sheets instead of 2.
Butter to melt and line Ramekin dishes and to brush over Filo pastry
200g fresh Spinach
70g crumbly goats cheese
Rich, thick tomato sauce, either homemade or bought. I threw in some sun dried tomatoes as well.
Salt, Pepper and Nutmeg to season
6 free range eggs
Handful of pine nuts, toasted
Rocket to go on top
You'll need 6 Ramekins as well.

Stuffed Roast Tomatoes

So, last weekend Billy and I went to the Romford dogs for a classy birthday affair. My only other experience of the dogs has been when I worked on Lewis and I had to go to the Oxford dogs. There, there had only been a very small stand with a bar. I think you'd be lucky if you got a portion of chips. However, the dogs in Romford on a Saturday night is clearly the place to be and I loved it.

I didn't win a thing and ate abysmally: scampi and chips (not to mention the hot dog and pick and mix). So when we got home on the Sunday, rather knackered and a bit worse for wear, I was craving some sort of healthiness. Whenever a little hungover or tired I always crave tomatoes and I stumbled across a recipe by Gennaro Contaldo in Vegetarian Living Magazine (which I don't usually buy but I'm also trying to come up with some lovely vegetarian Christmas recipes).

I made these stuffed tomatoes and served them with greens, roast potatoes and a delicious tomato based gravy which I've never done before but it's great!! See the recipe below:

Ingredients (Serves 6):

Contaldo calls this 'Aubergine "parmigiana" with roasted tomatoes'. I beg to differ and call it Roasted stuffed tomatoes with Aubergine. But hey, who's arguing.. I tweaked his recipe a bit and used fresh oregano and thyme instead of basil. And, the gravy is a Kay Mitchell invention. You must must use ripe tomatoes otherwise it will all be too watery!

For the stuffed tomatoes:
6 beef tomatoes. Ripe!!
Olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
1 handful fresh oregano
3-4 stalks of fresh thyme
2-3 tablespoons of plain flour
1-2 aubergines sliced into rounds
2 eggs (beaten)
salt and pepper
Mozzarella (2 x large balls), roughly 200g
salt and pepper to season throughout

For the gravy:
half an onion (stolen from the above recipe)
olive oil
glug of white wine
1 x vegetarian stock cube
some of the innards of the tomatoes from above recipe, plus one more tomato if needed
water
tablespoon of plain flour

1. Preheat the oven to 180 to 200 degrees centigrade.

2. Slice the tops of the tomatoes and with a spoon scoop out the innards (save the tops for the lids). Sprinkle the empty tomatoes with salt and place on a plate lined with kitchen towel to let the excess water drain out.

3. Meanwhile, heat up a good glug of olive oil, Gennaro says 4 tablespoons, but who really measures. Sauté your onion for 3-5 minutes. Add your tomato insides and season with the fresh herbs, salt and pepper. After this point, grab another pan for your gravy and put some of your onion tomato mix into your gravy pan (I'd say about a third).

4. With your gravy pan, add a stock cube, white white wine (your choice how much, probably a large glass) and water. Let it bubble away for half an hour or so before blitzing in a hand blender with your flour. You must taste and season with salt and pepper along the way. Add some more fresh herbs perhaps. Once blended let it thicken/ heat on the hob before serving. If there is any extra tomato filling you can also add this later for an even more rich and tomatoey gravy.

5. With the other tomato sauce pan, let it reduce (with a lid on) for 20 minutes so that you have a nice light tomato sauce. Not too watery and fairly thick. Stir occasionally to make sure it's not sticking or burning. This will be one element to your tomato filling.

6. Now in another pan (lots of pans I know but it's a roast! A messy kitchen is a happy kitchen I say), heat some more olive oil to cook the aubergines.

7. While the oil is heating, put the flour in a bowl, eggs in a bowl, and dunk the aubergine slices first in the flour and then the beaten egg.

8. Shallow fry the egg dipped aubergine slices for 3-4 minutes on either side until golden brown. Set aside on kitchen roll and season well on both sides with salt and pepper!

9. Now we're ready to compile the tomatoes: Begin by placing a slice of aubergine into the hollow tomato, then a dollop of tomato mixture, then a slice or two of mozzarella.  Repeat until the tomato is full. Sprinkle with herbs and put it's lid on. Sprinkle on more herbs as you can never get enough herbs.

10. Repeat for all 6 tomatoes. Roast for 25-30 minutes. Any additional tomato sauce filling should be added to the gravy. And, as I said, I served this with roasties. But serve with whatever you fancy! With the

Marrow: Marrow and Feta Parcels, Followed by Stuffed Marrow with a Spicy Moroccan style Bean filling and a Marrow Slaw

Marrow, Feta and Mint parcels with a Pea and Mint Dipping Sauce

So, the reason for cooking up a Marrow Medley came about because I was so kindly, by Lynne, given a Marrow which looked like  a penguin for my Birthday. And, having just moved I thought I'd treat the household to a vegetarian feast. 

In fact this was a huge marrow and so I attempted to do a very pretentious meal of 'Marrow Three ways': Marrow and Feta Filo parcels with a Mint and pea dipping sauce: Marrow stuffed with Moroccan Spicy Beans and a Slaw Salad which included raw Marrow. And, it works!

I stated by cutting my Marrow in half, using one half to do the filo parcels and salad and the other half to stuff.

For the starter, peal and grate a third of your half marrow. Fry in a little bit of olive oil with a clove of garlic and fresh mint and Rosemary. Add in your cooked fresh peas and cook until the marrow has a little colour on it.

Once cooked, let it cool and mix in the feta and season, adding some more fresh mint if you like. 

Then make up your parcels, putting a tablespoon of filing in the centre and sealing with some melted butter. I used shop bought film and cut the sheets into squares of around 12cm. Fry them in butter for around 2 minutes on either side until golden brown and serve with a pea and mint dip: see below for this recipe.

For the main, start by scooping out the centre of your half marrow,and bake it for around 20 minutes on 180 degrees. I did this to get rid of some of the moisture first and soften the skin.

Then make the spicy paste.  In a mortar put your curry paste,  harrissa paste, cumin seeds, ground corriander, star anis, cardamon seeds, garlic, salt pepper and one fresh red chilli (chopped). Pound it all with your pestle until you have a fairly smooth paste.

In a large cooking pot, make your bean filling by frying your spicy paste in olive oil, adding your onions, garlic, mushrooms, chopped aubergine and mini peppers. Then add your beans and tinned tomatoes as well as a hand full or two of pearl barley, as well as chopped almonds. Cook until the barley is cooked. Check seasoning and adjust to your taste.

Marrow Stuffed with Spicy Moroccan Beans

Add your filling to the marrow and top with soft cream cheese and bake for 30 to 40 minutes on 180 degrees.

Serve with your Slaw, Rice and the remainder of your pea and mint dip. The presentation was a little messy but tasted great! 

Think we got a bit carried away with group singing, percussion and recorder session to mind. All in all a great evening. Musical and Marrow-tastic.

Ingredients:

Filo parcels:

1 or 2 sheets of pre-bought filo pastry cut into 12 squares.

melted butter and a brush

1 clove of garlic

olive oil

1/4 of your marrow. peeled and grated (half or your half)

half a feta cheese, crumbled

large handful od fresh mint, chopped

1 sprig of chopped rosemary

fresh cooked garden peas. I used around 80g

Pea and mint dip:

70g cooked garden peas

2 tablespoons plain yoghurt

juice of 1 lemon

salt and pepper to season

small bunch of chopped fresh mint

Blitz all of the above together in a hand blender. Season to taste.

Stuffed Marrow Filling:

Spicy paste: Medium Curry paste,  harrissa paste, cumin seeds, ground corriander, star anis, cardamon seeds, garlic, salt pepper and one fresh red chilli (chopped)

1 white onion, chopped

1 Aubergine, chopped

8-10 mushrooms, roughly chopped

2 cloves of garlic, chopped

4-5 mini red peppers chopped in half ( or 2 normal red peppers)

2 tins of assorted beans. I used mixed beans and butter beans

2 cans of tinned tomatoes

1 stock cube

2 handfuls of pearl barley

2 handfuls of chopped almonds

The above measurements made enough to stuff the half marrow and there was quite a lot left over which makes a nice stew or soup. Half the quantities if you don't want leftovers!

I served with white basmati rice, using Delia's recipe. Serve with whatever you fancy though. 

Fresh Slaw:

1/4 of marrow (half of your half) peeled and grated. Sprinkle over salt and drain so there is no liquid

1 x grated carrot

1 apple thinly chopped

5 thinly chopped radishes

1 bag fresh rocket/ lettuce or whatever salad leaf you fancy

Dress with a simple dressing of olive oil, vinegar, salt and pepper.