Tag: savoury

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Real Junk Food comes to North Cornwall

We’re very proud to say that we are now regularly hosting The Real Junk Food Project North Cornwall!

This is a fabulous project, aiming to reduce food waste and feed the community on a ‘pay as you feel’ basis. We will be hosting meals on the 2nd and 4th Friday of every month, from 6pm until the food runs out, open to everyone in the community (and visitors too!) with the added bonus of some great entertainment. From 27th October, the Real Junk Food meals will be accompanied by a local singer/songwriter showcase!

Whether you’re local or just visiting, want a meal or just to see some great performances, and whatever your budget, The Real Junk Food Project has something for everyone. We hope to see you all there!

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From The Real Junk Food Project North Cornwall:

What we do:

The Real Junk Food Project is a social enterprise which intercepts edible food that would otherwise go to waste – in landfill, anaerobic digestion or as animal feed – and turns it into ‘Pay As You Feel’ meals for the community.

The estimated annual food waste in the UK is 10 million tonnes – that’s around £17 billion worth in a year, associated with 20 million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions. About 60% of this is avoidable waste.

The Real Junk Food Project aims to reduce food waste, educate communities and provide good quality, healthy and accessible meals for all.

Pay as you feel:

The ‘pay as you feel’ concept is a core part of The Real Junk Food Project – making sure that meals are available to all who want them. And payment doesn’t have to be in money! If you have time or skills that you’d like to donate, or even if you just fancy giving us a hand with the clean up, it’s all appreciated and keeps the project thriving.

To find out more about the project, the meals or how to get involved, visit our Facebook page here.

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St Kitts Bhaji Mix Recipe

We don’t have any of our bhaji mix on the shelf at the moment, but we don’t want to leave you without – so by popular request, here’s how you can make it at home!

 

Bhaji mix ingredients:

200g gram flour

1 tsp garam masala

1 tsp baking powder

water

 

Method:

Mix dry ingredients together and add enough water to make a batter – you want it thicker than for pancakes, but not stiff.

My favourite bhaji is cauliflower, so I’ll give you the instructions for that. Break cauliflower into florets and put them into boiling water, bring back to the boil then remove from the heat straight away and strain. They will feel like they are too firm, but trust me this will make them perfect. Drop the cauliflower florets into the batter and coat thoroughly. Heat about an inch of oil in a deep frying pan, once it is hot drop the coated cauliflower in and fry, turning regularly, until a golden brown. Drain on kitchen paper and give a sprinkle of salt before serving. Best served hot with a yoghurt dip, or as a side with a curry.

 

You can also use peas, chopped onions, partially cooked sweet potato… anything you fancy really! They’re also great with salad, if the sun finally comes out and you fancy a quick bite…

 

Photo credit: mdid via Foter.com / CC BY

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Stuffed Mushroom Burger Recipe – Summer in a Bun…

We had an amazing time at our Summer Party this Saturday – great food, great company and incredible music from the very talented ‘Dog With No Name’. We got through a fair bit of Pimms too! As always, a huge thank you to everyone who came! For those that missed it, here is the recipe for our stuffed mushrooms, which we served in burger buns with a bit of roast sweet potato and pepper for flavour contrast.

Ingredients:

– 4 Large flat mushrooms

– 250g Cream cheese

– couple of slices of bread

– 100g strong cheddar, grated

– pinch of dried sage or chives

– salt and pepper to taste

Method:

  • Remove and save the mushroom stalks, scoop out the dark gills with a spoon.
  • Put both of these into a food processor with the bread and herbs and pulse for a few seconds, until crumbed. Mix this with the grated cheese.
  • Generously fill the scooped out mushrooms with cream cheese, top with the breadcrumb mixture, pressing into shape as you go.
  • Bake in the oven at about 170C for 20 minutes, until mushroom is soft and top is crispy. Serve with salad; in a bun or pitta bread; or (my favourite) with some crispy roast parsnips.

If you really want to recreate our evening, you’ll have to check out some of the fab music from Dog With No Name!

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Anglesey Eggs

As always, we had a fantastic time at our monthly evening meal! Thank you to everyone who came, we love the community spirit and it’s great fun hosting you all. For those of you who missed it, we had a Welsh theme as a belated St David’s Day celebration, and Susan whipped up her own version of Anglesey Eggs (spoiler alert, they were delicious!). Here’s her recipe so you can give it a go at home…

 

Anglesey Eggs

 For 4 people

500g potatoes, peeled and chopped

50g butter

4 leeks, sliced

50g butter

50g flour

½ litre milk

mustard powder to taste

bay leaf

150g mature cheddar grated

extra cheese to top, grated

8 hard boiled eggs

 

– Boil and mash the potatoes.

– Fry the leeks in the butter until tender and then mix into the mashed potatoes.

– Put the potatoes in the bottom of an oven proof dish.

– Quarter the boiled eggs and spread over the top of the mash.

– Melt the butter in a pan, add the flour and mustard and cook until frothy.

– Remove from heat and whisk in the milk a little at a time, add the bay leaf.

– Return to the heat and stir until it thickens.

– Remove from heat and stir in the grated cheese.

– Pour the sauce over the eggs and potato, sprinkle the remaining cheese over the top and put in a hot oven until the sauce is bubbly and brown.

 

It’s great served with herby bread (we used this Welsh recipe) and maybe even a crunchy salad. Enjoy!

 

 

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Susan’s Lentil Dahl Recipe

So we had to cancel last week’s meal (booo…) due to illness, but to try and make up for it, we thought we’d give you our recipe so you can try it at home. To me, this meal is Indian comfort food at its best – a real winter warmer, or just as fabulous cold the next day. I recommend eating whilst in your pyjamas!

If Indian food is your thing, take a look at Manjulas Kitchen, for some fabulous recipes (and great watching!).

 Susan’s Lentil Dahl

1 onion finely chopped

1 carrot cut into thin slices

2 large potatoes cut into small cubes

couple of large handfuls of red lentils

½ block of creamed coconut (not milk and not a carton)

1 tsp black or brown mustard seed

1 tsp ground coriander

1 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp turmeric

½ tsp black pepper

1 tsp ground cardamom

1 inch piece of fresh ginger – peeled and finely grated

1 clove garlic crushed (totally optional, I don’t use this at all, but if you like garlic knock yourself out!)

ghee or oil – about two tablespoons

handful of fresh coriander leaves – chopped

 

Heat the oil or ghee in a large saucepan, when hot drop in the mustard seeds and leave until they start to pop, add the onion and cook until it starts to brown. Add the coriander, cumin, turmeric, pepper, cardamom, fresh ginger and the garlic if using. Cook the spices for a moment or two before adding in the carrots, potatoes and lentils and cook for a few seconds. Add enough water to completely cover everything and bring to the boil. Reduce heat to a simmer and cook until everything is soft, adding boiling water if it needs it. When it is cooked there should still be a good amount of liquid in the pot, now add the block of coconut and stir until it’s is completely dissolved, cook on for a minute or two until it thickens. Remove from heat and stir in the most of the fresh coriander, reserving a little for garnishing. Serve with yoghurt, mango chutney and a chapatti.

We recommend serving with onion (or cauliflower if you’re feeling adventurous) bhajis – check out our easy bhaji mix here.

Photo credit: srqpix via Foter.com / CC BY

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Mock Duck in Spicy Plum Sauce Recipe

To start with, I just want to thank everyone who came to our Chinese New Year meal. It was a fantastic evening, where we all ate far too much… It’s a long way to come for some of you though, so to make sure no one is left out we thought we’d share our fabulous recipe!

For those that haven’t heard of it before, Mock Duck is the meatiest vegetarian meat alternative around. Made from wheat gluten, this has a taste and texture almost identical to real duck – and it makes fantastic duck pancakes. You can pick a tin up from your local health food shop or chinese supermarket, or even make your own. We combined it with our very own Spicy Plum Sauce, as an alternative to the traditional hoisin sauce. We also served it with oven baked noodles, just to make sure we got our dose of veg!

mock.duck.pancakes

Mock duck in spicy plum sauce

Ingredients:

1 tin mock duck

1 bottle St Kitts Herbery Spicy Plum Sauce

 

Method:

Drain the mock duck and rinse under cold water. Cut into thin strips, place in an ovenproof dish and cover with the Spicy Plum Sauce. Cover with foil and cook in oven at 180C for about 20 minutes, until hot and sauce is sticky.

 

Oven baked noodles

Ingredients:

1 pack fresh noodles

1 carrot – cut into very thin strips

1 small can water chestnuts drained

1 small can bamboo shoots drained

2 or 3 mushrooms sliced

handful of mange tout cut into thin strips

1 pak choi finely sliced

small bag of beansprouts

4 tablespoons of mirin

4 tablespoons of rice vinegar

tamari soy sauce to taste

good dash of dark sesame oil

 

Method:

Put all veg in a baking tray with the noodles, splash lightly with the sesame oil and toss until it is all coated. Sprinkle the mirin and rice vinegar over the top, cover with foil and bake in the oven on 180C for about 20 minutes until hot. Toss the noodles mix with the soy sauce and serve with the mock duck.

If you fancy the pancakes too then see the recipe here.

 

 

 

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Irish Cobble and Soda Bread Recipe

First things first, thank you to everyone who came to our Irish night – it was a fantastic evening! As always, Susan cooked a delicious meal, and we had quite a few requests for the recipe. So here it is – Susan’s Irish Cobble and Soda Bread…

 Irish Cobble

Ingredients:

250g sausages (we used vegetarian but meat eaters don’t need to be left out!)

700g white potatoes

1 carrot

1 onion

500ml stock (again, we used vegetable but meat would work too)

Mature cheddar cheese to taste

 

Method:

– Preheat the oven to 200C

– Using the ‘slicer’ attachment in your food processor (or just a knife if you prefer!), thinly slice the sausages and put to one side. Peel the potatoes, then thinly slice, and repeat with the carrot. Peel the onion and roughly chop.

– In a large baking dish, or small ramekins for individual portions, place a layer of potatoes. On top of this, layer the onion, then the sausages, then the carrot, repeating until all of the ingredients have been used and making sure to top with a layer of potato.

– Pour over your ready-made stock, making sure to coat as much of the dish as possible. The stock should come to half way up the dish.

– Cover with foil and place in the oven for roughly 1 – 2hrs, until the potato is completely soft.

– Remove the foil and cover the top of the potatoes with grated cheese. Return to the oven for 10 minutes, or until the cheese is melted and browning.

 

For the soda bread, we used this recipe from the BBC – it’s just the right amount of sour and went deliciously with the Cobble (or just a heap of butter…)

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Recipe – Cherry and Lavender Tea Smoked Chicken

Making the same meals over and over again, no matter how delicious, can quickly turn cooking into a chore. I’m a big fan of keeping it interesting with something a little bit different, and our new tea range gave me the chance to do just that. This recipe is extremely easy and unbelievably delicious – with the added bonus of sounding impressive!

smoked.chicken

Ingredients:

2 chicken breasts

1 tbsp olive oil

1tbsp dried thyme

1 tbsp black pepper (crushed or ground)

1 tbsp smoked paprika

3 tbsp Demerara sugar (any brown sugar will work just as well)

½ tbsp salt

4 tbsp brown rice

15 tsp cherry and lavender tea

 

Method:

– Start by mixing in a bowl the olive oil, thyme, black pepper, paprika, salt and 1 tbsp of sugar. Stir thoroughly and then coat the chicken breasts in the mixture and leave to one side. This can be done the day before and left in the fridge overnight, but will work just as well done just before cooking.

– Double line a wok or large saucepan with foil. Mix together the brown rice, cherry and lavender tea and the remaining brown sugar and add to the bottom of the foil. Cover with another piece of scrunched up foil.

– Put the wok on a high heat, until the pan starts to visibly smoke. Immediately turn the pan down to the lowest possible heat setting, place the chicken on top of the scrunched foil and tightly cover the top of the wok with a lid or more tin foil.

– Leave the covered chicken cooking on a low setting for 30 mins, then check with a thermometer that it is hot all the way through, If not, leave cooking and check again every 5 minutes until cooked. Take off the heat and leave to cool for 5 minutes before slicing and serving.

I served this chicken on a bed of green leaves with a cherry salad dressing and potato and chorizo gratin on the side. But be adventurous – it will also make for a great summer salad with cherries, a gourmet sandwich for lunches or even with a Thai noodle salad!