After last week's carb feast I thought it might be time for somewhat more wholesome recipes this week. And turns out I didn't even have to lift a finger to make this happen!
This week the contents (well, the food an pictures, if not the actual text) of InvisiblePinkFood are courtesy of the Culinary Consultant. The other day, I came home from work to these stuffed marrows waiting for me. I was a bit skeptical as I have never managed to cook anything very delicious from marrows. But looks like the Culinary Consultant had a bit more talent in the marrow department than I did, as they turned out fantastic. He even grew the marrow himself! This recipe is modified from BBC Good Food recipe for Spanish Stuffed Marrow.
Stuffed marrow (serves 4-6):
1 big marrow
100 g chorizo
1 onion
4 cloves of garlic
330 g sausage meat
1 tsp sweet smoked paprika
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp thyme
1/2 tsp mixed herbs
1 can of chopped tomatoes
1 sweet pepper
100 g grated cheese (we used a mix of cheddar and Red Leicester)
The howto:
Preheat oven to 200 degrees C (400 degrees F). Cut the marrow in half lengthways and scoop out the middle (see below), and cut into serving sizes. Our giant marrow made six servings. Put the halves in a large oven proof dish.
Chop onion, chorizo and sweet pepper, finely chop garlic. In a frying pan, cook the chorizo until it starts to release fat. Add onion, garlic, sausage meat, spices and herbs and use a spatula to break up the sausage meat while it cooks. After about five minutes, add tomatoes and peppers and cook for 15-20 minutes.
Spoon the filling onto the marrow halves, cover with foil and bake for 30-40 minutes depending on the size of your marrow. The marrow should start to soften. Our marrow was really big and dense and needed even more time to cook. Sprinkle with cheese and return to the oven for 10 minutes until the cheese is golden.
The verdict:
When I heard the dinner was going to be stuffed marrow I thought "meeeh". I honestly thought this would be a really boring and somewhat soggy dish. I could not have been more wrong. I know they say food always tastes better if it's cooked by someone else, but in this case that was more than true. The marrow was still a great texture, not mushy at all. I was also surprised that it actually tasted really good, it had a mild but somewhat nutty flavour. Must be all the love that has gone into growing it... And the filling was so full of flavour, just a perfect pinch of heat, tasty chorizo and sausage and a nice final touch from the cheese. If you have marrows but not an idea what to do with them, this is the perfect solution. I think it's worth a try to see if you could scoop out the marrow, cut it into serving size pieces and freeze it for use later. I can't see why it wouldn't work, although the marrow might go a bit soggy after defrosting it, at least courgette does but the marrow does seem to be a bit more compact to start with so it might just work.
It is with great relief I announce that the bachelor pad is done. All done, painted, sanded, tiled and cleaned. And not a moment too soon. I'm so over DIY. It's simply not my thing. I can't wait to have my evenings freed up to other things. I do feel like we achieved something big getting it all done, and the majority of the credit definitely goes to the Culinary Consultant. But in the end, we did spend close to two months on the place, spending most of our weekday evenings after work there. Now all we can hope for is that the tenants take good care of the place.
This morning we celebrated our great achievement by sleeping in, followed by a lazy champagne brunch. We had croissants with gravlax and poached eggs, and marshmallows, strawberries and Nutella for dessert. All this with several glasses of champagne, a bottle we placed in the fridge to chill when we moved into New House, just waiting for this day when we were done with the Bachelor Pad. A very relaxing start to the weekend! (As an aside, my poached eggs weren't nearly as much of a disaster as they usually are. Gently boiling water, a good pour of vinegar, a good swirl in the water and a very gentle touch when submerging the egg in the water seems to do the trick)
Today's recipe is from a great food blog called the English Kitchen. It's full of really great, simple and tasty recipes. We had a pack of sausages coming close to their best by date, so when this recipe popped up on my RSS feed, I knew it was meant to be. I did a few small changes to the original, I reduced the amount of sugar and added some wholegrain mustard, but other than that I stuck with the recipe.
Oven barbecued sausages (serves 4-6):
8 sausages (such as Cumberland)
2 onions
1 cup tomato ketchup
1 cup water
30 ml cider vinegar
1.5 tbsp brown sugar (original recipe suggested 4 tbsp)
1 tsp wholegrain mustard
1/2 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
a pinch of cayenne pepper
The howto:
Preheat oven to 180 degrees C. Peel and slice onions. Bring a saucepan of water to a boil, add the onions and sausages. Boil for about five minutes. Next, cook the sausages on a frying pan in a bit of olive oil or butter for about five minutes to give them nice colour all around. Drain the onions from the cooking water and place at the bottom of an oven proof dish, add sausages on top. Mix the rest of the ingredients and pour on top of the sausages. Cook in the oven for about 30-40 minutes until the sauce has thickened a bit and sausages are cooked through and somewhat glazed.
The verdict:
I'm not a big fan of sausages, but the Culinary Consultant likes them so every now and then, we cook sausages on the BBQ. However, we are definitely coming to the end of BBQ season in the UK with the weather being rather grey and dull. This was a great way to use up some left-over sausages which were originally intended for the BBQ. One substitution I made was to reduce the amount of sugar in the original recipe quite a bit as I think it sounded like a lot to me. I'm a bit uncomfortable with using sugar in savoury food, apart from a small dash here and there to balance the flavours, but I don't want my food to be too sweet. I think the amount I used was more than enough, and could even be reduced a little bit further, especially as tomato ketchup is quite sweet in itself, I think it could be completely omitted. Other than that, the sausages went down a treat with mashed potatoes and will definitely be on the list to make again as we have a few packs of sausages in the freezer waiting to be used up.
Card of the day:
Today's cards are baby cards I made quite a while ago. It's always good to have a few baby cards in stock, you never know when they are needed. And I love making baby cards, you can go overboard with the cuteness factor. Fo these cards, I used the heat embossing resist technique with Tim Holtz distress inks for background. First I stamped the Baby girl and Oh Boy texts using my trusty Hobbycraft alphabet stamps using Tim Holtz distress embossing ink and heat embossed using clear embossing powder. I did the same for the heart background using a Hobbycraft heart background stamp. The bear was stamped using the Forever Friends Mini Clear Stamps Happy Birthday stamp and fussycut using scissors. For the babygirl background and bear I used Spun Sugar, Worn Lipstick and Dusty Concord inks and for the Oh Boy background and bear I used Broken China, Chipped Sapphire and Dusty Concord inks. I added a pink and blue ribbon, and folded the bows using the instructions here from a piece of white paper I had inked with the same colours as the card. I finished with a butterfly using a Fiskars punch for the babygirl card and a blue rhinestone for the Oh boy card.
Returning back from my holiday I am again in the process of trying to empty out the bachelor pad kitchen to the best of my abilities. It seems like moving day is finally approaching, as we should have all papers needed for exchange completed by now, so keeping my fingers crossed for being able to complete in July. To be honest, I'm still hoping for mid July rather than late July, but I have been told I shouldn't be holding my breath.
Today's recipe is Hungarian inspired. We brought back about a ton of paprika powder. Apparently, the new in thing is smoked paprika. It used to be all about "where do you buy your wine?", then there was the question of "where do you buy your olive oil?" and now paprika powder is all the range. Obviously, I couldn't imagine buying my paprika anywhere else than Hungary. The culinary consultant absolutely loved the goulash (beef) soup served over there, but I have a freezer full of chicken and turkey so I made my own adaptation with white meat instead. And I pretty much just tossed in what veggies I happened to have around, although I have to admit I did buy the carrots. Everything else I had in house. Of course, the sausage, paprika and goulash spice mix have only been in house since late last night when we landed, but I say it still counts!
Hungarian inspired slow chicken stew (serves 5-6):
500 g turkey fillet stir fry strips
3-4 carrots cut into slices
3-4 potatoes cut into cubes
2 yellow onions, roughly chopped
1/2 cup (or so) Hungarian salami cut into cubes
1 tbsp sweet paprika powder
1 tbsp Goulash spice mix (this is the mix I used, I have no idea what's in it as the ingredients are all in hungarian, although the ingredient list for another goulash spice mix seems to contain paprika, sugar, salt, pepper, cayenne pepper, marjoram, caraway, garlic, thyme, pimento, cloves)
2 cups frozen veggies (I used a mix of peas, cauliflower and carrots)
The howto:
Add all ingredients except the frozen veggies in the slow cooker along with 2-4 cups of water (depending if you want more of a stew or soup). Cook on low for 5 hours or high for about an hour and then low for three hours. If you don't have a slow cooker, I'm sure cooking on a regular stove would work just fine as well. Add the frozen veggies and let cook for another half hour or so. Serve with a slice of bread.
The verdict:
This was extremely quick and easy to make and although it didn't taste exactly like the goulash soup, it was still rather tasty. I would have added some tomato puree had I had any, a few tablespoons would do nicely. I served it with thick slices of roast garlic bread I found in the Co-op. After whining for so long that there is no decent bread to be found on this island, I'm surprised I have now bought two loaves of bread from the Co-op, both really delicious.
Card of the day:
I miss crafting so much, and suspect that once I get into my new craft room, I will spend so much time there. I have a huge load of crafting supplies that I have ordered but not got to play with yet. And I recently received the new Stampin' Up catalogue and I keep browsing through it every night in bed.
This card is the last in my three wedding card collection. It was made for my friends who got married last weekend. They live on a boat, and the theme of the wedding was boats. In fact the bride and groom (and most of the guests) arrived to the wedding in a flotilla of canal boat. The card is very simply embossed with the Cuttlebug swirls folder on glossy silver paper. The cardstock is dark blue very heavy cardstock which I got from a friend and have no idea what make it is. I used a Hobbycraft border punch to create the border, and made a simple bow from a silver lined white ribbon. Last, I added a few silver gemstones. Inside, I made a sleeve of white paper and stamped the sentiments Congratulations and May All Your Dreams Come True in Tim Holtz Chipped Sapphire distress ink along with three small hearts.
Well, this one is for all my Finnish friends who are hung over from celebrating Vappu, and could use something really substantial for breakfast. Of course, today most of them will be out in the parks, having champagne brunch picnics. But soon, my friends, soon. The hangover is out to get you.
First, to torture you, a random true story. A few days ago I had the type of day that makes you believe in the good of people. When I was grocery shopping the other day, I lost my gym membership card. It's always in the same compartment with my phone in my backpack (you know that little handy pouch thing on the shoulder strap of the backpack so that you can reach your phone all the time). I got out my phone to check my grocery list. I got my phone out of it's little pouch, and didn't notice that the velcro didn't close properly, and the little pouch-y thing was hanging upside down in my shopping trolley. So somewhere along my trek through the grocery store I dropped my card without realising. I thought I would have to go to the gym today admitting I was unable to take responsibility of my card and needed a new one. But on my way to the gym I dropped by the grocery store, and someone had found my card and handed it in to the lost and found! I was so happy, that really made my day. Ok, random life moment part of the blog is over and done with, so let's get on to the main course now.
To continue with my theme of health food after my mayonnaise extravaganza the other day, I thought I would blog about a breakfast which is guaranteed to clog your arteries faster than you can say chorizo. I realise this is a bit on the heavy side for a breakfast, but in the weekends, I like to replace breakfast and lunch with a nice brunch that will get me all through the day to dinner. And this most certainly is one of those. The little sausages are Mini Chorizos from Morrisons. The culinary consultant loves his chorizo and I thought the little sausages were so cute, although I'm personally not a huge fan of sausage. And let me apologise profusely for the even more horrible than usual photos, as I was taking pictures in suboptimal lighting with my phone. At least soon all my cooking will be done in the same house where my camera is, so hopefully the photos will be a little less horrible.
"Yes please, I would love a heart attack" omelette (serves 3-4):
1-2 tbsp
1 red onion
5-6 mushrooms
7 mini chorizos (or other sausage)
6 eggs
1 tomato
3 tbsp grated cheddar
salt and pepper for seasoning
The howto:
Slice the onion, mushrooms and tomato. Crack the eggs into a bowl, and lightly whisk with a fork. Season lightly with salt and pepper. Heat the oil in a big skillet and add the onion, mushrooms and chorizos. Cook for a few minutes, keep turning the sausages so that they cook on all sides. When the onion is starting to soften, add the eggs, and add the tomato slices on top. Sprinkle cheese on top, and let cook over medium heat until the eggs set (about 30 minutes). Serve immediately.
The verdict:
This is an easy breakfast, it only takes a few minutes of preparation, and the omelette will practically cook itself while you get back in bed for that extra half hour of dozing off (but if you do that, remember to set an alarm clock so that you don't end up setting your house on fire). If you like hearty breakfasts, this is definitely for you. If you are a dry toast and half a grapefruit type of person, maybe you should skip this. This certainly kept me going all day until dinner. Actually, it would probably make a good lunch too, or maybe a quick and easy dinner. It will certainly please any carnivorous males if you happen to have any of those around.
Card of the day:
Talking about carnivorous males, I tried to create a male themed card. Sure, it's easy enough to make cute cards for children, or pretty flower or shoe themed cards for your mum, aunt or best friend. But the men... Football? Beer? Well at least the culinary consultant loves all sorts of mechanical machine thingys, so I thought the Chronology Cogs background stamp would work. I stamped using Tim Holtz distress ink Walnut Stain, and embossed using Ranger Fine Detail clear embossing powder. I used distress inks for the borders. On another cream card I stamped the clock and cogs from another Chronology stamp set and the compass is a Tim Holtz stamp, all stamped using Walnut Stain and cut them out using scissors. I really like the compass stamp, and the cogs are really fun, I can see lots of opportunities with them.
