Pear and Cheese Puffs - Random Recipes #26

This month's Random Recipes challenge is to pick at random a clipping from your collection - we all have one, don't we;  pages torn from magazines, scribbled notes after a meal at a friend's house, torn-off pack labels - and cook the recipe on it.

Now I'm organised.  Or at least I WAS. All my clipped out recipes have been carefully cut out and arranged in those photo albums that used to be popular, the ones with a whole peel-back plastic page. It's a great way of storing them, easy to see the recipes and with a wipe clean surface. When they started to get hard to find, I bulk bought a supply of them. However my collection seems to stop abruptly at a point about eight years ago - which coincides with me starting my own business and no longer having time to carefully arrange recipes in albums.  Now my "notes and clippings" are more likely to be bookmarks on my computer.

So anyway, my "pile of clippings" looked a lot like this:

I numbered them all - there were 10 - then got Mark to shout a number from the other room. That album was pulled from the pile and I opened it at random to this page

 

There didn't seem to be much point making the curry powder as it's the blend I always use when I want a pre-mixed powder and there's a freshly made jar of it in the cupboard. In fact it's probably the reason the album fell open at that page. The Stilton and Mascarpone spaghetti looked lovely but includes fresh asparagus. We need to wait a few weeks before there's any in the garden, so that was no good this time.

 

That left Pasta with Rosemary Braised Flaegeolet Beans  or Dovedale, Pear and Pecan Puffs. Both looked delicious (of course they did, that's why I kept the recipes innit?) so a coin was tossed and it came up Puffs. I've been meaning to make it for quite a long time - the corner of the page says March 1998 and the typeface makes me think it probably came out of a Good Housekeeping magazine.

 

The  problem was the Dovedale cheese. According to the oracle that is Google, it is still produced, but I couldn't find it when out shopping. But it's a soft blue cheese so I used  Dolcelatte instead. The cheese, chopped pecans and some fresh thyme are folded into a whisked egg white, with a little cream, and piled on the pastry base, then the pears are sliced and fried with butter and sugar (Sweet Freedom in my case) to caramelise slightly and arranged on top for baking.

 

The result was excellent - light, delicious and a lovely variety of textures.  It's taken me 15 years to get around to making these tarts - I won't be leaving it 15 years before I make them again!

 

 

Chilli Con Carne with Cornbread Topping

Lots of you liked the sound of the Chilli Con Carne with Cornbread Topping that I included in last week's meal plan. It's a very long standing family favourite evolved over the years from a combination of the classic "student chilli" of our long-ago Uni days (oh dear, I've just remembered the first time I made chilli...... I misread "2 tsp chilli seasoning" and used two TABLESPOONS of pure chilli powder....) and a turkey tamale pie that featured in an old Good Housekeeping book. But after years of tweaks and adaptations, I can safely say it's my own.

Ingredients (to serve 4)

Chilli base

400g minced beef
1 large onion, finely chopped
1 can chopped tomatoes
1 can red kidney beans
1 heaped tablespoon plain flour
1 level teaspoon each of dried oregano and ground cumin
chilli powder - between ½ and 2 level teaspoon depending on how hot you like it
2 tablespoons tomato purée
Seasoning, and/or an optional teaspoon of Bovril or beef stock concentrate

Place the mince in a non-stick flameproof casserole and start to heat gently until the fat starts to run out, then add the onion and increase the heat. Fry for a few minutes to brown the mince and slightly soften the onion. Stir in cumin and chilli and cook for a minute, then blend in flour and oregano and mix well. Add the tomatoes plus one empty tomato tin full of cold water, mix everything well and bring to the boil. Add beans, tomato purée and seasoning, then cook gently on the hob or in a slow oven for around 2 hours. (You can, of course, use your own favourite chilli recipe for this but do make sure it is thick or the topping will sink)

After 2 hours, heat the oven to 200 C, Fan 180 (400 F, gas 6) - or turn up the heat if the chilli was cooking in the oven. If you wish, turn the chilli into a different ovenproof dish, one deep  enough for the chilli plus a deep layer of topping.

Topping

200g cornmeal (polenta)
50g plain flour
1 level tablespoon (yes, I know it sounds like a lot...... trust me, it works) baking powder
½ level teaspoon salt
200 ml milk
2 eggs
4 tablespoons sunflower or rapeseed oil

Mix all the dry ingredients in one bowl, beat all the wet ingredients together in another bowl, then gently fold the wet into the dry.

Spread over the top of the chilli and place in the oven. Bake for around 30 minutes until risen and browned - test that there is no uncooked batter left by piercing the centre with a skewer or sharp knife. If any wet mixture clings to it, reduce the heat to prevent over browning and cook for a few minutes longer.

Serve with salad, or a green vegetable, or salsa, sour cream and guacamole. Or if you are greedy like us, all of the above!

When I made it last week, I only used half of the chilli but forgot to halve the topping ingredients so the chilli looks a bit swamped in this photo:

Meal NOT planning Monday 11th March

We're off to France for the weekend and I'm trying to clear the fridge before we go, so I'm not really planning this week, it will just be a list of "possible" meals as stocks dwindle!

First of all a bit of feedback on last week.  The Panda Express Orange Chicken was delicious, definitely one to make again in future. Although I'd forgotten just how much further meat goes when it is battered, so I made far too much! We weren't keen on the red goulash, it seemed all too "worthy" and didn't have an appealing flavour or texture.

I completely forgot that I'd planned to do a curry with the squash and made it into a risotto instead, but as that's one of our all time favourites neither of us minded! The Chilli Con Carne with Cornbread Topping is  another old favourite, and I made double quantity of the chilli, so  we're having the rest tonight. I'll blog the recipe for the version with topping later this week (or next week - I'm totally time impoverished at the moment which is why this blog's been a bit quiet)

On Saturday Mark made one of his Ottolenghi-inspired creations  and on Sunday I made  a pear, cheese and pecan tart which is to be my Random Recipe when I get chance to write about it.

So here goes with the meal plan:

 Monday Chilli Con Carne with baked potatoes and broccoli
Tuesday Roast lamb with Dauphinoise of potato and celeriac, roast butternut squash and cavolo nero
Wednesday smoked sausage ring with red cabbage, potato cakes and carrots
Thursday whatever's left in the fridge - probably a cheese omelette with chips and salad

If I manage a meal plan next week it will be on Tuesday, not Monday  - see you then! In the meantime why not pop over to At Home With Mrs M for some more ideas?

Spots and Stripes

Any of my comping friends reading this will immediately think about the series of competitions that Cadbury's ran last year - I'm sorry to disappoint you but these spots and stripes are a very different kind!

The spots and  stripes in question are those on one of my oldest and most loved sets of stamps, a Hero Arts set  that I must have had for ten years or more. And every time I use them the result seems to be fresh and different. Sometimes I colour them in in lots of bright colours, sometimes in one colour, sometimes I leave them white, sometimes I tessellate them all over the page, sometimes I  just use a single one, sometimes I  cut out the hearts and layer them..... they are just so versatile.

This time I just used two shades of green with them. Looking at the photo, I think my next task today is to go and slice the exclamation mark off my "Celebrate!" stamp because it looks a lot like "Celebratel" which makes no sense at all.... in fact my husband has just asked me why I've made a card for Cabletel *sigh*

I'm submitting this to the following challenges:

ATSM - Addicted to CAS
Less is More #110 - One Layer, Spots and Stripes
Crafty Creations #212 - Green

BOGOF

I don't know whether anywhere but the UK uses this term? Here, it is short for "Buy One Get One Free"  and that's how I feel about this card, because after I'd used the papers and toppers I'd printed out for the card I was planning to make, I had enough left for another whole card!

This week's CD Sunday challenge is Butterflies  - a perfect excuse to use the Sharon Duncan "Beautiful Butterflies" CD that I've had for years and never used. Before I started playing along with CD Sundays, I just couldn't think what to do with the images. Seeing all your creations every week has inspired me, but this week I still needed a bit of a push to get me to do something more than just "Print out image - stick to card - finished."

And while mooching around and following links from other blogs, I bumped into this super sketch from Random Acts Of Creativity where it is the theme for Sketchbook Saturday 91.

SSC91

All the papers and the butterfly toppers and sentiments I used are from the CD. I cut out the shapes and inked the edges to hide my scrappy cutting   give the edges some definition and then assembled the card, pausing only to pick up the 500 tiny brads that I dropped on the floor after opening the box upside down to take one out for the flower centre.

There were so many elements left  that I had enough to make my "freebie", a diagonal easel card. I decided to put the sentiment in a slightly unusual place so that it sits centrally below the image when the card is standing up, otherwise it looks a bit tipsy!

Meal Planning Monday 4th March

Monday Panda Express Orange Chicken On holidays in America over the years we have occasionally spent a day in a big shopping mall, which has meant stopping at the food court for a quick lunch, and have both fallen in love with the Orange Chicken dish served at the Panda Express Chinese food counters. So when I spotted this pin on Pinterest  I just had to follow it to its source to find out more, and I'm going to give it a try today. I'll be serving it with a mixture of Chinese tinned veg that have been cluttering up the cupboard, stir fried with home grown spring onions.

Source: womenist.blogark.com via Jane on Pinterest

Tuesday Red Goulash with Noodles and salad  - another one I've bookmarked. I'll be making a couple of  changes - I have tinned beans to use (can you see by now that I'm decluttering the storecupboard this week?) and as Mark can't eat red peppers I'll cook mine separately and stir them into my own portion at the last minute.

Wednesday Roast lamb, broccoli, mashed swede and roast potatoes.

Thursday butternut squash and chickpea curry with rice and sambals

Friday Chilli Con Carne with a cornbread topping served with runner beans (still our home grown ones from the freezer)

Saturday Mark will probably be cooking

Sunday We won't be doing anything for Mother's Day - one of my daughters  lives in France and the other will, I hope, be being spoiled by her own little girls, while my Mum lives too far away to visit her for the day, so I've decided today will be the day I cook my entry for this month's Random Recipe challenge. I've not plucked up courage to attack my clippings yet though so I don't know what I'll be making!

I'm playing along with Meal Planning Monday at At Home With Mrs M - why don't you?

A hectic schedule over the next couple of weeks means I won't be planning again until March 25th  - the meals we DO eat at home in the intervening time will be "open the fridge and see what we can throw together" ones, so I expect pasta and omelettes to feature strongly!

Bookmarked recipe - Cheesy Lentil Pie with Cornmeal Pastry

A few weeks ago, I saw the recipe for Cheesy Lentil Pie with Cornmeal Pastry by Emily Leary on A Mummy Too and just KNEW I'd have to try it - cheese, lentils and cornmeal are three of my buzz-words, so a dish containing all three is irresistible to me and it was duly bookmarked.

It's a very inexpensive dish to make, and in fact I felt as if it had cost me almost nothing, as when I was preparing the ingredients I had exactly enough left - to the gramme in every case - in my almost-finished packs of lentils, cheese, cornmeal and flour.

I halved all the quantities as there are only two of us. Even so, served with nothing more than a plain green salad, there was plenty left for lunch the next day.

While I was making it, I was worried that the pastry would be tough, as it was so very easy to handle and had a relatively low proportion of fat. But it turned out beautifully light and crisp and the cornmeal in it gave it a delicious taste. I'll be using that pastry again in other dishes.

When it came out of the oven it looked beautiful

It wasn't quite so pretty on the inside

But what it lacked in appearance it certainly made up for in flavour! A great success, and a dish that I'm sure I'll make many times in the future.

I'm submitting this to Bookmarked Recipes at Tinned Tomatoes  and to
Credit Crunch Munch at Fuss Free Flavours and Fab Food  4 All