I am vegetarian and love making veggie dishes. As a child, I spent my Summers in the South of France where I learned how to cook, make jam etc. so, many of my recipes are the ones that I learned there.
Courgettes in Cream
This is one of my favourite dishes but I don't cook it often and you'll see why after you've made it and eaten the entire dish yourself! It is so simple and yet so delicious and unfortunately high in calories. I learned how to make this one in France where emmental cheese is used in it but you can use cheddar if you prefer. In recent times I have been leaving out the garlic as I think it overpowers the flavours a bit - a small clove is enough if you do decide to use some though. The ingredients below make a small dish and are approximate as I don't measure the cheese or the cream I just know by now how much to use.
125ml Fresh Cream
Approx. 1 Large Cup Grated Emmental or Cheddar
Salt
Pepper
1 Small Clove Garlic
Wash the courgettes and slice them. Put them into an ovenproof dish, add some salt, a little pepper and the crushed garlic clove (if required) and pour the cream over the lot. Give it a stir to ensure that the courgette slices all have a coating of cream. Flatten them down into the dish a little and cover with a layer of cheese.
Cook in the oven on 190 deg. C/gas mark 5/375 deg. F until the cream has evaporated and the top has formed a golden crust.
I serve this with a large baked potato. It freezes well too (if there's any left)...
In Winter you can't have enough soup and this one I guarantee will blow you away. It is stunningly tasty and after one bowl you'll be hooked. I found this recipe on the back of a celery pack when my little boy was just a baby and I have been making it for him ever since, we usually share the entire pot it's so delicious.
1 x small red onion
1 x clove garlic
1 x head of celery
2 x vegetable stock cubes
1 litre water
Crème fraîche
Olive oil
salt
pepper
Fresh herbs to garnish
First, finely chop the red onion and crush the garlic clove and cook on a low heat in a drop of olive oil. While this is cooking, wash, trim and chop up the celery. When ready, add it to the pot with the other ingredients and cook for about 2 minutes stirring continuously. While you are doing this have the kettle on for your boiling water. Make up your stock using the two cubes and the litre of water and then add this to the pot. Simmer for about 20 - 30 minutes or until the celery is soft enough to blitz. When ready, blitz. Serve with a dollop of crème fraîche and some crusty bread. To die for...
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Tabbouleh
Tabbouleh is middle Eastern in origin but has become more and more popular in Europe etc. in recent years. It can be made with either bulgar wheat or couscous but in this recipe I will be using a fine couscous. The best one that I have come across is in Lidl, it's really fine. There are many variants to this dish so there are no set rules, the ingredients can be altered according to what you like best or what you have available. I make two versions with minor ingredient changes but which taste quite different. Version 2 is more spicey and contains cumin and red chilli pepper.
1 x mug Couscous (or bulgar)
1 x mug boiling water
2 x cloves garlic
1 x small red pepper
1 x small green pepper
Half a lemon
Half a red onion
3 x medium vine tomatoes
1 large handful fresh corriander or mint (version 1)
1 large handful fresh parsley
Olive oil
Black pepper
Salt
4 x teaspoons Cumin (version 2)
1 x red chilli pepper (version 2)
First, get the couscous ready by pouring 1 x cup/mug full into a bowl and covering with the same amount of boiling water. Cover the bowl with a plate while you are preparing the rest of the ingredients.
Chop the tomatoes into small pieces (as small as you can) and do the same with the peppers, the red onion, and the herbs. Crush the two garlic cloves. For version 2 leave out the corriander/mint as you will instead be adding the cumin and chilli peppers.
When the couscous has absorbed all of the water, remove the lid and fork it to separate the grain and leave to cool. When cold, add the chopped ingredients, squeeze on some lemon juice, add a drizzle of olive oil, salt, pepper. If you are making version 2, this is where you add the cumin and the finely chopped chilli pepper. Refridgerate for an hour or two or even better overnight to let the flavours infuse. Serve with warm pitta or Naan bread with a side serving of Tzatziki or plain greek style natural yoghurt. Yummy.
Leek Carrot & Potato Soup
This soup is a regular in my house and as I made some earlier this week, I thought I'd post the recipe while I remember to. It's another of the lovely recipes that came from my visits to France as a young girl and one which my aunt still makes today, however, I have added to the original recipe (see step 1 below) to give it a bit more kick but if you're in a hurry you can leave out step 1 and it's equally delicious. This soup is wholesome enough to have as a main meal with some fresh bread, which I often do and it's even nicer the next day. It freezes perfectly too if you want to save some for another day. Here's what you need:
1 x Onion
1 x Clove of garlic
2 x Large leeks (or 3 small)
2 x Carrots (medium)
5 x Medium sized potatoes
Step 1: In a medium sized pot, heat the olive oil and add the chopped up onion and crushed garlic clove and cook it for a few minutes stirring continuously.
Step 2: Add the washed, chopped leek, the peeled and chopped carrots and the five peeled potatoes (I leave them whole) and cook for another minute or two before covering with water.
Step3: Leave to simmer until carrots and potatoes are soft and then throw in 2 vegetable stock cubes and stir until blended. I don't add salt to this soup as the stock cubes contain quite and bit but you can add according to your own taste.
Step 3: Blitz the lot and serve with a dash of crème fraîche on top and some crusty homemade bread..
Bon appétit!
Blackberry Jam
Jam making was a big thing in France (and still is) and we had great fun picking the fruit which we then used to make our own delicious home made jam.
Today's recipe is for blackberry jam. My son and I went blackberry picking in our local area and collected enough to make a few pots. Here's what we did:
500g Jam Sugar
Half a squeezed lemon
First, we soaked the berries in salted water for a couple of hours, then rinsed them thoroughly.
We then mixed the berries with the Jam sugar and the squeezed lemon juice and placed the mixture into the bread making machine (mine has a jam programme). If you don't have a machine, put into a regular pot. We then set the the jam programme and pressed start. Those of you not using a machine would at this point put your pot over the gas and leave to simmer for about an hour or until the fruit has broken down and the mixture looks like jam. The machine takes about 1hr 20mins and bleeps when done so there's no minding it unlike the conventional method.
I used old jam pots/baby food jars to store mine. First, I put them on a dishwasher cycle and then baked them in the oven for 30 minutes on 150 deg. C (300 deg, F) to sterilize.
The jam must be poured into the jars immediately - before it starts to set.
When cool, spread generously over bread or toast and enjoy - delicious!
If you have any questions you can comment below or email me directly at Funky-Junk.
love the food !!
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comment, I will be posting more so keep in touch
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