Saturday 1 January 2011

Did I make it .....

Posted by Rosie

......... 52 new recipes in 2010 ........ a recipe a week on average. Did I manage? Yes (Just). Here's my final update:

38. Ciabatta - OK - so it was made with a packet mix in the breadmaker but it was new all the same
39. Moroccan Lamb - made with our own hogget (1 year old lamb) and delicious.
40. Chickpea Curry - eaten with the lamb if I remember correctly and also yummy.
41. Pear and Ginger Upside-down Pudding - the HelpX volunteer who was here when I made this said this was the best pudding he had had in ages so it must have been OK!
42. Oven Baked Trout - I have always grilled my trout before but baking in foil in the oven is so easy I now always do my trout like this.
43. Mayonnaise - neighbours taught us how to make mayonnaise although I have to admit that mine has always since failed and Simon is chief mayonnaise maker at Eco-Gites!
44. Fruit Leather - This is a fruit purée that cooked in a very cool oven for about 18 hours to produce a fiendishly sweet fruity sweet that really does have the texture of leather but tastes divine.
45. Potatoes and Ceps - a simple but effective recipe made possible by my mushroom foraging.
46. Soda Bread (a la Simon) - baked in the embers of the woodburner - a little overdone of the base but otherwise perfect.
47. Bay Boletes and Chicken Soup - another recipe thanks to my foraging
48. Slow Roasted Mutton in a Wine and Onion sauce - a wonderful way to make a leg of mutton meltingly tender.
49. Lemon and Elderflower Marmalade - made from the lemons I had frozen after making elderflower cordial. I made this on a really wintry day and made the house smell like May!!
50. French Onion Soup - perfect for the cold spell
51. Stuffed Breast of Lamb - when you slaughter your own animals you get all the the cuts of meat you rarely see in supermarkets and Simon cooked this recipe to use up the breast that previously we have just turned into mince. It was a little overdone thanks to our evil cooker but was very tasty all the same and will be repeated.
52. Roast Brined Turkey Breast - A friend was very sceptical when I said I was going to brine a turkey breast in the way you brine a ham but this is apparently a popular way of cooking in the US so we thought we'd give it a go ...... and are very glad we did. It made the meat so moist that even I would eat it cold and the salt was not over-powering. In fact we said another time we may even brine it a bit longer.

So - 52 in 2010 - it was a great idea (Thank you Colour it Green) and I made me search my cookbooks for a few different things that otherwise I may not have cooked. Most of the recipes worked, a few failed, one exploded and one nearly caused me to set the kitchen on fire. However many more have been cooked more than once and are now regulars at our table. I have just noticed Colour it Green is thinking about doing it all again - do you know what, I think I may well join her. So - before I dive into one of my many cookbooks there is just time to say:

Happy New Year and all the best for 2011.

2 comments :

  1. just did a little code breaking to work out your message :) happy new year to you too :)

    i like the sound of elderflower and lemon marmalade.. might have to make that too.. as i found out we are out of marmalade this morning...

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  2. Ha ha - my mayonnaise failed, and the ginger beer wasn't brilliant, the elderflower champagne exploded and when I added the alcohol to the Turkey au Vin I nearly set fire to the extractor fan (It still bears the singe marks)

    I reckon you could make the lemon and elderflower with fresh lemons and some cordial instead of some of the water. If you do make it - pare the rind then slice it rather than just slicing it otherwise it stays quite chewy despite reaching setting point.

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