Thursday 12 January 2012

The rest of the 52 in 2011

Posted by Rosie

OK, technically the rest of the 47 in 2011.

26. Moroccan Shoulder of Lamb - a shoulder of lamb smeared with Moroccan spices and lots of garlic then slow roasted. Delicious.
27. Moroccan Stuffed Courgettes - left-over lamb from the roast with added Moroccan spiced rice and stuffed into round and long courgettes. Even a confirmed courgette hater said this wasn't all that bad!
28. Hummous - easy to make and cheaper than buying it, especially as it seems hard to track down here in France. (Now if only I could also make Cottage Cheese)
29. Courgette and Lemon Drizzle Cake - having made a wonderful chocolate courgette cake I decided I must be able to make something similar on the lemon front and so my courgette and lemon drizzle cake was born. Using yellow courgettes left no obvious sign of the addition of these often reviled vegetables and many an unsuspecting courgette hater munched their way happily through a slice or two.
30. Pear and Dandelion Syrup Sponge - another made-up recipe when I found a rather ancient half eaten jar of dandelion jam at the back of the food cupboard.
31. Chinese Style Roast Duck - from Morocco with the lamb to China with the duck but it's another of those recipes I can't find again.
32. Sweetcorn Fritters - we saw these on a celebrity chef programme where they were eaten on Brighton beach. We were a bit less adventurous with our venue but they still tasted as good cooked in the kitchen.
33. Oeuf Cocotte with Pumpkin - successfully cooked from a recipe card I picked up in a French supermarket. Cream, pumpkin and egg. Wonderful and rich so despite it's small size it was very filling. 
34. Savoury Pumpkin Pie - pumpkin, cream cheese, eggs, breadcrumbs and lardons under a few layers of filo pastry. Another made-up recipe success.
35. Pumpkin and Lardon Risotto - I'm guessing this was about the time my humongous pumpkin harvest was wheelbarrowed back to the house!
36. Crabapple and Rosehip Jelly - after struggling to find enough rosehips to make sufficient bottles of rosehip syrup to see off my Winter colds I noticed a promising looking hedgerow on the way back from Vassy. An hour and many scratches later I had enough rosehips to combine with the first crab-apple harvest from our new tree to make this delicate jelly.
37. Apple Amber - from this great basic cookbook - apple and egg yolks under a meringue base.
38. Duck Liver and Leek Soup - I would never have thought about putting duck liver in  a soup, or any liver for that matter, but I can assure you, it works!
39. Nasturtium "Capers" - a substitute for capers made from nasturtium seed pods. Still not tried them yet to comment though.
40. Ants Climbing Trees (Chinese Pork Mince) - mince cooked with Chinese type spices. Not bad but a bit salty and possibly needed a couple of veg side dishes.
41. Moroccan Lamb and Lentils - noooooo, not again. I know this was good and it wasn't that long ago that I cooked it and I know I even got lentil-disliking Ben to eat it but that's all I can remember about it.
42. Mini Christmas Puddings - OK, so a bit of a cheat recipe if the truth be said but the end of the year was looming ever closer and I needed to boost recipe numbers. Plus I did have to try and work out how long tiny puds would have to cook for without spoiling and adapt the recipe a bit as I had ingredients missing. Would I be let off adding these if I also said I served them as part of our Christmas Café Gourmand and topped them with Cointreau (as opposed to brandy) butter ... which went down very well with all concerned and will be made every Christmas now until that mega bottle of Cointreau is finished!
43. Mini Filo Mincemeat Tarts - also part of our Christmas Café Gourmand and made with the rather odd product that the French sell in lieu of filo pastry.
44. Filo Chestnut and Bacon Tarts - made from more of the odd pastry and left-over Christmas day chestnut stuffing. They were rather good if I say so myself!
45. Cassis (unfinished) - I started this back in the summer when the blackcurrant harvest was at it's peak. Now all I need to do is search through my bookmarks to find what I am supposed to do in order to finish it. If Simon gets me a white wine kit next time he's over in the UK we could have the closest thing to our own home-made Kir.
46. Gooseberry Wine (unfinished) - this is my first foray into the making of fruit wine but I've a horrible feeling I've messed it up as the airlock somehow got knocked off for an unknown length of time. I will investigate soon and report back.
47. Lamb and Pumpkin Curry - still working through that humongous pumpkin harvest and this was a scrummy combination.
 
So - 47 new kitchen delights, most successful and more than a few made more that once. Do let me know if you would like any of the recipes and I'll do my best to track them down for you. In the meantime if anyone has any excellent ideas of what to do with pumpkins please also let me know. I've still got more that a wheelbarrow full to get through. The pigs however, will get what we don't eat so no doubt they would prefer you not to let me have your recipes!!

5 comments :

  1. Oh, crabapple and rosehip jelly is my favourite. Possibly not my hands' favourite, however... I'd be interested in the green lentil soup recipe, if it's not too much trouble.

    For pumpkin, it makes a great soup with onion, a little potato, sage, and milk or cream. Or a risotto with pumpkin and some kale/savoy cabbage/similar. I also have a recipe for a bake of roast pumpkin, sweetcorn, chile, and coconut milk that's nice and makes a change.

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  2. savory pumpkin pie sounds delicious!

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  3. mmm sound good sounding recipes there!

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  4. Welcome to the blog mellowlark and Sujana. I'll search out the soup recipe but it wasn't in the book I thought it should be so give me a day or so. Tonight I made a pumpkin gratin (eaten with Cavolo Nero kale) and that was really nice. I might try your pumpkin/coconut milk idea son. Soup is always a winner here.

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  5. And I've just remembered another new recipe I missed from the list:

    48. Cape Gooseberry Jam.

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