The Mock Turtle

So being in our second airbnb with minimal kitchen equipment and only a few cookery books (what I got for christmas and the first Anna Jones book only) hasn't been that conducive for cooking new recipes but I am determined to cook through my cupboards/fridge/freezer so I don't have as much stuff to move (we have another airbnb to move to before we finally move to our actual new house and get all my cookery books and kitchen stuff delivered!)

This evening I made marinated artichokes from Alison Roman's Nothing Fancy. I had three cans of artichokes in my Brexit stockpile and this used up two and was really delicious. G had three helpings! There's some leftover but they fitted in a jar perfectly and will keep for a few weeks (if they last that long). I am definitely going to make them again and use different herbs/seasonings. Am thinking pink peppercorns and parsley - maybe a bit of garlic too.

I also made a cranberry upside-down cake from Liz Prueitt's updated version of Tartine. I'd bought the cranberries before christmas but with everyone being ill I hadn't got round to doing anything with them and was about to bin them when I noticed they were in totally perfect condition. The cake batter is pretty interesting as it involves just over a cup of creme fraiche and only a small amount of butter which happened to suit what I found in the fridge perfectly. My only loaf tin here wasn't the right size so I guesstimated and made an extra cranberry-free mini loaf for the kids they gobbled up. I'm waiting for the main cake to cool in the tin before I turn it out.

Tell me what you're cooking in 2020 please!

That all sounds lovely!

We’ve fired up the freezer in the cellar and I’m planning on cooking loads of soup. Starting with Nigella’s sweetcorn soup, and a celeriac and Stilton. Then something with beans. I come home from work hangry and freezing so some sort of hearty soup is definitely needed.

In general I want to cook more non-meat meals, which I did when I used to cook for myself but I’ve got out of the habit.
On my list are:
Aubergine parmigiana
Potato & cauli curry
Satay sweet potato
Bean chilli
Sweet & sour squash
Courgette fritters
Onion tart
Puttanesca
Gnocchi with something?
Goats cheese, spinach & pea pasta
Mushroom stroganoff
Veggie fajitas
Macaroni cheese
Veggie shepherds pie

I'm on a bit of a soup roll too, to use up stray veg/cheese/herbs and collected peelings at the end of the week and cater for lunches for the next few days. Also it marries well with my bread projects. I'm generally on a back-to-basics/traditional skills/simplicity/zero waste roll, with this week earmarked for making sour cream which will later become cultured butter. Some ricotta today too, as I made it at New Year and it was delicious (purists will say it's not ricotta, it's cottage cheese, but it's all too boring for me to care.) It won't all last but a routine of weekly soup, bread and butter seems like a pleasing one to me. And lends me the benefits of the by products like sourdough discard and buttermilk. Other stray veg have gone into the pickling jar.

I got a pasta roller for Christmas (I got sick of rolling it by hand so made space). It took me a while to get the hang of it but I've made tortellini a few times and feel ok with that now. I think I'm going to make spaghetti in the week; I made a batch of pasta dough for the freezer last weekend.

How are you finding Nothing Fancy emma? It's not in stock on Amazon, I was going to put it in my basket (with Tartine Bread, The Whole Fish Cookbook and Cooking with Scraps) but couldn't.

Your list is making me hungry Squizz. Onion tart now please.

Mountain Goat wrote: ↑Mon Jan 20, 2020 10:20 am Your list is making me hungry Squizz. Onion tart now please.

It’s an old favourite recipe of my mum’s*, with different types of onions and semolina in the pastry. I bet it won’t be as good as hers but worth a try .


*Probably from The Telegraph originally .

Oh that sounds perfect (Telegraph aside ).

We had a bit of a cooking fest last weekend and Mr J had the smoker on making pork and beef ribs and I made 10lbs of chili (half is for a competition at Mr J’s work). We’d just got our veg box so I also smoked watermelon radishes and beetroot. I’d roasted the radish in butter first and served the beetroot sliced in a herby dressing with goats cheese on top. L and I also made pint glass bread the same day.

I have been out of commission but over this weekend Mr J cooked lots of chicken for lunches and yesterday made a beer can chicken and a batch of burritos.

One weeknight I also tried a new recipe with all the wrong ingredients It was supposed to be a bulgar spinach and tomato casserole but I used wild rice and used butter beans instead of chickpeas in it and it was still delicious.

What is pint glass bread? That all sounds wonderful.

Goat, what will you do with your tortellini? I love home made tortellini .

It’s Jack Monroe - https://cookingonabootstrap.com/2018/10 ... ad-recipe/ I put mine in my bread proving basket and cloche rather than how she did it.

My other go to is crock pot bread. I’ll see if I can find the recipe.

I’d like to give bread a go. I’ve left my Magimix out for that reason rather than putting it away and then leaving it to fester in a cupboard. Yours looks good, Jet.

The only vaguely interesting thing I’ve done recently is mussels. I did them in a trad. way but added some pasta and it was really good. I’m thinking of doing them Thai style next.

Jet wrote: ↑Mon Jan 20, 2020 5:20 pm One weeknight I also tried a new recipe with all the wrong ingredients It was supposed to be a bulgar spinach and tomato casserole but I used wild rice and used butter beans instead of chickpeas in it and it was still delicious.

I love it when that happens!

Your list is also making me hungry, Squizz!

I'm barely cooking atm My London kitchen is badly equipped and I'm still too excited about eating out, which I'm doing a lot as I'm still catching up with lots of people while at home we're mostly emptying the freezer/ using stuff up.

I did buy a few new books at the end of last year - Dishoom ( have made a few egg- based breakfast dishes and the chai) and Nothing Fancy (have only made the anchovy garlic bread). I had a big blitz on Six Seasons winter recipes a few weeks ago and I still love that book.

Goat - how are you finding Cooking with Scraps? It's a bonus book for the food52 monthly cook book group (along with Anna Jones' latest) so I keep seeing occasional recipes on their fb group but don't have a sense of it yet.

I made this corn and cotija "dip" (it's American style dip) last night because I started thinking about making it for Super Bowl Sunday next weekend but then realised I had all the ingredients which needed using up so just did it! We had it as a side with tortilla soup but I was very frugal on the tortilla strips in the soup so we could feel less guilty about using tortilla chips to shovel the dip in our faces

https://minimalistbaker.com/summer-corn ... heese-dip/

I'm just about to attempt a rhubarb version of the cranberry-upside down cake I made up the thread. I'm then going to pack my cake tins and kitchen aid up in preparation for moving

That looks really good.

I used frozen corn and it was totally as good as when I made it in the states with the fresh stuff - 10 ears for $1 in season!!

The rhubarb upside down cake was even better than the cranberry version! New favourite cake alert

I need that dip . Did you have the cheese or did you use an alternative?

I’d like to make tortilla soup again, thanks for the reminder .

I used feta! It’s pretty similar. I actually might do a repeat next Sunday

That’s reminded me that I really want to make 7 layer dip. Maybe for the Super Bowl.

Thank you, I bought extra sweetcorn to make Nigella’s soup and I could definitely spare some for this.

Pippedydeadeye wrote: ↑Mon Jan 27, 2020 9:55 pmThat’s reminded me that I really want to make 7 layer dip. Maybe for the Super Bowl.

What time do you want me?

About 5? I don’t plan to actually watch the super bowl.