Savoury & Sweet Pancakes

Shrove Tuesday sprung itself on us again yesterday. I thought I better make some pancakes for Hubby, a little treat for him as I never usually bother. I decided it could be a fun idea to bring pancakes into the main supper dish so I concocted the following.

Savoury Pancakes with Turkey & Bechemel Sauce

Pancake Batter - Makes 10-12

1 pt Semi Skimmed Milk

5 oz Plain Flour

2 Eggs

Pancake Filling

250g Turkey Breast, sliced thinly

Half Onion sliced

2 small Peppers, one green one red, halved and sliced

Handful if sliced mushrooms

Half Vegetable stock cube (I use Maggi, the best if you can get hold of them)

Bechemel Sauce

3/4 Pint of Semi skimmed milk

1 Tbs Plain Flour

Small knob of butter

Nutmeg

Small handful grated Cheddar cheese

Chopped Parsley

Pepperdew Peppers from Jar.

Mozzarella

Make up a batch of pancake batter in blender.

Stir fry in a little oil the Turkey, onions, peppers, mushrooms and crumble in the stock cube, I also added a little shake of cayenne pepper for a kick.

Make the Bechemel, melt the butter in a pan, add flour to make a roux, slowly pour in the milk, keep stirring or it will go lumpy. Grate in a little nutmeg and toss in a handful of cheese.

Remove from heat whilst you make 6 Pancakes.

Take a pancake fill it with the turkey mixture, roll up and place in a baking dish, repeat for all 6.

Pour the bechemel over the top of the pancakes, garnish with chopped parsley and a handful of the wonderfully piquant Pepperdew peppers and the mozzarella ball ripped up.

Bake in oven at 180oc for 15 mins.

Whilst I was making this I thought it was going to be rather heavy and stodgy and was very surprised when it was not! Would have been brilliant with a side salad, but being little piggies, we decided to forgo the salad and finish the whole dish.

Afterwards there was still some batter left so a couple of traditional pancakes with just lemon juice and sugar sprinkled over were called for.

Potted Mackerel

A trip to see Gordon the fishmonger at the weekend saw me skulking away with a bag of Mackerel fillets.


Mackerel is truly my favourite fish, hubby is a bit ambivalent about it though, so I have to make dishes with mackerel when he is not around or in this case, something that lasts a few days and can easily be used for lunch or nibbles. I picked this recipe out from the Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall book on Fish, I adapted the dish slightly to suit.


Potted Mackerel

4 Mackerel Fillets
2 Fat Cloves Garlic
2 Bay Leaves
1 Tsp Mace
1/2 Tsp Cayenne Pepper
Juice of 1/2 Lemon
125g Butter
1 Tsp Dried Thyme
1 Tbs Fresh Chopped Parsley
S&P

Put 2 fillets, skin side down in an oiled backing tray, place a clove of garlic and bay leaf on each and then the other fillets on top. Bake in oven for 15 minutes, turning once. When cool enough to handle remove the skin and bones and flake into a bowl. Discard the bay leaves and one of the cloves of garlic.

Add mace, thyme, cayenne, parsley & lemon juice to mackerel and season with S&P.

Take the butter and melt in a pan, add the remianing clove of garlic, finely chopped, the butter will separate into white solids, which will sink to the bottom and clarified butter on top. Pour 2/3rds of the clarified butter over the mackerel, mix gently.

Put the mackerel into small ramekins, press down and pour over the remaining clarified butter.







Leave to cool, then refrigerate. The ramekins will keep in the fridge for several days as long as the butter seal is not broken. Perfect with toast.

All in One Brunch

With the sun actually out and shining at the weekend, I took the opportunity to get into the garden and do some much need smartening up, so first thing on Saturday I stepped into the garden to sweep, weed, prune and shovel working up a hunger whilst doing so.

For brunch I decided to pick out a recipe from Eats Like a Girl her take on Huevos Rancheros and take it a step further.

All in one Brunch

Couple of handfuls Cherry Tomatoes

Couple of handfuls of diced potatoes

2 Eggs

3 Pork loin chops, sausages would have been good, but I didn't have any.

Cayenne Pepper

Grated Cheese

I halved the tomatoes and put then on an oiled tray to roast in the oven for 20 mins at 180oc. Dried the diced potato on kitchen roll, then popped them into the oven on another oiled tray, seasoned with S&P. After 20-30mins the tomatoes are sticky and reduced and the potatoes crispy and brown. I added them to the same pan and mixed in a little Cayenne to give it a kick. Placed the pork loins on top which I had already pan fried in a little butter, till slightly crispy, only a few minutes on each side. Cracked a couple of eggs over the top and placed the whole lot back into the oven for 5 or so minutes, until the eggs were cooked, also added a handful of grated cheese for extra naughtiness.

The end dish was very satisfiying and delicious and just the thing after the physical work in the garden.

Tagliatelle with Bacon, Sprouts and Cream

Pinched this recipe from Annes Kitchen . A little bit of a treat, I used Tagliatelle instead of Spag and lower fat Elmlea rather than double cream. The Vermouth and Sprout were such an unusual twang taste together - not bad, but the same problem I seem to have with pasta & cream dishes - it ends up too claggy and stodgy. Will have to work on that.

Supreme Sarnie & Celeriac Soup

After the success of the Crab Stuffed Portobello Mushrooms yesterday I decided to turn the leftover mix into a lush sandwich. I added a little mayonnaise and lemon juice to the crab, shrimp and spring onion, dolloped it on a lightly toasted ciabatta roll and added a little leftover salad - Delicious.

I then needed to use up my beloved Celeriac prior to Hubby's return. He cannot bear celery and celeriac is too much like it for him to enjoy, so I have to plan my celeriac fixes when he is not around. Last night I made a Celeriac and Potato Soup

1 Medium Celeriac approx 600g, peeled and cubed

1 Large Onion, finely sliced

2 Medium sized floury potatoes, peeled and cubed

1 Lt Chicken or veg stock.

knob of butter

3 sage leaves

2 strips of lemon peel

Melt the butter in pan, gently cook the onions until soft, not coloured. Add the potato and celeriac, pour over the stock add the sage leaves and lemon peel. Bring to boil and simmer for 30 minutes. The celeriac should be soft, stir to breakdown the potato and thicken the soup, remove the sage and lemon peel.

This is a lovely soup, the lemon really zings the flavour of the celeriac and makes it taste like a creamy Thai soup with lemongrass. Serve plain or add some grated cheddar to the top.

Crab Stuffed Portobello Mushrooms

As promised I had a salad last night, a plain chopped little gem with cucumber and tomato salad to accompany my equally light Crab Stuffed Portobello Mushrooms.

Serves 2

1 small can crab meat

1 small can shrimps

3 Spring Onions

4 Portobello Mushrooms

Handful grated cheese, I used Chedder
Butter

Pepper

Clean the mushrooms with dry cloth, rub some butter over the inside and out, place on baking tray. Drain and mix the cans of Crab and Shrimp with the finely chopped spring onions and add a good grind of pepper and add the mixture on to the mushrooms, sprinkle cheese on top and pop into the oven for 15-20mins 200oc.

A very simple but tasty dish, a welcome change from hearty winter dinners. I enjoyed a glass of chilled Vinho Verde with supper, a light, slightly effervescent summery wine, perfect to make me feel as if warm sunny days are just around the corner.

Winter Blues

Blurgh, blah, yukky. Basically that is how I feel at the moment. I am so fed up with the miserable winter weather I desperately need to see some sun, feel a little bit of warmth and not to have to leave home in the dark and arrive back in the dark. I don't think it is helped much by such such depressing news every time I open the newspaper or watch a bulletin - economy, recession, credit not to mention, stabbing, shooting, murder.

I think it all mounts up on a person and slowly drags you down, so I have attached a photo to cheer me of our 2008 summer holiday in Menorca, we were indulging in our favourite pastime of people watching whilst enjoying a long lunch in Cala Fons with a bottle of chilled rose, tapas to nibble on, probably Pulpo Galacia (Octopus on boiled potato with pimenton and olive oil), anchovies in oil and garlic and Ablongdias (meatballs in tomato sauce) with fresh bread to mop up the remaining sauce, followed by a cafe solo (espresso) and a shot of Xorigeur Herb Gin as a digestive before wandering back to the villa for a well earned siesta.

All this doom and gloom has had an effect on my cooking of late, far to much comfort food going, no real enthusiasm for trying new recipes, its all pasta, potatoes and pies at the moment, although the Baked Gnocchi from Wendy at A Wee Bit of Cooking was delicious, I did feel terrible naughty and stodgy afterwards. Hubby is currently away in Spain for a week, probably another reason for my dour demeanour, but it does mean that all the meals I popped into the freezer are getting used, so that in some way does make me feel slightly virtuous. I have however promised myself a salad tonight!