A lovely lightbulb moment (with a recipe at the bottom)
Since ten weeks have passed since I last had my regular children's group on a Sunday, and since most of the regulars weren't there, and since I've been feeling unreasonably tired this weekend, I decided to just do a recap timeline of where we're at in the Old Testament. In Click books 2 & 3 we go through Genesis and Exodus to see God's power, His sovereignty, His grace and love.
After we had completed our scratch timeline, the girl looked at it and commented, "It's like, we all sin because we're all in Adam's family. He sinned, so we all sin." It was delightful to take her to Romans and show her that is pretty much exactly what it says in the Bible. It also enabled me to show that God didn't leave us in Adam's condemned family, but sent another man, whose family we join, with all its benefits, when we put our faith in him.
Then another delightful lightbulb moment when she followed on: "So, all the people who believe in Jesus, they are like another family we have joined?"
Lovely.
What was also lovely, in a a culinary sense, was the recipe that I see as a gift from God. I've said this before on facebook, so I apologise for repeating myself.
One day the Waitrose man arrived with the shopping. As he left he pulled the magazine and a recipe card out of a folder. Handing me the recipe, he said, "I don't know why they have sent this."
Because the Lord is kind, that is why.
A true one pot recipe. A recipe which needs hardly any work, but is FUGE (as younger child says) on flavour. A meal which everyone loves. Even elder child devoured it, and she normally only nibbles. A recipe to fill you with goodness and joy even when you're exhausted. I put it in the oven before church and it was ready to eat on return. I did have to dig potatoes to put in in, but when they are as crazy as our spuds, even that couldn't diminish the happiness. I've done this recipe lots, and I am continually grateful that something so satisfying can be so easily made.
Slow-cooked lamb and bean stew
I double or triple it, and normally just put a whole lamb joint in rather than pieces. Garlic also goes in whole. And water is fine, no need for lamb stock.
And I cook it in the oven on 150C for 2 1/2 - 3 hours rather than the slightly harsher stove top cook. Spinach goes in after church for a couple of minutes.
Sunday, 6 September 2015
Saturday, 5 September 2015
More yumminess from Nigella
An obsession with Nigella
for lunch today I did a Nigella triptych of One-Pan Sage and Onion Chicken and Sausages, accompanied by her sticky Garlic Roast Potatoes and Cauliflower Cheese, all from Feast. Fortunately I can give you a link to the chicken because I pretty much did exactly as I was told. Apart from boiling potatoes for half an hour, because, ug! Soggy potatoes.
Here is the chicken. This was the first time I'd made it and it was delicious! Surprisingly so!
http://www.nigella.com/recipes/view/one-pan-sage-and-onion-chicken-and-sausage-133
Pudding was Blackberry and Apple Pie - Gluten Free! One of our lovely guests asked about Gluten-free pastry because it is so hard to make. I completely agree. The best GF pastry I make is using a rough-puff recipe which contains as much butter as flour. That's twice the amount in normal shortcrust. I think i also add an egg to help bind it.
And the flour. I haven't experimented with flours, but I do go for the slightly odd choice of Dove's Farm GF Self-raising flour. It is much less dry than the plain flour, and perhaps because of the xanthan gum in it, it is much easier to use. The raising agents don't seem to make any difference to pastry, or inded gravy. No more lumpy GF gravy once I moved to self-raising. How odd!
This is my favourite Pie recipe
Oak Cottage Blackberry Pie
And I do exactly what it says apart from subbing the flour. Oh - and don't expect it to roll out very well. It'll crack and fall apart and drive you nuts, but cracks can be patched, and once it is glazed and sprinkled with sugar you'll barely notice. Possibly!
Today though, I had some yummy fresh bramleys from Maureen at church (Thank you!) and some blackberries from the garden (thank you Lord for brambles and free food).
So I found this online
Jamie's Blackberry and Apple Pie with a hint of ginger
(See, it's not all about Nigella)
And it was VERY YUMMY. I think i overcooked the filling though, it was totally lumpfree and perhaps some chunks of apples would have been nice. But I could have eaten the whole lot, especially since the only thing I had in the fridge to accompany it was clotted cream.
mmmmm.
for lunch today I did a Nigella triptych of One-Pan Sage and Onion Chicken and Sausages, accompanied by her sticky Garlic Roast Potatoes and Cauliflower Cheese, all from Feast. Fortunately I can give you a link to the chicken because I pretty much did exactly as I was told. Apart from boiling potatoes for half an hour, because, ug! Soggy potatoes.
Here is the chicken. This was the first time I'd made it and it was delicious! Surprisingly so!
http://www.nigella.com/recipes/view/one-pan-sage-and-onion-chicken-and-sausage-133
Pudding was Blackberry and Apple Pie - Gluten Free! One of our lovely guests asked about Gluten-free pastry because it is so hard to make. I completely agree. The best GF pastry I make is using a rough-puff recipe which contains as much butter as flour. That's twice the amount in normal shortcrust. I think i also add an egg to help bind it.
And the flour. I haven't experimented with flours, but I do go for the slightly odd choice of Dove's Farm GF Self-raising flour. It is much less dry than the plain flour, and perhaps because of the xanthan gum in it, it is much easier to use. The raising agents don't seem to make any difference to pastry, or inded gravy. No more lumpy GF gravy once I moved to self-raising. How odd!
This is my favourite Pie recipe
Oak Cottage Blackberry Pie
And I do exactly what it says apart from subbing the flour. Oh - and don't expect it to roll out very well. It'll crack and fall apart and drive you nuts, but cracks can be patched, and once it is glazed and sprinkled with sugar you'll barely notice. Possibly!
Today though, I had some yummy fresh bramleys from Maureen at church (Thank you!) and some blackberries from the garden (thank you Lord for brambles and free food).
So I found this online
Jamie's Blackberry and Apple Pie with a hint of ginger
(See, it's not all about Nigella)
And it was VERY YUMMY. I think i overcooked the filling though, it was totally lumpfree and perhaps some chunks of apples would have been nice. But I could have eaten the whole lot, especially since the only thing I had in the fridge to accompany it was clotted cream.
mmmmm.
Friday, 4 September 2015
Persian Delight
A Day in the Big City
There is a not a great mix of ethnicities in our town. Most people are from the same ethnic background as we are. I imagine 98% would tick "white, British" on their census.
When we are out and about elsewhere, I catch my children staring at people who look different. That is what children do, in many situations, and it's often fine. They have also been known to ask loudly about why "that lady" is wearing a particular item of clothing, or ask about the colour of a man's skin. This is normal for children, however, we don't want them to constantly be shocked into silence whenever we leave home for somewhere like London, or Newcastle.
So, when the need arises for spices and rices, we head to west Newcastle for our favourite asian supermarket. It is such fun looking at wacky fruit and veg, huge bags of spices and dazzling number of different brands of Basmati rice. It is a great reminder to the kids that life in the UK is not really reflected in our town.
After that though (and this is the best bit), we head for the Persian Delight Restaurant a little further north. Each day of the week they serve one main dish. Since we always go on a Friday, we have only ever had the same dish. Lamb cooked with lots of lime, coriander and pink beans. A lovely bowlful with a huge side of rice. In addition to the dish of the day, they serve a variety of chargrilled meats, either with rice or GIANT flatbread. We asked for lamb chops for youngest. EIGHT arrived! And a similar quantity of chicken kebab for eldest! You may be surprised to know that they ate most of it...
Nick and I agreed that we would love to eat food like this every day. I remarked that it is similar, in some ways, to Colombian food. A bowl of something delicious, with other delicious things on the side, with lots of flavours playing with each other. When I lived in Bogota for a year I just loved going out for food because it was so delicious and so tasty. A big bowl of soup, with some rice, some fried plantain, baked, salted south american potatoes, an array of interesting raw veg salads, freshly squeezed juice of any fruit you can imagine. And street-food of charred, unidentifiable meat and offal-filled blood sausage, deep fried coconut chunks, hot cornmeal-arepas filled with melting cheese, obleas (circular wafers) with caramel and colombian cheese between them.
I love food, and decent english food is great, but we miss something of the incredible foods of other nations. Hence the joy of living near a big city and going to the Persian Delight and revelling in simple, delicious food from all nations.
Now I just need to find a Colombian restaurant in Newcastle...
There is a not a great mix of ethnicities in our town. Most people are from the same ethnic background as we are. I imagine 98% would tick "white, British" on their census.
When we are out and about elsewhere, I catch my children staring at people who look different. That is what children do, in many situations, and it's often fine. They have also been known to ask loudly about why "that lady" is wearing a particular item of clothing, or ask about the colour of a man's skin. This is normal for children, however, we don't want them to constantly be shocked into silence whenever we leave home for somewhere like London, or Newcastle.
So, when the need arises for spices and rices, we head to west Newcastle for our favourite asian supermarket. It is such fun looking at wacky fruit and veg, huge bags of spices and dazzling number of different brands of Basmati rice. It is a great reminder to the kids that life in the UK is not really reflected in our town.
After that though (and this is the best bit), we head for the Persian Delight Restaurant a little further north. Each day of the week they serve one main dish. Since we always go on a Friday, we have only ever had the same dish. Lamb cooked with lots of lime, coriander and pink beans. A lovely bowlful with a huge side of rice. In addition to the dish of the day, they serve a variety of chargrilled meats, either with rice or GIANT flatbread. We asked for lamb chops for youngest. EIGHT arrived! And a similar quantity of chicken kebab for eldest! You may be surprised to know that they ate most of it...
Nick and I agreed that we would love to eat food like this every day. I remarked that it is similar, in some ways, to Colombian food. A bowl of something delicious, with other delicious things on the side, with lots of flavours playing with each other. When I lived in Bogota for a year I just loved going out for food because it was so delicious and so tasty. A big bowl of soup, with some rice, some fried plantain, baked, salted south american potatoes, an array of interesting raw veg salads, freshly squeezed juice of any fruit you can imagine. And street-food of charred, unidentifiable meat and offal-filled blood sausage, deep fried coconut chunks, hot cornmeal-arepas filled with melting cheese, obleas (circular wafers) with caramel and colombian cheese between them.
I love food, and decent english food is great, but we miss something of the incredible foods of other nations. Hence the joy of living near a big city and going to the Persian Delight and revelling in simple, delicious food from all nations.
Now I just need to find a Colombian restaurant in Newcastle...
Thursday, 3 September 2015
The Elevator Family
I have been encouraging eldest to read to me this year* (we're 3 days in!) because I realised that since she has been able to read I haven't really felt it necessary (even though the books say otherwise). However Nick and I have realised that she has words in her head which are mispronounced because she hasn't heard us saying them (although how we've failed to have dungeons in daily chat, I'm not sure). Plus we've had sneaking suspicions that her "reading" of a book doesn't actually enter her head. I read Middlemarch at secondary school, and by the time I reached the end I couldn't tell you what had happened or the names of any of the characters.
I'm not kidding.
So I know that lack of retention could be an issue.
So, using the Sonlight and Veritas catalogues and some other online helps, I have chosen some highly recommended, short chaptered books for her to read with me. Given a choice between The Elevator Family and Dolphin Adventure, she chose the former. Hilariously, it's because Dolphin has pictures, she prefers books with pictures, and she wanted to get Elevator over with!
Like-mother, like-daughter (I eat the veg first on that basis).
Happily, she loves the Elevator Family, the story of a family who mistake a large, plush lift for a hotel room. My eldest is now desperate to read it each day.
Note: Obviously, it's an American book, since we don't use elevators in this country. I have pondered whether American books are a good idea or not. Someone at church also asked me a question about American spellings, and what we'd be teaching. So here's an attempt to outline my thoughts on using A LOT of American books.
Pros:
1. America has produced some seriously good children's literature.
Madeleine L'Engle & Elizabeth George Spear are 2 authors i have been enjoying getting to know this year.
2. The US have valued children's literature highly for years. See the Caldecott and Newbury prizes.
3. They have a lot more depth that most of the (recent) British stuff I have looked at.
4. It gives us an opportunity to talk about differences in cultures.
5. This should be #1, but I only just thought of it, that American books (from the past) have a lot more truth in them. That is, biblical truth. Say what you like about the often bizarre (to a Brit) behaviour of American Christianity, at least Jesus has made it into their literature.
Cons
1. They use different words
2 They spell differently. Traveling, for example. Odd, isn't it! Marvelous... Savior. And all that!
I think that the Pros outweigh the cons, no?
* it is also an easy thing to do. Home educating, alongside the responsibilities I have elsewhere is REALLY HARD. I am not superwoman, and me reading to children, and them reading to me is not hard on me. And beneficial. See Charlotte Mason...
I'm not kidding.
So I know that lack of retention could be an issue.
So, using the Sonlight and Veritas catalogues and some other online helps, I have chosen some highly recommended, short chaptered books for her to read with me. Given a choice between The Elevator Family and Dolphin Adventure, she chose the former. Hilariously, it's because Dolphin has pictures, she prefers books with pictures, and she wanted to get Elevator over with!
Like-mother, like-daughter (I eat the veg first on that basis).
Happily, she loves the Elevator Family, the story of a family who mistake a large, plush lift for a hotel room. My eldest is now desperate to read it each day.
Note: Obviously, it's an American book, since we don't use elevators in this country. I have pondered whether American books are a good idea or not. Someone at church also asked me a question about American spellings, and what we'd be teaching. So here's an attempt to outline my thoughts on using A LOT of American books.
Pros:
1. America has produced some seriously good children's literature.
Madeleine L'Engle & Elizabeth George Spear are 2 authors i have been enjoying getting to know this year.
2. The US have valued children's literature highly for years. See the Caldecott and Newbury prizes.
3. They have a lot more depth that most of the (recent) British stuff I have looked at.
4. It gives us an opportunity to talk about differences in cultures.
5. This should be #1, but I only just thought of it, that American books (from the past) have a lot more truth in them. That is, biblical truth. Say what you like about the often bizarre (to a Brit) behaviour of American Christianity, at least Jesus has made it into their literature.
Cons
1. They use different words
2 They spell differently. Traveling, for example. Odd, isn't it! Marvelous... Savior. And all that!
I think that the Pros outweigh the cons, no?
* it is also an easy thing to do. Home educating, alongside the responsibilities I have elsewhere is REALLY HARD. I am not superwoman, and me reading to children, and them reading to me is not hard on me. And beneficial. See Charlotte Mason...
New Potatoes
If you like spending nearly an hour cooking new potatoes
Then this is the recipe for you. It's based on a recipe on the Guardian's website which in turn stole it from Elizabeth David. I love that recipes have no copyright, because slightly changing one tiny aspect of it makes it new enough to be yours. Happy Days.
Anyway. Earlier in the year I filled one of the giant clay-mud-filled raised beds (side of a pit heap from Harraton Colliery days) with fresh horse manure. The kind that comes with lots of stinking sawdust. Part of it was set aside for courgette growing (fine as long as you protect the leaves) and the rest remained for spuds. Pink Fir Apples since they are delicious and seem to grow up here in the cool dry North East.
Planting the spuds took a long time to get round to, and they hadn't impressed me with their chitting, so one day in the spring I shoved 12 of them into holes in the manure and hoped for the best. Fastforward a few months, and in particular the day we came back from 3 weeks holiday. The peas (planted 3 feet below the spuds) and courgettes had vanished underneath potato foliage. I assumed that the nitrogen in the manure had given us super-foliage, but thought it would be all leaf and no potato. Until I started to dig them!
Incredibly, I'm getting a mixing bowl of potatoes from each plant. I have no idea if this is good or not in general, but it's the best potato crop I've ever had. And this from potatoes grown in 6 inches of manure. Today I discovered that the potatoes hadn't penetrated the clay at all. In the shallowest manure there was a mat of root and potatoes. All beautifully whole, not green at all (despite no earthing up). A miracle of potato growing.
So, not wanting to just boil them (boring!), i googled, and came up with this. Risky, but in the end, worth it. Delicious!
Fondant New Potatoes
Choose your heaviest pot with a lid. These need LONG SLOW cooking, so you don't want a pan prone to burning.
Melt a chunk of butter in it (50-75g I guess) then add your (whole) new potatoes. Put lid on.
Turn down to lowest heat and let cook for 10 minutes. Turn over and cook for another ten, and repeat until you reckon they are cooked and have a lovely colour. Mine took about 40 minutes. Maybe 45. I was talking to my mum and dad on the phone simultaneously so couldn't be exact! You could turn the heat up a little near the end to give a more caramelised outside.
They were sticky, buttery, salty (from the butter) and completely delicious, nicely complementing the outstanding lamb chops (from New Close Farm Shop. You should definitely visit), the buttered balsamic beetroot (I should probably post this recipe), and the never-ending runner beans from the garden.
I feel hungry again now just imagining it!
Then this is the recipe for you. It's based on a recipe on the Guardian's website which in turn stole it from Elizabeth David. I love that recipes have no copyright, because slightly changing one tiny aspect of it makes it new enough to be yours. Happy Days.
Anyway. Earlier in the year I filled one of the giant clay-mud-filled raised beds (side of a pit heap from Harraton Colliery days) with fresh horse manure. The kind that comes with lots of stinking sawdust. Part of it was set aside for courgette growing (fine as long as you protect the leaves) and the rest remained for spuds. Pink Fir Apples since they are delicious and seem to grow up here in the cool dry North East.
Planting the spuds took a long time to get round to, and they hadn't impressed me with their chitting, so one day in the spring I shoved 12 of them into holes in the manure and hoped for the best. Fastforward a few months, and in particular the day we came back from 3 weeks holiday. The peas (planted 3 feet below the spuds) and courgettes had vanished underneath potato foliage. I assumed that the nitrogen in the manure had given us super-foliage, but thought it would be all leaf and no potato. Until I started to dig them!
Incredibly, I'm getting a mixing bowl of potatoes from each plant. I have no idea if this is good or not in general, but it's the best potato crop I've ever had. And this from potatoes grown in 6 inches of manure. Today I discovered that the potatoes hadn't penetrated the clay at all. In the shallowest manure there was a mat of root and potatoes. All beautifully whole, not green at all (despite no earthing up). A miracle of potato growing.
So, not wanting to just boil them (boring!), i googled, and came up with this. Risky, but in the end, worth it. Delicious!
Fondant New Potatoes
Choose your heaviest pot with a lid. These need LONG SLOW cooking, so you don't want a pan prone to burning.
Melt a chunk of butter in it (50-75g I guess) then add your (whole) new potatoes. Put lid on.
Turn down to lowest heat and let cook for 10 minutes. Turn over and cook for another ten, and repeat until you reckon they are cooked and have a lovely colour. Mine took about 40 minutes. Maybe 45. I was talking to my mum and dad on the phone simultaneously so couldn't be exact! You could turn the heat up a little near the end to give a more caramelised outside.
They were sticky, buttery, salty (from the butter) and completely delicious, nicely complementing the outstanding lamb chops (from New Close Farm Shop. You should definitely visit), the buttered balsamic beetroot (I should probably post this recipe), and the never-ending runner beans from the garden.
I feel hungry again now just imagining it!
Wednesday, 2 September 2015
Ethelred the Unready
Am I allowed to post twice on my first day?
My eldest and I are reading through a book called "Our Island Story". It is an OLD narrative history book for children. My copy has Queen Victoria on the throne and ends with the Boer War, eldest's copy has George VI reigning and ends after the Great War. The author, HE Marshall, frequently references Jesus and asks what greater thing the Romans did than bring news of him to Britain. I love this book! I'm SURE there is bias in the history, but it's a great story, and each chapter is the right sort of length for eldest's concentration span.
So, to Ethelred the Unready. It is fair to say that I found history very dull at school (perhaps it was, or perhaps nobody ever told me why it was so fascinating, and I was quite a blinkered teenager). However, I now discover that history was anything but boring. For example, today we were reading about Ethelred's foolishness at repeatedly paying the Vikings to leave England. After a time they would come back and demand more money to leave again. The bloody end to Ethelred's unreadiness came when he set a date on which the Anglo-saxons should turn on their (settled) Danish neighbours and kill them all. November 13th. And they did.
I have various home ed plans, and one of them is to practice narration. We read something, and the children narrate back to me what they have heard, in their own words, to help them to log it in their minds. At the moment eldest is 5 and I ask her to tell me one thing she wants to say. Her response today was
The discussion over dinner is that humanity hasn't changed. It was as terrible 1000 years ago as it is now. Not everybody is as bad as Ethelred all at once, but genocide has always been present.
At the time of Ethelred there were people in Britain who knew they needed a Saviour. The Romans brought that wonderful news with them 1700 years ago. And the same gospel remains, that humanity is in need of something more than civilisation: we need a Saviour and a new heart. And the Lord God has given us that.
My eldest and I are reading through a book called "Our Island Story". It is an OLD narrative history book for children. My copy has Queen Victoria on the throne and ends with the Boer War, eldest's copy has George VI reigning and ends after the Great War. The author, HE Marshall, frequently references Jesus and asks what greater thing the Romans did than bring news of him to Britain. I love this book! I'm SURE there is bias in the history, but it's a great story, and each chapter is the right sort of length for eldest's concentration span.
So, to Ethelred the Unready. It is fair to say that I found history very dull at school (perhaps it was, or perhaps nobody ever told me why it was so fascinating, and I was quite a blinkered teenager). However, I now discover that history was anything but boring. For example, today we were reading about Ethelred's foolishness at repeatedly paying the Vikings to leave England. After a time they would come back and demand more money to leave again. The bloody end to Ethelred's unreadiness came when he set a date on which the Anglo-saxons should turn on their (settled) Danish neighbours and kill them all. November 13th. And they did.
I have various home ed plans, and one of them is to practice narration. We read something, and the children narrate back to me what they have heard, in their own words, to help them to log it in their minds. At the moment eldest is 5 and I ask her to tell me one thing she wants to say. Her response today was
I can't say anything. It is too horrible.No doubt Ethelred did a despicable thing. As far as I understand it the settled Danes were living quite peaceably alongside their anglosaxon neighbours, and weren't equivalent to the seafaring VIkings.
The discussion over dinner is that humanity hasn't changed. It was as terrible 1000 years ago as it is now. Not everybody is as bad as Ethelred all at once, but genocide has always been present.
At the time of Ethelred there were people in Britain who knew they needed a Saviour. The Romans brought that wonderful news with them 1700 years ago. And the same gospel remains, that humanity is in need of something more than civilisation: we need a Saviour and a new heart. And the Lord God has given us that.
A gluten-free twist on Nigellas family meatball recipe
Never having made meatballs before...
...I felt a little nervous, especially as I was going to attempt a Gluten-free version.
However, after eating spag bol on a weekly basis, I had felt an overwhelming need to make something different with the incredible beef mince which we buy lots of (from New Close Farm Shop, in Sacriston, County Durham. You should visit when you are nearby since it is the only [what I consider to be] genuine farm shop in existence*).
So, having opened Nigella's Feast for the first time in a while, I decided I would see if she had a decent mince recipe which was not bolognese. Or lasagne. Or Cottage Pie.
And she has!
In the children's section, she has a meal called Rice and Meatballs.
And it is delicious, especially with my south american/mum's recipe rice. Nigella serves her meatballs with plain rice but i think we can all do a lot better than that. In addition, it turns out it's great way to hide a large quantity of courgettes, which is great since we have had a lot of overly large courgettes sneaking up on me in the garden recently.
Here is the recipe:
Rice and Gluten-free Meatballs
For the meatballs
500g minced beef
1 egg
2 Tablespoons grated parmesan
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
2 Tablespoons chopped parsley
3 Tablespoons fine polenta/cornmeal
1 teaspoon salt
For the Tomato sauce
1 onion, halved
2 cloves garlic
A large courgette (optional, you could try even more)
15g butter
1 Tablespoon oil (I currently like to use rapeseed oil since it is British)
1 x 700g bottle passata
125ml full fat milk
Put all the meatball ingredients into a bowl, with some pepper and mix gently with your hands.
Shape teaspoonfuls into balls and put on a tray lined with clingfilm (so they don't stick to it). Nigella says your children can easily do this, and although i was scared of the mess, it turns out that my children could do it! Tidily!)
there should be 50 or so meatballs.
Put the onion, garlic and courgette into a food processor and whizz to a pulp. Heat the oil and butter in a large saucepan, and cook gently for about 15 minutes, stirring from time to time so it doesn't burn.
Add the passata, then half fill the passata bottle with water and pour that in too. Add salt and pepper, then gently bubble for about ten minutes.
Add the milk, then bring the mix back to the boil.
Carefully drop the meatballs into the red goop but DO NOT STIR AT ALL! They will fall apart if you do and you will have bolognese.
Cook the meatballs for 20 minutes with a lid on so the sauce doesn't evaporate.
This was enough for all 4 of us (2 adults, 2 relatively small children) for 2 nights. However it didn't taste as nice reheated so I think i'd save it for a time when the children are bigger or there are more of us.
Rice (enough for 6-8 people)
1 onion
large glug of oil
2 bayleaves
2 teaspoons fennel seeds (less if you're not wild about fennel)
salt and pepper
2 cups rice (i use basmati)
3 1/2 cups boiling water
Finely chop the onion and gently fry in a large (preferably non stick) pan (i find turning it right down and keeping the lid on stops it burning, although I did have a long in-depth pastroal conversation with Nick this evening and nearly set fire to the kitchen.) This takes about 10 minutes.
chuck in the bayleaves, fennel, salt and pepper and rice. Stir around a bit to coat the rice and get it hot. Then pour in the water (which will spit!). Put a TIGHT LID on, turn it right down and leave for about half an hour. Don't stir it and you get the yummy crispy bits on the bottom.
Yummy! And the children loved it. I think they would have preferred plain white rice, but they ate it.
*This is probably not true.
...I felt a little nervous, especially as I was going to attempt a Gluten-free version.
However, after eating spag bol on a weekly basis, I had felt an overwhelming need to make something different with the incredible beef mince which we buy lots of (from New Close Farm Shop, in Sacriston, County Durham. You should visit when you are nearby since it is the only [what I consider to be] genuine farm shop in existence*).
So, having opened Nigella's Feast for the first time in a while, I decided I would see if she had a decent mince recipe which was not bolognese. Or lasagne. Or Cottage Pie.
And she has!
In the children's section, she has a meal called Rice and Meatballs.
And it is delicious, especially with my south american/mum's recipe rice. Nigella serves her meatballs with plain rice but i think we can all do a lot better than that. In addition, it turns out it's great way to hide a large quantity of courgettes, which is great since we have had a lot of overly large courgettes sneaking up on me in the garden recently.
Here is the recipe:
Rice and Gluten-free Meatballs
For the meatballs
500g minced beef
1 egg
2 Tablespoons grated parmesan
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
2 Tablespoons chopped parsley
3 Tablespoons fine polenta/cornmeal
1 teaspoon salt
For the Tomato sauce
1 onion, halved
2 cloves garlic
A large courgette (optional, you could try even more)
15g butter
1 Tablespoon oil (I currently like to use rapeseed oil since it is British)
1 x 700g bottle passata
125ml full fat milk
Put all the meatball ingredients into a bowl, with some pepper and mix gently with your hands.
Shape teaspoonfuls into balls and put on a tray lined with clingfilm (so they don't stick to it). Nigella says your children can easily do this, and although i was scared of the mess, it turns out that my children could do it! Tidily!)
there should be 50 or so meatballs.
Put the onion, garlic and courgette into a food processor and whizz to a pulp. Heat the oil and butter in a large saucepan, and cook gently for about 15 minutes, stirring from time to time so it doesn't burn.
Add the passata, then half fill the passata bottle with water and pour that in too. Add salt and pepper, then gently bubble for about ten minutes.
Add the milk, then bring the mix back to the boil.
Carefully drop the meatballs into the red goop but DO NOT STIR AT ALL! They will fall apart if you do and you will have bolognese.
Cook the meatballs for 20 minutes with a lid on so the sauce doesn't evaporate.
This was enough for all 4 of us (2 adults, 2 relatively small children) for 2 nights. However it didn't taste as nice reheated so I think i'd save it for a time when the children are bigger or there are more of us.
Rice (enough for 6-8 people)
1 onion
large glug of oil
2 bayleaves
2 teaspoons fennel seeds (less if you're not wild about fennel)
salt and pepper
2 cups rice (i use basmati)
3 1/2 cups boiling water
Finely chop the onion and gently fry in a large (preferably non stick) pan (i find turning it right down and keeping the lid on stops it burning, although I did have a long in-depth pastroal conversation with Nick this evening and nearly set fire to the kitchen.) This takes about 10 minutes.
chuck in the bayleaves, fennel, salt and pepper and rice. Stir around a bit to coat the rice and get it hot. Then pour in the water (which will spit!). Put a TIGHT LID on, turn it right down and leave for about half an hour. Don't stir it and you get the yummy crispy bits on the bottom.
Yummy! And the children loved it. I think they would have preferred plain white rice, but they ate it.
*This is probably not true.
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