Last weekend I was told that you can cook up little gem lettuce & eat it warm (huh?). So as a big little gem fan, I had to investigate see if it worked…

I used this Delicious Magazine recipe (mainly cos I already had bacon & shallots) http://www.deliciousmagazine.co.uk/recipes/braised-little-gems

and it was a WINNER.

Basic recipe premise is, preheat the oven to 180°C/fan160°C/gas 4.

Fry the bacon until it’s crisp. Remove with a slotted spoon. Add the butter. Then add & sauté the shallots to the pan. Let them soften on a low heat for 10 minutes.

Arrange the bacon, shallots & little gem in an ovenproof dish (mushrooms / butter beans anything else you want to throw in) and pour over any pan juices, bit more butter, the white wine and stock over the lettuce halves. Cover it up & stick in oven for about 30 / 40 mins. Remove from oven - stir in the cream (if you are a fatso), season to taste AND DEVOUR!

How easy was it to make: Super super easy

How long did it take to cook: 40 mins - ten mins to saute the bacon & shallots, then about 30 mins to braise in the oven

Approx cost of dish: £4

Would you cook it again? Hell yeah - it was simple and tasty AND low fat

Would you make any changes to the recipe? I omitted the cream and used bacon medallions to reduce the fat content and I added mushrooms & some butter beans to bult it up.

Cooked by: Anna

Bacon. Marmalade. You know it’s right. Remembering I share their penchant for all things porky, Anna and Liam brought back a little pot of the stuff from Brooklyn-based Bacon Marmalade and I was hooked

I looked around for a recipe and settled on this one from Aussie food blog Not Quite Nigella and gave it a few weeks in the fridge before bringing it home for Christmas.

The gluttonous vibe in the air at Chrimbo meant the BM got paired with a lot of things, the best being Tommy B’s famous Ginger Ale and Clove Glazed Ham (surely to grace these pages someday). This pig-on-pig action was a hit with all the Xmas fatso crew.

How easy was it to make: Pretty easy, though it took a while. It’s basically a case of cooking off your bacon, then putting it aside while you sweat the onions and garlic. When they are translucent, add the bacon and the coffee, maple syrup, brown sugar and apple cider vinegar. Then keep an eye on it as it slowly reduces to a sticky piggy mess.

How long did it take to cook: A couple of hours, you can’t rush the reduction – if it burns, you’ve ruined it.

Approx cost of dish: I doubled up the recipe online, and as decent bacon is hard to source in Catalunya it ended up costing me about 20 quid. Over in the UK it would be much cheaper. It’d be nice to experiment with all the fancy swine you can get there.

Would you cook it again? Definitely. I plan to get another batch on next week.

Would you make any changes to the recipe? The only change I’ll make is to be sure to drain as much fat from the bacon as I can – though it tasted lovely, the fat was visible in the pot after chilling and you might wanna avoid that. And as I say, I’d also like to try some different bacons to mix up the flavour.

Cooked by: Richard

The humble chicken is a flexible and faithful friend - there is no doubt about this. However, it can also be overfamiliar and tawdry. Regular, and dare I say it, BORING.

With this in mind, we sought about adding a little frisson to the midweek chicken occasion. The standard easy meal - lemon & thyme chicken for example - was eschewed in favour of a more exotic Moroccan chicken adventure. The recipe for this was adapted sourced from the Channel 4 website - see link below

http://www.channel4.com/4food/recipes/popular-ingredients/chicken/chargrilled-moroccan-chicken-sprouting-broccoli-and-couscous-salad-recipe

Essentially, the key differences were as follows (it’s easier to point out the enhancements than repeat the recipe verbatim):

— The spice paste was supplemented by toasted mixed herbs, cumin, chopped parsley, extra garlic, black peppercorns and a little water (to make the paste smoother). I’m not sure how the original recipe got away with not including the above tbh.

— We used brazil nuts instead of almonds. Why? We just didnt have any in the house

— Chicken thighs on the bone were used, and they were roasted rather than griddled to keep the flavour in

— We sacked off the broccoli. Some people might say it is an important supporting actor, however, we were single minded about the chicken. Some quinoa was cooked and our patented shredded carrot salad.

And so after 45mins of roasting action…

How easy was it to make?  Not difficult at all. The key was getting the paste consistency and then stuffing it under the chicken skin properly.

How long did it take to cook? Paste took about 20mins to fix up, then roasting about 45mins - take it REAL SLOW

Approx cost of dish: The chicken was about £5 and assorted spices and nuts about £5.

Would you cook it again? Definitely… twas a winner

Would you make any changes to the recipe? Less oil in the paste and perhaps go with almonds instead of brazil nuts

Cooked by:  Liam

Aha this recipe, was a hit! Even if I do say so myself. It was a recommendation from a colleague, he BBQ’s his, I will definitely try it come summertime.

It’s another from Hugh 

http://www.channel4.com/4food/recipes/chefs/hugh-fearnley-whittingstall/mackerel-stuffed-with-salsa-verde-07-11-08

As you’ll read in the recipe he uses Mackerel but suggests works with trout. I bought my fish from Waitrose & as rainbow trout was all they had, Hugh was right…. it was delicious. The fish came gutted but not butterflied so I attempted that myself. It was a messy & not entirely thorough job but it worked alright…

The great thing about this is that you can prep it & leave it in the fridge until 15 mins or so before you want to eat it .. stick it in the oven & it’s ready to go.

I served it with a tahini dressed courgette and green bean salad which worked really well.

http://www.channel4.com/4food/recipes/chefs/hugh-fearnley-whittingstall/tahini-dressed-courgette-and-green-bean-salad-recipe

How easy was it to make? If you’re fish is already gutted & butterflied and you don’t mind fine chopping you’ll find this very straight forward. The tahini salad has quite a few stages but is also straightforward.

How long did it take to cook? Fish took 20 mins to prep & 15mins to cook. The salad took about 40 mins.

Approx cost of dish: The rainbow trout were £2 each. The salad prob cost £7.

Would you cook it again? Definitely… both were a winner & a fortunately worked well together.

Would you make any changes to the recipe? none!

Cooked by:  Anna

This is another Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall recipe…. 

http://www.channel4.com/4food/recipes/chefs/hugh-fearnley-whittingstall/chestnut-and-sage-soup-recipe

I often make the Chestnut & Chorizo soup from the Moro cookbook (http://gustorico.org/recipes/12.pdf). It has a lovely rich, deep flavour and is pretty substancial. So I thought this recipe, with just sage to flavour the chestnuts a bit might be a nice change and a bit lighter (which is was).

How easy was it to make? Another suuuuper easy

How long did it take to cook? 1 hour… that’s mainly the odd bit of stirring

Approx cost of dish: £5 Chestnuts were on 2 for 1 offer..

Would you cook it again? Probably… though I prefer the Jerusalem Artichoke & Roasted Garlic Soup I made here .. http://hungryhollowaiians.tumblr.com/post/13108971067

Would you make any changes to the recipe? Nope

Cooked by:  Anna

This recipe is from Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s Veg Everyday Cookbook. The book is great, simple instructions and there are sooo many tasty recipes I plan to try 

http://www.rivercottage.net/users/HughFW/blog/this-is-a-vegetable-cookbook/

Basically, the ingredients you’d need are;

These are a sort of Banana White Brownie… currently in the oven smelling amazing, I can also confirm the batter taste’s great.  I’m making them for The Doc’s birthday. The recipe is from Dan Lepard’s Short & Sweet book. A favourite Christmas present :) His writing is friendly and straight forward and is full of great practical tips, simply explained. 

Check him out here http://www.danlepard.com

Back to the Banana Blondie’s. Here’s a pic before going into the oven…

The recipe is…

Knock up some Brazil nut toffee by boiling together 75g of caster sugar & 2 tablespoons of water… make sure the pan is extra hot, mine was only hot enough on the third attempt! When the toffee has gone a carmel-y brown colour, stir in 75g of chopped brazil nuts and leave to cool in an oiled tray.

Then, heat 100g of butter with 200g white chocolate & melt it all together. Mix 225g of caster sugar, an egg, 2 mushed up banana’s & a couple of drops of vanilla essence in a bowl with the chocolate butter mix. Then sift 225g of plain flour & 1/4 teaspoon of baking powder into the mix. Finally add the chopped toffee into the mix… and stick in a cake tin & bake for 35 mins until wobbly set & golden on top…

I’ve just taken mine out & think it cooked in much less time. I think it’s probably due to the tin which was slightly bigger than he suggested and I was writing this & hadn’t been keeping an eye it… Mine is dark brown on top not golden.. Now it’s left to cool until stone cold.

How easy was it to make? Pretty easy once I got the pan hot enough to make the toffee

How long did it take to cook? 45 mins

Approx cost of dish: £6 (due to Brazil nuts & white chocolate)

Would you cook it again? yes

Would you make any changes to the recipe? Dan Lepard suggests you could caramelise the banana’s before adding them to the mix which I like the sound of.

Cooked by:  Anna

As it’s Christmas time it seems only fair to have a seasonal recipe … so I made Lebkucken. As described by Wikipedia “Lebkuchen (or Pfefferkuchen) is a traditional German baked Christmas treat, somewhat resembling gingerbread”.

The mix …

I used a recipe from the Betty’s cookbook http://www.bettys.co.uk/product/A-Year-of-Family-Recipes-Cookery-Book,18975,84.aspx. it’s pretty much the same as this one http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/1941/lebkuchen but uses Golden Syrup in place of Honey & doesn’t call for the lemon (would make a nice addition though).

before baking..

and after baking…

How easy was it to make? Sooo easy, I multiplied the recipe & made 4 batches.

How long did it take to cook?  40 mins.

Approx cost of dish: £6…?!

Would you cook it again? yes

Would you make any changes to the recipe? I would add more ginger (personal preference) & try the lemon zest trick to lighten them up a bit.

Cooked by:  Anna

And a photo of them on hanging on the tree…

This soup was DELICIOUS (even if I do say so myself). It so was velvety and smooth without adding any cream to it. The recipe says that finer the soup is blended, the better the flavour.. mine was pretty fine and the flavours certainly were deep and pretty complex. I really recommend you make this, especially as Jerusalem Artichokes are just coming into season.

How easy was it to make? Sooo easy.

How long did it take to cook?  40 mins.

Approx cost of dish: £5

Would you cook it again? Absolutely

Would you make any changes to the recipe? Croutons could be a nice addition but not essential as it’s faultless as it is.

Cooked by:  Anna

Original recipe & write up can be found here : http://www.britishlarder.co.uk/jerusalem-artichoke-and-roasted-garlic-soup/#ixzz1eL0H44lN 

Recipe details….

Roasted Garlic

•            1 bulb of garlic

•            1tbs light brown sugar

•            1tbs water

•            Maldon sea salt

Preheat the oven to 180°C.

Cut the garlic bulb in half, place the salt and sugar in a small bowl and then dip the cut side of the garlic in the sugar salt mixture.

Place the remaining salt and sugar mix in two heaps on a lined baking tray and divide the water between the two heaps, place the garlic cut side down onto the tray, cover with foil and roast for 25 minutes, if the sugar caramel looks like burning add a drop of water and continue the cooking until the garlic is tender.

Let the roasted garlic cool.

Jerusalem Artichoke and Roasted Garlic Soup

•            500g Jerusalem Artichokes, peeled and sliced

•            1/2 of roasted garlic bulb, soft pulp only

•            1 banana shallot, sliced

•            1tbs unsalted butter

•            50ml Brandy, Madeira or white wine

•            Salt and freshly cracked black pepper

•            1L vegetable stock 

Pop the soft cooled roasted garlic cloves out of the skins, discard the skins. Prepare the Jerusalem artichokes by peeling and slicing them, slice the peeled banana shallot.

Heat a large saucepan with the butter, once the butter starts to foam add the sliced banana shallot, garlic pulp and the sliced Jerusalem artichokes with a little bit of seasoning. Sauté until golden brown, the darker the artichokes and onions the deeper and more intense the flavour will be. Season the soup a little at a time to prevent over seasoning.

Once the artichokes and onions are golden to dark brown deglaze the pan with the brandy, cook until the caramelised parts dissolve and the brandy is reduced to a syrup, coating the chokes.

Add the vegetable stock and bring the soup to a gentle simmer with a lid covering the pan. Gently simmer the soup for 25 - 30 minutes.

Blend the soup until very smooth, taste and adjust the seasoning if needed. Serve piping hot! Serves 4/6 

I was aiming for a firey stew to warm up this grey & drizzly November, but even with tonnes of chilli sauce this was a bit bland….

I changed the original recipe slightly to poach rather than fry the fish (healthier option). I used about 280g of haddock & supplemented it with prawns. You start by saute’ing the chilli, ginger and garlic in a large pan. Then adding the haddock & prawns. After a few minutes you add the stock, and bring it gently to a simmer. Then after a few minutes the juice of 1 lime. After 5 mins I stirred in the coriander & some chilli flakes as we like things HOT!

Then get it served! Spoon over rice noodles and serve with extra lime / coriander.

This recipe was originally from Olive magazine, March 2011. Full version here ….

http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/1145640/vietnamese-fish-curry

How easy was it to make?  Super easy

How long did it take to cook: 10 mins, including chopping time

Approx cost of dish: £10 for 2

Would you cook it again? Probably not, it was a bit meh to be honest. We didn’t have any fish sauce, maybe that made a big difference. I think I may have cooked the fish just a bit too long. It really doesn’t need long at all. But next time I’ll try a more authentic recipe as this didn’t at the flavours or Vietnames taste kick I was expecting.

Would you make any changes to the recipe? I added prawns which was good, you could add more veg & some more seasoning wouldn’t go a miss either.

Cooked by:  Anna