Mix and munch, it’s the first of the month which means it’s time to catch up with Sherry and friends and share what’s been going down in my kitchen.
We started the month with some serious sniffles and drained my emergency stash of chicken soup in the freezer. Once the chicken soup was all gone, I took matters into my own hands – literally – and made my own wontons and Recipe Tin’s wonton soup. It was my first time but it won’t be my last. You’d never guess by the photo but it was crazy good!
It was Jewish New Year and I marked the occasion with this dairy free honey cake. Honey cake is traditionally eaten at Rosh Hashanah because it’s a symbol of hope for a sweet and happy year ahead and heaven knows, we could all do with one of those!
The in-laws came to visit and we took them to our local pumpkin patch for some wholesome fun. I have no idea which pumpkins were best for eating so I hedged my bets and brought home a selection. Praise be to dear reader Karina, who told me about roasting pumpkins whole in the oven – this saves so much energy chopping and peeling raw pumpkins. No more pumpkin wrestling for me!
We also took the fam to a Sheep Fair (yes, that’s totally a thing) at a nearby village. Events for the Sheep Fair are spread over a couple of days, we skipped the sheep sale on the Saturday and went straight for the classic cars , local crafts and produce on the Sunday. I was still dreaming about the doughnuts we got last year from Little Village Bakery so we made a return visit to their stall. This salted caramel bad boy really was the bees knees!
My neighbours are the gift that keep on giving – this month there was an abundance of green (and red and yellow) tomatoes.
My neighbour Anthea told me that green tomato chutney is the thing to make with green tomatoes and she was kind enough to give me a bucket load and a recipe and off I went. As it was, my one big pan chutney-suitable pan was cooking chicken soup so I found a similar recipe for the Thermomix.
They say it takes a village and this chutney certainly did. With tomatoes from Anthea, jars from my ex-neighbour Pat and armed with my newly purchased jam funnel, my green tomato chuntney production line was in full flow… Literally!
Apparently, you have to leave the chutney for a minimum of six weeks to let the flavours develop but patience has never been my strong point so let’s see how that goes! In the meantime, I’ve been making a lorry load of soup – it’s certainly been the weather for it. I used some of the pumpkins from the patch to make this roast pumpkin soup, used up some tired parsnips to make a curried parsnip soup in the thermomix, discovered a love of minestrone and I made a vat of chicken soup for my dear friend who was in hospital. I honestly believe that there is (almost) nothing a bowl of chicken soup can’t fix!
My other neighbours gave me a massive bag full of Bramley apples which looked ugly but tasted beautiful – perfect for cooking. I made stewed apple, spiced apple chutney an Apple and Walnut pudding and another Irish Apple and Whiskey Sultana Cake – I know it sounds so wrong but I promise you it tastes so right!
I caved and bought a cake stand with a lid, I decided it was essential after borrowing my neighbour’s one last month. This one is plastic (so in theory, I can’t break it) and it also doubles up as a platter/dip tray so it’s multi functions merit the space it’s going to take up in the cupboard!
Oh and I also go some freshly picked ginger from my neighbour’s allotment. It was so fresh, it still had the soil on it! I don’t think I’ve ever had so much fresh, homegrown produce since I’ve come back to the UK. I’m very lucky to have such green fingered and generous friends!
In an effort to make good use of the pumpkins from the patch, I also made these Pumpkin Spice Muffins and even posted the recipe! They are so simple but so delicious! Plus they contain vegetables so that surely makes them a health food, no?
Autumn and winter are definitely slow cooker seasons and I couldn’t wait to get the slow cooker on. I wasn’t sure how the slow cook function would work on my Ninja 15-in-1 but I cooked this Beef Goulash with great results (and with the paprika I brought back from Budapest last year!) It is the ultimate comfort food!
Despite being back in the UK for 2 years already, I still find English supermarkets such a novelty. One of the things I really love is seeing products that are on sale that I enjoyed when I was a child like this Angel Delight. My nana used to make this for me when I stayed at her place on the weekend. It was always chocolate flavour and always had sprinkles on top – sadly, I don’t have nana’s knack with instant desserts, both David and I agreed that this was really disappointing.
Teddy has been eyeing off my mince pienut butter but unfortunately this is one nut butter that he can’t indulge in because it contains fruit mince. It’s actually very delicious but I would have liked a bit more fruit and a few more spices because the fruit is a bit sparse and the spicing is a bit subtle for my palate. Even so, peanut butter doesn’t get Christmasier than this!
Probably most exciting of all is the new Recipe Tin Eats cookbook which arrived much earlier than I expected. Nagi has totally outdone herself with this tome and I have already made the spicy peanut noodles and the tapas-y traybake, two times each. I want to cook it all!
In other news, the clocks went forward so I’m bracing myself for short days and dark dinner pictures!
Now I’ve told you what’s been happening in my kitchen, I’d love to hear what’s been happening in yours. Tell me everything in the comments!
