0 Rustic courgette bake

This weekend we have finally pulled up the last courgette plant of the season, as part of the tidy up a couple of large courgettes were discovered in the undergrowth. So this recipe makes the best of the last of this seasonal bounty, with its roots fairly in the Mediterranean this dish gives a heavy nod towards Lancashire too as its features lots of local produce.

I love dishes like this where everything is placed in one pot and the oven does all the work, if you haven't got some homemade tomato sauce to hand then a jar of quality passata works great. I also raided the herb garden for my herbs, selecting sage, rosemary and thyme and a little oregano to be added to the dish.

What you need

• Couple of courgettes, washed and sliced length ways into strips
• 1 large red onion - peeled and sliced into finely fine halves (local grown)
• 1 jar passata or similar quantity of homemade tomato sauce (homemade)
• Selection of fresh herbs - rustically chopped (homegrown)
• Salt and pepper
• Local Cheddar cheese - coarsely grated (local)
• Yogurt - thick Greek style (local) about 200 ml
• 1 egg - free range (home laid)
• Large cast iron skillet / ovenproof dish
• Oil (olive or rapeseed)

What you do

• Preheat the oven to 200c (fan)/ 220c (non fan)
• Add a little oil to pan and gently saute to courgette strips and onions.
• Now layer up with tomato sauce on the base, courgettes and onions, herbs, and then repeat.
• Mix the yogurt and egg together, top of the dish and then finish with grated cheese
• Strew with more herbs
• Bake for 20 - 30 minutes until golden and bubbling and the courgettes are meltingly soft
• Serve with crusty bread for mopping up all the lovely juices

                         

We are linking up to Cooking With Herbs - who's theme this month is Scarborough Fair. This dish contains Sage, Rosemary and thyme, created by the lovely Karen over at Lavender and Lovage and hosted by her too this month.

                                                   

                                                                 

We are also linking up to Extra Veg hosted this month by A Mummy too

                                                      

And finally Simple and in Season created by Reb Behan and hosted this month by her too.

                                                            

Detail: Rustic courgette bake

0 Back of the fridge frittata

This recipe came about by combination of wanting to use a few bits and bats that were hanging around in the fridge and the ongoing battle of egg mountain (i.e a recipe that uses plenty of eggs), so using a Spanish omelette as the basis the back of the fridge frittata was born.

Its a versatile forgiving recipe that can use a variety of ingredients and is frugal and filling, its also great to serve cold with salad in a lunchbox (As I have done on several occasions) or as tapas cut into bite size squares with olives with a glass of wine or beer.

What You need

• Onion - large finely chopped
• 1 tin of potatoes - drained (or quantity of cold leftover cooked potatoes) - sliced about the thickness of a £1 coin
• Salami or chorizo (if using)
• Red pepper / green peppers (could be out of a jar)
• Mushrooms (optional)
• Salt and pepper
• 6 eggs - whisked
• Olive oil

Large frying pan and pre heated grill (broiler for our US friends)

What you do

• Heat some olive oil in the frying pan over a medium heat
• Add the onions and cook gently until softened and add the chorizo
• Cook the peppers and mushrooms (if uncooked) in the same pan
• Now add the sliced potatoes, move around in the pan ensuring nothing is sticking
• Season with salt and pepper
• Pour over the eggs and cook until set around the sides
• Place under the pre heated grill until golden and bubbling
• Serve in generous wedges
• Or allow to cool and pack in the fridge for a quick snack or easy lunch dish.

Here it is served with a freshly picked salad from the garden, the salad contains rocket, spinach and mizuna. If you wanted to make this vegetarian just omit the chorizo and of course this is naturally gluten free. Courgette, aubergine or artichoke would also make tasty additions to the dish.

Detail: Back of the fridge frittata

0 Lamb Chops with roasted garden vegetables

As you have most probably gathered I love local and seasonal produce,in fact its one of the main reasons I have a blog after all. So I was really pleased to spot a new blog challenge from Elizabeths Kitchen Diary  to become involved in, the "Shop Local" campaign is all about sharing the love of local producers. This dish couldn't be any more local, it uses Lamb chops sourced from the farm just up the lane from where I live marinated in a chutney from a great local producer FATJAX  and served with  roasted vegetables all sourced from our very own garden.

The dish is as easy of falling off a log and unlike most of the other methods for cooking lamb chops doesn't fill your kitchen with acrid fatty cooking fumes, everything is cooked in the oven so its an easy week day meal.

Whilst any North West England based readers will be able to get hold of Fatjax chutney at various outlets in the area, my local farmer doesn't sell to the public, but any good local lamb should work in this dish.

What you need

• Lamb chops - I used Barnsley chops
• Couple of tablespoons of Fatjax sweet onion and chilli chutney
• Selection of peeled and roughly chopped vegetables ( I used golden beetroot, courgette, patty pan, red onion and red pepper)
• A little olive or rapeseed oil
• Salt and pepper
• Thyme - sprig picked over

What you do

• Pre heat your oven to 180c
• Whilst your heats up rub the chutney and picked thyme into the lamb chops, put to one side
• Prepare your vegetables, toss in a little oil and season with salt and pepper and place in an oven proof dish ( I use my Pampered Chef stoneware dish)
• Place the vegetables in the oven for 10 minutes and then pop in your lamb chops to bake for 35 minutes or so
• When roasted until crispy and the vegetables caramelised serve to your hungry hoards.

Detail: Lamb Chops with roasted garden vegetables

0 National Vegetarian Week and Greenhalghs

Greenhalgh's Butter pie served with brown sauce

This week is National Vegetarian Week  a great celebration of vegetarian food. One great Lancashire delicacy is a great dish for vegetarians and that is Butter Pie. A pie that has its history firmly fixed in Lancashire and the area surrounding Preston in particular as a economical and nutritious meal for catholic mill workers. Butter pies are still produced by a number of local north west bakeries to satisy local demand, one of which Greenhalghs recently approached me to review their butter pie, obviously as a connoisseur  of the butter pie I was more than happy to undertaken this task.

A butter pie has a filling of potatoes, onion and butter, plus a little seasoning this is all in cased in a shortcrust pastry parcel, happily all the fats in Greenhalghs pastry are of vegetable origin so no worries there if you are vegetarian  I found the freshly baked pies to be delicious, juicy and tender and the pastry having just the right amount of crumble combined with melt in the mouth filling. Some people may think a pie with only potato, onion and butter in its filling would be a little bland, but far from it in a Butter pie the potato flavour comes to the fore. It is also nice that the pie has potato slices which create a nice texture rather than a mush I have seen in other butter pies.

Most high streets in the North west have a Greenhalghs so its easy to pop in and stock up on this great tasty vegetarian snack , especially during National Vegetarian Week.

                                           
Alternatively if you are feeling creative you could always make you own , check out the recipe in the popular posts.

Detail: National Vegetarian Week and Greenhalghs

0 Suet crust topped minced beef and onion pie

This week has been National British Pie week, well that sounds right up my street so in honour of this special event we had to bake a pie didn't we.

I love suet crust it takes me straight back to my childhood ( I remember it being used to top rabbit pie and hot pot mainly), a golden crusty top, soft fluffy underside and the delicious margin where the gravy touches the pastry. 

I though I would also dig out my retro vintage style pie dishes as well for this post, hope you like them, personally I love a bit of enamelware, very utility chic.

Ingredients

• Quality minced steak
• Large white onion finely chopped
• Quality beef stock
• Salt and pepper
• A little vegetable oil
• Gravy Thickner (Bisto or similar or cornflour)
• 200g Self raising flour
• 100g vegetable suet
• Water
• Pinch of salt
• Milk for brushing top of pastry

Method

• First to make the pie filling, heat a little oil in a frying pan, quickly fry off the minced steak until browned , now add the onion, turn the heat down and cook until slightly softened.
• Now add enough beef stock to the pan, reduce heat and simmer for about 10 minutes or so, you can add herbs, tomato ketchup, etc to give more flavour to the gravy if you like.
• Once the minced steak is cooked, thicken the gravy via your prefererred method.
• Set to one side to cool, before filling your pie dishes.
• On to the pastry, mix in a large bowl the flour, salt and suet with a knife, adding just enough water to create a slighty sticky dough.
• Tip out onto a floured surface and roll out to desired thickness , top your pies and trim the pastry accordingly
• Cut a small slit in the pastry top and brush the pie crust with a little milk
• Bake in a pre heated oven at 180c for about 30 minutes until the pie crust is golden and the gravy is bubbling up the sides of the pie
• Serve with your favourite vegetable, I chose mushy peas.

Detail: Suet crust topped minced beef and onion pie

0 Mushroom, onion and thyme focaccia

Another baking adventure from Mr Lancashire Food, this time a twist on the Italian delight - focaccia. We love mushrooms in our household and decided that we would experiment by adding cooked mushrooms and onions to a traditional focaccia mix.

The resultant focaccia was absolutely delicious, it was fortuitous that we made two slabs of this crusty delight, as the first one disappeared within minutes. We used large open capped mushrooms but you could use button or if feeling especially decadent wild mushrooms instead, if you are using dried mushrooms you will need to reconstitute them first before cooking.

As with all bread baking the secret is time, allowing your dough to rise fully and prove, this time creates the  flavour in the dough.

Ingredients

• 500g strong white bread flour
• 1 1/2 tsp sea salt
• 7g dried yeast
• 70ml olive oil
• Warm water to mix - hard to be precise as this all depends on your flour
• Roughly 100g of mushrooms ( whatever type) - chopped finely
• 1 large white onion - chopped into fine half rings
• Thyme ( fresh or dried)
• Salt and olive oil for sprinkling 
• Little oil or butter to cook your mushrooms and onions in

Baking tray or shallow baking pan 

Method

• Firstly cook the onions and mushrooms in a little oil or butter until softened but with hardly any colour, allow to cool, stir in your thyme.
• Now mix the flour, sea salt, yeast and liquids to a  make a soft sticky dough, add the water last and mix by hand so you can judge the consistency of the dough
• Once combined knead well on lightly floured surface, until the dough is pliable and stretchy
• Place in a bowl and allow to rest  in a warm place for at least an hour or so until your dough has doubled in size
• Add the Mushroom, onion and thyme mixture to the dough pressing in with your hands
• Now place your dough on your baking sheet / pan and shape by pressing out with your fingers to cover the tin to the edges, allow to prove for approx 30 minutes covered with a tea towel
• Now using your fingers prick all over the surface of your focaccia to make dimples, sprinkle with olive oil and sea salt crystals, leave to prove again for another hour or so
• Bake in a preheated oven at 200c for approximately 25 -35 minutes until golden brown

Delicious served with Italian salami, cold meats, olives or oil and vinegar.

I am entering this post in "Herbs on Saturday" blog  challenge for January 2013 challenge from Lavender and Lovage and this  month hosted by Bangers and Mash.

                                                           

Detail: Mushroom, onion and thyme focaccia