0 Lancashire Hotpot - made with love and a perfect winter dish

I love Lancashire hotpot and as a born and bred Lancastrian so I should, its the perfect frugal comfort food which will happily blip away in the oven whilst you get on with other things. Requiring minimal effort you can still deliver a wow dish for your supper (or in a Northerner case tea) table.

I decided recently to experiment with different ways of cooking the dish and in my opinion this is the best method so far, ideal served with a green vegetable or just the traditional accompaniments of pickled beetroot or red cabbage.

What you need

• Diced lamb pieces (ask your butcher whats the best and cheapest)
• 3 large white potatoes 
• 1 large white onion - peeled and roughly chopped
• 3 carrots - peeled and chopped
• Lamb stock ( I use essential cuisine - the best in my humble opinion)
• Splash of Worcestershire sauce (use gluten free brown sauce if necessary)
• Cornflour
• Thyme and rosemary - finely chopped
• Salt and pepper
• A little rapeseed oil

What you do

• Pre heat the oven to 160c
• Heat the oil in cast iron casserole dish
• Fry off the lamb pieces in batches until lightly caramelised
• Remove from pan to plate
• Fry in the same pan the onion and carrot until slightly golden, add the lamb back to the pan and add a tablespoon or so of cornflour.
• Stir and add the herbs and sauce, remove from the heat
• Stir again and top the vegetable and lamb mixture with potato slices
• Pour enough lamb stock to just be visible on the top of the potato topping, put lid on casserole dish and place in oven for 1 hour and 30 minutes
• Once the time has passed the vegetables with be tender and the meat cooked, remove the lid and place back in the oven for another 15 -30 minutes until the top is golden and slightly crispy.
• Serve immediately with a green vegetable (cabbage / kale is nice) and traditional hotpot accompaniments

Detail: Lancashire Hotpot - made with love and a perfect winter dish

0 Mediterranean vegetable and herb quiche - gluten free

I have been secretly working in the background perfecting a tasty gluten free pastry that is suitable for using as a quiche base. If you make pastry with just standard gluten free flour its rather tasteless and very crumby and grainy, I have made gluten free pastry using cheese to help bind it and create flour but was looking for something a little less cheesy (pardon the pun) so I thought I would experiment with mixing buckwheat flour with normal GF flour and voila it works, creating a more wholemeal style pastry which is tasty when used as a quiche base.

I decided to make a filling using the ubiquitus courgette, pimped by the addition of a little chopped sun dried tomato and some garden fresh herbs

Excellent hot or cold this quiche it makes a great family meal, also would be ideal in a lunch box with some salad.

What you need

• 100g plain gluten free flour
• 100g buckwheat flour (ensure gluten free - not all is)
• 125g salted butter - cold
• Few sprigs of fresh thyme - chopped finely
• 4 - 6 tbsp cold water
• Egg - beaten 
• A loose bottomed quiche tin - about 24cm across - Lightly brushed with oil

For the filling

• 3 small courgettes - topped and tailed and chopped into thin slices
• 2-3 shallots - peeled and finely chopped
• Chopped sun dried tomatoes
• Thyme, oregano and rosemary - chopped
• Olive oil
• 300ml creme fraiche
• 3 eggs
• Freshly ground Pepper
• 100g cheddar cheese - coarsely grated

What you do

• Pre heat the oven to 190c
• To make the pastry its easiest by food processor, add the flours, thyme and cold butter, blitz until its a rough breadcrumb texture.
• Add the cold water little by little with the processor running until the pstry just starts to ball
• Tip onto a lightly floured surface and form a ball
• Place in the fridge for about 30 minutes before rolling to  fit your quiche tin.
• Chill again for about 10 minutes or so before baking the case blind for about 15 minutes, remove your baking beads (rice works well)
• Brush with a little beaten egg and then bake again for 10 minutes, remove from oven.
• Now we will make the filling , fry off the shallots and courgettes until softened, add the chopped sun dried tomatoes and herbs to the pan, allow to cool slightly.
• Add the vegetables to the quiche base, place on a baking tray ready to fill with the egg mixture
• Mix the eggs and creme fraiche together and pour over the vegetables, top off the quiche with the grated cheese.
• Bake for 35 minutes or so until golden and just a little wobbly in the middle.
• Serve slightly cooled or cold

I'm linking up to Cooking with Herbs - the theme this month being mediterrean food, this post contains thyme, oregano and rosemary. Hosted this month over at Lavender and Lovage.

And also to Tea Time Treats which is sharing the same theme as Cooking with Herbs, hosted this month by The Hedgecombers.

Lastly to Simple and in Season hosted this month by Franglais Kitchen.

Detail: Mediterranean vegetable and herb quiche - gluten free

0 Baked sausages and sweet baby tomatoes

Who doesn't like sausages ? I love this dish as its one of those which you can pull together in a few minutes and then bung in the oven for an hour or so whilst you do something else, yet the results taste like you have been slaving our a hot stove for hours. The other great thing is if you have any leftovers (unlikely but you never know) is its fab served with pasta the next day. Loosely based on a JO recipe this is a great italian style family friendly dish.

You will need

• Quality sausages (high meat content ) - ask your local butcher
• Small cherry tomatoes / cherry plum or similar
• 2 garlic cloves - peeled and finely chopped
• Selection of fresh garden herbs (bay leaves, rosemary, thyme, oregano in my case)
• Olive oil
• Balsamic vinegar
• Sea salt
• Freshly ground black pepper
• Oven proof dish of appropriate size

What you do

• Place the sausages, tomatoes in your ovenproof dish, sprinkle with the herbs and garlic and tuck in the bay leaves and rosemary, drizzle with oil and balsamic vinegar and a little black pepper
• Bake in a preheat oven at 180c for approx 45 minutes until the sausages are cooked and the tomatoes  soft and a little caramalised
• Serve with your choice of chunks of bread, mashed potato, pasta or in our case potato wedges.

We had this dish served with sumac potato wedges and rocket salad

Detail: Baked sausages and sweet baby tomatoes

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