ramtops

We’ve had a weekend of “using up bits”. Saturday brunch was bacon, black pudding and the last of the flat mushrooms, and supper was Indian mushrooms with spinach (except we forgot to add the spinach so that’s still in the fridge – spinach frittata during the week, I think). That was to use up half the pack of button mushrooms that was left.

Sunday morning was potato scones, made with some cold mashed spuds that was in the fridge, and a pack of baby sossidges, to which we are addicted.

Today we ate the last of the M&S party food individual pies, which really are surprisingly nice. Just parmesan and basil twists to go there! I have cracked today and been to the greengrocer, as one leek, half a pepper and a wizened swede is not an inspiring collection of veg.

For Sunday supper, I made a goose pudding, thus:

Diced carrot, onion, garlic and celery, and sauted off. Did about three times as much as needed, and dumped the balance into the soup pot, which was a tad lacklustre. Discovered that Pete had, in fact, used all the mushrooms on Saturday night, so despatched him up to Jacksons for some more. Sliced them (not him) and added to the pot. Dumped in a 1/2 glass of red wine, and some vegetable stock, and the very, very last of Johnny Goose. Added some thyme. and a little cornflour mixed in cold water to thicken the mix, and left it for about 20 minutes, while I made a suet pastry.

Combined filling and pastry in a bowl, covered with foil secured with an elastic band, and dumped in the slow cooker on “high” for about seven hours. It was lovely, and we ate it with green beans and mashed potato. The rest will do for supper tonight, with a few roasties (more cold spud in the fridge), and some cabbage.

Mirrored from Reactive Cooking.

We did the usual stuff for Christmas food that we usually do … a goose with red cabbage and sprouts on the day, a slow cooked gammon for snacks, a cake. But somehow, this year, we have heaps of stuff left, so we’ll be eating leftovers for a while!

After 13 years with small, rubbish gas cookers, I am now the proud possessor of a Neff built-in full size oven. So, inevitably, the goose was too long to fit in, and Pete had to take a hacksaw to its legs. I roasted them off separately, and they’ve gone in the freezer for later use. There is still a bowlful of cold goose meat left, which will be stirfried or possibly en-pied, the remains of the cabbage went in the freezer and was part of our New Year’s Eve dinner party. More on that story later.

So, left in the fridge is:

one bowl of goose bits
about 1/3 pack of smoked salmon (will probably go for a quick pasta lunch)
about half a dozen small sausages, which are only there because I didn’t see them until this afternoon – we are addicted to small sausages
one box of Marks and Spencer mini pies, from their party food range, and some mozzarella and basil twists, ditto. These will do for weekday lunches; in fact, we had some M&S vol-au-vents for lunch today
1/4 of the gammon (half is already in the freezer)
2 boxes of cranberries

The 1.5 litres of goose stock was dumped into the slow cooker this morning with a pack of green split peas, and a venison bone, to make soup. Sadly, I did this too late for today’s lunch, but it will be lovely for tomorrow.

In the freezer is also a small lump of venison (reasons to follow), and a huge piece of pork shoulder, which Pete bought in error instead of gammon, never mind about all the other stuff. I doubt we need to buy anything but milk and veg for a month!

Mirrored from Reactive Cooking.

This follows on, really, from here. We had even more left over this time!

I cut up an onion and some garlic, and fried them off in olive oil. Then I added a heaped teaspoon of Ras el Hanout and fried that off for a minute or two. In went the meat, cut into smallish pieces, then some chickpeas. I’d put the chickpeas in to soak the night before, and boiled them up in the morning, because I am too mean to use a can unless I’m caught short (as it were).

There were, inevitably, more chickpeas than would fit in the pan.

I added about 2/3 of a carton of passata, and a slug of cider (as that bottle is still in the fridge and, you know, I don’t want to waste it ..). Tasted it, and it was a bit sweet, so I added the juice of half a lemming. Simmered it all for about 20 minutes, ate with rice. Made a nice lunch (as previously noted, we tend towards main meal at lunchtime on Tuesdays, due to Morris practice).

[Edited to add]
It made loads, and so I lobbed in the remainder of the chickpeas that were leftover, and put it all in the freezer!

Mirrored from Reactive Cooking.

We don’t as, as a rule, eat takeaway food. It’s cheap here in Hull, but it’s not terribly good for diabetics :) But we did have a kebab on Saturday night. Now, this is not the sort of kebab you get from the corner van, that smells so inviting when you’re on your way home from the pub – this is from a Lebanese restaurant, Ranoosh, on Beverley Road, and their food is just gorgeous.

We had Makanek (Lebanese sausages flambeed in lemon), Halloumi Cheese, Mixed Grillof 4 skewers: Lamb meshwi, shish taouk & 2 kofta, and Mixed Chawarma – Slices of marinated lamb & chicken roasted on a skewer. It arrived with two portions of rice, salad and a selection of dips, and was delivered to the door for the princely sum of £21. And there was too much to eat, so we put the leftover meat into the fridge.

For today’s lunch, I chopped up the meat, and added radish, cucumber, red pepper, spring onions and half a can of chickpeas, plus lemon juice, black pepper and a little mayonnaise. Pete had some Indian flat bread too. ‘Twas lovely.

Mirrored from Reactive Cooking.

Well, not quite … But this week’s soup includes broccoli stalks, leek tops and cabbage stalks!

Into small dice were cut one courgette, two carrots, and the aforementioned veg leftovers, and they went in the slow cooker on low for about six hours with a little bit of olive oil to soften them up.

Then this morning, I added a mug of red lentils, a good pinch of chili flakes, about 2l of boiling water, the very last of last week’s lamb and barley soup, and some seasoning, put the slow cooker on high, and with a bit of luck and a following wind, it’ll be ready for lunch.