If it's meatloaf, we must be camping

Well, not always, but meat loaf is fairly synonymous with a camping trip in the RJ household.

This is a recipe I picked up from the Good Food magazine, and the original recipe is on the website: Cold meatloaf with squashed tomato salsa. With the emphasis on the cold. This is what we usually take to sustain us on the Friday night trip, especially if the trip is likely to be a bit longer than average. There's also usually enough left over for sarnies over the weekend too, and the 'chutney'/'salsa' that you make to go with it is a perfect foil for the loaf. It's got lots of herbs in, which count towards your 5 a day, always helpful when camping tends to major on the meat and carb end of the food spectrum.


This weekend we're heading off to Suffolk. It's madness, I tell you, via Farnborough to pick up the Husband who can't finish work till around 5, then the all the joys that the M25 clockwise on a Friday night with a good forecast for the weekend will bring, till we peel off on the M11 or A12 - haven't decided which, and a final obligatory skirmish round the back lanes once we leave the main road. The last thing we need is complicated food. And yes, we could stop and buy tea at a Little Road Break, or wherever, but frankly, a bit of good food, and everyone's spirits are lifted, just in time to fight with the awning and get the cork out of the wine bottle sharpish once we arrive.

There is a perfectly good reason for travelling so far - we're camping with my lovely school friend and her family. Normally there would be a third family camping but my other school friend (mum in said family) has recently had a knee op, so instead of camping somewhere relatively centrally for all 3 families, this time we're going to camp near her house.

I'm very excited. The campsite is in Cool Camping. There's a pizza oven we can use. Camp fires are allowed. Apart from the long journey, it's sounding practically perfect. And then of course, there's the forecast. But let's not tempt fate...

Camping Meatloaf with red pepper and tomato salsa

450g pork sausages
500g beef mince
50g breadcrumbs
1 onion
1 clove of garlic
large handful of flat leaf parsley
3 large stalks of rosemary, leave only
2 eggs
salt & pepper

Salsa
2 red peppers
sprinkle of smoked paprika
2 cloves of garlic
olive oil 
2 tsp sherry vinegar 
1tsp caster sugar

400g cherry tomatoes

Leave plenty of foil to overhang

Start with the meatloaf. Line a 2lb loaf tin with silver foil, with enough overhang to wrap the loaf in eventually once it's all cooked and cooled (you'll thank me for this tip later!!). Pre-heat the oven to 180C/160 fan.



Finely chop the onion, garlic and herbs - I whizz it all up in a food processor. - then split the sausages and empty the meat into a large bowl with the mince and mash it all up together with the onions and herbs and breadcrumbs, eggs and some salt and pepper.


Empty the mixture into your lined loaf tin and squish it in, leaving the loaf mixture nice and mounded on top.





Deseed the peppers and slice them fairly thinly. Spread them out on a baking tray, toss in a tablespoon or so of olive oil and sprinkle over some smoked paprika.

Put the loaf in the oven with the tray of peppers on the shelf below and cook for 30 minutes, during which time, quarter the cherry tomatoes and peel and finely slice the garlic.

After 30 minutes, remove the tray with the peppers on it, stir in the tomatoes & garlic, the sherry vinegar and caster sugar and put back in the oven for another 40 minutes or so till the meat loaf is cooked and hot all the way through (test with a skewer) and the peppers and tomatoes are all soft and squidgy and a bit caramelised.

Pour off any juice that has collected round the meatloaf and leave to cool. Squidge up the peppers and tomatoes and put in a sterilised jar or container suitable to take with you.

Once cool, wrap the meatloaf up in the foil and seal the jar with the peppers. Great in rolls, served with the salsa and with potato salad (which you also made in advance!). And don't forget some good cake...

Dinner sorted (cake included!)

Happy Camping!

The herbs are a great addition to this loaf and add a little extra greenery. I'm linking up to Karen at Lavender and Lovage 's lovely Cooking with Herbs Challenge.

Pork Fillet & Coriander - and some Ginger Wine

So the veg box arrived on Tuesday and I checked out the contents and my list of likely meals culled from various sources in order to put together a meal plan and finalise the rest of the shopping requirements. I was still feeling uninspired and I won't lie that it was a chore, despite being faced with the kind of fresh and delicious vegetables that would normally make my heart sing.

Among other things, there was a small bunch of asparagus - such a treat, but not more than one serving's worth, so I supplemented with the final spears poking up from the garden and made a quiche on Wednesday.

A huge bag of spinach. Always tricky - I love it, kids don't.

A big bag of a herb that I knew I knew, but I couldn't identify.  How embarrassing.

Turned out it was coriander. Aromatic and fresh, but loads of it and I wasn't fancying carrot and coriander soup, despite the bunch of carrots. Curry? No. Pesto? No.


In the end I reached for Sarah Raven (she of the velvet gardening coat and close personal friendship with Emma Bridgewater - not that I'm jealous or anything). Her Garden Cookbook is a real winner if you have more than a passing relationship with vegetables. The book isn't a vegetarian cook book, but there are loads of good recipes, divided loosely into seasons and by different veggies, which is a Godsend when you have a glut - or a lack of inner inspiration.

 
One thing, they can often be quite fiddly, so that even 'simple' meals turn out to be quite task intensive. She also often uses some less common additional ingredients. Thanks to my foray into the pages earlier in the week, I am now the proud owner of a bottle of ginger wine. I suspect that sherry or marsala (for all Nigella fans) would work equally well here.

Pork Fillet with Coriander

Serves 4

450g piece of pork tenderloin, cut into 2-3 cm thick medallions
1 red onion, finely sliced
30g unsalted butter
1 tbsp olive oil
2 tsp coriander seeds, crushed
3 large mushrooms, quite thickly sliced
1 large clove of garlic, crushed
70ml ginger wine
2 heaped teaspoon soft brown sugar
2 tablespoons lemon juice
200ml creme fraiche
large bunch of fresh coriander, finely chopped


Melt the butter with the oil in a frying pan, then add the sliced onion and crushed coriander seeds, and cook gently for a few minutes till the onion is soft. Remove from the pan with a slotted spoon and set aside.

Add the mushrooms & garlic to the pan and cook for 2-3 minutes then add to the onions.

Add a little more oil to the pan if necessary and then turn the pork slices in the butter and oil in the pan for 3-4 minutes, before putting the onions and mushrooms back in the pan.

Add the ginger wine, sugar and lemon juice to the pan, turn up the heat a little and allow everything to cook and bubble to become syrupy.

Add the creme fraiche, salt and pepper and then stir in the chopped coriander and serve.

As Sarah suggested, it was delicious with her Spinach with Puy Lentils (my way), thus killing the spinach bird at the same time, but I have to confess that I also cooked some pasta for the kids. The creamy sauce went down very well whether it was lentils or pasta - and to give them their due, both kids ate the small amount of the lentils & spinach I gave them. 

I can feel my mojo very slowly returning...

Linking up to Herbs on Saturday hosted by Karen at Lavender and Lovage with the beautiful coriander that went into the dish.

And the mystery ingredient is...

Swede. Honestly, it is. And it's really, really good - the cake I mean.

I've been very inspired since talking to the lovely lady who runs the Blackberry Cottage cake business - cakes with hidden ingredients - who I met at the Parsonage Farm Spring Market the other week. She'd sold out of her swede cake, but I was intrigued because I've had a swede pretty much every week in my veg box and frankly, it's getting a bit difficult to think of new and exciting ways to eat it. Yes, I raved about the soup, but  I'm only fasting on 2 days a week and I've only got so much space in the freezer. We've also had swede chips, as well as plenty of plain old mashed swede, and I've found an Ottolenghi recipe that I'll be trying out for a remoulade type salad, but cake? Really?

I turned for further inspiration to Harry Eastwood's gorgeous book Red Velvet & Chocolate Heartache. I have had it for a year or so, but - oh the shame - have not made anything out of it. It's a beautifully presented book, loads of wonderful cakes that you can almost smell off the pages, very pretty and evocative photography, and each cake has a little 'personality' which stays mostly on the cute side of twee. She also uses LOADS of veg in her creations. It's great bed time reading. Not only that, but 2 different cakes using swede. A lemon & lavender loaf, and an orange & rosemary drizzle cake.



I opted for the second, having lots of rosemary in the garden and no lavender as yet, and the results, well, see for yourself.

The addition of rosemary to the drizzle syrup adds extra interest but the flavour works really well with the orange, and I promise, there's not even a hint of swede. The idea of using swede puree instead of butter is a brilliant one, and based on the success of this, I will be trying it out in other things. We don't have intolerances in our house, but I can see that it would be fantastic for anyone with a dairy intolerance. Also, it uses rice flour which is gluten free. Marvellous.

Finally, I should just mention that while you can of course chop your swede with a knife, I used my Tefal Fresh Express Max which I have received as part of my membership of the Tefal Innovation Panel. I have to say that of the 3 pieces of equipment I have received, this is the one I have been most ambivalent about. However, for this recipe, the chopping cone did the job, and made easy work of the swede.

Orange & Rosemary Drizzle Cake

400g peeled swede, chopped quite small
4 medium eggs (or 2 largish ones and 2 smallish ones, our chickens not laying to conform with Government standards)
50g clear honey
150g caster sugar
finely grated zest of 4 oranges
125g white rice flour
200g ground almonds
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt

plus (for the drizzle):

6 tbsp granulated sugar plus 1 for sprinkling
250ml water
8 tbsp freshly squeezed orange juice
6 sprigs rosemary

You will also need a lined tray bake tin

First deal with the swede - cover it with water, bring to the boil and cook for 7 minutes or so, till cooked. Drain, then blitz to a puree.

Combine the rice flour, ground almonds, salt and baking powder in a bowl and set aside. In another, larger bowl, whisk together the honey, sugar and eggs for a good couple of minutes, till frothy. Stir in the orange zest, the flour & almond mixture, and finally whisk in the swede puree till it's all combined. Scrape into the tin, smooth, and bake for about 20-25 minutes, turning once during cooking if necessary.

While the cake is cooking, prepare the drizzle by putting the 6tbsp of granulated sugar, water, orange juice and rosemary into a small pan. Bring it gently to the boil, and when the water is bubbling so you can't see the rosemary, remove the pan from the heat, and leave for the rosemary to infuse into the liquid.

Once the cake is baked, take it out of the oven, and still in the tin, prick holes all over the cake using your preferred cake pricking implement. Carefully drizzle the rosemary-scented syrup all over the cake (you may have too much - use your judgement) then sprinkle the final tablespoon of granulated over the top and leave to cool.

Although Harry Eastwood thinks her orange & rosemary drizzle cake is "... that moment when a white hot sunbeam inches over your cheek, and wakes you up with a smile...", suggesting a morning type of cake (breakfast, even??), having smelt it coming out of the oven, I think mine has great possibilities as a warm pudding type cake - I think it's the almonds - served with some mascarpone. I'll leave that thought with you.

I'll be adding this to the lovely Karen's Herbs on Saturday once May's challenge is open, for the rosemary of course, and also to Ren's Simple and in Season which looks like it's still open on her blog for April.

Chicken Under a Brick - a Random Recipe

Yes, you read it right.

Chicken Under a Brick. Not in it. Definitely under it. Actually, it was 2 poussin, if we're being strictly accurate.

Using Dom's random recipe number generator for this month's Random Recipe challenge, book 26 turned out to be Nigellisima, page 90 was Chicken Under a Brick.


I was really pleased that Nigellisima was the chosen book - despite receiving it at Christmas, I have done little more than salivate my way through it. I wasn't going to use the random number generator to choose the page too, but it fell open far too conveniently at the olive oil chocolate cake which I have been considering for some time now, so in order to enter into the true spirit of the challenge, I went the whole hog, put the number of pages in the generator, and ended up with poussin.

I've never cooked poussin before. Little birds remind me of a time in France when many pigeons were served up on a platter in front of me. All those little bodies. My 17 yr old self was unable to contemplate it.


My nearly 41 yr old self was far happier with the idea, and a quick conversation with my butcher secured me 2 little bodies. Just right for my almost 41st birthday dinner.

The brick bit is quite interesting - you have to spatchcock the birds (easily done with some heavy duty kitchen scissors) and marinade them in lemon zest and juice, thyme, chilli, garlic and oil, and the brick (covered in foil) then holds them flat in the pan when you cook them, first on the hob and then in the oven. It also, apparently, gets the skin crispy. The recipe isn't on line anywhere but if you google Nigella's chicken under a brick, you'll get a good idea of what's involved!

I also got to use my rather smart neon pink tongs for removing the birds from the marinade, turning them half way through cooking, and for general poking about in the pan. It's the little things, you know...

To go with, I decided to have a Nigella blow out. We had a butternut squash in the veg box, and Express has a rather tasty affair involving blue cheese and pecans with roasted squash.  

On the plate together, a tasty and colourful dinner:

The poussin were absolutely delicious. I followed the recipe to the letter, with no variations apart from not marinading it for as long as Nigella suggests (because I had overlooked that part of the recipe) but 2 hours was fine. The only thing I'd do differently next time is leave out the salt from the marinade, but otherwise, the meat was just beautifully tender, with loads of lovely juices. This would be perfect on a BBQ as well.

I have to say that had I not randomly chosen this recipe, I would have looked at it and mentally filed it as too involved - simply because of wrapping a brick in foil, it would seem. I did also have a residual concern about the strength of the shelves in my oven. Having now cooked it, I will definitely do it again - so what do I know? Matthew Fort reviewed Nigellissima for the Guardian's Word of Mouth blog last September commented that recipes in the book that 'tempt the most are the most straightforward' and he cites this one as an example of that. He's right. 

I don't often stack up my blog challenge entries but as well as Dom's challenge, I can't resist adding this to the current Forever Nigella challenge with the theme of 'colourful', hosted by Elizabeth at A Girl in her Kitchen for Sarah at Maison Cupcake

and also to Karen's Herbs on Saturday, hosted by Karen herself this month, because both the poussin and the butternut squash recipes (which are admittedly Nigella's and not my own) have thyme in them, adding to the flavours.