Serves 1 as a light lunch or 2 as a snack, starter or as part of a plate of party food. 2 slices bread 100g grated cheese 2-3 tbsp pickle 2tsp mixed herbs
Toast the bread on one side.
Turn it over and spread with the pickle. Then sprinkle the herbs over the top.
Cover with grated cheese.
Return to the grill.
Cut into triangles.
(If this is for a starter or party food, you may want to cut off the crusts or even up the sides first to make the shapes more uniform.)
The scene
stealer is Burl Ives. His entrance at the engagement party is movie genius. As
patriarch Rufus Hannassey, he leads the family which is in contention with the
Terrill’s for grazing rights in ‘The Big Muddy’.
But my meal
is for his son, Buck. Poor Buck; he is forced to be tough but cannot, as hard
as he tries, win his father’s respect. He loves ‘Julie the Schoolie’ (Jean
Simmons) and at one point, in a vain attempt to woo her, he invites himself
into her house and eats her stew.
Buck Hannassey
is played by Chuck Connors. His performance is right up there with the others
although his name is less well-known today. In his time, though, he was a
successful baseball and basketball player and had a long-running stint on American series, ‘The Rifleman’.
In 'The Big
Country', Buck Hannassey is a mixed-up man. He craves acceptance from his father
and many of his mistakes are made attempting to win the slightest of praise. At
the end he is rejected by the man he so wants to please and by the woman he (probably
genuinely) loves but whom he has abducted in another desperate scheme.
So, I think
he might like this lovely stew with dumplings. It could warm his heart and show
him that he doesn’t need to try so hard. This one is made with vegetarian
sausages but you probably wouldn’t even notice. The chilli adds a little kick
which a hard-living man would enjoy.
Oh, and by the
way, the Big Country has them best theme of any film ever. We could play it
while we eat.
SAUSAGE AND BEAN STEW
Serves 2-3
6 vegetarian sausages,
defrosted if bought frozen
2 medium red onions,
sliced
1 medium red pepper,
sliced
1 clove garlic, crushed
420g can mixed beans
(pulses)
420g can red kidney beans,
drained and washed
400g can chopped tomatoes
1tbsp tomato puree (or
2tbsp tomato ketchup) mixed with 3tbsp of hot water
2tsp dried mixed herbs
1tbsp sugar
1tbsp olive oil
2 bay leaves
Chop each sausage into
four.
Heat the oil in a large
pan and fry the sausage until brown. Remove and set aside.
Fry the onion and pepper
for a few minutes until almost soft.
Then add the garlic and
continue to cook until all just brown.
Put the sausages back in
the pan.
Add the beans to the pan
with the tomatoes and tomato puree.
Sprinkle in the mixed
herbs, bay leaves and sugar and stir well.
Transfer all to a crock
pot and place in the oven at a low heat until the sauce has thickened. (I leave
it for at least an hour.)
Remove bay leaves before
serving.
This dish is even better
if prepared in advance and re-heated when needed.
It is even better again if
you add these dumplings. You can cook them separately and stir them in.
HERBY DUMPLINGS
200g SR flour
100g veg suet
2tsp mixed herbs
Salt and black pepper
5 – 8 tbsp cold water
Combine ingredients in a
large bowl.
Add enough of the water to
bring them together in a soft dough.
Shape into small balls.
Add to hot stock so that they
float on the surface.
Cook for about 20 minutes
(add to stew about 20 mins before serving).
We spent a glorious November week in a cottage on the quay here. And, if you spend a
week by the sea, it makes sense to have a Smuggler/ Pirate meal. This was a kind of 'free for all' with all dishes on the table at the same time. It took a lot of preparation but I had some willing helpers. Some of these recipes were my own but I also trawled the internet for ideas.
The Menu
Pirate Cheeses Treasure Map Pizza
Pastry Treasure Chests Fruit Trees
Salmagundi Shark Infested Beans
I started by making the filling for the Treasure Chests. This is because it tastes best when it has had time to sit for a while. It can be heated up at the end and placed inside the pastry chests which are cooked in the final 20 minutes before serving.
Then I, with my helpers, started on the prep for the other dishes. The Pirate Cheeses can be made and left until needed, as can the Salmagundi. Don't make the Fruit Trees too soon as you don't want the fruit to discolour.
Pirate Cheeses
My Dad was given responsibility for assembling these. I found the idea on the web. The original used black food colouring but I thought that black olives would be better. Cutting and assembling was a bit fiddly but the end result was worth it.
Ingredients
babybel cheeses
black olives
Method
Cut through the red covering on each of the cheeses. Make sure you don't cut the cheese itself. Remove half. Then, using a sharp knife, cut an eye, eyepatch and mouth for each pirate from the skin of an olive.
Salmagundi
This is, apparently, a traditional meal served to pirates. Recipes vary and there are even some hot versions available. Most writers agree, though that it was a shredded mix of meat and salad. This vegetarian twist on the dish uses what we call 'make believe ham'.
Ingredients
4 Quorn meat free smoked ham slices
1/4 cucumber, de-seeded
2 carrots, peeled
4 lettuce leaves
4 slices cheddar
1 small onion
Method
Cut and slice all ingredients into strips, apart from the onion, which can be in thin rings.
Mix all together. No dressing needed. Shark Infested Beans A bit of fun to accompany the meal.
Ingredients 2 large tins baked beans 3 tortilla chips. Method Heat beans just before service and place in a large bowl. (You can make sure that it is in the pan in advance to avoid a rush at the end.) Arrange tortilla chips to look like sharks. Fruit Trees This is another idea I pinched - this time from a children's party post - but we made it using the fruit we had in the fruit bowl and added a bit of cress.
Ingredients 1 banana 1 orange 1 green apple Method Slice the banana in half lengthways, then chop into slices. Cut apple into segments, leaving the skin on. Peel the orange and cut into segments. Arrange on plate to make the palm trees and sprinkle cress on the bottom. Treasure Map Pizza You can have fun making whatever you want to be on the map. We even made ships from red and yellow peppers and cocktail sticks We also covered the serving board with pieces of blue and grey paper, cut from magazine pictures to make the sea surround. Ingredients/ Method 1 pack cook your own pizza dough (you can, of course, make your own but I used a quick cheat). Make this up according to packet instructions but make into an island shape. Spread with tomato sauce and sprinkle with grated cheese.
➤Cook in oven, then add toppings. Toppings must be ready in advance: 1 red and 1 yellow pepper for the ships (see above) 1 carrot cut into palings for the palisade 6-8 pasta twirls (fusilli), cook until soft but firm. Use as tree trunks, along with flat-leaf parsley for the leaves pieces of cut olive skin for the path spring onion leaf for 'X marks the spot' crumbled tortilla crisps for sand/ rocks
Pastry Treasure Chests
You can put whatever filling you fancy into the pastry chests. I used a creamy quorn and leek mix which is my Mum's favourite. This serves 4 people. Ingredients 1 300g pack Quorn chicken-style pieces 2tbsp olive oil 1 onion, chopped 300ml vegetable stock 200ml double cream 3tbsp butter 2tbsp flour 75ml milk 2 large leeks, washed and chopped 1 sheet ready-rolled puff pastry 1 egg yolk Method Heat oil and 1tbsp butter in a pan and add the onions and leeks. Cook gently until soft and golden, add the Quorn pieces and then pour over the vegetable stock. Stir well. In a separate pan heat the remaining butter. Add the flour and cook for 1 minute. Then add 60ml milk, stirring well to avoid any lumps. Add the cream and continue to cook until the roux is smooth. Then add it to the leek and Quorn mixture. Bring to the boil to reduce by half and then allow to cool slightly. Season as required. Keep until needed. ➤About 20 minutes before serving, gently reheat the filling. Heat oven to 200C/ Gas 6 Cut sheet into four neat rectangles, removing any uneven pieces. Score a line with a knife, all the way around each rectangle, about 1cm in from the edge. You should be cutting about halfway through the pastry. Place each on a baking tray. Make a lattice pattern on the top of each. Mix egg yolk with a little water and brush over the top. Cook pastry for about 15-20 minutes until it rises and you can remove the central panel. Place hot filling inside and replace the 'lid'. (This should be the last item before serving) And then, after all the food was eaten, we tried to play a 'Cornish Smuggler' game. It made cooking six dishes seem easy.
On
Tuesday it was my pleasure to prepare a meal for the members of the DAFT group.
DAFT stands for Devoted to Animals Fundraising Team and they have raised almost
£20,000 to date, which has been donated to a wide range of animal charities.
The proceeds from my meal this week will go to help those who protect and treat
our little hedgehog friends.
This
Carrot and Coriander Soup was one of the choices for the starter. So here it is
for Mrs Tiggywinkle and all those who contributed the money to make the evening
a success.
CARROT AND CORIANDER SOUP
40g/ 1½oz butter
170g/ 6oz leeks, trimmed and sliced
450g/ 1lb carrots, sliced
2tsp ground coriander
1 tsp plain flour
1.1l/ 2pts vegetable stock
150ml/ ¼pt single cream
salt and ground black pepper
handfull of coriander leaves
Melt the butter in a large pan.
Add the leeks and carrots, stir well and then cover. Cook for about 7
minutes.
Stir in the flour and coriander and cook for another minute.
Add the stock and bring to the boil.
Cover and simmer for about 20 minutes or util the vegetables are soft.
Whiz in a food processor or blender (in batches if necessary) until
smooth. Return to pan.
Taste and season, then re-warm (but don’t boil).
Stir in the cream.
Either serve right away or set aside until later (if so, reheat when
ready).
Ladle into bowls and top with torn fresh coriander leaves.
Muriel
Spark’s 1961 novel The Prime of Miss Jean
Brodie introduced my favourite teacher (although I first read it twenty
years later). When, in the late ‘80s, I trained to follow in her footsteps, she
was not ‘in vogue’ and she has not been since. But, on each occasion that I re-read
the book or watch Maggie Smith bring her to life in the 1969 film, I feel –
more and more – that she had the right idea: a teacher should inspire a group of pupils to want to
learn, to want to succeed and, therefore, the subject taught is irrelevant. We
cannot even begin to cover everything in the time we have allocated to us in
the classroom so it is best if we share a passion for learning, whatever the
subject.A good teacher can show her
charges that they can follow their own interests. But then, just as now, the establishment
has the final say.
We call this
‘School Pie’ as it originated as a meal which a lovely teacher friend of mine
borrowed from her school cook, even though it has been tweaked a bit since.
SCHOOL
PIE
I have given metric measures but – if you have both on your
scales – the imperial is much simpler.
115g/ 4oz carrot, peeled and chopped into large chunks
115g/ 4oz onion (about 1 large onion), peeled and chopped
115g/ 4oz cheddar cheese, in 3-4 chunks
170g/ 6oz stuffing – make this according to packet
instructions
4 slices of bread, toasted and ripped into smaller pieces
Splash of olive oil
2 eggs + yolk of another
200ml/ 7floz milk
2 sheets ready rolled puff pastry (You can make your own
or use a block but this is the easiest method)
I use a food
processor. Have a large bowl ready to
mix ingredients.
Put onion into food
processor and chop until small. Heat the oil in a pan and add the chopped
onion. On a low heat, fry until soft. Then put in the bowl.
Put carrot into food
processor and chop until small. Add to bowl.
Repeat with the cheese.
Put bread into food
processor and blitz to make breadcrumbs. Add to bowl.
Add stuffing, mix well and
season with salt and pepper.
Pour over the milk and
crack 2 eggs into the bowl.
Mix very well so that you
have a very stodgy mess – this is exactly what it should look like.
Spread out a sheet of
pastry and place half of the mixture inside one half of the pastry.
Fold over the other half
of pastry so that the filling is in the centre. Then crimp all the way around.
Score the top.
Repeat with the second
sheet of pastry. Freeze one.
Put the other on a baking
tray.
Mix the egg yolk with a
little water and coat the pastry with it.
I love having fruit and veg 'on tap' in the garden, but I must admit that sometimes there is almost more produce than I know what to do with. We have a glut of courgettes and tomatoes at the moment. I thought that this might be a good way to use them.
VEGGIE SAUSAGE BAKE
6 vegetarian sausages,
defrosted if frozen
1 red pepper, coarsely
chopped
1 red onion, chopped into
chunks
6 small tomatoes, halved
½ courgette, sliced
1 large tin chopped
tomatoes
1tbsp tomato puree
¼tsp caster sugar
1tbsp olive oil
1 garlic bread baguette
plus
mixed fresh herbs of
choice
spices to suit
Heat oil and cook
sausages.
Then remove them from the pan and chop each into about three or four
slices on the diagonal.
In the same pan, cook the
onion and pepper for a couple of minutes. Then add the courgette and tomatoes.
When all have softened, pour in the chopped tomatoes and return the sausages to
the pan.
Then add the herbs and
spices. I used fresh coriander and cumin with some ground paprika.
Add the tomato puree and
the caster sugar. Season and taste. Adjust any of the above if necessary.
When ready to eat
Heat the oven to Gas 7
Make sure that everything
in the pan is hot. Then transfer to a baking dish.
Cover with slices of the garlic
bread.
Place in oven for about
10-12 minutes until bread is cooked.
Cut flatbread in half and place on a baking tray.
Mix the tomato puree with the olive oil and the mixed herbs.
Pirate Cheeses
My Dad was given responsibility for assembling these. I found the idea on the web. The original used black food colouring but I thought that black olives would be better. Cutting and assembling was a bit fiddly but the end result was worth it.
Shark Infested Beans
Ingredients
Treasure Map Pizza
Ingredients
1 egg yolk
Cut sheet into four neat rectangles, removing any uneven pieces.
Muriel
Spark’s 1961 novel The Prime of Miss Jean
Brodie introduced my favourite teacher (although I first read it twenty
years later). When, in the late ‘80s, I trained to follow in her footsteps, she
was not ‘in vogue’ and she has not been since. But, on each occasion that I re-read
the book or watch Maggie Smith bring her to life in the 1969 film, I feel –
more and more – that she had the right idea: a teacher should inspire a group of pupils to want to
learn, to want to succeed and, therefore, the subject taught is irrelevant. We
cannot even begin to cover everything in the time we have allocated to us in
the classroom so it is best if we share a passion for learning, whatever the
subject. A good teacher can show her
charges that they can follow their own interests. But then, just as now, the establishment
has the final say.
