Stuff My Mushrooms.

 

The evenings are getting lighter! 

It's seven o' clock as I write and it's still light outside. Which is lovely. 

This time of year always makes me want to go wandering round National Trust properties and do lots of studying. It's sort of lucky that I have a dissertation and a whole bunch of exam revision to do really... (I also got to go to a National Trust place this weekend - Ightham Mote, it was lovely-pictures below.) 

These lighter evenings make it an awful lot easier to take food photos - living in a flat in halls with awful neon lighting doesn't make for particularly appetising ones. But, tonight I was in the kitchen making dinner, the light looked lovely and I just had to get some photos. 

 Basically, I love mushrooms. (Bryony doesn't! Which means that if we're out and she has food with mushrooms in I always get to eat her mushrooms, so I'm not really complaining...) These are my rice stuffed mushrooms. I've blogged stuffed mushrooms before, but these ones are different. Possibly better.... 

But you'll just have to make both recipes and try them out for yourselves... 

 

Rice stuffed mushrooms (to serve two as a main or four as a side):

150g long grain rice 

2 white onions 

6 spring onions 

2 cloves of garlic 

2 tsp mixed Italian herbs 

1 stock cube 

4 flat cap mushrooms 

A liberal handful of grated cheddar cheese 

A knob of butter and a dash of olive oil 

Salt and Pepper to taste

1. Preheat the oven to 180C. Cook the rice (You place in a saucepan of boiling water and cook for about fifteen minutes until the rice is tender. Don't stir it too much or the starch from the rice is released and it goes all gooey. Drain the rice in a colander, and rinse it through with hot water.) 

2. While the rice is cooking, finely chop the onions. Heat a knob of butter and dash of olive oil in a large saucepan, and add the onion. Fry gently. 

3. Slice the spring onions and add to the pan, along with the dried herbs and a crushed stock cube. Stir in thoroughly. 

4. Crush the garlic (using a knife, or a special garlic crusher if you have one) and add to the pan. 

5. Cut the stems out of your mushrooms, chop these and add to the pan as well. 

6. By now your rice should be cooked. Add it to the onion/garlic/spring onion pan, season with salt and pepper and stir through thoroughly. Turn off the heat. 

7. Place your mushrooms in a reasonably high sided dish or roasting tray, and add a generous spoonful of the rice mixture to each mushroom. If there's any left in the pan after you've run out of room in your mushrooms just stuff it into the gaps between them in the tray, burying the mushrooms. Top with the cheese. 

8. Place the mushroom/rice tray into the oven and cook for about twenty to thirty minutes until the cheese is melted and golden. 

9. Take the tray out and serve the mushrooms. I ate mine with parsnips, but I think this would go really well with cheesy leeks, or even as a side to go with a quiche or a tart.

Smokey Red Risotto

If you've been reading this blog for more than five minutes, you'll know that Zosia and I have quite a thing for risotto, and we also like playing with recipes. Therefore we have posh risotto, gin risotto, red wine risotto and pink risotto among other things - and this is another new one.

It embodies everything you could want as the weather starts to get colder: it's smokey and warm and comforting, and fills your kitchen with the sweet scent of spice. I'll also be using it in future as a way of getting Zosia round for tea, because it's very odd not living with her this year and I miss her.

Ingredients (serves 6):
- 2 red onions, chopped
- 2 cloves garlic, crushed
- 2tsp dried basil
- 1tbsp smoked paprika
- 400g arborio rice
- 1 ½ tins chopped tomatoes
- 400ml red wine
- 1000ml vegetable stock
- 6 sun-dried tomatoes, chopped
- bunch fresh basil, torn
- salt and pepper
- soft goats cheese, to serve

Method:
1. In a large pan or wok, cook the red onion and garlic with a knob of butter for about 8 minutes, until starting to colour. Add the dried basil and paprika and cook for another minute or so before adding the rice.
2. After another minute, add the chopped tomatoes, the red wine and a ladle-full of the stock and stir in. Bring to a simmer, and add more stock as the liquid is absorbed by the rice - this should take about half an hour. Stir it as often as you can.

Stirring fun: the reunited cookers

3. When it's almost done, stir in the sun-dried tomatoes and fresh basil, and season to taste. Serve with the goats cheese and lots of garlic bread. If you have it, drizzle over a little garlic olive oil too, for an extra bit of yum.

Awesome. Also I should say that term has started again and the current amount of business is unreal. Seriously - yesterday I threw some pasta together and had to put it in a tupperware box to eat while I ran/was on campus. Also I have freshers' flu. So bear with us for a little while, while we find our feet again!

An Indian Feast

Before the end of term I decided I wanted to do a proper big dinner for a few of us, because I like cooking and I like people. Zosia had an 'Indian dip selection' in the fridge. That was that, really.

Sooooo I made a mixed bean curry and onion bhajis and chapatis and coriander rice. And it was exhausting. And also wonderful. The curry recipe belongs to a friend of my aunt and has been a favourite at home for years - it went down pretty well here, too! It's a long list of ingredients but don't be daunted: most of them are just store-cupboard spices. Also, because it needs time to marinade it's a good one to make earlier in the day.

Ingredients (serves 4):
- 1tbsp mustard seeds
- 1tbsp cumin seeds
- 1 small onion, finely chopped
- 1 clove garlic, finely chopped
- 2 chillis, chopped
- 1 tin chopped tomatoes
-  ½tsp turmeric
- 1tbsp ground coriander
- 1tbsp ground cumin
- ½pt boiling water
- 4 large tins of beans (I tend to use 2 of chickpeas and 2 of kidney beans)
- 3 balls of frozen spinach
- handful fresh coriander

Method:
1. Grab your biggest saucepan and drizzle in some olive oil. Add the cumin and mustard seeds and heat until they start popping.
2. Add the onion, garlic and chilli and soften 'til the onion becomes clear (about 8 minutes).

3. Add the chopped tomatoes and spices and cook for a few more minutes, then add the water.
4. Stir well, then put on a lid (or some tin foil) and simmer on a low heat for 30-40 minutes.
5. Add the beans and spinach and stir until the spinach has de-frosted, then allow to cool and marinade for as long as you have time for.
6. Cook through when required, then season and add the fresh coriander.

Simple. For the rice, I cooked some basic brown rice and then added a squeeze of lime juice, some salt and pepper and some fresh coriander to liven it up a bit.

The onion bhajis I made were a very yummy side, and seemed to work fine with gluten free flour.

And it's easy to make chapatis. You need a tablespoon of both wholemeal and white flour per person (OR you can buy chapati flour and use 2tbsp per person. All the flour in our house at uni is gluten free, so it was actually cheaper for me to do this). Add a drizzle of olive oil and enough warm water to bring it all together in a dough, then knead for a couple of minutes. Cover with clingfilm, and then leave for an hour. 

Divide the dough into pieces (4 each, so it depends how many you're making for): they'll look small, but it's all good. Roll out as thin as you can without breaking them, then grab a frying pan and and cook the chapatis one at a time, for about a minute each side (you don't need any oil). Once cooked, transfer to a plate and spread with butter, then onto the next!

Serve up to your hungry friends and enjoy your feast.

Oooh. Red Wine Risotto

Okay. I admit it. I really like cooking with alcohol.

I blame my mother. 

But this  risotto is pretty awesome. Normally, you make risotto with white wine, which is lovely and mellow. This risotto is made with red wine instead. I had this mad idea to make risotto with red wine a while ago. I googled it, and it turns out other people had the same idea. So I decided to just go for it, make up a recipe and see what happened. And what happened was pretty successful. The red wine becomes the dominant flavour, whereas normally the white wine tends to form the back drop to whichever other flavours you choose to add. And it went down well with the housemates, so yknow. I think it works.

I made this quite a while ago, but I think it serves about four people. We ate it with lots of Bryony's  excellent garlic bread.

What you need: 

1 Aubergine

Olive oil

Butter

3 Cloves of garlic

1 Leek

300g Risotto rice

1 Very large glass of red wine

2 Oxo cubes

1tsp Dried rosemary

1/2 tsp Mixed herbs

1/2 tsp Pesto

2 tsp Wholegrain mustard

1 handful of Parmesan cheese, grated

Fresh basil, chopped

Fresh parsley, chopped

Goats cheese to serve

And what to do:

1. Roast your aubergine. Chop it up into small pieces, place in a roasting tin and drizzle with olive oil. Stir it all around and place it in the oven at 180C. It'll take about half an hour to roast.

2. Chop the onion and the leek. Melt about 25g of butter in a large pan with some olive oil over a low heat, then add the onion and leek. Let it cook for about four minutes, then crush your garlic (or chop it up very finely) and add it to the pan for a further minute or so. Then add your risotto and stir it in to the onion/garlic/leek mix, coating it in butter and oil so it becomes shiny.

3. Now add the red wine and let it simmer and reduce. Once it has, you can either make up some stock with the oxo cubes and add this gradually, or just crumble the cubes into the risotto and gradually add hot water as youre going along. I tend to do the second, Bryony generally does the first but it's up to you.

4. Add your herbs and your pesto and your mustard, and stir it all through. Then let it all simmer as the rice cooks, adding more water or stock as it evaporates. 

5. After it's been cooking about half an hour, check on the aubergine, and once it's ready add to the risotto. 6. Keep stirring the risotto, and once the rice is cooked add the parmesan cheese and most of the chopped fresh herbs.

7. Serve sprinkled with goat's cheese and herbs, with garlic bread on the side.

Give it a go if you fancy something slightly different to "normal" risotto...

The One That Made Rebecca Eat Vegetables

Mum could never make risotto - she has no patience for all the stirring - so we always had savoury rice instead. And as risotto is my university staple, this was my Mum's. And it's awesome. 

I made it last year for Zosia, Rebecca and Felix, and we noticed Rebecca leaving all the vegetables, which she'd done before but we'd never picked up on. We then discovered that Rebecca didn't like vegetables. Cue going through each one ('these are mange tout, they're kind of like peas...'), until SHE'D EATEN ALL THE VEGETABLES. This is my claim to fame and also brilliant-ness.

The 'Getting Rebecca to Eat Vegetables' Process

Ingredients:
- 1 onion, chopped
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 carrot, diced
- 300g brown rice
- 600ml water
- 1tsp marmite
- 1-2tbsp herb de provence
- 1tbsp tomato purée
- salt and pepper
- handful green beans
- 75g baby corn
- 75g sugar snaps, or mange tout
- 150g cheddar cheese, grated

Method:
1. In a large saucepan, fry the onion  and garlic with a knob of butter for a few minutes. Add the carrot and cook for about 8 more minutes, until softened.
2. Add the rice and stir well. Cook for 5 minutes, then add the water, marmite, tomato purée and herbs, and season.
3. Bring to the boil, then put on a lid (or tin foil if you don't have one), turn down the temperature and simmer for 30 minutes - stirring halfway through so it doesn't stick.
4. Add the beans, corn and sugar snaps and cook for 5 more minutes before adding the cheese. Turn off the heat and put the lid back on for a minute so all the cheese melts, then serve - preferably with lots of garlic bread or courgette fritters.

 It's super simple, and unlike risotto it requires no effort whatsoever. So no patience required! The only thing is it doesn't keep so well (though I may attempt savoury rice patties at some point), so make sure you have plenty of people to eat it all!