Happy Halloween!

A Whole New World of Food Shopping

Working close to London’s Oxford Street is a double-edged sword. It’s a shopper’s paradise, there’s no doubt about that, you can find just about anything here, and there’s always Regent Street just around the corner for anything you can’t find. I’ve spent many a lunchtime browsing (and buying). Of course the downside to this is the money spent, usually on things I wouldn’t otherwise have bought had I not been lured by the shops on my break. The other problem I find is how busy Oxford Street gets, more and more so in the months leading up to Christmas. I find this particular frustrating when I leave the office, tired and anxious to get home. Battling with the crowds is the last thing I want to be doing.

But overall this famous street is good to know. It’s bustling with London life and character and, despite how busy it gets, it does have a certain magic about it at Christmas time. And in recent weeks something else has made me very happy to be working nearby – ladies and gentlemen I give you the new Waitrose food hall at John Lewis.

Described as ‘an emporium for food lovers, bursting with seasonally-sourced and speciality foods’, let me tell you this is a gastronomic heaven. Well, as much as it can be under the umbrella of a supermarket. I was very impressed by the array of fresh meat, fish and vegetables and I was particularly pleased to see such a high percentage of free-range or organic meat, along with a rather fantastic selection of game – yes my friends, game, in a supermarket. Let me see, off the top of my head, I recall partridge, pigeon, quail, venison, select cuts of mixed game for casseroles, and I know there was more but I just couldn’t take it all in.

The hall boasts a fabulous cheese room filled with over 100 fine cheeses and offers daily cheese sampling and a gift box service which allows you to put together your own cheese board, with portions cut to order and wrapped in parchment. And as if this wasn’t enough there is also a bakery and a patisserie. What's more, there are 20, count them, 20 tills with a post office style queuing system and a member of staff directing customers to the next available till. At first glance the queue looks horrendous but it moves so quickly you hardly notice it. John Lewis are certainly giving Selfridges, home to another fabulous food hall in the vicinity, a run for their money. The food hall is well worth a visit if you happen to be in the area.

I thought I’d pop in today to pick up some lunch and something up for dinner, but the problem I had is what on earth to buy when faced with such a choice? I was literally wandering around wide-eyed and completely unable to decide. After a phone call to Rob for inspiration, I picked up some Welsh organic minced lamb, some rocket and four rustic rolls, for home made burgers for dinner. I followed my burger recipe, adding a crushed garlic cloves and a pinch of dried chilli flakes, crushed down. Fantastic!

Halloween Biscuits

When I was a little girl my Mum made Halloween so much fun. We had very little money so things were tight and we had to make do with what we had. But in actual fact I think we had much more fun because of that. It’s easy to go out and buy or hire a Halloween costume, but to put one together from nothing at home is so much more exciting. Mum used to dress my sister and me up as witches, making dresses from black plastic dustbin sacks which she painted with gold and silver stars. We had matching tall witches hats made from cardboard and more black sacks. Then she’d paint our faces with make-up and off we’d go to join the other children in terrorising the neighbourhood. Everyone said we were the best dressed witches in town!

Then there would be the pumpkin carving, apple bobbin and the biscuit making we so looked forward to. Mum would make a huge pile of biscuits to give to the trick and treat-ers and of course we got some too. She’d make up little pots of coloured icing and paint the biscuits with moons, pumpkins, ghosts and witches. We’d help too and our messy creations would be added to the pile.

The whole thing brings back so many delightful memories and puts a smile on my face, so it’s in honour of my Mum that I’ve recreated those Halloween biscuits. Thanks for making it all so magical Mum, you’re still the best Mum in the world. xxx

Halloween Biscuits

Ingredients
100g unsalted butter, softened
100g caster sugar
1 large egg
250g plain flour
A few drops of vanilla extract
150g icing sugar
Food colourings

1. Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.

2. Beat in the vanilla extract.

3. Beat the egg and gradually add it to the butter and sugar.

4. Mix in the flour then bring everything together with your hands to form a dough.

5. The dough can be used straight away but is best after at least half an hour chilling in the fridge. It will be fairly sticky so you'll need to roll it out on a floured surface and sprinkle over more flour as needed. Roll the dough out until it’s about 1/2 cm thick.

6. Cut out discs using a biscuit cutter

7. Bake the biscuits at 180C for about 10 minutes, but do keep an eye on them, they may need a few minutes less or longer. They should be very lightly golden when cooked.

8. Put the biscuits onto a wire rack to cool.

8. To make the icing mix sifted icing sugar with a few tablespoons of hot water to make a thick paste. You can add more icing sugar to make it thicker, or thin it out with more hot water.

9. Divide the icing into separate bowls and mix in drops of food colouring.

10. Have fun decorating!

Makes about 20-25

Come and join me on Facebook!

I'd love for you to come and see me over on Facebook. Search for my email address asliceofcherrypie AT yahoo DOT co DOT uk and add me as a friend!

I hope you all have a lovely weekend.


P.S. Sorry for the strange way I've written the email address, I've been told this helps to prevent 'spamming' engines from finding it. Anything to reduce spam is good in my book!

P.P.S. There's still time to enter 'In the Bag' this month and I'm extending the deadline by a couple of days so you have the weekend to get cooking!

Back down to Earth

I've found myself caught up in a spinning whirlwind of busyness over the last few months. Thankfully it seems to have put me down for a moment so I can catch my breath, and now I feel like Dorothy acclimatising herself to her new surroundings in Oz. Are we really nearing the end of October? Halloween’s coming up? And Bonfire Night? And then (whispers)…Christmas? Where has the time gone?

I hope autumn doesn’t go by too quickly as I’m really enjoying embracing it with my cooking, as you may have noticed! Tonight’s dinner was another celebration of the season using one of my favourite vegetables; the beautiful, deeply golden, nutty and sweet butternut squash.

I wanted the squash to be the centrepiece tonight rather than a side dish and I wanted an earthy dish so I used field mushrooms along with basmati and wild rice to stuff the squash after roasting it. Butternut squash seems even sweeter when you roast it so you really need something to balance it out. The seasoning and parmesan did a good job of that; be generous with both.

Stuffed Butternut Squash

Ingredients
2 butternut squash
2 shallots
2 large field mushrooms
60g basmati and wild rice
150ml vegetable stock
A couple of large handfuls of grated parmesan cheese

1. Cut the squash in half, scoop out seeds and fibres, then place them in a baking tray and drizzle them with olive oil. Season well and roast at 200c for 35-40 minutes.

2. While the squash is cooking, finely chop the shallots and sauté them in a saucepan for a couple of minutes in olive oil. Roughly dice the mushrooms and add them to the shallots. Fry for a few minutes more then add the rice and stir to coat it with the mixture. Add the stock, bring it to the boil, then put on a lid and simmer until the rice is cooked through (about 10 minutes).

3. Once the squash is roasted fill each half with the rice mixture then sprinkle over a good amount of parmesan cheese. Then pop them back in the oven for another 5 to 10 minutes.

Serves 2-4 depending on the size of the squash and how hungry you are!



P.S. How are you getting on with our 'In the Bag' challenge this month? I'm looking forward to seeing all your creations!

Sugar and Spice and All Things Nice…

…that’s what Sundays are made of.

I hope you've all had a lovely weekend. I'm feeling much better after some well needed rest and I've had a nice afternoon flicking through cook books and looking up recipes on the internet for an apple cake, which I fancied making with a few of the seasonal apples sitting in our fruit bowl. None of the recipes I found were quite what I wanted so I took a bit from this one, a bit from that one, played around with quantities, and this is what I came up with. I was pleased with the result, which was lovely and spicy, perfect for this time of year.

Apple and Spice Cake

Ingredients
2 eating apples
200g self-raising flour
125g butter
125g light muscovado sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon of mixed spice
Juice and zest of half a lemon

1. Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy
2. Beat the eggs together and beat them into the mixture bit by bit
3. Stir in the lemon juice and zest and the mixed spice
4. Fold in the flour. Don’t worry if the mixture seems stiff, the juice from the apples will loosen it up as it cooks.
5. Peel, core and dice the apples and fold them into the mixture
6. Line a small cake tin with grease proof paper and fill with the mixture.
7. Bake at 180c for 40-45 minutes.

The Long Week and The Quick Supper

Thank goodness it’s Friday tomorrow, I’m shattered. It’s been a hectic old week at work and I’ve got a cough, which is exhausting in itself. Still, it’s important to eat when you're busy, busy, and not 100%, even more so in fact. I must confess to a takeaway last night, not the best option but there you have it, and Rob’s been an angel and cooked a fair few times this week, despite coming home late. So tonight I thought I’d better do my bit. It was pretty effortless really, but it was a hot, home-cooked meal and actually rather nice. I’m sure that, and the wine (for medicinal purposes, you understand) will sort me out.

Pork Steaks with a Creamy White Wine and Mushroom Sauce



I started typing up a recipe for this but stopped as I’d feel rather hypocritical specifying amounts of ingredients when in reality I just sloshed in a bit of this and threw in a handful of that. So here is a guide.

Season your pork steaks (or chops) with salt and pepper and fry them in a little olive oil over a medium heat. As they start to cook throw in an onion, halved and sliced, and cook alongside the pork, stirring them round the pan every now and then to ensure they don’t burn. Turn the heat down a little if they start to cook too quickly.

When the pork is about halfway cooked add a handful or two of sliced mushrooms. When they are nicely cooked add a glass of white wine and turn the heat up to let it bubble. Then add about 200ml of double cream. Stir everything well and let it bubble and simmer until it thickens and the pork is cooked through.

If the pork cooks through before the sauce thickens, just remove it from the pan then re-add it afterwards to re-heat it.

Roasted Pumpkin and Sweet Potato with Feta Cheese

It’s been a glorious day today. The bright blue skies and warm sunshine have seemed more summer-like than autumnal; we seem to be experiencing a touch of an Indian summer. But the pumpkin from the farm shop brought me back to the season, and indeed the month, we’re in. I roasted it with another autumn vegetable, sweet potato, and topped it with feta cheese. We ate this as a side dish with a rack of lamb, but it would be just as nice on its own.

Roasted Pumpkin and Sweet Potato with Feta Cheese

Ingredients
1/2 medium sized pumpkin
1 sweet potato
100g feta cheese
Salt and black pepper

1. Peel the sweet potato and cut it into chunks or cubes.
2. Scoop out the seeds and soft fibres in the middle of the pumpkin half, peel it and cut it into chunks or cubes roughly the same size as the sweet potato.
3. Put the vegetables into a roasting tray and drizzle over some olive oil, then sprinkle over black pepper and sea salt.
4. Roast in the oven at 200c for 45 minutes, turning half way through.
5. Crumble over the cheese and serve.

Serves 4 as a side dish

In the Bag: Cooking the Month of October!

It's my turn once again to host the monthly food blogging event I run with Cherry from Cherry's English Kitchen and Scott at Real Epicurean.

Each month we select three seasonal products and put them in a bag for you to create your own dish with.

And without any further ado, here's the moment you've all been waiting for - the contents of October's bag! We have:

Pumpkins
Not just for Halloween, these robust fruits are full of character and lend themselves to variety of dishes.

Mushrooms
One of the sure signs of Autumn is the vast array of mushrooms growing wildly. Whether you're gathering your own or buying them, mushrooms are surely not to be missed this season.

Leeks
One of my favourite vegetables, leeks are a staple that add a mild onion-like flavour to dishes and are a great base for casseroles and soups, but they're also great as a side vegetable.

Entry Details

Send an email with ‘In the Bag in the subject line to asliceofcherrypie@yahoo.co.uk by Saturday 27th October with the following information:

• your name
• the name of your blog
• a link to your post
• the name of your dish
• a picture of your dish

Rules

Here are the rules - but ultimately remember the objective is to have fun whilst highlighting seasonal food:

1. Entries must use (or attempt to use) all of the ingredients "in the bag" for that particular month. The dish should be based around the seasonal ingredient, rather then just including it as an afterthought.

2. Participants can include any "extra" ingredients that they see fit.

3. Entries should include a link back to the host for that month, and the post should be tagged "in the bag".

4. Entries can be written any time during the month, as long as the URL is emailed to that month's host before the closing date.

5. Particpants from outside of the UK are most welcome to join in and substitute an item from their own local seasonal produce if necessary.

That's all! Any deviations from the above are at the discretion of the host. Have fun!

"In The Bag" is a food even ran monthly by Real Epicurean, A Slice of Cherry Pie, and Cherry's English Kitchen.

Autumn Harvest

What a great time of year autumn is for the kitchen. Our local farm shop is brimming with pumpkins, apples, squashes, cobnuts, to mention just a few of the fruits and vegetables in season right now. As the nights draw in and the air gets colder kitchens will be alive with the smells, tastes and sights of autumnal cooking. With the wide selection of produce available to keep things interesting one thing’s for sure; it won’t be dull.

In the Bag: Cooking the month of September - the Roundup

Take a look at the fantastic roundup of last months In the Bag event, over at Real Epicurean and watch this space to find out what's in October's bag!

Sautéed Portabella Mushrooms and Potatoes

Slice a handful of potatoes (I used desiree) about a centimetre thick and boil them in salted water until just tender. In the meantime fry roughly the same amount of sliced portabella mushrooms in olive oil with a crushed garlic clove until cooked through then remove them from the pan.

Fry the cooked potatoes in some more olive oil until golden then add the mushrooms back to the pan and heat through. Season well with salt and add a good handful of chopped flat-leafed parsley