Staple tonight, Ragu made by G

To go with the ragu I made

Chinese style cabbage with cumin

I had a whole spring cabbage in the fridge which needed to be used. I fried half a chopped onion until it browned. I then added sliced fresh ginger, sliced garlic and 1 teaspoon cumin seeds and cooked for another couple of minutes. I poured a couple of tablespoons of Chinese rice wine into the pan and let it evaporate. I then put in the cabbage, which I had cut into wedges, several shakes of soy sauce, and a little water. I covered the pan and let it cook for about another 10 minutes.

The taste combination was good. The cumin enhanced the other seasonings.

Ragu with spaghetti, broccoli

Lasagna tonight made with leftover ragu, fresh lasagna, mushrooms and cheese sauce. It was good, but there wasn't quite enough of the meat sauce. There was too much pasta for this size dish, so I have cut this into strips and frozen them.

Lasagna

Butter a 25cm x 18cm x 6cm depth baking dish. Cover bottom of dish with part of a lasagna sheet. Spread a layer of ragu on the pasta. Cover with another pasta sheet. Put cooked mushrooms and some cheese sauce on this layer. Cover with another sheet. Repeat ragu, pasta,  mushrooms and cheese sauce. Cover with a final sheet of pasta and pour cheese sauce on top. Put in preheated oven at 180C for 25 minutes. Let cool out of the oven for 15 minutes before eating.

Pasta dough

Break 3 small or 2 large eggs into a bowl. Add  flour gradually (we use organic white bread flour, which is the only flour we have), using a spoon to mix at first, then mix with your hand and continue to add flour until it eventually forms a ball. Work the ball, still gradually adding flour, until it loses its stickiness and becomes pliable. We then feed it through a hand-cranked pasta machine. Put it through on the lowest setting several times, then once through each of the higher settings. You should end up with a nice long piece of dough. At this stage you can cut it or put it through other settings. To make lasagna have a large pan of water simmering. Put each sheet in separately and cook for 3-4 minutes until it rises back to the surface. Take the sheet out of the pan and put to cool in large volume cold water. Drain and lay flat on a tea towel. Repeat with all of the sheets.

Tonight ragu with spaghetti, and baked apples. The ragu, one of our staple dishes, made by G. G is the one who bakes all our bread and also has a number of staples that he makes. I tend to do more of 'what can I do with what's in the fridge?', or' what can I do with the veg from the garden?' So in winter we're often eating dishes that have been cooked in bulk from garden produce.

Ragu

60 ml sunflower oil
100g bacon
4 onions, peeled and diced
2 cloves garlic, crushed
2 carrots, peeled and diced
2 sticks celery, diced
900g beef mince
225g chicken livers, liquidised or
finely chopped
2 x 400g tins chopped tomatoes
60 ml tomato puree
2 bay leaves
oregano, - to taste
salt, - to taste
pepper, - to taste
dry cider
In a large metal casserole, fry the bacon in the oil till golden. Add
the vegetables and cook till starting to soften. Remove to a bowl.
In the casserole, brown the mince, add the chicken livers and brown.
Add the tomatoes, heat through and return the vegetables and bacon to
the casserole.
Add the rest of the ingredients. Use more pepper and oregano (or
marjoram) than you might first think. Add enough cider to give liquid
up to the top of the solid ingredients.
Bring to the boil, turn heat to the lowest possible, cover and cook
for as long as possible - overnight or all day.

Baked Apples

Core, stuff with raisins and brown sugar, make a shallow cut all around. Put in baking dish with more sugar, pour over a little rum, and add water to about 1" depth. Bake at 140C for about 90 minutes.