Chicken thighs baked on a celeriac, carrot and onion base

An experiment. I had a large celeriac in the fridge and wondered how I could use this with the chicken. So:

4 chicken thighs

1/4 celeriac, peeled and cut into chunks about 1"x2"

1 large carrot, peeled

1 large onion, peeled and cut into chunks

balsamic vinegar, 1 tbsp

honey, 1 tbsp

white wine vinegar, 1 tbsp

vegetable oil 1tbsp

I put all the veg in a rectangular pottery dish and mixed in the honey, balsamic vinegar, white wine vinegar, oil, and salt and pepper. Once I flattened the vegetable layer, I put the lightly oiled chicken pieces on top, skin side up. Then I put the dish in the oven at 180C for 40 minutes. The chicken was nicely cooked and browned. However, the veg were still too crunchy. I took the chicken off the top and kept it warm. I covered the dish with cling film and put it on high in the microwave for 10 minutes. If I did this again, I would parboil the veg for 10 minutes, before putting them in the dish and proceeding as before. The result was a slightly tangy and sweet flavoured vegetable.

This a really tasty, non-meat lasagna. Although there are several steps they can be done in advance, and the dish assembled before cooking. It's essential to use the dried mushrooms for a full flavour. Also we use a lot more bechamel sauce than the original recipe suggested. The amount of grated parmesan can be more also.

Lasagna with mushrooms

adapted from the Second Classic Italian Cookbook by Marcella Hazan

40g dried mushrooms

680g fresh mushrooms

4 tablespoons vegetable oil

60g butter

1/2 small onion, chopped finely

75g tinned Italian plum tomatoes, drained and chopped

2 tablespoons chopped parsley

lasagna dough made with 3 eggs (see labels)

Bechamel sauce made with 1000 mls milk

60g grated Parmesan cheese

Soak the dried mushrooms for at least 30 minutes in lukewarm water to cover. After soaking lift out carefully and rinse to remove any grit. Cut into smaller pieces. Filter the mushroom water through a sieve lined with kitchen towel. Keep for later.

Clean then thinly slice the fresh mushrooms. Heat the oil and 60g butter in large saute pan and cook the onion until translucent. Add the soaked mushrooms, the mushroom water, the chopped tomatoes and the parsley. Allow liquid to evaporate then put in the fresh mushrooms and raise the heat to high. Add salt and pepper and cook on high heat until the liquid exuded by the fresh mushrooms has evaporated. Take off the heat, check for seasoning.

Preheat oven to 180C. 

Thinly smear lasagna dish with butter. Line the bottom of the dish with strips of pasta. Spread a thin layer of mushrooms over the pasta. Cover the mushrooms thinly with bechamel sauce. Sprinkle with a little Parmesan. Cover with another layer of pasta and repeat sequence, to a maximum depth of 6 layers of pasta. Over the topmost layer spread a thin layer of bechamel and sprinkle with the last of the Parmesan. 

Put the dish in the oven. Bake for 15-20 minutes until nicely golden. After removing from the oven let rest for 15 minutes. Serve slices with a green salad.

This quantity of pasta and filling filled 2 rectangular pottery casserole dishes sizes 20cm x 27cm, depth 5cms. Once cooked and cooled they freeze well.

No supper tonight. Went to friends for a delicious lunch.

Lamb chops, potato cakes, broccoli, cauliflower

Potato Cakes

Left over mashed potato (with previously added butter and milk)
Wholemeal flour

Mix in sufficient flour to make a coherent mass that will hold together to form patties. Break off pieces of the mixture and form into about 3x3" flat patties. Brown each side on preheated griddle. The are nice with some butter on top, or some melted cheddar cheese.

Herbed Beef casserole, mashed potato, cauliflower.

Another bulk cook standby cooked today by G, the excess to go in the freezer. I'm home late tonight, so am the grateful recipient of a prepared meal.

Herbed Beef Casserole

1 kilo stewing steak

4 carrots

4 onions

400g tin tomatoes

140g tomato puree

2 sticks celery

salt, pepper, dried oregano, dried tarragon

300-400mls beef stock from a Knorr cube

mushrooms if liked

Warm rapeseed oil in large pan. Add chopped carrots and onions and soften. When soft remove from pan with a slotted spoon. Add cubed beef and brown. Return onion and carrots, add chopped celery and mushrooms. Add tinned tomatoes and tomato puree. Add herbs and seasoning. Add stock, bring to boil and simmer 2 hours minimum, but its a very good tempered dish and can stay on for longer.

Chile con carne, peas and rice. For afters; victoria plums bottled last August. Last year was a bad year for plums. Frost and a cold spring meant that there were hardly any plums on my trees. So these were plums that I bought and them bottled. The man at the fruit farm where we bought the plums said that the poor harvest was due to wet weather damaging the finer rootlets of the tree, so preventing the fruit setting.

A redo of 16 February. We had the pasta from the night before which I'd cut into wide strips and frozen. They cooked well straight from frozen. I'd forgotten the lovely silky texture of home made egg pasta. With that we had previously made mini burgers. I like the flavour of an equal weight of minced lamb and minced beef. In addition a carton of courgette bake pulled from the freezer. This is my favourite way of using up a glut of home grown courgettes and tomatoes in season. As`well as an accompanying vegetable the bake makes a delicious sauce for pasta.

Burgers

Lamb mince 500g

Beef mince 500g

Thick slice of bread, crusts removed, soaked in milk to cover

1 large onion

2 cloves garlic

Soften the finely chopped onion and garlic in oil. Place the 2 meats in a large bowl. Add the bread which has had the excess milk squeezed out and the cooked onion mixture. Mix all well together- most easily done with your hands. Have a preheated griddle or frying pan on the stove top- no need to grease it. Pinch off suitable sized pieces, flatten slightly and cook gently on each side until brown. This makes at least 18 2.5-3" diameter burgers. The excess freeze well.

Courgette Bake

No precise quantities for this. Its a good way of using courgettes which are on their way to marrows. Cut courgettes into pieces about 2"x2" thick. Halve or quarter tomatoes depending on their size. Peel and roughly chop onions. Put all the veg into a large roasting tin. For a roasting tin of size 14"x12"x2" depth, I use 2 large onions, enough cut up courgette to fill most of the tin, and probably about a dozen medium sized tomatoes. To the veg add a generous glug of olive oil, the juice of 1 lemon, and salt and pepper. Mix so that seasonings and liquids are well distributed and roughly level off contents. Put in preheated oven at 180C. cook for about one and a half hours, turning every so often, until most of liquid has evaporated. (freezes well)