Roots - Hand Cooked Vegetable Crisps

Roots - They taste so good because "Its in our roots" ! 

We were really pleased to receive a sample of Roots - Hand cooked vegetable crisps in the post recently, we are amongst the first foodies to get their hands on this new delicacy, produced by Huntapac one of the the UK's leading growers of carrots and parsnips. 

Huntapac has its origins in wartime Britain (1942) and hails from the Lancashire village of Tarleton, famous for its potato and vegetable growing. The crisps are made from carrots, parsnips and beetroot grown in Lancashire and across the UK by Huntapac. 

The vegetables are thinly sliced and hand cooked in pure sunflower oil and lightly seasoned with sea salt, sold in 50g bags and also catering packs these are a tasty addition to any lunch or snack time.

The tasty crisps are crunchy and deliciously savoury, yet with a sweet salty edge. Good job they only sent packets and not the catering tub ! as they are very very moreish.

I am also really pleased to say that you can purchase Roots in selected Booths stores across Lancashire, Cumbria and Yorkshire in the sandwich aisle, further strengthening their relationship with the local regional supermarket chain.

You can find Roots on the internet, facebook and twitter as well.

We received the sample on a complementary basis, all views and opinions expressed are our own and we were not required to write a positive review.

Beef and Vegetable Cottage Pie topped with Rosemary Crushed Potatoes

A perfect dish for a Sunday tea or a a busy weeknight when you can't be bothered cooking, it has the perfect combination of roast crispy potatoes and cottage pie filling and the good news is that the vegetables are in the pie. 

The topping is inspired by Casa pie from Vanessa Kimbell's "Prepped" book and is something that I use a lot instead of mash to top fish pie and also chilli and bolognaise. Its an easy no fuss dish which freezes beautifully so you can batch make and the pie filling can also be used in pastry pies as well.

Its a pretty frugal dish too as you can use frozen vegetables in the meat filling and the herbs are from the garden plus  its also gluten free as well as I have used cornflour to thicken the gravy. Its a great way of adding more vegetables to your diet without really noticing and also for upping the fibre content of cottage pie as the crushed potatoes are still in their skins.

What you need

• Small washed new potatoes boiled until just cooked - halved if large
• Rapeseed oil
• Fresh rosemary- leaves removed and chopped finely
• Minced steak
• White onion - finely chopped into half moons
• Beef stock ( I use essential cuisine)
• Cornflour
• Salt and pepper
• Fresh thyme - leaves finely chopped
• Parsley - finely chopped
• Carrots - peeled and diced, or you could use frozen
• Peas - I used a good handful of frozen petit pois
• Tomato ketchup (ensure gluten free if necessary)

What you do

• Firstly heat a little oil in a large frying pan and saute the sliced onions until translucent 
• Now add the mince to the pan and fry off golden and well coloured
• Now add the thyme, parsley and a tbsp of tomato sauce to the pan along with enough beef stock to cover the meat, stir and then add the diced carrot to the pan.
• Simmer for 20 minutes until the meat is cooked and the carrot tender through, now using a little water to slake the cornflour and use to thicken the gravy. 
• Add the frozen peas to the meat mixture and place in ovenproof dishes 
• Top the pie mixture with the small potatoes crushing them slightly using your thumbs , sprinkle with the chopped rosemary and drizzle with a little rapeseed oil
• Bake in the oven at 180c for 40 minutes until the top is golden and crispy and the filling bubbling.
• Serve immediately

I'm linking this recipe up to extra veg created by Utterly Scrummy and Fuss Free Flavours and hosted by Elizabeths Kitchen this month.

We are also linking up to Credit Crunch Munch, created by Fab Food for all and Fuss Free Flavours hosted this month over at Maison Cupcake.

                                         

Chicken and vegetable pot pie - Gluten free

One of the things that you miss when you go gluten free is pastry, all types, but more especially the comforting dish that is the pie. Gluten free pastry can be very disappointing, its often hard and has little or no flavour, so I was pleased to discover a promising gluten free recipe on the BBC good food website, I decided I would combine this with a traditional creamy chicken and vegetable filling for my first foray into gluten free pastry.

Reader, I am pleased to report that the resultant pie was absolutely delicious and I would definitely make the pastry again, it was sort of a shortcrust meets suet crust type of pie crust, very savoury and very very moreish. Frankly if I didn't know it was gluten free you really couldn't tell, so this would be a great recipe for a family meal.

What you need

• 175g gluten free flour
• 85g coarsely grated chilled butter
• 50g grated mature cheddar cheese
• 1 tsp coarse mustard
• 3 tbsp cold water to bind

The pie filling

• Cooked shredded chicken
• Onion - finely sliced
• Couple of carrots - peeled and chopped into small cubes
• Frozen peas
• Mushrooms - 4 or 5 finely chopped
• Chicken stock 
• Slaked cornflour to thicken
• Fresh herbs
• Salt and pepper
• Double cream or creme fraiche
• Butter or oil

What you do

• To make the pastry mix together all the pastry ingredients except the water with a fork, add the water and combine to make a dough
• Once formed into a ball, wrap in cling film and leave to rest in the fridge for 30 minutes.
• Meanwhile make your pie filling, Cook off in a tiny amount of oil or butter the onion until starting to softenened, now add the rest of the vegetables and cook for a few minutes until again softenening, now add the chicken and the herbs, followed by enough chicken stock just to cover the mixture in the pan.
• Simmer until the vegetables are tender, add the herbs and slaked cornflour to thicken the sauce. Add a dollop of creme fraiche and taste for seasoning.
• Allow to cool and place in pie dish.

• Once cool, we are ready to top with the pastry. Roll out the pastry between two pieces of clingfilm until you have a piece of pastry large enough to cover your pie dish , remove the top piece of cling film and flip the pastry piece on top of the pie dish. Remove the other piece of cling film and make a couple of holes in the pastry top.
• Brush the pastry with a little milk or beaten egg. 

• Bake for 30 - 35 minutes at 180c until golden.

Cauliflower Curry Sauce

Cauliflower seems to becoming the ingredient of the moment, recently I have seen it being used as a grain substitute to make pizza and garlic bread and in this post as the basis for a nutritious base for a curry sauce which is versatile enough to be used in various fish, meat and vegetable curry dishes. Its an easy way for you to get kiddies to eat this vegetable without knowing as well as you would never know that it contains cauliflower.

Originally I understand this was slimming world recipe so its no fat and high in fibre, its easy to make and freezes well so you store away in portions appropriate to your family size.

What you need

• 1 cauliflower - pulled into florets
• 3 tsp vegetable stock powder
• 3 tbsp curry powder (use whatever strength you like)

What you do

• Place the cauliflower florets, curry powder and stock powder in a saucepan along with enough water to just cover the cauliflower.

• Bring to the boil and simmer  until soft
• Allow to cool for approximately 5 minutes
• Blend using a hand blender to a smooth consistency, thin with more water if desired.

• Freeze or use immediately in curry of your choice. I like to add additional vegetables and possible some mango chutney or dried fruits for a more fruity finish to my curry.

                                                

A blog challenge created by Citrusspice and hosted by Sliceofme

CCC No 19 - Harvest Home at Huntleys Country Store, Samlesbury

In celebration of the harvest season our 19th Clandestine Cake club was at Huntleys Country Store in Samlesbury.

                                          

This iconic foodie venue is on the A59, so its dead easy to find and is home to a fantastic food hall stocking loads of great local produce and other retail opportunities plus a cafe bar and restaurant  They also hold lots of seasonal events and currently have a miscanthus maze on site for you to enjoy.

On a distinctively autumnal afternoon members travelled to our seasonally themed event and brought some fantastic cakes

• Caramel Apple Mummy
• Chocolate beetroot cake
• Parsnip, apple and maple syrup cake
• Blueberry, apple and walnut cake
• Carrot cake
• Pear and blackberry cake
• Pear and nutella cake
• Dorset apple cake
• Courgette and lime cake
• Courgette and walnut cake
• Pumpkin roulade

We were warmly welcomed by all the staff and the resident peacocks too and lucky us we probably had the best table in the house for our cake table next to the scenic balcony overlooking the lovely Lancashire countryside.

The venue  is a great day out for all the family, so pay them a visit soon.

Roast Roots and mushroom stew with parsley dumplings

What's better than a stew or casserole on a cold winter evening, nothing, well may be a  hot chocolate by a roaring  log fire comes close. Mildly inspired by the recent series "River Cottage" Veg a vegetable only stew was in order. This has all the flavour of a roast dinner but none of the meat , intensely satisfying and comforting. The recipe serves 3 -4 persons when accompanied with a green vegetable such as cabbage, use whatever root vegetables you have to hand , swede and turnips are just as suitable.

Ingredients

• Olive oil
• Onion - large , peeled, chopped in to large segments
• 3 carrots - peeled and chunky chopped
• 3 parsnips - peeled and chopped into chunky pieces
• 1 large sweet potato - peeled and chopped in to chunks
• 1/2 a medium celeriac - peeled and chunky chopped or swede or similar
• 4 cloves of garlic - whole and unpeeled
• Cornflour - 1tbsp
• 4 large mushrooms - chopped
• Vegetable stock - about 400ml
• Dried porcini - soaked 

You could also use butternut squash or pumpkin as some of your vegetables if you wish.

Method

• Preheat your oven to 200c
• Place your vegetables (except the mushrooms) on a baking tray, drizzle with 1 tbsp of olive oil
• Roast for approx 30 mins until tender and golden
• Transfer to a large casserole dish and cover with your stock, reduce the oven to 180c and bake covered for 30 mins.
• Fry the mushrooms (drain the porcini and chop if large) in a little olive, now add the cornflour and some of the porcini soaking stock, stir and then add the whole pan to the casserole dish, stir and return to oven. 
• Prepare your dumplings (check out my earlier recipe) and bake the stew with the added dumplings for a further 15 mins until your dumplings are cooked and fluffy and your stock has thicken.
• Serve sprinkled with fresh herbs.

ACHOCHA

Is it a bird ? is it a plane? no its achocha a mexican vegetable we have been growing in the garden this year. Despite almost taking over the garden, this is the sum total of the produce from the 4 plants, I don't think we will bother next year, apparently you cook them like green peppers. So I'll let you know what they taste like !

Parsnip , apple and syrup cake

As you have probably noticed I have a thing about vegetable based cake recipes, this weekend's bake uses parsnip as its base. My recipe is based on one I found on bbcgoodfood.com, "Catherine Berwick's parsnip & maple syrup cake". However for economy reasons I swapped the majority of the maple syrup for golden syrup and also used a buttercream filling.

Ingredients

• 175g butter or butter/ quality vegetable margarine
• 250g demerara sugar
• 100ml maple syrup or golden syrup
• 3 eggs - free range
• 250g self raising flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 2 tsp mixed spice
• 250g parsnip, peeled and grated
• 1 medium eating apple, grated, no pips or core
• zest and juice of an orange
• icing sugar for finishing

Method

Preheat the oven to 180c. Grease and base line 2 sandwich tins. Melt the butter, sugar and syrup in a pan gently, until all melted. Allow to cool slightly, then beat in the eggs, stir in the flour, baking powder and spice. Now add the parsnip, apple and orange. Pour into your prepared tins. Bake for 25-30 mins until cooked when tested with a skewer.

Cool on a wire rack, once cooled slightly take the cakes out of the tins and allow to cool fully.

You could fill with cream, buttercream, soft cheese or mascapone. I mixed up a vanilla buttercream and filled the cake with this.

This is a very light tasty cake, the spicy note is lovely and slightly autumnal.

Delicious !!!