Browsing through some cookery books recently, I realized I really need to be cooking more from these books. Julie my friend in Kent bought the Kentish recipes for me when we left and moved to Doncaster. My in-laws bought the holiday recipes and we bought The New Forest book on our last trip to Hampshire. This one brings back lots of happy memories as we stayed here for lots of weekends with our dog Jerry in our trailer tent. The Lakeland book was also a memento from several visits to The Lakes. I think I'll start with the holiday recipes one to begin with. It's been a hot but muggy day today with some rain as well, but more promising towards warmer weather.
Chopping up vegetables ready for tonight's lamb stew. I'm going to serve this with dumplings even though this isn't traditional. I suppose sliced potatoes on top as a hot pot would be better but I'm not keen on potatoes, they featured too much when I was a child and I always seek out alternatives. I've added 2 chili peppers to give it some heat, and hot and spicy it was.
Frying the meat before adding everything to the pressure cooker. This is all the pre-cooking that's needed as the rest is cooked fast under pressure in 16 minutes. Whilst it's cooking I'm free to prepare the dumplings. 6 oz plain flour, pinch of salt, raising agent and 3 oz suet all stirred with enough water to mix. This quantity makes enough for 4.
I usually roll each dumpling in some cornflour before floating them on top of the stew to steam with the lid on for about 20 minutes.
Time to serve up, there is a lamb chop in there somewhere. I think I need to buy more chops next time oops!
Whilst the stew is cooking I started on the the base for the Millionaires Shortbread. This recipe is from my library book 'The Women's Institute Vintage Teatime' here. I put butter, flour and sugar in the food processor to make fine crumbs then pressed it into a lined tin. After 25 minutes in the oven it was left to cool.
Meanwhile the caramel mixture was made with a tin of condensed milk, butter, soft brown sugar and golden syrup. All simmered and stirred for about 7 minutes.
The caramel was added to the shortbread and left to cool before the melted chocolate was spread over the top. It then needed time to cool properly in the fridge. I did miss out the vanilla extract that was supposed to be stirred in before spreading on the shortbread. I think it should've been added during the 'making the caramel filling stage' to ensure I didn't forget it.
I'm pleased to say it tasted delicious. The teens thought so too!
Please leave a comment below - What is your favourite or comfort food?
Thank you for reading, if you like my blog, please follow for updates.
Thank you for reading, if you like my blog, please follow for updates.
That series of little cook books is good for remembering places visited as well as giving regional recipes. The stew and the shortbread with the caramel and chocolate on top must have gone down well! Comfort food for me is lasagne, which I made last night for the evening meal using bought fresh pasta sheets (to save time) or minestrone with lots of different vegetables, borlotti beans and shell pasta. Wishing you a good day Cathy!
ReplyDeleteYes we all loved the stew, especially with the chilies, I've never added those to stews before. I probably wouldn't for regular beef stew and dumplings though. I love lasagne, I cooked it last week with the stuffed marrow. Again avoiding potatoes - we were going to have mash, mock roast pots (not pre-boiled) or pasta with it. I cooked a bolognese mix to stuff the individual marrow slices (centers removed) and made a white sauce too. Then layered it up as usual with the marrow at the bottom to make lasagne. Very nice. Thanks for commenting Linda, have a good week. Cx
DeleteI have so many recipe books that never get used, I love looking through them but never seem to get round to making anything out of them, your food looks yummy, my favourite comfort food is vegetable lasagna followed my mince and dumps with mashed potatoes and loads of veggies on the side, (I do love my spuds) Have a great weekend. :) x
ReplyDeleteLasagna and stew and dumplings do seem to hit the spot don't they. I love roast potatoes but they never roast that great in the summer. Enjoy the weekend x
Delete