Warm Roast Squash and Apple Salad with Toasted Seeds and Honey Dressing

Pop-up Kitchens are tiring but very tasty I have discovered yet again... I've been running my Pop- up Kitchen at xsite architecture this weekend as part of the Ouseburn Open Studios. The whole building was turned into a series of little exhibitions, beautiful illustrations, amazing taxidermy, photography, fine art, architectural projection rooms, the Ouseburn Coffee Company and my little kitchen...

There were soups and stews bubbling away all weekend to keep people warm wandering round the Ouseburn on a chilly weekend. I made the Smokey Spinach, Chickpea and Pancetta stew, but this time I used chorizo, which worked very well, and there was buttery Leek, Potato and Parsley soup and lots of Onion and Gruyere Tarts. The whole of xsite set about baking mountains of cakes, scones, cheese straws and biscuits. Everyone went away very well fed...

This little salad is something I have made a few times in the past few weeks, partly to use up the mountains of apples I have hanging around the house, and also because it is quick and pretty much effort free. Cold dark evenings late in from work require meals that are warming but ready quickly with very little effort. This is my current favourite...

You can use any type of squash for this salad, butternut, onion or pumpkin. This was a little munchkin squash that I cut into small wedges and scooped out the seeds. Just leave the skin on with these little ones, it is so soft you can just eat it when it is roasted, or easily peel away. Preheat your oven to 220°C and put the squash into a roasting tray with a big glug of olive oil and some flaked sea salt. Now quarter 2 small apples, scoop out the core and seeds and add them to the tray with the squash.

Put them all in the oven for 15 minutes, after 15 minutes add 4 cloves of garlic still in their skins and some sprigs of rosemary and cook for a further 15 minutes.

I made a little dressing with a few tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil, a teaspoon of honey and a teaspoon of balsamic vinegar all whisked together. Then toast a handful of pine nuts and pumpkin seeds in a dry pan for a few minutes until they start to turn golden.

When the munchkin squash and the apples are ready take them out, squish the garlic out of its skins into the tray and toss the roasted squash and apple around in it. Then place them on top of a plate of leaves, whatever type you fancy, scatter over the seeds and the dressing. I finished with a crumble of manchego, any excuse to add a bit of cheese to something... The warm roasted garlicky apple and squash are delicious with the tangy dressing and crunchy seeds...

Red Peppers stuffed with Rice, Raisins and Pine Nuts

We had some lovely friends visiting from London this weekend so a little get together was in order, some friends, some food, some wine... I even printed out little menus for everyone. It took a while to settle on a menu as the little blonde is a vegetarian and the Twinings hunk doesn't eat dairy... but Claudia Roden had the answers, as she often does...

A Moroccan Chicken Tagine with Caramelised Onions and Chestnuts, some Turkish Stuffed Peppers full of herby spiced rice, pine nuts and raisins and some buttery couscous with toasted almonds. Something for everyone I hoped, they looked like they enjoyed it anyway...

We started with little Leek Fritters with a herby yoghurt dip and some Cannellini Bean Hummus with Toasted Cumin and pittas to dip. It was lovely to catch up, chatting in the kitchen while I threw toasted almonds around and served food later than planned as ever...

We finished with an Apple and Cardamom Tart, which I will have to tell you about soon, because although it may be gauche to say, as I made it myself, was totally amazing. The aromatic, dusky flavours of the cardamom were lovely with the sweet sugary apple and warm buttery pastry. Delicious.

The peppers were pretty simple to make, but so full of flavour and not 70s dinner party at all... This will make 6 stuffed peppers. Start with the filling by slowly frying a large chopped onion in 3 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil, until it is soft. Then add 250g of risotto rice, I used arborio, and stir until it is coated with oil and turning translucent. Add 450ml of water, some salt and pepper and 2 teaspoons of sugar. Stir this well and then simmer for about 15 minutes, or until the water has been absorbed, but the rice is still slightly undercooked.

When it is ready stir in 3 tablespoons of pine nuts, 3 tablespoons of raisins, 1 large tomato chopped into pieces, a handful of chopped mint, a handful of chopped dill, a handful of chopped parsley, a teaspoon of ground cinnamon, half a teaspoon of ground allspice, the juice of a lemon and 3 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil. You can see where all the flavour comes from with this lot all hanging out together...

Now take 6 red peppers and cut a circle round the top to remove the lid and scoop out any seeds from inside. Fill the insides of the peppers with the rice mixture and pop the lids back on. Arrange them in a baking tray side by side, I had to slice a little bit off the bottom of some of the peppers to keep them steady. Pour about 1cm of water into the bottom of the tray and bake in the oven at 190°C for 50 minutes. Be careful when you take them out that the peppers don't fall apart, be very gentle...

They are lovely warm, allow them to cool a little before serving, they are also good cold with a salad and some yoghurt. The warm spices and fresh herbs are delicious with little bursts of sweet raisins and creamy pine nuts all in a sweet roasted red pepper. I've just had a little one for lunch that was leftover... I'm glad I made too many...

Chocolate and Walnut Fudge Brownies

I don't bake or make anything sweet often enough, but sitting on the sofa on a misty, rainy Sunday afternoon watching cookery programmes I suddenly found myself rummaging around my messy cupboards to see if I had the right ingredients to produce a batch of chocolate brownies. Lorraine Pascal was just finishing off some oreo cookie ones, I had roughly the right stuff... Coupled with the fact that we forgot someone’s birthday at work last week... there really was no better option than a spot of baking. Chocolate and walnut brownies with a hint of fudge. Lovely.

I tried making a smaller amount than I will tell you to use, due to having to cobble together ingredients I had in the house, but it all got a bit complicated when I didn’t have a baking tray small enough and had to rummage round slopping chocolate mixture from one to another in a panic stricken way... Which is why it ended up a brownie in a tart tin, which I don't think is traditionally quite correct... So I'll revert back to the amounts I should have actually used...

Grease a baking tin with butter, the tin will need to be about 20cm by 25cm, and then line it with grease proof paper. Melt 250g of unsalted butter in a pan on a low heat. While it is melting grate 200g of 70% dark chocolate, turn the butter off when it is fully melted and stir in the grated chocolate to melt. This is easier than faffing about with bowls over pans of water I think...

Break 3 free range eggs into a large bowl and add 275g of caster sugar, then beat them together until creamy. Now stir in the chocolate and butter mix until everything is thoroughly mixed together. Stir in 3 heaped teaspoons of cocoa powder, then add 125g of self raising flour and a pinch of sea salt and mix that in well with a metal spoon.

Toast a handful of walnuts in a dry pan until they begin to brown, chop roughly and add to the mix, I also added a handful of chopped fudge. I would have added some chunky chopped up chocolate pieces instead of fudge, but didn’t have enough left over from the mix... and then bake for 20 minutes at 180°C. They are ready when a knife or a skewer comes out moist with a few crumbs on it. Finally leave them on a wire rack to cool and cut into squares.

Lovely warm, lovely cold, I even like the crusty bits round the edge that looked a little burnt... I'm going to bake more. It's decided.

Blackfriars

I haven’t been to Blackfriars restaurant in Newcastle for quite a while, so when I received an email inviting me to try their new Food and Drink Matching evening I was quick to reply in the affirmative. My Flavour Thesaurus is never far from hand at home, it's a beautiful book and I really enjoy looking for new combinations and flavours I haven’t tried before.

The idea of five courses of different foods matched with interesting drinks sounded a pretty good way to spend a Thursday evening. Blackfriars is housed in an old Priory which dates back to 1239. The Dominican Friars arrived in Newcastle in 1221 and were donated the land by three sisters and the Mayor at the time and set about building what is still there today. It is said to be the oldest dining room in the UK, which is pretty interesting to think of yourself sitting eating your supper in the same place that Henry III was in the 13th Century. Apparently it was his favourite place to dine when he visited Newcastle to fight the Scots... We looked round the old banqueting hall which is beautiful and very dramatic. The restaurant have researched in great detail original menus of the time and now put on events and large scale dining parties with traditional Medieval feasts full of unusual spices and whole suckling pigs...

We passed the evening with tales of wine regions, historical food matches and plenty to eat and drink. Andy Hook of Blackfriars took us through each course, starting with almonds, olives and a Manzanilla sherry. I'm a recently converted sherry lover, so thoroughly enjoyed in. This was followed by warm smoked salmon and whisky, I'm not quite so at home with the whisky just yet, but the salmon was beautiful and smoked by the restaurant themselves.

One of the chefs from Blackfriars was eating with us and it was really interesting to hear from him about how everything was cooked, smoked, pickled or baked. They even make their own black pudding, which was the next course, with a beautiful sauce and a glass of chilled champagne.

I've thought about making my own black pudding ever since I had a go at my own home-made salami. I'm not quite sure how my little kitchen would cope with gallons of blood sloshing about though, so perhaps another batch of salami may come first...

The next course was a lovely handmade pasta with wild mushrooms and a beautiful sauce with basil and cream which was matched with a slightly chilled Pinot Noir from the Languedoc. Throughout the night we ate, chatted about food and drink combinations, who liked what, what works and doesn’t, it was a really interesting evening all round.

Cheese and beer followed, five different cheeses, varying in strength and type and some beautiful pickled celery that I may have to have a go at making. There was a traditional ale from the Wylam brewery, a strawberry beer and a more standard lager. I really enjoyed the strawberry beer with the cheese, which I would never have guessed at all. I always go for a glass of red with cheese, the difference was interesting.

The highlight for me was the chocolate tart, it was beautiful, and I don't usually have a sweet tooth in the slightest. It was rich and dark and delicious and unusually had flecks of salt through it which worked so well. Along with a glass of fortified sweet red wine and tales of sweet wines of the world it was a lovely end to the evening...

Cassoulet

This is the first cassoulet I have ever made, and apart from the fact that it was totally delicious, it also produced meals for about three days. I love a few left overs for lunch the next day, or a meal that turns into something else, or gives you stock or fat to flavour your next meal, it feels good to reuse everything... It saves money, reduces waste and I like the idea of using every scrap possible of a duck or a piece of meat, to really put the little fellas to good purpose...

A cassoulet is a stew of sorts, a rich slow cooked French casserole, with roast or confit duck, sausages, bacon, lovely stock full of herbs and tomatoes and lots of white beans, all topped with crispy, golden baked breadcrumbs. So there was the first cassoulet evening, in all it's splendour, with rich duck and crispy breadcrumbs and a bottle of young French red wine. Then the remains travelled all the way to the Lake District to be heated through with new sausages, fresh bread for dipping and crispy green salad. Finally some came home with us again and made a lovely beany soupy lunch. A well travelled cassoulet indeed...

In the French peasant origins of the dish they used to deglaze the pot from the previous cassoulet as a base for the next one, and so on and so on, which led to stories of one original cassoulet being extended for years and years, mine just lasted a weekend... It is a dish to be made in quantity really, this will feed four or more people, just add more duck if you have more people...

I started with a pot of duck stock made from the bones of the Roast Duck with Chestnut, Chorizo and Cabbage... and with Elizabeth David... I've been carrying her book around with me lately. Sometimes to work so I can look up recipes at lunchtime, over to the Lakes to read in depth the bits I haven’t gone through before, looking for new and interesting methods and recipes. I am aware that this is not normal behaviour, constantly travelling around with recipe books... and I have had a few funny looks as people get into my car to find little book collections in the foot-well, but hey...

Start with a pan for the stock, you will need a larger pan for the whole cassoulet which will go in the oven, but start with the stock pan on the hob and heat a large splash of olive oil in it. Add two thinly sliced large onions and cook until they are soft, about ten minutes, then add some chopped smoked streaky bacon, about 6 slices cut into smaller pieces, and continue to cook until it is all golden and sticky.

Pour in the stock, I used about 500ml of duck stock, you can use chicken stock, add two tomatoes chopped into pieces, four crushed cloves of garlic, salt and pepper, some sprigs of parsley, thyme and a bay leaf and bring to a slow simmer. Leave it to simmer away for about 20 minutes. I think this is the tastiest stock I have ever made by the way... I kept on having sneaky spoonfuls all the way through...

Most cassoulet's use confit duck legs, but Elizabeth does say that to use fresh duck or goose if confit isn’t an option, which it wasn't, but it will need to be half roasted. So while the stock was simmering I put a whole duck in the oven for 10-15 minutes at 220°C. Then took it out to rest and cool enough to cut up.

You will need a big oven proof type pot for the cassoulet. Rub the inside of it all over with raw garlic to begin with. Then add about 6 good quality raw pork sausages cut in half, I also added about 4 teaspoons of duck fat from a previous roasting... You could substitute with lard or dripping... Then the duck, cut into pieces. My knives are really not very effective so we got as far as cutting it in half, it would be much better into quarters or sixths as it was really pretty difficult to eat a bowl of stew with half a duck sitting in it!

Pour two tins of drained haricot beans over the top of all of the meat and then pour the stock and all its contents over the top of everything. Bring this all to the boil on the hob and then sprinkle a few handfuls of white bread crumbs over the top. I used a stale sour dough wizzed up in the food processor until it was a fine crumb.

Then place the whole cassoulet in a low oven, about 160°C, for an hour. The stock will soak into the meat and the beans and a lovely golden crust will form over the top. Delicious... Just serve it as it is, it doesn’t need any help at all. It is rich and meaty with beautifully flavoured stock and beans, it is one of my favourite things I have cooked, really lovely... I am going to get to grips with some confit soon and make it again with confit duck legs...

I found a little tip in Elizabeth David's soup section that advised heating up the left over beans and stock and pounding them through a sieve, reheating this purée with a little milk and adding pieces of cooked sausage. It is just as good reheated in its stew form with new cooked sausages, or as a simple beans stew with crusty bread. It's just good all round really...