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#61 24-02-2016 
Adding worchestershire is NEVER a bad thing. And if I had one complaint about Skyline, it would be that there's a tad too much cinnamon, lol. So I'm still all for it!

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#62 25-02-2016 
(24-02-2016 06:30 PM)justJones Wrote:  Adding worchestershire is NEVER a bad thing. And if I had one complaint about Skyline, it would be that there's a tad too much cinnamon, lol. So I'm still all for it!

You'll like the recipe I gave you then. Smile Good luck!

With the second batch you make (you WILL make another one), you can adjust your cinnamon. Put in a little less than you think you'd like, add more before it's done, if you see fit. Big Grin

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#63 25-02-2016 
Made beef and mushroom ragu with pasta tonight. Well, I didn't make the pasta, but I did make the ragu. I'd share the recipe but I don't really have one. It was delicious Big Grin

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#64 25-02-2016 
Successfully used a butternut squash for the first time Big Grin

I made butternut squash risotto as part of our quest to have at least 2 vegetarian meals a week.

Ingredients to serve 2

140 g risotto rice
600 ml vegetable stock
50 g butter
4 tablespoons mild olive oil
1 stick celery
2 garlic cloves (grated or crushed)
1 small onion
100 ml white wine
1 butternut squash (about a kilo weight)

Method
Preheat oven to gas mark 6, 220 centigrade, no idea fahrenheit
Prepare the squash - peel and chop into dice, put about 1/3 of the squash in a small saucepan with the stock and bring to a slow simmer.
Take the other 2/3rds of the diced squash, put in a small roasting pan, pour over two tablespoons of oil, toss the squash so it is evenly coated with the oil and chuck in the oven.
Chop the onion finely.
Chop the celery finely.
Grate/crush the garlic.
Take two table spoons of the oil, and half the butter and melt in a medium size pan (bigger than a saucepan, half the size of that huge pasta pan).

Once the butter is foaming, add the onions, turn the heat down, put the lid on the pan and leave for 3 minutes.
Remove lid, add the celery and garlic and cook for two minutes stirring so it doesnt stick. Add a few grinds of pepper, no salt at this point.
Pour the rice into the pan with the veg and stir it round for about 5 minutes so the rice goes translucent - be gentle, do not smash the rice grains.

Once the rice is translucent, pour in the wine - it will bubble madly and reduce rapidly. Now add a ladle of stock, and stir it gently and continuously until it is all consumed by the rice. Keep doing this until there is about a ladle of stock left with the squash (this is gonna take about 15 minutes). Somewhere in that 15 minutes check the oven squash and maybe give it a flip about so it cooks evenly.

Now mash the boiled squash into the last ladle of stock and stir that into the rice. Turn off the heat. Test for seasoning and add salt if needed. Dot the top of the rice with the butter and put the lid on. Leave for 5 mins.

In that time you can set the table, get the plates ready, take the roasted squash out of the oven.

Remove lid from pan, give one last stir to incorporate the butter fully into the risotto, split the risotto over two plates, spoon the roasted squash on top, enjoy with a glass of white wine from that bottle you opened to make this dish. Smile

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#65 25-02-2016 
I was given a butternut squash once...it ended up going bad because I had no idea what to do with the thing.

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#66 25-02-2016 
#67 26-02-2016 
It makes great soup too!

(18-04-2015 12:24 AM)Karen Lorraine Wrote:  Butternut Squash and Sweet Potato Soup

Ingredients
1 Butternut squash, deseeded and diced
1 Sweet potato, peeled and diced
1 onion, diced
1 lime, zest and juiced
1-2" Ginger grated or diced (to taste)
Chilli flakes (to taste)
1 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp cinammon
1 vegetable stock cube
Water to cover

Method
Simmer all ingredients until soft.
Blitz everything in the blender until smooth.
Adjust the thickness of the soup with extra liquid.

PS You can add garlic in if you want to, I don't like it so always leave it out Big Grin

PPS Popping my recipes here so I can find them!

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#68 12-03-2016 
I told Karen about the cake-ish thing I made this week, and she suggested I post it, so I figured I would Smile

Chocolate sticky cake - Kladdkaka
This is a kind of pastry that is very popular in Sweden. Every family has their preferred recipe, and pretty much any bakery or Starbucks-kind of place will have this kind of cake. It's a low flat cake, with varying consistency. It can be very sticky, or more bread-like. It's often served with whipped cream, and sometimes berries.

I prefer the kind that isn't runny, but not bread-like either. It should be smooth and melt in your mouth. I find using real chocolate instead of cocoa powder is the key to that consistency Smile

Ingredients
200 grams butter
200 grams chocolate (I use 45% dark chocolate, but you can use lighter/darker if you want)
4 eggs
2 dl white sugar
2 1/2 dl wheat flour
1 teaspoon vanilla sugar (Explanation here)
1 ml salt
Conversion chart if you don't use these measurements

Equipment
A 1,5-2 liter saucepan, I highly recommend teflon
A loose bottom cake tin of 21-25cm diameter (This kind of thing) -> Loose bottom is not require, it's just easier to get it out.
Two bowls to mix dry ingredients and prepare eggs
Optional - A sheat of disposable baking paper or parchment paper. Makes it easier to get the cake out of the tin.


Instructions
Set the oven to 200 degrees Celsius.

Take your tin, place the baking paper on the bottom and attach the sides. Butter the tin to avoid the cake sticking to it. Break the chocolate into smaller pieces. Mix sugar, flour, vanilla sugar and salt in a bowl. The more blended they are, the easier it'll be to mix into the batter later on because the sugar makes the flour less prone to form lumps. Crack your eggs into a second bowl.

Melt the butter in a saucepan. Take the pan from the stove, and add the chocolate. Stir until the chocolate is fully melted, and you have a smooth mixture. Add the dry ingredients and the eggs to the saucepan (everything at once), and mix everything together with utensil of your choice (not a whisk, more like a large spoon). It should be well blended, but don't whisk it. You don't want to get too much air into it, but you want the dry ingredients fully mixed in, no lumps. It should become a cohesive mass, sticking together rather than to the pan (if you use teflon at least).

Pour the batter into the buttered tin. Place in the middle of the oven, cook for 15 minutes. It will appear runny, and if you do a stick test it'll stick to the fork, but that's how it's supposed to be. Let cool off for a bit on the counter, then refrigerate it. Serve cold.

The reason for preparing dry ingredients and eggs beforehand so you can dump it all in at once is that if you let the butter-chocolate mix cool off, it'll be harder to blend and you'll end up with more air in the mixture. If you're quick and you'd rather dump things directly into the saucepan, you can skip that step. I just find it makes things easier Smile

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#69 12-03-2016 
Caribbean Pepperpot Stew

Ingredients
Low calorie cooking spray/oil
400g stewing beef, cut into bite-size pieces
2 red peppers, deseeded and cut into bite-sized pieces
1 small sweet potato, peeled and cut into bite-sized pieces
200g green beans, trimmed and halved
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
2 tbsp jerk seasoning
1 tbsp red wine vinegar
¼ tsp sweetener/sugar
200g passata with onions and garlic
200ml beef stock
2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
200g dried long-grain rice
A small handful of flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped, to garnish

Method
1 Place a medium, flameproof casserole dish sprayed with low calorie cooking spray over a high heat. Add the beef and fry for 4-5 minutes, or until lightly browned, stirring occasionally.
2 Add the peppers, sweet potato, beans, garlic, jerk seasoning, wine vinegar, sweetener, passata, stock and Worcestershire sauce. Season and stir well. Cover and cook for 1½ hours, or until the beef is meltingly tender.
3 Cook the rice accordingly to the packet instructions, then drain well. Divide the stew and rice between 2 bowls, garnish with parsley and serve.

This serves more than two!

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#70 07-04-2016 
I'm looking for some more authentic spice mix recipes. I have

Ras el hanout

A good Indian curry.

Garam masala

A "Texas" spice mix I made from local wild ingredients, including wild Texas chili pequins (100,000-400,000 Scoval.....OUCH!!!Tongue)Confused

Italian spice mix.

I'm looking for something that uses allspice, lemon zest (dried for storage) and rosemary.

Any of you Europeans have a good, local spice mix recipe?????Big Grin

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