What's Cooking Today??

When we get a takeaway curry we tend to eat maybe 2/3 of each dish. So to make the leftovers go further I add various veg to them, also makes them lighter. This was a chicken bhuna, that had some salsa, onion and chillis added to bulk it up. All the veg from the salsa and extra added onions and chillis from the allotment

 

Picked some ripe amaranth heads and defoliated it. Last year the leaves were still tasty but this year it seems more stressed, many being a lovely reddish yellow, and subsequently the leaves are a bit bitter and tougher. Ah well!

I used them all up in a quiche substituting for spinach. Amaranth doesnt really taste like spinach though, having a strange bready grassy taste. Needs a good bit of salt and savoury to make it tasty, but at least its healthy!

Butter, salt and plain flour with a teaspoon of baking powder to make it crunchy. I then brushed egg onto the pastry base to help keep it dry from the egg mixture. Cooked it for 10 minutes at 180 then put the filling in:

Onion, garlic, amaranth, oregano and cheese on top with 8 eggs and a splash of milk. And plenty of salt and pepper.
Cooked till done at 150c.

Cooked leaf


Delicious but really needs the salt. Amaranth is an aquired taste

 

I don't remember folk being allergic to these items years ago.

 

Aztec broccoli is going really well at the moment and really easy to grow, so will be sown again next year.
Courgettes are going well, as of last Saturday I had 6 good sized butternut squash changing colour and maybe another couple hiding in the foliage.

 

Might be an acqired taste Adam but the colours are beautiful.

@Victoria the use of the Chorleywood technique for fast proving of bread since the 60s means gluten doesn't develop and stretch properly and that has led to increased intolerance levels and, for some, full coeliac disease.

 

Wrong thread

 

Celiacs disease at least is mostly genetic and has been known since ancient times. Apparently you need to inherit two different genes so its unlikely to get filtered out of the population by mortality

 

Yes, unfortunate for those born with it but people are now developing it in later age, presumably due to modern industrial food production methods and chemicals and what they do to human digestive processes. Bit like diabetes 2 being an acquired disease.

 

I used to let it self seed and then thin the seedlings out at 25/30cm, using the young leaves as a spinach substitute - far tastier than old leaves.

Chenopodium nuttalliae? Related to Amaranthus funnily enough.

Dinner tonight was a kinda Spanish style potato stew (spuds, olives, onion, garlic, smoked paprika, chorizo, peppers, etc). Rather lovely and ideal for autumn.

Went to Panella for lunch yesterday and had lasagne. Not just any old lasagne though - chunks of swordfish, king prawns and a green pesto sauce. Jeepers, it was glorious!!!

 

Salsa Verde. All veg homegrown

 

A Pork joint cooked in the slow cooker, very nice.

 

We celebrated Mabon yesterday as OH has to leave straight after dinner tonight to drive north for a golf match tomorrow so can't drink any wine. Has to be seasonal so slow roast belly pork on a bed of apples, onions and sgae plus a bottle of dry cider which all gets blitzed to make the gravy. Root veggies too so roast parnsips and braised carrots with broccoli for greens and an apple and cinnamon crumble with oats and almonds for pud.

Tonight will be herby sausages baked with pumpkin and herbs and chilli so also appropriate.

 

A question from a non-foody person ...
Can you freeze roast parsnips ?