Cooking during 2019
December 2019 - just 3 of us met up in December, such a busy month. We had fun playing in Lesley's kitchen making canapes
November 2019 - first up was a Sweet Potato & Cornmeal Flan case which was unusual and delicious. That was followed by a soup, Beetroot & Bramley Soup with horseradish. The last thing this month was an Autumn Panzanella
October 2019 - this month we made a Greek Moussaka. Lesley had been given the recipe at a cookery course she attended at Claverham College.
We also explored the flavour of verjuice, making a very tasty recipe of carrots with currants soaked in the verjuice and then reduced down to a syrup, with mint and goats cheese.
And another salad using pearl barley a very homely ingredient. The barley was drizzled with pomegranate molasses, pomegranate seeds stirred through, and topped off with mint and more goats cheese. very tasty
September 2019 -
August - By request, we did a couple of salads, but instead of Delia Smith's Chocolate Squidgy Log and some blondies, we did brownies.
July - More plundering of ancient recipe books. This month we made a really delicious Gruyere and Herb Roulade stuffed with a mushroom ragu from Rose Elliott's Classic Vegetarian.
From her Vegetarian Pasta book, we made Farfalle with Carrots, Feta, Thyme and Sun Dried Tomatoes
Then we tried a one pot pasta dish, using carrot instead of pumpkin
And this month, we wound up with a sandwich filler / toast topper. ----- We blitzed equal quantities of soaked sun dried tomatoes and ground almonds, with some soaking water and a splash of Armagnac. Deeply savoury, with a strong flavour. Very simple, very tasty
June - Lesley had found an old recipe book from the 1990's in a charity shop. The Complete Vegetarian by Sarah Brown, you may remember her. She was very popular then. From that book, we made Spiced Vegetable Fritters ----- using gram flour with a roasted peanut and coriander Sambal. Then Mushroom and Roast Almond Pate - gorgeous! And finally, a side dish of Cabbage and Cumin. Everything was really good and will go in Lesley's recipe book
The May meeting saw us explore recipes for a classic Italian recipe, Melanzane Parmigiana. Italy is Lesley's favourite place :) We then changed country and did a Chow Mein which can be enjoyed plain, or many different protein and/or vegetables could be added. The 3rd recipe this month was roasted chickpeas. Although very popular, Lesley thought they were uninteresting, and won't be bothering with them again.
April's meeting was buzzing! ----- We made a savoury loaf cake. Very unusual and utterly delicious! Fragrant and red with paprika, also has green olives, milk, eggs and cheese in it.
While that was in the oven, we made some easy no-stir ice cream flavoured with Galaxy drinking chocolate, which can also be used as a mousse.
Then we tackled a stir fry. The sauce has all the flavour in this, containing peanut butter, lime juice and coconut milk - yum, yum
The March meeting in 2019 fell on Shrove Tuesday, so guess what we made! Before we did that, wild garlic is in season and I have a patch in my garden. We used some to make the smelliest, and most gorgeous wild garlic pesto
Usually, participants aren't that interested in making sweet things, but this time, that's all anyone wanted to do. So I abandoned my prepared list of savoury pancake fillings and we had great fun flinging open the cupboards and scouring the shelves for fillings and toppings. We made banana, grape and dark chocolate; redcurrant and cream;
The February meeting was much busier and this month we made a Lentil Ragu, a Cauliflower and Mixed Nut Crumble and Tom Kerridge's main course sausage rolls. All were delicious and the group bore their makings off home for supper, as usual
The January meeting fell on New Years Day and although several people said they would like a meeting and would come, in the event, only person was able to make it. So we just had a chat and a cup of tea, which was lovely