- Half a fresh pineapple chopped into 1cm pieces
- Half an onion finely chopped
- 3 tablespoons raisins
- 2 crushed cloves
- 3 allspice berries crushed
- 4 tablespoons brown sugar
- 4 tablespoons red wine vinegar
Left over to luscious…pineapple
kitchen
Port wine sauce
- 1 oz. butter
- 3 spring onions, chopped
- ¾ cup Port
- teaspoon onion powder
- Teaspoon cornflour
- Zest of a small orange
- Salt and pepper to taste
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 sprig thyme
After meat is cooked and while it is resting deglaze the pan with the butter and soften the onions then add other ingredients and reduce. Whole process should take about 4 minutes
We had ours over pigeon. But would work with venison, sausages or pork. The orange gives it a lovely lift.
(Re) Waxed food wraps
These waxed wraps really come into their own when you are cutting down on cling film and foil.
Today I ‘re-waxed’ some of my older fabric squares to renovate and extend their life. It is more efficient than starting from scratch, even after months of use the fabrics still hold quite a lot of the original wax.
I sprinkle a teaspoon of wax pellets over the cotton square then sandwich it between parchment paper (baking or waxed paper will do) and run a hot -no steam- iron over it until the wax has melted in. I turn the fabric over and iron again so that excess left on the paper can be absorbed by both sides.
Subsequent sheets to be ironed need less wax (you can shave a beeswax candle if you don’t have any other wax) because you will have some residue left on your parchment paper.
These wraps fold nicely over bowls, around cheese or seal opened packets in the fridge. The warmth of your hands helps shape them enough to fit and they just wipe down between uses. You can see I store mine on the side of the fridge with magnets so I have them to hand.
Silver lining, cooking discoveries
New menus and cooking methods have flooded into our kitchen recently. Many discovered when browsing digital magazines courtesy of our library card. So here are the tastiest (we think) so far …
1.Savoury bread and butter pudding: basically fried leeks instead of jam on the bread and cheese in the ‘custard’ rather than sugar
2. broccoli pasta – cooking broccoli in with the pasta for the last 3 minutes makes it a lighter, tastier dish, even for the broccoli hater in the household. Top with your usual pasta sauce
3. Frozen bananas found lurking at the back of the freezer work brilliantly in banana bread. Made more mix than fits your loaf tin? Dig out the mince pie tray to make Muffins
4. Ingredients intended for stuffing that never made it to the Christmas table combine to make great meatball replacements. Why these hid behind the frozen bananas is a mystery.
5. Jamie Oliver is an inspiration. His no frills gnocchi (mashed potato leftovers with just enough flour mixed in) are lighter and lovelier than bought
6. Dredging steaming hot, par-boiled parsnips in flavoured flour means the flour sticks without need for egg wash. You can roast them immediately or freeze them ready floured so they can be roasted at a later date
Kitchen stitchery
A set of fat quarters are going to provide inspiration for a ‘suite’ of kitchen kit. First off this hot pad with insulbright heatproof wadding and an extra layer of batting sandwiched between two contrasting fabrics.
Cut bottom fabric 3 inches wider and longer than the top piece so you can fold this over rather than bias bind the raw edges, cut insulbright and optional batting to same size as top piece
stick the insult right and batting between the two fabrics with removable fabric spray (stick and spray) with the bottom fabric – face down -aligned so there is a 1.5 inch border showing all the way round
quilt the pieces together. I stitched a rectangke 1 inch and 2 inches in from the edge all around
Fold and press the 1.5 inch frameof fabric in half so there is now .75 inch frame showing all around. Fold this over to the top fabric as though it was bias binding and pin or clip it in place. At the corner fold the fabric as though doing hospital corners on a bed , although you can trim away some of the bulk as you fold and pin each corner to mimic a mitred corner
top stitch around the edge to secure the frame in place
now shall I do mug rugs or coaster to go with this?
Tea bag holder
the jumble of teas was a mess so a set of boxes to tidy them up was needed
i ordered some fill your own tea bags to sort the loose leaf teas and made and labelled the tags with paper scraps.
For the holder
1 sheet craft card plus 11cm square craft card
2 sheets 8×8 inch scrapbook paper, I used Bohemian dreams from craftwork cards
scalpel, glue and roll of red liner tape
lay the sheet landscape in front of you and score at 7, 14, 21 and 28 cm down then 4 cm across. Cut out the tiddly corner and cut up the bottoms as shown to create the base flaps. Place the tape roll on one of the panels at the bottom crease and scalpel inside it to create the opening
on the square card score around at 2 cm and cut one side of each of the corners as shown. I find it tidier to cut a tiny wedge out of these snips to make folding neater.
tape the boxes with red liner to keep them secure, tape the half moon flap to the base for extra stability and cover the outside panels with paper that is just a bit smaller to create a mat effect
janecrafts 