The far distant land of the 1970s.

We had some left over lamb from a roast. Too good to chuck. And a pancake party on the Tuesday so a bit of a busy week. All this inspired me to reach for a different time rather than a different place this week. I just couldn't stop thinking about rissoles  - something my mum used to make but that somehow never grace our meal table. Maybe we eat too much of the roast. Maybe it always feels just a bit too 1970s. But those succulent little patties made of ground cooked lamb and potato.. so delicious. And so evocative, for me, of home cooking. So, with my mums trusted recipe and a bit of help from the BBC food site we were all set for a Time Travelling Wednesday!!

THE DISH
Rissoles for 3-4

• 1 small onion finely sliced
• Cooked and ground lamb mince
• Any left over gravy or juices from the roast
• Two cooked potatoes
• Three tbsps breadcrumbs
• 1 egg

Mix all ingredients together and make into small flattened balls.  Flour well with flour seasoned with pepper and salt. Shallow fry until browned.

Veggie version for 1-2

• 1 open mushroom chopped finely
• 1 small onion chopped finely
• 1 potato  mashed
• 1 tbsp breadcrumbs
• 1 tbsp chopped nuts
• 1 egg

Mix it all up. And do as above.

Serve with reheated left over jacket potatoes and frozen sweet corn and petit pois for maximum 70's effect. A prawn cocktail would have been nice to start with.


THE REACTION
No one even complained about anything.  Which was marvellous since it was v late and we were all v hungry. They may have all been distracted by the mini 'ashing service' we had just done in front of the fire to mark Ash Wednesday and the beginning of Lent. Eldest and me had ash crosses on our heads and maybe this always distracts from bad food vibes - I should try it more often. It may also have been because I said (in true 70s style) we could have tomato ketchup. Eldest had got a bit more organised this week with outfits - so donned my mum's original 1970s stripey shirt, with winged collars to die for. It was only when she was looking round for something to wear with it that I realised the tight glittery grey shorts she wears everywhere over her tights is pretty much exactly what my mum wore with that shirt. Only she called them Hot Pants and she was probably a little over 11 when she wore them!


THE VERDICT

• Eldest: It was ok but I didn't like the thingamajigs. Well I kind of liked them. I didn't like the ketchup. (By thingamajigs I think she was referring to the rissoles...)
• Middle: no complaining and ate two of them. Amazingly. And everything else on his plate. Maybe that's his culinary problem: born in the wrong decade century.
• Youngest: amazingly, again, no complaining here. I mean his plate was awash with red sauce, but at least the sweet corn and peas stayed on his knife. And he ate at least one half of a rissole. Which is a triumph, I can tell you!

PUDDING
Oh yes, the joys of pancake day (yesterday) and left over waffle mixture. How 1970s can you get: we even have a gadget which makes nice flowery shaped ones. (Mind you this was the latest in Danish technology when we were married. They are a bit stuck, in many ways, in the 70s though. I mean. All those sausages. And bread products. And flags. And buses which run on time. Shocking.) Not sure the maple syrup would have been much in evidence in small town Surrey in the 70s though. I think we had to make do with the golden variety. Not that we had waffles at home ourselves, of course. We didn't even get a colour telly till 1981.

If brandy snaps had been easily made in advance these would have graced the table too. Sadly I didn't have time to either make them or buy them today. They'll have to wait for another visit to a distant decade.

And what with Lent Adventure kicking in on Tuesdays from now til Easter, Lent Groups on Mondays, and trying to think more deeply about 'beauty' in our neighbourhood (Purple Posts) I think it might kill me to produce a culinary adventure like this every week. So, I seem to be in the interesting position of giving it up for Lent. Which feels all wrong somehow.. Any way the kids are pleasingly distraught (well, OK, a little miffed) and I've promised that every now and then we'll go visiting somewhere exotic... So, don't hold your breath, but we'll be back....

Marvellous Mondays and Wandering Wednesdays

Though last week's visit to Spain could not be described as an out and out success, as I mentioned in that post it did come in a week we had two other culinary triumphs, so I thought I'd note them here before they got lost in the mist of time.

On Monday we try to avoid eating meat. Meat Free Mondays in fact - a Linda McCartney legacy. We have 3 staple veggie meals which I wheel out with sickening regularity. This is, in part, because one of them, macaroni cheese, is the only meal (except toad in the hole) that all 3 kids will eat with relish. However the problem with the need for cookbook research on Tuesdays means you do suddenly see interesting things to cook in a way which sticking doggedly to your 3 staples doesn't give room for.

Ainsley Harriott's Gourmet Express 2 is full of little gems and as I looked through it for tapas inspiration I suddenly spied his winter cobbler - which he credits to his wife, Clare, actually. It's gone down very well with adult vegetarian friends so I threw caution to the wind in my bid for expanded kitchen repertoire and introduced a different kind of veggie meal for Meat Free Monday.

Friends, I can't tell you how surprised I was when the Youngest sat down to this meal with the words 'yum' on his lips. I didn't tell him it was full of roasted swede and pumpkin. I bigged up the dumplings, knowing full well that he's a sucker for anything full of carbs.. in fact adding seriously bready carbohydrates is the only sure fire way of getting him to the table and tucking in without complaint. Pastry, Yorkshire pudding, wraps, dumplings. He's not fussy on that score. But even so I was pretty gobsmacked that he declared such an interest from the outset and then just ate his way through his entire plate full. It's got a very creamy sauce that certainly helps. He's much happier with creamy sauces than tomatoey ones for sure. But look! Licking of lips!! Clean plate!! I can tell you that this Does Not Happen Often. Thank you Clare Fellows!

INGREDIENTS (for 6)

• 2 leeks, thickly sliced
• 6 small carrots, cubed
• 6 small parsnips, cubed
• 4 sage sprigs
• 2 tblspn olive oil
• 1/2 pint vegetable stock
• 1/4 pint carton of double cream
• salt and black pepper

For the Cobbles

• 6 oz self-raising flour
• 1/2 tspn salt
• 1/2 tspn cayenne pepper
• 1 oz butter
• 3 oz mature cheddar cheese, finely grated
• 1 large egg
• 3 tblspn milk

Method

• Preheat the oven to 200.c / 400.F / Gas Mark 6.
• Place the vegetables and sage in a roasting tin, drizzle with oil and season with salt and pepper. Roast for 30 minutes until brown. (I also steamed some broccoli and cauliflower and shoved that in one end towards the end of the cooking, knowing they would go down better than some of the roasted veg).
• Place the flour, salt, cayenne, butter and three quarters of the cheddar cheese in a food processor and whiz until well blended.
• Beat together the egg and 2 tablespoons of the milk, then add to the food processor. Pulse to form smooth soft dough.
• Mix together the vegetable stock, cream and mustard, and pour over the vegetables.
• Then with floured hands, roll the cobble mixture into 6 balls and flatten slightly with the palm of your hand.
• Brush the tops of the cobbles with the remaining milk, then sprinkle over the remaining grated cheese.
• Place the cobbles on top of the vegetables and sauce and bake for 20 minutes until risen and golden brown.

And if one success in the week wasn't good enough we also had some serious surfing fun eating Californian at No.33 on Wednesday!

Annabelle and Joe have started Wandering Wednesdays with their friends around the corner, but their friends were sick and so they invited us to join them instead. The kids got a head start, having been picked up by the Lovely Annabelle from school, and by the time I joined them the blue duvet was on the floor of the lounge for surfing on, decorated paper fishes were being hooked from the turquoise cotton waters, a huge cardboard boat was anchored in the corner, two kids were in a makeshift car doing 90mph down the freeway and they were all wearing shorts and shades. To cap it all, the Beach Boys were blasting out over the mayhem. I feel that the next Travelling Tuesday will have quite a lot to live up to! I wish I'd taken some pictures.

I was a little concerned that 'burgers' would not be received favourably by my lot, but clever Annabelle began with a starter of Doritos, which got them into the right mood. And there's nothing like having two toddlers and two babies at the table to make my lot look pretty impeccable in their table manners! But even both boys tucked into their burgers and were delighted to find that the pudding prize was Rocky Road and Coke Floats! I imagine they might be asking to go back to California quite soon!

¡Viva España!

It's 'Spanish Week' at school. Which so far seems to mean that they can wear red every day if they want. But Mr Middle declares they are going to learn Flamenco tomorrow. I love that school...
 
But, you know things aren't going to pan out so well for tea time when two out of three are crying before they get to the table. It's the second week in a row that the Youngest has dissolved into panic that he'll have to go to bed hungry because he doesn't like the look of what's on offer. We're definitely gonna have to work on that one. And Eldest suddenly was in floods because I told her she hadn't asked me early enough to get her flamenco dress out of the loft, so she couldn't dress up. Grief!

It did not help that I had rather gone right over the top with effort. Choosing tapas had seemed like a great idea but, man, it does involve a lot of dirty dishes, utensils, many different trips to the shops, and generally a whole lot of time. And I didn't even get around to doing the sardines, the 'quick' paella or the tortilla!

But I did make a starter. A starter?? For tea time? What was I thinking?! It just looked summery and interesting and easy - a cold soup. What better way of widening my kids' experience of food? Felicity Cloake does this thing in the Guardian trying out lots of different recipes to come up with the 'perfect' version of whatever it is. I have to say, Felicity, that on this one you're wide, wide off the mark. A little bit disappointing doesn't even get close! Even I didn't even finish my bowl. Mind you, when she'd calmed down the Eldest ate it all and had seconds. Hurrah.


THE DISH(ES)

(So many of them today I think it will be too tortuous to list all the recipes here... but I've added links if you want to find them easily. I stuck to them more or less. But I am a bit fast and loose with recipes. I added less chilli than most suggested, preferring instead that wonderful smoky paprika. And used the pear cider (it was in the cupboard. Don't ask me where it came from!) in all the places it called for sherry vinegar.)

GAZPACHO
May not have been a winner because I was using a little hand blender. Never have had one of those swanky huge Moulinex things (which also shows my age. Moulinex was probably the brand my mother had. There are much swankier ones now, I'm sure.

CANELLINI BEANS WITH CHORIZO
I simply made some for the veggie daughter (who, natch, doesn't like beans!) without the sausage.

GARLICKY MUSHROOMS
I can't believe i tried to introduce mushrooms.

CHORIZO AND APPLE
Thanks Mo and Co. for the inspiration for this one.

SMOKY CHICKEN SKEWERS

PATATAS BRAVAS
There are lots of recipes for these tomatoey potatoes out there but I adapted an Ainsley Harriott one.
Enough potatoes for 5 - boiled and cooled and peeled.

• A small onion
• 4 unpeeled garlic cloves, crushed with back of spoon
• A squirt of tomato puree
• A handful of cherry tomatoes
• A spoon of brown sugar
• Tsp of smoked paprika

Fry the onion, garlic and potatoes in oil until golden. Add paprika, tomoatoes, sugar and seasoning. Cook for another 5-10 mins.


Oh, and we had salad, olives, and manchego on the table too. Phew.

Felt pretty relieved that I'd got a bit of red wine left over. Made some sangria for N and myself and a sangria look alike grape juice plus orange cocktail for the kids. It's rather telling that it's only the sangria which is in focus in the picture above!

THE REACTION
In the midst of the others' angst, the Middle one just chunked his way through the smoky chicken (possibly because it was on a skewer and therefore had pretty high novelty factor), the salad (though we haven't moved out of the sliced cucumber, carrot and pepper type salad stage in our house) and even the beans and the potatoes, though they were both covered in tomato which he normally never touches. The Youngest really did make such a fuss that he had to be removed from the table. And then ended up on N's lap eating off N's plate. So although he did eat quite a lot, and tried new things, it wasn't exactly without pain and struggle. Not what you might call a triumph. And the Eldest, did calm down and got stuck in, even trying the cannellini beans, though I think she would have preferred a second smoky quorn fillet.

I have a theory: the 3 of them were playing on two DS consoles right up until tea time. This means a) grumpiness when I am trying to prise them away because the dinner's ready and b) that they're disengaged from the process enough to not really Get Into the Swing of Things. So, no dressing up, no videos of matadors, though we did have some rather sedate Spanish guitar music playing. It was about as much as I could do to get them to sing our usual grace in its original Spanish... but I guess this is something.

Bendice, Senor, neustro pain.
Y da pain a los que tienen hambre,
Y hambre de justica a los que tienen,
Bendice, Senor, neustro pain.

(Argentinian in origin, which translates as 'God bless to us this bread. And give bread to all those who are hungry, and hunger for justice to those who are fed. God bless to us this bread'.)

THE VERDICT

• Mr Middle: When asked initially he did rather curl up his nose, but when pushed he had to admit that he'd quite like the beans, the potatoes, the chicken and the apple from the chorizo.
• Youngest: Didn't get much in the way of coherent appraisal out of him today. It was as much as I could do to get some kind of agreement out of him that he won't kick off again like that next week. Mind you we had such a triumph of food eating delights yesterday I should probably still be celebrating. I might even have to write a separate post to mark the occasion.
• Eldest: I was a bit disappointed that I couldn't dress up. But the food was good.

PUDDING
I am delighted to report the presence of blood oranges still in our lovely local Chatsworth Road greengrocer. So, what better than a boiled blood orange cake? This is from a lovely little book I picked up second hand called Make, Bake and Celebrate by Sarah Rowden and Joanna Vestey. It takes you through the year suggesting crafty activities and feasts to make which are connected with seasonal festivities. This is mentioned as a great cake for Passover as it has no raising agent in it. But then it lists 'baking powder' as an ingredient. Did I miss something?? Anyway, tastes great.

• 2 large oranges
• 6 eggs
• 225g ground almonds
• 225g caster sugar
• 1 tsp baking powder

Boil the oranges, whole, in water until really soft and let them cool in the water. Blend the whole thing in a blender and put in a mixing bowl. Add all the other ingredients and mix well. Pour into a lined cake tin and cook at 200C for 20-30 mins - until the cake feels springy. I made it in muffin moulds and it needs less time in this case.

OTHER RELEVANT LEARNING

• The DS* (other handheld devices are available) is a curse sent to try mothers. I want to embrace my kids' engagement with technology. But it seems to mess with their heads. And we're not talking shoot 'em up games here. Zelda and Professor Whatchamacallit is all we have in the DS cupboard. They just go a bit weird for a bit after they've been using them.
• Bullfighting is weird. It's got to be up there with fox hunting as the joint winner for most bizarre spectacle of unnatural violence masquerading as high culture with deep symbolical and ceremonial overtones. More manly and, I guess for me at least, more exotic. But still weird.
• Cooking with this much garlic makes one male member of our family do the most incredibly smelly farts.
• Pear cider seems to be as good a stand-in for sherry vinegar as any.
• Chorizo smells absolutely delicious when it's cooking.