Baked Stuffed Pumpkin

Here's an idea from a column in today's Independent (by co-incidence called From Garden to Plate - should I sue, do you think?!) ...

Baked Stuffed Pumpkin

Cut off the lid of a small pumpkin, scoop out and discard the seeds. Cut out the flesh, dice and keep to one side. Chop three leeks and fry gently in some olive oil together with some garlic and tumeric for about 10 minutes. Add the pumkin flesh and continue to cook gently until soft. Cook some long grain rice and drain. Skin, seed and chop 3 tomatoes and toast some cashew nuts under the grill. Add the drained rice to the pumpkin mixture, and stir in the tomatoes and cashews and some grated cheese. Spoon the mixture back into the pumpkin shell, replace the lid and bake at 180 degrees C for 90 minutes, until the pumpkin is softened and the skin turning colour. Serve in wedges.

I'm not sure when to try it ...

Brown Betty

One of the consequences of using the breadmaker, is that I often have little bits of slightly stale bread left, so I crumb them in the food processor and freeze them ... I use them for bread pudding, home-made stuffing, treacle tart and to coat chicken nuggets ...

(There's little point putting them out for the birds ... the cats soon show up, and one of them eats the crumbs himself!)

I also came across this recipe recently:

BROWN BETTY

* 4 medium apples, sliced
* 1 cup bread crumbs
* 3 tablespoons butter (melted)
* 1 teaspoon grated lemon or orange peel
* 1/2 cup sugar
* 1 teaspoon cinnamon
* 3 to 4 tablespoons fruit juice

PREPARATION:
Mix bread crumbs, butter, lemon or orange peel, sugar, and cinnamon. Place half of the sliced apples in a buttered baking dish. Cover with half of the bread crumb mixture. Add remaining apple slices and cover with remaining crumb mixture. Moisten with fruit juice. Bake at 375° for 45 minutes. Serve hot or cold with cream, whipped topping, or ice cream.

As it's the time of year for apples, it's quite a seasonal discovery.

Lentil 'burgers'

Bring 8oz green (continental) lentils to the boil in enough water to cover, with a stock cube if desired. Cook for 30mins.

Meanwhile, finely chop one onion, one carrot and a stick of celery (I use a food processor) and soften in 1 tablespoon oil. Add 1 teaspoon each of ground cumin and corainder, and a crushed garlic clove. Cook for a further minute. Turn off heat and allow to cool.

Crumb 3 slices of bread (wholemeal or white or both!).

Beat one egg.

Chop a large handful of fresh parsley.

Mash the lentils and combine all the ingredients. Shape into small balls , roll in seasoned flour and flatten slightly, then gently fry in oil until golden brown on the outside.

Serve with chips or jacket potato and salad. Makes 18-20 small burgers. You could, of course, make them sausage shaped!

Roast Chicken

Following last week's success, this Sunday I roasted the chicken in the microwave ... 10 mins on high, turn it over, 10 mins on high ... leave to stand for 20 minutes (well, it was closer to 40 by the time I was ready for it) ... and it was lovely, cooked through and still moist. The only thing lacking was a crispy, golden skin, but I suppose I could put it in the oven to finish?

Roast Beef

With few exceptions, I nearly always do a roast for Sunday lunch. Today was beef, a topside joint. My usual method for beef is to pot roast it in the slow cooker - brown it off in a frying pan, and put it in the slow cooker on a bed of sliced carrots and onions with about an inch of liquid (water, stock or wine), cook on high for 4-5 hours. The juices make a lovely gravy and the meat is moist and tender.

But today I got up too late to have it ready in time for lunch, so thought I would try it in the microwave. I've only done it once before, many years ago, and that was a disaster as it was overcooked and dry, but I decided to have another go. 20 mins on high (turning the joint every 5 minutes), and 20 minutes standing time, and it was perfect (sorry, no idea of the weight, but it was a good sized piece of meat for a family of four or five), so I prepared the whole lunch in an hour after church ... I could make that a habit!