Cherimoya "Custard Apples"

Name: Cherimoya
Genre: Fruit
Nickname: Custard Apple, Bull's Heart

Admittedly, this recession has been tough. (Not helped by the fact that I left the US just as it was coming out of the worst of the recession and came to England just as it was entering the worst of the recession.) Mostly everyone has had to deal with cutbacks and exercise their frugality skills--it's been tedious and it's been demanding and like all of you, I'll be ecstatic when it's all over.

However, I would be remiss if I did not mention one of the benefits of the recession: it has opened up a whole new world for me in terms of fresh produce.

Cream Cheese and Herb Souffle

Here in the UK, we have a few commercials from a butter company called Lurpak featuring a guy cooking a traditional meat pie. (How authentically British, right?)

Well, the guy (who by no means is a chef) is making a mess of the dish, the pastry dough is tattered, it's oozing over the sides. It looks horrendous and if placed before a true food snob, it would be a shoo-in for up-turned noses. The point, however, is that it doesn't matter what it looks like, it just matters that you make it.

Rutabaga

Name: Rutabaga
Genre: Root Vegetable
Nickname: Swede, Swedish Turnip

Rutabagas! Fall's unsung root vegetable hero! Although it has a quite mangled appearance, the rutabaga (or swede, as it is called in the UK) is a rather tasty root vegetable with a sweet and slightly nutty taste, like a squash. It is thought to be a cross between a cabbage and a turnip and its skin is a peculiar, deep-violet color, resembling that of the Adirondack blue potato. Its flesh is a vibrant yellow or orange color. In spite of their distinctive taste, rutabagas remain subtle, which makes them a wonderful addition to stews and other hearty dishes.

Homemade Beef Stew & Buttery Sage Crust

If you know anything at all about me, you know that I have a penchant for Fall & falling leaves & those wonderful rich colors & all sorts of autumnal glee. Nothing to me says the emergence of a new season like seasonal ingredients and dishes. As soon as the weather starts to change, my internal clock begins to tick in tune with the accents of dishes that will bring out the best of the season.

Review: Manchester Food and Drink Festival

After attending last year's fantastical events, I had my heart & hopes set on a fantastic time with some of the finest Mancunian restaurants showing up in force & commanding the charming Albert Square in front of Manchester's Town Hall.

Instead, I waltzed upon a rather scarce display: two beer & ale tents, a Holland's pie tent set up opposite an adult-style ice cream truck called Ginger's Emporium, two picnic tents (beautifully decorated) and four food stalls and a tea stall.

Elsewhere on the grounds, a chef did various cooking technique displays in a spacious tent and representatives from an anti food waste group urged attendees to think about the amount of food they throw away and find new and exciting ways to reuse it.

Seeming out of place, a tent was set up by the Wildlife Trust Fund ... .
Since I had gone to the festival with the intention to eat (I had pigged out on some authentic paella the previous year and wanted another taste of this) I loosed myself of my stubborn streak and weighed up my options: Tampopo, Grado, Harvey Nichols... . Harvey Nicks won with their promise of an authentically American dish: New York style chili dogs with Coke floats. How could I resist?

Outside Manchester's Town Hall on a surprisingly blustery October day, I munched a rather red (unfortunately) hot dog with lashings of chili and onions and washed it all down with a freshly made Coke float. For those of you not in the know, a Coke float is Coke topped with two scoops of vanilla ice cream and normally served under a hat of whipped cream, with a cherry on top.

Although the Harvey Nicks floats were free of whipped cream and cherries, they were still yummy and the slurping required to suck up the thick ice cream meant I could drown out the noise of the event.

Overall, I was quite disappointed by the lack of effort that seems to have gone into this year's festival. Things have been spread out more than last year (which is both good and bad) but only having a handful of options and not having the demonstrations that were at last year's festival, the kitchen knives, the tent full of chocolatey treats et cetera, I was very much let down. Here's to hoping that the next festival to grace Albert Square (the Christmas market) is just as good as its previous year!

Dill Stuffed Chicken with Roasted Vegetable Tagliatelle and Italian Green Sauce Reduction

Mmmm. There are no other words to say for this dish other than that.
This is a perfect mix of flavors--bold and slightly sweet coming from the dill, creamy and smooth from the cream cheese. You get the smoky bacon flavor and that lovely clean taste that only chicken can offer.

Then there's the pasta. The bite of al dente tagliatelle is met with the crunch of roasted bell peppers and the sweetly charred, earthy taste of roasted red onions.

And of course, the reduction. A wonderful blend of olive oil, spring onions and parsley. Stirred into the pasta with a bit of the cream cheese and some parmesan and you have a perfect accompaniment to juicy chicken parcels oozing with sweet cream cheese, hugged by crunchy bacon. Really guys, it's perfection.

Gluten Free Pork and Noodle Broth with Prawns

Mmm. How I wish I had invented this recipe! Alas, it is swiped from the gold-tipped pages of the Soup Bible. It is so good and warming and subtly Asian. :)

Ingredients:
12oz pork chops or pork filets
8oz raw or cooked prawns (shrimp)
5oz gluten free egg noodles
tbsp. vegetable oil (I boycott veg oil & use sunflower)
2tsp. sesame oil (I doubled this because I love sesame oil)
1 medium sliced (I used a red onion because I like them better)
tbsp freshly sliced root ginger
garlic clove
tsp. sugar
6 1/4 cups chicken stock
2 kaffir lime leaves
3tbsp fish sauce
juice of a lime
2 spring onions, chopped to garnish

Go ahead & prep everything. :) Remove any fat from your pork & allow cut it into even sizes using kitchen scissors. If using raw shrimp, peel and de-vein. Bring a large saucepan of salted water to the boil and simmer the egg noodles according to the instructions on the packet. Drain and refresh under cold running water. Set aside.

Pre-heat your wok & add the veg/sunflower oil & sesame oils. Heath through & when the oil is hot, add your onions and stir-fry for 3 to 4 minutes, until evenly browned. If you use red onions, they do't really go brown (unless they're charred) so just cook until they're soft. Remove them from the wok and set aside.

Add your ginger, garlic, sugar and chicken stock to the wok & bring to a simmer. Add the lime leaves, fish sauce and lime juice then ad the pork and simmer for 15 minutes.
Add the onions, shrimp and cooked noodles and simmer for an additional 3 to 4 minutes. (You will need to simmer longer if you use raw shrimp.)
Enjoy :)

Gluten Free Quinoa Bake with Roasted Vegetables and Beef

Quinoa is the weirdest ingredient I have ever cooked with! It starts out the texture and consistency of couscous, but once it cooks it kind of separates.

It has a nutty flavor which is slightly sweet and yummy. It paired nicely with the beef and the roasted vegetables really enhanced the flavor. I had never tasted quinoa until this dish. I frequently heard about it on health food shows and in diet books and stuff--it's supposed to be really good for you.

So, I've been wanting to try it for a while. I'll admit, I'm pleasantly surprised by it. It's not a common ingredient, although, I do think I'll be making it more often and finding more way to dress it up and more things to pair it with. This dish was simply roasted tomatoes, roasted red onions, roasted red peppers, fried beef that was then roasted and roasted garlic.

I cooked the quinoa on the stove like rice or couscous and then forked through some tomato paste before adding the roasted ingredients and mixing. Simple, easy, and delicious! Perfect for the middle of a long week when you're tired and want something quick and tasty that it's not going to be fattening! Look out for the next entry where I discuss what quinoa is in detail, it's properties and what makes it so good for you. :)

Pistachios

Name: Pistachio
Genre: Nut
Nickname: The Green Almond

Pistachios are the coolest nuts on the planet. They come in traffic light colors: red, green & beige (which is kind of like yellow). As a kid, I remember going to this particular mall in Fayetteville with my mom. This mall has a snack stand in the middle and my mom would buy loads of pistachios in bright red shells. She'd eat them on the way home, her fingers stained red. It was always so fascinating to me but, simultaneously, I think I was afraid of them. For a while I thought they were dipped in blood.

Gluten Free Roasted Butternut Squash & Beef Risotto with Toasted Pecans

In yesterday's entry, I was all "Yay Fall!" & expelling copious amounts of autumnal glee. Today, I'm just a meager few steps short of rolling in the leaves & slipping on a sweater for a hayride. :)

Following my autumn-flavored "cakies" of the previous entry, I decided to really up the ante & welcome the season with arms wide open. To the left there, that thing you've been ogling & probably salivating a little bit for is my roasted butternut squash & beef risotto with toasted pecans. Mmmm.