Chorizo and Chestnut Stew

I have a vile cold and have achieved nothing useful or interesting this week, apart from eating comfort food and feeling sorry for myself.

This stew is perfect for smashing colds, or for recovering after one of these sorts of walks:

(beautiful but freezing, damp and with a cutting wind screaming across)

1 onion

1 large carrot

2 sticks celery

120g chorizo (in a chunk rather than slices)

2 cloves garlic

1 tsp cumin seed, crushed in a pestle and morter

1.5 tsp thyme

small tin of tomatoes (or two large fresh tomatoes)

200g cooked chestnuts

250g chestnut puree

dried chilli flakes/fresh chillies - to taste

salt and pepper

Finely slice the onion, celery and carrot and fry in a little olive oil until the onion is soft and golden.

Cut the chorizo into cubes and fry with the vegetables for a few minutes, then add the crushed garlic.

Roughly chop the chestnuts and add them to the pan along with the tomatoes, chilli and chestnut puree.  Top up with water - for a thick stew only just cover the vegetables, for more of a soupy stew add more water.

Simmer for about 45 minutes.

Serve with polenta, couscous or huge chunks of crusty bread.  I had mine with cheesey soda bread, and munched it with a friend in front of the fire.

A Peek at Christmas!

I refuse to do anything Christmassy until the first of December, however, there are a few little jobs that I get to do a few weeks early.  It's a tiny peep at all the delicious Christmassy loveliness to come!

This week I made mincemeat, which is now quietly mulling in a dark corner.  Although the mulling process isn't entirely necessary, it does mean that you can make it in advance and forget about it, and then you're ready to start munching the very second we hit 1st December. (Recipe here!)

Sticky sweet spiced deliciousness that makes the whole house smell of Christmas!

I also dried some teeny satsumas to use in my decorations.  Either cut the skin with a knife, or stud with cloves, then thread onto a skewer and hang over a radiator for a week or so until they are completely dried out.

They make the house smell amazing when the radiator comes on!

Apple Drop Scones with Cinnamon Butter

These are just the thing for an autumn breakfast, brunch, pudding, afternoon tea or a midnight snack.  They are spectacularly quick and easy to whip up and can be eaten hot or cold, or reheated in the toaster the next morning for breakfast (if there are any left).

For the drop scones:

9oz/225g self raising flour

1tsp baking powder

1oz/25g caster sugar

1tbsp golden syrup

2 eggs

275ml milk

About 2 eating apples (at this time of year there is no excuse for them not being British, coxes work particularly well)

For the cinnamon butter:

2oz/50g soft butter

2tsp honey

1tsp cinnamon

 (serves 4 ish)

(although I made half the quantity and managed to get through the lot by myself...oops)

Place the first set of ingredients in a bowl and whisk like billy-o until you have a smooth batter.

To make the cinnamon butter, mix together the butter, honey and cinnamon with a fork, mashing together until well combined.

Cut the apples into 4, remove the core, and slice each piece into about 5 slices.  If you have an apple corer you could remove the core first and then slice the apples across the middle to make round slices with holes in the centre.

Heat a frying pan lightly greased with a little oil or lard.  It's hot enough when a drop of water dropped on the surface crackles.  Drop large tablespoonfuls of batter into the pan and top with several slices of apple.  Bubbles should appear on the surface and when these start bursting to make little holes, the pancakes should be ready to flip over.  Turn with a spatula and cook until golden brown on both sides.

Best way to make these is to do them before everyone is at the table drooling - turn the oven to a low temperature and as each batch of pancakes are cooked, place them on a plate in between 2 sheets of kitchen roll or a tea towel folded in half, and tuck them in the oven.  This means you can cook the whole batch and then place a huge mountain of piping hot pancakes on the table where everyone can eat them at once.

More to the point this system prevents that distressing phenomenon wherein the person cooking the pancakes never gets a look in, as they have all been eaten by the time you are done cooking (- devastating).

Anyway, top with the cinnamon butter (lots of) which should melt in deliciously cinnamonny dribbles all over the place.

And they have fruit in so are practically good for you!

A Party and a Parade

Friday evening I hosted what should have been a bonfire party, but after a careful study of the weather forecast decided we'd be safer, and drier, staying inside.  So my guests ditched all their jumpers, wellies, coats and hats, we lit the fire in the drawing room and set to on the very important matter of eating drinking and talking hard.

As ever, I managed to forget to take any sensible blog photos, but did manage a couple of the most important part of the evening!

There was mulled cider (and mulled apple juice for those not drinking)

 then we started with:  thyme and apple sausage rolls, roast vegetables, potato wedges, honey and mustard chicken wings, cheesey pesto bread, refried beans and tortilla chips and guacamole, BBQ sauce and sour cream dip.

For pudding we had sticky gingerbread, pumpkin muffins, pumkin spiced marshmallows and apple slices for dipping in thick caramel sauce (which I managed to cut off the picture, oops!).

Saturday was mostly spent recovering and washing up...

Sunday morning was beautiful!  I went up with three other husbandless wives up to the Hoe for the Remembrance Parade.

.

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:

Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.

At the going down of the sun and in the morning

We will remember them.

A Walk at the Beach

The weekend before last, my parents came to stay and we took them for a blustery walk at Mothecombe Beach.  With my standard expert blogging skills, I managed to forget my camera, so photos today are courtesy of my dad; hence the rather higher quality than usual!

It was definitely a sharp introduction to some proper autumn weather - grim grey, fridge freezing and blowing a gale.

Despite the not-so-brilliant weather, there were all sorts of beautiful things to look at.

After struggling along the shore one way and then being blasted back the other way, we sheltered in a corner by the cliffs for a spot of tea and home made madeleines.

Full of tea and blown upwards downwards and every which way, we trundled home to warm up by the fire.

Such a lovely weekend, especially as now my lovely husband has been whisked off to sea for a few weeks and now I am all alone and husbandless.

...and wallowing in self pity!