Slow Cooker Sausage, Tomato and Rosemary Casserole

Operation Dry Rot is finally progressing with construction rather than destruction now the order of the day.  However, I am still cooking without my stove, so Slow Cooker recipes are featuring heavily.  I like them because you can cook everything in one pot and there is less fussing around with the single electric ring and the microwave.

This is a simple casserole using everyday ingredients which make it tasty, thrifty and convenient.

Sausage, Tomato and Rosemary Slow Cooker Casserole
Serves 3-4
 6 pork sausages
1 seasonal root vegetable pack containing 3 carrots, 1 parsnip, 1 small turnip (swede), 1 onion.
2 large potatoes
1 400g can chopped tinned tomatoes
2 sprigs of rosemary
1 stock cube (I used beef)
1 tbsp vegetable oil 
salt and freshly ground pepper

1. Heat the oil in a pan and brown the sausages all over (I have a Sear and Stew Slow Cooker so brown mine in the cooking pot on the hob), slice the onion and add to the pan, turn down the heat and cook slowly for about 10 minutes.

2. While the sausage and onion are sauteing in the pan, peel the other vegetables and chop into small even sized pieces. You can cut the potatoes slightly larger as they will soften more quickly than the carrot and swede.






Bloggers Around the World has landed in GB and this sort of sausages are very much a British tradition, so I'm sharing this recipe at Chris's site Cooking Around the World.

Labels: casserole, comfort food, Cooking Around the World, Cooking with Herbs, Credit Crunch Munch, Rosemary, sausages, slow cooker, thrifty

posted by Janice @ 12:07 30 Comments

Sausage Stuffed Croissants

I've almost cleared all the excess food from the festive season, however there was quarter of a pack of frozen cocktail sausages in the freezer and a can of croissant dough in the fridge which was heading towards it's use by date. 

Originally I'd intended to make one of the sausage and croissant rings like the one made by Claire at Foodie Quine.  However, my good intentions came to naught and the other can of dough was baked into ordinary croissants.

I cooked the cocktail sausages in the oven making sure they were cooked through.  I took them out and left them to cool a little.  I unrolled the dough and separated the pieces, spread them with grain mustard and rolled up the dough around the sausages (two cocktail sausages per croissant) and baked for 15 minutes until puffed up and browned.


These Sausage Stuffed Croissants are ideal for lunch and would slip nicely into a packed lunch box too.

I'm entering this dish for the No Waste Food Challenge  originally created by Turquoise Lemons and now being run by Elizabeth at Elizabeth's Kitchen Diary.

I'm also linking up to Daisies and Pie - Lunchbox Ideas

Labels: croissants, mustard, No Waste Food Challenge, sausages

posted by Janice @ 07:30 8 Comments

Chorizo Burgers - A Random Recipe

It wouldn't be Christmas without a new cookbook. I was lucky enough to receive two new books, 'eat, The little book of fast food' by Nigel Slater:


 and 'Dear Francesca, a cookbook with love' by Mary Contini:


They are both lovely books to read as well as to cook from so it was no hardship to choose a random recipe from one of my new books as requested by Dom at Belleau Kitchen for the Random Recipes Blog challenge.



Nigel Slater won the 'eeny meany miney mo' selection and then I just opened the little book of fast food randomly to find myself at the page for chorizo burgers. The recipe is copyright so I can't share it in it's entirety but there are only three ingredients: minced pork, cooking chorizo sausages, salt and pepper and ciabatta or pannini rolls. Nigel uses more chorizo than pork, my burgers were more like half and half. I simply formed the mix into burgers and fried them with a very little oil in a non-stick pan. 

I made the burgers rectangular to fit better onto the rolls!

The burgers were really easy to make on a Friday night, when I would usually stick a pizza straight from the freezer into the oven! The texture was nice and soft and the chorizo sausage gave the burgers a delightful smoky piquancy. I will definitely make these again.



I used Heck Smoky Chorizo style sausages, they have a good flavour and softer texture than some chorizo which made them easy to mix with the minced pork. Please don't be alarmed by the Use By date, they were frozen well before that date and defrosted in the fridge overnight before becoming burgers!

@FarmersgirlCook Thrilled to hear this. Thank you. And lovely picture.
— nigel slater (@NigelSlater) January 18, 2014

Labels: Burgers, chorizo, easy, fast, Heck Food, Mary Contini, Nigel Slater, Random Recipes, sausages

posted by Janice @ 15:34 9 Comments

On My Kitchen Table - New Year 2014

Well Christmas is past and the New Year is almost upon us.  Just before the start of the festive season the PRs seem to go into overdrive and offers of review samples tumbled into my inbox like  Christmas cards  popping through my letterbox.  I don't accept all the offers that are made, but try to choose products which are good quality and that I would be happy to share with my family and friends at my table as well as with you, dear readers, on Farmersgirl Kitchen Table.




We've been enjoying Whole Earth Crunchy Peanut Butter for many years, Mr Farmer is particularly fond of peanutty things.  The difference between the Whole Earth Peanut butter and the emulsified, trans-fat versions is marked and once you have tried it you won't go back.

There's a new nut butter from Whole Earth, it's 3 Nut and contains Cashews, Hazelnuts and Peanuts. It's got no added sugar and is suitable for vegetarians and vegans.   This  3 Nut Butter makes a really nice change and is great for breakfast, lunch or dinner!






As Whole Earth Foods also sent me some of their Peanut Butter too, I thought I'd use some in a recipe.  This isn't the most attractive of dishes, but it tasted pretty good, and was even better the next day.  I found this recipe for African Beef and Peanut Stew at The Kitchn.


Whole Earth 3 Nut Butter is available from most major supermarkets





The Qbag is perfect for this time of year when time is short and there is a lot of roasting going on!  Qbags are designed to be used on the barbeque to contain foods that might otherwise fall apart, they also have the huge advantage of keeping the food really moist and juicy as well as not making a mess of your grill or oven.

I don't own a barbeque and we don't have the weather for outside cooking just now anyhow.  So I cooked some minute steak with onions and stock inside one of the bags.

Minute steak can be quite tough to eat, it's cut thin and doesn't have a lot of fat, so only needs a short time in the frying pan.  However you can also braise it and it will be very tender.  I simply browned the minute steaks in a little oil, then added the sliced onions and browned them too.  I added a beef stock cube to about 100ml of boiling water until dissolved, then added to the steak and onions in the bag.  Then you simply scrunch up the foil part of the bag and place on a tray in the oven.   I cooked this for about 30 minutes checking through the handy clear window to see how it was doing.  You can even peel back the window to add ingredients or give your food a bit of a mix up if needed.

We really enjoyed the steak cooked in this way and it certainly saved on the washing up!

Qbags were available from the online shop, but this closed on 20th November.  Going forward, Qbag are partnering with trusted brands to get our products into your local shops. Look out for BacoFoil EasyCook Foil Bags in ASDA and Sainsbury's and buy 5 bags for £2.99.



More lovely comfort food. These Heck Sausages 
are very good indeed.  There is a whole range of different flavours, but so far I've only tried the 97% pork sausages.  What I can say is that they really taste of meat and are well seasoned with no artificial taste at all, they are also gluten free.  I'm looking forward to trying the Pork and Apple and Chorizo Style sausages and will report back to you when I do.

Heck Food is a small family run business, farming and making sausages from pork shoulder.  The quality shines through.  Well worth trying.  Heck sausages are available at many supermarkets for around £2.98 for 400g.





Cheese is perfect for snacking, quick lunches and suppers or as part of a cheeseboard after a celebratory meal.
 

This year, why not bring some originality and flair to the table and wow your guests with an innovative cheeseboard.  Instead of the usual cheese pairings of quince jelly, pineapple, a salty cracker and the odd decorative grape, Castello has created more inspiring combinations based on molecular science.






Three of the Cawston Press sparkling drinks have been awarded prestigious Great Taste gold medals.
It’s no mean feat – Great Taste is the world’s largest and most rigorous food awards scheme, involving over 400 judges and thousands of hours of blind tasting.
Here’s some of the judges’ comments about the gold medal winners. The word ‘lovely’ keeps cropping up!
“Quaffable drink; lingers comfortably; lovely apple on the nose; lovely natural appearance; very clean, zesty and refreshing; would make a delightful alternative to an alcoholic drink; the carbonation added a lovely sparkle”
The range of sparkling drinks are available from selected Tesco, Waitrose stores and online via Ocado.


End a dinner party in style this festive season and earn yourself a reputation for creating a truly memorable cheeseboard with the help of Port Salut and cheese expert Juliet Harbutt. Here’s her top ten tips for pulling together a show-stopping centre piece.

• A slate or marble cheeseboard, decorated with a few autumnal leaves and berries is great for making a lasting impression

• Ideally a cheeseboard should include five to ten cheese from the seven different types, but don’t over cater – allow approximately 75-100g per person

• Offer a range of shapes – logs, wedges, cylinders, squares – and cut blocks of cheese into different shapes for an attractive finish

• Try to provide a separate knife for each type of cheese so that more guests can help themselves at once and there is less cross contamination of flavours

• Ideally buy cheeses you have tasted and had cut at the deli from the original cheese, or buy pre-pack cheeses as near to their best before date as possible for the best taste

• Before serving ensure all the cheeses have come to room temperature – a slither will take 5 minutes and whole Brie will take at least an hour so best to serve similar sized portions

• If you are lucky enough to have a whole or half Stilton don’t pour Port into it; rather than adding to the taste of either, it is an old tradition used for style not taste

• Ideal accompaniments to the cheeseboard include: oat cakes, rustic breads, pickled walnuts, savoury, mildly spiced chutneys, mixed nuts, dried fruit or fresh apples or pears

• As well as wine, beer & cider also go very well with most types of cheese so encourage guests to have fun experimenting with their pairings

• Impress your friends and family with your newly acquired expertise with these quick facts:
• 95% of cheeses are suitable for vegetarians

• Stilton is just one of 90 British blue cheeses on the market Box-out: Visit the Port Salut website at www.portsalut.co.uk for Juliet’s downloadable cheese guide, listing all her cheese recommendations for the perfect dinner party cheese board.


And finally, it's time to sit back and relax with the lovely Feel Good Food magazine from Woman and Home.  I'm a bit of a magazine addict and love these themed food magazines from Woman and Home.  The award winning Lir cupcake chocolates were perfect to savour while reading about food!







I was not paid to review any of these products, but was supplied with samples for review.  All opinions are my own.

Labels: Apple juice, Castello, Cawston Press, cheese, Heck Food, Lir chocolate., New Year, On my Kitchen Table, peanut butter, Port Salut, Qbag, sausages, Tickler, Whole Earth, Woman and Home

posted by Janice @ 08:00 1 Comments

Slow Baked Sausages - Dish of the Month

In the November chapter of Nigel Slater's the kitchen diaries II there are all kinds of warming dishes for those cold damp days as autumn draws to a close and winter begins.  One of these is Slow-Baked Sausages, pork butcher's sausages cooked with dark beer, onions and brown sugar.

Nigel suggests serving the sausages with mashed potatoes, but I served my sausage dish with roasted and mashed butternut squash and some fresh green broccoli as a bit of a contrast.  The rich beery gravy worked really well with the sweet butternut squash and the sausages were tender and meaty.   Another big success from Mr Nigel Slater!  I'm really looking forward to watching him with Countryfile favourite, Adam Henson,  on BBC 1 from 20th November for Nigel and Adam's Farm Kitchen.

If you would like to take part in Dish of the Month, then please:

• Make a Dish of the Month from ANY recipe by Nigel Slater
• Link to Farmersgirl Kitchen or A Little Bit of Heaven on a Plate
• Use the Dish of the Month logo in your post
• If you use twitter, tweet your post with @FarmersgirlCook or @Heavenona_plate and #DishoftheMonth and we will re-tweet it to our followers.

Rules:

• If you own The kitchen diaries II please do not publish the recipes on your blog without permission, they are copyright.
• If you are using recipes from the BBC Food website, please link to the recipe on BBC Food rather than publishing the recipe. Likewise recipes on the Guardian Lifestyle website.
• One entry per blog.
• Recipes must be added to the linky by the 28th of each month.

Labels: Dish of the Month, Nigel Slater, sausages, slow cooked

posted by Janice @ 22:23 2 Comments

Dish of the Month Round Up August and Prize Winner

Dom from Belleau Kitchen  chose one of those perfect recipes where you throw everything in a roasting tin, to create an easy but deliciously carmelised Summer Sausage Stew with cider and radishes.

Feel like you are having a bit of deja vu?  Nigel obviously has a penchant for throwing things into roasting tins and so do I!  My Dish of the Month was Baked Chicken with tomatoes and olives from the Kitchen Diaries II.

Welcome to Dish of the Month Newbie, Deon Van Schalkwyk of Sumptuous Delights who was somewhat daunted by the Kitchen Diaries II until (drumroll) she saw this blog event and realised just how fabulous and accessible KDII is, and made this Mushroom and Asparagus Tart with Pancetta pieces.  Hope you will join us again Deon.

 Claire from Foodiequine served up a fabulous Smoked Haddock with Leeks and Sweetcorn made from local produce with a dash of rapeseed oil 'as used by Nigel Slater'.

Sue, from A Little bit of heaven on a plate, crocheted this Lemon and Thyme cake along with her Afghan blanket - hee hee hee.  It's another great recipe from the Kitchen Diaries II.


A beautiful photograph of a glorious dish from Karen at Lavender and Lovage, Saint Marcellin Cheese, tomatoes and basil from the first Kitchen Diaries book, read more about this creamy French cheese on Karen's blog.

Rachel at Marmaduke Scarlet always comes up with an interesting dish for Dish of the Month and this month is no exception.  Roasted Courgettes with Thai-style Minced Chilli and Lime Pork is a variation on Nigel's Baked Marrow with Minced Pork from Tender 1.


And the winner of a copy of Nigel Slater's Real Fast Food is 

Labels: asparagus, Chicken, courgettes, Dish of the Month, Lemon and Thyme Cake, mushrooms, mussels, Nigel Slater, Pork, Real Fast Food, Saint Marcellin, sausages, smoked haddock, tomatoes

posted by Janice @ 21:00 5 Comments