Green tomato chutney

The cherry tomatoes we planted in the hanging baskets misjudged their ripening quite spectacularly this year...

You'll need

lots of unripe, green tomatoes (about 500g), chopped up (mine were cherry tomatoes, so I just halved them)
500g of onions, chopped up quite small
250g raisins or sultanas
250g dark brown muscovado sugar
500ml vinegar (I used mostly cider vinegar, but then ran out so topped it up with malt)
1 teaspoon green cardamoms
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper (preferably something that didn't go out of date in 2002)
1 teaspoon dried chilli flakes
2 teaspoons salt

Chuck everything in a large pan (preferably not an aluminium one, as that'll react with the mixture), bring to the boil, and then simmer for an hour or so until it's turned into a deep brown, pulpy (not runny) mass.

Spoon into sterilised jars (there's some notes on this here in the rhubarb chutney recipe), and label, so when you find it at the back of the cupboard in 2015, you've an idea what it is. I found this amount fitted into 2.5 Frank Cooper Oxford marmalade jars (I'm thinking these are a standard 454g - but I'm quite taken with the idea of a marmalade jar measure. Paddington would most certainly approve...)

Chicken casserole

We spent the morning on the beach in the sunshine and wind, looking at the seaweed in rockpools and building a wonky sandcastle. It made us very hungry.

You'll need:

chicken thighs (we had five between the three of us)
three onions, sliced
a clove of garlic, finely chopped
a carrot, sliced
half a glass of white wine
chicken stock
thyme, salt and pepper
a little flour

You'll need the oven on reasonably high for this, if you want it to cook in an hour or so (so about 180 degrees C).

Brown the chicken thighs in a frying pan in a little olive oil, and then chuck into your casserole dish. Add the onions and garlic to the pan, and fry them until they're translucent. At that point add a teaspoonful of flour, and swish them about a bit for a minute or two. Throw this lot (together with the uncooked carrot slices) into the dish.

To your by now rather grotty frying pan, add a little chicken stock. Bring to the boil, and swirl about with a wooden spoon, making sure you get all the brown bits off the bottom of the pan. Pour it all into the casserole dish, together with whatever half-glass of white wine you can get your hands on. Add enough chicken stock (or a stock cube in hot water) until the chicken thighs are covered).

Season with some salt, pepper and a sprinkle of thyme. Cover with a lid (or a sheet of foil) and cook in the oven for an hour or so.

We ate this with some plain boiled rice, and chunks of whole sweetcorn.

Cheese stars

Unaccountably popular with small children (and grown ups). We made these for Sunday's NCT party - it's hard to believe that all eight of you are now three. It's adapted from yet another Nigella recipe - her baking recipes work every time.

100g grated cheese (I used a mixture of Edam and mature cheddar, as that was what we had left. I suspect a little bit of parmesan in there would be nice too).
50g self-raising flour
25g butter, chopped into small pieces (needs to be soft for mixing)
1 teaspoon of cayenne pepper (preferably one that smells a little stronger than mine, which was best before October 2002)
a pinch of salt

Stick the oven on at 200 degrees C. Mix everything together in a bowl, and squidge away as if your life depended on it. You don't need to add any liquid - this will come together of its own accord into a rough dough. Pummel it a little further to make it smoother, then roll out with a rolling pin. If you want lots of stars, make the dough thinner rather than thicker...

Slide the stars onto a baking sheet (I use a silicon sheet on my baking tray, then I don't have to bother with greaseproof paper or greasing it), and bake for 8-10 minutes. Once they start going brownish round the edges whip them out - they'll bake a little more as they cool down.

Meatballs

It was an afternoon of biscuit making, followed by some squidging about of raw meat. It doesn't get much better than that.

I borrowed this from Nigella's How to Eat (her section on kids' food is excellent), and adapted it so it tasted a bit less mousse-y.

This makes lots and lots of meatballs - I'd say enough for 4 grownup portions and at least one toddler.

500g mince (I used pork mince)
a couple of slices of bread, turned into breadcrumbs in the blender (actually, I've no idea if it was only a couple of slices - I found a bag of breadcrumbs in the freezer that I'd made a couple of months ago from the ends of the loaf)
some flat leaf parsley, chopped and chopped until it's very small
one egg, beaten
salt and pepper
an ounce or so of parmesan cheese, grated
a little flour

Stick the breadcrumbs, mince, parsley and egg in a bowl, and squidge them all about till they're mixed nicely. Add the salt, pepper and parmesan cheese. Mix wildly again.

Shape the mixture into little balls (you loved this bit), and roll in a little flour (you need two plates at this point - one with a little bit of flour on it for rolling, and an empty plate to put the finished meatballs on).

Drizzle a little olive oil in a frying pan, and then brown the meatballs in batches, turning them carefully.

We had our meatballs with some rice and a tomato sauce - essentially the pizza sauce I normally make with a tin of tomatoes, a chopped onion and some herbs. Once I'd browned the meatballs, I dropped them into the tomato sauce, which had been simmering for 15 minutes or so. I then left the whole lot to simmer for another half an hour (adding a little extra water along the way now and then, so the meatballs had lots of liquid to cook in), until the meatballs were completely cooked.

They were quite possibly the best meatballs I've managed to make.

Rhubarb chutney

Grandma had lots of rhubarb going spare, so we made it into some chutney (we don't often eat puddings, so I'm afraid you're missing out on rhubarb pie or rhubarb crumble). It's pretty good with fishy things, or with cheese and crackers.

You'll need:

lots of rhubarb - about 500g was about right
one onion, chopped
100ml vinegar (I used cider vinegar, as that's what I had in the cupboard)
200g brown sugar
fresh ginger, finely chopped (I used about an inch of ginger). I guess you could also use dried ginger, or some of the lazy stuff in a jar, but I just happened to have some in the fridge.
a pinch of salt

Trim the ends off the rhubarb, peel any grotty bits, and then chop into chunks. Chuck everything bar the rhubarb into a pan (I used a non-stick one to make cleaning up at the end easier), and bring to a rolling boil for 5 minutes.

Add the rhubarb, and simmer for 15-20 minutes, until it's thickened slightly. Pour into a sterilised jar (it makes about 500ml). It should keep for up to a year, I reckon. Once you've opened it though, keep it in the fridge.

(Sterilising jars is dead easy - just do them in the dishwasher, or rinse in hot soapy water and dry in the oven on a low heat - it's best if the jar's still warm if you're flinging very hot sugary chutney into it!)

Pork tenderloin stuffed with prunes

We spent the afternoon at the Baltic, looking at the Yoshitomo Nara + Graf exhibition. You loved the little dog castle/kennel, and Captain Jack had a whale of a time talking to the dogs.

Consequently, tea was a little bit late.

This makes enough for three large people (Ian joined us for tea), and a small one:

a large piece of pork tenderloin
an onion, finely chopped
a couple of handfuls of prunes, stoned and chopped
salt, pepper

Start with the prune stuffing - fry the onion in a little olive oil, until it turns translucent. Add the prunes, and a little water, and cook for 10-15 minutes. The prunes will absorb the water, so you might have to add a little more from time to time (you could also add some madeira, or a little white wine at this point to give the whole thing a bit of a kick).

Lay the pork on a piece of clingfilm, and stretch another sheet of clingfilm over the top. Bash away at it with a rolling pin, or some other large wooden object (you loved this bit). Once it's flattened, carefully spoon the prune mixture in a line down the middle, then roll up the pork (I secured this with a few cocktail sticks, but I'm sure there's a proper trussing method you could use involving string and all sorts).

Roast in the oven for 30-40 minutes, until the top of the meat goes slightly crispy. We ate ours with some steamed leeks, and boiled new potatoes from our pots in the garden.

Oxtail stew with herby dumplings

A bit of a retro one this. If you don't fancy oxtail, you can use some stewing steak instead.

You'll need:

a couple of oxtail pieces
a couple of handfuls of pearl barley
two carrots, sliced
two sticks of celery, chopped
an onion, chopped
worcestershire sauce
salt, pepper and some thyme

Brown the oxtail in your stew pot, using a little oil (I used a little olive oil, but anything would do). Add the onion and celery, and cook for a couple of minutes until the onion starts to go soft. Chuck in the carrots and pearl barley, and add enough water to cover the top of the oxtail. Add a splash of worcestershire sauce, and some salt, pepper and a fair sprinkling of thyme.

Stick a lid on the pot, and either leave on the hob, or stick in the oven at about 160-175 degrees C for a couple of hours.

For the dumplings you'll need double the flour to the suet (vegetarian, of course). For three of us I usually have 50g suet and 100g self-raising flour, mixed together with a teaspoon of thyme and some cold water.

Mould into little balls (I usually make about 8), and plonk them into the stew. Stick the pot in the oven (uncovered this time), for another 25-30 minutes, until the dumplings have gone brown and crispy. Mmmmmm.