Christmas How To... Bubble & Squeak

Bubble and Squeak is a traditional British dish eaten on Boxing Day (26th December). It basically means leftovers...

More specifically, it's leftover meat and vegetables from the day before, pan fried until cooked through and served with mustard, chutney and pickles.

In my case, the meat has been steeped in gravy overnight which makes the dish moist rather than crunchy. A different variation is to add mashed potato and form the veg into patties before frying; with those you serve the meat cold on the side though, rather than mixed in.

Cut the leftover vegetables into small chunks and pop into a frying pan heated with a little oil, mix in any bread sauce or mashed swede left overs, as well as the shredded meat and, if necessary, a drizzle of stock or gravy. You can add any extras you fancy, such as chopped chilli or a fried egg.

Cook through until piping hot. Easy, filling and good for a hangover! 

Go to the Christmas Dinner (2011) post

Christmas How To... Cook the Accompanying Veg

Christmas dinner isn't complete without a full array of delicious, seasonal vegetables. These are really easy, hardly a recipe at all, but I know I'm often interested in what other families cook for their dinner so I thought I would include them. 

I also know there is interest from people new to the UK, who would like to create a British style christmas dinner for the first time but aren't entirely sure what it involves - so I thought I'd be comprehensive in my xmas posts!

Seasonally speaking, root vegetables such as carrots, parsnips, beetroot and swede, plus brassicas like brussel sprouts, as well as broccoli are all at their lovely best right now. I'm particularly fond of parsnips myself, my Mum loves beetroot, my Dad loves carrots and my husband is a broccoli fiend, so each and every one has to make it onto the christmas table.

Unlike a lot of other families, I haven't messed around with our veg too much. Partly this is because my Mum absolutely hates sweet flavours in savoury food, so the traditional honey or maple glazes are right out, and she's frankly not fond of nuts like almonds, pine nuts or chestnuts either, so souped up brussels wouldn't be popular.

I also don't want the veg to outshine the goose or the gravy, they are supporting actors and showering them in gifts of honey / cumin / sesame seeds / balsamic vinegar or any of the other common props won't help the stars of the show to shine!

I think the most important bit is the cutting - trying to make the parsnips and carrots fairly uniform in thickness before roasting them, to avoid burned tips or undercooked tops.

The beetroot needs to be pre-boiled in a large saucepan of water for a good hour until tender, before skinning and slicing into wedges. 

Roast the beetroot in a separate tin if you can, to avoid the colour bleeding into the parsnips and carrots, which can go in together. Season with salt and pepper and coat in olive oil, mixing with your hands to ensure good coverage. 
These root veg all take about 45 minutes to an hour until they're ready, but keep an eye on the beetroot; remove it and cover in foil if it looks like it's going to burn.

Swede needs to be peeled and chopped into inch square cubes, then boiled until soft and mashed with plenty of butter, salt and pepper.

Sprouts and broccoli only need the lightest of steaming or boiling with a small amount of water, keep the crunch - it's lovely.

Go to the Christmas Dinner (2011) post

Singapore Noodles

Singapore noodles are an old family favourite but they are a bit hit-and-miss from takeaways. The ones I've made contain fairly average veg that a Uk fridge is likely to contain, rather than any specialist (expensive) ones, so they aren't exactly like ones from a good Chinese but they are tasty.

The guideline recipe I used is from "Chinese Food Made Easy" by Ching He Huang - a great book if you love a Chinese takeaway, but hate the heart-thumping, water gulping after effects.

I like to pre-prepare all of the spices and veg, so that the last thing to touch the chopping board is the raw meat. For the spices, you need a chopped red chilli, a few cloves of chopped garlic and a couple of generous tablespoons of turmeric. The garnish is chopped spring onion and a sprinkle of dried chillies. In addition to the veg, you're also going to need 2 tbsp light soy sauce, 2 tbsp oyster sauce, 1 tbsp of rice vinegar, some chicken and some bacon. Or use prawns if you have / like them.

The veg I used (and by no means feel bound by these, because I certainly didn't choose these ones based on any recipe!) were: one green and one red pepper, spinach, a cob's worth of sweetcorn and a carrot sliced into thin batons. I also had a jar of mushrooms preserved in olive oil which needed using up, these were really good in it.

Then you can chop up your chicken - this was the meat off two legs, as they are cheaper than buying a pack of four thighs or two breasts, and I always feel the breast is less tender anyway. The sad water-injected legs you'd get off a battery/poorly treated chicken won't cover this, at the very least a free range bird is needed, but I'd recommend organic for too many reasons to cover here. There are some notes on choosing chicken in this earlier post.

Pre-cook the chicken with nothing more than a little seasoning and some oil, then put the peices to one side. You also need to soak your rice noodles, hot water from the tap will do, for about 5-10 minutes depending on what the packet says.

In the same frying pan, heat up a little more oil and add the garlic, fresh chilli and turmeric (and mushrooms if using). Cook for at most a minute, then add the bacon and cook for a minute more. Tip all of the veg in and cook until tender, then add the soaked noodles, light soy, oyster sauce and vinegar.

Mix it all up, add the dried chilli and spring onions, and serve.

Glorious (and edible) Garden

Oooh, I love my garden, I do. It wasn't always the case though... About 2 years ago I had a really enthusiastic attempt at container gardening and, although I did get a few tomatoes, courgettes, spring onions and the like, it was basically just an insect and gastropod carnival.

Last year was a bit of a wash out, as work and other things got in on my time first. This year, though, the balance seems to have returned and my lovely garden is taking shape again. I can't truly describe what a pleasure it is, to sit outside and drink coffee (or tea, or wine or cocktails) on the patio of a sunny day.

The smell of roses in the evening is absolutely gorgeous

The actual act of gardening is fabulous too; from the watering and feeding rituals, deadheading violas, seeing seedlings emerging... oh the whole thing is just incredibly satisfying.

We still have a sluggy, snaily problem but are lucky enough to have at least five toads in the vicinity. Yum yum say the toads.
We also have lots of ladybirds and my little beetle friends have been laying eggs recently; I hope to see a ladybird fiesta on my broadbeans, strawberries and roses very soon (as these are already being attacked by aphids / blackfly).

Ants are my real problem pests, we have at least three nests around the house and they make aphid control a nightmare. I can see the little buggers running around in my roses and broadbeans; I do respect their farming prowess, I just wish they'd go and do it elsewhere!

I don't have a greenhouse but did recently discover the next best thing - a small, moveable, flatpack cold frame. Everything I've put in it seems to be extremely happy, including seeds that have germinated perfectly well without the benefit of a proper indoor nursery.

My courgette, potatoes, french beans, chilli plant,
basil, tagetes, poppies and sunflowers all look very happy in their makeshift
greenhouse. I'm still waiting for a sign of life from the sweetcorn,
romano peppers and aubergines though...

The tomatoes are living in one of those plastic greenhouse things, one of them seems happy enough, the middle one is ok and the tiny one is all stunted and miserable looking. I've no idea why, they are in the same gro-bag, with the same watering and feeding schedule. Maybe I should play it some mozart.
I've kept the mint and horseradish corraled in pots since, tasty though they are, they're also nasty bullies and would happily take over the garden if given free range.



We've got sage, raspberries, a baby plum tree, strawberries, scented night stocks, some sweet peas and two fennel plants (one of them self-seeded by the other) in the back garden but everything else lives in a small patch out the front. I couldn't help smiling when I saw the first bright red radish on my way out of the house one morning last week.

I can wear my smug face in the garden too as I don't use pesticides, peat-based composts or chemical fertilisers. I am sorely tempted sometimes, particularly when the aphids and slugs come to feast, or I have a poorly plant like my stunted tomato, but thus far I've held out. Mainly by picturing the sad little faces of ladybirds, lacewings, honey and bumble bees, butterflies, blue tits and robins as they drop dead of poisoning. I just can't handle that kind of guilt! 
I am tempted to nematode the ants though...

We're lucky enough to have clay soil that still drains quite well, so nothing gets malnourished or becomes waterlogged and, with my predatory friends seemingly doing well (not just the pests), hopefully everything will survive.

I've been surprised how easy everything has been this time around. Maybe the weather is helping I don't know, it just seems to have clicked into place. Based on my experience I wouldn't recommend trying to grow too many things in containers, a lot of plants seem weaker for this treatment. If you do have a garden, get a helpful friend or spouse to dig over a patch of grass. Unsurprisingly, plants seem to like that best.

Veg patch plants: blueberry, broadbean, radish, beetroot, sorrel, spinach, spring onion, nasturtium, lettuce, basil, coriander, geranium, bay (in a pot so it can come inside over winter), parsley, oregano, runner bean, rhubarb, chamomile, borage and tarragon.

Links
Organic Garden 
BBC Gardener's World
BBC Gardening Guides
Soil Association
Biological Pest Control
Radio 4: Gardener's Question Time