white wine – Food That We Make

Minted Spring Vegetables

hannahnicklin — Sun, 23 Jun 2013 18:02:15 +0000

Yeah, I know, it’s been AGES since I posted here. Alex has been keeping up his end of posting admirably in my absence. I’m suffering from the London Lifestyle Problem, I moved here about 3 months ago now, and aside from being too poor to experiment with food, I have a lot more work, and notably, most of it is now not work I do from home. It takes me about an hour to get home now, and then if I’m going to a gig or show in the evening, there’s just no time to go home and cook. Or if I am home, I have 2 hours to get all my emails done before needing to be asleep, or phone calls to do I can’t do during the day. Blah. Blah. I HATE THIS. I’m eating loads of crap from EAT, and Pret and places like that. Yuck. So it was really nice to try this new recipe. When I can cook I’ve been living off thought-less recipes like risotto, or Alex’s brilliant Green Vegetable Sauce pasta, and this one is definitely going on the list. Quick, fresh tasting, and relatively cheap. Serve it with couscous or pasta. Pretty much straight out of the Good Food 101 Veggie Dished book.

Prep: 10 mins | cook: 20 mins | Serves: 4
Nutritional Info: 321 kcals, protein 9g, carbs 18g, fat 20g, saturated 10g, fibre 8g, salt 0.23g

Ingredients, mostly:

I used shallots. I didn’t know if that’s the same as ‘baby onions’. They’re little anyway. melt the butter, and then add the onions and gently cook for 8-10 minutes until soft.

Add the wine and the leeks and simmer until tender, about 5 mins

Add the peas and simmer for 5 mins more, if you’re doing pasta, start it here.

then add the lettuce and simmer for 3 mins

Start your couscous, if you’re doing that. Stir through the creme fraiche and herbs, season through and warm gently for 2-3 mins

Serve on a bed of couscous (well seasoned and stirred through with oil) or pasta. DONE.

Mushroom ‘risoniotto’

hannahnicklin — Wed, 05 Dec 2012 13:47:36 +0000

This is called ‘risoniotto’ because chefs seem to think that to make us try new things they have to make them sound like old ones. From River Cottage Every Day this is Hugh F-W’s LIKE RISOTTO BUT MADE WITH PASTA NOT RICE. I’ll admit ‘risoniotto’ does have a bit more of a ring to it. Although I made it with orzo pasta. Waitrose basic ‘essentials’ range orzo pasta no less. BASICS. Oh brave fucked up world, that considers orzo pasta ‘essential’. What’s worse is I was glad to find it. Anyway. This is tasty, nice mix of creamy with the bite of the balsamic. Recommend. HOW TO:

Prep: 5 mins | Cook: 30 mins | Serves: 2

Nutritional info: 514kcal 63g carbs 20g fat 15g protein

Obligatory ingredients pic:

First up, set a pan of salted water on the boil. Then pop the oil and butter in a pan, melt together, add the mushrooms and fry until brown and yummy.

Add the pasta about half way through browning mushrooms

Add the thyme, garlic and balsamic vinegar to the mushrooms, cook for a couple of minutes

When that’s reduced, add the wine and do the same

Then add the cream and half the parsely

reduce until nice and thick, and add the pasta when al dente, keep cooking until it’s… well, risotto texture. Damn.

Serve with the rest of the chopped parsley on to. It’s not half bad. And tastes lighter than risotto.

Creamy Butternut Squash, Chive, and Pine Nut Tagliatelle.

hannahnicklin — Wed, 28 Nov 2012 22:08:05 +0000

Properly delicious, this. The first time I made it I was a little underwhelmed and found it a little stodgy, but the magical addition of a little white wine into the cooking lightens and sharpens the flavour perfectly. Big filling, warming dish, which but for the pine nuts is pretty cheap, is certainly simple, and vegan.

So, how to:

Prep: 10 mins | Cook: 25 mins | Serves: 4
Nutritional info: 494 kcal, 32g carbs, 28g fat, 12g protein

Ingredients pic (less the wine, and pictured for one)

Prep the onion, garlic, weigh out the other things, make the stock, and cube the butternut squash to approx 1cm cubes. Be careful not to slip with the knife on the squash. I do this all the time. Unfun.

And then, before you start, toast your pine nuts, watch them carefully in a dry pan and brown all over, then tip out.

Next, melt the butter in a large pan, add the onions, soften, and then add the garlic and stir for a couple of minutes. Here are some pictures in case you can’t imagine how that looks:

Next, add the cubed squash, stir around for a couple of minutes, then add a good splash per person of white wine. Let that reduce a little, then add the veg stock (it should just about cover the squash), add the nutmeg (to taste), bring to the boil, and simmer gently until the squash is soft. MEANWHILE

Start the water boiling for the tagliatelle, and about 5 minutes in chuck it in the water with a bit of salt. When the squash is soft and lovely, blend it with 1/3 of the chives, and return to the pan with the cream, stirring through. (NB. I later discovered it was better to blend with the cream and then heat through)

Once the sauce has warmed through, hopefully the pasta should be done, add it to the pan, with 2/3 of the pine nuts, and 1/3 of the chives. Mix together

Then dole it onto plates, scattering the remaining chives and pine nuts over the top.

Doesn’t look mega appetising, but it’s warm and filling and tasty. So, y’know, whatevs.

Cauliflower and Leek Risotto

hannahnicklin — Thu, 01 Nov 2012 23:05:31 +0000

ECONOMY DRIVE TIME. So a month into freelancing and it turns out unpredictable money is SCARY. Especially just before Christmas. The stuff it allows me to do is totally worth it, but I’m also starting to try and really reduce food spend. Just until I have some goddam reserves built up. So, enter a phase on Food That We Make of cheap things. But still tasty. Always tasty. First up, a super simple leek and cauliflower risotto. The rice, cauliflower and leeks all cheap cheap cheap. A little bit of cheese goes a long way, and cheap cooking wine will last a long while for it. I still didn’t scrimp on fresh parsley, though. It lifts the flavour too much to take out. So yeah, big amount, good flavour, very filling. My version makes the cauli quite smooshy, and I like the melty cauli style, but if you like your brassicas firm, then remove all stalkage and add with 15-20 minutes to go.

Serves: 4 | Prep Time: 10 mins | Cook time about 30-40 mins
Nutritional Info: 593 kcal, 74g carbs, 25g fat, 15g protein

Ingredients pic!

weigh everything out, slice the leeks thinly, crush and chop the garlic, break the cauliflower into florets, taking off the thickest bit of the stalks. Set the stock on to boil. Heat the oil in a well big pan.

Add the garlic, leeks and cauli and soften over the heat for 5-10 mins

Add the risotto rice, stir through and cook for about 2 mins until the rice is slightly glossy

Add the wine, stir until absorbed

If you’re not in a mega rush like I was, add the stock a bit by bit until absorbed and the rice is al dente. If in a massive rush add it all and hope it’s the right amount. Reduce for about 2o-25 mins

When it’s reduced, add the butter and parmesan, stir through for a couple minute more

Then add the parsley, season to taste (loads of black pepper) and serve. Voila:

Leek, squash and gorgonzola risotto,

hannahnicklin — Tue, 17 Jul 2012 19:19:41 +0000

I love risotto. Such an ace opportunity to take a basic set up and put together loads of different variations on flavours. This one’s unorthodox in containing NO ONION, which would be good for my mate Lucy who’s both gluten intolerant and allergic to onions. I know you’re glad I told you that. This’un’s from the Vegetarian Student Cookbook. I’m not 100% which one, but it’s definitely the one I’ve got, so if you really want to know, I will go and dig it out off the shelf. On the basis that you probably don’t care, though, for now I’ll leave it.

As for alterations, I parboiled the squash really briefly before roasting because I was lazy and wanted this to be a quick dinner. I also added a splash of white wine before adding stock, and as a mid-cooking thought picked some sage and chucked that in (chopped). Seemed to work. Will try it without tomorrow and if it’s better (because competing strong flavours isn’t always the best thing) I’ll edit with that info. For now:

Prep time: 5 mins | Cook time: 30-35 mins | Serves: 2
Nutritional info: (without added wine, and gorging inappropriately on additional gorgonzola while cooking): 470 kcal, 81g carbs, 12g fat, 11g protein

Ingredients pic:

Chop/peel/cube the squash, pop in a roasting tin with the oil, season and shake to coat well. Roast on a high heat (I dunno, about 200’c, I didn’t really look) for 30 minutes.

meanwhile… melt the butter in a pan, add the leeks and garlic, and cook for 5 minutes or so, until the leek has softened. Get the stock on the boil.

Add the risotto rice, stir until coated in the butter and cook for about a minute before chucking in (if using) the wine, then once that’s been absorbed/evaporated, start doing that with batches of the stock.

This is where I actually added the sage, but if I were you, I’d add it when you’re softening the leek, FYI.

Once the risotto is al dente (soft, with a tiny bit of bite) add the roasted squash and gorgonzola, stir well until the cheese has melted, and serve immediately.

Drizzle oil if you’re feeling posh/happy to consume an additional 50-100 kcal.

Curried Parsnip and Apple Soup

hannahnicklin — Mon, 16 Jul 2012 18:02:23 +0000

OK, I’m not sure if ‘adding balti paste’ counts as ‘currying’ something, but the original recipe described this as ‘spicy’, which I definitely don’t think it is. Warming, however, it definitely is. Probably better as an Autumn soup, but I got caught on my bike in a downpour and made this while both hungry and shivering, so it was basically the best thing ever, despite it being the height of this thing we’re still insisting on calling a ‘summer’… That’s probably enough inverted commas for now. The original recipe was a Sainsbury’s one *I think*, but it’s not on their site to link to, now, so if it’s from somewhere else, sorry for not crediting you. Replacing milk with soya cream in the recipe, so this’un’s vegan.

Serves: 4-6 | Prep: 10 mins | Cook: 40-50 mins
Nutrition per portion (1/4): 151 cals, 8g fat, of which 1g saturated fat, 12g added sugar, 2g salt

Ingredients:

Pop the oil in a large pan, heat it then add the curry paste and fry until fragrant

Add all the veg. And the the cooking apple. Not the regular apples yet. Them’s garnish. Stir well to coat the veg, and cook until softened, about 15 mins

Then add the stock, wine, soya cream, and coriander. Bring to a simmer and cook for 20-30 mins or until the veg is very tender.

Blend. Season well.

Serve! Garnish with chopped eating apple (not pictured, I forgot to picture that bit, and then I ate it) and a bit of coriander. Also, check out the vintage soup bowl my mum let me have. From the Actual Seventies.

Seasonal Vegan Green Risotto

hannahnicklin — Tue, 19 Jun 2012 20:22:18 +0000

So I’m always making lovely creamy risottos on here with liberal amounts of creme fraiche or brie or butter or parmesan and although you can probably find replacements for those things, I thought I should make (and try!) a proper meant-to-be-vegan one. So here it is, and doubly well meaning with stupidly seasonal broad beans and herbs cut from my over-grown (and mostly dandelion and potato plant ridden) balcony garden. Although not in the ingredients or nutritional count I should also admit to having chucked a bit of soya cream in at the end, if you’re tracking nutrition 40ml or so should up it by 49kcal 2g carbs 4g fat 1g protein. Still pretty healthy, like. Based on a Rose Elliot recipe. So, here we go:

Prep Time: 5 minutes | Cook Time: 35 minutes | Makes: 2
Nutritional Info: 462 kcal, 83g carbs, 5g fat, 10g protein

Ingredients: GREEN THINGS

soften the celery and onion in the olive oil

meanwhile, make up you stock, bring it to simmer, and boil the broad bean/s for 4-5 mins until just tender, remove and set aside

When the onion and celery is softened add the risotto rice and garlic, stir around for a minute, then add the wine and reduce until absorbed

Add the stock a bit at a time, stirring throughout until you’ve used all the stock or until the rice is tender, this should take 25-30 mins

Add the spinach, petit pois, chopped herbs, and broad beans, stir through until spinach is wilted, season and tip in a little soya cream if you fancy it.

Serve!

FOOD. Mushroom Risotto

hannahnicklin — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 20:05:00 +0000

I can’t remember where I got this recipe from. Probably my little book of 100 veggie dishes. And since @alexanderkelly’s pea risotto entrance to the blog, I kinda felt like I should up my game. Seriously, a wine recommendation. I can’t do that, but I can share an equally awesome-tasty quick veggie risotto with you. BE GRATEFUL.

Nutrition: 397 kcal, 13g protein, 60g carbs, 13g fat, 6g sat fat, 3g fibre, 1.22g salt

WHAT TO PUT IN IT (this feeds one person, multiply by number of people, like)

Start the stock off to boil, chop the onion and celery, slice the mushrooms, grate the cheese. put some oil in a pan on a medium hear, soften the onions and celery, DON’T let them brown. At this point I found some porcini mushrooms in the cupboard (yeah… I’m that person) I put these in the stock to absorb some moisture and make it extra tasty.

When onions and celery are soft, turn up the heat high, and add the general splash of wine. ACTION PHOTO:

simmer away the wine until it has been absorbed by the rice. Then all you have to do is keep on adding a bit of stock, waiting for it to absorb, adding a bit more and stirring throughout like your life depends on it. Keep on adding and tasting the rice until it’s just between chewy and soft, add a last bit of stock, and the chopped mushrooms.

Last bit now, add the scoop of butter, a generous twist of pepper, and a handful of cheese.

keep stirring until it’s really sticky and gooey and lovely. Serve, scrunch a bit more pepper, garnish with rocket and a tiny bit more cheese. Serve. Bask in the glorious compliments of all to whom you serve it.