November Meal of the Month

It's cold, not many of us are camping and some vans are SORN but ...

get your recipes out!

K+ for every (edible) recipe and extra K for the winner!

 

There's always pot noodle..........

 

Not really van-able but as we're all not in our vans here's something that I've discovered works really well for those cold nights...

Quick Sausage Cassoulet:

Based on Jamie Oliver and Delia recipes and I've added a few bits. You can go as fancy with the ingredients, (fancy dan mushrooms or normal cheapo ones etc), as you want or just go for basics, whatever floats your boat. As it's a french style recipe its got lots of onion and garlic in, which I like, but you can tone it down a bit for your tastes but I'd recommend keeping it the same.

Serves about 4 - If you are hungry people, add a few more sausages.

8-10 Mushrooms - roughly chopped to edible chunks
4 rashers of bacon - Smoked preferably or you can buy lardons - cut into small strips
1 Onion - chopped
2 Cloves of garlic - chopped
1 Carrot - chopped same as mushroom
3 Stalks of celery - sliced
About 300ml of red wine, (just under half a bottle)
Some rosemary, thyme and sage - the original recipe says tie them together and add in one lump but I only have dried this time of year so sprinkle into the mix, probably about 1 tbsp of each but add to taste.
800ml of pasatta or chopped tomatoes
400g beans - could be borlotti or cannellini or a general mix of similar type beans, (kidney beans didn't really work for me)
12 sausages (I used Toulouse)
Stale bread - 3-4 slices (Leave a out for the day or just toast them) and blitz them into chunky breadcrumbs

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Preheat your oven to 200˚C/400˚F/gas 6 and pre-heat a large roasting dish in the oven as it warms with a bit of olive oil in, (be generous). The dish needs to be able to be put in the oven and on the hob so a le creuset type thing is perfect.

Put the mushrooms into a separate dish and cover with 1 pint of boiling water and allow to soak for about 5 mins.

Take the dish out of the oven and fry the bacon, onions, garlic, carrot, celery in it on the hob until golden, and then add the herbs and mix in well

Drain the mushrooms, reserving the soaking liquid, add them to the dish and fry nice and slowly for about 5 minutes.

Add the red wine and simmer until the liquid has reduced by half.

Add the tomatoes your mushroom soaking water and the beans. Bring to the boil and simmer for 15 minutes.

Lightly season then chuck your sausages on top, so they can get nice and brown as they cook.

Add a bit more thyme on the top, season and sprinkle a bit more olive oil around the sausages give it all a good stir makeing sure the sausages are near the top.

Add the breadcrumbs to the top of the mix as a topper. (you can also go crazy and add cheese to the breadcrumb mix or add the cheese near the end of cooking if you want)

Place in the oven for around 40 minutes until the sausages and breadcrumbs are golden and crisp.

Bingo...

It is a lot easier than it sounds, it's just get the bits together then chuck in together and bake. You can thank me later, it's lush!

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I love this meal.... Sausage, Tomato & Cannellini Pot with Mash....

What you need:-

1kg potatoes
1 onion, peeled & sliced
10 sausages
2 x tins chopped tomatoes
1 x tin cannellini beans in water, drained & rinsed
1 x tin kidney beans, drained & rinsed
50ml fat milk
50g sunflower spread / butter
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 clove garlic, peeled & finely chopped
..... Plus chilli powder if you like.. >






How to:-

Peel the potatoes and cut into even-sized pieces. Bring to the boil in a pan of cold water and cook for about 15 minutes, until tender.
Meanwhile, heat the oil in a frying pan and cook the onions over a medium heat for 5-10 minutes, until soft, adding the garlic for the last minute.
Remove the skin from the sausages and shape the mixture into 20 balls. Add to the onion in the pan. Cook for about 5-10 minutes until the balls are golden brown and piping hot and no pink colour remains.
Stir in the tomatoes and beans, and cook for 5 minutes.
Drain the potatoes well and mash with the milk and sunflower spread.
Serve the mash with the sausage, tomatoes and beans.


This is enough for my family, so will serve about 4 people... Hope you enjoy... :bag:

 

Anchovy and Caper Pasta Thing.

This is a really simple and quick recipee anyone can knock up in 10 mins.
The strange thing about this recipee is that I do not like any of the main ingredients individually, but put them together and you get yum!

Small tin of Anchovies
Olive oil
Capers 2 tablespoons.
Garlic, (2 cloves - Chopped)
tinned tomatoes
Pine nuts
red onion or shallott (diced).
Parmizan Cheese (grated)
Spaghetti

1. Chop up anchovies and put in to pan with diced onion, chopped garlic and capers. Cook until onion is soft.
2. Add tinned tomatoes and simmer for 10 mins.
3. In the mean time toast pine nuts and put aside.
4. Plate up cooked spaghetti, pour on the sauce, top parmizan and toasted pine nuts.
5. Eat

 

If there was a food that was like my kryptonite it would be anchovies and capers and to put them together in one dish is just cruel!

 

This simple recipe makes two different meals. Both are great for cool weather camping.
Sorry if my measurements seem weird. I'm trying to convert them for you. But if you've ever made chili, you know it's fairly flexible. I never measure ingredients for it. It's always a little different and always good.

Starting with the Chili-

1/2kg ground beef
1- strip of bacon (optional)
4-5 cans of diced tomatoes (14.5oz/ 411g) fire roasted if available
1- jar of salsa (24oz/ 680g)
1- can of tomato paste (6os/ 170g)
1- bell pepper
2- onions
3-4 cloves of garlic
hot peppers: 1-2 jalapenos is a good start. If you like it extra spicy add more. For a more complex heat add different types of peppers. Habanero, banana, etc,...
1- packet of chili seasoning or 2-3 tablespoons of chili powder + salt & pepper
2- cans of beans- kidney, black or both. (14.5oz/ 411g)

Dice/ mince the onions, peppers, garlic and bacon and put it in a zip-lock bag before you leave. (put 1 of the diced onions in a separate bag for meal #2)
Brown the beef with the onions, peppers, garlic, bacon and seasoning. (The chili won't taste like bacon, it just lends a nice smoky flavor to the pot.)
Stir in the tomato paste.
Stir in the salsa.
Stir in the tomatoes.
Set aside approximately 12oz for meal #2. This portion will not have beans added to it.
Stir beans into the remaining chili.
Simmer it as long as you can stand it or at least until the tomatoes are cooked well down and not lumpy.
Serve with crackers. I like a little plain yellow mustard swirled on top.

Meal #2- Chili Dogs
Chili dogs are a classic favorite in certain regions of the states, such as New York, Detroit and Chicago. Many Americans have never heard of them and are repulsed by the idea but once they try one everybody loves them. So trust me, these are great, especially with a good beer buzz. Also perfect for hangovers when served with chips and Coke.
Simmer the remaining beanless chili until it too is all cooked down and saucy.
Spoon it over grilled hot dogs (in buns, of course)
Traditionally served with chopped onions (see your remaining separate bag of onions) and mustard.

Chili


Chili dogs


Famous Detroit Hangover Cure


Beanless chili sauce is also divine on chips with cheese. (we call them chili-cheese-fries) OMG I'm getting hungry!


Total Yankee Chow

 

Traditional New Orleans Red Beans & Rice

This is an old traditional recipe that was first made popular by the "po-folks" of New Orleans. You might call it a "peasant dish".
It has been reinvented a thousand times. Gourmet chefs always want to add fancy sausage and a list of herbs as long as your arm, but you just can't beat the original recipe. Cheap and simple.

4-5 cans of kidney beans (14.5oz/ 411g size cans, roughly) or a pound of dried/ soaked beans
2- cloves of garlic- chopped
2- tablespoons of cayenne or crushed red pepper. (adjust to suit your taste.)
1- large minced onion
2- bay leaves (essential)
2- tablespoons black pepper
1- tablespoon salt
1- teaspoon thyme (optional)
Now the scary part-
1 ham hock. It's a pig's ankle. (I told you it was peasant chow) Sorry. There is no substitute.
Most dry, white, adventureless people will use ham instead, but the flavor will not even be close.
I too am still a bit squeamish about it. I'm not much a meat eater to begin with. So I put the ham hock in a plastic net bag, like the ones onions come in. When it's done cooking I pull it back out and toss it.
Simmer it for a few hours, until the onions are clear, just before the beans break down into mush.
Serve over a bed of rice.
Top with chopped onion. (optional)

Beans, when mixed with rice, make a complete protein. So this is not only good for you, it will keep you full as if you had eaten a burger.

YIKES! I nearly forgot to mention the water! lol You'll want to add water until it covers the beans entirely. Monitor and adjust as it cooks. It should be a little soupy when it's done.
The leftovers the next day will be a bit pasty. That is when it really tastes best.

 

thinks we're on a stew theme here ... yum!

 

Can I use and tweak the Ham Hock idea for a future Wiseman Goes Wild episode Baywatcher?

 

Cataplana (sort of Portuguese Stew)

This lot makes enough for about 6, so I freeze it in batches

1 large butternut squash, peeled diced, or 200g belly pork, cut into chunks

6 sausages (veg, etc) or 200g chorizo (leave the paprika out)
3 tsp Spanish smoked paprika

8 medium tomatoes
150ml passata
tbsp olive oil
250g onions, chopped
4 cloves of garlic, chopped
2 red peppers, chopped
2 red chillies, chopped and de-seeded
1 tsp cumin seeds
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground nutneg
1/4 tsp al;spice
1.25 l veg stock
salt and pepper
2 bay leaves
some thyme
1 small bunch coriander, chopped

if you want to be authentic add raw pawns at the end or clams

Preheat the oven to 230[sup]o[/sup]. Put the butternut squash and sausages (or the pork belly and chorizo) into one roasting tin and the tomatoes in another tin and roast for about 40 mins (20 for the porkies), until they are browned. Remove the butternut squash and sausage mixture (or the porkies) from the tin with all the juices and reserve.

Take the toms and add them to the passata and blend together.

Heat the olive oil in a large pan and slowly cook the onions,garlic,cumin, cinnamon, paprika nutmeg, allspice and the tomato mixture, add the butternut squash and sausages (or the porkies) , stir until everything is well mixed.

Add the stock and slowly bring to the boil, then reduce to a simmer and add thymes and bay leaves, cook for as long as it takes to pack the rest of the stuff you forgot to pack the first time round!

We've never added the seafood but it's supposed to go in at the end with a handful of chopped coriander, (we put it in a bag ready for when we're eating)

This is a winter camping fav, pop it in a big flask and it take it for the first nights tea, crusty bread, red wine mmmm