Sticky Pork & Purple Sprouting Broccoli Stirfry

This months In The Bag event is to cook with purple sprouting broccoli (PSB). I've eaten this veg in various forms over the last few weeks and tonight wanted to try something a bit different with it.

As Hubby has gone to the local beer festival I wanted to cook something quick, tasty and easy giving me the longest time to watch cheesy Saturday evening tv. This recipe is loosly based on my sticky pork recipe. I meant to add sesame seeds, but totally forgot!

Sticky Pork and Broccoli Stirfry
Serves 1

1 pork steak, sliced into strips
handful of purple sprouting brocolli
1 tbsp rice vinegar
3 tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp garlic paste
2 tsp soft dark sugar
1 sheet of noodles

1) Mix rice vinegar, soy sauce, garlic and sugar in shallow bowl. Marinade steak for up to 24 hours.

2) Cook steaks in saute pan (minus the extra marinade) for about 3 min each side until cooked. Remove steaks from pan and allow to rest. Cook noodles then drain. Add broccoli remaining marinade to pan, boil until sticky.

3) Add noodles to broccoli and mix until coated in sauce. Stir in pork. Serve.

Purple Sprouting Broccoli Pot Pie

I'm on my little lonesome for most dinners this week so have taken the opportunity to eat veggie and try out some new recipes, so expect a lot of updates this week! I'm renowned for eating badly when I'm cooking for 1 so I've planned my whole menu for the week and already have most of the ingredients in. I don't have an excuse not to eat well.

This morning I took the chance to check out the market in town where I managed to pick up lots of lovely veg. Just a shame the people who served me on both stalls were miserable so-and-sos, I won't be visiting their stalls again and sticking to my usual veg provider.

Tonight I made a delicious (if I must say myself!) purple sprouting broccoli pot pie. I was worried the PSB may bleed into the sauce, but it kept it's colour beautifully. I had the pie with some peas plus roasted baby potatoes and radishes, as inspired by The Great Big Vegetable Challenge. The pie is based on the cauliflower and bacon pie I made back in October. I've submitted the pie to The Mini Pie Revolution for their pot pie blog event.

Purple Sprouting Broccoli Pot Pie
Serves 1

handful of purple sprouting broccoli
2 spring onions, chopped
100ml creme fraiche
50g mature cheddar (I use Quickes cheddar)
seasoning
120g puff pastry
egg, lightly beaten

1) Preheat oven to 200oc. Fry spring onions until they have softened. In a large bowl mix all of the ingredients together (apart from pastry) then spoon into the pie dish.

2) Roll out puff pastry to size of dishes then place on top. Pinch around the edges to help seal. Then use a knife to put 2 slits into the piece of pastry to stop it getting soggy underneath. Brush with a small amount of egg. Cook for 25-30 min.

Purple Sprouting Broccoli and Goats Cheese Tart

The chicks have gone back to school and the house seems very quiet without them. However it was nice to get our dining table back!

Purple Sprouting Broccoli is one of my favourite vegetables and whenever it's in season I make a concerted effort to eat as much as possible. After seeing David at Book The Cook's Purple Sprouting Broccoli and Sheep's Cheese Tart I decided to have a go at making my own version using some of the leftover goat's cheese from the Mother's Day Feast.

Purple Sprouting Broccoli and Goats Cheese Tart
Serves 4

9-inch baked shortcrust pastry base (do a Delia and cheat with a ready-made one or make your own)
3 eggs
200ml milk
50g goats cheese, broken into small chunks.
handful of small purple sprouting broccoli florets
a couple of twists of black pepper

1) Preheat oven to 160oc. Whisk together eggs, milk and pepper.

2) Sprinkle broccoli florets and goats cheese over the base then pour egg mix over. Bake for 30-40 until golden. Allow to cool for 10 min before eating.

Mother's Day Feast & Kinder Bueno winner

Today is Mothering Sunday (or Mother's Day) in the UK. Yesterday evening my sister, brother(who took the photos) and I managed to pull off quite a feast. As our mum is jetting of to New Zealand next week for a month, rather than going out for a meal on Mothering Sunday, (which is usually a guaranteed sign for having a terrible meal, poor service and longs waits for the meal) we decided to have a go at cooking a 3 course meal. With my sister doing the starter, me the main and brother making the pud, the kitchen was quite a scene.

As we live a 2 hour drive from my parents we decided to have the meal Saturday night meaning we could all drink and have a leisurely meal. Original intentions was for it to be a Welsh themed meal as we were eating on St Davids Day, but I'm not too confident with roast lamb, and we couldn't think of a quick easy Welsh dessert. However sis did manage to get Welsh goats cheese into the starter.



Sis made Goat's Cheese and Cranberry Parcels on a bed of leaves dressed with blackberry vinaigrette. They were delicious and I'll certainly be making them at home.



For the main course Hubby and I cooked topside of longhorn beef with mustard crust from Quenby Hall, honey roasted parsnips, roast potatoes, Yorkshire puds, cauliflower cheese and purple sprouting broccoli. The smell of the beef cooking filled the house and mum commented on how good the beef was. It tasted like beef should taste. It was rarer than the photo shows. This was the first time I've cooked roast for 7 people and I must say myself we didn't do too badly! Sis made the gravy as I just can't make it.



For pudding my brother made strawberry gratin. We found the recipe in Sarah Raven's Garden Cookbook. It was really easy to make and delicious. It tasted a bit like cheesecake with a creme brulee sugar topping.



I was a really enjoyable evening and it was all washed down with various liquor coffees and Hotel Chocolat truffles. It was far better (and cheaper) than any meal we could have had if we had gone out for Mother's Day lunch.

Congratulations to Barbara Ghezzi from Suffolk who won a years supply of Kinder Bueno. The prize should be with you by the end of the week.

Steak, Stout and Cheddar Pie

After last weeks disastrous Sunday Dinner I was determined to make this one better. In this months GFM it features a delicious looking Steak, Guinness & Cheese pie. I knew this was both something we would really enjoy. One problem we couldn't eat a huge pie between the two of us, so I took the recipe and adapted it to make 2 individual pies. By lining to small pie dishes with baking parchment the pies lifted out easily after baking. The one thing that would have made this recipe easier was if I had a ovenproof dish I could also put on the hob. I had to make the filling in a saucepan then transfer it to a pyrex dish. One day I'll own a Le Cruset casserole dish!

The pies were delicious, but incredibly filling. We had it with mustard champ and purple sprouting broccoli. I just love the sound the pastry makes as you cut through it. The only alteration I would make to was to maybe try stilton instead of cheddar next time.

Steak, Stout & Cheddar Pie
Serves 2-4 (depending on how gready you are!)

2 tbsp olive oil
1 large onion
1 garlic clove, chopped
10g butter
1 large carrot, chopped
handful of mushrooms, sliced
1 tsp rosemary
400g stewing steak, cubed
220ml stout
1 tbsp plain flour
75g mature Cheddar cheese or Stilton, grated
500g ready made puff pastry
1 egg, beaten

1) Preaheat oven to 190oc. In a large pan heat the olive oil and gently soften the onions. Turn the heat up and add butter, garlic, carrots, mushrooms, beef, rosemary a pinch of salt and a generous amount of ground pepper. Fry for about 4 min, until beef is beginning to colour.

2) Pour in stout and flour, plus just enough water to cover. Transfer to an ovenproof dish and bake for about 1.5 hours until meat is tender and sauce is thick.

3) Remove from oven and stir in half of the cheese. Allow to cool slightly. Line pie dishes with baking parchment. Cut pastry block into thirds and cut one of these thirds in half widthways. With the larger two pieces of pastry roll out, then line each pie dish. Fill each pie with with the stew and sprinkle with the remaining cheese. Roll out the two final pieces of pastry and lightly score a hash pattern on them. Lay pastry over pie and fold excess edges inwards. Brush with beaten egg. Bake for 35-45 min until golden.