Roast whole stuffed pumpkin - Nigella Cookalong

I've been keeping an eye on Nigella's Cookalong and joining in when I can. When the November recipe was posted for Roast Stuffed Pumpkin I was excited.

I bought this beautiful pumpkin at the Orange Farmer's market.

The top is removed and the insides scooped out.

Nigella suggests this great idea where you half fill your pumpkin with rice in a freezer bag to determine how much you need, since all pumpkins are different sizes.

For the rice filling you soften some onion and then add cranberries, ground ginger and allspice, garlic, and zest.

My only real variation to the recipe was adding some chopped zucchini chunks, really my laziness so I could serve it up as a more complete meal without cooking extra veg!

The basmati rice is stirred in and then add stock, I used my homemade free range chook stock.

The lid is then popped on and the rice allowed to absorb the stock over low heat.

The inside of the pumpkin is rubbed with garlic and salt.

Fill it up with your rice filling, and push the 'lid' on top.

The bottom is wrapped in foil and hot water is added to a pan for roasting.

It is baked for a couple of hours and then it is oh so soft but yet fully intact.

Certainly an impressive table decoration, I am definitely going to cook it again for a dinner party.

The tender sweet roasted pumpkin was the perfect accompaniment for the rice filling, so flavoursome, especially those beautiful cranberries and the zucchini absorbing so much flavour.

Not to forget the gingery tomato sauce made to accompany the dish, I thought it tasted quite strange on its own but I couldn't get enough of it when eating with the pumpkin and rice.

Thank you Nigella for yet another amazing recipe!

Nigella Lemon Meringue Cake

I stumbled across this Nigella recipe for Lemon Meringue Cake and was so intrigued by it I had to give it a go.

It really is quite strange as you bake the meringue and cake layered together.

The lemony rich egg yolk cake is spread on the bottom of two tins, I don't actually have two the same size hence my interesting shaped cake.

And the glossy thick meringue layer spread on top.

It is then baked. 

Mine browned very quickly, so I turned the heat down a bit and loosely covered with foil.

After cooling in the tins you put one cake meringue side down.

Generously cover with lemon curd (make your own - its easy).

Top with some freshly whipped cream.

Then pop your next layer of cake on top.

Quite an ugly cake really but at the same time so impressive.

 I really liked it though next time I'll add extra lemon curd and take more care with the cake - make it softer and lighter.

Nigella's Guinness Gingerbread

This is Nigella's recipe, from Nigella Kitchen.

I've been wanting to bake it for ages but decided to save it for my husbands birthday. 

But I forgot, ooops (baked him chocolate quinoa cake instead!).

Anyway I finally tried it and thought it was really good.

Of course Guinness was the star of the show, warmed up in a saucepan with butter, golden syrup, brown sugar, with ground ginger, cinnamon and cloves.

Then simplicity in Nigella style, just whisk in the flour and bi-carb until you have a smooth batter.

Whisk in sour cream and eggs.

Pour your surprisingly runny batter into a prepared lined pan and bake. 

The texture was very soft although I think I slightly undercooked it.

But the flavour was the stand out to me, so deep and left lingering tastes to keep you wanting more.

I think it would taste exceptionally good after a couple of days.....

Nigella's Venetian Lasagne

I'm not sure if my brain is working properly, I just seem to keep stuffing up!

My daughter has requested a princess castle cake for her 4th birthday (as all little girls do!) and I had this great idea to buy a little princess and prince to put on top. In fact I saw a disney set that included a tiny Cinderella and her prince, and a horse and carriage. Can you just picture it, a pink castle topped with a prince and princess and a little horse and carriage waiting at the bottom of the stairs. Well it was quite an expensive set so when I saw it half price in the recent toy sales I took Evie to the shops and we were lucky enough to find it. 

But its not a happy ending as we stopped in the food court for a little snack but walked away leaving our brand new package on the table....realising quite quickly we did not have it we rushed back but alas it was gone. We asked everywhere but no one had handed it in. This resulting in one very sad little girl and one very upset mummy.

I'm not sure what to do now, should I see if I can find it again? I know in the big picture it really is not that big a deal, I just feel so silly for making such a stupid mistake.

Sorry to burden you with my sad story but that was my day yesterday, anyway we came home and I pulled out my Nigella Kitchen to cook Venetian lasagne.

The minced beef sauce is prepared with loads of finely chopped veges and porcini mushrooms, simmering away for an hour. The polenta is cooked and then spread out on trays to make the layers of the lasagne. And then assemble.

It was an interesting concept and it tasted nice but I prefer my 'normal' lasagne.

Hope you all have a lovely weekend.

Nigella's Lemony Salmon with Cherry Tomato Couscous and Nigella's Peanut Butter Hummus

Looking for a quick easy dinner this week I turned again to Nigella Kitchen. This recipe for Lemony Salmon is definitely quick. The couscous is prepared with some paprika and ginger. Lemon zest is combined with more paprika and garlic oil ready to coat the fish before cooking in a hot pan. Cherry tomatoes are combined with spring onion (meant to be red), oil and lemon juice. The tomatoes are then mixed through the cous cous along with some coriander, I also chose to add some rocket for extra greens.
Overall a great dish to put on the table. I felt the balance was a little bit out with the flavours, possibly because I added the peppery rocket leaves. But I am a salmon lover and lemon is a fishes best friend!

I also made some of Nigella's Peanut Butter Hummus yesterday to take to our friends house for supper. The concept being to replace the tahini with peanut butter. I wasn't planning on posting it but it was so utterly delicious I just had to let you know!

The recipe is very straightforward, puree rinsed chickpeas, garlic, lemon juice, peanut butter, olive oil, salt and cumin. Then blend in some greek yoghurt to get the right consistency. Top with some chopped peanuts mixed with paprika. If your a hummus lover I suggest you try this very unhealthy version!!

Nigella's Date Steak

Well I can't say we had a date last night but we did have a delicious steak! This is another of the recipes from Nigella Kitchen. We bought some organic grass fed steak from the markets and decided to cook it Nigella style. This basically meant just simmering up her sauce - brown sugar, red wine vinegar, soy sauce, dijon mustard, tomato paste, ginger, garlic and redcurrant jelly, along with the meat juices from your panfried steak.

Well the sauce was really tasty, so much flavour (so little effort) and the steak was juicy and tender. I felt a bit guilty not buying the meat from my amazing local butcher but I kind of wanted to compare, and to be honest I will stick to buying from our butcher. The steak was good but I think our butchers steak is better.

My daughter LOVES a good bone to chew on! 

Nigella's Spring Chicken

Last night I cooked up another of Nigella's easy recipes from Kitchen, Spring Chicken. Its a take on a classic dish that usually uses rabbit. I am not quite up to cooking rabbit as yet and thankfully Nigella called for chicken anyway! I will cook rabbit soon though, just need to find a good recipe that I can handle :)

The exciting thing about this dish was the dry cider the chicken is cooked in, it makes an amazing depth of flavour, something that you normally only get after cooking a stock up for hours. The pancetta is browned, followed by the chicken. Leek, celery and garlic is added before adding dried tarragon and simmering in dry cider (i used strongbow). The final additions are dijon mustard, peas and lettuce.

I served with quinoa, which went really well with the saucy dish. I really liked the meal, it had so much flavour. My tip would be to serve it in a bowl, what was I thinking?!

Nigella's RedCurrant Jelly and Mint Lamb with Rapid Roastini

Last night my lovely husband cooked this for us!

The lamb is simply pan fried and the juices incorporated into the sauce of redcurrant jelly, worcestershire sauce, red wine vinegar, mint and juice of a clementine (or in our case, orange).
Honestly the sauce was delicious and went perfectly with the lamb.

Since I had made the gnocchi I decide to save some and refrigerate hoping they would last until the next night to make Nigella's rapid roastini. Well they were a bit shrivelled and the wholemeal flour I had used made them turn an interesting murky colour. But they were fried and still tasted delicious, crispy on the outside, soft on the inside - it is a great idea!

Overall a really satisfying delicious dinner. We added toasted pieces of our remaining focaccia.

Nigella's African Chicken Drumsticks with Freekeh and Roasted Vegetables

Yet another recipe from Nigella Kitchen, this one for African Chicken Drumsticks. The drumsticks are marinaded in tomato sauce, worcestershire sauce, onion, apricot jam, ground ginger and mustard powder. They are then baked.

I decided to serve them with green wheat freekeh and roasted vegetables. I found this recipe where they used maple pecans with beetroot and decided to give it a go, also using a similar mustard dressing. So I roasted beetroot and carrot throwing in some asparagus for the last 10 minutes. I toasted some pecans in butter and then added a little maple syrup and seasoning. I tossed all the vegetables together with the cooked freekeh and pecans, adding the mustard dressing.

The drumsticks were very tasty but it seemed more like a barbeque sauce then anything. My freekeh was really interesting, it is a similar texture to brown rice. I liked the flavour and the more you ate the more appealing it became. The beetroot, carrot, pecans and freekeh all went really well together with the mustard dressing. The asparagus was a little out of place (though it still tasted delicious!).

Nigella's Turkey Meatballs with Rocket and Lemon Couscous

Last night I cooked another recipe from Nigella Kitchen - Turkey Meatballs in Tomato Sauce served with Rocket and Lemon Couscous.

The tomato sauce is a basic recipe with garlic, celery, onion and tinned tomatoes. I did use slightly less water then the recipe suggested. For the meatballs the turkey mince is combined with other classic meatball ingredients like bread crumbs, egg and parmesan. You do add a little worcestershire sauce which is slightly unusual. They are rolled quite small, about a teaspoon size and then popped into the simmering sauce raw.

The cous cous is cooked pretty much the usual way and once ready you fork through some lemon zest and juice as well as some rocket and seasoning.

I thought the meatballs were a little bit dense for my liking, especially compared to the beautiful soft beef meatballs I cooked recently. The flavours were nice and everything went really well together. I especially like the couscous with the fresh lemon. It was one of those meals where you just kept putting a 'little bit more' on your plate!