Wednesday 7 September 2011

I know I'm getting old when...

...a good evening involves pottering around, unhindered in the kitchen and making something delicious.

Blue & pink are fast asleep and the husband is off doing good community works keeping the local youth off the streets (probably burning things - but in a controlled scout-type way in woods somewhere) so I had the kitchen to myself. Sarah Raven beckoned yet again, back to page 395 of the Garden Cookbook, and those feta & chard parcels. The husband's great aunt is coming to stay at the weekend. She is an amazing woman of indeterminate age who lives in Australia and comes to Europe every couple of years for a grand tour. She might be 70, or even 80 - but she has the mind and stamina of someone much younger. Anyway, I have been troubled by the catering required for her stay and these parcels look like just the job for Sunday lunchtime.

The recipe is straightforward - fry leek in butter, add the chard leaves (you could use spinach) to wilt, then beat in some feta and parmesan and a beaten egg, and make parcels out of strips of filo pastry. I love this kind of fiddling, making a filling, cutting up the filo and then dolloping in some filling and folding and folding to make little delicious triangles. I have frozen them uncooked, so on Sunday I can take out what I need, brush with egg, roll in sesame seeds and bake till crisp. Can't wait.

I had some filo left  over, but as luck would have it, in the fridge I had some apple mush that I'd baked yesterday with a dollop of honey. I had intended to make baked apples, but I kept breaking the apples up when I was coring them, so just chopped everything up, squeezed some runny honey over the apple and baked it (the oven was on anyway). Earlier this evening, I made some blackcurrant cupcakes (recipe also in Sarah Raven - can you see a new addiction developing?) and had a few blackcurrants left over, so I mixed them in with the apple, and bingo, managed to have just enough to make apple & blackcurrant parcels out of the left over filo.

I've frozen the parcels on 2 trays. One is just the feta & chard, the other is half and half (feta & chard, apple & blackcurrant). I have laid the parcels out on greaseproof and labeled them, but I would lay bets on someone getting an apple & blackcurrant parcel on Sunday...

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