Linda's Larder

Linda has created, or found, some wonderful recipe’s for you to try.

Winter Vegetable Beef Soup

30g butter

3 onions finely chopped

375 to 500g lean stewing steak cut into small pieces

1 clove garlic crushed

1 tin of Baxters’ Beef Consomme plus 200ml of water or approx 600 ml of beef stock using a stock cube.

2 x 400ml cans of tinned tomatoes of your choice or Passata

2 peeled and cubed potatoes

2 sticks of celery diced

2 carrots peeled and diced

150g green beans cut into 2.5cm pieces

Approx 250ml red wine (can be omitted)

Herbs of choice ie 1/2 tsp dried basil, 2 tbs chopped fresh parsley, 1/4 tsp dried thyme

2 tsp salt and 1/4 tsp pepper

Melt butter in a large casserole dish and cook the onions over a moderate heat until they are tender and golden about 5 to 7 minutes. Stir in the beef, add garlic and cook over a moderate heat until meat has browned. Add the remaining ingredients.  Bring the soup to a boil over a high heat, reduce the heat and simmer the soup covered for 1/2 hours.

This hearty soup freezes nicely.  It is better if made a day or 2 before it is served.  This soup stretches easily to feed extra guests and pasta shapes can be added. 

Grandmother Hannah's "Cocoons"

Grandmother Hannah’s “Cocoons.”

If you have any wet walnuts left over from your harvest this Autumn, walnuts left from a pack of mixed nuts or walnuts in your store cupboard then here is an easy recipe which dates back to the early 20th Century and from the deep South of America given to me by Hannah’s granddaughter, Carolyn some 40 years ago.

225g (8oz) butter and 6 tbs icing sugar creamed until light and fluffy. Stir in 350g (12oz) plain flour, 1 tsp vanilla extract and 180g (6 1/2 oz) walnuts which have been finely chopped in a food processor or with a knife,  mix well. Roll into small cocoon shapes with your hands and place on a greased or lined baking tray and bake in a pre heated oven 180C/160C fan, Gas 4 for approx 10 minutes until light brown in colour. Roll each cocoon in more icing sugar whilst still warm or dust with icing sugar through a sieve. They are a delicious accompaniment to a cup of tea or coffee and to be honest they lose their cocoon shape when they spread during cooking.

You will see a well used sheet of paper with the actual recipe. I have converted the quantities from American cups to grams and ounces. 

Red Cabbage and Apple Cake (Serves 10)

Ingredients

Cake

  • 160g jarred red cabbage and apple, drained
  • 2 apples, peeled and cored
  • 1 pear, peeled
  • 150ml vegetable oil
  • 2 large eggs
  • 200g golden caster sugar
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • Zest of a lemon
  • 200g plain flour + 1 tbsp
  • 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
  • 1 tsp allspice
  • 1 tsp ground cinnamon
  • ½ tsp ground ginger
  • ½ tsp ground nutmeg
  • ½ tsp salt

Icing

  • 150g unaltered butter, softened
  • 400g cream cheese
  • 200g icing sugar
  • Zest of a lemon

Method

  1. Oven on to 170C fan/190C. Grease and line a deep 8 inch cake tin.
  2. Finely chop the drained cabbage.
  3. Peel, core and chop the apples and pear into small chunks.
  4. Place the fruit and veg in a bowl then sprinkle over a tablespoon of plain flour and mix well until everything is coated.
  5. In a bowl, mix the oil, eggs, sugar, vanilla and lemon zest.
  6. In another bowl, mix the 200g flour, bicarb, spices and salt. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and mix until smooth. Add the cabbage and fruit then mix well until combined.
  7. Tip the mixture into the prepared cake tin and bake for 55 minutes until a skewer comes out clean. Set aside to cool.
  8. Make the icing. Beat all the ingredients together until smooth then spread over the top of the cake. Sprinkle over some lemon zest then serve.

Green Tomato Chutney

2 1/2 kg green tomatoes sliced with skins on 500g onion 1 rounded tbsp salt 500g sultanas 500g cooking apple 500g light Muscovado sugar 1.4 lts spiced pickling vinegar.
Put sliced tomatoes in a large bowl layering with finely chopped onions and salt, leave overnight cover with a tea towel.
The following day chop sultanas, peel, core and chop the apples. Put the sugar and vinegar into a preserving pan and bring to the boil, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Add the sultanas and apples and simmer for 10 minutes. Strain the tomatoes and onions in a colander but don’t rinse, then tip into the pan and return to the boil. Simmer for about 1 hour stirring occasionally until the mixture is thick and pulpy. Transfer to warmed sterilised jars. Cover with lids and leave to mature.
PS by the time I was ready to make this chutney some of the tomatoes had started to colour which resulted in the orange skin floating to the surface which I had to skim off. This year there has been a lack of pickling spiced vinegar so I made my own using white vinegar with a tsp of the following – cloves, mustard seeds, peppercorns plus 1/2 tsp of chili flakes crushed in a pestle and mortar, place in a small muslin square tied with string which sat in the pan. If time had allowed, then I would have had the spices soaking in the vinegar some 3 months prior to cooking the chutney

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