The baby pots!

Check out the baby aisle in the supermarket/cheap shops for tiny pots – inexpensive and don't take up space in your freezer.

Here are the hints, tips and photos!

a neat piece of kit

the measurements are 5cms x 4cms x 3cms deep

or 2”x 1½”x 1” in old money

I love saving time!

Chapter VIII – Economy Drive - the mushroom version

Here's a delicious veggie burger and even if you're not a veggie you'll love it – provided of course you're a fan of mushrooms!

Here it is :

Miso Mushroom Burger et al

Serves 4

4 Brioche buns

Aioli

Spiced coated Halloumi

Miso roasted portabello mushrooms

First up the miso marinade, which needs to be prepped ahead to enable the flavours to infuse and do their thing!

Miso marinade

Serves 4

4 x Portabello mushrooms, peeled and stalks trimmed

3 tbsps miso paste

2 tsps soy sauce

2 tbsps mirin

1 tbsp dark soft brown sugar

Mix the ingredients thoroughly into a paste. Box and set aside. Add the marinade to the mushrooms an hour before roasting to give it time to infuse, use one large strong plastic food bag or divide between two.

In case you're not familiar with miso paste, I used brown rice miso - it is available in most large supermarkets.

Just so you know what you're looking for :

Clearspring Brown Rice Miso Paste – 300g

It's expensive but if you shop around you'll find offers

Ocado has it reduced from £4.40 to £3.52

Sainsbury's Miso Paste Inspired to Cook – 100g

£1.40

Per 100g (at £4.40) it equates to£1.47

If you want to continue prepping ahead you can make the Aioli, the coating for the Halloumi, and slicing the cheese too. Nothing major but every little helps and saves precious time.

Aioli and Halloumi

I think of Aioli as posh mayo – really it's a sauce made of garlic and olive oil. There are many variations of the sauce – the current French-Provencal version is probably closer to a mayonnaise but originally both the French and Catalan recipes don't contain egg yolks and have more garlic.

Aioli

Serves 6

2 large cloves of roasted garlic

2 egg yolks

½ tsp of Dijon mustard

½ tsp salt

60ml/2½ fl oz extra virgin olive oil

180g/6½oz rapeseed (Canola) oil

2 tbsp water

freshly ground black pepper

Blend the roasted garlic, egg yolks, mustard, salt and 2 tbsps of water in a food processor. Keep the motor running and add the olive oil, then the rapeseed oil – slowly. The sauce will emulsify to a thick, pale consistency similar to mayo. Taste for seasoning. Box and fridge, ready to use.

Spiced Halloumi

Serves 4

225g/8oz Halloumi sliced into 4 pieces

45g/2oz plain flour mix with

1 tbsp of seasoning of your choice

Rapeseed oil for shallow frying

The 225g pack will give you four portions, sliced lengthways – 8x7cms/3x3½ inches approximately. Open the pack and discard the liquid, pat the cheese dry with kitchen roll and then slice into four. Pat each slice dry, then box and fridge ready for cooking.

The seasoning for the Halloumi is your choice – a shop bought version is fine. If you'd like to try your hand at making your own check out “Halloumi – seasoning and dips to go with” for inspiration.

You'll never think of it as squeaky cheese again!

When you're ready to cook, pre-heat your oven 150fan/170c/Gas 3.

Place your marinaded mushrooms into a foil tray and roast for 15-20 minutes.

10 minutes in to your mushrooms roasting time, heat the oil for the halloumi in a frying pan (29cms/11” diameter) using enough oil to cover the base – the pan is the perfect size for the four slices. Coat each slice of cheese both sides. Test your oil with a small piece of bread – it will sizzle when it's ready. Fry each slice for 2 minutes then turn and repeat. Keep the halloumi warm, wrapped in foil, whilst you're plating up.

Nearly there - assembly :

Split your brioche buns and either warm in

the oven for a couple of minutes or toast lightly

Drizzle aioli on the bottom of the bun and add your

slice of coated and fried halloumi

Top with your miso roasted mushroom, add

another generous drizzle of aioli, enough so that

it oozes out – if you don't get it on your fingers and

down your chin, add more – complete with the brioche “hat”

This is it :

Ta dah!

Dare I say decadent?

Editor's January Pick #8: The perfect partner

Editor's note: This recipe is a sleeper, something you wouldn't find yourself making every week, but if you make the chutney when you find the time, you'll have something special to add to a meal. You won't be sorry!

What's up my sleeve?

I just love a recipe that lends itself to all manner of uses.

Here's my first :

Roasted Garlic and Sweet Onion Jam

1 garlic bulb

1 tbsp olive oil

170g sweet onion – finely chopped

85g sugar

85g Granny Smith apple – finely chopped

120ml balsamic vinegar

Here's the make ahead bit :

Baked Garlic

2 bulbs of garlic

olive oil/rapeseed oil for drizzling

2-3 sprigs of fresh thyme - optional

salt and black pepper

Pre-heat your oven to 200c/180f/Gas 6.

Slice the tops off the bulbs and place the in a small oven dish, garlic roaster or foil dish so that they fit snugly. Drizzle with oil and season with thyme, salt and black pepper.

Roast in the oven for about an hour – until the garlic has softened. Squeeze the garlic out of its skin. Add a little more oil , keep in a tightly fitting container and place in the fridge.

You can use the paste in the same way as you'd use fresh garlic – the difference is that the baked garlic is sweeter and ready to use!

The paste will keep in your fridge for one to two weeks or you can freeze in small containers.

Method

Squeeze garlic cloves and any juice into a medium saucepan. Add the remaining ingredients. Bring to the boil over medium to high heat, stir occasionally then reduce the heat. Simmer uncovered for 30 minutes or until thickened and again stir occasionally.

Be patient! It will look like it will never reduce and thicken. It does.

This recipe will fill a 370g conserve jar and here it is :

A note about sweet onions. I searched high and low and found them in Tesco – Finest Sweet Onions – a net of 3 for £1.50. You may think a little on the expensive side but I can assure you that they are worth it.

I can hear you saying “so what, it's another chutney” - yep it's good with the usual cheeses!

Editor's Pick #3 Breadsticks Photo Guide

Editor's note: There is absolutely nothing I could say that would do this post as much justice as the last photo does. Just look at it. As a card-carrying member of the Garlic Society (Ed note: There's no such thing, but there is a plant called Society Garlic, who knew!), this one speaks to me on a few different levels. Put the store-bought frozen baguette back in the freezer. Push the boat out, buy the dough - it doesn't matter too much what you pair it with because, well, look at the photos!

The divine dough – breadsticks photo guide

cut your dough into eight pieces – in this

case four!

roll between your hands into a sausage

shape

leave your breadsticks to rest and

then brush with melted butter and add

garlic salt and finely grated Parmesan

the breadsticks – fresh from the oven

Tempted?!

The back catalogue - Garlic roti

This recipe came from “Mildreds” - a vegetarian restaurant in Soho. Whilst it may not be safe and convenient for everyone to visit at the moment, I can confirm that as at today, it's open for business. For future reference Mildreds is at 45 Lexington Street, London W1F 9AN – www.mildreds.co.uk.

In the meantime, if you feel like treating yourself to their cookery book, Mildreds is the one! It's full and great ideas and recipes – what I also liked is that it gives you guidance on Gluten Free and Vegan options too.

Here's their recipe for Garlic Rotis :

20g unsalted butter

3 garlic cloves, finely chopped (or paste)

½ tsp dried chilli flakes (or a pinch of powder)

200g self raising flour (plus extra for dusting)

50g wholemeal self raising flour

80-100ml water

vegetable oil

Warm the butter in a small saucepan over a low heat, add the garlic and chilli and cook, stirring, for a minute until the garlic begins to release its flavour but not coloured. Tip into a mixing bowl with the flours and gradually add the water, using a wooden spoon, until you have a moist (not sticky) dough. Knead the dough for a few minutes until smooth and then cover with a clean damp cloth and leave to rise for 30 minutes until nearly doubled in size.

Divide into 8 pieces and form into balls. Dust with a little flour and then roll into thin circles of about 5mm (¼ inch) thick. Use a heavy based frying pan - add a drop of vegetable oil to grease. Cook the rotis on a medium heat – one at a time for 2-3 minutes each side until puffed up and brown. Serve immediately or cover with a clean tea towel and reheat in a low oven when needed.

I made them ahead and then reheated before serving and my only addition was to finish them off with a brush of melted butter and a sprinkle of garlic salt.

I hope you enjoy your time with your family and friends and that I've given you some ideas for food to share with everyone and have some fun!

More easy, make ahead al fresco/picnic ideas …

Time on your hands – roasted garlic photo guide

I had a larger foil tray so roasted three bulbs -

it never gets wasted

consider it therapy

I love saving time!

I filled eight pots which I bagged in Bacofoil SafeLock bags – four pots in each. Handy to stash in that small freezer tray that never gets used because you never have anything small enough - another problem solved.

The best garlic - no bitterness - sweet and ready to use. Just think how easy it is to make your own garlic butter with a sprinkle of celery salt - don't forget to add a handful of chopped flat leaf parsley too - ready to bake with mushrooms and/or to spread on a French stick, wrap in foil and bake for your own garlic bread … just another thought or two!

How about a recipe for leftovers?

Time on your hands … roasted garlic recipe

You might think this recipe is a faff in itself since you have to “pop” the garlic cloves from the bulb and box in your tiny pots – messy I know - I can only say it's worth it.

Roasted Garlic

2 bulbs of garlic

olive oil/rapeseed oil for drizzling

2-3 sprigs of fresh thyme - optional

salt and black pepper

Pre-heat your oven to 200c/180f/Gas 6.

Slice the tops off the bulbs or not, as you wish and place in a small ovenproof dish, garlic roaster or foil dish so that they fit snugly. Drizzle with oil and season with thyme, salt and black pepper.

Roast in the oven for about an hour – until the garlic has softened.

Squeeze the garlic cloves out of the bulb. It's a good idea to wear gloves and to have a compostable bag ready for disposal. To store in the fridge, add a little more oil and keep in a screw top jar.

You can use the paste in the same way as you'd use fresh garlic – the difference is that the roasted version is sweeter and ready to use!

The paste will keep in your fridge for one to two weeks or you can freeze in the baby pots mentioned.

If, like me, you forget to take stuff out of the freezer another plus here is that because the pots are so tiny they don't take long at all to defrost!

Next up ... the photo guide

Time on your hands?

We're all in the midst of “Corona virus” and lets hope that we all keep well.

We need to turn a negative into a positive – if we're staying indoors or out of the way generally then lets make the most of the time.

We'll do a series of a sort of back to basics recipes and may even be motivated to do those jobs we've been putting off for ages - mainly because we've never got the time – then we'll move on to a spot of reorganisation.

My first back to basics recipe is roasted garlic.

I hate wasting time and believe in having all the ingredients ready to roll for any recipe. On that note – who doesn't hate faffing with peeling and chopping 1 or 2 cloves of garlic for one recipe?

There is an answer – the obvious being to cheat and buy any of the ready-made versions available in the supermarket. Personally I prefer to roast whole bulbs of garlic at the same time. If you use garlic regularly this paste makes life so easy especially when you've no time.

You can keep it in a screw top jar in the fridge or decant into tiny pots and freeze.

I use the “tiny pots” and freeze option. If you're interested check out the baby aisle in the supermarket/cheap shops for tiny pots – inexpensive and don't take up space in your freezer. If they are safe enough for a baby then they are perfect for other uses too.

Here's a photo of my “baby pot” :

a neat piece of kit

the measurements are 5cms x 4cms x 3cms deep

or 2”x 1½”x 1” in old money

You probably won't be surprised to know that I've had mine for years. If you're interested you can buy Baby Freezer Cube Trays, BPA Free from your favourite on-line grocer!

A hint and a tip – bear in mind you won't be able to use the pots for anything other than garlic. I use hot water and washing up liquid, as hot as I can bear - when you've emptied a pot make it the last item you submerge so that it doesn't taint anything else. Shake the pot when clean and rest, upside down on kitchen roll. I then bag and clip all the pots together, ready for the next garlic roast!

Recipe and photos up next ...