Rice Rice Baby!

Slow Cooker Rice Pudding

Rice pudding has been a favourite of mine since childhood so I thought I would share with you an easy Slow Cooker rice pudding. Ideal for these cold winter nights.

This makes 4 servings and takes 6-8 hours

• Butter for greasing
• 55g (2oz) Pudding rice, rinsed.
• 55g (2oz) Sugar
• 600ml (1 pint) Milk
• 150ml (1/4 pint) Double cream
• Good pinch of grated nutmeg

1. Butter the inside of the slow cooker

2. Put the rice and sugar into the pot and stir well. Mix the milk with the cream and pour over. Sprinkle with Nutmeg.

3. Put the lid on and cook on low for 6-8 hours

Its as easy as that.

Little Amsterdam Pancake House

Little Amsterdam

We are always looking for new and different places to eat. Sure we love a curry, a pizza, Thai or Chinese meal but sometimes you fancy something a bit different.

On a recent visit to Banbury we spotted a new venture. A Dutch pancake house. Now that sounded like a great addition to the many restaurants in town already.

We chose to make our visit on a Sunday morning. Off we went into Banbury. On arrival there was plenty of parking on North Bar (although this is Pay & Display). We were pleasantly surprised by the amount of customers that were enjoying a Sunday morning breakfast of coffee before hitting the shops, always a good sign!

We were greeted at the door and offered a seat in the lovely light and airy dining area. The restaurant has a dinning area and a small deli area selling a range of Dutch foods & confectionary. The menu was good (not totally vegetarian but plenty of options)  On the menu were a wide range of dishes from pancakes (both sweet or savoury), Omlettes, Soups Salads and Uitsmijters (which are Dutch open sandwiches)

We both chose the DIY pancakes. I had Mozzarella, Mushroom Peppers & Tomato, Charlotte chose Mozzarella, Leek, Tomato & Olive. They soon arrived and tasted divine topped with Dutch syrup, Yum! I had a cup of Dutch tea to follow.

This was a pleasant and relaxed way to start the day. A great value restaurant that we will be visiting again.

You can find Little Amsterdam in North Bar, Banbury

Check their website for opening times and full menu details www.littleamsterdam.co

Soup tonight

Boy I do love a good soup and tonight it is soup night.
I always find soup a treat be it packet, tinned or best of all homemade. Last week with our Abel & Cole delivery we tried one of their Soup Boxes.

The soup box contains all the ingredients and recipes to make three wholesome organic soups, the recipes change each week too. Charlotte said shall we give it a go and I didn’t have to think more than one second to say “Yes”

Our box turned up with our usual delivery and sure enough we had every thing to make three fantastic soups. Lemon, Kale & Red Pepper, Arabian Citrus Broth and Carrot & Turmeric.

We have tried the Carrot & Turmeric at the weekend and tonight we will be having the Lemon, Kale & Red Pepper tonight.

Nice crusty bread, steaming hot homemade soup on a cold January night! What could be tastier

  Carrot & Turmeric Soup

from 
Abel & Cole

10 mins prep – 15 mins cooking

Ingredients

·  500g carrots

·  2 apples

·  1 tsp-sized nugget of fresh turmeric, peeled

·  A slice of garlic

·  1 lemon, juice and zest

·  500ml water

·  A pinch of sea salt

Step by step

1.

Peel and roughly chop your carrots. Peel and chop your apple, discarding the core.

2.

Place them in a food processor or blender with the turmeric, garlic, zest and juice of the lemon, a trickle of the water and a pinch of sea salt.

3.

Blend, adding the rest of the water, little by little, till it’s as smooth as you can get it. It won’t be silky smooth using raw veg and fruit, but it will taste amazing. Taste. Tweak seasoning, add more turmeric if you like.

4.

Sup the soup cold (like a savoury smoothie) or gently warm it.

Who am I

Who am I

Well my name is Dave, I live on the edge of the Cotswolds with my partner who has been a vegetarian most of her life. So until 10 months ago I did eat meat although this had been becoming less and less through the time I had been living with Charlotte.

Charlotte being a great cook had introduced me to fantastic vegetarian food, foods that I had never dreamed that I would eat as growing up I was less than enthusiastic about veg! Charlotte never once objected if I ate meat in here company but all our home meals together were vegetarian. Straight away I was noticing how tasty these meals were, far tastier than my meat meals that I was used to. One other great benefit was that as well as loosing weight I was felling a whole lot better so on March 9th 2014 I ate my last meat meal when I took my father to a Chinese restaurant for his 91^st birthday. I had disappointed myself because I had already gone three months without meat.

That disappointment helped me make up my mind and to this day I can say I am now vegetarian.

Dinner tonight is a fantastic Potato and Mushroom curry .

One pot Mushroom & Potato Curry

An easy curry  that takes about 10 mins prep time and around 20 mins cooking
Serves 4

 

Ingredients

• 1 Tbsp Oil
• 1 Onion roughly chopped
• 1 Aubergine (trimmed & chopped into chunks)
• 250 g Button Mushrooms
• 2-4 tbsp of curry paste (depending how hot you like your curry)
• 150ml Vegetable stock
• 400ml can of coconut milk
• Chopped coriander to serve

Heat the oil in a large saucepan; add the onion and the potato.

Cover and cook on low heat for 5 mins until potatoes begin to soften.

Add the aubergines and mushrooms and cook for a further 3-4 mins

Stir in the curry paste and pour In the coconut milk and the stock, slowly bring to the boil, then simmer for around 10 mins or until the potato is tender.

Stir through the coriander and serve with rice or naan bread