Garlic Mushrooms

When the veg box arrived the other day with a paper bag of chestnut mushrooms, which Sous Chef J will not eat, a recipe was required to make use of them.  We chose another long standing family recipe as it's quick and easy with only five ingredients. 

Gathered with the mushrooms were a clove of garlic, an onion, a Tablespoon of oil and a Tablespoon of tomato puree.

The garlic was 'squashed and squished', then the onion was chopped fairly finely.  Next the oil was heated in a small pan before adding the garlic and onion, to sweat over a low heat for a few minutes. At this point, the tomato puree was added to the pan and left to cook through for about five minutes (again on a low heat). 


Whilst the garlic, onion and tomato puree was cooking, the mushrooms were cleaned, the stalks trimmed and they were quartered. 


Finally the mushrooms were added to the pan and left to cook, still on low, for a little over five minutes.  This allows the lovely mushroom juices to be released.

A quick mix round and the mushrooms are ready to serve... as a side dish with steak or on Gluten Free toast for a quick lunch.

Thrifty Tip

An 'issue' that's faced us a couple of times recently has been egg wash for scones.  Being of a thrifty Northern persuasion, I hate 'wasting' an egg on this task.  Sous Chef J commented that we rarely use a whole egg's worth for use with the amount of scones we bake.  So, our thinking on the matter began.  Last year, we'd learned that eggs can be frozen and, when we see some reduced in the supermarket we will buy them and freeze them, beaten, in one or two egg amounts (we just place the beaten egg in a labelled plastic bag and freeze).  These are great for using, once de-frosted, in recipes. 

Our lightbulb moment happened when we spotted our silicone mini muffin cases.  They're the perfect size for a small amount of egg.  What we did was beat an egg, divide it between the silicone cases, place the cases in a container and then froze them.  The next day, we removed the egg 'portions' from the cases, bagged and labelled them and returned them to the freezer for use next time we need a small amount of beaten egg for our scones.








 To use, remove frozen, beaten egg from freezer and allow to defrost at room temperature.  Use as normal.  

Pizza with friends

After seeing many tweets about the new gluten free pizza bases on offer at Pizza Hut, we finally got to try them out for ourselves last week.  Sous Chef J was having a busy time attending a block placement at Megan Baker House in Herefordshire and was shattered at the end of each day's session.  We decided to reward his hard work by meeting some pals, who now live in the area, at Pizza Hut in Hereford.

Having read a few posts on twitter about the availability of bases, we did pop into the restaurant at lunch time to ask if they had stock and were advised to book a table.  This was a good move.  When we returned for our 4.30pm booking, the place was heaving.

Our friends had not been to Pizza Hut "for years since a bad experience" at their previous town's 'Hut.  They were delighted to see there was a midweek 3-5pm £6 deal (clearly the reason for the busy-ness) and proceeded to make the most of it.  Despite witnessing some rather antisocial behaviour by one of the other diners in the restaurant at the salad bar, we're assured they will return to Hereford Pizza Hut.

 

Sous Chef J spotted the gluten free base listed on the menu and went for a safe tomato and cheese.  Also chosen was a simple pepperoni topped pizza.  Our pizzas arrived on black square platters, each with their own pizza cutter.  Sous Chef J managed a few slices of his pizza saying "it's nice" but could not be persuaded to visit the salad bar... it was a step too far for his first time there!

 

We shared the two 9" square gluten free pizzas between the three of us.  It would be too much for Sous Chef J to eat a whole pizza but the two shared ones worked well for our first visit.  Next time we will be trying different toppings and may even get J to the salad bar.  We paid alot more than the £6 a head our pals did (and they had vastly more food too) but it was a good place to meet friends and catch up over a meal.

As well as the aforementioned salad bar unpleasantness we witnessed, I noticed there were croutons in the iceberg lettuce and the chance of cross contamination problems at the salad bar does seem high.  If you have strict dietary needs then remember to raise them with your server to ensure they are met... don't rely on other diners being as careful as you are with hygiene and food!