Jamie Oliver's butternut muffins

'Tis the season for squash and other autumnal vegetables. I personally am a huge fan of butternut. It is far tastier than pumpkin in general. Still, at the moment we have a bit of a glut at home. So I made these. They were very nice.

Makes 12 muffins

Ingredients:

200 g butternut (no need to peel), cut into chunks
175 g sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
150 g flour
pinch of salt
1 tbsp baking powder
2 eggs
handful of nuts (walnuts or pecans for preference)
5 tbsp olive oil
Icing:
70 g sour cream (or more)
1 tbsp icing sugar
1 vanilla pod OR 1 tsp vanilla
lemon zest
seasonal berries or something from the shop

Heat the oven to 180 degrees. Throw the butternut into a food processor and cut it up into very little bits. Once it's done, add the sugar, cinnamon, flour, salt, baking powder, eggs, nuts, and olive oil to the food processor with the butternut and switch it on again. Line a muffin tray with paper baking cups, then pour the mixture into the cups (each about 2/3 to 3/4 full). Shove in the oven and bake for about 25 minutes. When they're done, take them out and leave them to cool for a bit. Mix the sour cream, icing sugar, vanilla and lemon zest together. When cool enough, ice the muffins (adding berries on top of some if you so wish) and leave the icing to set. Enjoy.

Puy lentil, rocket, beetroot and feta salad

For some reason, salads aren't something that I do very well. My wife does, though, so I borrowed this from her. It was very nice.

This should feed 3 or 4, depending on whether you are serving it as a meal or as a side.

Ingredients:
Salad:
1 cup Puy lentils, cooked according to package instructions
2 boiled beetroots, diced in 1cm cubes
1-2 (red) onions, sliced
200g feta, crumbled
Handful of rocket per serving
Dressing:
Juice of 1 lemon
4-5 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp raspberry (or red wine) vinegar
1 tbsp mustard
Small bunch of parsley, finely chopped

Place all the salad ingredients except the rocket in a bowl and mix together. Mix the dressing and pour over the salad. Place a handful of rocket on each plate (according to appetite) and serve the salad on top. 

Lancashire hotpot, or lamb stew

I wanted to make a lamb chop casserole, but when we went to the market to get some chops for the casserole, our friendly market butcher told us (in a blend of about 4 languages plus a lot of gesturing) that we'd ruin his very special chops if we stewed them, and so we should use shoulder meat instead.

It was fantastic.

I've adapted Nigel Slater's recipe ever so slightly, with a couple of extras on my part. All in all, it was very good, very quick, and rather tasty. This is perfect for a dark autumn evening, and the best part is it takes all of about 90 minutes to cook, from start to finish.

The portions are allegedly for 3, but I'd say you could stretch this out to about 4 or 5.

Ingredients:

Olive oil
600-700 g lamb shoulder, cut into bigger-than-bitesize pieces
1-2 carrots, roughly chopped
2-3 stalks celery, roughly chopped
2 onions, sliced
2 tbsp plain flour
900 ml-1 l beef stock (I used Bovril - 1 tsp per 250ml)
1-2 tomatoes
Thyme (8 sprigs or a lot of dried stuff)
1 bay leaf
100 g butter
2 roasting potatoes, cut into 0.5 cm-thick slices
salt and pepper to taste

Heat some oil in a medium- to large-sized pan (mine was 26 cm, which was big enough, or even too big) and brown the lamb on all sides (about 6 minutes all told) then move to a cast-iron pot (something you can heat over a flame on the stove and put in the oven). Depending on how fatty the lamb is, you might need to add some more olive oil in. If needed, do so now. Add the carrots, celery, and onion, cook for around 4-5 minutes until brown or soft, then stir in the flour, coating the vegetables in it. Cook for another 2-3 minutes, then pour in the stock, stir in so there is no lumpy flour, and simmer until the mixture has thickened. Pour the contents of the pan into the cast-iron pot, add in the tomatoes, 7 sprigs of thyme, and the bay leaves, season, and stir all together, then bring to the boil. Reduce temperature so the mixture is just simmering. Melt the butter, then layer the potato slices across the stew, overlapping where necessary and covering the top of the mixture. Brush the butter over the potatoes (or, if you're like me, you can pour the butter over everything), then shove it in the oven for an hour or so. I cooked it with the lid on for about 30 minutes, then took it off and cooked it without the lid for the last 30 minutes.

Serve with some crusty bread on the side.

Quick Raspberry and Blueberry Cake

This one comes from my wife's relative. Simply excellent cake. Some minor changes to the original recipe but generally this works wonders.

Should be enough for about 8

Ingredients:
Base:
150-250 g digestive biscuits, crushed
100 g butter, melted, plus extra for greasing
Cake: 
150 g butter
250 ml sugar
3 eggs
300 ml wheat flour (regular, non-self-raising)
1.5 tsp baking powder
75 ml milk
Topping:
350-400 g raspberries and blueberries (or more. As they say in Estonian, topelt ei kärise)
Icing sugar
To serve:
Ice cream, whipped cream

Mix together the digestives and butter. Grease a 25x35 cm baking tray, then pack the base on the bottom. Put in the fridge to set for about 30 minutes to an hour.

Heat the oven to 200 C. Whisk the sugar together with room-temperature butter. Beat in the eggs one by one, sieve together flour and baking powder and beat into the mixture together with the milk. Pour the dough into the baking tray, smooth it out, and put in the oven to cook for 10-15 minutes.

Take the cake out of the oven, add the berries on top, then put back in the oven for another 15 minutes. Once done, remove from the oven, leave to cool, then top with icing sugar. Serve with ice cream or cream.

Ragne's courgette, bacon and cream pasta

This one comes from a popular Estonian cooking blog, Kokkama Ragnega. If you do read Estonian, check out her blog. It's very good, very simple, with a bunch of stuff that justifies her publishing deal. Of course, the problem for some is that it's in Estonian, which can be slightly problematic.

Here's where I come in.

My wife found this, and since we had a few extraneous semi-packs of pasta left lying around the (new) flat that needed eating, we gave it a go, with some minor changes to the recipe. It's all based on what we had. It was lovely. Very recommend.

Should serve about 4.

Ingredients:

200 g wild garlic Spätzle
100 g regular egg Spätzle
(or 300 g penne, per original recipe)
Around 600g courgette
200 g smoked bacon, diced
1 onion, diced
Thyme, to taste
Provencal herb mix, to taste
250ml cream (rõõsk koor)
Salt and pepper, to taste
1 tbsp olive oil
Grated Comté cheese, to taste

Cook the pasta as per indications on the packaging. Top, tail, core and  roughly grate the courgette. Fry the bacon for about a minute, then add the onion, cook for another minute or 3, then add the courgette and herbs and season. Cook until the courgette is starting to get crisp (and the bacon is cooked), then add the cream, heat again, season to taste and cook for a few more minutes. Drain the pasta, reserving about half a cup of the water. Add the sauce to the pasta, plus a bit of water, and the olive oil, and mix it all up together. Once ready, serve in bowls, with bread if so desired, plus cheese on top.

Mumbai vegan curry

This was a recipe we picked up after a mass cycle through Tallinn a few years ago. It is very tasty and quite simple to make. And, of course, offers a bunch of your five a day.

Should serve 2

Ingredients:
Half a medium aubergine/brinjal/eggplant
Mustard seeds
Lime leaves
1 Onion
Curry leaves (if available, not essential though)
Dried coriander
Chillies, to taste
100ml coconut milk
1 medium tomato
Vegetable stock, as needed (probably good to make half a litre and then play it by ear, but you probably won't need more than about 200ml)
100g chickpeas

Slice the aubergine up, season it, and roast in the oven. In a medium-sized pot, roast the mustard seeds and lime leaves for a minute or so, and then fry with the onion. Add the chilli and remaining spices. Add in the coconut milk, tomato, and stock, then bring to the boil and simmer. Once the sauce has thickened somewhat, add in the chickpeas and aubergine. Cook until ready and then serve with rice and fresh coriander on top.

Pork chops with red wine, apple and onion sauce, served with mashed potatoes and carrots

Adaptation of something I found from Martha Stewart, plus a little bit extra. Came out wonderfully well - very recommend.

Ingredients:
4-6 potatoes, peeled and chopped up
2-3 carrots, peeled and chopped up
1 onion, finely diced
Butter and milk (for mash)
4 pork chops, seasoned and covered with mustard
Oil
A big chunk of butter
2-3 apples (depending on size), cored and sliced thin
2-3 onions, sliced
1 cup red wine (it's very important you use red wine - it gives it a lovely taste)
Mustard to serve

Boil your potatoes and carrots until they are soft enough to mash. Add in diced onion, butter and milk (enough to make it interesting, but not so much that you're eating mashed potato soup). Season to taste and then put to one side.

Pour a bit of oil into a large grill pan or frying pan, and once heated, put the pork chops in and brown for 5 minutes on one side, then flip over and brown on the other for another 5. Remove from the pan and add the apples and onions, cooking until the onions are soft. Add in your wine to deglaze the pan, then return your chops to the pan, cover the chops with some of the onion and apple mix, and cook over a medium-high heat for about 15 minutes, turning halfway through. Serve over the mash and with some mustard on the side.