Tame Swallow's blog

Well this is the most delicious meal I love making and eating! A friend of mine sent me the recipe - It comes from Claudia Roden - A book of middle Eastern Cookery.
It is so easy to make - so give it a try -

4 ozs butter
1 onion finely chopped
1 lb of lean diced lamb
1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon
2 tablespoons raisons
4-6 ounces of dried apricots halved
2 tablespoons of ground almonds - add a bit more if you want a thicker sauce
salt and pepper

1. Heat the butter in a heavy pan and fry onions till golden
2. Add the meat and seasoning and brown it for a few mins
3. Add the raisons and apricots and cover the mixture with water. Cover pan with lid.
4. Simmer gently for about 1.5 - 2 hours until the meat is tender
5. Can reduce the liquid by boiling at this stage if there is too much. You can also leave to marinade for 24 hours but I tend to eat it straight away!
6. Add the ground almonds to thicken the sauce a little before serving

7. Serve with cous cous or rice and nice plain salad

( I often gently fry some sliced small mushrooms, add a little sweet praprika (like half a teaspoonful) and add to the cous cous to give it a good flavour to eat with the lamb)

Let me know if you try it - love from Tame x

There was a USA lady - a joker,
who poked P'Oles' awake with a poker,
One night it went wrong,
As he sounded a GONGGGGG
it shocked a young piglet called Choker.

Choker leapt in the air in fright,
tripped over the poker - no light,
fell onto her bed..... landed onto her head,
JB is now consoling a porker!

(Picture now needed from our resident Roman Reporter)

he he!

I tried to look up where i got this recipe from, it was one of my Italian cookbooks, but i make it from memory now for special occassions, so I cant give credit to the cook who invented it and also cannot give exact measurements!

What you need -

One very big bar of dark chocolate
A big tub of double cream
a packet of sandwich fingers, or last time I used a maderia cake from the supermarket cut into slices which was really good.
A couple of mugs worth of very strong real black coffee - cooled
For those who like rum, a few tablespoons of rum added to the coffee!

How to make it

break the choc bar into small lumps and melt very gently in a bowl, over a bain marie ( a sauce pan of heating water)Once it has all melted, let it cool slightly but not enough for it to firm up again. Try and save one lump of choc for final decoration.

Whip the cream in a bowl until it peaks. Gently fold the cooled choc into the cream and mix it together well.

Next dip your sponge fingers breifly into the coffee and rum liquid mix and lay them as a layer in the bottom of a bowl. Then put a layer of the choc mixture over the top. Then another layer of dipped sponge fingers ending with a chocolate and cream layer on top. Grate the last lump of choc on top to decorate. Cover the bowl with cling film and cool the pud in the fridge for a couple of hours.

This is a very rich dessert so do not eat too much of it at one go even though you will be tempted!

Let me know if you try it!

This is a really quick sweet to do for any occassion ( it takes me about 15 mins to make it)

Ingredients:
Equal proportions of double cream and plain yoghurt
Raspberries (frozen is fine and you dont have to wait for them to defrost when you are making it)
Some dark brown muscova sugar - maybe three tablespoons or so depending on your taste

How to make it:
Whip up the double cream until it can peak, and then fold the yoghurt into it.
Put a layer of this on the bottom of the dish and sprinkle some sugar on top - the sugar will start to melt into the creamy mix in a marbled way and gives it a good flavour
Add a layer of raspberries
Keep doing the layers - usually two or three layers of everything
Finish the top off with a layer of the cream mixture and sprinkle again with sugar, decorate with some nice shaped berries
Cover with clingfilm and put it in the fridge for maybe half a day to allow the flavours to blend.

Nice to serve with amaretti or almond biscuits to dip in or nice on its own!

I am making it for Christmas Day along with some other puds.

Get your mums to make it!

Let me know if you try it - enjoy!

Happy Christmas from Tame

These are another favourite

Just using a small pack of smoked mackerel fillets, remove the skin and bones and chop the fish into a mixing bowl. Add a good dollop of mashed potato, a couple of tablespoons of chopped parsely and finely sliced spring onions. Season. Make into about 6 fish cake shapes and roll in some flour.

Fry gently on both sides - about 10- 12 mins in total. Very good with halved tomatoes cooked at the same time in frying pan.

Thirty-seven
is in heaven
when his team wins!

Time to celebrate
with a best mate
but take care
not to fall off your pins!

still no Broth. Grate an amount of good strong cheese like cheddar into some yoghurt to make a dip for use with some crisps or celery, pepper and carrot sticks etc

Take a glass of your most favourite wine and drink it .... hic ... whist waiting for the meal to arrive..... and the Broth to get back on line...where are those devs?

Dismay - no Broth today - its all gummed up so off to the kitchen to make soup:

Fry a large chopped onion in some oil, add finely chopped ginger
(1 inch) and 3 cloves of chopped garlic. Aprox 3 mins.

Meantime take 4 - 5 carrots, peel, chop into smallish peices and add to the pan. (You can add any other odds and ends in the veg line you need to use up. Adding a chopped potato helps to thicken the soup too)

Add aprox 1 pint and a quarter of stock (use stock cubes or preferably the real thing)

Bring to boil and simmer for 20 mins or so until the carrots are cooked. Liquidise the cooked vegetables with some of the stock and return to the pan. Season to taste. Eat with toasted coriander naan bread - delicious!

Big nibbles made with pitta bread - these are just devine and dead easy and quick to make. Good to eat before a meal with drinks or to have with dips, soup etc.

Take some pitta breads, warm them slightly so u can slit them and open them up to become seperate pieces.

Mix up some olive oil, lots of crushed or finely chopped garlic, sea salt and some black pepper. Paint the inside surface of each pitta bread with the mixture and place under a hot grill until they are crispy - be careful not to burn!

Great!

For those who like to cook or just eat or both .....cannot stop making this at the mo - its a veggie recipe but great for any taste! Its also quick and easy to make.

its from the New Covent Garden Soup Company book 'Soup and Beyond'

Lemon chickpeas and spinach

In a large saucepan heat a little oil, add
3 cloves garlic, one red chilli and one inch of ginger - all finely chopped. Also one teaspoon of powdered coriander and one of cumin. Cook /stir for 2 mins. Avoid it burning. Tip in a tin of drained chickpeas, and zest of half a lemon. Stir well and add a tin of chopped tomatoes. Bring to boil, turn it down and simmer for 15 mins. Then add bag or big big handful of chopped spinach and juice from half the lemon and cook for 2-3 mins until spinach is tender. Season and serve warm with some bread of some sort to dip in - it is devine! It also improves if made a few hours before as the flavours blend more together

(Nice glass of red goes down well with it too)

Enjoy!