Italian Ham Sandwich

[siberian_skys]

The recipe came from the Giada Entertainment show.

Ingredients:

Baguette
Ham
Fresh Mozzarella
Pesto

Directions:

Split open the baguette and spread the pesto along the inside of the bread. Lay the slices of ham along the bread, break up the ball of fresh mozzarella into bite size pieces and spread them out along the ham. Close the sandwich and cut it in half and then cut the halves in half.

Personal notes: It was a tasty sandwich. In stead of getting a whole ball of fresh mozzarella and pinching it off in bite size pieces, I was able to get fresh mozzarella pearls which are the perfect size. I used jarred pesto as did she--it tasted really good, but if you have your won recipe I would think that would work as well. For myself, I think I would have preferred chicken. I've always preferred chicken to ham. I think next time I will use a store bought rotisserie chicken and possibly use goat cheese instead of mozzarella. Probably defeats the whole idea of an Italian sandwich, but I have a thing for goat cheese. I think the mozzarella would work with the chicken replacement would work just fine. I did find it needed salt. I am so glad that I made the sandwich. I usually just toss mustard on sandwiches. The pesto is great topping for the sandwich. It definitely elevated the sandwich.

Allotment `Ital-style' Stew

[purplecat]

Another entry from the Autumn to Winter section of the Restore cookbook by Gizzi Erskine.

( Ingredients )

( Method )

Mistakes, Changes and Substitutions
I only cooked half quantities and intentionally used tinned chickpeas and pre-made tamarind paste. I knew we had no fenugreek, but was surprised to discover that spousal enthusiasm had also cleaned out the ground ginger and turmeric. I cut the carrot into chunks because I feared that otherwise there would be fighting over it. I cut some thyme from the garden but it looked sufficiently sorry for itself that the spouse thew it away thinking I'd already used it. I used butternut squash instead of pumpkin and peas instead of flat beans. I don't think any of this made a substantial difference to the result.

Verdict
It's difficult to write comparatively about hotness. This recipe was just on the right side of "too hot" for me, which I know is hotter than many people like, but the spouse has a higher tolerance - even so he clearly had no intention of fishing out the Scotch Bonnet and eating it whole which I've seen him do with other chilli varieties in other recipes. As a meat eater, I missed that extra flavour that can come from long-stewed meat, but as veggie stews go this tasted good and had a pleasant kick for those of us who don't mind some spiciness.

Pumpkin and Black Bean Soup

[ane]

This last weekend was soup/stew weekend. I made Beef Stew on Saturday and tried this Pumpkin and Black Bean Soup on Sunday. It's definitely a keeper.

Recipe

A couple changes.
I omitted the tomatoes and the sherry/wine.
To make up for the omitted liquids I added another cup of beef broth, but I think it would have been fine with the 4 cups of broth.

Next time I'll plan ahead and start with dried black beans.