The Rose Cottage Recipe Book

Vegetarian.  Serves 4.

Best on a sunny summer's day, or when you want to be reminded of one.

Ingredients

For the burger:

4	portobello (big) mushrooms, stems trimmed
2 to 4 tbsp	olive oil
2	beefsteak (big) tomatoes, each cut into 4 slices
4	burger buns (or pitta breads, flat breads, etc.)
optional toppings	½ red onion rocket or other salad leaves thinly sliced cheese bacon or Parma ham

For the aïoli:

1	fat garlic clove, chopped
½ tsp	coarse sea salt
2 tsp	finely chopped rosemary leaves
½ tbsp	olive oil
6 tbsp	mayonnaise
	freshly squeezed lemon juice

Technique

Make the Aïoli:  Mash the garlic with the salt to form a paste.  Mash in the chopped rosemary and then mix in the oil, beat in the mayonnaise and add the lemon juice to taste.

Make the burgers:  Heat a heavy frying pan.  Brush the mushrooms liberally all over with the olive oil then rub with salt and pepper.  Add to the pan and then cook over a high heat until tender.  (You may need to add more oil if the mushrooms are particularly absorbent.)

Remove from the pan and keep the mushrooms warm.  Add the tomato slices to the hot pan and sear briefly for about 30 seconds on each side.

Assemble:  Split the buns and spread with butter.  Add onion rings, mushrooms, tomatoes, aïoli, bacon/ham, cheese and salad leaves.  Close the buns and serve.

Ingredients

250 g	pastry
250 g	raspberries (approx.)
½ jar	raspberry jam
150 g	butter
150 g	sugar
50 g	plain flour
150 g	ground almonds
3	large eggs, beaten
	almond essence (a few drops)
3 tsp	apricot jam (for glazing)

Method

1. Preheat oven 200C.
2. Roll out pastry and line a 30cm flan dish. Prick base and bake blind for 20min.
   (Works well in my 25 cm 1/2" tin with a little bit left for half a dozen jam tarts.) Allow to cool.
3. Spread raspberry jam over base. Arrange about 2/3 of raspberries over base.
4. Reduce oven heat to 180C.
5. Make filling - Cream the butter and sugar together then mix in flour, almonds, eggs and almond essence. Beat well.
6. Spread frangipane mixture over raspberries on base.
7. Arrange the rest of raspberries over the frangipane and press in lightly.
8. Bake for about 30 to 35 minutes until risen, golden and set.
9. Mix apricot jam with a little boiling water and brush over tart.

Eat hot or cold.

Ingredients

2 stalks	lemongrass
1 tbsp?	fresh red curry paste
2 or 3 cloves	garlic
2	red peppers in oil
1 heaped tsp	tomato purée
1 tbsp	fish sauce
2 tbsp	soy sauce
1 tbsp	sesame oil
2 cm	ginger root, peeled
200 g	small cooked prawns
200 g	sugar snap peas
400 g	coconut milk
olive oil	for cooking
optional ingredients	8 large, unpeeled prawns lime wedges

Method

1. In a food processer, mix the red curry paste, adding the bashed up stalks of lemongrass, chilli, garlic, red peppers, tomato puree, fish oil, soy sauce, ginger root and sesame oil.  Blitz to a paste.
2. If used, fry the large raw prawns in a frying pan with olive oil for 1 minute, then add 1tbsp of the paste and cook for another minute. Tip the lot into a casserole and put in a 200°C oven.
3. Add some more oil to the pan and gently fry the sugar peas and small prawns.  Add the rest of the paste and fry for a minute or two before adding the coconut milk.

Serve with rice.  Add the large prawns on the top, for decoration, along with the lime wedges.

Plain boiled rice for two. Adjust as necessary for other numbers of people.

Ingredients

rice

butter (or oil)

½ vegetable stock cube (optional)

boiling water

measuring jug

saucepan with a close fitting lid.

Method

1. Fill a measuring jug to 5 fl oz with dry rice.
2. Melt a knob of butter (or oil) in the saucepan.
3. Add the rice and stir until well coated with the butter.
4. Fill the measuring jug to 10 fl oz (i.e. twice the amount of water to rice by volume) with the boiling water.
5. Stir in the stock cube until melted
6. Add the water to the rice. Stir briefly, just to ensure all the rice is under the water.
7. Put the lid on the pan and turn down to the lowest possible heat.
8. Leave for 12 minutes (white rice) or 20 minutes (brown rice), until all the water is absorbed.
   Do not leave overlong, once the water has been absorbed the rice is vulnerable to drying out and burning.

Once the rice is ready, the heat can be turned off and the rice left covered in the pan for several minutes, whie the rest of the meal is prepared.

You will Need

	roasting tin
1	chicken
	butter
optional ingredients	fat - to baste herbs garlic lemon

Method

The chicken needs to be unwrapped and patted down with a paper towel.  The inside cavities (one inside the bones, the other inside the neck) should be checked for packets of giblets (cooked plastic bags don’t taste great).

Place the chicken breast upwards in the roasting tin.

Chicken dries out quickly in the oven, so it is a good idea to stuff the main cavity as this helps keep it moist.  Stuffing can be put in either cavity.  If you don’t have stuffing you could use a lemon or two, cut into quarters so the flavour gets out (or even a couple of potatoes).  These would only go into the main cavity.  You can add a few sprigs of fresh herbs to the cavity for flavour if wanted. Thyme goes well with chicken.

Smear butter over the skin, particularly around the creases (e.g. where the legs and wings join the body).  For a garlicky flavour cut thin slivers from a garlic bulb and using a sharp knife slide them under the skin.

Preheat the oven to 180°C and cook for 40 minutes per kilo (and sometimes an additional 20 mins though not always necessary). Baste regularly with the juices from the bottom of the pan to keep the meat moist.