Abel & Cole (box II)

My second gourmet box arrived yesterday. As you can see from my display there was a butternut squash, Jerusalem artichokes, 2 sweet peppers, a box of tomatoes, a broccoli, shallots and radishes. I am not sure what the greens are, spinach perhaps. The last bit would be the most tricky, as we are not very keen on leafy greens.

I showed all the vegetables to Eddie who immediately grabbed the sweet pepper and had a good bite.

I had a good browsing of recipes suggested by Abel & Cole online, and decided to do a Jerusalem artichoke and turkey bake.

This was not the first time I tried the Jerusalem artichokes, and I cooked soup with them in the past, and also roasted them. It is a bit of an acquired taste. They are rather nice but I would not want to eat them too often.
If you fancy to try the dish I made you will need about 200g diced turkey and four Jerusalem artichokes, 2 shallots, a clove of garlic plus a tub of double cream.
First dust the turkey with the flour and pan fry it in butter and olive oild for about 10 minutes, adding salt. Remove from the pan and place into a deep ceramic dish. Slice the artichokes thinly and put in the frying pan with the chopped garlic and shallots. Add a good splash of brandy if you like. Fry for 10 minutes, stirring. Add the contents of the pan to the ceramic dish with the turkey and mix well. Even the mixture and pour over the double cream. Bake in the oven at 180C for half an hour until all golden and bubbling happily.

Update on 10/11/11

My yesterday's dish was pasta with spinach and pancetta. Not the most challenging one, but I thought at least my husband might try it. And he liked it. Yay, success! Instead of hiding veg and moving around the plate (yes, men in their 40s do that too!) he ate it all.

I fried cubed pancetta in the frying pan, added chopped spinach, a finely chopped clove of garlic, 2 mushrooms and a dash of brandy. Once the spinach wilted, I grated a bit of cheddar on top. Cook pasta (in our case it was the mushroom tortelloni) in salted water for 2 mins, drain the pasta, add to the pan with all the veg and pancetta, stir well.

Serve with the grated parmesan on top.

Update on 11/11/11

Pumpkin and sage medaglioni with a butternut squash

Yes, I know, we eat pasta too often. The butternut squash from the gourmet box was skinned and cubed and pan fried with the olive oil and about 30g of butter. If you fancy cooking something similar, you will need a butternut squash, 1 sweet yellow pepper, 1 clove of garlic, half a tsp of chilli paste, 60g of hard cheese (cheddar) and parmesan to serve.
Slice the pepper into small pieces and add them to the cubed squash, cook for at least half an hour, until all the veg is soft and slightly squashy (I also add a bit of water, and cover with the lid, so that it cooks faster), a finely chopped garlic goes in the same sauce, once the squash is cooked, add grated cheddar and mix well, until the cheese melts.
Cook the pasta in a big pot of salted boiling water for 2 minutes. Drain the pasta and mix with the vegetables.
To serve, grate some parmesan.

Update on 12/11/11

Tilapia with spinach and hollandaise sauce

For this dish you will need two tilapia fillets, spinach, a clove of garlic, hollandaise sauce and spring onions.

Quickly fry two tilapia fillets in a frying pan with the olive oil and a bit of wine (about 2 minutes each side). Transfer to the ceramic baking dish. Chop the spinach and fry with the finely chopped garlic, once wilted, take out of the pan and place on top of the tilapia fillets. Add two generous tablespoons of the hollandaise sauce on top (guilty as charged, I used a jar of sauce rather than made it myself. But I made my own mashed potatoes, does this count? :) ) Snip some spring onions with scissors on top of the sauce. Bake the fish for about 10 minutes.

This is the photo of the fish before it was baked.

And served with the mashed potato

Update on 14/11/11
Trofie with broccoli and potatoes

This trofie pasta is produced by Pizza Express. The pasta tastes very authentic, with a good bite. I added a cooked broccoli, one potato (cubed) and pesto sauce, Serve with the parmesan cheese grated on top.

That was the end of the spinach and broccoli. Box no.2 has been used for so many dishes (we still have some shallots left, but they can keep for a while).