Wednesday Recipe: Risotto

OK, so I know that I said that I would do bread this week but… I MADE THE WORLDS BEST RISOTTO! Well maybe not the worlds best, but it was pretty good. Here’s the recipe.

(serves 4)

150g quartered button mushrooms

1 chopped onion

4 finely chopped cloves of garlic

350g arborio rice

2 pints vegetable stock

1 large glass of white wine (keep some for yourself though!)

A pinch of Italian herbs

cheese (if you feel like it)

 

1. Put a dash of oil  in a large saucepan on a medium heat. Add the garlic and onion and cook for 3 minutes, add the mushrooms and cook for a further 3 minutes.

 

2. Add the rice and cover with olive oil. Add the wine as well, mix in and stir until all the liquid has been absorbed. Season well.

 

3. Add the hot stock bit by bit, stirring in in the same way as you did with the wine. Continue doing this until the rice has got big and soft (you will probably have stock left over).

 

4. Serve with a big pinch of Italian herbs, season well and add cheese if you are going to. Put a nice big dollop of butter on top as the icing on the cake.

 

So there you have it, a really easy, tasty risotto. Next week I will do bread, promise.

Lets Play Ready Steady FoodCycle!

A bucket-load of brilliant volunteers. Surprise ingredients each week. Three courses of delicious food to prepare. That’s just how we roll.

What would you cook?…

Soft cheese

Butter

Yoghurts

New potatoes

Peppers

Mushrooms

Avocado

Asparagus

Lettuce

Clementines

 (p.s. staples like rice/pasta/lentils/flour/herbs/spices etc. in the cupboard)

TIME TO GET SPONTANEOUS! 🙂

What will spring bring for Bath Foodcycle? Socials, sponge cake and trips to London, that’s what!

Grub Club! 

Our weekly cooking sessions at St Mary’s Church are going from strength to strength! Our awesome community outreach team are doing a brilliant job of spreading the word far and wide, making connections with local groups who support vulnerable people or those affected by food poverty. We are seeing more new faces joining us for a lovely nutritious meal made out of surplus food donated to us from Sainsbury’s at Green Park so if you haven’t volunteered with us before now is a great time to start. Our Head Chef, Phil, is continuing on with his plans for world domination – one lesson in making sponge cake at a time, and this week was no exception! Apple and Pineapple upside down cake for 30 anyone? Not a problem! Mary Berry watch your back!

Rotas are on the foodcycle.org.uk website for the next few weeks so get signing up!

Our lovely new volunteer, Waheeda showing off her mad baking skills!

Welcome to our new Hub Leaders! 

Please join me in wishing a warm Bath FoodCycle welcome to our new Hub Leaders Lucy and Rob! Lucy is taking on the role of PR and Communications Hub Leader and Rob is rising to the challenge of the newly created Social Media Hub Leader. As you may have noticed they are already off to a fantastic start with the twitter and blog busier than ever and Lucy has arranged for us to be featured on ITV Regional news! A reporter followed our team this Wednesday as they did the pick up from Sainsbury’s, prepared the food and served a beautiful three course meal. We don’t yet know when it will be aired but when we get more details we will let you know! If you have any ideas or suggestions for them they’d love to hear from you – email bathfoodcycle@gmail.com or tweet us @foodcycle

Social

We are going to be kicking general knowledge butt on Thursday 28th of March at a pub quiz near you! We are going to confirm which quiz will have the pleasure of our company in the next week or so (depending on who has the space for us!) so watch this space. Since the Friday is a bank holiday and therefore not a school night there’s no excuse for your absence, even for the 9-5ers! Whether you have volunteered with us before or would like to come along and find out more about FoodCycle and the friendly bunch who volunteer we would love to have you join us! Give me (Alice) a text on 07904141196 or tweet us (@bathfoodcycle) with #foodcyclesocial so we have an idea of numbers.

Volunteer Workshop

On Thursday the 21st of March FoodCycle Central are holding a Volunteer Workshop in London. They want to get your ideas and inspiration on how FoodCycle is run and how to help more and more people. In December FoodCycle were given a huge grant of over £100,000 for research and to expand and they want you to have an input into the national strategy! FoodCycle Central will provide a free lunch and will reimburse train costs so if you are interested in having the opportunity to help direct the strategy for a small charity then email them at hubs@foodcycle.org.uk.

That’s all for now folks! As ever, if you want to get more involved with FoodCycle coordination or have any ideas or suggestions for us, get in touch via bathfoodcycle@gmail.com. We’d love to hear from you!

See you at a cooking session soon,

Alice & the FoodCycle Team

Wednesday Recipe: Mushroom Soup

300g closed cup mushrooms, halved
Handful of Shiitake mushrooms
½ chopped onion
3 cloves of garlic
1 pint of veg stock
A dash of cream (optional)

1. Cook the onion on a low heat, in a frying pan with oil, until it’s nice and soft. Should take about 10 minutes,

2. Peel and crush the garlic with the flat of your knife. Add the garlic and mushrooms to the frying pan and turn up to a medium heat and cook for 5 minutes. Make sure that nothing burns!

3. Add the frying pan goodies into a pan containing a simmering mixture of the stock. Cook for 10 minutes.

4. Blend the mixture and add the cream if you’re using it. Enjoy!

Pepper always goes down fantastically with soup, and I like to swap out the shiitakes for other exotic mushrooms from time to time. Next week I’ll do a great recipe for bread to go with this.  

Wednesday Recipe: Curried Potatoes

This recipe works fantastically in loads of different situations. Serve by itself as a starter, or turn up the heat and add rice and yoghurt and serve as a main. You can also chop and change between spices for a change of flavours.

1 tsp Cumin
1 tsp Mild Chilli Powder
1 tsp Garam Masala
1 tsp Turmeric
Pinch of Ginger
Hot Chilli to taste

500g Peeled potatoes

1. Cube potatoes, about 5cm across.

2. Mix spices together in a bowl, add water and mix until a thick paste is formed.

3. Boil potatoes for about 10 minutes, they are done when they are soft and you can easily push through them with a fork. Drain well.

4. Heat oil in a frying pan, add potatoes and the curry paste. Stir until the potatoes are coated.

5. Fry, while turning occasionally, until crispy all over.

Eat and enjoy!