Sunday 24 August 2014

Cheese, Celery and Walnut loaf with Tomato Chutney


Last night, as we all arrived home from school or work, it began to snow. As darkness fell, an icy cold wind blew up, sending temperatures quickly down below zero...so what to cook for dinner?- Something soothingly warm, bright and colourful to celebrate the good things about this time of year (there are some good things, aren't there??)
I came up with:
Cheese, celery and walnut loaf with tomato chutney, served with mixed roasted vegetables and brown rice with peas.
Plenty of calories here to keep you warm. The quantities I give here served 5 of us.

The loaf: 
200g walnuts, ground or crushed
2 or 3 grated parsnips/ sweet potatoes (to replace 4 or 5 small carrots)
2-3 sticks of celery, thinly sliced (should be about half the quantity of the grated veg)
about 225g of any creamy, English vegetarian cheese (I used double Gloucester, but I suspect white Stilton would be even yummier)
1 large English apple (like Cox's), grated
salt and pepper

  • Lightly fry half the grated vegetables with the celery in extra-virgin olive oil.
  • Mix with all other ingredients in a bowl; keep the seasoning simple and subtle.
  • Put into a lined loaf tin and bake at 175-200C until top is browned but not burned. (You could also cook it in individual ramekins as the loaf is quite soft and not good at holding its shape when sliced.)


Simple hot and sweet tomato chutney:
Credit to my husband here for this recipe; he invented it to go with pakoras. It's a kind of oriental-meets- Mediterranean flavour fusion.
2 cans chopped tomatoes, or cooked down fresh tomatoes
1 dsp gour or brown sugar
hing (asafeotida)
2 or 3 bay leaves
1 tsp chilli powder
1 dsp dried oregano
1 dsp extra-virgin olive oil

  • Combine all ingredients, bring to the boil then simmer to reduce. 
  • When thickened, adjust seasonings if necessary. You can let this bubble away while you prepare the loaf.

To make the meal even more quintessentially English, you could always serve it with a dollop of fluffy mashed potato instead of the rice.



No comments:

Post a Comment

Please say hi and let us know what you think!