Nut Roast and roast vegetables with Mushroom Gravy

Nut and Spinach Roast with Wild Mushroom Gravy

Serves 4

Ingredients:

For the nut roast
• 250g mixed unsalted nuts, toasted
• 25g whole unsalted cashews, toasted
• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 1 carrot, grated
• 200g can chopped tomatoes, drained
• 50g sundried tomatoes, chopped
• 100g gruyere, grated
• 1tsp dried sage
• 1tsp fresh mint, chopped
• 1tbsp curly parsley, chopped
• 1 clove garlic, crushed
• 1tsp vegetable concentrated stock
• salt and pepper
• 200g cooked fresh spinach

For the wild mushroom gravy
• 250g wild mushrooms any dirt brushed off
• 1 banana shallot, finely chopped
• 1 garlic clove
• 1tbsp plain flour
• 2tbsp soy sauce
• 300ml vegetable stock

Method
• Preheat the oven to 180˚c/gas mark4. Grease and base line a 900g loaf tin.
• Whizz all of the nuts in a processor and then mix together well with the rest of the ingredients except the spinach. Pack half of the mixture into the prepared tin, evenly spread the spinach in and then top with the rest of the nut mix. Bake in the preheated oven for 35-40 minutes.
• To make the gravy, warm a knob of butter and a tbsp olive oil in a large pan. Soften the shallot and then add the mushrooms. Cook these for about 5 minutes on a medium heat until they take on some nutty flavour from the butter. Stir in the flour and cook for a further minute. Add the stock and soy, season to taste and bubble for a good 5 minutes to cook out the flour.
• Serve the nut roast with the gravy and some roasted vegetables and potatoes.

Roasted Root Vegetables
• 2 butternut squash
• 500g Jerusalem artichokes
• olive oil salt and pepper

Cut the squash in half and take out the seeds. Cut into inch thick slices and put into a large roasting tin. Peel and half the Jerusalem artichokes, add to the tin, drizzle with olive oil, season well and roast for 35 –40 minutes.

Baked Potatoes with Chives
• 4 large baking potatoes, Carrolls Dunbar are good
• 1tbsp Malden sea salt
• 2tbsp olive oil
• 25g butter
• small bunch chives, chopped
• 100ml single cream
• 75g grated emmental
• 75g grated gruyere

Coat the potatoes in the salt and oil. Bake for about an hour until crispy and fluffy inside.
Cut the potatoes in half, scoop the flesh into a large bowl. Mix with the rest of the ingredients and season well. Pile back into the skins and bake for 10 – 15 minutes until golden and sizzling!

Just not funny

So this happy and content thing is all very well but it is making me quite dull. I have nothing witty, ascerbic or entertaining to write anymore. Life is a bloody bowl of cherries god damn it. My life now consists of working 3 days a week doing something I have been doing for years and getting paid about the same amount of money for when I was doing a 5 day week working a 12 hour day. I am unable to write up the stuff about the ex spouse and why I left as I am not remotely biter about it (what goes around ALWAYS comes around). I have all these excellent gossipy stories I could tell but actually if I write them then the skeletons might attack someone and my bowl of cherries might start to rot. Oh my god I am now talking in analogies! With exclamation marks! Why would my children want to read this. Today I typed up an interview with the director of medicine for the deanship of Warwick -, then I wenbt home and cooked the boyf's dinner and ironed his shirts and was happy to do so. Yeuch. I could give up the prozac which might help with the prosaic but then I might also kill my very nice boyf (the latent bitch who wants her own way is still in there - just latent of course).

I really must go and find something to bitch about - nice blogs aren't funny.