Roasted vegetables with satay sauce

I've not made satay sauce this way before, but it is delicious.  It's somewhat on the salty side, so when you are dipping your vegetables in, just dip a toe in!  It's so tasty a little goes a really long way.

A good 'detox'  dinner!

Roasted Vegetables...

My favourites with this are red onion, butternut squash and mushrooms.  I also do a couple of potatoes. Aubergines, carrots, parsnips, tomatoes... anything in season works well!  So they aren't swimming in oil, cut them into finger-sized chunks, brush them with a pastry brush dipped in oil and put them on a baking tray covered in greaseproof paper, then into a hot oven.

...and satay sauce

In a pan, mix together 3 generous tbsps smooth peanut butter, 3 tbsps teriyaki sauce, 2 tbsp soy sauce and 5-6 tbsps water, heating gently.  Keep stirring with a metal spoon so it blends.

For maximum eating pleasure, eat with your hands, dipping each bit of veg in the sauce as you go.

Yum.

No more rice porridge - hooray!

Follow my instructions for perfect basmati rice every time.

For best results use a non-stick pan. Failing that, heat a little oil in your pan prior to putting the rice in and spread it all over the bottom.

Now rince your basmati rice in a sieve.

Add it to the pan with 1 1/2 times (that's right - not twice!) the amount of water. Keep a lid on it for the rest of the cooking process.

Keep the heat on high, and the moment it starts to boil (not just simmer, but boil properly) turn it right down to low. Now you can just leave it without any attention until all (all, mind) the water has been absorbed. Best to leave it too long rather than too little, and as your heat is on low you don't need to worry about it burning.

Fuss free, perfect rice.

Easy and virtually free patchwork quilt – Part 8 THE END!

Binding

At last - we are at the final stage!

Read part 1
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Read part 6
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This is the kind of thing that is so easy to show but very hard to describe, so I've drawn little diagrams to try and explain. There are lots of different ways of binding the edges of your quilts. I am showing you this way because it is totally machine sewn, therefore very fast, and doesn't involve tricky mitred corners.

First cut your 2 inch wide binding strips. Don't use a very thick fabric for this. Use a light cotton, maybe some of your left over sheet backing. Fold the strips as follows:

Iron the creases in really well. Open out the strip again and position it as shown

Turn over the quilt and fold back the binding strip along the fist crease, like this:
Fold in the right hand edge, and then fold it over again down the centre crease. Sew through the whole lot as neatly as you can close the the folded edge of the binding. Trim off the ends. Thats one side done! Repeat on the opposite side of the quilt

For the other 2 sides position the binding strip as before, (face down on the wrong side of the quilt) but this time with 1/2 an inch extra at the ends.

Again, turn over the quilt and fold back the strip

To neaten up the edges, fold in the ends like this:

As before, fold in the right hand edge, the fold again to close up the binding. Sew close to the folded edge. The corners will be bulky so go slowly and don't panic.

Other binding tips:

Use up scraps by sewing together off-cuts, then cutting out the 2 inch strips.

I never pin, but fold and position as I go. Try it and see.

Percieved wisdom says that your binding should be darker in colour that your quilt top, but I don't heed this advice. I use up scraps, or go for a contratsting colour to create a frame.

If you don't like the effect with the stitching on the front face then the traditional way of binding is to place the strip face down on the right side of the quilt first, sew down the crease, then turn it over, fold in the edges, and hand sew it down. You can do mitres too but I don't usually bother unless it's a really special quilt.

So - thats it! You've finished your quilt. That wasn't too hard was it!

Aubergines!

I don't know whether I made it clear, but I think aubergines are great. If you salt them at least 30 mins before using (do it in a colander, then you can rinse it off) it not only draws out the bitter juices but also makes the flesh stay firmer during cooking, making it a great meat substitute if you're into that sort of thing.

There are loads at our local market at the moment; I think they're just beautiful to look at!

Any aubergine recipes will be gratefully received (I don't have many) and I'll post them if that's ok. Best one gets entered for the annual greenlaces award thingy.

White aubergines and the like

Jane had me looking up aubergines after her comment, and I've learned some very interesting coffee-break sort of facts.

Firstly, aubergines are a fruit. (I think I should have known that - but it would make a good odd-one out-exercise).

Secondly they can be all sorts of pretty colours. Here you can buy seeds to grow lovely pale green ones in your own garden.

Apparantly early varieties of aubergine were smaller and white, a bit like eggs, hence 'eggplant'. I bet you didn't know that. I learned that here.

Anway Jane my advice is 1) be adventurous and 2)make some friends. We used to live by a huge african market and lots of shops here. They sold some wierd and wonderful things. Stand and look lost (and European) for long enough - about 5 seconds in my experience - and plenty of fellow shoppers would be only too glad to tell you what things are, give you cooking advice and recipes, tell you how much to buy, how long it will last etc etc. To be honest, it used to restore my faith in humanity apart from anything else.

Just remember to take a pencil and paper, and be prepared for linguistic misunderstandings. It took my red raw hands three days to feel even remotely normal after cooking with seemingly innocuous african peppers, and I'm sure someone did try to warn me...