What's your favourite Winter meal?

[shiney]

Come on share the stodgie meals with me! Winter warmers, hearty stews etc. What's your favourite? Don't forget to include puds.

I am a soup queen, I love making them. No two are the same really!

As far as a stew goes, I do love a chicken caserole, with peppers, garlic, onions and carrots, served with lots of mashed spuds.

[Millymollymandy]

Well as it's feeling so wintry today......

I do love shepherds pie. I love leek and potato soup. I love pumpkin season and everything you can do with them but most of all, pumpkin pie and pumpkin cheesecake.

Ooooh, and stew and dumplings! And a good old roast dinner.

Probably a good thing I just ate my lunch or I might be here all day.

[greenbean]

A nice big (I usually make enough so that the two of us have to eat it for 3 to 4 days) rusticated cassoulet or any big stew with beans in it. I enjoy buying cheap cuts of meat, scrag end etc., and making something delicious, lucky to have an aga otherwise I would have to worry about the oven being on for ages. I rarely use a recipe, if I do then it's loosely.
I love winter root vegetables - especially neeps and tatties, I imagine only ina and shirlz will get that!

[ina]

but most of all, pumpkin pie and pumpkin cheesecake.

Recipes please! I only saw a recipe for pumpkin pie before that was very "American", i.e. mostly fat and sugar - maybe yours has more pumpkin in it? And pumpkin cheesecake sounds interesting, too.

Anyway, yes, neeps and tatties, definitely. And, of course, haggis with it... In my case, vegetarian haggis! Some of the ones you can buy are actually very nice, I've just got one in the fridge which will be on the menu some time next week. Have to experiment with making my own one of these days.

I often have lentil soup (brown lentils rather than red), or green pea soup in winter - they give me extra protein, too, and are very filling and warming. I make shepherd's pie with a mix of lentils or beans and veg, too; or a lentil sauce Bolognese style with pasta.

Ina

[2steps]

shepards pie is yummy, beef stew and dumpling is excellent on a cold day, with some crusty bread mmmm or what was waiting for us when we got home from the woods yesterday - slow cooker chicken cassur

[Millymollymandy]

Hi Ina

I will have a look at my pumpkin recipes but they are all American recipes in cups and I usually have to 'experiment'. The same for the cheesecake - the one I made had a shortbread base (!) - it was rather a palaver but tasted good. There are tons of recipes on the Internet but half the ingredients make you go ? ?, like tinned pumpkin!

[ina]

Cups are ok. And tinned pumpkin, well, why use something fresh if you can tin it first! There's a lot of things like that on the market I don't understand, pre-mixes for crumble, for example - "just add margarine" - well, why not add sugar and flour, too and do without the pre-mix?

Ina

[Millymollymandy]

Exactly - last night I made some chapatis which were easy peasy. I got to thinking about the Sharwoods Naan Bread mix in a packet, which I think I bought a few times in the past. What's in it apart from a bit of flour? You still have to mix in the water, roll it out, do each one in a frying pan/griddle which takes time, but how much do those packet mixes cost?!!!!

[Wombat]

No to mention all that extra packaging M3 & Ina - What a waste! especially if you could have made it with stuff you had hanging around anyway! I suppose they will sell us what ever they can under the banner of "convenience".

Good on you for having a go!

Nev

[Shirley]

MMMmmm now you have my tastebuds a-tingling.

One of my favourite soups has got to be Cheese soup - It's totally delish, nice and thick with crumbled bacon on top (or crispy onions/croutons for veggies) A true winter warmer.

Shepherds pie is always a favourite in our house - we do lots of our own variations depending on our mood at the time... sometimes a spicy mix for the meat filling and a potato and parsnip mix for the top works well. Leeks mixed in with the potatoes is delicious, and top it with cherry tomatoes and grated cheese! Actually, I think I will make this for dinner tonight!

STOVIES - a scottish dish with potatoes onions and left over meat! Heaven!

Haggis with bashed tattie and neeps (swede) SCRUMMY

Corned beef hash.

Cauliflower with creme fraiche and smoked bacon is a yummy veggie based dish or you can use it as a side dish.

I'm sure I'll think of more :D

Shirlz xx

[Wombat]

By the way - it is summer (almost) here and we had BBQ for tea tonight...

Nev

[shiney]

Sorry Nev,

Didn't think about all the Southern Hemisphere folks here!

[Millymollymandy]

Don't worry - they have all the yummy summer stuff to look forward to - AND all the stuff we can't get easily/cheaply. So they're all right!!

[diver]

I love soups for the autumn and winter...especially leek and potato and vegetable, because I can use whatever veg I have at the time and always with lots of beans.. I'm veggie so don't do the stew thing but do lots of bean casseroles particularly with chunks of squash in.....I'd love the pumpkin pie recipe as well as I have only found american versions with very little pumpkin in it. Any Americans on site who can post a decent recipe for pumpkin pie???

[Lyds]

Steamed treacle sponge with lots of custard...mmmm....
Devon apple cake with lots of custard..
Blackberry and apple crumble with lots of custard...
We really like custard!

Home made thick veg soup with granary rolls
Casserole with dumplings
Sausage and tomato pie
Toad-in-the-hole with gravey (and lots of veg to make it healthy).

I must eat.......