Date, cocoa and seed bars

Date, cocoa and seed bars

These bars are delicious and a favourite of my husbands, they are so easy to make and a good little energy snack with no refined cane sugar. Perfect for when you want something sweet. You can put whatever nuts and seeds in you like, same with the spices too. I just love chocolate and orange together with a little cardamon, Yum!

Date, cocoa and seed bars

270g dates

4 T or 40g coconut oil

4 T dutch good quality cocoa ( you could probably use cacao powder too)

1-2 T maple syrup or honey 

1/2 tsp ground cardamon or cinnamon

zest one orange - optional

3-4 T ground linseed

1/4 tsp flaky salt

100g sunflower seeds

50g pumpkin seeds

30g linseed

50g coconut flakes

Almonds and hazelnuts are also nice - just substitute some of the seeds out - use no more than 250g total

Roast the sunflower, pumpkin and coconut until  lightly browned and well roast any nuts you are using. Cool. Chop the nuts roughly if using.

Place top 8 ingredients in the bowl of a food processor and blend until the dates are a paste.

Transfer into a bowl. Add toasted seeds and linseeds

Mix well until all ingredients are combined

Press into a lined tin, it holds it shape well so press to whatever thickness you like. You could roll into balls too and into cocoa if you wish.

Makes about 20 bars

Would freeze well if they last that long!

Buttermilk and Date scones

I had some buttermilk left in my fridge from making the Salted Caramel Almond Cake so here is a perfect way to use it up. This recipe makes 12 large scones.

12 scones may be a lot when there is only two of you...The best thing about scones is that rather than cooking a whole batch you can freeze the uncooked scones to bake at a later date. I just clear the ice trays from the top rack, lay out some baking paper and place the remaining scones on the paper in the freezer. Leave them overnight and then when they are frozen you can wrap them in cling film or place them in ziplock bags.

When you happen to feel like a freshly baked scone you can just leave them at room temperature for 5 minutes, pop them in the oven and cook them for an extra five minutes and boom! Freshly baked scones straight from your freezer!  It has seriously changed my life.

Buttermilk and Date Scones
300g dates, chopped in half
680g flour
1 T baking powder
3/4 tsp baking soda
100g white sugar or coconut sugar
1 1/2 tsp flaky salt
255g unsalted very cold butter
375ml buttermilk plus extra for topping

Topping
2 T extra buttermilk
raw sugar or coconut sugar for sprinkling

First, chop your dates in half and cover with boiling water and leave for 10 or so minutes to soften.

While the dates are softening, sift the flour, baking powder and baking soda in a large bowl. Add the sugar and the salt and stir to combine. Cut the butter into small dice or grate the butter into the bowl. I usually use the tips of my fingers to rub in the butter but you could use a pasty cutter or two knives or even do it gently in the food processor or a stand mixer. You want to end up with a coarse mixture with visible pea sized lumps of butter.

Strain the dates well and add the dates and buttermilk to your dry mixture.
If you were using a stand mixer here I would gently 3/4 incorporate the wet mix and then tip it on the bench and continue by hand. If you used a food processor I would now tip it in to a large bowl and do the next part by hand. What ever you do you want to gently mix the wet ingredients in and not over work them, if the mix seems a little dry add a  touch more buttermilk.

Quickly and gently shape your dough into a 30cm by 12cm rectangle, Brush the top with the extra buttermilk and sprinkle with sugar. Cut the dough into triangles and transfer the amount you want to cook onto a prepared baking sheet.

Bake at 180 degrees for 25 minutes until the tops are lightly brown.
Serve still warm with good amounts of butter

Makes 12

Lemony rice pudding with poached tamarillos

This is the rice pudding to convert all rice pudding haters. It is rich and lemony and the strips of peel melt down and you get a lemon hit when you bite one. This recipe is an adapted Jane Grigson recipe and you can serve it with anything you like. I have done it with slow roasted quince and poached rhubarb before. Its nice with fruit with a bit of tartness to cut through the rich rice. My mum requested this for Mother's day dessert and she loved it.


Lemony rice pudding
50g short grain rice
300mls milk
300mls cream
1 tablespoon butter
2 tablespoons sugar
1 lemon

Peel the lemon thinly, taking off strips with a vegetable peeler. Put rice, lemon peel, sugar, butter, milk and cream into an ovenproof dish. Cover with tin foil and cook in a very slow oven, 125°C, for 2-3 hours until the rice has absorbed all the liquid and it looks deliciously creamy. Stir it every 3/4 hour.

When the pudding is done, give it a good stir and add the juice from the lemon and some more cream or milk if it is too solid. I cooked the pudding for 2 1/2 hours and then let it rest in a warm place for about half and hour, it only need a little of milk to loosen it up.

Poached tamarillos
8 tamarillos
2 cup water
1 cup sugar
Zest of  one oranges and lemon
1 cinnamon quill
1 star anise 

Meanwhile you can get on to your tamarillos. You can do these ahead and then gently reheat them when your pudding is ready.
Put a small pot of water on to boil. Score the bottoms of the tamarillos with a cross and when the water has boiled blanch them in boiling water for about 10-15 seconds. You can leave them in a little longer if they aren't the ripest. After about 10 seconds, scoop them out and plunge them into iced water. When cool, starting at the scored end carefully peel them and set aside.

Place the water, sugar, zest, cinnamon and star anise in a saucepan and simmer to dissolve the sugar. Add in the peeled tamarillos and bring to a simmer and gently cook them for 10-15 minutes.


To serve...
100g almonds - roasted and roughly chopped
Extra cream or yoghurt if you like

When your rice pudding is nearly ready, bring your tamarillos back up to temperature.
Spoon the rice puddings into bowls and top with the tamarillos and with a little extra syrup, sprinkle over the chopped almonds and serve.

Salted caramel almond cake

Salted caramel almond cake

I originally saw this recipe online here and saved it as I thought it looked so delicious. I have only slightly adapted it, changing the cooking method and adding salt. I would definitely make again and might change the cake a bit to make it chocolate or add some orange zest into it as I think that would be nice.

For the cake: 
75 ml buttermilk
75g unsalted butter
3 eggs
150g caster sugar 
1 tsp vanilla extract 
150g plain flour 
1 tsp baking powder 
1/4 tsp fine sea salt

For the topping: 
150g flaked almonds 
125g butter 
125g light brown sugar 
50ml milk 
1/2 tsp sea salt 
1/2 tsp vanilla 
Extra good quality flaky salt to sprinkle on top

Preheat oven to 160 degrees

Grease a 9" or 22cm round tin (preferably with a removable bottom) and line the bottom and sides with baking paper. 

Roast the sliced almonds  in a oven tray for 5-10 minutes until they're a light golden brown, then set aside.

Melt the butter for the cake in a saucepan and leave to cool.
Place the eggs, sugar and vanilla in the bowl of a stand mixer and whisk together on medium-high for 5 minutes or until the mixture is a yellowy-cream colour and very thick. While it whisks, sieve the flour, baking powder and salt together. 
When the eggs are thick remove the bowl from the stand and sieve 1/2 the  flour mixture into the egg mix, folding it in gently and alternating with the buttermilk. When the flour is nearly mixed in, gently fold in the cooled melted butter  Be gentle but thorough, scraping down to the bottom and making sure to get out the little pockets of flour. You don't want to remove all the air you created at the start.

Carefully pour the batter into the tin. Bake for 22-30 minutes until golden and set - a skewer or small knife should be able to be removed cleanly.
Meanwhile start making the topping. Place the butter, sugar, milk, salt into the saucepan and stir as the butter melts. Keep on a low heat until your cake is nearly done. When your cake is out quickly turn up the heat to high and let the mix bubble and thicken slightly. Pour in the toasted almonds and cook for a further 2 minutes

Turn the oven up to 200 degrees and onto grill. Move the over rack up a notch so that the top of the cake will be closer to the grill. Make sure there isn't any baking paper sticking out to high as it will burn.

Pour the almond caramel mixture on to the cake and working quickly spread the  nutty caramel out evenly and place it under the grill. Don't walk away! Watch the topping carefully, you want a bubbly and golden caramel topping. I think I had mine under the grill for 2-3 minutes.

Carefully remove the cake from the oven and place on a rack to cool. At this point you can sprinkle on extra flaky salt which I would definitely recommend! After 30 minutes loosen the sides of the tin with a knife if necessary and remove the ring. You cake wait a bit longer to do this if you aren't worried about it coming out

When the cake had cooled to room temperature transfer it on to a serving plate. My bet is that it won't last long!

The first time I made this cake I made the recipe by three and it filled a 12' round tin nicely and only took 30 minutes to cook. It had a great ratio of caramelly almond deliciousness to cake.

Best Baked Potato Ever

I had a craving for baked potatoes last night for tea but also wanted something healthy. Not something layered with sour cream, bacon and cheese. So after searching our cupboards this is what I came up with. It was delicious, and had a fab texture. Best of all we were left full but feeling fresh and healthy.
I have added fish and chicken stock to this recipe but you could easily replace or remove these to make a vegetarian version, and, remove the cheese to create a vegan dish.

Ingredients

Large potatoes

frozen corn

sprouted legumes

splash of chicken stock

anchovies, cut up

cracked black pepper

baby spinach

chia seeds

roast walnuts

avocado

goats cheese/feta/quark

I haven't added amounts to the ingredients - it really just depends on how many people you are going to feed and how hungry you are feeling.

Bake the potatoes whole in a hot oven.

When the potatoes are pretty much cooked heat up a frying pan on the stove. The filling takes less than 5mins to cook.

Place the frozen corn in the pan, let it thaw and allow the pan to become hot again.

Add the legumes, a splash of chicken stock, anchovies and black pepper.

Stir until slightly heated through.

Add the baby spinach. Stir until wilted.

Add the rest of the ingredients, other than the cheese, and stir to combine.

Take the potatoes out of the oven and slice open.

Place the filling on top of the potatoes.

Top with cheese.

Enjoy!

Sweet Chilli Sauce with a Bite.

What to do with sooooo many chillies?????? Make sweet chilli sauce! And you would not believe how simple it is.

Ingredients

Approx 350grams of chillies.

2 garlic cloves

2 1/4 cups of white vinegar

2 1/4 cups of white sugar

Halve about 70grams of chillies and place in a food processor. Halve and deseed the rest of the chillies and place in the food processor. If you want a bit more bite add more chillies with seeds, if you want less bite deseed more of the chillies.

Add garlic and 3/4 cup of the white vinegar to the food processor with the chillies.

Process until you have little flecks of chillies but not a liquid or paste.

Place the chilli mixture, the rest of the vinegar and the sugar into a saucepan on a low heat.

Heat and continuously stir the mixture for 5minutes until the sugar dissolves.

Increase heat and bring the mixture to a boil.

Once boiling turn down the heat and simmer for approximately 30-40minutes until you get a slightly syrupy consistency.

Pour liquid into sterilised bottles or jars.

I find the best way to sterilise glass bottles of jars is to wash them in warm water. Then place the jars in an oven preheated to 100 degrees celsius until they are dry. The rule is that if you want to put warm mixture into a jar the jar must be warm. If you want to put cold mixture into the jar you must let the jar cool to room temperature. Otherwise you will have to deal with exploding glass which is never fun! 

All that is left is to do is enjoy the sauce with some dim sims!

Fish and Chips with a Twist

We have unbelievable amounts of eggplants in our garden at the moment and are running out of ideas of what to do with them! One night both me and my partner were craving fish and chips but we are on a bit of health kick. Previously we had tried eggplant chips at a local restaurant - they tasted fantastic. This gave us the idea of fish and chips with a healthy twist.
I will separate this recipe out into the fish and the chips. PS the chips alone with some home made chilli aioli are the best snack ever!

Steamed Fish in a Paper Parcel

Now there is some fancy french word for cooking things in a paper parcel - I can't remember what it is and I think 'paper parcel' sounds cuter.

x1 piece salmon per person
any flavours you want
salt & pepper
a knob of butter or a drizzle of olive oil
baking paper and cooking twine

Rip off a piece of baking paper that will be big enough to envelope the fish and flavourings. Place the fish in the middle of the paper. Drizzle the olive oil or place a knob of butter on top of the fish. Place the flavourings, salt and pepper on top. It should look something like this...

Bring the two long ends of the baking paper together and then fold down towards the fish. Twist the other two ends around and tie with the twine. Each piece of fish should look like a bon bon.

You now have two options you can either place the little parcels in a pre-heated oven at 200 degrees for 10-15mins depending on how big your fish is, or, you can place them in a steamer over boiling water for about 8-10mins - again depending on how big your fish is.

The little paper parcel will steam your fish and the liquid from the fish and olive oil/butter will make a delicious sauce!

Eggplant Chips

Eggplants cut into strips

egg, beaten

flour

panko bread crumbs

pepper

mixed herbs

parmesan, grated

Preheat the oven to 200degrees.

Mix together the panko bread crumbs, pepper, mixed herbs and parmesan. It doesn't matter about quantities just put as much as you feel like. I don't think you will need salt as the panko breadcrumbs are quite salty. It is important to use panko breadcrumbs rather than normal breadcrumbs as the panko breadcrumbs give a far better texture. You will find panko breadcrumbs in the Asian section of the supermarket.

You will need to make a little working station now. Line up your flour, eggs, breadcrumb mix and lastly a baking paper lined tray. Dip your eggplant in the flour, then the egg, then the breadcrumb mix. Lay them out on the try. This gets VERY messy.

Once complete pop them in the oven for 20-30mins until golden and crispy. Yum!

Smoked Chicken Rice Paper Rolls with Dipping Sauces

This recipe is very similar to the one Jen posted earlier but I thought I would put it up anyway to show you just how easy rice paper rolls are and how you can pretty much put any flavours you want in them. We had some herbs and smoked chicken in the fridge that needed eating, we had carrot and lettuce in the garden, and, some more herbs in the herb barrel which is how I came up with these flavours.

I have also given you two dipping sauces that are super easy to make - these are based on recipes from Annabel Langbein.

 

Smoked Chicken Rice Paper Rolls

100g fine vermicelli noodles

a handful of lettuce leaves, shredded (we used cos lettuce but it really doesn't matter)

1 carrot, grated

1/2 teaspoon of caster sugar

2 large handfuls of mint, roughly chopped (some of our vietnamese mint also snuck into the recipe when I accidentally picked it - it's not quite ready for picking yet, but it added a yummy flavour to the mix)

1 small handful of coriander leaves, roughly chopped ( you could put more in but I limit the amount as my other half doesn't like coriander so I have to sneak it in where I can)

1 smoked chicken breast, shredded

1 packet of rice paper rounds

Soak the vermicelli for approximately 10minutes in boiling water until tender, then drain.

Mix together the vegetables, herbs and sugar.

When well mixed, add the vermicelli and smoked chicken.

Now you are ready to roll. The best way to roll is to be organised and set up everything before you start.

I place a damp cloth down on the bench which you can use to place the soaked rice papers on to fill and roll. The damp cloth stops the rice paper sticking to the bench. I also have a fry pan filled with warm water next to me. I find the fry pan works well to dip the rice paper in as the rice paper rounds fit in just nicely.

Place a rice paper round in the warm water, fully dunking it under the water for a few seconds. 

Place the rice paper round on the damp cloth.

Wait for about 30 seconds - you will notice the rice paper round soften over this time, making it easier to roll.

Place some filling in the centre about a 1/3 of the way up the round.

Roll the rice paper up tightly tucking the edges in.

Enjoy!

Peanut Dipping Sauce

3 teaspoons of crunchy peanut butter

2 tablespoons of boiling water

1/4-1/2 cup of sweet chilli sauce

2 teaspoon of fish sauce

2 tablespoons of fresh lime juice

Mix the peanut butter and boiling water together to melt the peanut butter down.

Mix the rest of the ingredients together with the peanut butter mix.

If you want a thicker sauce just add more peanut butter.

Vietnamese Dipping Sauce

1/4 cup fresh lime juice

2 tablespoons of caster sugar

2 tablespoons of fish sauce

2 garlic cloves, crushed

a pinch of dried chilli flakes

Mix all the ingredients together and enjoy!

Fresh Spring roll of herbs, cos lettuce and cucumber with a peanut chilli dipping sauce

I made these to take to a wee New Years shin dig. We make a similar thing at work. They are nice a fresh tasting and go well with the spicy peanut dipping sauce. You can add poached shredded chicken to the mix or poached prawns, sticky beef or if you really want to step it up a notch Confit duck!! The Cos lettuce, Vietnamese mint, Thai basil and chives all came from our garden.


Fresh Spring roll of herbs, cos lettuce and cucumber with a peanut chilli dipping sauce

12-14  large rice paper wraps
1 cup coriander leaves
1 cup Thai basil leaves
1 cup mint leaves
20 Vietnamese mint leaves
a small bunch of chives, cut into 5cm lengths
1 small cos lettuce
half a cucumber, seeded and cut into thin batons

First pick all your herb leaves and place them in a bowl. Wash the lettuce and finely slice, prep the cucumber and cut the chives. Mix together in a bowl.

Boil the jug and fill a large bowl. Dip the rice paper wraps into the boiling water for about 2 seconds, drip dry and place on a clean surface or a chopping board. Place a small handful of the salad herb mix on the rice paper. Roll in the bottom then the sides and then keep rolling up to seal the herbs in.  Repeat until you run out of herb mix.

To serve cut diagonally in half and arrange on the platter with the dipping sauce.


Dipping sauce

1/2 cup boiling water
5 T coconut sugar
5 T fish sauce
3 T lime juice
2 T rice wine vinegar
1- 2 T Japanese soy
1 T Hoisan sauce
1 red chilli, seeded and finely chopped
2 T coriander stalks, finely chopped (from the leaves you picked for above)
1/4 cup finely chopped roasted peanuts

Place boiling water and sugar together. Mix and cool. Add remaining ingredients.
This dressing is also nice for a Thai beef salad but just put the peanuts through the salad at the end.

Homemade Granola with nuts and seeds

This granola was part of my homemade Christmas goodies that I gave away this year. I have had quite a lot of feed back about it so I thought I would share the recipe. I don't like my granola very sweet as I usually eat it with fruit but you can always add more honey to your taste. You can of course change the nuts and dried fruit in the recipe to whatever you fancy.

I made this recipe times 5 and it filled 12 x 1L jars and made just under 10kg of Granola. This recipe is more domestic kitchen friendly and makes around 2 kg.


Homemade Granola with nuts and seeds

320g whole oats
60g sesame seeds
80g sunflower seeds
60g coconut shavings or chips
200g pumpkin seeds
120g cashew nuts, chopped
200g blanched almonds, chopped

40g honey
60g unsweetened apple puree
100g coconut oil

200g dates, chopped
200g apricots, chopped
60g Goji berries
60g linseed

Place the first seven ingredients in a large bowl and mix well.
Heat the honey, coconut oil and apple puree over a low heat until everything is melted.
Pour into your oat seed mix and mix well.
Spread out on to two trays and place in a 160 degree oven stirring every 10 minutes until everything is a nice light golden colour.
Cool and then add in your chopped fruit and linseed.

Keeps in a airtight container for about 3 months.

Beetroot, carrot and courgette salad with orange and herbs

This is quick, easy and refreshing salad that took no time at all to whip up. Most of the time I enjoy cooking dinner, even when I cook all day at work. Other times I just want to get it over and done with so I can relax and enjoy the rest of the evening. This salad was definitely made so I could relax and enjoy the rest of the evening and it even turned out pretty good!

I was going to shred all these vegetables on my mandolin but it appeared that my mother has borrowed it. Then I was going to use the grater attachment on the food processor but I couldn't find it. I did however find the slicing attachment so I just went with it as I was running out of options and cutting it by hand wasn't one! Anyway you could use any of the above options and it would work perfectly fine.

I better stop going on and tell you the recipe huh? It's as simple as this!

2 beetroot, peeled

1 carrot, peeled

1 courgette, ends trimmed

1 stick of celey

1/2 a small red onion

a small bunch of dill and parsley, chopped

salt and pepper

Dressing

Juice of one orange

1-2 T red wine vinegar

1-2 T Virgin olive oil

salt and pepper

Cut the vegetables to fit the chute of your food processor and fire them through. Place in a bowl and add the chopped herbs. Mix up the dressing and add to the vegetables. Season and adjust the vinegar if necessary. If it is too sharp add a bit more olive oil. 

Serves 2.

We served this with some fresh fish and new potatoes.

Dips, Dips And More Dips

We had excess beetroot, pumpkin and kale from the garden that all needed eating. So as a quick easy way of using some of them up I made a trio of dips to enjoy on crackers as a snack.

Beetroot Dip

Ingredients

1 medium beetroot or 2 small beetroot

1 cup of thick natural yoghurt

2 crushed cloves of garlic

a pinch of fresh thyme leaves

salt and pepper

toasted cumin seeds to sprinkle on top

Place the whole beetroot (skin and all) in a saucepan and cover with cold water.

Bring the water to boil and simmer until the beetroot is tender.

Once the beetroot is cool enough for you to handle without burning your fingers peel the skin off the beetroot.

Roughly cut the beetroot up and place it in a food processor with all of the other ingredients apart from the cumin seeds.

Blend until you get the consistency you like.

Sprinkle the toasted cumin seeds on top to serve.

Pumpkin and Cashew Dip

Ingredients

half a medium sized pumpkin cut into small cubes

olive oil

salt

1/2 cup of cashew nuts

2 cloves of garlic

2T grated parmesan cheese

Place the pumpkin, oil and salt in a bowl. Toss until the pumpkin is well coated.

Roast the pumpkin in a 180 degree oven until tender.

Place the cashew nuts in a food processor. Blend until you get a texture that you like. If you blend them to a fine mixture you will tend to get a creamier dip, if they are a bit chunkier you will get a more textural dip.

Add the rest of the ingredients to the food processor and blend until the pumpkin forms a smooth texture.

Kale Pesto

Ingredients

a handful of kale leaves - middle stem removed

1/4 cup of walnuts - toasted

a clove of garlic

olive oil

juice and zest of one lemon

salt and pepper

Blanch the kale leaves for about 30seconds in boiling water and refresh in ice cold water. 

Attempt to remove as much excess water from the kale as possible.

Add the kale and the rest of the ingredients to a food processor and blend until you get a consistency that you like.

Add as much olive oil as you need to get the texture that you want. I used about 1/4 cup. The smoother you want your pesto the more olive oil you will need.

The measurements of the ingredients in these recipes is only a guide. You can play around with them as you please to get the flavours that you want. 

I served my dips as part of a plater with cured fish (see previous post), home grown and brined olives and crackers. It was delicious and healthy!

Cured Fish

This has to be the easiest and yummiest thing I have ever made! It is definitely going to be on my list of things to make for christmas day. It barely involves any preparation and no cooking. It would be great as part of a plater, canape or entree for a party. Its tasty, fresh and easy.
In this recipe I have used salmon but you can also use trout. You could experiment with other fish also.
I used dill to flavour this recipe but you could use any flavour you want. For example, you could add the zest of lemons and/or limes, toasted fennel seeds, toasted coriander seeds, anything that tickles your fancy really.
The amount of sugar and salt doesn't matter so much, its more that you need equal quantities of them both. You can adjust the recipe to how big your fillet of fish is. Its important that you have enough salt mixture to cover the whole fish.

Ingredients

150g salt

150g castor sugar

a large handful of dill

1 fillet of salmon - no skin or bones

Mix the salt, sugar and dill together.

Place half the mixture in a tray that will snuggly fit your fish. 

Place your fish on top of the salt mixture. 

Use the rest of the salt mixture to completely cover your fish. 

Cover with cling wrap.

Cover the fish with another tray and place weights on top of the tray to weigh the whole thing down. I just use tins or jars from the cupboard.

Place the whole thing into the fridge for overnight (at least 8hours).

Using a paper towel wipe the salt mixture off as best you can.

And now you have a yummy snack!

I have served mine with slices of lemon and a horseradish cream, but again, the choice is all yours.

Roast Portabellos with Taleggio, Puy lentils and Asparagus

Mmmm Taleggio. One of my favourite cheeses... so melty and great with so many things. I set out to make this a meat free meal but then I found some smokey bacon in the fridge and it was game over. Smokey bacon and Taleggio together, as I like to say a lot in the kitchen are so banging! You of course use a 1/2 tsp of smoked paprika if you weren't as much of a bacon fan as I am and then it would be vegetarian friendly.

Mushrooms and Taleggio are also a delicious match, so during my yoga class this evening I thought this up. I always seem to plan my dinner when I should be concentrating on something else!  

Roast Portabellos with Taleggio, Puy lentils and Asparagus

1 large onion, finely sliced

35g butter

2 rashers of smokey bacon, chopped (Optional)

1/2 a 400g tin of chopped tomatoes (You could probably use a whole tin if you didn't have some to use up)

250g puy lentils

1 bay leaf

1 cup water or stock

4 large portabellos

4 sprigs of thyme

olive oil

70g Taleggio, sliced into 4 

handful of parsley

70g-100g baby spinach

Zest of half a lemon

1 bunch a asparagus

Start by getting your lentils on to cook. In a small pot cover them with plenty of water and add the bay leaf. Bring to the boil and simmer for 20 or so minutes or until just tender. Strain and briefly rinse. Put a pot of water back on for cooking your asparagus.

Place your Portabellos on a lined baking tray and drizzle with olive oil, thyme leaves and flaky salt and black pepper and roast in a 200 degree oven for 5 or so minutes. Place the Taleggio on top and switch the oven to grill. Leave them aside until you are ready to serve.

Heat a pan and add the butter, onion and bacon and cook slowly with a pinch of salt until the onions are soft and sweet. Add the strained lentils, tomatoes and 1 cup of hot water and cook until the lentils are tender and most of the water as evaporated. Season and add the baby spinach, chopped parsley and the lemon zest.

Now to finish everything off... Place the mushrooms under the grill and melt the cheese and let it caramelise. Place your asparagus into salted boiling water and cook for 2 minutes or until they are done to your liking.

Plate up the lentils, place the asparagus on top and finish with the cheesy mushrooms and if you like things to look pretty then sprinkle on some basil leaves from your garden. Yum!

The left over lentils, if you have any would be pretty delicious with a poached egg on top the next day.

Stephanie Alexander App

For all of those who love Stephanie Alexander check out her new app available from the Apple App Store. I love Stephanie Alexander and was super excited to see that she had a cooking and recipe app!The app is based on her best selling cookbook The Cook's Companion. It has all the same recipes and tip bits as the book. It also has a tab with each recipe so that you can add your own notes.Now when I searched for the app I discovered that it was free! I thought wow this is way too good to be true! And it was. The app is free to download but when you go into the app everything is in sections. For example, pasta and noodles, basics and equipment, vegetables and herbs etc. The first section, pasta and noodles, is free to access and use. However, you have to individually pay to access each of the other sections. They range in price from 99c for the basics and equipment section, to $9.49 for the vegetables and herbs section. So to get all the sections it can add up pretty quickly.Having said that it is a really good app. I find the iphone has too small a screen to read recipes off but if you had an ipad it would work really well. However, if you are like me and think that you can remember your shopping list and then get to the supermarket and realise that the shopping list has slipped your mind, its very handy having the recipe on your phone to refer back to the ingredients list.

Flourless Orange Cake with Syrup

The thing that I hate the most is wasting quality produce. So every weekend I go through the fruit bowl and pick out all the fruit that is nearing its 'time to go in the compost' date. I then google for a cake recipe that has the fruit I have picked out in the recipe. This way we have a cake to eat with lunch for the week and we don't waste any fruit. This is how the above orange cake came to be in our cake tin, and, boy was it a good one.
Usually my partner juices any left over oranges so that we have fresh OJ in the fridge. However, when I saw this recipe I wrestled the oranges off him.
We usually always have Navel Oranges in the house. We find that, one, they usually have the best flavour and juiciness, and, two, the local oranges tend to be all navel and we try to buy all local produce. Its good for the environment, good for the local economy and produce tends to be tastier as it is fresher. However, you could use any type of orange, mandarin, tangelo, etc.
I have given you two syrup recipes to choose from. In the photo above I have used the orange syrup but I have previously made a killer orange cake using the spiced coriander syrup which is delicious!! So use what ever one you feel like. I know the coriander syrup seems weird but definitely give it a go sometime - you will be pleasantly surprised.

FLOURLESS ORANGE CAKE

2 Oranges

3 Eggs

1cup sugar

3cups almond meal

1t baking powder

Pre-heat oven to 170C. Grease and line a cake tin.

Place oranges in a saucepan and cover with cold water. Bring the water to the boil and boil for 15mins.

Drain the water and repeat the process again.

Once the oranges have been twice boiled drain them and chop the whole orange roughly. Remove any seeds. Then place the whole orange (pith and all) into a food processor. Blitz until a smooth puree is formed.

Meanwhile beat eggs and sugar together until pale yellow and thick.

Fold almond meal, baking powder and orange puree into the egg/sugar mixture.

Pour mixture into prepared tin and bake for 1hour.

Once cooked let sit for 15mins then carefully using a skewer poke holes in the top. Then pour either one of the following syrups over top and allow it to soak in.

Serve with organic natural yoghurt.

ORANGE SYRUP

1 orange

3/4 cup sugar

Zest the orange and place zest in a small saucepan. Cover with cold water. Bring to the boil and boil for 5mins. Drain.

Juice the orange. 

Place the juice, sugar and boiled zest into a saucepan.

Cook over low heat until the sugar is dissolved and the syrup has thickened slightly.

SPICED CORIANDER SYRUP

2t coriander seeds

100g sugar

100ml water

2t lemon juice

Toast and grind up the coriander seeds.

Add ground coriander to saucepan with the rest of the ingredients.

Simmer until the sugar has dissolved and the syrup has thickened slightly.

Spiced Lamb and smokey chilli Lahmacun, Eggplant Zaalouk, Mint and radish salad and Labne

I ate a variation of this dish while in Turkey, well the Lacmacun part anyway. Its basically their version of a pizza and you can get them all over Turkey. They are so delicious hot from the wood fired oven! I want!

To make it more of a meal, I served it with a warm eggplant salad, a refeshing mint and radish salad and some homemade labne

There are a few recipes in this post post but don't let it scare you away. They are either quick and easy or can be done in advance. For the Lahmacun I adapted one of my favourite chefs, Greg Malouf's recipe.I love his food! I used his dough recipe exactly but changed the topping.


Lahmacun dough

1 T dried yeast
3/4 t sugar
40 ml warm water
150g thick natural yoghurt
60ml extra virgin olive oil
310g strong bread flour ( I just used high grade)
1/2 tsp  sea salt

Dissolve the yeast and sugar in the warm water and set aside for about 10 mins.
Place the flour, salt, olive oil and yoghurt in a bowl of the stand mixer fitted with a dough hook and add the yeast mixture. On a low speed knead for about 10-15 minutes or until the dough is smooth and shiny.
Cover with a damp tea towel and leave for 2 hours until its doubled in size.
After 2 hours knock back the dough and divide into 10 x 55g balls. Roll out to about 14cm rounds and lightly brush with olive oil and spread with the lamb topping.

Chopping all the topping ingredients together.

Spiced lamb and smokey chilli topping

200g minced lamb - not too lean
1 red chilli
1 small red onion, finely diced
1 tomato, seeded and diced
1/2 tsp smoked paprika
1 tsp sumac
1/4 tsp dried mint
1/2 tsp allspice
1 clove garlic, microplaned
1 tsp olive oil
salt and pepper


Char the outside of the chilli and put in a bag to steam. Peel off the skin and chop the chilli up.
Place all the ingredients in a chopping board and with a large knife chop everything together to form a fine paste. Season well.

To make the Lahmacun heat your oven to 220 degrees. I used my pizza stone so I heated that up too but you could just use a baking tray.

Roll out your dough and flop the rolled dough onto the hot stone and brush lightly with olive oil and spread over the filling. Bake for about 4-8 minutes depending on how hot your oven is. You want the edges brown and the base cooked.

I cooked all of mine in batches of 3 and then when the time came to serve I flashed them in a hot oven to warm through.


Eggplant Zaalouk

2-3 T olive oil
1 eggplant, diced
2  cloves garlic, crushed
1 tsp each of coriander and cumin seeds, ground
1/2 tsp sweet paprika
1/4 tsp cayenne
1/2 tin of cherry tomatoes
1/4 cup water
pinch sugar
1/2 cup of coriander and parsley, chopped
juice of 1/2 a lemon
salt and black pepper

Heat oil in a pan on a high heat, add the eggplant and cook for 5 minutes. Add the spices and cook out. Add the tomatoes, water and sugar and cook until the tomatoes reduce and coat the eggplant. When the eggplant is tender its done. Season and add the herbs and lemon juice.


Mint and Radish salad

1 cup of mint leaves
4-6 radishes, thinly sliced on a mandolin
150g baby spinach
juice of half a lemon
1 T virgin olive oil
flaky salt and freshly ground black pepper

Mix all together before serving.


To serve

Labne
Extra red pepper flakes if you like it a bit spicy
Pomegranate molasses to drizzle over the Lahmacun

When eating this I like to pile everything on top of my Lahmacun so every mouthful is delicious and balanced and then fold it over and eat it with my hands. Yum!!

As you can see a wee friend popped into the photo...

How to make Labne

Labne with olive oil and sumac

Labne

Labne is strained thick yoghurt. It is one of my favourite things and you can use it in so many ways. I like to keep some in my fridge most of the time. It has a great shelf life, especially if you cover it with a nice olive oil. Or you can keep it in an airtight container and it pretty much keeps as long as your yoghurt would. You can also roll it into balls and roll them in herbs, nuts or seeds. Spread it on toast with fresh tomato on top or use it as a dip. Add it to salads like I did here. Serve it with barbequed meat or roast vegetables. The possibilities are endless!


1kg plain unsweetened yoghurt (don't use low fat!)
1 1/2 tsp table salt
zest of a lemon
a new chux cloth or piece of muslin
sieve
bowl to sit under the sieve

In a bowl mix together the yoghurt, salt, and lemon zest.
Line the sieve with the chux cloth and pour in the yoghurt mix.


Gather the edges of the cloth up and tie in a knot and place the sieve over the bowl. This catches all the liquid that strains out of the yoghurt

Yoghurt straining and ready for the fridge

You want to strain your yoghurt for 24-48 hours. The longer you strain the thicker it gets. I checked it after 6 hours once and there was quite a lot of liquid in the bowl and it had definitely thickened so it is personal preference really.

You can also flavour the labne as you wish before straining or after. Fresh herbs are nice, spices, Harissa, lime instead of lemon. You could fold in toasted nuts before serving too. See! So many possibilities!

Puy lentil, quinoa and haloumi salad with baby carrots and asparagus

On a hot Sunday night this was just what we felt like for dinner. We picked up fresh asparagus and baby carrots from the market so they were super fresh!

The lentils and Qunioa can be cooked in advance and the dressing can be made up to a day a head or earlier if you omit the tomato and add it on the day. The onions can also be done the night before too.

There are only two of us here but if you upped the carrots and asparagus to say 500g each then it would be plenty for four. We had enough for dinner and some for a lunch the next day.


Puy lentil, quinoa and haloumi salad with baby carrots and asparagus

200g Puy lentils
2 cloves garlic
100g quinoa - I used black Quinoa
200g baby carrots
250g asparagus
1 T olive oil
1 tsp each of cumin and coriander seeds
flaky salt and black pepper

1/2 red onion, finely sliced
1 T red wine vinegar
1/2 tsp Allspice
1/2 tsp Sumac

1/2 cup hazelnuts - roasted and roughly chopped
200g haloumi, thickly sliced
1/2 cup finely chopped parsley
1/2 cup labne or Greek yoghurt

Dressing
1 tomato, deseeded, small diced
2 T red wine vinegar
2 T pomegranate molasses
3 T virgin olive oil
Black pepper
1 tsp flaky salt
2 cloves garlic that you cooked with the lentils, mashed
1/2 tsp sumac


First bring the lentils to boil with the garlic cloves and a couple of bay leaves and simmer for about 20 minutes or until tender. Drain and briefly rinse. Set aside.

I cooked the Quinoa using the absorption method with the ratio of  one and a half times as much water. You don't want it crunchy so keep adding more water if you need.

Finely slice your onion and place it in a bowl with 1 T red wine vinegar and the sumac and allspice, mix it together and leave while you sort out your other bits.

Mix everything for the dressing together and set aside.

Place the carrots, 1 Tablespoon of oil and the cumin and coriander on a roasting tray and roast for about 6 minutes at 180°. Then add your asparagus and cook for a further 5 minutes.

While the carrots and asparagus are cooking you can start mixing your salad together.  In a bowl add the lentils, Quinoa, marinated onions, parsley and dressing. Season well.

Arrange the lentil salad on a serving platter and pile your roast carrots and asparagus on top.

Next you want to cook you Haloumi as you want it more melty and less squeaky. Heat a non stick pan on a medium heat and heat 1 T of oil. Add your Haloumi slices and turn when caramelised. When cooked place the Haloumi on top of the vegetables. Sprinkle with the roast hazelnuts and dollop on the Labne.

Finish with a squeeze of lemon and serve!

Carrot and Cabbage Tabbouleh

Having a garden has really improved my inventiveness, creativeness and flexibility in the kitchen. When food is ready in the garden it has to be used or all of your hard work ends up in the compost! Today we had cabbage, spring onions and carrots that desperately needed eating...This lead to the following recipe - Carrot and Cabbage Tabbouleh. 

This is a really nice light, fresh salad that is a bit of a combination of tabbouleh and coleslaw. It is healthier than coleslaw as it doesn't have mayonnaise in it. You could leave out the cracked wheat/burghul, olive oil and lemon, and, add a mayonnaise to make an equally yummy, more traditional coleslaw. 

You can use either cracked wheat or burghul. It depends on what you have in the cupboard and what taste you prefer.

I have put quantities in the recipe but I usually just keep adding ingredients until I feel there is a good ratio of them all. The secret is to try and slice everything as finely as possible.

2 cups cracked wheat/burghul

2 cloves garlic, finely sliced

3-4 spring onions, finely sliced

1 small/medium cabbage, finely sliced

3-4 carrots, finely sliced

5-6 inner stalks of celery, finely sliced

at least 2 large handfuls of flat leaf parsley, chopped

large handful of mint leaves, chopped

juice of 2 lemons

4 T olive oil

salt and pepper

Place cracked wheat in a mixing bowl. Cover with boiling water. Allow to soak for 30minutes. Once tender, drain as much liquid from the cracked wheat as possible.

Mix all vegetables and herbs with the cracked wheat.

Mix lemon juice, olive oil, salt and pepper together. Pour dressing over salad.

Then all there is to do is enjoy!