Rhubarb & Ginger Compote, with Honey Pecan Granola & Strawberry Yogurt Pots

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Dashing Dessert Breakfast

Looking for a breakfast that tastes as good as a dessert. That packs a nutritional punch, with some great healthy fats and a good whack of protein and calcium. Then look not further. If all that nutritional waffle has put you off - do not be deterred! These are super yummy, pretty snacks that can be enjoyed at any time of the day.

Granola is an old favorite of mine - perfect start to the day with fruit and yogurt. I have three recipes here, here and here. To this one I added a good handful of crushed pecan nuts, desiccated coconut, a tablespoon of vegetable oil and a tablespoon of honey


Returning shame faced after a run in the park I tucked into one of these. Some lovely army men were doing maneuvers in the park. They promptly all sprinted passed me, they were however in full gear and carrying huge backpacks. Ah well - what can you do. I was carrying a set of keys!

Ingredients - Makes 6 portions
Rhubarb Compote
4 stems of rhubarb - cut into 3cm chunks
3cm of fresh ginger grated finely
1 tablespoon of brown sugar


750 ml of yogurt - I used Glenisk
1 punnet of strawberries
1 jar of granola (links for recipe above)


Pre-heat oven to 150c


Method
To make the compote mix together the rhubarb, ginger and sugar in a small oven proof dish. Cover and pop in the oven for about 20 minutes, until the rhubarb is soft. Allow to cool.


Get glass ramekins, wineglasses or any small containers you have that are made of glass. Cut strawberries length ways in 1/4 cm slices. Push them up against the side of the glass to show the cut side out. Then layer in alternate layers of yogurt, compote and granola. Finish with a layer of granola.


Serve and enjoy. There are lots of alternative fruits you cold use such as blackberries, apple, mango or raspberries. Feel free to use other flavored yogurt, or make your own by stirring the compote through a whole pot of yogurt.

Cinnamon & Raisin Bagels

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Boilin' the Bagels

A trip to New York is never complete without ordering a bagel from a deli. The bagel emerges toasty hot and stuffed to the gills with your chosen filling. Pastrami to the thickness of a couple of inches, topped with thin ribboned iceberg lettuce and mayo and tomato. It's a feat to try and take in that first bite.

Since I've visited New york twice, I can by no means make any claims to be an expert. The bagels there are different from the ones you get in the local Spar here. A real bagel has to be boiled, and I don't see no large vats of bubbling water beside the ovens churning out the jambons and chicken fillets. After boiling they are indeed baked as well, but the boiling gives them a chewy and slight hint of dumpling that you just can't get here.

Leaning Tower of Bagels on a Sunny Day!

I decided to make some of my own after reading Donal Skehans post on his mammoth eating holiday in Manhattan. I found a recipe for Cinnamon and Raisin Breakfast Bagels on his blog too - so that all came together nicely. Donal is a long time Irish blogger, just celebrating the release of his second cook book 'Kitchen Hero' Congrats to Donal, hope the book does fantastically!


I followed his recipe faithfully here, and now have a freezer half full of bagels, just pop them in the toaster for instant breakfast or afternoon tea. Spread with fresh butter, or cream cheese. I attempted hot cross buns last year - and failed miserably, these are much better alternative.


Enjoy!

Chicken Savoyarde

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This is another recipe I cooked over Christmas in the Peak District in Yorkshire. It's from Tasamin Day-Lewis cook book 'Supper for a Song'. I did find the title of the book slightly misleading as the ingredients for this recipe can testify. The emphasis of the book is more towards using up leftovers - or making more then one meal using the same ingredient. She has some great ideas for leftover mash - mmmm mash. Tamasin does make the very good point that often cheap ingredients are a false economy - both for you and for the farmers and animals involved. You can't make a silk purse from a velour bag you got in Penny's, so the saying goes! 

I followed the recipe faithfully - so here's the link to Tamasins version. It's a wonderful rich dish and if you like Spaghetti carbonara - you're sure to be pretty fond of this too.

In other VERY exciting news, I'm off to the Cooks Academy for four weeks starting in the morning. I hope I can sleep. I'm hoping to be able to write a few posts about my time in the school - and if you're on twitter I shall be tweeting regularly about my progress.

Cumberland Casserole

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From the Snowy Peak District

 I was lucky enough to be taken away with my parents this Christmas. We spent a week in the snowy and icy Peak District in Derbyshire in England. My mother was born in the area and we still have some relations. It was wonderful to catch up with my aunt, uncle and cousin. I was filled in on some fascinating family history which has been lovingly traced by my uncle, right back to the mid 1700's! Amazing. We enjoyed many slow leisurely meals and long walks in the beautiful snow covered moors. All very idyllic and relaxing.

I made dinner for the family one evening. It being a holiday house I stuck to a simple supper. The inspiration came from a recipe by Tamasin Day-Lewis. I bought some Cumberland sausages from the local butcher. This butchers shop contained a staggering amount of pork pies. The back wall was lined 4 deep and 15 high. When we returned on Stephen's Day (Boxing Day in the UK) they were gone, all of them! I was amazed by the Christmas Pork Pie consumption of these Derbyshire Folk. I guess it must be a Christmas tradition. I was lucky enough to snap one up before they were all gone - and it must have been the best pork pie I've ever had. Perfect pastry, a little jelly on the meat and moist filling - perfect with some English mustard.

Ingredients

Serves 3

5 Cumberland Sausages - skins removed

3 rashers

1/4 of a head of green cabbage - finely sliced

4 potatoes - peeled and finely sliced

1/2 large onion (or 1 small) finely sliced

1 heaped tablespoon of grainy mustard

1/2 teaspoon of dried thyme

1/2 pint of stock

A few small knobs of butter (it's Christmas)
Seasoning

Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees. Grill the rashers and cut into small pieces. In an oven proof dish make a layer of half of the cabbage, half the rashers and half the onion. Then top with the sausage meat - go on squish it out of the casing, it feels lovely! Make it into a rough layer. Top this with the grainy mustard and thyme. Then add the remaining cabbage, rashers and onion. Pour over your stock and a good grind of black pepper. Then top with the potato layer. Cover your dish with it's lid (or tin foil if you don't have a lid. The stock should be coming up past the first layer of cabbage and the sausage. As longs as the potatoes aren't covered it should be fine. Bake in the over for 1 hour and fifteen minutes. Top with freshly chopped parsley before serving with some steamed veg.

This is a lovely non-nonsense supper, that is really delicious despite it's modest ingredients. Greater than the sum of it's elements let's say. Quick and simple to put together and forget about while it bubbles away - yumbo!

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Hazelnut Meringue with Apricot Filling

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Ah lovely background with mini - accordian and pack of fags!

Ingredients
6 egg white
12oz caster sugar
4 oz ground hazelnuts
6oz dried apricots soaked overnight in water
1 inch of cinnamon
Juice of two oranges
2 inch piece of orange rind
2 tablespoons of brown sugar
500 ml single or double cream
Extra hazelnuts for decorating - I used 18 - that was 1 oz!
3 cake tins - lightly oiled and lined with parchment on the bottom.

I started out by toasting the hazelnuts until golden - toast a few extra as you’ll eat a few. Pop them out of their skins and roughly blend them in a  blender, not forgetting to keep a few extra whole over to decorate the top of the dessert when done.

Separate out your eggs - being super careful not to allow any yolk in - otherwise your meringue will fail miserably. Also worth washing your utensils just before starting the meringue - as any dirt or grease could affect the fluffiness of your egg whites- leaving you with one flat meringue.

Put the 6 egg whites in a bowl / food processor with whisk attachment - and whisk until  they form soft peaks. Then slowly add in the caster sugar spoon by spoon. The whites should stay smooth and get a little glossy. Then fold in the ground hazelnuts gently with a metal spoon. 

Spoon the mixture into the tins and bake at the middle of the oven for 30 mins at Gas Mark 5.

Now make the apricot filling. Drain the apricots over a bowl. Add 4 tablespoons of the soaking liquid into the pan with the fruit cinnamon, brown sugar, orange peel and juice. Bring to a gentle simmer and let it bubble away for about 20 minutes until the apricots are breaking apart. Add more of the soaking liquid if it appears to be getting too dry..

Remove the meringues from the oven - they should have a light brown tinge. Leave to cool in the tins for 15 mins before turning them out onto a wrack to cool fully. Just before serving assemble the meringue - put one meringue with half of the apricot mixture and a third of the whipped cream. then another meringue followed by the rest of the apricot filling, more cream, meringue and then the rest of the cream and a few toasted hazelnuts. This dessert is pretty sweet - so if you prefer a less sugary dessert - I recommend you try something else - but for sugar junkies - this will be a tasty hit!

Spicy Curly Veggie Fries with Mint & Chive Dip

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I discovered a nice new blog yesterday from fellow Dubliner, David - Kitchen 72, there are some nice recipes with a healthy bent. I read his recipe for carrot and feta salad with mint and harissa and decided that I would make this for my dinner. One hugely failed shopping trip later and I had half the ingredients - so I made this instead - it has carrots, harrisa and mint in too - same same but roasted!
 

Ingredients
Serves 2
2 Yams
1 Sweet potato
2 Large carrots (all cut into thin batons
1 Tablespoon of harissa
5 Cloves of garlic
Salt & pepper
A good dash of olive oil

For the dip (serves one)
2 Tablespoons of yogurt
A handful of chives (finely chopped)
A handful of mint (finely chopped)
A sprinkle of smoked paprika

Pre-heat your oven to gas mark 6. Toss all the fries ingredients well in a big baking tray - the thinner you can spread them apart from each other the crispier they’ll be. Bake on a high shelf for 45-50 minutes turning once or twice to ensure even crisping.
 
To make the sauce simply mix together the yogurt and herbs and sprinkle with a bit of paprika.  The spicy harissa is balanced out with the mint ad yogurt beautifully.
 
This dish would be great with baba-ganoush as a dip  - or roast breast of chicken on the bone  - or some grilled halloumi.

Oven Baked Lamb Burgers in Mediterranean Sauce

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Maybe more of stew than a sauce

This recipe was started off by catching a wiff of barbecued burgers in town whilst having a drink. So it was decided - some juicy tasty burgers for dinner - oh yes! We picked up all we needed on Mary Street, from the Asian food company - one of my favourite shops in town.

IngredientsFor the burgers
3/4 pound of minced lamb
1 white onion - finely diced
1 tablespoon ground cumin
 a good grate of fresh nutmeg
2 tablespoons of ketchup
1 slice of bread - crumbed

For the sauce
3 mini aubergines (cause they're cute) finely sliced
1 white onion diced
3 cloves of garlic sliced finely
1 large green chili - seeds removed
1/2 red pepper - diced
1/2 yellow pepper - diced
1/2 courgette - diced
8 large tomatoes roughly chopped
1/2 litre vegetable stock
2 tablespoons fresh parsley

Start by making the burgers. Basically mix all the ingredients together in a big bowl - you’ll have to use your hands for sure. Then form into 6 burger shapes, and place in an oven proof dish and refrigerate while you make the sauce.

For the sauce fry the aubergine in a  little olive oil until it starts to colour a little - add in the onion and some more oil if needed and cook for another few minutes before adding the garlic and chilli. After another few minutes add in the peppers and courgette. Cook these until the soften ever so slightly - then add in all your chopped tomatoes. Bring to a gentle simmer and cover until the tomatoes begin to beak apart. Then add in about 1/2 little of vegetable stock. Allow to simmer for a few minutes, then remove from the heat and pour over your burgers in an oven proof dish - the sauce should cover the burgers - remember it will cook down in the oven.

Bake at gas mark 6 for about an hour. Serve with a sprinkle of parsley and some oven baked chips (ours turned out tasting of lemons, so Delo ran to the chipper - weekend boldness!) 

The burgers came out wonderfully moist and the vegetable mixture cooked down to produce a rich, sweet and dense sauce. I don’t want my burgers any other way! They would be equally as tasty with beef mince, I’d have added some harissa to the mixture if I’d had some to hand for sure. Endless variations possible here - with different vegetables and meats.  Tonight I’ll eat the leftovers in a fresh floury bap - looking forward to it already.

Leek & Bread Pudding

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Twice Baked Bread

I saw this recipe mid-week and just knew I had to make it. One of my favorite things is bread and butter pudding, and this is a savory version including a rich conte cheese and gently carmelised leeks. This recipe comes from the super blog - based out of NYC - Smitten Kitchen. I love her recipes its one of m favorite blogs - so be sure and check it out. She has  a book in the due out in the next few, which is def on my Christmas list (oh hint, hint!)

I followed the recipe exactly at this link. I served it with some fresh - uncoloured smoked haddock, from the fishmonger at the Saturday food market in Temple Bar - I hadn't been there in a while and had forgotten how great it is, for an morning wander and a nibble. 

To prepare the fish - simply poach in milk for 5 minutes, flake over a slice of this bread pudding hot from the oven - it's Saturday lunch heaven. Give Delo an extra large slice cause he bought you a lovely bunch of flowers!!! My pictures don't really convey the texture of the bread too well, it was crispy and crunchy on top, whilst soft, spongy and creamy inside - this is a well recommended recipe and the possibility of endless variations.

Very Full Tart - by Yotam Ottolenghi

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Very Full Tart - by Yotam Ottolenghi

Yotam Ottolenghi write the 'new vegetarian' in the Observer on Sunday, I love his recipes, they always full of flavor and colour. This recipe was good if a little time consuming - not quite sure why it took me so long! Maybe roasting the veg for differing amounts of time did it. The blind baking the case, the baking the whole thing.

I've just included the link to the recipe as I followed it pretty much to the T - except I used a large yellow squash that came in our Fruitfellas box - in place of the aubergine - either would be great I'm sure.

This tart was bursting with flavor - the thyme is essential to the overall flavor - and the nice mixture of the ricotta and feta is wonderful with a crumbly pastry casing. Perfect  to bring along to an outdoor Sunday spring/summer lunch. This pie once baked - it was carried bicycle style across the city to Delo who had been working hard on a college project all weekend - mobile dinner - could turn that into a business maybe - what do you reckon?

Baked Eggs with Herb and Parmesan Crust

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15 minute miracle

For shame out lack of blogging of late, due largely to the good weather and gardening

I have 5 minutes in which to recount this recipe so I'll make it snappy. It's after work, I've cooked dinner, done some gardening and I'm running out the door to rehearsal now. This is a quick and easy recipe which can provide a satisfying meal in less than 15 minutes.

Ingredients

2 eggs

splash of milk

5 chives - chopped

small handful of parsley

1/4 teaspoon of Dijon mustard

A handful of freshly grated Parmesan

Seasoning

Pre-heat the oven to gas mark 8. Grease a ramekin dish. In small bowl combine all the ingredients except the cheese, mix gently to ensure that the yolks remain intact. Place mixture into ramekin dish and top with the grated cheese. Bake on the top shelf of the oven for 8 minutes, until golden and brown and puffy.

I served this with a slice of toasted sourdough (of Lolas making - recipe to follow) rubbed with garlic and drizzled with good olive oil as well as side salad of sugar snap eaps olive oil and sesame seeds.

and I'm off .... into the lovely bright evening

Beetroot & Celeriac Gratin

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This is a very simple recipe that I got from the Irish Times this weekend - by Domini Kemp. it sounded tasty and involved a turnip that had been hiding in my veg drawer for some time, so that was enough to convince me!

It's a nice simple dish that would be great served along side some roast beef and horseradish.

Ingredients

1 head of celeriac - finely sliced

2 small beetroot finely sliced

1/2 turnip - finely sliced

3 cloves of garlic crushed

300 mls of cream 

Some fresh nutmeg

Seasoning - quite a bit is neede

Layer all of your veg up in an oven proof dish. Mix together the cream, seasoning and the nutmeg. Pour this over the veg and bake at 150 or gas mark four for an hour and a half. Check that it's not drying out after about an hour - if it's getting too crispy - just pop the lid on.

The beetroot gives this dish a nice pink hue and celeriac a nice texture. It's covered in a thin crispy top which gives way to layers and layers of delicious creamy sauce and bright dashes of colour.

Boston baked beans

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Boo to Hugh

I would regard this recipe as a semi-fail, as I wasn't too keen on it but Lu and Sarah both really liked it and ate it all up.

I think if I was making it again I would not use belly pork as its just too fatty for me. Yuck, whole bits of fat floating around in your beans = Not nice. I might use sausages instead (a la cake cafe) and add them halfway through the cooking time rather than at the beginning. Also, I don't think I would add so much sugar. It was just too sweet with sugar and treacle. I would probably just use some tomatoes instead of sugar and see how that worked out.

Another reason these beans were not as good as they could have been was because I forgot to buy the proper type - haricots- and had to make do with white kidney beans. I think these are a more robust variety, so they didn't go as mushy as would be required by me of a bean.

Oh the complaints! I guess I was just a little disappointed as my bean standards are so high, I had been wanting to try making this ever since I had a eureka moment at the cake cafe as to how amazing home made vs batchelors!

Anyway, here is the recipe, by Hugh Fernley Wittingstall. Sorry Hugh. must try harder. Also, this recipe says to cook for 4 hours but mine took at least 5, maybe 5 1/2. Again this could be down to using the wrong type of bean. Bah.

I might try this again some time but it takes a whole day so maybe a tin is the way to go after all.

Sticky Spare Ribs

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Skeletons Bones

At a Halloween party we had as a kid, my mum made barbecued spare ribs and called them skeletons bones. It being that time of year again I got a craving for slow roasted pork covered in sweet sticky dark sauce.

This recipe is far enough from perfect - not an ideal way to cook your ribs but it worked out well, so I'll share it and make recommendations after? Is that allowed?

Ingredients

8 spare ribs

Marinade

1.5 teaspoons of caraway seeds

2 serving spoons of Sherry Vinegar

1.5 serving spoons of olive oil

1 serving spoon of soy sauce

1 tablespoon of honey

1 teaspoon of honey

1 teaspoon of crushed chillies

3 serving spoons of ketchup

6 cloves

2 cloves of garlic crushed

Combine all the ingredients in a bowl. Toss the ribs well. Cover and refrigerate for 1-8 hours - however long you have, but the longer the better I suspect.

Preheat your oven to 200. Put your ribs into a large oven proof dish and put on the lid or cover with kitchen foil. After half and hour reduce the heat to 160. After a further half hour remove from the oven and take off the lid.

Now here's where it gets a bit odd. The ribs were cooking but were half submerged in liquid and a little fat - so I quickly poured this away (into a bowl no the sink - promise!) i decided to whip together a quick glaze so that they'd be nice and crispy and browned on the outside in half an hour. So I combined.....

1 dessertspoon of honey

1 dessertspoon of sweet chili sauce

1 teaspoon of honey

I smeared this over the ribs - and in half an hour - they looked great - well cooked meat - not falling off the bone - but more than ready to part company - if persuaded. We served them with some steaming hot baked potatoes and braised red cabbage - delicious! Very high in salt, so don't eat them everyday and you shouldn't die.

Doing this again I'm not sure what to change, the original marinade imparted a great depth of flavour - particularly the caraway seeds - so this method is messy but damn tasty. Fooled you I'm not making any recommendations - these were divine

Beef and Guinness Pie

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Ohm nom nom As Alan has been in Singapore for the last year eating only foreign muck (joking, he has told me many a tale about the wonderfulness of food in Singapore) we decided that he needed a good auld Irish dish as a welcome home.

I was going to cheat and buy the puff pastry, but they didn't have any in tesco's (bloody tesco parnell street is sooooo bad) so i had to make it from scratch. This was my first attempt at puff pastry, and while it was not actually that puffy, it did taste very good and was nice and light and crunchy.

We made the filling the night before the party for two reasons: 1- less stress on party day (considerable factor when you are cooking for 14) 2- leaving it overnight makes it more delicious. You could do it all in one day if you wanted to though Again, bear in mind that this recipe serves 14 so you can reduce all the amounts accordingly Ingredients: 11/2kg good quality stewing beef, cut into cubes by your butcher.
20 shallots
8-10 parsnips
8-10 carrots
1 large onion
3 cloves garlic
1 can Guinness extra stout
ltr good beef stock flour
salt & Pepper

Heat some oil in the biggest pot you own. Chop the onion and garlic finely and sweat them in the pot, covering them with the lid so they don't burn or colour. Toss the meat in a generous amount of flour into which you have added salt and ground black pepper until all the cubes are well covered. Toss these in the pan with the onions and brown all over. Stir constantly to stop the flour from burning on the bottom of the pan.

When all the meat has browned, add the peeled and chopped veggies (leave the carrots and parsnips in big-ish chunks) and stir until everything is combined. Then pour in the hot beef stock and stir to dissolve all the flour that has stuck to the bottom of the pan. Pour in the can of Guinness, cover and simmer for 15 mins.

Preheat your oven to about 175c and shove the whole pot in there. Leave it for about 3 hours. When you take it out the stew will be melty and gorgeous. Adjust the seasoning at this point, adding more slat and pepper if necessary. If you have time, leave it overnight and let all those gorgeous flavours intensify.

For the puff pastry: (this recipe is from Delia, her complete cookery course is my bible for basics like this)
1 lb strong white flour
8 oz lard
8oz margarine
10fl oz ice cold water


Sift the flour into a bowl with a pinch of salt. Chop up all the fat into inch sized squares and add to the flour. Now add the water and, using a palette knife make a series of straight cuts (like you are cutting a big cake) to incorporate everything. The aim is to leave the fat as intact as possible and still bring everything together into a dough-like ball.

When you have a reasonable ball of dough-like substance, take it out of the bowl (don't worry if it doesn't use up all of the flour) and place on a floured board. Shape it into a rough brick shape, and using a long, floured rolling pin, make 3 depressions across the brick. Make sure the dough and the pin are well dusted with flour at all times.

Then roll the whole thing out into an oblong that is roughly the length of your forearm (not including your hand!) and about 1/2 as wide. Now fold the top third down and the bottom third up so its a bit like an envelope. Seal the edges with a sharp press from the rolling pin. this locks in air, apparently. The dough will now be roughly the same size and shape as your original brick, so make the 3 depressions again and repeat the process again 4 or 5 times. What this does is spread out the large chunks of fat into layers with flour that you have used to dust the board, dough and pin. Clever, eh!

Allow the dough to rest in the fridge for at least half an hour before you roll it out. When you cut the dough in half you will be able to see all the layers of flour and fat, like the strata of a cliff. Because we had so much stew we had to use 2 pie dishes (big rectangular lasagne ones) but if you are making a smaller amount you could use a pretty round dish. Fill your dish up to almost full with the stew filling. Then cover with the rolled out pastry and make nice decorations on top (not a big penis, like Alan did) and a few cuts to allow steam to escape. I was going to put an egg wash over the pastry to make it nice and shiny (just a beaten egg brushed all over the pastry) but I forgot. We served this with boiled new potatoes and steamed broccoli. YUUUUMMMM

Chocolate Brownies

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A chocolate hit!

I had a chocolate craving, and felt like bringing a nice treat in to work the next day.

I left these in the oven a little too long, they were still good, but not as gooey as they should have been.

It turned out to be only me and Claire in work the next day... oh well, all the more for us!!

300g Flour

2 Tbsp Cocoa powder

1 tsp salt

200g butter

200g dark chocolate

1 tsp instant coffee

250g brown sugar

4 large eggs

melt the chocolate, butter and espresso together in a bowl over a pan of boiling water. Add the sugar and remove from the heat. The sugar will not melt but don't worry! Allow this mixture to cool for 10 mins. Meanwhile, measure out the flour and sift it together with the cocoa powder and salt

Mix the eggs, one at a time, in to the chocolate and butter mixture. Then carefully fold the flour mixture into the chocolate mixture. Don't over mix this or it will become too cakey.

Bake in a greased baking tray lined with greaseproof paper (also greased!) at 270c for 20 mins (or a little less if you oven is hot!) don't over cook, the brownies should be gooey in the middle.

Take out of the oven and allow to cool for as long as you can bear before cutting into squares and scoffing!

Barbequed Potatoes

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A La Delahunty

Get a square of tinfoil, pop a little spud in there. Drizzle with olive oil, a grind of black pepper, and a dash of salt. Don't forget to prick the potatoes first. Wrap in tinfoil, and pop on the barbeque for 15-20 mins, till soft and delicious, serve with a little nob of butter.... so very, very good!

Ingredients Potatoes Salt Pepper Olive Oil Tinfoil

see the clever colour connection between the two pictures there.....?

Roast Butternut Squash with Harrisa

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Roast Butternut Squash with Harrisa

So I knew there was harissa in the fridge and that was enough to go with. I found a nice recipe for squash roasted with harissa – it looked great – so I thought I would serve it with some bulghur wheat and feta, but I had left over mash – so potato cakes it was again – the three worked wonderfully together – a nice contrast to the sharp feta is the sweet and spicy roasted squash – I just love the colour of squash to, very appetising.

Ingredients

I butternut squash – peeled and cubed 1 inch
2 tablespoon veg oil
1 tablespoon of harissa
Salt & Pepper


Toss the squash in the oil and harissa to coat evenly – bung it in the oven – gas mark 7-8 for about 35 mins. Serve with potato cakes and chunks of feta and some rocket.

Yum

Super-Granola-Food

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Super-granola-food


I’m now remembering why I started to make my own granola – I’d been reading and hearing lots about superfoods and decided to make a concerted effort to incorporate more of them into my everyday diet…….

So for a month I tried to eat and cook my way through the below list. The contents of which are very much open to debate
• Black Beans
• Blueberries
• Broccoli
• Oats
• Oranges
• Pumpkin
• Salmon • Soy
• Spinach • Tea (green or black)
• Tomatoes • Turkey • Walnuts
• Yogurt
• Wheatgerm
• Tomato paste • Curry ?
• Ginger
• Black Beans • Fresh Herbs
• Dark Chocolate • Olive Oil
• Almonds
• Quinoia
• Seeds

It was quite fun to look at a list of ingredients in incorporate them into meals I already knew or to search out new recipes.

Back to the granola – I was looking for a way to combine a number of these foods so that it would be very easy to eat an amount of them in one go – Granola includes oats, pumpkin (seeds) walnuts, yogurt (to serve) wheatgerm, almonds (pronounced ahhhmint if you’re from Limerick) & even more seeds. Also it’s dead yummy and easy to make. With every batch you make some changes so it’s always different, I have seen some recipes that include cocoa and dark chocolate – so that could be one more off the list included.

Golden Syrup, Hazelnut and Vanilla Granola


Ingredients
This one smells amazing in the oven .
4 cup of jumbo oats 1 cup of wheatgerm
1 cup of hazelnuts & almonds - halved
½ cup of pumpkin seeds
2 tablespoons of sesame seeds
2 tablespoons of poppy seeds
1 serving spoon of unsweetened peanut butter
1 serving spoon of golden syrup
2 serving spoons of water 1 teaspoon of vanilla
1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon

Mix the golden syrup and water over a low heat till dissolved, then stir in the peanut butter, and finally the vanilla essence -remove from heat – don’t worry if the peanut butter remains a little lumpy – it will make some great crunchy pieces in your finished granola. Combine the other dry ingredients in a large bowl and mix thoroughly. Then pour over liquid – mix thoroughly once again – turn out onto a very lightly greased large baking tray, spreading as thinly and evenly as you can. Bake in the centre of the oven – for 30-40 mins mixing every 15 mins or so to ensure even browning. Allow to cool before putting in an airtight container.

Serve with natural or flavoured yogurt, and dried or fresh fruit of your choice. Or raw with a spoon straight from the jar at your desk, if you’re working late…. My secret super-shame!! My straight up peanut butter granola can be found here

Baked Sweet Potato Falafel

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Eastern Feastern

This one is especially for Holly who called me at work to ask her to post some veggie recipes - here you go Holly!!

I,ve cut out sugar wheat and dairy for a few weeks in order to fit into last years summer dresses for the big trip to Venice. I'm actually finding it surprisingly pleasant and I'm no where near as hungry as I thought I would be. I think the secret is a nice breakfast (I make my own muesli) then you don't feel too short changed over not being allowed have lovely buttery toast and milky sweet coffee in the morning. Anyway, Lucy sent me a recipe for sweet potato falafel from
Allegra McEvedy's Leon restaurants today, perfect for my silly diet as it has no bad things in it at all. I have changed around the recipe a bit to include white beans and chopped fresh coriander to make it more authentically falafely. I think this might be the ultimate in gluten free, wheat free, sugar free, dairy free food, and best of all, they are baked, not fried. Normal falafel (made with just chickpeas) will be really dry and fall apart if you try to bake it, so this is definitely the ultimate in healthyness, and still most delicious dinner ever. It actually doesn't take that long to make either.

So here goes:


Baked Falafel
1 large sweet potato,
1/2 tin white beans such as butter beans or canellini
1 big handful fresh coriander
2 cloves garlic crushed
1 teaspoon ground cumin
100g Gram Flour (a flour made from lentils available from all good middle eastern shops)
Juice of 1 lemon
glug of olive oil
sesame seeds for garnish

Bake the sweet potato in its skin in a hot oven for about an hour until it is totally soft throughout. mash the beans in a bowl with your fingers, take the cooked sweet potato out of its skin and add to the bowl. Add add the chopped coriander, followed by the rest of the ingredients mix well.


Use two spoons to shape each falafel piece, depositing each one onto a baking sheet covered with greased baking parchment. Sprinkle over some sesame seeds.

Bake in oven preheated to gas 7/220 degrees Celsius for 15 mins or until golden on the bottom and they feel solid to touch. This photo makes them look weird - I'm sorry


We served with:
*Hummus (see previous post) with added harrisa paste
*Natural yogurt with lemon juice, fresh parsley and coriander, salt & pepper
*Cyprus salad (see recipe)
*Chopped beetroot
*Ajvar (Turkish veggie spread made from red peppers great in sandwiches)
*Flat bread (although I didn't have any of this, how good am I?!)

wow! I just saw this video over on Icanhascook - it's brilliant.

Carrot Muffin Cupcakes

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Have you see the Muffin Ladies?

190 g Self Raising flour
150 g Sugar
pinch salt tsp
baking powder
80ml Vegetable oil
1 egg
80 ml milk
1 tsp vanilla essence
2 small carrots, grated
1 handful sultanas
8 Dates
1 big handful pecan nuts
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground nutmeg
1 tsp cinnamon

Preheat oven to gas 6/200c Line a bun tray with bun cases or (like we did) squares of baking parchment. Mix the flour, salt, baking powder, sugar and spices in a bowl. In a measuring jug, combine the egg, milk and oil. Whisk and pour in to the flour mixture.


Mix up and add all the other ingredients. using a teaspoon, transfer the mix into the prepared cases. bake for 20 mins.

To make the icing combine 200g low fat cream cheese with 2 tbsps honey. Wait until the buns are cold, then swirl the icing on top of them. Enjoy!

If you leave out the spices, fruit and carrot, you have a basic muffin recipe, to which you can add fruit such a blueberrys, raspberrys etc. Also good is to substitute brown sugar for the sugar, add some rolled oats or bran, some chopped apple and cinnemon and you will have the perfect breakfast muffin. We will post some photos and a proper recipe for this soon!