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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 harissaSalt & 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
Chickpeas – not just for hummousMore often than not – our tins of chickpeas are destined to become hummous – or maybe an addition to stew, so I felt the time had come to re-dress this balance. I ate these delicious chickpea dish with Farrah and Pam in New York a few years back – and since created my own version. I’ll dedicate this one to Farrah and also to wish her best of luck with the wedding preparations, we can’t wait!Chili roasted chickpeasI can of chickpeas rinsed1 tablespoon of gram flour (any flour will do)salt & pepper1 teaspoon paprika1 large red chili finely sliced – leave out seeds if you prefer it less hot½ teaspoon of mixed spice1 tablespoon of olive oil.
Toss everything together and spread onto a lightly greased baking tray – roast at the top of the oven for 20-30 mins at gas mark 7 until golden and toasty looking – serve with a some yogurt and freshly chopped parsley. Makes an excellent side dish for Eastern, Greek or Spanish style tapas food.
Where’s me Rioja?
Bangers and Mash – with roast onion gravyIt’s been a long hung-over Friday in work, so what better way to treat it than with bangers and mash and a movie – I won’t bore you with details on how to grill a sausage or mash potatoes – except that Rayne added in some strong mustard which gave it a bit more body. So here’s the recipe for the gravy.Ingredients4 med onions, thinly sliced in moons2 tablespoons of veg. oil1 heaped teaspoon grainy mustard1 table spoon of honeySalt & Pepper1 servingspoon of flour1 servingspoon of butterCoat onions in oil and then mix in salt, pepper, mustard and honey – pop into a hot oven for1/2 hour till they are getting black around the edges – only some of the onions now, not all of them.Melt butter into a pan – and then stir in the flour – then add in the onions and coat thoroughly. Gradually add water until you get a nice sauce – sirring all the time to avoid lumps. All to simmer gently for a few minutes – taste and season accordingly. It’s incredible how dark the gravy will get with just the natural colour from the browned/blacked onions.Spoon over of a bed of mustard mash with nice big thick butchers sausages – mmmm mmmm good, as the little Bisto guy would say.
I would say ‘Up yours, Bisto kid’ but they’re too cute
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
Cyprus saladThis is the same as a Greek salad, but I went to Cyprus last summer and every restaurant served it and calls it Cyprus Salad. Its lovely and refreshing, and I ate pretty much nothing but this with hummus, pitta bread and grilled haloumi cheese the whole time I was there. Its the best meal that you can throw together in 5 minutes for a really hot day. Its also really satisfying and filling serves 2 1/2 cucumber 1/2 jar black olives 2 ripe tomatoes large handful fresh flatleaf parsley 1/3 pack feta cheese (optional, and if you are going to have grilled haloumi leave the feta out) olive oil, juice of 1/2 a lemon salt & pepper peel the cucumber and slice into thick rounds. Then cut these into quarters. Chop the tomatoes into similar size pieces, and also the cheese if you are using it. put everything into a roomy bowl with the olives and mix. Tear up the parsley a bit and add to the bowl. give it a mix and add a glug of olive oil and the lemon juice to dress. Season with salt and pepper. Serve with hummus in a pitta bread.
Look Shelia and Rayne have located the sun in Cyprus - how clever!
Black Pudding - not just for breakfast
My long lost brother was returning to Ireland from France to celebrate his 30th birthday and I wanted to welcome him home with an Irish feast – so what better way to welcome him home than with some delicious Clonakilty black pudding starter and bacon and cabbage (which was a disaster)
Black pudding – Boudin Noir en Francais – was the source of our first swear word – ‘ca-ca boudin noir’ – which means ‘poo poo black pudding’. This gave us a laugh when me and Marty were little children living in Toulouse. I’ve been wanting to combine some black pudding with a nice apple sauce for a while as I’ve seen it on lots of menus out and about – you could also serve it as a nice brunch, lunch or light supper – Black pudding – not just for breakfast! One last thing – a small word on black pudding – Clonakilty black pudding is made with the same ingredients – but with that addition of some whole grains, giving it a nutty texture unlike the other more pate types – Shaws of Limerick are also producing a nice version of it - if you can’t get either of these I just wouldn’t bother – others may beg to differ – but that’s just me!
Serves 43 large potatoes – boiled (or left over mashed potato)
1 egg
A nob of butter
Another nob of butter
I teaspoon grainy mustard
A splosh of milk8 rings of black pudding sliced 1.5cm thick
2 cooking apples – chopped into 1cm cubesI small onion very finely chopped
2 servingspoons of sherry
1 teaspoon demerara sugar
bunch of chives – 20 stems or so – chopped with scissors is handy
While you are boiling your potatoes (you could also used some left over mashed potato) Fry up the onion in some oil or butter till translucent – turn up the heat and throw in the brown sugar – allowing the onion to brown at the edges, don’t burn. Then when a nice colour is achieved add in the sherry, stir. Then add in the apple and stir to coat – then turn down and allow to simmer gently – it will be a pretty thick mixture so use a non-stick pan.
Make your mash potato with a bit of butter, milk and salt and pepper. Mix in your snipped chives and mustard. Then crack your egg into the centre and mix well –season.
Then pop your black pudding under the grill – turning carefully as it gets pretty crumbly. Allow to brown gently on each side.
Heat a large frying pan and add a nob of butter, drop a servingspoon of potato mixture into the pan – then spread out a little so that it’s about 1-2cms thick – however you’d like them – when brown and crispy turn over. You may need to do this in two batches- pop on plate and put under the cooking pudding to keep warm.
Place your black pudding on top of your cakes and top with a dollop of the apple sauce – add a good grind of thick black pepper and a glass of Guinness and you’re done - welcome home Marty - we missed you 
Yum
Eastern FeasternThis 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 fromAllegra 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 Falafel1 large sweet potato,1/2 tin white beans such as butter beans or canellini1 big handful fresh coriander2 cloves garlic crushed1 teaspoon ground cumin100g Gram Flour (a flour made from lentils available from all good middle eastern shops)Juice of 1 lemonglug of olive oilsesame seeds for garnishBake 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.
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