double truffle

smoky avocado ceasar salad

noreply@blogger.com (Christine) — Sun, 19 May 2013 15:31:00 +0000

Avocados are a hard thing to love. But love them we do, and so we have resigned ourselves to a lifetime cooking on their terms.

They decide when they are ready to be eaten. Oh sure, you can put them in the bowl with the bananas, and this will speed it up. But you won't be able to rely on them meeting any sort of deadline. They will always be the boss.

We like to buy the 4 pack of "ripen at home avocados". They are good value. But what happens is this- there comes a day when I have four avocados which need using up right this minute. They never have the courtesy of staggering their schedules.

This recipe came about on one of those days and was a product of all the things we needed to use up. Lettuce + mini baguette suggested caesar salad. Avocado + lime suggested we throw in something smoky and give it a Mexicali twist.

It worked perfectly, as I knew it would, because there is not a salad in the world which can't be improved with avocado. Mr. Caesar, whoever you are... you missed a trick.

Ingredients

Dressing
1 small garlic clove
2 capers
1 Tblsp freshly squeezed lime juice
1 tsp cider vinegar
1 egg yolk
1/4 cup olive oil
1/8 - 1/4 tsp smoked paprika

Salad
1 head romaine lettuce, chopped
1 avocado, sliced
1 mini baguette, or the end of a full sized one, chopped into small pieces

To make the dressing... Bash the garlic and capers together in a pestle and mortar. Whisk the egg yolk, lime juice and cider vinegar in a bowl (or use a food processor with an emulsifying blade) and add the smoked paprika, then mix in olive oil slowly to incorporate.

To make the croutons... Coat a wok in olive oil and heat until a small piece of bread thrown inside sizzles. Throw the pieces of baguette into the wok and toss constantly to toast them without burning. You may get a collection of crispy crumbs at the bottom- save them for the topping!

To assemble the salad... Chop and drain the lettuce, add to a bowl, add the croutons and dressing and toss to coat it. Serve onto plates before adding the sliced avocado, and if you like, pour the crispy crumbs on top.

sweet pepper polenta egg cup

noreply@blogger.com (Christine) — Sat, 27 Apr 2013 09:43:00 +0000

My aforementioned busy spell has had a knock on effect with our weekend brunches, because I no longer spend so much time considering what groceries we're going to need for the recipes I want to try, ordering them, etc...

Saturday morning inevitably ends up with me scouring the fridge for inspiration and coming up with one idea. Always the same. Egg and chips.

Egg and chips is great, a British classic, especially when you have a bottle of restaurant strength truffle oil to posh up the chips with. But repetition is a bad habit for a food blogger to get into, so this week I forced myself to think outside the box and try to use up a pepper that needed to be used up.

This was the result... A roasted pepper filled with cheesy polenta, topped with a poached egg and some smoked paprika mayonnaise. Deeeelicious.

(We have truffle chips on the side of course. You are welcome to do the same.)

Ingredients

(serves 2)

1 sweet pepper
2 eggs
3 tblsps cornmeal / polenta
4 tblsps boiling water
handful of cheddar cheese
2 tblsps
1/4 tsp smoked paprika

1. Prepare the stuffing for the peppers by mixing together the polenta, cheese and water in a small bowl.

2. Prepare the smoky mayo topping by mixing the smoked paprika into the mayonnaise.

3. Prepare your pepper by slicing off the top, and then cutting vertically into 2 pieces. They won't seem very cup-like yet, but the flatten out a bit when cooking.

Place them facing down on a baking sheet, and place under the grill / broiler for about 5 minutes, until they are charred.

You can then turn them over and stuff with the polenta mixture. Push them together on the pan to avoid the mixture spilling out onto the baking sheet.

Bake for 15 minutes at 200C / 390F

4. Put the eggs on to poach and grill the tops of the peppers if you would like to to crisp them up.

5. Assemble! Place the pepper on a plate and top with the poached egg and smoky mayo. Grind on some black pepper and you're good to go.

Five ingredient lentil lasagne

noreply@blogger.com (Christine) — Sun, 14 Apr 2013 14:48:00 +0000

"So, how've you been?"

"Oh my god, so busy... You?"

"Yeah. Totally manic..."

Isn't this the world's most tedious conversation?

And yet, here I am, about to tell you how busy I've been since I started my new job this year.

I haven't written a blog post for weeks. Yeah, some new ones have gone up. They were old ones I had saved as drafts. The last couple months have been too busy for blogging which sucks because we were getting a good momentum going. But, worse, they have been too busy for cooking.

I finally understand all those people who say they are too busy for eating well, they are too busy to cook from scratch, they can't be bothered at the end of a long day in the office. I never used to get it. But these days, I often dont get home from work until 9pm. My creative energy is spent and cooking is a chore.

I am not complaining- I love my new job! And I am not quitting- life is starting to balance itself out again and the enthusiasm will follow.

In the meantime you may see a little less food purism and a little more pragmatism.

Starting here, with a very easy lasagne- a little gift for all you busy people. It is made from some convenience foods but not the predictable jarred bechamel / bolognese combo. A fresh tomato soup and some jarred or deli pesto are much nicer, and no less convenient. By using ready made lentils you won't have to pre cook anything at all.

I like Covent Garden soups and Sacla pesto for this recipe because I am not freaked out by their ingredient lists and find them really tasty. You can experiment with different soups and pesto varieties, and you could easily make it vegan by using dairy free pesto and a plain soup with no cheese on the top. Experiment away!

Ingredients
(makes a small lasagne- double to fit a massive lasagne pan)

Package of no-pre cook lasagne sheets
600ml Carton of creamy tomato soup (about 2.5 cups)
About 1 cup of pre cooked lentils from a jar or pouch
190g jar of green pesto (about 7g)
A couple handfuls of cheese

Pre heat the oven to 180C / 350F

(You don't need to pre cook or pre mix anything. Just layer it all up cold.)

Pour a bit of the soup on the bottom of the pan and add the first layer of pasta sheets. My layers went like this

1- tomato soup topped with lentils
2- pesto
3- tomato soup topped with lentils
4- pesto
5- tomato soup topped with lentils
6- the topping- the rest of the tomato soup, a sprinkling of cheese and the last dollops of pesto

Cover the pan, and bake in the oven for about 50 minutes.

(So, lets talk about my pretty new orange pan. Making a non-square lasagne seems kinda silly, but it means you can use up all those broken bits of lasagne sheet you inevitably end up with at the bottom of the box, and, I dunno, I just like an oval lasagne from time to time. It feels rustic.)

Goes in like this...

Comes out like this.... Oh yes.

Making garlic (and parsley)

noreply@blogger.com (Robin) — Tue, 02 Apr 2013 11:09:00 +0000

A diversion from postings of those culinary, it's my turn to chat about my efforts at growing some of the food that end up in the recipes on these pages. I stress my work in the garden is pretty much sub-amateurish, if there is such a category. So, while I've managed to grow a small crop once before, don't be taking anything as gospel, for there's many a-thing I may be doing wrong (and anything I do right a case of more luck than judgment). So, this is my journey and you're welcome to join me!

Garlic eh? Can't you just grow tuna?!

As you may have figured, Mrs Truffle devours the garlic. So, when I started researching what food I could try to grow in our light-deprived, pest-laden garden, I figured these little white bulbs might be a good crop to start with. Considering its a crop that can thrive relatively well in quite shaded areas, and one ignored by the slugs, due to the rubbery toughness of the plant's shoots. Above all, how hard can it be to grow a crop, even in semi-optimum conditions, which practically tries to re-grow itself if you leave it a little too long at the bottom of the veg basket?

My garlic growing story begins with an outright failure; the garlic I was intending to grow was seed garlic I bought at the end of last year. I originally intended to put this in the ground at the end of last year but I figured against this, as the beds in which I'd plant them were getting no sunlight at all. So I figured I'd save the seed garlic through till late winter, however come March when I went to check on the garlic I'd stored in as cool, dark and as dry a place as possible, it had all melted into a mouldy, smelly sogginess. This is the second time I've tried to store seed garlic for an extended period of time, and the second time it's not worked. The lesson?... once you've bought seed garlic, make sure you get it in the ground within a couple of weeks. So, having originally bought my seed garlic from a high-end specialist gardening supplier, I ended up rushing down the road to a 99p Stores to get my hands on a few garlics from there. I was originally quite impressed by my recession-busting bulbs; the packaging read 'Allium sativum'. Hmmm, what's this garlic variety I pondered(?), only to find out after looking it up this was simply the scientific name for garlic. Ah well.

Getting the bulbs home, I started prising these apart, getting them ready for putting in the ground. Preparing garlic for planting involves the same process as separating apart individual cloves for cooking. You just have to be as careful as possible to ensure the outer, paper layer of each clove remains intact as any cloves which lose any or all of this layer are unsuitable for planting, as their 'nakedness' exposes them to rot in the ground. Most of the time, due to the odd pair of cloves sharing part of a protective layer between them, you're likely to end up with two or three cloves which'll be unsuitable for planting on. In which case, to ensure a waste-free process, just put these aside and chuck 'em into your garlic tin for cooking some other time.

The plot I've got for growing my garlic is a 1x2m area of raised bedding. Garlic's a handy crop though, in that smaller amounts can be grown in much smaller spaces, along a long, thin window box for example. So long as there's at least some sun, garlic can grow in loads of places and spaces. I filled the raised beds with organic compost I'd bought from the local garden centre. This seemed to work for last year's crop. One of the most important soil conditions for garlic is that there's enough air and space for the seed to move about and mature (into a bulb) once planted. So avoid dense, clay-like soils and if your area is dominated by this soil type (as is ours!), then that's where the raised beds (or any other suitable container) comes in handy! To the organic compost I did add a little bit of our home-grown compost, mainly because I knew just a small amount would add loads of little worms to the beds. These humble, oft-benighted little fellas truly are heroic, keeping the soil turning and healthy. I salute 'em!

For each of my two square metres of raised beds I planted about sixteen cloves, in a grid of 4x4, spaced about eight inches apart, in rows eight inches apart. Reading around, it seems most recommend more space than this. However, the bargain bucket variety garlic I ended up getting yielded relatively small cloves (eventually meaning smaller bulbs), so a little less room was required I reckoned. To aid my planning and spacing of the rows, to begin with I simply placed each garlic glove atop the soil, so I ended up with a grid of cloves. I then simply tunneled down about two inches into the soil with my finger, placing the clove inside then covering over with soil. (I also tried simply pushing the cloves downwards into the soil, but figured after a couple of attempts this more forceful method may have damaged the outer layer of the clove, so best not to do this.) The clove needs to be the right way up of course when going in the soil, ensuring the flatter end goes in first, with the pointy end (the end which invariably sprouts when left in the veg basket too long) pointing upwards, so that when it sprouts underground, it starts growing upwards into a lovely garlic plant, and forming into a fat bulb below ground.

That's really about it. After the basics of getting the garlic into the ground I made my beds as fox and squirrel resistant as possible. In my more naive days, I've left my beds completely unprotected, only to find half the beds' contents soon spilt out by foxes using the beds as play pits, or by squirrels burrowing about for a nut they'd likely buried two gardens down. To do this I simply covered the beds with a grid of garden wire, criss-crossing the beds. I also sprinkled the beds conservatively with nutmeg as I've read squirrels hate the stuff and won't go near it. Handy, if it works, and - of course - if it doesn't contaminate any garlic yielded with a hint of nutmeg. Finally, regarding another pest, the slug, I've read that they really don't like parsley and will avoid crops grown with them. Though slugs don't touch garlic in any case, I thought for possible summertime growing in the same spot, I'd grow some parsley in with the garlic. It's easy to grow - apparently - and at this time of year can simply be sown in the spot you want to grow it. Researching further here parsley apparently also attracts bees and even makes companion crops taste better. Should my garlic prove a success later on in the year I'll let you know if there's any truth in that!

broccoli and cheddar fritters

noreply@blogger.com (Christine) — Sat, 30 Mar 2013 14:56:00 +0000

Broccoli is one of our favourite vegetables, and it is one which I generally feel no need to dress up. One thing I am finding with this blog is that my favourite foods don't necessarily feature much- they don't require the same creative cooking as the foods I'm lukewarm on. They are less of a project. I can quite happily eat broccoli sauteed in olive oil and garlic, tossed with pasta, just like that. (Bizarrely, Mr. can eat any vegetable like that. Any of them. What's up with that?!?)

Anyway. This week I was unpacking our vegetable box delivery and came across two heads of broccoli, so I decided I could do some experimenting, and try making fritters with a little bit of cheddar cheese, because broccoli and cheddar are just so perfect together.

It's not too experimental though- only four ingredients stand between you and these fritters and the dominant flavour is the broccoli. We appreciated the simplicity, but they can also be dressed up with the addition of a more exotic cheese, or perhaps some chili or olives.

Source: adapted from Smitten Kitchen's broccoli parmesan fritters

Ingredients
1 very small broccoli head or 1/2 large one
1 egg white
Handful of grated cheddar cheese (I used probably around 1/4 cup, packed)
1/4 cup (or 4 tblsps) plain white flour

First, loosely chop and steam your broccoli for a few minutes until it is soft but still al dente.

On a chopping board, cut the cooked broccoli into very small pieces.

Place in a bowl and add the egg white. Using a spoon, mix the egg white through the broccoli mix as much as you can. Add the flour and cheese, and continue to mix together. Use the spoon to smoosh it all together- it will start to stick together and form a batter, although it should be a very chunky one that holds together, but only just.

Heat some olive oil in a pan- enough to cover the bottom, but no more. When it is hot enough that a tiny piece of batter will sizzle, drop in the fritter dough in 4 lumps. After a couple of minutes, flip with a spatula and cook on the other side. Cook until both sides are nicely browned.

Remove from the oil and let sit on some paper towel for a few minutes to soak up the grease, before dishing up.

Some aioli or pesto would be a great accompaniment to this.

light shiitake carbonara

noreply@blogger.com (Christine) — Sat, 23 Mar 2013 17:18:00 +0000

Ah, creamy pasta dishes... my biggest weakness. When Mr. Truffle and I first moved in together I went through a phase where I was determined to recreate the Olive Garden alfredo sauce, the real version with all the butter, cream and cheese it required. We both gained about 15 pounds during that phase.... Fast forward 5 years, and we are a little more careful. Mr's cholesterol problems came to light in that first year living together, which spurred us into our current way of eating where we interrogate the need for anything with saturated fat.

It's a complicated, often inconsistent thought process, which I'm sure all you home cooks can relate to. I want to keep food as pure as possible and avoid lighted foods that are just full of sugar or weird stuff. I also think there comes a point where a light version is a wasted effort, if it's only going to disappoint you.

Anyway. This is a happy day, because I can share a lightened up recipe which I am actually thrilled with. The texture of this carbonara sauce is thick, creamy and pure luxury. It does contain eggs and just a little bit of cheese on top. The other ingredient is a thick, creamy fat free yogurt.

The team at Chobani kindly sent me a sampler pack of their yogurts, which they have just started distributing in the UK. They use a greek style straining method which makes their fat free yogurts incredibly thick. The texture is amazing, and I also noted that they are very mild- tangy, but lacking the strong sour taste that some greek yogurts have.

These qualities open up a lot of ideas which I wouldn't ever have considered yogurt for in the past, and this was my first experiment. There will be more!

Being a vegetarian, my carbonara was never going to have bacon or ham- dried shiitake mushrooms work beautifully, and some smoked chili flakes add a little interest too.

Ingredients
10-15 dried shiitake mushrooms
250g spaghetti
2 eggs
Sprinkling of grated cheese
4 Tblsps or 1/4 cup of plain fat-free Greek yogurt, try Chobani if you can get it in your local store
1 clove garlic, minced
1/4 of a red onion, very finely minced
1/2 tsp chili flakes, optional

Slightly rehydrate the mushrooms by leaving to soak for about 15 minutes in boiling water. You want them to remain chewy though, so don't leave them for too long. Remove them from the water, chop into very small pieces, and leave them out to dry off a little.

Start boiling your spaghetti.

In a small bowl, whisk eggs, garlic and yogurt together and leave to one side.

Heat some olive oil to a high heat and fry your shiitakes and onion for a few minutes until they are crispy.

This is where it gets a little... specific, because once its all ready to go, you want to get the sauce mixed in with the spaghetti, and for the dish to be hot- but you don't want the egg to cook.

So. The best thing to do is get a room temperature bowl to combine all the ingredients in. Drain your spaghetti, and throw that in. Then pour in the shiitakes and onions, and toss them through. Finally, pour in the egg mixture, and keep tossing constantly, using two wooden spoons to keep it moving. The sauce should go creamy without it getting so hot that the egg hardens.

Grind in lots of salt and pepper, add some chili flakes if you like, then pour into bowls and top with a little grated cheese.

Slurp away!

easiest vanilla blueberry waffles

noreply@blogger.com (Christine) — Sat, 02 Mar 2013 16:19:00 +0000

If you have a waffle maker, I am certain that you don't use it enough, and you probably know this and feel guilty about it because maybe it was a gift or maybe it was an impulse buy, and it takes up a lot of space right? Well dust it off and remind yourself that waffle making can be super easy.

This recipe is not sophisticated. It's a one bowl mix and there is no separating and whisking off the egg white or melting of the butter. You end up with soft and delicate waffles rather than crispy ones, but I think they are just as yummy that way. And the batter takes 5 minutes to prepare, including the time you spend rooting round for ingredients and measuring spoons, which isn't a lot to ask of a Saturday morning.

Source: This recipe has been adapted from the Basic Waffles recipe in my Cuisinart waffle maker instructions manual

Ingredients- makes 4 waffles
150g flour
1 Tblsp sugar
1/2 Tblsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
200 ml milk (I used almond milk)
3 Tblsps vegetable oil
1 egg
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
A couple handfuls of blueberries

Mix all the dry ingredients together in a bowl. Whisk in the milk, egg, oil and vanilla. Throw in a couple of handfuls of blueberries (its a good idea to toss these in flour first so they don't make the batter any more moist), and then leave the batter to sit for 5 minutes while the waffle iron pre-heats.

Pour into your waffle iron and cook as instructed.

When they're ready, throw a few more blueberries on top and drizzle with syrup.

Tuck in!

Note: Assuming you have a 4-waffle iron, it will be exactly the right amount. You could double it, triple it etc, and freeze leftovers (they reheat nicely in the toaster oven) But lets face it, on a Saturday morning that feels like a bit too much effort sometimes.

Happy weekend!

spinach & artichoke tortellini salad

noreply@blogger.com (Christine) — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 20:07:00 +0000

Is it just me or are those packages of freshly prepared tortellini that you get at the supermarket in those "Dinner for two for a Fiver" scenarios, those packages which are specifically designed to serve two... woefully inadequate at serving two?

It's just... when I eat a pasta dish, I really want a big steaming bowl of it to dig into. But for some reason, filled pasta is universally under-portioned. In a restaurant, you will receive at least 50% less in volume if you opt for the ravioli or the tortellini or the mezzaluna- even when there is no sauce! Even when there's just a little bit of butter and sage. The person with the carbonara gets twice as much pasta and cream! Why? WHYYY?

Ahem. Sorry.

So here we go. When you have a package of tortellini that fails to serve two, you need a side dish. In this case, it was a salad. But instead of making tortellini and a salad, I decide to give tortellini salad a try. And what a great idea this was. I came out of this feeling just as satisfied as if it were all pasta. Serving it while the tortellini is still warm, and drenched in a herby Italian dressing, keeps it filling and interesting.

Some garlic bread on the side would have made this absolute perfection.

The dressing is based on Martha Stewart's Fresh Italian Dressing.

Amounts here are extremely flexible- keep the balance as you like it.

Italian Dressing Ingredients
1 garlic clove, minced
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp dried mustard powder
2 tblsps red wine vinegar
1/4 cup (60mls) each of extra virgin olive oil and something more mild (or just use 1/2 cup of plain olive oil)
2 Tblsps of fresh minced basil
1 Tblsps fresh minced parsley
1/4 each of dried marjoram and dried oregano

Salad Ingredients
1 250g pack of freshly prepared spinach and ricotta tortellini
A few handfuls of fresh spinach, rinsed and drained
1 can artichokes, rinsed and chopped
A couple large tomatoes, chopped
A couple of handfuls of black olives
About a quarter of a small red onion, minced

Instructions

1. Prepare your dressing by combining all dressing ingredients in container and shaking together, or use an emulsifying blade and whizz it through a food processor.

2. Combine all salad ingredients in a bowl, then toss most of the dressing through but reserve about half a cups worth.

3. Cook tortellini according to package instructions- drain, put back in the pan and add the remaining dressing. Toss together before adding the tortellini to the salad.

Bon appetit!

potato croquettes with truffle hollandaise

noreply@blogger.com (Christine) — Sat, 16 Feb 2013 16:36:00 +0000

I love the idea of turning leftovers into new dishes and snacks, but its not something I do enough of. I am always wanting to make something new. Sometimes the leftovers will make a good lunch, sometimes they just sit awkwardly in the fridge. Generally, when we are over-run with awkward leftovers, Mr. will wait until he is home alone and then collect all the tupperwares he can find, put their contents in a bowl together, add some baked beans, and tuck in.

I figure there has to be a better way. If you take a little time to look into it, leftovers can often be used for nice tapas-style snacks like croquettes, samosas or fritters.

This particular recipe came about on a day when I found an awkward amount of leftover mashed potato sitting in the fridge, not looking very enticing to be honest. Determined to do it justice, I decided to make some simple potato croquettes and finish them off with a hollandaise sauce- the choice of sauce somewhat influenced by the fact that the croquettes provided me with a leftover egg yolk which needed to be used somehow- but I decided to lighten it by using olive oil instead of butter, and threw in some truffle oil for an added kick.

My leftover mashed potato was full of chives- if yours is plain, why not add some crispy garlic or basil to give it a little extra flavour?

P.S. I know what you're thinking- the amount of dishes requiring truffle oil on this blog is out of control. It's true. Its just a phase, I am sure. It will pass. The thing is, I bought a big ol box of truffle products as a Christmas gift to myself and it includes the best truffle oils I have ever tried. And I Just. Can't. Stop. This is the funny thing about blogging- all your phases and obsessions become painstakingly clear when you look through your recipe history. So humour me this once more and then I will stop for a while, I promise.

Ingredients
Serves one- scale up as you please

For the croquettes:
About 1 cup of leftover mashed potato
1 egg white
A few spoonfuls flour

For the hollandaise:
1 tblsp white wine
1 egg yolk
2 tblsps olive oil (avoid extra virgin- the flavour is too strong for this)
A few drops of white truffle oil
A couple grinds of salt

1) Make the croquettes

Remove the mashed potato from the fridge and shape into 3 or 4 croquettes, about the size of a small sausage.

Separate your egg- set the yolk aside, and put the white into a bowl.

Roll the croquettes into the egg white, and then roll in the flour to form a coating.

Heat some olive oil in a pan- enough to completely cover the bottom of the pan, but you don't need to be drowning in it. Cook the croquettes on medium heat for about 8 minutes, turning regularly to get them evenly brown on all sides.

Leave them in the pan while you quickly mix up the sauce...

2) Make the sauce

Here's the thing with hollandaise- you want to warm it up enough to taste good, but if you heat it too much the egg yolk will get hard and clump up. So don't put it on direct heat- Boil some water in one pan, and hold a smaller pan over the steam. You could also rest a glass bowl over the pan of water, if you have bowls the right size.

First put the wine and the egg yolk into the pan and whisk continuously while it heats up. It will start to get a little frothy. Add the olive oil, bit by bit, and keep whisking. Grind in some salt. Whisk some more.

The sauce will thicken a little, and froth. Once it's the right consistency for you, whisk in a few drops of truffle oil.

3) Pour the sauce over the croquettes, grab a fork, and dive in.

beetroot gnocci hearts with watercress pesto

noreply@blogger.com (Christine) — Mon, 11 Feb 2013 19:53:00 +0000

Valentine's Day. There are a number of ways to play it. You can embrace it, you can shrug it off, you can feel annoyed by it, you can feel all smug about it.

As for me, I'll take any excuse to make an Occasion of things. I do like an Occasion. When it is an Occasion you get to open a bottle of nice wine on a school night, and do silly things like shape your gnocci into hearts.

This dish feels like a special occasion indulgence but when I referred to my notes after making it, I realised that I had accidentally come up with a very pure, completely vegan dish. Nothing says "I love you" like a plate full of vegetables that really do taste good.

Happy Valentine's to you all!

Ingredients (serves 3-4 as a main meal)

Gnocci:

400g of peeled beetroot

500g potatoes

1-2 cups plain white flour

Pesto:

1 bunch of watercress (about half a bag, maybe 50-60g)
Juice of 1 lemon

1/2 cup walnuts

2 cloves garlic

1/3 cup olive oil

1- Wrap the peeled beetroots in foil and place in the oven. Bake them at 200C/400F for about 45 minutes.

2- Boil your potatoes until soft (about 20 mins). When they are ready, mash or rice them and leave them in a bowl to cool down.

3- Make your pesto by whizzing up all the ingredients in a food processor. Scoop the prepared pesto into a bowl (you will need the food processor again in a few minutes) and set aside.

By now your beetroot will be nearly ready. You are aiming for it to be soft throughout, but not caramelised and melty. Don't worry too much though, because any undercooked or overcooked hard bits will just end up as nice chunks in the mixture and that's not a bad thing.

4- When its ready, leave the beetroot to cool for a bit before putting it in the food processor and pureeing it. Be careful- if lots of steam is escaping, open the lid to let it out and leave to cool for a little while longer. Your mixture shouldn't be completely liquid- it should be gritty, with lots of small chunks to add texture.

5- Add the beetroot to the mashed potato and use a wooden spoon to combine. Now is the time to start adding flour. Add a handful at a time, mixing with your hands to form a dough.

The amount of flour you ultimately need will depend how much moisture there is in your mixture which can be influenced by many things- what type of potatoes you used and your technique for mashing them, how much your beetroot liquidised, how much moisture there is in the air, how long they were left to cool down. So I can't tell you exactly how much to use but the guideline is this- you only want as much as is required to make a workable dough. As soon as you are able to roll the dough without it sticking everywhere, stop adding the flour. No sooner, no later.

Now, its time to shape the dough.

(You are unlikely to want as many hearts as this recipe requires so you should probably portion off half of it to make normal gnocci for another night. Roll this dough into sausages, slice into little bites, and place in a tupperware- line the gnocci into rows, stacked with parchment paper dividing them. They will last a while in the freezer, and when you want to eat them you can just throw the frozen gnoccis straight in to boil.)

6- Roll out the dough on a chopping board, keeping it fairly thick. If you have heart cookie cutters, your job is going to be easier than mine- use them! I just traced heart shapes into the dough with a knife, and pulled them out carefully.

7- Place the hearts in boiling water. After a couple of minutes they will float- leave them for another minute, and then remove with a slotted spoon and set aside.

8- Your last step is to pan fry the gnocci. Heat some olive oil in a frying pan, and toss it into the pan. Cook for a minute, flip over, and leave for another minute (max! it does cook really fast) just to get a slightly crispy outside.

Now serve to your loved one, who misses you, because this took a little bit longer than you estimated didn't it? (Gnocci always does)

For a fun presentation, try placing gnocci hearts atop a smearing of pesto, or arranging on a plate with little mounds of pesto dotted alongside the hearts. Getting creative is what Occasions are for!

heston's truffle macaroni & cheese

noreply@blogger.com (Christine) — Sat, 09 Feb 2013 14:14:00 +0000

Last week we celebrated my 30th birthday with a weekend in Paris and a good old fashioned knees up. Then, having finally recovered from all the celebrations, I cooked my first meal as a 30-year old.

Being 30, I really ought to have moved on from my lifelong belief that macaroni and cheese with mashed potatoes on the side is the perfect meal.

And yet I haven't.

But I have managed to 1) replace the mashed potatoes with a side salad, albeit begrudgingly and 2) experiment with more sophisticated interpretations of the beloved macaroni and cheese. I've tried it with butternut squash, with avocado, with veggies, with brown macaroni, I've tried it vegan.

But macaroni and cheese with truffle oil was always going to be The Ultimate. So when I found an interpretation of Heston Blumenthal's recipe on iamafoodblog.com, which not only used truffle oil but also a lot of wine, I knew it was perfect for this occasion.

I adapted the recipe by subbing veggie stock for chicken, and I used a mature cheddar cheese instead of parmesean.

This is actually a pretty flexible recipe- you could try it with all sort of cheese and wine combos, and if you don't have truffle oil its a pretty fine sauce without it.

Ingredients

(Serves 2 if you pig out, 3 if you keep the portions small)

160g or 1 1/3 cups macaroni
125 mls or 1/2 cup dry white wine (I used a chardonnay)
300 mls or 1 1/4 cup vegetable stock
40g or 1/2 cup grated cheddar cheese (the strongest you can get your hands on- if you are doubting the strength of your cheddar, add another handful to the mix to boost the flavour)
1 Tblsp flour
70g or 1/2 cup cream cheese
1 tsp to 1 Tblsp truffle oil- this depends on the strength of your oil. Using my favourite restaurant strength oil, 1 tsp was plenty
Black pepper

1) Reduce your white wine in a saucepan by boiling it without a lid for 5 to 10 minutes, until there's about half as much as you started with and its thick and a bit more syrupy. Your kitchen might smell a little gross- sorry bout that.

2) While your wine is reducing, toss together the flour and the cheddar cheese so the cheese is all coated in flour. This prevents the flour from clumping up, without needing to make a roux.

2) Take the wine off the heat and add the vegetable stock. Bring to a simmer.

3) This is the fun part! Throw the cheese/flour mix into the wine/stock, and whisk it all together as it thickens and melts.

4) Now add the cream cheese and stir in as it melts... And you have yourself a cheese sauce.

5) Cook the macaroni according to package instructions, while keeping your sauce warm.

6) Quickly whisk your truffle oil into the cheese sauce, and then pour over the cooked the macaroni. Grind lots of black pepper in.

You could bake this or not- I chose not. The sauce is deliciously creamy and slurpy, so eating it immediately felt like the right thing to do.

And now lets toast to adulthood, where you get to eat the same comforting food but with wine and expensive oils mixed in. Happy days!

Enjoy.

kahlua frozen yogurt

noreply@blogger.com (Christine) — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 20:17:00 +0000

You know how I feel about frozen yogurt- this is the third time I've posted it, so I guess we can consider it one of my "thing"s.

Sometimes I really do prefer it to ice cream, with its more tangy and grown up taste, and when you add some booze to the mix, that's when it becomes really special.

Adding liquers or other spirits to ice cream and frozen yogurt is a sensible thing. Alcohol doesn't freeze, so it keeps the mixture more soft and scoopable. I was able to scoop this out immediately- no thaw time needed. Using a flavourless alcohol like vodka is best when you don't want anything interfering with the flavour- but why add flavourless vodka when you could add a delicious hint of kahlua instead?

I think this iteration of frozen yogurt would go better with an apple pie than vanilla ice cream does. Controversial- I know. But try it!

The kahlua in this is very subtle- you could drizzle a little more on top if you want a real hit of it.

Source: adapted from the vanilla frozen yogurt recipe in A Perfect Scoop by David Leibowitz.

Ingredients

500g or 2 cups of plain yogurt
100g or 1/2 cup sugar
1 Tblsp kahlua

Instructions

1) Mix all the ingredients together in a bowl
2) Chill for a couple hours, or overnight
3) Run through an ice cream maker according to manufacturers instructions.
4) Devour

tasty home made truffle chips

noreply@blogger.com (Christine) — Sat, 19 Jan 2013 17:14:00 +0000

In a previous post, I talked about the amazingness of the truffle chips at Terre a Terre in Brighton. I vowed to keep working on it to get it right. And I did. I tried at least a few times a month. I tried different oils. I tried paste instead of oil. I tried oven baked chips, I tried deep fried chips. I tried baking them in the oil, I tried adding the oil at the end, and in one particularly expensive experiment I tried both at the same time. My chips never tasted like truffle. I looked at recipe after recipe for truffle fries and I just couldn't understand how the supposedly simple technique of making chips and then tossing them in truffle oil worked for everyone but me.

And then with the fourth truffle oil I tried, I realised the secret. The truffle oil needs to be really strong. A delicate and subtle white truffle oil, however lovely, is too weak to cut through. Black truffle oil with a highly concentrated flavour is your best bet. Not a lot of oil is going to stick to the chips- they already have a coat of oil they were cooked in- so it has to be potent for any flavour to stick.

The one I found that finally worked was Truffle Hunter's restaurant strength black truffle oil. It didn't come cheap- one bottle is £11.45- but it is strong enough that only a small amount is needed, so very cost effective. It will keep truffle chips on the menu here for a very long time!

For this recipe, a deep fryer filled with sunflower or other vegetable oil is required. I have had many successes with oven baked chips too and I will talk about that another day- but for real perfection, it doesn't get much better than crispy twice cooked chips. Cooked once on a low heat, to fluff the insides, and again on a very high heat, to crisp the outsides.

Ingredients

Serves 2 as a side dish

4 medium potatoes
Salt
Black truffle oil
Grated parmesean cheese, optional

1. Pre heat your fryer to 150C / 300F

2. Cut your potatoes into chips- keep them as chunky or skinny as you like, but bear in mind that if they are particularly chunky or skinny it will affect your cooking times!

3. Throw the chipped potatoes into the fryer, and cook for 10 minutes until they are a quite soft and soggy, but not too brown. Give the basket a shake halfway through to avoid them sticking together and cooking unevenly

4. Remove the chips and let them cool down, atop some paper towel to soak up the excess oil

5. Pre heat the fryer to 190C / 375F

6. Place the chips back into the fryer for a further 4 to 5 minutes, until they are your preferred crispiness

7. Throw the chips into a large bowl, sprinkle with salt and a drizzle of truffle oil. I haven't given an amount- it really depends on how potent your oil is. If you have the strongest of oils, 1 teaspoon will do. If you have a milder one, you may need more.

8. Toss the chips to ensure they are evenly coated with the salt and oil. Throw in the cheese now, if using.

9. Dig in, use your hands, and lick your fingers when you're done!

twice baked potatoes with caramelised garlic

noreply@blogger.com (Christine) — Sun, 13 Jan 2013 15:13:00 +0000

Twice baked potatoes sound like an awful lot of work. You bake a potato, scoop out the filling, add stuff to the filling, put it back in and then bake it again. But actually, while it takes a long time, its mostly waiting around time which you can use to do other things, and its pretty easy. And the prize is that you get to eat what is basically mashed potatoes in a crispy potato skin shell. Sweet deal.

It makes a great weekend snack- the ones pictures were exactly that. But you could make it fancy too- when putting the filling back into the shells, you could use a piping bag. It would look amazing and be really light and airy too. Maybe I'll try that next time. But today its all about the easy snack, so lets not concern ourselves with appearances.

I flavoured the filling with a strong cheddar and caramelised garlic. Caramelised? That's my way of saying roasted garlic that's so completely roasted its all black and crunchy on the outside, and extra gooey and sweet on the inside.

Ingredients:
Serves 2

2 potatoes
8 garlic cloves
Handful of cheddar cheese
Olive oil
Salt and pepper.

Step 1 : Bake the potatoes and roast the garlic

Prick your potatoes with a knife a couple times each. Brush the skin with olive oil and salt, and wrap up in foil. Bake your potatoes for about 45 minutes on 200C / 400F. Your cooking time will vary depending on the size of your potatoes and whether your oven has a fan or not. So just keep an eye on them.

Meanwhile, prepare the garlic. Leaving the skins on, cut off the very tops of the garlic cloves. Wrap up the cloves in foil and place in the oven alongside the potatoes. They should require around the same amount of cooking time.

When they are done, unwrap the potatoes and slice them in half (long ways).

Leave them out for around 15 minutes to cool down.

Step 2: Scoop out and prepare the filling

This part requires a bit of precision- You need to use a spoon to scoop out the insides of the potatoes, but leave enough of a shell to hold its shape. And be careful not to tear the skins while scooping!

Once its all scooped out, mash the potato. Add in 4 of the garlic cloves, reserving the rest for garnish. Throw in the cheddar cheese, some olive oil, salt and pepper, to taste.

Step 3: Re- Assemble and Bake

Spoon the mashed potato back into the empty skins. Top with the reserved garlic cloves. Place them on a baking tray, and brush the tops with olive oil. Grind on some salt and pepper, and place back in the oven for 15 to 20 minutes, until the tops are extra crispy.

Serve!

This goes well with a big salad, and some dips / dressings.

smokey parsnip chips

noreply@blogger.com (Christine) — Mon, 31 Dec 2012 19:15:00 +0000

Happy new year!

It's been a quiet month on this blog hasn't it? As it usually the case, that is because in real life it has been anything but. With family visiting and Christmas to get through, there has been no time for photos or recipe notes while cooking, but there's been a lot of new ideas going through the kitchen which will be brought to you in the new year, as we settle back into the usual routine.

For now, I'd like to share a recipe which may help you use up any post-Christmas parsnips you have lying around.

Parsnips can be divisive- some people love them, some people are not so keen. But when given a smokey flavour, and baked into crispy chips, these are just delicious and even the anti-parsnip brigade can get on board.

How you make them smokey depends on what you have in your kitchen. I use smoked olive oil which I ordered from The Artisan Smokehouse. If you don't have any, you could try smoked salt, or brush on a few drops of liquid smoke. Or forget the smokey thing and have them plain. You can't go too wrong here!

Ingredients

Parsnips
Smoked olive oil
Regular olive oil (not extra virgin)
Salt and pepper

1) Pre-heat your oven on the Grill + Fan setting, at 200C / 390F.

2) Slice your parsnips into long, even chips.

3) Coat the chips in equal parts smoked and plain olive oil, and grind some salt and pepper on top

4) Place on a baking tray. Keep them as spaced apart as you can, to make sure they go crisp and not mushy.

5) Place in the oven for about 10 minutes, until they are browning on the top (keep a close eye on them- 10 minutes in my oven may not be 10 minutes in yours- much depends on the strength of your fan, the size of the oven, etc etc)

6) Flip them over with a spatula, grind more salt and pepper over them, and place back in the oven for another 10 minutes until the other size is also browning.

7) Select a dip! I went for mayo, as per usual. You could also try ketchup or some sort of salad dressing. It's a strong enough flavour not to require much smothering.

Happy 2013 to you all! x

truffled portabella mushroom pizza

noreply@blogger.com (Christine) — Sun, 16 Dec 2012 20:04:00 +0000

Home made pizza is just addictive. When you discover that you can have pizza any time you want, and that home made pizza can actually be cheap and sometimes even nutritious, everything changes.

Sometimes I make pizzas that use up whatever is in the fridge. Sometimes I go out and buy all my favourite things to pile up on a pizza. Sometimes I make them healthy with less cheese and more veggies. Today I am making a super posh pizza with a melty truffle sauce on top. Just because I can.

Whoever you are, you can make pizza too. Especially if you have a bread maker. Your bread maker will churn out perfect dough with minimal effort, if only you will let him. Otherwise, try it by hand- its still not that hard. Delia Smith's recipe was my go-to until I bought my bread maker. A few weeks ago I posted a recipe for a 5 minute white wine pizza sauce. All in all, minimal effort is required here.

The truffle veloute I use for this recipe comes from Truffle UK. (What is veloute? Good question. It's a type of french sauce. It's meant to use stock, usually chicken stock. This actually doesn't, but they still call it that. Shrug.) It has a very thick velvety texture, melting into whatever you add it to a bit like butter, and it contains real truffle which is a nice little luxury. You could use truffle oil or truffle butter in its place. If you felt really dedicated to the cause, you could add some truffle oil or butter to cream or bechamel, and call it a home made veloute. You can't go too wrong.

With the richness of the truffle, this pizza doesn't need a whole lot of cheese- I just use one ball of fresh mozzarella and its perfect.

Ingredients

1 pizza dough
1 serving of white wine pizza sauce
1 large portabella mushroom or a few small portabellini mushrooms- thinly sliced
1 ball fresh mozzarella
A few spoonfuls of truffle veloute (or truffle oil or butter)

1. Pre-heat the oven to 220C / 430F

2. Roll out your pizza dough either using a rolling pin, or by stretching it. I prefer to stretch but it takes some practice!

3. Put the dough on a pizza stone if you have one, or an oiled pizza tray if you don't. I use a pizza tray with holes on the bottom to ensure that the bottom can go crisp.

4. Spread out the sauce on top of the dough

5. Pile on the mushrooms and mozzarella

6. And then place in the oven...

7. After 10 minutes, when it is just about ready, remove from the oven.

8. Using a teaspoon, drop small dots of the truffle sauce all over the pizza.

9. Return to the oven for 2 more minutes, until the sauce has melted a little.

Serve!

P.S. Don't I realise its CHRISTMAS TIME? Why am I posting pizza? Don't worry. The next couple posts will acknowledge Christmas. They may even be Christmassy. I promise.

spicy spinach ramen bowl

noreply@blogger.com (Christine) — Mon, 10 Dec 2012 20:34:00 +0000

It's December, and the food world has gone crazy for roasted root vegetables and peppermint desserts and mulled drinks and all things Christmasy. I am not immune to this- see my last post- but as well as being happy and festive, December can be a time for being freezing cold and getting ill- and roasted candy cane parsnips aren't gonna do anything for that.

So if you need warming up, here's a recipe for you. 8 ingredients and 10 minutes are all you need. I'm not going for authentic Japanese ramen here, I'm going for a quick and easy hit of carbs, protein, vitamin c and spice- so you poor sickly folk can get back in the festive spirit as quick as you can.

I call it spicy because the chili and black pepper give it a kick, but it's pretty mild. If you want it properly spicy, add the seeds from the chili and maybe a little chili oil into the broth.

Ingredients
(per person)

1 portion of egg noodles
1 1/2 cups or 355ml of your favourite stock (I use vegetarian chicken flavoured boullion- use whatever you like)
1/2 to 1 Tblsp soy sauce (depending on how salty your stock is and how salty you like things- with a very concentrated stock, you won't want a full tablespoon)
1/4 tsp toasted sesame oil
1/2 chili, sliced (double if you want it proper spicy)
Handful of frozen spinach (don't hesitate to use fresh, of course)
1 egg
Ground black pepper

First, chop your chili into little strips and fry them for a few minutes over high heat until they start to crisp up a little.

Simmer the noodles in the stock until cooked (skinny noodles only need around 3 minutes, thicker ones about 8). When they are almost finished, throw the frozen spinach in. You will need to turn the heat back up because the stock will cool right down at this point, so bring it back up to a simmer as quick as you can, and leave it until the spinach has thawed and separated Stir it though, add the soy sauce and sesame oil, grind in some black pepper, and its done.

Meanwhile poach your egg (personally I like to use silicone poach pods for this- egg poaching is just a little bit too exact for me and the pods are great because they don't require any oil) You could also fry the egg.

To serve, pour the noodles in a bowl and top with the egg and chili.

five minute white wine pizza sauce

noreply@blogger.com (Christine) — Tue, 27 Nov 2012 22:15:00 +0000

There is something incredibly exciting about making pizza and if you haven't tried it, I really think you should. So if you stick with us on this blog, we are going to show you a bunch of ideas.

It may not seem like the obvious place to start, but I am going in first with the sauce.

Given that pizza sauce is going to be smothered in cheese and yummy topping, it if often ignored. The temptation to a) use jarred or b) just spread on some plain tomato paste is understandable. But I like my pizzas to have a ton of sauce, and I want that sauce rich and flavourful. White pizzas are just not my thing. Ever order a pizza that doesn't mention it has no tomato sauce on the menu and then it turns up and its all white and sauce-less? This happens to me all the time, and I wish I were still American enough to send them back but I don't. I just eat them and feel sad, sad because I have never encountered a white pizza in which the lack of sauce was an improvement. Anyway. This is one of many reasons that making your own pizza at home is the right thing to do.

This recipe takes about 5 minutes, and uses white wine, which is a sneaky shortcut to deep flavour. You simply dilute some tomato paste with wine and water, add garlic, oregano, salt and pepper... and it makes just enough for one bubbling pizza.

Lets do it.

Ingredients

2 garlic cloves
Dash or oregano
Dash of chili flakes, optional
Salt and pepper, to taste
3-4 Tblsps tomato paste
2 Tblsps white wine

1) Heat some olive oil on a very low heat and cook garlic, oregano and chili flakes for about 1 minute, until garlic is fragrant, being very careful not to let it burn

2) Pour in white wine and let it simmer for about another minute.

3) Sprinkle in salt and pepper

4) Add tomato paste and water

5) Stir until you get a consistency you are happy with- add more water to thin it, if needed, or more tomato paste to thicken.

Now slather that over a pizza base where it belongs...

sweet potato fries with smoked garlic mayonnaise

noreply@blogger.com (Christine) — Sat, 24 Nov 2012 10:16:00 +0000

Fries/chips with mayonnaise. Yay or nay?

The answer probably largely depends on whether you're calling them fries or chips.

It seems that Americans, for the most part, think this is weird. Europeans, on the other hand, think this is absolutely the right thing to do, and I am firmly in that camp. I don't really understand ketchup's charm.

To be honest, until a few weeks ago I didn't understand sweet potato's charm either. I was never a fan. The Mr. was indifferent too. We were never going to buy a sweet potato out of our own initiative But this is where the fortnightly veg box comes in handy- we don't always get a choice, and so we are forced to keeping trying different things.

Being a little obsessed with oven baked fries right now, there was no way the sweet potato was going to become anything else. It was my first encounter with the sweet potato fry and I liked it more than I expected. This may be something to do with the leftover smoked mayonnaise we had in the fridge. I have tried the smoked mayo with both normal fries and sweet potato fries, and the sweet potato wins every time. There is just something about the sweetness and the smokiness that works exceptionally well.

(Having said that- it is really intense. Go easy on the mayo or you will wear yourself out with it.)

Ingredients

Enough for 2

3 small or 2 large sweet potatoes
Olive oil
Salt and pepper, to taste
A blob each of Smoked garlic mayonnaise

Preheat your oven to 220C / 430F. If you have a grill + fan setting, this is best.

First prepare your sweet potatoes. I am personally a fan of leaving the skins on, but you can peel them if you like. Slice them into chunky chips.

Place a layer of parchment paper over a baking tray. Coat with olive oil, add the sweet potato chips and use a spatula to flip them around to coat in oil. You may need extra oil to ensure they are all coated.

Sprinkle with salt and pepper, and then place in the oven to bake for 15 minutes.

Flip, and continue to cook for another 10 to 15 minutes until crisp and browned.

peanut butter chocolate frozen yogurt

noreply@blogger.com (Christine) — Wed, 21 Nov 2012 20:28:00 +0000

Buying an ice cream maker is a very easy way to cut down on eating ice cream. This may seem odd, but let me explain. It turns out that ice cream really is all cream, egg yolks and sugar. I know you know that, but seeing it is another matter, and it no longer feels right to eat it morning, noon and night (which was of course the whole idea behind buying the machine).

Enter frozen yogurt. It may not be guilt-free, there is plenty of sugar in there, but much less saturated fat- especially if you're using low fat yogurt. And while it has a different flavour profile, and shouldn't be judged against a fine ice cream, it is delicious in its own way and definitely hits the same spot.

Some frozen yogurts I come across are trying to be replicas of ice cream- adding enough sugar to disguise the sourness of the yogurt, and making it into ice cream-like flavours. I think this is a shame- yogurt and cream are very different and different things will suit them, so its much better to play to yogurt's strengths than try to use it as a substitute for something else.

This recipe adds peanut butter and chocolate, which I know is a popular combo for kids- but this one feels rather grown up to me. A natural peanut butter is used, and its relatively light on the additional sugar- enough for it to be sweet, but not enough to disguise the yogurt's tang. A bitter dark chocolate complements it well, grated into the mixture in small flecks.

Ingredients

2 cups or 1 500g carton plain natural yogurt (whole, low fat or fat free- all works fine)
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup / 100g smooth peanut butter
1/2 cup / 100g caster sugar
1/4 water
Appx 25g / a little under 1oz dark chocolate (I use Greens and Black 85% cocoa), grated on a fine setting using a box grater

Heat the peanut butter, sugar and water in a small saucepan on a low heat. Stir constantly until the sugar has melted and a smooth paste is formed.

Transfer into a mixing bowl and allow the mixture to cool for a couple of hours, ideally in the fridge.

Add yogurt, vanilla extract and grated chocolate. Stir until fully incorporated.

Run through the ice cream maker according to machine instructions.

Source: This recipe is adapted from one on Bay Area Bites.

pimento olive and almond pesto

noreply@blogger.com (Christine) — Thu, 15 Nov 2012 00:06:00 +0000

If, like me, you have succumbed to the temptation to buy a 900g jar of pimento stuffed olives, and you are scratching your head on what to do with them before they grow mould when you don't have any parties planned, this recipe will be a lifesaver.

In a previous post I stated a household rule that anything green can be pesto-ed. Olives are green. So I am only doing what needed to be done.

The final pesto, however, is not so green. This is because the olives are stuffed with bright red pimentos, and because its easier on the basil than most pesto. The recipe calls for a handful. This is deliberately vague. You don't need a lot of basil, but you are welcome to use as much as what feels right. Same with the cheese (which you can ditch if you're vegan). I guess what I'm saying is, this is a flexible recipe.

Ingredients

1 cup / 160g pimento stuffed olives

1/3 cup / 40g flaked almonds

Handful of fresh basil

A few springs fresh parsley

2 cloves garlic, chopped into chunks

A few spoonfuls of grated parmesean cheese

Olive oil

First, toast your almond flakes over a low heat in a frying pan. Don't use any oil. Just dry fry them, mixing and shaking often.

Put the almonds in a food processor with the garlic and olives and pulse until its all ground up nicely. Now add the herbs and pulse a few more times until well distributed. Pour olive oil in slowly through a spout, pulsing regularly, until you get the thickness you want.

You can see I kept it pretty chunky, and it worked well for spaghetti, with some roasted veg thrown in. (yes, this is basically another spaghetti recipe in disguise. I can't stop. It's a sickness.)

portabella mushroom croquettes

noreply@blogger.com (Christine) — Wed, 07 Nov 2012 21:24:00 +0000

If you have never made croquettes before, its easier than you think! This simple recipe uses only 7 ingredients and is relatively foolproof.

Using a bechamel base, the flavour of really good quality portabella mushrooms is all you need to make these taste luxurious and complex. Buy the best ones you can find- it does make a difference, and don't substitute regular white mushrooms because their flavour just isn't strong enough to carry the recipe. You could probably sub a good quality batch of chestnut mushrooms without losing too much, though.

By taking care with each step, you will get a nice crisp outer coating and creamy, oozing middle. I am generally not great when it comes to precise pan-frying, but so long as you get the bechamel thick enough and coat each croquette perfectly, I find that you can't go wrong.

Ingredients

Makes 10-12 croquettes

100g / 3.5oz portabella mushrooms
1/2 white onion
1 tsp sage
6 Tblsps plain white flour + plus more for coating
1/4 cup / 60ml olive oil
3/4 cup / 180ml milk
1 egg white

First, you need to get the onion and mushrooms minced as finely as you can. I use a mini food processor for this. If you don't have one, just chop and chop and chop until they are in teeny pieces.

Then get started with the bechamel. The first step is to make a roux. Put the flour in a saucepan with about a third of the olive oil.

Turn the heat on high, and whisk the mixture as it heats up.

Add the rest of the oil, a little at a time, and keep whisking to ensure it doesn't get lumpy. It will start to bubble.

Once it is a little bit browned, and smelling toasty, pour the mushroom and onion mixture and the sage in and turn the heat down very low. Mix it all together so that the mushrooms and onions get fragrant and are coated in the roux mixture.

Then add about a third of the milk, and whisk through. Turn the heat up to medium, and add the rest of the milk bit by bit, until the mixture is creamy and bubbling.

The mixture should be very thick and sticky. If it's too thin, add some more flour and keep mixing. If its so thick you can't even stir it, add a bit more milk.

Once its ready, spoon the mixture into a bowl and leave to cool down a little before putting in the fridge for at least an hour.

Once you are ready to make and serve the croquettes, remove the bowl from the fridge and give the mixture a good stir.

Now set up an area to make the croquettes. Get a clean chopping board ready. Put the egg white in a bowl, and drop a few heaped spoonfuls of flour in another bowl.

Take a golfball sized piece of the dough and roll it into a croquette shape.

Dip it into the egg white to coat. Make sure it is completely coated in egg white.

Now roll it in flour.

Make sure each croquette is completely coated in egg white and flour- this ensures it will form a crispy crust.

Time to cook! In a large frying pan, pour enough olive oil to completely cover the bottom and heat on a high heat. To ensure it is the right temperature, throw in a small piece of bread- if it sizzles, you're good to go.

Add the croquettes to the pan- only cook 4 or 5 at a time. A crowded pan will not allow the oil to remain hot enough. I have 2 pans on the go in order to have them all ready at the same time.

Keep the heat high enough so that they are sizzling a little as they cook, but don't allow the oil to burn. Monitor them closely and when they are browned on the bottom, roll them over in the pan to continue cooking. I usually rotate them 4 times in order to cook them all the way around.

Cooking time is usually around 10 minutes but it will depend on your heat and and your pan- so just keep watching them!

If you want a condiment or dip, try serving with some garlic mayonnaise or or mustard cream sauce. I like to eat them plain with a dressed salad.

smoked garlic mayonnaise

noreply@blogger.com (Christine) — Sun, 04 Nov 2012 20:28:00 +0000

Home made mayonnaise was, until maybe 6 months ago, nicely filed under "Never gonna happen, I have a life, thanks". So I understand if you are thinking the same thing.

However, I have always loved mayo and especially the infused or flavoured ones you sometimes encounter in posh sandwiches. So it really made sense to eventually get over this hurdle and open up the world of possibilities that is home made mayonnaise making.

My most recent payday treat was a giganto order from the Artisan Smokehouse, which included a big bottle of smoked olive oil. Seriously! Who knew such a thing existed? Well it does. And you can buy it! If you're in the UK, check out the Artisan Smokehouse. If you're in the USA, The Smoked Olive is selling it by mail order. If you live somewhere else, google is your friend.

This mayonnaise is simply addictive. It has that rich, silky texture you can only get some fresh mayo and the smoky flavour makes everything you eat it with taste brand new. Spread it on a nice sandwich, dip your fries in it, spoon it over some asparagus, dip your pizza crust in it, use it as a salad dressing... You will be seeing some recipes pop up on here very soon which make use of this condiment. In the meantime, I will leave you to experiment.

I used egg whites to make this instead of yolks or whole eggs. I figured since the smoky flavour was going to be so dominant, I wouldn't notice the loss of the richness from the yolk and thus it would be an easy way to keep it a little more heart-friendly. On that note I also used only olive oil for this. For the non-smoked oil, make very sure to use a mild olive oil, not extra virgin, because otherwise the flavour is just too intense. I learned this the hard way. Anyway, if you prefer to use yolks, use 4. If you prefer to use whole eggs, I would suggest using two but you'll need to proportion everything else up by about 50%.

You will ideally need a mini food processor or a blender with a drip-window at the top for this. If you don't have one, some people have had success with hand blender... or you can whisk it by hand for 20 minutes... if you go down that route, you can get instructions on YouTube.

Ingredients

2 egg whites (4 Tblsps liquid egg white)
1 tsp mustard powder
1 tsp white wine vinegar
2 cloves of garlic, crushed
1/4 cup smoked olive oil
another 1/4 to 1/2 cup olive oil (NOT extra virgin)

1. Place all the ingredients apart from the oil in a food processor. Use the emulsifier blade if you have one.

2. Blend until fully mixed, and the egg white is going fluffy.

3.a Keeping the motor running constantly, pour the smoked olive oil through the small hole in the top of the blender or food processor. It will drip very slowly through, and emulsify into the egg mixture. Do not stop the motor at any point while the oil is being poured through. If you do this, the mayonnaise might split and look like curdled milk :(

3.b Repeat with the plain olive oil. Whether you use 1/4 or 1/2 cup will depend on how thick you want the mayonnaise. If you prefer it to be more sauce-like, go for the full amount. If you want it really thick, just use 1/2.

If your mayonnaise splits... Don't worry! You can rescue it. Get a big bowl, put another egg white into it and then a spoonful of the mayo. Whisk it until its all incorporated and smooth. Now add the rest of the mayo, one spoon at a time, and keep whisking. You will see that the mayonnaise in the bowl is all lovely and smooth again. You will however have changed the proportions of egg to oil so if you don't like the texture, just carefully beat some more oil in and add some extra garlic, mustard powder and vingear for flavour.

paprika garlic mashed potato

noreply@blogger.com (Christine) — Wed, 31 Oct 2012 19:44:00 +0000

Sometimes, when Mr. is away and I am alone, I just eat a big bowl of mashed potato for dinner. Don't judge me. I just love it so much.

My love of mashed potato dates back to my childhood, as a young vegetarian in the USA before people really started catering for veggies. Mashed potato was one of the only things I could ever eat at the buffet or in the school lunches. I loved it when it was real potato drenched in butter and cream. I loved it when it was powdered potato with a little bit of cheap margarine.

Mr. likes mashed potato too and this is one thing we can agree on, although he requires gravy or sauce with his, and I rather like to just flavour them a little and then eat them dry and really savour the stickiness.

This recipe uses garlic, cheddar cheese and smoked paprika for flavour. eg all the strong flavours I could find. They work perfectly together- feel free to mix up the amounts of each- it doesn't really matter as its not too delicate a balance. Sometimes I make it really garlicky by only cooking the garlic for a few seconds. Sometimes I throw in less paprika and more cheese. It's never gone wrong yet. Just make sure to use a strong cheddar, otherwise there is no point- a mild cheddar would be drowned out and wasted.

I use a ricer which makes things extra smooth and perfect. You could mash with a normal masher if you like. But if you take your mashed potato seriously, and I bet you do, I really recommend investing in a ricer.

Ingredients

makes enough for 4 as a side dish (or, ahem, 1-2 dinners)

680g / 1.5lbs potatoes
Appx 1 Tblsps extra virgin olive oil
4 to 5 cloves garlic
1 and 1/2 Tsps smoked paprika
125g / 4.4 oz strong cheddar cheese, grated
Some milk- as much as needed to get your preferred texture
Ground black pepper, to taste

Boil the potatoes until soft.

Meanwhile, lightly saute the garlic in olive oil on a low heat, until fragrant. Be very careful not to burn them. Just before you turn off the heat, add the smoked paprika and allow to cook into the oil and garlic.

Mash or rice the potatoes to your preferred consistency, before adding the garlic and smoked paprika mixture. Use a spatula to get all of the infused oil out of the pan and into the potatoes.

Add the butter, milk and cheese and stir over very low heat until melted and incorporated.

Grind in some pepper and mix through.

Serve!

low fat courgette ricotta quiche

noreply@blogger.com (Christine) — Wed, 24 Oct 2012 18:40:00 +0000

Quiche is often treated as light or healthy food, which is something I have never understood considering the amount of eggs, cheese and cream it requires.

In my efforts to make a lighter quiche I have tried replacing cream with milk and reducing cheese, but that always made for a slightly tough quiche. This recipe uses ricotta in place of cream and cheese which keeps it moist and airy enough but is lower in fat. For the egg I have used half whole eggs and then the equivelant of two more in pure whites (I use Two Chicks pre-seperate egg white mix. This is a life saver in our household where we need to watch Mr.'s saturated fat intake)

The resulting texture is a fluffy, light quiche which stays perfectly moist. While I personally find ricotta quite luxurious in its texture, this is still less rich than the standard quiche, with a more simple flavour profile. There is an extra kick from a pistou sauce drizzled on top, which stops it from being too plain.

(Pis-what? Pistou is similar to pesto, but without nuts and in this case, without cheese too. It is a very simple basil and garlic puree in olive oil. You could substitute pesto if you do not want to make the pistou sauce but I would suggest diluting just a small bit of pesto in olive oil)

I use a pre-packaged pastry crust here because despite my loving to cook from scratch, I am simply terrible at pastry making. We all have our compromises eh?

Ingredients

For quiche

1 500g (1lb) block frozen pastry, defrosted
250g (1/2 lb) ricotta
1 to 1 and 1/2 courgettes (zucchini), grated
1 small red onion, very finely minced
2 whole eggs
80ml egg white (appx 3 egg's whites) or 2 more whole eggs
85ml (1/3 cup) semi skimmed milk

For pistou

4-5 Tblsps chopped basil
1 very small clove garlic
Appx 1/4 cup olive oil

Pre heat oven to 180C / 350F

First, line a pie dish or flan tin with pastry. Leave a reasonable amount of overhang from the sides to avoid it sinking. Use a knife to slice a couple of small holes in the bottom- this avoids it bubbling up and breaking. Pre-bake for 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, prepare the filling. Mix the ricotta, eggs, milk, courgette and onion in a large mixing bowl. Leave the ricotta fairly chunky.

When the pastry is finished baking, pour the filling mixture in and then bake for 25-30 minutes.

Meanwhile, make the pistou by blending the basil and garlic with half of the olive oil in a food processor. Slowly add the other half until incorporated.

The quiche is ready when firm, but still wobbly and moist.

To serve, cut into slices and drizzle the pistou sauce on top.