Spicy Prawn Noodle Soup

Who knew there are calories in ground cumin?

I watched Michael Mosley's Horizon documentary, Eat, Fast and Live Longer, on BBC2 last year with interest.  Michael Mosley set himself the challenge to live longer, stay younger and lose weight. Goals that many of us can identify with.  His research concluded that intermittent fasting could help achieve those goals and settled upon the 5:2 way of eating.  That is 5 days of normal eating and 2 days of fasting (when you limit the calories you eat to 500 calories for women or 600 calories for men) each week.  I'm no scientist, but the potential (not yet proven in humans) health benefits seem to make sense and, for that reason, I decided I was willing to take a punt and give it a go for a little while.

I have never counted calories before in my life.  A little naive maybe, but I had no idea that foods like cucumbers actually contained much in the way of calories. Aren't cucumbers about 90% water?  Don't get me wrong, it's not that I've never had to reign it in to lose the pounds that have crept on, but I've done that by reducing portion sizes, cutting out snacks, limiting my monstrous cheese intake and laying off the booze (...well, just a little).  Never has the way I've eaten been so scientific.  And believe me, for someone who abhors maths, all the calculating and counting had my head in a bit of a spin at the beginning.

I love food. I love cooking. I love creating new recipes. So I saw this as a challenge. Making nutritious food that is both delicious and low in calories.  After eating the 5:2 way on and off since Christmas (with a big break thanks to pneumonia) I've found that the best way of approaching fast days (for me) is to abstain from food all day and then have a decent sized main meal in the evening, which means that sometimes I can even have carbs.

This is one of the tastiest, most satisfying fast day dinners I've had so far.  A huge bowl of comforting, spicy soup.

Serves: 1

Prep time: 15 minutes (excluding making the stock)

Cook time: 10 minutes

Calories per portion (approx): 360

Ingredients

100g king prawns (peeled weight - approx 4 large unpeeled prawns), peeled & deveined

100g pak choi, sliced

50g mange tout

50g beansprouts

30g oyster mushrooms, sliced

2 spring onions, sliced

1-2 bird's eye chillies, finely sliced

2-3cm piece fresh ginger, finely sliced

300ml good vegetarian stock (see more below)

1/2 tsp brown miso paste

1 tsp fish sauce (or soy sauce)

fresh coriander

50g glass noodles (cooked according to packet instructions)

Method

Put the stock in a pan with the miso paste and fish sauce and heat through.  Taste and adjust the seasoning if necessary.

Bring a large saucepan of water to the boil.  Blanch the pak choi, mange tout and oyster mushrooms for 1-2 minutes, remove from the water and set aside.  Then cook the prawns in the same water until pink and cooked through and set aside (again 1-2 minutes depending on the size of your prawns).

Put the glass noodles, vegetables, prawns, spring onions, chillies and ginger in a big bowl and pour over the stock.  Add some roughly chopped coriander to serve.

Good vegetarian stock:

I use this recipe from Kellie's blog Food to Glow to make vast quantities of vegetarian stock which I then freeze in 1 person portions so that I have some to hand whenever I fancy noodle soup.  I then add in whatever other flavours  and seasoning I want before I use it.

Roasted Cauliflower & Squash with Spiced Bulgur

Cauliflower is one of those vegetables that has always failed to inspire me. I'm not talking about the fractal beauty that is the romanesco cauliflower, but the common or garden white variety. In my kitchen they usually find their way into cauliflower cheese or curry (there's something about cauliflower and spices that works so well), but overrun with them as I was just before Christmas I decided to try something new.

I've fancied Denis Cotter's recipe for cauliflower with green peppercorns for a while, but a lack of green peppercorns in my cupboards put paid to that plan! Here I was looking at a rather large cauliflower that really was ready for eating and to be honest there wasn't a fat lot else in the fridge. Aren't the best recipes always the ones that come out of nothing?

You could add some cooked chickpeas to the squash and cauliflower 10 minutes before the end of the cooking time to make this a more nutritionally balanced vegetarian dish.

Ingredients

1 small cauliflower

1/4 of a crown prince squash or 1 small butternut squash

1/2 to 1 red chilli (sliced)

3 cloves garlic (peeled and left whole)

2 tbsp olive oil

salt & pepper

For the spiced bulgur:

1 tbsp olive oil

6 cardamom pods

1 tsp cumin seeds

2 whole cloves

150g bulgur wheat

350ml water (approx)

salt & pepper
1 tbsp toasted nibbed almonds

For the caramelised onions:

2 tbsp olive oil
2 onions (sliced)

1 tsp soft brown sugar

1 tsp good sherry vinegar

salt & pepper

Method

Preheat your oven to 190 C.

Peel the squash, remove the seeds and cut the flesh into thick slices. Remove the outer leaves of the cauliflower, wash the cauliflower and then cut into thick slices (rather than breaking it into florets). Put the squash and cauliflower into a roasting tin with 2 tablespoons of olive oil, the red chilli and whole cloves of garlic. Season generously with salt and pepper. Put into the oven for around 40 minutes until the cauliflower and squash are tender and beginning to crisp and brown at the edges.  Remove the garlic cloves.

In the meantime prepare the spiced bulgur and caramelised onions.

For the spiced bulgur, heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in a small pan (which has a tight fitting lid) over a medium heat. Add the cumin seeds and cook for a minute stirring often, then add the cardamom and cloves. Stir in the bulgur and reduce the heat. Continue to stir over a low heat until the bulgur has turned from a golden to a nutty brown (without letting it catch or burn). Season and add the water. Bring to the boil, stir, put the lid on the pan and immediately reduce the heat to very low. Cook for approximately 15-20 minutes until the bulgur is tender but still with a little bite.  Fluff the bulgur with a fork, remove the whole spices and then stir through the toasted almonds just before serving.

For the caramelised onions, put the oil and onions into a heavy based pan over a low heat. Cook the onions very slowly, stirring often, until they begin to turn golden brown (this will take around 30-40 minutes) and then add the sugar and season with salt and pepper. Cook for around another 5 minutes. Add the vinegar and cook until the liquid has disappeared. The onions should now be caramelised and a rich brown colour.

Serve the roasted squash and cauliflower on top of the spiced bulgur and finish with a spoonful of the caramelised onions.

Smoked Mackerel with Celeriac & Beetroot Remoulade

The root vegetable mountain that grows in my kitchen at this time of year can become a little tedious after a while. Don't get me wrong, I love root veg, but if I see another beetroot or swede this month I might just scream. Devising ways to make it feel like we're not eating the same root vegetable stews, soups, gratins and mash for the seemingly endless winter months has become a bit of a challenge.

Caramelised swede, onion & thyme tartlets, beetroot carpaccio with goat's curd & honey roasted walnuts, mini cheese & celeriac scones, beetroot, red quinoa & feta fritters and spiced roasted carrot houmous have all made an appearance but I'll be needing a bit more inspiration to see me through to spring!

This recipe made me feel like I'd been transported out the depths of winter - a little seasonal salad to accompany the smoked mackerel that was lurking in the fridge.

My wonderful fishmongers (Moxons) sell the most amazing whole smoked mackerel which I used for this recipe. It has a gentle smokiness, silky smooth texture and would easily feed 2 (gluttonous) people all for around £3. If you can't get hold of this sort of smoked mackerel it will work just as well with smoked mackerel fillets.

Ingredients

1 whole smoked mackerel

2 tbsp mayonnaise

1 tbsp crème fraiche

2 tsp Dijon mustard (or more to taste)

1 tbsp small capers (rinsed)

1 tbsp chopped flat leaf parsley juice of 1/2 a lemon

1 medium raw celeriac

1 small raw beetroot

Method

Put the lemon juice into a bowl. Either grate or finely chop the celeriac into thin matchstick sized pieces and coat immediately in the lemon juice to prevent it from discolouring. You don't want the celeriac grated too finely - it still needs to have some crunch. I use my trusty old handheld moulinex which I brought back from France a few years ago. Set the celeriac to one side.

In another bowl, mix the mayonnaise, crème fraiche and mustard together. Strain any excess lemon juice from the celeriac and discard. Stir the celeriac into the mayonnaise mixture. Add the capers and set to one side for up to 20 minutes.

Prepare the smoked mackerel - remove the head and tail and then slice through the body to make 2 or 3 large steaks.

Stir the chopped parsley into the celeriac remoulade, reserving a little to garnish.

Peel the beetroot and then grate or chop in the same way as the celeriac. Add to the celeriac remoulade. Do not stir it in or you will end up with pink remoulade! Just fold it through once or twice very gently.

Serve immediately with the smoked mackerel and some brown bread.

Cranberry & Orange Mincemeat

Homemade mincemeat knocks the socks off anything you can buy in the shops.  Fact.  Luckily for me, in the past I've been gifted lovingly made jars of the stuff by friends and family.  But this year as December approached the cupboards were bare.

So I set off in search of a recipe.  The sort of tried and tested one that can't go wrong (but that I would inevitably end up playing around with because I can't help myself).  I thought Delia might hold the key, but melted suet?  What's that all about?  Not for me. 

Whenever I need what I'd refer to as a staple recipe (you know, things like simnel cake, shortbread, lemon curd...) to work from there is a handful of food blogs I tend to turn to. One of them is Gin and Crumpets written by fellow South East London dweller, Jassy.  She writes recipes that work and ones that I want to cook. 

Armed with her wonderful recipe for Apple & Lemon Mincemeat (and some advice along the way) I set about creating my own vat of mincemeat.  For that is what I made, a rather large quantity of mincemeat to see me through the festive season.  I haven't put mine into jars as I reckon it won't be in existence any longer than a couple of weeks, so it's currently residing in a large tupperware in my cupboard.  But you could of course sterilise some jars to store it in or to give away as gifts.

Ingredients

1.2kg mixture of sultanas and raisins (I used Waitrose vine fruit mix)
300g dried cranberries
500g bramley apples (peeled & cored weight - approx 5 medium apples)
300g vegetarian suet
300g golden caster sugar
zest & juice of 3 oranges
zest & juice of 1 unwaxed lemon
200ml brandy
1.5 tsp ground mixed spice
1.5 tsp ground cinnamon

Method

Put the lemon and orange zest in a bowl, cover with boiling water and leave for half an hour.  This will help extract any bitterness.  I use a zester to remove long strips of zest, but if you haven't got one you can either grate the zest using a fine grater or pare the zest with a peeler (taking care not to take too much of the white pith which is bitter).

Mix the dried fruit (sultanas, raisins and cranberries) in a large bowl and pick over to get rid of any stems . 

Drain the lemon and orange zest and chop.  Stir the zest and all of the orange and lemon juice into the dried fruit.

Peel, core and coarsely grate the apples.  Add the grated apples, vegetable suet, sugar, brandy and spices to the dried fruit mixture and stir to mix thoroughly.  The apples go brown pretty quickly when peeled, so I did a few at a time, adding them to the dried fruits as I went along so that the lemon juice prevent them from going brown. 

Leave to stand for a few hours, covered with a tea towel, returning to stir the mincemeat regularly.

If you are just making the mincemeat to use over a couple of weeks then it will keep perfectly well sealed in a plastic container.  If you want to store it in jars to keep it for longer, then fill sterilised jars, seal and store in a cool dark place.

Use to make mince pies.

Huge thanks to Jassy of Gin and Crumpets for her mincemeat guidance.

Rigatoni with Crown Prince Squash, Cavolo Nero & Red Chilli

There's one thing I know for sure - pasta consumption in our house has rocketed since we started getting an organic veg bag again. 

Picture this...it's 7.30pm on a week night, the baby has just gone to bed, the fridge is full of the random assortment of vegetables that you can only have when someone else is choosing your veg each week, your tummy is rumbling and you want to curl up on the sofa, sharpish.  What you need is a hearty bowl of pasta that's ready in no time and leaves you feeling (relatively) virtuous.

I think my love of the combination of kale and squash is probably inspired by Denis Cotter.  He cooks the sort of good (vegetarian) food that I want to eat every day.  Food that is a far cry from the apparently mandatory mushroom risotto or pasta served up as the meat-free option in many restaurants and pubs.

You don't need to use crown prince squash - any squash will do - I just happen to like the rounded, buttery flavour of the crown prince.  Butternut squash would be a more than adequate replacement.  The same goes for the cavolo nero (black kale).  Although cavolo nero tastes best, you could use the more widely available curly kale or any other dark green leafy vegetable.

Ingredients

150-200g rigatoni (depending on how hungry you are)

1/4 crown prince squash (or 1/2 a large butternut squash)

1 leek

10-15 large cavolo nero leaves

1 red chilli (finely sliced)

3 garlic cloves (finely sliced)

2 tbsp olive oil plus 1 tbsp to roast the squash

salt & freshly ground black pepper

freshly grated pecorino or parmesan

Method

Peel and deseed the squash.  Cut into 1 inch cubes.  Season the squash with salt and pepper and toss in 1 tablespoon olive oil.  Roast in a medium oven (approx 180 C depending on your oven) for approximately 20 minutes until tender and beginning to caramelise at the edges.  You will need to check on the squash a couple of times and toss to ensure it roasts evenly.

Discard the outer layer (or layers) of the leek and then slice in half lengthways.  Slice the leek into thin semicircles and wash thoroughly.  Wash the cavolo nero, discard any thick stalks and slice the leaves into strips about 1cm wide.

Bring a large pan of salted water to the boil.  Cook the pasta according to the packet instructions.

Heat a wide based saute pan over a medium heat.  Add 2 tablespoons of olive oil and then the leeks.  Saute, stirring frequently, for 4 minutes and then add the cavolo nero.  Continue to saute until the leeks and kale are tender.  Lower the heat, add the red chilli and garlic and continue to saute for a couple of minutes. 

The pasta and squash should now be ready.  Drain the pasta, reserving the cooking water.  Add the squash, drained pasta and 3-4 tablespoons of the cooking water to the leeks and cavolo nero, then season generously. 

Serve with plenty grated cheese.

Romanesco Cauliflower & Chilli Pasta

Romanesco cauliflowers are like jewels.  Pretty fractal emeralds which call out to me from market stalls at this time of year.  They seem so rare and precious that I feel the need to do them justice; more so than any other vegetable.  I want to show them off in the manner they deserve.

Small romanescos are magnificent steamed whole and served with a bechamel sauce which has had large chunks of stilton stirred through at the last minute (so that they're just beginning to melt but haven't yet disappeared...) and then topped with crunchy toasted pine nuts.

On a quest for a simple dish befitting the romanesco but a little less artery clogging, I paired it with chilli and garlic to make a substantial week night dinner.  It's nothing new or inventive - there are probably a million similar recipes out there - but it's a hearty bowl of bejewelled pasta that makes me happy.

This will make enough for 2 hungry adults.

Ingredients

1 medium romanesco caulifower

1/2 - 1 red chilli (depending on how hot your chilli is and how much heat you want)

2 cloves garlic

2 tbsp good olive oil

200g penne or rigatoni pasta

salt & pepper

2 tbsp finely grated parmesan (or other hard cheese)

Method

Break the cauliflower into small florets and roughly chop the stalks into small pieces.  Wash thoroughly.  Finely chop the chilli and garlic.

Bring a large pan of salted water to the boil.  Cook the cauliflower for about 8 minutes until soft but not falling apart.  Remove the cauliflower with a slotted spoon and set to one side (don't discard the cooking water).

Bring the water back to the boil and cook the pasta according to the packet instructions.

In the meantime, heat a wide based saute or frying pan.  Add the olive oil and then the cauliflower.  Saute over a medium heat, stirring often, until the cauliflower begins to break down a little.  Turn down the heat and add the chilli and garlic and season generously with freshly ground black pepper and salt.  Continue to for a couple of minutes, taking care not to let the garlic burn.

Once the pasta is cooked, add it to the cauliflower, using a slotted spoon, along with 2 or 3 tablespoons of the cooking water.  Stir in most of the grated cheese, reserving a little to serve (to make this dish vegan omit the cheese).

Celeriac Gratin with Caramelised Onions

Over the summer I signed up to Local Greens - a not for profit weekly vegetable bag scheme providing seasonal veg from small organic or spray-free farms, which are as near to SE London as they can find.  To keep costs down, customers collect their bags from local pick up points (in Camberwell, Herne Hill and East Dulwich), rather than have them delivered to their door.  The idea is to use the minimum packaging and transportation so that they can pay the farmers a good price for their produce.  One benefit for me is that the veg has often been picked 24 hours or less before it makes it to my plate.

The majority of the ingredients in this recipe came from my Local Greens bag a couple of weeks ago and I bought some gorgeous golden rapeseed oil from Bambuni in Nunhead so this turned out to be a thoroughly locally sourced dinner!

It serves 2 hungry (greedy?) adults or a family of 3 or 4 if you reduce the amount of salt you use.  Perfect for an autumnal evening meal.

Ingredients

1 small celeriac

4-5 medium potatoes

3 cloves garlic (thinly sliced)

200ml single cream

Salt & freshly ground black pepper

Grated parmesan or other hard cheese (this is a good chance to use up any odds and ends lurking in the fridge)

For the caramelised onions:

2 tbsp rapeseed oil

2 onions (sliced)

3-4 sprigs thyme (leaves only)

1 tsp soft brown sugar

1 tsp good sherry vinegar

Method

Preheat the oven to 160C.

Peel and thinly slice the celeriac and potatoes (the easiest way to do this is in a food processor or using a mandolin, if you have either) and pop them straight into a bowl of cold water. Pat dry on a clean tea towel and then layer into a deep casserole dish, seasoning with salt and pepper and adding the garlic as you go. Pour the cream over the top and give the casserole dish a little shake to make sure it reaches the bottom layers. Sprinkle the cheese over the top (as much or as little as you like - I like a good layer!).

Pop into the oven for around 50 minutes to an hour, or until the potatoes and celeriac are cooked and browned on top.

Once the gratin is in the oven, put the oil and onions into a heavy based pan over a low heat. Cook the onions very slowly, stirring often, until they begin to turn golden brown (this will take around 30-40 minutes) and then add the sugar, thyme and season with salt and pepper. Cook for around another 5 minutes. Add the vinegar and cook until the liquid has disappeared. The onions should now be caramelised and a rich brown colour.

Serve the gratin with a spoonful of caramelised onions and a crisp green salad lightly dressed with sherry vinegar and cold pressed rapeseed oil.

A Taste of Autumn - Caramelised Shallot & Chestnut Tatin

As the Summer begins to draw to a close and the sun sits low in the sky over the hazy landscape in the distance I feel a certain sense of contentment. Autumn is my season. All those wonderful colours as the leaves begin to turn golden, brown, russet, red. The perfect backdrop for the ginger haired amongst us. It's not just the colours I'm waiting for with eager anticipation though. There is a myriad of new, rich, earthy vegetables coming into season that I can't wait to start cooking with again - squash, leeks, chestnuts, parsnips, plums, wild mushrooms, figs, sweetcorn, kale...


At the beginning of each season as the fruit and vegetables begin to appear in the shops and markets there's that delicious transitional period of rediscovery. I dig out my cookbooks, search for new and different dishes to make the most of the produce that's not been around for a while. Last week saw roasted figs with gorgonzola and a honey dressing, roasted corn pudding in acorn squash (thanks to Heidi of 101 Cookbooks), corn on the cob dripping with butter and freshly ground black pepper, leek & gruyere tartlets and plum crumble.

That's just for starters. A drop in the ocean. The post-it notes littering the pages of my favourite cookbooks forecast a lot of time in the kitchen over the next couple of months. Why is Autumn so short?!

Last week Mat Follas, winner of Masterchef, who runs the restaurant The Wild Garlic and writes a lovely blog of the same name was touting for vegetarian suggestions for his Christmas menu on twitter. I like the fact that Mat asks people what they would want. He really values people's input - asking Guardian Word of Mouth readers to comment on his first menu for example. That way he canvasses opinion, encourages debate, gets some new ideas and (hopefully) comes to a much more considered decision on any number of things.

So with Christmas menus on my mind, and armed with some fantastic homegrown potatoes freshly dug up from FoodUrchin's allotment (which, I was reliably informed, made great roasties), I set about a Sunday roast for two. Chicken for Andrew and a seasonal veggie dish for me. Now, when it comes to a roast, I do not want to be missing out on those delicious roast potatoes, crispy roasted parsnips and lashings of gravy. I hate it when I go somewhere for a Sunday roast only to find that the veggie option is pasta or risotto. What's that all about? What can be so difficult about cooking something interesting and appetising and vegetarian to serve with the same veg as the beef, chicken or lamb?

With a truck load of shallots in my Abel & Cole delivery that I wanted to use up I decided on a savoury tarte tatin. I've made them before - a Tomato Tarte Tatin earlier this year with the first crop of the Summer tomatoes and a vegan Shallot & Wild Mushroom Tatin for Christmas dinner a few years ago when my Uncle and Aunty were visiting. All the talk of Christmas had whetted my appetite for chestnuts, so a Caramelised Shallot & Chestnut Tatin with porcini gravy it was.

Ingredients

For the pastry:

8oz plain flour
4oz butter
5 or 6 sprigs of thyme (leaves only)
5 floz water
salt & pepper

For the filling:

Shallots (I'm no good at remembering to weigh food before I cook with it but I reckon I used around 20 shallots)
Mushrooms (I used up a couple of handfuls of chestnut mushrooms which where lurking in the fridge, but you could use any mushrooms you like)
1 tin of chestnuts
1 - 2 oz butter
1 tsp muscavado sugar
a few thyme leaves
salt & pepper

Method

First make the pastry by rubbing all of the ingredients except the water together to form fine breadcrumbs, then add the water a little at a time until the pastry comes together (being careful not to overhandle it). If you have a food processor, put all the ingredients except the water and blitz for around 40 - 60 seconds and then with the blade running add the water slowly until the pastry forms a ball. Wrap in clingfilm and pop in the fridge for 30 minutes.

Peel the shallots. Heat the butter with a tiny splash of olive oil in a tarte tatin dish over a low heat (or another dish which you can use on but the hob and in the oven) and saute the whole shallots over the until they begin to brown slightly. Turn the heat up slightly and add the mushrooms, seasoning and thyme and cook until the juices which come off the mushrooms have evaporated. Add the sugar and cook for another couple of minutes and then finally add the chestnuts.

The mixture should cover the whole of the bottom of the tarte tatin dish. Roll out the pastry which has been resting in the fridge to about 1/2 inch thick and lay over the shallot mixture. The pastry should be a touch larger than the dish so fold the edges back and tuck well around the edges to form a seal and keep the moisture in.

Pop the tarte tatin in a medium oven for around 30 minutes or until the pastry is cooked and golden.

Slide a knife around the edge of the pastry to loosen. Put a plate over the dish and then carefully tip the dish with the plate held firmly on top over so that the tart is sat shallot side up on the plate. Remove the dish. Serve with roast potatoes, veg and your favourite vegetarian gravy.

N.B. To make this dish vegan, use vegan margarine (e.g. soya margarine) instead of butter in the pastry and use just oil (not butter) to saute the shallots for the filling.

Smoked Haddock & Spinach Tart

A big bunch of lovely dark green large leafed spinach turned up in my weekly vegetable box last Monday. The sort that has that really rich irony taste and which has some bite to it. A far cry from the baby leaves of the summer.

By Saturday it really was time to get it used up before it reached the point where it would only be fit to be chucked into the pot with the rest of the not-quite-so-fresh veg which make their way into soup at the end of the week.

My first thought was to make the Valentine Warner recipe I'd made a couple of weeks ago - Moroccan Spiced Spinach & King Prawns - which calls for these tastier, more mature spinach leaves. But then seeing Nick Nairn's dish using natural smoked haddock on Saturday Kitchen had me craving good smoked fish. For once I managed to leave the house and make it to our local fishmonger - Moxons in East Dulwich - before they'd sold out of everything (I usually don't have much choice, arriving after 4pm on a Saturday afternoon...) and picked up a lovely piece of smoked haddock.

The combination of smoked haddock and spinach is not a new one. It's a perfect marriage in my view - soft, flaky, lightly smoked fish and vibrant earthy leaves. The other flavours which work well are no mystery either and the one that leapt to mind on Saturday was cheese. And so a recipe came together...


We ate the tart warm and straight from the oven in the evening with some buttered samphire and then cold the next day for lunch with salad. I'm not sure which I liked best - the tart was more moist when it was warm, but then the pastry was certainly crisper when we ate it cold. Whichever way, it's a good early Autumn dish to eat when the days are still bright with that gorgeous big sun low in the sky.

Ingredients

For the pastry:

6oz plain flour
3oz butter
3 or 4 fl oz water
2 tbsp finely grated parmesan
1 tsp mustard powder
salt & pepper

For the filling:

12oz natural smoked haddock
10fl oz full cream milk (or half and half semi skimmed milk and cream which I did because I had both to use up in the fridge)
1 egg
a big bunch of large spinach leaves (thick stalks removed)
1oz butter
1oz plain flour
1 shallot (finely chopped)
pinch freshly grated nutmeg
salt & pepper

Method

Start by making the pastry. Blitz everything except the water in the food processor (or work together to make fine breadcrumbs by hand in a large bowl) then add the water a little at a time to form a soft, but not wet pastry. Wrap in cling film and leave in the fridge for around 30 minutes. Then roll out to around 1/4 " thick and line a 9" loose bottomed fluted tart tin. At this stage I often pop my lined pastry case in the freezer for 5 minutes to firm up and reduce the risk of the pastry shrinking down the sides of the tin when you bake it.

Blind bake the pastry case for around 15 minutes at 190 C. Then remove the baking beans & parchment and bake for a further 5 minutes.

In the meantime, poach the smoked haddock in the milk (or milk and cream) in a shallow pan for 6 or 7 minutes. Pop the fish onto a plate, remove the skin and any bones and then flake. Reserve the poaching liquid.

Roughly chop the spinach and wilt in a non stick pan, making sure to stir to prevent the spinach from sticking. Put the wilted spinach in a sieve. Once cooled slightly, squeeze to remove as much liquid as possible.

Saute the shallot in the butter until soft. Add flour, stir to combine and then cook out the roux for a couple of minutes, stirring frequently. Add the warm poaching liquid and whisk until smooth. Season with salt, pepper and nutmeg. Once cooled slightly whisk in the beaten egg and then stir in the fish and spinach.

Put the fish mixture into the pastry case and bake at 180 - 190 C (depending on your oven) for around 25 minutes until slightly golden and cooked through. Serve warm or cold.

Chocolate Brownies

A few weeks ago my Mum and I spent the day selling our homemade goodies at the Covent Garden Real Food Market where one of our best sellers was our chocolate brownies. They flew off the stall like little hot cakes!

Now I've never been a massive brownie fan. For starters, I'm generally more of a savoury person - I'd much rather go for starter and main and skip the dessert (unless there's a good cheese board of course in which case I'd be sure to leave room for that). Added to which I'm not a huge lover of chocolate cakes or desserts. Don't get me wrong, I love a few squares of quality dark chocolate but you'll rarely find me choosing a chocolatey pud. I much prefer something fruity.

So it wasn't until a couple of years ago that I first had a go at making chocolate brownies and even then I had no intention of eating them... I always make cakes to take to work and share with my colleagues on my birthday and this particular year someone asked me if I was any good at making brownies. Never one to turn down a challenge where food is concerned I set off on finding (and perfecting) a good brownie recipe.

Now, family aside, I know of two queens of baking whose tried and tested recipes never fail - Mary Berry and Sue-L. As anyone who visits the BBC Food Message Boards will know, Sue-L 's prowess in the world of baking is much revered! Where better place to start than with her brownie recipe? I know everyone has their own interpretation of what a brownie should taste like - some like them with nuts added - but the bottom line is that a brownie needs to be squidgy on the inside. And believe me, these little beauties are! They went down a treat at work, so much so, even I ate one and have been making them for people ever since.

Sue-L's recipe has a little vanilla extract which I haven't included here. I think whether you need it or not very much depends on the type of chocolate you use and your own tastes, but that's a story for another blog post altogether as my recent chocolate tasting with the chocolate master himself, Paul A. Young, taught me...

Ingredients

200g butter
200g good quality plain chocolate (as Sue-L says, 70% cocoa solids makes the best brownies!)
600g golden caster sugar
4 large eggs
250g plain flour
4 tablespoons cocoa

Method

Preheat your oven to 180C (170C fan assisted).

Grease a rectangular roasting tin or oven proof dish which measures approximately 8" x 12" (20 x 30cm) and line with baking parchment (not greaseproof paper as this will stick to the brownies!).Melt the butter and chocolate in a glass bowl over a pan of simmering water. Make sure that the bowl doesn't touch the water inside the pan and be careful not to let the water come into contact with the chocolate as this could make it all go horribly wrong.

Cool the chocolate and butter mixture slightly and then stir in the caster sugar. Whisk the eggs and add then a little at a time, making sure they are well blended before adding more.

Sift the flour and cocoa into the mixture and beat until smooth.

Pour the mixture into the prepared tin. It may take up to 50 minutes to cook, depending on your oven, but you don't want to over cook it or your brownies will be too dry. To get the right consistency the mixture needs to be just cooked, so start testing with a cocktail stick after about 40 minutes – there should be moist crumbs clinging to the cocktail stick, but not wet batter.

Cool the brownies in the tin slightly and then mark into pieces. Depending on how big you want your brownies to be, this mixture will make between 15 and 24 pieces. It is fairly rich though so you may just want to make mini sized brownies, in which case you could make 32 pieces.

Leave the brownies in the tin until they are completely cold, then turn out onto a board and cut into pieces along the pre-marked lines.

Bank Holiday Madeleines

Every time I'm rooting through my baking cupboard to find something or other Andrew seems to spot the madeleine tin. Not the loaf or bun tins...always the madeleine tin. This is usually accompanied with a friendly jibe about how long it must be since I last made madeleines - have I made them since living at this house (where we've been for over 18 months)...?! The answer is probably no. So over the August bank holiday weekend, after two very full on weeks at work which left no time for eating and sleeping, let alone cooking, I decided to get back in the saddle by cooking up an Ottolenghi inspired feast on Saturday evening and a lazy bank holiday breakfast in bed for my (clearly deprived) husband.

Instead of my usual (and preferred) method of making it up as I go along, I decided to follow the recipe in my much loved and well used copy of French Regional Cooking (by Anne Willan and the Ecole de Cuisine La Varenne) which I picked up at Oxfam a few years ago before our Bourgogne-Odyssey (that was the holiday when it rained, a lot, and when I managed to used around 8 packs of butter in 10 days on my cellulite inducing cook-a-thon).

Well, when I say I decided to follow the recipe that's not strictly true. I'm not the world's greatest recipe-follower. I tend (unless it's a Denis Cotter recipe) to make my own little adjustments as I go along. Today was no exception, although I did follow the method word for word!

Freshly baked, warm madeleines with a cup of Williamson Earl Grey. Lovely.


This recipe makes around 16 madeleines.

Ingredients

2oz plain flour
1/2 tsp banking powder
2oz caster sugar
2oz melted butter
2 eggs
zest of 1 orange
zest of 1 lemon

Method

Whisk the eggs and sugar until thick and light. Add the orange and lemon zest. Sift the flour and baking powder and gently fold into the egg and sugar mixture in three batches. When the last batch of flour is almost mixed in, add the melted butter and fold in quickly and lightly to retain as much volume as possible.

Chill the batter for 20 to 30 minutes in the fridge. Heat your oven to around 230C (I heated mine to around 210C in the fan oven). Brush your madeleine tins with a little butter and then sprinkle with flour and knock the excess out of the tins.

Fill each of the madeleine to around three quarters full. Bake for 5 minutes then reduce the temperature of the oven to 200C and bake for a further 5 - 7 minutes until the madeleines are golden brown.

Transfer the madeleines to a rack to cool (or alternatively eat them all whilst they are still warm and skip lunch...).

More Gingers, Vicar? Summer Berry Cheesecake

Alas, we were pipped at the post in the Viewers' Choice Award by the lovely Helen and Lizzie - the Go Go Gin Girls. Huge congratulations to them!

Although the Nom Nom Nom 2009 competition is finished now, I couldn't possibly leave you with no recipe for our dessert of Summer Berry Shortbread Cheesecake...

Ingredients

For the shortbread:
6oz plain flour
4oz butter
2oz golden caster sugar

For the filling:
zest & juice of 1 lemon
zest & juice of 1 lime
300g cream cheese
150ml double cream
115g caster sugar
summer fruits (raspberries, strawberries, etc)

For the raspberry coulis:
Handful raspberries
1 tbsp caster sugar

Method

Combine the shortbread ingredients until the just come together. Roll out to 1/2cm thickness and cut into rounds using a 8cm straight edged cutter. Carefully lift the rounds onto a greased baking sheet using a palette knife. Bake at 180C for approximately 15 minutes until they are a pale golden brown. Leave to cool on the baking sheet and then transfer to a cooling rack.

Mix the cream cheese, lemon zest and juice, lime zest and juice and sugar. Whip the double cream and stir it into the cream cheese mixture. Cover and chill for at least 30 minutes.

Make the raspberry coulis by blending the raspberries and sugar together using a stick blender and then pass the puree through a fine seive to leave a smooth coulis. Put to one side and prepare your summer berries - leave the raspberries whole and slice the strawberries.

To build the dessert put a tiny blob of the cream cheese mixture in the centre of each plate and place a shortbread round on top. Then add a good tablespoonful of the cream cheese mixture, some summer berries and a teaspoon of the coulis. Repeat with another shortbread round, cream cheese mixture and summer berries. Finish with a swirl of raspberry coulis around the plate.

It's a lovely dessert for a summer's evening with friends because you can make each element in advance (even the day before) and then just layer up the desserts at the last minute. Enjoy!

Red Quinoa & Black Bean 'Chilli' Salad

I've been a quinoa (pronounced keen-wa) convert for quite some time. Not only is it a complete protein in nutritional terms, which is great for non-meat eaters like me, but it's also actually rather tasty. It might not look it - it's a pale grain like any other and I have to admit that I wasn't completely taken with it the first time I tasted it plain (although it does have a strangely moreish nuttiness). But once I began to experiment with it, mostly in salads and pilaf, I decided it was pretty good stuff. Added to which I feel rather virtuous when I eat it because of its goodness!

OK, technically it isn't a grain. Despite the Incas, who considered quinoa to be sacred, calling it chisaya mama (the mother of all grains) it is apparently a wannabe-grain (or psuedograin as the experts would have it). A grain-like crop. It has been a staple food source in the Andean region of South America for thousands of years but it seems that it's significance for our modern diets (and in particular vegetarian and vegan diets) has only received increasing attention over recent years.

Whilst shopping in Paris last month I spied a packed of red quinoa which I had read about, but never seen before. I snapped myself up a little bag and brought it home to London to try out. Actual recipes for red quinoa proved to be far and few between so I came up with the idea of using Mexican flavours to create a red quinoa chilli salad...black beans, corn, red chilli. I served it with guacamole and tortillas, but to be honest, the guacamole overpowered it a bit so next time I think I would make a side salad with the avocado instead (and use less lime!).

Here's what I did:

Ingredients

150g red quinoa
1 tin black beans
1 small tin sweetcorn
1 sweet red pepper (chopped into pieces)
2 spring onions (finely sliced)
2 x cloves garlic (I used new season garlic)
1 x red chilli (finely chopped)
Juice of 1 lime
Rapeseed oil

Salt & pepper

Method

Cook the red quinoa. I do this by washing the grains in cold water, putting them in a dry pan for a couple of minutes until they start popping slightly, then covering them with water and simmering with the lid on for around 10 minutes until cooked but still with some bite.

Make a simple dressing with the lime juice, oil, seasoning, garlic and red chilli. Add the cooked quinoa, beans, sweetcorn, spring onions and red pepper and stir to serve. Some freshly chopped herbs may also work well but alas I had none...

A Celebratory Cream Tea

We became the proud owners of a beautiful little black cat yesterday and to celebrate her arrival I decided a champagne cream tea was in order! I've been fancying a cream tea for a while - I think it's the first sign of sunshine that does that...the decadence of spending lazy summer afternoons eating light buttery scones with lashings of jam and cream. Apart from the cream I don't suppose a cream tea is particularly cat-friendly and there wasn't any sunshine to be had yesterday as the rain poured down in torrents. But it was certainly fairly decadent to be sitting around sipping champagne and eating these little beauties!

Now it seems that even something as simple as a cream tea can cause great debate... What flavour jam? What sort of cream? Cream or jam on first? How do you pronounce 'scone'? Fruit scone or plain scone?

Cream teas originated in Devon where it is customary to split a freshly baked scone, cover each half with Devonshire clotted cream and then spoon strawberry jam on top. It has to be a plain scone, proper clotted cream (none of your whipped cream nonsense) and strawberry jam. Sounds about right to me, but with one exception...tradition or not, I like to spread my jam on first and then I can spoon on as much clotted cream as my scone will take. I'd rather have just the one scone with serious artery clogging quantities of cream than two sparsely coated scones.

And so it was that we found ourselves eating cream teas, drinking champagne and feeding the cat clotted cream off a teaspoon on a cold and miserable Sunday afternoon in June.

Ingredients

8oz self raising flour
2oz butter
1oz caster sugar
1 egg
3fl oz milk
2 teaspoons baking powder

Method

Mix the flour and butter until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs and then add the sugar. Beat the egg, then add the milk to the egg and mix. Add the egg and milk mixture to the dry ingredients slowly and stir to form a soft dough. You might not need all of the egg and milk mixture so don't add it all at once. Kneed lightly and then roll out to around 2cm thickness on a floured work surface. Cut into 5cm rounds and put onto a greased baking tray. Brush the tops with milk and then bake in the oven at between 200C and 220C (depending on your oven) for around 15 minutes or until golden.

Leave to cool slightly and then serve with strawberry jam and clotted cream.

For the record, it's pronounced like gone (not bone)...