I love the little Chinese Gyoza dumplings.  Both sweet and savoury versions are a regular feature in  my kitchen.      You can make them yourself, but I buy packets of them in Chinatown and keep in the freezer for a quick supper.

Inspired by my homemade tortilla chips I gave the gyoza wrappers the same treatment.    Snappy, crunchy and spicy.  Perfect as they are, or for  dipping, they barely need a recipe.

My latest obsession is chocolate tea make from cocoa bean shavings from Hotel Chocolat, paired with cheese or spices it also makes an excellent gyoza topping.  I am loking forward to further experiments with the shavings.

Recipe: Spicy Chocolate Gyoza Crisps

Place a piece of baking parchment on a tray and lay your gyoza skins out.   Brush with a little olive oil and then sprinkle with your choice of cocoa bean flakes, spices, salt or finely grated Parmesan.

Lightly run your rolling pin over them so the spices stick.

Bake as GM5/ 190C for 5 to 6 minutes until bubbly and crispy.

I made one batch of chocolate, cumin and chilli flakes and another of chocolate and parmesan.

Sending these to this month’s We Should Cocoa where the theme is savoury vegetarian (I know Parmesan is not strictly vegetarian, but substitute with your choice of rennet free Italian hard cheese or just make spicy ones!)

Thanks to  Hotel Chocolat for the Cocoa Bean shavings sample.

I am a bit of a matcha nut, and today am delighted to have some matcha from Teapigs to giveaway.  There is one main prize of a matcha gift set – with matcha, measuring scoop, whisk and shot glass worth £32.50 and a runner up prize of a tin of matcha.

Matcha not only tastes great, but it also contains 15 times as many antioxidants as regular green tea.  Also it is fab for -

• improving condition of skin, hair and nails
• providing a gentle energy boost lasting 4-6 hours
• reducing mental stress and increasing concentration

As well as all that you can use it in baking – try these matcha muffins or madeleines.

Matcha is also great in dressings too.  Here is a dressing from Laura Santtini’s new book Flash Cooking, which was featured in the Sunday Times for their healthy new year’s diet (part 2 is tomorrow).

Far Eastern (Matcha and Lime Yoghurt) Finishing Yoghurt

1 tsp matcha tea
1 tsp chopped chives
grated zest of 1 whole lime and a squeeze of juice
some dried shisho (optional)
3tbsp Greek-style live yoghurt

Try adding a pinch of wasabi for an unexpected ninja kick!

Stir this into soup, or set a dollop in the centre of each bowl, or sit them on the side of a plate to give a refreshing finish to fish, meat, and vegetable dishes. Add the ingredients shown to 3 tablespoons of live Greek-style yoghurt for enough to serve 2-3 people.

Laura Santtini, Flash Cooking: Fit, Fast Flavours for Busy People (Quadrille.£20)

If you want to try some matcha, or anything else from Teapigs, enter FUSSFREE12 at the checkout for a 20% discount.

Win A TeaPigs Matcha Gift Set

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For more prizes see the giveaways page on both Fuss Free Flavours, and Fuss Free Living

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Many thanks to Teapigs for the prize and for my tin of matcha.

It should be vaguely apparent to the regular reader that I like dips, really quite a bit lot.    What I do not like are most shop dips, expensive, laden with fats and oil and unnecessary ingredients (guacamole with added cream anyone?)

A homemade hummus is a thing of beauty, endlessly customisable, far more affordable and better tasting than many shop bought alternatives.

Both beans and chickpeas are cheap, filled with protein and have a relatively mellow taste which makes them the ideal “filler” for more expensive or intensely flavoured ingredients.      I usually buy dried beans and pulses, then soak and cook them myself before free freezing them, but also always keep a few tins handy too.

I was recently sent some goodies from the Vaucluse area of Provence, which included a packet of concentrated anchovy pate and herbes de Provence.    I especially liked the anchovy pate which was fantastically smooth and deeply concentrated and intensely flavoured, perfect to flavour my beans in a hummus.

I served the resultant dip with a simple salad and delicious crispbreads from Peter’s Yard (a recent discovery and new favourite), which made a quick easy and healthy lunch.

In the absence of anchovy pate you could try using Patum Peperium (Gentlemen’s Relish) or “melt” a tin of anchovies gently in a frying pan and pass through a sieve to remove the bones.  Use any sort of mildly flavoured beans. I freeze my lemon juice in ice cube trays so I always have fresh to hand in the freezer.

Recipe: Anchovy and Butter Bean Hummus

Serves 2

Ingredients

1 tin / 1 cup / 235g beans, drained and rinsed
60g / 3 tbs anchovy pate (to taste)
1 tbs olive oil
1 tbs lemon juice
1/2 tsp herbs de Provence
Pepper to taste
Chives to garnish – optional

Method

Put everything into the food processor and whizz until smooth.   Add a little water if needed to thin.

Serve with crispbreads or crudities.

Click for a printable recipe.

For more information about Provence and Vaucluse do visit their facebook page.

Thank you to the Vaucluse Tourist Board for my lovely ingredients.

As I am sure that I have mentioned before, I am a dip fanatic.     I especially like hummus (hommus, houmus), which ever way you  choose to spell it, is delicious.   If you make your own it can also be a healthy choice as chick peas count towards one of your five-a-day, olive oil is rich in unsaturated fats, and by thinning the hummus with water it can be far less calorific than shop bought versions.  An added handful of spinach adds colour and extra goodness.   I have discovered that spinach once blitzed has a very mild flavour that can easily be masked by other flavours. 

When I was a child I would be encouraged to eat my spinach with tales of Popeye (the sailor man) who would pop open a can of spinach, gulp it down, and gain superhuman strengths.   I suspect that these days Popeye is as dated as my 1970′s placemat that I used as a prop, and modern children would prefer Shrek hummus.  (Dipsy hummus sounds wrong, and I cannot think of any more green characters apart from Fungus the Bogeyman).

Like all these things, this is a very forgiving recipe so play with the quantities to suit you.  I cook my chickpeas from dried, then free freeze them.  I think that the amount used here is about a 400g tin.    The amount will be a good dip or toast topping for 4.

Spinach (Popeye or Shrek) Hummus (Dip for 4)

230g / 8oz / 1 cup cooked chickpeas (drained and rinsed)
Large handful spinach
Juice 1/2 lemon
1 dsp olive oil
1 dsp tahini / seed or nut butter
Small clove garlic (optional)
Water to thin as needed
Salt and pepper to taste

Simply place everything in the food processor and blitz until  smooth.  Add water to achieve your desired consistency. Season to taste.

If you prefer some texture to your hummus, reserve some of the chickpeas and add to the smooth dip and pulse the food processor a few times.

Pasta with Silken Tofu Sauce

Similarly to marmite, when it comes to tofu people generally fall into 2 camps.   Those that love it and those that do not.    I am firmly in the first group and am constantly on a mission to convert the tofu haters.   I fully understand why people might think that they do not love tofu; badly cooked tofu is an aberration to any right thinking taste-buds.   As I have said before, there is a simple mantra for deliciousness when dealing with tofu; “press and marinade”.

There are two types of tofu; what I think of as regular tofu which is basically soy cheese, where the milk is curdled, the curds strained from the whey and then pressed.  Silken tofu is totally different, softer with the soy milk curdled into a custard like consistency with very little separation.    Regular tofu is more usually served in solid pieces whereas silken tofu is blended, whizzed and mixed into a creamy sauce and generally used in puddings, cakes and dips.

Clearspring have just launched an organic silken tofu* (the only organic ambient storage long life tofu in the world, fantastic if your fridge is always as full as mine) and gave me some samples to experiment with.  The tofu is made and presented in Tetra pack style boxes,and tastes just as fresh as my homemade tofu does.   It is as delicious straight from the box, with a drizzle of oil or tamari, as it is made into all manner of dishes.

I have briefly written about Clearspring before; along with Steenbergs they are one of my favourite food producers.   Clearspring are a 100% vegan company, committed to producing ethical foods and supporting local communities.  They are organic as far as they can be (because of their production methods sea vegetables cannot be certified as organic), and they are serious about quality, their statement that they make premium quality products is spot on.  I have a serious and growing addiction to the brand.

Here in the UK is it freezing cold and snowing, comfort food is called for.  I was craving creamy pasta; but mindful of the spate of Christmas parties that have already started and the resultant calorie load, I wanted something a little lighter.  So  I whizzed up a mock cream sauce using the silken tofu and some other Clearspring goodies.     Miso and tamari are rich in umami; the 5th human taste, which almost defies description.   Umami has long been recognised in Japan where the word means deliciousness.

Silken Tofu Miso Dressing

This multi purpose sauce is excellent with crudities, thinned as a salad dressing, and warmed over pasta it makes a fantastic creamy sauce, fantastic as it is or as a base for other flavours.  It is very creamy;  I think most people would think it contained dairy, unless told otherwise.

Silken Tofu Miso Sauce (Serves 3 as a pasta sauce)

1 pack silken tofu (300g)
50g raw cashew nuts
1 tbs tamari
1 tbs olive oil
1 tbs sweet miso (I used sweet white)
1 tsp roasted sesame oil
Sprinkling of chilli flakes
Salt & Pepper to taste

Whizz all the ingredients thoroughly, either in the food processor or with a stick blender.

I am sending this to Ruth at Once Upon a Feast for this week’s Presto Pasta Night.

*Clearspring Organic Silken Tofu

RSP; £1.85 for 300g (Prices accurate as of October 2010)

Price comparison with fresh tofu

Cauldron Organic Tofu 250g RSP £1.67

Taifun Organic Tofu 225g RSP £1.89

Please see Clearspring for more information.   The tofu is avaiable nationwide from the 1st January 2011 and will be in selected health food shops in London the week before Christmas.

Thank you to Clearspring for the free samples of the tofu.

I am officially dippy – I would like to believe that dips are a food group, I know that they are not, but I can dream.     But this dip, served with some crudites and pitta bread possibly does count as a reasonably balanced meal.    It is a pretty pale orange and perfect for Halloween, watched over by my Alien I carved earlier in the week.

Pumpkins are everywhere at this time of year, they are wonderful for carving but unless handled carefully they can be rather bland and boring to eat.    My usual solution to boring non leafy vegetables is to roast them; roasting concentrates the flavours and caramelizes some of the starch making dull and watery transform into something altogether more interesting.     For this dip I peeled and roasted a whole pumpkin (about 12″ / 30cm) and used about 1/6 of the flesh in my dip.  The rest was turned into soup.

Favourwise there is a mix of East and West – tamari and toasted sesame oil give an oriental influence, bought West to North America; the home of Halloween celebrations, with the addition of liquid smoke and maple syrup.    A world of flavours in a bowl for my watchful Alien.    Liquid smoke is an American invention, widely available in the USA and becoming increasingly easy to find in the UK, and has become a store cupboard staple for me.    It does what is says on the bottle, adding an authentic smoky taste to anything you add it to; it is made by passing smoke through water.   You can make up your own mind on its safety.  The EFSA is investigating one of the ingredients, but bizarrely is not comparing it with traditionally smoked goods.  I have used less than a small bottle in over 2 years and am not going to worry considering the amount of smoked fish and meats that I like to eat.

Roasted Pumpkin Hummus

1/6 of a medium pumpkin
1 tsp paprika
glug olive oil
1 tin chickpeas – drained and rinsed
juice half a lemon
1 clove garlic – peeled
1 tsp toasted sesame oil
1 tbs tamari (I use Clearspring which is double strength) or use soy sauce
1 tbs maple syrup
dash liquid smoke
salt & pepper to taste

Cut your pumpkin in half and scoop out the fibres and seeds.    Cut into 1″ wide wedges and peel.   Place on a baking tray, sprinkle with olive oil, paprika and salt & pepper.    Roast at 190C / 375F / GM4 for about 45 minutes, turning every 10 minutes or so.    Allow to cool.  Place all the ingredients in the food processor and blitz until smooth.   Thin with a little water if needed.   Season to taste.

Serve in a pretty bowl with a sprinkle of chilli flake and sesame seeds with vegetables and strips of pitta bread.

A classic tapenade usually consists of black olives, capers and anchovies mixed in varying proportions.  I added some seeds to this pungent mix, to both lighten taste & colour and to add a dose of healthy omega 3 & 6s.    My seeds were a mixture of flax (linseed), pumpkin, sunflower and sesame.     The seeds diluted the pungent tapenade from a concentrated spread to the perfect base for a dip or sauce.    I stirred a good dollop of seed tapenade and some semi dried cherry tomatoes into hot pasta for a quick end of week supper.  Ground flax seed is really rather gloopy and the paste will need some thinning.

Having just missed the deadline for this week’s Presto Pasta Night I am sending this to fellow Londoner, Abby at Eat The Right Stuff for next week’s round up.

Four Seed Tapenade (Makes pasta sauce for 4)

2oz black olives (stoned)
1oz seeds (I used roughly equal quantities of flax, pumpkin, sunflower & sesame)
About 8 anchovy fillets (I used a 50g tin)
1 oz capers
1 small clove garlic
Juice and zest of one lemon
Olive oil

Blitz all the ingredients either in the small bowl of your food processor or with a stick blender.   I added the oil from my anchovies, but if you prefer drain them and add an extra glug of olive oil.      If necessary thin the paste with a little oil or, if bothered about the fat content, water.

I can think of several variations of this, using either parmesan or miso in place of the anchovies,

A while ago I was sent a bag of Total Greek Yogurt to try, and one of the dishes I made was some coronation chicken made with leftovers from the previous nights roast.   When buying my chicken I was amazed that my small local Sainsbury’s had two breeds of free range chicken for sale, I am sure that this is largely down to the work of the Chicken Out Campaign, annoyingly I made this so long ago I cannot remember which chicken I bought.

There are dozens of coronation chicken recipes out there, many are laden with fat and calories, I wanted to make something lighter with a lower fat base to the sauce, I know that lots of low fat versions of regular foods are stuffed full of sugary carbs so I try to avoid them.     Here I used 1/3 regular mayonnaise* with 2/3 total 0% Greek yogurt to make a creamy base for the sauce, it tastes almost exactly the same as pure mayonnaise but has about a third of the fat and the healthy probiotic cultures.      I used Steenberg’s Organic Curry Powder to flavour the sauce, I do usually make my curry by mixing my own spices, but a blend does give the perfect Anglo-Indian flavour for this dish, and is perfect if you are in a hurry.   Steenbergs also have an extensive range of regional curry powder blends.   You can leave the chicken out and use the sauce as a dip.

Coronation Chicken (Serves 2)

Left over roasted chicken (chopped)
1 tbs mayonnaise
2 tbs 0% Greek yogurt
1 heaped tsp curry powder (more or less to taste)
Splash boiling water
1 tbs chutney
6 dried apricots chopped (optional)
Salt and pepper to taste

Mix the mayonnaise, yogurt and curry powder together, if needed add a splash of boiling water to thin the sauce.    Stir in the chutney, apricots (if using) and chicken.   Season to taste with salt and pepper.   I served with green leaves and tomato.

* I do make mayonnaise, but my standard to go fridge staple is Hellmanns.   I think it is the best tasting of the ready made mayonnaises and is made with free range eggs.

Have I mentioned before that I  really really really love dips?   Looking back at my dippy posts  it seems that I  usually serve them with crudities, but sometimes a bit of non veggie crunch and crispiness is required.      Instead of from a packet and laden with fat and all manner of nasties, these tortilla chips are made from tortilla wraps which I usually have in the freezer.

Simply snip the tortilla wraps into chip sized triangles, I find one wrap per person is about right.   Arrange on a baking tray or pizza stone, brush with a little olive oil (You could use an oil sprayer here) and sprinkle with pepper, salt and your choice of seasoning; cumin, chilli, harissa or celery salt would all work well.     Bake for about 10 minutes in a hot oven (GM7, 220C, 425F) until crisp and golden.     Serve and dip to your heart’s content!

How simple is that?

You know the occasions when you have asked people for supper, then you get home 5 minutes before they are due to arrive and nothing is prepared?   I think that a bowl of dip is the perfect casual starter.  Easy to throw together from store cupboard staples and the contents of my co-op veg box, the colour is guaranteed to make anyone smile.     Rather than using tinned beans all the time I usually cook dried beans then freeze them ready to be used, it is cheaper and better for the environment and I prefer the taste.     However tinned beans are undeniably highly convenient and I keep a few tins in the cupboard ready for instant useage.

I am a huge fan of the vaccum packed cooked beetroot, they will keep for ages, taste great and add a vibrant splash of colour.   The dip was actually far more colourful than the photo shows.

This is another contribution to my series of easy, economical and healthy recipes of what to do with the contents of the co-op “boxes” for the Food Co-ops and Buying Groups project run by Sustain – also part of the Making Local Food Work programme funded by the Big Lottery.

Beetroot and Cannellini Bean Dip (Serves 4)

1 tin cannellini beans (410g)
1/2  packet cooked beetroot (or about 4oz / 125g)
glug olive oil
1 clove garlic
zest of one lemon
1 spring onion* (optional)
salt and pepper to taste

Simply open the can of beans and rinse well.  Put all the ingredients into your food processor (or into a tall pot and use a stick blender) and blend well.   Season to taste.    Serve with crudites and strips of pitta bread.   I used some chives from my window box to garnish – you could use the green part of a spring onion finely chopped.

* I have noticed a growing trend to call spring onions “salad onions”.     I am suspecting some directive that has decided that as they are not exclusively available in the spring that the name is a misnomer?   I almost prefer the American term “scallion” which to me aptly alludes to a scally wag and youthfulness?

As I am currently immersed in DIY I am republishing this post for this week’s recipe using the contents of the “boxes” from the Food Co-ops and Buying Groups project run by Sustain – also part of the Making Local Food Work programme funded by the Big Lottery.

Roast Carrot Dip (Serves 2 as an appetiser)

1lb carrots – peeled and roughly chopped
1 large onion – peeled and cut into quarters
1 tsp olive oil
1 tsp sesame oil (optional)
Salt and pepper to taste

Place the carrots and onions in a roasting tin and toss with the oils and season with the salt and pepper. Roast in a moderately hot oven GM5/190C/375F for about 40mins until the carrot and onion are starting to caramelise. Scrape into the food processor and blitz; adding water if needed to thin, make a textured purée, season to taste, garnish with fresh herbs and serve with pitta bread strips and crudités.

I am hosting Blogger Secret Ingredient this week and I had all manner of plans to cook something scrumptious involving my chosen ingredient, capers, on Friday night, however it was not to be.

I had a very busy Wednesday and we went out to supper locally, we sat down, ordered and I promptly got something in my eye.    It felt like an eyelash, I had a good look but could not see anything and put the slight discomfort down to a slight scratch from when I had rubbed it.     I woke up on Thursday and there was still a slight discomfort, not painful but not quite right.    I had all manner of things to do – mainly my web design course, I tried to forget about the eye thinking I would deal with it the next day if it was no better, and go immediately to A&E if it got worse.

Friday morning came and it was no better, still uncomfortable rather than painful, but having had horrid eye infections in the past I took myself off to Moorfield’s Eye Hospital to get it checked out.    Mindful of long A&E waits I took my iPod, 2 books, 2 knitting projects, a magazine and a large bottle of water.    I completely forgot anything to eat, happily there is an excellent cafe, The Shepherdess diagonally opposite the hospital  where I bought an excellent BLT in a warm baguette with freshly cooked bacon.

Everyone, including me, moans about the NHS and the waits but really it could not have been better, I was seen by a nurse practitioner within 10 minutes of arriving (I barely had finished my baguette) and then referred onto a doctor who saw me just over an hour later.      Considering the number of people there, and the number of obviously very serious eye injuries I could see I think that this was very speedy indeed.

The doctor gave both eyes a through examination with a slit lamp machine, added all manner of drops and after about 15 minutes turned my left eye lid inside out and scooped out a piece of something about the size of a full stop that had got stuck under the lid.    It instantly felt far far better and I was sent on my way with instructions to come back if it was not totally right the next day.     I feel fairly grim after a contact lens checkup and after all the light and prodding and travelling home I really did not feel quite right and all I wanted to do was sit on the sofa and drink several large glasses of wine.    Ed went out and got fish and chips and I mustered enough energy to make tartar sauce.    There are occasions when only homemade mayonnaise will do.    This was not one of them and Hellman’s did the job nicely.

(So Easy It’s Cheating) Tartar Sauce (Serves 2)

1 tbs capers – drained and chopped
2 tbs mayonnaise* (I use Hellman’s)
finely grated zest of 1/2 lemon

Simply drain the capers give them a quick chop and mix with the mayonnaise and lemon zest.     Garnish with a few chopped chives and serve.    Delicious with fish and chips!

*A word about mayonnaise – if you buy or use ready mayonnaise please check it is made with free range eggs.     Waitrose, Marks & Spencer, the Co-op and Hellman’s all use free range eggs.    A useful guide to products containing free range eggs can be found here.