The folks at Apetina are currently challenging you to come up with a classic salad with a twist this summer using one of their range of cheeses. There is a wide range Apetina cheese, from the classic block style, to ready cubed snack packs flavoured with herbs; perfect for adding to a Fuss Free lunch or salad.

As Britain is in a frenzy of red, white and blue at the moment, for both the Jubilee and Olympics I have made a twist on the classic Greek Salad (after all Greece is the home of the Olympics) and have substituted blueberries for the olives. Frying the blueberries with some balsamic vinegar makes a tangy and fruity dressing, which livens up any salad.

Recipe: Red, White and Blue Apetina Summer Salad

Serves 1

Ingredients

1/2 cucumber
Handful blueberries
6 – 8 baby plum tomatoes
1/2 pack Apetina cubes in herb oil with garlic and olives
Dash light olive oil
1 tbs balsamic vinegar

Cut the tomatoes into quarters.

Using a potato peeler, peel the cucumber and then cut into strips. Place in a sieve and sprinkle a little salt over to draw some of the liquid out. Leave for 5 minutes then gently roll in some kitchen paper to remove the excess moisture. Arrange the cucumber on a plate.

Heat the oil in a small frying pan and fry the blueberries for a minute until they start to soften, gently swirling them around the pan. Add the balsamic. Simmer for a minute or so until you have a syrupy sauce.

Arrange the tomatoes and Apetina cubes on the bed of cucumber strips and pour the warm blueberries over.

Serve immediately.

Every week Apetina will be featuring 4 classic salads with a twist on their Facebook page. Visitors who like the Facebook and vote for their favourite Apetina recipe will be entered into a prize draw with a chance to win a picnic hamper (basket, with salad bowl and servers, plus dressing bottle). The final week’s prize will be a BBQ.

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My default approach to new potatoes is to steam them in their paper thin jackets, along with a sprig of mint and then to serve with lashings of butter.   Delicious!  There is something so good about a fresh new potato – they are delicate, but also bursting with potato flavour, which can be lost from older spuds.     Roasted new potatoes are equally delicious, and it would be a shame not to try them out.

This year, the asparagus crop has been decimated by the weather.    The British asparagus festival was cancelled due to the weather and consequent lack of crop.   It is only just starting to come into the shops, and I was delighted to receive one of the first boxes of the season from Secretts.

Asparagus by post is a new concept for me, but it does make perfect sense.  The asparagus I received yesterday morning had been picked the day before, so it was as fresh as you can get – unless you visit a PYO or grow your own – so perfect for city dwellers like me.  It was beautifully presented, tied with a raffia bow and propped up in the box.   At £9.99 a box it is expensive, but at the same time a very affordable and different present for someone, and at this quality it is a luxury product.  I’d be delighted to receive another box – forget flowers when it is in season, I think that saying it with asparagus is an excellent idea.

The asparagus was delicious, so so fresh, crisp and tasty.   I nibbled quite a bit of it raw which I have not done before.   When prepping asparagus bend it to break the stalk, and it will naturally break in the right place.   Steam for a few minutes and then serve with lashings of melted butter, and lots of pepper and salt.

Recipe: Lemony New Potato Wedges

Simply cut your potatoes into wedges, place in a roasting pan with some golden rapeseed oil, a few slices of lemon and a clove of garlic.   Season well with salt and pepper and roast in a hot oven for about 40 minutes.   If desired scatter some shredded spring onion over 5 minutes before they finish cooking.

Many thanks to Secretts for my box of asparagus.  Order here or you can visit the farm to PYO.

Sending this to Ren’s Simple and In Season, this month hosted by Urvashi.

And to Laura’s One Ingredient Challenge, co-hosted by herself and Nazima at Working London Mummy - the ingredient this month is lemon.

Lastly a reminder about Breakfast Club this month, the theme is Fairtrade and there is a Fairtrade price from Steenbergs.  I’d love anyone to take part!

My father’s favourite clue (he also does not do the cryptic crossword) is “Shiny Trousers? (15)”, the answer of course is “Notwithstanding”.   I was once very chuffed with myself when I sussed that “It’s a sad little motorcycle (5)” was “Moped”, but on the whole word games are not really my thing, although whilst cooking this I did come up with “This Asian fungus really has a laugh at your expense (8)”. 

“Shiitake” Yes – I know really not a good clue, but my thinking was that taking the shiitake was a step beyond taking the piss…   As I said word games are not my thing, and I am not expecting a glittering career as a crossword compiler on the strength of this blog post.

This dish came about last weekend when Radio 4′s Food Programme featured seaweed, which I adore, but have never really mentioned on the blog.   I suspect the nearest most people get to seaweed is as a sheet of nori around their sushi rolls and it is something that does not really feature in most diets, which is a shame.  If you have not tried seaweed then do give it a go, I am certain you will be surprised.

Seaweed or (a more digestible sounding) sea vegetables are packed with nutrients and minerals.  My favourite pick me up is a mug of miso soup sprinkled with sea vegetables and a dash of soy sauce, which I find incredibly restorative, and is just the ticket for the morning after the night before.

I get most of my Japanese ingredients from Clearspring, I find them top quality, the products are organic where they can be, and the misos and tamaris are delicious and made by Japanese artisans with centuries old methods.  They have a fairly comprehensive guide to the benefits of sea vegetables on their website too.

This dish is inspired by this tamari pasta with pak choi that I blogged almost two years ago, after having first met the Clearspring team at a food show.  I used Clearspring’s Sea Salad – a mix of dulse, sea lettuce and nori.  It rehydrates almost instantly and is also wonderful sprinkled over a green salad with a miso dressing.

Recipe: Shiitake Mushroom and Seaweed Noodles

Serves 2

10 dried shiitake mushrooms – pre soaked in boiling water for 20 minutes, drained and sliced
2 bundles of noodles – cooked as per packet instructions
1 tbs toasted sesame oil
2 spring onions sliced
1 tbs tamari or dark soy sauce
1 tbs dried seaweed flakes

In a large pan fry the sliced shiitake mushrooms and spring onions in the sesame oil.  When softened add the tamari and cooked noodles and stir until the noodles are coated.

Stir through the seaweed and serve immediately.

Season with extra soy sauce or tamari to taste.

My latest loaf is somewhat akin to a fruit and nut bar in bread form, although the chocolate is subtle and comes from cacao nibs baked into the loaf.

Cacao nibs are little pieces of unrefined chocolate, the main ingredient that is used with the addition of cacao butter, sugar and other ingredients to make bar chocolate.  They are hard, crunchy and bitter, with an intense hit of pure chocolate, my little pot came from Hotel Chocolat.  The baking somewhat softens and mellows them; I was surprised at just how well this loaf worked.

Delicious thickly spread with speculoos or a black cherry jam for breakfast or at tea time.

Recipe: Almond, Raisin and Chocolate Loaf

Makes 1 medium loaf (lasts the 2 of us 2 days)

Ingredients

300ml warm water
1 heaped tsp yeast (dried active – I used the one for hand baking)
300g strong white flour
175g strong brown bread flour
1 tsp salt
1 tbs oil – olive / rapeseed / hemp etc.
Generous handful raisins
Generous handful almonds – roughly chopped
Heaped tbs cacao nibs – or coursely grated chocolate

Pour the water into bowl, add the yeast and swirl to it is dissolved.  Add the other ingredients.

Knead with the dough hook attachment of your mixer on the lowest speed for about 4 minutes until a smooth stretchy dough has formed (if you knead by hand it will take longer).

Cover with cling film and leave in a warm place for a few hours or  in the fridge overnight. It should more than double in size.

In the morning turn out onto a floured board and gently knock the dough back. Shape the loaf,  lace in an oiled and floured 1lb loaf tin.  Leave somewhere warm until doubled in size again.

Place in a preheated oven at GM7 / 220C / 425F and bake for about 40 minutes.   For a crustier loaf place a small dish of water in the oven under the loaf.

When it is done it should turn out of the tin and sound hollow when tapped.  It always takes longer to bake than you think it will, so my general rule of thumb is that if you are unsure give it another 5 mins.

The very pretty tea towel in the photos is from the Hope & Greenwood Homewares Collection.

Thanks to both Hotel Chocolat and Hope & Greenwood for samples.

Sending to this month’s We Should Cocoa where the theme is almonds, hosted this month by Laura at How to Cook Good Food.

And to Yeastspotting…

My corn was from ZaraMama – named after the Incan Goddess of Grain – they stock a dozen different types of corn, with exotic and tasty sounding names such as creamy crunch, fiery amber and pink blossom.  A 90g bag costs just over £1 which will make two huge bowls full, still a bargain.

Delicious and morerish Speculoos spread is hard to describe, I only discovered it on my last trip to France.  It is Lotus biscuit paste in a jar.   Spicy and caramalised (remarkably Lotus biscuits account for a massive 20% of biscuit consumption in their home county of Belgium).  Perfect spread on toast, pancakes in cakes or sometimes it begs to be eaten straight from the jar with a spoon standing in front the still open cupboard.

Whenever I mention Speculoos on twitter I am sent a barrage of replies extolling its virtues and deliciousness, but, bizarrely it does not seem to be stocked by any of the UK supermarkets – I think we need a twitter campaign to lobby them to get it in store, although I wonder if it will lose at least some of its allure if its scarcity value goes?   I bought back 4 pots from France last November, carefully swaddled in a fleece at the bottom of my suitcase and have been rationing them ever since.   If you crave the taste, but do not have a jar of the paste, Steenbergs have a Koekkruidden spice blend which will give you the flavour at least.

Today I opened my last jar to make the popcorn, heaven in a bowl.

Recipe: Speculoos Popcorn

Serves 2

Scant glug vegetable oil
2oz / 1/4 cup popcorn

1 heaped tbs Speculoos Spread
1 heaped tbs butter
Good pinch sea salt

Place the oil and popcorn in a pan with a well fitting lid and put on a medium / high heat.   Swirl the pan every 20 seconds or so.    When the corn starts to pop turn the heat right down.

Meanwhile, melt the Speculoos spread and butter together and stir well, adding  sea salt to taste.

When the corn is popped pour the Speculoos sauce over and mix well.

Sit down with a good film and scoff

My translation of the ingredients seem to suggest the Speculoos is both egg and diary free, so substitute a non diary spread for a vegan adaptation.

One of the most frightening books that I have ever read is John Christoper’s The Death of Grass, which describes a future world in which a new strain of virus kills off grass.    It does not sound too bad, until you realise that rice, wheat and barley are all types of grass, and with the death of grass comes famine, the complete breakdown of civilisation and survival of those willing to kill.

As part of my degree I studied crop science, and was told that a huge percentage of rice grown in the world is from just a few strains.   I am all for selective breeding of crops; drought resistance, saline resistance and shorter stems can all be desirable characteristics, but creating a monoculture also increases the risk of one variety of a crop being susceptible to, or decimated by pest or disease.

The topic could easily take up several blog posts, and is something that I would like to return to in the future, but I was reminded of The Death of Grass, and associated potential problems of monocultures when I bought a packet of Doves Farm Einkorn flour.

Doves Farm have devoted a great deal of time and resources into growing Einkorn and turning it into a commercial crop.   Einkorn was the original wheat, first developed over 20,000 years ago.   Its yield is lower than modern wheats, and consequently it costs more.  It is a golden colour, and the flour smells of fresh hay.  Who knows what properties are locked into its genome that could benefit modern wheat and farmers?   I feel we should be profoundly thankful to Doves Farm for resurrecting this grain and making it available to us.

Einkorn Flour Bag - Photo from Doves Farm

I have to confess that I did not get on that well with the einkorn the first time I made bread with it, I used 100% and the loaf was heavy and vaguely worthy.    This time I mixed it with some standard bread flour and the resulting loaf was a huge success – full of substance without being heavy, an even crumb, and a lightly nutty toasted flavour.  I am a convert and will be trying it in cakes and a pizza base.

I am rarely taken by surprise by a product, but the Natural Selection Californian raisins did just that.  On the packet I was promised “deliciously sweet jumbo raisins with a beautiful crimson colour”, and in the manner of Ronseal doing exactly what it says on the tin, they did exactly what it said on the packet and more.   These raisins really are jumbo; I would venture to say woolly mammoth sized  – most are larger than my thumbnail – and are indeed the most glorious crimson colour and totally delicious.  A handful was perfect to add to the loaf.

Recipe: Heritage Einkorn Loaf with Crimson Raisins

Makes 1 medium loaf (lasts the 2 of us 2 days)

Ingredients

300ml warm water
1 heaped tsp yeast (dried active – I used the one for hand baking)
275g strong white flour
175g einkorn flour
1 vitamin C tablet – finely ground with a spoon of the flour
1 tsp salt
1 tbs oil – olive / rapeseed / hemp etc.
Generous handful raisins

Pour the water into bowl, add the yeast and swirl to it is dissolved.  Add the other ingredients.

Knead with the dough hook attachment of your mixer on the lowest speed for about 4 minutes until a smooth stretchy dough has formed (if you knead by hand it will take longer).

Cover with cling film and leave in the fridge overnight. It should more than double in size.

In the morning turn out onto a floured board and gently knock the dough back.  Place in an oiled and floured 1lb loaf tin.  Leave somewhere warm until doubled in size again.

Place in a preheated oven at GM7 / 220C / 425F and bake for about 40 minutes.   For a crustier loaf place a small dish of water in the oven under the loaf.

When it is done it should turn out of the tin and sound hollow when tapped.  It always takes longer to bake than you think it will, so my general rule of thumb is that if you are unsure give it another 5 mins.

Sending this to this month’s…

Bake Your Own Bread – hosted by Girlichef…

.. and to Yeastspotting.

… and this month’s Fresh From the Oven where the host is Sarah, with a challenge of Fruit Breads.

… and Alphabakes, run by Ros and Caroline, this month the letter is H (hosted by Caroline), which fits perfectly with heritage wheat

In the Fuss Free kitchen we are not food snobs, I have been known to eat in chain restaurants (like everything in life they vary in quality – both from chain to chain and location to location) and I shop in the supermarket – although I mainly buy the (relatively small amount of) meat I eat from the butcher.

I also frequently bake with baking margarine.   It is good enough for Mary Berry and it is good enough for me.  Some baking really is better with butter (and I always use it in buttercream), but often there is not a huge difference in taste, and regular Stork is less than half the price of butter and can be mixed straight from the fridge.

So when I was offered a sample of the new Stork Easy To Mix Baking Liquid I was curious enough to say “Yes please!” and to try it out.

The premise behind the baking liquid is that it is easy to mix, does not need softening and can be poured from the bottle to the bowl.  There is a handy measurement guide down the side so you do not even need scales.  Simply pour 100g or 110ml of Stork liquid for every 100g of butter in the original recipe.

Unlike Stork in a tub the new baking liquid is dairy free and vegan, once opened it needs to be kept in the fridge.   It is thick and yellow, like a slightly runny salad cream, and smells fairly strongly of margarine.

Cranberry & White Choc Chip Muffins

I made two batches of muffins, one with egg and one without. I strongly believe that if you cannot buy free range eggs, then simply do not buy any and adapt your baking not to need them.

Recipe: Stork Baking Liquid Cranberry and White Choc Chip Muffins

Makes 4

60g Stork Baking Liquid (or butter or baking margarine)
60g White Granulated Sugar
100g Plain Flour
2 tsp Baking Powder
1 Egg (Free range please)
3 dsp Milk
20g Dried Cranberries
20g White Chocolate Chips

Bung all the ingredients into a bowl and stir with a spoon for about 20 seconds.

Dollop into a well greased silicone muffin pan.

Bake at GM6 / 200C for about 25 minutes

To make the egg free muffins omit the egg and add another couple of spoons of milk.

Egg Free Cranberry & White Choc Chip Muffins

Both muffins were rather good, the margarine smell of the liquid disappears and they were light and cakey, with a light crumb.  The egg containing ones rose more.  Both batches were incredibly fragile, it was really hard to get them out of the pan, despite the fact I had greased it well

Review: Stork Easy To Mix Baking Liquid

Pros

• It is so so easy to mix, literally 10 seconds with a wooden spoon, no electric mixer needed
• Baked goods taste just fine with a good texture.
• Dairy free and vegan
• Great for children to use in mixing cakes.
• Great for holidays – weigh the dry ingredients into a jar before you go and add the baking liquid (and egg).

Cons

• Cakes are very very fragile and crumble, you need to use bun cases. A beginner could find this off-putting.
• The top of the bottle gets messy, and there was some drippage.
• Costs 60% more than regular Stork – but is still cheaper than butter

On balance this is not something that I would buy for regular use, but I am pleased to have tried it and can see that it is ideal for some.

Stork Easy Mix Baking Liquid is available from major supermarkets, price £1.59 per 500ml bottle.

Many thanks for the sample of Stork Baking Liquid.

Risotto is one of my ultimate comfort foods, smooth, creamy and packed with flavour it is a real hug in a bowl.   The ritual of making it is a comfort in itself; the half hour of gently stirring the rice, forces you to slow down, relax and put the stresses of the day behind you and possibly enjoy a glass of wine.

In this version I have added quinoa and bulgar wheat to the mix, adding different textures and flavours, bumping up the protein content and lowering the GI, without losing any of the comfort of the original dish.

As with any risotto there are no limits to flavours, I used a selection of dried mushrooms I was sent from Cooks & Co.  Sometimes you can find sand in dried mushrooms so you may need to rinse them carefully after soaking, and strain the soaking water through a fine sieve.

Recipe: Mushroom & Mixed Grain Risotto

Serves 2

Ingredients:

1/2 cup dried mushrooms – loosely packed
glug olive oil
1/2 onion – finely chopped
2 cloves garlic – sliced
100g / 3.5oz / 1/2 cup risotto rice
100g / 3.5oz / 1/2 cup quinoa & bulgar wheat (Waitrose do a mix of red & white quinoa and bulgar)
250ml / 1/2 pint / 1 cup chicken or vegetable stock
Glug white wine – optional
Dash of mushroom ketchup – optional

To garnish:

Finely grated parmesan & chopped chives

Place the dried mushrooms in a jug and cover with about 250ml / 1/2 pint / 1 cup of  boiling water.  Leave to soak for 10 minutes.

Fry the onion and garlic in the oil for a few minutes until soft, add the rice and fry until it is translucent.

Strain the mushrooms, saving the soaking water.  gradually add the mushroom water, then the stock to the rice, stirring all the time until it is absorbed before adding some more water.

After about 7 minutes add the quinoa and bulgar wheat.   Finely slice the mushrooms and add them to the pan.   continue to add the liquid, add a spash of wine and/or a dash of mushroom ketchup.  Season to taste.

After about 30 minutes of gentle stirring it should be done, the grains soft coated in a creamy, starch sauce.

Serve immediately garnished with parmesan and chopped chives.

After the success of my green Pavlova for St Chad’s day earlier this month, I risked another green bake with these matcha muffins, flavoured with hazelnut and chocolate.

Instead of regular sugar I used my sample of Tate & Lyle’s Light at Heart, a blend of sugar and stevia, which is twice as sweet as sugar. Tate & Lyle say that therefore you can use half the quantity compared to regular sugar, and therefore have half the calories.    I was little dubious about this, as surely if you halve the sugar in a cake you then need to add some more flour or your solid to liquid ratio will be skewed?  I can see that you will get fewer calories when adding Light at Heart to drinks or on cereal, but surely in a cake, if you take half the sugar out you need to put more of something else in, or you just end up with less cake (which is bad) with the same calories by weight?  (This seems to be bourne out by Suelle in this post).

In the end I made my standard muffin recipe, halving the sugar, but replacing it with extra flour.  These were a great success, just the right amount of sweetness, and the texture was spot on.

If you need to cut down on sugar, or add it to cereal or hot drinks then the light at heart seems to be a good, but expensive (at £2.49 for 450g it is about 5 times the price of regular sugar) substitution.

My muffins were flavoured with matcha (from Teapigs), Cooks & Co hazelnut oil and my old baking favourite Hotel Chocolat’s Liquid Chocolate.   These were delicious with the flavours working really well together.  I am especially impressed with the hazelnut oil, which gave a delicious nutty taste, I am looking forward to using it some more!

Using a mix of plain and spelt flour makes the muffins more “cakey” and short.  I find that increasing the ratio of spelt anymore makes any baked goods too crumbly, although baking with eggs might help with this?   If you do not have soy milk then use normal milk.

Recipe: Vegan Chocolate, Hazelnut & Matcha Muffins

Makes 6

Dry ingredients

100g / 3.5oz plain flour*
100g / 3.5oz spelt flour*
30g / 1oz sugar – I used Tate & Lyle Light at Heart*
1 heaped tsp baking powder
1 heaped tsp matcha
2 tbs Liquid Chocolate  – or finely grated plain chocolate.
Pinch salt

Wet Ingredients

60oz / 2oz hazelnut oil
180g / 6oz milk – soy or diary if you are not vegan

Method
Whisk the oil and milk with a fork.   Mix the dry ingredients.  Add the wet ingredients to the dry and fold together (the batter should be lumpy and mixing should take no more than 15 folds).  Dollop the mixture into your usual muffin pan, sprinkle each muffin with a some chocolate flakes.   Bake at GM5/190C/375F  for 20 – 25 mins until risen.

* If using regular sugar then add 60g / 2oz of sugar and 90g / 3oz of each of the flours.

Thank you to Hotel Chocolat, Teapigs, Cooks & Co and Tate and Lyle for the samples to make these muffins.

And a huge thanks to my friend Judit for the beautiful plate in the photos, which belonged to her late mother, I am hugely enjoying using them!

Sending this to Chele and Choclette’s We Should Cocoa where this month the theme is green!

And another entry month’s Alphabakes where the letter is M.  Thanks to Baking Addict  and Caroline for hosting the challenge.

Don’t forget there are still a few days left to enter this month’s Breakfast Club, over at Makey Cakey, and Frugal Friday at Pigling Bland.

It always gives me great delight when I manage to use several things up in a dish, and this one is no exception.  Carrots, parsnips and half a dreaded swede.  Half a tin of coconut milk and the dregs of a jar of Thai curry paste.   Served with the last of my homemade butter spread onto the last slice of root vegetable bread, found at the back of the freezer. Things could have only been more satisfying had I finished the red lentils too.

This is a very adaptable soup, use that ingredients you have.  I find that the curry and spice tempers the natural sweetness of the parsnip.    If you are making this for vegetarians do check the jar of Thai curry paste – many of them contain shrimp, which often catches people out unless they are looking out for it.

Recipe: Root Veg & Lentil Thai Coconut Soup

Serves around 8

2 medium onions
2 tbs oil
4 carrots
2 parsnips
Wedge of swede (rutabaga)
2 tbs red or yellow Thai curry paste (add more or less to taste)
Mug full of red lentils
1/2 tin of coconut milk or 4 tbs coconut milk powder
Vegetable stock – 1 – 2 pints
Salt & Pepper to season

Peel and roughly chop the onions and fry in the oil until golden.  Meanwhile peel and chop the vegetables.   Add the root vegetables and curry paste, stir and fry for a few minutes.

Add the lentils,  coconut milk & stock – enough to cover everything – and bring to a gentle simmer.  Cover and cook for about 20 mins until vegetables are soft.

Blend, thinning with water if needed.

Tastes better having been cooled and reheated, and freezes well.

There seem to be a myriad of food bloggers events that I can send this to!

Firstly Susan’s My Legume Love Affair – hosted this month by Girlichef.

Secondly Lisa and Jac’s No Croutons Required – where this month the theme is a hint of spice.

Thirdly, Love Lock with Soups over at Sweet Karam Kapi.

And lastly my own event Frugal Food Fridays, hosted this month by Gill.

So the Fuss Free take on the humble wheat biscuit muffin recipe was to adapt my museli muffins made in 2008 from my basic vegan sweet muffin recipe.   My muesli muffin recipe used a mixture of spelt and plain flours, which I also used here. I find spelt flour makes the bake more cakey; I also reduced the sugar and added some maple syrup for flavour.    Throw in some spices and a handful of frozen blueberries ( I first did this in April 2008), and I have my own version of a generic recipe idea that I am free to publish, sell and do as I see fit with.

These were greatly enjoyed on a sunny saturday morning, washed down with lots of coffee.  A fantastic start to the weekend!

Recipe: Wheat (Breakfast Cereal) Biscuit Blueberry Muffins

Makes 6

Dry ingredients

3oz plain flour
3oz spelt flour
1 oz sugar
1 heaped tsp baking powder
½  tsp ground cinnamon
½ tsp ground ginger
½ tsp all spice
1 ½ oz (or 2)  Wheat biscuits – crushed – I used Waitrose Essentials
Pinch salt
Finely grated zest of half a lemon
2oz blueberries (Mine were frozen)

Wet Ingredients

2oz sunflower oil
1½ oz maple syrup
6oz milk – soy or diary if you are not vegan

Method
Whisk the oil, milk and maple syrup mixture with a fork.   Mix the dry ingredients.  Add the wet ingredients to the dry and fold together (the batter should be lumpy and mixing should take no more than 15 folds).  Dollop the mixture into your usual muffin pan, sprinkle each muffin.   Bake at GM5/190C/375F  for 20 – 25 mins until risen.

 

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.

Come the cold bright light of New Year’s Day, I, perhaps like the majority of the population, consider some New Year’s Resolutions.  They usually last a week or so before being abandoned.

I think that New Year is possibly the wrong time to decide to make changes to your life.   In the Northern hemisphere it is winter, dark, damp and cold.  I struggle with the lack of daylight and find getting anything done a chore, setting high expectations is akin to donning a hairshirt and doomed to failure at the first hurdle, which serves to make me feel inadequate and miserable.    Instead I have set a few goals, and have resolved to look after and value myself more.   After all if I cannot do that for me, how can I expect others to?

Goals can be reviewed either when the clocks go forward, or at Easter, both times of spring, growth, rebirth and renewal, and longer lighter days which will put me into the right mind set to make changes, decisions and plans.

Similarly I am skeptical of the “January Detox” diet.   This month I have planned to try and eat better, and am thinking of it of giving my system a break.  I overdid it in both November and December and felt ghastly, also I have put on a few pounds, I want to lose them before it becomes a problem.   I’ll try to eat a diet that is predominately plant-based, with perhaps more raw food than usual.    I’ll try to drink a little less, and will certainly think before reaching for the bottle and corkscrew, but in the spirit of looking after me, if I think that having a glass of wine will bring me pleasure than I certainly am going to have one.    Moderation is key, and, perhaps the only resolution that any of us need?

On to the Bircher muesli.

I have mentioned before how I spent most of my adult life thinking that I did not like cereal, when in fact it was an aversion to cow milk.   It is one of the few breakfasts that keeps me going until lunchtime, which is always a bonus.     Made the night before it makes the perfect breakfast to grab from the fridge before work and eat at your desk, far healthier than a Danish or bacon sandwich!

I make my own muesli, using a 4 grain mix of equal quantities of oats, wheat, barley and rye flakes (the last 3 are available in Wholefoods bulk section for a bargainous 99p a kg),  then I add a mix of seeds, nuts and dried fruit.  80% flakes and 20% “bits” seems a good ratio.      If you buy packed muesli check the ingredients, added sugar, and boring “bits” are common, and packet mixes are far more expensive than making your own.

Ideas for the bits are seeds – pumpkin, sunflower, hemp – there is little point in linseed – grind a spoonful and sprinkle then on instead.    Nuts – raw cashews, almonds, walnuts, cob & hazelnuts.   Fruit – unsulphured apricots (makes such a difference to taste), dates, figs, cranberries, raisins, currants, sultanas etc.

Recipe: Bircher Muesli

Serves 2

Ingredients

125g / Scant cup muesli – preferably homemade
2 oranges – juiced
1 apple grated

To Serve

Fresh berries
Yogurt

Last thing at night grate the apple and stir into the muesli.   Pour the orange juice over, there should be some juice at the bottom of the bowl.   Give a good stir, cover and leave in the fridge overnight.

Serve with fresh berries and yogurt.

Sending this to both this month’s Breakfast Club where the theme is detox and to this month’s Frugal Food Fridays.

Both events are blog hops, so please take part, grab the code and hop from blog to blog!

Frugal Food Fridays!

Breakfast Club

I am quite a fan of the liquid breakfast and will have a smoothie 3 or 4 times a week.   That one glass can easily hold all of your 5-a-day, and by pulping rather than juicing the fruit and veg they can count towards multiple portions!

This month the theme for Breakfast Club is Stars and Stripes, and with Thanksgiving at the end of the month, what could be more appropriate than pairing cranberry and pumpkin.      Not only is this a glorious cheerful colour on a dismal November morning it is also delicious, with the tartness of the cranberry providing an excellent wake up call to your taste buds.

This was inspired by both Dom, who also submitted a smoothie for breakfast club this month, and Johanna, who gave me the idea of thickening a smoothie with pumpkin.

Like the green smoothies which I regularly make which have no hint of spinach or kale, you really cannot taste the pumpkin here.     The next time I roast either squash or pumpkin I shall prep extra (without salt or pepper) specifically for smoothies.

If you get a taste for smoothies keep a box of ingredients in the freezer.    With a good blender chunks of banana, pineapple, stone fruit and individual berries and grapes can all be whizzed up from frozen for your breakfast.     Whizzed frozen banana is especially thick and creamy, and by itself makes and excellent ice cream.   A stick blender should be enough to whizz soft fruit with a few frozen additions.

I added some ground linseed for some added omega-3.

How do you style a smoothie to look photogenic?

Recipe: Pumpkin and Cranberry Smoothie

Quantities are approximate – use what you have.

Per Person

2 heaped tbs roasted pumpkin or butternut squash
1 handful cranberries
2 handfuls grapes
1 tbs ground linseeds
1 small glass orange juice

Place all the ingredients into your blender and whizz.   Add water if needed to thin.

Pour into a glass and serve immediately.

Despite the, as yet, unbashed out backlog, I am determined to start to plan ahead and to actually publish some seasonal recipes.   The general Fuss Free rule is to not even to start to think about Christmas until after my birthday (the exception to this is things seen in the sales).  Birthday is done so time to think ahead.

This dish is in part inspired by the amazing Christmas produce box I received yesterday from Knorr (the majority of which has been stashed in the freezer).

In general I am a huge sprout fan, providing they are cooked properly.  Institutional over boiled mushy soggy sprouts that squirt bitter water into your mouth are an abomination, and I can quite understand why one sprouty school dinner can put people off for life.   I either shred and stir fry or roast them, both are quite delicious.

Matched with some tart cranberries, soft sweet chestnuts and creamy Stilton they make the perfect festive quartet.     You could add some leftover bacon from your turkey, or if you do not eat diary, use some pine nuts in place of the Stilton and leave out the butter.   Perfect seasonal pasta using leftovers to cater for omnivores, vegetarians or vegans.   This was quite delicious, and possibly far too good to wait to be made from Christmas (or even Thanksgiving leftovers) leftovers!

Recipe:  Chestnut, Cranberry, Stilton & Sprout Pasta

Amounts are approximate, use what you have.   Do not go mad on quantities if you over indulged on Christmas day!

Per person

4 or 5 sprouts – sliced
A glug of oil
A pat of butter
Ready cooked chestnuts -  sliced – 3 or 4 per person
A small handful of cranberries (or a spoon of leftover cranberry sauce)

2-3oz / 50 – 75g pasta

A slither of Stilton – crumbled
Salt & Pepper to taste

Finely shred the sprouts, if they have not been cooked place in a sieve and pour a kettle of boiling water over to soften them.

Heat up the oil and butter and gently fry the sprouts, chestnuts and cranberries.  Meanwhile boil the pasta.

When the pasta is done, drain, stir into the sprout, chestnut and cranberry mix.    Serve immediately topped with the crumbled Stilton.

Sending this to Ren’s Simple and in Season and Presto Pasta Nights hosted this week by Tandy at Lavender and Lime.

I hope that Lucy Cufflin, the leftover queen will be proud of me for devising this dish.

A favourite weekend excursion is to hop onto the District Line for 20 minutes and head out to Richmond.    Once there we wander along the river, have tea at the Petersham Nurseries, or Ham House, catch Hammerton”s foot ferry over the river and walk back to Richmond past Marble Hill House.

When E was at university and for his first years in London he was a keen (and very good) rower so he always likes to watch the crews on the water, and for me a trip to Richmond means a trip to Kooks Unlimited and William Curley.   As I am a life member of the National Trust, an investment I wisely made in my early teens with money my grandparents left me, admission to Ham House is free, so I feel that I am allowed to spend the money I have “saved” in Kooks Unlimited or on chocolate.   I am aware that my logic is somewhat flawed, but this does not overly distress me, and after my last Richmond excursion I returned with a bundt tin and a rather dangerous looking “injection” piping nozzle for filling choux buns and doughnuts.

My lovely new tin is the perfect size for a 5 egg sponge, or for my Easy Peasy Ginger Cake (which is also the most popular recipe on my website).  I adapted the recipe very slightly adding finely chopped Thai Ginger and dried mango from Senses of Thailand at Selfridge’s earlier in the summer.  The darker patches on the cake are lump of sugar that had not mixed in properly.

Bundt perfection was enabled by Dr Oetker’s rather wonderful cake release spray, a quick spray into the tin and when done the cake literally falls out.   I was very impressed and will definitely buy more when my can runs out.

Recipe: Easy Peasey Thai Ginger Cake

350g Plain Flour
225g Sugar (I use soft dark brown for colour and flavour but any would work)
100g Cooking oil (Sunflower or rape/canola)
2 – 3 tsp ground ginger
1tsp baking powder
½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
Pinch salt
About 60g treacle *
225ml boiling water

2 tbs finely chopped dried mango
2 tbs finely chopped candied Thai ginger

Place all the ingredients into the food processor bowl and whizz until you have a smooth golden brown batter, or use an electric whisk.  Pour the batter into your bundt tin and cook at  GM4/180C for about 45 – 55 mins until risen and a cocktail stick inserted into the middle comes out clean.

* When weighing the treacle I put the spoon into a jug on the scales, then zero them, use the spoon to dollop the treacle into the jug without scraping the spoon I then rezero the scales and weigh 225g of boiling water into the jug which will dissolve all the treacle which saves any sticky scraping from spoon to food processor bowl. As the recipe is so forgiving accurate measuring is really not necessary.

The cake should keep for about a week.

Dr Oetker Cake Release Spray is available from Sainsbury’s and cook shops for about £1.40 for 125ml which should grease about 30 8″ tins.

Thank you to Dr Oetker for my cake release sample.

With the advent of summer come the salad bags from the fruit and vegetable co-op.    As much as I love a traditional mayonnaise potato salad, they can get a little boring and they need a makeover to keep my interest.   One variation was to add cucumber, mint and yogurt but delicious as it is, it is still fairly similar to the mayonnaise based salad.

Several months ago I held a miso tasting, where a gaggle of food bloggers gathered in my flat and we tasted our way though Clearspring’s miso range, it was a fantastic and hilarious evening, as a result I am long on miso, with enough to keep me going for at least the next 12 months. Whisking up some miso with other Japanese ingredients made a deliciously different dressing for my potatoes,  salty, tangy and packing a massive umami punch, a dish that certainly will be repeated the next time the sun comes out.

Recipe: Miso Potato Salad

This is more of an idea than a recipe, adapt according to what vegetables you have in the fridge.

Ingredients

Salad Potatoes – cooked and sliced
Handful French Beans – optional

For the Dressing

Equal quantities of

Brown miso (I used barley)
Tamari or soy sauce
Lemon Juice
Sesame Oil
Mirim
Tahini – optional to thicken

Method

Whisk the dressing ingredients together. I know tahini is not Japanese, but it thickens the dressing nicely.

Steam the beans for 2 minutes and then plunge into cold water

Pour the dressing over the potatoes and beans and mix well

I topped with some furikake (a mix of sesame seeds and ground seaweed – it can contain fish – so read the label if you are vegetarian)

Keeps in the fridge for a few days and is delicious for a packed lunch.

Click here for a printable version

I have a confession to make that I actually made this for supper last night, but it would make a lovely weekend breakfast that is not too sinful.

At the moment people seem to be throwing yogurt at me, not literally, but in the last few weeks 3 cool bags of the stuff have arrived.  I have already written about Total and The Collective.  Both Onken and Twekkelo are in the review queue.

Making toffee yogurt by sprinkling dark brown soft sugar over natural or Greek yogurt and leaving it to dissolve is an old, but useful trick.   The resultant mixture is delicious, sticky and toffee like, but still not too sweet and with none of the nasties of many commercially produced flavoured yogurts.   Being allowed a sprinkle of dark brown soft sugar on cereal was a weekend childhood treat.

I combined my toffee yogurt, with sliced bananas, Dorset Cereals new pecan and toffee good honest crunch cereal and a few raspberries.   Dorset Crunch’s slogan of  “life is too short for boring breakfasts” reminded me that we are nearing the end of the month and I have not yet made anything for Breakfast Club, which this month is hosted by Nayna with the theme of berries.

Breakfast Club: Because breakfast should be more interesting
than tea & toast or coffee & cereal!

Recipe: Indulgent Breakfast Banoffeeish Pots

(Serves 1)

1 small banana
about 4 oz / 1/2 cup natural or Greek yogurt
2 tsp dark brown soft sugar
2 tbs crunchy cereal
handful raspberries

Slice the banana and place in a glass, cover with the yogurt, then sprinkle the sugar over and leave in the fridge overnight.

Just before serving sprinkle over the cereal and the fresh berries.

 

I see no reason why this would not work with non dairy or soy yogurt.

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.

Green smoothies?  Trust me here, they are delicious and fantastically good for you.  After a few days of one of these for breakfast you will feel the benefits, getting all 5 of your five a day for in one glass for breakfast can only be a good thing right?

I am the first to admit that my diet is not the most, shall I say, mainstream?  I try to blog about what most people would consider the more normal things that I eat, resisting the tendency to be too green and raw and vegan.       I have absolutely no objection to animal products.  However I prefer mine to be both organic and free range, which is expensive and thus makes them a treat rather than an everyday staple.

I was delighted when Cuisinart recently contacted me and asked if I wanted to trial one of their products.   As soon as I looked at their website I knew that one of their blenders would be just the ticket for making green smoothies.

A green smoothie is simply a smoothie made with the addition of greens.      The sweetness of the fruit takes away any bitterness from the raw greens and the end drink is  delicious, refreshing and engergising.

The blender powers through the seeds, kale leaves and frozen fruit.  I used a glass of orange & apple juice, frozen plum & nectarine pieces, half a carrot, mixed seeds, kale and a banana and some water to thin it out a little.

The resulting green goodness in a glass!

A full review of the blender is to be posted soon.

Thanks to Cuisinart for my blender.