Cheezy Waffles

6 oz self raising flour
2 eggs
1/2 pint milk (I used soya)
4 oz grated cheese ( I used Cheddar)
dried parsley to taste
dried chili flakes to taste
Or subsititue the parsely and chilli with mustard

-Turn the waffle maker on to heat up. Don't forget to oil it well to prevent the waffles sticking.
-Separate the eggs, and whisk the egg whites till they form stiff peaks
-Mix the egg yolks, milk, cheese, parsley and chili flakes
- Add the flour and whisked egg whites to the milk mixture in two parts, stir in gently. Don't over mix otherwise you will beat the air out of the egg whites.

 -Pour the mixture onto the hot waffle plate and cook, you may find you need to leave it longer than the instruction say to get a nice crispy waffle.

- Serve & eat while hot with extra grated cheese on top and tomato relish

Sweet Potato Cakes

1 Kg of steamed or boiled sweet potatoes, peeled and chopped
1 medium red onion
50g chopped coriander
100 g flour
chili to taste

Mix all the ingredients, by hand or with a potato masher
Form into palm sized patties
Bake in the oven for 20-30 min
Serve with salad and relish

Aubergine with yogurt

Slice an aubergine, not too thinly, brush with oil and bake in the oven until well cooked.You can fry the aubergine if you want, in which case you can reduce the amount of oil the aubergines soak up by salting them for 20 min.Wash  the salt off and dry the aubergine before frying.

Allow to cool and cover with yogurt and crushed garlic, serve cold as a side dish. Garnish with paprika and finely chopped parsley

Cauliflower Surprise

1 cauliflower, washed and cut into florets and steamed for 20 min. 

1 large onion sliced and stir fried until softened

Sultanas

2 bay leaves

1/2 tsp Turmeric

100 ml of water

Place all the ingredients  in an oven proof dish and bake in a hot oven for 30 min

For the rice: 

Boiled rice

Sliced and stir fried onion

Peas

Sultanas

Flaked almonds

Qourn or tofu mince

Curry powder

Mix all the ingredients and place in an oven proof dish, cover with foil and  place in the oven for 30 min

Peel, slice and dice 1 large sweet potato 

Bake in an oiled dish for 30 min

All three parts should be ready at the same time

The surprise was that I didn't have the ingredients needed for the recipe, so I made this up!

Ribollita

A recipe from the weekend paper

Leek, chickpea, carrot & sweet potato soup

1 leek chopped
1x 400g tinned chickpeas
1 large carrot grated or chopped very finely
1 large sweet potato grated or chopped very finely
1/2 tsp dried chili flakes
1/2 tsp Thyme
2 large bay leaves
black pepper
1 liter veg stock

Place all the ingredients in a pan and bring to the boil, then simmer until the ingredients are well cooked. Liquidise some of the soup (either with a handheld blender or place half the soup in a liquidiser and then return it to the pan after it has been liquidised). Simmer for an hour on a low heat.

Mixed Berry Frozen Yogurt

150ml of mixed berry puree
150ml of fat free yogurt
Honey or maple syrup to sweeten to taste

To prepare the berry puree I defrosted the berrys then used a hand held liquidiser, I then seived the puree to remove the skins and seeds.

Mix the fruit puree with the yogurt and honey and place in the freezer for about 3 hours, then remove from the freezer and mix to brake up any ice crystals that may have formed. Return to the freezer for a further 1-2 hours.

Mini Cheese and Pesto Tarts

You will need:

Short crust pastry
Pesto (I used a ready made roasted veg pesto, or you can use vegan pesto)
Tomato puree
Grated cheese (Chedder, mozzerella or vegan cheese)

And a  mini muffin tray

Divide the pastry into ferrero rocher sized balls, then mold into the wells of the mini muffin tray; alternativley you can make them as big or as small as you like using a cupcake/muffin tray.

Cover the base of the pastry with pesto
Add a small amount of tomato puree on top of the pesto

Top with grated cheese - not too much so that it doesn't overflow when it melts

Place in a hot oven and bake for 8-10 min - or longer depending on the size of the tart

Serve warm

Ginger & Treacle Mini Cupcakes

Mix and sieve the following dry ingredients in a bowl:
200g Plain flour
1 1/4 tsp Baking powder
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp mixed spice

Mix the following wet ingredients: 
2 tsp freshly grated ginger
80 ml of milk (soya works well)
1 large egg (or egg replacement)
40 ml of treacle

Cream together:
60g sunflower spread
80g sugar

Add the wet ingredients to the spread and sugar mixture, it may split, but don't worry it will by fine once you add in the dry ingredients.

Add the dry ingredients in 3 batches stiring in gently, don't overmix.

Place the mixture into mini muffin tray with cases & bake for 12-15 min in a moderate oven with out fan (180 C)

Lemon icing

200g icing sugar
200g sunflower spread
2 egg whites or the equivalent vegan egg replacer
zest of 1 lemon
1 tsp lemon extract

Mix all the ingredient, use immediately or freeze until you need it, it is slightly runny but sets a bit once it's on the cake and been left a while.

Bean Burgers

1 x 400g can of kidney beans drained and washed

1 x 300g can of canallini beans drained and washed

4 spring onions

1 tsp ground cumin

1/2 -1 tsp chili flakes or 1 chopped fresh scotch bonnet chili

1/2-1 tsp hot smoked paprika

salt to taste

1-2 oz plain flour or chickpea flour

Chop the spring onion finely using a food processor or by hand
Place all the rest of the ingredients in the food processor and blend until the mixture resembles a dough. If you haven't got a blender user a potato masher.

You can also add a tbs of tomato puree to the mixture -add a bit more flour if you do- for a bit of colour and flavour. I forgot this time!

Form the mixture into burgers, place on a greased tray and bake in a hot oven for 15-20 min.

Serve with sweet potato or butternut squash oven chips

Blueberry Scoffins

A cross between a Scone and a Muffin!

By increasing the fluid in a scone mix it becomes 'cake-like' and can be baked in muffin cases, I did this accidentally once and was surprised by how good they were. So that is how a Scone becomes a Muffin... a Scoffin!

8 oz plain flour + 1 tsp Cream of tartar and 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda

2 oz Sunflower spread

200 ml soya milk (or cow's milk)

4 oz dried cranberris or frozen blueberries

2 oz sugar

Put the oven on 180C for fan ovens or 200 for non-fan ovens
Mix the flour, sugar, cream of tartar & bircarbonate of soda
Rub the sunflower spread into the flour mix until it resembles bread crumbs
Mix in the cranberries or blueberries
Add all the milk and mix, it should resemble a thick cake mix
Fill muffin cases
Makes 9
Bake for 16 min (fan oven)

Raspberry

Plain Scoffins

A cross between a Scone and a Muffin!

By increasing the fluid in a scone mix it becomes 'cake-like' and can be baked in muffin cases, I did this accidentally once and was surprised by how good they were. So that is how a Scone becomes a Muffin... a Scoffin!

8 oz  plain flour + 1 tsp Cream of tartar and 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda

2 oz Sunflower spread

200 ml soya milk

Put the oven on 180C for fan ovens or 200 for non-fan ovens
Add the cream of tartar and bicarbonate of soda to the flour
Rub the sunflower spread into the flour until it resembles bread crumbs
Add all the milk and mix, it should resemble a thick cake mix
Spoon the mixture muffin cases
Makes 9 small muffins
Bake for 16 min (fan oven at 180 C)

Chocolate & Cinnamon Cupcakes

300g plain flour
250g sugar
40g cocoa powder
2 tsp cinnamon (optional can be substituted with 2 tsp of rose, orange or mint extract)
1 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
360ml lukewarm water
160ml vegetable oil
1 1/2 tsp white vinegar
150g melted dark chocolate (melt in bowl over hot water, don't allow bowl to touch hot water)
 a pinch of salt

Makes 12 large cupcakes

Heat the oven to 180C

Sieve all the dry ingredients together in a bowl: flour, sugar, cocoa powder, bicarbonate of soda, cinnamon and salt

In measuring jug mix all the wet ingredients: water, oil, vinegar and melted chocolate

Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix gently with a metal spoon until well combined, don't over mix.

Divide the mixture evenly into paper cases so that they are just over 3/4 full.

Bake for about 25 min (varies with different ovens)

 

Lentils & Bulgar Wheat Soup

Another brilliant recipe from the weekend paper, quick and easy and very tasty:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2011/feb/05/couscous-bulgur-quinoa-recipes

Baked Omelette

Stir fry the following in a little olive oil:

1 diced onion + 3 crushed cloves of garlic

then add:

1 diced courgette

2 diced red peppers

1/2 tsp smoked sweet paprika

1 tsp of fresh or dried Thyme

1-2 finely chopped chillies

Combine 6 eggs with the sir fried ingredients in a measuring jug then add some milk to make up the volume to one liter. 

Pour the mixture into an oiled 8 inch  flan dish

Bake in a hot oven for 30 min 

What to do with Seville oranges?

Other than marmalade what else can you do with them?

I froze the juice in an ice cube tray so that I can use it in cooking and salads. I've also frozen the left over peel, not sure what I am going to do with it yet. I might make candied orange peel, or grate the skins next time I need some orange zest.

There are some recipes here: seville-orange-recipes-fearnley-whittingstall



Kale & Quinoa

 

This is a recipe from this weekend's Guardian it is a  Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall recipe the only thing I did differently was steaming the Kale instead of cooking in stock as we didn't have any. We had it with steamed carrots which worked quite well. The recipe says it serves 2, but there was definetly enough for 4. 

Beetroot Cupcakes

60g sunflower spread

1 egg (or equivalent vegan egg replacer which is what I used) 

100g sugar

Whisk the above together

In another bowl mix the following to a thick paste:

10g cocoa powder

20 ml beetroot based red food colouring

1/2 tsp Vanilla extract

Mix the paste into the egg, sugar & spread mixture

Weigh out

150g plain flour

150g of yogurt (soya for a vegan version)

50 ml of milk 

Add half of the flour and yogurt and mix, then repeat

Add and mix in:

1/2 tsp of Bicarbonate of soda

1 1/2 tsp white vinegar

Divide the mixture evenly into 9 muffin cases or 12 fairy cake cases

Bake in a preheated oven (180 C with fan or 200C without fan) for 25 min (more or less depending on your oven

 They taste nice, but didn't turn out as "red" as I expected...perhaps add more food colouring or less cocoa poweder next time, I  guess it is what happens when you use "natural" food colouring.

Beetroot & Tahini Dip

300 g cooked beetroot (not in vinegar)
2 tbs yogurt (soya yogurt for vegan version)

2 tbs tahini (sesame paste)
Juice of 1-2 Seville oranges (Marmalade oranges, don't use any other type of orange, if you can't get them use lime juice instead)

Blend all the ingredients together using a liquidiser or handheld blender

Butternut Squash Chips

Peel, remove the seeds, & slice a butternut squash
Add olive oil (or whatever cooking oil you prefer)
Sprinkle dried Rosemary, coriander and chili flakes
Roast in a hot oven (180C with fan, or 200 C without) for about 40 min, stir half way through to prevent the pieces on the outer edges from burning.

Serve with Courgette Fritters

Courgette Fritters

(makes 10)

Grate 2 medium/large courgettes
Add 4 oz flour ( I used self raising, but plain works too)
2 tsp Curry powder ( I used Hot madras)
2 tsp dried parsley (or fresh)
1 egg (or leave the egg out and add 2 tbs water or soya milk instead)

Mix the above to form a thick batter

Spoon into a hot pan (like making pancakes)

Serve with Butternuts squash or sweet potato chips

Lemon Meringue Pie

Coming soon...


http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/3482/ultimate-lemon-meringue-pie

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tp-W-akfAvA

Apple Galette

I am looking forward to trying out this recipe:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2010/dec/12/christmas-recipes-cake-fruit-baking

Beetroot and Broad Bean Salad

Beetroot - boiled, peeled and diced

Green broad beans - tinned or fresh cooked

Lambs lettuce, watercress or baby spinach leaves - chopped

Olive oil and balsamic vingegar to taste

Mix all the ingredients and serve