Chestnut, Goat Cheese and Spinach Parcel

22nd November 2016

Birthday is over! Its time to get excited for Christmas!! First stop: Thanksgiving. I was initiated into the church of eat as much as you possibly can last year and I'm keen for this years'. In my true Christmas tradition, I'm preparing my meals early to save rushing (and time for replacing if its a disaster). I've used the same recipe I made for my Christmas dinner a coupe of years ago.

First, the leeks were roughly chopped and lightly sweated in a large frying pan. Once they begun to brown, spinach was added to the pan to allow it to wilt slightly before adding to a mixing bowl.

While the leeks were cooking, I chopped the pre-cooked chestnuts into quarters and coated in nutmeg and beaten egg. Some of the egg was kept back for the glaze later.

This was all added to the mixing bowl and mixed together along with the chunks of goat cheese. It looked, smelt and tasted delicious, let me tell you. (Not that I had a cheeky taste before it cooked...)

Next I rolled out a pre-made block of puff pastry into a rectangle big enough to envelope the filling. This was slid onto a prepared baking tray, where the filling was spooned down the middle of the pastry. Egg wash was brushed around the edges of the pastry so the ends could be folded over and then the rest wrapped around the filling.

The top was brushed with the rest of the egg and the parcel was popped in the oven for around 40 minutes to bake. It looks and smells amazing and I have no idea how I'm going to get it to north London on Saturday!

Stay tuned for a cross section picture at the weekend!

Tagliatelle with Walnuts and Parmesan

20th November 2016

Recipe number two for this week! Cooking up all the meals ahead of time to make sure I eat a bit healthier. Today its pasta which I've been avoiding for a while but its a good wintery food. Especially with cheese!

To start, the tagliatelle was put in a large pan and brought to the boil. In the absence of a large pan I actually did this in my wok. Turns out it was the right size more or less for the amount of pasta required. Roughly chopped walnuts were put in the oven to roast for 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, I made the sauce. This consisted of melted butter mixed with double cream, fresh basil, salt and pepper. This was simmered to allow to thicken and then taken off the heat. I added some spinach to the pasta pan to wilt a little before draining and returning to the pan.

Using a spatula, the creamy sauce was added, along with the walnuts and some grated parmesan. Tesco do a vegetarian parmesan so this is quite possibly one of the first times I've tried it!

Due to the lack of bowls (house sharing!) the resulting dish was served in a tuppaware box. It was the perfect lunch after a big gym session on a cold day. Plenty of fuel to get me through the work week.

Mango and Curried Chickpea Salad

19th November 2016

Seems like I fell off the wagon again. Two weeks of illness followed by a birthday holiday to Bruges means I'm feeling a little tubby and have barely ate a healthy meal in forever.

To start I put the chickpeas in a pan of water to simmer for half an hour. Meanwhile, the onion was sautéd in coconut oil along with turmeric, curry powder and ground coriander. Chopped cauliflower florets was added next and fried for 10 minutes, stirring frequently to coat everything in the spices and a chopped green chilli. This mixture was added to a large mixing bowl.

I forgot again how weird mangos are to chop. The stone is basically invisible. But I managed to peel and chop two of these bad boys and add to the mixing bowl along with some spinach leaves. 

I stirred in some salt and lemon juice and served with some garlic bread that desperately needed eating. The dish alone was really tasty. Mango and curry spices are excellent - who knew!

Steamed Aubergine with Sesame and Spring Onion

14th October 2016

This was made to fill the pitta breads I just made.

Two aubergines were pealed and halved and placed in a colander on top of a pan of water to steam. I wrapped the whole pan in foil to keep the steam in. Note to self: buy a steamer. This was left to steam for 30 minutes until very soft.

Meanwhile I made the Japanese dressing from soy sauce, sesame oil, maple syrup, ginger and garlic. This was all whisked together in a jug.

I chopped the aubergine flesh into rough chunks. I think the flesh should have been a little softer like when grilled, but this was a nice consistency to mix in with the dressing. This was left to soak in for another 10 minutes.

Finally a bunch of spring onions diagonally chopped were stirred in with the aubergines.

Once the bread had cooled a little, I attempted to stuff a pitta pocket with the aubergine and spring onion filling and served with a side salad. This was so so amazing and I was very impressed with how Japanese-y the aubergine dressing tasted.

Magic Dough

24th October 2016

I've been desperate to bake bread again for a little while. I wanted to make flat breads or pittas - something a little easier than a loaf anyway.

Bread dough is basically the easiest mixture to create - strong flour, yeast, salt and water. I used my dough hook to get the mixture going, adding a little oil while it was mixing.

I worked this a little by hand in the bowl before tipping onto a floured surface. I kneaded this for a few minutes which surprisingly brought what looked like a really wet mixture together into a stretchy smooth dough. I found this quite fun and therapeutic.

I laced the bowl with a little olive oil and put the ball of dough back into the bowl, covered with cling film and left for an hour to rise. The warmest place in my house at the time was the airing cupboard which really helped the dough double in size.

I knocked the dough back by hand and split it into eight equal pieces. It felt very oily and I suspected I used a little too much in the bowl. The dough was really stretchy and springy and tricky to tear apart.

Each smaller ball was rolled out into very irregular flat shapes and placed on greased trays. I left these to rest a short while longer before putting into the oven to bake for 15 minutes.

In an attempt to create pitta breads I tried to wrap the bread in tea towels as soon as they came out the oven so the steam would create the pitta pockets. Some took and others stayed pretty flat. They smelled absolutely incredible and it tasted like I made real bread! I was really happy with these.

Wild Rice Salad

18th October 2016

Its probably about time to get back to the cooking also. Its been so hard to get back into routine since September. Winter is coming.

First the rice and quinoa was weighed out in a pan and brought it to the boil. Meanwhile the pine nuts and chopped almonds were lightly fried in a pan of oil until some just started to go a darker brown.

Next a couple of onions were roughly chopped and fried. I added a little balsamic to caramelise them slightly.

In a large mixing bowl the nuts, rice, quinoa and onions were mixed together along with chopped rocket, basil and sour cherries. I mixed in some lemon juice, black pepper and dried oregano also, which created a delicious herby savoury flavour that I'm sure I'll never be able to recreate. This dish was actually incredibly tasty and I'd love to make it again.

Toffee Apple Cake

14th October 2016

I made this cake two years ago for Bonfire Night. It seemed appropriate to make this again during autumn for the work charity bake sale.

Another basic cake mixture of flour, oil, eggs, vanilla and brown sugar. This time there was the addition of two peeled, cored and grated with some lemon juice.

Again this mixture made a cake and a half which meant one for work and one for the house. This was baked for 30 minutes until golden brown.

For the frosting I defrosted some vanilla frosting I made a while ago and added some extra toffee sauce. I iced the cake once I got to work to prevent a huge sticky mess. However, once the frosting warmed up a bit in the kitchen at work it became incredibly gooey. I don't think it detracted from the taste! I certainly enjoyed it!

Rum Cake

30 September 2016

After a trip to Barbados I needed a rum fix. What's more perfect than rum and cake!

A simple cake mix was made with plain flour, sugar, butter, baking powder, salt, eggs and vanilla. A measure (or two) of rum was also added for flavour. I used extra vanilla paste and additional flour in place of yellow cake mix or custard powder because apparently my local shop doesn't sell either. I chopped some walnuts and coated them in flour to sprinkle over the top of the cake. Technically this should be done in a bundt tray but in its absence I used loaf tins. The mixture made enough to do both a 2lb and 1lb cake.

This was baked for 45 minutes until golden brown and the crack was just forming on top.

While the cakes cooled I made the syrup drizzle from sugar, water, butter and rum. Lots of rum. This was all brought to simmer and then taken off the heat to prevent the alcohol cooking...and then I added a little more rum for good measure. I poked holes in the cakes with a skewer and drizzled the syrup over every hour for three hours. There was so much left.

By the end of the evening it didn't look like the drizzle had soaked through at all and the first slice of cake tasted of nothing. Despite the fact I drizzled even more syrup over my slice!

However, after a couple of days' maturation time, the cake tasted absolutely amazing. It was devoured in the office and had a delicious flavour of rum and vanilla. I still have some syrup left to use on a future pancake breakfast...