Yogurt Flatbreads with Barley and Mushrooms

24th July 2016

I was quite excited about making this one. Its been a while since I made anything bready, and actually a week or more since I had bread, so freshly made bread was going to be a treat.

First I made up the bread dough so it could chill for an hour. This contained strong white flour, baking powder, salt and Greek yogurt. A slightly odd combination but it all mixed into a nice dough consistency and I was actually able to knead it pretty successfully. The dough was wrapped in cling film and chilled in the fridge.

Next the dried porcini mushrooms were soaked in warm water and set aside. a mixture of chestnut mushrooms and shiitake mushrooms were chopped up and fried until golden brown. Garlic, chopped herbs and a small amount of vegetable stock (in place of white wine) was added and all simmered together for a few minutes.

The porcini mushrooms and their stock were also added and was all left to cook gently with some additional seasoning to produce a thick mushroom stew.

The flatbread dough was divided into six equal balls. Each was rolled flat to approximately 2mm thick.

A small amount of butter was heated in a frying pan and each flatbread was fried for a couple of minutes on each side. I clearly didn't fully understand that instruction and proceeded to blacken the first couple somewhat. They cooked surprisingly quick to a chewy fresh bread texture which smelt and tasted delicious!

Whilst still warm, the mushroom stew was spooned on top of a couple of pieces of bread and topped with a dollop of Greek yogurt. This was incredibly tasty and I will definitely be making homemade flatbread again in the future!

Pearl Barley and Roasted Pepper Salad

23rd July 2016

I cheated a bit with this one. I didn't roast the peppers myself, but used some already roasted from a jar. Saved a lot of time, let me tell you.

Chopped roasted peppers, olives, spring onions and feta cheese were mixed in a large bowl, whilst the pearl barley was simmered in the pan of water.

The dressing was made up of lemon juice, olive oil, honey, all spice, paprika, garlic and salt whisked together with a fork. This was all combined in the mixing bowl to produce a hearty low calorie salad.

Lemon and Aubergine Risotto

18th July 2016

Salted aubergine is still one of my favourite vegetables so I was looking forward to trying this.

First, one aubergine was pierced and put under the grill for close to an hour, until the flesh had shrunk away from the skin. The second aubergine was chopped into cubes and fried until golden. These were then drained in a colander and salted.

Next was the risotto. An onion was diced and fried until golden brown. A little garlic paste was stirred in. The arborio rice was added to the pan and vegetable stock stirred in a little at a time until soaked up.

The grilled aubergine was defleshed and also salted. This was chopped and stirred into the risotto along with the aubergine cubes and zest from two lemons. Finally chopped basil and a small amount of grated cheese was stirred in as the last of the liquid was absorbed.

This was actually a lot lemonier than I was expecting but worked surprisingly well with the aubergine.

Avocado, Pearl Barley and Bean Salad

July 12th 2016

I've been slightly out of touch with this for a little while. Busy lifestyle and all that. But I'm back on dieting and exercising like an insane crazy person. Summer is all about that for me. I forgot to take any pictures of this being so keen, but it was definitely a spectacular dish, trust me!

First mistake, not having quinoa for the recipe, so I substituted pearl barley which is fast becoming my new favourite grain. This was heated in a pan of hot water.

Secondly, I can never find broad beans in any supermarket so I substituted butter beans as they're basically the same sort of shape.

Two lemons were peeled and chopped into small pieces and mixed with the pearl barley and the beans. Finally chopped rocket, two ripe avocados, black pepper and a little sesame oil was stirred in for a little spice and flavour.

This was a very tasty and fresh summery salad.

Lentils with Grilled Aubergine

14th March 2016

I'm really feeling a lentil kick right now. They're a lot easier to cook than I remember when I was just starting out as a vegetarian, and an awful lot quicker than most recipes suggest. Maybe I bought super fast cooking lentils or something. Similarly, I'm still going through my aubergine phase so this recipe was right up my alley.

To start, the recipe recommends to grill the aubergines over a gas hob for speed. However, with only electric rings I had to resign myself to grilling in the oven for about an hour until the flesh had shrunken away from the crispy skins.

Meanwhile, I actually baked a cake... Another citrus and white chocolate loaf for a charity bake sale at work. You can find this recipe here.

Once this was done I made a start on the lentils. These were boiled in a pot of water along with carrots, onion, celery, bay leaf and mixed herbs for flavour. This was simmered on a low heat for around 25 minutes or until the lentils are tender. These should have been drained and the veg removed but I'm a sucker for wasting food so I just left it all in.

More carrots, celery and cherry tomatoes were chopped and put in a roasting dish in the oven mixed with brown sugar, salt and oil and left to roast for half an hour.

Once the aubergines were done, I cut them open and scooped out the flesh, being careful not to include any of the skin and drained it in a sieve. Once fully drained they were generously seasoned with salt.

When all the components were cooked, the dish was assembled by serving a scoop of grilled aubergine flesh on top of a serving of lentils with the roasted veg on the side. This was all topped off with a spoonful of natural yogurt.

Noodles with Aubergine and Mango

3rd November 2015

Time to get back on the healthy bandwagon after a couple of weeks of cheese and pastry!

To start, I made the dressing. This comprised of vinegar, sugar and salt heated on a low heat until the sugar had dissolved. Then the garlic and chilli powder were stirred in and left to cool.

Next the aubergines were cubed and fried in batches in oil and salt. Each batch was left to drain and dry in the colander whilst the next batch fried.

Meanwhile I wrestled with the mango. I realised I've never actually eaten a mango from scratch before. Firstly I was pretty surprised to find a stone inside. I feel like I should have known that, but it was a lot larger than I would have expected... I tore chunks off the stone, sliced the skin off and diced into small chunks. 

The aubergine and the mango was put into a mixing bowl.

Once the dressing had cooled I added the lime zest and juice.

Next I sliced half a red onion very thinly and separated the slices. This was added to the mixing bowl with the other ingredients.

The noodles were lightly simmered in a pan of salt water, for just a few minutes. This is one of the beauties of buying ready to wok noodles! Once drained, these too were added to the mixing bowl.

 Finally, the basil leaves were chopped and also added to the bowl.

Finally the dressing was added and everything was mixed together. This was really refreshing and very delicious. A bit more like a summer salad than a winter salad but just as hearty and very filling.

Caramelised Onion Tart

19th October 2015

Whilst putting a shopping list together for this recipe I misread it. It was supposed to be a caramelised garlic tart, but I think this was a better idea.

First the onions were peeled and sliced, I used two brown and one red. They were fried slowly in a pan with some oil until they were golden and soft. Meanwhile I rolled out the pre-made pastry (Bake Off has finished so sue me!) large enough for two small sandwich tins as I am still without a pie or flan dish. I like making two small ones for leftovers.

The pastry was blind baked for 15 minutes whilst sugar and balsamic vinegar was stirred into the onions (which were delicious!).

Next I made the cream filling. Double cream, crème fraîche, eggs, salt and pepper were whisked together.

To assemble the tart, pieces of both hard and soft goats cheese were scattered in the bottom of the pastry cases, followed by a few spoonfuls of the caramelised onions.

Then the cream filling was poured on top, covering  (but not fully submerging) the cheese and onions, and making sure all the gaps are filled.

The tarts were baked in the oven for just over half an hour until brown and crispy on top. I served mine with a green salad and it was the perfect treat for after work. I forgot to take a picture before I ate a piece!

Brussel Sprouts and Tofu

21st September 2015

To start I made the marinade, consisting of sweet chilli sauce, soy sauce, sesame oil, cider vinegar (instead of rice vinegar), and maple syrup. Instead of tofu I used paneer cheese.  I like both but one is more reliable than the other. The recipe suggested a very specific type and brand of tofu as the easiest to use but I couldn't even find that in my local supermarkets. Tofu is something that I really enjoy in a Thai restaurant, probably prepared, but I can never make it that good and it always ends up being disappointed. So I tried the leftover panner I had from a curry night. Its has a similar sort of use in vegetarian cooking - soak up all the spices and flavours and provide texture amongst the veg. I diced up the paneer and left it to marinade for half an hour.

It was only when I started to chop and prepare the sprouts that I realised I hadn't bought enough. They were sliced into three each and fried one side down in the oil and salt until appearing slightly burnt. Next went in the spring onions for another couple of minutes until cooked.

The mushrooms were cut into quartered and fried in chilli powder and oil. I inhaled the powder as it hit the oil and ended up choking for the next little while! The mushrooms were fried until golden brown and added to the bowl with the other veg.

A little more oil was added to the pan, the paneer was taken out of the marinade and fried one side down until crispy and brown and then flipped for the same treatment on the other side.

This was all then mixed together with some of the remaining marinade and served with rice. It was really delicious and the extra salt really brought out the flavour of the veg. It definitely worked with paneer rather than tofu, but I'm keen to crack the secret of the perfect tofu dish!

Purple Sprouting Broccoli with Rice Noodles

23rd August 2015

This recipe had instructions for making my own Thai paste, but it also suggested that cheating and buying Thai paste was also acceptable. I decided to cheat a bit, mostly because I was hungry. I couldn't find any green paste (Blue Dragon's is not vegetarian as it turns out) so I got yellow paste, and I think its done a fair job.

So skipping the first paragraph of instructions, I started by sautéing the red onion whilst chopping the broccoli into smaller florets. I used a regular broccoli because I already had one in. So the title of this post is not accurate. But I'm not sure it alters the taste that much, and that's all that matters.

I threw in a few mushrooms and some courgette into the frying pan also because they needed using up. Once the onions were transparent I added the Thai yellow curry paste and fried for another couple of minutes.

Next went in a teaspoon of sugar and salt and the coconut milk, bringing this to the boil and leaving to simmer. Meanwhile the rice noodles were heated up in boiling water - I think I left these too long as they were a little stodgy, but nothing I couldn't get over.

The noodles and broccoli were rinsed and then tossed with some toasted sesame oil and some lemon juice. The noodles were divided into a few portions and the Thai sauce was served on top. I got a little excited and forgot to take a picture when it was finished, so here's half way through my lunch!

This was actually really delicious and filling and quite easy to make using the paste cheat.

Broccolini and Sweet Sesame Salad

17th August 2015

And we're back on the cooking healthily as well! Its been a long time and my body is definitely in need of some vegetable goodness. And this was a perfectly easy place to start and get back into the swing of things. I swear it took me all of 15 minutes from start to finish.

First I started withe the dressing, by mixing sesame oil (in place of the incredibly elusive tahini paste), garlic paste, soy sauce, honey, cider vinegar and salt.

Next, I trimmed the tenderstem broccoli and blanched it in boiling water. Next in went the green beans and then the mange tout. This was well drained and rinsed in a colander. 

The vegetables were tipped into a mixing bowl along with the sesame seeds and the dressing. I prepared some couscous to have with it and voila. A delicious green and filling tea.

Very Full Tart

5th April, 2015

This has taken me some time to get around to writing about. I've not really made any tarts or worked with pastry much before but this recipe sounded delicious.

The first step was to roast all the veg in various stages. Firstly, the peppers drizzled with oil were put into a baking dish de-seeded whilst the diced aubergine sprinkled with salt and pepper  was spread out on a baking sheet. These were roasted for twelve minutes, when the diced sweet potato was added and roasted for a further twelve minutes. Finally the diced courgette was added roasted for a final twelve minutes. At this point the peppers were browned and soft and easy to tear into strips.

Meanwhile, the onions were sautéed with salt pepper and a bay leaf for around twenty-five minutes until browned and soft.

As I don't have a proper tart or flan tin, I used two slightly smaller Victoria sponge tins which were lightly greased. I used pre-made pastry which I rolled out to approximately 3mm thick, large enough to cover the base of the tin, push into the edges and hang over the side slightly. The pastry was baked for the first twenty minutes with a lining of paper on top and in the absence of baking beans I used some small dishes to weigh it down.

Now to build up the tart! First a layer of fried onions on the base, and then topped with a variety of the roasted vegetables. Next came small chunks of both ricotta and feta cheese and finally halved cherry tomatoes. 

Two eggs and double cream were whisked together in a bowl with salt and pepper. This mixture was poured over the tart, leaving only the top of the cheese and tomatoes exposed. As my tins were pretty small, there was quite a bit left exposed but this was ok.

These were baked on a medium temperature for forty minutes or when the filling and pastry was golden brown.

This was a delicious meal that lasted all week, as well as freezing the second tart for another time.

And of course, what's cooking with pastry if you're not going to use the off cuts to make jam tarts!

Multi-Vegetable Paella

23rd April, 2015

I was quite excited to try this recipe and see how different it was from a risotto.

To start, I friend the onion for a few minutes and then added the peppers and garlic until everything was softened and golden. I omitted the fennel because I always end up with too much fennel left over and no idea what to do with it. Limiting waste.

Next, I added the bay leaves, paprika, turmeric and pepper and stirred into the vegetables. Instead of sherry I just used extra stock which went in with the paella rice, along with a packet of paella seasoning which was just easier to use than buying things like saffron. It smelt amazingly smokey which made me instantly hungry. As always, this was left to simmer for around twenty to thirty minutes until all the liquid had boiled off and the rice was tender.

In the meantime, I defrosted the frozen broad beans with boiling water and chopped up the cherry tomatoes, olives and tinned artichokes. Once the rice was cooked, these final ingredients were stirred in and fried with the rest of the paella for a few minutes until they were warmed and seasoned.

This definitely tasted better than a regular risotto. The smokey flavours and the unusual combination of ingredients made this extra special.