Yotam Ottolenghi's Midweek Beetroot Salad

OK, first of all I have to say that how much I love Yotam Ottolenghi's food. His restaurant in Islington is all of the things you want from a restaurant. It's friendly, low key and the food is probably some of the best I've tasted. I was pleased (sadly, it was a Christmas day level of excitement) to see in this week's Guardian his Beetroot Recipes. 

Beetroot is, like many root vegetables, the sort of thing that can get very boring, very quickly. Apart from the usual pickled variety or in a special Sunday roast, I hadn't really experimented much with it. This simple salad is perfect for a midweek meal with some fresh bread, as a stater or in a lunch box. In mine, I swapped the Goats Cheese for some Mozzarella, but you could use any soft cheese and still get the same effect. I used vacuum packed ready cooked Beetroot to save time, I also griddled my peaches as I'm not to keen on hot and cold together. 

Sorry about the poor quality pictures, for some reason my phone camera was playing up and would not focus in the low light. I promise that this is just a one off. 

Ottolenghi's Beetroot and Peach Salad

Ingredients

1 Lemon, skin shaved off in one long piece
60ml Olive oil
4 tsp Cider vinegar
1 tsp Honey
1 Garlic clove, crushed
1 tsp Finely grated lemon zest, plus 1 tbsp lemon juice
Salt
8 Medium beetroot, stalks trimmed (a mixture of red and golden, or all red)
2 Ripe peaches, stoned and cut into 1cm wedges 
75g Rindless soft goat's cheese (or any soft cheese)
1½ tsp Aniseed, toasted and roughly crushed (or fennel seed)  
5g Basil leaves, larger leaves torn

Heat the oven to 200C/390F/gas mark 6. Put the lemon peel in a small saucepan with the olive oil. Bring to a simmer on a medium heat, then remove from the heat and set aside to cool. Lift out the peel, discard half and pat dry the other half, then cut into long thin strips. Set aside.

Put the infused oil in a small bowl and whisk in the vinegar, honey, garlic, lemon zest, lemon juice and half a teaspoon salt. Set aside.  

If you are using the vacuum packed ready cooked Beetroot, cut them into wedges, drizzle with olive oil, salt and pepper and cook in the oven for 15-20 minutes.

Wrap the beetroot individually in aluminium foil, place on a baking tray and roast for 45 minutes, or until cooked through (the cooking time varies a lot, so insert a small knife into a beet to check that it is cooked: it should go in with little resistance). Remove and set aside for 10 minutes, then remove the foil and peel the beets while they are still warm (wear plastic gloves or they will stain your hands). Cut the beets into 1cm-wide wedges and, if using both, keep the red and golden beetroot in separate bowls and pour half the dressing over each batch (otherwise, put all the beets and dressing in one bowl).

Then put a griddle pan on the hob on a high heat. Place the quartered peaches with oil in the pan, turning every 30 seconds. Once they have the lovely griddle marks on both sides, set aside to cool slightly. 

Layer the beetroot on a large platter, along with the peach. Try not to mix everything together too much, otherwise the red beetroot will bleed. Dot with the cheese, sprinkle over the aniseed and basil, finish with the reserved lemon strips and serve.

I hope that you are all having a nice week and eating well. It has been a busy week of baby showers, university and work again for me. If you try any of my recipes please let me know how they turn out, feedback is more than welcome.  Here is a link to another song that I'm loving this week, and every week. It's the master of everything, Elton John - Bennie and the Jets http://youtu.be/4hX5fRbsmE8

Heathy Breakfast Flapjack & Get Cooking More

Ok, I'm finally back home in London and back into the swing of University and work. Being back into my routine means eating healthy 80% of the time (this may not happen sometimes).  This means low sugar, no dairy and very few carbs. I've tried my hardest to stick to almond or soy milk, apart from coffee, as it just doesn't taste the same. This can make breakfast a bit tricky. One of my favourite things to eat is Bircher Quinoa porridge, with berries, nuts and almond milk. But eating the same thing can get very boring, so I've made some Breakfast Chocolate Flapjack. It's rich and chocolatey, and full of all the right stuff to get you going in the morning. Its really, really easy to make and is just a matter of chucking all the ingredients into a food processor and letting it set in the fridge over night. The recipe is below.

This week I read an article online stating that now we spend more time watching cooking programs on television than actually cooking. I found myself feeling a little sad about this as cooking brings me more joy than watching a program about cooking. I mean don't get me wrong, I would rather people be watching a cooking program such as The Great British Bakeoff, than some mindless soap. Even still, it made me wonder why have people lost the love for cooking? 

I know for me, that cooking brings not only a sense of achievement, but rather selfishly I love to see people enjoying my food. Nothing brings me more joy to see peoples faces light up and have a good evening over good wine and food. To me food is just more than fuel for the body, food is a social event. 

People often use the "we have no time", or "we can't afford" excuses and thats exactly what they are, excuses. Knocking up a traditional Spaghetti Carbonara (NO CREAM) takes the grand total of 10 minutes to make, a perfect midweek comfort food. A tomato sauce can be made in 20 minutes, plum tomatoes, garlic, basil and olive oil in a pan simmer, done. 

I want people to really find simple midweek go to basic meals. Some of my favourite meals are done off the cuff, making it up as we go along, using things from the back of the cupboard. Making food is about being creative and learning from mistakes. 

Next time you're out shopping, don't buy the jar of sauce or a chemically overloaded ready meal, get onto the internet and find a simple recipe that you can make quickly from scratch, you won't regret it, I promise. 

Chocolate Breakfast Flapjack

100g Walnuts

100g Almonds

100g Sunflower seeds

100g Soft dates

2 Table spoons of organic honey

1 Banana

1 Tea spoon of cinnamon

1 Table spoon of  raw cacao

1 Table spoon of coconut oil

Put everything together into a food processor, blitz until it forms a paste texture. There will be bigger nut pieces in there, but that makes it better. 

When the consistency is right, transfer the mixture into a lined tin and leave in the fridge over night. Cut into pieces and enjoy with a brew or on the way to work. 

Friday Stuff & Cakes

Happy Friday, everyone. We have made it though the week. This one has been full of trains,  university, colds and Derbyshire for me. Spending so much time on trains to and from london for university has given me a lot of time listening to music and reading. The song that has kept me going this week has been 'My Silver Lining', by First Aid Kit. It's soothing to the ears. The song is here if you haven't heard it yet:

 http://youtu.be/DKL4X0PZz7M

The boy and me have been spending some time in Derbyshire after a hectic summer.  One of my favourite things to do when home is to visit Chatsworth House. I didn't manage to get a picture of the house as it's unseasonably foggy today, but we did visit the award winning farm shop for lunch. 

The farm shop has won many awards and they sell produce made and grown on the estate. Selling everything from fresh flowers, organic fruit and vegetables, to local ale and even the venison that roam the grounds.

This Autumnal weather made me want to cozy up by the fire with an Earl Grey and piece of cake, so this afternoon I knocked up a simple Victoria Sponge. I'm currently eating a slice as I type, and I have to say that the sweet cornish cream I substituted for the usual butter cream inside is delicious. I've added the recipe below.

  

Ingredients

For the cake:

120g Soft butter
120g Caster sugar
150g Self raising flour
3 Large organic free range eggs
A few drops of vanilla extract

For the filling:

500g Fresh organic English strawberries
200ml Organic west country double cream
80g Icing sugar

Start off by putting the oven on a medium heat and greasing two 12" cake tins.

Put the soft butter into a bowl with the sugar, cream the two together with a wooden spoon. Once the mixture has lightened whisk the eggs one at a time, adding a spoonful of flour at the same time to prevent it curdling. Adding the last of the flour slowly, then the vanilla extract and give it one good last stir.

Separate the mixture evenly into the two cake tins, spreading the mixture to the edges. Put the tins into the oven-preferably on the same shelf, but if there isn't enough room don't worry to much about it.
Let them bake in the oven for about 15-20 minutes. You can see when the cakes are ready as they start to separate from the edge of the tin.

Once done turn them out onto a cooling rack and leave to cool thoroughly, don't be tempted to start filling the middle yet, as the cream will just melt everywhere!

While they are cooling, whisk the cream until firm then stir in the icing sugar. Cut the strawberries into half and take any green bits off.

When the cake is at room temperature, spread the cream over the base, and lay the strawberry's onto the cream, starting with the point towards the outside of the cake, then continuing into the centre. Add the top and sprinkle with icing sugar.

Enjoy like I have, with a cup of tea and a good magazine. Have a good weekend guys and check out the pictures of the Chatsworth Farm Shop below.

Chewy Chocolate Brownie Recipe

This is a recipe inspired by Nigella Lawson's Chocolate Brownie, from 'How To Be A Domestic Goddess'. 

Personally, I'm not a chocolate addict, it is something that I could live without (my achilles heel being savoury pastries). Having said that, these brownies are so gooey and chewy that they are hard to resist. 

There are many variations that you can make by experimenting with different ingredients within the basic brownie recipe, such as walnuts, berries or white chocolate chips (or all together!). 

Ingredients

375g unsalted butter
275g good quality milk chocolate

100g good quality dark chocolate
400g caster sugar
6 large eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
225g plain flour

1tbs of butterscotch niblets (or something similar)
1 teaspoon salt

Preheat the oven to 200°C and line a deep sided large tin. 

Start off by melting the butter and chocolate together. I do this in the microwave, but the old fashioned way of a glass bowl over a pan of boiling water is fine. Once melted together, set aside to cool a little. 

In a separate bowl mix together the caster sugar, vanilla extract and the eggs. 

Once the mixture starts to lighten slightly, slowly add the chocolate, mixing continually until it's a beautiful smooth dark brown liquid. 

Add the flour and the butterscotch to the mixture, this is also when you would add any other ingredients of your choice, such as walnuts. 

Pour the mixture into the lined tin and bake in the oven for 30-40mins. It only takes a few minutes for a brownie to turn from gooey to dry, so keep an eye on it. The perfect time to take it out is when the sides are stable, but there is a slight wobble in the middle. The residual heat will continue to cook the brownie until it's cool. 

What ever you do, don't take the brownie out until it's fully cold! You can still dig at the edges with a spoon if you can't wait to taste it. 

Serve on it's own, or with cream and a cup of tea.

The Cook Book Bible & Mary Berry's Devonshire Scones.

I spent this weekend at my parent's house, relaxing, cooking and helping them to prepare to move house. While boxing up the kitchen, I rediscovered my first cook book, well it's actually my mum's first cook book, as it has her signature in the front proudly stating that it belongs to her in the year of 1975. 

Its a Hamlyn all colour cook book from 1970 and it's written by The Great British Bake Off's own Mary Berry. I used this book endlessly as a child, even daring to recreate some of the fantastic displays of 1970's glamour. 
I wanted to share with you a recipe for my favourite ever Devonshire scones. I've made this recipe more than I can count and my dad made a little alteration to the recipe as he wanted them a little sweeter than Mary. So, you can make Dad's Scones or Mrs Berry's Scones, it's your call. I also had to share some of the fabulous pictures that illustrated the recipes (the pineapple salad is beyond!) as they deserve a book in their own right. 

Mary Berry's Devonshire Scones. 

450g of good quality self-raising flour
1tsp salt
115g Butter
50g Caster sugar
1/2 Pint of full cream milk
1 Egg to glaze

Dad's Devonshire Scones

450g of good quality self-rasing flour

1tsp Salt

85g Butter

115g Caster sugar

1/2 Pint of full cream milk

1 Egg to glaze

The method is the same for both recipes. 

In a large bowl rub together the butter, salt and flour to until it resembles a fine bread crumb. Add in the sugar and mix thoroughly. Make a well in the middle and pour in the milk, I find it best to use my hands to mix the wet and dry ingredients together as you can feel if you need any additional milk. when the ingredients resemble a dough ball, turn out onto a lightly floured surface and kneed lightly for a few seconds. Roll the dough out to around  2 cm thick and cut the scones out using a crinkled edge cutter. 

Place the scones onto a slightly floured tray and glaze with the beaten egg. Put in the oven for 10-12 minutes on a high heat. 

Enjoy warm with butter, or leave to cool and accompany with jam, cream or lemon curd.