Ingredients: Method: In a large pot, heat the oil. Add the ginger, garlic and all the spices. Keep stirring to prevent anything burning. Once the coriander and mustard seeds start to pop (2-3 minutes), add the lentils, rice and carrots. Stir to coat in the …
Ingredients Method About this recipe… I’ve been playing around with this recipe since Christmas. I treated myself to a jar of Roses strawberry conserve to go with festive croissants and needed something to do with the leftovers that wasn’t simply jam on toast. Nothing wrong …
You might have many reasons for choosing a mocktail – driving, dehydrated, just feel like something lighter – and this festive season I decided to give making some a go. I’m new to mixing cocktails and mocktails so do not have my own recipes ready and waiting in my brain and selected two from the New York Times Cooking catalogue. I present you the vanilla and citrus Orchard Thief and a mocktail version of a Dark ‘n’ Stormy.
Trying these out was a lot of fun and has given me some ideas for future experiments. It’s nice to have something different to offer non-drinkers and gave me a chance to master the cocktail basic of making a simple sugar syrup. They were two quite different drinks – the Orchard Thief is sweet and light, served in an elegant flute with a delicious vanilla undercurrent. I was drawn to the Dark ‘n’ Stormy because of its name – sounds most mysterious and sultry! The original Dark ‘n’ Stormy is rum-based and so-named after a sailor thought the contents of their tumbler resembled a stormy sky. This mocktail version is a delight – a sugar syrup base infused with spices, dark cold tea for bitterness and topped up with ginger beer.
So please let me raise a glass to the New Year, I hope 2023 brings us all what we wish for. Happy holidays and good health to all x
This is truly a store cupboard staple as it requires things I bet you already have to hand. Even better, it’s a delight for chilly Winter days – it’s warming and filling with a healthy dose of things that will keep you well, including vitamin …
I come from a reasonably large family of four kids and I believe this is why I always cook too many potatoes. Potato-duty for family meals was a large scale operation and the mission was successful upon delivery of a large pot or roasting pan …
I think we all need a little sweetness at the moment. Summer holidays, and the little dash of optimism and refreshment they deliver, feel like a long time ago indeed. Luckily, I have this spiced plum shortcake recipe stored up from my own summer holiday, which was pleasantly full of fresh summer fruit, including a bounty of plums rescued from a fallen branch.
As you may have gathered, I like to know a little history behind the things I cook. Googling for “shortcake” was a pleasant treat as it lead me to this delightful little excerpt on the website for an American bakery with a name that warms my heart. Zig’s Bakery and Café not only looks like a real treat to visit but also (nearly) shares a name with my darling little ginger cat Ziggy. But I’m diverting here….as Zig’s has informed me, shortcake has an admirable history, first appearing in a recipe in 1588, and being the namesake for a character in Shakespeare’s Merry Wives of Windsor. There is even a National Strawberry Shortcake Day on 14 June in some US states to celebrate the strawberry harvest.
This plum shortcake is a little more tart than a strawberry version but is nicely sweetened up with a dusting of icing sugar…and a dollop of ice cream wouldn’t go amiss either. I hope you enjoy it if you decide to do some baking to warm your heart a little – the plums create a delightful and lifting aroma as they bubble away, and any leftovers are delicious with oats and yoghurt for breakfast. Take care out there everyone x
Ingredients:
For the spiced plums:
For the shortcake:
Method:
Preheat oven to 180 degrees celsius. Grease a 25cm x 18cm baking tray and lightly dust with flour.
Place the plums, spices and sugar into a saucepan and bring to the boil. Turn the heat down and simmer for 20 minutes. If the plums are not releasing a great deal of juice, add up to 2 tablespoons of water so a thin layer of liquid just coats the bottom of the pan.
Meanwhile, make the shortcake by mixing the flour, baking powder, sugar and salt together in a medium bowl. Cut in the butter and rub it in with your fingers until the mixture is fine and crumbly. Add the whisked egg and combine. Then slowly mix in the milk until the mixture forms a stiff dough.
Roll the dough into a ball and turn out onto a floured surface. Divide into thirds. Press two thirds into the bottom of the prepared baking tin.
After 20 minutes or until the plums have softened but are holding their shape, remove from the heat and allow to cool for five minutes. Remove the vanilla and cardamon pods and cinnamon stick and spoon the plums over the shortcake in the baking tin. Use the remaining shortcake dough to dot over the top of the plums.
Bake for 25 minutes until the shortcake is golden. Remove from the oven and dust with icing sugar after five minutes.
Happy New Year! I was lucky to have a pretty decent 2021, and I know I am in the minority here. It was a shocker for many of my favourite people. Wherever January 2022 finds you (ideally somewhere relaxing and on holiday with many tasty …
My parents are amazing gardeners and I couldn’t resist this little scallopini left over from their crop. Mainly because, what a cute vegetable, everyone! How could you not want to take it home? Little and frilly and kind of like a flying saucer. I’ve eaten …
Butternut is such a sweet little name that, even if I didn’t much fancy the taste, I would still have to create a recipe or two in its honour. So, luckily I find it delicious as well as cutely named. Butternut is lighter, softer and sweeter than other pumpkin and squash varieties with a gentle thin skin that doesn’t require peeling. Pumpkins, squashes and gourds are all part of the same family, cucurbitaceae, and what an impressive family they are. They’ve fed us since around 3500BC and we enjoy every bit of them – there are recipes for their leaves, seeds, flowers, as well as their flesh. They provide excuses for carnivals and competitive gardening; gourds have assisted us both practically as storage containers and water-carriers and as decoration, and let us not forget the many pumpkins sacrificed every year for Halloween. Curcubitales are indigenous to the American continent, so combining pumpkin with tahini is mixing up cuisines somewhat, however given the hardy pumpkin is now grown in all continents bar Antartica, I feel this is is justified. That, and the fact that they pair together very nicely.
Ingredients:
Method
Set the oven to 210 degrees celsius.
Slice the entire butternut in half width-ways, then slice each piece in half long-ways. Scrape out the seeds. Slice each piece width-ways to create crescent-shaped pieces of butternut (pictured). Drizzle with olive oil and place in oven for 45 minutes. Check to ensure they are not sticking one or two times.
Make the tahini dressing by placing tahini, lemon juice, honey and flaky sea-salt in a jar and shake to combine. You may need to add warm water depending on the thickness of the tahini – I recommend starting with one T of warm water and adding gradually until you have a dressing the consistency of runny yoghurt.
When the butternut pieces are cooked through and browned, place on plate or serving platter. Drizzle the tahini dressing over the butternut pieces. Scatter over the parsley and toasted pumpkin seeds and serve.
It was a pretty crappy Summer season in my garden overall, with the grand total of 12 manky-looking tomatoes and two cucumbers (there were three cucumbers, but something ate one of them). The outlier here has been my herb collection. These little guys have gone …