Ingredients Method About this recipe Struggling to come up with vegan and gluten free baking ideas? Then let cashew butter be your friend. My lovely Fix and Fogg jar of cashew butter was a gift and gosh I love it. It’s creamy and rich and …
Ingredients: Method: We’re really in Autumn here now and I’m enjoying the mellow days and slight cooling in the air. I enjoy Autumnal eating – warming soups and stews, sauces and pickles made from the last of the summer tomatoes, feijoas. I was lucky to …
Ingredients:
Method:
Pre-heat oven to 200 degrees celsius.
Cut the tomatoes, eggplants and garlic in half lengthways.
Spray a large roasting tin with olive oil spray, or drizzle with olive oil. Place the tomatoes and eggplants in a single layer in the tin. Place the garlic cloves on top of the eggplants and tomatoes and scatter with basil leaves.
Roast for 30 minutes or until tomatoes and eggplants have started to collapse.
About this recipe
It’s not really a recipe so much as my documenting of what I did with a lucky bounty from my parents, who are amazing gardeners as I have documented here before. These Andiamo tomatoes are special; they are a variety of San Marzano – a robust plum tomato prized for its sweet flesh and lower water and seed content. They come from San Marzano Sul Sarno, in the Salermo province of Southern Italy, where volcanic soils are thought to make the tomatoes sweeter and less acidic. San Marzano tomato types are favourites for sauces, canning or bottling whole. I took my Dad’s advice with this batch though, and roasted them – they came up beautifully and tasted delicious with the soft little baby eggplants and a smattering of garlic and basil. I topped toasted slices of Vogels with this mixture and a generous spread of feta. Lip-smacking lunches for days and a daily reminder of my luck in having such generous, green fingered parents.
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 …
You can happily enjoy Easter without being carnivorous, what with some of the best things about Easter being non-meaty (chocolate and hot cross buns, loaded with butter obviously). But if you fancy Easter roast lamb, then let me convince you that making your own mint sauce to accompany it is very much worth an extra five minutes in your meal preparation. It’s ridiculously simple and so fresh and tasty.
Mint grows like a happy, verdant weed in my garden. I think our often-inclement climate suits it well and it’s a tough bugger of a herb, so it doesn’t need a lot of pampering. I keep it in pots by itself so it doesn’t take over the other members of my planter boxes beds and top it up with a little water and seaweed tonic when I’m tending to my more delicate plants. I eat it with everyone – in frittatas with spinach and feta, in Thai-inspired salads with basil and coriander, and of course in mint sauce.
You won’t need much for this one at all, it’s largely store-cupboard ingredients and if you don’t have mint at home, it’s readily available in big bushy pots at the supermarket. I hope you give it a try.
Ingredients:
1 cup of mint leaves, finely chopped
1/4 cup of boiling water
1/4 cup of vinegar (honestly, any type is fine – I either use plain old white vinegar, or red wine vinegar if I have it)
1 T white sugar
Salt to season
Method:
Place the mint leaves in a small heat-proof bowl or jug (at least 1 cup capacity)
Pour over the boiling water. Leave to steep for five minutes to soften the mint.
Add the vinegar and sugar. Once cool enough, taste and season with salt to your liking.
Serve with roast lamb – any leftovers keep for several weeks in the fridge, and you can also use it to stir into peas to give them a lift or mixed with plain yoghurt for a salad dressing or sandwich spread.
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, …