Spaghetti Puttanesca

September 2nd, 2008

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Ah, the holy trinity of capers, olives and anchovies, they go so well together. You can’t really beat a puttanesca, I used fresh tomatoes in this recipe, but that’s mostly because we had lots. I think this is perfectly fine with chopped tomatoes. The intensity of flavour in the anchovy, capers and olives see to that.

I’ve included a recipe here, but once you made it once, you’ll never the recipe again, its so easy. Just fry onions with garlic, chilli and anchovies, (I love anchovies so use loads), add the tomatoes, simmer for 10-15 mins until the sauce is thick, then add some capers and chopped black olives. done! I had mine with parsley, but you could have basil or nothing. Cheese is somewhat unorthodox but also good with this.

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Bread and Dips

August 31st, 2008

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The parents came over for dinner this weekend to see my new flat, so in between frantic cleaning, I had to plan what to make, the perfect excuse to spend some time cooking new things!

I recently went for dinner at the Portobello Organic Kitchen, which was fabulous, thankfully, we knew the chef so got a bit of a discount, but this just meant that we ended up eating twice as much as we would have. Anyway, for starters/canapes, we had homemade bread and dips.

The above was our attempt to recreate this and it was AMAZING, even if I say so myself.

We used Delia’s pizza dough recipe, except we mixed in a handful of black olives too. Make up the dough, leave it to prove once, knock it back and then split in two, roll each ball out to about 1cm thickness, place on a baking tray, drizzle with oil and bake at 180C for 20mins

The dips were homemade hummus and tapenade. Both are really easy to make, especially if you have a little blender, and so much better than the ready made version. For the hummus, I get my chickpeas from one of the shops on the way home in brixton, they’re much bigger and softer than the little bullets the supermarkets seem to be selling these days, I also use a bit of yoghurt to loosen my hummus, it means you have to use less oil and adds a little creaminess. For the tapenade, I used good quality kalamata olives, those cheap you can buy in a tin, are really just green olives dyed black and not worth bothering with, especially as the quality of the olives really affects how the tapenade will taste.

Hummus

1 can chickpeas, drained
1 clove garlic
1tbsp tahini
juice ½ lemon
1 tbsp yoghurt
salt and pepper

Put all the ingredients in a blender and whizz, add more yoghurt if it seems a bit stiff. Drizzle olive oil over to serve. If you don’t have a blender, you can mash the chickpeas first with a fork and then mix in the finely chopped garlic and the rest of the ingredients.

Black Olive Tapenade

200g black olives
1 garlic clove
4 anchovy fillets
juice ½-1 lemon
2tbsp olive oil

Add all the ingredients to a blender and whizz, adding more lemon juice if needed. Don’t whizz too much as you want to keep a bit of texture. If you don’t have a blender, just chop the olives, anchovies and garlic finely and mix with the oil and lemon juice.

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Lemon Drizzle Cake

August 30th, 2008

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I’m a big fan of plainer cakes, the kind that you can bake at the beginning of the week and have a slice (or two) everyday with a cup of tea. Lemon drizzle cake is a classic example of this genre, the syrup adds a little extra gooeyness to the cake.

This recipe is, naturally, Nigella’s and you can’t really go wrong with that. I like to sometimes substitute half the flour for ground almonds, or add poppy seeds to the cake (these little black seeds really transform it into something else). With my bottle of limoncello in hand, I’ve also been known to add a splash to the syrup. Now I’m also thinking that you could make a lime drizzle cake (use the zest of 2 limes instead) or orange, you’d probably need less sugar for the syrup.

We used this last night to make a mini trifle, I put a slice of the cake in the bottom of a small dish, topped with raspberries doused in icing sugar and limoncello and then topped with greek yoghurt (I couldn’t be bothered to whip cream after I melted the wire on the my electric whisk).

Ingredients

125g unsalted butter, softened
175g caster sugar
2 eggs
zest of 1 lemon and 100ml lemon juice, about 1 lemon
175g self raising flour
pinch salt
4 tbsp milk
100g icing sugar

Cream the butter and sugar, add the eggs one at a time, whisking thoroughly in between and finally the lemon zest. Now sift in the dry ingredients and fold together, add a little milk to loosen the mixture if it looks too stiff, t should be of ‘dropping’ consistency (i.e. it ‘drops’ off a spoon when held up). Transfer the mixture to a greased and lined loaf tin and bake at 180C for 45mins or until golden and a tester comes out clean.

Whilst the cake is cooking, prepare the syrup. Add the lemon juice and icing sugar to a pan, heat gently, stirring occasionally until the sugar dissolves.

Once the cake is cooked, remove it from the oven and prick all over with a cake tester or knife, now pour the syrup over, allowing it to sink into the cake. Try to pour it over the middle so that it doesn’t all go down the sides. Wait until the cake is completely cold before removing from the tin.

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Posted in Cake recipes, Sweet things | 4 Comments »

Summer Fruit Tart

August 28th, 2008

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Mmm.. this tart just tasted of summer (despite the weather…)Its a base similar to a cheesecake, pressed into a tart tin and then filled with a creamy mascarpone filling and topped with peaches, I only used peaches because I had them, but you can use whatever fruit you have or indeed a mixture.

The contrast of the fruit with the creamy mascarpone and crunchy base is just perfect. I followed a Nigella recipe for this ( the black and white tart in How to be a Domestic Goddess) but found I had too much of the mascarpone mixture left over, so we had it with strawberries later in the week with some biscuits crumbled on top in a ‘deconstructed’ version of the tart. I’ve changed Nigella’s recipe and decided to use half greek yoghurt, half mascarpone and have done away with the egg – makes a quicker, more cost effective pud. Also, the limoncello is obviously optional, I only used it because I have it and it goes so well with mascarpone.

Ingredients

250g digestives
75g butter, melted
250g mascarpone
250g greek yoghurt
75g icing sugar
Squeeze of lemon
1 tbsp limoncello
Enough fruit to top

Blend the biscuits to a rubble and mix in the melted butter. Tip into a tart tin and press the mixture onto the base and sides. Leave in the fridge to set. Meanwhile whisk the mascarpone until smooth and add the icing sugar, beat until combined, add the limoncello and yoghurt and beat until smooth. Spread this mixture over the base and top with the fruit.

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Chickpea and Haloumi Salad

August 27th, 2008

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Aaah another recipe from good old Cranks, combining all the old favourites, chickpeas, olives, sun blush tomatoes and haloumi. This is possibly my favourite way to eat haloumi, although now there is a contender in the fennel and pomegranate salad.

You could make up the chickpea part in advance and just add rocket and tomatoes to serve with the haloumi, the chickpea marinade will dress the salad.

Ingredients

Serves 4

½ small red onion, diced
juice ½ lemon
1 small clove garlic, finely chopped
olive oil
250g cherry tomatoes, roasted
1 block haloumi, sliced
1 tin chickpeas, drained
small bunch flat leaf parsley, chopped
100g rocket

Combine the chickpeas, lemon juice, garlic, parsley and red onion with a 1 tbsp olive oil and some seasoning, stir well and set aside to marinade. Spread the rocket over a large plate, top with the chickpeas and sprinkle over the tomatoes. Heat a frying pan or griddle pan and fry the haloumi on both sides for a few minutes. lay over the top of the salad and eat immediately

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Courgette Caponata

August 19th, 2008

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With the bounty from my weekend doing Farmer’s Markets, I decided to try making caponata for when my friends came over. This is a very loose version garnered from reading several recipes and then making it up! The general premise is that you cook onions, peppers and aubergine sloowly and then add some vinegar, tomatoes, capers and olives and continue to cook into a delicious stew, sweet from the peppers and onions and a bit sour from the capers and vinegar. Eat topped with pine nuts and basil. We had our slathered on toast, but I’m thinking you could have it with couscous or mixed into pasta. Any carb vehicle would do really.

I made mine with fabulous yellow courgettes, instead of the usual aubergine. So for a more authentic recipe, click here. I also made mine the night before to allow the flavours to develop and in fact you could keep a tub in the fridge for a few days, the flavours will just get better. We also found that it tastes better when cooled to room temperature rather than hot.

I’m pretty pleased that I got to use some basil from the bush we have growing in a window box. We got some other herbs at the farmers’ market, so we’ll see how they do. Including orange thyme, any suggestions on how to use it? I’m thinking perhaps with fish…

Ingredients

Serves 4

2 onions, sliced
3 peppers, sliced into long strips
2 courgettes, halved and sliced diagonally
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
½ red chilli, finely chopped
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 tbsp capers
2 tbsp olives, sliced
200g cherry tomatoes, halved

To serve:
basil and toasted pine nuts

Cook the onions, courgette and peppers in a liberal slug of olive oil for 10mins until softened and catching in places. Add the garlic and chilli and cook for a few more minutes. Now add the rest of the ingredients, and cook slowly for 20mins more until the tomatoes have broken down and you have a thick stew. Season and serve at room temperature with the basil and pine nuts sprinkled on top.

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Pizza

August 13th, 2008

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I don’t normally go in for homemade pizza, I would much rather make flatbread pizzas, so much quicker! But, dinner was left up to Pete and this is what he came up with. Very impressed I was too. He used the Jamie Oliver recipe for pizza dough (he prefers Delia’s though) and we got 4 decent sized pizzas out of it with half the quantities.

Now the topping, invented by us is where this really comes into its own. We roasted cherry tomatoes with the usual garlic and dried thyme, then chucked some basil on them and mashed them with a fork (watch out for the boiling liquid that squirts everywhere!) . Two 250g packs of cherry tomatoes should be enough to cover 4 pizzas (Use this recipe to roast them).

And there you have a delicious pizza sauce that’s pretty good on its own with some mozzarella strewn on top and some black pepper. Bake at 200C for about 20mins until bubbling and golden and the base is cooked. Once out, drizzle with some good olive oil, and sprinkle over some more chopped basil. A few slices of creamy avocado would be nice on top, a handful of rocket or some toasted pine nuts….

The toppings for pizza are endless, the only rule I would say with home made pizza is to avoid the temptation to overload with toppings as it can make the pizza soggy and its best to instead make a few different pizzas and be able to actually taste the individual toppings.

To really avoid the soggy bottom of homemade pizzas, you need to get a pizza stone, to achieve a really crispy base, that’s if you’re really serious. Or, like Pete you could use an old kitchen tile….

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Big Mack Cakes

August 11th, 2008

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I’ve become mildly obsessed with reading other people’s blogs (a list of my favourites to go up soon) and fantasising about 1. taking pictures as good as theirs and 2. being given my own book deal. I soon realised that I need to get a much flashier camera in order to take those kind of pictures, in the meantime, I’m getting increasingly frustrated with my own. So whilst I don’t like this picture (bad lighting), I had to post it as these were the BEST THING EVER when we had them for tea last night.

These are not your run of the mill fishcakes. Firstly we used smoked mackerel, fast becoming my favourite omega 3/protein/fishy source, these add much more smoky flavour than the traditional smoked haddock and are obviously the sustainable choice. We also used organic potatoes from the veg box, I’m not always convinced that organic tastes better per se, but with potatoes you can really taste the difference, even against all these strong flavours. After a little research, I also decided to add some capers, chopped boiled egg and chives (mostly because we had them and no parsley). And there you have it, the ultimate fishcakes.

We just coated them in flour, but there’s a nigella recipe where she coats them in flour, then egg, then crumbled ritz biscuits for crunchy coating. The joy with these is that you can then bake them in the oven. A bit labour intensive for me and the flour and fry method worked out just fine for us.

The other key component was a lemony creme fraiche sauce that we had alongside and worked really well. All I did was add some seasoning, lemon zest and the juice of ½ lemon to a pot of creme fraiche and set aside.

We had ours with salad, a particularly good one is pea, spinach and avocado or an astringent salad of baby gem lettuce, capers and chopped gherkin, both with a mustardy dressing.

Ingredients
250g smoked mackerel, flaked into large pieces
250g potatoes
2 free range eggs
50g butter
milk (for mashing)
2tbsp capers

Chop the potatoes and cook in plenty of boiling salted water until tender. Add the eggs to the pan for 8mins and remove. One the potatoes are cooked, drain and mash with the butter, adding a little milk to loosen if necessary. Peel and chop the boiled eggs and add to the mash along with the capers, ½ the lemon zest, chives and smoked mackerel. Stir together and taste, you may or may not want to add some lemon juice at this stage. Now divide the mixture into roughly 8 and shapes into cakes, roll in flour and set aside in the fridge for 30mins to firm up.

Meanwhile add the juice and zest of ½ lemon to the creme fraiche along with slat and pepper.

Heat some oil in a pan and fry the fish cakes on each side on a medium heat for 4-5 mins until warmed through and crispy on the outside.

Eat with salad and the creme fraiche sauce. Happy food dance optional.

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Swiss chard and Onion Tart

August 7th, 2008

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I know I’ve not been posting regularly recently. Its mostly because I’ve been eating fairly mediocre food that certainly isn’t getting me excited, so I figured not many people would be either. Its amazing how quickly it is to fall into the habit of not cooking and eating rubbish food, and I’m obsessed with food! Anyway, the veg box arrived yesterday and I decided to make this tart, one to stop the chard ending up in a stirfry as most of the leftover veggies do and two because I’ve not made one for ages.

I cheated and used ready bought pastry, which made this really quick to make. In essence you can pretty much cook any veggies in this eggy mixture, another good combination is brocolli, walnuts and blue cheese, or leek and peas with perhaps feta, or roasted tomatoes, pesto and mozzarella.

This is perfect for packed lunches, just wrap in foil and take with some salad.

500g shortcrust pastry
butter
3 onions, finely sliced
250g swiss chard, finely sliced
pinch nutmeg
4 eggs
1 142ml pot double cream
100g strong cheddar, grated

Preheat the oven to 180C. Roll out the pastry and line a tart tin, line with baking paper and fill with with baking beans. Cook for 10mins, then remove the beans and paper and cook for 10mins more. Meanwhile, cook the onions in a little butter until softened, add the sliced stalks and cook for a min or two more. Now add the leaves and cook until wilted, season well and add the nutmeg. Whisk the eggs and cream, season and mix in the cheese. Lay the chard and onion in the bottom of the tart and pour the eggy mixture over. Bake for 20-30mins until just set. Allow to cool for 10mins before serving.

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Smoked Mackerel Kedgeree

July 27th, 2008

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I always entertained ideas of making kedgeree, it fits with my penchant for decadent brunches. In the end we ended up making this for dinner, but there was enough left for a suitably indulgent breakfast the next day. Using smoked mackerel slightly more sustainable take on the classic smoked haddock variety. I also added some broad beans from my veg box to up the vegetable content.

Ingredients

Serves 2

1 onion
50g butter
1 red chilli, finely chopped
2tsp curry powder
1tsp cumin seeds
1 mugful rice
2 mugfuls vegetable stock
2-3 fillets smoked mackerel
2 eggs
½ bunch parsley, chopped

Fry the onion in the butter and a little oil until soft, add the spices and chilli and fry for a few minutes more. Add the rice and stir to coat in all the aromatic juices. add the juices, bring to the boil, cover and simmer for 10mins until all the liquid is absorbed. Then turn off the heat and allow to stand for 5mins, fork through, add the smoked mackerel and parsley and season to taste. You could soft boil the eggs, poach them or fry to add to each plate.

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Posted in Breakfast recipes, Dinner recipes, Fish recipes | No Comments »

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