Crispy Shredded Tofu

 In the words of CBC, "It's nice to try something new!"

I keep getting suggestions of ways to cook Tofu on Instagram. Most of the time, I salivate, screenshot them and then do nothing further. Mainly because they usually involve ingredients  I don't have.

But today (Sunday), I saw a recipe and video which looked so simple with very few ingredients that I decided to give it a go.  Especially as there were two blocks of tofu that I bought from Lidl in November that were a month out of date that I really needed to use up!! Sadly, I screenshot the recipe without the name of the author so I can't credit them.

It suggested you need

200g block of firm tofu

6 tbl spoons of olive oil

1 tbl spoon of Smoked Paprika

1/2 tsp of salt

Pepper to season

All you had to do was grate the tofu with a cheesegrater.  It was so easy to do. I decided to do  both blocks.

You then spread it onto a piece of baking parchment on an oven tray and then add the other ingredients and mix them. Which was easy.

You then bake it for 30 mins. 

I did so.  When it was almost cooked, I stirred it and added some Soy sauce.

When it was ready, I took it out of the oven and gave it a taste. IT was really crispy and yummy!  It almost had the texture of crispy duck from the Chinese. 

I served it with left over rice, kale, broccoli,  romanescu Cauliflower infused with tumeric and shallots, leeks.  There was enough for a second meal.  They suggest you can use it in Tacos, wraps and sandwiches.   I served it with noodles and pak choi and aubergine cooked in Tom Yum soup mix.  Also yummy and so easy to make!

I will definitely make this again! Yummmmy!!!

xx

Conker Detergent

hello there, I am sharing something I have tried recently which I was very excited about.   I have been trying a few new things in the last month or two.  The first is making my own Washing liquid detergent following an idea from Nancy Birtwhistle.

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A post shared by NANCY (@nancy.birtwhistle)

She also has other recipes you can watch- have a look at these Story highlights here

https://www.instagram.com/stories/highlights/17853143840786803/

I gathered a bag of lovely shiny conkers from an old tree in Little Baddow when I want to watch my friend Lara's piano recital.

I used about a 1/4 of these as I weighed them according to the recipe in Nancy's book.  The rest, I froze so I can make more later in the year.

After smashing the conkers open inside a cotton tote with a hammer, I removed the brown shells (well, I realised once I'd started soaking them that I was supposed to remove them...)

I immediately started noticing them going milky.  I left them for about 7 hours (8 or overnight is recommended) and then strained the liquid into my big 1.5 litre old Ecover Fabric softener bottle.

I then tried to blend the remaining conker pieces with my stick blender. This didn't work too well. Mine didn't seem to make a nice pulp like Nancy's, it was still very bitty.  Not sure if the problem was my blender or it might be better if you add some water too? I added another 500ml of boiling water and left for two hours and strained it again into the bottle.  The remaining pieces, I put into the compost.

And here was my bottle!  

Mine seems quite a thin liquid so maybe my blending issue may have meant it isn't as thick as it should be but it is still fine.   I added some Eucalyptus oil to mine and it smells lovely.

Nancy recommends using it straight in your drum on top of your clothes and putting 50g of washing soda crystals in your drawer too to aid it but I can't find my washing soda so I have been putting 3 capfuls in the drum and then adding an extra one to the drawer and the washing has been coming out well. Touch wood, also, the draining issues I've been having recently with my washing machine haven't been happening when I've used this.  I have only been washing on 30degrees as it was going wrong when the temperature was hotter.

I will definitely make this again and I have been saving my soap ends to give that recipe a try soon!

This was, essentially, practically free!!

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Homecoming Dinner

 CBC and I got home this afternoon, around 5.30pm after 6 days in Girona, Italy.

We had a lovely time. Couldn't believe we came home to glorious sun and some warmth!

We didn't have a huge amount of fresh food in the house but I went out into the garden and 

discovered the chard has boomed! I cut a veritable bouquet of it. It's quite expensive to buy in the supermarket (when you can get it) so I'm gleeful this is self-seeded from last year's also self-seeded.

The kale plants are really trying hard to flower and go to seed but I've discovered the small flower buds look and taste rather like tender stem broccoli. I also still managed to pick lots of kale.

In the right flower bed,the three-cornered leek (self-seeded) is surrounded by Forget-me-nots but is still growing so I picked lots of that.

The Lemon Balm has started growing again so I picked some of that too.

Wasn't sure what to make for dinner.  We struggle to get back into the swing of cooking after being on holiday.

I had a brainwave.

I got two blocks of noodles (from the Refill shop) and put them into a saucepan along with the kale-occoli plus lots of Chard stalks. I added hot water and set it to medium heat.

I then made up some Miso paste into a thick liquid with about 100ml of hot water which I added into the saucepan.  Once it had been going for a bit, I added in a bit of vegetable stock (from a sadly,now closed Refill store) and the chopped up Chard leaves. I also discovered a third of an old courgette lurking in the fridge from a week ago and chopped that into small pieces and added it in.

I then beat an egg in the old miso jug and threw it into a small saucepan along with lots of chopped up 3-cornered leek and pepper and left it to cook. 

I served up the noodles, broth and veg into a bowl and added some more chopped 3 cornered leek plus I poured some Sesame oil on top.

Finally, I cut up the leek omelette into pieces and added on top.

Very pleased that it ended up being delicious and was very little effort to make plus quite healthy with 4 types of green veg plus the veg.  Plus it was pretty cheap to make!

I served it with Lemon Balm tea!

Nettles!

I've felt rather bereft about the fact I haven't been able to go to Northumberland and search for and pick Wild Garlic to make pesto (and to just eat!)
Lakota (who used to blog and wrote the most hilarious blog posts) posted that she had made Nettle soup and served her family nettles with their dinner.
This made me really excited as I know there are lots of nettles near where I live and I could get them on my walk.  I only hoped they hadn't all gone to flower (as apparently they taste horrible when they are at that stage

I woke up on Monday morning super-excited to get out early and go for a walk.  I prepared by taking a large carrier bag, scissors and gloves, making sure I was wearing long sleeves and trousers and boots.

After a brief trip into Londis to grab a few things (there were 3 women inside and we were all very sensible about maintaining our distance, warning each other when we were wanting to go backwards, waiting politely), I headed towards the church surrounded by fields.  By the graveyard is a small quiet section that people could presumably usually sit in. It was full of nettles that looked fairly young.

I gathered as many as I could. I had a lovely chat to a nice man called Ron (aged 79) from 6metres away, who walked on the path the other side of the ditch and was curious about what I was doing.

After walking through further fields and naughtily picking a handful of Stitchwort flowers (they were abundant), CBC called me and asked if could get some sultanas for making Hot cross buns so I headed back via Londis. This time there were all men in there (at various times, not all at once)- they seemed to have no clue about maintaining distance, waiting politely or warning you when they wanted to go somewhere. I had to beat a hasty retreat into a shelf a couple of times and I ended up stuck less than a metre away from two men as I finished at the till and a man was standing at the entrance whilst his child got something from the toy dispenser and the man behind me pushed his way to the till.  Finally dispenser man and child moved and 2 more men barged their way into the shop meaning I still couldn't get away from man at the till! Stupid men!

At home, I thought I should test whether the nettles tasted ok.  I washed a few in a colander (using tongs to move them) and then put some in a frying pan with some oil, pepper and salt and fried them.  They went just like Spinach and tasted very nice.  CBC swears something stung him but heat removes the sting and I ate most of them and they were fine.

I watched this Youtube video the night before about foraging nettles and making soup and it was very helpful. Also, it was the simplest soup recipe- only needing stock, butter, potatoes, onions and of course nettles!

CBC was MOST skeptical but even he admitted that the soup was delicious.  Next time, I'd put more nettles in as mine wasn't as dark green as his one.

There was enough for 4 portions in total and today, I cooked the last lot of nettles that I hadn't used already and fried them till they were crispy and served them on top. When crispy, they tasted very similar to Nori which is a seaweed.

I'm very excited to make this soup again whilst there are some younger nettles around.

Apparently, Nettles are full of Vitamin A, K and C as well as some B vitamins.  They also have Calcium, Iron, Magnesium, phosphorus and Sodium and some fats and they even have protein in them which is great for a vegetarian diet!

And they are free!

 Vitamins: Vitamins A, C and K, as well as several B vitamins. Minerals: Calcium, iron, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium and sodium. Fats: Linoleic acid, linolenic acid, palmitic acid, stearic acid and oleic acid

Here's a whole load of articles and recipes I read and then I found some other great foraging videos about what is around!

Very exciting!

https://www.thespruceeats.com/sauteed-stinging-nettles-2217561

https://www.countryfile.com/how-to/food-recipes/nettle-guide-where-to-find-how-to-pick-nettles-safely-and-recipe-ideas/
https://honest-food.net/nettle-pesto/
https://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/risottoofnettlesandw_13724

So...over to you.  Have you ever tried Nettles? What have you foraged for?

xx

Aquafaba!

Have you heard of Aquafaba?  I was searching for a particular vegan recipe involving Chickpeas and I came across this ingenious idea.
Aquafaba is the result of cooking chickpeas in boiled water.  The liquid becomes particularly viscous and cleverly enough it has the ability to, in a way, take on some of the properties that egg can be used for, particularly in baking cakes. Its thickness and consistency resembles egg-white.  It means Vegans can enjoy things such as Meringues and marshmallow as well as those with an egg allergy.  Alas, it isn't particularly nutritional but certainly useful!  If you buy a tin of chickpeas, don't throw away the liquid they come in as this is aquafaba and can be used in recipes.  If you boil dried chickpeas, save the water you boiled them in- it will become dense and form aquafaba.  As can guess, the name comes from the Latin words Aqua (meaning water) and faba (beans) and was discovered . It can keep in the fridge for a week and can also be frozen.

As I was searching, I found these great simple recipes you can make with it.

https://itdoesnttastelikechicken.com/crunchy-roasted-chickpeas/

https://itdoesnttastelikechicken.com/easy-vegan-marshmallow-fluff/

https://itdoesnttastelikechicken.com/vegan-meringue-cookies/


https://itdoesnttastelikechicken.com/vegan-confetti-cake/


I also found this great article on the Vegan Society website which shows 20 amazing things you can make with Aquafaba including Chocolate Mousse! This sounds and looks good!
https://www.vegansociety.com/whats-new/blog/20-amazing-things-you-can-do-aquafaba

The thing that appeals to me about this is that you are avoiding waste- you are using something that would usually be thrown away or discarded and it is something which makes so many things available for those who can't eat egg or dairy, even Mozarella!!

What do you think?  Will you be giving this a go the next time you open a can of chickpeas or boil some dried ones?  I am very intrigued to try it!

A solution to swimming in carrots- Red Lentil and Carrot curry

I have 5 bags of carrots in the fridge at home because there seems to be a surplus at school and they were going out of date.  I've been eating carrot batons and grating it in Tuna Mayonnaise but wanted to do something cooked with the carrots.  You might ask if other people could use them too but people HAVE been taking bags, but annoyingly, the carrots started to turn black so someone dumped three bags in the bin. I fished them out because I know the black is only surface level and you peel it off in the first layer of peel (I have extensive experience of surplus school carrots in the last year)

Luckily, during my search for a 20minute lentil curry in a hurry which I heard mention of in someone's Instagram post, I found this Abel and Cole recipe https://www.abelandcole.co.uk/recipes/red-lentil-curry-in-a-hurry which uses carrots as a main ingredient! "Great!"  I thought, "That'll get rid of a lot of carrots!!!"

It's very unusual for me to try a new recipe- I'm a throw veg in a pan, tray, kind of cook and I don't really follow recipes but this one looked easy.

Ingredients

• A few glugs of olive oil
• 1 onion, finely chopped
• A mug of finely diced carrots, butternut squash or celery (optional)
• 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
• ½ red or green chilli, finely chopped*
• 2cm chunk of fresh ginger, finely grated
• ½ mug of red lentils
• 1 tsp cumin (ground or seeds)
• 1 tsp ground coriander
• A pinch of ground cinnamon
• 1 mugof water
• A good pinch of sea salt
• A few handfuls of leafy seasonal greens and/or diced or halved tomatoes
• 1 lemon or lime

Method

1.Heat a splash of oil in a hot lidded pan. Add the onion and carrot or celery, if using. Sizzle till tender.

2.Swirl in the garlic, chilli and ginger. Cook till just softened. Top up with oil as and when needed.

3.Add the lentils and spices. Toast for a minute, folding everything together.

4.Add a pinch of salt and the water. Let it sizzle up. Pop a lid on. Turn the heat down. Simmer for 10mins, or until the water is absorbed. Keep an eye on it and top up if needed.

5.Once the lentils are tender, gloss with oil, fold in your green leaves or tomatoes till softened and warmed through. Taste. Adjust seasoning as needed. Finish with lemon or lime juice and zest.

The good thing about this recipe was that I had everything in the house already and it used up a few things I had a surfeit of- carrots, obviously, tomatoes, lentils, onions, limes and some Pak choi that really needed eating.


CBC was excited I was making a new recipe and seemed to enjoy it, saying, "How many limes did you use in this?". He was surprised when I said only 1-but nodded sagely when I said I'd used the zest also.  We had left over rice and Broccoli from Monday's meal so it was a useful way to use up that also.
There's some for dinner before orchestra tomorrow so hurrah!

I suspect I may be making this a few more times in the next few weeks as I work my way through those carrots- or back to Carrot and butterbean soup!

Do let me know if you give this a try. It's completely vegan and I believe, Dairy and Gluten free!

x

Chive Flower vinegar

My original eco-hero blogger is the wonderful Secondhand Susie.  She inspired me to start doing eco posts as she has always shared some brilliant links.  She's also an inspiration in terms of her Surburban garden and growing your own.  

And then she shared a brilliant idea!

She said you could flavour and colour White Wine Vinegar with chive flowers.  It makes the most pretty pink/red vinegarette

Since I knew I needed to remove the flowers from my chives as they take the goodness away from the chives themselves, I was delighted to have a reason to use them!  

I went to the Refill Room and bought some White wine vinegar in one of my juice bottles from the Milkman and then I chopped all the flowers off the chives in our herb bed.  It was then a case of snipping the petals into an empty, clean jar and then filling the jar with the white wine vinegar (all the above were reused).  You then leave them in a dark place for two weeks and then you need to try and sift out the flowers.  Your vinegar should be very tasty and a beautiful colour!

These photos were taken a while ago and the vinegar was even redder than above!  It also tasted very nice on chips and salad.  The two smaller jars were made for my Mum and Dad for their birthdays respectively.

If you have any chive flowers to use, I recommend this as a nice way to use the chive flowers.

xx

Green Fritters

Last Sunday, CBC and I went over to my Mum's and she cooked us some Corn and Courgette fritters.  They were delicious and it reminded me of when CBC and I made my Mum Full of Greens fritters last Summer.  I couldn't believe I had not made Courgette fritters since then and realised that I was very remiss in not doing so as they were tasty!

Today, I had no school as it was a Polling Day at my school so I decided to make some Courgette Fritters.

I knew I had a Courgette and I had 4 eggs (rather than the 5 the recipe needs) which went out of date about 15 days ago but I did the Float Test and they were still good.

I didn't have any Feta to use so I decided to make use of what I had.

I decided to just wing it with the quantities and what I put in so this time, I put some frozen sweetcorn (about a small bowl full) in a bowl with hot water and then I grabbed about 100g of Swiss Chard (which I had from Mum's garden rather than Spinach) and grated extra Parmesan plus extra garlic.  I also grabbed a load of Lemon Zest from my Freezer stash

Conclusion:  They were delicious!  Swiss chard goes beautifully in  the fritters and the corn is a welcome addition.  I didn't miss the extra egg either.

It was very tasty served with grated carrot (these carrots have been in the fridge for at least 5-6 weeks!) and cubed cucumber with a dressing made out of Olive Oil, Balsamic and Lemon juice.

The resulting dinner was fresh, tasty and healthy!

And we still have 10 fritters left in the fridge!

I recommend the original recipe thoroughly but you don't need the feta so don't fret if you don't have any!

Wild Garlic pesto!

I wrote back in April 2015 about making Wild Garlic Pesto so it is high time it merits another post!

I'm presuming you all know about Wild Garlic?  If not, it grow around this time of the year.  The leaves are point, spear-shaped and are this shade of green.  The flowers are a delicate, small white one and it usually grows in woodland areas, shady but not too much and often by water in my experience.  How do you know what it is?  Well, if you pick the top off a leaf and smell it, you will smell that delicious garlicky scent!  The only other two things that look like it are the NOT TO BE EATEN Lords and Ladies or Lily of the Valley and neither of those smell of garlic.

Wild Garlic from 2015

I was introduced to it back in 2015 by my Sussex-based friend E. She taught me to make a Walnut and Wild Garlic leaf pesto.

Here is the one we made.

My first 'supervised attempt'

I also made it at Easter 2016 after finding a patch in Allenbanks in Northumberland but with the more traditional pine nuts that time.
This year, when I saw my Stepmum had wild garlic in her Organic veg box, it reminded me that at Easter time, Wild Garlic could be found in Northumberland and I vowed to search for it and make some this Easter holiday.  In fact, I may have bored CBC and his Mum by keeping saying that!

To my delight, I actually found 3 separate patches of wild garlic on three separate walks so I collected it on all three, with the larger quantity being collected on our final walk last Saturday.  I was very glad to have been carrying along an old Chicory bag from Belgium so I was able to shove more and more Wild garlic as we encountered more patches on our walk (it's important not too take too much from one patch if it is limited as it is an important source of food for wild animals)

I ended up with about 250g of it!

When I returned home to Essex, I was ready to make some.  However, we had a whole bag of Pistachios that had been sitting open on the work top for a while and I had heard that you can make pesto with any nuts so it seemed a good idea to finish these up. In addition, I had purloined one of the dozen almost-finished bottles of olive oil from my Mother in Law's house which I knew the bottle of which would end up in the bin, so I grabbed that. I had some lemons in the fridge anyway and it only remained to buy some Parmesan.

I used THIS recipe but using less Olive oil. I began by blending the nuts. WARNING: wear ear-muffs, the sound is deafening!

You basically blend the nuts, wild garlic and parmesan and then add oil in and then lemon juice and salt and pepper.  I used a recipe with only a little pesto.  I probably should have used some more but as long as you 'seal' the surface with olive oil, it should keep.   The good thing is that you can freeze it so I put it into two plastic containers and one glass jar (after thinking that originally I could freeze glass jars with shoulders...) and it made a good amount.

So far we have had 3 meals for two with it. 

The first meal was Veggie spaghetti which did us both for two large meals and then we cooked another batch of the same on Friday.

Finally, tonight, after visiting Waitrose and buying some lovely Scotch Trout fillets (they were on special offer from the fresh counter which I bought 4 of, stuffed into my own container), I spread the pesto over the fish and put it in the oven.  I still had a few Wild garlic leaves left so I chopped those up and put them into the rice. We served it alongside Leeks, Broccoli, Courgette and Pak Choi.

It was delicious!

I recommend trying to find a patch.  Now I now where there is some in Northumberland, I just need to find some in Essex. Mum did give me a Wild-Garlic plant last year which happily came up again this Spring but since it only consists of two leaves, I'm leaving it to grow for a few years!

Who's up for making Wild garlic pesto then?

x

Vegan recipes- Pea Hummus

We own all of Anna Jones' recipe books and there has been a recipe I have been meaning to make for the last year.  Today was the day when I tried it!

That was for a Pea Hummus.

Now for me, the problem with making Hummus is the issue of having Chickpeas and Tahini.  I have chickpeas but they need soaking and cooking.  I could just buy a tin but then those chickpeas will sit there forever more unused.

But, what I liked about Anna Jones' recipe is that it uses Frozen peas.

You need:
300g Frozen peas
The juice and zest of one unwaxed lemon
Small bunch of Mint
Small bunch of Basil
Salt and Pepper

and basically you need to blend them in a food processor or with a stick blender.  I like the thought of this as something you could make for a week of lunches at school or a quick dip for unexpected guests in the Summer time. My mint is always very prolific in the Summer.
This was actually the first time I used our Kenwood food mixer- it was a present from my Dad/Stepmum as they bought a new one so we got the lovely old one.

I bought a bunch of mint from the GreenGrocers on Saturday in preparation for this and had already zested and juiced a lemon a week ago.
It wasn't until I'd added all the ingredients that I realised I hadn't purchased a new basil plant or a bunch of basil so I had to strip our basil plant that is hanging on with its fingernails to life.  I may have added half a lemon extra juice and zest. 

What was it like?  Well, you can see I managed to make two tubs of it. It tasted deliciously fresh and zesty when I sampled it as I was cleaning out the mixer so I will definitely try this one again. I have carrots to dip in it and some bread so I will try it tomorrow with those and let you know how it fares.  It apparently will last a week in the fridge which is good!

What do you think?  Would you try this?
x

An interesting Veggie Breakfast/Brunch

Greetings on this Sunday!  I hope you are well and have had a restful weekend. I would definitely not describe mine as restful but wonderfully full of music, food and good company.

You may know that I eat quite a Vegetarian diet. I am not veggie but CBC is pescetarian so we eat a lot of veggie substitutes and the odd bit of fish/seafood and then I tend to eat meat out (not always as I like veggie fare)

Today, before we headed off to our orchestra rehearsal, we needed to have a breakfast/brunch as we had woken rather late and failed to eat anything. So, I decided to make us some brunch.  I whisked 4 eggs and then added too many Mixed Italian herbs to them (delicious but tipped them too deeply).  To go with this, in another pan, I cut up and cooked a large tomato with some Marjoram.  Whilst this was doing, I cut up an Avocado and CBC put the last two slices of rather hard Rye bread in the toaster.  I WAS going to do Baked Beans but didn't get around to it.  CBC then foraged in the fridge for left-overs and to it, we added some left-over Cauliflower he'd cooked with Tumeric, cumin seeds and mustard seeds and a bit of Pak Choi and we added a pile of leftover Green lentils from Dinner on Saturday night.

The result- a really colourful and healthy plate. I do like the idea of a Veggie breakfast that doesn't just have meat substitutes like Quorn sausages (and avoid the dreaded mushroom!) but that use interesting ingredients instead. Lentils are welcome on my Breakfast plate, especially if they needed to be eaten up!

I thought I'd share two more imaginative veggie breakfasts that I've had out in the last year.

This one was eaten in a place called Brentwood Kitchen and it was great, featuring NO mushrooms and instead:

Halloumi, hashbrown, baked beans, scrambled egg, avocado, vine-tomatoes, Spinach and toast. I like a little taster of  lots of things, not having too much of one thing!

The second was eaten at a place called Stop the World Cafe in Leigh-on-Sea.  I am gutted this is no longer available. It featured:
Tomato Salsa, Rocket, Spinach, tomatoes, Avocado, Halloumi and Hashbrowns.

What would you like to eat for breakfast if you could choose?  Would you enjoy a more interesting veggie breakfast or would you prefer to go for a Standard Full English breakfast?

xx

Tasty Seeds!

We've all heard that nuts and seeds are very good for us and particularly good for vegetarian diets.  I went through a spell of eating pumpkin seeds when I worked as an administrator- always put them on my salad but I haven't for a while.   I was cutting up a Butternut squash today and thought I'd see if you can roast and eat the seeds as I had a feeling you could. I found this article:
https://www.thespruceeats.com/roasted-squash-seeds-2355361
which showed you could so when I cut up my squash, I pulled the seeds out and washed them and left them to dry.   After that, I melted a bit of butter in a bowl in the microwave and added a bit of salt and Paprika and tossed them in it.  Then I laid them on the baking sheet in a small try.  As I was roasting the veg, I put them in alongside the main dinner. 

Conclusion:  They are delicious! Alas, there weren't loads of seeds in this squash but there were a few so I have put them in a plastic box.  They have a really nice taste to them, a bit like a roast!!!

Definitely going to try this again! 

Have you tried collecting squash or pumpkin seeds and roasting them?  I recommend it!

xxx

Full of Greens fritters recipe for Mum!

In my Summer tasks list, I said I wanted to cook dinner for my Mum. Embarrassingly, since not living with my Mum, I haven't really cooked her dinner/lunch somehow. We've been out for lunch but it was only in February that I cooked her steak for lunch and she commented that it was the first time I had cooked her something. 

She's subsequently been round for my party but I did want for us to cook for her so I invited her round the first Thursday of the holiday.

She is a big vegetable eater so I decided that we would make her a recipe from our favourite veggie recipe-maker, Anna Jones- her Full of Greens fritters (recipe can be found HERE) .  I had a glut of courgettes from the school garden and we had two packs of feta left from our party that weren't used (in fact, I was going to make these!) 

I DO take umbrage her saying in the link above, that these make their way from chopping board to table in 10 minutes. I was grating, chopping, zesting and grating for a good half an hour.

 Shredding the spinach alone took a while. Grating the courgettes was WONDERFULLY quick though!

You've probably heard this tip before but I tend to zest lemons that we have juiced (CBC likes to use them in all his cooking) and freeze them in a box.  You can see I also zested a lime too in the same box- just makes it easier to do them all at once.

 Here was the mixture of feta, spinach, courgette and Parmesan pre-eggs.

As is often the case with guests, I will do all the chopping and preparing and washing up and leave CBC to do the actual cooking.

The recipe made 12 of these fritters and they were delicious! I recommend them.

 It was en extremely hot day when Mum came round and we decided to eat in our dining room/front room which we have only ever used to serve the buffet for our party.  We discovered it was the coolest room in the house, being north-facing and I have subsequently been crafting in here.

So, that was the first time we ate at our dining room table (usually we eat at the kitchen table). We served the lunch with brown crusty bread, carrot and orange and then a leafy salad.  Mum was delighted to be cooked for, especially healthy meat-free meals, so I was glad to have invited her round.  Here's to many more!

Would you eat the fritters?

xx

Advent Calendar Scavenger Hunt Day 10 - Favourite Christmas Recipe

Actually, that title is a misnomer.  The below is not my favourite Christmas recipe. To be honest, I don't have one.  I like Pigs-in-blankets but you don't need a recipe to wrap sausages in bacon.  I don't really do any cooking at Christmas as everyone I have ever had has been spent at someone else's house!
So instead, I am going to share the recipe of something that CBC and I have made two batches of this December. I say WE but that is mostly CBC- I have assisted by locating ingredients, peeling apples, chopping things and making up stock.

CBC and I both love the Vegetarian cook Anna Jones- we own two of her books.  In her recipe book, A Modern Way to eat,  CBC spied a recipe for Celeriac Soup with Hazelnuts and crispy sage.

 He tried making it a few weeks ago after my Mum gave us her old Stick blender.  We didn't have any sage so we did it without but then we made it again last night and he'd bought some fresh sage leaves.

Here is the recipe (by Anna Jones)

Celeriac Soup with Hazelnuts and crispy sage.
Serves 6:
Olive oil
1 leek, washed, trimmed and finely sliced.
1 celeriac, washed, peeled and roughly chopped.
4 apples cored and roughly chopped.
a few sprigs of fresh thyme, leaves picked.
1.5 litres of vegetable stock
1 x 400g tin of butter beans drained.
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.

To serve:
a handful of hazelnuts.
100g of butter
a few sprigs of fresh sage leaves picked.

Method:

Heat a splash of oil in a large pan, then add the leek and cook over a medium heat for 10 minutes until soft and sweet.

Add the celeriac, apples and thyme and cook for 2-3 minutes, then add the stock and butter beans and season well.  Simmer over a low heat for 20-30 minutes, until the celeriac is tender, then remove from the heat and blitz with a hand blender until smooth.

Toast the hazelnuts in a frying pan until golden brown then remove from the pan and put to one side.  Add the butter to the pan and once it is hot, add, add the sage and fry until it is crispy and the butter is light brown.  Keep the heat low for this last bit and take the pan off as soon as you see the butter turn brown as it can burn really quickly.

Ladle into bowls and top with the sage and hazelnut brown butter.

(Taken from Anna Jones, A modern way to eat published by Fourth Estate, an imprint of Harper Collins publishers.)

It is a hearty winter warmer and what really makes it totally delicious are the sage, brown butter and hazelnut topping.

Just to note that we substituted the leeks for shallots this time as we didn't have any and also we used cannelini beans this time as we had no butterbeans. It worked similarly.

What do you think?

Would you try this?

x

Julie's list:

• Letterbox
• Something handcrafted for Christmas
• Favourite Christmas recipe
• Christmas book(s)
• Stained glass window
• Robin
• Bell(s)
• Sleigh
• Christmas Bauble
• Holly and Ivy
• Snowman
• Angel
• First Christmas card received in the post
• Christmas crackers
• Tree before dressed
• Tree after dressed
• Christmas wrapping paper
• Mistletoe
• Stocking or Christmas Sack/Bag
• Wrapped present(s)
• Winter
• Father Christmas
• Nativity
• The Night Before Christmas

A tasty Veggie dinner

Every so often, I like to share a veggie dinner which I really enjoyed.  It's always nice to share different ideas for a dinner- even if it is something fairly mundane, sometimes it is nice to inspire someone else!

Tonight's dinner was a pasta dish.  

I cooked enough for 3 people (2 portions for CBC and I and a portion for my lunch).

The ingredients were:

1/2 pack of Halloumi,  225g Penne Pasta, Scraping of Genovese Pesto, Basil leaves, 18 cherry tomatoes, 3/4 Red pepper, 1 leek, 1/2 Pak Choi, Marjoram, Chilli flakes, Pepper, Tomato puree.

I cooked the Penne Pasta according to instructions and cut up the halloumi with black pepper and put it in the oven for 12minutes.

I began by frying the leeks in some olive oil, having cut them into thin slices and in half.  I added in the tomatoes halved, peppers and the pak choi along with Marjoram and some Tomato paste and chilli flakes.  At this point, I added in some of the water from the Pasta to make the tomato paste become more like a sauce.

I find that if you don't strain the Pasta through a colander but retain some of the water by tipping the water off with the saucepan lid, it makes the pesto go a bit further.  Once I'd stirred in the Pesto, I added a little Garlic-infused Olive Oil.

Finally, I served the vegetables on top with the crispy Halloumi on top with some basil and more black pepper.

It was really tasty so I recommend giving this a go!

What do you think? Would you try this?

x

Meals with vegetables: Veg stir-fry

A little while ago, I tried tracking my vegetable intake after news articles that suggested we should be eating 10 portion of Fruit and Veg a day. Not once did I manage this although I did manage around 7 on average. A few people worried that they did not eat enough fruit and veg as a result of reading.

I figured it would be nice to share some meals in which I feel you can boost your veg intake.  Now a disclaimer here. I am NOT a good cook or any sort of expert and I hesitated to post this as it seems rather like teaching Grandma to suck eggs.  However, it is my blog and why not just post it regardless even if people think 'So what?'

 This was tonight's dinner which I cooked for CBC and I.
It was a vegetable stir-fry.
It contained 1.5 blocks of noodles

• 1 whole courgette, 
• 3 large carrots 
• double portion of frozen sweetcorn
• 2 whole Pak choi,
• 1 red chilli.
• crispy dried onion
• 1 free range egg.
• Coriander
• Sweet chilli sauce
• Toasted Sesame oil,
• Teriyaki sauce
• Soy Sauce
• Coconut oil

Usually, I would add a whole onion sliced thinly but I forgot.  Here alone in one meal, even without the onion, we had 4 portions of vegetables which is a good start. We might add prawns or tofu on another occasion but this was what was in the house. I think the key to it being simple and tasty
is the addition of the oils and sauces and the egg. I break the egg into the vegetable mixture before adding the noodles and sweet corn and stir it around and all the little eggy morsels are delicious! You could even serve a fried egg on top like they did in Bali or add chick peas. I might also include peppers!

I always have a bag of frozen sweetcorn and peas on hand and simply added the corn to the noodles boiling. You've added an extra portion of veg (or two if you added the peas) without any addition saucepans or trouble.  I think one veg stir-fry a week minimum is a great way to eat extra veg if you have been lacking on other days.  Aldi is nice and cheap for veg so that's not a problem!

What about you?  Do you cook a Vegetable Stir-fry regularly? What veg might yours include?

xx

Gorgeous Greens 2

Continuing from my post from Thursday, on Good Friday, CBC and I decided to take a walk around the Allen Banks Gorge near Hexham in Northumberland and were so far, on an unknown trail, without map.

Here was the view from the bench we had taken a brief hiatus at.  The sight of vast, Northumbrian fields and land never fails to delight me. I do sometimes wonder if we should have moved up there.

Eventually, CBC declared it was time to continue and we continued walking on past the site of an old Summer House- long gone but the sign was still there.  CBC raced up these stones to reach a higher point. I trudged along behind worrying about the fact that we were continuing ever higher and the fact at some point, we might encounter a treacherously steep descent which would need a mountain goat to conquer- I really do not like downhill!

Luckily, there was a fairly gentle way down, thank the Lord, and I didn't have to go through my usual, "I am going to slip and die!" panic.

As we descended one section, we saw the most wonderful view of a pond/pool of some sort (Lake seems too grandiose a term to apply to this stretch of water).  I was attempting to take a glorious photo but CBC decided to get in the way and dance a ridiculous dance in front of me.  I immediately sought revenge and switched to Film mode so I have good blackmail material, but for the sake of my marriage, I thought it prudent NOT to post it here! Pity...

This is the best I could get, without absurd revelry.

Near the water, everything was so beautifully green. I was taken with this foliage.

As we had reached the water, it began to rain.

Drip, drip, drop, little April Showers, creating mesmerising concentric circles...

After all the hues of green, it was rather a shock to see such a vibrantly red tree trunk.

Eventually, it seemed that CBC's instinct was true, we found ourselves back in that very first field where we had commenced our journey. No fiendishly arduous downward descent had ensued and we were fresh and eager still

The sheep ambled unusually nonchalantly for a breed who have long since fled at the sight of me.

A rather vigorous rustling hailed from our left and we saw a lamb frolicking in the branches close to the river- I wondered if he was having a cheeky scratch.

He seemed happy to remain near us until I hastened my pace and then forthwith, he fled!

Giving me the odd mistrustful backward glance.

The last sight I enjoyed was these intriguing seed-pods covering a tree!

I thought I would include a video of the rain droplets striking the water. I don't know how to align it centrally- it refused to oblige!

As we reached the car, we headed off to the large patch of Wild Garlic and helped ourselves to the plentiful leaves, sniffing each one very carefully to check they were not Lily of the Valley or Lord and Ladies which can be mistakenly eaten as Wild Garlic with disastrous results!

Back home, we set out to make the Wild Garlic pesto, stopping at the handy Haltwhistle Coop for the extra ingredients. I googled the Riverford Organic Wild Garlic pesto to check and then we made it.

But... it seemed we had no blender, so the pesto was very rough, crudely made and chunky-looking! 

 It was, however, extremely tasty! We served it as an accompaniment to Brown Trout, rice, Tumeric-infused cauliflower with spinach and yoghurt. I say we- I did the pesto, CBC made everything else!

The wild garlic pesto was a fitting conclusion to an enjoyable walk! I have no doubt we will return to Allen Banks often!

Have you been to Allen Banks or made Wild Garlic pesto?

xx