2 eggs, 200g soft brown sugar, 80ml sunflower oil, 260g plain flour, 2 tsp Baking powder, 2 tsp ground cinnamon, 80 ml natural yoghurt, 1/2 tsp vanilla extract (for these last 2 ingredients, I used Vanilla flavoured yohurt), 250g carrot, 120g courgette, both grated.

Preheat oven to 170°C. Beat eggs, sugar and oil in a bowl until well combined. Add flour, baking powder and cinnamon and beat again. Add yoghurt and vanilla and mix through. Add veg and stir until evenly dispersed.

Spoon mixture into muffin cases in a muffin tray (ideally) until 2/3 full. bake in the preheated oven for about 30 mins or until golden and a skewer comes out clean from the centre. Enjoy!

By the way, Harri is much better with veg now – he will eat cherry tomatoes, but not big ones and corn on the cob, but not sweetcorn!

…not very much is the answer at the moment – by saying “at the moment” I’m clinging to the hope that it is a phase and soon he’ll eat everything! I am encouraged by the fact that he likes strong tasting things like blue cheese, black olives and cornichons and think this demonstrates that he does have a good palate.  Anyway, I’m being patient and not making a fuss about it – I know that he would like the things that he refuses to even taste and if I keep offering him, maybe one day he’ll change his mind.  I’ve tried getting him to make the food with me, thinking that he would want to eat what he’s made, but that doesn’t work either – unless it’s putting fish fingers on an oven tray!

Today though, I’m faced with a little dilemma – here it is: this morning, Harri and I were looking at the pictures in Hugh F-W ‘s “Fish” book which was a lot of fun and funny at times – especially when Harri kept saying “oh dear bobo” at the pictures of the fish being gutted and filleted! He was really interested in what everything was called – the fishing boats, rods, knives, shellfish, fish and all the different colours. We must have spent about 20 minutes looking at it, then Harri pointed at a picture of a crab and said, “Harri likes crab”, he turned the page and said, “Harri likes lobster”, again “Harri likes flat fish”, “Harri likes fish soup”. “How sweet!” I hear you say…hmmm. My problem is this – I would love for him to like the above said things, but should I believe him? Experimenting with a lobster would be a bit expensive, but maybe I should buy a crab and see…what do you think?

Two great recipes: Cawl au feu and Irish Soda Bread.

“You can take the girl out of Wales, but you can’t take Wales out of the girl!” This rang true yesterday as I invented my version of Cawl – amazing that it was the first ever Cawl I’ve made! For those of you that don’t know, Cawl is a traditional dish from Wales which is like a stew. It usually contains Lamb and Leeks along with Potatoes, Carrots, Swede – anything that’s in season/left in your cupboard. Historically it was a poor man’s meal, but now it is probably on the menu at the Celtic Manor!

My Cawl was not a traditional Cawl as I made it with smoked lardons instead of Lamb and I took some ideas from a recipe for Pot au Feu (France’s very own Cawl) – hence the name Cawl au Feu. Anyway, it was so delicious that the recipe is worth sharing. Serves 3-4 people.

250g chunky (about 2cm cubes) smoked lardons, 1 large leek, 4 carrots, 1 onion, 1/4 celeriac, 1/4 white cabbage, 2-3 bay leaves, a few sprigs of thyme, 12-15 pink peppercorns, 4 cloves, a cinnamon stick (about 3cm), 1 tsp salt

In a large pan, fry the lardons for a few minutes while you roughly chop all the vegetables to about the same size as your lardons – it doesn’t need to look pretty! Add the veg to the lardons and fry for a few minutes then add everything else and cover with boiling water (about 4 pints) and simmer gently for about an hour and a half – don’t let it boil vigorously as this will break up the veg.

Some people serve the broth as a starter and then the meat and veg as a main – I served it all in one bowl with a slice of home made soda bread. The Irish soda bread is so easy to make and doesn’t involve the hassle of rising and kneeding dough – just add about 420 ml of milk to a bowl of 500g flour (white/brown or both) a tsp bicarbonate of soda and a tsp of salt and mix with a spoon until you get a really wet dough – flour the surface of a baking tray and then flour your hands and lift the wet dough (it should stick togother, but be really floppy) onto the baking tray. Flatten it into a disc about 5cm thick and score a cross on the top. Sprinkle it with more flour and bake in a preheated oven (200°C) for 40-45 minutes.

Bread of Heaven…feed me til I want no more!

Thought I’d given up writing again? Sorry…I’ve just been too busy cooking (and eating) to actually write about anything I’ve done! Here’s an update of the past few weeks’ culinary adventures:

Just before the Christmas Festivities kicked off I cooked an amazing Parsi Lamb Dhansak from seasonandspice.com – it was so utterly delicious, that I’m going to order the spices again – you can order them too on their website if you fancy going to curry heaven.

Then Christmas took over and I got immersed in a Seasonal Gastronomical Flurry – I made 60 mini Welsh Cakes for “Spectacle de Noël” hosted by Harri’s Garderie which went down very well.  I can’t share the recipe for the Welsh Cakes with you as every Welsh Cake maker keeps their ingredients a closely guarded secret, but if you want to buy some Welsh Cakes, I’ve heard that Maddocks’ Cakes from Wales make fantastic ones – and they deliver anywhere in the World!

Next up Mince Pies and Mulled Wine – there are so many recipes for Mulled wine on the internet – I chose Jamie Oliver’s and it was perfect – fruity, spicy, sweet and warm. For the Mince Pies, I managed to get the pastry just right this year by adding sugar to it and using butter – biscuity, but not too crumbly. Also, I use stars for lids as I find this makes for a lighter Mince Pie.

Then, as a gift for the ladies that work at the Garderie, Harri and I made some Gingerbread stars and Christmas trees (using this recipe from joyofbaking.com) which we decorated with icing – they were fun for Harri to make and got gobbled up by lots of hungry children in no time.

The pièce de résistence this year however, was the Three Bird Roast. I  have wanted to make/eat one of these for a few years now – ever since watching Hugh F-W make a 10 bird roast (click on the link to watch it too) on one of his Christmas Programmes. Well, I got to eat one last year which was a 6 bird roast and while it was good,  I didn’t make it. So this year I decided to have a go. I decided on Duck, Guinea Fowl and Turkey (Fowl Durkey) and used a Pork, Sage, Onion, Rosemary and Cranberry stuffing with Prunes in the centre.

If you are reading this because you want to make one, it isn’t as hard as it seems, but it does take time if you are not a trained butcher! I cheated a little and bought Duck breasts for the duck, but I did bone the Guinea Fowl and the Turkey.

To bone the Turkey, follow these instructions making sure you don’t pierce the skin and keep the wings and the drumsticks on so that it looks like a Turkey at the end. Do the same to the Fowl – you don’t need to be as careful though and you can discard the drumsticks and wings (put them in the freezer for another meal). Keep all the carcasses and bits and bobs to make the gravy with. Make it ahead and that’s one less thing to worry about on Christmas day.

Once everything is ready (top left image), start assembling: open out the 2 duckbreasts like a butterfly (remember to remove the fat). Lay some stoned prunes on one breast and cover with the other (top middle image) – I wrapped it in bacon, but don’t think this added anything). Turn to the Fowl – flatten it out, skin side down and cover it with stuffing (this will bind it together). Lay the duck in the middle and wrap the Guinea fowl around it (top right image). Next, place some stuffing on the flattened out Turkey and place the Fowl and Duck in the centre (bottom left image). Bring up the sides of the Turkey and using Butcher’s string and a big needle, sew it together! You’ll probably need 2 people to do this and don’t worry if it doesn’t look nice, the “scar” will be on the bottom side anyway! When finished and turned the right way up – it should look like a turkey (middle bottom image).

To cook, spread butter all over it and season with Salt and Pepper. Cover with foil and place in a hot (220°C) oven for 20 mins then turn the heat down to 170°C and cook for about 30mins per 500g + 20 mins uncovered at the end. These guidelines are only rough – in fact, if you are going to cook one of these, I’d invest in a meat thermometer that you can put in the centre of the meat while it cooks – when it reads 72°C, it’s ready. Mine weighed 5.2kg and took 4 hours to get to 72°C. Leave to rest for at least 30 mins before carving. Serve with all the trimmings, take photos and enjoy – you may never want to make another one!

I have a few vegetables in the cupboard that I am struggling to find recipes for and thought I’d share this problem with you to see if anyone can help me out! This is what I have: a sweet dumpling squash (no, I still haven’t made anything with it), some chicory roots, some black turnips, some beetroot and a chinese cabbage. Now, some of you might be asking  why on Earth I happen to have chicory roots and black turnips in stock and you’d be quite entitled to that question. If it wasn’t for the organic vegetable box that I receive once a week I proabably would never have bought them.

I have a recipe for Pumpkin Pie that I think I will use the sweet dumpling squash for, so that is sorted. The Chinese cabbage came with a recipe in the organic box which I’ll try.  The beetroot I’m sure will go nicely with some goat’s cheese or something like that. So that just leaves me with the Black turnips and Chicory roots and I am really struggling…

The black turnips look exactly like black radishes – are they the same I wonder? Google turns out a site for Black Turnip Shampoo “for thinnig , fragile hair”…useful. Do you have any suggestions?

I am more worried about the Chicory roots however. Yesterday I cut a slice off one of them to see what it tasted like…I regreted it for a couple of hours afterwards. It was so bitter that it tasted like chewing on elastic bands, but worse – you’ve never done that? Take my word for it, they taste bitter. I googled it and mainly come up with recipes to roast and dry them and grind to use as an alternative to coffee! I really need some help with these or they are going to come on a walk with us past the horses very soon!

I don’t often blog about sweet things because it’s not really my bag. These little delights are worth shouting about though. Last night I had a hankering for some Chocolate Brownies, but having no chocolate in the house posed a rather large stumbling block in their conception. Not wishing to be defeated, I decided to make something as close to chocolate brownies as I could get, without actually using chocolate! Does that make sense?

The end result had to be sweet and have that gooey texture of chocolate brownies. Trawling the internet, I found out a few interesting things that may interest you: everybody knows what a Classic Brownie is, but did you know that a Blondie is a Brownie that uses less chocolate? Still no use to me though… and a Whitie? Yep, you got it…no good either.

I settled on using Maple Syrup as my “chocolate”. Sticky and sweet, it did just the trick. They are a little drier than Brownies – perhaps a few less minutes in the oven would solve that, but they are delicious. The recipe is from King Arthur Flour which is an American site so the measurements are a bit odd, but  stick with it, they’re really good!  I don’t have any Maple essence and I omitted the Walnuts (I know, I’ve got hundreds of Walnuts from the garden downstairs, but it was rather late when I decided to make these and I couldn’t face cracking them open), but I think they would be a good inclusion. For the icing, I recommend pourring it into a sandwich bag and snipping a tiny hole in the corner to drizzle it on easily. Enjoy!

A couple of culinary adventures were had this weekend that I thought I’d share with you. On Friday evening I cooked a curry. We often have curry on a Friday and I usually just cheat and buy a jar of nice sauce, fry some meat and that’s that. But this Friday, I decided to make not just one curry, but three curry dishes from scratch!

Searching my brain for names of curries to try out combined with ingredients that I had to work with, I decided I wanted to make Lamb Pasanda, Bombay Potatoes and Cauliflower Pakora. I found all the recipes on the internet (click on the links to see them) and got cracking. Since the recipes are not mine, I’ll not bore you with the methods, but I will tell you that the Mamta’s Kitchen Lamb Pasanda was amazing and if you like flavoursome curries without the heat, then I urge you to give this recipe a go. Jamie Oliver’s Bombay Potatoes were also nice – they would be a tasty alternative accompaniment to any roasted meat I think on another day. I was a little diappointed with the Cauliflower Pakora – the recipe is by Hugh Fernley-Whittingstall and I remember seeing him make them on TV, but they just weren’t spicy enough. His measuments are in “pinches” which I interpreted as about half a teaspoon (which I thought was generous), but it wasn’t enough. Perhaps if Hugh reads my blog he could let me know how to make them better next time!

I often measure how easy it was to make a meal by how much washing up there is to do at the end of it i.e. how much mess I’ve made! If you can’t see the kitchen surfaces for all the pots and pans, it’s been a tough night at the stove! Some might argue that if I’m doing the cooking, then I shouldn’t need to do the washing up too…Anyway, this, you’ll be please to know, wasn’t too bad and definitely worth the effort.

Today, Rich suggested that I make some bread with Harri. Since the weather was a bit grotty, I thought it was a good idea. He likes playing with play-dough and “mixing”, so making bread seemed like the natural next step…trouble is, he doesn’t like getting his hands dirty…

We had fun measuring the dry ingredients out, “mixing” them, tipping all the flour on the table (and on the floor) and making a well in it, but the minute I added the wet, it was no longer fun apparently. With Harri covered in flour from head to toe, flapping his arms and shouting because his fingers had some wet dough on them, I quickly got the dough into a ball thinking that surely he would enjoy the kneading part. Once I’d cleaned his hands, he did briefly have a few bashes at the dough, but I think that I can lay claim to making the lovely fresh bread in the kitchen mainly by myself! Looking forward to having some for breakfast tomorrow. Bonne nuit!

For my birthday 2 days ago I was struck by one thing in particular – apart from the getting older part – every single one of my gratefully received presents was food-based! There was a palette knife, a quiche dish (24cm – I’ve been looking for one for ages!)  a bottle of champagne a chocolate fondue set and a lovely 6 months Season and Spice subscription from the spicery ltd.

This has inspired me to loosen up my typing fingers once again and start blogging on about my culinary (mis)adventures. The Season and Spice subscription is a once a month delivery of recipe cards for a seasonal main course and a dessert, with all the fresh spices measured out to make them. The first month promises Red Braised Pork followed by Pumpkin Pie with Caremalised Pecans on the menu soon… This, coupled with the organic veg box that I now order means that I get a lot of nice foodie surprises each month and I don’t have to make any decisions about what to buy! I see some blog posts in that…

I pick up my box of organic vegetables once a week and in it today was a green cauliflower (ideas for what to make with it gratefully received), 2 leeks, some potatoes, a bunch of fresh thyme and a Sweet Dumpling Squash (courge patidou in French – I don’t just know that, I had to look it up!) The best thing about the box – apart from the obvious vocabulary enhancement – is that I get to try cooking with some vegetables that otherwise I wouldn’t have thought of buying such as a sweet dumpling or a green cauliflower! (“Not another cauliflower” says Rich – it is the 3rd time since we started in Spetember, which doesn’t seem like much, but when you’re not keen on Cauliflower…this one is green though…)  What I least like about it is that I have to share the veg with worms and caterpillars! At least that means it is organic I suppose.

Dear Foodalltheway,

I was relieved to get away with your suggestions for canapés undetected – very fortunate that I chose to use a pseudonym to cover my tracks.  I used a roasted red pepper meze on brioche with molten goats cheese and parsley on top. With a selection of chorizo and jamon on the side, the pate de fois gras didn’t get a look in and the compliments seemed genuine on the whole (with the exception of a few cheap digs which I chose to ignore).

Another face-saving stunt from Foodalltheway for which I remain, as ever, indebted.

Until the next drama…

Yours,

Anxious

London, WC1H

Dear Foodalltheway,
In the coming days I am to be visited upon by a combined delegation consisting of my mother and her sister (my aunt). Some of your readers may sympathise with an inspection of this magnitude and will, I am sure, be waiting pen-in-hand to jot down your thoughts on rescuing themselves from a similarly nasty predicament. This bloodline retinue are afflicted by standards so high that men of less steady nerve would stoop to “surfing the net” to track down a London bistro that might be a match for the task. However, as the aunt in question comes from our sadly now lost American colonies, this show of weak will would reflect a thoroughly unBritish resolve to step up to the wicket and meet the job head on. For this reason, I am bravely coming to you for advice.
Stoically hedging my bets, I am offering a pre-supper champagne and canapés spread to act as starter to a later meal in a (I admit it) restaurant. However my lifestyle precludes endless preparation. I have the evening before to prepare what I can, leaving the final stages to a last minute flap between when I come home at around half-six and when they arrive which may well be before me. Dragging the contents of my cupboards onto the floor in a panic I find of potential use: x1 tin of pate de fois gras; some brioche slices; some miniature blinis and of course a well stocked champagne cellar. My time allows for a single visit to the shops. Perhaps you can salvage the situation.
Yours as ever,
Anxious of Bloomsbury, WC1

Gone are the days when bits of tinned pineapple and a cube of cheddar on a cocktail stick alongside a plate of little sausage rolls and pickled onions would have suffised. These days, Canapés have to have a certain waw factor to them – often they are more impressive than the meal they precede!

So, Anxious of Bloomsbury, it sounds like you’ve got some of it sorted – thin slivers of foie gras on toasted brioche. My only worry about serving this is that Americans are notoriously against the idea of foie gras – you can make that call, but don’t waste a good tin of foie gras!

If you’ve got left over brioche toasts, or you decide not to serve the foie gras, you could spread a little Roasted Aubergine and pine nut dip (available at the supermarket near you) on them, topped with chopped fresh parsley and mint.

For your blinis, I would buy some smoked salmon, crème fraîche and black caviar and put a little of each on the blinis (in the order listed) – very tasty and pretty too.

Buy some ready-rolled puff pastry to make some puffy bites: cut pastry into bite sized shapes (squares, circles, stars – anything that tickles your fancy, but make sure they’re the same size) brush with beaten egg and then sprinkle some of them generously with parmesan, others with a pinch of dried herbs, others with a pinch of curry powder and others with anything else you think might work. Cook in the oven for 10 – 15 minutes.

Other things that spring to mind are olives, slices of good quality dried saucisson or chorizo, hard-boiled quails eggs and Provençal black olives on a stick… sorry, I’m getting carried away, that last suggestion is very tasty but too fiddly to be done quickly.

Hope the above quickanapé ideas help, anybody else got any suggestions? Enjoy and let me know what you decide to serve up – take a photo so I can add it to this post.