January detox: lentil, roasted vege and feta salad

Happy New Year! I’m starting as I mean to go on. It may not last but if I don’t try, I won’t know. January is detox month for me (with the exception of the last weekend when I usually abandon it!). After Christmas and new years excesses, a detox is definitely needed. I don’t follow any strict regime, I just basically cut out alcohol, reduce my calories and stay away from high sugar and salt things (e.g. crisps and cake) and fat things, except for good fats. And stop spending so much. Which is ok if I’m not going out and not buying clothes to go out in! And reacquaint myself with the gym – I’ve not been in 3 weeks! Eek! I went for a run yesterday though and that wasn’t too bad.

Lentils, as I’m sure you’ve seen me go on about before, are wonderful things – full of protein and energy, low in GI and sugars and things that make you sleepy. Also low in calories. And feta is a very low fat, low calorie cheese too. And what’s not to love about roasted vege? And just to be sure, there’s some chilli and garlic thrown in to speed up your metabolism, eliminate free radicals and stave off colds. Really, you can’t go wrong with this. And it’s vege friendly. Leave out the feta and its even vegan friendly. It’s easy to make and if you do like I did, and make the night before, it’s perfect for lunch at work.

I got the recipe from here, and it’s utterly delicious http://www.culinaryanthropologist.org/2011/10/roast-squash-red-pepper-puy-le.html

Lentil, roasted vege and feta salad

Serves 4

1 butternut squash, peeled, deseeded and cut into small cubes

2 peppers, cut into thin strips

1 red onion, finely sliced

9 tbsp olive oil

1 tsp chilli flakes

salt & pepper

250g green or puy lentils

2 garlic cloves, peeled, one whole, one mashed

1 bay leaf

3 tbsp balsamic vinegar

handful of basil leaves

200g feta cheese

1. Pre-heat the oven to 200 degrees celsius. Put all the vege in a roasting pan and drizzle with 1 tbsp of the olive oil. Season with salt, pepper and the chilli flakes.
2. Roast in the middle of the oven for about 25-30 minutes, stiring half way through, until all the vege is cooked and slightly charred.
3. Meanwhile put the lentils with the whole peeled garlic clove, 1 tbsp olive oil, bay leaf and enough cold water to cover the lentils plus 2 cm into a saucepan. Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat and simmer slowly, covered, for about 20 minutes or until the lentils are cooked but still hold their shape. Add salt about half way through and you may need to add more water if the lentils look too dry.
4. To make the dressing, whisk together the balsamic vinegar, the remaining 7 tbsp of olive oil, salt, pepper and mashed garlic clove (I just used one of those garlic pressing machines).
5. When the lentils are done, drain them and rinse under cold water to cool them down. Place in a large bowl. Add the roasted vege when it’s ready. Allow to cool before adding the dressing, torn basil leaves and feta, crumbled. Stir well and serve!
6. Enjoy the yummy goodness!

Hangover comfort: Easy creamy vege pasta bake

We’d been out with friends on Saturday night, and so yesterday, we were just moping about the house with hangovers. Unfortunately, we’re too old not to get hangovers! And we just wanted some comforting stodge to soak up some of the toxins. So I made a vege pasta bake. Mostly because I couldn’t bothered to defrost any meat. Plus we’d been out for a meal on Saturday night so eating less meat seemed like a good idea.

This is really easy, and is essentially like making vege lasagne but with pasta instead of lasagne sheets – and there’s no layering. My poor head couldn’t have coped with anything complicated in any case!

It would work as a quick and easy midweek meal too, and depending on what veges you put in, could be quite kiddy friendly too. I used carrots and mushrooms but really anything would work – peas, sweetcorn, peppers, celery…whatever you have in the fridge really.

It’s also relatively low in calories for a cheese and pasta fuelled dinner – 588 calories apparently. So if you’re on that party dress diet, this is a good dinner option – and you won’t feel like you’re dieting with this at all.

Creamy vege pasta bake

Serves 3

• 200g pasta shapes
• 1 tbsp oil
• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 2 carrots, diced
• 200g chestnut mushrooms, sliced
• 400g tin tomatoes
• 1 tbsp tomato puree
• 2 tsp of mixed herbs or assorted dried herbs (basil, oregano, thyme etc)
• 1 tsp sugar
• salt and pepper
• 2 tbsp butter (or margerine)
• 2 tbsp plain flour
• 5-600ml milk
• salt & pepper
• 70g cheddar cheese, grated
• 1 egg
• 30g parmesan cheese, grated

1. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees celsius
2. Boil the pasta according to the packet instructions, drain and set aside
3. In a saucepan or high sided frying pan, heat the oil on a medium heat. Add the onion and carrot and fry until softened.
4. Add the mushrooms and continue to fry until the mushrooms brown.
5. Then add the tin of tomatoes (and rinse out the tin with water and add the water to the pan) breaking them up with the spatula or spoon. Mix well.
6. Cook for a minute before adding the puree, herbs and sugar. Stir well. Bring to the boil, then reduce to a simmer and cook until the veges are cooked through and you have a thick tomatoey sauce (about 15 minutes).
7. Meanwhile, melt the butter in a separate saucepan. Then add the flour, mixing well to combine into a paste. Cook for a couple of minutes.
8. Then gradually add the milk whisking constantly to remove lumps, until you have a thin sauce. Bring to the boil, and simmer until it thickens to the desired thickness (quite thick sauce). Add 2/3 of the cheddar to the sauce and mix well. Then add some salt and pepper to taste. Remove from the stove.
9. When the tomato sauce is ready, add salt and pepper to taste before adding the drained pasta to the sauce and mix well to combine. Tip this into a baking dish.
10. Beat the egg into the cheese sauce and pour over the pasta and tomato sauce.
11. Sprinkle the remaining cheddar and the parmesan over the cheese sauce and put in the middle of the oven for about 20-30 minutes or until cooked through and the cheese is a golden brown.
12. Serve immediately with garlic bread and feel your hangover subside 🙂

Homemade gnocchi and a simple tomato sauce

I found a recipe in a book I don’t use that often, to make gnocchi, and for some reason, I thought this would be quick and simple!  It’s not!  I think it’s because the recipe only had 4 steps and there didn’t seem to be any times attached so I thought it wouldn’t take long.  At around 8.30pm on a thursday evening when I was starting to go crazy from lack of dinner and insane levels of gnocchi dough, I realised that I was wrong!

However, if you do have an afternoon free – perhaps a weekend one, it’s not a difficult recipe and once you get the hang of it, you can get making them quite quickly.  I made 1kg of gnocchi and froze about half of it.  I’ll let you know if that works or not.  And we ate the rest.  I’ve been doing 100g per person – I’ve seen recipes for a lot more than this per person, but I’ve no idea how you’d eat that much!  It doesn’t look like much on the plate, but both me and hubby were quite full after.

Whenever I’ve eaten gnocchi before, I’ve thought it’s a bit stodgy and heavy.  But this recipe isn’t. It’s light and fluffy and like pasta really, but made with potatoes.  I deliberately kept each gnocchi piece small to avoid any overtly stodginess, but I’ve been quite impressed.  And once it’s made, it makes  a very speedy, healthy, tasty dinner – so when you have got some time on a weekend it’s worth making a load and then using it for the week ahead and freezing some for later.

I’ve done a few different sauces with it – probably my favourite was a lemon and parmesan one, but I didn’t take photos of that!  You can find it here though http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/724643/gnocchi-with-lemon-and-chive-pesto

The tomato sauce below came from the same recipe book as the gnocchi and literally took 5 minutes to make.  Jamie Oliver, eat your heart out!  I think the book is this one, although without a picture it’s hard to tell http://www.amazon.co.uk/Complete-Encyclopedia-Cooking-Supercook-11/dp/0856855456/ref=sr_1_23?ie=UTF8&qid=1317645910&sr=8-23

To be honest, it’s a gigantic heavy thing, and I’ve not found a lot of use for it.  But the gnocchi recipe is good and simple.  The gnocchi I made is potato semolina gnocchi but it seems you can make gnocchi from almost anything.  I think I may try ricotta gnocchi next.

Homemade semolina gnocchi

Makes 1kg – or about 10 portions

• 800g baking potatoes
• 120g durum wheat semolina
• 175g plain flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1 egg

1. Peel and boil the potatoes until cooked – about 10 minutes.  I halved mine but didn’t cut any smaller than this.  Allow to cool and then peel the potatoes (this gets a bit messy but it doesn’t matter).
2. Put the flour, semolina, salt and nutmeg in a bowl together.
3. On a decent sized work surface, spread out the grated potato, and sprinkle over the semolina and flour mix.
4. Crack an egg onto the top of it and then kneed the whole lot into a dough – like you would with bread.  You don’t want to overwork it, just a light kneeding until you achieve a dough consistency.
5. Split the dough out into 200g portions.  Liberally sprinkle flour all over the surface and the dough (and your hands).  Take one 200g portion and roll out until its about 1cm thick (in a roll shape, not flat).  Then cut into 1cm wide strips.  Then cut into 1cm squares.  This is the bit that takes the time.  You also need to keep the flour handy to stop it from sticking to you or the surface or itself.
6. You can either then roll these squares into little round patties lightly pressing a fork into them to make lines or long thin strips.
7. Heat lots of water in a large saucepan.  Drop the 200g lot of gnocchi into the water when it’s fully boiling and cook for precisely 1 minute.  Then remove with a slotted spoon and place in a colander.  Run under cold water until completely cold, then drain well.
8. The gnocchi is now ready to use as you wish.  It’ll keep in the fridge for several days, I think you can freeze it (I’m trying that now!) and you don’t need to boil it again – just tip it in the pan with the sauce towards the end of cooking to heat through and cover in sauce.

Simple fresh tomato sauce

Serves 2

• 2 tbsp olive oil (with a bit more to drizzle later – possibly)
• 1 small onion, finely chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, finely sliced
• 200g cherry tomatoes, halved
• salt & pepper
• handful of fresh herbs – I used basil and sage
• 200g gnocchi
• 30g grated parmesan

1. Heat the oil in a saucepan or high sided frying pan
2. Add the onion and garlic and fry together on a medium heat until softened.
3. Add the tomatoes and cook for a couple of minutes until they start to break down.
4. Then add the herbs and seasoning to taste followed by the gnocchi.  The gnocchi may be slightly stuck to itself but it should separate out easily enough once in the pan.  Stir through and cook for a minute before chucking in the parmesan, stiring and removing from the heat.  If it’s too thick, drizzle in a bit of olive oil.
5. Serve immediately with garlic bread and savour the fresh light flavours.

Preparing for Christmas – a fruity Christmas pudding

Can you believe it – its that time of year again, when thoughts turn to Christmas preparations.  Admittedly, the ones that you have to do in advance – it’s not like I’m ordering a turkey from the butchers yet or anything!  But my first post on this blog, nearly a year ago, was for Christmas cake.  I made it a bit later last year – getting it all done well ahead of time this year!

I’m thinking, after the success of last year’s Christmas, that I would cook Christmas dinner in my home today – and will have whoever wants to come, over.  That way we avoid the ‘which parents are we seeing this year’ issue.  They can both come to us.  Or not.  I don’t mind!  So, I thought, I’d be brave and make my own pudding this year.

And that’s where the trouble started.  My first stop for a recipe was Delia – you can’t really go wrong with her, and Christmas is not a time for experimentation!  You could end up ruining people’s Christmasses that way – mine especially, and Christmas is stressful enough without a pudding disaster!   And then I thought I’d just see what BBC good food had to offer.  And they had a very highly reader recommended fruity pudding that was less rich and dense than trad puds – which given the amount you eat at Christmas, I thought might not be a bad thing.

And then I remembered I had the Hairy Biker’s Christmas book.  Theirs looked good too.  So which one?  I nearly went for Delias – to be safe.  But then I read I had to soak the fruit overnight and I didn’t have time for that.  The Hairy Bikers recipe didn’t require soaking but looked a little light on the booze.   And the fruity one seemed the most interesting – although did require overnight soaking too.  After consultation with my mum, who’s been making her own puds for years (she does them a year in advance), I decided not to soak the fruit, but basically go with the fruity one.  But – and here is where I am worried I may have gone wrong – I adapted the recipe slightly along the lines of the Hairy Bikers.  Partly because I liked the idea of putting Guinness in a pudding, and partly because I wanted to reduce the quantities to fit in my pudding basin and the Hairy Biker quantities were nearer that.

I madea mini one I made with the small amount of leftover mix, which I tasted – just to make sure I’m not poisoning people, mind! – and it was delicious and will improve with age, so I’m quite happy with my muddled recipe!

As I write this now, the smell of the Christmas cakes baking in the oven is filling the house.  They’re nearly done.  That was a Delia recipe.  I’ve used it every year for 3 years , and I can’t fault it.  To find that, click here, for my first ever post.  I spent 3 hours earlier today mixing them all (there’s 3) and they’ve now done nearly 4 hours in the oven, probably just another 30-45 minutes to go.  And then they get put away and fed brandy every few weeks.

But back to puddings.  I bought myself a pudding basin, having never made a steamed pudding before.  It all seemed very complicated.  But actually, its simpler than you think.  I got a 1.2 litre ceramic pudding basin from John Lewis for £6.  Which I didn’t think was bad.  This size is a good medium sized pudding – will serve about 8-10 I think, depending on the size of slice you serve.  When the pudding’s not in it (and it will be now, until Christmas) it’s a good size for a mixing bowl.  Because I didn’t have a very large saucepan for steaming, I steamed it in the oven, which couldn’t have been simpler.

You just fill a baking pan (I used a deep sided one) with water.  Sit the pudding bowl in the middle of it.  Ten the pan with tin foil, and steam in the lower part of the oven for the same amount of time you’d do it on the hob. I found I didn’t even need to top up with water – although I did check on it, just in case.  It also leaves your hob free so you can cook dinner (or whatever).

Here’s the original recipe that I mostly followed

http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/8370/christmas-pudding-with-citrus-and-spice

Here is the hairy biker version that I used bits from

http://www.hairybikers.com/index.php?action=recipes&id=118&back=20

And here’s my version:

Fruity Christmas pudding

Serves 8 (ish)

• 125g each sultanas, raisins, and currants – find the biggest juiciest ones possible.  My mum swears by Australian or Chilean ones (I just went with Asda ones, to be honest!).
• 100g whole glace cherries
• 50g mixed peel
• 50g chopped dried figs (ready to eat ones, not ones you have to soak).
• 50g whole blanched almonds
• zest of 1 lemon
• zest of 1 orange
• 1 medium carrot, finely grated
• 150ml brandy
• 50ml orange liquer (or more brandy if you don’t have it (or in my case -thought it too expensive for cooking with))
• 125g white breadcrumbs (made with cheapest rubbishest oldest white bread you can find.  Chop off crusts and stick in blender or crumb with fingers)
• 120ml Guinness or other stout.
• 125g self-raising flour
• 100g light brown sugar
• 1/2 mixed spice
• 1/4 tsp fresh grated nutmeg
• 125g butter, frozen and grated
• 2 eggs, beaten
• butter for greasing

1. Put all the fruit, peels, zests, carrot, nuts, in a very large mixing bowl (the largest you have – I use a large salad bowl) and pour over the brandy and liquer (if using).  Stir well and then cover and leave for as long as possible.  I left it for about 90 minutes, whilst I made lunch and other things.
2. Mix the breadcrumbs with the Guinness and leave to one side, whilst you weigh out everything else.
3. Combine the flour, sugar, spices together with the breadcrumbs and then add these to the fruit.  Mix well.
4. Then grate in the butter and add the eggs.
5. Mix thoroughly.
6. Grease the pudding basin and line the bottom with greaseproof paper.
7. Really pack the mixture into the pudding basin, getting rid of any air (I did this by tapping it on the surface and frequent intervals).
8. Top it with some greaseproof paper.  Followed by a double round of greaseproof paper and then some tin foil.  Secure all of this with string under the bowl lip.
9. Either steam in a large saucepan on an upturned saucer with water covering 1/3 of the basin (and cover the saucepan) or in the oven with the method above for 6 hours.
10. When the time is up, remove the puddings.  Take off the foil and grease proof papers (leaving the bottom one) and allow to cool.  Then replace with fresh greaseproof papers and string and store in a cool, dark, dry place until christmas, feeding it with brandy at regular intervals (I think, I’m going to do about 2-3 week intervals).
11. At Christmas, steam in the same way for 2 hours.  Remove, put a serving plate on top of the pudding, and tip it onto it.  Pour over brandy and set alight.  Serve with brandy cream, brandy sauce or orange custard cream as the BBC good food one suggests (or whatever you want!).
12. Have a very happy Christmas!

Post holiday detox: grilled pepper and tomato salad

I’m back from a week of girly hedonism in Ibiza.  It was fabulous, and we had an amazing time, but it wasn’t a foodie holiday – and I did miss that.   But it was excessive in every other sense, and so I am detoxing.  My face is literally falling apart – so I need this! 

Hubby has been very busy whilst I’ve been away growing tomatoes and peppers in his greenhouse, and so this seemed like the perfect salad – easy, simple and definitely cheap!  Not to mention healthy, low calorie, low fat and full of nutritious things.  And definitely tasty.   If you’ve been growing vege – this is perfect for the crops at this time of year. 

I found the original recipe in my Italian cookbook, but, as usual, I adapted it.  The original had anchovies and capers in it, but I don’t like either, so I just added some goats cheese instead and left them out. 

By the way, for this to really work, you have to properly burn the peppers.  Don’t worry, the skin comes off and the flesh underneath is soft and sweet and lovely.  But the more burnt the skin is, the easier it’ll come off. 

If you’re doing this as a side salad (would be lovely with a bbq if you can find a day warm enough, or perhaps with some fish or lamb chops) then it’ll serve 4-6.  If doing as a main, it’ll serve two and you may want some bread to go with it. 

Grilled pepper and tomato salad

Serves 2 (as a main)

• 2 large peppers (red or yellow is best)
• 4 large tomatoes
• 5 pieces of sundried tomatoes
• 1 tbsp pine nuts, toasted
• 40g goats cheese

For the dressing:

• 3 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
• 1 tsp lemon juice
• handful of chopped fresh herbs (I used basil and parsley, but chives or whatever you have is nice)
• salt & pepper

1. Heat the grill on a high setting.  Cut the peppers in half, remove the pith and seeds and then quarter and place under the grill.  Cook until chargrilled.
2. When the peppers are chargrilled, remove from the grill, place on a plate with another over the top and leave to cool.
3. Meanwhile, slice the fresh tomatoes and chop the sundried tomatoes into strips.
4. When the peppers have cooled, carefully peel off the skins and slice the flesh into strips.
5. Arrange the fresh tomatoes and peppers on plates.
6. Sprinkle over the sundried tomatoes, followed by the pine nuts.
7. Crumble over the goats cheese.
8. Make the dressing by whisking all the ingredients together.
9. Pour over the salad and serve (you can leave the salad marinading in the dressing for a few hours if making in advance). 
10. Enjoy!

Using up cooking apples: apple & cinnamon cake

As promised – back to normal posting about cooking today.  But please, do keep sharing my previous blog about protect your bubble with everyone you know, so they don’t have to go through what I did.  Help me spread the word!  Here’s a link to that post http://bit.ly/qqHZ5c.  I’ve also set up a facebook page, so please show your support and like my page here https://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Stay-away-from-protect-your-bubble/

As you know from previous posts – I got a whole load of food my mother in law was getting rid of as she was going on holiday.  Including 6 large cooking apples.  I put a few in the pie and strudel, but I still had some left over (still do, in fact!).  And they were starting to go mouldy.   So, I had a flick through my Leith’s Simple Cookery book (to be found here http://www.amazon.co.uk/Leiths-Simple-Cookery-Jenny-Stringer/dp/074759046X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1314104744&sr=8-1) and found an apple and cinnamon cake.

This was actually, as far as cakes go, pretty simple and quick to make, and exceedingly good (I might even be able to compete with Mr. Kipling!).  I just mixed everything with an electric whisk (I’d say if you don’t have any electrical appliances, this one will test you as you have to add the eggs and whisk pretty well to avoid curdling) and then stuck it in a cake tin.

I didn’t bother to ice the cake.  You could – perhaps a coffee buttercream might be nice?  I just sprinkled sugar over (icing sugar is best but I used caster as I didn’t have icing sugar) and some cinnamon and served with vanilla icecream. 

Without an icing, this is 351 calories per serving (if you cut it into 8 slices).  I reckon it would do 8 -10 slices.   If you did 10 slices it would be 281 calories.  Either way, it’s not mega calories for a very delicious cake, so you don’t need to feel guilty eating it, which always helps!

Apple & cinnamon cake

Serves 8 -10

• 170g unsalted butter
• 170g caster sugar
• 3 eggs
• 170g cooking apples, peeled, cored and grated
• 2 tbsp ground cinnamon
• 170g self-raising flour

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees celsius.  Grease a medium sized round (or oblong) cake tin and set aside.
2. Beat the butter in a large bowl until softened.  Then add the sugar and beat again until pale and fluffy.
3. Next carefully add an egg at a time, beating well to mix after each one.  If the mix starts to curdle, add 1 tbsp flour.
4. Then add the grated apple, and mix to combine before adding the flour and cinnamon together, mixing again to combine.
5. You want the mixture to be a reluctant dropping consistency.  if it’s too thick, add a splash of milk. 
6. Turn into your cake tin and bake in the middle of the oven for 1 hour, or until a knife comes out clean from the middle of the cake.
7. Allow to cool in the tin before turning onto a wire rack.
8. sprinkle with icing sugar and some more cinnamon and serve with a lovely cup of tea
9. Enjoy!

Very easy but fancy dessert: chocolate chilli pots with pomegranate

This is another of those ‘ridiculously easy but everyone thinks you’ve made a real effort’ desserts.  It’s a good one for dinner parties as you can make it in advance, but actually if you don’t have the time, it doesn’t take long to make – I made it around the rest of my meal and it was ready by the time it needed to be served.  And the fact that it’s a ‘no bake’ dessert is even better.  If you can put it in individual serving dishes of some sort (I used fancy tea set tea cups) – ramekins, espresso cups, wine glasses etc then it only improves the ‘wow’ factor.

Unfortunately, I don’t have a pic – I’m blaming it on breaking my phone and forgetting to take photos.  That’s my story and I’m sticking to it!   But my phone is all fixed and back with me so no more excuses…it’s a shame though because it was very pretty in the teacups.

Don’t be put off by the chilli – it’s not really spicy – it has more of an infusion of chilli, so you get a little kick at the end of your bite into it but not enough to make you cough!  It just makes it that much more exciting and adds something to the sweetness of the chocolate and pomegranate.

I didn’t exactly do a dinner party, but my parents rang me up saturday morning and said they’d like to come for dinner that eve so I had to think of something!  I did chicken curry in a cashew nut sauce for the main and thought it would be nice to have a dessert, providing I could find something simple enough to do, with not too many ingredients.  And after a peruse of my various recipe books, chocolate chilli pots it was.  I added the pomegranate as I had one left over from the dinner party that needed eating.  You can leave it out, or alternatively add some other summer fruits or even dried ones instead – any kind of berry or other chopped or small fruit would be fine.

The only thing I’d say is, this recipe uses raw egg yolks which given the temperature of the rest of the mixture, probably do get ‘cooked’ in the process.  But if you’re in a known salmonella area, then this recipe probably isn’t for you.  If you’re not, then get ready for something delicious.  And to the squeamish – it’s ok, you won’t know anything about the eggs when you’re eating or looking at it.

The original recipe comes from Leith’s Simple Cookery book which you can find here http://www.amazon.co.uk/Leiths-Simple-Cookery-Jenny-Stringer/dp/074759046X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1307979310&sr=8-1 and as I’ve said many a time before – if you only have 1 cook book, make it this one.  It’s my go-to book for just about anything!

But of course, I changed it slightly, so it’s my recipe now!

Chocolate chilli pots with pomegranate

Serves 5 (maybe 6 but not 8, as Leith’s suggests!)

• 284ml single cream
• 2 dried chillis, crushed (pestle and mortar worked well here, but a knife would do)
• 15g margerine or butter
• 200g dark chocolate (at least 70% cocoa solids)
• 2 egg yolks
• 5 tbsp pomegranate seeds

1. Very gently heat the cream with the crushed chilli in a saucepan until it starts to steam, but DON’T let it start to boil.  Then remove from the heat for about 30 minutes (you can prep the other courses at this point if you want, or get your pomegranate seeds out the pith).
2. Then return it to the heat and add the butter, again gently bringing it up to a steam (and not a boil).  Turn off when steaming and butter has melted.
3. Put the chocolate, broken into small pieces, in a bowl and pour the cream mixture over it, stiring well to combine, until the chocolat has melted and is fully combined with the cream.
4. Add the egg yolks and mix well again (I beat it a bit).
5. Put a spoonful of pomegranate seeds in the bottom of your individual serving dishes followed by a couple of spoons of the chocolate mix, to cover the seeds.  Repeat until you have done all your dishes and spread out any leftovers evenly.
6. Refrigerate for at least an hour, or until needed.
7. Serve with an espresso and enjoy the mix of sweet, tangyness, juiciness with a chilli kick!

Dinner party dessert: berry and mascarpone tart with cranberry jus

This is deceptively simple to make, and is very delicious, plus it can be made in advance, so it’s perfect for a dinner party (or any party for that matter!).  I found the recipe with woman and home (another indication I’ve fallen into middle age at the very least!) and it seemed so simple and they recommended it for a party and I thought that it was a nice light dessert – not too heavy after 2 courses.  I would have originally gone with chocolate but after hubby’s chocolate birthday cake and the cupcakes, I was a bit chocolated out and plus, it wouldn’t have been as light.  Without any added sugar, this is actually not that unhealthy.

You can find the original recipe here http://www.womanandhome.com/articles/food/recipes/291411/strawberry-and-mascarpone-tart-recipe.html

The only changes I made were to make it in a round flan dish, I added raspberries and lemon juice too and I used cranberry  jelly instead of redcurrant as I couldn’t find it. But as it only has about 5 ingredients – there isn’t much to change.  And with all the lovely summer fruit around it’s a perfect dessert for right now.   And wonderful light summer dessert.

Berry and mascarpone tart with cranberry jus

Serves about 8 (depending on how greedy you are!)

• 200g digestive biscuits (graham crackers for the Americans)
• 75g unsalted butter
• 500g mascarpone cheese
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• 200g strawberries, halved
• 100g blueberries
• 100g raspberries
• small jar of redcurrant or cranberry jelly

1. Bash the biscuits with a rolling bin into crumbs, or use a food processor.
2. Melt the butter in a saucepan.  Once it has melted, remove from the heat and add the biscuits to it.  Mix well to make your tart base.
3. Tip into a flan dish or or tart tin spreading out evening and pushing down hard to form a solid base (I find using my fingers works best for this).  Chill in the fridge for at least an hour.
4. Mix the mascarpone cheese with the vanilla extract and lemon juice and spread over tart base.  Either chill until needed or if using right away, carefully place the strawberry halves all over the tart followed by the raspberries and sprinkle over the blueberries.
5. Put the entire small jar of redcurrant or cranberry jelly in a saucepan and heat until it becomes a sauce consistency.  Remove from the head and drizzle over the tart (I did this over the individual pieces when I served it).
6. Enjoy with a nice strong espresso 🙂

Birthday dinner party starter: goats cheese salad with fig and pomegranate

Personally, as I’m now reaching decrepitude (I actually was thinking that wearing leopard print and loungewear was acceptable the other day!  Caught myself just in time, before I did anything stupid though!) birthdays have less meaning – yay, I managed to stay alive for another year!  I am a year closer to being dead…doesn’t seem like a lot to celebrate.  But anyone who knows me – I like any excuse for a party.  So, we had not one, but two weekends of birthday madness.

This weekend was the dinner party.  And that was civilised enough – it all went down hill after that point though.  Civilisation well and truly lost.  But lets not dwell on that…lets get back to the dinner party.  And it was delicious if I do say so myself (modesty is not my strong point!)!.  It turned out to be a very fruity and summery menu – not deliberate but once I’d put it together in my head it seemed to work well so I thought I’d go with it.

The menu was:

Starter: goats cheese salad with figs and pomegranate

Main: pork tenderloin stuffed with basil and pecorino with haselbeck potatoes and roasted asparagus

Dessert: summer berry and marscapone tart with cranberry jus

I did consider a fish course of sardine fish cakes but decided that there was probably enough food here, and there definitely was  – there was no way we could have eaten another bite! These are not dishes you’d make every day – either because they’re a bit fiddly, or because they use more expensive ingredients than you’d buy ordinarily.  But that’s what makes a dinner party special – making the extra effort and using unusual ingredients, and of course, good wine and enough of it, and good conversation.

I’m going to post each recipe separately so I don’t have 1 ridiculously long post…plus the suspense is half the fun!  This one is on the starter.  And it was a beautiful, stunning, delicious starter, well worth hubby hunting high and low for fresh ripe figs out of the fig season!   I had help on this, and I definitely needed it – it’s fiddly, but worth the effort.  I found the recipe in Stylist magazine – it’s a free magazine that they give out every week and I just ripped it out of the magazine.

Because I hadn’t made it before (not something they recommend for dinner parties!) and because it was a dinner party, I pretty much followed the recipe as it was.  There was any indication of numbers of servings or size of servings, so after some thought I decided that it was probably for 6 people and as my dinner party was for 4, I reduced all the ingredients, to about 2/3 of what it said.

Goat’s cheese salad with figs and pomegranate

Serves 4

• 2 ripe, fresh pomegranates
• 20g sugar
• 1 lemon, juiced and zested plus a bit more juice
• 150ml virgin olive oil
• salt and pepper
• 4 fresh, ripe figs (not bruised though)
• bag of ready wash small leafed salad (or use lambs lettuce)
• 200g soft goats cheese
• 60g walnuts

1. Remove the pomegranate seeds from the pith (you can do this by making a slit around the circumfrence of the pomegranate and emersing in cold water in a large bowl.  Twist the pomegranate under water so the two halves separate, then still underwater remove the seeds.  As you do, the seeds will sink to the bottom and the pith will float on the top.  Remove the pith with a strainer then, seive the pomegranate seeds to remove the water – and voila – pith free pomegranate seeds.
2. Put 2/3 of the pomegranate seeds in a saucepan with the sugar, lemon zest and juice and heat over a low heat until the sugar has dissolved, stiring frequently.  As it heats, mash up the seeds to release the juices.  Seive the pomegranate seeds out of the juice and return it to the pan.  Reduce to syrupy consistency.  Then remove from the heat and set aside to cool.
3. Heat the grill on a medium setting.  Halve the figs and brush a little of the pomegranate syrup on the cut halves before placing under the grill to warm.
4. In a small pan, lightly toast the walnuts.  Then crumble them into smaller bits.
5. Slice (or crumble depending on the type of goats cheese you have) the goats cheese on a plate.  Add the walnuts on top of it.
6. Put the salad in a separate bowl and add the remaining pomegranate seeds.
7. Add salt & pepper, some more lemon juice and the olive oil to the pomegranate syrup to make the dressing – whisk well.  Pour about half the dressing over the cheese and walnuts and mix to combine.
8. Add the other half to the salad leaves and toss well.
9. Take out your serving plates.  Put a quarter of the cheese and walnut mix in the middle of each plate.  Add some of the salad leaves and pomegranate seeds and top with 2 fig halves.  Repeat with all your plates.
10. Serve with a nice cold glass of bubbly and the delight of your guests 🙂

How to make boring fruit more interesting: poached pears

We bought some pears recently but they weren’t very nice. They were the type that have the texture and taste of cardboard. But I’m not one for throwing things away, even if they do taste of cardboard! So I thought poaching them might help because they absorb lots of juices and flavours and which would helpfully make them more interesting and also less hard and weirdly crunchy.

And I was right. It was absolutely the best thing to do with those pears. They actually tasted delicious. And they went very well with icecream and the florentines I’d just made. But of course, custard or whipped cream would work just as well as would amaretto biscuits or shortbread.

This is actually a super simple dessert and one you can put on when you’ve nearly finished making the main course and it’ll be ready when you’re more or less ready to eat it. If you want to speed up the time, cut the pear into segments and reduce the cooking time. It’s also a fairly healthy dessert (if you don’t serve with icecream and florentines! Try greek yoghurt instead) so it works well for during the week. If you want to be even healthier or want to make it for children you can poach in a fruit juice or water instead of wine. White wine would also work well instead of red but red improves the colour of anaemic fruit.

You can do this with other fruit too such as apples. It will improve the flavour of most fruit and you can also use when your fruit is a bit unripe but you either don’t want to wait or it looks like it’ll go bad before it ripens.

I made it for two, but obviously if you want to make for more, just add more pears and more wine.

I did have a look online for recipes but actually settle for one in my Leith’s recipe book. But I changed the recipe somewhat (by adding wine!) so it’s really my own version.

Poached spiced pears

Serves 2

• 2 pears, peeled but kept whole
• 1/2 bottle red wine (you know the stuff you don’t like but someone gave you/you bought because it was cheap)
• 1 cinnamon stick (or use 1 tsp ground cinnamon)
• zest & juice of 1 orange
• zest of 1/2 lemon
• 2 tbsp sugar

1. Put the wine, zests, orange juice, sugar and cinnamon in a large saucepan. Stir well and heat until the sugar dissolves.
2. Add the pears, bring to the boil, then lower the heat and cover.
3. Simmer for about 30-40 minutes or until the pears are soft and have changed colour. Turn the pears regularly to ensure even colouring.
4. Remove the pears and put in bowls. If necessary, reduce the remaining liquid until you have a saucey consistency. Pour over the pears.
5. Serve with iceream, custard, yoghurt or cream and some kind of biscuit
6. Enjoy!

Poached Pears