Roasted Aubergines with Pesto, Tomatoes and Cheese

I have a love-hate relationship with summer gluts - on the one hand, HOMEGROWN PRODUCE, on the other hand - so-many-courgettes-aubergines-tomatoes-aaaaaaargh.

There are only so many ratatouilles anyone can tolerate in a single season. Of course, there was the year I put courgettes into every possible kind of cake, including chocolate.

This dish makes for a rather tasty summer lunch, served on its own, or could bulk up a dinner, if served with cous-cous or flatbread, and maybe a couple of lamb kebabs.

Ingredients: (per person)
1 medium, or 2 dwarf, aubergines
2 to 4 cherry tomatoes
4 tsp pesto
2 tsp olive oil
pinch of salt
20g cheese (I used mature cheddar, but parmesan, gruyere or even mozzarella would all work)
basil leaves to garnish.

1. Preheat the oven to 200C Cut the aubergine in half lengthwise - don't bother removing the green hat.
2. Criss-cross the white aubergine flesh, taking care not to cut through the purple skin.
3. Mix the pesto, olive oil and salt together, then spread the mixture equally over the cut surface of each of the aubergine halves
4. Put the aubergine halves into a roasting tin, and roast for around 20 minutes, until the flesh is soft (the pesto will darken in colour)
5. Thinly slice the tomatoes, and grate or slice the cheese.
6. Top each aubergine with slices of tomato and a sprinkling of cheese.
7. Return to the oven for another 5 to 10 minutes, until the cheese is bubbling and golden (mine never reached this stage due to an inconvenient power cut.)
8. Garnish with basil leaves and serve.

I'm entering this in #CookBlogShare, which I am hosting this week!

<div align="center">
<br><a href="http://www.hijackedbytwins.com/p/cookblogshare.html" rel="nofollow" title="CookBlogShare"><img src="http://i860.photobucket.com/albums/ab170/kirstyphillipsonlowe/89a4db0a-41ce-42a9-bc64-4bdffaf66b5f_zpsf6754mec.jpg" alt="CookBlogShare" style="border:none;" /></a></div>
<br>

Almond Cake (Gluten and Dairy Free)

A couple of weeks ago, I wandered down to the local wholefoods shop, and they had sadly run out of savoury take-away food.

So I had to have cake. Terrible shame it was, and all. The cake was "Almond Bliss" - squidgy and delicious, rather like a lightened slice of marzipan.

So I wondered if I could make something similar. Much browsing of recipes online ensued. Until I remembered Pleasant View Schoolhouse had posted a simple, gluten and dairy free, almond cake recently.

It's not quite the same as the Almond Bliss, I think that had a few more ingredients than this, but it is rather good in its own right. (Edited to add: actually, that's a rather British understatement, it's blinking marvellous!)

Here it is, put into a traditional recipe format, and converted to metric measurements:

Gluten and Dairy Free Almond CakeAdapted from Pleasant View Schoolhouse

Ingredients:
5 eggs (separated)
200g (1 cup) granulated or caster sugar (with 20g (~2 tablespoons) removed and set aside)
Pinch of salt
1 tsp vanilla
220g (2 cups) ground almonds
Whole or blanched almonds to decorate (optional)
Method:
1. Grease a 23cm/9 inch cake tin or springform tin, line with baking paper, and grease the paper.
2. Preheat the oven to 170C.
3. In a large bowl, whisk the yolks together with 180g of sugar, the salt and the vanilla until pale, creamy and mousse-like.
4. Separately, beat the egg whites until foamy. Then add the 20g of the sugar and beat until they form soft peaks.
5. Add one large spoonful of the whites to the yolks to loosen. Then fold in the rest of the whites
6. Add half of the ground to the beaten eggs and fold in gently. Sprinkle the rest of the ground almonds into the bowl and fold in as well.
7. Scrape the batter into the prepared tin, decorate with almonds as desired, then bake for about 35 minutes, or until the top is barely firm and springy to the touch.
8. Leave in the tin to cool. The cake will dip in the middle as it cools. Do not eat for 24 hours if you can resist, as it is even better on the second day.

I'm entering this in #CookBlogShare


Edited to add: I'm entering this in Bake of the Week:Casa Costello

Healthy Nibbles

One of the good things about Twitter is occasionally you will stumble across something new and interesting. Recently I stumbled across Healthy Nibbles. This is a brand new company "oop north" producing vending machines stocked with healthy snacks and mail-order healthy mixed snack boxes. In fact, they were so brand spanking new that when I first checked them out, they had only just installed their first machine and weren't yet selling their boxes.

However, after some rather energetic pester power, I managed to be their first official customer!

The box arrived very quickly, via Royal Mail. It is quite big, so if you have a standard "hole in the door" letterbox, it may not fit through. It is beautifully packed, and there was a charming handwritten note thanking me for being the first one to buy one.

There was a wonderful range of snacks. Being quite new to the world of healthy, slightly niche, snacks, I only recognised about 4 items, and had only ever tried 2 of them!

The box contained the following (forgive the spattering of links, I want you to be able to have a look at these items if you're not familiar) : Snapz tomato crisps (only 40 calories a packet, containing only tomatoes, and utterly delicious, with a wonderful crunch,) Oloves chili and oregano (just the right kick,) Elements for Life Yummy Scrummy Raw Chocolate Brownie (true to its name, yummy scrummy,) a tube of Superseeds Feel the Heat (not yet tried,) a sachet of Munchy Seeds Honey Seeds (I've tried these before, delish!) Nakd cocoa and mint bar (I think Healthy Nibbles have been watching my Twitter Feed, as I recently declared these my favourite Nakd bar!) Frank Orange & Chocolate and Blueberry & Chocolate bars (I preferred the orange one, I didn't dislike the blueberry one, but wasn't entirely conviced by the blueberry/chocolate combo), IQ Superfood Chocolate Orange and Wild Raspberry chocolate (haven't tried, yet,) Bounce Energy Balls Ginseng and Spirulina (not tried yet,) Olly Bars All Day Breakfast bar (really yummy, and my first taste of something containing chia seeds,) and last, but not least, Tyrrell's veg crisps (I like. A lot.)
 

Pros:
A range of really tasty healthy snacks, several of which were new to me, meaning I tried things I probably would have passed over (to my loss.)
Lovely customer service.
A snack box service, delivered to the door; come on, who doesn't love the joy of opening a parcel and not knowing what will be inside?
Quick delivery after ordering.

Cons:
Rather short shelf lives on some items (I brought this up with Healthy Nibbles, and am informed that this has been raised, and from now on all items will have at least 60 days until they expire)
The lowest priced box is still £19.95 (but I do acknowledge these are premium snacks, often from small independent companies, and this includes P&P)

Disclaimer: I paid full price for the standard Nibbles Box although there were a couple of bonus snacks as there was a slight delay in the posting, due to a supplier issue. All opinions expressed are entirely my own, and this review is entirely voluntary.

Garlic Harvest

I've been growing garlic for a few years now. I first grew it in a pot on a balcony in the East End of London! It is easy to grow and pretty tolerant to novice gardeners, but no-one needs to know that.

One of the traditional, and attractive, ways to present garlic is in a braid. However, before you can get to braiding, you need to get rid of all of the dirt, mud, roots and excess flaky bits.

Beware, this is a rather dusty, messy business, so make sure there is newspaper down or you have a good dustpan and brush. Then braid away! I used the instructions here.

Finally, take gratuitous photos!

Sourdough Spelt Baguettes

Crispy crust, chewy sourdough middle, delicious! (Though I say so myself).

Ingredients:

7g salt
125g strong white bread flour
250g spelt flour
250g sourdough starter
180-220ml water
Olive oil, for kneading

1. Mix salt, flours and starter together in a large bowl.
2. Slowly add water - starting with 180ml, and gradually kneading in additional water until you have a slack dough - it will be quite sticky.
3. Turn dough out onto an oiled surface (do not add extra flour, it will make the dough act most peculiarly) or into the oiled bowl of a freestanding mixer.
4. Knead the dough for 5-10 minutes until it is smooth and elastic.
5. Cover the dough and leave in a warm place to prove for 5 to 6 hours, until the dough is doubled in size.
6. Shape the loaves - on an oiled surface divide the dough into 3 parts. Each should weigh about 275g (more important than the exact weight is similar size). Roll the dough gently into sausage shapes.
7. Transfer the loaves carefully to a floured, linen, tea-towel or baker's couche, pleating the cloth to stop the baguettes touching.
8. Leave the loaves to prove for 12-18 hour. A longer, slower rise (ie in a cooler place) will give a more sour dough. Beware of leaving the loaves too long at a warmer temperature as they may rise well and then collapse on themselves.
9. Preheat oven to 190C. Spray the inside and bottom of the oven with water to generate steam.
10. Transfer the loaves to baking sheets lined by non-stick baking paper. Apply more water around the loaves (but not touching the loaves) to generate further steam.
11. Bake the loaves for 15-25 minutes until the bases sound hollow when tapped.

Serving suggestion: Alongside some rich tomato and chorizo tapas (recipe to follow), or just slathered with creamy British butter.

Edited to add: Never done this before, but I am entering this in: Bake Your Own Bread
And: YeastSpotting
(I hope I did that right!)

Plums

I am sure at some point I had a plum cake recipe to share with you. However, I seem to have mislaid both the recipe and the picture.

Therefore, I leave you with a picture of frozen plums in a vintage dish.

Two More Ways With Sourdough

The loaf.

Half the Fabulous Baker Brothers recipe with twice as much salt (their recipe has so little salt it tastes a bit odd), in a little non-stick loaf tin. The tin belongs to the Wildlife Photographer. It is excellent. It does not need greasing. Not all tins are like it, as I discovered when trying to repeat this loaf for my mother. 30 minutes later I managed to get a squashed, cracked, but almost intact loaf out of her tin. Hmmmm.

The breadsticks.

Same basic recipe as the loaf, but knead in an extra 150g of plain flour. Then coat hands and dough with 2tsp of olive oil and knead through the dough. Taking golf-ball sized pieces roll out to roughly 1cm diameter breadsticks (don't worry about making them too even, the knobbly bits add rustic charm!) Brush lightly with water, sprinkle over coarse salt, pepper, grated cheese, smoked paprika, rosemary, or whatever takes your fancy. Bake at 210C for about 10-12 minutes until desired colour (I like mine a little underdone and chewy still). Leave to cool slightly on a wire rack, then consume. If using coarse salt this is about the only acceptable time to make an unsalted dough - the coarse salt will help make up for it.

Yum!

Spicy Speedy Salmon

This is not speedy in the "reach into fridge and consume" sort of way, but in the "Jamie's 30-minute meals" sort of way - you have to do a bit of work, but less than you'd expect. I have done the recipe to serve one, as that's how many I made, but it can easily be scaled up to the number required.

Ingredients:
For salmon:
1 salmon fillet
1/4 pot of peri-peri humous

For accompanying veg (inspired by Jamie Oliver):
8 stalks asparagus (British asparagus currently coming in to season - very short season, get it while you can!)
2 tomatoes (British tomatoes also coming into season)
about 10 olives (I had a pack of basil and garlic olives from Graze (nice little website, sends you healthy snacks - 4 portions for £3.79, delivered through letterbox - link will get you a free trial box if you've not had them before - also gives me a £1 off my next box (for the sake of full disclosure))
splash of olive oil for pan
salt
pepper

1. Preheat oven to 180C
2. Smear top of salmon with humous - a nice even coating is all that matters, this is never going to win prizes for how it looks)
3. Wrap hummus smeared salmon in foil or greasproof paper, and shove in oven for 15-20 mins (until cooked through)
4. Chop tomatoes into quarters, then each quarter into half crosswise (or chop tomato in half and each half into four... whatever)
5. Chop asparagus into roughly 2 inch pieces.
6. Heat frying pan, splash in olive oil, add a couple of pinches of salt and a few twists of freshly ground pepper.
7. Add asparagus and tomatoes to pan and fry over medium heat for about 5 mins.
8. Add olives to asparagus and tomatoes and stir over medium heat for another 5 mins.
9. Reduce heat to low and leave to stew gently - stirring occasionally, until salmon is ready. The tomatoes will break down to make a sauce.
10. Serve the vegetables topped by the salmon.

Incidentally, when uploading the photos for this post I discovered I did take a photo of the sourdough loaf, but I think I have bored most people enough about Sourdough for the moment, so will post about it at some other time.

Adventures in Sourdough

I have a habit of becoming fixated on one thing for a while, obsessed, almost, before something new and exciting catches my attention. This month my obsession has been sourdough.

Ignoring all advice about new sourdough creators getting a culture from a friend, or not starting your own culture until you know enough about sourdough, I ploughed straight in. I used SourdoughHome a great deal, though I must admit, despite no experience in the issue, I still did a little experimentation. I started with very small proportions, and fed the culture up, over a week, so that I had to throw out less.

Turns out that sourdough is quite demanding. It needs feeding at least every 12 hours, a warm room, changing of the dish to avoid mould, and lots of love. (Okay, I made the last one up.)

But then, joy of joys, it was time to try it.

I grant you cannot really see the sourdough element of this meal. But that is a sourdough French Bread roll, topped with melted cheese, and chicken wrapped in bacon, marinated in barbeque sauce and oven cooked, with a side of Peashoots and Baby Leaves to make the ultimate chicken barbeque burger.

Then came sourdough chocolate cupcakes. These ended up a little drier than I intended, but I topped them with creamcheese icing (as used on Red Velvet Cakes) and they ended up alright.

As an incidental point, I am a big fan of Asda pastel coloured cupcake cakes - unlike some baking cases I've used, they came out looking fresh, and the colour was not influenced despite the chocolate batter. And they are very good value (48p for 100)

There are two more sourdough adventures to document, but since this post is already too long, I shall post them another day.

Easy Bacon, Pea, And Broccoli Soup

Very easy, ideal for tired post-work brains.

Ingredients:
200g chunky bacon or ham pieces
200g broccoli florets
100g frozen petit pois
50g little pasta shapes
1.5L water
2 teaspoons bouillon powder
1 heaped tablespoon cream cheese 


1. Place all ingredients, except the cream cheese into a saucepan on a medium heat and bring to the boil.
2. Boil for 15-20 minutes.
3. Take off the heat and stir in the cream cheese.
4. Blitz in a food processor or with a handheld blender.
5. Serve.

Now, if this was an artisan food blog, the picture would have an artful swirl of cream on top.

But it's not.

Meditteranean Vegetable Spaghetti

One day baby courgettes were on offer...

Serves 2

Ingredients:
250g smoked bacon lardons
8 baby courgettes
8 sundried tomato halves
8 quarters/pieces of marinated artichoke hearts (often sold as "artichoke antipasti," in olive oil)
Olive oil
Wholemeal spaghetti to serve 2.

1. Put a large heavy frying pan (which has a lid) on the hob. Add a slug of olive oil (1-2 tbsp), put over a medium heat. Add the bacon lardons.
2. Wash, dry and slice the courgettes (fairly thinly). Put into the frying pan, and fry until just starting to soften and the lardons are beginning to crisp.
3. Put the pasta on to cook
4. Cut the tomatoes and artichoke hearts into smallish pieces. Add to the frying pan with a little of the oil the artichoke hearts are in. Cover and leave to cook on a medium heat.
5. When the pasta is ready, drain and add to the frying pan. Take the frying pan off the heat, and stir the pasta and the vegetables together.
6. Serve.

Green Soup

Two posts in one day. It's obviously the start of the summer break!

I thought I'd share this recipe for a very quick, easy, healthy soup.

Ingredients:
25.g butter
1/2 an onion, finely chopped (I pre-chop onions and pop them into boxes in the freezer to save time later)
1/2 head of broccoli, cut into florets (or one bag of those ready cut broccoli florets!)
1/2 a pack chargrilled chicken pieces (those chunky pieces of ready cooked chicken)
450.ml chicken or vegetable stock
Two handfuls ready washed spinach, rocket and watercress salad
50g mini pasta shapes
Salt and pepper to taste

Method:
1. Melt the butter in a pan, saute onions until translucent and soft (not coloured)

2. Add the chicken, the broccoli, and the vegetable stock, bring to the boil

3. Boil for 4-5 minutes (until the broccoli is just tender)

4. Add the spinach, rocket and watercress, stir until wilted. Remove from the heat.

5. Using a handheld blender, blend until smooth.

6. Add the mini pasta shapes, return to the heat and cook for 5 minutes (or for as long as the packet says for the pasta shapes)

7. Season and serve!