This is magic this is. The perfect slice for this weather. Light and fresh, with or without strawberries and cream. It is easy, takes 20 minutes to prepare so does not interfere with precious time in the sun. In fact, it only enhances it. Try taking a slab along to that picnic to enjoy with that glass of chilled prosecco.
It is Wednesday evening, you are on your way home and you are :
Ο tired Ο hungry Ο late Ο lacking dollar
Ο supposed to be eating healthily
Ο all of the above
With just a handful of cherry tomatoes, wild rice, mint and goat’s cheese, I recommend following the instructions below and in 22 mins and your supper is done.
Bon appétit.
To note: add long slices of courgette to the oven tomatoes and spinach to the cooked rice if you want more green on your plate.
When the weather makes you feel a little melancholic as it has done for me over the last few weeks, I tend to look back with those rose-tinted specs at those hazy SUNNY spring days as a child and invariably, those memories include food.
Well, biscuits actually. Ginger nuts, with hi-juice guzzled down, leaving cup marks on the corners of my mouth.
No longer into hi-juice, I wanted a ginger cream to go with my tea. I found a recipe on the brilliant blog from Pamela Timm’s on food and life in Delhi, Eat and Dust.
I love them ginger-hot so kept those three spoonfuls heaped, I also baked them slightly lower and shorter to keep the crunch yet the middles nice and chewy. In the absence of Khoya cream, I have used a buttercream icing for the biscuit filling. You can play around with the flavours with this by swapping the vanilla for lemon, cinnamon, or even cardamom works.
So the best thing about these is you can make them as big as you like, how about plate-sized?
I first heard of these when reading the guide on the plane to Rome, nearly a decade ago now. Other than the classical tourist spots, it directed me to old Trastevere for arts, great food and cafe culture. Right up my street. It also mentioned trying here the Sicilian dish, arancini or ‘little oranges’. I became obsessed with finding some, and once tried, I had them everyday in between coffees and ambles in the narrow cobbled alleys. Balls of risotto rice formed into a nest for an exciting filling, rolled in breadcrumbs and fried. They look like a scotch egg on the outside and I agree that they do look like telephone wires when the melted mozzarella filling droops as you pull two halves apart.
Some leftover risotto reminded me of this trip and those balls. I have been meaning to make them for ages.
There are many recipes online for Arancini; stuffed with vegetables and meats, cheeses and fish, served with sauces and dips. I like my risotto rich in flavour so opted to keep the centre flavour simple with a slice of mushroom and a chuck of mozzarella. You can make them as large or small as you wish; to eat as a snack, starter or main, that is really dependant on the amount of leftover rice you have to play with.
The key to forming them seems to be to make sure that the rice is cold and you use wet hands, otherwise the rice sticks and you get messy. I added some salt, pepper and tarragon to the breadcrumbs to add flavour to the outer crust. Most traditional recipes deep-fried them but I prefered to keep them a little lighter, baked until golden.
They are not quite the same as those I remembered from the sunny days in Rome. Definitely good enough to cheer me up on a rainy day in London though.
Pretty aren’t they? Aren’t they though? I keep looking at them. However, you won’t catch me eating one, they just don’t do it for me. Too sweet and overdressed.
I succumbed to making cupcakes for the first time this week, for a very good occasion. The fabulous Jones & Payne Hairdressing celebrated their 2nd birthday. They wanted little treats to give to each of their clients so no average cupcakes would cut it – sorry, couldn’t resist.
Google searching ‘cupcakes’ told me I am one of few with a lack of interest in them. There are literally thousands of recipes for different sizes, shapes, textures, colours, flavours, fillings, toppings, frosting, dustings and edible sprinkles; yes, that edible glitter.
How do you choose between lemon-lavender and lemon meringue, red velvet and deep dark chocolate, Kitkat or Oreo? Seriously, I even found a beef cupcake recipe.
I opted in the end for Dan Leopard’s vanilla cupcakes as they seemed a little more subtle but still elegant. I’m glad I did. The sponge is springy and not overly sweet. He adds some cornflour and glucose to the buttercream to help it hold it’s shape yet keep the frosting rich and dense, light in texture and taste.
I used vanilla pods instead of essence but otherwise stuck to his recipe. I plastered the topping on with a knife rather than piped so the layer wasn’t more than teeth deep.
To finish, try a single fruit or flower, a little dusting of cocoa, ground nut or coffee work, all keeping them looking refined.
The end result: Happy hair and mouths down at the salon and may be persuaded to make them again, I may even eat the odd one….or two.
I do love my rhubarb. Sharp and tart, certainly up high on my fruit hit parade. Joint second with raspberries of course but they come later. Since the forced crops popped up in February, I have been making up this delicious chutney and now I have cracked open my final jar – it goes quick – I will happily spend some time this bank holiday, making up a whole lot more. I have added fresh ginger and a few more spices to one from Marguerite Patten. You can make this in a saucepan rather than baking it but the rhubarb does loose its lovely shape and colour, becoming more like a jam as I have it pictured. Excellent with hard and soft cheeses.
Midweek comfort food. Enough Said.
I have to say, having been an avid fan of the shop bought fruity biscuit since I was able to get my chubby little fingers round them, it’s a surprise I have not tried this homemade version sooner. I have literally devoured thousands of them in my lifetime and if asked what my favourite biscuit is, it has always been the fig roll, especially now I have made these my own (closely followed by the lemon puff of course).
The BBC added rosewater and brandy to theirs, the Waitrose added ginger and vanilla. Neither of which I fancied. So this recipe is sits somewhere inbetween the two. The pastry is good with a blend of wholemeal and plain flour plus the egg yolk to keep it light. Then, other than a squeeze of lemon juice with zest, the filling is all fig.
So, let me know which you prefered to dunk and I will see if I can make them up; fuller, fatter and minus the packet.
My Easter Monday was wet, damp, wet, damp and misty. The kind of day usually reserved for duvets, old films with any leftover chocolate. That or a long drizzled walk through the ferns, fronds and primroses of an ancient atmospheric woodland?
We did both. The bag of young nettles picked made this fresh and warming soup. Closely followed by more truffles, avec Scout and Atticus.
It is Easter weekend and that to me, equals chocolate.
Chocolate all over my hands and face and in my hair. Love it. Some are not as keen and prefer just a little, like a square after dinner or chips in their biscuits.
For them, I make these nutty-fruity-chewy florentines that taste best gently dipped – or drowned – in melted good quality, dark, dark chocolate.
