Avocado and Cashew Pesto

 

 

Some years ago I found this recipe on Joanna's blog thepassionatecook  here

I have made this many times and  tried my own variations and found there's bit bit of flexibilty with quantities. One time I had started getting the ingredients together to find that I had no avacados so I used peas instead.

This is my version 

Ingredients 

75 g cashew nuts

75 g string cheddar or parmesan grated

2 small cloves garlic

30-40 g fresh  basil

¼ tsp dried crushed chilli

2 avocados peeled and mashed

30 ml good quality extra virgin olive oil (or hemp seed or flax seed oil)

30 ml water and juice of a lemon or a lime

To prepare 

Assemble all the ingredients first. 

Toast the cashews in the oven then add to the food processor and blitz together with the garlic and chilli. The heat od the nuts partially cooks the garlic.

Add all the other ingredients and blitz again pausing to check that it's mixing OK

If you are serving it with pasta you could sprinkle the cheese over instead of mixing it in with the pesto. I prefer to mix it in with the pesto. 

 

Serve with hot pasta or noodles or spread on toasted sour dough. 

Soooooo good! 

 

Chocolate Brownies with Pecans

 Butter 6.5 oz

Sugar  9.5 oz

Eggs 3 large

cocoa 2oz

plain flour 3 oz 

Chocolate 70% cocoa solids  6.5 oz 

Pecans   chopped 1.5 oz

Melt the butter and chocolate over a bowl of hot water

Sieve the flour and cocoa together

Whisk the eggs and sugar together for 5-10 minutes until thick then add the melted butter and chocolate stirring gently.

Add the pecans and the  flour and cocoa and gently fold into the mixture. Nothing vigorous as you don't want to knock out any of the air that has been whisked into the egg and sugar mixture.

Place in an 8 in square tin that has been lined with baking parchment or foil.

Cook for about 25-30 minutes at 180C/160C fan/gas 4.

When it's done there should be a thin crust with a gooey but not wobbly mix underneath.

Leave to cool before removing from the tin.

Optional add some white chocolate chips in with the pecans.

 

Tarte aux Quetches

 This tarte is popular from  the Alsace ( Tarte au quetches) to Germany (Quetschekuche) 

 I know about it as my grandfather grew up in Belgium.

Quetche plums are small dark purple plums. I have Victoria plums from the garden so use those instead.

 

 

My version     (scroll down for a Bavarian version)

Victoria Plums halved and stones removed

 For the base, blend these ingredients by hand or in a food processor.

8oz self raising flour ( altenative option for more texture, replace 2 oz of the flour with  2oz ground almonds or semolina)

4 oz butter

2 oz sugar

1 egg

vanilla extract to taste  (alternatives almond essence or cinnamon)

Roll out like pastry or press onto a cake tin or baking dish. 

I used a rectangular non stick cake tin 8x12 in

Arrange the plums on top overlapping so that you get plenty on as they shrink during cooking.

Bake at gas 6 for 45-50 min

Enjoy with cream or Greek yogurt.

Can be frozen.

The base can vary from a yeasted dough to a shortcrust pastry and the plums are sometimes sprinkled with streusel. you can find a Bavarian recipe here

Chocolate Brownies with Pecans and Morello Cherries

 

Ingredients

• 115g/4oz unsalted butter, softened, plus extra for greasing
• 170g/6oz caster sugar I used half soft brown sugar
• 2 free-range eggs beaten
• 100g/3½ oz plain chocolate (minimum 65% cocoa solids I used 85%) chopped
• 55g/2oz pecans (optional) chopped
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 55g/2oz plain flour
• 55g/1oz cocoa powder
• 55g/2oz morello cherries or raspberries

Optional

• 2 tsp instant coffee granules
• 2 tbsp warm water

Cream the butter and sugar then add the eggs.

Fold in the flour and cocoa then mix in the chocolate nuts and cherries.

Cook at gas 4 for 30-40min.

 

Serve warm with vanilla ice cream.

Traudl's Apple Cake

 

 

This recipe came from my good friend Traudl who lived near us for many years. She originally came from Bavaria. I always enjoyed a slice of this at her house usually with cream or ice cream.

 

 

 

 

 

I also do several of my own variations of this recipe. 

Sprinkle cinnamon and flaked almonds on before cooking. 

Swap the plain flour with self raising flour and just press into the tin so skip rolling it out. The base turns out more cakey. 

I don't always peel the apples.

Add either vanilla or almond essence to the base.

Frozen Bramley slices or Granny Smith slices work well too

Plum with almond cake  

 

This is a variation of the apple cake. I used SR flour instead of plain, almond essence instead of vanilla and cooking plums instead of apple. I added 2 tsp milk to the batter mixture.

I cooked it at gas 6 for 40 minutes. as ovens vary check it after 30 min.

Beetroot and Barley with Mackerel

 

Whole barley cooked with garlic and ras al hanout, cooked beetroot, peas and runner beans served with fried mackerel.

Veggie Haggis aka The Wee Green Beastie

 

 

 

I went to a St Andrew's day online concert party given by Elsa Jean McTaggart and Gary Lister from the Isle of Lewis    details here

To get in the mood I looked at several veggie haggis recipes online and read Felicity Cloake's survey of recipes for the Guardian online. She quotes a recipe for the traditional meaty haggis which says “Leave the windpipe out of the pan to disgorge the phlegm.” Her response was call me squeamish, but I do not deal in culinary phlegm.

The one I liked the best was from Graham Campbell at Great British Chefs  

I didn't have all the ingredients for his recipe so took some cues from what was in stock and what the other recipes included.

The recipe didn't specify what sort of lentil to use. I had red lentils and Puy lentils , either would do. I chose red lentils.

For spices I used nutmeg. I didn't have allspice or cinnamon so I used a Spice Mountain Lebanese 7 spice mix.

Instead of Borlotti beans I used kidney beans with their juice and roughly chopped in a Thermomix

Instead of stock and salt I water and added plenty of soy sauce.

Instaed of 2 egg yolks I used egg. For a vegan version just leave the egg out.

The recipe said to wrap the haggis rolls in cling film and poach for 30 min. I thought that was too much faff for me. Instead I arranged them in a casserole dish added a tablespoon of water, covered with the lid and microwaved them for 10 min and that worked well.

They were delish and were followed with a wee dram of Glenmorangie Whisky,

My Version Vegetarian haggis

• 300g of kidney beans, rinsed, roughly chopped
• 30g of butter
•   1 large onion, finely chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed
• 80g of shitake mushrooms, finely chopped
• 3 carrots peeled and grated
• 80g of red lentils
• 1 lemon, juice and zest
• 500ml of vegetable stock
• 50g of porridge oats
• Ground nutmeg and Lebanese 7 spice mix (add to taste) 
• Rosemary
• Thyme
  

 Fry the onion, garlic and mushrooms in the butter.

Add the carrot, lemon zest, rosemary, thyme and lentils cover with stock and simmer for 15 min,,

Add the oats and cook for a further 2-3 min

Add the lemon juice, salt and spices to taste.

Leave to cool while you prep the cabbage leaves. Par boil approx 8 whole leaves for 4 min.

Drain and cool them with cold water.

Add the egg to the filling and mix well.

Take a generous spoonful of mix and wrap it in a cabbage leaf. If the mix looks a bit wet for stuffing the cabbage leaves with add a bit more oatmeal.

Put the stuffed leaves into a casserole dish with I tbs water. Cover and microwave for 10 min. 

Or instead of stuffing the leaves you could assemble it lasagne style in the casserole dish  and alternate layers of mix and cabbage leaf.

Can be frozen for use later.

 

Sweet Potato, Cheese and Sweet Pepper Muffins

1/2 medium sized sweet potato (or equivalent amount of butternut squash)
1 1/2 cups white SR flour
1/2 cup wholemeal flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 large onion
2 eggs
A handful of chopped peppers, red, yellow and green
A handful of chopped parsley
1-2 oz cheddar
1/2 tsp chilli powder
2-3 tbs milk, the amount of milk to add depends on the flour, the mix should be slightly wetter than soft dropping consistency,
1/2 tsp salt or to taste

Cook the sweet potato, I microwaved it for 6 min. When cooked remove the skin.
Blitz the onion in a food processor or Thermomix, Add the sweet potato and blitz again.
Add the egg, peppers and parsley and blitz again.
Add the rest of the ingredients and mix thoroughly.
 Divide the mixture between 12 paper cases or use a well oiled/greased muffin tray.

Cook at gas 6, 200C for 35-40 min.

These are delicious eaten hot, the outer is almost like a choux bun and are moist and soft inside.

Next time I will try adding some chopped pecans or walnuts.

Orange Polenta cake

Ingredients

Cake

250g butter
250g sugar
4 eggs beaten with 1 tbs milk
2 oranges
215g SR flour
125g polenta
2 tsp baking powder
greased tin 7x10 in or round 9 in

Syrup
Juice of 2 oranges plus (2 tsp lemon juice optional)  approx 100 ml
golden castor sugar 100 g
1/2 tsp cardamom seeds (optional) either grind with a pestle and mortar or buy ready ground  (1/2 tsp wasn't enough to notice so will try more another time)
A piece of orange rind (about 2in) and one of lemon rind
2 tbs water
Put these ingredients in a pan and boil and stir for 5 min. Strain before pouring over the cake. 

Chop the zest finely and put on the middle of the cake for decoration.


Cake
Cut the 2 oranges into quarters, put into a lidded dish with 2 tbs water and microwave for 7 min (power  800 )
Blitz the cooked oranges in a Thermomix or food processor
Add the butter and sugar and blitz again then the beaten eggs and another blitz.
Fold in the flour, polenta and baking powder. The mixture should look quite loose but don't be tempted to add more flour.

Cook at gas 3. Check after 45 min.  Mine needed another 10 min. when I did half quantity it only took 30min.
Remove from the tin after about 15 min. Carefully as its a bit fragile.
Place on a plate. Prick some holes in the top of the cake and pour the syrup over.

My recipe is based on this one from BBC Food 

I made some changes. In the comments section a couple of people thought the cake was a bit dry and one of them suggested boiling the oranges and using the whole fruits.
I added the lemon juice, zests and cardamom to the syrup. The cardamom idea came from a Jamie Oliver recipe.
The cake came out lovely and moist.

Lime and Rum Marmalade

This marmalade was inspired by some home made marmalade I had in Portugal. it comes into my top 3 of hotel/B&B jams. We were staying at a Turismo Rurale in a Qunita. It had lovely gardens that led to plantations of limes and other fruits all grown organically and eventually down to the sea.
This is no insipid sweet green jelly. It has an intense flavour, a rich deep colour and is not overly sweet. If you prefer it sweeter use half as much sugar again. I did n’t have a complete recipe so have been experimenting. This is my fourth attempt and now very close to the original.
 I thought of adding rum, I don't think it was in the original

720g limes
350g Muscavado sugar
750g Golden granulated sugar
700 ml water
Rum to taste (add some to the marmalade as well if you like!)

Put 5 clean jam jars with lids separate on a baking tray and into an oven on gas mark 1
Leave the limes whole and cook with the water for 15 min in a pressure cooker with lid and weights on.. (In the original marmalade the limes had been sliced first. Nice but too much faff for me.)
Or simmer in an open pan until the rinds are soft, stir and make sure it doesn’t boil dry.
Put in a food processor or Thermomix and process so that the peel breaks into smallish pieces. I return this to the pressure cooker, add the sugar, keep stirring and boil fast  until the setting point is reached. Usually when the thermometer says 105C You’re there when a sample will set on a saucer. I love that bit as I usually get to taste several samples before it is ready. you can do the boil in the TM but I find it takes a bot longer.
Pour into the hot jars and immediately screw the lids on tightly.

I have experimented by adding some rum to one of the jars. I didn’t put the lid on this one, waited till it was cool and added some rum.
About 5 teaspoons (25ml) per 1lb pot (454g) tastes good.

Seville Orange and Ginger Marmalade

You will need

Seville oranges and 1 lemon 720g
golden castor sugar 1kg ( you could substitute about a third with brown sugar)
600 ml water
70 g root ginger peeled    (or finely chopped chrystalised ginger)

Easy peasy method

Quarter the oranges and lemon, peel and slice the ginger then cook for 15 min in a pressure cooker on full pressure.
Transfer to a Thermomix and  process on 5 for 5 seconds.
I only used the TM to process the fruit then tipped it back into the pressure cooker before adding the sugar. Its quicker to reach the setting point in a larger pan. It took about 15 min of rolling boil..It set like a dream.
To cook in the TM you would set the temperature to 100C speed 3 and cook until the thermometer  says 105C Some of my TM jams have not set well. Their recipe for marmalade uses pectin which would make the difference.

I wasn't sure what it would be like with ginger. Its very more-ish. The orange is the dominant flavour with the ginger adding a warming effect.

You could pick out any pips that come to the top before putting into jars. I didn't.

TIP  You could try blitzing the unpeeled ginger with some of the sugar, it amazingly vanishes into the sugar!  I do this when I make candied figs. Recipe and photos here

PS I referred to 2 recipes for ideas

Nigel Slater's Orange and Ginger Marmalade
Super easy Orange Marmalade A Thermomix recipe. 

I got the idea of adding ginger from Nigel's recipe. It sounds like he does some experimenting as he mentions ideas like trying cardamom or reducing the sugar. I like experimenting with recipes.

They both have more sugar than I usually use so I reduced that and I reduced the faff of cutting neat shreds of peel etc though realise its necessary if presentation is important.

I have since found a TM recipe with less sugar and no pectin so may try that next time, with the addition of ginger of course.

Lime Drizzle Cake

Lime Drizzle Cake  

 

6 oz butter

5 oz sugar

3 large eggs

8oz S R flour + I tsp baking powder

3 tbs milk  ( or coconut milk)

Juice and zest from 2 large or 3 small limes         

Oven gas 5

Cream the butter and sugar together with 1tbs milk till smooth and fluffy. I used a food processor. Add the eggs and the other 2 tbs milk and blend till thoroughly mixed.

Add the flour, baking powder, all the zest and the juice of half a lime, blend for a short time or mix gently by hand. Don’t over mix at this stage.

Put the mix into a buttered baking tin size 8x 10 in and bake for 25min. Stick a skewer into the centre of the cake, if it comes out sticky give the cake another 5 min then test again.

Mix the lime juice  with 3 heaped dessert spoons of sugar and pour over the cake in the tin while still warm.