potato salad.

last night was one of those where you rush into the house, rustle up dinner and are back on the road not too long after. we have a lot of those nights - something about church life requires it. at times i find it exhausting, but usually, i love that we have a community to love us, a place to go that feels like home, and adding a good meal to that is just icing on the cake.

years ago i created a roasted potato salad with pesto. it might be the first real 'recipe' i ever thought of on my own, i was proud and my family LOVED it. one night at a dinner party a friend of my mom's asked for the recipe, the highest praise. but the beauty is that it's just humble ingredients.

heading home last night, knowing i was short on time and there were few ingredients in the fridge i wondered what i could do with eggs, bacon and potatoes that wasn't breakfast for dinner...an hour later this was on the table...and it was good enough for lunch today.

roasted potatoes and red pepper, greens slightly wilted by the heat, crispy fried bacon, and just perfect hard/soft boiled eggs (i'm talking about the sweet spot in between a soft boiled egg and a hard boiled egg where the yolk is just slightly gooey and the whites are hard).

pesto potato salad meets breakfast.
serves 3-4

time required: 45 minutes, 25 hands on.

ingredients:

• 6 eggs 
• 1/2 kg (1 lb) of baby new potatoes
• 1 red pepper 
• 2 tbsp olive oil 
• 8-12 rashers (strips) of bacon 
• two large handfuls of greens (i used baby spinach, watercress and rocket) 
• 2 tbsp pesto (prepared or homemade) 

directions: 

• heat oven to 200 C, 425 F, place a medium pot of water onto boil, cut bacon into 1/2" pieces, roughly dice (1") potatoes and red pepper 
• spread potatoes and red pepper on baking sheet, toss in olive oil and season with salt and pepper, roast for 30-45 until golden and crisp
• over medium-high heat fry bacon until crisp, once done, set aside, but do not drain (you want the flavourful fat)
• once water is boiling cook eggs on a low simmer for 7 minutes (essential for the perfect middle). when finished run under cold water for a minute to allow handling, peel and chop roughly.
• once potatoes are roasted transfer to bowl, along with roasting oil, add bacon and rendered fat and toss with pesto. add salad greens. 
• plate salad, add eggs, enjoy. 

sunday, slow.

a day to simply rest - isn't that a thought?

individual pot roast lunch. a perfect start to sunday afternoon.

watching the all blacks dominate the pitch against scotland. while snuggling under the just-finished (and blocked!) knit blanket.

walking along muddy paths in late afternoon light.

hot chocolate as the sun sets.

evening service at church praising the one who always remembers.

on our table.

i've been on a huge baking kick recently. but my hand mixer bit the (flour)dust in february while making le boy's birthday cakes and i've not yet replaced it (plagued by indecision between a stand mixer and a hand mixer - any thoughts are welcome!) so i've been on the look out for baking recipes that can be done without a mixer, i mean, these are recent inventions, but baking's a pretty long-standing experience right?

first up was the yogurt cake featured on the kitchn. so easy. so good. i followed the recipe until i realised at the end that i don't own a spring-form pan (to be remedied asap) but evenly divided between two 8-inch pans seemed to work a treat - the best part? one is wrapped and sitting in my freezer, waiting to be defrosted and put to work at some point in the future. :)

image via thekitchn.com

second (but not in taste) was no mixer chocolate chip cookies or ccc's as marvellous would say. these are dense and chewy (due to the lack of a mixer) they take a bit more effort i suppose, but i don't know that i'll go back to a mixer for cookies...bold statement, i know. i reduced the number of chocolate chips and le boy still declared these to be his favourite ccc's ever - why? the sheer number of chocolate chips - gotta love that guy.

image via thekitchn.com

finally the other night i used a skinny taste recipe for a low-fat red coconut thai curry. ah-maz-ing. unbelievably good. although i was only cooking for us two, i made the entire portion of sauce and froze some, so next time we want thai curry i just defrost, throw in some shrimp and 10 minutes later, i'm the genius of the kitchen, sigh.

image via skinnytaste.com

these all were incredibly easy and so so good. enjoy!

cake.

sometimes, i don't know why, i get it in my head that the weekend will be incomplete without a cake. the thing about cake though is that with two of us, it's usually a little while before the entire cake gets eaten...so i'm always on the lookout for cakes with some heft and that appear rather dense and moist.

101 cookbooks is one of my favourite cooking blogs, although i'm usually too intimidated to actually cook anything from the site - the strange and wonderful ingredients are just so california, and i definitely live in england (grin.). but when i saw this last week, i knew i had to make it. pitched as the perfect cake for toting around, i knew it would have the resiliency to stand strong for days to come - and indeed, we're still eating it - it's been packed for lunch today!

a colleague and i the other day were remarking that while we don't crave a treat after dinner necessarily, after lunch at work, it seems almost imparative. perhaps it's the whole having to eat lunch at your desk? the blandness of being at work? or just the need for a midday pick-me-up? personally, i think it is due to my packed lunches as a child always including a cookie or a square, something to finish off the lunchbox...lunch treats are the best kind.

i won't attempt to rewrite the recipe, heidi does it so well here. i'll just tempt you with instagram photos of the gorgeous, delicious, luscious and wonderful thing that it is. it's not even all that sinful - what with yogurt, maple syrup and whole wheat flour, it's practically healthy! i could see this making an foray into a regular baking routine. a cake that can last.

lately.

i spent the better part of saturday afternoon and evening and sunday morning and afternoon reading the hunger games.  while it is a teen fiction, it's incredibly well written, and an extremely interesting exploration of good and evil, and of redemption. i heartily recommend it. 

on another note, i had this sicilian orange today. it is without a doubt or an exaggeration, the single best orange i've ever eaten. i'm glad i took a picture of it. 

i've been podcast crazy at the moment. radiolab has been overwhelmingly good recently.

and i did my first spin class in more than eight months - it felt good to move again, to have my heart pound so hard against my chest it felt it would explode, to pour sweat, to feel the energy again.

i must finish with the single best recipe i've found in a long time. le boy is in love with this dish. skinny enchiladas...oh. my. word.

arriving.

we have a baby arriving very soon. we cannot wait for her to come. we are oh so excited to share in this joy and this miracle. today i hosted a baby shower for her mummy.

it was ladies and brunch and endless cups of tea and i was terrible and took pictures only with my phone and after they'd all left - but here's what i've got.

menu:

slow cooker gouda sausage casserole - i used regular sausage instead of turkey sausage, and well, it wasn't as successful, so out of the slow cooker, five minutes before people arrived and into the oven. it ended up as a hit!

banana muffins
fruit salad
pink rice krispies
coffee & tea galore
smoothies

and although it is the coldest day of the year here, the tulips are abounding at the market. thanks to le boy who braved the winter morning to fetch them - it changed everything.

breakfast.

so breakfast is an important meal. according some, the most important meal of the day. and really, it does set the tone and the mood. good days for me include a hot breakfast. i love hot breakfast. cereal is on my 'ok, i guess' list of food. rarely do i love cereal, unless i'm in canada and have endless access to vector. something that doesn't exist here. i'm trying to find ways of making hot breakfast easier. many mornings we have eggs, which we love, but i'm picky about eggs. scrambled eggs cannot be hard or chewy in any way. they should be soft pillows of melt in your mouth deliciousness. this is not easy on the time front.

i'm going to experiment next week with both make ahead oatmeal from the kitchn. and freezer breakfast burritos, from a mash up of recipes that i've found online. and i'm going to make a batch of granola from the recipe i've used for a few years, but have neglected to make since we've been married - i think i'm just afraid that le boy will eat all of my efforts - c'est la vie.

but what's been really revolutionary for me? homemade pancake mix. just as easy as the stuff that came out of the box when i was a kid (also not sold here, after all the british definition of a 'pancake' is slightly disappointing - think a cross between an american pancake and a french crepe). from where else but nigella? oh how we love her.

from nigella.com

instant homemade pancake mix
from nigella express

i make this once every four times we have pancakes. i store the rest in an airtight container with the directions on the side, when it's time to make pancakes it's simple and easy. le boy prefers these to be served with bacon and maple syrup, but the additions to the batter and the topping options are endless.

for the mix: 

600g (4 scant cups) flour 

3 x 15ml tablespoons baking powder

2 teaspoons bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)

1 teaspoon salt

40g (1/4 cup) caster (granulated) sugar

to make:

for each 150g (1 cup) pancake mix, add and whisk together:

1 egg

250ml (1 cup) semi-skimmed or full-fat milk

1 x 15ml tablespoon melted butter

directions: 
heat a pan over medium heat - i add my butter and melt it in the pan before pouring it into the mixing bowl (saving on washing up here!). drop batter onto hot pan, when bubbles appear on top of pancake it is ready to flip over. 1-2 minutes per side for golden brown pancakes.

while cooking the rest of the pancakes i tent the cooked pancakes on a plate with some foil (i don't have a fancy pancake dish, and i don't really want one, but it sure is pretty in the photo!)

and a partridge in a pear tree.

i'm a bit behind, but here goes.

we decided to spend christmas just the two of us. we've had an enormous amount of travel this year, and with money short and limited mobility due to surgery six weeks earlier, we just wanted some time to be at home and be together. we are so glad we did! we realise that this probably won't happen very often and actually, sharing our first christmas together, just us, was such a special time.

to say this year's christmas was catagorized by food would be an understatement. we basically ate our way out of the house.

but shall we start at the beginning?

christmas morning was wonderful. we woke up and had our coffee in bed while we opened our stockings. santa was oh so good, bringing cute note cards, a 'keep calm' mug and a book i'm so glad to read - the meaning of marriage by tim keller - love it already. knew that i would!

christmas morning church is a tradition that we started last year, reasoning that with overseas family we might be frequently travelling during the period, but we'd always be able to find a local church. this year it was special to worship at our (new) home church and enjoy a church filled-to-the-brim with small children, oh so excited about christmas. we remarked that it was a fantastic way to remind ourselves of the reason for christmas - christ - and we hope to keep this tradition alive in our family!

we returned to begin the preparations for the feast and open our under-the-tree presents. it was a year of abundant blessings, our offerings were small, our hearts flung open, our bellies were FILLED.

i set to preparing the dinner that ended all dinners. and once it was all in the oven. we headed out for a walk.

prawns on a bed of winter greens with horseradish cream - i substituted prawns for scallops in the recipe, mainly because my fishmonger was all out on christmas eve, but we liked it so much it's getting a second chance at a birthday dinner in six weeks time!

king of his castle.

roast partridge, pheasant and guinea fowl - why go traditional when there's only two mouths? this was stunning and seemingly more appropriate and still an enormous amount of food!

the very best roast potatoes - use goose fat, it changes everything. and i'm not exaggerating at all.

for dessert we had lava cakes, i wasn't thrilled with them. partly they didn't end up as chocolate lava in the middle, partly the oven decided to stop working in the middle of them baking and partly we were just to filled with food to appreciate anything. lesson learned, in future, i'll go for a pre-cooked, light dessert!

the evening was topped off with watching the classic - national lampoon's christmas vacation, love it. and then suffering from a serious case of 'christmas-itis' we went for a midnight walk through our neighbourhood. it was so lovely to see houses lit up and trees in bay windows and the streets completely quiet, save our footsteps and the jingle bell on the collar of the cat that tried to follow us home.

baking.

there's been a serious amount of baking around here. in all honesty, it's about all i have the energy for. i can break it up into segments and sit down when i need to take a break. and it's been great to have treats for people when they pop over for coffee. and it's been nice to have something for us too!

le boy's absolute favourite is coffee walnut cake. i only became familiar with this cake in the last year or so, a decided treat to be found in national trust tea shops and a must buy after a rousing walk in the hills! well, there's not much walking going on these days (although that is getting better). but regardless, le boy has been so helpful, so wonderfully serving, that it seemed only appropriate to make him a favourite cake.  this will make another appearance in the kitchen very soon i'm sure. it lasted for days and was unbelievably delicious, and incredibly moist. i baked it on a wenesday, but of course, didn't have icing sugar, so iced it on a friday, and then it was still fantastic enough for saturday lunch!

the recipe is adapted from the hummingbird bakery cookbook. i have yet to experience a poor recipe from hummingbird, either in store or from this cookbook. it makes a fantastic gift and i heartily recommend it for any bakers in your lives - last minute christmas gift? (it's also available in north america via amazon and uses US measurements rather than UK weights).

coffee walnut cake
(adapted from the hummingbird bakery cookbook)

2 tbsp instant coffee granules (espresso powder makes a great rich taste!)
450 g (2 cups) unsalted butter at room temperature
450 g (2 1/4 cups) caster sugar (white sugar)
6 large eggs
450 g (3 1/2 cups) plain flour (all-purpose or cake flour)
2 tbsp baking powder
2 tsp cocoa powder
1/2 cup of walnuts crumbled, plus half walnuts to decorate (optional)

1 quantity frosting

250 g (2 1/4 cups) icing sugar, sifted
80 g (5 tbsp) unsalted butter, room temperature
25 ml (2 tbsp) heavy cream
a few drops of vanilla extract
1 tbsp instant espresso mixed with 2 tbsp boiling water


25 cm ring mould (known as a bundt pan in north america)

to make cake:

to make 'coffee essence' put instant coffee and 170 ml (3/4 cup) of water in a small sauce pan, bring to a boil and reduce by half. set aside to cool completely.

preheat oven to 170 C (325 F)

beat together butter, sugar and coffee essence. add eggs one by one, mixing well and scraping the bowl down as you go. beat in flour, baking powder and cocoa powder, mix until batter is light and fluffy. fold in crumbled walnuts.

pour mixture into prepared mould and even with spatula. bake for 40 minutes in preheated oven or until the sponge feels firm to the touch. (do not open oven door during early cooking or you will collapse the the cake). cool slightly in mould before turning out onto a wire rack to finish cooling completely.

to make frosting:

beat icing sugar and butter until mixture comes together. in a small bowl combine cream, vanilla and instant espresso. add wet ingredients to sugar and beat until light and fluffy (5 minutes).

cover top of cooled cake with frosting, decorate with walnut halves, serve on a pretty plate.

food friday :: bangers & mash

it's the ultimate british dinner. bangers & mash. (translation: sausages and mashed potatoes, smothered in gravy). and it's exactly the kind of food you desire as you walk home from the train station on a cold and rainy thursday night. it's also exceptionally budget friendly. a few months back we bought 24 sausages for £8, which means that this meal might have cost £3 total. but being budget friendly does mean that taste was sacrificed. bangers and mash is a british institution - friends of ours served it gourmet style at their wedding last year - and it was DELICIOUS!

the key to this simple, but incredibly satisfying, supper is ingredients and taking your time. and this is sure to be met with lip-smacking approval from any man who happens to reside at your house. which always makes it a winner in my book!

gourmet bangers & mash with red onion gravy
serves 2

this recipe is easy to scale up to feed larger groups, if pan space is an issue, consider browning sausages in the oven and then using the drippings in the gravy.

ingredients:
4 gourmet sausages
1 tbsp olive oil
1/4 cup red wine
2 medium red onions, thinly sliced
1 cup chicken stock
1 sprig rosemary, leaves picked and roughly chopped

4-5 medium potatoes roughly chopped, skins on
2 tbsp butter
2 tbsp heavy cream

salt & pepper

instructions: 
heat olive oil in a large frying pan over medium heat. once shimmering, add sausages, being careful of spatter. cook over medium/low heat, being sure to get brown and crispy on all sides.

meanwhile, bring a medium pot of salted water to the boil and add potatoes. cover and boil until knife-tender.

once sausages are browned, remove to a plate and add wine to pan, deglazing with a wooden spoon - be sure to get all the crispy bits on the bottom of the pan into the sauce, that's where the flavour is! once deglazed and slightly reduced add onions and allow to sweat over medium-low heat for 10 min. add chicken stock and rosemary, and allow to reduce by half. season with salt & pepper. once reduced return sausages to pan to warm.

drain potatoes and roughly mash with butter and cream. season with salt & pepper.

serve sausages on a bed of the mashed potatoes with onion gravy ladled over top.

be prepared for minimal dinner conversation as everyone is too engaged in eating!

thirty::newlywed::food

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slow sundays. in the christian faith, we are commanded to keep the sabbath. to slow. to settle. to sanctify.

it's been just that. a lazy morning in bed, relishing the time change here in britian, an extra hour today, delightful. and birthday brunch for one of our dearest. we braved the supermarket for the weekly shop and came home to the smell of apples bubbling away in the slow cooker. now, i'm going to change your life. should you not have a slow cooker - go and get one. find one on sale, or on an online swap site, or in the pile of items you received for your wedding and relagated to the back of the closet. do it. now. i'm an official convert. brisket is done. applesauce is made. a quick wash and we're on to a chicken!

at the farmer's market yesterday apples and pears were on three kilos for £3! a kilo was dumped in the slow cooker this morning. after six hours, it's heavenly.

apple sauce was always sitting in the bottom of our freezer at home. grandma kept the entire extended family stocked in apple sauce and canned peaches and pies. on nights in the deep of an ontario february these small reminders of summer were bits of gold. gobbled up, juices dripping down our small chins, bowls cleaned well enough to be returned to the cupboard. i'm not certain how grandma made applesauce, but as the homekeeper on a busy farm, with four children and many men to feed daily, i'm pretty sure there were times things were kept simple. grandma's applesauce was never the light straw colour of the store bought variety, and it tasted deeper, richer.  i can only now surmise this was because the peel of the apple was left on. in my hope to get the apples going before we headed out this morning, i decided against peeling. for one it seemed like a lot of work, for two, i generally believe that most things taste better with the skin left on...

we returned 5 hours later to warm cinnamon, sugar, apple smell. a quick peek told me the apples were mushy but not completely dissolved, i left them for another couple hours while we spent some time napping and reading on this grey late-october day. and dissolved they were. a couple minutes with the immersion blender and i've got the smoothest applesauce. it tastes almost as good as grandma's. but not quite. i expect i'll never be able to exactly recreate the taste of love canned in october and remembered in february.

grandma's applesauce re-interpreted

ingredients:

1 kg apples, cored but not peeled (over here i use cox, at home i'm a macintosh fan all. the. way.)
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup water
1 tsp cinnamon
zest and juice of one lemon
1 tbsp butter

instructions:

place all the ingredients, save the butter, in a slow cooker. set to low. leave for 6-8 hours until everything is completely mush and the sauce is a caramel brown colour.

stir in butter. using the immersion blender, blend until smooth.

twenty-eight::newlywed::food

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food friday. i'm starting to really like the idea. this month of blogging has been amazing, for one, it's given me the opportunity to see what i really like blogging about. one of those things is food. big surprise, eh?

as i mentioned yesterday we had a dinner guest last night. a good friend whom we've not seen in ages. and the chance to sit down around the table and just talk and love and enjoy the friendship was such a blessing. i mentioned yesterday that one of my keys to weeknight entertaining is to keep it simple, but also, to make sure that we're eating food that we'd serve to others. (to clarify, i'd serve a good homemade soup with cheese and bread to a guest, so it doesn't have to be fancy, just tasty!)

i've had enormous success with many jamie oliver recipes over the years, but particularly with his book: jamie at home. an intended inspiration for kitchen gardening, i do find that the recipes are easy because they expect the seasons. and many of them are just right for an after work dinner - nice, good, wholesome food that doesn't take an enormous amount of time, but does show an effort.

quick sausage meatballs with a tomato and basil sauce, spaghetti and green beans

adapted from jamie at home

serves 4 

• olive oil
• 6-8 good-quality pork sausages
• 500g spaghetti
• sea salt
• 400 g green beans
• a block of Parmesan cheese, to serve
• a few sprigs of fresh rosemary, leave picked

for the tomato sauce
olive oil
• 2 cloves of garlic, peeled and finely sliced
• a small bunch of fresh basil, leaves picked, stalks finely chopped
• 2 x 400g tins of good-quality plum tomatoes
• sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
• good-quality balsamic vinegar

jamie's original recipe can be found here. i've adapted it to make for less washing up, and because i couldn't see the need for the separate pans...i also substituted green beans, as peas aren't really available any more.

heat a large saucepan (i used our le creuset) and add a few tbsp of olive oil. squeeze sausage meatballs out of casings directly into the hot pan, you should get about three meatballs per sausage. fry, rolling them around the pan until browned.

in the meantime put a large pot of water onto boil for the pasta, cook pasta according to directions and your preferred taste. in the last 3 minutes, place green beans in a colander on top of your pasta water to cook/steam.

add tinned tomatoes to meatballs*, add crushed garlic, and chopped basil. use a pair of tongs to crush whole tomatoes, breaking up as you stir. allow to simmer for 10-15 min, reducing slightly. add rosemary and a splash of balsamic to finish the sauce. simmer for another minute or so. (i also add a tad of either honey, brown sugar or agave nectar to all my tomato sauces to cut the acidity).

sprinkle with remaining basil leaves and parmesan to serve.  delish!

*here is where i changed things up slightly

cleared table.

twenty-four::newlywed::food

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it's something i do. freeze food for later. use up old bits from the vegetable bin. recently, i was on a train (a daily occurrence around here), and two men were having an interesting, if slightly self-congratulatory conversation about wastefulness and food and how people no longer know how to do simple things to conserve, things that people from previous eras would have done without thinking twice. i should probably pause and say i completely eavesdropped on this conversation, but it was a grouping of four seats, so it was hard not to hear. on this particular morning i was knitting. most mornings on the train find me knitting or reading. and i'd like to think of myself as semi self-sufficient. i do try, earnestly, to converse food, and make good use of household products and needs. i'm investigating homemade bath and body products, trying to make informed decisions about the foods we eat, the cleaners we use, the products we buy. 

after a little research i've found that in the uk we throw away 8.3 million tonnes a year of food from our homes, which costs the average family more than £50. as much as possible, we try to throw away nothing. with a little forward planning, and a freezer, most food can be kept good until later. most food can be used for multiple meals, and most food is not bad once it's past it's 'use-by' date. one prime candidate is milk and dairy products.

• i sniff most days before i pour milk, why? i've had 'good' milk go bad, and i've had 'overdue' milk, that's still perfectly fresh. keep your milk inside the fridge and not in the door, keep your fridge cold and food stays fresh longer. 
• use veg that is a little 'off' for soups, stews, sauces. the slightly wrinkly red pepper languishing in your crisper can be chopped up and used, maybe not for eating raw, but it can definitely be added to something cooked. wilting celery, stand in a mug of water with fresh cut ends for an hour - and it's revitilised! and in the end, when in doubt, freeze it. spinach (add to sauce), most vegetables (soups and stews), meat bones (stock), ends of bread (whizz in the food processor for breadcrumbs).

in honour of using up old bits: 

chicken soup. 

use as the recipe calls for soup. reduce for chicken pot pie filling.

ingredients:

3 cups chicken stock
1/2 lb cooked chicken, shredded (i had some extra bacon frozen, so i added that too!)
2 carrots, diced
2 leeks, sliced
1 lb green beans, trimmed
2 large potatoes, cubed
large onion, diced
*or really any vegetable lying around the kitchen in desperate need of cooking
2 tbsp olive oil
1/4 cup heavy cream

 heat olive oil in heavy stockpot, sautee onions, carrots and leeks until soft. season with salt and pepper.

add potatoes, chicken, chicken stock. simmer over medium-low heat for 1 hour. 

add green beans. stir in cream. simmer for a further 5 min.  check seasonings, adjust as needed.

serve hot with toasted bread.

twenty-one::newlywed::food

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i'm toying with a food friday feature here. it will ensure after this month is over, that i've still got things to report. and really, it will keep me creative in the kitchen.

last saturday while i was being productive, i spent the time with bbc iplayer (on-demand bbc recent programming). nigel slater has a new show where he pairs two food combinations and explores the idea for the whole show. while i can find him slightly dramatic and pedantic, he's definitely encouraging creativity and substitutions in the kitchen, and really, the more people who are cooking their own food from original ingredients the better, right? this particular show was on crispy and soft. which is one my absolute favourite combinations.

the inspiration - crab cakes and mushy peas (a british delight). but i didn't have crab and (much to my surprise) i didn't have frozen peas. i did have canned tuna, and i did have frozen spinach. so? tuna fish cakes and creamed spinach. it was delicious.

here's his original recipe.

and here's my crispy and smooth dinner, it came together fairly effortlessly, it tasted amazing and since i had everything on hand, it was incredibly economical. i expect that most of us would usually have many of these ingredients to hand as well...

fishcakes and creamed spinach (serves 2)

for the fishcakes

• 1 can of tuna (or any cooked fish)
• 1 lemon, zested and juiced (or lime)
• 1 deseeded chilli, diced (optional)
• 1 shallot, diced (or green onions)
• a handful parsley, chopped
• 100g/4oz breadcrumbs
• 1 egg

 

for the creamed spinach

 

• 1 cup frozen spinach
  
• 1/4 cream
  
•  2 tbsp butter

  
  

  drain tuna. in a large bowl combine lemon zest, then juice, chilli, shallot, parsley, breadcrumbs and egg. mix with hands. form mixture into four patties. set on plate and place in fridge for 30 min to firm up. 

  
  

  melt butter in small saucepan over low heat. add frozen spinach and allow to steam off extra water. when still wet but no visible liquid, stir in cream, and simmer until thickened. season with salt and pepper. remove from heat. 

  
  

  heat a large frying pan over medium heat, add 1 tbsp of olive oil to hot pan. when oil shimmers add fishcakes. don't play too much! just let the crust develop, about 5-7 min. turn over and fry for the same amount of time.

  
  

  serve hot on a bed of creamed spinach with choice of sauces - homemade ketchup and some south carolina remoulade went nicely.

fifteen::newlywed::food

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it's pantry week here. we're hoping to trim a little off the grocery budget and use up some of the stuff that's hanging about, just waiting to be created into something delicious.

i came up with this 'recipe' for soup when i was in university. it's nothing fancy, but with the colder days setting in, i find a deep need for soup. for warmth. bonus: it's cheap. and healthy! 

bacon vegetable soup. 

this soup instantly warms you up, is filled with lots of vegetables and tons of flavour! don't worry about a chopping the veg nicely, this gets whizzed with a blender at the end...

ingredients:

2 tbsp olive oil

1/2 cup red wine

6-12 rashers of bacon

2 onions, roughly chopped

4 carrots, chopped

4 sticks of celery, chopped

4 potatoes, rough large dice 

3 tins tomatoes 

3 cups chicken stock 

salt and pepper 

cream (for serving, optional)

cook: 

in a large, heavy bottomed stock pot, heat olive oil over medium heat, add bacon and brown, scraping at bits that get stuck to the bottom. add in onions, carrots and celery, allow to soften (3-4 min). 

add red wine, simmer until at least half the liquid has evaporated. add potatoes, tomatoes and chicken stock. simmer for 40 min, or until liquid has reduced and thickened. (the volume in my pot reduced from 3.5 qts to 3qts).

season to taste. take off heat and allow to cool slightly (10 min). blend until smooth (i use an immersion hand blender). 

serve warm with fresh bread, and if feeling indulgent, a drizzle of cream! 

this recipe is really just a starting point, i often use whatever i have around the kitchen that needs to be used up. 

happy weekend! 

eleven::newlywed::food

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i have just finished the most delicious brownie. dense and moist, with a slight crumb. we are finishing leftovers from thanksgiving, and to be honest, it'll be sad day when these are no longer available.

from: nigella.com

i did not take the photo above, but i did, i did make these brownies for sunday lunch. a member of the table is a gluten-free kind of person, and so it seemed cruel to exclude her from dessert. plus these are currently battling it out with the hummingbird brownies for top spot in the house. i've determined that maybe, just maybe, one of the single best things, is having frozen brownies waiting in the freezer. because you don't necessarily want a brownie everyday, but some nights, are brownie nights.

oh, and if you're serving these after a meal, make the sauce, it's a little chocolaty, a little coffee-ish, a little taste of heaven. le boy has been sneaking it from the fridge for the last two days...

i find these are great to make the day before, allow to fully cool and then cut, otherwise, they don't quite hold together 

flourless chocolate brownies
adapted from nigella express (one of my favourite cookbooks!)
and if you'd like some conversion assistance see here.

i find these are great to make the day before, allow to fully cool and then cut, otherwise, they don't quite hold together...but they still taste the same. le boy would like to remind everyone the measuring is an essential part of the baking process...we're loving our most recently arrived wedding present!

jospehjoseph kitchen scale.

FOR THE BROWNIE:

• 225g dark chocolate, 70% cocoa solids
• 225g butter
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 200g caster sugar
• 3 eggs, beaten
• 150g ground almonds
• 100g chopped walnuts

FOR THE SAUCE:

• 75g dark chocolate, 70% cocoa solids
• 125ml double cream
• 2 x 15ml tablespoons
• Camp coffee or 2 teaspoons instant espresso powder dissolved in 2 tablespoons water
• 1 x 15ml tablespoon golden syrup

Method

Serves: Makes 16 squares

1. For the brownie:
2. Preheat the oven to 170°C/gas mark 3. Melt the chocolate and butter gently over a low heat in a heavy-based saucepan.
3. Take the pan off the heat, mix in the vanilla and sugar, and let it cool a little.
4. Beat the eggs into the pan along with the ground almonds and chopped walnuts. Turn into a 24cm square baking tin or, most sensibly, use a foil one.
5. Bake in the oven for 25-30 minutes, by which time the top will have set but the mixture will still be gooey. Once cooler, cut carefully, four down, four across, into 16 squidgybellied squares.
6. For the sauce:
7. Break up the chocolate and put into a heavy-based saucepan.
8. Add the remaining ingredients, then place the pan over a gentle heat and let everything melt together.
9. Once everything has melted, stir well, take off the heat and pour into a jug to serve.