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Farro and cauliflower pilaff with nuts and seeds

Farro and cauliflower pilaff with nuts and seeds
Print Recipe
Prep Time
30 mins
Cook Time
20-25 mins
Prep Time
30 mins
Cook Time
20-25 mins
Farro and cauliflower pilaff with nuts and seeds
Print Recipe
Prep Time
30 mins
Cook Time
20-25 mins
Prep Time
30 mins
Cook Time
20-25 mins
Ingredients
Servings:
Instructions
  1. Heat the oven to 190C/fan 170C/Gas 5.Spread the cauliflower florets and red onion in a shallow baking dish. Drizzle over 2 tbsp of the oil, a good sprinkling of salt and pepper and toss everything together. Roast for 20-25 mins, shakking halfway through until the cauliflower is just tender but not too soft.
  2. Tip the lentils into a large pan and cover with plenty of cold water(no salt) Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for 10 mins. Add the farro and more water from the kettle if necessary and continue to simmer for a 10 mins until both the lentils and farro are just tender but still with a bit of bite. Drain well.
  3. Toast the cumin seeds in a small dry pan until they start to release their fragrance, then grind in a pestle and mortar. Add the juice of the lemon, the honey, salt and pepper. Add the remaining 3 tbsp of the oil and mix well.
  4. Toast the nuts and sunflower seeds in the same pan you used for the cumin seeds until they just start to catch a bit of colour. Tip onto a chopping board and roughly chop.
  5. Tip the lentils and farro into a large bowl and add the nuts and seeds, cranberries, capers , half the herbs and half the dressing. Mix well. Fold in the warm cauliflower and onion along with any pan juices and fold everything together well. Taste and add more seasoning if necessary.
  6. Divide between 4 dished plates and drizzle over the remaining dressing. Add a lemon wedge and dollop of yogurt on the side and scatter with the remaining herbs. Serve warm or cold.
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Festive spice cake

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Festive spice cake
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I'm not planning to make a traditional Christmas cake this year as we are only a small gathering and what normally happens is that Mick and I spend the days after the big celebration munching our way through slabs of leftover cake and getting fatter by the day. But it's always good to have something in the cake tin to offer anyone who drops by, or for those afternoons by the fire when you really need a slice of something sweet to go with a cup of tea. I've devised this cake to give you plenty of seasonal flavours- spices, nuts, cranberries, citrus, but it's light and very moist. So even if you have already made your cake, this one will sit alongside it very nicely and along the way will fill your house with Christmassy smells- any excuse to get baking.
Servings Prep Time
makes 1 large loaf 25 mins
Cook Time
50-60 mins
Servings Prep Time
makes 1 large loaf 25 mins
Cook Time
50-60 mins
Festive spice cake
Print Recipe
I'm not planning to make a traditional Christmas cake this year as we are only a small gathering and what normally happens is that Mick and I spend the days after the big celebration munching our way through slabs of leftover cake and getting fatter by the day. But it's always good to have something in the cake tin to offer anyone who drops by, or for those afternoons by the fire when you really need a slice of something sweet to go with a cup of tea. I've devised this cake to give you plenty of seasonal flavours- spices, nuts, cranberries, citrus, but it's light and very moist. So even if you have already made your cake, this one will sit alongside it very nicely and along the way will fill your house with Christmassy smells- any excuse to get baking.
Servings Prep Time
makes 1 large loaf 25 mins
Cook Time
50-60 mins
Servings Prep Time
makes 1 large loaf 25 mins
Cook Time
50-60 mins
Ingredients
for the icing
Servings:
Instructions
  1. Heat the oven to 180C/fan 160C/Gas 3. Butter and line a 2lb loaf tin with baking paper.
  2. Sift the flour,spices and bicarbonate of soda into a large bowl. Measure the butter, sugar, treacle and syrup into a small pan. Heat gently, stirring until the butter has melted and the sugar has dissolved. Cool for a few minutes.
  3. Mix the milk and egg together. In a separate bowl mix the peel, walnuts and cranberries. Finely grate the zest of the lemon into the bowl and mix well.
  4. Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients and pour in the butter mixture. Gradually beat the dry mix into the centre to make a smooth batter, adding the milk mix gradually as you go.
  5. Stir in the dried fruit and nuts until evenly distributed, then pour into the prepared tin. Bake for 50-60 mins until the cake is well risen and feels firm and springy to the touch. Leave to cool in the tin for 15 mins, then turn out and cool completely on a wire rack.
  6. Warm the jam, then brush over the top of the cake. Leave for a couple of hours to set. Sift the icing sugar into a small pan. Add 2 tbsp lemon juice and heat through gently without boiling to make a smooth icing.
  7. Drizzle over the cake, allowing it to drip down the sides. Decorate immediately with walnuts, cranberries, peel and slices of ginger as the icing sets quickly. Wrap in foil and store in a cake tin for up to 3 weeks.
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Christmas Chutney

It’s our village Christmas market in a couple of weeks and of course I was keen as mustard to get involved-as we are so new here it’s a great chance to meet the locals and get stuck into village life. Of course it’s not as simple as that. My fellow stallholder Cathy(an incomer like me as she has only been here for 42 years) told me she got involved in a marmalade war once and it wasn’t pretty. So it is with some trepidation that I have made a batch of my Christmas chutney in the hope that I won’t tread on any fellow chutney makers toes. I’ll also be making other festive goodies so if there is a stand-off I can quietly hide my jars and carry on. This is a recipe that I have been fiddling with for a while and now it’s how I want it. Whole clementines simmered until squishy and chopped up into the mix give a welcome sharpness and bite along with a good scattering of cranberries,while the dates and and apples provide balancing sweetness. Warm festive spices including cinnamon, coriander,star anise and ginger add warmth and if you make a batch this week the flavours will have mellowed just in time to liven up a cheeseboard,Boxing day cold meats or charcuterie. And of course fellow foodies will greatly appreciate the gift of a jar- much better than bath salts any day.

Christmas Chutney
Print Recipe
Servings Prep Time
Makes about 3kg 1 hour
Cook Time
11/4-1/12 hours
Servings Prep Time
Makes about 3kg 1 hour
Cook Time
11/4-1/12 hours
Christmas Chutney
Print Recipe
Servings Prep Time
Makes about 3kg 1 hour
Cook Time
11/4-1/12 hours
Servings Prep Time
Makes about 3kg 1 hour
Cook Time
11/4-1/12 hours
Ingredients
Servings:
Instructions
  1. Cut a 25cm square of muslin or j-cloth. Break the cinnamon sticks in half and put in the centre of the square with the coriander seeds, star anise, peppercorns and chilli flakes. Tie up into a pouch with kitchen string.
  2. Put the clementines into a pan with water to cover and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for 30 mins until soft. Drain and leave to cool.
  3. Pour the vinegar into a large wide pan(or preserving pan if you have one) Peel, core and finely chop the apples. Finely chop the onions. Halve the clementines and remove any seeds, then chop up the whole clementines, skin, flesh, pith and all.
  4. Add the apples, onions, clementines, dates, cranberries and ginger to the pan, along with the spice bag and salt. Bring to the boil, then simmer partly covered(a piece of foil works well if you don't have a lid)for 15-20 mins until the apples are soft.
  5. Stir in the ground spices and sugar and return to the boil, stirring until the sugar has dissolved. Increase the heat and simmer for about 30 mins, stirring occasionally until the chutney is thick and pulpy.
  6. Spoon into warm sterilised jars, screw on the lids and label. Store for 2 weeks before opening. This chutney will keep for at least 6 months.
Recipe Notes

To sterilise jars, wash well in hot soapy water, then rinse well and place upright in a roasting tin. Place in the oven at 180C/Fan 160/Gas 4 for 10 mins.

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