Classic Nut Roast

This is one of the favourites in our family. Depending on the nut varieties, you will get a different taste every time.

Serves 6.

• 1 tbsp olive oil 
• 1 onion, chopped 
• 2 garlic cloves, crushed 
• 125 g mushrooms 
• 2 tsp plain flour 
• 300 ml stock, or water 
• 175 g mixed nuts (walnuts, almonds, hazelnuts, cashews, whatever), chopped 
• 175 g wholewheat breadcrumbs 
• 1-2 tbsp soy sauce dried herbs 
• salt and pepper to taste 
• 2 tbsp plain flour or breadcrumbs for coating 
• 4 tbsp oil for roasting

Heat oven to 190º C.

Heat oil in large saucepan and add the onion and the garlic and fry gently for 5 mins. Add the mushrooms and fry for a further 5 mins. Sprinkle the the flour on top and stir well, then pour in stock (or water) and bring to the boil, stirring all the time.

Let the mixture simmer for 2 – 3 mins., then remove from the heat. Stir in nuts, breadcrumbs, soy sauce and herbs and then season. Turn mixture out onto a board sprinkled with flour or breadcrumbs, using hands to form into a loaf shape.

Roll loaf in the flour so that it is coated all over.

Put oil in roasting tin and heat in oven for a few minutes. Put the nut loaf into the tin and turn it to coat it all over in the hot oil (mind your fingers). Bake for 40 – 45 mins. until crisp, spooning some of the oil over the top of the loaf after about 30 mins.

¡Bon provecho! 

Lime Marmalade

You may have tried making your own orange marmalade.

You might have varied your recipe into making grapefruit marmalade, kumquat marmalade, or three citrus marmalade (orange, grapefruit and mandarine).

I have recently tried lime marmalade, for the first time, and it turned out to be a simple delight.

 

You need 1 kg of limes and 1 kg of sugar plus 1 litre of water.

Juice the limes and pour the juice into a cooking pan.

Remove the pith from the lime peel and shred the rind finely into 2 cm strips. Add the shredded bids to the lime juice.

Pour everything into one litre of water and bring to the boil. Cook slowly for 1 to 2 hours until the rind is really soft. Add the sugar. Bring to the boil again, and boil until all reaches setting point.

Wash jars in warm water and place them on a tray in the warm oven to dry.

Pour the marmalade into the dry, warm jars whilst still hot.

Make enough jars to have spares to give away to friends. They will love it.

Enjoy.

 

Potato Patty Fishcakes

 

Serves 4.

• 50 g chopped onions
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1 x 185 g tin of tuna
• 1 x 185 g tin of salmon
• 40 g dry bread crumbs
• 25 g chopped gherkins
• 80 g mashed potato
• olive oil
• butter
• flour, for dusting
• 1 tbsp coarse grain mustard
• 10 g fresh or dried dill
• salt and black pepper

Melt a little butter in a frying pan and sauté the onion until soft but not brown.

Flake the fish into a bowl, then add the cooked onion, gherkins, mashed potato, mustard and dill and gently mix together. Season with salt and black pepper.

Put the mixture onto a floured work surface and roll into a fat sausage shape. Cut into discs, then shape neatly.

Put the breadcrumbs on a plate. Dip both sides of each fishcake into the beaten egg, then into the breadcrumbs to coat.

Heat a little olive oil in a frying pan and cook the fishcakes on both sides until golden brown (about 2 mins on each side).

Bon appetite.

 

Broccoli Cream Cheese Soup

Broccoli is a perfect winter vegetable. It makes for scrumptious soups, such as this one borrowed from Delia Smith (Christmas).

Serves 6 -8 people

225 g broccoli

2 tbspn fine oatmeal

1 medium onion, chopped

2 leeks, rinsed and chopped

40 g butter

570 ml milk

570 ml veg stock

150 g packet low-fat soft cheese

salt and pepper

First trim the broccoli into tiny florets of approx 5mm, fanning them out to remove any dust and grit, then chop the stalky parts quite small as well. In a large saucepan melt the butter, add the chopped leeks, onion and broccoli stalks, stir well, then cover the pan and leave the veg. to sweat for 10 mins.

Next stir in the oatmeal, then add the milk a little at a time, stirring well after each addition. When all the milk is in, add the stock and season, whisk well, then simmer gently for a further 10 mins. After that, turn off the heat and allow the soup to cool a little. While that is happening steam the little florets over simmering water for exactly 4 mins.

Now pour the soup and the soft cheese into a liquidiser and blend until smooth. Then return the soup to the rinsed-out pan, add the broccoli and re-heat gently. Check seasoning before serving.

 

Enjoy.

 

 

 

Wholefood Mincemeat Slices

With Christmas coming up, I want to offer you a recipe for a good alternative to mince pies.

The quantities given are good for 12 slices.

150 g margarine

110 g porridge oats

75 g soft brown sugar

225 g mincemeat

225 g wholewheat flour

Butter a shallow baking tin 28×18 cm (or use a round pie tin). Preheat oven to 200º Celcius.

Melt the margarine gently in a large saucepan, together with the brown sugar. Meanwhile, mix the flour and porridge oats in a mixing bowl.

When the margarine and sugar mixture has turned liquid, remove the pan from the heat and add the flour and oats, stirring well with each addition.

When it is all thoroughly blended, spoon half the mixture into the prepared tin. Using the flat of your hand, press the mixture down firmly all over, making sure it gets into all the corners. The firmer you press, the less crumbly the slices will be once they are cooked.

Next, spread the mincemeat evenly all over the tin, pressing it out with the back of the spoon. Then spread the remaining oat mixture over the top, again pressing down firmly.

Now bake in the centre of the oven for about 20 mins. or until the top is tinged brown. Remove from the oven and, using a sharp knife, cut into 12 squares, but then leave in tin until all is quite cold.

Once cooled, lift the slices out of the tin, one by one. They can be stored in an air tight tin.

Enjoy.

Quarente Quatre

Oranges are coming up for their harvest. Time to consider a recipe that the French have given us: quarente quatre. Why not try to make your own orange liqueur?

Choose three or four untreated oranges, firm in flesh, and juicy. Make a dozen small and deep insertions. Stuff good quality coffee beans deeply into these cuts, about one dozen per orange.

Put the oranges into a large glass jar. Put 44 sugar cubes of the large French sort on top of the oranges, or 88 sugar cubes of the smaller British kind.

Buy a bottle of Marc, or Grappa, or Eau de Vivre. Pour the spirit over the oranges and sugar.

Seal tight, and store the glass jar in a dark and dry corner of the house. Wait for quarente quatre jours (44 days).

After that you can have a first sip. If satisfied, you can serve your own orange liqueur after dinner, especially after a festive dinner like one of those coming up soon.

Merci beaucoup to our friend, Herbert Udo, for the inspiration.

Chicken Roulades With Bacon and Dates

I like making roulades (chicken, turkey, beef) and I like to play with the combination of the sweet and the savoury.

The Arabs showed us how to use this combination when they came to the Iberian al-Andaluz all that time ago. 

 

 

Allow two roulades per person.

Chicken breast, thinly cut as if for esalopes

bacon, 1 rasher per roulade

dates, 1 date per roulade

salt and pepper

cream

Heat oven to 200º C.

 

Lay the chicken breasts out on a large board and salt and pepper them. Lay a rasher of bacon on each and placing a date on each, roll them up and either tie them with cotton or hold them together with toothpicks. Put some oil in a roasting tin and  place the roulades in it side by side. Cover with foil. Cook for approx one hour. Check to see that the chicken is cooked through and then pour over the cream and return to the oven for 5 minutes without the foil.

 

If there are any left over they are delicious eaten cold the next day.

Warm Cauliflower With Green Olives, Feta and Preserved Lemon

This is a delicious Autumn dish that you might like to try.

Serves 2-4

4 tbspn olive oil

1 cauliflower, broken into florets

1/2 – 1 tspn cumin seeds

1 tbspn preserved lemon dressing or about 1/4 of a preserved lemon chopped finely (or a squeaze of lemon juice)

60 g green olives

small pinch of cayenne pepper

sea salt

30 g feta cheese

Heat a little less than half the oil in a large sauté pan. Add the cauliflower and sauté until evenly browned and softened but still with a little crunch. This will take 8 – 10 mins.

Add the cumin seeds and sauté for a further 30 seconds or so. Transfer to a bowl and mix with the preserved lemon, olives, cayenne pepper and salt.

Pour over the remaining oil and crumble the cheese on top. Serve as quickly as possible.

I have also made it without the olives, using a squeaze of lemon juice instead of the preserved lemon and some crumbled chevre cheese instead of the feta. It was still delicious.

 

 

Lemon and Hazlenut Loaf Cake

Here is another one of my favourite cake recipes:

150 g butter or margarine

175 g sugar

1 lemon, rind and 1 tablespoon juice

2 large eggs

100 g flour

75 g ground hazelnuts

a pinch of salt

Heat oven to 170° C.

 

Cream together the butter or margarine, sugar and lemon rind. Beat in the eggs, one by one. Sift in the flour and stir in the nuts, lemon juice and salt. Spoon the mixture into a buttered and lined 450g loaf tin and smooth the top.

Bake for 35 to 40 minutes until golden and cooked through. Leave in tin to cool completely. Remove from tin.

 

Make icing by mixing the icing sugar with enough lemon juice to make it smooth, then spread over the cake and allow to drizzle over the sides. Sprinkle with lemon rind.

 

Enjoy.

Honey Curry Chicken

Creative cooking at its most fun, this time with chicken breast: 

75 g butter

175 g clear honey

one and a half teaspoons curry powder

6 tablespoons mustard

salt and pepper

4 chicken  breasts

Heat oven to 220º C

Mix all the ingredients together. Arrange chicken pieces in a roasting tin and pour over the honey mixture. Coat the  meat and roast in the oven for about 1 hour or until cooked.

Serve with rice or potatoes and veg.