Sweet Potato Bread...

I know that bread is one of things that can seem like too much effort and mess to make when there are perfectly good, instant options at the supermarket. 95% of the time I will go along with this and just buy those options too. Maybe trying part-baked in some warped attempt to apply domesticity to the pre-produced product and create the smell of warm, bready-comfort throughout the house.

So, I'm not going to argue that you should make this rather than buy bread because it tastes better. It's nice, but with this as an argument, shop-made will often win.

Instead, I think you should make this because the experience of making bread is equally as fulfilling as eating it. Taking the time to mix all your ingredients, 10 minutes of slow kneading, 14 hours of proving and 30 minutes of baking. That's patience. It's a calming, soothing process that focuses on quality and rushing around. It makes me think about that line from a Rudyard Kipling poem "If you can keep your head while all around you are losing theirs".

Take some time for yourself, pummel out your frustrations on the dough and sleep off any stresses whilst it proves. In the morning, wake calm and relaxed and in 25 minutes your home will be filled with the scent of freshly baked bread. You can't get that from a Hovis loaf now can you?????

Sweet Potato Bread

Ingredients (makes 1 large loaf)

• 500g strong bread flour
• 150g sweet potato
• 25g fresh yeast (see Top Tips)
• 2 tsp salt
• 250ml warm water

Step 1: Boil the sweet potato in its skin for about 30 minutes. Leave to cool, remove skin and set-aside

Step 2: Place the flour and potato in a large bowl and mix with hands, squeezing the potato into the mix as you go

Step 3: Crumble in the yeast

Step 4: Dissolve the salt in the warm water and add 2/3 to the flour mix. Combine with our hands adding more water as required until you have a firm but not sticky dough

Step 5: Flour your surface and begin kneading. Start by pummeling down the dough with your fist and then folding the dough in half. Repeat this pummel and fold process for about 10 minutes until your dough turns almost elastic

Step 6: Shape into a round loaf, place on a baking sheet and leave to prove for 14 hours

Step 7: Cook in the oven at 220c/GM 7 for about 25 minutes and leave to cool

Step 8: Slice or tear into generous pieces and serve

Top Tips

• You can get fresh yeast free from your supermarket!!! Just pop your head behind the bakery section and ask for some and they'll get it for you. Who said nothing comes for free?!
• I think this would benefit enormously from a little garlic oil and chopped rosemary. I'll be adding this to the dough next time I make it. You could always to this first time...

Enjoy!
Helen x

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Gourmet salad for summer loving!

I would appear to be one of the few people who gets excited about salads.

For many people, salads are a superfluous plate dressing not made to touch the fork. To some, they have been tainted with all things 'diet' related or even considered a bit girly to be ordered for fear of mockery (applies to boys!).

To me, a good salad is a pleasure to view and to eat and one of my favourite meals.My perfect salads are not about low calorie and they are certainly not all vegetable. They are about taste, texture and creativity. If I was ever to write a recipe book, I think this would be what I'd focus on and it's generally what people ask me to make if there is a gathering!

Two of my favourite salads are:

• Roasted sweet potato, butter bean, chorizo and spinach
• Pan-fried courgette, balsamic raisin and toasted pine nut

Given I have a glut of courgette to get through (blog entry - the biggest courgette....ever) I've shared the latter with you below. This is such a lovely salad; sweet, tangy, crunchy and fresh. It's perfect on it's own or as a side. The courgettes can easily be grilled, making this a great BBQ dish too.

Courgette, balsamic raisin and toasted pine nut salad (serves 4)

Ingredients

• 2 medium courgettes
• 100g raisin
• 75ml balsamic vinegar
• 50g pine nuts
• 1 lemon (juiced)
• Olive oil
• Seasoning

Step 1: Slice your courgettes into chunky strips

Step 2: Heat a glug of olive oil in a frying pan (or griddle pan) and add the courgette. Turn after 2 minutes and repeat until both sides are slightly browned but the courgette is still firm. Put to one side to cool

Step 3: Add balsamic and raisins to a saucepan and heat rapidly until all the balsamic is absorbed. Turn off heat and put to one side to cool.

Step 4: Add the pine nuts to a dry frying pan and heat gently for 2-3 minutes (be very careful they don't burn) - put in a dish when they are toasted to prevent them continuing to cook

Step 5: Assemble dish. Add courgette to plate and scatter over raisins and pine nuts. Squeeze over lemon juice, season and serve

I hope I can convince you that salads are more than rabbit food!!
Helen x

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The biggest courgette....ever!

Did you ever play the game of ‘grandma went to the supermarket and bought……..’?!

It was a childhood memory game, the sort that drives parents doolally. You took it in turns to add to the shopping list, recite it from start to finish and then pass the challenge over to your competitor, with the loser being the person who forgot first.

Well, I did play it and I loved it! Memory specialists say that the easiest way to remember lists is to create a story out of it. I can picture supermarket shelves, trolleys and bustle so clearly in my mind that it was easy for me to create stories to remember these long lists and win the game. This ability is restricted to food and shopping only though – I’m pretty hopeless at remembering most other things....

Anyway, the list of ‘Helen went to the supermarket and bought…..’ doesn’t really change much week-on-week. The contents of my trolley are pretty consistent, unless I’ve been tempted by a new ingredient or "unbeatable offer" on an unrequired product. There’s the normal milk, butter, yoghurt, cereal etc.. and then the fresh fruit, vegetables, meat and fish and that’s pretty much it (....so why does my bill cost so much?!)

This week, I started my visit as normal at the vegetable section, working through the mental list of must haves. Cherry tomatoes, check! Spinach, check! Sweet potatoes, check! Courgettes……………and there they were! The most ginormous courgettes I’d ever seen! Sold in Sainsbury’s value range, presumably because their marrow-like size was quite outside of EU regulation, I had to have them (I'm sure a less food obsessed person would not have been struck with this need to purchase).

....Wooden spooned use as a scale indicator....

I conducted the rest of the trip on auto-pilot, thinking what I could concoct with the colossal courgettes. Soup? Gratin? Salad? No! No! No! I then recalled a dish I cooked on a cookery course in Istanbul; courgette fritters. Fresh, crunchy, quick and flavoursome, this was the perfect recipe for these giants (I should state that normal sized courgettes work fine too).

You can make these start to finish in 15 minutes. I’ve served them stacked with a rich tomato sauce, but you could also serve them as a snack or side dish too.

Courgette and Tomato Stack (serves 2)

Ingredients

• 1 large (2 normal size) courgette
• 1 egg
• 1/2 red onion (sliced)
• 1/2 red onion (chopped)
• 1 tsp cumin seeds
• 60g self raising flour
• 1 tin of tomatoes
• pinch chili flakes
• Olive oil
• Seasoning

Step 1: Pan fry the chopped onion in a little olive oil until softened. Add the tinned tomatoes and chili flakes and simmer for 15 minutes (whilst making the courgette fritters).

Step 2: Grate the courgette (including skin)

Step 3: Mix the grated courgette with the egg, cumin, flour, sliced onion and seasoning (to taste)

Step 4: Heat and frying pan with some olive oil. Drop spoonfuls of the mix into the hot frying pan and press down slightly to form the fritter shape (suggest 3 at a time - any more and you're liable to make a mess/burn them). Turn heat down to medium.

Step 5: After 4-5 minutes flip the fritters over (they should be golden on the reverse) and continue to fry

Step 6: Your spicy tomato sauce should now be thick and rich. Take 3 fritters and stack on top of each other, separated by spoonfuls of the sauce

Top Tips

• You can adjust this dish easily to your taste preferences. If you like it spicy add fresh, chopped chillies instead of the cumin. Or you could stir a heaped teaspoon of wholegrain mustard through the mix to add some bite
• If you're a cheese fiend, it will happily find it's way into this dish too. Pretty much anything goes but I'd favour torn mozzarella or some grated mature Cheddar (lovely with the mustard)
• Fillings are also flexible! I like chopped cherry tomatoes, feta and avocado or ratatouille
• Making for a big group of people? Cook in batches and keep warm in the oven. They can happily sit in their at about 140c for 30 minutes without spoiling. Alternatively, they taste great cold too!

Hope you enjoy,
Helen x

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Sexy Sides!

Some may say that writing an entry tenuously linking food and, ahem, sex is a blatant attempt to get more people to find my page in google....you may be right but go with me a little.....

I think the way people react to food is a very personal thing. Some people get giddy over chocolate, some weep for cheese and some hanker for a nice, juicy steak over all else. I think I'm still finding my true food love but there are certainly some things that fill my head, heart and tummy with happiness.

There are foods that make me smile (soft piles of marshmallows), some that provide comforting warmth (silky, smooth risottos) and some that make me want to feel the sun on my skin, reach for the wine glass and laugh uncontrollably with loved ones. It's this food that I think of as sexy food.

My requirements for sexy food are quite specific:

1. It must promise pleasure on the plate
2. It's flavours must surprise
3. It's textures must interest
4. It must be light in the mouth and light in the tummy
5. It must inspire thoughts of summer
6. It must take very little effort and not detract from all the fun that will ensue

A hard task! However, I'm not prescriptive on what course this applies to. It could as easily be an elderflower granita for dessert as a whole, roasted sea bream for main. So, here I share a few of the side dishes I consider to meet the bill:

• Roasted red pepper, goats cheese, walnut and honey
• Baked fennel, stuffed with orange and feta breadcrumbs

It was only after a little research that I realised there may be a little bit more in the appeal of these dishes than meets the eye! Both fennel and honey are natural aphrodisiacs, popularised by the Egyptians. Well.... if it was good enough for Cleopatra.....

Red Pepper, Goats Cheese Walnut and Honey Salad (serves 2)

2 long red peppers

2 handfuls of large walnuts

100g soft, crumbly goats cheese

2 tablespoons best honery

seasoning

salad leaves (to serve)

Step 1: Halve and deseed peppers

Step 2: Place peppers on a lightly oiled baking tray and bake in the oven (160c) for 10-15 minutes until softening

Step 3: Sprinkle goats cheese and walnuts over the peppers and roast for 10 minutes (careful the walnuts don't burn)

Step 4: Remove from the oven, season lightly and serve warm drizzled with honey

Baked fennel, stuffed with orange and feta breadcrumbs (serves 2)

 
2 fennel bulbs
olive oil
1 orange
50g feta
100g dried breadcrumbs
seasoning
orange slices (to serve - optional)
 
Step 1: Halve the bulbs and remove the core to create a sort of fennel bowl

 

 
Step 2: Drizzle over oil, season, cover with foil and roast for 15 mins (160c)
 
Step 3: Whislt roasting, zest and juice the orange. Mix zest, half the juice, feta, glug of oil and breadcrumbs together to make a fragrant, mouldable stuffing (if it's too dry, add more juice/oil). Season to taste.
 
Step 4: Remove the foil from the fennel and press the stuffing into the bulb cavity. Roast for 15 minutes until the stuffing is golden and crispy.
 
Step 5: Serve with slices of orange
 
I've reverting to type with my next post.... the waist-expanding delights of Pavlova Supernova!
Helen x

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A-meze-ing Meze

Oooooohh meze!! Virtually the only way you can justifiably try everything on the menu without spending an inordinate amount of money or being perceived as the greediest person at the table.

Authentic meze takes effort. Little dishes must warrant their place at the table with big, gutsy flavours and surprising textures. Ideally they must also complement each other, with a theme of ingredients running through the collection of dishes.

On the face of it, making ten different dishes at home, that each delight and marry together is a little daunting (finding the time to cook one meal can be hard enough!).

So, this is my easy approach to meze, practised with some friends over the weekend. Dishes are generally Helen-invented (i.e. not authentic Greek dishes), but inspired by Mediterranean ingredients and recipes.

I've been quite brief with the method, as the dishes aren't complicated and you can easily tweak things.

Meze Dish 1: Pitta Stuffed with Spiced Lamb

Method
Dry fry 2 tsp cumin seeds and crush in pestle and mortar with a pinch of dried chili flakes. Mix in with 200g lamb mince, a healthy glug of garlic infused olive oil, 1 tbsp sesame seeds and seasoning. Roll into balls and press into patties. Bake in the oven 160c - 180c for 20 minutes (you may need to drain some fat during the cooking time). Serve in toasted pittas with grated carrot.

Meze Dish 2: Hot & Smoky Sweet Potato

Method
Slice 3 large sweet potatoes into wedges. Mix with seasoning, 1 tsp smoked paprika and a good glug of chili oil. Bake in the oven (160c) for 20 minutes until golden.

Meze Dish 3: Sweet and Savoury Nuts

Method
Melt a knob of butter in the microwave. Mix with 1 tbsp brown sugar, 1 tsp ground coriander, 1 tsp ground cumin and ground sea salt (amount depends on your taste and concern about sodium levels!). Stir in 200g chopped nuts and spread mixture on baking try. Roast at 160c for 10 minutes. Remove and leave to cool before serving.

Meze Dish 4: Tasty Tortillas

Apply a paste of your choice (e.g. tomato puree/pesto/harisa/sundried tomato) to 1 tortilla. Top with slices of meat (e.g. chorizo, salami) and grated cheese (e.g. mozzarella). Place another tortilla on top, squeeze together and grill on each side for 3-4 minutes until golden and bubbling on the inside (be careful when you turn them over). Slice and serve warm.

Meze Dish 5: Lentil and Aubergine Salad

Method: Chop 1 aubergine into cubes. Mix with olive oil, 1 tsp ground cumin and seasoning. Roast for 40 minutes until golden. Whilst cooking, boil 150g puy lentils. When cooked, stir though 3 large chopped tomatoes, a handful of chopped coriander, roasted aubergine, 2 tsp cider vinegar and crumbled feta. Season to taste and serve.

Meze Dish 6: Tzatziki and Tortilla Chips

Method: Grate 1/2 cucumber, place in kitchen roll and squeeze out as much fluid as possible. Mix with 2 tbsp full-fat Greek yogurt, 1 tsp cider vinegar, seasoning and 2 tbsp garlic-infused olive oil. Stir, stir, stir and serve with grilled triangles of tortilla.

Hopefully you can see how easy these dishes are! They're great for relaxed evenings with friends indoors or out! You could increase the amounts and easily served as side dishes for BBQs too.

Hope you enjoy - and maybe try?!

Helen

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Chip-Chop!

Wow, wow, wow!! Amazing discovery...

You can make chips from polenta! Very exciting....(for me anyway...)

I've had very mixed results with polenta so far and always seem to default to using it as an alternative to mashed potato. However, you have to add an awful lot of ingredients to it to make it taste of anything and it takes on a cold and gloopy texture very quickly. I had yet to find my 'wow' moment.

There are lots of lovely looking cakes with polenta which I keep meaning to try, but for now it's all about the humble chip! These were enough to make my partner go 'wow' and I never would have expected that from polenta, so they pass the boy test. The are oven cooked rather than fried but only just pass the health test given the amount of parmesan and butter in them! Still, a little treat never did anyone any harm!!

Polenta Chips

Serves 4

375g polenta

150g grated fresh parmesan

salt & pepper

90g butter

olive oil

• Boil 1.5ltrs of water in large saucepan
• Reduce heat and gradually pour in polenta, stirring continuously
• After 5 minutes of stirring on a low heat, your polenta should be thick.
• Remove from heat and add cheese, seasoning and butter. Stir thoroughly to combine
• Pour into a shallow square tin (or a round sandwhich tin and be prepared to cut off the edges)
• Leave to cool for 30 minutes
• Preheat the oven to 200c/GM 6 and lightly oil 2 baking trays
• Slice your cooled polenta into chip like pieces and lay on the baking trays
• Oven bake for 30-40 minutes until golden brown
• Remove and eat!

I know I write this all the time, but these are really worth trying!

Hope you like!

Helen x

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Dip-Stick....

The promise of summer has got me thinking about dips.

I love a table laden with crudites, breadsticks, pitta breads and meats. It makes me really happy to have everyone gathering round a table loading plates up with food and chatting. Friends, family, food and happiness - it's what this food blog epitomises for me.

Anyway, such occasions always require dips! Whether creamy or tangy or cheesy, a dip is a essential component of the buffet table spread. Supermarket offerings can be a little depressing....it's either one hundred varieties of hummus or the obligatory four varieties that has been the same for the last ten years...you know the one....

Now, I don't really have an issue with this in it's own right and I'm sure lots of people like it. But once, in a time long ago and a land far away (well, Lincolnshire...), I worked in a food factory in the 'Dips & Deli' division. Having inhaled these products for six weeks day-after-day, I have little desire to consume them now.

I also think after you have made so much effort with other dishes, it's a shame to bring out these when it's easy to make your own. My three favourite dips are Peperonata (a red pepper and tomato salsa like dip), Artichoke and Cumin and Smoky Aubergine. I'll post all these over the next few weeks, but first I'll start with Aubergine (yum, yum!) which comes into season next month.

This Smoky Aubergine dip is very creamy and silky, but I love the kick that the chilli powder adds....

Serves 4

2 aubergines

100ml natural yoghurt

Juice 1/2 lemon

1 garlic clove

1/4 teaspoon chilli powder (or 1 green chilli)

1 tsp ground coriander

olive oil

• Place the aubergines in a very hot oven for 20 mins until they start to collapse
• Halve the aubergines, remove the flesh and place in a bowl to cool (throw away the skin)
• Add the cooled aubergine, yoghurt, lemon juice, garlic, chilli, coriander and a glug of oil to a food processor and blend until smooth
• Season to taste and serve

So easy!! You'll also need some Dip-Sticks to enjoy your homemade efforts. Often I chop grilled pittas into fingers for perfect dipping, however on this occasion I made use of toasted ciabatta, interesting crackers and crispbreads...

These companies do a great range of crackers if you fancy something different (generally available from supermarkets/delis)...

• Mondovino 
• Millers Damsels
• Fudges
• No No

Hope you like.....new Dip recipes will be posted soon!

Helen x

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'Tis the season to .... BBQ!

The British Bank Holiday mandates a barbeque.

Everywhere in the country, we are taken over by the urge to group together, gather round a fire and eat meat! It's almost primeval! I am no exception to the rule, and this bank holiday weekend I have enjoyed my barbeque in the delights of The Cotswolds....(thank you Mr and Mrs T)

Street after idyllic street of beautiful houses and rolling fields. Gorgeous!! We were graced with one sunny day and the barbeque duly emerged from it's hiding place.

I think there is a bit too much focus on the meat element of the barbeque and I'm on a mission to widen it's use to salads and puddings too! I've written two of the recipes we used below, both meat-free and barbeque utilising! If the summer allows it, I'll add more over the coming months....

Courgette, Asparagus and Pine Nut Salad

Serves 4

2 large courgettes

1 bunch of asparagus

50g pine nuts (lightly toasted in a frying pan - optional)

1 lemon

olive oil

• Diagonally slice the courgette and remove the woody ends of the asparagus
• Drizzle over olive oil and season the courgette slices and asparagus spears
• Place on BBQ for 5-8 minutes (turn half-way through)
• Pile up on a serving dish, drizzle with oil, juice of half a lemon and scatter with pine nuts

Strawberry and Marshmallow Kebabs

Serves 4

1 punnet of strawberries

1 bag marshmallows

4 wooden skewers

• Add strawberries and marshmallows to skewers
• BBQ for 5 minutes (turn once)
• Serve immediately!

The finished result.....

...the picture doesn't show however, that we were cold in about two minutes and migrated rapidly inside. Some things will never change!

Quick update on my audition for ITV's Britain's Best Dish.......audition was on Saturday and I think went well. I've made some amends to my dish and will find out if I've made it through to the Regional Heats (televised...argggh!) next week. Fingers crossed!

Helen x

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Vegetarian Yummyness...

Had a super-fun night last night cooking for and catching-up with friends, one of whom is vegetarian.

I'm always really conscious that people who are vegetarian or have food dislikes/intolerances aren't left out in the food department while everyone else scoffs away at the 'normal' food! I'm also pretty lazy and would rather cook one meal than lots of variations to accommodate everyone. So, my mission last night was cook a meal everyone would enjoy, vegetarians and non-vegetarians, that took minimal faffing on the night after a hard working week....

The answer was to prepare a menu where as much as possible was done in advance (and actually, the flavours tasted better for it) and was sufficiently robust to satisfy the carnivores too!

I made a Moroccan vegetable stew, which was rich and sweet, and served it with herby-apricot quinoa. For dessert we indulged in chocolate mousse with macaroons and we rounded everything off with an amazing cheese board (a birthday present from my lovely friend, Kaye).

The stew was really easy and the recipe allows for lots of personal variation....

Ingredients:

• Selection of vegetables (I used 1 fennel bulb, 1 red onion, 2 carrots, 1 aubergine, 1 red pepper)
• 400g tin of chickpeas
• Selection of Moroccan spices (I used a mix from Schwartz but you could just use ground cumin, coriander seed and cinnamon)
• Olive oil
• 800g (2 tins) of chopped tomatoes (I used the ones with added garlic)
• Handful of chopped apricots
• Handful of raisins
• Moroccan tagine paste (optional - I used Salisbury's paste from their Cooks Ingredients section, but you could just mix oil, tomato puree, seasoning and a spoon of your spice mix to get a similar product
• Cinnamon stick (optional)

1. Chop all your vegetables into cube and mix with 1 tbsp of your spice mix and a good glug of oil
2. Roast these for 40 mins (suggest 180c/GM 3)
3. Whilst roasting is underway, mix your tomatoes, 1 tbsp paste, cinnamon stick, drained chickpeas, raisins and apricots in a pan and simmer on a low heat
4. When you vegetables are roasted, tip into your tomato mix and stir through

You can eat this straight away, but I think the flavours infuse more if you leave overnight.

I prepared a simple side of quinoa and apricots to serve this with. You can replace the quinoa with cous cous, bulgar wheat, orzo etc...

To make this, simply cook the appropriate amount of your chosen grain and mix with chopped apricots (use the juicy plump ones or alternatively simmer them in water to plump up first), pistachios, pine nuts, lemon zest, lemon juice, chopped flat leaf parsley, chopped mint, olive oil and seasoning. Clearly, you can easily adapt this with whatever you've got to hand! Flaked almonds are a nice addition too.

Pudding was a pretty special chocolate mousse (recipe from Good Food magazine), served with Macaroons (still attempting to master these...definite improvements still to be made!)...

Chocolate Mousse (make 12 hours before...)
Serves 4

• 85g dark chocolate (70% cocoa content - the good stuff!)
• 1 tbsp cocoa powder
• 1/2 tsp coffee granules
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 egg whites
• 1 tbsp caster sugar
• 50g full-fat greek yoghurt

1. Break chocolate into small pieces and mix in a bowl with the cocoa, coffee, vanilla and 2 tbsp cold water
2. Place bowl over saucepan of simmering water (don't let it touch the water)
3. Stir until melted, then add 2 tbsp boiling water, stir and take off the heat.
4. Whisk egg whites to soft peaks and then add sugar, whisking until thick and glossy
5. Stir yoghurt into your melted chocolate and then gradually fold in your egg whites (don't overmix or you'll lose your air)
6. Spoon into 4 serving dishes (I used cappuccino cups) and chill for 12 hours before serving

You can get the recipe for the Macaroons from my previous post and I made up the chocolate filling as I went (essentially butter, cocoa powder and icing sugar all mixed together to create a thick paste).

Our final course, was a huge selection of cheese, which was delivered to me from The Cheese Society. They have great monthly selections which are such a cool present to receive and soooooooo yuummy!

I stamped the names of the cheeses out with a cute little stamp set I bought from Muji. On the assumption that you've not got one of these immediately to hand, you could use a little paint brush and squid ink/food colouring....

...it's very helpful when you're drunk and can't remember which is which!! The Cheese Society send you cheese tasting notes too, which is fun. My favourite was the Duddleswell, firm and creamy, mmmm....

So there you have it! The vegetarian feast for non-vegetarians too. It's actually quite an apt post, as it's National Vegetarian Week from the 24th to the 30th of May! Coincidence rather than planning!

Coming up next week, adventures in pasta, hasty pastry and the introduction of Herman the German cake of friendship...(all will be explained!).

Much love,
Helen x

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