Inspired by Italy: Butter bean, sun-dried tomato and pesto soup

So, here is the first course of this week's Monday Menu; Butter bean, sun-dried tomato and pesto soup.

Generally I'm loathe to serve soup as a starter as I find by the time I've eaten it, I'm too full to do justice to the remaining dishes. That said, this menu is quite a light affair and I think the soup has it's place both in it's offer of flavour, warmth and substance.

This recipe is easy and quick! You can prepare and serve in less than 10 minutes, which makes the whole '3-course dinner' a more manageable experience, even on a school night!

Butter beans are so versatile and I often use them in dips, stews and salads. In a soup, they add a certain creaminess without the expected fat content. One note on the ingredients to consider.....Using both stock and pesto can make the dish quite salty, so adjust to taste and add any seasoning at the end.

Enjoy cooking,
Helen

Butter Bean, Sun-dried Tomato and Pesto Soup

Ingredients (serves 4)

• 900ml Vegetable stock
• 2 x 400g Butter beans (drained)
• 4 tbsp Sun-dried tomato puree
• 5 tbsp Green pesto

Step 1: Boil stock and butter beans for 2 minutes

Step 2: Add pesto and tomato puree and simmer for 5 minutes

Step 3: Blend soup to a smooth consistency

Step 4: Season and serve

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Lebanese Feasting: Home Made Cumin Flat Bread and Coriander Houmous

Today, I'm sharing the starter recipe that forms part of Monday's 'Lebanese Feasting' Menu.

I chose this for a starter as a light option, given the main is lamb and the pudding is sticky buns! I also wanted to try to make flatbreads, something I usually buy.

I like that the flatbreads take minimal kneading and only need 15 minutes to rest, so they are pretty quick to do. Taste wise, the cumin adds something extra than the normal wholemeal variety.

I think it's best to make the houmous first and then you can chill it while you get busy with your flatbreads. The recipe makes 6 large flatbreads and ample houmous to go round! You'll need to get hold of tahini to make your houmous. Tahini is a creamy sesame paste, available from delis and large supermarkets. I found mine near the pulses in Sainsbury’s if it helps!

Hope you enjoy making, next up....Spicy Lamb Tart!

Coriander Houmous

Ingredients

• 400g tin chickpeas (drained)
• 3 tbsp tahini
• bunch coriander (rough chopped)
• 1 lemon (grated and juiced)
• 100ml olive oil
• salt (to taste)

Step 1: Add all ingredients, excluding oil, to a food processor and blend until combined to a rough puree

Step 2: Leaving the food processor on and slowly poor oil into your mix to combine

Step 3: Add water and blend to loosen if required (I needed about 15ml)

Step 4: Add salt and additional lemon to taste

Step 5: Remove from processor and chill


Cumin Flatbread

Ingredients

• 125g wholemeal flour
• 125g white bread flour (+additional for dusting)
• 2 tbsp Greek yoghurt
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tsp cumin seeds

Step 1: Combine all ingredients, excluding oil, and combine with sufficient water to make a dough (likely to be 200-300ml)

Step 2: Knead your dough, either with a mixer and dough hook or by hand, until smooth

Step 3: Knead in 2 tbsp olive oil and leave to rest for 15 minutes

Step 4: Divide into 6 balls and roll out onto a floured surface to a thickness of about 2mm

Step 5: Heat a pan to a high heat and a rolled flatbread. After 2-3 minutes it will start to bubble. Flip over and toast for another 2-3 minutes. Remove, set aside to cool and repeat with the remaining 5 flatbreads

Step 6: Serve with heapings of houmous!

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Posh Onion and Fig Tart Tatin served with Parmesan Ice-Cream

I got a little bit carried away with this one....

I rather fell in love with the picture of Italian simplicity below and decided to give the recipe a go..

It was as advertisement from Discover the Origin, a campaign to publicise Italian ingredients, and I thought it looked like a nice, indulgent treat. However, it was a bit of a faff..... The Parmesan ice cream had to be made the day before and I had to trudge around Nottingham to buy figs (Sainsbury's & Tesco's both failed me, though I did discover a rather lovely fruit and veg shop that saved the day!).

After all the faffing, I still found the ice cream to be grainy (sometimes happens with homemade ice cream made without a machine), the figs somewhat redundant and the parma ham a slightly odd addition (clearly, I'm a heathen). My partner quite enjoyed it, which is fine because I wont be making the dish again! So why write about it here you may ask??

We'll, I was rather impressed by the onion tatin. Dark, flavoursome onions, enhanced greatly by the addition of Marsala and thyme and finished simply with ready-made puff pastry. For that reason, I've only included the recipe for the onion tatin below (minus the figs) - however, if anyone wants the entire recipe to better my attempt, drop me an e-mail.

Onion and Thyme Tart Tatin (serves 4)

• 1 sheet puff pastry
• 50g butter
• 4 large onions, sliced
• 2 tsp caster sugar
• 2 tsp best balsamic vinegar
• 1 tsp thyme leaves, chopped
• 2 tbsp Marsala

Step 1: Preheat oven to 180c

Step 2: Sweat onions in butter until golden and soft (about 15 minutes, don't rush this bit!). Add the Marsala and thyme leaves and stir though until absorbed

Step 3: Using the tart tin you intend to bake with, place upside down on the pastry and cut out circles for the tart base. Leave to one side for now.

Step 4: Add the onions to your greased chosen tart tins (I used individual but you can use a large tin if you want to serve in slices).

Step 5: Cover with your pastry circle and gently tuck down the side of the dish

Step 6: Bake for 20 minutes (small tart) 25 minutes (large tart), until pastry is golden brown.

Step 7: Run a knife round the edge and, using a serving plate over the top, flip out to serve

Step 8: Serve warm with salad or vegetables

Hope you 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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Homemade Pumpkin Ravioli

There are so many factors that come into play when deciding whether to cook a dish or buy a dish ready made....Have I got the time? How much does it cost to buy? How much time will it take me to prepare? Is there really going to be a noticeable difference between the bought and made dish?.....

I think that, when faced with these questions, there are a few core staples that often get the 'buy' rather than 'make' decision. For me, there are:

• Pastry (I'm still not very good at this!)
• Bread (so much kneading and proving and waiting etc...)
• Pasta (so much equipment required and so many nice, ready made choices

However, I have learnt that when you tackle these and take on their challenge, they seem to generate happiness in abundance for you and for others. Part pride and part amazement that you can pull it off, the feeling they generate ensures that the occasional 'make' decision for these pays off.

Pasta has been the one I've avoided for some time, assuming you need so much equipment to do it. So, I bought the equipment (the pasta maker, ravioli mould etc...) and actually found that it worked better when I just used a rolling pin and my fingers! A food mixer with a dough hook will make the kneading stage considerably easier, but it's by no means a requirement. You'll just have to get your arm muscles ready otherwise...

I made pumpkin and sweet potato ravioli (inspired by a Rick Stein recipe), but once you've cracked it, you can play around with the fillings to your hearts delight! I fancy making a goats cheese and pesto filling next time.....

Pumpkin and Sweet Potato Ravioli with Sage Butter (serves 4 as a starter)

Pasta

• 225g plain flour
• ¼ tsp salt
• ½ tsp olive oil
• 2 medium eggs
• 4 medium eggs, yolks only

Filling

• 300g pumpkin and sweet potato mix (I used Sainsbury's prepared bag)
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tsp fennel seeds (grind lightly in pestle and mortar)
• 1 medium egg, yolk only
• 25g Parmesan cheese
• 1/2 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
• 2 amaretti biscuits (crushed)
• 15g fresh white breadcrumbs
• seasoning

Sage Butter

• 75g salted butter
• 20 sage leaves

Step 1: Preheat oven to 200c/GM 6. Spread the pumpkin and sweet potato in a even layer on a baking sheet, drizzle with olive oil and roast for 30 minutes

Step 2: Whilst vegetables are roasting, make the pasta. In a large bowl (or food mixer bowl) add all the pasta ingredients and mix together. Then you'll need to knead. If you have a dough hook, attach to mixer and let it do it's thing for 10 minutes. If you haven't, flour your surface and knead for 10 minutes. Essentially you need to create a pliable, elastic dough.

Step 3: Wrap your pasta dough in cling-film and rest for 20 minutes

Step 4: Remove your roasted vegetables and puree them (either with a blender stick or the back of a fork). Add to the vegetables all of the remaining filling ingredients and stir through to combine

Step 5: If you have a pasta machine, divide your dough into manageable pieces and feed through the machine (you'll need to work it down to setting number 2 for ravioli). If you've not got a machine, don't worry! Just take small pieces of pasta and roll them into a thin disk on a lightly floured surface
Step 6: Cut the pasta into squares (about 8cm squared - but you don't need to be too exact!) and add a tsp of the filling in the middle

Step 7: Fold the pasta over the filling so all the sides meet. Squeeze out any air and press the sides together to seal them (you may need to add a little water to the edge with your finger if it's not sticking). Repeat until all of your filling has been used (should make about 16).

Step 8: Boil a saucepan of salted water and reduce to a simmer. Gently place your ravioli into the water and cook for about 4 minutes

Step 9: Whilst the ravioli is cooking, make your sauce. Melt the butter in a saucepan on a high heat. Add the sage leaves to fry in the butter (the butter should start to foam). Remove from the heat.

Step 10: Drain you ravioli and place on warmed dishes. Pour over your sage butter and serve.

So there you have it. Fresh pasta, straight from your kitchen! Realistically, this takes a least 1 hour to prepare, so I think it's more of a special occasion dish...on week nights I'll revert to the ready made option!

Top Tips

• There are a few tools you can invest in if you want to create less rustic ravioli....

....Lakeland Ravioli Press (around £14)...

...Pastry Wheel (about £22)...

• A pasta maker will be a good investment if you want to make lasagna sheets, spaghetti etc.. You can get manual or automatic ones...Honestly though, I think you need to make pasta quite a lot to justify the investment

Hope you enjoy,
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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Holiday Memories

Feedahappylife has been on holiday! Not that you'd know it with all the chip & dip posting that's been occuring!

Anyway, I've been off on my travels to Greece, specifically the island of Rhodes, and have returned happy, refreshed and full of lovely memories.

Holidays for me are generally, and perhaps not surprisingly, remembered by the food I indulged in at the time. A childhood trip to France evokes thoughts of beach picnics with sand-covered Boursin and crusty bread. A school trip to Italy brings back unhappy thoughts of over-cooked veal and omelet sandwiches abandoned in a bin in Rome. A trip to Canada remembered by Steamroller Burritos whilst watching the sunset. You get the idea!

During my last few holidays, I've tried to get a little deeper into local food culture by walking round food markets and attending cookery classes during my trip. It's such an enjoyable way to get off the tourist trail, meet local residents and take some unique memories home.

A little searching in Rhodes led me to a cookery course at the Melenos Lindos hotel - a mere 10 minute drive from where I was staying.

I arrived for my class with little knowledge of who I was about to meet and what I was about to cook! Upon being ushered into the kitchen I was delighted to realise I had three chefs all to myself for the ninety minute lesson, where I was to cook Tsatziki, Moussaka and Feta Parcels. I also received a tour of their gardens, where the hotel grew so much of their own produce, and saw fat almonds ripening on trees.

I thought I'd share the lovely recipes with you over the next few blog posts, so you can try them too! I've written the recipe for the Feta Filo parcels below, next I'll post the recipe for the amazing Moussaka mid-week and then I'll conclude at the weekend with a selection of my own mezze recipes (great for indulging in whilst the football is on!).

Feta Filo Parcels (recipe courtesy of Melenos Lindos)

Serves 1

                                

3 sheets of filo pastry

1 large cube of feta (200g)

Zest of 1 lime

Water

Sesame seeds (50g plain and 50g black)

Honey

Olive oil (for frying)

Step 1. Lay out 3 sheets of filo on top of each other, place the feta towards 1 end of the filo and top with half of the lime zest.

                                                

Step 2. Apply water to the edges of the filo and fold sides over the feta and roll over to form a parcel.

                                                

                                                

Step 3. Quickly dip/brush water over the parcel and roll in the sesame seeds

Step 4. Heat enough oil in a pan to fry the parcels. Test the heat by dropping a sesame seed into the oil - it needs to be hot enough to sizzle immediately. Carefully place the parcels into the hot oil and turn after 3 minutes. Both sides should be golden brown before removing the parcels to rest briefly on kitchen roll.

Step 5. Plate up the parcel with remaining zest and honey drizzled over. Eat immediately!

The honey really complements the saltiness of the feta and the lime lifts it all with a summery finish. I shared mine, as I found it quite rich, but think it would make a great vegetarian main with a nice salad.

Hope you enjoy - best moussaka recipe ever coming next!

Helen x

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