Quorn bacon warm salad with carmelised onions and sundried tomatoes

Here is what I served on Saturday night with a great bottle of red (Lust Colides by Some Young Punks) and tortilla (this one unfortunately shop bought)

It's a very hearty vegetarian salad but a delicious combination for a windy cold February evening.

Glazed Quorn rashers salad with carmelised shallots and sun-dried tomatoes
Serves 2 as a side dish 

Ingredients:
50g mixed salad leaves - spinach, watercress and rocket
a pack of Quorn bacon style rashers halved
2 medium banana shallots peeled and thinly sliced
handful of black olives halved
handful of baby plum tomatoes halved
a few sun-dried tomatoes rubbed gently in a paper towel to removed excessive oil then cut in thin strips
1 tsp of sugar
1 tbsp oil
1 tbsp chopped parsley

Glaze:
3 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp red wine vinegar
2 tbsp balsamic glaze
salt and pepper

Let's do it:
In a frying pan heat the spoon of oil and add shallots fry gently for 5-8 minutes until soft but do not let them brown. Sprinkle salt and sugar and gently cook for another 15 minutes until starting to carmelise then add sun-dried tomatoes. 
In the meantime arrange the leaves in a salad bowl, scatter olives and plum tomatoes halves over the leaves. Prepare the glaze mixing all above ingredients. 
Heat a little oil in a grill pan and fry rushers but do not let them become too brown or burnt, glaze using a brush and turn to the other side. Glaze on the other side and turn again. 
Arrange rushers in the salad bowl and scatter on the top carmelised onions with sun-dried tomatoes. Sprinkle parsley and the rest or some more of the glaze. Serve immediately with bread, Spanish tortilla or on its own as a modest but hearty supper.

Squash production - soup and cheescake

Hubby is out tonight so what do I do all evening ? Of course I am spending it in the kitchen!
Two cakes and a soup. My result tonight. The second cake is still in the oven so must become a part of a different story.

Coquina squash soup and squash& curd cheese cheesecake with a blueberries sauce

Coquina squash soup
Serves 4

Ingredients:
1/2 a leek - only green top part sliced
1 parsnip peeled and sliced
1 carrot peeled and sliced
600g peeled and cubed coquina squash
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp chili flakes
1/2 tsp ground ginger
20g butter a little oil
3 cubes of vegetarian oxo 
salt and pepper

Let's do it:
Melt the butter with a little bit of oil in a big pan. Add leeks and spices - chili flakes, cumin, ginger and fry for a few minutes.Then add all vegetables and crushed oxo cubes with your fingers and mix well until coated in spices, fry until starting sticking to the bottom. Pour hot water from the kettle - enough to cover vegetables and simmer until they are tender which takes around 15 minutes. Blend with a hand blender. Serve with creme fraiche and almond flakes if you like. Toasted or not toasted if you like. 

Squash & curd cheese cheesecake with blueberries sauce

This is an oddity, I used Dan Lepard's recipe Pumpkin cheescake as an inspiration but had my crazy professor moment and did all differently. I recommend using Dan's recipe. 
Aah and then there was the catastrophe when trying to transfer the cheesecake to a plate! Cutting long story short it became an upside down floor cheesecake! I wasn't sure if I should laugh or cry. Managed to rescue most and covered it with the blueberries sauce to keep its dignity!

Ingredients:
Base
For the base I recommend using Dan's recipe as I did a very odd thing - I crushed all sorts of biscuits - to be specific salted crackers, caramel digestives and hobnobs but kept the weight of 170g and then added around 50g of butter, blitzed it in a food processor and transferred to the spring form loose bottom tin. Left in the fridge to solidify.

Cheesecake
Now this is a bizarre concoction, again you may choose Dan's recipe. I simply experimented with what I had available so here they are:
300g coquina squash peeled and cut in small cubes
250g curd cheese (this can be replaced with quark)
150g  of vanilla cheese (serek waniliowy) easy to find in a polish shop but can be replace with a thick yogurt like onken or creme fraiche and added more sugar to compensate
3 eggs
1 tsp of vanilla extract
50g of brown sugar or more if using creme fraiche or yogurt
1 tbsp of lemon juice


Blueberry sauce
1 punnet (250g) of blueberries
30g brown sugar
1 tbsp of lemon juice

Let's do it:
Preheat the oven to 140C fan assisted. Boil the squash until soft, drain in a colander and leave to cool completely. In a food processor blend the squash with vanilla extract and sugar. Add curd cheese or quark and blitz again. Using a spatula scrape the bottom and sides each time you add another ingredient, add serek waniliowy or replacement and blitz briefly, finally add lemon juice eggs and do the final blitz. Transfer to the tin with the base, the mixture may seem a bit liquid but it will be fine. Bake in the preheated oven for 50 - 60 minutes. 
In a small sauce pan boil blueberries with sugar and lemon juice until start bursting. Leave it to cool completely. Pour over the cheesecake when both are completely cold.

Very quick cake for a weekday at work

This is a very quick and easy to make cake, one of those coffee cakes (tea loafs) that it's nice to have at work during week with a cup of coffee. Inspired by Taste of Home

Cinnamon, prunes and mixed peel tea loaf 

Ingredients:
2 cups ( 1 cup is a 250ml glass or mug) of flour
half a cup of light brown sugar
1 egg
1 cup buttermilk (1tsp of white vinegar or lemon juice mixed with milk, left to stand for 15 minutes)
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp bicarb soda

1/4 cup of sunflower oil
1/3 cup of dried fruit of your choice - in this recipe I used mixed peel and chopped dried prunes but I think it could be anything you like raisins, cranberries, cherries or a combination of some of them
1tbsp of cinnamon mixed with half 1/3 cup of muscovado sugar set aside
which could be replace with 1tbsp cocoa mixed with the same amount of sugar set aside


Let's do it:
Preheat the oven to 180C (fan assisted). Sieve flour with bicarb soda and salt into a bowl and mix with sugar. In another bowl mix egg with buttermilk and oil. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ones and mix briefly until just combined. Add dried fruit of your choice and transfer to a small tea loaf tin greased with a bit of oil and baking parchment lined in the bottom. Sprinkle over sugar with cinnamon or sugar with cocoa and using a knife swirl into the cake. Bake for 40-50 minutes until a clean skewer.

Strudel with blackcurrant conserve and frozen berries

 

I do not often bake strudels, in fact I don't think I did any beforehand, apart from Xmas stolen. The original recipe comes from White Plate- a beautiful polish blog and it sounded wonderful however not having any orange marmalade I did mine with blackcurrant conserve and frozen berries.

 

Strudel with blackcurrant conserve and frozen berries

 

Ingredients:

125ml warm milk

1tsp of instant yeast

1 egg

50g of butter melted and cooled

300g all purpose flour

20g sugar

pinch of salt

1tsp vanilla extract

 

For the filling:

2 handfuls of frozen berries

few tbsp. of blackcurrant conserve (approx. 100g)

1 tsp brown sugar, muscovado sugar or vanilla sugar

 

Glaze:

egg white mixed with 1tbsp of water

little sugar to sprinkle, the same as used for the filling

 

Let's do it:

Dissolve yeast in the warm milk, in a big bowl mix dry ingredients: flour, salt, sugar. Add milk, butter, vanilla extract and egg - bring all together and knead briefly until smooth. Put in a clean bowl cover with cling film and leave to double its size - this will take approx. 2 hours.

Preheat the oven to 170C (fan assisted) On a lightly floured surface using a roll pin roll the pastry to 1cm thick rectangle. Leaving 1cm but the fruit and then scatter the frozen berries finishing with sugar of your choice. Roll the strudel from the longer side, make sure that the seal underneath and the very gently roll "on the spot" to seal well, squeeze the sides together. Put on a flat baking tray with baking parchment and allow to rest for 30 - 40 minutes. Just before putting into the oven glaze with the egg white and sprinkle with little sugar the same you used for the filling. Bake for 25-30 minutes. 



 

 

Veggie butternut squash, chickpeas and spinach curry with tarka dhal and homemade naan bread

All to say about this combo is that it's simply delicious and perfect for when it's cold or it's raining. It's reviving and revitalising! Absolut perfection of veggie curries:) Based on Allegra McEvdy's recipe published in the guardian: Sweet potato curry

Veggie butternut squash, chickpeas and spinach curry with tarka dhal and homemade naan bread

Ingredients:

Naan
Makes 4
340g of all purpose flour
1 tsp of instant yeast
1tsp sugar
190ml warm water
1 tsp salt
2 tbsp of olive oil
2/3 cup of plain yogurt
Nigella seeds
20g of butter melted

Tarka dhal
3 tbsp of oil
8 cloves of garlic, peeled and roughly chopped
4 cardamom pods, crushed seeds removed and the shells discarded
1 tbsp of mixed seeds: coriander, cumin, mustard seeds
250g of green split peas

Curry
400g butternut squash, peeled deseeded and cut into 2cm chunks
400g carrots, peeled and sliced
1 tin of chickpeas, drained and rinsed
200g of fresh spinach
1 tin of coconut milk
3 banana shallots, peeled and chopped
60 ml of oil
1 tbsp turmeric
2 tbsp of mixed curry spice, or make your own using ground spice (except for mustard seeds) as follows: 1tsp cumin, 1 tsp coriander, 1/3 tsp fenugreek, 1/3 tsp chilli powder, 1/3 tsp ginger,1/2 tsp mustard seeds
1, 5 tsp of chilli flakes
squeezed juice of a half a lime

Let's do it:
Start with naan. In a bowl mix warm water with yeast and sugar, leave to stand for 30 minutes until frothy on the top. Add flour, olive oil, yogurt, salt and mix well. The dough is very sticky but try to briefly knead it on a floured surface. Put in a clean oiled bowl and leave to rise for 1-2hours.

Now it's time to get your tarka dhal started. Heat the oil in a pan, add garlic, cardamom seeds and the mix of seeds. Gently fry for a few minutes until golden and stir the split peas coating well in the oil, seeds and garlic. Pour in approx. 700 ml of water, bring to boil and simmer for 1 hour until the water has evaporated and peas are soft.

When tarka dhal is cooking and naan dough is still rising start the curry - heat the oil in a big pan add the chopped shallots and fry for 5 minutes with the lid on. Next add the spices and chilli flakes followed by the carrots and squash stir well to cover vegetables and fry on a high gas until sticks to the bottom. Stir the spinach in, when starts wilting add some salt, chickpeas, coconut milk and mix well. Bring to boil and simmer on a medium gas for up to 30 minutes until carrots and squash are tender. Season well and add the lime juice.

Preheat the oven to 220C (fan assisted) When naan dough has risen and doubled or tripled it's size knocked it down on a lightly floured surface and cut into four balls. Flatten each of four balls using your fingers and shape them into naans. Arrange on a oiled flat baking tray or foil, sprinkle with Nigella seeds and using your fingers gently pat into the dough. Leave to rest on the baking tray for 15 minutes. Bake for 12 minutes until golden brown. Brush with melted butter.
Serve all together in a big bowl with plain yogurt and rice.
 

Spinach and chard tart and unexpectedly some biscuits

Ideal for a snack, ideal for a lunch box, ideal for a comfort of homemade tart in a very long month such as January is.
 
Spinach and chard tart

Ingredients:
For the pastry:
- 200g all purpose flour
-  125g chilled butter cut in small cubes
- 1/2tsp salt
- 1 yolk
- 2 tbsp cold water

For the filling:
- 50g of butter
-250g of mixed spinach and chard leaves
- 3 banana shallots peeled and finely chopped
- 2 cloves of garlic crushed
- 1 tsp dried thyme
- 1 tsp lemon thyme (leaves only)
- salt and pepper

For the cream & cheese mix:
 - 3 eggs
- 250ml soured cream
- 25g pecorino cheese grated 
- 125g of mozzarella or feta (a packet from any supermarket)
- salt and pepper

Let's do it:
Pastry - sift flour and salt into a bowl, add butter and with your fingers rub until fine breadcrumbs. Next add the yolk and water, bring together and wrap in cling film, chill for a half an hour.
On a dusted with flour surface roll the pastry so it bigger than your 25cm tart baking tray. Line the pastry in the tart tray, cut off the excess of the pastry and prick the base with a fork, chill for 30 minutes. When chilling preheat the oven to 190C (fan assisted) Next line the pastry with a baking paper and baking beans. Bake for 15 minutes then remove thepaper and beans, bake for 5 more minutes and leave to cool.
Meanwhile for the filling melt the butter with a little bit of oil add shallots, garlic and dried thyme and lemon thyme - fry on a low gas for around 5min. Keep gradually adding the leaves until wilted and season well. Leave to cool.
In a bowl lightly beat eggs, add soured cream, cheese, salt and pepper and beat well.
Scatter over the tart case greens and pour over the creamy mixture. Torn mozzarella ball with your fingers or if using feta crumble feta with your fingers and arrange bits evenly on the top.
Bake for 25 minutes until golden and set. Great with a simple salad or as a part of a bigger meal with boiled potatoes. Enjoy!

And here is some little extra from the remained excess pastry - biscuits! Hurrah!

Now for the pastry we cut off - I personally do not like throwing away anything so if you want some biscuits for a dessert and little to do add to the remaind pastry 1 tbsp of muscovado sugar, 1/4 tsp of vanilla essence and optionally a little bit of any colour (red for me) food colouring paste and then quickly bring it together and chill until you are done with the tart and it's in the oven. Next roll the pastry on the lightly floured surface and cut individual biscuits using whatever shape of biscuit cutter.
Bake in 160C (fan assisted) for 10-12 minutes.
Here you are not much more work and lovely biscuits to accompany your weekend cuppa:)

Do you remember XMas cake

It's got a bit cold so I decided to make a cake in a bit of a nostalgic post Xmas spirit, it is a pumpkin puree and Xmas spices tea loaf.

It was inspired by a recipe from a polish blog Mala Cukierenka

Spiced pumpkin tea loaf

The measurements are in cups - a cup is 250ml glass

Ingredients:
2 cups of all purpose flour
1 tsp of baking soda

pinch of salt
2/3 glass of caster sugar
1/2 tsp of cinnamon
1/2 tsp of nutmeg
1/2 tsp of gloves
1/2 glass of dried cranberries or barberries (smaller and more sour berries)

3/4 glass of pumpkin puree 
1/2 glass of  honey or agava syrup
1/3 glass of half fat creme fraiche or yogurt
2 eggs
1/2 tsp of vanilla extract
1/4 glass of sunflower oil
1 tbsp of mixed peel
2 tbsp of almond flakes

Let's do it:

Preheat the oven to 170C (fan assisted), brush with a bit of oil a tea loaf cake tin and put a strip of baking parchment on the bottom of the tin.
Mix dry ingredients in one bowl - flour, baking soda, salt, sugar, spices and add berries.
In another bowl mix wet ingredients - puree, honey or agava syrup, creme fraiche, eggs, vanilla extract and oil. Stir the wet mixture into the dry one and mix briefly until fully incorporated. Transfer to the tin and sprinkle some mixed peel and almond flakes on the top. Bake for 40-50 minutes or until the skewer comes clean.