Quick summer salmon and crushed new potatoes lunch

Here is lunchtime on bank holiday Monday. Looking into the fridge what can I make quickly and efortless and of course what goes together well. So here it is salmon, potatoes and french beans - they certainly do not dislike each other:)

Salmon crushed potatoes and french beans quick assemble
Serves 2

Ingredients:

120g of smoked salmon - cut into smaller strips
150-200g boiled new potatoes
50g boiled and halved french beans
half a lemon cut into wedges
100g of cream cheese
3 tbsp of natural yogurt
dill
2 spring onions or chives
salt and pepper
1tsp of drained capers

Let's do it:
 
Mix cream cheese with yogurt, add some lemon juice, dill, spring onions, capers and season. Check if the flavours are to your liking. Using fork crush the potatoes with 2tbps of the cheese/yogurt mixture and transfer to a plate. On top of potatoes arrange the salmon and beans. Cover with the rest of the cheese/ yogurt mixture. Decorate with lemon wedges/ slices. Serve with bread.

Berry crustless cheescake

We've been having a really nice weather this bank holiday weekend! This awaken a desire for a summer dessert, which in this instance is a crustless cheescake.
This is inspired by Hugh F-W 's recipe published in the Guardian in September 2012: http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2012/sep/07/damson-recipes-hugh-fearnley-whittingstall

Summer berry crustless cheesecake

Ingredients:
500g ricotta
100g light cream cheese
50g unsalted butter - melted and cooled slightly
2 tbsp semolina
100g caster sugar
2 medium eggs
grated zest of one lemon and one lime

Berries:
1 punnet of raspberries, one of strawberries and one of blueberries but any fruit combination will do - all together around 500-600g of fruit

Let's do it:
Preheat the oven to 170C (fan assisted) and butter a springform cake, preferably 20cm - mine is 24cm which worked well although the cheesecake was flatter. 
Mix the cheeses with a wooden spoon until smooth and stir in all other ingredients. Transfer into the springform and bake for around 30-35 minutes until set.
Serve with fresh berries, berries compote (which I made with 50g of caster sugar and good squeeze of lemon juice). Also good addition make ice cream, frozen yogurt or plain yogurt.
Happy Bank Holiday;)

Back with the cake - Very berry courgette lime and coconut cake

I can't believe that it's been so long since my last post, I guess it only proves that time flies:) And what a cliche this is;-)
Anyway back with a cake recipe. Adding vegetables to your cake is no longer a strange idea. This one is with a courgette but also coconut berries and lime.

It is adapted from Harry Eastwood's book Red Velvet and Chocolate Heartache

Very berry courgette lime and coconut cake

Ingredients:

for the base
80g caster sugar
20g unsalted butter
pinch of salt
120g desiccated coconut
30g fine semolina

for the sponge:
2 medium free range eggs
150g caster sugar
150 g peeled and finely grated courgette
zest and juice of 2 limes

120g white rice flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
200 g of frozen berries mix

Let's do it:

Preheat the oven to 180C (fan assisted) Line the base of the spring form tin with a baking paper and brush sides of the tin with a bit of sunflower or any other oil.
Base - butter, sugar and a pinch of salt put in a saucepan and dissolve until it becomes a paste on a low gas. Tip the coconut and semolina to a bowl add the paste and mix together with your hand, it will be loose and crumbly. Transfer this into the spring form and bake for up to 15minutes. Be careful as sugar and coconut burn easily so 12-13 minutes maybe enough.
Sponge - beat the eggs with sugar using a hand mixer until light and pale. Add the courgette and lime zest and beat shortly. Add the flour, baking powder, salt and lime juice. As the rice flour is very light I stir all the remained ingredients with a spoon as the batter was very spluttering when I was using the hand mixer. Pour the mixture over the base. Gently rub little flour on berries which will prevent them falling to the bottom of the cake and scatter them over the top. Bake for 30 minutes.
Take out of the oven and cool in the spring form before removing.
Taste wonderful but even better on the next day!

Quick healthy veggie supper - veggie chorizo, egg and spinach salad and papaya yogurt mix

Super quick supper on a warm evening (finally the spring arrived:)

Veggie chorizo, egg and spinach salad
Serves generously 2 hungry veggie individuals


Ingredients:
150g of baby spinach
3 hard boiled eggs, cooled and peeled and quartered
1 red pepper cut into strips or cubes
1 tomato halved and cut into slices
a handful of green or black olives halved 
a pack of veggie chorizo
olive oil or rapeseed oil 
salt & pepper

Let's do it:
Arrange on a bed of spinach in a salad bowl layers of vegetables and chorizo, add some olive oil or rapeseed oil and season well. Top with egg quarters.

And for the dessert healthy papaya&yogurt fix. Everything that is not full of fat and sugar is sort of ok;) but it is a quick and healthy sugar fix!




Papaya with yogurt
 Serves 1 or 2modest individuals

Ingredients:
papaya, peeled deseeded and cubed
100g greek style yogurt
1 tbsp of lime juice
1 tsp of desiccated coconut (optional)
blackberries to serve (optional)

Let's do it:
Blitz papaya in the food processor until smooth. Beat the yogurt with a whisk and add half of the papaya puree and the lime juice. In a big wine glass pour the papaya puree and then the yogurt mix. Top with dessicated coconut and blackberries or any other fruit of your choice.

Almond biscotti time

Tonight I am making biscotti. I have been trying many cakes lately, some with a greater result and some with not so great:-) Some of those lesser episodes made me want to stop but here I am! And no I am not going to give up!


Almond biscotti
Makes approx. 20 biscotti

Ingredients:
2 medium eggs 
a pinch of salt
80g of ground almonds
140g of flour
1tsp baking powder
2 tsp of vanilla extract
50g of icing sugar
90g of  mix of dried fruit & nut - as I had bits and bobs of all sorts I ended up adding sultanas, dried cranberries, almond flakes and blanched almonds, but ideally next time it will be just dried cranberries or sour cherries and blanched almonds.

Let's do it
Preheat the oven to 160C. In a bowl beat eggs with a pinch of salt and then add flour, ground almonds, vanilla extract, baking powder icing sugar and the mix of fruit and nuts and form a dough. It is a bit sticky so sprinkle some flour on the worktop. Roll the dough into a log - around 8cm wide and 2cm thick. Transfer onto a flat baking tray with a baking paper on. Bake for 25 minutes. Take out of the oven and let it cool for around 10-15 minutes. Then cut into slices 1cm thick with a serrated knife. Arrange in the same baking tray on the paper. Bake 5 minutes on each side. Allow to cool completely. Store in a sealed container for up to a week.

Baked salmon with crushed potatoes, green beans and black olive tapenade

I think I fell into a time whole as I did not post anything for ages. Finally it's warmer in London and a kind of spring arrived;) 

Baked salmon with crushed potatoes, green beans and black olive tapenade
Serves 2

Salmon
Two frozen salmon fillets
 Butter
Oil
Slices of lemon

Preheat the oven to 200C (fan assisted). Pour a tablespoon or two of oil into a baking tray and put the fillets in. Top each fillet with a couple of small slices of butter, black pepper and slices of lemon. Bake for 35 minutes.

Crushed potatoes
250g of new potatoes/ Charlotte potatoes
Olive oil/ rapeseed oil
Salt and pepper
Chopped chives

Wash the potatoes and cut into smaller pieces, boil in salted water until tender for 15 - 18 minutes and drain. Pour over 2 tablespoons of olive oil or rapeseed oil, season and crush the potatoes with a fork.

Tapenade
This makes more tapenade than you need for your dinner but it's so delicious that can be eaten with anything! Can be stored in a sealed container in a fridge for up to two weeks.
180g black pitted olives
a juice of one small lemon
2 tbsp of capers, drained
6 anchovies fillets, rinsed
1 garlic clove, peeled and chopped finely
 parsley
basil leaves
salt and pepper
2-4 tbsp of olive oil or rapeseed oil

Tip all the ingredients to a food processor and whizz briefly if you prefer a coarse texture or for longer if you prefer a smooth texture.

Serve as on the picture below:) Enjoy!

One of the quickest breads I know

I was about to polish off the cauliflower and almond soup from last night but all of a sudden I realised that all those wonderful three breads I baked for Easter are now gone. How can have a bowl of soup without bread? So I started thinking what's the quickest bread to make? I eagerly searched on-line and here is what resulted in this quick creation. Within 40 minutes of starting the preps the bread was ready. 

Very quick rye soda bread
Adapted from Hugh Fearnly-Whittingstall's Rye and honey soda bread

Ingredients
250 g stoneground rye flour
1 tsp bicarbonate soda
1/4 tsp salt
80g seed mix of your choice, I added the omega sprinkle mix from Holland& Barret
100ml full fat milk
100ml natural yogurt
5tbsp agave nectar
1 tbs rapeseed oil


Let's do it
Preheat the oven to 200C (fan assisted) and grease a flat baking tray with oil and sprinkle with flour.
Mix the flour with bicarb soda, salt and the seeds. 
In a separate bowl or measuring jug mix milk, yogurt, agave nectar and rapeseed oil. Pour over the dry ingredients and mix quickly but thoroughly. The dough will be sticky, so using a spatula transfer it onto the baking tray and shape into a more or less round loaf 7-8 cm high,  sprinkle over some rye flour and make a halfway through cross incision. Bake for 25-30 minutes until golden brown. Take out of the oven and tap the bottom of the bread, if it sounds hollow than the bread is done. Cool on a wire rack.