Ren Behan - Author Wild Honey and Rye

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Simple and in Season September ‘Savoury’ Recipe Round-Up

This month the Simple and in Season link-up had 45 entries! Granted, the round was open slightly longer than usual, but the end of summer and beginning of autumn did bring an abundance of seasonal treats.

So, for this round-up, I have split the entries into Savoury and Sweet – and we’ll start with a round up of savoury recipes before moving onto dessert with plenty of inspiration in time for National Baking Week!

Savoury Entries

We start with a recipe from Lauren over at The Past on A Plate who made a Beetroot and Apple Salad – prefect for the competition, it’ simple and it’s in season! I love Lauren’s retro-style photo.

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Winners: National Chocolate Week Giveaway x 2

Thank You very much to everyone who entered the two giveaways this week in celebration of National Chocolate Week

The winner of Giveaway # 1 who wins a selection of chocolate bars selected by Mostly About Chocolate in her pick of the best high street bars is Lisa Adams May.

The winner of Giveaway #2 who wins a Hotel Chocolat The Purist Hamper is Deborah Nicholas

I will be in touch by email to arrange your prizes to be sent out.

Well Done!

Winner: I Love to Bake by Tana Ramsay

Thank you to everyone who entered the I Love to Bake giveaway – the winner is Shaheen. I hope you enjoy some seasonal baking.

Please contact me ASAP so that I can arrange for Tana’s book to be sent out.

Ultimate Ice-Cream Sundae (Nigella)

When I read that the theme for Maison Cupcake’s seventh Forever Nigella blog event was ‘Iced Dreams’ (this month hosted by Arthi at Soul Curry) there was no thought process involved – it was straight for the peanut butter, dark chocolate, double cream and golden syrup for me.

This really could have been a ‘Silent Sunday’ post with just a picture and no words because there really are no words to describe how good this ice-cream sundae is.

The sauce for the sundae is SO easy to make and it transforms a simple bowl or glass of ice-cream into something truly spectacular. It is worthy of a place at the dinner party table (does anyone still have dinner parties or has this been relegated to watching Come Dine with Me on the TV?) or at any barbecue or even just for those sofa evenings when a good dose of comfort food is required. 
The recipe is on-line at Nigella.com and is called ‘Chocolate Peanut Butter Fudge Sundae’ or it can be found in Nigella Express – my most used Nigella book. 
Make it! 
 
Nigella calls it her “ultimate ice-cream sundae” and I love her attempt at a disclaimer: “Obviously, if you’re not a peanut-eater, it won’t be for you, but for everyone else it is the stuff of dreams.”
Nigella suggests using a combination of toffee, vanilla and chocolate ice-cream but this time I went for a white chocolate number, obviously smothered in the peanut sauce and topped it with chopped hazlenuts. In actual fact the ice-cream is just a minor detail – it’s the sauce you want – and plenty of it!
 
If you have any left, you can store it in the fridge and just gently re-heat when needed or do as I do and stir some into hot milk to make a peanut butter hot chocolate once the sun has gone down. Mnnnnn.

 

Do take a look at the current Forever Nigella challenge and rules and join in! It’s a very popular blog event and a great way to share the Nigella love and discover new blogs! Thank you Sarah and Arthi for hosting.
 

Polish Potato Salad

Once again I am totally overwhelmed by all the entries into Simple and in Season – June – the monthly blogging event here at Fabulicious Food! showcasing some of the very best seasonal produce. Some of the recipes linked-up used British local produce and some were shared from much further afield, including Dubai and the States.

I will be announcing a winner shortly and producing what I am sure will be a spectacular round-up.
In the meantime, here is my entry – a lovely comforting Polish Potato Salad made with a freshly picked selection of British new potatoes from an organic vegetable box delivered to me by Andrew at Riverford Organic – thank you Andrew! 
I am new to the veg box delivery scheme and I’ve found it to be a wonderful way to incorporate fresh, seasonal produce into our diet.  Fruit and vegetable box schemes support local farmers and as often as possible, the produce is sourced locally. You can check on Riverford Organic’s website to see whether they deliver to you and to see which farm your produce will mostly come from.  
My box came with a handy booklet of recipes, though this one is a salad made to my Mother’s recipe.  Receiving a fruit or veg box does encourage you to become quite creative in the kitchen!
We also enjoyed a lovely fresh carrot soup, salads and fajitas using the mushrooms and onions in the box. We’re working our way through the rest so I’m sure there will be more recipes to come.
The secret to this salad is to chop everything, including your peeled potatoes, into very small cubes. The egg can even be mashed with a fork. You end up with a really tasty accompaniment to an outdoor picnic or lunch. I served mine with my mum’s Polish meatballs – the best! I promise to share the recipe for those too…soon.
Polish Potato Salad
(My Mother’s Recipe)

Serves 2

Ingredients:

6-7 peeled and cooked potatoes (new or waxy potatoes work best)
1 hard boiled egg, peeled and mashed with a fork
1 pickled gherkin, very finely chopped
1 tablespoon dill (fresh is best but dry works ok too)
2 tablespoons mayonnaise (I use a Polish brand called Winiary but any is fine)
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard

Method:

1. Add your chopped potatoes, egg, gherkin and dill into a bowl.

2. Add in the mayonnaise and mustard.

3. Stir well. The salad is best refrigerated for a short while before eating.

Congratulations to the winner of The Real Food Cookbook

Thank you to everyone who entered the competiton for the newly released Real Food Cookbook. The winner was chosen by an online randomiser – @stephanie246. I will contact you via Twitter and the book will be on its way.

Thanks!

Easter Menu Planning – Sharing the ‘Foodily’ love!

I’m stealing a few moments to myself, while my little one is sleeping, to tell you about a handy little website I came across this week which you may find useful to help you with menu planning, particularly as it’s coming up to Easter.

The website is called Foodily.com (Food I Love You) and it is a Californian site, described as “the world’s largest recipe network, bringing together recipes from across the web so you can compare any recipe.”  Essentially, it is a food search engine that allows you to search for food and compare the results in a side-by-side comparison view.

Recipes are taken from all over the web, including BBC Good Food, Martha Stewart, Fine Cooking, Epicurious.com, Jamie Oliver and even from blogs. It really is very clever and I particularly love the way you can put together a whole menu, with a starter, main, sides, dessert etc and save the menu under a heading, for example, My Easter Menu.

You can also share the menu with friends and on Facebook. The recipes are uncomplicated, in most cases requiring five or so ingredients, the site is easy to use and I love it! It is really great for inspiration, such as Healthy Soup Recipes, Chicken Salad Recipes, Fish for Dinner, Meatball Recipes, Spring Vegetables and tons more. You can also search for recipes ‘without’ a particular ingredient, which is handy for me as I have a pepper allergy.

Hopefully this link will work – it should take you to My Easter Lunch – which includes

  • Prosciutto wrapped asparagus
  • Rosemary and honey roast lamb
  • Scalloped potatoes
  • Maple pan-roasted baby carrots
  • Braised greens
  • Pear and marzipan tartlets

  

   

 

Images taken from Foodily.com

Try and see what you think – and let me know! Happy recipe hunting 🙂

Easy Entertaining – Nigella Style

This post is inspired by two things.  Firstly, a lovely long leisurely lunch on Saturday with good friends who came down to visit us from Bournemouth.  Secondly, by a fantastic new blogging event hosted by Sarah at Maison Cupcake. Here’s why:  

Entertaining – you never want it to be stressful.  My first tip is to call upon a trusted virtual kitchen companion to make your life easier.  In my case, it is usually one of two people. Nigella Lawson, whom I love for the fact that her recipes are down-to-earth, do-able and always tasty. Or, Ina Garten (aka The Barefoot Contessa) an American cook who offers effortless dishes with easy-to-follow recipes and great flavours.

This time, I was swayed by Nigella and in particular by her comprehensive new book Nigella Kitchen.  Her most recent book really raises the bar for cookery books this year. She has already sold over 400,000 copies and its easy to see why.  It is huge. Nigella herself calls it a “comfort chronicle”‘ and it really is just that. 

The one thing you can always be sure of with a Nigella book is good value. It may be pricey (RRP £26) but she doesn’t short change you on recipes.  There are plenty of ideas for almost every occasion, 190 in total in the compendium, with 60 express recipes at 30 minutes or under. 

Four our lazy luncheon, I decided to cook Nigella’s Butternut, rocket and pine nut salad (page 94).  The butternut squash was coated in olive oil, turmeric and ginger (I added cumin) and roasted in the oven.  A dressing is made with golden sultanas (I didn’t have any so omitted these) and sherry vinegar, poured over the warm squash and tossed with the rocket leaves and toasted pine nuts.  

I served the butternut salad alongside a platter of well-seasoned, sliced grilled steak (Nigella suggests her Indian-rubbed lamb chops) a creamy roll of local goat’s cheese (which complemented the squash and steak perfectly) and some oven baked bread. My guest’s plates were all left empty, which I can only take as a good sign. 

The real star of the show was pudding.  In fact, it wasn’t just pudding, it was Nigella’s Marmalade pudding cake (page 269).  This happened to be the very first recipe I was drawn to when opening her new book on Christmas Day and one which I couldn’t wait to make.  (Click on the link to find the recipe or visit http://www.nigella.com/)

 

Aside from the fact that it was explode-in-the-mouth sensational, it was by far, the easiest cake I have ever made.  It was so easy that I wonder whether it has actually made my beloved KitchenAid mixer redundant…

 All the ingredients are literally measured out and thrown into a food processor (my three-year old helped me with this.)  A couple of blitzes later and your have your batter ready to scoop out straight into a dish and into the oven for 30-40 minutes. 

 With my ingredients set out at room temperature, I was able to make the pudding just before serving the main and stick it in the oven (already hot from having roasted the butternut squash).  By the time we had finished eating, we had a steaming hot, soft, perfectly risen sponge pudding. 

 Just before serving, you make a speedy glaze, a couple of spoons of marmalade mixed with some water mixed together over heat. Poured over the top, with gleaming shards of orange peel (I used medium cut marmalade)  and your pudding is transformed into a golden, shining, delectable pud.  All it needed was big serving bowls, a steaming jug of custard and a slightly smaller pot of double cream for good measure.

 

If you don’t have a food processor, Nigella gives instructions for the creaming method, which just takes slightly longer to make. The pudding served four of us and there was enough left-over for both the kids to have pudding for two days afterwards.  I add, that there was only some pudding remaining because we were all so full.

 

 If I were to make it again, I wouldn’t change a thing as far as the method.  For a flavour variation though, I may try it with lemon curd and lemon peel to see what happens!

 

It has definitely become my favourite pud of all time. Since both recipes worked a treat and didn’t let me down in front of an audience, I am entering this post into this month’s blogging event, “Forever Nigella” hosted by Sarah at Maison Cupcake – to share the love and hopefully encourage everyone out there to make it!

Sarah’s theme is “Seasonal Sensations” and on the basis that the vibrant citrus smell of the Marmalade pudding cake, which filled my kitchen on Saturday reminded me so much of clementines at Christmas, I hope it makes my post a worthy contender.  Although the butternut squash is a lovely winter seasonal vegetable too…