Ren Behan - Author Wild Honey and Rye

Food Writer

Cookbooks

Carrot Gingerbread Cake

This recipe is taken from Veggie Desserts + Cakes – Carrot Cake and Beyond by Kate Kackworthy, with permission from Pavilion Books. Kate writes at Veggie Desserts.

Carrot_Gingerbread

 

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Carrot Gingerbread

Yield 20

"These chunky slabs of gingerbread are rich, dark and elegantly spiced. I’ve added lots of grated carrot to make them extra moist, and it blends beautifully with the treacle and ginger. Although this old-fashioned classic takes a while in the oven, it is very easy to make. For extra decadence, serve the gingerbread with hot custard, although a dollop of whipped cream or vanilla ice cream would also team up very well." Kate Hackworthy

Ingredients

  • 200g/7oz/scant 1 cup unsalted butter, plus extra for greasing
  • 200g/7oz/scant 1 cup light soft brown sugar
  • 200g/7oz/2⁄3 cup black treacle (molasses)
  • 375g/13oz/3 cups plain (all-purpose) flour
  • 3 tsp ground ginger
  • 2 tsp bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)
  • 250ml/8½fl oz/1 cup whole milk
  • 150g/5¼oz carrot (1½ medium carrots, peeled, grated)
  • 2 large free-range eggs, beaten
  • 3 pieces of stem ginger in syrup, chopped

Instructions

  1. Preheat the oven to 160°C/140°C fan/320°F/gas 3. Grease and line a 23 x 30mm/9 x 12in baking pan with baking parchment.
  2. Heat the butter, sugar and treacle in a pan, stirring, until smooth and melted. Leave to cool slightly.
  3. Sift the flour, ginger and bicarbonate of soda into a large bowl. Stir in the milk, carrot, beaten egg, stem ginger and treacle mixture and stir to combine.
  4. Pour the mixture into the prepared pan and bake for 1 hour until well risen and springy in the middle.
  5. Leave to cool in the pan for a few minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely before cutting into squares.

Notes

I increased the heat to Gas Mark 3. 

Courses Dessert

Veggie Deserts and Cakes, Carrot Cake and Beyond is published by Pavilion Books, RRP £14.99.

Recipe: Skinny Carbonara from {Everyday Super Food by Jamie Oliver}

Today sees the publication of Jamie Oliver’s brand new cookbook Everyday Super Food and I’ve been busy trying out some of the recipes for myself at home, beginning with Jamie’s Skinny Carbonara.

If you’ve been following Jamie on Instagram or on the You app, you’ll have noticed that this is the year he turned 40. He himself has enjoyed making some simple lifestyle changes, for example, by practicing mindfulness and by making some changes to his diet and lifestyle. Everyday Super Food is really his ultimate manifesto for helping you do the same.

I have four copies of Jamie’s new book to giveaway (see entry form below) with the recipe for Jamie’s Skinny Carbonara also shared below with the publisher’s permission.

Every Day Super Food

The Skinny Carbonara was very tasty and quick to make – fifteen minutes at most. I didn’t see any instructions for juicing the lemon and I ended up adding in the juice of one whole lemon. Next time, I would use the juice of half a lemon. I had quite a lot of pea mixture left over, so blitzed it up with some chicken stock and had a an extra cup of pea soup for lunch the next day. The whole family enjoyed it and the addition of peas and ground almonds gave the dish an extra lift and a bit of texture, along with the crispy bacon. Nobody noticed the wholewheat spaghetti so that’s a permanent switch for us in the future!

I can’t wait to try the Mega Veggie Burger featured by Helen here, or the Baked Eggs with Popped Beans that Katherine tried here. I’m also looking forward to trying Jamie’s Grilled Corn and Quinoa Salad, shared by The Happy Foodie.

Skinny Carbonara Ren Behan
My version of the tasty Skinny Carbonara recipe from the book

The book ties in with a new six-part Channel 4 series, Jamie’s Super Food, due to broadcast this autumn and you can buy the book from today.

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SKINNY CARBONARA SMOKY BACON, PEAS, ALMONDS & BASIL

Prep

Cook

Total

Yield 2

Humble little peas are a source of nine different micronutrients, and are especially high in thiamin, a B vitamin that helps our hearts to function properly

Ingredients

  • 200g freshly podded or frozen peas
  • 1 tablespoon flaked almonds
  • 1 small clove of garlic
  • ½ a bunch of fresh basil (15g)
  • 15g Parmesan cheese
  • 1 lemon
  • 150g wholewheat spaghetti
  • 1 rasher of higher-welfare smoked streaky bacon
  • olive oil
  • 1 large free-range egg
  • 100g fat-free natural yoghurt

Instructions

  1. Put a pan of boiling salted water on the heat for your pasta, dunk a sieve containing the peas into the water for just 30 seconds, then put aside, leaving the pan on the heat.
  2. Very lightly toast the almonds in a dry non-stick frying pan on a medium heat, then blitz until fine in a food processor. With the processor still running, peel and drop in the garlic, a pinch of sea salt, the basil leaves, the finely grated Parmesan and the lemon juice. Blitz until it comes together, then pulse in the peas, to try and keep a bit of texture.
  3. Cook the pasta in the boiling salted water according to the packet instructions. Meanwhile, very finely slice the bacon and fry slowly in the frying pan with 1 teaspoon of oil on a medium-low heat until golden and crispy, then use a slotted spoon to transfer to kitchen paper, so the flavoursome fat stays in the pan.
  4. Scoop in three-quarters of your pea mixture to heat through.
  5. Whisk the egg and yoghurt together well. When the pasta’s done, reserving a mugful of cooking water, drain the pasta and toss straight into the pea pan, mixing well, then take the pan off the heat (this is very important, otherwise the egg will scramble when you add it, and we don’t want that).
  6. Pour in the egg mixture and toss until evenly coated, silky and creamy, loosening with cooking water if needed. Taste and season to perfection, and serve topped with the remaining pea mixture and the crispy bacon.
  7. It might be skinny, but it’s beautifully light and delicious. Enjoy!

Courses Healthy

Cuisine Italian

 

Skinny Carbonara
Jamie’s Skinny Carbonara {Image from the book, taken by Jamie Oliver}

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Everyday Super Food by Jamie Oliver is published by Penguin Random House

ⓒ Jamie Oliver Enterprises Limited (2015 Everyday Super Food) Photographer: Jamie Oliver

With thanks to Jamie’s PR team for the recipes, previews and review copy in the post.

Autumn Reviews – Cru Kafe, Supermilk and Doughnuts!

A round up of a few items that have caught my attention recently…

Cru Kafe

Cru Kafe Coffee Pods

Let’s start with the coffee…I’m a huge fan of a good cup of coffee. At home, we have a Nespresso coffee machine, I’m pretty sure it’s the Nespresso U model and it’s the second one we’ve had having upgraded our model last Christmas. It used to be the case that you had to buy your Nespresso-compatible pods directly through the ‘Nespresso Club’ and whilst they have lots to offer, it’s good to see other pods coming onto the market. I was pleased to try a brand new range of Nespresso-compatible coffee pods from Cru Kafe, a British company who win bonus points for producing eco-friendly pods, filled with Fairtrade, organic, 100% Arabica bean coffee. The Cru Kafe team select beans sourced from a high altitude and their artisanal blends result in coffee that is extremely smooth and velvety. I’m happy to have have swapped my morning cup of coffee for a morning cup of ‘Cru’ and I was also delighted to try their new decaf version, which is just as flavourful as their stronger blends. You can buy Cru Kafe pods easily online – my first order (after finishing the samples too quickly!) was delivered the next working day and arrived in a neat cardboard box with no excess packaging.

Cru Kafe pods are priced at 0.29p a capsule and are available in decaf, light roast, dark roast and intense strengths. You can place a one-off order or sign up to a subscription service.

Try Cru Kafe’s Pumpkin Spiced latte – the recipe is here. 

Follow @CruKafe on Twitter

Supermilk

Hotel Chocolat Supermilk

Now, as well as a good cup of coffee, I also like a slab or two of chocolate and British grower Hotel Chocolat never disappoint. I was excited to be one of the first to receive a sample of their very latest blend of chocolate – Supermilk – described as “the most comforting, creamy milk chocolate, with less sugar than a dark.” I’ve devoured quite a bit of this Supermilk chocolate now, first as a sample, and then again when I bought a stash at my local store in St Albans. It has the same hit as dark chocolate, but it is smooth and certainly not bitter. It’s perfect on it’s own (or even with a good cup of coffee) and with 65% of pure cocoa – it’s a wonderful blend for baking. With their new blend of Supermilk, Hotel Chocolat are trying to rebalance the percentage of sugar to cocoa in milk chocolate blends – given that most ‘milk chocolate’ on the market is made with twice as much sugar as cocoa. Supermilk still has a sugar content of 20% along with a splash of milk, but the cocoa content is akin to a darker blend; the idea being that with a higher cocoa content, you can satisfy a chocolate craving with a smaller amount of chocolate…I’m still working on that concept!

Look out for The Supermilk Collection (3 packets) for £9.45. Individual 110g bars (65%, hazelnut or popcorn) are £3.75, whilst Supermilk 65% Chocolate Puddles are £5.50 for 110g. Buy online or instore now

Follow @HotelChocolat on Twitter #Supermilk

Bread, Cake, Doughnut, Pudding

Bread, Cake, Doughnut, Pudding by Justin Gellatly

So we’ve had the coffee and the chocolate and now it’s time to move onto the doughnuts! The doughnuts on the front cover of this book certainly caught my attention. They happen to be the doughnuts of Justin Gellatly, who was the Head Baker and Pastry Chef at St John for twelve years and who now owns his own bakery in Borough Market. In actual fact, more than just doughnuts, this book is packed with some fantastic recipes – you’ll certainly be keeping those Bake Off contestants on their toes with this repertoire. With 150 recipes it’s hard to know where to begin – in it you’ll find Breakfast, Baking and Bread, Savoury Baking, Cakes and Teatime Treats, Biscuits, Doughnuts, Warm to Hot Puddings, Cold Puddings, Ice Cream and a slightly eclectic chapter at the back called The Store Cupboard.

Three recipes that stood out the most to me were – The Chocolate Brownie (Justin’s recipe from St John), Spiced Pepper Plum Tart (an amazing recipe with seasonal plums, black pepper, ginger, star anise and cinnamon) and the Deep-Fried Jam Sandwich – Justin says “If you don’t have time to make doughnuts, this is a very good substitute.”

Bread, Cake, Doughnut, Pudding by Justin Piers Gellatly, Published by Fig Tree (Penguin Group) priced at £25 Hardback – currently £17 on Amazon.

Mini Doughnuts Ren Behan

My Mini Doughnuts!

Paid Recipe Commission

Now that I’ve got you thinking about doughnuts, why not pop over to the Good Food Channel and have a go at my recipe for Mini Doughnuts with Chocolate Sauce? Warning: they are extremely moreish!

 

With thanks for the samples of CRU Kafe, Hotel Chocolat Supermilk and for the copy of Bread, Cake, Doughnut, Pudding – I have not been paid to write about any of these products and have chosen to highlight things I think you’d enjoy. 

The Green Kitchen Cookbook Review

I’m always excited to receive cookbooks inspired by great blogs and this week alone, I’ve added two fantastic ‘blog to book’ hardbacks to my culinary collection. In the first instance, The Green Kitchen (Vegetarian Everyday in the US), written by the couple David Frenkiel and Luise Vindahl, who also write the inspiring vegetarian blog Green Kitchen Stories from their home in Stockholm. It helps, of course, that David is, by day, a magazine art director (although about to dive into new opportunities since publishing the book) and that Luise is studying to become a nutritional therapist. Both in the book and on the blog, the recipes are enticing, with modern, beautifully styled and shot photography. It’s not hard to see why the Green Kitchen Stories blog won the Saveur 4th Annual Best Food Blog Awards in the Special Diets Category. I’m confident that book accolades will swiftly follow.

The Green Kitchen

Fans of Green Kitchen Stories look forward to every installment, ever keen to follow David and Luise’s adventures as they seek out healthy, vegetarian ways to feed themselves and their daughter, Elsa. The ethos is ‘clean living’ and David and Luise’s recipes are always eye-catching – this month alone I’ve been drooling over the Strawberry & Rhubarb Ripple FroYo and Fat Almond Pancake up on the blog. Now I have a stunning cookbook to flick through, too, to help me ponder upon whether I’ll ever be brave enough to fully ditch the dairy and meat in our family’s diet. David, Luise and Elsa’s lifestyle is certainly compelling, which is precisely why they appeal as writers and recipe developers. Everyone wants to be more like them – healthy, laid-back and creative in the kitchen.

The Green Kitchen cookbook is a great place to start if you are interested in sensible, seasonally-led healthy eating as well as the odd nutritionally-infused sweet treat.  Many recipes are vegan, but they do include eggs and cheese occasionally. Most importantly, chocolate is present in the form of cacao or high quality dark chocolate.  Some of the recipes use buckwheat, others suggest spelt flour.

David and Luise strive to create healthy vegetarian recipes and they live by their morals day by day without making a big deal about it. The really nice thing about their book is that it is a beautifully bound extension of their very popular blog. They’ve managed to stay true to their style with photographs in the book by David’s sister, Johanna, who also contributes some photos for the blog. They don’t offer a prescriptive approach; it’s more of a ‘here’s how we eat’ style of cooking and writing.

Recipes that I immediately wanted to try were the Date Syrup (and in fact, we now use this as our main sweetener) the Flour-Free Banana and Coconut Pancakes (a huge hit this weekend, especially with the kids) the Chocolate and Blackberry Milkshake and this absolutely stunning Frozen Strawberry Cheesecake on a Sunflower Crust.

Photo credit Johanna Frenkel

Other equally enticing recipes I’ve bookmarked for summer gluts include Roasted Tomato and Chickpea Soup, the Sicilian Parmigiana Di Zucchine (they don’t go as far as using a vegetarian alternative to Parmesan but of course you could easily substitute) and their Decadent Beetroot and Chocolate Cake.

I’ve also enjoyed taking inspiration from a section entitled ‘Inside our pantry’ – with suggestions for healthier butters, vinegars and oils, nuts and seeds, lentils and peas, plant-based milk and cream, as well as advice on natural sweeteners, pasta and noodle alternatives, ‘super-foods’ and the plethora of alternative flours and grains now available.

As a mum of two, always keen to steer my kids to ‘think’ and ‘chose’ healthily, I particularly admire the couple’s attitude to feeding their little girl. Basing their ethos on wanting to give Elsa as healthy a start as possible in life, they lead by example, gently encouraging her to eat as they do, which means that Elsa generally eats whatever is put in front of her. There are also tips on experimenting with shapes and textures, keeping calm and encouraging a laid-back (Scandinavian) approach to eating, whether your child eats with a fork, a pair of chopsticks, a straw, or with their hands!

All in all, I’d happily recommend this book to anyone looking to eat more veg, wanting to try a new approach to life in the kitchen or to perhaps experiment with less-obvious and more health-conscious ingredients.

You can find a version of the Frozen Strawberry Cheesecake on the Green Kitchen Stories blog here

The Green Kitchen (Everyday Vegetarian – US version) is published by Hardie Grant RRP £25.00

With many thanks for my review copy.