Ren Behan - Author Wild Honey and Rye

Food Writer

Goat's Cheese

Roasted Summer Vegetables with British Goat’s Cheese #TasteOfSummer

Roasted Summer Vegetables

Roasted Summer Vegetables with British Goat’s Cheese

Most of the time we associate roasted vegetables with autumn or winter, in that root vegetables roast so well and sweeten up in the process. But I find that certain summer vegetables get on very well with a drizzle of cold-pressed rapeseed oil in a roasting tin before going into a hot oven. Over the last few weeks, I’ve been roasting plenty of British asparagus during the asparagus season – now sadly pretty much at an end. I actually used salad potatoes in this recipe, which I wouldn’t normally roast, but after par-boiling them for a few minutes I decided to throw them into the tin, too, along with some mini peppers. The salad potatoes actually roasted beautifully and became lovely and fluffy on the inside and a little bit crisp on the outside. Any waxy or new potato variety would work well, too. Another ‘first’ this summer was tasting a salad with roasted grapes and walnuts. I also love roasted summer courgettes or carrots with a sprinkle of caraway seeds. Roasted summer vegetables can be eaten warm just as they are, or, as in this recipe, with the addition of some British goat’s cheese. You can also serve the roasted vegetables cold, mixed with a little cream cheese as a filling for roasted sweet potatoes.

#tasteofsummer

All of these ideas speak to me of summer and so I thought this recipe would make the perfect addition to the Waitrose #TasteOf Summer campaign, currently ongoing.

Over the next few weeks, up until 26th August 2015, Waitrose are asking you to tell them your favourite #TasteOfSummer and to share your creations on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram for the chance to win one of their three summer food experiences –

  • You could win a pair of tickets to an exclusive barbecue event with Heston Blumenthal, at his pub, The Crown Inn, located in Bray, Berkshire. Winners must be available to attend the event on Saturday 25 July.
  • Or, you could win a ticket to their ‘Cocktails & Party Bites’ evening course at the Waitrose Finchley Road Cookery School in London on Thursday 13 August.
  • Or, you could win a complete summer party menu as chosen by the Waitrose Entertaining and Waitrose Cellar specialists – so all you’d need to do then is invite your friends over and crack open the bubbles!

Every week, Waitrose are also showcasing the most popular summer flavours across their social media channels.

To enter, you just have to share your favourite summer food or drink on Facebook (find the Facebook page here) Twitter (follow @Waitrose) or Instagram @Waitrose using the #TasteOfSummer hashtag.

Roasted Summer Vegetables
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So, whether you’re enjoying an ice cream at the seaside, or perhaps some freshly caught fish and chips, a barbecue in the garden, a simple summer salad, scones, strawberries and clotted cream whilst watching the tennis or even a slice freshly baked cake topped with fruit at the summer fair – there are lots of chances to win a great summer food experience.

Linking up to July and August’s Simple and in Season, too!

Simple in Season

Disclosure: I have been commissioned to create this recipe by Waitrose to help promote their Taste of Summer Campaign and received some vouchers in consideration. 

Roasted Peppers with Quinoa and Capricorn Goats Cheese

There has been a little goat on Twitter making me chuckle. Her name is Ethel and she lives in Somerset. She produces some lovely milk along with her friends in the West Country and with it, Capricorn make a lovely creamy cheese at the nearby Lubburn Creamery.  Capricorn Goats Cheese is made with pasteurised goats’ milk and happily, it is suitable for vegetarians, too. I’ve created a lovely recipe for Ethel as part of the #CapricornChallenge, which I hope Ethel and her friends will approve of.  Interestingly, the cheese continues to ripen, so for a milder flavour, use it as soon as you buy it. For a stronger flavour and more creaminess, use it closer to the use by date (but still store it in the fridge). This is a perfect summer’s evening supper, with a little glass of wine on the side for good measure.

If you haven’t tried quinoa, I would give it a go, but as an alternative, you could use some cous cous to fill up the peppers. I’m quite fond of quinoa as it is highly nutritious and known as a grain made up of complete protein. I’ve added a handful of pumpkin seeds to add an extra nutrient boost, too.

 Bake some peppers (halved and de-seeded) in the oven until soft…

Fill the peppers with cooked quinoi with pumkin seeds. Lay a slice of Capricorn Goats Cheese over the top…

 Bake again until the cheese has melted…

 Serve with some fresh salad and a glass of wine…

Here’s the recipe in full.

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Roasted Peppers with Quinoa and Capricorn Goats Cheese

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Ingredients

  • 4 red peppers
  • 4 tbsp olive oil
  • 200g quinoa, uncooked
  • 50g pumpkin seeds
  • 2 x 100g drum Capricorn Goats Cheese
  • Freshly ground black pepper
  • Salad/watercress to serve

Instructions

  1. Pre-heat your oven to 180C/160 fan.
  2. Carefully slice the red peppers in half through the core and remove the seeds using a small sharp knife. Put the peppers in a baking dish and drizzle with the olive oil and a twist of black pepper in each.
  3. Place the baking tray and peppers in the oven and bake for 20 minutes.
  4. In the meantime, cook the quinoa according to the packet instructions – usually, in a large pan of boiling for 10-12 minutes. Once cooked, drain and then stir through the pumpkin seeds.
  5. Take the peppers out of the oven and carefully pour any juice and oil inside the peppers onto the quinoi.
  6. Using a tablespoon, carefully fill the pepper halves with quinoi.
  7. Slice the Capricorn Goats Cheese into four discs and place one disc over each of the filled pepper halves.
  8. Put the stuffed peppers and goats cheese back into the oven and bake again for 10 minutes, or until the goat’s cheese is bubbling and melted. Serve immediately with a side salad.

Nutrition Facts

Serving Size 4

Amount Per Serving

% Daily Value

* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet. Your daily values may be higher or lower depending on your calorie needs.

With many thanks to Ethel and the Capricorn Goats Cheese herd and team for sending me a hamper full of lovely goodies as inspiration to create this recipe for the #CapricornChallenge. I’m also in with a chance of winning a weekend in Somerset – fingers crossed! You can find more delicious recipes here in Ethel’s kitchen. Capricorn Goats Cheese is available in Waitrose, ASDA and Tesco. You can follow @EtheltheGoat on Twitter.

Have you tried any British goats cheese? If so, what’s your favourite way of eating it?

  

Fresh Pasta with Asparagus, Goat’s Cheese and Lemon

I was challenged by the lovely Giulia of Juls’ Kitchen to make fresh pasta for this month’s Monthly Mingle. This was such an exciting challenge for me, since I recently took a pasta class with Katie Caldesi to learn exactly how to make it although since taking the class I hadn’t put my new found skills to the test. So, the question for me was whether I had actually retained any information from that day?! My first stop was a visit to Buongiorno Italia, an award-winning local Italian food store close to my home. With Giulia as our judge, I was determined to do this the Italian way!

Established over 30 years ago, Buongiorno Italia is exactly the type of food store you want to have on your doorstep. Tony, the owner, goes to Covent Garden Market to bring back the best seasonal produce every week as well as stocking a huge array of authentic Italian food, including cheese, cured meats, olives, pasta, cakes, wine and lots more (including a small selection of Polish food which I was also pleased to spot!) Tony was lovely to chat to and he showed me his plans for expanding the store so that by the summer he will have some outdoor seating and an authentic cappuccino bar.

I was immediately inspired by the fresh produce on offer, finding some lovely bundles of British asparagus, new season’s garlic (the best I’ve ever seen) and even more exciting some goat’s cheese made on a local farm called Childwickbury by Liz and David Harris, nestled alongside the Italian cheeses. I think it is really nice to see local produce being showcased as well as Italian produce and of course, I couldn’t resist buying some Polish pasta, pierogi since they were there.

This is exactly what I love about local food shopping – you don’t always find the obvious, but in many cases you stumble across some real treats. I also picked up some ’00’ grade Italian pasta flour, some fresh, large free range eggs and a very fragrant tub of fresh basil.

      
I have no idea whether Italians would put asparagus, garlic and goat’s cheese together but I do know that Italians are very keen to use local produce and that they let the flavours of fresh food do the talking, so why not? I also had some lemon-infused olive oil at home, though regular olive oil would have been fine, perhaps just with a grating of fresh lemon zest at the end. As it’s National Vegetarian Week it was also nice to create a meal without using meat.

Back at home, the next challenge to overcome was the fact that I had not managed to find a  pasta machine. A quick phone call to a friend out in town revealed only one machine which was £60 in a cook shop. It may have been the crème de la crème of pasta machines, but I think it is a lot of money to spend especially if it is not something you will use every day. Though we had been taught how to make pasta using a machine in the class, a quick flick through ‘The Italian Cookery Course’ by Katie Caldesi (which I very much enjoyed reviewing recently for The Foodie Bugle) suggested that I could make and cut fresh pasta entirely by hand so I decided to give it a go without the machine.

I’m relieved to say that it worked just fine, though I will look into buying a pasta machine in the long run as I think you are able to get your pasta slightly thinner (it should be almost see-through) – although not having one shouldn’t deter you as my hand-rolled, hand-cut pasta actually tasted delicious. Next time I will try experimenting with beetroot to make lovely purple beetroot pasta.

To roll and cut by hand, you go through the basic stages of making a pasta dough and then you roll it on a floured surface until it is as thin as you can get it. You then roll up the two edges until they meet in the middle and using a sharp knife cut the pasta into the width you want it. You can then slide your knife beneath the pasta and as you lift the pasta up the rolls unfold.

I also found a handy step-by-step guide by Jamie Oliver – How to make fresh pasta 

I used one egg to 100g of flour and that made enough for about two portions. If you make more, you would have to split the dough into smaller portions (and keep it covered) to have enough room to roll it all out.

The pasta making was fun and I ended up with a really delicious meal – definitely superior to any shop-bought pasta though of course, you could make this recipe by using any type of pasta you fancy. I’m so pleased I did give this a go myself at home and that I had remembered everything that Katie had taught me!
Pasta with Asparagus, Goat’s Cheese & Lemon

Serves 4

Ingredients:
 
Fresh pasta (use 6 eggs and 600g of flour for four people)
OR – the best pasta you can buy if not fresh
2 bundles (500g) fresh Asparagus
4 cloves garlic
A drizzle of lemon-infused olive oil
OR plain olive oil plus a tablespoon of fresh lemon zest
140g Goat’s Cheese
A handful of  fresh basil leaves
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
 
Method:
1. Pre-heat your oven to 200 degrees Celsius

2. If you are making fresh pasta it would be better to do this first as the pasta should be left to rest for around thirty minutes.

3. Chop your asparagus into bite sized/2cm pieces and put them in a baking tin along with the cloves of garlic (no need to peel), a sprinkling of sea salt, fresh pepper and a drizzle of lemon  or plain olive oil. Roast in the oven for 20 minutes.
 
4. Boil a large pan of water, add a tablespoon of salt and cook your pasta according to the instructions (fresh pasta doesn’t need long at all so keep testing it to see if it is cooked.)
 
5. Drain the pasta, saving about two tablespoons of the pasta water.
 
6. Take your tray of asparagus from the oven and pick out the garlic cloves from the roasting tin (they will have infused the oil enough) and tumble the pasta into the tin with the roasted asparagus. Drizzle with more olive oil so that all the pasta is coated.
 
7. Crumble over the goat’s cheese, sprinkle with fresh lemon zest and a handful of basil leaves. Serve!
 
 
“Buon Appetito!” – I am looking forward to seeing how every one else got on with this month’s slightly more challenging mingle!
 
Thank you Giulia for setting this challenge – it was exactly what I needed and has definitely encouraged me to experiment more and continue to make fresh pasta at home.
 

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…