Ren Behan - Author Wild Honey and Rye

Food Writer

Vegetables

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.

Quick Risotto-Stuffed Vegetables

My mother (who is an amazing cook) can always make ‘something out of nothing’ and I’m hoping that this recipe will always remind me of that.

Vegetables

Last week, when my mum came to stay, I was completely on the back foot. I hadn’t managed a big shop and the fridge was uncharacteristically empty. We found a few red and green (bell) peppers, two courgettes, a plum tomato, a stick of celery, a carrot and a cup of leftover peas. There was also a chunk of Parmesan cheese. The obvious solution would have been to make a pan of soup, but I fancied something a bit more substantial than that. “We”ll stuff the veg!” declared my mum, and after a quick whizz of my cupboards she found some vegetable stock, a tin of tomatoes and one of those two-minute pouches of rice. Yes, I have those in my cupboard.

Stuffed Vegetables

Within minutes the kitchen was filled with the aroma of a bubbling ‘quick’ risotto and after a sprinkle of some sea salt and fresh pepper, the vegetables began baking in the oven.

Cooking with Kids

The pre-cooked rice was really the key to the speediness in this recipe – you can shave off a good ten minutes. If you had some leftover risotto, it would be quicker, still and you could just use that to stuff the vegetables with instead. You can also buy a quicker cook ‘pronto’ version of risotto now in pouches, too, though I haven’t tried those. You can even make it with ‘easy cook rice’ – you’ll just need to simmer it a little longer. The rice should be ‘almost’ cooked before you stuff your vegetables with it.

Risotto Stuffed Veg

Once you know how to stuff veggies (always pre-bake them for at least ten minutes before stuffing just to get them going a bit) you can make all kinds of fillings. You can even stuff them with a bolognese ragu like this one.

And look what you end up with – Risotto-Stuffed Vegetables – fit for a King or Queen.

Risotto Stuffed Veg

We serve ours with some tiny cubed courgettes and a really good sprinkling of Parmesan cheese.

Risotto Stuffed Veg

My mother might just be the cleverest cook in the world. She’s always an inspiration to me.

 

I hope you’re enjoying the (slightly blustery) autumnal weather! If you are not, make these instead, then stay inside and keep warm and happy.

Risotto Stuffed Veg

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Quick Risotto-Stuffed Veggies

Ingredients

  • Olive oil
  • Sea Salt and pepper
  • 2-3 bell peppers
  • 1 large (beef or plum) tomato
  • 2 courgettes/zucchini
  • 1 sweet onion, chopped
  • 1 stick celery, finely chopped
  • 1 carrot, peeled and chopped into cubes
  • A cupful of frozen peas
  • 1 packet quick-to-cook rice, or 250g leftover cooked rice
  • 250ml/one cup vegetable stock
  • 1 tin of chopped tomatoes
  • To garnish - half a courgette and some Parmesan cheese

Instructions

  1. Preheat the oven 200C/180C fan/gas 6.
  2. Chop the tops off the peppers and scoop out any seeds. Do the same with the tomato. Cut one of the courgettes in half and using a teaspoon, scoop out the centre. Dice the second courgette for the garnish, keep to one side. Place the prepared veggies in a foil lined baking tin, drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper and bake for ten minutes. Alongside those, spread the diced courgette onto a flat baking tray, drizzle with olive oil and bake for ten minutes, too.
  3. In the meantime, drizzle some olive oil into a frying pan. Fry the onions for three to four minutes, then add in the celery and carrot and cook for a further few minutes.Throw in the peas and the rice, pour in the stock and add the tinned tomatoes. Season with salt and pepper and simmer for around five minutes. If you are not using pre-cooked rice, you''ll need to cover and simmer the rice until it is cooked - around ten minutes.
  4. Take the vegetables out of the oven and carefully fill the peppers, tomato and courgettes with the rice mixture. Put the stuffed vegetables back in the oven and bake for a further ten minutes.The vegetables should be soft, take them out and set to one side.
  5. Serve the baked, stuffed veggies with some of the courgette cubes and a grating of fresh Parmesan cheese.

Love you, Mama!

Ooh, if you wanted to stuff your veggies with a traditional risotto – follow my tips over on JamieOliver.com here.

Read all about my trip to Lombardy and Piedmont, with Riso Gallo, who produce one of Italy’s best brands of rice.

Simple Risotto

Guest Post: Cucina Ceri – Subbing Processed Carbs for Colourful Veg

By Ceri Jones, of Cucina Ceri

Readers of this blog will know that this January, Ren committed to the Whole30 regime, which draws on the Paleo approach to a diet based on whole foods (meat, fish, veg, fruit, nuts and seeds) to enable the body to re-set itself and become less dependent on sugars and processed foods as fuel.  Since my blog, Cucina Ceri, is full of Paleo inspired recipes I was delighted when Ren asked me to put together a guest post for Fabulicious Food. 

I get my recipe inspiration from just about everywhere – meals out, reading magazines, other blogs, cookbooks and cooking shows on the box – I take my inspiration first and worry about adapting it to my nutritional aspirations later!

I love experimenting in the kitchen, and as a reformed pasta-&-dense-carb-a-holic, I love to find new ways of using my existing pasta recipe repertoire to create tasty new and good for you dishes.  My favourite way of doing this is to replace grain and gluten-heavy foods such as pasta, noodles and rice with vegetable alternatives.  This also increases my daily intake of vegetables at the same time – perfect!

Here are 5 of my favourite ideas –

1. Using courgettes as ‘spaghetti’ or noodles.  I’ve got a piece of equipment called a ‘spiraliser’ but very cheap julienne peeler works just as well.  In a matter of minutes a humble courgette can be turned into fabulous ribbon lengths and served alongside favourite pasta sauces such as bolognese, meatballs, carbonara or pesto.  My current favourite recipe is Pancetta with Courgette Linguini. For a cuisine way further east than Italy I recently cooked up a tasty Prawn Pad Thai.  I’ll be posting this up on Cucina Ceri very soon.

Pancetta with Courgette Linguini

Pancetta with Courgette Linguini 

2. Stuffing veg to carry sauces.  I am loving using squash, hollowed out, roasted and filled with a pasta sauce of choice.  My easy on the eye Squash All’Amatriciana is one of my favourite ever recipes.

Squash All’Amatriciana

3. Using cauliflower as rice.  Stick a head of cauliflower through the grating attachment on a food processor, steam or stir fry with some garlic & coconut oil and hey presto you’ve got a pile of highly nutritious cruciferous veg to serve as an accompaniment to a meal.  I recently served this alongside my Burmese Pork Curry . Cauliflower rice can also be used instead of bulgar in Tabbouleh.

4. Using thinly sliced aubergines or courgettes instead of lasagna sheets.  Certainly no less tasty, than a conventional lasagne I had great fun creating this Faux Lasagna – by layering up beef bolognese, vegetables and creamy pesto sauce.

5. Subbing grain-free flour in gnocchi. This is a recipe I haven’t yet published on the blog as I need to perfect it a little further – a gnocchi made from sweet potato and chestnut flour.  I choose sweet potatoes over plain as whilst white pots are a vegetable they are basically a nutritional non-event. Chestnut flour is one of my favourite substitute flours and like the sweet potato has a slightly sweet edge.  This gnocchi dish is starchy carb heavy so saved for a special treat.  The gnocchi carried both sauces I trialled superbly – Creamy Coconut with Salmon and Spinach, Rocket & Parma Ham.

Cucina Ceri

So there you have it – just a few of my favourite ideas I wanted to share. I would be really interested to know if anyone has any similar recipes or ideas?   Thanks so much Ren for inviting me to guest post – and best of luck with the rest of your Whole 30 journey.  I am reading with interest!

Cucina Ceri Paleo Food Blog

With many thanks to Ceri Jones for this lovely and informative guest post – brimming with healthy ideas!

 

Review: Eat Your Veg by Arthur Potts Dawson

Move over Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, here comes Arthur Potts Dawson with his take on all things veg! New from the Octopus Publishing Group is Eat Your Veg, a cookery book packed full of ideas on how to bring more vegetables to your table – putting veg at the centre of your plate.

Arthur Potts Dawson loves his veg and after 25 years of cooking as a professional chef, he certainly knows his turnips from his tomatoes. The key is to using what’s in season, “It’ll taste better and it’ll cost you less,” says Arthur.    

Designed to get you thinking outside of your veg box, this is a great book for anyone who is keen to experiment with flavours in the kitchen. Arthur’s aim is to present simple recipes that make the most out of the particular veg in question; a bold and bright beetroot soup (cover picture), flavourful broths, gratins and new ideas on serving veg, such as Arther’s Pan-fried french bean bundles with sesame seeds or his striking Radish salad with pomegranate and cannellini beans, below. This would be just as good packed into a lunch box for work as it would be scaled-up for guests.

There are no rules or regulations about how or where to buy your veg, the focus is on variety and on introducing more veg to your daily life. Arthur offers his advice on skills too, such as roasting, mashing and pickling and there are basic recipes for stocks, sauces, dressings and veggie-friendly accompaniments. There is some mention of meat and fish in the book, so this is not a vegetarian cookery book, although all the recipes, can of course, be adapted to suit.

I particularly liked the organisation of Eat Your Veg – there are five main chapters –  

  • Roots and Tubers (featuring beetroot, carrot, sweet potato, celeriac, salsify etc)
  • Bulbs and Stems (featuring including garlic, onions, fennel, kohlrabi, asparagus etc)
  • Leaves and Flowers (featuring lettuce, rocket, sorrel, broccoli, artichoke etc)
  • Fruits and Fungi (featuring avocado, peppers, sweetcorn, aubergine and mushroom etc)
  • Beans and Pods (featuring lentils, broad and borlotti beans, peas, french beans and okra etc)

Also included are ‘Skills’ as mentioned, and ‘Feasts’ with recipes for a Mediterranean spread, Tex-Mex Grill and a sumptuous vegetarian Curry feast -with dishes passed on from an elderly Bengali chef.   

The recipes themselves, are in the most part, fresh and quick to make. We love the Waste not asparagus soup, made from leftover asparagus stalks and the Sweetcorn and coriander pikelets (little sweetcorn fritters, below). There are plenty of simple salads, too, including a Heritage tomato salad with marjoram (one of my favourite herbs) and a Potato and cucumber salad made with Japanese vinegar, olive oil and sunflower seeds for a twist – perfect for barbecue season!

There are also some tasty dips and snacks, the Smashed broad beans with Pecorino and Baked tomato, garlic and red pepper crostini jumped out. Arthur’s Italian-inspired recipe for Penne with Garlic, Rosemary and Mascarpone is impressive and tasty, as are the Creamed Girolles with Grilled Polenta.

A few of the recipes are a tiny bit sophisticated for a domestic kitchen – I am not sure I would have the time to prepare twelve globe artichokes or that I would very regularly make my own ravioli, but it is nice to have some more challenging recipes included.

If you are cooking for very small children, some of the recipes might be a bit ambitious, although you could try making the pikelets, as we did, or the Cheesy peas on toast or even the Baked borlotti beans on toast with garlic and fresh tomatoes to tempt your troops.

All in all, Eat Your Veg appeals to my taste-buds because I already love cooking with seasonal produce and because it encourages me to be a little more adventurous than usual. It is a tiny bit cheffy, but then again, you do benefit from the fact that Arthur has great skills and knowledge that he is keen to pass on.  

With many thanks to Octopus Press and Authur Potts-Dawson for my signed review copy. Eat Your Veg is priced at £25.00 Photographs by Liz and Max Haarala Hamilton.

You can follow Aurthur Potts Dawson (@ArthurPottsD) and Octopus Books (@Octopus_Books) on Twitter.  

Which books caught your attention over the spring?

Look out for plenty more mentions of fun summer cook books on Fabulicious Food!