Squash, Greens and Quinoa Fritters with Sumac Yogurt

Squash, Greens and Quinoa Fritters with Sumac Yogurt

A tasty and different meat free recipe from Sainsbury's magazine.

150g quinoa (dry weight)
400g butternut squash, peelef and deseeded
a bunch of spring onions, finely chopped
50g spinach or kale, shredded
60g rolled oats
1 tsp cumin seeds
200g pack feta cheese
1 unwaxed lemon
4 medium eggs, lightly beaten
½ x 28g pack flat leaf parsley, chopped
½ x 31g pack coriander, chopped

Sumac yogurt
1 x 170g pot Greek yogurt
sea salt
1 tsp sumac or dried chilli flakes

To serve
½ cucumber
4 ripe tomatoes
a handful of pitted black olives
salad leaves

Fill and boil a kettle.  Weigh the quinoa into a mug, noting the level it comes up to. Rinse under cold water, drain and pour into a pan.  Fill the mug to the same level with just-boiled water and add it to the pan, repeat so you have double the volume of water to quinoa. Bring to the boil, turn down the heat, cover and simmer for 10-12 mins until almost all the water has been absorbed abd the little curly grains have been released from each quinoa seed.

Meanwhile, coarsely grate the squash and add to the quinoa for the last 2-3 minutes of cooking.  It will steam on top of the quinoa. Drain if needed and return to the heat to dry out.  Spread out on a baking tray to cool for 10 mins.

Put spring onions, greens, oats and cumin seeds in a large bowl.  Crumble in the feta and add salt, pepper and the zest of the lemon. Mix well. Add the cooled quinoa, squash and eggs and stir in the eggs.  Mix well and chill for 20 minutes.

Shape the quinoa into 8 large cakes or more smaller ones and chill for 1 hour.

Meanwhile, peel the cucumber, halve lengthways, deseed and slice.  Mix with the tomatoes, olives, juice of half the zested lemon and a drizzle of oil. Season. Arrange salad leaves in a bowl and top with the tomato mixture.

Mix the yogurt with sea salt and the juice of the other lemon half, stir in the sumac.

Heat oil in a frying pan on medium heat and fry the patties for around 4 mins per side until golden brown.  Serve with the salad and yogurt.

Notes: I think chopped fresh mint would be good in these.  A stronger cheese would go well as well, maybe even a blue cheese.  Add a few more cumin seeds or use caraway seeds for a change.  Chilli would be a good addition too.  

Poached eggs. Finally I can make them

Poached Eggs

I've made them in a poaching pan with the little cups and they are good, but not quite right.  I've tried making them in a pan and the method fails me every time, but not today thanks to the Hairy Bikers:

The method is in their Hairy Dieters cookbook under the recipe for poached egg, smoked salmon and spinach. 

Half fill a medium non-stick saucepan with water and add 1 tsp of white wine vinegar. Bring to the boil, then with a slotted spoon place the egg in its shell into the boiling water for precisely 20 seconds.   ( I counted 20 mississippi's)

Remove the egg and turn the heat down, so the water is simmering gently. Crack the egg into the water and let it drop to the bottom of the pan. Cook on a low heat for 3 minutes. The water should be just slightly bubbling. The egg will rise to the surface when it’s nearly ready. They often stick to the bottom of the pan and require a gentle nudge with the spoon. 

It also works best if you use fresh eggs. The fresher the egg, the more perfectly rounded it will stay. Older eggs will become messy and are less likely to keep their shape.

Spanish Chicken with Crispy Paprika Potatoes

This recipe comes from the January 2015 Good Food magazine

Spanish Chicken with Crispy Paprika Potatoes

Serves 4

4 baking potatoes, cubed
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp smoked paprika
2 tsp balsamic vinegar
6 roasted peppers from a jar, finely chopped ( I used Pepperdew)
140g cream cheese
8 boneless, skinless chicken thighs (or use 4 breasts as I did)
8-12 chorizo slices

Heat oven to 200ºC/180º fan/Gas 6.

Tip the potatoes onto a large baking tray.  Mix the paprika, oil and vinegar, pour over the potatoes and toss together.  (I found it easier to put all of these in a plastic bag and mix together well before emptying onto the baking tray)
Bake for 10 minutes while you prepare the chicken.

Mix the chopped peppers with the cheese. Open out the thighs or creat a pocket in the breasts and share the cheese between them.  Bring the sides of the chicken together to enclose the filling then put each into an individual foil package, top with 2-3 slices of chorizo and wrap in the foil.

Put the foil parcels on top of the potatoes and return to the oven for 30 minutes until the chicken is cooked and the potatoes crispy.

Serve with salad leaves simply dressed with an oil and balsamic vinegar mix or with vegetables as I did.

Banana Blondies

These are from the book "Short and Sweet, the best of home baking" by Dan Lepard.

They are too delicious, even better than chocolate brownies.

These ones were made with Aero white chocolate, which is white covered with milk chocolate, so are a little darker.

325 g caster sugar
75g brazil nuts, roughly chopped
100g unsalted butter
200g white chocolate
1 egg
2 bananas, peeled (about 200-250g)
2 tsp vanilla extract
200g plain flour
¼ tsp baking powder

Firstly make the nut brittle.  Put 75g of the caster sugar into a pan with 2 tbsp cold water. Bring to the boil and let it bubble away until the sugar turns to a golden caramel and sets to a hard ball when dropped from a teaspoon into a glass of cold water. Stir in the nuts and spread onto an oiled tray to cool and set. Once cold, roughly chop. (As a cheat, you could use a bought bar of nut brittle, but making it yourself is so simple)

Line the base and sides of an 8"/20cm square tin with foil or parchment and preheat the oven to 190ºC/Gas 5.  Heat the butter and white chocolate in a pan over a low heat until melted then spoon into a bowl.  Add the remaining sugar (250g) and beat with the egg, bananas and vanilla until smooth.  Add the flour and baking powder and fold through the nut toffee. Spoon into the tin and bake for 35 mins until wobbly-set and golden on top.  Leave to go cold before slicing.

Butterscotch Banana Cake

This is my version of Dan Lepards Butterscotch Banana Cake.  It's from his book Short and Sweet. The recipe is below, it came from The Guardian.

• Dan Lepard
• The Guardian, Saturday 24 November 2007

My mate Jason Warwick, a talented baker in Sydney, taught me his way to boost the flavour and colour of banana cake, by simmering all that soft banana flesh in a frying pan bubbling with rich caramel, perfect for this sweet loaf. The cake takes on a sunburnt bronze hue and has a strong banana toffee flavour. Don't limit this to a loaf tin: it works as well as a slab, especially if a few handfuls of chopped blond walnuts are tossed in and stirred through at the end. Don't be stingy with the baking powder; bananas are very alkaline when they are ripe and this is often the cause of a heavy, dense cake.

250g caster sugar

250g banana flesh, chopped into 2cm pieces

1 tbsp unsalted butter

2 tsp vanilla extract

175ml sunflower oil

2 large eggs

150g plain flour

75g spelt, rye or wholemeal flour

2 level tsp mixed spice

2 level tsp baking powder

½ level tsp bicarbonate of soda

50ml plain yoghurt

Butter a 20cm square tin and line the base with non-stick baking paper. Tip 150g of the caster sugar into a frying pan with 25ml water, bring to the boil, then cook over a high heat until the sugar turns to a dark reddish caramel. Add the banana pieces, butter and vanilla, and simmer until the bananas break up in the caramel and the mixture is thick.

Spoon on to a plate and leave to cool. Beat the remaining 100g sugar with the oil and eggs until thick and slightly aerated, then beat in the bananas and the yoghurt. Sift the flours, spice, baking powder and soda together two or three times (throwing the bran back in), then fold this through the banana mixture.

Spoon the mixture into the tin, heat the oven to 180C (160C fan-assisted) and bake for about 50 minutes or until a skewer inserted comes out clean.

Tried and tested

'Went down really well. Even better the day after baking'

Thai Cook Class and a Thai Red Chicken Curry

So we saw this Thai cooking class advertised and decided it would be a different way to spend a Friday evening.  It was held at Blackfriars in Newcastle and there were 6 of us altogether.

We started off making some Thai Red Curry Paste.

Thai Red Curry Paste

6-8 large dried chillies, soaked in warm water for 30 mins
6 fresh kaffir lime leaves, chopped (dry ones are fine)
2 stalks fresh lemon grass, chopped
4 cloves garlic, peeled
small knob of galangal, chopped
1 coriander root
2 shallots, peeled
1 tsp salt
1 tsp coriander seeds
1 generous tsp shrimp paste

Add coriander seeds into  the mortar and pestle and pound until the coriander seeds have turned to powder.  Add the dried chillies and pound until the pieces are quite small.  Add the rest of the ingredients, bit by bit, pounding in between adding the shrimp paste last.  Pound until the mixture is a paste.

You can do this in a machine, but it won't be quite the same.

Store in the fridge.

Next came Chicken Satay and Peanut Dip

Chicken Satay

Serves 4

Bamboo skewers
½ cup coconut milk
2 tbsp curry powder
500g chicken breast
1 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
2 finely chopped lemon grass stalks
½ cup condensed milk
1 tsp turmeric

Soak the skewers at least half an hour so that the ends don't burn on the grill. Slice the chicken into strips, each about ¼ " thick. Mix the remaining ingredients and marinate the chicken for about 30 mins.

Thread the chicken onto the soaked skewers and place under the grill or cook in the oven, 4 minutes each side or until the chicken is cooked.

You can use pork instead of chicken.

Peanut dip (Nam Jim Satay)

Serves 4

¾ cup coconut milk
1 tbsp Thai curry paste 
2 tbsp fish sauce
2-3 tbsp peanut butter
3 tbsp sugar
1 tbps tamarind paste

Add the coconut milk to a cold pan and start to heat over medium heat.  As it is heating, stir in the curry paste, mixing well. Once thoroughly mixed, add the peanut butter and the remaining ingredients.  Stir and taste, you should be able to taste fish sauce, sugar and tamarind paste.  If it becomes too thick, add a few drops of water to thin the paste.

The Chicken Satay was served with Yam Woon Sen, a salad of glass noodles with shrimps and pork.

Yam Woon Sen

1 bundle glass noodles (approx 50g)
1 tsp oil
500g shrimps
500g minced pork
1 lime
1 red onion, thinly sliced
1 tbsp fish sauce
½ tsp sugar
1 fresh chilli, finely chopped
1/3rd cucumber, sliced
5-6 cherry tomatoes, halved
chopped fresh coriander

Put the noodles into a heatproof bowl. Pour boiling hot water over the noodles and leave to soak for 6 minutes.  Move the noodles around to make sure they are all submerged.  Drain the noodles and once the water stops dripping, put the noodles into a large bowl and cut them with scissors randomly to make the strands easier to eat.  The noodles should be soft not mushy.

Put a pan on medium heat and heat 1 tsp oil.  Add the pork and stir until fully cooked, then add the shrimps and stir for a further 2 minutes then take the pan off the heat.  Spoon the mixture into the bowl with the noodles and the fresh ingredients. To season the mixture, put the fish sauce and sugar into a small bowl, mix well and add to the mixture.  Lastly squeeze the lime juice into the mixture, toss and serve.

Finally we cooked and ate Chicken Pad Thai

Chicken Pad Thai

Serves 2

1 egg
chicken, raw (or other meat of choice)
1 tsp dried shrimps
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
1 tbsp shallots, finely chopped
1 tbsp salted radish
1 cube fried tofu, diced
1 handful dry, medium rice noodles
2 tsp fish sauce
1 cup fresh beansprouts
1-2 spring onions, cut into 1" pieces (2.5cm)
2 tbsp chopped roasted peanuts
1 tsp dried roasted red Chilli flakes
½ cup pad thai sauce
veg oil for frying
wedges of lime

Soak the rice noodles in warm water for about 15 minutes, leave until ready to use.

Heat 1 tbsp oil in a wok over medium heat, add garlic, shallots, salted radish and tofu and fry for a few seconds.  Now add the chicken and stir until cooked. Add spring onions and noodles, pad thai sauce and fish sauce.  Stir fry for about 4-5 minutes.  Push the mixture to one side of the pan and add the egg, wait until the egg is cooked then add the beansprouts. Stir fry for another 2 minutes and serve with roasted peanuts on top, lime and chilli flakes on the side.

Use any meat you like instead of chicken.

Pad Thai Sauce

You can buy this ready made in jars or make your own.  Here's a recipe for making your own.

1-1½ tsp tamarind paste to taste
¼ cup chicken stock
3 tbsp fish sauce
1 tbsp soy sauce
½ to 1 tsp chilli sauce or use cayenne pepper to taste
pinch ground white pepper
3-4 tbsp palm sugar or brown sugar

Place all ingredients in a cup and stir to dissolve both tamarind paste and sugar (note you will need lots of sugar to balance out the sourness of the tamarind). When taste-testing, keep in mind the following tips: In order to achieve the best results, your pad Thai sauce should taste sweet first, followed by spicy-salty and sour last. Add more sugar if it tastes too sour to you, or add more chili for more intense spiciness. Also note that the sauce will taste almost too strong at this point, but once distributed throughout the noodles, the flavor will be perfect.

Your pad Thai sauce is now ready to be used, or store it in the refrigerator in a sealed container for up to 2 weeks. Note: this recipes makes 2/3 cup Pad Thai Sauce (enough for 1 batch of Pad Thai, enough for 9 ounces of noodles to serve 2-4 people)

Great British Bake Off

Well, it's over for another year :(  I've really enjoyed watching again.  I'd never heard of some of the bakes, Google to the rescue there!

Well done to Nancy for winning, but bother Richard and Luis were worthy finalists.