Thankful for Pumpkin Muffins!

In honor of Thanksgiving, I thought I’d finally post about the pumpkin muffins I’ve made recently. I saw Chef James Tanner make them on iTV’s Lorraine show. They’re super easy and I even made them once with my 3-year old nieces. They’re also incredibly festive and go very well with a nice cup of tea!

Spiced Pumpkin Muffins

I’ve provided his recipe for you below but here’s the link as well.

INGREDIENTS

250g plain flour

2tsp baking powder

1tsp baking soda

1tsp ground ginger

2tsp all spice

Pinch of salt

160g soft brown sugar

60ml milk or buttermilk

200g of pumpkin puree

2 eggs

30g apple sauce

120g melted butter

Few drops of vanilla extract

Optional pumpkin seeds for garnish

** For the maple cream cheese frosting

100g icing sugar (may need more)

100g cream cheese

45g butter

1tbsp maple syrup

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 200C/400F.
2. Make the pumpkin puree. Start peeling a small pumpkin (2kg will do). Scrape out as much flesh as you can and chop the rest into cubes. Simmer with a bit of water in a pot until soft. It will take about 15-20 minutes. Drain and blitz into a puree. Weigh out 200g. You can freeze the leftovers for more muffins or use it for a soup. If you want to use the pumpkin seeds, toast them first in the oven and set aside. Take the cream cheese and butter for the frosting out at this point to bring to room temperature.
3. Sieve the flour, baking powder, baking soda, ginger and all spice into a bowl, add salt and sugar and set aside. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the milk or buttermilk, pumpkin puree, eggs, apple sauce, melted butter and vanilla extract. Gradually mix the dry ingredients into the wet to create a smooth batter.
4. Line your muffin tin with baking cases. Fill each almost to the top of the case and pop them in the oven.
5. The recipe says to cook for 20-25 minutes but mine were much quicker than that. Check the muffins at 10 minutes and again 5 minutes later. Using a cocktail stick, check the center of the muffin. If it comes out clean then they’re done. Leave to cool on a wire baking rack. Serve plain for a savory muffin or top with the frosting for something sweet.
6. For the frosting, blend all the ingredients together. If you are mixing by hand, this will be much easier to do if the ingredients are soft and at room temperature. If you want your icing to be a bit more stiff, add more icing sugar as needed. Then serve!

Cook’s Notes

• The pumpkin seeds are pretty on top but if you’re going to have frosting they just get in the way and end up chewy.
• I got my pumpkin at Sainsbury’s.. it looked pretty small but it weighed about 2kg and it gave me enough pumpkin puree for just over two portions of this recipe.
• I used homemade apple sauce and added a bit extra for more moisture.
• Careful on the cooking time. Don’t go by color and be sure to check after 10 minutes. If the cocktail stick comes out with a bit of crumb on it, it’s done. What you don’t want to see is batter.

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Some Vegetarian Delights

As you know I am a major meat lover. However, every once in awhile I try to do a Meatless Monday for my husband and I. It’s usually planned with the intention of being healthy but somehow there’s always Lots of cheese involved! Here’s a mix of different vegetarian dishes I’ve made recently. Enjoy!

First up something I’ve raved about before – Farro. Farro is an “ancient wheat” that is very similar to spelt or bulgar wheat. It’s nutty, chewy in texture and very hearty. The great thing about it is that it soaks up liquid really well, so it goes well with a vinaigrette. Sadly it’s not the easiest item to find. Your best bet may be an Italian delicatessen or health food store. Crazily enough, I bought my small bag in an Italian shop in New Orleans where they’re famous for their Muffaletta sandwich. I brought it back to Arizona and then all the way to London with me! Using seasonal butternut squash, I made a Farro Salad with Roasted Butternut Squash and Goats Cheese in a Sherry Vinaigrette.

Warm Farro Salad with Butternut Squash and Goats Cheese

Next up was a simple started of Fried Halloumi with a Red Onion, Caper, Coriander Vinaigrette. Halloumi is this delicious, salty white cheese from Cyprus. It can be made from either cow’s, goat’s or sheep’s milk and has a semi-hard, chewy texture. I find it’s nice crumbled in a salad, hot off the grill as a kebab or coated in flour and pan fried. I did the latter and it was incredibly easy.

It comes in a block about 4 or 5 inches long, about 3 inches wide and 3 inches high. Slice into pieces as thin as you can get it (maybe half a cm). Since it comes with a bit of water in its package (much like mozzarella), just dip it in flour and it will coat easily. Then fry in a bit of oil in a pan. Serve with a simple white wine vinaigrette with finely chopped red onion or shallots, chopped capers and chopped coriander/cilantro. If you have some lime, add the juice from half. You don’t need to add salt to this dressing as the capers and cheese will be salty. Enjoy!

Fried Halloumi with Red Onion, Caper, Coriander Vinaigrette

Next up is a Vietnamese Carrot Salad. This dish isn’t entirely vegetarian as it uses fish sauce, but this can be substituted for salt. But this salad isn’t meant to be served as an appetizer/starter. It’s more of a side dish. While it’s not

Traditional Goi Tom Vietnamese Shrimp Salad

entirely ‘traditional’, even the BBC has a similar version with cabbage. This is really a quick easy version of the actual traditional salad Goi Tom which has shrimp, daikon and cucumber. My mom makes this salad all the time. It’s really refreshing and she does a great presentation. She’ll mound the salad on a plate, slice the shrimp in half length wise and place them all over the salad ‘dome’. It looks gorgeous. She’ll also use green papaya at times. Check out this recipe for Goi Tom or this recipe for green papaya salad.

This quick and easy use of carrots is great with some grilled or pan roasted prawns/shrimp and some rice noodles. Or with some grilled Vietnamese style pork (lemongrass) and steamed rice.

Peel and then julienne or grate your carrots. Finely chop some red onion or shallots. Cut some mint in chiffonade (thinly slice) or chop some coriander if you don’t have mint. Add some chopped chilli if you have it. Gently toast your peanuts in a pan if possible, otherwise just crush and toss in. Make enough dressing (nuoc mam cham) with this ratio (2 parts water, 1 part sugar, 1 part fish sauce, 1 part lemon or lime juice, 1 clove garlic, chilli pepper). Go easy when adding the sauce to the salad though. It’s very strong! But just toss it all together and serve!

Vietnamese Carrot Salad

Last but not least is a quick and easy Beet and Apple Salad with Blue Cheese. I’ve done a similar salad before (click here for recipe) with avocado as well. But this one was even easier. In the UK, you can buy cooked whole beets in water in the salad section but in the States canned beets are just fine. Some people find this salad a bit too sweet but you can offset that by adding the blue cheese, lemon juice or some rocket/arugula leaves.

Slice the beets into matchsticks. Similarly slice the apples (skin on). Toast some walnuts and crush. Make a simple lemon dressing (lemon juice, extra virgin olive oil, salt, pepper) with finely chopped shallots if you’d like. I like to toss the beets and apples in the dressing separately so that you can maintain the color contrast. Serve with a few knobs of blue cheese (I like Gorgonzola for this) and sprinkle the walnuts on top!

Beet, Apple and Blue Cheese Salad with Walnuts

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When It’s Cold Outside.. Soups Galore!

As the autumn season kicks into full swing, there’s nothing better than a bowl of warm, hearty soup! My husband and I have also been really conscious that the holidays are not far off and that cozy, hearty MEALS are going to be in abundance. So not only are soups comfy, they’re (relatively) healthy! What really elevates a soup from bland to brilliant is a good stock and good seasoning. It also helps to use in season vegetables, so that they’re bursting with flavor. I found a really cool website that tells you what’s at their best and in season from vegetables to meat and seafood (for the UK) : eat the seasons (dot) com. And at their best right now are butternut squash, parsnip and leeks (to name a few). Try them as a soup or even as a veggie pasta bake (or lasagna if you have the sheets).

Soups are so incredibly easy to make and a great way to get a non-vegetable lover to get their veggies in. To make them even easier, I highly recommend investing in a hand blender. It is SO handy for soups, pasta sauces, mashed potatoes, potato or parsnip puree, sauces, etc. I use a Philips Hand Blender like this one you can buy on Amazon.co.uk. They’ve been using this exact one on Masterchef The Professionals this week (for those unfamiliar with this UK show, they’ve brought it to the States with Gordan Ramsey.. check it out!). Lots of sauces and bisques being made with it!

I make all my soups with chicken stock, but they can easily be substituted for vegetable stock. I also try to use homemade chicken stock whenever possible. Click on the SOUP link below for a recipe. I usually separate my stock into medium sized plastic containers and freeze for perfect soup-for-two portions. They can keep for a couple months in the freezer but only a couple days in the fridge.

So without further ado, here’s my week’s worth of soups! I started it off with a chicken chowder which helped me make enough stock to use all week! Click here for all the SOUP recipes.

1. Chicken, Corn and Ham Chowder
2. Roasted (Bell) Pepper, Tomato and Feta Soup with mint coulis garnish
3. Classic Cream of Broccoli
4. Classic Cream of Mushroom
5. Roasted Butternut Squash, Fennel and Carrot Soup with coriander/cilantro garnish
6. Roasted Parsnip, Carrot, Coriander/cilantro and Curry Soup with bacon garnish

Making some 'chowda' !

Hearty chicken, corn and ham chowder

When roasting changes everything..

Roasted Pepper, Tomato & Feta Soup

Classic Cream of Broccoli Soup

Classic Cream of Mushroom Soup with Garlic Parmesan Toast

Roasted butternut squash, fennel & carrot soup

Carrot, Parsnip, Coriander/Cilantro, Curry Soup with Bacon Garnish

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A Bit of MY Soul Food : Pasta Edition

Some people love chocolate. Some people (eh-hem my husband) love candy. Some love cake or cookies or ice cream. For me, my biggest weakness is pasta. Whether it’s simple angel hair tossed in truffle oil and parmesan or it’s penne alla vodka, I love it all. I don’t discriminate too much with the ingredients I’ll cook/eat with pasta. Sometimes I want it simple and sometimes I just want to use up whatever leftover veg I have. There are a few go to ingredients like tomatoes (of course), garlic, onion, mushrooms and some sort of meat. If I have the time, making a lasagna from scratch is relaxing for me. Letting that sauce cook slowly to let the flavors really marry. Making that bechamel the way it should be and so on. Baked pasta dishes are great because usually it involves melted cheese and it just looks so pretty when it comes out of the oven. Also, I like that you can put it in the oven and tidy up before guests arrive! Both of the dishes today are baked coincidentally. But they seem appropriate as the season changes. Somehow I associate autumn with cozy casseroles and lots of starches!

Pastitsio

First up is a dish I made earlier this summer on a whim but that had rave reviews, so I took another stab at it. It’s a Greek type of lasagna called Pastitsio. It’s like lasagna in that it has pasta, meat sauce and is topped with a bechamel sauce. I did an adapted version of Ina Garten’s recipe but here’s another one and another. What makes this dish so delicious and different is that it has cinnamon. If you’re able to, you should use an authentic Greek cheese Kefalotyri, but I used parmesan like Ina did. Here are the changes/adjustments I made to her recipe:

• MEAT: I used ground beef and pork instead of lamb. Not only is ground lamb (mince) a bit expensive but also I was cooking the dish for someone who doesn’t eat lamb. Also, be sure to season your meat with salt and pepper when you’re browning the meat.
• TOMATOES: I didn’t have tomatoes in puree, so I just used my chopped tomatoes which was just fine.
• SEASONING: I really love the cinnamon flavor, so I added more until I was happy with the taste. I also added a beef stock cube to just add depth of flavor.
• BECHAMEL: I never buy whole milk and didn’t want to use heavy cream. I find bechamel can be just as good with semi-skimmed (2%) milk, and you feel a little less guilty!

The cinnamon in this dish is so fragrant and in a way you won’t be used to. Normally we think of cinnamon as something sweet for dessert. But when you smell this spice in a savory dish, it just all makes sense. The first time I made this, I didn’t have any eggs to add to the bechamel so it came out softer. The second time I added eggs and you’ll see the difference in the photos because it set more. Both tasted great but I think I’d prefer the one that was softer. Some pastitsio recipes use just egg yolks rather than whole eggs like Ina. I might try that next time..

My second dish is just something I threw together – Baked Gnocchi and Spinach in a Creamy Sausage Tomato Sauce. I’ve posted my basic tomato sauce in Recipes, and for this dish I used carrot but not celery. I also added creme fraiche (not cream), and some oven-baked Cumberland sausages I happened to have. In case you don’t know what gnocchi is, it’s an Italian potato dumpling that is soft, thick, gooey and so good. And like pasta, it’s a perfect way to use up any meat or veg you have. I had some leftover sauteed spinach (that had been seasoned simply with salt and pepper), so I placed that at the bottom of the baking dish. I cooked the fresh gnocchi (which I bought at Borough Market) very quickly for just a minute in boiling water. Normally you know gnocchi is done when it floats to the surface. But because I was going to bake it, I under cooked it. So on top of the spinach, I added the gnocchi and sausage tomato sauce. I topped it with parmesan and homemade breadcrumbs (leftover crusts from sandwich bread that was blended with oregano). And then baked it until it was golden brown! SO good. I served it with some roasted asparagus wrapped in parma ham. And as always, it was hot, creamy and had a bit of breadcrumb crunch. It was still good as lunch the next day too! Hope it inspires you to whip up a pasta dish in your kitchen tonight!

For some more of MY soul food, check out this post.

Baked Gnocchi

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“As Easy As Pie” or “A Piece of Cake”?

I heard these expressions the other day and it got me thinking.. They’re meant to imply something is very easy, but neither pie nor cake are all That easy to make. As you know, I’m not exactly a baker. Actually I try to avoid it. One of the reasons I love cooking is the ability to create whatever you want or feel like. There’s not really a ‘set’ outcome and I almost never measure.. Always going by taste instead. But baking is a completely different matter. You absolutely must measure and measure properly. That’s probably one of the reasons I avoid it! Not to mention the fact that anything baked is usually loaded with calories. I also don’t have a massive sweet tooth..

BUT – if there’s one thing I’ve learned to love about British food, it’s their love of pies. And not apple pies – savory pies full of meat, potatoes and more. While chicken pot pies are well known and fairly popular in the States, it’s always thought of as really heavy and creamy. But I’ve learned that chicken pot pies (or any savory pie) don’t always have to be cooked “Paula Deen” style (a Southern chef who LOVES butter and cream). Brits love their steak and kidney pie, pork pies, steak and ale, fish pies, cottage pie and so on. And they don’t always have a pastry lid (like with cottage pie or fish pie), although it’s my preferred way to eat a pie. So it occurred to me that while we had one day of Basic Cuisine at LCB on pastries, I’ve never attempted it at home. I usually cheat and buy ready made puff pastry at the store. But after watching several TV chefs make shortcrust pastry like it was nothing, I thought I really should give it a go.

My Mini Pies!

Recently I talked about slow roasting and using the oven and the satisfaction of putting something in the oven and waiting for it to be ready. It’s the waiting and anticipation that make it exciting for me. Will it cook properly? Will it taste good? So you can only imagine my delight when these bad boys came out golden and flaky. Of course, as with doing anything for the first time, I learned a few things..

• Roll out the dough pretty thin (if it’s too thick, it’s too starchy and dry)
• I did a lard/butter combo the second time around.. Makes it flakier
• Be careful what vegetables you put in.. For example broccoli has too much water content!
• Season your filling very well.
• Mashed potatoes versus chopped/boiled potatoes make the filling creamy and more moist.

There are several recipes out there, but I just grabbed a recipe I saw in the Daily Mail paper last Saturday. Here it is:

• 350g (12oz) plain flour – and extra to dust your surface
• 175g (6oz) unsalted butter, cold and diced
• 4-5 tbsp cold water

In a food processor, add the flour and butter. Blitz until it’s like sand. Then while it’s going, pour in a tablespoon at a time of cold water until the dough comes together. Take out, shape roughly and wrap in plastic wrap (cling film). Refrigerate for about 30 minutes. When ready, dust a clean surface with flour and roll out to a couple millimeters thickness. I used both a muffin tin and a Yorkshire pudding tin, and both came out very well. Cut out a circle larger than the radius of each hole. Be careful to not poke any holes when lining the pans. I found that as you line it you’ll have a bit of excess as it folds. Simply pinch these pieces out and gently push the dough together to seal (against the edges of the tray). Be sure to have some sticking up, so that after you fill them it’ll be easy to seal the lid on. If there are any holes, your filling might bubble out!

No one ever said baking was a clean process..

For my first go at the pies, I used up some leftovers. So Pie No.1 included: Leftover roast beef, broccoli and a Gorgonzola white sauce. After making a test pie of this, I realized quickly that the broccoli has too much water content and made the pastry soggy very quickly! So I added a bit of mashed potato afterwards. Pie No.2 consisted of: Leftover slow-roasted pulled pork, mashed potatoes and chunks of English mature cheddar. I had some leftover vegetables too, but only enough for one pie. So Pie No.3 had Roasted sweet potato, roasted red onion and goat cheese.This one turned out to be my favorite I think! It was really creamy because of the goat cheese, and the sweet potato and onion had great flavor because they were roasted with balsamic, olive oil and salt and pepper.

First tester pies!

Veggie Pie : Roasted sweet potato and red onion with goat cheese

Because this was so easy, I thought it’d be a great idea as a half-term activity with my 4-year old nephew and nearly 3-year old niece. We had a baking day with savory mini pies and an apple cake that their mum (my sister-in-law Tae) helped them with. The kids were great and they really love to cook. It definitely gets messy, but it was exciting for them!

Baking with the Kids!

We made two different types of pies : (1) bakes beans, sausages and cheddar and (2) beef meatballs in marinara with cheddar. The finished pie in this photo was made in the Yorkshire pudding tin which I think is actually easier to assemble and to eat! I’m so embarrassed to admit, but I know my brother and sister-in-law will tease me endlessly if I don’t fess up to it… But I was horrified when I was taking the mini pies out of the oven and the oven gloves slipped and I dropped them! Eek! Thank goodness there was the Yorkshire pudding tray which is much easier to handle 🙂 After pies, they got to making a delicious apple cake (very in season). This was one of Tae’s friends’ recipes, so I don’t have it. But here’s a BBC Good Food Recipe that’s very similar. It’s a great autumn cake too – with flavors like cinnamon and nutmeg.

Delicious and moist apple cake

Enjoying my cake with a cup of tea! California girl being very English!

So as you can see.. baking really can be as easy as pie OR cake! If my toddler niece and nephew can do it, you can too!

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