GORGE

Posted on September 29, 2015 by gorgefood

I got a free 40 page recipe booklet in my copy of “Good Food” this week which is a taster of a new cookbook called NOPI by Yotam Ottolenghi. I had a look through and there is a lot of stuff that excites me so you may be seeing quite a few of these in the coming weeks!

Tomatoes with wasabi mascarpone and pine nuts
Burnt spring onion dip with curly kale
Crushed Carrots with harissa and pistachio
Sprouting broccoli with edamame salad with curry leaves and coconut
Persian rice with burnt butter tzatziki
Aubergine cheesecake
Tagliatelle with walnuts and lemon
Spiced buttermilk cod with urid dhal.
Bourbon glazed ribs with smoked corn.

But back to the Butternut Squash with ginger, chilli tomatoes and lime yoghurt.. as I had the ingredients already in the cupboard! These tomatoes are absolutely the best tomatoes I have ever tasted and I will be making a job lot of them soon – they would be very good as canapes too.

Ingredients

Serves 2 as a main or 4 as a side or starter.

This recipe takes a lot of time to cook so read instructions fully before you start.

1 large butternut squash.
Olive oil
6 large good quality Tomatoes ( the recipe suggests plum but I used vine)
3cm piece ginger finely grated
1 red chilli – seeds removed
2 small garlic cloves crushed
30g Muscovado sugar ( I didn’t have this so used normal sugar)
coarse sea salt
black pepper

Lime Yoghurt

120g Greek yoghurt ( or I used creme fraiche)
1/4 tsp ground cardamon
zest of 1/2 a lime and 1 and 1/2 tsp lime juice.

To serve

Coriander leaves
a handful of cashew nuts toasted and chopped

Preheat the oven to 240/220 fan

Cut the squash in half lengthways, scoop out the seeds and then cut widthways into slices.

Mix the squash with 2 tablespoons of oil and 2 tsp of salt and a grind of black pepper and then roast in the oven spead out for 35 – 40 minutes then set aside to cool.

Reduce the oven to 170/150 fan.

Halve the tomatoes, sprinkle with salt and oil and place skin side down on a tray and bake for 70 minutes, Keep an eye on them if they are small as they will burn.

Put the ginger, chilli, garlic, salt and sugar in a pestle and mortar and grind together to make a paste. When the tomatoes are done, spread a little bit of paste on each tomato and bake again for 30 – 40 minutes. Keep an eye on them so they don’t burn.

Mix the lime yoghurt ingredients in a bowl and add a pinch of salt and pepper and keep in the fridge until ready.

Spread the squash on a large plate and place the tomatoes in-between, then drizzle with the yoghurt and sprinkle with coriander and cashew nuts.

I served a pan fried piece of cod on top of mine to make it a main course.

A beautiful and healthy meal.

I shall be buying this book!

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Posted on September 24, 2015 by gorgefood

Last weekend I went to the Ramsbottom festival and found a lovely little Vegetarian and Vegan food stall which I think I need to mention. I went back a few times over the weekend and but didn’t get chance to try the beetroot burger

“Beets & Beans Patti – Spicy beets and beans nut patti with red cabbage and apple coleslaw, rocket and sweet chilli sauce on Turkish Bread”

The first time I just went along because there was a small queue and I didn’t fancy the usual burger and chips that other stalls were doing – thank god I did! I am a big fan of halloumi so the halloumi burger with pesto and chilli’s was right up my street! With a side portion of garlic potatoes and a summer salad which I have since recreated 😉

“Halloumi Burger – With pesto, roquito peppers, rocket and mayo on a brioche bun”

“Summer salad – mixed peppers, green beans, olives, sundried tomatoes and shallots.”

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After walking back to my friends with my veggie feast another 2 Halloumi burgers were promptly ordered! I also had my eye on a large plate of veggie nachos that came out while I was waiting for my food – piled high with goodies unlike some places that just grate some cheese on a packet of doritos and call it nachos! I orederd these the following day and they were just as good as they looked. I would have never thought of using fresh corriander on nachos.. now I will!

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“Veggie Chilli Nachos – with cheese, sour cream, roquito peppers, corriander and guacamole.”

https://www.facebook.com/beetsandbeans

If you see this purple bus around – give it a try, you won’t be disappointed – unless you want a dirty greasy burger.. I shall be keeping my eye out in the future to get my hands of one the beetroot burgers!

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Posted on September 8, 2015 by gorgefood

A twist on a beef lasagne that is simple but tasty and a good meal to prepare in advance or even make a few of to freeze.

You can do this with or without the vegetables, I added them to try and get a bit of goodness in and also to use up some veg that was on the turn! its up to you although I do think the aubergine really compliments the dish and the carrot adds sweetness.

Ingredients

around 12 sheets of Lasagne – fresh if possible
250g Mozarella Cheese
50g fresh Parmesan – I actually had none in so used cheddar! sssshhh
8 Pork sausages – Ones with garlic and herbs are best.
2 cloves of garlic sliced
2 tsp fennel seeds
1 teaspoon of chilli flakes (optional)
2 tins of chopped tomatoes
1 tbsp Tomato puree
1/4 pint of red wine
1 tablespoon chopped fresh basil or 1 tsp dried
1 tablespoon chopped fresh Oregano or 1 tsp dried
1 medium onion diced
2 carrots diced
1/2 Aubergine diced
Splash of balsamic vinegar
5 sliced sundried tomatoes (optional)
Salt and pepper

Heat the oil in a pan and squeeze nuggets of sausage out of their skins into the oil like little meatballs, it doesn’t matter what size and shape they are but quite large lumps. Fry until browned all round then add the garlic fennel and chilli flakes and cook for another minute.

Put this mixture aside and then cook the onions carrots and aubergine for around 5 – 7 minutes on a medium heat until soft. Add the sausage pieces back in the pan.

Add the tomatoes, tomato puree, herbs ( if using dried), wine, sund dried tomatoes if using and balsamic and then bring to the boil and simmer for around 15 – 20 minutes. If using fresh herbs add these after simmering. Season well with salt and pepper.

Heat the oven to 190 fan and start to assemble your lasagne.

I did not make a traditional white sauce for this lasagne as I thought it would take away from the sausage and fennel taste.

add a layer of lasagne sheets in a large rectangular oven proof dish then 1/3 of the sauce then 1/4 of the mozzarella and repeat twice. Make sure you keep some tomato sauce for the top of the last lasagne sheets then add the rest of the mozzarella and a handful of the Parmesan.

Cover with foil and bake in the oven for around 30 minutes and take the foil off for another 10 minutes.

Serve with Garlic bread and a side salad.

(This amount made 2 portions of the size you see above in the photo)

Off to get mine out of the oven now…

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Posted on September 6, 2015 by gorgefood

Hot and sweet dipping sauce.

This is a sauce that I have mentioned in a previous recipe that I saw in Olive magazine but I now regard the magazine one as a cheat version. I made this to serve with my popadoms and samosas this weekend.

The sauce I made was..

(Cheats version)

2 tbsp Sriracha chilli sauce or Sambal Oelek
2 tbsp light or sweet soy sauce
3cm piece of ginger – grated finely
3 tbsp Soft brown sugar
3 tbsp Rice wine vinegar
1 Lime – juiced
1 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp Ground Tumeric

This is a great dipping sauce in itself BUT a few weeks ago I wanted to make it without using a shop bought Sriracha sauce so went to look for some ” Sambal Oelek” which proved difficult so I decided to look up a recipe and make my own! I made both sauces, the cheats version and the one with Sambal and did a taste test for Mr F and the one that took more effort of course was the winner by far!!

To make the sambal..

Sambal Ingredients

2cm piece of ginger
2 garlic cloves
1 lemongrass stalk, tough outer leaves discarded and finely chopped.
6 fresh red chillis ( I left out some of the seeds but it depends how hot you want it and mine was pretty hot!!)
3 thai shallots peeled and finely chopped.
Zest of 1 lime
50ml White wine vinegar
Coarse salt
50g sugar.

Chop the ginger, garlic, shallot and lemon grass and put in a pestle and mortar with the chilli’s and half the lime zest.

Crush the ingredients together and gradually add the vinegar.

Add the salt and carry on until it resembles a paste. If you struggle you can always just use a blender.

Add the mixture to a cold pan and put over a high heat and mix while it heats up.

Add the sugar which will caramelise the mixture.

Cook on a medium heat for 10 minutes or until it is like a pulp

When almost done add the rest of the lime zest.

You can use this as a marinade or a dip or you can use it with the ingredients as before…

Proper Version

2 Tablespoons Sambal paste ( as above)
2 tbsp light or sweet soy sauce
3cm piece of ginger – grated finely
3 tbsp Soft brown sugar
3 tbsp Rice wine vinegar
1 Lime – juiced
1 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp Ground Tumeric

to make the best spicy dip I have ever tasted!

This goes great with griddled chicken thighs that have been marinaded in the sauce before hand with some on the side to dip into!

Any left over paste – just keep in the fridge for another day.

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Posted on September 6, 2015 by gorgefood

The original plan for my party was a Mango lassi panacotta with coconut ice cream but Pannacotta and vegetarian gelatin do not work! So I binned the lot and started again. I wanted something quite light after lots of food and something quite refreshing and not too sweet, then I remembered this recipe from Shelina’s book.

Shelina was my favourite Masterchef winner up until recently when local lad Simon won the title! Although I think Shelina’s food was the most interesting hence me buying her book.

This is really easy to make and can be done in about 10 minutes, my 3 year old helped me me this ( until I added the rum!)

Ingredients to serve 4

4 ginger biscuits
300ml double cream
1/4 vanilla pod – seeds scraped out
3 tbsp icing sugar
75ml Rum
juice and zest of 2 limes ( the recipie says 4 but I only had 2)
150ml of Mango puree – I bought a tin from the indian grocery shop but you could just blend fresh.
1 mango peeled and cut into small chunks
Desiccated coconut to sprinkle

Bas the ginger biscuits in a sandwich bag with a rolling pin and put the crumble in the bottom of each individual serving dish and put a teaspoon of rum on top of each.

Using an electric whisk, lightly whisk the cream, add the vanilla, icing sugar, rum, lime juice and zest (save a little zest for decoration) and whisk until it forms light peaks. add 1/3 of the mango puree and half the chopped mango and fold through for a marbled effect.

Put the cream topping on the biscuit base and top with the rest of the mango puree and chopped mango and a sprinkle of dessicated coconut and some lime zest.

Refrigerate until ready to scoff!

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Posted on September 6, 2015 by gorgefood

A very tasty vegetarian curry that I thoroughly enjoyed! I used a traditional recipe but threw in a few things of my own near the end to enhance the taste so maybe not truly authentic!

I started with a recipe from “Curry Nation” by Madhur Jaffrey.

Ingredients

Serves 4

1 large block of Paneer Cheese – around 500g cut into chunks
1 Medium onion chopped
1 teaspoon of crushed garlic
1 teaspoon Cumin Seeds
1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger
Fresh chopped chilli (I used 1 long chilli for a mild curry)
1 tablespoon tomato puree
1 teaspoon Garam Masala
1 teaspoon Tumeric
1 teaspoon Fenugreek leaves ( Methi)
2 handfull of frozen peas
a splash of whote wine vinegar
Salt
Butter
Coriander leaves to garnish
Magi liquid seasoning – optional

First of all you need to fry your chunks of Paneer in batches in hot oil until they are slightly golden all over. Be careful as they spit! Remove from the pan and put onto kitchen paper to drain.

In a large frying pan add oil and set over a medium heat. When hot add the onions and fry until see through then add the cumin seeds and cook for another few minutes. Add the garlic ginger and chilli and reduce the heat and mix well for 5 minutes. Add a splash of water if it starts to burn on the bottom of the pan.

Add the tomato puree and some salt and then remove from the heat.

Blend this sauce and then put back into the pan and add the garam masala, tumeric and fenugreek leaves and combine into a paste. Add the peas and stir into the paste for a few minutes teh add half a pint of cold water. Bring to a boil and them reduce to a simmer for 5 minutes. Add the paneer and warm through.

At this point I tasted the sauce and thought it lacked richness so I added a tablespoon of butter and a bit more salt and a splash of white wine vinegar to make it a bit tangier. I also added a little more garam masala and fengreek until I thought that it tasted rich enough. Just be careful to add small amounts if you are trying to change the flavour though – you can always add but you cant take away!

A few splashes of magi liquid seasoning also brought the flavours out a lot more.

Sprinkle with chopped coriander and serve with rice and nann!

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Posted on September 6, 2015 by gorgefood

Samosa making is actually really easy and something I will be doing again soon! there are endless possibilities of what to stuff them with!

This weekend it was peas and potatoes with the help of a few spices! I found these really tasty, not too spicy and with a nice subtle blend of spices. I found the samosa wrappers ( Im not going as far as making my own!) in the freezer section of ASM Ashton and there are clear instruction on how to fold them on the back of the packet. At first I was trying to stick down the edges but if you fold them as shown there is no need and everything gets sealed in by the folds.

Unfortunately there are no pictures of the finished article as we had scoffed them all by the time I remembered to take a photo! Luckily I got one as I was making them.

Ingredients – to make around 20 samosas.

1 large shallot, finely chopped
1 tbsp ginger and garlic paste ( or use one of the frozen blocks or use fresh ginger and garlic and crush to a paste)
1 birds eye chilli finely chopped.
4 Curry leaves
1 tbsp ground cumin
1 tbsp Curry powder
1/2 tsp garam masala
1/2 tsp teaspoon cayenne pepper or chilli powder
1 tsp ground coriander
1/2 tsp tumeric
3 small white potatoes, peeled and chopped into small cubes
2 handfuls of frozen peas
1 tbsp chopped corriander stalks
Salt and pepper

Heat some oil in a pan and fry the shallot over a medium heat until see through then add the garlic and ginger paste, curry leaves and dry spices. Cook lightly for 1 minute then add the potatoes and cover the pan and cook on a low heat for about 10 minutes. Keep your eye on it so that it does burn and stick to the pan though, if this starts to happen add a little water.

When the potatoes get soft mash them up a bit and then add the peas and cook for another 3-4 minutes. Add the coriander stalk and fresh chilli and season with salt.

Fill the samosa wrappers by putting some of the mixture in the left hand corner and then folding over to make a triangle, then fold again upwards and again downwards until you have a perfectly sealed triangle, you may want to stick the last piece down with a bit of water.

Deep fry the parcels in batches of 3 or 4 – not too many as the oil will not be hot enough and they will stick together. Once the samosa looks crisp and floats to the top it is ready – this should only be around 1 minute depending on the size of your samosa and how much filling is in.

If you need to you can do this in advance and the reheat them in the oven later on which is what I had to do, they lose a bit of the crispiness but are still great served with a mint and yoghurt dip.

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Posted on September 3, 2015 by gorgefood

Its not a pie.. its not a crumble.. it’s a “Crump” and its better than either of the alternatives in my opinion! and judging by the amount left in the fridge, in Mr F’s opinion too!

Its an easy option for a dessert really doing a crumble/crump but I am trying to get my 3 year old interested in food and cooking and we can even go and pick the ingredients together for this one which makes it a fun learning exercise with something nice to eat at the end!

I saw this “crump” concept on a cookery show about 7 years ago now, it was a Masterchef style programme where people had to compete with their best dish and this came second. This is how I remember it…

Ingredients

3 large handfuls of Blackberries – locally picked if possible!
3 Cooking apples (plenty going spare on my mums tree if anyone needs any!)
100g sugar
1tsp mixed spice

Topping
Equal amounts of sugar, flour and butter!
around 100g depending on how big your dish is.

To make the topping there is no need to mix anything up – youneed to put the sugar and flour in an oven proof bowl and place the butter on top and put it in the oven as it is! When the butter melts you then stir it round.

As the butter is melting, wash your blackberries and wash your apples and put in the dish you want to make the Crump in and add 100g sugar and a teaspoon of mixed spice and mix well.

Add the mixed topping onto the fruit and bake in the oven around 180 degrees (fan) for around 20 minutes or until it looks done. The topping should go hard like lumps of buttery biscuit! If it is not hard, cool it in the fridge first then reheat.

This one I made yesterday probably had a bit too much butter as I didn’t weigh properly so the topping was not as firm as it should be – BUT after a night in the fridge it is now PERFECT and crunchy! It also tastes great cold.

Sweet fruit covered in an almost shortbread type biscuit topping.

The only thing left to decide is.. custard, cream, ice cream or all 3?!

I went for extra thick Jersery cream.

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Posted on September 3, 2015 by gorgefood

Ahead of Friday’s Indian Dinner party I have done a trial run of the Matar Paneer which is very nice and have made my own Chutney today, based on a BBC Food recipe. It’s much easier than I thought it would be really and worth the effort. You really do get to see just how bad for you it is though….!

Potato and Pea Samosa’s – a Shelina ( Masterchef) recipe should be coming later too if the poorly child is still in front of the tv.

You need to start this recpie the day before – something I didn’t realise yesterday when I got all the ingredients out.

Mango Chutney.

1 large ripe Mango, peeled and sliced.
1 small cooking apple – peeled and chopped
1 clove of garlic – Crushed
1 tsp grated ginger
100g Caster Sugar
1/2 pint White wine vinegar
1/2 green chilli – chopped. ( keep seeds if you want it spicy)
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper or chilli powder
1/2 teaspoon nigella seeds.
1 teaspoon English mustard powder.
Salt.

The night before put the sliced mango in a bowl and season with salt. Leave overnight.

Drain the water from the mango and rinse thoroughly.

Add everything but the mango to a pan and dissolve the sugar on a low heat.

Bring to the boil then add the mango.

Simmer for 20 minutes until thick and sticky

I blended mine at this point as I like it runny but you can leave it as it is if you like or even remove half and blend the rest to give it a slightly lumpy texture.

All ready for my poppadoms now!

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Posted on August 26, 2015 by gorgefood

So the menu changed slightly for Friday night, I decided the chickpea salad was a bit boring and when I made the panacottas with vege gelatin powder ( luckily a few days in advance) it was just not the right consistency so got chucked in the bin!

The final menu was

Popadoms with Homemade mango chutney, Yoghurt sauce and sambal sauce
Pea and potato samosas
Hot and sour aubergine
Matar Paneer
Onion rice and Naan
Mango rum and lime syllabub

Recipes to follow very soon………

———————————————————————————————–

Next weekend I will be hosting a dinner party for lady friends one of which is a vegetarian, so instead of making her the exception we are all going to eat vegetarian! I love a bit of paneer and aubergines are my favourite vegetable so hopefully no one will go away asking where is the meat!

The proposed menu is as follows… but this could be subject to change.

Popadoms with Chutney
Spicy chickpea, potato and beans in tamarind sauce
Hot and sour aubergine with corriander chutney
Matar Paneer
Onion rice and chapatti
Mango lassi panacotta. ( with vegetarian gelatin of course)

I am hopefully going to attempt my first mango chutney and lime pickle if I get time.

Watch this space!!

GORGE

Gorgeous food. Tested, tweaked, shared.

Butternut Squash with ginger, chilli tomatoes and lime yoghurt

Beets & Beans – Festival Fodder

Sausage and Fennel Lasagne

Hot and sweet dipping sauce.

Mango, Rum and Lime Syllabub

Matar Paneer

Pea and Potato Samosas

Apple and Blackberry Crump

Mango Chutney

Vegetarian Indian Dinner party!

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