Rather than buy a jar of ras al hanout, my preferred mild spice for couscous, chicken and veggie tagine type meals, I decided to mix up my own and yes I have all the necessary supplies!
Just mix equal amounts of cayenne, pepper, nutmeg, cinnamon, cardomum seeds ( blended in grinder) and turmeric with double the amount of ground ginger, coriander seeds (same grinder) and cumin.
Why did I not know it was that easy?
I love the challenge of rescuing food on olio and creating delicious dishes with abandoned ingredients.
There is often surplus bread so we regularly have bread and butter pudding with lemon curd (Mary berry recipe) or simple marmalade made from olio rescue lemons and oranges.
Currently a batch of carrot soup is being frozen using olio supplies and bags of chopped veg are waiting their turn for ‘souping’ later.
Grapes can be a challenge to use up but frozen they make great ice cubes and pickled grapes are a new addition to our salads.
Thank you olio for making us use and save unloved food.
A by product which turned out brilliantly!
After using the fruit as you wish (in my case grapefruit vodka), the peel of a grapefruit is sliced and boiled in water for 3 minutes.
The water is dumped and replaced with clean cold water, the peels are boiled for another 3 minutes, water replaced and boiled for another 3 minutes before once again dumping the water.
The peels are then covered with just enough fresh water and a similar volume of sugar is added. This mixture is simmered until the water evaporates, about 40 minutes for me.
The sticky peels are then tossed in sugar and left to dry before storing in a tin.
Tart and sweet, surprisingly tender. Will be interesting to see if they harden further in the days to come, if they last that long!
An experiment in DIY healthy which turned out very well indeed!
I ‘fried’ old fashioned oats in just enough coconut oil (I used a mug of oats and a tablespoon of oil) until they started to toast – a good 5 minutes of stirring – then added in a spoon of honey.
Once it was well mixed, I turned off the heat and stirred through some shredded coconut, chopped walnuts and almonds, some seeds and some chopped dates.
Various recipes suggested a little salt, olive oil rather than coconut and all sorts of variation on the fruit, seed, nuts but this seems like a free and easy way to make your own version of granola.
Once cooled, store in a jar or tin well out of sight or you will snack and graze through it too quickly.
Simple recipe, as good as any I’ve tried before. Hint, make only this size batch, unless you have the willpower not to devour them all straight from the oven!
2 egg whites whipped to soft peak, 100grams sugar, 100 grams ground almonds, pinch of salt, tablespoon amaretto or almond essence
Pre heat oven to 150 degrees and line two baking trays. Mix the dry ingredients together, then gradually mix in spoonfuls of the egg white gently so you don’t lose the air. Finally add the amaretto or essence. Teaspoons of the mix should be well spaced across the baking sheets before cooking for 15 minutes.
Leave to cool on a wire tray, if you can. Can be stored for a short while in a tin, if you must. The batch pictured here are slightly over cooked but still soft inside and delicious. Some recipes suggest making smooth little balls so they look more like the commercial biscuits.
In the face of February storms and thwarted plans a cake bake brings a little cheer. Found this recipe in the manual for my elderly bread maker. I couldn’t take the paddle out of the bread maker so baked this in the air fryer instead. Delicious.
Ingredients: 200g plain flour, 1 tsp ground ginger, 1 tsp baking powder, 50g softened butter, 50g brown sugar, 4 tablespoons marmalade, 1 egg, 3 tablespoons milk.
Mix dry ingredients then rub in butter and add wet ingredients, mix well and spoon into small pan lined with greaseproof paper. Bake for 30 mins at 170 degrees. If a knife blade comes out clean it might be ready, if not keep going for up to 50 mins (the bread maker timescale).
How to use the hazelnuts that the French squirrels didn’t beat us to… a small harvest so I want to use them carefully. These biscotti will stretch and keep well so seem to fit the bill.
It is a recipe from the great British bake-off apparently but so easy that I would recommend it to anyone with a reliable kitchen timer. Half one batch shown here. Not as dry as the ones I have bought.
yummy but dangerously strong …
Ingredients
6 egg yolks, 1 can condensed milk, 1 teaspoon vanilla essence, 350 ml vodka (or brandy), lemonade
whisk the milk, then the essence then the vodka into the egg yolks – decant into small bottles and chill until ready to tipple
(this quantity made some little gifts but bear in mind that without preservatives this has a limited life)
then pour a measure into a champagne glass and dilute with lemonade
snowballs from my childhood (we drank them made with Warninks which is 17.2% alcohol, really!? well it was only once a year…) were topped with a glace cherry on stick but a little grated nutmeg looks good
for a wicked version replace the lemonade with sparkling wine (don’t waste good stuff on this)
Rather than go and buy some sweeties in case we get callers – we are a bit off the beaten track for most trick or treaters – I whipped up some peppermint bites that we can unwrap and enjoy ourselves if not collected this weekend.
these are easy – about 5 mins once you have got the ingredients together, plus a couple of hours chilling time
3oz of Philadelphia type cream cheese, a tablespoon of softened butter, 3 cups of icing sugar (yes it is a lot), a drop or two of green colouring and a drop or two of peppermint oil
mix everything together and put teaspoons of the mix on a silicone or wax paper sheet – chill till firm
wrap in waxed paper and decorate for the season
apparently they will also freeze for a few months
A plum bonanza! Found this recipe by Jane Hornby on Good Food Magazine and it worked well (eventually after hours – literally – of boiling down). Below is my recipe adapted, based on comments on her recipe and my experience.
How to;
Weigh and then halve the plums (no need to remove stones) and cover with water in a robust deep pan. Simmer for about 45 minutes until pulpy and deep red in colour.
Remove the stones and then whizz the pulp with a stick blender. Stir in half the weight of jam (preserving) sugar ie if 2 kilo of plums, add 1 kilo of sugar. Once dissolved heat on high for about 25 minutes – be prepared for much longer if your plums are watery, it needs to be so thick that as you stir the spoon leaves a thick trail. Take care not to let the mixture catch on the bottom of the pan so keep stirring as it thickens.
Decant into silicone moulds or ramekins and keep chilled until you next have a posh cheeseboard.
This was soooo much easier than membrillo made with quinces.
janecrafts 