Catch of the Day

This got dropped off by our neighbour today, who was doing a spot of fishing on his canal boat and left for me to clean and gut! Haven't cleaned a fish for years!

Sunday Kitchen - Doughnuts with a twist of Orange and Cardamom

Sunday Kitchen - Doughnuts with a twist of Orange and Cardamom

I’m quite partial to a doughnut especially the light, fluffy, sweet and sticky Greek doughnuts known as Loukoumades.

This recipe is a take on a Loukoumades but without the sticky syrup coating, instead it has the somewhat traditional sugar/cinnamon coating with the added twist of orange and cardamom.

It is World Baking Day today so why not give them a go!

Doughnut Ingredients:

Makes 12

250grams plain flour

Pinch of salt

3 teaspoon of dried ready yeast

250ml warm water

Seeds from 1 cardamom crushed

Zest and juice from orange

(Vegetable oil for frying)

 Coating ingredients:

2 tablespoon of caster sugar

1 teaspoon of cinnamon

1 teaspoon of orange zest

Method:

Place all doughnut ingredients into a large bowl, reserving a teaspoon of orange zest for the coating mixture.

Mix through and cover with a tea towel or cling film, and leave to rest till it doubles in size (approx 1 hour).

Add sugar, cinnamon and orange zest in a bowl, mix through and set aside so the orange zest fully flavours the sugar.

Heat oil in a deep saucepan to about 360 degrees (you can test oil by adding a small amount of mixture into oil, if it puffs and rises immediately then it’s hot enough- another tip is using a wooden spoon by placing the tip of the handle into the hot oil, it is ready when the oil slightly bubbles around it).

The doughnut mixture will be gooey and sticky!

Using two tablespoons (one to scoop mixture and the other to scrape mixture off the spoon), scoop a tablespoon of the mixture and gently place in hot oil. The doughnuts should puff up and rise to the surface. Fry till golden brown on all sides.

Place on paper towel to absorb excess oil.

Coat the doughnuts with sugar, cinnamon and orange zest mixture. And eat!

It’s delicious with vanilla ice-cream and a drizzle of golden syrup. 

*Variation: Use lemon instead of orange- just as delicious!

Sunday Kitchen -Tomato Mint soup & Wreath Bread

Sunday kitchen – Fresh Tomato and Mint Soup with Cataluña Wreath Bread

Tomato and mint soup is something I have been cooking the last few summers; it’s simple, quick and healthy.

With an abundance of mint growing in the garden every year, I try and use it in everything. Funnily enough it is delicious with tomatoes.

The Cataluña Wreath bread is made with rosemary, raisins and pine nuts. This specific recipe is from one of many books picked up from my travels in Spain.

The Catalan Country Kitchen by Marimar Torres.  

The author of this book recommends this bread with poultry and meat dishes served with fruit. I love it with this soup, the rosemary and raisins blend perfectly with the sweet vine tomatoes also as the author suggest makes a wonderful centre piece.

The soup is wonderfully easy to make with preparation time being around 5 minutes and cooking time 15 minutes. This leaves you plenty of time to prepare the bread.

Fresh Tomato and Mint Soup

Ingredients:

3 vine tomatoes (roughly chopped)

2 red onions

2 garlic cloves

3 celery leaves (including leaves)

2 spring onions

1 red pepper/capsicum

2 tins of chopped tomatoes

500ml water

500ml vegetable/chicken stock

1 teaspoon paprika

1 teaspoon whole black peppercorn/cracked

1 teaspoon of brown sugar

Approx 10 mint leaves

1 tablespoon of olive oil

Method:

Roughly chop all vegetables. Heat oil in a saucepan and add red onions and cook for a few minutes. Then add crushed garlic, spring onions, red peppers/capsicum, celery, peppercorns and paprika- heat through for a few minutes.

Add stock, water, sugar and tin tomatoes then bring to boil for 10minutes.

Pour soup into blender (or use hand blender), and blend well add mint and fresh vine tomatoes, blend and serve. Simple as that!

*I have basil mint growing in the garden, so I added a few of those leaves too, as we know basil and tomatoes go well and so does mint!

Wreath Bread with Rosemary, Raisins and Pine Nuts

Ingredients:

2 teaspoons of dry active yeast

1 teaspoon hone

1 cup of warm water

1 cup milk

2 tablespoon coarsely chopped fresh rosemary leaves

½ cup dark raisins

¼ cup pine nuts, lightly toasted

5 and ½ cup unbleached all-purpose flour

2 tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil

1 and ½ teaspoon salt

Method:

In a food processor bowl, dissolve yeast and honey in warm water; don’t stir, just let it sit for 5-10 minutes to activate yeast. Meanwhile, heat milk in a saucepan until warm and set aside.

In a small bowl toss chopped rosemary, raisins, and pine nuts with ½ cup of flour and set aside. As soon yeast is activated (this is when the yeast starts popping to the top), mix in warm milk, olive oil, salt, and 1 cup of flour; whirl for a 1minute. Add remaining 4 cups of flour and process until dough starts to pull away from the sides.

Turn dough onto floured surface and knead in rosemary, raisins, pine nuts and the flour. Continue to knead until these are evenly distributed and the surface of the dough is shiny and elastic.

Oil a bowl and place dough into it, turning and coating all sides with the oil. Cover with a cloth and let it rise in a warm place until doubled in size.

Oil a pizza pan. Punch dough down to release the air. Lift it and, holding it in both hands, punch your thumbs through the middle of the dough and pull it apart to make a large doughnut shaped bread about 12 inches in diameter. Be sure the hole is quite large as it will shrink as the bread bakes.

Place on oiled pizza pan and slash it around the edge with a sharp knife so it resembles a braided wreath. Brush with olive oil and let it rest for 5 minutes.

Place in a cold oven, turn to 400 F, Gas mark 6, 200 C and bake for 35 minutes or until crust is browned and sounds hollow when tapped on the bottom. 

*If you wish to see one of your favorite recipes featured in our Sunday Kitchen email us at forageuk@gmail.com - would love to hear from you :)

Sunday Kitchen- Food to Share

Sunday Kitchen- Food to share this summer!

This week’s recipes are perfect for sharing either partnered with a platter of fresh crudités or a selection of meats and cheese. Also ideal for picnics and perfect accompanying a BBQ meal alfresco with the sun shining bright and warm, and a glass of cold Pimms....... (OK, I can only dream at the moment...... But it is supposed to be a hot summer this year.....)

This Sunday kitchen- there is 4 simple, delicious and summery recipes to stimulate your taste buds;

*Aubergine (Eggplant) and Chickpea dip

*Fresh tomato dip/salsa

*Warm courgette (zucchini) and haloumi salad

*Stuffed French bread/baguette

(All dishes should serve approximately 4-6 people sharing)

Aubergine (Eggplant) & Chickpea Dip

Ingredients:

2 medium Aubergines (eggplants)

Lemon juice from 1 lemon

250grams of chickpeas (Dried/canned)

1 tablespoon of peanut butter (smooth/crunchy)

1 bulb of roasted garlic

1 tablespoon of sesame oil

1 teaspoon cumin

1 teaspoon smoked paprika

1 tablespoon natural yoghurt

Coriander (a small bunch) roughly chopped

Olive oil approx 2 tablespoons

Method:

Rub olive oil over 2 aubergines (I also prick the aubergines with a fork to avoid an aubergine explosion) and roast in the oven till tender with the whole garlic bulb drizzled with olive oil (approx 45mins -1 hour). 

Once cool slice in half and scoop out flesh of aubergine and squeeze the garlic out of each clove. (Roasting garlic takes out the sometimes harsh flavour of raw garlic, it becomes sweet and smoky with the subtle flavours garlic- it is also delicious squeeze onto fresh crusty bread with goats cheese Mmmmm)

If using dried chickpeas you’ll need to soak overnight and cook as per pack instructions. With canned chickpeas drain and rinse thoroughly. Put all ingredients except the sesame oil, yoghurt and coriander into food processor and whiz till smooth and well combined and season with salt and pepper.

 Place in serving dish and add yoghurt, roughly chopped coriander and drizzle with sesame oil.  

This dish can be prepared the night ahead, leave in fridge and avoid adding coriander, youghurt and sesame oil till ready to serve.

*variation: use tahini paste instead of peanut butter.

Fresh tomato dip/salsa

Ingredients:

4 large vine tomatoes

1 red onion

1 cloves garlic crushed

A bunch of basil and parsley

Salt and pepper

2 tablespoon Olive oil

1 teaspoon of brown sugar

Balsamic vinegar

Method:

Peel and chop tomatoes up roughly. (To peel tomatoes, place the tomatoes in boiling water for a few minutes till skin starts to blister then remove and place into icy cold water and peel)

Finely dice onions, add to tomatoes with crushed garlic and the roughly tear up basil and parsley and mix. Season, add olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

This can be made a day ahead of time, cover and place in fridge. Avoid adding olive oil and balsamic vinegar until ready to serve.

*variation: add fresh mango and hot fresh chilli for a real summer salsa dish. I also use recipe as a topping for bruschett, I just omit balsamic vinegar.

Warm courgette (zucchini) & haloumi salad

Ingredients:

2 courgettes

1 haloumi cheese

2 cloves of garlic

Juice of 2 lemons

Approx 4 tablespoons of olive oil

Parsley to garnish

Cracked pepper

Method:

Firstly make dressing by whisking up olive oil, lemon juice and minced garlic. Season with pepper (avoid using salt as the cheese is quite salty).

Slice courgettes lengthways approx 5mm-10mm add to dressing. Slice haloumi approx 5mm thickness (it may crumble or break but not a problem) also add to dressing to marinate in the fridge for a minimum of 1 hour.

Heat a non stick frying pan or griddle and fry courgette and haloumi slice for approximately 30 seconds on each side. (Fry just before serving) 

Dress with the remaining dressing and garnish with parsley.

Stuffed French bread/baguette

Ingredients:

A whole French bread stick

2 stalks of celery

Half red/yellow pepper (capsicum)

1 cup of Sour cream

2  hardboiled egg roughly chopped

½ Cup of grated mature/strong cheddar cheese

Small bunch of chopped parsley

2 Spring onions finely chopped

Cracked pepper

Method:

Hollow out the inside of the French bread leaving approx 1cm thickness, it’s easier if cut the French stick in half and hollow the 2 halves.  (Don’t discard the inside of the bread save and use as either croutons, breadcrumbs or to thicken up soups)

To make filling, dice celery, pepper, slice spring onion and chop hard boiled eggs add to a bowl. Add all other ingredients and mix well.

Stuff filling into hollowed out French bread and slice into individual portions.

And here is hoping summer is on its way.....

Saltaire

We had a great day at the Saltaire Arts Trail, really nice weather and even Little One was able to put in a spot of painting at 'The Garden of Easels'  :)

Also picked up a couple of nice kitchen items from Rose & Brown Vintage - an Enamelled Steel kitchen work table, which will be great for pastry and baking:

And a vintage blamonge mould:

We were a bit lazy when it came to taking pics, but you can follow the event on their Facebook page.