Spiced Golden Syrup Granola

Breakfast can a tricky meal to navigate... 

...because it is everyone’s personal wake up call. Do you have coffee and a croissant? Toast and a cup of tea? Cereal and juice? Yoghurt and fruit? I’ve been doing the cereal/fruit/yoghurt combo recently and wondered if I’d be able to make something as delicious, if not more so, but with less sugar.

I’ve mused about making my own granola for a while but didn’t like all the sugar in the recipes, which is why I’ve used golden syrup, a tiny amount of brown sugar and apple juice as sweeteners – their distinct flavours, the treacle note sin the syrup, caramel form the sugar and tartness form the juice – all lift this granola above a need for a sugar fix in the morning.

When it comes to the component parts it is entirely up to you, (you know how I like to encourage you all to experiment) I used what I had in the cupboards, oats, whole almonds, cashews and sunflower seeds, but any grain, nut and seed combo should work, depending on your preferences. I added dried fruit to give more texture to the mix and impart a sourness to the earthy grains and nuts, which is pleasing any time of the day.

Spiced Golden Syrup Granola

200g oats

4tbsp Golden Syrup

2tbsp sunflower oil

75ml apple juice

1tbsp Demerara sugar

50g almonds

50g cashew nuts

50g sunflower seeds

100g dried fruit

1tsp ground ginger

1tsp ground cinnamon 

Heat oven to 160C/Gas Mark 3 and line a baking tray with baking paper.

Put Golden Syrup, oil, apple juice and sugar in a pan and heat gently till it boils. Turn off the heat.

Tip liquid into a bowl with oats, nuts and seeds. Spread on to the baking tin.

Bake for 10 minutes then mix with a metal spoon, and for 10 minute intervals until it reaches a toasty-golden hue.

When satisfied, remove from oven to cool and break up the big pieces you may have missed.

When cooled, mix in dried fruit and spices.

Store in an airtight container.

Baked Eggs with Salami and Spinach

A lazy weekend breakfast

Eggs for breakfast are a weekend treat for me as I rarely have the time to make eggs in the morning of a weekday, partially because I'm lazy, and partially because I don’t want to leave the squirrel nest. Baked eggs are a great healthy way to prepare eggs and come with none of the anxiety that poached eggs breed. I've added a slice of salami to the base of the tin but in the past have added sliced tomato or sautéed mushrooms, which would work for a vegetarian option.

The size of your tin will dictate what you can add on top of or underneath your eggs, spinach is a pleasing one, as it recalls the luxuriously decadent eggs Florentine, but without the masses of butter. I tend to grate a bit of hard cheese on top as it imparts a lot of flavour with a small amount, Cheddar, Parmesan or Gran Padano all work well, if you’d prefer ad a dash of cream before baking for some richness but not the fat of cheese.

I'm a big seasoner of eggs, salt and pepper are a must, I pepper before going in to the oven and salt when they come out because salt can decrease the cooking time of the egg. If you want runny eggs then 7-10 minutes works well. If you want set but still gooey 10-12 minutes and if you want hard boiled style yolks then 15 minutes is for you. I tend to serve them with some good crusty brown bread but if you’re trying to stay off the carbs then they’re great on their own,  or have as a late brunch with a green salad to mop up the yolk.

Baked Eggs with Salami and Spinach

4 eggs

4 slices of salami

Handful of baby spinach

25g hard cheese, grated finely

Oil to grease

Salt n pepper

Pre-head the oven to 200C/Gas Mark 6

Grease a Yorkshire pudding or muffin tin and put a slice of salami in the bottom of the tin.

Arrange spinach leaves on top.

Crack in the eggs, season with pepper, sprinkle on cheese.

Bake for at least 7 minutes and then judge for yourself on how you like your eggs cooked.

Smoky Chorizo and Butter-bean Stew

I've got too much to do to spend all evening in the kitchen...

When leaving the house to go shopping is unthinkable, or economically unfeasible of a week night, when you’re tired and have myriad tasks to do with a hungry partner and/or kids,  a store cupboard meal is ideal. They don’t have to be pappy or flavourless if you have some chorizo, tinned tomatoes and tinned pules on hand. They are a basis of many a store cupboard meal, along with onions and some good vinegar you can slap this stew down with any old starchy carb.

I am however very much against this pairing of chorizo with pasta,  it’s just uncouth. Potatoes or rice or bread are obvious store cupboard staples, I would prefer these to be used, the rice simply boiled as I did here; potatoes boiled, mashed, roasted, what-have you; bread just to scoop and dab and polish the plate of the last morsel.

I think one of the most rewarding things about cooking is getting the best out of an ingredient, By skinning the cured chorizo before cooking on a low heat, you allow the complex and smoky fat to ooze out in a splendid rusty-ruby-red pool, you don’t need to add any oil or other fat to the dish. Adding a red wine vinegar or potentially balsamic while the stew is bubbling will offset any fatty notes to the dish and leave it deep and rich and savoury.

As I always say, play around with the recipe, use a different pules if you wish to, use dried if you have more time, use fresh tomatoes if you prefer and use whatever seasoning you desire, if you prep the chorizo as I describe, you’ll welcome that fraught moment when you think you have no food in aside form half a chorizo in the back of the fridge.

Smoky Chorizo and Butter-bean Stew

100g cured chorizo, skin removed and diced

1 onion, diced

1 carrot, diced

1 tin chopped tomatoes

1 tin butterbeans

Squeeze of tomato purée 

1tsp smoked paprika (dolce or picante)

Juice of half a lemon

Pinch sugar

Salt n pepper

Fry the chorizo on a low heat until most of the delicious fat has oozed out, then add the onions and carrot, then raise the heat to medium and cook till onion is translucent and carrots are slightly softened.

Add tomatoes and tin full of water, sugar, tomato purée, stir well and cook on high heat stirring occasionally.

When reduced to desired consistency, add the lemon juice, paprika and butter-beans and heat through.

Taste and season.

Serve with your choice of carbs (BUT NOT PASTA, PLEASE!) or add two tins of stock and have yourself a soup.

Double Lemon Drizzle With Mascarpone and Lemon Curd Filling

Indulgent celebration cake for close friends and family

Big weekends come along once in a  while, last weekend was one of these. I headed to Nottingham to celebrate two of my best friends’ birthdays and promised a cake. So on the Saturday morning, after the Friday night dancing to the jazz-swing sounds of Alligator Gumbo at The Malt Cross drinking Harvest Pale, I made this cake. This was a hung-over cake. A cake that wasn't very pretty and still had its dressing gown on. But it was a moist and decadent cake.

Even though I enjoy baking and do it a lot, I've never really been one for perfectionism, especially when it comes to presentation, so a delicious, if slightly demolished looking cake is just as good as a manicured and spray-tanned cake. I think part of the problem was that I used two silicone tins, didn't line or grease them and had them on the same shelf of a smallish oven. Like I said, I was hung-over.

This cake is actually the beginnings of a cake that will have to be perfect when it comes to taste, construction and presentation m- my friend Vinca and I are afforded the great honour of making three very special cakes for our friends’ nuptials – and this lemon drizzle monster is just a jumping off point. I blended the Mascarpone and the lemon curd (which was shop bought) but think for effect it might be nicer to have the curd on top of the rich cream cheese, dribbling down the side of a 3 or 4 tiered cake.

NB. Line and grease your spring form tins.

Double Lemon Drizzle With Mascarpone and Lemon Curd Filling

250g unsalted butter

350g caster sugar

4 large eggs

zest of 3 lemons

350g self raising flour
pinch of salt

80 ml milk

Cream the butter, sugar and lemon zest together until pale and fluffy.

Add the eggs one by one till combined thoroughly. 

Sift in self raising flour and salt.

Stir in milk and add an extra tbsp at a time if too stiff (the batter should be firm and not sloppy)

Pour batter into 2 greased and lined spring-form tins.

Bake for 35 - 45 minutes, insert a skewer to test if it is cooked in the middle.

Drizzle

Juice of 3 lemons

200g caster sugar

While the cakes are baking put juice and sugar in a heavy bottomed pan and dissolve the sugar on a low heat and reduce if you want a thicker syrup/drizzle.

Prick the cakes while still in the warm tins and pour half the drizzle over each and wait till they cool before removing.

Mascarpone and Lemon Curd Filling

200g Mascarpone

100g lemon curd

Whizz together and spread on whichever cake you designate the bottom,

Top with the other cake.

Eat greedily.

Asparagus, Pea and Lemon Risotto

A seasonal springtime treat that's healthy but seems like an indulgence

Risotto doesn't have to be dense with cheese and thick like porridge, it can be light and refreshing. Seeing as we've had a late spring this year, as soon as the new season vegetables appear I get overexcited and figure out a way to use them. Grated I did use frozen peas in this recipe but they're very nearly as good as fresh and it can be very hard to tell the difference.

Braising the vegetables before adding to the risotto allows for them to be tenderly cooked and neither hard nor mushy and imparts more flavour to the stock. Adding them lemon zest and not the juice allows for a delicate citrus flavour to be imparted to the dish, which lightens the dish along with the fresh tasting vegetables.

I managed to get two big bunches of asparagus in a certain budget German supermarket, for a quid each, go hunting and get excited whether in a budget place or a farmer's market. You'll be well rewarded.

Squirrelface described this as 'Gnommygnommygnommy'. As high praise as there ever was. 

As long as you keep your stock on a low heat this shouldn't take more than 25-30 minutes.

Asparagus, Pea and Lemon Risotto

270g risotto rice (I used carnaroli)
50g Parmesan/Gran Padano or other hard cheese, grated
1.2 litres chicken/vegetable stock
1 small red onion, finely chopped
8 - 10 sprigs asparagus, woody ends removed, snapped at breaking point into 2 or 3
3 - 4 handfuls of frozen or fresh peas
25g unsalted butter
1 tbsp olive oil
1 glass white wine

I use a small cast iron wooden handled pan of integrity for this dish but just use something big and heavy and you'll be fine.

Fry the onion in the oil on a medium heat until translucent and just starting to brown.

Add the rice and coat in the oil for a minute or two then pour in the glass of wine and reduce.

Add two ladles of the hot stock and stir until reduced, then add a ladle at a time, siring constantly.

Put the asparagus and peas in a saucepan and add 200ml of the stock and simmer on a low heat for 10 minutes.

Check after 20 minutes to see that the rice will be just chalky and continue until al dente.

At this point tip the asparagus, peas and remaining stock in, along with the hard cheese, lemon zest and butter.

Stir vigorously until glossy and put a lid on the pan for up to 5 minutes, then serve in a bowl with a big spoon.

Mum's Carrot Cake Bars

Food evokes such a sense of nostalgia

My mum used to make my school trousers, and reinforce the knees with extra fabric because I’d fall over so much. My brother and I weren't allowed fizzy drinks unless we were on holiday and our packed lunch would always come with a home baked treat. This was partly down to being thrifty and partly down to knowing that home baked treats taste so much better than supermarket fare. You have to remember this was the 80s, when a Club was the height of sophistication in the playground.

Moving in to secondary school my mum no longer made my trousers or reinforced my knees, I did get bought my first ever pair of Doctor Marten’s, which doubled as school shoes and my pathway to after-school rebellion. Soon my packed lunches gave way to dinner money that got spent on 10p crisps and cigarettes, innocence lost.

A few years ago my mum photocopied all her old recipe cards and I was transported on a nostalgia trip, so many different things that used to appear in my lunch-box were now attainable again, but made by me. Over the course of this blog I will delve through these history bites and give you an insight into my childhood along the way.

I decided to make these  carrot cake bars with a lime/yoghurt icing instead of the cream cheese prescribed as I wanted to take them in to work and was aware one of my colleagues doesn't tolerate cream cheese icing (I know, weirdo). I'm happy to modify and mix I up and compromise when I make food for others, my mum did

the same for me when I was going through my chocolate-spread-vegetarian phase…. A story for another time, maybe.

I substituted the cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves for ground ginger, any warm ground spice will work well. Obviously you can substitute the dried fruit and nuts to your taste. Everything is adaptable. This is why i've given you the two icings, one is my mum's and one is mine.

Let me know if you've resurrected any old family recipes or been passed any down.

Mum's Carrot Cake Bars

200g plain flour

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda

1/4 tsp grated nutmeg

1/8 tsp ground cloves

3 eggs

200g grated carrot

175g caster sugar

165 ml vegetable oil

50g raisins

75g chopped walnuts

Set the oven to 180c/Gas mark 4

Sift plain flour, baking powder, bicarb, spices in to a bowl.

Combine eggs, carrots, sugar and oil in a large bowl and mix well.

Add flour mix gradually mixing with metal spoon or spatula until thourouhly combined. 

Mix in raisins and walnuts.

Spread batter into 15 x 10 x 1 tin, ungreased and bake for 25 - 30 minutes - check with a skewer.

Cool on a wire rack.

Lime Yoghurt Icing

2 tbsp Greek yoghurt

1 tbsp lime juice

zest of 1 lime

200g icing sugar

Cream Cheese Icing

75g cream cheese

50g butter

2 drops vanilla essence

225g icing sugar

Either icing is the same, chuck in a bowl, whizz with an electric mixer till combined.

Don't ice the cake until it has cooled.

Cut into 8 - 12 bars depending on how greedy you are.