October

Mint tea and a chin wag, lovely veggies at my local market and the right attitude.

Pea and courgette quiche

Did I already mention how hard it is to find the time these days to cook or bake? This quiche took two days to make. Not because it is so complicated, the opposite is true, but I only managed to blind bake the base when my little one needed my attention and I didn't find a chance to finish what I had started that day. Luckily it is fine to keep the baked short crust until the next day and it would freeze well too. Just prepare the filling fresh and bake when you get to it.

PEA AND COURGETTE QUICHE

short crust pastry
5 eggs
300ml milk
100ml single cream
100g mature cheddar
100g smoked cheddar
1 small courgette
handful of peas
salt and pepper

Pre-heat the oven to 160-180C/gas 4-5. Roll out the pastry and blind bake the base. Let cool for a bit. Combine the egg, single cream, milk and grated cheese. Season with salt and pepper and pour into the pastry shell. With a vegetable peeler make ribbons of the courgette and add layer over the egg mixture. Sprinkle the peas over the quiche and bake for 30-45 min or until set and slightly puffed up.

September

Foraging for blackberries and fall colours

Blackberry meringue cake

We went foraging this weekend for blackberries and were lucky. This is the first cake I made in our new home, our new kitchen and in a new oven. It's a gas oven and I will surely need some time to get used to and to bond with. Quite a special relationship between a baker and his/her oven, right?
And with a newborn in the house there is just no time to bake. On some days it's a struggle to find the time to cook (so blessed are frozen and canned foods these days!) and I can be lucky if it's still hot when I come to eat it. So making a cake is somewhat a luxury now that I cherish and it tasted even sweeter.

BLACKBERRY MERINGUE CAKE
100ml vegetable oil
125g brown sugar
4 eggs
200g flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 lemon (juice and zest)
pinch of salt
100g caster sugar
Preheat oven to 175-195°C. Separate the yolk and white of 3 of the 4 eggs. Mix the oil and brown sugar with a hand held blender, add the one egg and 3 yolks, salt, lemon juice and zest and beat until pale. Mix the baking powder and the flour and sift, gently adding to the mixture. Pour into a baking tin and bake for about 30 minutes. Sprinkle the blackberries on top and bake for another 20 minutes and take out of the oven. Reduce the temperature of the oven to 125°C. To make the meringue whisk the 3 egg whites in a metal bowl until they start to form peaks and add the sugar. Beat some more until stiff and glossy. Now spread over the slightly cooled cake and put back in the oven to bake for another 45 minutes to an hour. The meringue topping should be golden on the outside and have a nice crunch to it.

August

 

 Berry colours and delicious rose water panna cotta

Rose water and saffron ice cream

Apart from a couple of days we have not had much of a summer here in Britain this year. Lots of rain, mostly cloudy grey days and mild temperatures all round. Maybe I can persuade summer to come with this dessert. And if not then let's just pretend with flavours and colours inspired by a summer garden. I Scream, You Scream, We All Scream for Ice Cream!
The flavour combination is classic Persian: saffron, rose and pistachio. As rosewater is not to everyones taste I am a bit vague in the recipe with the quantities as I leave it up to you to find the right intensity to suit your palette. Just start with a tablespoon, mix and taste and keep adding and tasting until its right. Same goes for the saffron. Just remember that flavours get less intense when frozen to ice cream. I also didn't use that much cream but yoghurt to make it slightly lighter but cream will make it more sumptuous so feel free to adjust the quantities. The recipe is for 4-8 people depending on portion size.

SAFFRON AND ROSE WATER ICE CREAM

For the rosewater ice cream:
350ml yoghurt
150ml single cream
3-5 tbsp sugar
rose water to taste

For the saffron ice cream:
350ml yoghurt
150ml single cream
3-5 tbsp sugar
good pinch of ground saffron

handful of crushed pistachios

For both recipes mix the yoghurt and cream with the sugar until dissolved and add your flavouring. If you have saffron strands use just a pinch and try to grind with a sugar cube or mini pestle and mortar. Chill the mixture in the fridge, then place in the ice cream maker for about 10-15 minutes or according to instructions for your machine. You will have to do two batches so factor in an extra day if you plan to serve both together. You can make one the night before, freeze and do the second batch fresh on the day/night you want to serve it.

TURKEY: Istanbul interiors

Another post with impressions from Istanbul, this time of Topkapi palace and its beautiful blue and white tiles. Some designs combine traditional Ottoman arabesque patterns with Chinese elements.

TURKEY: Istanbul (Street) food

If you have followed us on our trip through Asia last year you will have noticed our obsession with street food. In Istanbul we spotted lots of different vendors selling anything from freshly squeezed juice to sweets and tea and pastry. You'll maybe notice the little carts with the red and white stripy fabric first.

They are licensed to the respective borough and sell either one of the following three items or a combination:

Simit (tasty sesame bread ring) and other pastry/bread type snacks

Roasted chestnuts

Grilled corn and roasted chestnuts

There are also plenty of non-licensed carts with a variety of products and one that caught our eye was sahlep.

It's typically drunk in the colder months and goes back to the Ottoman Empire. It is creamy and based on a mix of different spices and served hot with a generous sprinkle of cinnamon on top.

Another Turkish classic I need to mention is Boza Vefa and if you are in Istanbul you have to try it. The one we went to is a popular tourist attraction in it's won right: Vefa Bozacisi.

It's a cold drink made from a fermented bulgur and it is served with cinnamon and roasted chickpeas (Leblebi in Turkish, though you have to get yours from the shop over the road). It is rich in carbohydrates and vitamins.

TURKEY: Istanbul

Time to share some holiday pictures with you. Istanbul is a great city, rich in culture and fantastic if you want to eat good hearty food. We stayed for a long weekend and managed to see all major sights without hassle due to the close proximity but you can easily stay longer and explore the only city in the world simultaneously situated on two continents - Europe and Asia.

Hazelnut bundt cake

To start this post I should first of all apologise for leaving you alone for so long. Been a while since I updated you so it might be time to fill you in in the two very exciting changes that are happening to us right now. First we are going to move house and we got ourselves a little renovation project. So most of our time is now spent getting quotes, checking products and on other peoples blogs for inspiration.
And another big change will be the arrival of our baby boy in summer. Very exciting! Now you know why I haven't been posting about cakes and other treats. Not that I don't think about them but it's all about eating rather than baking and photographing I'm afraid : )
To make it up to you here is a very simple bundt cake recipe from my nan. If you don't have ground hazelnuts use ground almonds or maybe dessicated coconut.
This recipe is for a small cake but if you use a regular size tin just double the quantities.

HAZELNUT BUNDT CAKE

125g light brown sugar
150ml sunflower oil
pinch of salt
2 eggs
125g self-raising flour
1 tbsp baking powder
100g ground hazelnuts
pinch of ground cinnamon
dash of rum
100g dark chocolate
handful of krokant (hazelnut brittle)

Pre-heat the oven to 160°C and butter the baking tin. Mix the oil, sugar and eggs and beat until pale and fluffy (with a handheld mixer for about 5 min). Mix the flour and baking powder and sift in the bowl to the other ingredients. With the handheld blender mix and slowly add the ground hazelnuts and rum. Spoon in the baking tin and bake for about 20-30 minutes. Leave to cool, glaze with melted chocolate and cover or sprinkle with krokant.

Crunchy nutty granola

Another breakfast dish but this time seriously healthy. Granola for breakfast is a great start in the day and homemade is even better. I have started making my own because it was hard to find one without raisins, which I have to admit I am not a fan of. It's also great to try different flavour combinations and control the amount of sugar you put in so you can make it as tasty and healthy as you want to. Doesn't have to be a contradiction, tasty and healthy, does it? I have seen great recipes out there with apple sauce or other fruit sauce so I want to try that next, so watch this space.

CRUNCHY NUTTY GRANOLA

100g walnuts
50g almonds
50g Brazil nuts
50g dessicated coconut
50g pumpkin seeds
good pinch of ground cinnamon
400g old-fashioned rolled oats
40g slightly salted butter
1/2 cup golden syrup
1 cup honey

Preheat the oven to 165°C. Chop up all the nuts and mix with the pumpkin seeds and dessicated coconut in a bowl. add the ground cinnamon and rolled oats. In a small pot melt the butter and add the honey and golden syrup. Pour the mixture over the dry ingredients and blend. Spoon on a baking tray covered with baking paper and bake for about 20 minutes or until crunchy and golden in colour.

Passion fruit frozen yoghurt

We had such a gorgeous weekend here in London and daffodils are popping up here and there and though it is still cold outside it is starting to warm up now and when the sun peaks out it starts to feel and smell like spring. In celebration I have bought some passion fruits to make ice cream. Well, less cream but more frozen yoghurt. The healthier option anyway.

PASSION FRUIT FROZEN YOGHURT

500ml yoghurt
3-5 tbsp sugar
4 passion fruits
lime juice

Extract the juice from the passion fruits but discard the seeds. Mix the yoghurt with the sugar and most of the juice from the passion fruits and the juice of half a lime. Leave some passion fruit juice for the ripples later, about 2-3 Tbsp. Chill the mixture in the fridge. Place in the ice cream maker for about 10-15 minutes or according to instructions for your machine. Spoon through the rest of the passion fruit juice to create the ripples, freeze again for a couple of minutes and it's ready to serve.