Colour lovers: aqua & red

The combination of these bright colours make a bold statement. It's the contrast of hot and cold: warm shades of red and cold shades of blue. The effect is slightly softened by the fact that both shades are going towards yellow. To avoid making it too overwhelming only use small quantities of red and aqua and toning down the shades in brightness to pastels or mix with white, grey or sparkling silver. The colour combination is reminiscent of a nautical themed colour palette and will remind us of summer and the beach. Check out the palette at colourlovers

Oscar night

Tonight is Oscar night at the 83rd Annual Academy Awards. If you are a film buff like me this is a good reason to get your popcorn out and review the films of the last year. To spice it up a bit you could try my popcorn recipe with hot chili. For the recipe click here

Lemon poppy seed pancakes

Pancake day is coming up soon! This is one of the dishes that I would not make according to a recipe but from experience. The batter has to have the right consistency: not thin like a crepe and not too thick as they will become too dense and you want them nice and fluffy.
The base is one egg and 4-5 tablespoons of yogurt that I whisk up. Add some sugar for sweetness. Then sift in self raising flour and a small amount of baking powder. Now add some milk if the batter is too dense or some more flour if too thin. As there's not much fruit available at this time of the year I use the juice and zest of one lemon and 1-2 Tbsp poppy seeds to flavour the pancakes. Shallow fry in a on both sides in a little bit of butter and serve hot it with maple syrup and crème fraiche.

Dorset apple cake

This recipe is my version of a Dorset apple cake. Great classic that I gave an update and made it slightly healthier with wholemeal flour.

DORSET APPLE CAKE

200g wholemeal self raising flour
50g plain white flour
1 tsp baking powder
100g brown sugar
pinch of salt
100g butter
1 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground cardamon
1 lemon (juice and zest)
2 medium eggs
5-6 tbsp milk
2 apples
almond flakes

Preheat the oven to 170°C and grease a 20cm baking tin. Sift the flour, spices and baking powder in a bowl. Cut the butter into small cubes and rub in to form breadcrumbs. Add the sugar, salt, lemon juice and zest. Beat the eggs with the milk and add to the mixture. Peel the apples and cut into small pieces. Add as well. Spoon into the tin and sprinkle with almond flakes. Bake for 35-45 min.

Colour lovers: rose water

Rose is the color halfway between red and purple and is the basis of this palette. The complementary colour of rose is a yellowish spring green. So pairing it with a greyish, slightly blue green like teal (named after a member of the duck family) makes it a less harsh contrast. Check out the palette at colourlovers

February

Tea rose rose

Lavender scones

Lavender can be a tricky ingredient to work with but I love it. Too much and it will taste more like soap than a treat but if you stick to the quantities you should be fine. The recipe below makes 8-10 scones.

LAVENDER SCONES

250g self-raising flour
pinch of salt
80g butter
50g caster sugar
1 egg
1 tbsp yogurt
2 tbsp water
2 tsp dried lavender

Pre-heat the oven to 220°C. Sift the flour and salt in a bowl. Cut the butter in small cubes (should be room temperature) and add with the sugar. Rub in so the mixture will be like breadcrumbs. Mix the egg, water and yogurt and fold under the mixture with the lavender. Knead all together until even but don't overwork it. Roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface until it's about 2.5cm thick. Use a 5cm round cutter to cut out the scones. Place on a baking tray, lightly greased with butter and dusted with flour. Brush them with a bit of milk and bake for about 10-12min until they are well risend and golden in colour. Eat the scone when they are still slightly warm with clotted cream and jam.

Foccachia

This Italian flat bread is a great snack or a side with a meal. You can make one big one or smaller individual breads. Olive oil gives foccachia bread it's flavour so use a good strong extra virgin oil.

FOCCACHIA

350g flour
1 tbsp salt
1 pack dried active yeast (or for 350g flour)
2 tbsp olive oil
200ml warm water
1 small red onion
handful olives
1 twig fresh rosemary
1 garlic clove
handful grated parmesan
sea salt and ground pepper
olive oil

Sift the flour into a mixing bowl. Add salt, yeast, olive oil and warm water. Mix everything to a dough that leaves the sides of the bowl clean. Knead for about 10 minutes. Cover with a damp tea towel and leave in a warm place to rise and double in size (roughly 1-2 hours). Turn out the dough and knead again for 2-3 minutes to punch the air out. Form and shape your bread and brush with some more olive oil. Cut the onion into wedges and the garlic cloves into slices. Top the foccachia with the onion, garlic, olives, rosemary and grate parmesan on top. Sprinkle with sea salt and ground pepper. Cover with the damp tea towel and leave to rise again for another half an hour. Pre-heat the oven to 200°C and bake for about 15 minute until golden.

Colour lovers: precious metal

This palette is based on precious metals: silver, bronze and gold. Check out the palette at colourlovers

January

We had a beautiful white Christmas this year and these are some impressions.

Spicy popcorn

This is a great snack if you have friends over because it takes no time at all to make. It has almost no fat (use olive oil instead of butter) but is full of flavour.

SPICED POPCORN

popcorn kernels
knob of butter or olive oil
about 1 tsp each of paprika powder, garam masala, ground coriander and chili powder
salt to taste

Heat the butter or oil in a pan and add the spices. Let simmer for a bit to release the flavours but don´t burn. Make the popcorn according to instructions on the packaging and drizzle the spice-oil/butter on top when still hot and mix well.

New Year canapés

So this is probably one of the more unusual posts as this should be a vegetarian blog, well, not intentionally but as I happen to be a vegetarian it kind of worked out to be one. Anyway, I still post these images as it´s more about the presentation than the food (so no recipe...). You could do this with any kind of food really: cheese sticks or chocolate truffles for example. We made the little flag cocktail sticks with some gold and silver paper with interesting prints or textures and some tooth picks. Very simple and cute.

To go with the theme of gold and silver we made some mini bunting flags with the same paper.

For drinks we infused more vodka (same recipe as in the spiced pear and apple martini) but used vanilla pods instead of cinnamon and cloves. Leave in for about 4 day. Then mix with cranberry juice and rose water and serve in tumblers on ice or in coups with a sugar rim would be great, too.