I’m not exactly reinventing the wheel here but lately I’ve been stuck in something of a cooking rut partly determined by a drive to make sure we don’t waste food thus reducing our grocery bill and partly due to the boy becoming more and more about routine and vocalising his disgust very loudly when I try and put something new in front of him.  After repeated attempts frittata has now firmly met with his approval and it is a great vehicle for using up vegetables.  An added bonus is that it’s cheap to make, hearty and filling.  Also he currently likes broccoli but only the tender stem variety.  As a parent this makes me a) very smug and b) very poor as it costs double the amount of regular broccoli and I really shouldn’t be indulging his inclination towards fancy vegetables.

For me the key ingredient for a successful frittata is good hard goat cheese that has plenty of flavour. Choose your own combination of vegetables if kale and sweet potato aren’t your thing.  Personally I like the earthy and sweet mix.  I imagine asparagus would be pretty great at the moment and of course you could try tender stem broccoli.

Any attempt to style food photos these days goes out the window, especially when I have a small boy standing at the kitchen gate jumping up and down for his lunch.  I’m all about realism although I did make an attempt to avoid the bits of dried food stuck to our hob.

Sweet Potato and Kale Frittata

Serves 2 very generously but will stretch to 3.

I used an 8 inch skillet.

1 small sweet potato peeled and cut in to dice

2 large cavolo nero or kale leaves

1 shallot finely chopped

½ teaspoon dried thyme

½ teaspoon smoked paprika

4 large eggs beaten

50g (2oz) hard goat’s cheese, grated

1-2 tablespoons of olive oil

Preheat oven Gas Mark 7, 220°C, 425°F.  *I have a truely rubbish oven so you may want to keep an eye on your frittata to make sure it doesn’t burn.

Toss the diced sweet potato in the olive oil, thyme and paprika.  Place the diced sweet potato on a baking tray lined with parchment and bake for 15 to 20 minutes until the potato is tender and starting to turn golden.  Meanwhile add a splash of olive oil to your skillet and gently cook the shallot for about 5 minutes.  Add the cooked sweet potato and kale and continue to cook until the kale has started to wilt, about 2 minutes.  Add the egg mixture and cook on the hob until the egg is almost set but the top is still a bit runny, about 5-10 minutes.  Sprinkle liberally with goat’s cheese and place skillet in the oven for 10-15 minutes until the frittata is golden brown and cooked through.  

Gluten Free Lemony Banana Bread

The recipe for this banana bread is scrawled down on a scrap of paper and kept in a drawer in the kitchen along with another couple of favourite recipes and various packets of tea.  I’ve made this often over the past couple of years but never quite got round to writing it up here.  The recipe has evolved quite a bit over time.  With a demanding one year old to look after I’ve now commandeered my husband to help whenever we feel a need for cake, which is quite often.  Of course I give him all the rubbish jobs like beating the eggs and mashing the bananas.  Does anyone else share my aversion to over ripe bananas?  The smell is overwhelmingly repugnant but thankfully the magic of baking transforms the bananas once in cake form.  I always find banana bread comforting but this version with its bursts of melted chocolate mixed with the bright notes of lemon has become my favourite.  Yesterday we headed out to the park with warm banana cake stashed in my pocket and I snapped a couple of photos of the beautiful colourful autumnal leaves before they disappear. 

Recipe adapted from 101 Cookbooks.

Notes: The original recipe uses a glaze made with icing sugar.  This looks so delicious but since we rarely have icing sugar on hand I tend not to go to the effort.

Cake

200g rice flour

65g ground almonds

125g Demerara sugar

¾ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

½ teaspoon salt

115g dark chocolate (at least 70% cocoa solids) cut into chunks

80ml extra virgin olive oil

2 eggs lightly beaten

3 ripe bananas mashed

60ml plain natural yoghurt, full fat

1 tablespoon lemon zest

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Glaze

Juice of one lemon

1 tablespoon Demerara sugar

Directions for the cake:

Preheat the oven to Gas Mark 4, 180°C, 350°F

Line a loaf tin with baking parchment.

In a large bowl combine the flour, almonds, sugar, bicarbonate of soda, salt and chocolate.

In another bowl combine beaten eggs, olive oil, mashed bananas, yoghurt, lemon zest and vanilla extract.

Add the wet ingredients to the dry and combine until no flour is present.  Pour into your prepared loaf tin and bake for 45-50 minutes until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.

Leave the cake to cool in the pan for ten minutes before turning out on a rack to cool completely.

For the glaze:

Combine the lemon juice and sugar in a small saucepan.  Heat on low until the sugar has dissolved.  Once cooled prick holes in the top of the cake and trickle the glaze over.

Randoms

We are awaiting a big event around here at the moment. Part of the reason for the silence on this here little blog.  Cooking and taking photos hasn't been much on my mind lately.  So all I can offer is a few random photos to share with you from this summer.

The only cake I've made this summer and I burnt it!  Blackberry and buckwheat adapted from this recipe. 

Eating a lot of ragù.

Preparations...

Eggs for breakfast.

Re-learning how to knit.  I don’t know what it is at the moment.

Smoothie: frozen banana, blueberries, peaches, chia seeds, almond milk, sheep yoghurt.

Afternoon jaunt to Watts Gallery.

Cooking millet on the stove for my lunch.

Eating millet with roasted veggies.

Shots of a derelict farm on a favourite walk.

Yotam Ottolenghi’s A to Z of summer recipes from the Guardian. Inspired by lunch at my brother’s house.  The flavours going on here are out of this world.

Summer toastie: goats cheese, peach and avocado on gluten free bread. Also favourite napkin.  About the only thing I could afford in the Anthropologie sale.

Obsessed with columns at Polesden Lacey.

Cherries, can’t get enough.

Breakfast: peaches, blueberries, sheep yoghurt, quinoa pops, toasted almonds.

The Hard Drive and the Mashed Potato

Do I need to explain my absence here or shall I just get on with it?  Sweep it under the carpet, dust off the blog and carry on...well, I'll tell you this, it's very dull.  My lap top hard drive failed, it took two weeks to fix but then I badly hurt my neck while washing my hair and couldn't type for another two weeks.  That's it, told you, unbelievably dull. This cake however, is anything but.

Back in the murky mists of time or February, I received a lovely card from my friends mother and inside was the recipe for this cake torn out of the Guardian.  I love post like this!  The cake not only sounded delicious, passion fruit and lime has to be a winner, but it also included mashed potato in the ingredients list.  This had to be tried immediately.  I had heard about mashed potato in gluten free cakes before.  I've had my eye on a recipe for a lemon drizzle version on BBC GoodFood for a while.  Don't be put off.  You really cannot tell the cake includes mashed potato and it gives the crumb a lovely moist texture and also makes the cake quite springy.

Gluten Free Passion Fruit and Lime Drizzle Cake Recipe from The Guardian

150g soft butter
150g soft light brown sugar (I used demerara)
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
2 passion fruit, pulp scooped out
Zest of 2 limes
300g cold mashed potato
200g ground almonds
2 teaspoons gluten free baking powder

For the topping:
*The original recipe calls for 175g icing sugar, sifted, Juice of 1-2 limes and 1 passion fruit, pulp scooped.
I had to adapt things here as I had no icing sugar and I'd run out of passion fruit so for my topping I used 2 tablespoons of demerara sugar and the juice of two limes.  I combined these in a saucepan and heated until the sugar had dissolved.

Preheat the oven to Gas Mark 4, 180C, 350F.
Grease and line a 20cm springform cake tin.
In a large bowl beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy then add the eggs and combine.  Stir in the passion fruit pulp, lime zest and mashed potato until you have a smooth batter.  Fold in the ground almonds and baking powder.
Transfer the batter in to the cake tin and bake for 1 1/4 hours until a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean.  If the top of the cake is getting a little too well done loosely cover with foil.  I found I needed to do this.
Allow the cake to cool in the tin for 5 minutes then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Once the cake is cool user a skewer to create holes in the top of the cake and pour the topping mixture over.

My Week in Lunches

Whenever I have some time off work and I’m spending it at home I like to abandon my work day sandwiches and eat something a little different for lunch.  It’s an opportunity to eat a little bit healthier.  I’ll generally just create something for myself out of whatever is in the fridge and needs using.  It has to be something that comes together quickly as I am usually coming in and going out again.  This week a bag of kale was sitting patiently in my fridge so it featured pretty heavily in my lunch time munching.  The general pattern is veggies, a grain and some protein, usually an egg, cheese or toasted nuts of some description.  I might write up a couple of these as recipes in the coming weeks.  It’s back to sandwiches next week sadly.  What have you been having for lunch lately?

Vanilla Almond Coconut Cookies

Yesterday I was in need of a distraction.  Yesterday my inner child (the one that wants to throw tantrums and stamp her feet for no good reason) needed to be kept in check.  Bruce Springsteen was playing Wembley Stadium and I couldn’t be there.  I felt like a small child who missed out on a friend’s birthday party.  There was a bit of sulking, it wasn’t my finest hour.  However, good things can sometimes come out of a sulk and that’s sort of how these cookies happened.  Really tenuous link I know but I felt the need to distract myself with baking and whilst idly flicking through a magazine I came across this recipe, they sounded easy and delicious and just suited my mood.

These flourless cookies are wonderfully light and full of healthy ingredients.  The coconut takes centre stage working perfectly with the more subtle vanilla and almond flavours.  The cookies are quite small so you really can’t stop at eating just one, especially if you are sulking about something.

Recipe slightly adapted from Natural Lifestyle Magazine.  Makes about 20-22 cookies.

112g ground almonds

80g unsweetened desiccated coconut

¼ tsp sea salt

80g agave syrup (I guess honey would be fine but I haven’t tried).

56g coconut oil

1 tsp pure vanilla extract

½ tsp almond extract

1-2 free range eggs*

*The original recipe didn’t include eggs.  I think this was a typo as the ingredients were far too dry.  I added an egg to my half batch and it worked perfectly.  I’m guessing if you are making the full batch of 22 you will need two eggs.  Start with one and see how the mixture is.  If it’s still a little dry mix in a second egg.

Preheat the oven to Gas Mark 3, 170°C, 325°F.  Line two baking sheets with parchment.

In a bowl mix together the almond meal, desiccated coconut and salt.  In a separate bowl beat together the coconut oil, agave syrup, vanilla and almond extracts and an egg. Combine the dry and wet ingredients together.  If the mixture is still a little firm add the second egg.  Place small rounded scoops of dough on to the baking sheets.  Bake for 18-20 minutes until the cookies turn golden brown.  Remove from the oven, leave the cookies to stand on the baking sheet for a couple of minutes then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.  The cookies may be a little soft but they will firm up as they cool.

For those who understand my pain, here is a bit of raw young Bruce playing Darkness on the Edge of Town which I hear was the centre piece of his Wembley set last night and my favourite album.

Adventures with Cauliflower Couscous

One of the things I miss in my gluten free life is couscous.  It’s so convenient and easy to use.  For a while I tried substituting quinoa and millet but while they are fine grains in their own right, they don’t have the same texture as couscous.  Enter the humble cauliflower.  Never one of my favourite vegetables I often dismissed cauliflower as bland and tasteless.  No surprise because I’d only every really eaten it boiled or steamed.  Thanks to the wonderful world of food blogs I’ve had my eyes opened to the possibilities that cauliflower can offer.  I’ve tried roasting it with spices which is delicious and lately I’ve been using it as a substitute for couscous.  A grain free dream.  All you need is a food processor!  Blitzed in a food processor cauliflower becomes fine and grain like.  I find a few minutes in the skillet and it’s cooked.  No need for boiling water, just heat through.  Simple as that.

I’ve made a few dishes using cauliflower couscous.  Today for lunch I had it with wilted spinach, lemon zest, roasted tomatoes and a boiled egg (pictured above).  But the recipe I’m going to share today was something of an experiment.  Last week on a whim I bought a pineapple, like you do.  It sat on the counter staring at me for a few days until I was compelled to find a good way to use it.  This recipe was inspired by BBC Good Food Pineapple Rice.  The pineapple can be a little over powering here as it is very sweet.  The original recipe calls for soy sauce which I can’t eat because it contains wheat but tamari would probably work well.  I just didn’t have any.  I served this with steak and the combination worked really well.  Pineapple is often served with pork so the sweet and savoury combination of the two is a definite winner.  I also threw in some toasted cashew nuts which were a great addition.  This recipe is open to major experimentation.  I just went with what I had on hand.

Pineapple Cauliflower Couscous inspired by BBC Good Food.

Serves 2

Roughly ¼ head of cauliflower will serve 2 but you will have to estimate this depending on the size of your cauliflower.  Chop the cauliflower in to florets then blitz it in the food processor until fine.

¼ pineapple cut in to chunks.

1 shallot finely diced.

1 teaspoon sized piece of fresh root ginger finely chopped.

½ teaspoon of curry powder.

Handful of kale of spinach.

Sliced spring onions.

Handful of toasted cashews.

Sauté the shallot and ginger in a skillet or non stick frying pan for about five minutes.  Add the curry powder and pineapple and mix well.  Next add the cauliflower couscous, kale and spring onion.  Cook for five minutes more.  Serve with unsalted toasted cashews sprinkled over.  

Roasted Roots Frittata

For those who don’t live in the UK we’ve had snow over the past week and quite a bit of it too which is an event here that generally brings our transport systems to a standstill.  Even when it’s forecast we don’t seem to believe it and then when it actually happens we react like a rabbit caught in the head lights.  As a commuter I am pretty ambivalent about snow.  I see it first as a huge inconvenience and only second as something really quite beautiful.  Sadly the beauty doesn’t last long.  We’re in the slightly melted grey sludge phase now where pavement walking has become a dangerous sport.  When we ventured out in our wellington boots to the market on Saturday I was pleased to see that the world hadn’t completely stopped turning and that the market had managed to open.  I couldn’t resist buying a bunch of purple carrots, ever the one to be charmed by an unusual looking vegetable.  I feel like I’ve been all about the roasted roots lately and here I go again.  This hearty frittata brought a much needed ray of sunshine to the wintery weather and it sort of looks like a big yellow sun too.  It’s another way to make the best of the seasons vegetables.

 

Recipe adapted from River Cottage Veg Everyday by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall

Serves 2-3

Mixed winter veg, I used the following: 2 parsnips, 1 large carrot, 1 beetroot, 1 large shallot

1 small garlic clove, finely chopped

Olive Oil

4 large free range organic eggs

Fresh herbs chopped (I used thyme)

10g hard goat’s cheese or other well flavoured hard cheese, grated.

Notes: You can make the whole thing in a roasting dish.  I roasted my vegetables first and then transferred them to a 9 inch (22cm) skillet which I preheated.

Preheat the oven Gas Mark 5, 190°C, 375°F

Peel and slice your vegetables in to chunks about 1-2cm in size.  Place the vegetables and garlic on a baking tray and toss in olive oil.  Roast for about 35-40 minutes turning half way through until they are beginning to brown and caramelise.

Meanwhile beat the eggs with the herbs and season with salt and pepper if you like.  Transfer the vegetables in to a preheated skillet or use the oven dish you roasted them in if it is the right size.  Pour the egg mixture over the vegetables and scatter with the grated cheese.  Return to the oven for 10-15 minutes until the egg is set and the top is starting to brown.  I finished this off under the grill to get a nice even brown top.  Serve warm or cold.