LuceLoves : Kitchen Escapism

Talk about being waterlogged, it feel like for the past few days I have constantly been wet up to (and including) my knees. The fact that my feet are damp is entirely my fault however, I seem to be unable to bare wearing anything other than my pumps – not really the type of shoe that suits random torrential downpours. And they have been random haven’t they – one minute its sunny so you take a chance and dash outside and the next thing you are running through a monsoon like downpour with an umbrella that is probably better suited for a light drizzle. Anyway…this was the view from inside for most of Sunday. Whats usually a bright little space is just wet and miserable, I didn’t even have the heart to go out move my fledgling herbs to a more sheltered spot.

I did, though, have to pull out the big guns this weekend. I was off, back to the countryside to lunch some very important ladies in my life (the third is away so we were a trio instead of the usual quartet). There is nothing quite like friends like these, people who know you so well that they can one minute lend the most sympathetic ear and then next be telling you exactly how it is bringing you back down to reality. Love those girls. So, the big guns…by that I mean the golf umbrella. Yes, this weekend I was one of those annoying people with the giant umbrella pulled down so low (so as to get maximum protection) that I could not see the rest of the world, meaning that the rest of the world had to get out of my way as I hurried down the street. It was great,  its the driest I have been outside for days!

The one thing that this weather did manage to inspire was soup. I’ve not had a bowl of soup for a while now as I felt that we were starting to move out of winter. Soup is my winter food. But, along with the hot water bottle (yes I was that cold) out came the blender.

Since I was resigned to being indoors this Sunday, I thought that I could add a touch more to just the usual soup. Jazz it up a bit if you will. So I added a little twist and a little extra nugget. We all have things we like and don’t like right? Well mine is thin soups, except for consumes but since that’s how they are supposed to be that’s fine. Thin, watery soups I just won’t touch. Its just my thing. I sometimes go a bit overboard and end up with a soup that’s a glorified vegetable puree rather that a meal for an adult. But hey, C’est la vie. The one thing I did want to make was gnocchi…again. But this time with goats cheese. I don’t like all goats cheeses, I love the mild creamy ones with a subtle flavour and I figured they may work rather well in a soup. I made the goats cheese as I have before and substituted it for half the ricotta in the ricotta gnocchi recipe. They were so good, a beautiful subtle flavour that, luckily, was not lost among the flavours of the soups. I’ll probably try an all goats cheese gnocchi next…you know, really go wild!

So since I knew I was going to make goats cheese gnocchi, the soup flavours came easily. Beetroot and pear and curried cauliflower and apple. All ingredients that individually go beautifully with goats cheese. The only downside to this little cooking experiment was that I forgot how strong a smell curry powder is – I could still smell it on my hands and in the house hours afterwards (and yes I did wash my hand!). The thing I love the most about these soups is the sweetness from the fruit along with the savoury flavours. The only thing I will say that was a bit weird was that the pears gave the beetroot soup a grainy texture. It was not offensive, but just distinct. I also fried the gnocchi in butter and a little olive oil before adding them to the soup. Forgive me my poor heart I do love you but girl needs a bit of butter in her life every now and again. You don’t have to obviously, but I recommend it!

So if it rains next weekend – pop on into the kitchen and get blending!

Beetroot, pear and cumin soup with Goats cheese gnocchi

For the Goats cheese Gnocchi:

• 1 L of full fat goats milk
• juice of half a lemon
• ~125 g whole milk ricotta
• 60 g gluten free flour (plus extra for rolling) or normal plain flour
• 30 g of Parmesan
• 1 egg yolk
• salt and pepper to taste

In a large pot bring the goats milk to boil (you should see thousands of bubble forming on the surface), but stir constantly so it does not burn. Once it is boiling, switch off the heat and add the juice of half a lemon, stir and leave to cool. Once cooled, you should see that the curds have separated from the whey. Line a colander or a sieve with a layer of cheesecloth and place over a large bowl. Pour the curds and whey onto the lined sieve and allow to strain for an hour. Once most of the water has drained through, gather the corners of the cheese cloth and twist them making a little parcel of goats cheese. Place this back into the colander and place a small plate on top (careful not to let it unravel) and allow to strain for a further hour. This is just to get that last bit of water out so that the gnocchi are not to wet. Make your gnocchi as done here, but use the goats cheese and make the weight up to 250 g with whole milk ricotta. For me, 1 L of goats cheese gave 127 g of ricotta.

Beetroot soup (serves 2):

• 4 medium sized cooked beetroot roughly chopped (I used the ready cooked packed beetroot in their own juices  – DO NOT used the variety in vinegar!)
• half a large onion diced
• 1 clove of garlic finely diced
• 1 large pear peeled and diced (I used comice pears)
• 1 teaspoon of cumin
• olive oil
• salt and pepper
• 500ml vegetable stock (homemade or use a stock cube)

Fry the onion until soft, add the cumin and the garlic and cook for a further 1 minute. Add the beetroot and the pear and cook for a minute or so. Add the stock. Cook until the pear is tender. Using either a handheld blender or stand blender, carefully blend until smooth. Taste and add salt and pepper as needed. If the soup is too thick for you add some boiling water.

Cauliflower, apple and curry soup (serves 4):

• 1 medium head of cauliflower, chopped.
• 2 cooking apples, peeled and diced or 1 tin of apples (unsweetened)
• half a large onion diced
• 1 clove of garlic finely diced
• 1 teaspoon of mild curry powder
• 750 ml vegetable stock
• salt and pepper to taste.

Fry the onion until soft, add the curry powder and the garlic and cook for a further 1 minute. Add the cauliflower and and the apples and cook for a minute or so. Add the stock simmer until the cauliflower is tender. Using either a handheld blender or stand blender, carefully blend until smooth. Taste and add salt and pepper as needed. If the soup is too thick for you add some boiling water.

To serve:

Fry the gnocchi in some butter and olive oil until they are golden. Dived between the portions of soups. Garnish the beetroot soup with some fresh thyme and the cauliflower soup with an extra pinch of curry powder.

Enjoy!

LLx

I’m having a love affair with ricotta. Its been going on for a while really, I love both the bought kind and the kind I make at home. I love it when its made with whole milk and I especially love it made with goats milk.

Gnocchi are one of those things that I have tried time and time again, with potato, with some success. But gnocchi made with ricotta I have a 100% success rate with, and for that reason its going to take some serious persuasion to get me to go back to the potato kind. I used to be hell bent on trying the more complicated recipes and getting them right. But the frustration levels used to creep up during the process which would lead to me making silly little mistakes and end with (small) screams of frustration. These cooking fiasco’s would also end up with a kitchen that looked like a flour bomb went off in it. I eventually learned to make them but the process just put me off altogether.

Seems a bit silly I know, being put off like that. But I worked myself up to not enjoying making gnocchi, and for me most of why I love cooking is the because of the enjoyment. I find it relaxing, I love the process of starting with an idea and ending up with a plate that you can share and be really proud off. I love that I can start at lunchtime and spend the afternoon cooking (and doing a lot of cleaning in between – the slightly less fun part) and for a few hours my mind is not clouded by anything other that whats on the stove. I guess I cook to forget, and it almost always works – its cathartic. So when the process becomes frustrating it defeats the whole object of getting in the kitchen.

I also love that sometimes I can stand back and look at a plate and think I made that. I love spending time setting up a picture and looking at it thinking, I took that photo. It seems self-complimentary I know, but I think sometimes we forget to give ourselves compliments and rely to much on others too. I don’t mean that we should become arrogant about it. But there is nothing wrong with a little pat on the back for something we are proud of.

On Friday night I was rooting around in my kitchen cupboard and found a tin of baby clams in the back (don’t worry they were not out of date  – yet). I think I had bought them for clam chowder a while back and then never got around to making it. Previously when I have made gnocchi it was just with a plain basil/tomato sauce and mozzarella. Great, tasted delicious but I wasn’t feeling it anymore. I don’t like a cheesy sauce for gnocchi as it just makes me feel ill and so as a sauce that was out. But I do love spaghetti vongole and so, therefore, in my mind clams a gnocchi had to go together. I stuck to a tomato based sauce as I like the acidic hit that it gives the dish but I didn’t want it to be one of those really wet sauces that you sometimes see. I also wanted to give the gnocchi a bit of a boost, a touch more flavour if you will. So I fried them in a bit of olive oil and butter before adding the sauce and letting it all reduce down together.

I loved this dish.

But I wanted more this weekend. I can stick to a diet pretty well. I take a lot of pride in my willpower. So when I want something sweet I let myself have it. I have no need for denial in my life – ultimately its just too short. I generally stick to a no sugar diet (along with gluten free), but this weekend I wanted dessert, fried with sugar. I got to use my beloved ricotta again which was a bonus. Ricotta doughnuts with mint sugar. This batter made a lot, and they were unbelievable freshly fried, still warm covered in sugar. Lets just say I had a few…but I’ll save those for next week

Gnocchi with Clams

Gnocchi:

• 300 g ricotta
• 80 g Doves farms gluten free flour (plus a bit extra for when you roll the gnocchi)
• 1 egg yolk
• 20 g freshly grated Parmesan (you can add more if you want)
• salt and pepper to taste

Sauce:

• 1 clove of finely chopped garlic
• 1 tin of baby clams in spring water
• 1 small tin of chopped tomatoes
• 1 teaspoon of fresh thyme leaves
• salt and pepper to taste

Place the ricotta, Parmesan, egg yolk and salt and pepper in a bowl and stir until smooth. Add the flour and mix until fully combined. The mixture is quite soft but resist adding more flour. Before I begin rolling out the gnocchi I put a pot of water on the stove and bring to a gentle boil. This is so as I roll and cut the gnocchi I can place them straight into the water to cook and I fill the kitchen sink with hot soapy water so that I can wash my hands between rolling (you’ll need to).

To roll: Generously flour you work surface. Place a quarter of the mixture on the floured work top and then sprinkle a bit more flour on top of the mixture. Gently roll out into a sausage shape. I rolled it out until it was about 1.5cm deep and cut them into ~2cm long pieces. Once the sausage was rolled and cut I placed the gnocchi into the boiling water and while they were cooking rolled and cut up the next quarter. The gnocchi are ready when they float to the top  – I give them an extra minute to cook once they have floated.  Remove the cooked gnocchi with a slotted spoon, place in a bowl and drizzle a bit of olive oil over them so that they don’t stick and set aside until you are ready to use them. If you are not frying them like I did, you can place them straight onto a plate and pour over your sauce. Continue until all the mixture is cooked. A few of my gnocchi did stick together but gentle prising pulled them apart in the frying pan.

For the sauce: Fry one clove of garlic, finely chopped in a bit of olive oil. After 1 minute or so add a tin of baby clams with as much of the water drained off as possible. If your clams were in brine, rinse then in water before you use them. Fry the clams for a minute or so and then add a small tin of tomatoes. Cook for a few minutes, add salt and pepper to taste.  Set to one side.

Bringing it all together: Place the gnocchi in a large pan with a bit of olive oil and butter on a low heat and fry until they start to take on some colour. Flip them over so that both sides get evenly browned. Once all the gnocchi have take on a nutty brown colour add all the sauce and cook, stirring gently as you don’t want to break up the gnocchi, until the liquid as been reduced by at least half. Add about a teaspoon of fresh thyme leaves and serve with an extra grating of Parmesan and black pepper.

Enjoy!

LLx

My flowers decided that there was enough sun to open and bloom this weekend. Lucky for them they were inside in the warmth and not the frigid cold outside. It feels like the weather has  regressed to something close to mid winter these past few weeks, well may be not that bad but it’s close enough.

Enough about the weather…

I have a habit of tearing recipes out of newspapers and magazines and keeping them for future lunches/suppers etc etc. Its not just recipes that I tear out really, but anything that catches my eye. Its so I don’t forget. The result is that by the end of the week (or when I get around to cleaning out my bag), I have a bag full of all these bits of paper. I rarely get around to making half the recipes I tear out, mostly because there is a constant stream of new recipes that get torn out.  I tear out a  lot – uhm, yeah sorry to all those who get Metro’s or Evening Standards with bits ripped out, it was probably me! The very scientific way I decide which recipes get kept and which get binned is by asking myself what are the actual chances of me ever making whatever the recipe was. 50% usually get binned immediately. But it still leaves me with a lots of scrappy bits of paper left over .This week it was time to changes that…

Yotam Ottolenghi is one of my favourite chefs. As fans go, I’m not yet in the groupie class but I’m pretty close! Around pancake day there was a spread in The Evening Standard (of which I tore out the double page spread), and several chefs gave the recipes for their best pancakes. These are his…

Well, they are almost his. I swear I remember the recipe have sweetcorn in it. So I bought some only to discover that the recipe did not actually call for them. But, I put them in anyway. And you know what – it totally worked. Like totally!

The chili/lime/lemon butter sealed the deal for me with these pancakes. Oh, they are gluten free too. His original recipe calls for plain flour so add in/out as you desire. I used my gluten free pancake recipe with slightly less sugar and then added the bits and pieces to make them into what you see above.

You ought to make them though,  with the sweetcorn. I ate six, and I’m not even that ashamed!

Spinach, basil and sweetcorn pancakes.

Follow this gluten free pancake recipe with the following adjustments:

• Use 10g of castor sugar instead of 25g
• 150g of spinach  – wilted and finely chopped
• 150g of sweetcorn (I used tinned sweetcorn in water without added sugar)
• a handful of basil leaves finely chopped
• 100g soft butter
• zest of 1 lime and half a large lemon
• half a teaspoon on chili flakes (or less depending on your taste)
• salt and pepper

Y.O says to make the chili butter first, so I did. In a bowl or pestle and mortar, place the butter, zests, chili and salt and pepper. Mix until well combined. Place into a bowl and into the fridge to harden. I rolled mine in plastic wrap and shaped it into a log, I place it into the freezer to set and them sliced it. You do what you are comfortable with.

For the pancakes, place the spinach in a pan with a little water and cook until its completely wilted. Drain and squeeze out the excess water (wait for it to cool slightly!), then chop finely. Add the spinach, finely chopped basil and sweetcorn to the ricotta pancake mixture ie: before you have added the flour and whisked egg whites. Cook as per previous instructions.

Serve with chili lime butter.

Enjoy!

LLx

I’ve got that Sunday night feeling. Not the one with impending Monday blues but the one where you sit there and go -What happened to the weekend?  Its usually a good sign when that happens, a sign that you’ve been busy and that, hopefully, a lot of fun has been had. My fun came in the form of family this weekend. A whole troop of them arrived in London on Friday night. This wasn’t just an ordinary family holiday weekend though, it was my uncles 60th birthday weekend. Très special!

Something of a milestone some would say…

To celebrate we spent the weekend eating, drinking and laughing. I mean, how else do you spend a birthday weekend? And thanks to the clocks going forward this weekend – this lot looked like hardcore partiers when I only got into bed at 2am! Luckily for us girls there was a football match on Saturday afternoon that gave us a few hours of shopping too. Even the  weather was perfect – blue skies, sunny and the perfect temperature for walking around London. It’s not something I do often, walking around London that is so I love it when family or friends come to visit as I rediscover the city. It also means I get to go places like M&M world for the first time. Who would have thought a little M&M could have a four floor store devoted to it! I’m not a huge fan of the original or peanut M&M’s but peanut butter M&M’s – now that’s a whole other story. To my horror, but my bum’s delight, they did not have peanut butter M&M’s…just as well, I only have 6 weeks until I hit the beach!

So, by the time Sunday evening came around and I had done my chores and been for a run (beach…bikini…need I say more) I was too tired to cook something involved for supper. Rather I stood in front of the fridge surveying a rather sparse shelf waiting for inspiration. Supper became a ready-steady cook challenge as I had to see what I could come up with in 5 ingredients or less.

There was an aubergine whose top had become a touch mouldy (thank goodness I only needed half), some feta that had been around for a while, some spinach that was surprisingly fresh and a jar of preserved lemons that were from a Moroccan phase many moons ago. Aubergines, always good grilled and delicious with feta -this could work out ok! The preserved lemons add a salty acidic kick and the spinach, well its like a filler – adds bulk! They could all go onto a chickpea flour pancake. Its like a gluten free pizza – only not!

So spinach on the base (I’m quite proud of this shot by the way) and then everything else piled ontop!

Somewhere along the line I found some mint too. So slice it up and add it to the pot! It turned out to be a pretty good supper. The chickpea pancake was crispy around the edges and the balance of saltiness and creaminess was beautiful with the tart lemons and smooth aubergine. It was filling too. May not look it from here, but trust me…

But now I really do have a bare fridge. Unless I can whip something up with eggs, yogurt and marmalade?

Middle eastern gluten free socca

To make the socca or chickpea pancake use this recipe.

For the toppings:

• Grilled aubergine
• Feta
• thinly sliced preserved lemon
• cooked, well drained spinach
• fresh mint
• salt and pepper.

Prepare all your toppings first as you want the chickpea pancake to be hot and fresh when you eat it. Make the pancake as per the recipe above and lay everything on top as you would if you were making a pizza. Don’t overload it though – there’s not melted cheese to keep everything in place so restraint is the order of the day! Season with salt and pepper and enjoy!

LLx

There is nothing quite like getting away to recharge ones batteries. And thats exactly what I did this weekend. As I got on the train to leave London I left my worries and cares behind, along with my mobile reception and 3G connection. Ah the countryside! I can deal with being out of touch for a few days, it was far more traumatic finding out that there was no Starbucks. I’ve often fantasised about living in the country – perhaps I’m not ready just yet!

Visiting the best friend in the country goes something like this:

1. Arrive at said countryside destination.
2. Walk to countryside house
3. Enjoy screaming welcome, hugs and hellos as its been a while
4. Open bubbly
5. Enjoy bubbly while being used as a human climbing frame for the under 3 foot tall members of the family (don’t worry I loved it)!
6. Chatting/gossiping the weekend away and cringing/crying with laughter at the photos of us from 10 years ago.

And on that note, seriously people – you let me wear that!!

I meant to take my camera with me, but my backpack was so full of flour and confit garlic and ricotta and other various ingredients that something had to give or else my back would have. I wanted them to taste all the things I had been cooking recently. For me the joy of food is not in the taste alone, but its in sharing it and then relishing in the enjoyment that it brings to others. Its the feeling of love and happiness that you get from sitting around a table and with good food, joy and laughter.

Food always tastes better amidst love and laughter.

And boy, was there ever food. Supper was chickpea pancakes with dukkah and confit garlic followed by chicken and prawn curry all topped off with chocolate brownies. Breakfast was pancakes with chocolate sauce, sliced bananas and fresh strawberries (the fresh fruit balancing the chocolate sauce and overall making it a semi healthy breakfast) with several cups of coffee. Later walk into town (done impressively by the shorties in the family without one complaint) to find a pub to watch the rugby and have lunch (this was several hours later) and more coffee to go with more gossiping, I mean catching up! If you’re still reading this, any guesses as to how far out the window my healthy eating went? It was about as absent as mobile signal.

So after excess, what you need is restraint – or a salad.

Looks good, right? Spinach for crunch and vitality, quinoa for body and all its amino acids and proteins, grilled vegetables for taste and nutrients, feta for yum factor. Have I won you over yet?

If not, what if I add some roast tomatoes and a yogurt and mint dressing?

I felt virtuous after eating this and, as you may suspect from my portion size, rather full. The wonderful thing about a salad is that the only limit is your imagination – there should be a limit though (I suspect I am one ingredient shy of having the whole kitchen cupboard in this salad), you want the ingredients to compliment each other as well as have the different textures to make each mouthful and enjoyable experience. With enough leftovers to last a few days, I’ll be enjoying this experience again and again and again!

Why not give it a try?

Grilled vegetable salad

This recipe requires many of the ingredients to be cooked separately and then combined at the end – take it from me, its worth the effort! This make three very generous servings.

• Baby spinach
• 2 medium courgettes (zucchini)
• 1 large aubergine
• Cooked quinoa
• 250g shop bought roast tomatoes or sun dried tomatoes in oil
• 400g tin of chickpeas, drained
• 100g feta cheese
• 1 small tub of plain yogurt
• 8-10 mint leaves
• salt and pepper
• squeeze of fresh lemon juice.

Cook the quinoa as per instructions and set aside when done. Thinly slice the courgettes with a vegetable peeler and toss in olive oil. Cook the courgettes on a hot griddle pan until coloured (or gently fry until soft if you don’t have a griddle pan). Place to one side. As thinly as possible, slice the aubergine and brush with olive oil. Grill until soft and coloured, set aside to cool. Once cool enough to handle, slice the aubergine into strips roughly the same width as the grilled courgettes. Toss the grilled vegetables into the cooked quinoa along with the roast tomatoes and the oil that they came in. Add the chickpeas and good squeeze of lemon juice and salt and pepper to taste. For the dressing, finely slice the mint leave and mix into the yogurt with a pinch of salt and a squeeze on lemon juice.

To assemble: place a handful of spinach in a bowl and top with some of the quinoa-vegetable mix. Crumble some feta over the vegetables and place a big dollop of the yogurt dressing on top.

Eat and enjoy!

LLx