Smoked Paprika Potato Wedges

This is absolutely my favourite way to eat potatoes at the moment - and has been for some time but I've never got round to putting it up here because I just make them without regard for quantity. Smoked paprika potato wedges. Crunchy with salt; smoky with, er, smoked paprika. 

Delicious.

I could just say, "Yeah, just slice up some potatoes, toss them in oil, smoked paprika, salt & pepper and whack them in the oven until they're cooked" (which is, really, how I roll) but really that wouldn't be much of a post. 

When I look back, initially, I didn't put any recipes in these posts. The 'Recipe Junkie' was always about me devouring other people's recipes - whether in books or online, in newspapers, magazines or old notebooks, and was never about me suggesting my own recipes were really any good, despite what you might think, or how I might occasionally come across (in which case give me a slap).. 

And that's still really where I'm coming from, although sometimes (if you'll excuse the conceit of the statement) I think that I come up with something that's pretty good. But I'd be the first to say that it's usually had its roots elsewhere. There's not a huge amount of completely original thought gone into anything I cook. I mean, how much original thought can there be? Someone might introduce a new fad in OUR food culture, a new idea, but you can be sure that somewhere else in the world, it's been consumed, cooked for years... 

A quick Google tells me that chia seeds were being grown by the Aztecs in 3,500 BC. Yes, Gwynnie, really. 

Woodfired ovens? Well, hello - hardly a new concept.

So I don't pretend that this is my idea - there are hundreds of similar recipes out there. But this is my current favourite way to eat potatoes (am I repeating myself?) and I thought I'd share it with you.

Smoked Paprika Potato Wedges

Serves 4

4 large-ish white potatoes (about 800g)
2 tsp rapeseed oil
1 tsp smoked paprika
A good pinch or sea salt
2-3 grinds of black pepper

Pre-heat the oven to 220C, and put a baking tray into the oven to heat up.

Wash your potatoes, and slice them into wedges - about 10-12 from each potato. 

Put the potato pieces into a bowl, drizzle over the oil and toss the potatoes so all are covered, then sprinkle over the paprika, salt and pepper and toss everything all together again.

Tip the potatoes onto the hot baking sheet, shake into a single layer, then pop back in to the oven and cook for at least 45 minutes, may be longer if needed, taking the sheet out every so often and stirring the wedges around to ensure even cooking.

Serve with burgers, with fish, or just on their own, with mayo to dip.

Pumpkin Ginger Cake with Lemon icing

So a couple of things have irked me this week.

Firstly, at the weekend, the Husband got stuck into the kitchen and produced a much, much better Pumpkin Soup than I did the previous weekend. He followed a Jamie Oliver recipe, right down to frying the sage leaves first in the oil which you then cook your 'base veg' (the carrot, celery, onions type veg, not the ones shouting obscenities as you chop them up). It was delicious. Grrr.

Secondly, I watched an episode of GBBO. 

I know. Shoot me for my hypocrisy.

In my defence, there wasn't even an old episode of CSI Miami (my least favourite of the CSIs) running on 5 USA, and I was too tired to resist I'm nothing if not open to having my ideas challenged. 

What would Messrs Hollywood & Berry say about my icing? On second thoughts, don't answer that...

So in the interests of testing whether I was right in my views about this sort of TV programme, I decided to endure it. You'll be pleased (or not) to know that I remain firm in my view that this is really car crash TV for the middle classes, and quite exploitative in the way that it plays on peoples' emotions and feelings. All that smarmy niceness and then killer comments basically telling the contestants that their cakes were rubbish. And I still don't really know what it's all FOR? I mean, for a start they weren't really rubbish - those cakes. And secondly, we all know that there are thousands of amazing bakers all over the country producing stunning cakes (both in looks and taste). So why do we need to allow some of those amazing bakers to sob into their fondant icing potagers in public? Hmm?

Anyway, rant about the premise of the programme aside, I have to say that I found the actual baking very compelling, and I liked the vegetable bakes a lot. I am a big fan of veg in cake, and when I was flicking through some books and trying to work out what to bake for a coffee morning this morning, I was mindful of the fact that despite my soup, the Husband's soup and the curry I made for the Harvest Festival Supper, we had still not got through even one of the great big enormous pumpkins from the veg patch.

Now, I know Dan Lepard doesn't take kindly to having his recipes repeated on anyone else's websites/blogs, but I made so many changes to his Ginger Root Cake that I really think this can be called an original cake. For a start, I used pumpkin, rather than root vegetables. But whatever, I was really REALLY pleased with how this turned out. Light and with a lovely ginger flavour in the cake. And of course, lemon and ginger are a match made in heaven, so the icing was a must - and who cares that my attempts at artful drizzling were less than beautiful...

Pumpkin Ginger Cake 

2 large eggs
100g dark muscovado sugar
100g treacle (see top tip below for weighing)
150ml sunflower oil (plus a little extra for weighing out the treacle - see below)
160g grated pumpkin
4 balls of stem ginger, chopped fairly small
175g spelt flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
2 tsp ground ginger
150g icing sugar
juice of half a lemon

Pre-heat the oven to 180C/160C fan and line a 20cm round cake tin with greaseproof paper.

Separate one of the eggs and put the white to one side, then beat together the whole egg and the separated yolk with the sugar till thick and foamy.

Add the oil and treacle. A top tip for weighing out the treacle is to grease the bowl you weigh it into very lightly with a little oil, also if you are spooning it out of the tin, wipe a little oil over the spoon too, then the treacle will slide out easily. Also works for syrup. 

Beat in the oil and treacle until smooth, then stir in the pumpkin and chopped ginger. 

Mix together the flour, baking powder, bicarb and ground ginger, then stir this into the mixture.

Whisk the reserved egg white to the soft peak stage, then fold it into the rest of the cake mixture with a metal spoon.

Scrape the batter into the tin and bake for 40-50 minutes.

Allow the cake to cool in the tin, then make up the icing by mixing together the lemon juice and icing sugar. You want a pretty runny icing to drizzle over the cake.

I also made Dan's Lemon Butter Cake - which if you own a copy of 'Short and Sweet' (and if you don't I thoroughly recommend that you get one immediately) is on the next page to the Ginger Root Cake - but I pretty much followed the recipe for that, and I'd recommend you do too...

And the mystery ingredient is...

Swede. Honestly, it is. And it's really, really good - the cake I mean.

I've been very inspired since talking to the lovely lady who runs the Blackberry Cottage cake business - cakes with hidden ingredients - who I met at the Parsonage Farm Spring Market the other week. She'd sold out of her swede cake, but I was intrigued because I've had a swede pretty much every week in my veg box and frankly, it's getting a bit difficult to think of new and exciting ways to eat it. Yes, I raved about the soup, but  I'm only fasting on 2 days a week and I've only got so much space in the freezer. We've also had swede chips, as well as plenty of plain old mashed swede, and I've found an Ottolenghi recipe that I'll be trying out for a remoulade type salad, but cake? Really?

I turned for further inspiration to Harry Eastwood's gorgeous book Red Velvet & Chocolate Heartache. I have had it for a year or so, but - oh the shame - have not made anything out of it. It's a beautifully presented book, loads of wonderful cakes that you can almost smell off the pages, very pretty and evocative photography, and each cake has a little 'personality' which stays mostly on the cute side of twee. She also uses LOADS of veg in her creations. It's great bed time reading. Not only that, but 2 different cakes using swede. A lemon & lavender loaf, and an orange & rosemary drizzle cake.



I opted for the second, having lots of rosemary in the garden and no lavender as yet, and the results, well, see for yourself.

The addition of rosemary to the drizzle syrup adds extra interest but the flavour works really well with the orange, and I promise, there's not even a hint of swede. The idea of using swede puree instead of butter is a brilliant one, and based on the success of this, I will be trying it out in other things. We don't have intolerances in our house, but I can see that it would be fantastic for anyone with a dairy intolerance. Also, it uses rice flour which is gluten free. Marvellous.

Finally, I should just mention that while you can of course chop your swede with a knife, I used my Tefal Fresh Express Max which I have received as part of my membership of the Tefal Innovation Panel. I have to say that of the 3 pieces of equipment I have received, this is the one I have been most ambivalent about. However, for this recipe, the chopping cone did the job, and made easy work of the swede.

Orange & Rosemary Drizzle Cake

400g peeled swede, chopped quite small
4 medium eggs (or 2 largish ones and 2 smallish ones, our chickens not laying to conform with Government standards)
50g clear honey
150g caster sugar
finely grated zest of 4 oranges
125g white rice flour
200g ground almonds
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt

plus (for the drizzle):

6 tbsp granulated sugar plus 1 for sprinkling
250ml water
8 tbsp freshly squeezed orange juice
6 sprigs rosemary

You will also need a lined tray bake tin

First deal with the swede - cover it with water, bring to the boil and cook for 7 minutes or so, till cooked. Drain, then blitz to a puree.

Combine the rice flour, ground almonds, salt and baking powder in a bowl and set aside. In another, larger bowl, whisk together the honey, sugar and eggs for a good couple of minutes, till frothy. Stir in the orange zest, the flour & almond mixture, and finally whisk in the swede puree till it's all combined. Scrape into the tin, smooth, and bake for about 20-25 minutes, turning once during cooking if necessary.

While the cake is cooking, prepare the drizzle by putting the 6tbsp of granulated sugar, water, orange juice and rosemary into a small pan. Bring it gently to the boil, and when the water is bubbling so you can't see the rosemary, remove the pan from the heat, and leave for the rosemary to infuse into the liquid.

Once the cake is baked, take it out of the oven, and still in the tin, prick holes all over the cake using your preferred cake pricking implement. Carefully drizzle the rosemary-scented syrup all over the cake (you may have too much - use your judgement) then sprinkle the final tablespoon of granulated over the top and leave to cool.

Although Harry Eastwood thinks her orange & rosemary drizzle cake is "... that moment when a white hot sunbeam inches over your cheek, and wakes you up with a smile...", suggesting a morning type of cake (breakfast, even??), having smelt it coming out of the oven, I think mine has great possibilities as a warm pudding type cake - I think it's the almonds - served with some mascarpone. I'll leave that thought with you.

I'll be adding this to the lovely Karen's Herbs on Saturday once May's challenge is open, for the rosemary of course, and also to Ren's Simple and in Season which looks like it's still open on her blog for April.

'Souper' swede

Swede gets a bit of a bad deal really, I think.

Relegated to being confused with turnips, lumped into that class of 'root veg' that no none really knows what to do with, not the most attractive vegetable on the block.

I'm as guilty as anyone else of this, but this last winter, it's been apparent that the kids really like it - when they have turned their noses up at other 'sweet' veg like sweet potato and butternut squash, they somehow seem to really like the taste of swede, which I think is also quite sweet. They have enjoyed it mashed with haggis and in pasties.

I got a swede in my veg box last week, and was thinking of other possibilities to make a star of it. Nothing inspirational came to mind, but based on on a recipe I saw in Rose Elliot's rather fabulous 30 Minute Vegetarian book, I made this soup.

 

Yes, I know it doesn't look like much (why do you think I put it in a pretty mug for the photo?) but adding cinammon and cumin really makes this into quite delicious soup. Even I was surprised by how tasty it was - almost like chestnut in its velvetiness, and very comforting. The Husband was very rude on Twitter about how excited I got with the results, and had the temerity to talk about turnip soup as if I was recreating something from the gulag, but believe me, not him (and anyway, he's away for a week so I can eat it to my heart's content).

And yes, it's 5:2 friendly. 425ml of this rocks up at a mere 71 calories.

Cinammon Swede Soup

500g swede (peeled weight)
1 large onion, peeled and chopped
2 celery sticks, chopped
5ml olive oil
2 kallo organic veg stock cubes made up with 1.5 litres boiling water
a sprinkling each of ground cinammon and cumin

Gently heat the oil in a large pan, then add the swede, onion and celery and sweat gently for 5-10 minutes, stirring every now and then. Sprinkle in the cinammon and cumin, stir and cook for a couple of minutes then add in the stock, some salt and pepper, bring tot he boil and simmer for 15-20 minutes till the swede is cooked.

Blitz.

You could serve with some Greek yoghurt in it, or some toasted cumin seeds - or even both. Rose Elliot fries onions and cumin seed to garnish hers with, and I bet that would be delicious too.

MORE great big enormous parsnips. So, soup - again.

For the first time in what seems like forever, the sun was out this weekend, and it had some warmth. 

 
I even undid my fleece and bodywarmer whilst out walking the dog yesterday - incidentally the same walk where Fred actually needed to stop and slurp noisily from a handy cattle trough. He even flopped down a couple of times in the shade (yes, there was enough sun to cast a shadow) for a break from the pheasant chasing...

And while in my heart I wanted to cast off the shackles of the winter once and for all, it hasn't quite been BBQ weather, and we still had more parsnips to eat.

This beauty actually went home with my mother in law earlier today. Forgive the rather unusual 'size comparator' - your eyes do not deceive, it is indeed the nozzle thing from a plastic petrol can. This means only one thing - Daisy the camper van is back on the road. But I have as yet no stories of camper van adventure, you'll have to wait for the first of this summer's exciting installments. Instead, with the remaining 2 parsnips to deal with, I can regale you with tales of a parsnip and ginger soup that Pink, my parsnip hating daughter, ate.

Parsnip quite often gets the curry treatment, cumin, coriander, garam masala, but I'm never very sure about it. We were having curry for dinner on Saturday anyway, so I wanted to make the soup a little different. That said, I was using ginger in the curry, but somehow with the parsnip, it lifted the flavours and made a much fresher, spring-like soup than the other spices. Still warming - for it was chilly out of the sun, but with a promise of (please God) some balmy summer days to come.

Parsnip & Ginger Soup - serves 4-5 adults

approx 400g peeled, chopped parsnip
2 large carrots, peeled and chopped
1 onion, peeled & roughly chopped
a thumb sized piece of ginger, peeled and grated
1.2 litres vegetable stock
rapeseed or olive oil

Heat a tablespoon or so of the oil in a large pan, add the onion and ginger and gently sweat for 5-10 minutes. Add the parsnip and carrot, sweat for a couple more minutes then tip in the stock, bring to the boil then simmer for 20 minutes or so till the veg is cooked.

Whizz the soup with whatever you use - hand held stick blender is my weapon of choice - and serve.

Pink had a spoonful to try and then proceeded to eat 2 bowlsful.

The final parsnip of the winter was turned into oven chips - 'snip chips' - for dinner this evening - along with 2 large maris piper potatoes. Delicious to all apart from Pink, who declared them disgusting. Contrary to the end - that's my gal.
 

The great big enormous ... PARSNIP!

This could be a post about the hunger gap - that time of the year where we've all but run out of stored food and nothing's growing (I'm talking veg here, not baked beans) yet, or about using up leftovers. It could also be a Samantha Barnes Google Recipe Challenge, and all because of a parsnip.

Despite the hunger gap, the atrociously cold weather and all that, we still have parsnips in the garden. Whether they are actually growing any more is debateable, but when they come out this size, does it really matter?

Anyway, size isn't everything, it's what you do with it. Thanks to the fact that we had people for dinner on Saturday night, I had a fridge full of leftovers looking at me when I opened it up  this evening, Left over bad stuff, like cheese and cream. I may be on a mission to reduce the circumference of my thighs and ensure that the only muffin tops around here are of the double chocolate variety, but I absolutely cannot see food going to waste, so the challenge was on. What to do with the enormous parsnip - and the leftovers?

Pink's not a fan, so parsnips usually get turned into some sort of soup for the Husband and I, or roasted as a side dish, ideal for her to pick out and be sniffy about (she'd refuse the soup point blank). This evening, though, she was out at a friend's so Blue and I got stuck in to some proper parsnip action.

A quick Google based on what I had in the fridge turned up 2 possibles - both gratins - one from Abel & Cole and one from a website called Epicurious - so we combined the two, in doing so using up the left over cream and Cashel Blue cheese from Saturday night, and raiding the garden for the only other things that are growing with any enthusiasm at the moment - sage and rosemary. 

I'm pleased to report that Blue got properly stuck in to the whole thing. Much as he'd hate to admit it, he's a bit lost when his little sister isn't around for hi-jinking or fighting, depending on the mood they are both in (actually, if we're being strictly honest, usually it depends on the mood Pink is in) and so it was good to get him involved while she was off giggling with her friend.

Mezzaluna baby!

 

The result was a delicious creamy (of course) warming dish, full of flavour - great food for a chilly winter Spring evening.

Parsnip & Bacon Gratin with leeks, hazelnuts & blue cheese

Serves 3-4 depending on appetite

60g hazelnuts
700g (peeled weight) parsnips, thinly sliced lengthways
200g (ditto) carrots, also thinly sliced
1 large leek, thinly sliced and washed
200g pancetta/bacon cut into pieces
250ml or so double cream & creme fraiche, thinned with a little milk if necessary
1 good tsp dijon mustard
2-3 sprigs of rosemary, needles only & a handful of sage leaves, finely chopped
80g or so* blue cheese (we had Cashel blue in the fridge), grated
salt & pepper

Pre-heat your oven to 200C

Put the parsnips and carrot into a large pan of salted water. Bring to the boil and cook for 3-4 minutes, then drain and leave to steam dry-ish.

While the veg is cooking, lightly toast the hazelnuts in a small frying pan, then when cool enough to handle roughly chip them and set aside.

Fry the bacon/pancetta till mostly cooked; drain off most of the fat (if a lot has been produced) then add the leek and cook for a few more minutes till the leek is softened.

Whisk together the cream, creme fraiche, mustard and milk if you need it, and then add in the herbs and salt and pepper.

To assemble, first put a layer of parsnip and carrot into your gratin dish, drizzle over about a third of the cream mixture and sprinkle with half the hazelnuts. Spread the leeks and bacon over this, then layer on the rest of the parsnips. Pour over the rest of the cream then sprnkle over the rest of the hazelnuts and the grated cheese.

Bake for 30 minutes of so till the parsnips are cooked, the sauce is bubbling and there's a delicious crunchy topping on your gratin.

If I'd had any salad in the fridge, I think it would have been good with it - something like watercress - but as it was we didn't, so we just ate it as it was. Delicious**.

I'm linking up to this month's Herbs on Saturday hosted by London Busy Body this month for Karen at Lavender & Lovage

 I'm also linking up the March Simple and in Season hosted by Louisa at Chez Foti

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* The chunk started off at 80g but Blue is very fond of blue cheese and I didn't keep an eye on how much was being grated and how much was being gobbled...

** I was quite surprised by how much Blue enjoyed this, regardless of the amount of effort he put into making it - those who read this regularly will know that I'm usually gnashing my teeth about how he doesn't like anything 'crunchy' like this gratin topping or the top of a cottage pie, and my efforts to get him to eat less sophisticated things with a cheese sauce - macaroni/cauliflower cheese have met so far with dismal failure. May be his tastes are changing - or may be it was the cream and blue cheese combo. Watch this space.

Bubble & Squeak, Nigella style

Yes, yes, I know I implied that I wasn't going to post for the next few days, but I just can't stop myself. I hope you've all had a lovely time.

The brilliant thing about hosting Christmas Day is that I usually hang up my apron around 2 in the afternoon to rapturous applause (well, perhaps not quite, but some fairly gratifying noises of satisfaction as the table groans under the weight of all that has been laid upon it) and a glass of something, and then I don't have to do more than whip out leftovers in various guises (or soup from the freezer) for about 3 more days. 

This year has been no exception. We had a really great Christmas Day, nothing out of the ordinary food-wise (the usual turkey etc) but it was all utterly delicious, and although I say so myself, I probably managed to make the best gravy I have EVER made, borne out by the fact that there wasn't much left to have on Boxing Day with the Bubble & Squeak.

I'd opened Feast at the appropriate page just to remind myself generally how Nigella does B&S. My Father in Law saw it and remarked that he wouldn't have imagined that people would have a recipe for it, it was just a question of bunging all the left over veg in a frying pan... To an extent (although it pains me to admit it), he is right, but since reading how Nigella does it a few years ago, I have always taken this approach to B&S. It still doesn't fall into the category of 'cooking' in my book, although to be fair, it does involve slightly more than getting everything out of the fridge. But the oven was on anyway to warm up the mince pies, and this really does work better than just bunging it all into a frying pan.

So basically you take all your leftover cooked veg - yesterday there were about 12 chantenay carrots, a good couple of handfuls of sprouts, and about 4 baby leeks - all of which had been steamed, and then from the left over roasties, a good load of celeriac and parsnip and a few potatoes. I had to save some of the roast potatoes to be straight up fried in a pan.

Put all your veg in a food processor with an egg and whizz up to a chunky puree.




 Heat some oil in a large-ish frying pan that you can put in the oven and pre-heat the oven to about 180-200C. Make sure the oil has covered the base of the pan to prevent sticking, then scrape the veg puree in and spread it out. 

Fry for a few minutes, then bung it in the oven for about 20 mins till it has browned on the top.

Remove the pan from the oven (remember that the handle will probably be hot so you will need an oven glove. You don't need to ask why I'm reminding you of that) and invert over a plate so the cake hopefully comes out in a beautiful whole, ready to be sliced and served with the leftover gravy - which may or may not be warmed, according to taste!

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I am linking up to Maison Cupcake's Forever Nigella event, hosted this month by Laura on her blog lauralovescakes . Enjoy!

A meat free Monday, thanks to Hugh - Roast Root Veg Fritatta

While we were enjoying our meatfree Sunday lunch at the weekend, Blue was clearly considering how to phrase a question that was bothering him. Blue is 8 and thinks almost constantly about where his next meal is coming from, interspersed every now and then with some quick Lego building. To be serious for a moment, it gives me huge pleasure to see him enjoying his food, and in particular good food that I have cooked for him. There was a time, when he was in the grip of steroids during treatment for leukaemia that he lived on a very limited diet. True that included such delights a Moroccan lamb meatballs, but more often than not, what he craved was 1. 53% pork cocktail sausages (any higher meat content and he refused them – I even tried to disguise Waitrose organic 98% pork ones in a Co-Op packet. He could tell the difference); 2. Mature Cheddar cheese; 3. Cherry tomatoes – summer or winter – kilos of them and 4. Shreddies. By the packet. And so now, to see him enjoying normal food, normally, is one of my favourite things.

As he was manfully tucking into his Three Root Boulangere, clearly trying hard not to think about where the chops were, I could see that something else was troubling him. “What’s for tea tomorrow?” He asked, trying to be nonchalant about it. “Roasted root frittata”. I said. I think he could sense an certain undertone, because it took him a few seconds to say “And the day after?”. Poor chap. I’m not trying to go vegetarian but actually I am quite liking this reduction in meat. For a start my shopping bill has greatly reduced. I promised him spaghetti bolognaise and African Chicken (a Nigella recipe, from Kitchen) as forthcoming attractions on the tea time bill of fayre, and he seemed to be satisfied.

So the roast root veg frittata. It is delicious, and beautiful to look at. And a doddle to make – a winner on all counts in my book. Shame the kids didn’t like it. I had thought Pink would go for it because she loves omelette, and I was hoping Blue would like the veg and overlook the egg element (he’s not a huge fan) but to be honest Blue’s a bit post-viral and Pink has a stinking cold and neither were taken. They did like the steamed leeks that I did with it though.
However, I will try it again in a few months time (well, let’s be honest, probably next autumn), and it’s always something the Husband and I can enjoy. I wonder if it would be nice upping the beetroot content and adding dill as the herb, with a sour-cream dressing. What do you reckon?