Gingerbread House

Gingerbread is one of things that show off the small differences between otherwise quite similar countries and cultures. While I (being Norwegian) get excited about gingerbread houses around Christmas time, my English friends wonder what all the fuss is about – after all you can buy the stuff in the shops all year round. But there is, at least for me, something special about making gingerbread houses for Christmas; it’s the smell, the fun of the decoration, and not least smashing and eating it in the end.

150ml sugar

100ml golden syrup

150ml whole milk

50g butter

½ tablespoon cinnamon

½ tablespoon ground ginger

½ teaspoon ground cloves

½ teaspoon baking powder

500g flour

1 teaspoon xanthan gum

icing sugar, fruit gums and chocolates for decorating

sugar for assembling the house

The dough should rest in the fridge for 24 hours before being used, but will last for about 4 weeks if wrapped well in cling film.

Warm the sugar, golden syrup, butter and spices over low heat in a pan, until the sugar has dissolved. Stir continually to prevent it from sticking and getting burnt. Remove from the heat, and add the milk gradually while stirring. Leave the mixture to cool.

Mix the baking powder, xanthan gum and four together, and sift these little by little into the mixture. You should be left with quite a firm dough.

Cover the dough in clingfilm and leave in the fridge for about 24 hours. This allows the flavours to develop.

Roll the dough out on a smooth surface lightly dusted with flour. You want to roll it until it’s about 1cm thick. You can now cut out shapes for gingerbread men, or walls and roofs for a house. There are several web sites that offer free patterns for houses, or you could make your own if you are adventurous.

Bake on 200^OC for about 15 minutes, depending on the size of the shapes.

Leave the shapes on a wire rack to cool. Once they are cool you can decorate with icing and sweets. It’s easier to do this before assembling the pieces into a house. For sticking house-parts together, either use icing, or melted sugar. Be aware that melted sugar is extremely hot, so it is very easy to burn yourself – if you go for this option please be careful.

Marzipan

A friend from Norway came to visit a little while ago, and the way he talked about his yearly Christmas marzipan-making inspired me to try it as well. It is quite straight-forward, but there is a little bit of hard work at the end when combining the ingredients into a sticky marzipan. You can use it for all sorts of things, and you can adjust the level to which you grind the almonds according to your own taste. I’m planning to use some of mine to cover my Christmas cake, and I’ve also made some small figures dipped in chocolate. You could give it to a friend as a present, or you could enjoy it all by yourself. The possibilities are endless.

300g almonds

300g icing sugar

1 egg white

15ml brandy

Finely grind the almonds in a food processor or any other type of mincer/grinder.  Place the almonds in a large bowl, and sift the icing sugar into it. Stir well using a large spoon. Add the egg white and brandy, and use your hands to work the mix into a firm and sticky ball. At first it will seem quite dry, but as you work it the oils from the almonds will be released, and it soon resembles marzipan. This is a little bit of hard work, but it is well worth it, just stick with it until you are satisfied with the level of stickiness.

If you’re not using it straight away, wrap it well in clingfilm, as it does tend to dry out quicker than the shop bought stuff (because it doesn’t contain all the preserving chemicals they use). You can melt chocolate and dip small pieces of it in this, or you can roll it out and cover cakes with it. Or you can eat it in its unadulterated form. Enjoy. 

Risotto-filled Squash

I’ve been thinking about making filled squash for a while now, early winter is a good time to do this as there is usually quite a variety on offer this time of year. They are not only packed full of vitamins, but also delicious and filling. A whole squash filled with something exciting is quite a fun food to serve – it works really well when you’ve got friends over for dinner. I made this with one medium sized squash, because that’s what the shops had to offer this week, but you can get smaller ones to use as individual serving dishes.

Serves 2

1 medium size onion squash (or any other round squash)

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 teaspoon herbal salt

4 cloves of garlic

1 large onion

1 teaspoon dried thyme

150g Carnaroli rice

approx. 10g dried porcini mushrooms

100ml boiling water

500ml vegetable stock

a small chunk of parmesan or any other hard cheese

Pre-heat your oven to 170^OC.

Slice the top off the squash, and put this to one side. Dig out the seeds and stringy pulp and discard these. Pour ½ a tablespoon of olive oil into the squash, sprinkle the herbal salt in, and add 2 whole cloves of garlic. These will infuse the flesh of the squash with their lovely flavours.

Place the squash and its top in the middle of the oven, and bake for 30 minutes. If you are using two smaller squash they will need shorter cooking time.

Tear the porcini into small pieces, place in a mug, and add boiling water. Let this rest while you start making the risotto, to soften the mushroom and bring out the flavour. This will give you a beautiful mushroom stock that you will use in the risotto a bit later on.

Warm 1 ½ tablespoons of oil in a large sautéing pan, chop the onion, and add this to the oil when hot. Sweat for a few minutes until the onions are soft and golden. Finely chop 2 cloves of garlic and add to the onion. Also now add the dried thyme.

Check on the squash in the oven to make sure it is getting cooked but not burned.

Add the rice to the onion and stir well. Give it a minute under constant stirring to soak up the flavour that’s already in the pan, before adding a ladle-full of stock. Keep stirring, as risotto will very easily stick to the bottom of the pan. Gradually add more and more stock, but let the rice soak up one portion before adding more. Add the porcini and its stock about half-way through the adding of the vegetable stock.

Keep stirring and adding stock until the rice is cooked. It should be slightly al-dente, but moist and soft at the same time. You’ll know when you’re there.

Take the squash out of the oven if it’s soft and ready cooked. It shouldn’t get so soft that it’s mushy, but should keep its structure even when it’s ready to eat. Remove the whole garlic, and use a spoon to carefully carve out a little bit of flesh from the inside. Add this to the risotto and stir in before spooning the risotto into the squash.  Grate some cheese on top and serve. (If using 1 squash; slice it in two vertically so that you both get both flesh and filling.)

Wagamama in York – Monday 12 December 2011

Wagamama has finally opened in York, their first day of service was today. I had expected there to be a massive queue and that it would be impossible to get a table, but this was not so. It was fairly full, but with a few free tables here and there. Nevertheless, the waiters and chefs seemed to be keeping busy; getting into the routine of the place no doubt.

Walking into the restaurant was very much like stepping into any other Wagamama restaurant, as they do have their own very distinctive style. Light and airy, modernisticly simple, and yet welcoming. It is streamlined for effectiveness, with every person working there having their own particular task, like seating guests, bringing menus, taking orders, or taking payment. I can see it being a bit tedious for the staff members, but from an organisational point of view it must be very efficient and thus profitable. 

The menu had a lot of choice on it, mainly meaty dishes, but also at least one vegetarian choice in each category of food. I’m sure it would be possible to spend quite a lot of money at Wagamama’s, if you choose to have both starters and side courses and drinks, but it is also possible to keep it economical. Most main dishes are below £10, and if you choose to drink green tea, that’s free.

I chose the “yasai katsu curry”, which was a very tasty and lovely dish. There were deep-fried sweet potato, aubergine and butternut squash, with sticky white rice and a curry sauce. For dessert I had the Chocolate fudge cake with dark chocolate wasabi sauce and vanilla pod ice cream. I was initially a bit worried about the wasabi in the chocolate sauce, not being a fan of hot flavours, but it turned out to be lovely. My friend had the ginger cheese cake, which was also very tasty.

There was some unfortunate confusion amongst the waiters, with food being brought to the wrong tables, but I would assume that this was down to inexperience with the menu and service system; it was after all their first night of service. And it was not enough to ruin the experience, as they were all very friendly and very quickly corrected any mistakes. The food, prepared by chefs on display along the wall of the restaurant, arrived promptly, and both looked and tasted delicious.

I had a lovely meal at Wagamama’s, and would love to go back there very soon. 

Winter Soup

There’s nothing like a bowl of warming soup on a cold winter’s day. Not only does it warm you up all the way to your toes, it also fills you up with lots of vitamin goodness. This soup uses cabbage and swede, ingredients that are not only full of vitamins, but also usually quite cheap. The lentils add a bit of useful protein. Make sure that the soup is left to simmer for at least 30 minutes, as the lentils need this time to become ready.

Serves 2

1 large onion

1 tablespoon olive oil

a pinch herbal salt

1 teaspoon Herbes de Provence

1 large carrot

200g swede

150g white cabbage

1 litre vegetable stock

50g curly kale

50g red split lentils

2 tablespoons tomato puree

salt and pepper to taste

bread and cheese to serve

Chop the onion into small pieces and sauté with the olive oil in a large saucepan. Add a pinch of salt and the dried herbs. Chop the carrot, swede and cabbage into small pieces and add to the pan. Stir occasionally.

Make a litre of vegetable stock, and add to the pan. The stock should be made with warm water, so as not to reduce the cooking temperature of the soup. Chop the curly kale into pieces, and add to the soup, and then add the lentils.

Bring to the boil and simmer for 15 minutes. Add the tomato puree, and simmer for another 15 minutes.

Finally add freshly ground salt and pepper to taste.  

If serving with bread and cheese, toast the bread, then add to the soup once you have dished it up into individual heat proof dishes. Grate cheese on top, and place under the grill for a minute until the cheese has melted. 

Apple Jelly Jam with a hint of Cinnamon

I had thought that I was too late for foraging apples this year, but when I was out cycling last week I spotted a tree full of crab apples. Being me, I stepped on my brakes and backtracked to get back to the tree I had just passed. A bit of stretching and fetching later, and I had a backpack full of apples to take home.

There are many methods for making jelly jam, but I find the one I used here to be the easiest one. You can use the same recipe for other fruits as well, or you can use other spices with the apples.

It is best to use fruit that is only just ripe, as their pectin content is higher than in over-ripe fruit.

Makes 5 small jars of jelly

1kg apples

200ml water

¼ cinnamon stick

800g sugar per litre of juice

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Chop the apples into chunks. Check that there are no brown bits, chop these away if there are. There is no need to get rid of the pips, just remove the stalks.


Place the apples in a large saucepan, crunch the cinnamon stick and mix it in with the apples, and add the water. Gently warm the fruit over low heat. The slower you heat the fruit the more liquid is released, and the more jam you get. Leave the apples to gently cook for about an hour. You do not want them to boil, just to be warm.


Drain the apples through a muslin cloth into a bowl. Arrange the cloth so that the apples can hang and drain for a couple of hours. Squeeze the bag a little bit to release more liquid, but not too much, or the jelly will become cloudy.

Measure how much juice you now have. The amount of juice will depend on the ripeness of the apples, and the type of apple used. Pour the juice into a saucepan, and bring to the boil. Add the sugar and ground cinnamon, and boil rapidly for 2 to 20 minutes, until the juice stiffens when you do the spoon test.The cooking time depends on the pectin levels of the fruit. 

Pour the jam into warm sterilised jars. I made 5 jars full of jam, but it’s always useful to prepare more jars than what you think you’ll need, just in case, so that you won’t have to do the whole sterilising process twice. 

Spoon Test

The spoon test is a very useful trick when making jam and marmalades. It shows you how stiff your product is, and whether it needs further boiling.

Take a cool plate and a cold spoon. Use a different spoon to place about half a teaspoon of jam on the plate. With the cold spoon, trace a line through the jam. If the ‘canal’ that you’ve just created fills back in, then the jam needs further cooking. If the ‘canal’ stays open, then the jam is finished. 

Soft Chocolate Brownies

I was looking for something yummy to make the other day, when came across this recipe in Stéphan Lagorce’s  book “Chocolat”. I reversed the amounts of almonds and flour, and the flour I used was gluten free, but apart from that I was fairly true to the original recipe.

As it turned out, these brownies were just as delicious as I had imagined, it was very hard not to eat them all at once.  

200g dark chocolate

3 eggs

120g caster sugar

130g butter

50g ground almonds

1 ½ tablespoons flour

½ teaspoon of ground cinnamon

120g walnuts

Pre-heat the oven to 180^OC, and grease a small baking tin.

Break up the chocolate into small pieces and melt gently over low heat in a saucepan. Make sure you don’t overheat the chocolate.

Break the eggs into a bowl and stir in the sugar. Mix with an electric mixer until fluffy. Fold in the butter using the electric mixer, it helps if this is soft and at room temperature. Add the almonds, flour and cinnamon and stir. Pour in the melted chocolate and stir until the colour is uniform. Finally chop the walnuts and fold them into the dough.

Pour the dough into the greased tin, place in the oven, and bake for about 25 minutes. The cake will be a bit sticky when coming out of the oven, so allow an hour or two before cutting into pieces and serving. 

Persimmon and Feta Salad

A small salad can be just the treat if you’re a bit peckish and fancy a small treat. Or it can be a delicious lunch or dinner if made a bit bigger. I never use exact measurements when making a salad, I don’t think they need it, and measuring everything just makes more work. It also means that every salad is slightly different even if using the same ingredients. This salad is quite fruity, but the saltiness of the cheese balances the flavours.

Serves 1 as a snack

a handful of lettuce leaves

5 thin slices of persimmon fruit

a handful of mango slices

7 cherry tomatoes

some feta cheese

a drizzle of olive oil

a drizzle of passion fruit vinegar

freshly ground black pepper

Tear the lettuce into bite-size pieces, and place in a small bowl or on a plate. Thinly slice the persimmon fruit and place over the lettuce. Chop the mango into small pieces, half the tomatoes, and place both with the lettuce. Crumble the feta cheese over the salad, and drizzle a bit each of the oil and vinegar over it. Finally grind some black pepper over the salad. 

English Christmas Cake

This is a recipe I have used several times now, and it has worked every time. It comes from Delia Smith, and is very simple to make. I have omitted the almonds that she adds to the cake, and I’ve used gluten free flour for the first time this year, which has worked very well.

English Christmas Cakes should be made in good time before Christmas, so that they have plenty of time to be soaked in brandy before being eaten. They should be ‘fed’ once a week for up to three months, I like to do this for about a month and a half to two months, so I was a little bit late making Christmas cake this year. My cake is now resting, waiting to be fed more brandy every week until I decorate it just before it is eaten.

425g currants

250g sultanas

250g raisins

250g glace cherries

75g mixed candid peel

4 tablespoons brandy +extra for soaking

300g plain flour (I used Dove’s Farm Gluten Free Plain White Flour Blend)

1 tablespoon ground mixed spice

½ tablespoon grated nutmeg

300g butter + extra for greasing the tin

300g dark muscovado sugar

5 eggs

1 tablespoon black treacle

zest of 1 orange

zest of 1 lemon

apricot jam
marzipan

icing

You’ll need a 23cm round tin or 20cm square tin.

Combine the fruit and candid peel in a bowl, and add brandy. Stir well, cover, and leave over night.

Place the remaining ingredients in a large bowl, and mix gently in a food processor or with an electric mixer. Add the soaked fruit to this mix and stir well.

Grease the cake tin with butter, and line the bottom and side with a double layer of grease proof paper. Spoon the cake mixture into the tin. Level the surface, and cover with greaseproof paper.

Bake the cake at 140^oC for 4 ¾ to 5 hours, until the cake is firm to the touch, and a skewer inserted into the middle of it comes out clean. Cool the cake in the tin.

When the cake is cool, pierce it in several places, and pour a little brandy into the holes. Remove the cake from the tin, but leave the grease proof paper on. Wrap the cake in more paper, and also wrap it in kitchen foil.

Add more brandy (about a tablespoon or two) each week until Christmas by gently pouring it over the top. Keep the cake in a cool place until eating.

Decorate the cake with a thin layer of marzipan and icing sugar. You can use ready-made icing to get a smooth surface. The easiest way to make the marzipan stick to the cake is by gently warming some apricot jam and brushing this onto the cake. The icing will stick to the marzipan quite well. 

A good trick for rolling marzipan and icing is to roll them on a silicone rolling mat or any other sturdy soft plastic surface. You can then lift the whole thing onto the cake and peel off the plastic once the marzipan/icing is in place. It makes it easier to transfer thin layers of icing withouth breaking it, and you get a very smooth surface. 


You can use coloured icing, or ribbons, or dried fruit, or anything else that you can think of, to decorate the cake. I've split mine into three this year, and used two of the parts as presents. This also meant I got to decorate three cakes, which was fun. 

Broccoli and Red Pepper Pâté

This pâté is brilliantly easy to make, and also rather delicious. I found the recipe in a magazine I read many many years ago, and it’s been on my list of things to make ever since. I finally got round to making it this weekend, and really enjoyed it, served with steamed vegetables and a sour cream dip.

Serves 4

300g broccoli

4 small red peppers (about 300 to 350g)

4 medium sized eggs

100ml sour cream

2 tablespoons fresh thyme

1 tablespoon fresh chives

freshly ground salt and pepper

Pre-heat your oven to 175^OC. Place

Divide the broccoli into small florets and stream until soft.

Place the peppers under a hot grill until they are black, and skin them.

Grease 6 portion size ramekins.

Place the broccoli, 2 eggs, 50ml sour cream, 1 tablespoon fresh thyme and ½ tablespoon chives and a pinch each of salt and pepper in a food processor. Whizz until you have a smooth mixture, and pour into the ramekins.  

Place the peppers, 2 eggs, 50ml sour cream, 1 tablespoon fresh thyme and ½ tablespoon chives and a pinch each of salt and pepper in a food processor. Whizz until you have a smooth mixture, and pour into the ramekins, on top of the broccoli mixture.

Place the ramekins in a bain-marie and bake in the oven for about 40 minutes, until firm. 

Crème Fraîche and Chilli Dip

I based this recipe on one that I found in a magazine many years ago, but which I never got round to making until now. It’s refreshing and hot at the same time, and works very well both with crisps and food.

150ml crème fraîche

50ml sour cream

½ tablespoon French mustard

½ tablespoon chives

1 tablespoon fresh thyme

zest of 1 lime

¼ red chilli

¼ agave nectar

freshly ground salt and pepper to taste

Add the crème fraîche, sour cream and mustard to a small bowl. Finely chop the chives and thyme and add to the bowl. Use a microplane or fine grater to grate the lime into the bowl. Finely chop the chilli, removing any seeds, and add to the bowl. Add the agave nectar, and finely add salt and pepper to taste.

Stir well, and leave to stand for at least 30 minutes to let the flavours develop.   

Bean and Chilli Pâté

A bit of chilli can kick-start your morning, and beans are full of energy to keep you going until lunch time. I like this pâté on some crisp bread as breakfast, but it works very well as a dip with crisps or crackers as well. If you can’t get hold of Red Hot Dutch Cheese, you can use any other chilli cheese, or you can use a gouda or cheddar cheese and add some chilli flakes. 

1 egg

30g leek

100g cherry tomatoes

1 tablespoon olive oil

175g black eye beans (1 x 300g tin - dreained)

4 sundried tomatoes

40g Red Hot Dutch Cheese (or any other chilli cheese)

1 tablespoon fresh parsley

Boil the egg for about 7 minutes until hard boiled. Rinse in cool water to make it easier to take the shell off. Remove shell, and place in a food processor.

Finely chop the leek and slice the tomatoes in half, and sauté in the oil until soft. Place in the food processor along with the egg.

Add the drained beans, sun dried tomatoes, cheese and parsley to the food processor and whizz until you have a smooth-ish mixture. Leave a few lumps to make the pâté more interesting. Serve with a few sprigs of parsley. 

Sweetcorn Fritters

I was going to make pancakes, but then I realised that I really fancied something savoury instead. Having already laid out the ingredients for pancakes, and feeling very lazy, I decided to just modify my selection rather than think of something completely different. I found some tinned sweetcorn, and so savoury fritters it was.

I had these for my dinner, with steamed vegetables and a sweet thai chilli dipping sauce. But I think they would also work very well as part of a Full English Breakfast; with scrambled eggs, baked beans and fried mushrooms. Yum.

Makes 12 fritters

100g soya flour

1/8 teaspoon xanthan gum

¼ teaspoon baking powder

⅛ teaspoon turmeric

1 ½ teaspoon oregano

100g tinned sweetcorn

40g leeks

30g red romano pepper

50ml double cream

150ml whole milk

2 teaspoons garlic infused olive oil

2 eggs

1 mild chilli

a pinch of salt

oil for frying

Mix the flour, xanthan gum, baking powder and turmeric, and sift these into a large bowl. Add the oregano and stir. Add the sweetcorn, finely slice the leek and pepper, and add these to the mixture as well. Mix the cream, milk, oil and eggs in a separate jug, and pour them into the mixture. Finely chop the chilli and add to the mixture, and finally add a pinch of salt.

The mixture should now be a gooey batter. Add oil to your frying pan and warm it up. Use a tablespoon to add little dollops of batter and fry them on medium to low heat. As when you make small pancakes, turn them over after a few minutes, to fry the other side once they look like the bottom side is done. Do a few at a time, as many as your frying pan will allow. 

Saffron and Courgette Cupcakes

I’ve had a small container of saffron hanging about in my kitchen for quite a while, and I’ve never really known what to do with it. So I was excited to find this recipe which sounded lovely. It is taken from Phil Vickery’s book ‘Gluten-Free Baking’. I’ve stuck to the recipe almost all the way, which is quite unusual for me, but it looked so tasty I thought I’d give it a go. And I’m glad I did, as it is very nice indeed.

Makes 12 cupcakes

1 pinch saffron threads

2 tablespoons boiling water

2 medium sized eggs

180g caster sugar

200g flour (I used Doves Farm Gluten Free White Bread Mix)

2 teaspoons baking powder

½ teaspoon xanthan gum

1 teaspoon honey

250g courgette

icing sugar and water to decorate

Pre-heat the oven to 180^OC.

Place the saffron threads in a small cup and add the boiling water. Cover and leave it to cool.

Whisk the eggs and sugar in a food mixer until they are thick and creamy. This will take about 5 minutes. Add the saffron water when the mixture is has thickened. Then add the honey and mix well.

Sieve the flour, baking powder and xanthan gum together in a separate bowl. Slowly add the flour mix to the egg mix, taking care not to over-whisk, as the dough will get rubbery.  Grate the courgette and add to the mix, fold well until you have a smooth and quite soft mix.

Spoon the mixture into paper muffin cases that are placed in a muffin tray, and bake for 15 to 20 minutes until the cupcakes have risen and are golden. When you insert a skewer this should come out clean.

Leave the cupcakes to cool on a wire rack before glazing them with the icing.

To make the icing; sieve the icing sugar into a small bowl, and add a few drops water until you have a smooth but not too runny paste. Use a butter knife to place a dollop of icing on each cupcake. 

Asia Gourmet in York – Sunday 30 October 2011

Fancying some Asian food, and having just had Asia Gourmet recommended by some friends, my friend and I headed to Gillygate to find out if it was as good as we had been told. It didn’t look promising from the outside; plastic food in the window, and photos on the menu is usually not a good sign, but because the place had been recommended to us we still went in. The interior did not do anything to instil any more confidence, the entrance was a bit like a storage room, and the restaurant area was painted bright orange and furnished with uncomfortable looking sparse tables and chairs. The acoustics exaggerated any noise – all in all not such a good first impression.

 The extensive menu comprised both Japanese, Korean and other East Asian cuisine, and as we scrutinised it we found that it had lots of vegetarian and gluten free choices. The price was reasonable, and with a huge selection of differently sized dishes there should be something for everyone. I decided on some sushi with avocado, tempura vegetables, and stir fry noodles with vegetables.

The friendly waitress took our orders, and brought us our food in no time at all. I was very pleasantly surprised to find that it both smelled and looked delicious. And it didn’t stop there, it tasted great as well. The tempura was perhaps a little bit bland, but overall the food was lovely. 

My friend and I enjoyed our meal at Asian Gourmet, and we are very likely to go back to try something else. Unlike the decor, the food was good, and well worth a try. 

Cake time at Kafeneion in York - Sunday 30 October 2011

This was not my first visit to Kafeneion in York. I'd been there once before, and quite liked it, so when my friend suggested it for our Sunday mid-morning treat, I was more than happy to go along. The café looks quite small from the outside, but opens up when you look past the counter. If you can actually tear yourself away from the counter long enough to look for a place to sit, that is. There are delicious-looking cakes that make your mouth water, and a good selection of both warm and cold drinks. Once you have made up your mind you can choose if you want to sit in the small section by the street window, or in the more secluded section in the back, where there are comfortable sofas as well as tables and chairs. One of my friends commented that the place has a spa-like feel to it, with calming pictures on the wall, and some green plants in a large open and airy space. I’m not completely sure about the spa-thing, but it is definitely a calming and cosy space.

I settled down onto the sofa, and soon my cake and hot chocolate were brought over by a lovely waiter. That is another thing I like about Kafeneion; the staff are lovely and friendly and not at all afraid to go out of their way to make your stay even better. The floor and tables are cleaned regularly, adding to the comfort of the guests.

This particular day I had chosen the rocky road cake, which was moist and rich and chocolaty. My friend opted for the oreo cake, which of course I had to test – and it was deliciously smooth and creamy, and also chocolaty. I could very happily have both of them again. There were also cakes suitable for coeliacs on offer.

Sadly I eventually had to leave the café, not because I was in any way rushed, but because I had things to do before the shops closed. But I had enjoyed my break, and so had my friends.

Lemon Halloween Biscuits

Normally I don’t really like Halloween, probably because I didn’t grow up with it, but I have come to realise that it is a good excuse for baking something nice. And if you have ‘trick or treaters’ coming to your door, it is a good and cheap way to keep them happy. I made these for a party at a friend’s house, and they proved to be very popular. The recipe is based on one found in Phil Vickery’s ‘Gluten-Free Baking’.

Makes about 50 small biscuits

220g flour (I used Doves Farm gluten free white bread flour)

¼ teaspoon baking powder

a pinch of salt

75g granulated sugar

80g butter

1 medium sized egg

zest of 1 lemon

50ml water

icing sugar and lemon juice for decoration

Sieve the flour, baking powder, salt and sugar together into a bowl, and then place it with the butter in a food processor and blitz until it has the consistency of fine breadcrumbs. Pour the mixture back into your bowl, and add the egg, lemon zest and water. Carefully mix together, first with a spoon and then using your hands. Wrap the dough in clingfilm and place in the fridge for about 30 minutes to cool down.

Preheat your oven to 190^OC.

Lightly dust your work surface with flour, then use a rolling pin to make a flat dough. Use cookie cutters to make shapes from the dough. Place these on a non-stick baking tray, and bake in the oven for 15 to 20 minutes until the biscuits are lightly browned. Remove them from the oven and place on a wire rack to cool.

Sieve some icing sugar into a bowl, and add a little bit of lemon juice. The amount of icing you need depends on how much icing you want on your biscuits. You can make several batches if you find that you didn’t make enough first time around. Be careful when adding the lemon juice, it very quickly becomes too runny. You can also add food colouring if wanted.

Pour the icing into a piping bag and decorate your biscuits. If you don’t have a fancy ready-made piping bag, you can do what I did, use a sandwich bag and cut a tiny hole in one corner. 

Chocolate Halloween Cupcakes

The recipe for these cupcakes comes from Phil Vickery’s cookbook ‘Gluten-Free Baking’. He makes one large cake with this dough, but I fancied making cupcakes for a Halloween party, and decided it would probably work. And it did. The cupcakes were deliciously moist and rich, and I could quite happily have eaten them all.

Makes 12 cupcakes

225g flour (I used Doves Farm gluten free white bread flour)

1 teaspoon xanthan gum

1 teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

50g cocoa powder

100g butter

250g dark muscovado sugar

3 medium sized eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 teaspoon heather honey

200ml full fat milk

Pre-heat the oven to 180^OC.

Sieve the flour, xanthan gum, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, and cocoa powder together.

Use a food processor to cream the butter and sugar until it is light and fluffy. This may take some time, so don’t give up just because it doesn’t do anything straight away. Gradually beat in one egg at a time, and then add the vanilla and honey.

Reduce the speed on the food processor, and then gradually add the flour mix and milk alternately.

Spoon the mixture into cupcake cases that are placed in muffin trays. Bake in the oven for 15 to 20 minutes until they are raised and a skewer comes out clean. 

Orange Salad

Visiting my parents is always great, as I not only do I get my all-time favourite foods, but I also get ideas for new things I can try out at home.  This orange dessert was served after dinner tonight, when I thought my tummy was full to bursting point. However, it turned out that there was room in it after all, and I felt better for having finished the meal with some fruit. And I'm sure it counts towards your five a day too.

Serves 4

3 oranges
a handful of chopped almonds
250ml water
125g sugar
2 star anise

Make a sugar syrup by bringing water, sugar and star anise to the boil. After boiling it until the sugar is dissolved, remove the star anisefrom the syrup. Leave it to cool down completely.

Peel the oranges, making sure to remove the pith. Finely slice the oranges so that a piece of each segment is in each slice.
Put the oranges in a serving bowl and pour the sugar syrup over.
Finally drizzle the chopped almonds on top.

This very simple but delicious dessert can be served with whipped cream.

Bean and Cream Cheese Pâté

This is such an easy thing to make, and takes no time at all. It goes well with bread and crackers, and can be a perfect addition to an English breakfast.

1 garlic clove

180g borlotti beans (1 x 300g tin)

60g cream cheese

1 tablespoon fresh parsley

a pinch each of sea salt, freshly ground black pepper and cayenne pepper

Place all ingredients in a food processor and whizz until you have a smooth paste. Place in an airtight container and store in the fridge if you are not eating it right away. 

Courgette and Wensleydale Cheese with Cranberries Cupcakes

I was inspired to make these after reading Kate Shirazi’s ‘cupcake magic’. It was a cold, rainy and windy day, so my plans to go outside were quickly put away. I was at a bit of a loss for what to do, since I hadn’t really planned for staying at home in gloomy weather. After pottering about for a while, feeling bored, I randomly picked up Kate Shirazi’s cookbook, and decided some cupcakes might make me feel better. So I turned up the music, and headed for the kitchen.

Makes 12 large or 18 smaller cupcakes

200g flour (I used Dove’s Farm Plain White flour blend)

1 teaspoon xantham gum

3 teaspoons baking powder

2 tablespoons granulated sugar

¼ teaspoon herbal salt (or ordinary sea salt)

150g courgette

150g wensleydale cheese with cranberries (or any other semi-firm cheese with fruit)

60ml whole milk

2 large eggs

110g butter

Pre-heat your oven to 200^OC.

In a large bowl, sift together the flour, xantham gum, baking powder, sugar and salt.

In another bowl, grate your courgette, and add the cheese. The cheese should first be chopped into small cubes. Add the milk and eggs, and stir. Melt the butter and add to the mixture. Give the whole mixture a little whisk, and pour it into the dry ingredients. With a spoon, carefully fold the mixture together into a firm batter. You don’t want to stir the flour too much, as gluten free flour tends to go a bit rubbery if worked too hard.

Place cupcake cases into a 12-hole muffin tin and use two spoons to spoon the batter into the cases. Depending on how large cupcakes you would like, you’ll get 12 or maybe even 18 cupcakes from this mix. Place the tin in the middle of the oven and bake for 20 to 25 minutes until the cupcakes are firm to the touch and golden brown. 

Galia Melon Curry with Beans and Cheese

This dish met with mixed reviews when I served it the other day. I rather liked it, but my friend was not quite convinced. It was inspired by a recipe I found in ‘the modern vegetarian’ by Maria Elia. Unfortunately I didn’t have the majority of the ingredients she suggested, so I made my own variation instead. While being a bit spicy, it is at the same time made milder by the fruitiness of the melon. The curry was very quick and easy to make, and was a bit different from most other curries that I've made before.

Serves 2

1 medium shallot

1 tablespoon olive oil

2 garlic cloves

½ red chilli, deseeded

50g asparagus

50g sugar snap peas

1 teaspoon ground turmeric

2 teaspoons ground coriander

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1 teaspoon ground ginger

a pinch of cayenne pepper

1 x 400g tin of chopped tomatoes

500g galia melon

150g broadbeans

125g mozzarella cheese

freshly ground salt and pepper to taste

Serve with 150g long grain rice, cooked according to the instructions on the packet

Warm the olive oil in a wide pan, and finely chop the shallot. Add the shallot to the oil and sweat it until it is soft and golden. Finely chop the garlic and add to the shallot. Deseed and finally chop the chilli, or keep the seeds if you fancy something a bit hotter. Add it to the onions, and then slice the asparagus plus sugar snap peas into 1.5cm long bits. Add them to the pan. Measure out the spices and add to the pan. Stir well and leave on medium heat for a couple of minutes. Add the tomatoes and leave to simmer for about 10 minutes until the vegetables are cooked.

Whizz half of the melon in an electric mixer until smooth, and add to the pan. Chop the other half of the melon into 1.5cm cubes and also add to the pan. Add the broad beans and leave until all ingredients are warmed through.

Finally tear or chop the mozzarella into chunks and add to the curry. You want to do this immediately before serving, so that it doesn’t melt too much. 

Foraging for Berries and Fruit

Autumn is the perfect time for foraging, as there are so many varieties ripe at the same time. Depending on where you live, there may be something on offer just round the corner. However, some times you need to go a bit further afield to hunt for your treasure.

Maybe you find something on your weekly walk, or maybe you plan a trip out especially for foraging, but either way you’ll need a container of sorts, to carry the spoils of the hunt back home. I, personally, prefer plastic bags. Either small ones, or sturdy carrier bags. They’re easy to carry, so even if you don’t find anything , you won’t have carried lots of containers for nothing. But if you are hunting squidgy berries you may be better off with a plastic box.

I went out in search of damsons the other day, and was very lucky to find a few. The best time for them is mid-September, so I was a little late and there wasn’t much on offer, but I found just enough to make a glass of jam. Berries are usually ripe a little earlier in the UK, around the start of September.

As always when picking wild food, be careful to only pick things you know are edible. Also, keep to land that you can legally access. I don’t want to be patronising or too preaching, but please leave nature as you found it. Don’t strip a bush or tree completely, there are small creatures that depend on the food you are picking. And don’t destroy living plants just to get to that apple just over there. Please. 

Butternut Squash Tagine with Buttered Chilli Amaranth

This dish is based on a recipe taken from ‘the modern vegetarian’ by Maria Elia. As usual I didn’t manage to stay within the confines of someone else’s directions, but it still seemed to work. I used amaranth instead of couscous, to make it gluten free. The texture is a bit different, but the taste is just as good, I think. 

Just like me, you can experiment with different vegetables that take your fancy, or you can follow my guidelines – it’s up to you. I added some greens because I felt I could do with the extra vitamins that day, and also I had some of them hanging about in the fridge, and they could do with using up. You can use any type of honey, but heather honey gives a rich indulgent taste.

Serves 2

300g butternut squash

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 large onion

2 garlic cloves

a pinch of sea salt

a pinch of saffron strands

2 teaspoons ground cumin

1 teaspoon ground ginger

2 teaspoons paprika

1 teaspoon ground coriander

1 tin of tomatoes (400g)

1 green chilli

½ cinnamon stick

2 teaspoons heather honey

250ml water

80g sugar-snap peas

70g green beans

a pinch of freshly ground black pepper

100g amaranth

1 tablespoon butter

2 tablespoons fresh chopped coriander

1 teaspoon chopped red chilli

zest of 1 lemon

2 tablespoons chopped almonds

chopped fresh coriander for garnish

Peel the butternut squash using a potato peeler. You do not want to use the seeds, so make sure your 300g are flesh only. Chop it into 1.5 cm cubes, and put to one side. Finely chop the onion and garlic.

Warm the olive oil in a pan, and add the onion and garlic. Sweat these until the onion is soft, making sure not to burn the garlic. Add all the spices and cook for 2 – 3 minutes to let the tastes mix with the onion. Add the tinned tomatoes. If they were whole, chop them before adding to the pan.

Finely chop the chilli. I took the seeds out, but leave them in if you like it hot. Add the chilli to the pan, and also add the cinnamon stick and honey. Add the squash and water, and simmer for 20 minutes.

Chop the sugar-snap peas and green beans, and taste to with black pepper. Simmer for a further 10 minutes until the greens are soft but not overcooked.

To make the Buttered Chilli Amaranth, bring some water to the boil (at the same time as you start preparing the tagine above), and place the amaranth in the boiling water. Cook for 25 to 30 minutes and drain well. Add the butter, coriander and chilli and stir well. Grate the zest of a lemon into the amaranth, taking care not to grate any of the white pith as this is very bitter.

Serve tagine and amaranth and scatter some chopped almonds and fresh coriander over.