A Rather Interesting Tomato Salad

When I'm on holiday I love to go to the supermarket and buy a random selection of tomatoes, the uglier the better! I learnt this tip from a family friend when we were on holiday in Spain as children. The ugly ones really did taste the best! When the ingredients are great you don't need to do much with them, the simpler the better really. 

Now it's a bit early in the season for really good tomatoes, but I had been given some Red Wine Vinegar with Cassis and had some tomatoes that were pretty tasty so I left them out in the sun to warm up (I always think they're better that way) and decided to make a tomato salad. I'd heard that blackcurrants went well with mint and tomatoes. I couldn't get any of the actual fruits but the vinegar certainly made me want to try that combo! Very refreshing and summery. Perfect for a sunny bank holiday weekend. 

Recipe

1/2 tbsp olive or rapeseed oil 

1/2 tbsp Red Wine Vinegar au Cassis Dijon

A spring of mint

100g tomatoes (preferable a mixture of varieties) 

Seasoning

1. Start with the dressing. Mix together the oil, vinegar and mint. If the leaves are small enough you can leave them whole. Mix well. 

2. Slice the tomatoes into chunks and add to the dressing

3. Season to taste and toss the tomatoes in the dressing. 

Enjoy! 

 

Jubilee Afternoon Tea

After being out of the country for the royal wedding last year I decided to throw myself into the Jubilee celebrations with abandon. So liberal amounts of red, white and blue later a Jubilee afternoon tea was ready for my friends.

For the savoury elements I decided to keep it relatively simple. My take on coronation chicken, revamped into a fresh salad, which would have jewelled with pomegranate seeds (had I not left them in the kitchen) plus salmon, cream cheese and pickled cucumber sandwiches, cheese and chutney sandwiches, chicken and lemon mayonnaise sandwiches and ham sandwiches This was all washed down with some bubbly with a non alcoholic version for my pregnant friend and the drivers.







For the sweet elements I had such a long list to chose from, but I manage to narrow it down by prioritising the ones which were most in keeping with the red, white and blue theme (plus the lime cupcakes as you can see from previous posts I love lemon drizzle cake and I'd been meaning to try experimenting with a lime version for ages)
- raspberry cupcakes
- lime drizzle cupcakes
- blueberry and lemon cupcakes
- mini Victoria sponge
- individual eton mess












Recipes

Jewelled Coronation Chicken Salad

Serves 4-6 (easily doubled or trebled)

1 roast chicken, cold
Mixed leaves
1/2 a cucumber
Pomegranate
300ml natural yoghurt
2 tablespoons of korma curry paste
1 teaspoon of honey
2-3 springs of mint, chopped
Seasoning
A squeeze of lemon juice

Start by making the dressing. Mix the curry paste, honey, mint, lemon juice and seasoning into a thick dressing.

Scatter the lettuce leaves all over a platter and then add cubes of cucumber and chunks of roast chicken.

When you are ready to serve drizzle liberally with the dressing and scatter with pomegranate seed. Serve the rest of the dressing alongside.

Smokes salmon, cream cheese and pickled cucumber sandwiches

Smoked salmon (I used Waitrose essentials trimmings as it doesn't need to be in large pieces for this)
Cream cheese
Cucumber
White wine vinegar
Sugar
Seasoning
Sliced bread

At least and hour before use a potato peeling the slice the cucumber into ribbons. Put them into a bowl and toss in a generous glug of white wine vinegar, a large pinch of sugar and seasoning.

Spread the bread with a thin layer of cream cheese. Add the smoked salad and a few ribbons of cucumber. Top with another slice of bread and cut into triangles of fingers, with or without crusts as desired.

Cheese and chutney sandwiches

Grated mature cheddar cheese
Your favourite chutney
Sliced bread
Butter

Thinly butter the bread and add a generous helping of grated cheese. Spread the other side of the bread with the chutney and add to the top of the sandwich.

Cut into triangles of fingers, with or without crusts as desired.

Chicken and lemon mayo sandwiches

Roast chicken, chopped
Mayonnaise
Lemon juice
Dijon mustard
Seasoning
Lettuce
Sliced bread

Out the chicken into a bowl and add the mayonnaise. I would normally make this using Jamie Oliver's recipe but my friend is pregnant and therefore can't eat raw eggs so I tarted up bought mayonnaise with a teaspoon of Dijon mustard, a squeeze of lemon juice and seasoning.

Sandwich the chicken mixture, with a few lettuce leaves, between two slices of bread.

Cut into triangles of fingers, with or without crusts as desired.

Red, White and Blue Cupcakes
Makes 12

For the cakes:
4oz self raising flour
4oz margarine
4oz sugar
2 eggs
1/2 tsp baking powder

For the flavourings and icings:
Zest and juice of 1/2 lime
2 tablespoons of granulated sugar
Zest of 1/4 lemon and about a tablespoon of juice
About 10 raspberries
Freeze dried raspberry powder
12 Blueberries
8oz butter
8-10oz icing sugar
A tablespoon of milk

Preheat the oven to 180C (160C in a fan oven). I started by making all of the cake plain for ease. Beat together all of the ingredients for the cake and share the mixture between 12 muffin cases.

In 4 sprinkle the lemon zest and another 4 with lime zest and give them a gentle stir with the end of a teaspoon so the zest doesn't sit on the top. Leave the other 4 plain.

Bake in the preheated oven for 15-20 mins.

While they are cooking mix a tablespoon of granulated sugar with the lime juice. As soon as the cakes come out take the 4 lime ones and make very small holes in them with a skewer and drizzle over the lime juice mixture.

Whilst the cakes are cooling make the icing. I always beat the butter for 5 mins or more until it is very pale and then gradually add the icing sugar and finish with the milk. This makes the icing very light and fluffy and also makes it much paler which is good when you're aiming for white!

In a small saucepan take the raspberries and the other tablespoon of sugar and heat up until it has thickened slightly. To get smooth icing sieve the raspberry mixture to remove the pips. Put to one side to cool.

Split the icing into two bowls. In the one add the lemon juice. In the other add the raspberry juice.

Pipe the icing onto the cakes. I used a round nozzle for the lemon icing and a Wilton 2D for the raspberry. I topped the lemon ones with blueberries and the raspberry ones with a sprinkle of raspberry powder.

I also had a few little union jack flags which I popped in the top.

Mini Victoria sponges
Makes 2

Using the same recipe as for the cakes above split the mixture between two 4 inch cake pans.

Once cool split each cake and sandwich with whipped cream and strawberries.

Eton Mess

Greek yoghurt
Whipped cream
Vanilla extract
Icing sugar
Strawberries
Raspberries
Meringues

Mix roughly equal amounts of cream and yoghurt with a little vanilla extract and icing sugar. Layer up in glasses with the fruit and meringues.

Second Christmas

As mentioned in my homemade secret santa post I mentioned that every year between Christmas and New Year we get together with the extended family to celebrate Christmas. It's always noisy, chaotic and full of food and drink, just as Christmas should be!

This year we were responsible for the vegetarian main and a dessert for the cooked lunch and a salad and baked treats for the buffet supper.

For the main I decided to make Homity Pie, this is is, a totally classic, Cranks recipe, from the Cranks Recipe Book. For anyone who doesn't know Cranks they have been championing wholesome vegetarian food for years, I believe they started in the 60s in Carnaby Street, but I could be wrong. Also as far as I know they were sold some years ago and now are far more commerical and therefore just not the same, but the good old recipes are still amazing. Homity Pie is basically a wholemeal pastry case with a potato, onion and cheese middle. It is very filling and warming so perfect for a winters day or a subsitute for a roast dinner for someone who doesn't eat meat. I was feeding the five thousand so made 3.5 times the amount in the recipe below. I also made a mini pie for my cousin's little one who is coeliac and therefore can't eat gluten. This was exactly the same but I subsituted the pastry for a gluten free version made with 1oz of Doves Farm Gluten Free flour and 1/2 oz of butter and a dash of water. This pastry is far more crumbly than normal pastry so you may well need to piece it together and fill in any cracks.

One of the large homity pies




The mini gluten free homity pie



For the dessert my mum made creme caramel's. She is the queen of this simple, but difficult to perfect, recipe and her creme caramels always turn out perfectly. Plus when my cousin's little boy was about two and quite a fussy eater he wolfed one down in about 3 seconds flat and looked up for more, so we thought we had no choice but to make them again for him!

Lots of creme caramels in a useful cardboard box


And one turned out



For the salad I made a barley middle eastern salad which is adapted from a recipe on www.simplyrecipes.com. The barley is studded with jewels of preserved lemons, pistacios, pomegranates and dried apricots. I absolutely love preserved lemons and the pomegrante seeds give this a lovely burst of flavour. Barley is such a low cost filling and healthy grain which is fab chucked into soups and stews to turn them into a meal in themselves. I also think it feels very comforting, which is great at this time of year.

The finished salad in a less than beautiful 'serving bowl'




My sister made a variety of cakes and cookies for the supper. She made the cupcakes in this post plus some chocolate ones with chocolate icing which are basically made with just the chocolate sponge in this recipe plus the same icing but with the addition of some salted caramel sauce on the side for people to drizzle over. These were both piped with a Wilton 2D nozzle and the vanilla ones topped with a little glitter. She also made the same cupcakes with Dove's Farm Gluten Free Self Raising flour for my cousin child.

The lemon loaves are these, but in mini paper loaf cases which I found in a little gift shop.

Finally she made some cookies, which were based on the same recipe as these but as well as chunks of white chocolate she added chunks of biscuit, fudge and mini marshmallows to turn them into rocky road cookies and then made some vanilla ones with chocolate chunks. Which are the same recipe but with the cocoa subsitutued with extra flour.

Here are the cupcakes and cookies displayed on the 'up-cycled' cake stand my cousin made for my secret santa.




And these are the mini lemon drizzle loaves





This was the whole spread for lunch


A slice of Jamie Oliver's Christmas Chocolate Bomb. Which I think was made using this recipe




The spread for dinner



Some bread made by my cousin-in-law



The cheese plate of mainly local cheeses



Recipes

Homity Pie

8oz wholemeal flour
4oz butter or margarine
Water
3/4 lb Potatoes
1lb Onions
1 tbsp olive oil
A good bunch of parsley, chopped
4oz grated cheese
2 crushed garlic cloves
Salt and pepper to taste

Makes six 4'' pies or one 8'' tart

Rub the butter into the flour until it resembles bread crumbs. Add enough water to bring it together. Handle it with a gentle touch and don't work too much. Allow to rest for 30 mins.

While the pastry is resting. Chop the potatoes into small cubes and boil until tender. Chop the onion into similar sized pieces and saute with the garlic in the oil until very soft. Add the potatoes, half of the cheese, parsley and salt and pepper and stir gently to avoid the potatoes breaking up too much.

Roll out the pastry and line the cases. The recipe doesn't say to blind bake the pastry but I normally do. Fill the case with the filling and spinkle with the remaining cheese and bake in a pre-heated oven for 220C (425F/Gas Mark 7) for 20-30 mins until golden.

Slightly adapted from The Cranks Recipe Book

Moroccan Chickpea Barley Salad

1 1/2 cups barley
1 1/2 cups of chicken or vegetable stock
1 1/2 cups of water
1 tsp salt
Oilve oil
1 tin of chick peas
1 cup shelled pistacio nuts
1 cup diced dried apricots
1-2 preserved lemons with the flesh removed and the skin diced
Seeds from 1 pomegranate
1 onion
A bunch each of parsley and mint, chopped
Zest and juice of a lemon
1 tbsp ras el hanout mix (below)
Salt to taste

Ras el hanout mix
1 tsp black pepper
1 tsp cardamon seeds
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon grated nutmeg
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp turmeric

Saute the barley in a little oil for 3-4 minutes, add the stock, water and a tsp of salt. Simmer until the barley is tender, anywhere from 30 mins to one hour, depending on the age of the barley.

Strain the barley and rinse with cold water to cool it quickly. Drain as much water out as you can and the lay out the barley on a tray. Drizzle with oil and mix to coat.

In a large mixing bowl add the remaining ingredients. Add the barley and mix well.

Adapted from a recipe on www.simplyrecipes.com

Creme caramel

Grease 8 ramekin dishes. Put 4oz granulated sugar and 4oz of water in a small saucepan. Heat without stirring until it forms a syrup which is deep brown and whirls of smoke have started to rise. Quickly and carefully pour the syrup into the ramekin dishes, swirling each around to coat the bottom. Put 1 pint of gold top milk into a pan with a knob of butter and a tablespoon of sugar, When heated to lukewarm pour it over 3 beaten eggs and whisk. Place the ramekin dishes in a roasting tin, strain the custard into each and then fill the roasting tin with water until it is about 3/4 of the way up the sides of the dishes. Place into an oven preheated to 130C and bake until set, approximately 1 hour and 15 mins. Cool and refridgerate over night. By the next day the caramel will have returned to a runny liquid. To server run a knife around each ramekin dish and turn out onto a plate allowing the caramel to pool around the custard. Put some pouring cream on the table for people so people can add some if they wish.

From a very old newspaper cutting