Feta, Spinach & Sun-dried Tomato Tart

This tart is inspired by a recipe I found online a long time ago. However, I've tweaked and changed it so much that I feel I can now safely claim this recipe as my own. The combination of feta cheese with sun-dried tomatoes and spinach just works so well inside this thin and crispy pastry. It's lovely eaten warm after setting slightly from the oven, or cold as a snack in the days that follow.

Ingredients

For the Pastry:

• 250g plain flour
• Pinch of salt
• 110g butter

For the Filling:

• 4 eggs
• 200g feta 
• 1 1/2 tsp dried oregano
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg
• Olive oil
• 2 spring onions
• 1 clove of garlic
• 160g spinach
• 5 jarred sun-dried tomatoes
• Pinch of salt and pepper

Method

1. Start with the pastry. Preheat the oven to 170°C. Sieve your flour into a mixing bowl, then cut your cold butter into cubes and add to the bowl. I've always been told that the secret to perfect pastry is cold hands, and I've got to say I really think it is. Therefore, at this stage, I usually run my fingers under the cold water tap when they start to warm up then dry them to continue. Rub the butter and flour between your fingers until it starts to resemble breadcrumbs. 
2. Fill a mug with cold water and a couple of ice cubes. Tablespoon by tablespoon, add the ice-cold water to the mixture, mixing with a cold knife in between spoonfuls to bring the dough together (keep the knife in the water so it stays cold). Once the mixture starts to come together like a dough, get in there with your (cold) hands and knead it very gently and briefly into a ball. The bowl should be clean of flour. Wrap your dough in cling film and put in the fridge while you prepare the filling. 
3. Crack the eggs into a mixing bowl and whisk thoroughly, then crumble in the feta. Add the oregano and nutmeg and stir to combine everything together. Put to one side. 
4. Chop the spring onions and crush and finely chop the garlic clove. Heat 1-2 tbsp of olive oil in a frying pan then add the spring onions and garlic. Fry for a few minutes until golden then add the spinach to the pan in handfuls until it's all wilted. Finally, chop the sun-dried tomatoes into small pieces and mix through the pan until everything is combined. Once cooled, add to the egg and feta mixture. 
5. Time to roll out the pastry. Roll out until roughly half a centimetre thin. Grease your tart tin then line with your pastry, push into the corners and then trim the excess bits of pastry from the top. Line your pastry with greaseproof paper and add baking beans to weigh down. 
6. Blind bake for 15 minutes, remove the baking beans and greaseproof paper and then bake for a further 5 minutes. Take the tart case out of the oven and pour the filling inside. Bake in the oven for 30 minutes. Remove from the oven and allow to cool slightly before tucking in. 

Veggie Pesto Pasta

So I am completely inspired by Ella Woodward and her whole approach to healthy eating. Health isn't about calorie counting and starving yourself, it's about making smart choices about what you eat and nourishing your body. This pasta is so full of green goodness, and the creamy, rich pesto makes it really filling and satisfying.

This is "Brazil Nut and Rocket Pesto Pasta" from her first book "Deliciously Ella".

Ingredients

• 120g brazil nuts
• 50g pine nuts
• 1 1/2 avocados
• 50g Rocket
• 30g Basil 
• Juice from 1 1/2 lemons
• 8 tbsp olive oil, plus some extra for the veg
• 500g penne pasta
• 2 courgettes
• 1 head of broccoli 
• 225g peas
• Pinches of salt and pepper

Method

1. First, make the pesto. Place the brazil nuts and pine nuts in a food processor and whiz until completely crushed and look a bit like chunky breadcrumbs. Add the avocado flesh, rocket, basil, lemon juice, olive oil, 8 tbsp of water and the salt and pepper. Blend again until you have a smooth, creamy pesto. 
2. Next, cook the pasta according to packet instructions. I usually cook the pasta in a large boiling pot as it makes it easy to combine and stir everything together at the end. 
3. While the pasta cooks, chop the courgettes into thin slices and the broccoli into bite size pieces (I cut each floret into quarters unless they're small). Place them together in a frying pan with a little olive oil and sauté until they're cooked and softened, usually about 10 minutes. 
4. While these cook, prepare the peas. I do this by putting them in a microwavable bowl, covering them with boiling water and microwaving for 2 minutes. Ella cooks them in a saucepan but it depends what you find easiest. 
5. Once everything has finished cooking, drain the pasta and combine with the veggies and pesto in the large boiling pan. Done! 

In Ella's book, she claims that this recipe serves 4. However, I've found that because it's so rich and filling, there's easily enough to serve 6. 

If I have any left over, I store it in plastic containers in the fridge; it warms up really nicely in the microwave and makes a really nice, quick dinner. 

Singaporean Chilli Crab

I first came across this dish when on holiday in Singapore with my family years ago. I wasn't originally keen on it as i'm not a fan of really spicy food, however my dad absolutely fell in love with it. So when I decided to make a huge oriental feast on my day off work, I thought i'd try making some. 

Although it's a tad spicy for my taste, it is absolutely packed full of flavour and really, really tasty. It's also one of the messiest dishes i've ever made so stick on an old t-shirt and don't be afraid to dig in with your hands.
This is a recipe from Jamie Magazine; February 2015 issue. 

Ingredients

• 1 large cooked crab (roughly 1.2kg)
• 4 cooked crab claws
• 1 large bunch of coriander, leaves picked & stalks finely chopped
• 4 spring onions, whites finely chopped and greens finely sliced into matchsticks 
• Groundnut oil
• 1 garlic clove, peeled and finely chopped
• 1 thumb sized piece of ginger, finely grated
• 1 red chilli, deseeded and finely chopped
• 1/2 tsp cornflour

Chilli Sauce

• 1 white onion, peeled and chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, peeled and chopped
• 1 red chilli, chopped
• 2 sticks of lemongrass, bashed, peeled and chopped
• 1 tbsp white wine vinegar 
• 1 tsp dark brown soft sugar 
• 1 heaped tbsp tomato puree 
• 1 tbsp sweet chilli sauce
• 1 tsp shrimp paste 

Method

1. To prepare the crab, twist off the legs and claws. Turn the crab upside down, hold both sides and, with your thumbs, push under the central body until it breaks away. Remove and discard the spongy gills and carefully pick out any white meat. Scoop out the brown meat from the main shell and place in a bowl. Crack the large claws in half and pick out all the meat. Reserve the legs and meat; discard the other parts of the crab. If you need any help with how to prepare a crab or find where the gills are (like I did), there are plenty of useful videos online.
2. Fill a bowl with iced water and add the coriander leaves and green spring onion chopsticks- this will make them go curly. 
3. To make the chilli sauce, add all the ingredients to a food processor, along with the remaining coriander stalks, and blitz until finely chopped. Place a frying pan over a medium heat, add the paste and cook for 8-10 minutes, until softened and coloured. 
4. Place a wok over a medium heat along with a little groundnut oil. Once hot, add the chopped white spring onion, garlic, ginger and chilli and fry for 10 minutes until cooked through. 
5. Add the crab legs and cooked crab claws. Mix in the chilli sauce and the cornflour diluted with 100ml of warm water, bring it to the boil, simmer and season to taste for 5 minutes, then take it off the heat and gently stir through the reserved crab meat. 
6. Sprinkle over the drained coriander leaves and curly spring onions to serve. 

The only thing I tweaked with this recipe is the chilli content. Jamie Oliver uses 3 red chillies in the chilli sauce whereas I cut it down to one, however the sauce is still spicy in my opinion. Cutting down slightly on the chillies also means it will be more suitable for the whole family to enjoy, as I know i'm not alone in my aversion to spicy food. I also chose to add some extra crab claws to the recipe as the meat from the whole crab didn't seem enough. 

I served mine with egg fried rice, but this would work equally as well with white rice or Jamie Oliver recommends serving them with roti which would also work really well.

Fried Rice

This has got to be my all time favourite store cupboard recipe! It's so quick and easy; and the best part is that you can throw in whatever you feel like or whatever you have in the fridge/freezer. For this recipe i've used salmon but you can easily substitute this for chicken, prawns, or extra vegetables! 

This is also a great way to avoid indulging on that oh-so-fattening and unhealthy takeaway, by making your own! This recipe definitely isn't the most healthy, but it's still a lot better than a takeaway. This recipe serves 1, however if you want to feed the whole family just double, triple or quadruple the ingredients accordingly.

Ingredients

1 salmon fillet

45g dry rice

1 handful of chestnut mushrooms, chopped (or any mushrooms you have hanging around) 

2 spring onions, trimmed and chopped

4 green beans, trimmed and chopped

1 tbsp sweet chilli sauce

3-4 tbsp dark soy sauce

1/4 tsp sesame seeds

Olive oil

Method

1. Ideally, the rice should be cooked the night before, cooled at room temperature and then stored in the fridge. However, if you're short on time, simply cook the rice according to packet instructions, allow to cool at room temperature and then use straight away. Make sure you do allow enough time for the rice to completely cool, or it won't fry properly. 
2. Next, start cooking the salmon (this is where you would also start to cook your chicken, prawns etc. if using). Add your salmon to a hot, oiled frying pan skin side down. Add the sweet chilli sauce to the salmon whilst it cooks. Once the salmon is pale pink and cooked halfway through, turn it over so the skin faces up and add the green beans to the pan as they take longer to cook and soften than the mushrooms and spring onions. 
3. When the salmon is almost cooked and the green beans have started to soften, add the mushrooms and the white parts of the spring onions. 
4. When all the ingredients are cooked, add the cold rice to the pan along with a little more oil. Gently flake the salmon with a fork or spatula and mix all the ingredients together (careful not to break the salmon up too much). Add the soy sauce to the pan, mix together and taste, add more soy sauce if needed. 
5. The rice is done when it looks slightly crispy and the colour starts to change. However, i've found the best way to tell if it's fried enough is to taste it. 
6. Transfer to a pan and sprinkle over the chopped green spring onions and toasted sesame seeds. (Toast sesame seeds in a hot, dry frying pan until they turn brown). 

Tuck in!

"Pecan Shorties"

On my day off last week, the weather was horrendous and the last thing I wanted to do was leave the house. So instead, I got in the kitchen and made these beauties! These are a lovely take on classic shortbread, with crunchy pecans in every bite and rich dark chocolate coated on one side. 

I got the recipe from The Great British Bake off: Big Book of Baking. This is the first recipe I have made from this book and I love that there are so few ingredients, it's perfect for when you want to throw something together with what's in the cupboard. This recipe makes 20 shorties.

Ingredients:

• 75g pecan halves
• 250g plain flour
• 175g unsalted butter, softened
• 85g icing sugar, sifted
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 100g dark chocolate, chopped

Method:

1. Heat the oven the 180℃/350°F/gas 4. Tip the pecans into a small baking tray and toast in the heated oven for 5-7 minutes until slightly coloured. Leave to cool, then roughly chop. Mix with the flour in a large mixing bowl. 
2. Put the soft butter in another mixing bowl (or the bowl of a free-standing electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment). Beat with a wooden spoon (or the mixer) until the butter is as smooth and creamy as mayonnaise. 
3. Beat in the icing sugar a tablespoon at a time (use the lowest speed of the mixer). Once all the sugar has been worked in, add the vanilla and beat well for a couple of minutes until the mixture becomes almost white in colour, and light and fluffy in texture (about a minute in the mixer). Add the flour and nut mixture and stir in with a wooden spoon or plastic spatula to make a firm dough. 
4. Line a large baking tray with some greaseproof paper. Divide the dough into 20 even sized pieces. Lightly flour your hands and roll each piece into a ball. Set the balls on the lined baking tray, spacing them apart to allow for spreading. Gently squash each ball with your fingers to make a disc about 1cm thick.
5. Bake in the heated oven for 14-16 minutes until pale gold in colour with slightly darker edges, rotating the baking tray halfway through so the shortbreads bake evenly. Once removed from the oven, set the baking tray on a heatproof surface to allow the shortbreads to firm up for 5 minutes before transferring them to a wire rack to cool completely. 
6. Once the biscuits are cold, gently melt the chocolate in a heatproof bowl set over a pan of steaming hot water. Remove the bowl from the pan and stir the chocolate until smooth. 
7. Hold one shortbread horizontally by the sides and dip the biscuit base first into the melted chocolate, so the chocolate comes about half way up the sides. Lay the shortie chocolate side up on the greaseproof paper. Repeat with the rest of the shortbreads, then leave to set. 

These biscuits last about 3-4 days in an air tight container (if you can resist them for that long). Enjoy!

Scotch Eggs

Scotch Eggs

Scotch eggs are so so much better when homemade. I seriously recommend that you try making them, you'll never go back! This recipe is from Jamie Oliver's website >>> Scotch Eggs 

If you don't have a cooking thermometer (which I don't) then don't worry. All I did was get the oil super hot, use a slotted spoon to carefully lower the scotch eggs into the oil and watch them very carefully. As soon as they look golden brown and crispy, which took mine just a few seconds, take them back out of the oil with the slotted spoon and place them on a baking tray. Then bake them in the oven at 180 degrees for about 15-20 minutes to cook the meat thoroughly.

Mince Pies

I have absolutely no idea why this is the first year I've made mince pies. There's something so lovely and festive about making mince pies from scratch. They're so easy to make there really is no reason for not making your own! 

 Another great thing about making them yourself is that you can tweak the ingredients and the recipe to suit yourself; for example I added a handful of chopped walnuts to this batch to give them a little crunch and they're so good. This is a recipe by the very talented Paul Hollywood which you can find here. >>> Mince Pie Recipe 

This is such a lovely recipe I barely changed anything. The only tweaks I made was the handful of chopped walnuts as I mentioned earlier, I also chose to half the clementine wedges as I prefer them to be smaller so as to not take up too much room inside the pie. I couldn't find the little foil bun cases that are usually used for mince pies so I just improvised by lining the baking tray with tin foil and it worked just fine, adds a little character. My family and I absolutely loved these mince pies and they were such a pleasure to make, I'll definitely be digging out the recipe next Christmas :)