Medieval Mince Pies with a Chestnut Pastry

It’s that time of year when everyone wants a good recipe. And I have been asked for so many recipes – which is lovely. But I can’t pay my bills by just giving out recipes.

So please do feel free to order food from me or come and visit me in London and pick up a few tasty treats to keep you going over Christmas  🙂

 

Anyway. I have had a few conversations about Mince Pies. As an Italian I have my own specific desires about the kinda pie I want at this time of year. I don’t want an overly rich, super short, sweet pie. I like my pastry to be crisp and slightly saline, super light and perfect as a foil to the sweet, soft filling. Making it great for breakfast or to have with a coffee mid morning or when you get back in the afternoon with a cuppa tea.

I did get a little carried away about the food history so I will relay a tiny bit to you. Just cos it interested me and you may like to hear about it too.

The origin of the Mince Pie is 11th Century England and originally did contain mutton (I’m not putting any meat in these – lets say that straight off). Obviously  the winter offered little in the way of fresh fruit so dried fruit was used to extend the little there was and this was spiced and sweetened. All foods were presented as they became ready so these would be served straight from the wood fired ovens … just imagine that. Blisteringly hot sweet centre with the whiff of woodsmoke lingering on the crust. (These details makes me happy).

This is a little quote from English Heritage Food & Cooking In Medieval Britain by Maggie Black (1985) However, medieval people wanted more than just salt, pepper and mustard as condiments. Wealthy European cookery was aromatic and pungent with ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, mace, cardamoms and cloves, and other spices we no longer use such as galigale, grains of paradise and cubebs’ 

Don’t you just want to know what grains of paradise and cubebs taste like? Me too. In the meantime here is my take on a delicious mince pie that people will want to keep eating – not just a token effort cos it’s Christmas.

Chestnut Pastry

140g Chestnut flour

100g plain gluten free blend (a mix of rice, potato and millet flour is also good)

60g coconut palm sugar

1/8 tsp xanthan gum

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp sea salt

180g non hydrogenated baking fat, sunflower margarine (or butter if you eat dairy)

70 ml coconut milk (which ever you like)

10 ml oil (I do like olive oil as the peppery taste is beautiful with the sweet fruit)

1 tsp apple cyder vinegar (this is not essential but it helps with the ultimate crispness)

Add the vinegar to the milk.

Whisk all the dry ingredients in a bowl and rub in the solid fat. (I do this in a food processor – my hands are too warm for good pastry)

Use a butter knife to stir all the wet into all the dry.

Wrap and chill for 20 minutes to allow the dry ingredients to absorb the wet and make a firmer dough.

Once  chilled roll out on a floured surface and stamp out 2.5 cm rounds to fill your patty tins and a 1.5 cm lid (I like to do little hearts because I make everything with love and I want people to remember that)

Fill the pies with the following recipe. Then bake for 15 minutes in a fairly hot oven Gas 7 220 ˚C. Or until they are nicely bronzed and the filling is starting to bubble.

I like to dust mine with lucuma, but you can use icing sugar.

They are absolutely their best served impossibly hot from the oven.

Medieval Mincemeat Recipe

1lb peeled cored and chopped apples (eaters not cookers)

1lb currants

1lb sut

1lb large raisins

1/2lb sultanas

1lb demerara sugar

2oz almonds,blanched and finely chopped

1/2gill rum

2oz each of candied lemon, orange and citron peel all finely chopped

grated rind and juice of 2 large lemons

1/2 nutmeg finely grated

1/4 tsp each of ground cloves and cinnamon

1/8 tsp each ground ginger and mace

1/2 tsp salt

1/4pt brandy

Mix well and store in clean jars. Allow to stand for a minimum of 4hours before use.

If you can’t get hold of all the spices and flavours just press on away. That’s how your own unique take on these pies will come about.

How lovely  🙂

 

An Amazing Loaf Of Bread

This recipe is NOT one of mine – but I am totally bowled over by it. It is delicious, infinitely adaptable, has incredible keeping qualities (just consider any adaptations). It is so satisfying and a little slice can be wrapped in a napkin and tucked into a pocket to keep you going all day with put having to resort to poorly made, ill thought through snacks that claim much but are made without knowledge or consideration.

This couldn’t be easier ……

…..make it yourself……

….. you’ll save more than money …

….. reclaim yumminess one recipe at a time!

This is from ‘My New Roots’ By Sarah Britton. The book is full of great recipes that you’ll use every day 🙂

1 cup/140g sunflower seeds

1/2 cup 90g linseeds

1/2 cup 70g almonds

1 1/2 cups 150g gluten free oats

2 tbsp chia seeds

4 tbsp psyllium husks

1 tsp sea salt

1 tbsp maple syrup

3 tbsp coconut oil

Use a 500g or 1lb silicon loaf pan. If its not silicon then use a strip of parchment along the base to make removal easier later.

This can be made in the loaf tin/pan.

In a bowl (or the loaf pan)  mix the dry ingredients

Whisk the wet in a jug and then stir into the dry.

Allow to stand on the side for the minimum of 3 hours and up to 12.

Preheat the oven to Gas 4/ 180•C / 350•F

Bake for 20 minutes on the middle self (I had to bake mine for twice as long as I made additions and adaptations – so just bear that in mind)

Tip the half baked loaf onto a metal tray and put it back into the oven for another 40 minutes. Until the loaf starts to sound hollow when tapped.

It should totally be left to go cold before you slice it like the inventor says … But i couldn’t resist a warm slice with fresh sliced pear and a drizzle of tahini … I know, I’m so predictable!

The adaptation on this loaf was 1 tbsp vanilla powder (make this by grinding a vanilla pod in a coffee grinder) 3 tbsp date syrup 3 tbsp of fennel seeds, 3 tbsp blueberries. 3 tbsp cranberries, 3 tbsp mulberries, 3 tbsp dried sour cherries, 3 tbsp golden raisins and I used hazelnuts

The adaptation on this loaf was 1 tbsp sesame seeds 3 tbsp of caraway seeds, a cup of green olives, a cup of sun dried tomatoes 1 tbsp oregano.

 

Come and see me on Saturdays’ at Bermondsey Square Farmers Market in Southwark. It’s just off Tower Bridge Road, a short walk from The White Cube, Southbank and Borough Market.

email me scarletrositafood@gmail.com

phone or text 0792 310 9170

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Super Easy Tasty Bread

I don’t even try to make any sort of baked bread to sell commercially anymore as my kitchen is simply not set up for it. Sometimes I’m making raw foods, or chocolates and I don’t have the space.

 

That doesn’t mean I don’t like bread and I want to be able to eat it but the stuff in supermarkets and sold by most bakers will do horrible things to my stomach. So when I want some bread to eat invariably I end up making it.

I know it sounds like a massive faff – but I have been doing this for over 30 years now and once you have your head set that this is how it will be done then you kinda just do it. Admittedly, a freezer bigger than an icebox would be great – but even that isn’t essential.

Straight away I will direct you to my sourdough starter recipe on here https://scarletrosita.wordpress.com/2013/01/21/biga-starter-grape-sourdough-starter/

Once this is fully on its way I freeze it. I then take it out the day before I’m baking and get it going again by adding more flour and water and I keep it going until the baking has been completed and then back into the freezer it goes until next time. It doesn’t let me down.

If you don’t want to use a starter then use 7 g of dried yeast, in a jug with a little date syrup and  warm water to activate it.

The addition of khorasan flour and spelt flour as well as sesame, sunflower, pumpkin and hemp seeds in this bread makes an extremely tasty and nutritious loaf.

 

 

Makes 4 x 1lb loaves – which sounds like a lot – but I always use one and freeze the others asap so they still have that out of the oven freshness when I need to use them. I just don’t have time to go through this process that often.

7 oz of your sourdough starter or

7 g dried yeast (this comes in a little sachet or its a heaped teaspoonful)  in 200ml water water and 1 tsp date syrup or another natural sweetener

100g a bread flour that you like – but one with wheat

450g spelt wholemeal flour

450g khorasan flour

1.5 tbsp fine seasalt

200g sesame more for the tin

200g sunflower seeds

200g pumpkin seeds

 100g hemp seeds

50 ml olive, hemp or flax seed oil

another 700ml of warm water

I honestly don’t think this could be simpler.

Either add the 200ml of warm water to the 7g of yeast or the 7 oz of starter you want the yeast to ‘bloom’ – it goes nice and frothy and smells like something you’d like to eat.

Mix the starter to slacken it.

Put the flours into a capacious bowl (I do use a stand mixer now as I have other things to do).

Add the yeast/starter and the other 700 ml of water (500ml if you are hand mixing) and start by slowly mixing it and then either give it a full 20 minutes of kneading by hand and 5 minutes on the highest speed on your stand mixer.

Cover with a damp cloth or cling film and leave it in a warm spot to get going. It is entirely up to you how long you leave it. You could leave it for a couple of hours or you can leave it for 24 hours.

Now add the seasalt, oil and the seeds as it needs to be knocked back (a good kneading) for a couple of minutes.

If you are making the bread on a stand mixer the bread should be a soft- almost pourable dough – that is correct.

Grease and flour your bread tins.

Divide the dough equally between the tins.

Set your oven to Gas 8 230˚C 450˚F

Stand the tins in a warm place and cover with a damp t towel.

Give it 40 – 50 minutes and it should fill the tins or double in size. Allow it to double in size. If its cold in your house it will take longer.

Once its double put the t towel in for a wash and put the tins into the oven – 2 at the top, and 2 in the middle.

Allow them 30 minutes then swap the levels over.

Give it another 20 minutes and check that they are cooked.

Turn them out of the tin and give them 10 minutes before you cut them.

I bet they are good enough for you to happily eat them just plain!

Come and see me on Saturdays’ at Bermondsey Square Farmers Market in Southwark. It’s just off Tower Bridge Road, a short walk from The White Cube, Southbank and Borough Market.

email me scarletrositafood@gmail.com

phone or text 0792 310 9170

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Seedy Quinoa & Millet Loaf

This delicious and delightful recipe is an adaptation from http://detoxkitchen.co.uk/bible  It is full of really good recipes, not all to my taste but they are well thought out and I can see from reading them that they will work.

I often have the experience of reading a recipe and I know it won’t work, it must be very frustrating for people that commit to making the recipe to find they have wasted time and ingredients. But take heart – if a recipe doesn’t work it may well be that it is the recipe NOT you. There is a certain, very famous, female cook (she licks her fingers a lot and in often in her dressing gown eating from the fridge late at night) … I’ll say no more.

Makes 2 x 1 lb (450g) loaves or one large one.

Set your oven to Gas 6, 200˚C 400˚F.

Line the loaf tins with baking parchment or those natty loaf tin liners. They’re great, bit more money but do a proper job and save loads of time.

30g Chia Seeds Soak these for 30 minutes in 100ml of fresh cold water.

175g quinoa

175g millet

Measure these two together in a jug, make a note of the volume. Tip them into a clean pan and cover with double the volume of fresh, cold water. Bring to the boil and boil for 5 minutes – no longer (it’ll be too wet). Drain and run through with cold water until it is properly cold. Leave to drain for a few minutes.

Tip the quinoa, millet mix into a food processor with the soaked chia seeds and blast for a good 5 minutes at top speed whilst you …

squeeze the juice from a lime (or 1/2 a lemon)

Mix that with 70 ml of the nicest olive oil you can get hold of (or you could try hemp, rape even vegetable oil if that will get you making this)

In a mixing bowl mix the oil and juice mix, quinoa, millet and chia seeds. Then add

1/2 teaspoon of sea salt

1/2 tsp baking powder

40g pumpkin seeds (you can chop these a little if you like, especially if you want to slice the bread when it is warm as the seeds can be a little firm to start with – but after a couple of hours the seeds will have softened nicely)

50g sunflower seeds

Give it all a really good whacking mix and divide between the tins.

Bake in the centre of the oven for 60 minutes (that’s plenty unless your oven is very slow).

Cool for 20 minutes before removing from the tin.

I suggest mashed avocado, more olive oil and a sprinkle of sea salt.

This can then be wrapped in cling film and frozen or wrap in greaseproof paper and keep it on the side for a couple of days. I can’t believe it will last longer without being eaten.

 

Come and see me on Saturdays’ at Bermondsey Square Farmers Market in Southwark. It’s just off Tower Bridge Road, a short walk from The White Cube, Southbank and Borough Market.

email me scarletrositafood@gmail.com

phone or text 0792 310 9170

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Italian Cardamon Chocolate Torte (soft and super yummy)

Well this is one of my best recipes that will be making it’s way into the recipe book, but a rather lovely customer is utterly desperate for it and so, as I am the ‘Queen of Customer Happiness’ I am sharing it for you all to enjoy.

This makes a nice deep uber chocolate cake which is utterly lovely with just a dust of icing sugar. But if you like and you fancy something a little more lavish I suggest you divide the mix between two pans before cooking (don’t even bother to try and cut the cake in two once it is cooked – you’ll end up with lots of very delicious choccy cake chunks) and once it is cool fill and top with 16 oz/ 450g of cream cheese mixed with 2 oz/ 50 g of icing sugar and 4 tablespoons of vanilla paste – no messing 😀

Italian Chocolate Cake

Makes a good 10 slices

140g/5 oz butter or a non hydrogenated vegetable fat

252g/
9 oz chocolate (min 70% Cocoa solids), chopped

3 tablespoons water

3/4 teaspoon baking powder

105g/3.75 oz cocoa powder

5 eggs, separated

224g/
8 oz sugar

12 cardamon pods

2 teaspoon vanilla paste

1/2 teaspoon Sea salt

Heat oven to 350˚F 180˚C Gas 4

Roast the cardamon pods for 5 minutes until fragrant and starting to colour.

Allow to cool then grind in a coffee grinder, liquidiser, food processor or pestal and mortar.

Parchment line a 23 cm or 9″ cake pan, but make the sides at least 4 cm 2″ high.

Line the bottom of the baking pan with a round of parchment paper.

Melt fat in a large bowl over a saucepan of hot water (don’t let the bowl sit in the hot water)

As it melts stir in chocolate until melted and then remove from heat.

Stir in the water, set to the side.

Whisk together the baking powder, salt, cardamon and cocoa until just combined.

In another bowl, whisk egg yolks with half the sugar and the vanilla paste until pale and fluffy.

In another very clean larger bowl, beat egg whites until stiff, then add the final sugar and beat again.

Now everything gets folded into the chocolate, keep going until well mixed.

Tip into the waiting pan (pans)

Bake for 50 to 60 minutes, it should look shiny on the top and feel firm at the edges. If you’ve done as I’ve said it should be ready – you aren’t getting a dry toothpick out of this cake 🙂

Remove from oven and allow to cool for a minimum of 30 minutes before you turn it onto a cake plate.

Dust with a little icing sugar or fill with the cream cheese as I suggested earlier.

Eat warm or cold.

Do not refrigerate this cake – it will go hard and only popping into the oven will retrieve that lovely tender crumb.

Come and see me on Saturdays’ at Bermondsey Square Farmers Market in Southwark. It’s just off Tower Bridge Road, a short walk from The White Cube, Southbank and Borough Market.

email me scarletrositafood@gmail.com

phone or text 0792 310 9170

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5 Day Detox – realistic for normal human beings :)

Hello there m’dears. Been a while, I hope you are all doing well.

This is a bit of a special one as an aid to anyone that really wants a detox and has tried the commercial diets and extreme fasting detox’s and it’s all just been too much one way or another.

This will give your body enough of a break to get you feeling like everything is working well again and you can stride into the rest of the season feeling fighting fit.

Just so you know, myself, I had a small cup (125ml) of the alkalising green and some of my medicine balls this morning and I am pinging off the wall! So I am hoping that these recipes will do the same for you 🙂

So, to start here are four juices to have ready for the next 3 days, I will add into the recipes the various organic powders that I add when I make them, but you may not have them …. no matter, just make them without, they’ll still be really good for you 🙂
Each recipe is enough for the 3 days, you can cut the recipe into 1/3 and make them fresh each day, or make the batches, divide between cups for each day and freeze . Then the night before you need them take them out into the fridge and allow them to defrost ready for you to consume the next day. However you think about it, this is still a much better option than the pasteurised juices in the shops or the ‘fresh’ juices made from EU allowable blended stocks that allow them to still be called fresh.

Alkalising Green Restores balance to an acidic system.

1 cucumber
1 lime (well scrubbed with 2/3 of the zest removed)
a pinch of himalayan or sea salt
4 stalks of celery
a large handful of fresh parsley
3 eating apples
1/2 cup shelled hemp seeds
1 tbsp organic barley grass powder
1 tsp organic wheat grass powder
1 tbsp organic spirulina powder
1 tsp organic kelp powder
1 tbsp organic maca root powder
1 tbsp organic lucuma powder
1 x 2cm piece of fresh ginger

Juice the fruit and vegetables. Grind the hemp seeds. Put 1/2 the juice and the powders, seeds and ginger into a blender and blend for 3 minutes. Push through a fine sieve collecting all the pulp from the underside.
This can be diluted with equal quantities of fresh, filtered water.

Radical Reducing Blood Builder

Nice sweet taste disguises this iron rich, infection fighting juice, high in betacarotene and the natural fungicide falcarinol. Great if you have skin problems 🙂
4 good local seasonal apples (what is close and fresh to you)- (scrubbed)
1 medium sized beetroot (scrubbed)
2 medium carrots (scrubbed)
2 small parsnips (scrubbed)
1 lemon (well scrubbed with 1/2 the zest removed)
1 tbsp organic lucuma powder (or 1 tsp local honey if you like)

Again juice the fruit and veg then blend with the powder.
This can be diluted with equal quantities of fresh, filtered water.

Fluid Balancer Great for that afternoon energy hit you need. This is rich in a diverse combination of nutrients, will help with fluid retention as it sorts out the imbalance between cells. And then the lemon scarifies the gut to make sure you feel all fresh and new 🙂
3 eating apples (seasonal and local)
2 sticks celery (scrubbed)
1 cucumber (scrubbed)
1x 2 cm piece of ginger
1 lemon (well scrubbed with 1/2 the zest removed)
1 tsp purple corn extract
Same process as before.

Soothing Cinnamon

Nice for the end of the day, settling the stomach and preparing the body for rest (I do hope you aren’t trying to lead a crazy life over these 3 days – be nice to yourself!) The bromalain in the pineapple will does great things in removing mucus from the body (great if you have a cough or cold) and the cinnamon does good things to blood sugar levels and helps the body readjust back to a healthy mode 🙂

1 medium sized pineapple
2 good local seasonal apples (what is close and fresh to you)- (scrubbed)
1/4 medium sized beetroot (scrubbed)
1 medium carrots (scrubbed)
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tbsp organic mucuma powder

Peel the pineapple.
Same process as before.

I will also mention something called ‘Medicine Balls’ these are my own recipe and if you are a regular purchaser of mine you may well have had them. You do see similar items in wholefood shops and some supermarkets and there is a wealth of recipes elsewhere on WordPress, they are called things like energyballs, or powerballs. Mine have no added sugar and the others I have mentioned rely very heavily on dates in the ingredients. I love dates, use them lots, but they are very high in naturally occurring sugar and my personal experience is that they cause a massive sugar high and crash – so mine do not contain any. But if you want to use them do. Otherwise at the point where I suggest eating a Medicine ball, you can perhaps have a herbal tea, or even a raw carrot 🙂

Day 1
On rising warm water with a slice of fresh lemon added (I cannot tolerate this so I have …) or a warm water and a few leaves of fresh mint.
1st Juice: Alkalising Green. You may dilute the made quantity with an equal measure of fresh/filtered water. Take before 11.am.
2nd Juice: Radical Reducing, Blood Builder. You may dilute the made quantity with an equal measure of fresh/filtered water. Take after Midday.
3rd Juice: Fluid Balancer. You may dilute the made quantity with an equal measure of fresh/filtered water. Take between 3.pm. and 4.pm.
4th Juice: Soothing Cinnamon. You may dilute the made quantity with an equal measure of fresh/filtered water. Take between 6.pm and 8.pm.

2 hours before bedtime (this may well coincide with your final juice of the day) Gojiberry Ginger & Bee Pollen Medicine Ball

Day 2
On rising warm water with a slice of fresh lemon added or a warm water and a few leaves of fresh mint.
1st Juice: Alkalising Green. You may dilute the made quantity with an equal measure of fresh/filtered water. Take before 11.am.
2nd Juice: Radical Reducing, Blood Builder. You may dilute the made quantity with an equal measure of fresh/filtered water. Take after Midday.
3rd Juice: Fluid Balancer. You may dilute the made quantity with an equal measure of fresh/filtered water. Take between 3.pm. and 4.pm.
4th Juice: Soothing Cinnamon. You may dilute the made quantity with an equal measure of fresh/filtered water. Take between 6.pm and 8.pm.

2 hours before bedtime (this may well coincide with your final juice of the day) Super Seeds & Super Berry Medicine Ball

Day 3
On rising warm water with a slice of fresh lemon added or a warm water and a few leaves of fresh mint.
1st Juice: Alkalising Green. You may dilute the made quantity with an equal measure of fresh/filtered water. Take before 11.am.
2nd Juice: Radical Reducing, Blood Builder. You may dilute the made quantity with an equal measure of fresh/filtered water. Take after Midday.
3rd Juice: Fluid Balancer. You may dilute the made quantity with an equal measure of fresh/filtered water. Take between 3.pm. and 4.pm.
4th Juice: Soothing Cinnamon. You may dilute the made quantity with an equal measure of fresh/filtered water. Take between 6.pm and 8.pm.

2 hours before bedtime (this may well coincide with your final juice of the day) Hemp & Purple Corn Extract Medicine Ball

Day 4
On rising warm water with a slice of fresh lemon added or a warm water and a few leaves of fresh mint.
1st Juice: Alkalising Green. You may dilute the made quantity with an equal measure of fresh/filtered water. Take before eating anything. This is just a really great juice to get into the habit of having every morning – or perhaps just on a weekend morning – just start making it something you would want to include in your weekly food intake – in the same way as lots of people think about toast (I do not eat bread everyday and mostly I don’t even eat it once a week but I understand that people eat bread every single day of the year).

Green Medicine Ball: Now allow 20 minutes before you eat any breakfast.

Breakfast: Gluten Free Oats, soaked in warm water overnight. Add a little honey or agave nectar, a heaping tablespoon of sunflower and pumpkin seeds and as much soya, almond milk, coconut milk, goats milk, ewes milk or
any live yogurt you prefer.

Lunch: RAW! Kale & Sauerkraut Salad (from me)

or Nicoise Salad, made with a big handful of spinach leaves, a ripe tomato, a cold hard boiled egg, 2 anchovy fillets, a small can of tuna (drained), or a fresh one (seared for 2 minutes either side). Mix as a salad with a few olives if you like.

Dinner: 3 Bean and White Chard.

You can make this as a stew or as a soup. Very tasty, extremely good for your entire system. Small can of kidney beans, 1 small can of chick peas, 1 small can of flagolet beans. 1 red onion, 1 small carrot, 1 stalk of celery, 1 clove of garlic, a can of tomatoes, 8 leaves of white chard, a good tablespoon of rapeseed oil. Warm the oil and fry the vegetables (not the chard). Add in the other ingredients and 500ml of vegetable stock. Cook for 10 minutes. Really quick and good for you too 🙂 Make enough for tomorrows lunch.

Day 5
On rising warm water with a slice of fresh lemon added or a warm water and a few leaves of fresh mint.
1st Juice: Alkalising Green. You may dilute the made quantity with an equal measure of fresh/filtered water. Take before eating anything.

Breakfast: A ripe tomato, a slice of red onion. Fry in a tbsp of olive oil, add a handful of chopped parsley leaves and then stir in 2 large free range eggs to scramble.

Lunch: 3 Bean and White Chard. From last nights dinner 🙂

Dinner: 3 Chick Pea & Sweet Potato Bake. 2 large sweet potatoes (well scrubbed), boiled then mashed. Set the oven to 200˚C or Gas4. Heat a spoon of olive oil and add a diced onion in to soften, then add a clove of garlic, stir, 4 big handfuls of spinach and stir over the heat until they wilt. Add in a large can of chick peas and crush all together slightly. Pop into a oven dish. Top with the mash and bake for 20 minutes.

You are now good to go for the rest of the year 🙂

Come see me on Bermondsey Market in London on a Saturday.

Spiced Pumpkin Cake

This is a big cake – remember I was using all that pumpkin! So I have given measures that will make 2 x 2lb loaves or the one big cake. If you want you can just halve the amounts and make the one loaf. But these freeze like a dream!

Spiced Pumpkin Cake

Ingredients
• 600g / 20 oz GF SR flour
• 420g / 14 oz brown sugar
• 1 salt
• 1 tbsp cinnamon
• 1 tbsp ginger
• 600g / 20 oz roasted pumpkin puréed in a food processor
• 250 ml sunflower oil
• 9 tbsp Agave Nectar

Instructions
Preheat oven to 350°F/180˚C/Gas4.
Parchment line a 24 cm spring form cake tin. Or 2 x 2lb loaf tins.
In a large bowl, mix together flour, sugar, salt, and spices.
In a jug whisk together the oil and agave.
Add wet mixture to dry with the pureed pumpkin then mix until well combined. This is a stiff batter, don’t worry, the pumpkin will make it a really soft cake 🙂

Pour into prepared pan and level it off.

Bake 45-50 minutes or until top is starting to brown and it feels firm to the touch. For the loaves allow 35-40 minutes 🙂
Let it to cool for 10 minutes in the tin, then open the pan or tip them out and allow to cool on a rack.

Autumnal Pumpkin Stew

So here is the first dish I made with the pumpkin 🙂

It was eaten that night (as were all the dishes) and we felt we had seriously entered into an autumn state of being 🙂

I was aiming to make enough for 4 people, but I just made extra and popped the other half into the freezer. This is giving a good idea of how much food there is to be had from just one pumpkin.

Autumnal Pumpkin Stew

serves 8 people

1 kg / 2 lb roasted pumpkin flesh
3 medium onions
5 medium carrots
3 sticks of celery
3 cloves of garlic
120g / 4oz creamed coconut
2 tbsp sunflower oil
4 tbsp tomato puree
2 tsp ground cumin
2 tsp ground coriander
(or 4 tsp Garam masala if you prefer a more curry flavour)
1 tsp dried thyme
1 tsp dried rosemary
1 tbsp brown sugar (optional)
1.5 lt / 3 pt hot vegetable stock or water

(Not the garlic!) Peel the raw vegetables and cut them all into a 1 cm chunk – not too small, this isn’t a soup 🙂

Chop the cooked pumpkin flesh to be about 2 cm chunks.

Heat the oil in a large heavy based saucepan.
Add the raw vegetables, keep the heat as high as possible and allow the vegetables to start to brown.
Turn the heat to low and add the pumpkin, spices, herbs, sugar and tomato puree.
Give it a stir, allow that it 10 – 20 seconds to open the flavours.
Turn up the heat and either chop or use a garlic press to process the garlic to a fine mince and add to the pan.
Add the hot stock. The liquid should not quite cover top layer.
Now add the coconut and to bring this to the boil.
Turn the heat down to medium low, cover with a lid and allow to cook for 10 -15 minutes.
If it looks too soupy after this then take the lid off and allow it to boil on a high heat for 5 minutes to drive off some of the liquid (you will also intensify the flavour).
Keep a check on it, give it a stir every so often to make sure it’s not catching on the bottom.
That’s it, it’s ready – but, as with so many tomato based foods – this is so much tastier if you allow it to cool and have it thoroughly warmed through the next day.

I served these with the Savoury Pumpkin Cakes 🙂

Pumpkin Savoury Cakes

This is probably my favourite of the dishes I made 🙂

Pumpkin Savoury Cakes
750g / 1lb 8 oz roasted pumpkin flesh
250ml / 1/2 pt milk ( I used soya)
4 eggs
450g / 1lb plain gluten free flour
1 tsp Sea salt
125 ml sunflower oil

I used the pumpkin I had roasted.
Pop it into a food processor.
Add in the milk and blitz to a smooth paste.

Tip into a mixing bowl and add in the flour, eggs and salt
Fold in the flour until you have a consistency like a firm cake batter, if it’s too firm add a little water and if it seems too slack add a little more flour 🙂
It needs to be able to hold it’s shape without being so hard that it cannot expand a little as it cooks.
Heat 1/2 cm of the oil in a heavy based frying pan over a medium heat.

Use an ice cream scoop (or a couple of dessert spoons) to make up the cakes, I use one heaping scoop per cake, formed as I add them into the hot oil.
Allow them 3-4 minutes to brown to a nice golden colour, not any faster as they won’t be cooked through, so you’ll need to turn the heat down a touch. Any longer and they will be heavy and greasy – so turn the heat up a tad.

Turn them and press them down to about 1.5 – 2 cm thick.
As they cook pop them onto a warm plate with kitchen roll on to absorb the excess oil.

These are so light and fluffy and do not take up loads of the oil, they are slightly plain deliberately as I wanted to use them to pick up the savoury sauce from the stew.

Daughter No2 ate about 8 extra-just on their own. And the next day there were plenty for me to be able to use to scoop up some of me fresh made hummus -ahhhh bliss 🙂

Pumpkins’ Are Enormous – And What To Do With Them

As you know, I do like a seasonal bit of produce and there are lots of enormous pumpkins around and most are bought (here in Blighty) just to make lanterns.

I have had an intrigue and fascination of pumpkins for way too long (considering I am an adult) and it is all down to Linus and his obsession with the Pumpkin Patch in Peanuts (I want to be Snoopy). But I am not exactly successful at growing them myself, however they are plentiful and cheap at the moment.

So I bought some and thought I’d make a sensible attempt at seeing what I could make to feed a family of 4 from one pumpkin.

There was more pumpkin than I could cook dishes with in the time I had but I did get 3 good ones 🙂

Preparing the Pumpkin 🙂

I wanted to cook it in a way that would get rid of some of the moisture and intensify the flavour, so I knew I would roast it.

Cut the pumpkin in quarters and take out the seeds.

Wash away the membranes and any sticky juice and allow them to dry on a tray. The seeds can be roasted with soy sauce or spices to make a tasty topping or snacking food.

I did cut away the skin, but I know some people like to leave the skin on as they roast. I can’t see any benefit to leaving it on unless you want to scrap the skins of all flesh once it has finished cooking.

As you can see, I got a lot of flesh from the one pumpkin. Put it in a single layer on the tray and roast at 425˚F/220˚C/Gas7 for about 20 minutes – until the flesh is tender.

Allow it to cool – ready for what ever it is you want to cook.

And here are the recipes 😀

Autumnal Pumpkin Stew

Pumpkin Savoury Cakes

Spiced Pumpkin Cake