scarlet rosita

Barely Baked Superfood Sweet Biscuit

November 11, 2015 by scarletrosita

I know it’s not a very inspiring title but I really didn’t know how to describe these chewy, sweet, satisfying ‘biscuits’. The combination of ingredients is perhaps not what a classic biscuit would have, nor is the method, but these are super quick, very easy to make, taste really lovely and you can feed them to just about everyone as they as so ‘allergen low’.

I used to love to cook with my daughters and their friends (much to other parents horror. We’d make everything from bread to cinder toffee – heyho they all lived). And even if you have tiny, barely walking toddlers I’d urge you to make these. The dough is entirely edible and a treat and you are getting some great stuff into your bubba’s body.

Another great one to make with small children (as long as they are not intolerant or allergic to sesame or gluten) is to mix equal quantities of tahini and malt extract (or honey if your child is coeliac). It makes an edible play dough rich in calcium and other nutrients you won’t find in shop bought confectionary.

I highly recommend investing in small bags of the superfoods – you only ever use a teaspoon at a time and so it lasts ages. But the good they do you is beyond the money you pay. If you don’t want to buy them or you don’t want to buy all of them, either substitute one for the other – add more of the one you have bought or leave them out completely. Perhaps add a teaspoon of a good vanilla extract instead.

So – give these a try and let me know what you think and how you get on 🙂 (and if you are confused or worried I’m happy to help if I can)

Dough Ingredients:

100g dried apricots, prunes or figs

100g organic sunflower seeds

40 g shelled hemp seeds

6 tsp xylitol or coconut palm sugar

1 tsp baobab powder

1 tsp suma powder

1 tsp camu-camu powder

1 tsp maca root powder

1/2 tsp kelp powder

1/2 tsp barley grass powder

1/2 tsp good quality sea salt (or else leave it out)

120ml filtered water

For rolling:

1 tbsp lucuma powder

Place all the dough ingredients, bar the water, into your food processor with the ‘S’ blade. Process until it is as fine as it will go – about 5 minutes.

At this point start to dribble in the water through the chute as the machine is running until the mix forms a pliable, firm-ish ball.

Tip it onto a clean work surface dusted with the lucuma. Roll the ball so its all covered with the Lucuma (or Maca Root Powder if you prefer – its absolutely my favourite – I stir it into warmed almond milk for a treat).

It’s at this point that you can leave the children to play with it, let them make shapes, figures, letters, numbers, eat it raw, roll it into snakes. Bake them as they make them.

Or roll it will a pin to 1/2 cm thick. Stamp out the shapes you like best and pop them onto a parchment lined tray.

If you have a dehydrator then you need to dry them at 38•C for about 6 hours. Or pop them onto your oven at the lowest setting and allow them to dry for 3 hours.

I made a Purple Caramel Jam to top them with

60g inca berries or golden sultanas

150g agave or maple syrup

2 tsp acai powder

1 tsp purple corn extract

1 tsp raw coconut oil

Just blast these in the food processor straight after the dough is made – no need to wash the bowl.

Stores in a jar for a good 6 weeks.

– but they are far more delicious with a smear of cashew nut butter of dark tahini (I love this stuff)

Enjoy

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

Seedy Quinoa & Millet Loaf

September 3, 2015 by scarletrosita

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

Infinitely Adaptable Salad with a Smashing Hemp Seed and Ginger Dressing

August 7, 2014 by scarletrosita

I am rather chuffed with meself today. Husband No:1 (not sure if I’m keeping him, 23 years of marriage and he is still annoying 🙂 )came in and announced that he wants to follow the 5:2 diet (he has no need to lose weight at all – he is a damn near physically perfect specimen – but he wants to be healthier) and he is really keep for those 2 days to be fully raw, vegan days. I know for sure now that he has been enjoying those foods along with all the other delights I proffer.

I did promise on my FB page that I would share this recipe. It is, as I say, infinitely adaptable, I would always suggest you use seasonal fruit and veg and if you can get locally grown then do so. You know if you can’t grow stuff yourself you can pop along to the local allotments or communal veg gardens and either buy the excess that they are probably selling or else go along and introduce yourself, tell them you are wanting to eat more locally grown foods and that theirs looks gorgeous (a little flattery will go a long way) and offer to buy what they have over each week. Not only will you be getting some fantastic produce, but you’ll be getting inspired by what these old boys and girls can produce and you’ll probably make a couple more friends 🙂

In all honesty, the food may well not look as perfect as the stuff in the supermarkets – I take that as an excellent indication that the food has been grown with due respect to the flora and fauna of the veg garden – and I kinda like bees …. and wasps … and even spiders 🙂

Mix this up … use what is good right now
1 cup fresh beans (broad, french, runner- in the winter you can go for sprouted mung, kidney or chick peas)
3 ears of corn (just slice the kernels off the cob with a sharp knife (in the winter you can use 2 cups of frozen – it can be our secret)
1 sweet red pepper
2 cups of chopped tomatoes (I currently am loving the very fleshy italian varieties)
2 large carrots (I am currently loving the globe variety I have in my garden – so…. carroty!)
1 corgette/zucchini
1/2 a sweet white onion/shallot

Give it all a good scrubbing wash and then chop it all into small pieces (so a few pieces could pile onto a teaspoon)
And mix in a bowl.

Hemp Seed and Ginger Dressing
4 medium carrots
a 2cm hunk of ginger (peeled and sliced)
3 tbsp coconut palm sugar (or whatever you like to use as a sweetener – this adds such a nice warm base to go with the hemp seeds)
1/3 cup apple cider vinegar
1/2 cup water
2 cloves garlic
1/2 tsp himalayan salt (you can use sea salt – but I like the iron hit)
1/3 cup Hemp seed oil
1/2 cup shelled hemp seeds

Pop everything bar the hemp seeds into a good strong food processor/blender and let it go until everything is a nice soft sauce. If it needs a little more water to blend it then just add it in 1/4 cup at a time.

Now just taste it, adjust the seasoning (does it need a little more sugar, vinegar, salt? Or all of them?)

Tip into a bowl and stir in the hemp seeds (my absolute favourite seeds)

Now use it to dress the above salad or use it as a dip. I love it smeared onto raw veggie wraps with some naughty avocado and apple – yum

😀

Italian Cardamon Chocolate Torte (soft and super yummy)

August 6, 2014 by scarletrosita

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

Fig & Persimmons (Kaki/Sharon Fruit) with Most Excellent Greek ‘Yoghurt’.

July 30, 2014 by scarletrosita

Where to begin with the great stuff in this cheeky bowl of delights!

❤ Persimmons … Nevermind the antioxidant vitamin-C power, the vitamin-A, beta-carotene, lycopene, lutein, zea-xanthin and cryptoxanthin helping slow aging and various disease processes. They contain health benefiting flavonoids (poly-phenolic anti-oxidants such as catechins and gallocatechins) and an anti-tumor compound, betulinic acid.

❤ Figs … Nevermind the potassium (helps to control blood pressure) it’s fiber-rich positive effect on weight management an in depth US study showed it had a positive impact on lowering Postmenopausal Breast Cancer … and then bam – its there helping prevent age-related macular degeneration (ARMD) too.

❤ Cashews … Nevermind that about 50% of the fat is heart-healthy monounsaturated fats, there’s Copper for antioxidant defenses, energy production, magnesium for healthy bones and … you carzy people…. Eating Nuts Lowers Risk of Weight Gain!

❤ Coconut & Coconut Oil …. Nevermind it’s unique combination ofpowerfully medicinal fatty acids (its them there medium chain triglycerides), it increase your metabolism, helping you burn more fat. It’s lauric acid content can kill bacteria, viruses and fungi, it keeps you feeling full. We are all mad on raspberry ketones but the fatty acids in coconut oil do the same.

Enough … I’m exhausted with all the excitement.

Actually I have a beautiful fig tree in my garden and it is in it’s first flush so I am very excited to be able to pop out my back door, grab 3 figs from thetree and pop them into a bowl with a persimmon.

The Most Excellent Greek ‘Yoghurt’ is actually a cashew and coconut blend.
Soak a cup of cashews for a minimum of 20 minutes. Drain and rinse, then pop them into a food processor with a cup of coconut milk, the juice of a lemon, 1 tablespoon of xylotol (or raw honey or have you tried the lovely coconut blossom nectar?) a pinch of himalayn salt and blitz it, add a quarter cup of coconut oil, 1 tablespoon of sunflower lecithin and pour into a glass jar and chill for about 2 hours for a nice firm mix or you can enjoy it runny too

😀

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

RAW! Banana Dream Bar

October 14, 2013 by scarletrosita

I like to think of this a bit of a life saver when you want something that feels substantial but is not going to be requiring a nap 10 minutes after eating.

RAW! Banana Dream Bar

For the Banana filling:
2 medium bananas
3/4 cup cashews
1/4 cup agave nectar
1/4 cup lemon juice
1/3 cup coconut oil
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/8 teaspoon sea salt

Cling film line a 1 lb loaf tin.

Zest and juice that lime mmmmmm

Gently melt the coconut oil.

Now add all the topping ingredients to the processor and process until very smooth.

Pour the mixture onto the base and smooth it with the back of a spoon.
To cut them put them into the freezer for 30 minutes, take them out and whilst still in the pan cut them to size (if it has gone super hard just leave them out for 5 minutes)

Now pop them back into the freezer for about 2 hours. These must be stored in the freezer.

Really lovely and fresh.

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.
All new customers will get a lovely washable cotton shopper as a ‘Thank you and please come again next week’ (Whie stocks last!)

Every Friday at about 6 pm GMT I publish photos of the items I have cooked for market. Have a look at the Facebook page.

email me scarletrositafood@btinternet.com
phone or text 0792 310 9170
Facebook http://www.facebook.com/ScarletRosita
or follow me on Twitter

Ginger Cake With Fresh Figs

October 7, 2013 by scarletrosita

A lovely tea time cake that everyone can enjoy

🙂

Ginger Cake With Fresh Figs

120g / 4 oz Muscavado sugar
200 ml/ 7 fl oz sunflower oil
420g /  14 oz SR flour
½ rounded tsp baking powder
 ½ teaspoon salt
1 tbsp Ground Ginger
1 tsp lime powder (optional)
 1 ripe medium banana (4 oz)
100 ml / 4 fl oz water
1/2 tsp ground flax meal  (optional)
1 large can of figs
2 tablespoons of apricot conserve.

Parchment line 1 x 29 cm pans
Preheat the oven to 350˚F/180˚C/Gas 4.

Drain the figs and cut each in two.

Set to one side.
Blend together the banana and sugar.
As the processor runs add the oil, ground flax and water.
Pour into a bowl and sift in the mixed flour, ginger, lime powder and baking powder.

Mix very well.
Pour into the pan.

Arrange the figs in a pattern you like. Press down a little.
Bake for 40 to 50 minutes until the centre of the cake is dry when probed with a skewer.
Allow cool on a wire rack.
Melt the conserve in a pan and then brush this onto the cooling cake.

Every Friday at about 6 pm GMT I publish photos of the items I have cooked for market. Have a look at the Facebook page.

email me scarletrositafood@btinternet.com
phone or text 0792 310 9170
Facebook http://www.facebook.com/ScarletRosita
or follow me on Twitter