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Sweet onion and tomato tart and horses in custody
Owning our horses is, I would imagine, similar to parenting four high-spirited and obstreperous teenagers. I’m always expecting the ‘gendarmes’ to roll up to inform us that they’ve been detained for questioning and would we like to come and bail them out (I’d have to think about that one ;-)). Our neighbour invited them to graze on her field recently to keep the grass down. In the middle of the field is (or was) an impeccable grange full of hay. Obviously I’m not a horse, but given the choice, I would think that fresh green grass would trump dusty, year-old hay any day. Apparently not so; by yesterday evening one of them (I’m not naming names) had head butted the door to the grange (it boasted a horse’s head-shaped hole) and was calmly helping himself to the meticuously stacked hay inside. Oh the shame!
Ingredients (serves 6)
Pastry
80g spelt flour
50g chickpea flour
50g butter
2 tablespoons olive oil
Pinch of sea salt
Roughly 6 tablespoons of cold water
Filling
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 leek, washed and chopped
1 small courgette, peeled and chopped
5 onions (sweet if possible), peeled and sliced
2 cloves of garlic, crushed
2 teaspoons of honey
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 teaspoon paprika
2 tomatoes, sliced
6 slices of goat’s cheese
8 leaves of fresh basil to decorate
To make the pastry, begin by cutting the butter into small cubes. Sift the flours and a pinch of salt together into in a mixing bowl, also adding the cubes of butter. Rub in and blend by hand until the mixture becomes crumbly. Add the olive oil, combining well and then add the cold water, mixing rapidly with a spoon. Remove the mixture from the bowl onto a lightly floured surface. Knead until you obtain a ball of pastry (if the mixture isn’t ‘sticky’ enough to form a ball, you may need a drop more water). Wrap in a clean cotton tea towel or some cling film and leave to ‘rest’ in the fridge for about two hours. This relaxes the dough and makes it easier to use.
Preheat the oven to 180°C. Fry the leek, onions, garlic and courgette in the olive oil until soft (about 15 minutes). Add the seasoning and honey and set aside. Roll out the pastry and line a tart tin . The pastry will be quite crumbly so you’ll need to be gentle and patch up the holes (I’ve become quite an expert ;-)). Blind bake the pastry for 12 minutes and then fill with the onion mixture, adding the sliced tomatoes, goat’s cheese and basil on top. Sprinkle the top with black pepper and little more paprika and bake for about 20 minutes. Serve hot. -
Blackberry and apple crumble (gf) and hideouts for dogs
by Hugo, Canine Correspondent
I’m really not a complaining sort of dog, but there are a few things that have been bothering me recently. The Bossy One invited lots of friends to stay this Summer, which is fine because it means that I can have fun knocking them over and sitting on their laps. But it also means that she has less time to devote to me. And that is not fun, in fact it’s hurtful because I feel neglected. Admittedly she still takes me for walks, but frankly her mind is elsewhere when she’s jabbering away or picking blackberries. Usually she spends her time worrying about where I am while I’m off chasing deer and rabbits. Sometimes I hide to watch her look for me; it’s quite amusing to watch her unspool. Anyway, to get away from it all, I made myself a little camp under the hydrangea bushes in front of the house. Only the hens know where I am; at least they still remember I exist.
Ingredients
300g apples, peeled, cored and sliced
2 tablespoons maple syrup
80ml orange juice
150g blackberries, rinced
80g chickpea flour
40g ground almonds
2 tablespoons almond flakes
pinch of ground sea salt
40g butter, cut into cubes
40g organic virgin coconut oil, at room temperature and cut into small cubes
30g cane sugar
Preheat the oven to 170°C. Gently simmer the sliced apples and maple syrup for a couple of minutes in about 80ml of orange juice (or apple juice or water). Add the blackberries and transfer to an ovenproof baking dish. To make the crumble, put the butter, coconut oil, chickpea flour, ground almonds and salt into a bowl and rub in with your fingertips. Add the almond flakes, mixing well. Sprinkle the mixture over the fruit, adding the cane sugar to the top of the mixture. Bake for about 35 minutes and serve hot with vanilla ice cream. -
Courgette and cheese paschtida and seared taste buds
This recipe is courtesy of Lora who came to stay recently (thanks Lora! :-)). It meant welcome respite from kitchen duties for me, but also respite for everyone elses’ taste buds which had been viciously incinerated by my tandoori chicken seasoned with copious amounts of very hot chilli powder. According to Léo, I had applied the spices with ‘unusually frenzied enthusiasm’. He confiscated my chilli stockpile as, apparently, I am no longer to be trusted. Whatever — if it means delicacies such as these, I’m trying to think up other ways to cause grevious bodily harm to my guests ;-).
Ingredients
750g courgettes, cut into cubes
3 eggs
3 tablespoons spelt flour
175g Feta cheese, cut into cubes
100g Comté (or other hard cheese), grated
1 tablespoon cream
salt, pepper, nutmegPreheat the oven to 180°C. Cook the courgettes in boiling water until tender. Blot the excess water and set aside. Beat the eggs and gradually add the flour, mixing well. Incorporate the courgettes, egg mixture, cheeses and seasoning and transfer the mixture to a buttered cake tin or individual muffin moulds (as I did). Cook for 45 minutes until golden brown. Serve hot with a crisp green salad. -
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Caramelised peach and buckwheat pudding cake (gf) and tired chicken legs
Hugo and I were nearly a kilometre from the house yesterday evening when we realised that we were not alone — all three hens had followed us. (The only other time I have seen chicken legs move as fast was at a rugby club barbecue). It goes without saying that Hugo was not best pleased. He tried to explain, rather tendentiously I felt, that they should return home, but to no avail; they were absolutely determined that they needed some exercise. As a result, for the moment at least, we have three hens too knackered to lay eggs.
This pudding cake is another adaptation from my Book of the Moment: Love, Bake, Nourish by Amber Rose. Luckily for me, it is fairly egg-light, but no less delicious for it.
Ingredients
For the peach topping:
3 peaches, peeled and cut into slices
2 cardamon pods
25g salted butter
2 tablespoons maple syrup
For the pudding base:
75g butter
75g organic virgin coconut oil
75g organic buckwheat flour
2 large free-range eggs (preferably from hens that don’t partake in cross-country events)
75g ground almonds
1 teaspoon cinnamon
50g maple syrup
50g agave syrup
Preheat the oven to 170°C. Caramelise the peaches and ground cardamon pods in the butter and maple syrup. Set aside. Cut the butter and coconut oil into small cubes and cream with an electric mixer until pale and fluffy. Add a tiny bit of the flour, then the eggs one at a time. Continue to beat the mixture until fluffy. Fold in the remaining flour, ground almonds, cinnamon and syrups.
Transfer the mixture into a greased cake tin, levelling well with the back of a spoon. Place the caramelised peaches on top of the cake mixture, drizzling any remaining juice over the top. Bake for about 40 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean. Leave to cool. Delicious served with vanilla ice-cream. -
Quatre-quarts (pound cake) and irritatingly untidy hens
Things are dodgy here in the canine mental health department — Hugo’s OCD is back with a vengeance. He has decided that the three hens should be together AT ALL TIMES. Apparently stray hens are just too untidy to contemplate. Luckily, the white hen and older red one do seem to stick together (whether through choice or fear of Hugo is unclear). The younger red hen though is a bit of a rebel and seems to enjoy teasing neat-freak dogs. I’ve given up yelling at him for grabbing her by the wings and depositing her in her rightful place next to the others as he doesn’t seem to harm her (beyond making her soggy) and she’s obviously anything but traumatised. He makes the most of having her in his mouth to lick her clean; In Hugo’s world, cleanliness is next to godliness.
Although pound cake (quatre-quarts as it’s called in France) really contains too much sugar to be considered healthy, I’ve tried to make it as unhealthy as possible by using ‘whole’ ingredients. The result is rich, delicious and versatile: a great vehicle for all sorts of toppings or accompaniments.
Ingredients
250g spelt flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
125g butter
125g extra virgin organic coconut oil
200g cane sugar
4 large organic eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla essence
1 tablespoon rum
Sift the flour, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda together and set aside. Cut the butter and coconut oil into cubes and leave to soften at room temperature for a few minutes. Beat with an electric mixer for about ten minutes until fluffy and then gradually add the sugar, continuing to beat. Add the eggs one at a time and whisk for another few minutes. Lastly, add the rum and vanilla essence and gently fold in the flour. Transfer the mixture to a buttered loaf tin and cook in a non-preheated oven at 160°C for an hour, or until a skewer comes out clean. Leave to cool in the tin. -
Apple and almond muffins and lawnmower paths
My husband has decided that the heat is too intense to navigate our land on foot and has starting going everywhere by lawnmower, as you do. He explained the logic at some length, although I don’t remember much; my mind must have slipped into neutral. I believe it was something to do with ‘efficiency’ and the fact that if I’m looking for him, I just have to follow the path of most freshly-cut grass. Or something. Our bank manager sounded more than a little bit nonplussed on the ‘phone this morning when I told him that he could indeed speak to ‘Monsieur’ just as soon as I had identified the most recently-cut grass strip…
These muffins are deliciously light and tasty whether you’re certifiable or not. They are adapted from one of my favourite cookbooks of the moment: ‘Love, Bake, Nourish’ by Amber Rose.
Ingredients (makes 12)
2 apples, peeled, cored and cut into pieces
1 teaspoon cinnamon
60g salted butter, softened
60g coconut oil, softened
150g spelt flour
2 organic eggs
1 teaspoon baking powder
160g agave syrup
60g ground almonds
50ml milk
Preheat the oven to 180°C. Sprinkle the apples with cinnamon and poach until soft in a small amount of water. Set aside. Cream the butter and coconut oil for about 4 minutes. Add a spoonful of flour, beat again, then add the eggs, beating further until the mixture is light and fluffy. Add a little more flour to prevent curdling. Gently fold in the rest of the flour, baking powder, agave syrup, ground almonds and milk. Lastly, fold the poached apples into the mix. Spoon the mixture into muffin trays and bake for 25 minutes.
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Baby rabbits
As promised in my previous post, and especially for Suzanne and Azita here are the baby bunnies 🙂
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Roasted summer vegetable soup and fried brains
We’ve been seeing some pretty strange behaviour here over the past few days – perhaps the effect of the sudden inferno-style heat? First I caught my husband chatting to one of the hens: ‘hello gorgeous, how are you today?’. I thought initially, rather immodestly, that he was talking to me, but quickly deduced he wasn’t when he went on to ask: ‘have you laid an egg today sweetheart?’. Since this blatant come-on, she’s hardly left his side (does this mean he has a chick on the side ;-)); I found her perched on a chair in the kitchen this morning while he ate breakfast.
An unknown rabbit gave birth to five babies in the horses’ hay a few days ago – luckily we realised before they got pitch-forked. Don’t rabbits have tunnels or dens or something to use as maternity units? Or is this the equivalent of giving birth on the hard shoulder of the motorway? Maybe she was caught short. Now of course I have to keep rushing over every half hour to check they haven’t been terrorised by our psychotic mare (she has rabbit issues).
And then last night, just to tip me over the edge and despite lengthy negotiation, Hugo steadfastly refused to go to bed, preferring to sleep on the electric cables under my desk. I obviously haven’t escaped the brain-melt either though because I made this piping hot soup for dinner the other evening when the temperature hadn’t dipped below 35°C all day.
Ingredients (serves 8)
1 sweet potato, peeled
1 red pepper
2 onions
2 courgettes
4 tomatoes
3 cloves of garlic
4 tablespoons of olive oil
1 teaspoon paprika (or piment d’Espelette)
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 sprigs of rosemary
1.5 litres organic vegetable stock
5 fresh basil leaves
Chop the vegetables into chunks (leaving the cloves of garlic whole), toss in the olive oil and arrange on a roasting tray. Add the seasoning and rosemary sprigs and roast in an oven preheated to 180°C for about 30 minutes. Once roasted, transfer to a large saucepan/casserole dish, add the stock and bring to the boil. Cook for a further five minutes, add the basil and purée. -
Sweet potato crab cakes and lettuce pilfering
Not only is this recipe extremely appetising, it also has the advantage of being very nutritious: sweet potatoes are bursting with vitamin C and are also high in calcium, folate, potassium and beta-carotene. They have a low glycemic index, far lower than that of regular potatoes. Crab meat is high in protein and Omega 3, as well as being a potent source of vitamins and minerals.
Young delinquent horses, on the other hand, are less beneficial from a nutritional standpoint, particularly if they break into your vegetable garden and steal all your salad while you’re out to lunch. In an ideal world (a world in which horses do not kick down fences), a crisp green salad makes a delicious accompaniment, but they may also be served alone with a spicy chilli sauce.
Ingredients (serves 4)
350g sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks
¼ red pepper, diced
2 cloves of garlic, peeled
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
olive oil
350g crabmeat (I used tinned)
1 tablespoon fresh parsley, chopped
2 spring onions, chopped
Flour for coating the ‘cakes’ (I used quinoa flour)
2 tablespoons peanut oil for frying
Place the sweet potatoes, red pepper and garlic cloves on a roasting tray and douse with olive oil, salt and pepper. Roast in an oven preheated to 180°C for about 25 minutes. Mash the vegetables with a potato masher until you obtain a rough purée. Add the crabmeat, parsley and chopped onions, mixing well. Shape into individual cakes (roughly 8 cakes 5cm in diameter) and coat with flour. Fry in peanut oil (you could use another oil but I find peanut oil gives a lovely crisp result) until golden brown on both sides (roughly 4 minutes on each side). Serve with or without salad, depending on your animals’ disposition. 😉
