Smoked Mackerel and veggie packed Buckwheat-otto

Soooo.. its been a while! I had completely lost my blogging mojo and over the past year I've really been questioning in general how much I share and how much time I spend online. Tweeting this, Instagramming that, posting various things on Facebook and updating on other groups meant there was not enough time leftover just for me and so I decided enough is enough, no more blogging and a real cut back of being online. So I did nothing. Absolutely nothing. And its lovely to do nothing. The last year or so has frankly been far too stressful (though there were some good things too) and it was taking a toll on my health and so I took a month off. My inbox is full but it doesn't bother me anymore. My blog has only ever meant to be a hobby and I had been thinking about giving up entirely but I will hang in a bit longer and see how I feel.. 9 years is a long time!!

These winter nights are not helping either with the blogging!! Everything I photograph looks odd and I've spent ages trying to adjust the colour balance!! Fingers crossed in the new year we may also be in pastures new...hopefully with much better lighting too!! Though the whole process is the part of my current stress levels, it will be worth it in the end! I've already decided summer cannot come around quick enough - our current kitchen is freezing and I am currently huddled under my snuggie blanket typing, thawing out from cooking our dinner tonight!!

Comfort food is definitely winning at the moment and this is one of those dishes! I am following my FODMAP about 80% of the time and whilst I think I've worked out both wheat and dairy are not my BFF's, we are alright mates if we don't hang out too frequently! I missed bread to much to carry on long term, also with it being the 'C' season I've been eating out a lot and doing FODMAP + restaurants is always a bad idea!! I have been avoiding garlic but a little in this would be probably rather lovely!!

A few months back when I started re-assessing my diet, I discovered Buckwheat, which isn't actually a type of wheat and is more grain like in texture. Its slightly nutty and its really versatile - it soaks up flavours brilliantly too and I've been making lots of risotto style dishes with it. This dish is also a one pan winner - less washing up is always good!! Its also fairly cheap to make, in a month full of annual type bills its very welcome! 

Serves 3

Ingredients

100g buckwheat

200g smoked peppered mackerel, skinned and shredded

1 tin chopped tomatoes

1/2 courgette, cut into strips

1/2 red pepper, diced

1 small stick of celery, finely chopped

1 medium carrot, finely chopped

5 tbsp parmesan, grated

1/2 tbsp herbs de provence

2 tbsp basil leaves, chopped

S&P to taste

Soak the buckwheat for about 10 minutes in cold water and rinse well. (This helps to remove any wheaty dust etc but isn't the end of the world if you forget!)

Heat a glug of olive oil in a saute pan till hot and fry the carrot and celery for 5 minutes, until starting to soften and then stir in the remaining veggies and fry until the courgette is starting to become lightly golden - about 5 minutes. 

Stir in the prepared buckwheat, herbs de provence and add the tomatoes. Fill the empty tin with water and pour over, cover and bring to the boil, then reduce the heat down and simmer for 30 minutes or until the liquid has absorbed, stirring every 5-10 minutes.

Fold in the prepared mackerel and half the parmesan and heat through. Scatter over the basil and remaining parmesan and serve

Serve in big bowls and enjoy!

Chocolate and Almond Brownies - Gluten free and low #FODMAP

For these brownies they are definitely both gluten and wheat free, the FODMAP part is on the border - I did check them out with my dietitian as under FODMAP you are allowed 10 almonds - which after working out the total and scaling down is roughly 8-10 almonds per portion, so if you eat two, ahem, then they are taking you over that almond limit! Not that I ate two of course... that would never happen.. though I did have an amusing conversation at work today with a dental health nurse over a particular form she was showing me and after reading through it (as part of the project I am on) I did mutter the words 'is it bad I had a brownie for breakfast'! Apparently, yes. Oh well...

Baking is a passion of mine - it tends to happen quite organically without much prior planning and I love nothing better than destroying the kitchen and dusting everything with a fine scattering of icing sugar but following FODMAP has definitely tested my repertoire to the max and I've explored whole new areas of baking! After initial hit and miss I seem to be getting into a rhythm and these brownies are pretty darn good! The fact that there are just under 4 left out of 9 from the last night is a pretty good sign they are keepers! (though by the time I have now finished writing this up post a blinking windows update grr there are two!) B even gave them a 10 which is a huge improvement on the previous experiments!

These are not fudgey as some brownies but they are soft, light but not too light and chocolatey. I did umm and arr over putting rum in them but I did resist on this occasion. Maybe next time....(though I think am getting a reputation as at a friends annual birthday bbq the other night I was asked if my flapjacks had alcohol in them!!)

The one main ingredient in making these brownies a little on the squidge side - mashed banana. They need to be very ripe, on the edge of packing their bags and walking out the fruit bowl. You won't taste the banana but they keep the brownies so moist without lots of butter - I found with earlier gluten free bakes they were a little on the dry side but not with these!

Makes 9 brownies

Ingredients

100g butter

125g light brown muscavado sugar

2 tbsp golden syrup

75g rice flour

25g ground almonds

25g cocoa

1 tsp baking powder

2 small ripe bananas, mashed

2 eggs beaten

50g dark chocolate,chopped

2 tbsp flaked almonds

Preheat oven about 190o (my oven still flexible but basically a medium hot oven)

Line a square tin with baking paper

In a pan melt the butter, sugar and golden syrup until slightly foaming and syrupy, leave to one side

Sift together the rice flour, ground almonds, baking powder and cocoa. Stir in the mashed banana and lightly beat in the eggs.

Use a fork to gently stir through the melted sugary mix until combined. Fold in the chocolate chunks. Pour into the prepared tin, scatter over the flaked almonds and bake for 35-40 minutes or until just cooked through.

We had ours in a bath of soya custard (surprisingly nice!)

Recently In My low FODMAP Kitchen...

Since I started trialing the FODMAP diet back in early June to try and tackle my misbehaving digestion, which frankly now feels like a lifetime ago, a lot has changed:

1 - Our food shop has gone up in price which came as a surprise. I think I went possibly a little over the top finding alternatives to pasta and having to rethink my lunches. Quinoa flour doesn't come cheap, even more so if its still sitting in the cupboard a month later wondering what on earth to do with it! Also special breads and flours are roughly 3 times the price of regular stuff, not that I've used them a huge amount it all adds up. As part of trying to tame the IBS symptoms before starting the FODMAP I also don't eat any leftover pasta or rice dishes any more due to the resistant starches that form when cooled so a packed lunch that is also tasty and filling has proved a very big challenge!

2 - Eating out is frequently frustrating - I have utter sympathy for anyone with genuine food allergies as navigating menu's is a proper challenge! I must admit most places have pleasantly surprised me with their flexibility and even one particular chain said the manager had to take my order for special diets and another when I asked for the vinegar for my chips said no, it was  malt and unsuitable, however I was actually asking for my mum so they let me have it!

3 - I am bored of reading labels. Basically most things not made by your fair hands will be unsuitable in the shop. So its best not to look and save yourself the disappointment. Oh and don't go shopping hungry! This is not always easy and admittedly I was so hungry following a long drive the other night I bought a gluten free fruit loaf in the supermarket and ate two slices in the car fresh out the bag dry with no butter on! Fortunately this Genius loaf was actually quite tasty!

4 - I have discovered as lovely as onions and garlic are, you can still cook delicious food without them. Finally. There was some tears. At least garlic oil is surprisingly allowed... 

5 - Last but not least - and its a biggie. My tummy is happy for the first time. Its not all plain sailing and I miss real cake sooooo very much but not being constantly bloated, able to wear pretty dresses that are fairly snug is quite wonderful. I still have the odd day when perhaps I had a nice chilled fruit cider on a hot day and I accept there may be some comeback on that ... 

Here are a few of the highlights that were all low #FODMAP and also wheat and gluten free:

Thai Pork with rice noodles

Bacon and Halloumi Salad

A rich and meaty ragu with freefrom penne

Lemon green tea and sesame crumbed Tuna steak and stir fried veggies

So hopefully if you are entering FODMAP territory in order to tame your IBS or similar digestive issues - don't lose hope - food can still be your friend, its just learning who your friends are! I can't honestly tell you the relief after nigh on 16 years with IBS symptoms ranging from mild to severe - its been so bad I've even fainted a couple of times, not fun!

Oh and you can still eat cake! Just make sure its wheat and gluten free! These chocolate and ginger buns were delicious!

Banana, Sultana and Choc Chip Muffins #FODMAP

Yesterday I was very lucky to spend it attending a full day workshop on Quality Improvement for healthcare, which working for the NHS as part of a project to improve patient safety it was super beneficial and very interesting. I am really lucky to work with a great bunch - and a great Trust which is committed to improving quality to benefit both us staff and patients. I knew the provided sandwich lunch would be a no go on FODMAP but I had planned ahead and took some leftover baked millet & veggies. However, the hardest part was in the afternoon when trays of amazing looking and smelling cakes appeared - there was glossy topped caramellos, fancy cupcakes and lots of other treats and not a single one was suitable! All I could think about was cake!!

So last night after dinner and still craving cake, I decided to try again with some FODMAP suitable baking, last weeks banana bread was not a huge hit but I decided to persevere with a the banana theme, mainly though as I had two very, very ripe ones to use up! After a rummage through my cookery books I dusted off a copy of 'the egg book'. Its not a book I've admittedly used very much but it does have a few good recipes inside... I chose the banana muffins recipe but tweaked it to be FODMAP friendly, also I increased the liquid to allow for the gluten free flour - which seems much thirstier, and changed the honey to maple syrup. I also had no ground almonds so subbed for ground rice too! Oh and I added some suitable dark chocolate chips and sultanas and left out the nutmeg!

The mixture looked quite sloppy and I easily filled 12 cases rather than the 10 stated! I didn't hold out much hope but was pleasantly surprised and it satisfied my cake longing! The resulting muffin was light and taste rather good even if they did stick super well to their paper cases! Oh and as ever I had great fun making a mess!

Make 12 muffins

225g gluten free plain flour (I used Dove's Farm)

3 tsp baking powder

25g ground rice

1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

50g light soft brown sugar

2 large mashed bananas

2 large eggs

2 1/2 tbsp sunflower oil

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

150ml soya milk, unsweetened

3 tbsp maple syrup

50g sultanas

50g dark chocolate chips (check labels for suitability)

Pre-heat oven to 190o

Sift the flour, baking powder, cinnamon and ground rice together.

Separately mix together the eggs, banana, oil, milk and maple syrup. fold into the dry mixture gently and stir through the chocolate chips and sultanas, spoon into prepared muffin cases.

Bake for 20-25 minutes or until lightly golden and a skewer comes away cleanly

Veggie Secret Sausage Kebabs

Whilst I can make a perfectly decent barbecue sauce, I was trying to have a raid on the numerous jars collecting in the fridge (there is one full shelf and stragglers in the door and lurking on other shelves! I really am trying harder to use them up!) and I stumbled across a neglected opened jar of Opies Smoked Garlic BBQ Sauce I think my dad had originally bought over back in the summer – it’s a really tasty sauce and had me scheming as to how I would use it up....

In the meantime I was sent some veggie friendly sausages – now in the past the thought of a veggie sausage had me running to the hills as I had never found a decent one and I've been subjected to some pretty insipid non-beast’s along the way! Whilst I have mastered a veggie sausage roll with excellent they are not actually sausage shaped or suitable to cook on the grill and this is where my Secret Sausages stepped in! Reading the blurb off the back of the packet I tried, they hare 90% less fat, 50% of the calories and 35% less salt vs a regular sausage. Oh and 3 sausages count as 1 of your 5 a day too! Sounding like a health food right? All quite impressive indeed….

…But how do they actually compare vs a pork versions you may wonder? Okay so succulent meaty pork they are not but in their own right they held their shape well after being diced up and cooked, had a pleasant, slightly coarse texture that resembled the nice vegetables inside, not some mashed pulp of gawd knows what! Whilst they were not exactly very exciting on their own, flavour wise, livened up with the bbq sauce they worked a treat and would be a very acceptable vegetarian offering say for example at a bbq or a family gathering. I do cook mostly from scratch but I am only human and use a handful of cheat ingredients for when time is short and these are definitely something that’s handy to keep in the freezer on standby!

This particular packet of Secret Sausage's were Rosemary and Garlic, and they are made with green beans, mixed peppers, rice and rosemary, plus garlic of course! They are vegetarian society approved product as well as being gluten free so are suitable for special diets.

Ingredients:
6 Rosemary & Garlic Secret Sausages
½ a large courgette
1 medium red pepper
BBQ sauce, to glaze - about 1 cup
Spray oil, to cook

Makes 4-6 kebabs

Using a sharp knife cut each sausage into 3 equal pieces. Halve the courgette length way's and again so you have four long quarters. Slice into 1 cm chunks.

De-seed the pepper and cut into half inch squares.

Thread alternate pieces of courgette, sausage and pepper onto the kebabs. Spray with oil and grill for about five minutes, brush over the bbq sauce and cook for a further five minutes, turn the kebabs over, grill lightly before glazing again until cooked through – about 5 minutes.

Serve with my herby beans (my next post) or a nice salad or as we are now winter mash is perfectly acceptable!

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As I finally used up the last of my neglected jar of Barbecue sauce I have entered my Kebab's into Elizabeth's Kitchen Diary's No Waste Food Challenge which is being held by Slice Off Me this November!

Disclaimer: I was sent a variety of Secret Sausage's for review. I recevied no payment for this and all images, text and opinions remain the property of Anne's Kitchen.

Honeyed Chorizo, Chia and Baby Potato Salad

The previous day to making this rather delightful salad, whilst out shopping in Oxford, I had eaten a less than delightful salad in a cafe, described simply as 'Chicken and Chorizo salad'. It 'simply' consisted of 4 thin slices of out of the packet ready sliced chorizo, some sliced green lettuce, some under ripe tomato slices, a few token strips of cold, bland chicken and er oh a couple of slices of cucumber on a cheap brown plate. No dressing, no seasoning, no nothing. It was a sad sight. After a little hunting I clutched the found bottle of salad cream in its slightly sticky bottle like a prize. Oh and don’t forget the amount of ready ground pepper I had to adorn it with in order to force it down with.

Needless to say I decided to try and make myself a decent chorizo based salad and I was rather delighted with this. Crispy greenery, spicy delicious slices of chorizo tousled with a slightly sweet tangy glaze over wholesome potato chunks. This is a real salad and one which will be a keeper! Serve warm if you can but cold is just fine too.

By adding the cucumber to the pan, it wilted slightly in a good way and actually got fully eaten by my boyfriend who normally hates the stuff! Its a good job he doesn't read my blog!

Easy - Serves Four

Ingredients:

100g spicy chorizo cooking sausage (mine was labelled Picante)

1 small orange pepper, de-seeded and sliced thinly

100g crispy salad mix

500g baby new potatoes, halved

1 heaped tsp Clear honey

2 tbsp good Balsamic vinegar

1 tbsp chia seeds

2 inches cucumber, halved lengthways, de-seeded and cut into thin half moons

4 cherry tomatoes, quartered

1 tsp olive oil

Method:

Boil the potatoes in salted water until tender and drain well.

Meanwhile heat the oil in a saute pan, and fry the peppers for 2 minutes and stir through the chorizo, fry until golden and releasing its lovely orange hued oil. Stir through with the potatoes, cucumber and tomatoes for a further minute. 

Make a well in the middle of the pan, pour in the balsamic vinegar followed by the honey and toss together with the ingredients, to thoroughly coat everything. Remove from the heat and cool for a couple of minutes before assembling.

In a large bowl scatter out the salad leaves and spoon over the pan contents. Sprinkle with the chia seeds and serve.

Also keeps well for the following days lunch! 

Twice baked Tuna Jackets with Green Bean Saute

Sorry I have been a bit sparse in posting these past few months.. since Christmas I have been really struggling to live normally, yet alone focus on my blog. Its became a chore to be honest at times, battling daily fatigue and brain fog, changing medications and eventually a long period off work due to hideous hip pain, that saw me questioning my sanity most days… however following intense physio, pilates, a new heat pad (I love it!) lots of relaxation, soul searching, spending quality time with loved ones and attempting to eat normally I am hopefully back on the road to recovery.. I am trialling out a few different health foods and will be reporting back at a late date with the results.. 

..Fortunately its already paid off a little – this past week saw me back at work, albeit in a new role which is a little less physical and I no longer come home in tears of pain, which has to be a bonus. It’s still a little up in the air as to whether its long term but at least its something, and whilst its rather busy I quite enjoy it! Best of all its Monday to Friday and no more shifts! Yay! I am Taurean and creature of habit, we like routine!!

These delicious and easy Twice baked Tuna jackets were made during one of the brighter days and are delicious. Jacket potatoes are such an easy low faff meal, and for bad days a comfort to the soul too! We always tend to have tins of tuna in the cupboards, very handy for when you have forgotten to thaw or buy anything else in! Though doing the potatoes in the oven is necessary, micro-zapped jackets just are not the same and as there is only about 5 minutes max of preparation involved its well worth the wait, and you can rest in between! I love the look of the twice baked ones, are almost cottage like..

You can use standard wholegrain mustard in this, however if you have a flavoured one even better – I used Bulldog mustard, which has a an extra chilli kick and it helps liven it up! If you have a taste for chilli try adding a little chilli sauce or freshly sliced chilli!

Serves two

Ingredients

2 large baking potatoes

1 tin tuna flakes in spring water

2 tsp wholegrain mustard

30g grated mature cheddar

1 finely sliced spring onion

100g plain yoghurt (I used Greek) – you may need less it depends on your potato size

S&p to taste

1 tsp oil

Heat your oven to about 210o – mine is ancient and slow so be cautious!

Roll the potatoes in oil, pierce and place on a small baking tin, roast for around an hour – will depend on your oven and potato size or until cooked through – a skewer will come away easily.

Carefully transfer the potatoes to a chopping board, slice the top off lengthways - about 1/2 an inch and scoop out the insides into a bowl, being careful not to pierce the shell.

Mix in the remaining ingredients in a bowl, add the mash, mix and season to taste: 

Use the mixture to re-fill the potatoes, put their lids back on and bake for a further 15-20 minutes or until hot inside and cooked through.

You can serve with your choice of green veg. I made a quick green bean saute to serve with mine. Frozen green beans are a great veg to keep in the freezer, and cook quickly with little fuss!

150g frozen fine green beans

½ red pepper, finely sliced

2 tsp lemon juice

1 knob unsalted butter

1 sliced spring onion

Heat a non stick frying pan, add the green beans and cook on a medium heat – they will thaw out quickly, stir through the red pepper and spring onion, add the butter and lemon juice and fry for about 3-4 minutes or until softened and cooked through. If they are sticking, add a splash of water to loosen.

Serve the Tuna jackets with the green bean saute:

We both loved these stuffed potatoes and its something which will made again, and again! 

Curried Roast Cauliflower with Yoghurt

For a long time I will admit to being a magpie for tearing recipes from magazines, in fact some of my favourite recipes have been discovered this way, and this particular one makes no exception. I have ring-binders stuffed to bursting with them, though organised quite neatly in sections and a running list on my pc... yeah I probably should get out more...!! Even with the internet nowadays and a wealth of bookmarked recipes I am still very fond of the old tear out's! I suppose its the same reason I have a few cookery books, there is magic to be found within them.

This recipe was everything it promised and more. I recently finally after two attempts received my new myWaitrose card (post here is a nightmare as our lease address differs from royal mail!), and in turn you get their free Kitchen magazine when in store.. of course I had to pick it up and quickly discovered I wanted to make most of the recipes in it but as I was planning a curry night with a girlfriend and after some deliberating over this recipe or the Cauliflower and cashew biryani in last months Sainsbury's mag, it was a close call though this won! The other one remains on the to make list for next time!

As part of our little feast we had my Aubergine Bhajis, a variation of my Spinach and coconut Dal, pilau rice, chapattis and my favourite carrot and sultana salad too! The most joyous parts is that it created plenty of snacks in the fridge with all the lovely leftovers for a few days!

Serves 2 as a main / 4- 6 as a side dish
Ingredients

1 x 800g cauliflower (roughly a medium to a large size)
3 tbsp vegetable oil
2 crushed garlic cloves
1 sliced small red onion
1 tbsp curry powder (I used madras)
1/2 tsp turmeric
1/2 tsp cumin seeds
1/2 tsp salt (at the most!)
1/4 lemon, juice (I used squirty lemon!)
100ml greek Yoghurt (mine was Turkish)
small handful coriander leaves, roughly chopped

1) Pre-heat oven to 180o / gas 4. Slice up the cauliflower inner core and the florets into 3cm pieces.

2) Place the cauliflower, all the spices, garlic, salt, oil and onion in a bowl. Tip into a roasting tray and cook for 25 minutes (unless your oven is as useless as mine - apx 45 mins!) until the onion has softened and the cauliflower is starting to brown slightly.

3) Remove from the oven and squeeze (squirt!) over the lemon juice and dollop the yoghurt. Scatter over the coriander.

This will keep a few days in the fridge and is also rather delightful smooshed into a leftover chapatti and eaten when alone. Hot or cold its soooo tasty, I hope you enjoy it as much as we did! The fragrant spicing with the cooling yoghurt is quite divine for a humble cauliflower! Though it was a rather pretty cauliflower as cauli's go, a real creamy big beast from the farm shop!

Being honest with you I have my dear friend C to thank really as she did pretty much all the dish, whilst I cooked the dal and other things and just handed over the relevant spices! C had never eaten roasted cauliflower before nor the leaves which I convinced her to include, and it was a joyful discovery for all of us!

**I hope my wildfood friends enjoy this too, sorry for the delay in posting!**

Smoked Aubergine Puree AKA Baba Ganoush - for Random Recipes & Alphabake A

So this months Random Recipe and Alphabake entry was planned earlier in the week, in good time for the deadline - which is er today.. however I had a bit of a flare and spent two days in a zombie state...these new painkillers sure are strong but if they sort out my hip it will be worth it! It was already fun climbing stairs with a pair of dodgy knees but throwing in the hip is just no fun! I think this week I survived mostly on tea and ready to eat cocktail sausages which are kept in the drinks fridge (my weakness!). 

Fortunately this morning with the rain brought a brighter day after and I actually made it out of the house, albeit with my boyfriend driving and it was only to the garden centre but it was still nice to see daylight! Plus it has a great food hall and I picked up something for my dad's birthday which I better not write here just incase he reads this...

So enough of me rambling - I normally ask my boyfriend to choose at random but he was out and being unable to bend at the time I reduced my selection to the shelf at arm level and methodically counted to ten whilst moving my arm back and forth - the neighbours already know I am a bit special so hopefully just carried on by... the book turned out to be 'Just like mother used to make' which my mum actually did buy for me a few years back. Its full of homely recipes but seems to solely be used for drop scones so it was about time a new recipe was tried from its floury pages! I then as per the chosen letter of A for this months theme, then closed my eyes and moved my finger up and down the tiny A section for a further 10 seconds and out came Baba Ganoush - which is technically B but its made with aubergines and listed under A so it became the chosen recipe! For some reason I have always loved the name Baba Ganoush, it sounds so exotic like some foreign dancer or stage presence!

The recipe itself is a doddle to make, apart from that I have the slowest oven in the world so took double the time stated but it was delicious. B had never eaten it before and in all honesty I wasn't sure if I had but I love anything aubergine'y so really it couldn't be bad... its best eaten with loved ones, the garlic breath is entirely worth it!

I scaled the original recipe down slightly - I always find aubergines vary so much in size - my dad actually picked it up for me as he lives near lots of great little ethnic grocers and was coming around for lunch - and assumed mine was a medium to large sized one and I have scaled the recipe accordingly. I also subbed the extra virgin olive oil for extra virgin rapeseed oil, mainly as the EVOO I have is very tasty but also very peppery and I wanted to taste the aubergine and the latter oil is nice and buttery tasting....mmm butter! And the lemon juice was from a bottle shh!

Also whilst it says to use a food processor, I am lacking this one essential piece of technology and used the liquidiser which worked a treat - if using a food processor don't worry about chopping things up before hand. I finished it off with a little smoked paprika as it made the smoosh a bit more attractive and a little more smokier too!

Makes one bowl of lovely dip/ puree/ smoosh

Easy

1 med/ large aubergine

1 clove garlic

2 tsp tahini

1 tbsp extra virgin rapeseed oil

1/4 tsp salt (I used himalayan)

few twists black pepper

2 tsp lemon juice

Smoked paprika to garnish if desired

If you are lucky enough to have a gas hob, sear the aubergine all over until skin is wrinkled. If like me you don't, place the whole aubergine in the oven, on its highest setting until the skin has wrinkled. The book claimed 20 minutes. Mine was more 45 minutes.. and it burst, guessing that was a good sign it was ready.. place in a bowl and cover, leave to cool.

Once cooled, remove the skin and discard the stalk, chop roughly and place in the blender with everything else. Blitz to form a smooth puree. Taste and adjust accordingly - I added a little bit more lemon and salt to mine to taste. It says to leave it 30 minutes to thicken but my cooked aubergine had been left whilst out for a good few hours and I served it up after about 5 minutes and was perfect for us! 

Spoon the mixture into a serving bowl and sprinkle over a little smoked paprika if desired.  

I served ours with a little fridge raid feast - toasted pitta breads, olives, rosebud beetroots and carrot sticks. B loved it, he did comment that this meal would be something he would never had considered before meeting me. I guess thats a good compliment! It was clean plates all round after!

Overall verdict? A resounding yes to enjoying it now and yes to having it again! I loved its silky smooth texture and little hum of lemon and garlic, definitely a keeper. 

Many thanks to this months hosts for the inspiration to give some love back to the cookbooks: 

Dom at Belleau Kitchen 

Caroline Makes 

The More Than occasional Baker 

Sticky Ginger and Almond Rice Pudding (Dairy and Gluten free)

Allergy friendly cooking with Eating Smart Magazine, from Woman and Home 

Over the past few years I’ve not always been that well but I’ve somehow battled through and as I’ve spoken about before, I think diet plays a huge part  in healing and recovery but when food can be a cause of illness it can be very hard to get back on track. It can be also quite overwhelming to work out what is good to eat – and can be a constant source of anxiety... overall my insides are better behaved than ever before nowadays just by relaxing about food..

The recent diagnosis of Fibromyalgia has knocked me a bit, though not entirely unexpected. Some days I lack the energy to even go down stairs and get something to eat but I’ve been reading up on gluten free diets easing the symptoms and starting to explore that area further. .Whilst I have been tested for Coeliac disease and it was negative, if it relieves symptoms and allows to claim some life back its worth a shot!

Overall its still very much work in progress though and as I love food so much on the good days, its fun to discover new food and drink, and Woman & Home very kindly sent me a box full of free-from goodies to experiment with and a copy of their fabulous Eating Smart magazine to give some inspiration, it is jam packed full of delicious ideas and recipes, including useful product guides depending on your dietary needs.

With dairy, I seem fairly tolerant I just don’t over do it but my lovely auntie can’t have milk anymore, even things like milky rice pudding can make her poorly and I recently stayed with her for a few days and I decided to try and recreate a few favourites dairy free and also discover some new delights along the way! This pudding I made happened to be both dairy and gluten free so suitable for lots of people following special diets.

I have tried a few different dairy free milks with mixed results, I don’t mind soya in things, I rather like hazelnut milk and I had not used Almond milk before this but it screamed pudding to me and I set about recreating a rice pudding to remember! Keeping on the almond theme I chose flaked almonds to create a crunchy topping and sweet fragrant stem ginger to give it a very delicious twist! I think I actually prefer this now over regular rice pudding and my auntie loved it! Which was of course the main reason I made it, fortunately everyone else liked it too and B had seconds. And I may have too….

Sticky Ginger and Almond Rice Pudding

90g pudding rice

1 litre unsweetened Almond milk

60g sugar

2 tsp stem ginger syrup (from the jar)

Topping:

30g flaked almonds

 2 balls stem ginger finely chopped

1 + 1 heaped tsp dairy free margarine/ butter

NB: We had the oven on high cooking dinner but you can cook just a bit longer on the same temperature if you prefer. All ovens vary too so judge accordingly!

Serves 4 generously

Preheat oven to 185o

Grease a suitable baking dish with 1 tsp of the dairy free margarine. Ideally the dish 2-3 inches deep.

Place the rice, sugar, milk and syrup in the dish and bake for an hour. Reduce the temperature to 140o and cook for a further 1 ½ hours or until it has developed a golden skin and most of the milk has been absorbed and the rice is fluffy.

Meanwhile toast the almonds lightly in a dry heavy frying pan, add the 1 heaped tsp of margarine and the ginger pieces, fry for a further minute then reserve to one side, occasionally stirring to break up the mixture, it should be light and slightly crispy. 

About 10 minutes before serving, sprinkle over the top of the rice pudding and cook for a further 5-10 minutes, allowing the ginger to melt slightly into the mixture.

Remove from the oven and allow to sit for 5 minutes before serving into bowls, making sure the crunchy topping remains on top! It will be very hot to be careful!

I hope you enjoy it as much as we did!

Disclaimer: This post was in collaboration with Eating Smart Magazine from Woman and Home, recipe and images remains the property of Anne's Kitchen. I received products for review and expenses to cover my time and ingredients

Spicy Vegetable Chickpea Pancakes

A few weeks ago after a nice lie in and having done the Sunday morning excitement of cleaning the flat, lunchtime had arrived. However knowing we were going out for a all you can eat Chinese that evening, we needed something fairly light for lunch... The only problem being that the fridge was pretty bare apart from half a carton of tomatoes and 3 tired looking cauliflower florets leftover from the Cheesy Cauliflower Pizza and a few other odds and ends lurking in the salad draw...

So what to do....Fortunately my B has become quite tolerant of eating vegetables, and in general vegetarian meals so that seemed a fairly logical route as we had no meat or fish to hand. I had remembered seeing a while back a recipe for pancakes made with chickpea flour (known as Gram or Besan flour) that didn't require anything other than water and a little stock powder - result! They are also known as Socca but I find that word doesn't seem as attractive to me! Makes me think of American football!

I looked at a few different recipes, and after perusing No Bread is an Island's post about these pancakes made one of his versions. And they were delicious! I wasn't too sure how many pancakes we would end up with but this just made 3, in a 24cm frying pan, which was ideal. Mine is from Dunelm Mill, who accidentaly shipped me the wrong one a few months back and its been invaluable, I have been thoroughly testing it and its brilliant value for money, holding up to whatever I throw at it, so to speak!

Now I will be honest in that the ingredients are not measured as since sharing a kitchen, I felt a bit odd writing things down with a stranger often present but have tried to remember it as best as I can! I also accidentally fried mine in oil, rather than in a dry pan but it made them so crispy it was a happy accident!

The filling for the pancakes was pretty much made up as I went along. After the discovering of grated cauliflower during the pizza recipe, I repeated for the filling as it cooks so fast that way. The grated mozzarella was also leftover from the pizza recipe, and stored in the freezer and it worked perfectly, is also suitable for vegetarians too. Though if you wanted to make it vegan just simply leave it out.

Makes 3 pancakes

Ingredients:

Pancakes-
100g chickpea flour
1tsp vegetable powder
225ml water
1 tsp oil + extra for greasing pan

Filling-
Approx 200ml passatta
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp ground coriander
3 grated cauliflower florets
1 tbsp fresh coriander leaves
3 tbsp grated mozzarella
2 sliced spring onions
1/2 diced red pepper
1/2 small green chilli
s&p

Start by heating a dash of oil in a small saucepan, fry the pepper, cauliflower and spring onions until softened, stir in the chilli, cumin and passatta and allow to simmer away whilst making the pancakes, it should be a fairly dry mixture.

To make the pancakes, mix the flour, water, olive oil and stock powder together until smooth - it will be fairly runny.

Heat 1 tbsp oil in the frying pan to a medium-hot heat. Swirl in the batter mixture and turn the pan to form a thin pancake. Cook for about two minutes or until golden brown and flip briefly to cook the inside for a further minute or less. Place on kitchen paper and repeat to make a further 2 pancakes.

Season the filling to taste, add the mozzarella and fill the pancakes. Serve immediately.

On the inside:

Cheesy Cauliflower Pizza

Now I'm not sure about you but its not everyday you see the words 'cauliflower' and 'pizza' used in the same sentence. But when its 3am, and your working nights the mind often starts to wander and whilst looking for some cauliflower inspiration, thanks to dad picking up a giant beast for me the other week, its amazing what you can stumble across...

One thing in particular that caught my attention was Cauliflower Pizza. I looked at several recipes and after consulting my B about trying it, though with some trepidation as him and cauliflower are not star crossed lovers and I'm not its no1 fan either, but we agreed to make it last week for dinner, on the basis that if all else fails then there's always the Chinese takeaway up the road...!

Fortunately for the wallet (and waistlines) the Chinese did without our business last Friday, as the 'pizza' was delicious! Its a little random, yes, but is definitely worth trying if only for the fact its super healthy and you have more than enough calories leftover to indulge in wine and something decadent for pudding but without the usual guilt after!

Just as a quick overview to show how guiltless it is - according to wiki:

Cauliflower 100g = 25 calories

Plain flour 100g = 366 calories

The original recipe came from Karen at Lavender and Lovage, who kindly gave me permission to post for you. Owing to have marginally different ingredients due to me not giving clearer instructions to the OH whilst he was out shopping, there were minor tweakings but its a near enough match! The mozzarella was a slight cheat as B bought it ready grated and the garlic was from a deli type jar of garlic cloves in herby oil, so no garlic breath after! Or not that we noticed anyway... And I have a chilli and garlic grinder so used that in lieu of the chilli flakes.

Whilst it doesn't of course have the same texture of a bread dough base, it surprisingly holds together well, and has a lovely slightly cheesey flavour, and its something we would definitely make again. It was also nice to have something a little different and makes a perfect light but surprisingly filling dinner. And whilst I was slightly dreading grating so much cauliflower, as I don't like grating anything it wasn't actually that bad, and you end with a bowl of almost fake snow, which feels quite pleasant to touch..

Serves 2:

340g grated cauliflower
1 large beef tomato, finely sliced
75g grated mozzarella
2 heaped tbsp grated grana padano
1 large egg, beaten
2 garlic cloves, finely minced
Pinch dried italian herb mix
s&p
4 fresh basil leaves, sliced
Few twists chilli grinder or 1/4 tsp chilli flakes

Pre heat oven to 210o/ gas 7
Line a baking sheet with baking paper

1) Start by grating the cauliflower into a large bowl. Place in the microwave and cook for 5-6 minutes, or until softened

2) Allow to cool for a few minutes, then add the 50g of the mozzarella and the grana padano, dried herbs and a little s&p, minced garlic and the egg. Stir well to combine into a sort of dough - the cheese will melt and start gluing it all together.

3) Turn out the mixture onto the baking sheet, to form a large circle about 1/2 inch deep. Smooth over and spray or glaze with a little oil. Cook for 15-20 minutes, or until lightly golden and firm to touch.

4) Remove from the oven, and place the tomatoes in a nice pattern, sprinkle over the basil, remaining cheese, chilli and garlic flakes and a little seasoning. Bake for a further 10 minutes or until bubbling lightly and the cheese has melted. Garnish with a little extra fresh basil on serving.

Serve with a nice green salad and enjoy!


Many thanks to Karen