Posts tagged pine nut

Roasted Tomatoes & Cold yoghurt

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‘ve been absent for some time I know. In fact, this has been my biggest hiatus from blogging since I started “forage in the pantry” back in 2012! I haven’t stopped cooking and creating you’ll be pleased to know! On the contrary, I’ve been taking inspiration from our recent travels “honeymooning” in Mexico where I fell head over heels in love with the tacos, avocados, burritos. An oh the mezcal. I’ve been greedily recreating since…and a Mexico post is due.

I have however been back at school. Wine School. Studying for my WSET Diploma. And with studying commitment has come a compromise. I’ve swapped camera spittoon and evenings learning the maximum yields in Champagne to the advantages of hand harvesting…

I am loving it and whilst the end if not near, I am hoping to have some time in the summer to dedicate for  recipe inspiration. So dear followers, I am simply on a blogging sabbatical, not retiring yet.

A sunny summer lunch with the family inspired me to pop up a quick and easy side dish that seemed to get a lot of attention. This one is from ‘Ottolenghi’s’ SIMPLE, but with some modifications, obviously. But its a real winner for ease and flavour. A monkey could make it, I promise. Its fantastic as a side dish for some roasted or barbecued meats or as a starter scooped up with warm pitta or crusty sour dough. The hot/cold contrast is an added bonus.

Serves 6 (as a side dish)

  • 600-800g cherry tomatoes, best you can afford.
  • 3 large cloves garlic, crushed
  • 2 shallots, sliced
  • 4 large sun-dried tomatoes, chopped
  • 2 tbsp sumac
  • 1 tsp dried chilli flakes
  • 1 tsp chopped thyme/rosemary
  • 1 lemon
  • Handful basil
  • Handful pine nuts, lightly toasted
  • 400g thick Greek yoghurt (I always use Skyr)
  • To serve – toasted pitta/crusty sour dough OR as a side dish.
  1. Preheat the over to 200 degrees and get yourself a large roasting tin/dish.
  2. Add all your cherry tomatoes in an even layer.
  3. Scatter over the sliced shallots, crushed garlic and chopped sun-dried tomatoes.
  4. Season well with salt and pepper and sprinkle over the sumac, chilli and thyme leaves. Grate over the zest of half a lemon.
  5. Drizzle with some olive oil (or use the oil from the sun dried tomatoes jar) and toss well to combine.
  6. Roast for about 20 minutes keeping an eye on them until the tomatoes have broken down and rebased their lovely juices. 
  7. Remove from the oven and leave to cool slightly before tearing over all but a handful of basil leaves.
  8. Get yourself a nice serving plate and spoon the yoghurt on top. Spread out and create a slight well in the centre.
  9. Spoon over your lovely roasted tomatoes and their juices.
  10. Scatter with the pine nuts and any left over basil and serve.

Bonus recipe – Roasted new potatoes with oregano & feta

  1. Preheat the oven to 220. Cut your potatoes in half and place on a baking tray
  2. Scatter with flaky salt and dried oregano.
  3. Drizzle with oil and roast for 30 minutes until crispy and golden.
  4. Remove from the oven and let cool slightly before crumbling over some feta.

Spinach & Cheese Spiral

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ilo pastry is one of my favourite pastries. Its light, crispy, buttery and gives the most amazing texture contrast when baked with a soft filling. Its not only ideal for savoury pies such as here but impressive when cooked with a sweet filling. This very spiral can be packed with a sweet almond frangipane and dusted with icing sugar for a delicious dessert.

This a a spiral version of the traditional Greek spanakopita that can be made in a round tin also. This may look more complicated but its actually a lot easier if you don’t have a tin to hand! It can be a bit tricky to manipulate however I promise once baked it will look like stunning. As someone who grumpily shoved the raw pie into the oven, cursing at how it looked “nothing like the recipe photo” and “how on earth can that be expected to work” it came out looking like a model spanakopita. I felt smug.

Serve with a simple fresh green salad with plenty of lemon juice and a scoop of Greek yoghurt.

TIP: Keep the filo pastry under a damp tea towel when not using to stop it drying out. It WILL dry out in minutes and break apart if not.

TIP: Use plenty of melted butter. Don’t leave any raw pastry un-buttered. It will make it easier to form into a spiral, prevent cracks and taste better.

Adapted from delicious magazine.

Serves 4

  • 1 pack filo pastry (about 6-7 sheets)
  • 125g unsalted butter, melted
  • 1 tsp sesame seeds
  • 1 tsp nigella seeds

Filling

  • 1 large red onion, sliced
  • 2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
  • 2 x 400g bags spinach leaves
  • 300g feta, crumbled
  • 150g goats cheese, crumbled
  • 40g parmesan cheese, finely grated
  • 3 free range eggs
  • Bunch dill, finely chopped
  • Bunch fresh mint, finely chopped
  • Pinch chilli flakes
  • 1 lemon, zest and juice
  • 75g pine nuts, toasted
  • Nutmeg
  1. Preheat the oven to 190 and line a baking tray with parchment.
  2. Wilt the spinach in batches in your biggest pan with a splash of water. Drain, cool and then squeeze out any excess water. Then, using a muslin cloth or tea towel, tightly squeeze the remaining water (you’ll be shocked at how little spinach you end up with).
  3. Roughly chop the remaining spinach and add to a big mixing bowl. Set aside.
  4. Fry the red onions for about 5 minutes until soft. Season and add the balsamic. Let this sizzle and cook and coat the onions until they become sticky. Remove from the heat and leave to cool.
  5. Add all the cheeses, the eggs, the dill (save a handful for serving), mint, chilli, lemon, pine nuts and a pinch of nutmeg to the spinach bowl. Season well. Finally, add the onions and mix well.
  6. Melt the butter if not already done so.
  7. Put one sheet of rectangular filo on a clear work surface and brush generously with butter. Top with another sheet and brush as before. Add 1/3 of the spinach mixture in a line against the long edge of the pastry. Roll into a cylinder, brushing with butter to cover any raw pastry.
  8. Twirl the long roll into a coil keeping it tight at the centre. Ensure its generously buttered or it will crack. Don’t worry if it does, you can patch it up with extra buttered filo before baking.
  9. Repeat this step with the other pastry sheets and the other 2/3 of mixture adding the rolls to the coil making it larger as you go.
  10. Brush the whole wheel liberally with butter. If there are any large cracks and the filling is exposed, take a spare piece of pastry, butter and then patch it up as best you can. Finally, scatter with a pinch of salt and the sesame and nigella seeds.
  11. Bake for about 30-40 minutes until golden brown and cooked.
  12. Serve scattered with extra dill.

I like to cut mine into a slice like you would a quiche. Some serve by the roll, pealing off bits of the spiral. As you like. My way you end up with a higher pastry ratio!

 

Rosemary Creme Brule & Pine nut Shortbread

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aster is all about lamb. Lamb is all about rosemary. Stay with me here…

 

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aster lunch menu planning for a group of hungry guests isn’t usually that flexible as lamb joints grace the ovens and aga’s of cooks round the UK. Dessert however allows some creativity. I love the flavour of rosemary in sweet dishes especially when you pair it with sweet caramelised apricots (see here for pannacotta), earthy honeyed pine nuts (see here for pine nut tartlets) or almond and sweet nectarine (see here). Its a shocker I’ve not made a rosemary ice cream yet but creme brule is the next best thing. Having wanted to serve this with some caramelised fresh apricots and almond praline, I settled for some pine nut shortbread since the season did not agree with my fruit of choice. Feel free to experiment here, adding more rosemary to your tastes. Its subtle but still infuses nicely into what made a fitting, elegant and light dessert after a joint of garlic studded lamb leg, roasties and spring greens.

Rosemary Creme Brule

Ingredients (Serves 6)

  • 500ml double cream
  • 100g caster sugar
  • 6 egg yolks
  • 1/2 vanilla pod
  • 2 x 10cm lengths of rosemary
  • Soft brown sugar to caramelise
  1. Preheat the oven to 150°C. Prepare 6 creme brule dishes/ramekins (dependant no the size you get around 6 portions- you can use whatever you like as long as its oven proof) and stand them in a deep roasting tray. The tray needs to be deep enough that the ramekins can sit in there and you can fill the tray with water half way up the ramekins.
  2. Lightly bash the rosemary in a pestle and mortar to begin to release the flavoured oils. Then add to a saucepan with the double cream and the vanilla pod.
  3. Scald the cream by bringing it just below boiling point then immediately remove from the heat and leave the rosemary/vanilla to infuse for 10-15 minutes. Strain and discard the rosemary. Scrape the vanilla seeds from the pod into the cream and discard the pod.
  4. Whisk the egg yolks and the sugar in a wide bowl.
  5. Carefully stir in the warm cream whisking continuously so that the eggs don’t scramble. Continue to whisk until all is combined.
  6. Sieve the mixture back into the saucepan. Heat on a very gentle heat for about 1 minute until the mixture begins to thicken a little and coats the back of a wooden spoon – careful the heat isn’t high or it will scramble.
  7. Pour the mixture into the ramekins.
  8. Fill the tray with boiling water so it rises half way up the side of the ramekin.
  9. Carefully place the tray in the oven and allow to cook for 30minutes until the creams are set with a slight wobble. Leave to cool and then chill until needed.
  10. When ready to serve, scatter a layer of the brown sugar over the top of each cream. Using a blow torch or carefully using a hot grill, heat the top until the sugar beings to caramelise and sets hard. Careful not to burn…its tricky…mine did!
  11. Serve with the shortbread biscuits for dunking if you wish.

Pine Nut Shortbread

Ingredients

  • 175g plain flour
  • 125g unsalted butter
  • 50g caster sugar
  • 50g pine nuts
  • 2 tbsp caster sugar
  1. Dry fry the pine nuts in a frying pan until golden. Leave to cool.
  2. Combine the butter, flour and sugar in a food processor and mix until combined and the mixture in crumbly. Then tip in a handful of the pine nuts and continue to processor the mixture until it forms a dough.
  3. Tip out onto a lightly floured surface and combine into a ball. Wrap in cling film and leave to cool in the fridge for about 15 minutes.
  4. Preheat the oven to 180°C.
  5. Combine the rest of the pine nuts in a pestle and mortar and bash lightly. Add the 2 tbsp of caster sugar and bash into a ‘pine nut sugar’.
  6. Roll the shortbread and cut out rounds (whatever shape and size you want) the thickness of 1 pound coin and place them onto a lined baking tray.
  7. Continue using up the dough. Scatter the pine nut sugar over the top of the shortbread evenly.
  8. Bake for about 15 minutes until just beginning to turn pale golden. (Don’t overcook past pale gold).
  9. Cool until ready to serve.

Fried Halloumi with Minted Cous Cous

This week I am wholeheartedly and gratefully embracing the warm sunny weather we’ve been having after a looooooooong refreshing and bracing spring. I can start work on my tan which currently can only be compared to a Farrow & Ball white paint chart where I am bordering the ‘Wimborne White’ with an aim of becoming more in keeping with a natural shade of ‘Cat’s Paw’. I love the excuse to bring out all the flavourful salads I crave which just don’t meet the winter demands….

Minty Cous Cous Salad (adapted from ‘What Katie Ate’)

  • 1 tsp ground cumin
  • 100g giant cous cous
  • 200g cous cous
  • 100g pumpkin seeds
  • 60g pine nuts
  • 100g flaked and/or whole almonds
  • 2 courgettes, peeled into ribbons or sliced thinly with a mandolin
  • 4 spring onions, chopped
  • A generous handful of chopped mint, basil, parsley and coriander or a mixture of these herbs you prefer chopped finely
  • Light vegetable stock
  • Handful of rocket, watercress or leaves
  • 1 lime
  • Extra virgin olive oil
  • Halloumi to serve
  1. Heat a splash of oil in a pan and add the cumin to fry for a minute. Then add the giant cous cous and toast until fragrant for a few minutes.
  2. Add a good splash of stock to cover and cook the cous cous for about 15 minutes until soft. Drain.
  3. Toast the pumpkin seeds, pine nuts and flaked almonds in a dry pan until fragrant.
  4. Add another splash of oil to a hot frying/grill pan and add the courgette strips and char for a few minutes until crisp.
  5. Season the small grain cous cous and add a knob of butter. Pour over 300g of stock, cover and allow to absorb. Then using a fork, fluff up the grains.
  6. Now to assemble, combine the giant drained cous cous and the fluffed cous cous. Add the courgette ribbons, seeds and nuts, a generous handful of the herbs and the salad leaves
  7. Add a squeeze of lime and a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil to loosen and scatter with the spring onions.

This is delicious served with some fried halloumi and a minted lime yoghurt and flatbreads and a lovely addition to a BBQ.

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Pine nut, honey and rosemary tartlets

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I love the subtlety rosemary can add to a dessert. Added carefully it can be delicious and after a first trying it in an outrageously scrumptious recipe which included a vat of stewed sweet apricots and some crunchy textured crumble, pine nuts were inevitably due to work. This is a cross between a pecan pie with pine nuts and a treacle tart. Served at the end of a recent dinner party topped with a chocolate sorbet, it was a winner.

Sweet pastry

  • 250g plain flour
  • 50g sifted icing sugar
  • 125g cold unsalted butter, cubed
  • 1 egg, beaten
  • Splash milk

Filling

  • 150g pine nuts
  • 2 eggs
  • 75g unsalted butter, cubed
  • 100g runny honey
  • 100g soft brown sugar
  • ½ vanilla pod, seeds removed OR 2 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1 small sprigs of rosemary (optional)
  1. Make you pastry by rubbing the flour and icing sugar into the butter to form a breadcrumb texture. Add the egg and a splash of milk to bring it together to form a soft dough but make sure you are gentle. Wrap in cling and leave to rest in the fridge for 30 minutes. Next, line 6 small or 1 large tart tin and bake blind (see here to do this)
  2. Preheat the oven to 180°C.
  3. In a large frying pan over medium high heat, toast your pine nuts until fragrant and golden. Leave to cool.
  4. Add the honey and rosemary sprigs to a saucepan and heat gently over a low heat until warm and runny. All the honey to sit on a low heat for a good 10 minutes to let the rosemary infuse
  5. Then remove and reserve the rosemary. Then whisk in the cubed butter until melted.
  6. In another bowl, whisk together the sugar, eggs and vanilla until combined.
  7. Strip the leaves from the reserved rosemary and chopped very finely to get about 1 tsp or less of the leaves and add back to the honey and butter (optional). Whisk the butter and honey mix into the egg and sugar mixture.
  8. Now, space your pre-baked tart cases out onto a lined baking tray and sprinkle the pine nuts amongst the cases. Make sure you keep the tart case inside its metal tin (unlike I did) as this will add extra support for the thick mixture.image
  9. Fill with the honey mixture evenly and bake for 18-20 minutes until set. Remove and leave to cool and set.

(The first time I did this, I took the tart cases out their metal tins and the sides collapsed (disaster) so I strongly recommend leaving them in the tins to add support for the heavy honey mixture) Served with a generous and glossy scoop of chocolate sorbet, they were the perfect finish to a lovely dinner party.

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