You're having a falaf

In other news I have been getting better at remembering about lunch. This is a big step towards being a normal person, or so I have been told.

At work, lunch is usually an irritating pang of hunger that is often ignored or quenched by downing a quick bowl of soup. Quite often, in fact, breakfast and lunch are usually combined - unfortunately not in a relaxing brunch kind of way, more like toast and marmalade at half eleven. The thing is, for me lunch is never a meal to get excited about unless I'm on holiday and it includes some chilled rosé and charcuterie in the sunshine.

The last 2 weeks have been different because I actually took time off work (shock!) and the days seem to be longer when you don't have a million things to do.  My plans for the time off consisted of sewing, watching crappy films and generally eating what I wanted as the other half was sadly at work (ha ha!).  This meant crappy films with subtitles and lots of yummy vegetables, hurrah!  For lunchtime I really want to have something that requires very little prepping and cooking, for me that means a variation of a mezze platter.  Tasty salad, yogurt dressing, soft pillowy flat bread, babagonush or hummus, grilled chicken or...

Butternut Squash and Goats Cheese Falafel

Falafel is the perfect snack, starter or flat bread filling and is getting so popular that McDonald's is now serving the "McFalafel" in some countries, a wonderful wikipedia fact that I couldn't wait to share with you.  This variation on the classic falafel includes two of my favorite ingredients, sweet butternut squash and zesty soft goats cheese.

Also this recipe, as well as being delicious, is also very cheap to make. I used dried chickpeas and soaked them overnight because in the past I've used tinned for hummus (humous, houmous?? I never know) and all it tasted of was the fousty brine. Lovely. Plus dried are cheap, 500g was only 97p and more than double in weight once soaked for 24 hours.

I made A LOT of these falafels with the thought that I could could freeze a big batch and lunch would just be a case reheating and munching, this is possible but they are so much better fresh from the pan.  I would recommend either only making as much as you will eat (and this an easily adjusted recipe) or make a large batch of the mixture and freeze, then defrost and fry.

This recipe is adapted from the Abel and Cole site which has some cracking recipes that celebrates the wonderful world of veg.

makes 20 - 25 falafel

1/2 small to medium-sized butternut squash, deseeded
4 spring onions, cut finely
2 cloves of garlic, chopped finely
2 tsp of cumin seeds
1 tsp of chilli seeds
400g soaked chick peas
20g fresh mint
20g fresh coriander
100g Abergavenney goats cheese
100g fresh breadcrumbs
1 egg yolk
1 tsp baking powder
salt and pepper
plain flour (for rolling)
olive oil (for frying)

The day before soak the chickpeas, at least 24 hours in advance.  They will double in size so for the sake of this recipe soak 200g of dried chickpeas.  If, after soaking, there is a little more than 400g chuck them in a salad or stew, if its a little less don't worry.  Rinse thoroughly once soaked.

The next day preheat the oven to 200c/390F/Gas Mark 6.  Cut the squash into 2-3cm chunks, no need to peel as the skin becomes lovely and chewing when roasted and adds texture to the falafel.  Place in a roasting tray and sprinkle over 1 tbsp of olive oil, the cumin seeds, chilli flakes, a good pinch of sea salt and a proper grind of black pepper.  Toss it all together and place on the middle shelf of the oven.  Roast for 20-30 minutes, turning occasionally.  Once soft and caramelly, cool to room temperature.

Add all the remaining ingredients and the squash (plus any juices) to a food processor and blitz together to make a rough paste.  Test a small amount of the mixture by taking a small piece and form a ball, if the paste falls apart too easily add a tablespoon of plain flour and blitz again.  Season with salt and pepper.

Scoop the paste into a large bowl with a spatula and cover tightly with clingfilm.  Chill in the fridge for a minimum of 2 hours.  To shape the falafel; dampen your hands, take about a tablespoon of the mixture and shape into a ball.  Dip the ball into plain flour and place on a plate lined with greaseproof paper.  Repeat.

Heat some olive oil in a pan, it needs to have a depth of about 1 inch.  Test the temperature with a piece of bread, once the bread fries to a golden colour the oil is ready.  Cook 5 falafel at a time, making sure not to crowd the pan, for about 3-5 minutes until golden and crispy.  Drain on kitchen paper.

Have a perfect lunch.

A salad dressing made with natural yogurt, lemon juice and very good extra
virgin olive oil.  Goes beautifully with a salad of crisp, thinly cut veg.

Happy To You!

To my dear friends and readers; some from home, some (bizarrely) from Angola, the time has arrived to celebrate.  Put your Kate and Wills bunting back up and pop open something chilled and fizzy (Appletise will do) because...

THE LARDER IS ONE!  Hooray!!!

I think the cake was too small for 'birthday'.

And a huge thank you is in order.  Firstly and most importantly to you, for taking the time out of your hectic lives to read my rambles through culinary adventures.  Someone asked me recently if I would still write a blog (still hate that word) if nobody read it.  An interesting question and one that will plague bloggers (eek, worse!) for years to come.  My answer? Yes of course, but in no way would I get as much pleasure out of it as I do.  With the risk of getting slightly American on you all, through your feedback and friendship I laugh, learn and discover more and more about this wonderful world of all things edible.  Your comments are valuable, often hilarious and... oh God I'm welling up here...

Just thanks.

I also want to say a huge merci to my friends and family for helping and listening as always.  Particularly to Bo, who not only lets me insult his eating habits on the Internet but proof reads them too.

And lastly, fellow food writers (I can't bring myself to use that word again).  Some of which I have met, most of which I've read and some of which I have hilarious Apprentice banter with on Twitter.  There is amazing people doing some amazing things out there, it's lovely to be part of it all.

So finally, to show my appreciation I baked you a cake.

Rhubarb and Custard Fairycakes

makes 12

These cakes taste completely of rhubarb and custard.  I'm not being blonde but I just want to warn people that might not be too fond of that combination that this is not a hint of rhubarb and custard.  Its like a rhubarb and custard bomb going off in your mouth.  On the other hand, if like me, you LOVE rhubarb and custard then these are going to make you very very happy.  I ate five.  In one afternoon.

300g rhubarb, cut into 1cm slices. Plus 1 whole stick for decorating.
125g caster sugar, plus 4 tbsp extra
zest and juice of 1 orange
100ml plain yogurt
2 eggs
100g self-raising flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
75g ground almonds

For the icing:
200ml milk
2 tbsp cornflour
175g butter
2 tbsp mascarpone
175g icing sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 180c/gas 4.  Line a cupcake tray with 12 cases.

In a small saucepan add the chopped rhubarb and the whole stick (chop in half if necessary).  Add the 4 tablespoons of caster sugar and the juice and zest of the orange.  Bring to the boil then turn down to a simmer for 2 minutes, or until the rhubarb is soft but not breaking up.  Leave to cool on the side.

In a small bowl whisk the eggs and yogurt together.  In a larger bowl sieve in the flour, sugar and baking powder.  Stir in the ground almonds and a pinch of salt.  Make a well in the centre and add the yogurt mixture and fold together.  Lift the whole stick of rhubarb out of the pan and put to the side.  Strain the rest of the rhubarb away from the juices in the pan - the juices can be used for beautiful summer cocktails or just added to yogurt at breakfast.  Fold in the cooled rhubarb into the cake mixture, making sure that the pieces are kept as whole as possible.

Split the mixture between the 12 cases and bake for 19 - 23 minutes on the middle shelf.  Cool on a rack once ready.

Meanwhile make the icing.  Mix together the cornflour and a splash of milk to make a paste.  Pour the rest of the milk into a small saucepan and whisk in the paste.  Put the saucepan on a low heat and continually whisk until the milk has thickened to the consistency of custard.  Leave to cool.

In a large bowl cream together the butter, icing sugar, vanilla extract, mascarpone and a pinch of salt.  Cream until pale white and whisk in the milk mixture.  Ice the fairycakes generously.  Cut the whole pieces of rhubarb into thin, jewel-like circles and sprinkle over the top of the cakes.



This recipe has been brought to you by a Jamie Oliver supplement, although the recipe was wrong (gasp) and I had to fix it, and my Grampa's rhubarb.

Dorset Cereals Little Blog Awards

Breaking News!  Breaking News! 

The Larder has been nominated for a Dorset Cereals Little Blog Award and there is less than 1 week left to vote!  I'm am very aware that I have been slightly badgering everyone around me but I am very excited and slightly obsessed with winning an egg cup.  Currently 4th in the race so if you would like to vote (and that would be tremendous) you can by clicking the link on the right.  Blatant self promotion over. 

Boy Wonder and his Rainbow Cake

When we were growing up my brother (Boy Wonder) and I had an unhealthy obsession with food colouring.  Anything that could be made a different, and hopefully a more disgusting colour was fair game. Our tongues were permanently shades of lime and violet much to Mother Hen's horror.  Boy Wonder's speciality was pancakes; one pancake batter a vivid flamingo pink another the deepest shade of aquamarine, then both swirled together so the finished item would make you trip a little. It was the only way to start the weekend.

Now I can't actually remember if I dreamt this cake or clapped eyes on it during a bizarre internet search (I'm hoping it was the first because god knows what I'd been searching for) but as soon as it was lodged in my head it was the only cake that could celebrate Boy Wonder's birthday properly.  Further investigation proved unfruitful, most 'taste the rainbow' cakes were not dissimilar to our old pancakes in appearances and I wanted to create something that was a bit more grown up but still magical.  So I got my pencil crayons out...

The dream was realised...

I have only started to master the art of the Victoria Sponge in the last year. This is down to a few simple rules that I have learnt and I would like to share that wisdom.

1. Make sure that the butter and eggs are at room temperature.  Leave them out for a few hours before.

2. Use an oven thermometer, ovens are crap and the wrong temperature will wreck your cake.

3. Never shortcut and miss out the greaseproof paper.

4. A spatula is your best friend.

5. Creaming the butter and sugar is the most important step, it must change colour completely and be a pale ivory. To get the best results use an electric whisk.

6. Adding a little flour with each egg stops it from curdling.

7. Eating the mixture will make you feel sick. Somehow I always seem to forget this.

The Sponge

To make the sponge for this cake I just doubled a basic Victoria Sponge recipe. I knew that each layer would have to contain at least one egg if they weren't going to pancake thin so doubling up from four to eight made sense.  The plan then was to make basic sponge, divide into 6 equal amounts, colour and then bake in pairs. I bought 2 shallow sandwich tins at a bargain £2 each, like these. This cake contains a lot of butter - almost 4 packets - please remember that it is a celebration cake and it happens to be huge so don't let it put you off.

8 eggs

450g (16oz) unsalted butter

450g (16oz) self raising flour

450g (16oz) caster sugar

pinch of salt

vanilla extract or 1/2 vanilla pod

food colouring - green, blue, yellow and red

Set your oven to 180c/350F/Gas Mark 4.  Fold a long length of greaseproof paper over six times and trace around one of the sandwich tins.  Cut around the trace making 6 identical circles of greaseproof paper.  Grease both the tins and place a piece of greaseproof paper in the bottom.

Cream the butter and sugar together until pale and fluffy, this may take some time but it's important.  Lightly whisk the eggs together in a separate bowl and, a bit at a time, beat into the sugar and butter - remember adding a spoonful of flour at the same time will stop the mixture from splitting.  Once all the eggs are incorporated sieve the flour and salt into the bowl and fold in with a large spatula or spoon.

Divide the mixture into 6 bowls (you can weigh this to make it properly accurate) and start to add the colour.  It must be as saturated as possible so don't be afraid to add more than you think.  Blue and red make the purple (more blue than red) and red and yellow are mixed for the orange.

Bake two of the sponges at a time for 10-15 minutes (mine took exactly 13 mins, test with the first two sponges and use this time for the rest).  When the other sponges are cooking place the others in the fridge covered tightly in clingfilm.  Once a skewer comes out clean and the top feels springy take them out of the oven and let them rest in the tins for 5 minutes before turning upside down onto a cooling rack.  The underside of the sponge is neater and smoother than the top which can rise unevenly therefore keep them this way.  Continue to do this until all the sponges are cooked.  The sponges can keep for a few days if properly airtight, alternatively they can be frozen too so make them in advance if time is tight. 

Decoration

To contrast with the technicolour interior I wanted the icing to be a brilliant white.  Buttercream is a rich icing so to cut through the sugar I added lemon zest and juice to give wee tang.  I watched a couple of icing technique videos on YouTube (rock and roll eh?!) and they were really helpful.

420g (15oz) butter

840g (30oz) icing sugar

1 lemon

In a large bowl beat the butter until soft, add half the icing sugar and beat until smooth.  Add the remaining icing sugar plus the zest and juice of the lemon and continue to beat until the mixture is full of air and significantly paler.  If the mixture is too stiff a drop of milk can be added.

Start with the purple sponge and spread a large tablespoon of the buttercream on the top, smooth it evenly and place the blue sponge on top of it.  Continue with this process with green next, then yellow, then orange and finishing with red. By this point there should be at least 2/3 of the buttercream left to cover the top and sides.  Start by placing almost half of the buttercream on to top, using a palette knife smooth over the top and down the sides creating a thin layer allover the cake.  Place the cake in the fridge for half an hour.  This technique is called crumbing (get me!) and seals in all the crumbs so they don't mix in with your icing and ruin the clean effect. 

Once the first layer has set, place the remaining icing on top of the cake and work down using a palette knife or spatula.  I used a hilarious gadget that my dear father was conned in to buying at Nick Nairn's cook school.  It is meant to be used for scrapping ingredients off the chopping board into the pan but why you couldn't just use your knife I will never know.  Anyway it was perfect for getting sharp edges along the top and a smooth finish around the sides (so good money well spent Pa!).

So there you have it, the rainbow cake.  Decorate with skittles for the full 'taste the rainbow' experience.  Also a handy cake to bring if you are coming out to your family.

Compromise

Sometimes you get to do what you want, be selfish and act on whims. Sometimes you have to go along with anothers plans to make them happy or because you owe them one. And then there is compromise.

For two people that are so similar (love a charity shop bargain, hated Hot Tub Time Machine) Bo and I can be very different too. The night we met I asked him the question on which I base everything, what would you have as your last meal on earth? This question has be debated within our family for years, mine changes with my mood and consists of pre-dinner snacks, starter, main and desserts with drinks to match each course. Bo's answer; well done steak with Colman's pepper sauce and chips. If he wasn't so handsome...

Our meals at home are usually separate (odd working hours don't help) although we try to eat together as much as possible. With two people with such contrasting views on what constitutes and decent meal this can be tricky. We have about five combo meals that can be split into our personal tastes; curry where he can have the meat and sauce and I can have the sauce and veggies etc. But I get bored. Cooking the same thing week in, week out is the foodies equivalent of Chinese torture.

While flipping through cookbooks trying to find spring roll recipes to bring in the Year of the Rabbit I stumbled upon a Donna Hay spring magazine that Hen bought me during our last trip down under. Donna Hay is the Aussie Jamie Oliver but a girl. I really like her books and although her whole vibe is a bit Martha, the recipes are simple and delicious. Two things that I wholeheartedly support. This week I asked my sister to stockpile me the magazines so I can take an empty suitcase next time I visit, her reaction 'Oh god, not Donna Hay - she's everywhere Em.' Donna Hay = not cool enough for Bondi.

Anyway within the (very glossy) pages there it was, a new Emma and Bo meal. Pizza! It's fun to make, he can have ham, I can have courgettes, its yummy - score!

Pizza

A note on cups, do not shun their crazy American ways - embrace them. Go forth to the nearest pound shop and make your life a little bit easier.  Also another note on tomatoes, in December we went to the Foodies festival where we watched the wonderful Mary Contini from Valvona and Crolla who made the most delicious tomato sauce with the barest of ingredients.  The key, according to Mary, was the quality of the tinned tomatoes so no more skimping in this house.  Mary was mad by the way, but nice mad.

Makes about 4 pizzas


Basic pizza dough
1 tbsp dry yeast
1 tsp caster sugar
1 cup (250ml) lukewarm water
3 1/2 cups (525g) 00 flour - plus extra for dusting
1 tsp sea salt flakes
1 tbsp olive oil

Tomato Sauce
1 tin of good quality tinned plum tomatoes
2 large cloves of garlic, sliced thinly
oregano - fresh if you have it but dried is fine
a good pinch of chilli flakes
extra virgin olive oil
salt and pepper

fresh mozzarella
a selection of toppings

Firstly crank up the oven as high as it will go, the higher the heat the crispier the pizza.  Place a large baking tray (or even better a pizza stone) in the oven so the heat will transfer to the base of your pizza.

Begin with the sauce, heat a good glug of the olive oil in a heavy bottomed pan and add the garlic and chilli.  Squish the whole tin of plum tomatoes into the pan, fill the empty tin with water and add this too.  Leave the smaller leaves of the oregano whole and roughly chop the rest, add this to the pan.  Turn the heat down to the lowest setting, cover and leave to simmer until needed.  Occasionally use the back of a wooden spoon to mash down the tomatoes and add a little water if its looking too dry.

For the dough, place the yeast, sugar and water in a bowl and mix to combine. Set aside in a warm place (beside the kitchen radiator is a good place) for 5 minutes or until bubbles appear on the surface.  Bubbles mean that the yeast has been activated.

Place the flour, salt and olive oil in a bowl and make a well in the centre.  Add the yeast mixture and mix together with your hands until you have a well formed dough.  We found the DH's dough recipe far too wet (in Bo's words 'it's gone all Sloppy Giuseppe') so we added at least another cup of flour.  Add more if you need it.  The dough should be easy to handle and not stick to your hands.  Flour a work surface and kneed the dough until elastic and stretchy.  Divide it into equal balls depending on how many pizzas you are making.  Place on a floured tray and cover with a clean, damp cloth.  Set aside in a warm place for 30 minutes or until they have doubled in size.

Once the dough has risen take the sauce of the heat and check it for seasoning.  Get your toppings and mozzarella ready at hand  Press each dough ball into a round and roll out on a floured surface to the desired size and thickness.  Stretching by hand is easy too.  Thin is good!

Now here you have to work quickly, carefully take the heated tray or stone out from the oven (if you are using a baking tray it is advisable to lightly oil it). Place your rolled out dough onto the tray, take a spoonful of the tomato sauce and smear it over the top, add your topping and scatter over nuggets of the mozzarella.



It needed a little more cheese but otherwise it was perfect.

Place back into the oven and cook for 5-10 minutes.  The cooking time may vary depending on how hot your oven can get.  Keep an eye on it and remove when the base is golden and the mozzarella is melted.

Toppings

artichokes, egg, olives and mozzarella

courgette ribbons, chilli, lemon zest and goats cheese

rosemary, garlic, potato and pecorino

prosciutto, rocket and mozzarella

field mushrooms, thyme and mascarpone

chargrilled aubergine, roast peppers, courgettes and mozzarella

Happy Valentines Day

Hello Springtime!

Poached Rhubarb

200g rhubarb (about 2 stalks)
juice and zest of half an orange
1/2 vanilla pod, seeds removed (or 1/2 tsp of vanilla extract)
25g soft brown sugar
25g caster sugar

Heat the oven to 300F/150c/Gas 2.

Cut the rhubarb into 1 inch/2.5cm pieces and lay in a thick ovenproof dish, make sure you choose a dish that will tightly pack the rhubarb in a single layer.

Sprinkle both sugars over the rhubarb.  Mix the orange zest, orange juice and either vanilla seeds or vanilla extract.  Pour over the sugared rhubarb, adding the leftover vanilla pod if used.

Bake in the middle of the oven for 20-25 minutes until soft to touch - remember that it will cook further when cooling.  Turn the rhubarb and leave to cool.  Will keep refrigerated in an airtight container for up to 3 days.


Will go perfectly with rice pudding, ice cream, shortbread and cream, pancakes... but this morning it goes perfectly with granola and greek yogurt.