Monday 18 August 2014

Yoghurt and Oil Dough

Fresh Pea Quiche
In Germany, many cakes and savoury dishes are made with a quark and oil dough, which is a lot lighter than a shortcrust pastry. However, finding quark in the UK is really difficult. 20 years ago I would have bought French fromage frais but nowadays I can only find 0% fat fromage frais, which means this product has thickeners added to it. And I refuse to buy processed foods like that. Ricotta might be a good alternative but it's expensive (in comparison) so I've experimented with yoghurt and I've finally come up with a recipe that work. Only, it was a wee bit too much dough for my 26 cm flan dish and as you can see there's rather a lot of pastry for my fresh pea quiche. But that's okay, I'll reduce the amount of dough next time or buy a larger tin. It's delicious at any rate.

200 g strong white bread flour
100 g wholemeal flour
15 g baking powder
1/2 tsp sea salt
4 tbsp olive oil
200 g yoghurt/Greek-style yoghurt/soured cream

Combine all the ingredients either by hand or using the kneading hooks of an electric mixer/the kneading knife of a food processor. Roll out and line a lightly greased 30 cm cake tin.

Top with a quiche mix of your choice.

Sunday 3 August 2014

Aubergine and Sundried Tomato Dip


Today, I really needed to use up two aubergines I bought last week and decided on a baba ganoush. Only, I had no tahini in the house. After raking through the food cupboard to find something to thicken the dip with – I like using this kind of thing as a spread – I spotted a pouch of sundried tomatoes. These are soft but don't have any oil on them, other than what's needed to separate them, a bit like raisins. The result is really tasty. Will have to do this again. If you don't have this type of sundried tomatoes to hand just use the ones in oil and don't add any oil to the dip until it's been blended and you know if it needs more oil

2 aubergines
juice of 1/2 lemon
5-6 sundried tomatoes
1-2 tbsp olive oil
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1 tsp toasted, ground cumin
sea salt
freshly ground black pepper

Pierce the aubergines all over with a fork and roast in the oven at 220° C/ gas mark 7 for 90 minutes. Scoop out the flesh and leave to cool.

Combine all the ingredients and blend. Check the seasoning. Serve sprinkled with some chopped herbs, e. g. basil, coriander.

Saturday 2 August 2014

Paprika pork strips with red peppers, cherry tomatoes and red onion


Another idea for marinating meat for a barbecue turned into something else when the wheather didn't play ball. Based on a recipe for spare ribs from "More fired up" by Ross Dobson.

(serves 4)

4 pork loin steaks, cut into strips

Marinade:
60 ml sherry vinegar
1 tbsp smoked paprika
1.5 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp dried oregano
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1 tbsp olive oil
sea salt
freshly ground black pepper

Mix all the ingredients, pour over the meat, toss the meat and marinate in the fridge over night.

3 sweet red peppers
1 large red onion
400 g cherry tomatoes
olive oil

roughly torn fresh basil, optional

Slice the peppers, half and slice the red onion. Drain the marinate off the meat and toss the veggies in it. Pour a little olive oil into a frying pan and sauté the peppers and onions until they start to brown. Add the tomatoes. Cook over a medium heat until the vegetables are tender. Transfer into a warmed bolw and set aside. Add a bit more oil to the same frying pan and fry the strips of pork for about 5 minutes until done. Mix in the vegetables and serve with pasta. Scatter with the basil, if used.

Vegetarian variation: Marinate the veggies for 1-2 hours and cook as above.