Raspberry, Basil and Vodka Mojito

When I made a raspberry liqueur last year I'd hope to drink it in white wine and bubbly but it is too alcoholic so not really a liqueur but a raspberry-infused vodka. A couple of weeks ago sipping on a mojito in the garden I had a vague idea for a mojito-style cocktail using this flavoured vodka, raspberries and basil. After consulting with my Foodie Translators group I've gone ahead and done it. It's soooo fruity and has an incredibly intense raspberry flavour. A lovely summer drink – even when it's raining and just 12C outside.

(serves 1)

5 fresh or frozen raspberries + 1 for the rim of the glass
12 basil leaves
1 wee sprig of basil
2 tsp soft brown sugar
50 ml raspberry infused vodka
50 - 100 ml sparkling wate
1-2 slices of lime, optional
ice cubes

First bash the ice cubes either in a food processor or in a tea towel. Next, place the raspberries, sugar and half the basil leaves in a tall glass and lightly crush together, e. g. with the handle of a wooden spoon. Pour in the vodka and gently mix with a spoon. Add some ice, the sparkling water, the remaining basil leaves and the lime, if used, and gently stir once more. Top up with more ice, decorate with the basil sprig and remaining raspberry and serve with a straw.

Sweet Potato, Cumin and Ras-el-Hanout Spread

I don't like buying ready-made or processed foods. Instead, I look at the list of ingredients and most of the time find that I can easily recreate a product myself but without additives, preservatives etc. Of course, not all products have "bad" stuff in them such as the dips/spreads available on Saturday at the health food shop for customers to try. One was a sweet potato dip with ras-el-hanout and really tasty. When we saw the price for a 150-g-tub we checked the list of ingredients. Easy! We had all the ingredients at home. 

400-500 gsweet potato
1/2 can chickpeas
1-2 garlic cloves
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp ras-el-hanout
sea salt
black pepper
juice of one lemon
good glug of olive oil

Cut a sweet potato lengthways, drizzle a little EVO into a roasting tray and roast for about 45 minutes at 200 °C/gas mark 6 until soft. Scoop out the flesh and leave to cool. Then season with pepper, salt, toasted ground cumin and ras-el-hanout. Add crushed garlic,  drained chickpeas, lemon juice and EVO. Blend, check the seasoning and enjoy.

Butternut Squash, Ricotta and Sage Lasagne

I'm often surprised at the leaps the mind makes. Today, a fellow foodie translator was making cannelloni filled with ricotta and spinach and I thought: "I've never made ricotta and spinach anything". Unusually, we had ricotta in the fridge but neither spinach nor cannelloni. So on the shopping list they went for tomorrow's trip to the supermarket. But what was I going to cook tonight? How else could I use the ricotta with the scarce end-of-the-week vegetables left in the house? After rummaging throught the cupboard I found some no-cook lasagne sheets and the root veg basket revealed two small butternut squashes. There's sage in the garden. We always have lots of tins of chopped tomatoes. And I had dinner sorted. At least in theory. I still had to cook it. A recipe for the tomato sauce can be found here.

Update: It was WONDERFUL!!! Might be even nicer by adding a handful of toasted pine nuts to the ricotta mix for a bit of bite.

(serves 2)

1 small butternut squash
fresh sage leaves, approx. 1 tbsp when chopped
200 g ricotta
sea salt
freshly ground black pepper
extra virgin olive oil
2 tbsp of some liquid, e. g. vegetable stock, buttermilk, yoghurt or similar
chilli flakes, to taste
2 - 3 tomatoes
freshly grated parmesam
slow roasted tomato sauce as needed

1. First, make the tomato sauce and simmer it while you prepare the remainder of the dish. 

2. Chop the sage leaves and set aside.

3. Cut the tomatoes into slices and cover the bottom of an oven proof dish. Season with a little pepper and salt. Then place three lasagne sheets on top.

4. Cut the top and bottom of the butternut squash, cut in half lengthways and remove the seeds using a spoon. Slice into 4-5 mm thick slices. Heat a little oil in a frying pan and fry the butternut squash for about 10 minutes over a medium heat turning them once or twice until some slices are browned. Remove from the pan, place onto kitchen paper and pat the oil off.

5. In the same pan, heat about a 1tsp of olive oil and fry the chopped sage for about 10 seconds, then return it to its dish to cool.

6. Spoon the ricotta into a food processor, season with black pepper, a touch of salt and chilli flakes. Add a bit more than half butternut squash, the sage and whatever liquid you're using and blitz. Check the seasoning.

7. Spread the ricotta mix onto the lasagne sheets, then place the remaining butternut squash slices on top before adding the next layer of lasagne sheets.

8. Finish off with plenty of tomato sauce. Then bake in the oven (covered with tin foil or uncovered depending on your oven) at 200 °C/gas mark 6 for 30 minutes.

9. Cover generously with freshly grated parmesan and bake at 220 °C/gas mark 7 for another 10-15 minutes or until golden.

Mascarpone Cream and Mixed Berry Compote

Mascarpone isn't something I normally have in the house unless I'm planning to make a tiramisu. When my other half brought a tub from the shops I wondered what else I could do with it and decided to make the tiramisu topping but serve it with a mixed berry compote. I substituted the rum that's normally used in tiramisu with homemade raspberry infused vodka.

(serves 4-6)

Berry compote:
3 handfuls of fresh or frozen mixed berries
2 tbsp unrefined soft brown sugar
Heat over a lowish heat until the fruit has soften and the sugar has desolved. Set aside to cool.

Mascarpone cream:
250 g mascarpone
2 large or 3 medium eggs
1 tsp vanilla paste
1 tbsp unrefined soft brown sugar (or more, to taste)
1 pinch salt
30 ml (homemade) raspberry infused vodka (or rum), optional


1. Separate the eggs and beat the egg whites with a pinch of salt into firm peaks. Set aside.

2.Beat the sugar and egg yolks until creamy. Add the mascarpone, vanilla paste and vodka (if used) and beat till combined. Check the sweetness and add more sugar if necessary.

3. Carefully fold in the the egg whites and place in the fridge to chill for a few hours.

4. Layer the berry compote and mascarpone cream in individual glasses.

Giant Stuffed Potato Cake

When a fellow foodie translator posted a link to this video last week I knew I had to try my own version of a giant pan fried potato cake because the filling wasn't my cup of tea. No veg for starters ;) The video is in Italian but easy to follow (and I've translated the ingredients).

Here's my version with mince and sautéd veggies. Originally, I was going to make a vegetarian dish but I'd just bought fresh mince so I incorporated that.

I made the potato cake as per recipe but didn't add salt as I'd boiled the potatoes in sufficiently salted water. Also, there's salt in the parmesan and I also seasoned all the fillings.

(serves 4-6)

400 g boiled potatoes, mashed
150 g flour
50 g parmesan, freshly grated
1 egg
250 g beef mince
1 small onion
2 garlic cloves
1/2 red chili
1 small aubergine
2 small, thin, pointed green peppers
1 large flat mushroom or button mushrooms
sea salt
freshly ground black pepper
olive oil

1. First make the dough by mixing the potatoes, flour, parmesan and egg by hand until you can shape it into a dough as shown in the video. Set aside.

2. Finely chop the onion, garlic and chili. Heat a little oil in a frying pan and sauté for a few minutes until soft. Add the mince, season with salt and pepper and fry until the mince is cooked. Transfer into a bowl and set aside.

3. Wipe out the pan with paper towel. Thinly slice the aubergine. Heat some oil in the pan and fry the aubergines until they are completely soft turning and adding more oil as necessary. Place on paper towel and season with pepper and salt.

4. Slice the pepper and mushrooms. Add a little more oil to the pan and sauté the sliced veg until lightly browned. Set aside.
 
5. Divide the potato dough into two pieces. Lightly brush a small (20 cm) frying pan with oil and spread out one half of the dough, forming a rim.

Place the aubergine slices on top, followed by the mince and the pepper and mushroom mix.

Flatten out the second half of the dough and place on top ensuring pressing the edges of the top and bottom layer of dough firmly together.

6. Fry over a low to medium heat for 15 minutes on each side until golden.

Serve hot with a light leafy salad.

Orange and Coconut Drizzle Muffins

I added some coconut to the drizzle and using a couple of teaspoons spread a little on top. Probably won't do that again.

After eating a delicious orange and coconut muffin in London last week I wanted to try to make them myself. I googled and found this cake recipe, which I liked because it uses the whole orange in the batter. Since I'm not particularly fond of very sweet icing sugar icing I decided to make orange and coconut drizzle muffins converting the measurements to metric and adapting the recipe as detailed below. As I only had blood oranges at hand I used those.

(makes 12 muffins)

3 small blood oranges or 2 medium oranges
200 g butter, chopped, at room temperature
3 eggs
150 g unrefined soft brown sugar (110 g + 40 g)
180 g flour
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
40 g desiccated coconut

1. Thoroughly wash the oranges removing any wax with a brush. Chop up 1 1/2 blood oranges removing any pips and process to a pulp in a food processor. Meanwhile zest the other oranges. Add to the pulp and set aside.

2. Using a hand blender mix the butter and 110 g of sugar until creamy. Mix in the eggs, then the orange pulp and desiccated coconut.

3. Mix the flour and baking powder and add in batches until you have a smooth batter.

4. Line a muffin tin with paper cases and spoon in the cake mixture.

5. Bake at 200 °C/gas mark 6 for 20-25 minutes. Check with a skewer if they're done.

6. Leave to cool in the muffin tray for 10 minutes.

7. In the meantime, squeeze out the remaining oranges, strain and mix with 40 g sugar.

8. Drizzle with the orange and sugar solution then carefully remove from the tin and place on a rack too cool completely.

Spring Day Salad

I nearly didn't remember that yesterday was the first day of spring even though I enjoyed a very late breakfast in the garden for the very first time this year. After the indulgences of our trip to London last week what we really wanted was a large but filling salad. As usual, I had a rough idea of what I might put into it, e. g. buffalo mozzarella, but in the end it turned out entirely differently. And it took me a while to come up with a title for this raw and cooked salad with fruit and veg topped with tahini and roasted chickpeas.

Please note that you need to roast the chickpeas at least one hour ahead.

(serves 4)

lettuce leaves of your choice
1 ripe avocado
1 ripe pear
steamed sugar snaps
2 hard boiled eggs (optional)
3-4 cooked beetroot (no vinegar)

dressing:
sea salt
freshly ground black pepper
1 part elderflower infused sherry vinegar
2-3 parts elderflower infused extra virgin olive oil
juice of 1/2 lime
1 tsp agave nectar or runny honey (local if possible)
fresh dill (as an alternative to the flavour of elderflower infused oil and vinegar)

topping 1:
2 tbsp of Greek or Turkish style yoghurt
2 tbsp unsalted tahini
sea salt
freshly ground black pepper
touch of lime juice

topping 2:
1 can of chickpeas, drained
1-2 tsp of sweet paprika
sea salt
freshly ground black pepper
drizzle of garlic infused extra virgin olive oil

1. First, get your oven on to roast the chickpeas. Place the chickpea into a sandwich tin or similar, season with pepper, salt and paprika, drizzle with olive oil and mix well. Bake in the upper part of the oven (doesn't matter where in a fan assisted oven) at full whack for 10-15 minutes, then turn so the soft side is up. Repeat this until the chickpeas are crunchy. Set aside and leave to cool.

2. Steam the sugar snaps for 3-5 minutes then plunge into ice cold water to stop them from cooking further. Drain and set aside.

3. Prepare your yoghurt dressing next by mixing all the ingredient. Keep refridgerated until neede.

4. Make the salad dressing. If you don't have elderflower infused oil or vinegar use finely chopped dill.

5. Use any lettuce you like, though I'd suggest something a little sturdier and more flavourful than round lettuce, and place into a large serving bowl. Julienne the cooked beetroot, core the pear and cut into chunky slices, spoon out chunks of the avocado with a teaspoon, chop up the boiled eggs (if used) and add to the bowl.

6. Dress the salad, top with a little tahini dip and a tablespoon of roasted chickpeas and serve the remaining tahini dip and chickpeas on the side for everyone to help themselves. Alternatively, serve on individual plates as in the photo at the top.