Monthly Archives: March 2014

Mediterranean Dish for Mother’s Day -Tzatziki, Griddled Chicken & Quinoa Greek Salad

30 Sunday Mar 2014

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Griddled Chicken & Quinoa Greek Salad

Griddled Chicken & Quinoa Greek Salad

I don’t know about you but I have a mum who doesn’t like to sit down. Up at the early hours of dawn she’s already washed the floors, put up the lunches, done the washing and this is all done before the clocks have even struck 7a.m.  What can I say, she likes to keep busy but more than that it’s keeping on top of things. I think I’ve inherited this from her to an extent in that I do like to keep busy and find I can only fully relax when I’ve done a lot with my day. Therefore to celebrate Mother’s Day I wanted to do something special and decided I would cook for her.

I’ve always remembered her saying she enjoys Greek and Mediterranean food after her first proper holiday in Cyprus a few years back where it was all you can eat every night and she absolutely loved it. One of her best friends was married to a Greek man too and she picked up some lovely recipes from them especially Greek potatoes! We always have these on a special occasion in our house because they are delicious but not the healthiest potatoes for you as you have to soak them in quite a lot of vegetable oil, however every now and then doesn’t hurt!

I absolutely love Greek food too and discovered some of the most delicious dishes on a holiday with Craig to Kefalonia last year. Not only was the scenery breath-taking and the people so friendly and accommodating but the food was something else. Kefalonia pie, Moussaka, beef stifado, I was completely in my element and would easily go back simply just for the food.

Therefore with this in mind I decided to go for a Mediterranean theme for dinner tonight and chose to make tzatziki with pitta to start followed by Griddled chicken, quinoa Greek salad and rosemary potatoes to follow.

For the tzatziki I followed Nigel Slater’s recipe and was pleasantly surprised at how simple it was to make. All you need is:

Ingredients:

1 Cucumber
Olive oil
Yogurt (preferably goat’s or sheep’s, strained) I couldn’t get this so used Greek natural yoghurt
2 Crushed garlic
Dill or mint
Lemon juice
A little salt

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Healthy lunch for the week ahead – Butternut Squash Cous Cous

23 Sunday Mar 2014

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Butternut Squash Cous Cous

Butternut Squash Cous CousI don’t know about you but lately I’ve been getting pretty lazy when it comes to preparing a lunch for myself. Throughout the winter months I managed to survive on spending relatively little by buying soup and splitting it between two days (thank you Tesco finest) however it’s Spring now and I want to be a bit more adventurous with what I eat without dipping into the bank balance too much!

Therefore I decided I would try and make something nutritious, delicious and cheap that would last me a few days and hopefully I wouldn’t get too bored of. I’ve really been enjoying butternut squash lately, especially since Craig made an incredible butternut squash and chorizo soup (I’ll have to put the recipe up here!) so I wanted to make something with it in and thought about making a cous cous dish.

After searching a few different websites I came across this one from house and garden magazine recipes section:http://www.houseandgarden.co.uk/recipes/main-courses/giant-couscous-butternut-squash  – I have now fallen in love with this recipes page, mostly because I just love looking at the food styling but also because the recipes really are so varied and use a wide range of ingredients. This recipe in particular didn’t seem too hard to make and although butternut squash can be a tad expensive, the recipe creates 4 servings so you make good use of it. Here is what you need  to make butternut squash cous cous:

INGREDIENTS

  • 1  lemon
  • 750g (1½lb) butternut squash (I just used 1 butternut squash which was plenty)
  • 3tbsp olive oil
  • 1 large onion, chopped (changed for a red onion)
  • 1 clove garlic, crushed
  • 250g (8oz) giant couscous (used normal cous cous as Sainsburys didn’t have the big stuff)
  • 1 cinnamon stick
  • Grated zest of 1/2 lemon
  • 1/2 long red chilli, chopped (didn’t use but would recommend)
  • 20g (¾oz) fresh flat-leaf parsley, chopped (didn’t use as Craig packed spinach into my bag instead of parsley so that’s my excuse)
  • 4tbsp mint leaves, chopped
  • 2 little gem lettuces, shredded
  • 100g (3½oz) pine nuts, toasted
  • 60g (2oz) golden raisins (I used 2 small bags of mixed raisins, nuts and pumpkin seeds which worked really well instead)
  • 1/4tsp ground allspice
  • vegetable stock

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It’s Pure Romance for Clandestine Cake Club

02 Sunday Mar 2014

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Chocolate finger Strawberry CakeI can't believe you made this cakeI can't believe you made this cake

Last Monday was the second Cladenstine Cake Club of the year and as February was the month of Valentine’s day, the theme of the night was Pure Romance. I was super excited as with pure romance being the theme, surely there must be  must be some chocolate cake and also it gave me a chance to try out a cake I had never made before. 

A few took my fancy, from a  passion cake recipe by Sarah Cook to a chocolate and coconut layer cake but as soon as I saw the ‘I can’t believe you made that cake’ by Lorraine Pascale, I knew I had to give it a go. A two layered chocolate buttercream cake with raspberries or strawberries on top and lots of chocolate cigarillios round the outside, it looked beautiful.

There was more appeal in making it in that the recipe didn’t look too difficult. Here is the recipe:

Ingredients

  • vegetable oil or oil spray
  • 200g/7oz butter, softened
  • 200g/7oz caster sugar
  • 4 free-range eggs
  • 140g/5oz plain flour
  • 60g/2½oz cocoa powder
  • pinch salt
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • 400g/14oz plain, milk, or white chocolate cigarillos (about 75–80 in total) This are usually bought online so if you can’t get them in time you can use chocolate fingers or matchsticks instead
For the buttercream
  • 250g/9oz butter, softened
  • 500g/1lb 2oz icing sugar
  • 100g/3½oz good dark chocolate (at least 70 per cent cocoa solids), melted and slightly cooled
For the decoration
  • strawberries or raspberries

002 (1024x683)Method:

  1. Preheat the oven to 180/C/350F/Gas 4 and line a 20cm/8in round deep cake tin with baking paper and brush or spray with oil.
  2. Cream together the butter and sugar in a large bowl until they begin to go pale. Add half of the eggs and half of the flour and mix well.

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