Indulgent Macaroni Cauliflower Cheese with Truffle Oil

I love Macaroni Cheese and Cauliflower Cheese and so combining the two makes an even more sense.  Adding the truffle oil to this dish makes it even richer and I think it works a treat. Serve as an extravagant side dish with a roast. Or, as a main course suggestion,  serve it with some baked tomatoes and fresh rocket. 

Ingredients, which serves 6 people:

1 Cauliflower, broken into fleurettes (I think that's what they're called)

300g Macaroni

100g Mature Cheddar, Grated to go on the top

150g cream cheese. I used Quark on this occasion

1 table spoon of horseradish

3 teaspoons Truffle Oil

Seasoning: Salt, Pepper and Nutmeg

For the cheese sauce:

75g butter

3 tablespoons of plain flour

2 pints of milk

200g Mature Cheddar, Grated

Method:

First make your cheese sauce and let it cool on the side.

Cheese Sauce:

1. Melt your butter in a non stick pan. 

2. Whilst still on a low heat, stir in the flour so that you have a smooth paste. 

3. Gradually add your milk

4. Then add your grated cheese and season well with Salt, Pepper and Nutmeg.

5. Stirring regularly, bring the sauce to the boil until it thickens.

6. Once it's done, cover with cling-film (so that it doesn't form a crust on the top) and let it cool, ready to pour over your macaroni and cauliflower.

Then cook the Macaroni and Cauliflower. Cook the pasta for 3 minutes less than it says on the packet. The cauliflower only needs about 4 minutes cooking, so add your cauliflower pieces to the pasta water 4 minutes before the pasta should finish cooking (probably about half way through).

Drain in a colander and pour over cold water so that the pasta and cauliflower do not continue cooking. Once cold, place the pasta and cauliflower in a large baking dish.

To the dish, add your horseradish, truffle oil, cream cheese and seasoning of salt, pepper and nutmeg. Stir everything together.

Then pour over your cold cheese sauce mix and make sure it's stirred in evenly and top with your 100g of grated cheddar. 

Bake for 40-45 minutes on 180 degrees centigrade until golden brown on top. Once cooked, let it stand for 5 minutes before serving.

Amazing(ly Simple) Artichokes

Artichokes are one of my favourite comfort foods and let's face it, we need as much of it as we can get at this time of year. They also look so majestic and impressive without really having to make much effort.  Ideal for a starter, you can basically just boil them and serve. 

Billy and I recently went to Brighton where my highlight of the weekend, as well as our tour of the Royal Pavilion, was dining at the Hotel du Vin. We shared this artichoke starter which was simply presented and served with two dipping sauces- one was a hollandaise sauce and the other a garlic butter.

 I liked the no fuss presentation with the mini copper pans. You could easily do something like this at home for a dinner party. However, my recipe is even easier:

Ingredients:

• 1 Globe Artichoke per person 
• Garlic to put in the boiling water (about half to one clove per artichoke)
• Juice of 1 lemon- about a quarter of a lemon per artichoke, depending on your tastes
• Salt and pepper
• Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• White or Red wine vinegar
• Butter

Method:

• Cut of the stalks of each artichoke and any damaged outer leaves
• Boil them for 20 minutes (unless they're the small ones in which case 15 minutes will be fine) with 2 whole garlic cloves in the water. Depending on how many artichokes you're boiling, I'd allow half a clove of garlic more for every additional artichoke you do.
• Drain and place in a bowl, putting a clove at the bottom of each bowl to add flavour to your dipping juices. This is optional.
• Season with plenty of salt and pepper
• Squeeze over some lemon juice (about a quarter of lemon per artichoke).
• Then pour over a generous glug of Extra Virgin Olive oil and a dash of White Wine Vinegar.
• Finish with a knob of butter which will melt into the artichoke.
• Then get stuck in, using the juices in your bowl to dip your leaves. Place a bowl in the middle of the table to discard your leaves and choke.

I like the theatre of eating an artichoke this way: peeling off each leaf and dipping it in the sauce to eat off the fragrant flesh. Then, taking your time and eventually getting to the heart (you need to remove the spiky choke with a spoon) with which you can mop up the remaining juices in your bowl. By the end of the dish you end up with a mountain of discarded leaves and messy fingers as there's no sophisticated way to do it. For me it's the perfect interactive starter and it's so easy to do. 

Not one to do though if you're absolutely starving and in a rush as it lends itself to eating slowly and/ or sharing.

Christmas Cranberry Gin

I wanted to do a few home made Christmas gifts this year and what better than a Christmas tipple. My friend Sarah gave me a recipe she found in a magazine, which of course I've now lost. But I tweaked the recipe slightly anyway so see below how Billy and I made this rather pleasing looking drink.

Start by pricking each cranberry. Yes this is as tedious as it sounds. However, it's necessary for the gin to go in and the juice to come out. Then put the cranberries into your sterilised bottles. Divide as evenly as possible and if you have smaller bottles as well then fill as much as you can. Then add your orange and lemon  peels.

Put your sugar into the gin and stir it until the sugar is dissolved. Then using a funnel, pour the sweet gin into the bottles until full.

Seal and keep in a cool place for two weeks, after which you can pop it open and enjoy however you wish. Think I'll be doing a classy G & T with ours!!

Ingredients (makes 2 and a half litres of gin)

300g Fresh Cranberries
2 Litres Gin- It doesn't need to be that great a Gin. And, you might not need to use all of it.  The size of your cranberries and the bottles you use might mean that quantities slightly differ. As I packed my bottles with lots of peel (because I liked the look), I ended up with a bit of spare Gin. You can always add some more peel to this and make up and extra bottle. It looks great even with just the peel and no cranberries. 
Zest of 2 oranges and 2 lemons, sliced nice and thinly.
400g Caster Sugar to dissolve into the Gin

Filo Fiorentina: Like the Pizza but in a Filo Case

On Friday nights, I've started to go swimming after work. Such a nice way of finishing the week and leaving all the stress behind. Mind you this Friday was hardly stressful: a recce around London for my current job, ending up at the Park Plaza hotel in one of their penthouse suites. I'm not complaining!

Not with this view! Anyway, going back to the swimming, I used this time to come up with my roast recipe. Partly because I was hungry, I started thinking about pizza. And, my favourite pizza is the Fiorentina. I love the baked egg on the top.

I wanted to do an open Filo tart, using the Fiorentina Pizza ingredients. Instead of doing the tomato layer on the bottom, I thought that doing the spinach and goats cheese layer on the bottom would mean that it wouldn't go soggy.

Start by preparing the spinach filling: Saute a clove of garlic in olive oil. Then add your spinach to the pan, salt, pepper and nutmeg to season. Let this cook for 5 minutes with the lid on. It'll be very watery and so you need to (in a sieve) drain off all of the excess water. Make sure you really press the spinach against the sieve so that there is really no excess water coming out. I keep this spinach juice in a Tupperware as a stock in the freezer but if you don't want to keep it then discard it.

Once the spinach has cooled, add your goats cheese and mix it together. This will be the bottom layer of your Filo tart. You also need to toast a good handful of pine nuts to throw over the top at the end. For the tomato sauce layer, I made a rich sauce of my own but you could buy a nice Italian pasta sauce and use that instead. It mustn't be too wet that the only thing.  Leave all of your Filo fillings to one side for later. Now preheat your oven at 190 degrees centigrade.

Then prepare your Filo pastry cases: Melt some butter and brush the inside of 6 ramekin dishes and around the tops with it. On a board, put your first Filo sheet. Brush with melted butter and place on the next sheet. Brush again with melted butter and cut into squares (roughly 15cm x 15cm depending on your ramekin). Then, stuff (gently) each ramekin with a square of prepared Filo. Bake for 10 minutes and then take them out of the oven. Let them cool and take each case out of the ramekins.

You're then ready to put together your Filo case. Compile your tart starting with the bottom layer of your spinach mixture. Followed by the tomato sauce. Make sure you leave enough room for the egg to go on top- I'd say don't fill the case more than two thirds. Bake for ten minutes on 190 degrees. Then crack one egg on each Filo tart and bake for another 10 to 15 minutes until the egg whites are cooked.

Season with salt and pepper and sprinkle on some toasted pine nuts. Top with peppery rocket and serve as you like. I served it with some roast potatoes, a light gravy and a crunchy green salad. It's the kind of dish that could be served as a wintry roast with veg and gravy,  but could also quite easily be a summery lunch dish with a light salad. Either way I think it looks impressive and you already know the flavours work a treat together.

Ingredients (Serves 6):

Jus Roll Filo Pastry, 6 sheets. I only used 4 sheets but you could, if you wanted layer up three sheets instead of 2.
Butter to melt and line Ramekin dishes and to brush over Filo pastry
200g fresh Spinach
70g crumbly goats cheese
Rich, thick tomato sauce, either homemade or bought. I threw in some sun dried tomatoes as well.
Salt, Pepper and Nutmeg to season
6 free range eggs
Handful of pine nuts, toasted
Rocket to go on top
You'll need 6 Ramekins as well.

Stuffed Roast Tomatoes

So, last weekend Billy and I went to the Romford dogs for a classy birthday affair. My only other experience of the dogs has been when I worked on Lewis and I had to go to the Oxford dogs. There, there had only been a very small stand with a bar. I think you'd be lucky if you got a portion of chips. However, the dogs in Romford on a Saturday night is clearly the place to be and I loved it.

I didn't win a thing and ate abysmally: scampi and chips (not to mention the hot dog and pick and mix). So when we got home on the Sunday, rather knackered and a bit worse for wear, I was craving some sort of healthiness. Whenever a little hungover or tired I always crave tomatoes and I stumbled across a recipe by Gennaro Contaldo in Vegetarian Living Magazine (which I don't usually buy but I'm also trying to come up with some lovely vegetarian Christmas recipes).

I made these stuffed tomatoes and served them with greens, roast potatoes and a delicious tomato based gravy which I've never done before but it's great!! See the recipe below:

Ingredients (Serves 6):

Contaldo calls this 'Aubergine "parmigiana" with roasted tomatoes'. I beg to differ and call it Roasted stuffed tomatoes with Aubergine. But hey, who's arguing.. I tweaked his recipe a bit and used fresh oregano and thyme instead of basil. And, the gravy is a Kay Mitchell invention. You must must use ripe tomatoes otherwise it will all be too watery!

For the stuffed tomatoes:
6 beef tomatoes. Ripe!!
Olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
1 handful fresh oregano
3-4 stalks of fresh thyme
2-3 tablespoons of plain flour
1-2 aubergines sliced into rounds
2 eggs (beaten)
salt and pepper
Mozzarella (2 x large balls), roughly 200g
salt and pepper to season throughout

For the gravy:
half an onion (stolen from the above recipe)
olive oil
glug of white wine
1 x vegetarian stock cube
some of the innards of the tomatoes from above recipe, plus one more tomato if needed
water
tablespoon of plain flour

1. Preheat the oven to 180 to 200 degrees centigrade.

2. Slice the tops of the tomatoes and with a spoon scoop out the innards (save the tops for the lids). Sprinkle the empty tomatoes with salt and place on a plate lined with kitchen towel to let the excess water drain out.

3. Meanwhile, heat up a good glug of olive oil, Gennaro says 4 tablespoons, but who really measures. Sauté your onion for 3-5 minutes. Add your tomato insides and season with the fresh herbs, salt and pepper. After this point, grab another pan for your gravy and put some of your onion tomato mix into your gravy pan (I'd say about a third).

4. With your gravy pan, add a stock cube, white white wine (your choice how much, probably a large glass) and water. Let it bubble away for half an hour or so before blitzing in a hand blender with your flour. You must taste and season with salt and pepper along the way. Add some more fresh herbs perhaps. Once blended let it thicken/ heat on the hob before serving. If there is any extra tomato filling you can also add this later for an even more rich and tomatoey gravy.

5. With the other tomato sauce pan, let it reduce (with a lid on) for 20 minutes so that you have a nice light tomato sauce. Not too watery and fairly thick. Stir occasionally to make sure it's not sticking or burning. This will be one element to your tomato filling.

6. Now in another pan (lots of pans I know but it's a roast! A messy kitchen is a happy kitchen I say), heat some more olive oil to cook the aubergines.

7. While the oil is heating, put the flour in a bowl, eggs in a bowl, and dunk the aubergine slices first in the flour and then the beaten egg.

8. Shallow fry the egg dipped aubergine slices for 3-4 minutes on either side until golden brown. Set aside on kitchen roll and season well on both sides with salt and pepper!

9. Now we're ready to compile the tomatoes: Begin by placing a slice of aubergine into the hollow tomato, then a dollop of tomato mixture, then a slice or two of mozzarella.  Repeat until the tomato is full. Sprinkle with herbs and put it's lid on. Sprinkle on more herbs as you can never get enough herbs.

10. Repeat for all 6 tomatoes. Roast for 25-30 minutes. Any additional tomato sauce filling should be added to the gravy. And, as I said, I served this with roasties. But serve with whatever you fancy! With the

Marrow: Marrow and Feta Parcels, Followed by Stuffed Marrow with a Spicy Moroccan style Bean filling and a Marrow Slaw

Marrow, Feta and Mint parcels with a Pea and Mint Dipping Sauce

So, the reason for cooking up a Marrow Medley came about because I was so kindly, by Lynne, given a Marrow which looked like  a penguin for my Birthday. And, having just moved I thought I'd treat the household to a vegetarian feast. 

In fact this was a huge marrow and so I attempted to do a very pretentious meal of 'Marrow Three ways': Marrow and Feta Filo parcels with a Mint and pea dipping sauce: Marrow stuffed with Moroccan Spicy Beans and a Slaw Salad which included raw Marrow. And, it works!

I stated by cutting my Marrow in half, using one half to do the filo parcels and salad and the other half to stuff.

For the starter, peal and grate a third of your half marrow. Fry in a little bit of olive oil with a clove of garlic and fresh mint and Rosemary. Add in your cooked fresh peas and cook until the marrow has a little colour on it.

Once cooked, let it cool and mix in the feta and season, adding some more fresh mint if you like. 

Then make up your parcels, putting a tablespoon of filing in the centre and sealing with some melted butter. I used shop bought film and cut the sheets into squares of around 12cm. Fry them in butter for around 2 minutes on either side until golden brown and serve with a pea and mint dip: see below for this recipe.

For the main, start by scooping out the centre of your half marrow,and bake it for around 20 minutes on 180 degrees. I did this to get rid of some of the moisture first and soften the skin.

Then make the spicy paste.  In a mortar put your curry paste,  harrissa paste, cumin seeds, ground corriander, star anis, cardamon seeds, garlic, salt pepper and one fresh red chilli (chopped). Pound it all with your pestle until you have a fairly smooth paste.

In a large cooking pot, make your bean filling by frying your spicy paste in olive oil, adding your onions, garlic, mushrooms, chopped aubergine and mini peppers. Then add your beans and tinned tomatoes as well as a hand full or two of pearl barley, as well as chopped almonds. Cook until the barley is cooked. Check seasoning and adjust to your taste.

Marrow Stuffed with Spicy Moroccan Beans

Add your filling to the marrow and top with soft cream cheese and bake for 30 to 40 minutes on 180 degrees.

Serve with your Slaw, Rice and the remainder of your pea and mint dip. The presentation was a little messy but tasted great! 

Think we got a bit carried away with group singing, percussion and recorder session to mind. All in all a great evening. Musical and Marrow-tastic.

Ingredients:

Filo parcels:

1 or 2 sheets of pre-bought filo pastry cut into 12 squares.

melted butter and a brush

1 clove of garlic

olive oil

1/4 of your marrow. peeled and grated (half or your half)

half a feta cheese, crumbled

large handful od fresh mint, chopped

1 sprig of chopped rosemary

fresh cooked garden peas. I used around 80g

Pea and mint dip:

70g cooked garden peas

2 tablespoons plain yoghurt

juice of 1 lemon

salt and pepper to season

small bunch of chopped fresh mint

Blitz all of the above together in a hand blender. Season to taste.

Stuffed Marrow Filling:

Spicy paste: Medium Curry paste,  harrissa paste, cumin seeds, ground corriander, star anis, cardamon seeds, garlic, salt pepper and one fresh red chilli (chopped)

1 white onion, chopped

1 Aubergine, chopped

8-10 mushrooms, roughly chopped

2 cloves of garlic, chopped

4-5 mini red peppers chopped in half ( or 2 normal red peppers)

2 tins of assorted beans. I used mixed beans and butter beans

2 cans of tinned tomatoes

1 stock cube

2 handfuls of pearl barley

2 handfuls of chopped almonds

The above measurements made enough to stuff the half marrow and there was quite a lot left over which makes a nice stew or soup. Half the quantities if you don't want leftovers!

I served with white basmati rice, using Delia's recipe. Serve with whatever you fancy though. 

Fresh Slaw:

1/4 of marrow (half of your half) peeled and grated. Sprinkle over salt and drain so there is no liquid

1 x grated carrot

1 apple thinly chopped

5 thinly chopped radishes

1 bag fresh rocket/ lettuce or whatever salad leaf you fancy

Dress with a simple dressing of olive oil, vinegar, salt and pepper.

Kay's Farmer's Pie: A bit like a Cottage Pie but with Mushrooms, Lentils, Leeks and Red Wine

It's been an age since I posted a recipe. Basically I've been working stupid hours and also we've moved house. What better way to settle in than cooking for everyone. And this week I've cooked a lot, including this delicious savoury pie. It's a hearty winter warmer perfect for the change in season and just as good for a Sunday lunch.

We've moved in with Andrea and Ameer so as to save up for a deposit and I am loving their big kitchen and lovely big pots and pans. I chose myself this massive Le Creuset dish and consequently this recipe feeds up to 8 people. You can reduce quantities to feed less though. See recipe below.

In a pan, fry off your onions, leek, celery and mushrooms in olive oil. Add your garlic, spices, salt and pepper. Then add your tomato puree and lentils. Let them cook for a minute or so to absorb the flavours. If you don't cook off the tomato puree, it can taste really bitter.

Pour in the red wine and let the alcohol simmer off for about 4 minutes. Then add a stock cube and water, as well as a tablespoon of marmite. This is optional. I just like the really nice savoury flavour that this adds, as well as the deep colour.

Cover and cook on a low heat so that it's gently simmering for about 40 minutes until the lentils are al dente and almost cooked. Halfway through this stage, add in your chopped carrots. I add them a bit later as I like them to have a bit of texture to them still when you serve up.

At this stage, turn on the oven to 180-190 degrees centigrade and let it heat up and prepare your mashed potatoes.

Chop and boil your potatoes with their skins on until they're soft. Then add a good seasoning of nutmeg, salt, pepper and a dollop of butter. For the amount of potatoes I had I used about 30g butter.

Mash and adjust seasoning to taste. We added some grated cheese to our mash to make it a bit richer. 

Compile your pie, putting your lentil filing on the bottom and mashed potato on top with a generous helping of cheddar cheese on the top. Bake for 30-40 minutes until the cheese on the top has browned to your taste.

Serve with fresh greens or whatever you fancy.

Recipe (serves 6-8 people)
Prep and cooking together takes about 2 hours. Perfect for a winter weekend. Not a quick supper.

For the lentil stew/ pie base:
1 large white onion
1 leek
1 stick of celery
3 cloves of garlic

Mushrooms- I used about 10 small mushrooms chopped roughly. Up to you how many.

Italian herbs, thyme, rosemary, ground coriander, parsley, salt and pepper. 
2 carrots, peeled and chopped into large chunks for a rustic feel
150g green puy lentils
1 large tablespoon of tomato puree
1 vegetable stock cube
1-2 glasses of red wine depending on how rich you like it! 
1 tablespoon of marmite
water to cover lentils. Add more if you think the mixture is too dry. It should look like the photos above.

For the potatoes:
8 medium potatoes chopped in half
nutmeg, salt and pepper
25-30g butter
150-200g grated mature cheddar cheese. 50g should go into the mashed potato mix. If you just want the cheese on top then used 150g.

Festivals, Birthdays and Cookery Classes

 It's actually been about a month since I posted anything on my blog. I've basically had a month of fun, festival going and birthday celebrations, including many culinary capers along the way. On the weekend of 10th August, we went to Wilderness festival where I bought tickets for Nel and I to do a cookery course with the Thyme Cookery School.

The course felt a little rushed but I did pick up a few tips and ideas for recipes which I'll do another week. We made a feta and spinach filo spring roll with several sides and salads. In particular I liked the tahini and lemon dressing and the crushed pea dish, which I made again when we got home, desperate for some fresh food.

 Last weekend was my Birthday, and so Billy and I cooked a special, rather pink, birthday brunch. We made a rough guacamole and spread it on sourdough toast and topped it with two poached eggs, fresh chillies and greens. Yummy. In fact two summers ago, Nel and I also went to the Green Man Festival and this is where I got the inspiration for this breakfast. At the Green Man though, we had it with scrambled eggs, chard and chorizo. It's delicious either way.

 Finally to top off my culinary month, I made made cupcakes. Now I never usually bake cakes but I do like lemon drizzle cake. So, using one of Nigella's lemon drizzle cake recipe's I made these. Took them to the pub, where we all enjoyed them with a few glasses of wine.

Beetroot Ravioli with Blue Cheese, Walnut and Spinach filling

As I've not been working of late, I wanted to make a dish with things that I had in the fridge already so as to save a bit of money. I had some beetroot and pasta flour and so decided to make some bright pink pasta as a bit of fun.

Using Gina Steer's pasta recipe from her book, The Pasta Machine Cookbook, I made my pasta. I then wrapped it in clingfilm and placed in the fridge for about an hour to cool.

After making the filling (see below), Billy and I set up our pasta machine and rolled out the pasta until we got to the smallest setting.

We decided to cut out the ravioli shapes first, fill them and then put the top layer on, brushing on some water around the edges of the filling in order to glue the two layers together.

We cooked them for around 4 minutes until al dente, and served them with a horseradish butter. Delicious. Next time I am going to add even more beetroot as it did loose a bit of colour during the cooking process.

Recipe (serves 4):

Pasta:
See my related links for the pasta recipe from the Pasta Machine Cookbook

300g flour
3 eggs
1 tablespoon olive oil
Pinch of Salt
Beetroot, pureed

Filling:
20g crushed walnuts
40g blue cheese
125g ricotta cheese
1 bag fresh greens- I used spinach, watercress and rocket. cook and drain thoroughly so that there is no water left in them.
Salt and pepper to season

Horseradish Butter:
Large knob of butter
Half a crushed clove of garlic
2 tablespoons of hot horseradish sauce
Squeeze of lemon and a bit of zest.
 Bring all of these ingredient to a sizzle and sizzle until a golden colour. Pour over the pasta once cooked with some more crushed walnuts.