Peanut, sesame and chilli bread

I'd seen this recipe a while back and thought it sounded exciting.  Had pretty much all the ingredients in the house including me for once, so decided to make it today.

50g tahini
75g crunchy peanut butter
1 tbsp cumin seeds
1 tsp fine salt
2 long red chillies, not too fiery, charred over a flame, deseeded and roughly chopped (used dried chilli flakes instead)
75g roasted peanuts
500g strong white flour, plus extra
1 tsp instant dry yeast
sesame seeds

If the peanuts aren't already roasted, roast them in a 400F oven for ~10 min.  Measure the tahini, peanut butter, cumin and salt into a bowl, add 100 ml hot water and mix.  Add the chillies (leave the charred bits on).  Stir in 200 ml cold water and the peanuts; add the flour and yeast, mix to a soft, sticky dough and leave for 30 minutes.  Give the dough a 10-second knead and leave for an hour.

Divide into three, shape into balls, leave for 15 minutes, then shape into sticks.  Pat each stick into an oval (use flour), folding it in upon itself a few times, then roll to 30cm in length.  Brush with water, roll in sesame seeds and leave to rise on a baking tray for 45 minutes.  Slash down the length with a sharp knife, and bake at 220C/425F for 30 minutes.


An unusual combination, but good.  Roasted peanuts are so darn tasty.  S's serving suggestion was with a thin spread of red miso, then a layer of sliced tomato, then a sprinkling of finely shredded basil.  Also good with strawberry jam (pb+j with built in pb).

Strawberry, balsamic and basil jam

We stopped off at the Haymarket on the way to the beach yesterday and conducted a speedy 3-pronged attack while Greg kept the car running.  S hit up the strawberries and got a whole trayful (8 large boxes) for $6.  So then we had epic quantities of surprisingly good strawberries.  We ate some at the beach, some for breakfast, then decided I should cook up the rest.  We were running low on jam, so thought that would be a good idea.

2.3 lb strawberries, hulled and cleaned and chopped
~4 tbsp balsamic vinegar
2 lb sugar
~1-2 tbsp basil, finely shredded

Put the cleaned strawberries into a large pan with the balsamic vinegar.  Boil until the fruit is collapsed and the volume released a little.  Add the sugar and boil at a high temperature until setting point is reached (I use the saucer in the freezer / running finger through to look for wrinkles approach).  Switch off, add the basil, and cool for 10 min or so before putting into clean, sterilised jars.


For the first time ever I managed to burn jam!  Not sure why - perhaps the strawbs were too ripe so there was too much sugar in the pot?  I think it may still be ok, but I am reserving judgement til I taste it tomorrow morning (and may not be able to give any away - I wanted to pay m+g back in jam)...

Edit: It's actually fine, whew.  The pan took a bit of cleaning but the jam is good - perhaps the burning even adds some depth to the colour and flavour (it's definitely a deep ruby red, although perhaps the balsamic also contributes to this)?

Rhubarb and strawberry crumble

I had a look around Allston farmers market yesterday.  It was pretty tiny (3 stalls, one was bike fixing), but I bought garlic chives and rhubarb.  Rhubarb's one of those things where if I see it I just have to buy it.  As I was walking along after leaving the market a girl asked me if it was sugarcane sticking out of my bag - the rhubarb was big sticks - I had to disappoint her, but rhubarb is never disappointing to me.

One thing though, I always end up turning it into crumble, because rhubarb crumble is just the best.  It tastes like childhood - we always had rhubarb growing - I remember in our garden in Chatteris (we left there when I was 8) we had some we forced under a big wooden box, and I remember being sent out to pick rhubarb many times in our East Linton garden.

I thought if I was going to make crumble yet again I should at least try out a few different ideas.  In America it seems that the main use of rhubarb is strawberry-rhubarb pie.  We had lots of strawberries, so I thought I'd put some with the rhubarb in the crumble filling.  Rhubarb goes great with orange and ginger, so I bunged in a bit of each too.  And I experimented with an olive oil based crumble topping (after the success of my olive oil biscuits I'm all about using olive oil in baking instead of butter, also we are pretty much out of marg) - based the topping on this recipe.

Filling:
~1.5 lb rhubarb, cleaned and chopped into 1 cm pieces
~0.5 lb strawberries, hulled and chopped
juice and zest of 1/2 an orange
~4 tbsp sugar
~1 tbsp cornstarch

Topping:
100g flour (used ~3 tbsp wholemeal and the rest plain)
100g oats
100g sugar
80ml olive oil
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp ground ginger
zest of 1/2 an orange

Heat the oven to 350F.  Put all the filling ingredients in a 9in square oven dish or similar, and mix with your hands.  Put all the topping ingredients in a medium bowl and mix with a fork until everything is evenly distributed and it is a good, chunky-breadcrumb texture.  Level out the top of the filling and spread the topping across it, making sure it is evenly distributed to the edges.  Put in the oven (on a baking sheet in case it bubbles over), cook for 40-60 min, until lightly browned on top and the fruit is soft when poked with a fork.  Allow to sit for at least 10 min when it comes out of the oven, preferably more like half an hour - it will be bubbling hot.


This came out really good.  I like the topping a lot, and another bonus is it is much quicker to mix up than butter-based crumbles.  The filling is great too.  I am finding that I can still very much taste the strawberry, rhubarb and orange as separate elements, and together the sweetness of orange and strawberry sets off the tartness of rhubarb... but I think I prefer the rhubarb simpler, with just something warming like ginger.  Anyway, definitely a good experiment, and I'm looking forward to having more for breakfast tomorrow (perhaps the fruit flavours will have melded together differently?). Note: this makes enough crumble topping for my small, square Pyrex dish.