Squash wedges with cumin, cinnamon, sage and garlic

Couldn't resist the prettiest pile of Orange Acorn and Delicata (variegated orange / cream / green) squashes being put out at Trader Joes when I went there on Friday (ahem supposedly looking for chocolates to decorate a cake ahem). I thought I should be so over squash by now, but no...

Decided to roast them right away, had been thinking about the combination of cumin seeds and ground cinnamon, and wanted to use up some sage.

2 medium squashes (one Delicata, one Orange Acorn), cut in half and deseeded (keep the seeds to toast)
2 tsp cumin seeds
2 tsp ground cinnamon
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp finely chopped sage leaves
4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
salt+pepper

Heat the oven to 400F. Chop the squash halves into wedges, leaving the skin on each. Toss the wedges with the rest of the ingredients, then tip onto a lightly oiled baking tin. Roast for 25-30 min, until soft to a poke with a fork. You can turn them midway through to avoid browning the bottom side too much.


These were yum.  Ate them with wild+brown rice mix and bean puree. Definitely fun to leave the skin on when the skin is so pretty. I kind of like the texture contrast it brings too. Liked both squash varieties: no closer to settling on my favourite kind of squash. Think the trick may just be to find nice fresh / ripe ones.

Kale salad with radish and spelt

All my salads lately have involved honey-mustard dressing (+raisins+flaked almonds). It's simple and tasty and storecupboard-friendly, and if you ask me it goes with almost anything. I guess it's kind of a go-to comfort food for me: I've been somewhat distracted by preparing for my trip to Scotland. This time it was kale's turn. I've been experimenting a bit with kale salads, this time I thought I'd try it super simple. The kale and the daikon radish both came in last week's bumper CSA. The kale was listed as 'White Russian Kale', which suggests, as S pointed out, that it might taste like kahlua, vodka and cream. Not so, but it was quite nice anyway: the lobed, non-crinkly variety.

1 bunch kale, washed, leafy parts only (stripped from main stems and torn into manageable pieces)
1 cup whole spelt berries (or wheat berries)
2 tsp wholegrain mustard
1 tsp honey
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp cider vinegar
salt+pepper
1/4 of a medium sized daikon radish, peeled and thinly sliced
small handful of golden raisins (would have liked cranberries but I was out)
small handful of flaked toasted almonds

Put the spelt on to cook (should take ~ 20 min). Prepare the kale and let it drain. Mix the dressing (mustard through salt+pepper) in a serving bowl. Add the kale and mix thoroughly, using hands to make sure all the kale is coated. Let it sit for a while to soften - at least half an hour. When ready to serve add the sliced radish, raisins and almonds and toss. Serve over the cooked spelt (or you could mix it all together before serving).


I liked this. I think this kale variety is perhaps a little better for salads than the regular crinkly stuff - with less surface area it seems to soften easier / be a bit less fibrous. Perhaps they just happened to be younger leaves, I don't know. Anyway, it definitely filled a comfort food gap for a late supper after aerials, and the crunchy peppery radish/irony green kale/sweet dried fruit/toasty crisp almonds were a pretty complete combination.

Vanilla bean and coconut oil biscuits

I bought a few things I'd had trouble finding locally from a spice purveying website the other day: celery seeds, cream of tartar... I was really happy with my purchase - the items were reasonably priced, there was a good selection, I could find everything I wanted, delivery was free, the package arrived quickly... I also gave in to temptation and bought some vanilla pods while I was there - I came across them while browsing and I've never cooked with them / always meant to.

Then they sat in my spice cupboard for a month or so. I was beginning to wonder if I might still never get around to cooking with them. Until I saw this recipe and it suggested a perfect opportunity.

(makes about 14 large, thin biscuits)

3 oz sugar
1/4 tsp ground sea salt
1 whole vanilla bean
4 oz coconut oil
5 oz flour (mixture of plain and wholemeal)
1/4 tsp baking powder

Snip the hard tips off the vanilla bean and discard. Snip the rest into inch long pieces and put into a spice blender. Add some of the sugar and blend until the bean is broken up completely into tiny pieces. Transfer the vanilla bean / sugar mixture to a mixing bowl along with the rest of the sugar. Add the coconut oil and beat until smooth. Add the flour, baking powder and salt and mix to make a smooth dough.

Take balls of the dough (about 2 inch diameter spheres) and roll / squash out between two pieces of baking paper until about 5 mm thick. Transfer to a baking tray lined with baking paper. When the tray is full, move it to the fridge and chill for about half an hour. The biscuits will firm up in the fridge and become much easier to move around. While they are chilling, heat the oven to 340F. When ready, move the tray(s) of rolled out biscuits to the oven and bake for 15-20 minutes, until lightly browned around the edges. Remove from the oven and allow to cool on the trays for 5-10 minutes before carefully moving to a cooling rack. They are quite fragile so be careful.


These biscuits don't look like much (misshapen and brownish), but they have an intense taste: the coconut and vanilla are sweet and familiar / exotic both at once. And they're crumbly and flaky and melt-in-the-mouth. They aren't very pretty and a bit lacking in substance for my taste, so I don't know if they will become staples, but they are definitely lovely. And it was really easy to use that vanilla bean - I am inspired to think of something exciting to make with my second one. Perhaps in icing?

Apple, treacle and caraway muffins

As soon as I saw this recipe I was dying to make it: apple, treacle and caraway seeds are three of my favourite things right now, it sounded like a wonderful combination, and Dan Lepard's recipes are almost always gorgeous. I had all the ingredients (more or less) at home (including eggs as I am picking up Alvin's CSA while he is in Borneo), so all I needed was time.

(makes 12)

120ml veg oil (or 50ml oil plus 100g melted butter)
50g treacle (used blackstrap molasses)
175g soft brown sugar, any sort
3 medium eggs (used 2 large ones plus a bit of linseed-water mix)
3 tsp vanilla essence
3 tsp caraway seeds
150g plain flour
150g spelt or rye flour (used wholemeal as had no spelt)
2 tsp baking powder
3 small apples, peeled, cored and diced
Flaked almonds, to finish

Heat the oven to 190C/375F/GM5. Beat the oil, treacle and sugar until smooth, then beat in the eggs one at a time, until evenly mixed though. Add the vanilla and caraway, mix well, then add the flours and baking powder, and stir just to combine. Fold in the apples, divide the mixture between lined muffin cups, filling them almost to the top, and scatter almonds on top. Bake for 25 minutes, or until a skewer comes out clean. Remove from the oven, and carefully lift the muffins from the tray and on to a rack, so they don't sweat as they cool.


These were every bit as great as I hoped. The caraway, vanilla and treacle all seemed like quite large quantities of quite strongly flavoured ingredients, but together they meld and make each other brilliant, backing up the soft, sweet apple perfectly. Somehow seasonal, with the treacle and apple and very British caraway - perhaps I'll make them next Bonfire Night.

Baked acorn squash with dukkah

Leafing through old recipes cut out from newspapers and so forth, from the days before this blog existed, when I still lived in the UK, bought newspapers (haven't found an American one I love like the Guardian weekend), and cut recipes out of them. Some little nostalgia. Found this recipe. Liked the sound of it. Never tried it. Three squashes in the pantry. Now is time.

1 tbsp coriander seeds
1/2 tbsp cumin seeds
1/2 tsp chilli flakes
2 tbsp sesame seeds
handful hazelnuts, roughly chopped
small handful mint leaves, finely shredded
1/2 tsp sea salt
1 medium-large acorn squash (or butternut)
3 tbsp olive oil

Heat the oven to 350F. Toast the cumin and coriander in a small pan just until fragrant, then grind until broken but not powdered. Put the sesame seeds into the spice pan and warm until just golden. Toast the hazelnuts and chop them. Mix mint, spices, seeds and nuts together in a small bowl: this is 'dukka'. Peel and deseed the squash, cut into chunks or wedges. Tip into a bowl with the olive oil and 3-4 tbsp of the dukka and toss, then pour into a roasting tin and bake for ~40 min, until soft. Sprinkle over more dukka to serve.


The dukkah is pretty tasty.  There may be an argument for not bothering to add it to the squash before roasting, since the dukkah is all nicely toasted already and it might be better to get the roast on and make the dukkah while the squash is in the oven. Am out of love with acorn squash: I thought they were my favourite but my last few acorns have seemed insipid in colour and taste beside their butternut peers. Their seeds are better, but the seeds are only ever really an added bonus / afterthought.

Potato salad

As a child, the only way I'd eat boiled potatoes was in potato salad, which had to be with salad cream and chives (or finely chopped onion at a push) - no other way.  As an adult, salad cream seems disgusting.  I guess this is a grown-up version.

~20 new potatoes (we used fingerlings, other small boiling potatoes would also be fine), scrubbed and boiled with the skin on until just cooked, left to cool (can store in the fridge for several days)
1 tbsp chives, chopped (parsley also good, or both)
2 tbsp capers, drained and chopped (sundried tomatoes in oil also good - if using replace the olive oil with the tomato oil)
1 tbsp wholegrain mustard
2 tsp honey
1 tbsp lemon juice (juice of 1/2 a lemon)
2 tbsp olive oil
salt+pepper

Chop the cold, cooked potatoes into chunky, evenly sized pieces.  Mix the remaining ingredients in the bottom of a medium sized bowl and check for tastiness.  Add the potatoes, toss and eat.


This is a classic. I've made many slight variations but the honey-lemon-mustard-olive oil dressing with herbs and nuggets of strongly-flavoured caper or tomato is really yummy, and makes for an instant storecupboard / fridge salad out of a tub of leftover boiled potatoes.

Red cabbage salad

Previous red cabbage experiments having led me to believe that raw in salad is by far the best way to eat red cabbage, more salad was definitely in order for this one.  Dried fruit, nuts, honey and mustard were calling out to be added, so I obliged.

1/2 a red cabbage, outer leaves and thick stem in the middle removed and the rest finely shredded
1 tbsp chives, chopped
1 tbsp coriander leaves, chopped
1 tsp nigella seeds
1/2 tsp caraway seeds
1 tbsp golden raisins
1 tbsp flaked toasted almonds
2 tsp wholegrain mustard
1 tsp honey
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tbsp cider vinegar
2 tbsp olive oil
salt+pepper

Put the shredded cabbage, herbs and seeds in a serving bowl.  In a small bowl, mix the remaining (dressing) ingredients and check for tastiness.  Pour the dressing over the cabbage, toss and eat.


S said he didn't think he liked red cabbage but then he really liked this, so that seems like a recommendation.  Lots of space for adaptation, as ever with this kind of recipe. 

Physalis and lemon jam

We've been harvesting these wonderful tomato relatives (ground cherries aka physalis) from the community garden all summer. They have such an exciting, sweet-sharp, distinctive taste. The final harvest was on Sunday - we'd already taken the plants down, and I picked up the fruit remaining on the ground (one of the great things about these is that they come individually wrapped, so they can lay on the ground a little while without even getting dirty - always wonder if the name comes somehow from this). Since they were mostly a bit underripe and the green tomato jam I made the other day was surprisingly successful, I thought of reapplying the same recipe to make physalis jam. It was a small quantity of fruit for jam, but still just about worth bothering with.

1 lb physalis (weight of fruits only, the husky lantern parts having been removed)
12.8 oz sugar
juice and zest of 1/2 a lemon

Slice the physalis and mix with sugar in a large bowl. Cover and leave for 24 hours or overnight. Move to a large pan and add the lemon zest and juice. Simmer for about an hour / until reduced and the jam passes the setting point test. Let cool for 5-10 minutes and then spoon or pour into sterilised jars.


Perhaps less lemon would have worked just as well - the lemon taste is quite strong: not unpleasant, but perhaps overpowering the delicate physalis a little. And the set is quite firm: another argument for less lemon.  Edit: actually the set is firm but good - I was initially worried it was too sticky but it is fine... And actually I think the physalis taste is sharp enough to power through the lemon.  This jam is yummy - quite similar to the green tomato one, but with a sweeter, more intense tang.

This year's parkin (+Bonfire Night)

Shane's photo

It's nearly Bonfire Night, and I suddenly realised what that meant as I walked home from work in the wild winds on Monday...  Time to make parkin! I made one last year which was quite successful, this time I decided to go with an old recipe I cut out of the newspaper years ago, and which dates from even longer ago: October 1907, apparently. Interestingly, it is eggless. Other differences include addition of nutmeg, lemon zest and mixed peel. Parkin is generally recommended to be aged - up to a month is good I think - to allow the oats to soak up the treacle and syrup and so forth. I was not that organised, but this one got 5 days.

225g plain flour
3½ tsp ground ginger
¾ tsp ground nutmeg
½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
a pinch of salt
125g medium oatmeal (used steel cut oats)
100g unsalted butter, softened (used fake butter)
125g light soft brown sugar
zest of ½ lemon
100g treacle (used a mixture of blackstrap molasses and carob molasses)
75g golden syrup
50ml milk (used fake milk)
50g mixed peel, finely chopped

Grease a deep, 20cm square cake tin and line the base with baking paper. Heat the oven to 180C (160C fan-assisted)/350F/gas mark 4. Sift the flour, spices, soda and salt into a bowl, then stir in the oatmeal. In another bowl beat the butter, sugar and zest until light and fluffy. Add the treacle and syrup, beat again until creamy and smooth, then add the milk and the dry ingredients, and beat quickly until smooth once more. Fold in the mixed peel, then spoon the mixture into the tin. Cover the top with foil, bake for 40 minutes, then remove the foil and bake for a further 20 minutes, until a skewer comes out clean.


It came out well enough: the citrus was interesting and good. But a little dry: perhaps I left it in the oven a little too long? It was very brick-like, as ever with my parkins. We celebrated last night, with a bonfire and lots of sparklers at Andrea's, and people seemed to like it.

Halloween pumpkin: from owl to curry (with banana)

I can never bring myself to choose between carving a pumpkin and eating it. Thus, last night after I biked home a long way round to pass through the trick or treating heaven (hell?) that is Brook St (featuring skeleton ship's captain at the wheel and circling red-eyed bats), in a fit of Halloween slasherdom, I butchered the owl I carved out of a tiny pumpkin last week at Mariah's, and it became curry.

The recipe I noted down from Meghan's pumpkin recipe book, which she brought in to inspire us ahead of our pumpkin-themed happy hour.

3 tbsp veg oil
1 small onion, sliced
2 garlic cloves, chopped
2 tsp grated ginger
1 tsp ground coriander seed
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp ground turmeric
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1 small pumpkin (1 1/4 lb), seeds, peel and guts removed, cut into cubes
1 400g tin chopped tomatoes
2 dried red chillies
1 1/4 cups veg stock
1 3/4 cups cooked chickpeas
1 large, underripe banana
1 tbsp fresh coriander, chopped
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tbsp sugar
1 tsp tamarind paste

Heat 2 tbsp oil, add the onion, garlic and ginger and fry for ~5 min, until the onion is browned. Add the ground spices and stir-fry for a minute or two more, until fragrant. Add tomatoes, chillies and stock to the pan and simmer for 15 min.

Meanwhile, heat the remaining 1 tbsp oil in a frying pan, add the cubed pumpkin and fry for 5 min, until lightly browned. Add the pumpkin to the tomato mixture with the chickpeas, cover and cook for 20 min.

Peel the banana, slice thickly and stir in to the pan 5 min before the end. Lastly, add salt, sugar and tamarind, taste for seasoning and add the fresh coriander before serving.


I followed the recipe loosely: I figured it was that kind of recipe.  I wasn't sure what type the pumpkin was, but in curry the taste of the pumpkin is not all that important so I figured it would be fine either way.  It came out very pretty and equally tasty: a good balance of sweet/spicy/savoury/hot.  It was slightly fierier than I intended, due to my new jar of 'red pepper flakes' in fact being chilli pepper, but it was just about on the good side still.  We ate it with cumin rice.  And E Nesbit's ghost stories on Radio 4.