Avocado grapefruit salad

If S is out in the evening sometimes I watch queer eye and shell walnuts at the same time. One time the food dude made an avocado and grapefruit salad, and I guess I took a mental note - I like both, don’t think I’d had that combination before, but it sounded good. Some time later, s insisted on grapefruit purchase but then remembered he doesn’t like them much, and it sat in the fruit bowl for a while until some ripe avocados arrived too, and I remembered about the avocado and grapefruit salad…

1 pink grapefruit
1 ripe avocado
Lettuce 
Chopped almonds
Honey
White wine vinegar
Olive oil
Salt and pepper

Segment the grapefruit and remove all the pith and membranes. Do it over a bowl and keep the juice. Peel and chop the avocado. Put the lettuce (anything mild is good - little gem, spinach etc) in a bowl, add the grapefruit, avocado and chopped nuts. Add the vinegar, olive oil, honey, salt and pepper to the grapefruit juice and  whisk together to make a dressing. Pour the dressing over the salad and toss.

It was a great combination, why have I never eaten this before?!

Easter 2022: Aubergine kuku

I have decided that Easter is my favourite holiday. We get three days off work, it is Spring and everything feels full of possibility, the days are fresh and sunny (if we are lucky), and the garden is full of the best flowers and not yet too out of control. Spring and its regenerative effect feels like something to celebrate: potent and powerful. 

Eggs are so symbolic of all this. I make an effort to cook something big and eggy, and ideally using beaten eggs, so the shells can be painted later.

This time, I remembered this recipe, which had caught my eye a while ago, partly because of the fun name. I bought a pile of barberries a while ago and have been trying them out in different things. So we had all the ingredients except the aubergines, which I picked up from my favourite wee shop (along with some mangoes - the yellow South American ones are here - summer is on its way!) on my way home today.

120 ml sunflower oil, plus extra (used less - about 50 ml)
4 small onions, peeled and sliced
3 small aubergines, peeled
5 eggs
2 tbsp plain flour
1½ tsp baking powder
25 g chopped parsley, plus extra to garnish
1 tsp saffron strands, dissolved in 1 tbsp of hot water
3 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed
½ tsp salt
Black pepper
20 g dried barberries, rinsed and dried

Heat the oven to 210C. Drizzle the oil in a big roasting tin, toss in the chopped onions, and put in the oven for about 7 min.

Meanwhile, cut the aubergines in two widthways, cut each half into 1 cm-thick slices, then cut each slice into 1cm-thick sticks. Add these to the onion tin, toss, and put back in the oven for 15-20 min, until the aubergines are completely soft (add a little more oil if needed, but not a lot). Set aside to cool down.

In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs, flour, baking powder, parsley, the saffron and its water, garlic, salt and a good grind of pepper. Once smooth, fold in the barberries and the aubergine and onion mix.

Grease and line a 22cm spring-form cake tin. Pour the egg mix into the tin and bake for 30-40 minutes, until golden-brown and cooked through – insert a skewer in the middle to make sure the egg has set.

Remove from the oven and set aside to cool. Serve warm or at room temperature,with good bread. It will keep in the fridge for two days.

 

I made this with s, he liked the idea of a savoury cake. It is pretty quick and easy, especially if you do the aubergine-onion mix in advance. The recipe called for frying them, by the way - but generally I prefer to do them in the oven for these kinds of things.

Easter 2021: Pace Eggs

At some point I fell down an Easter google bunny hole, wherein I discovered that the Pace Egg is not only a peculiar play at Heptonstall, but also the name for beautifully dyed boiled eggs. Also the word 'pace' is closer to 'påske' (Danish for Easter) than 'easter', making me wonder about origins of both traditions. I've tried dyeing eggs naturally before but it didn't work that well, probably boiling is the trick. I used mainly this recipe, but took the tip about using flowers and leaves from this one.

 **save red and brown onion skins for a few weeks before Easter!**

Eggs

Onion skins

Small, pretty flowers and leaves (e.g. curly parsley)

Dampen the eggs, then press leaves or flowers (could also try cutting shapes from larger leaves, or plastic bags) gently onto them to stick.

Wrap onion skins (red, brown, or a mixture) around the eggs, covering the leaves/flowers.

Wrap tinfoil around the onion skins, encasing the egg.

Put the eggs in a pan along with the rest of the onion skins. Cover with water and bring to the boil.

Boil approx. 8 min, then let cool in the water.

Remove the wrapping carefully to see the pattern. Polish with a little butter to make them shine, if you wish.

They are mainly decorative - they are edible, but not the best-tasting boiled egg you ever had.

I tried shapes made from paper, but it didn't work very well - perhaps could cut shapes from larger leaves instead? I considered other dyes (turmeric? red cabbage? beets?) - but the beauty of onion skins, besides the good strong colour, is that it makes use of something I'd otherwise throw out.

Easter 2021: Creme Caramel

A whole year later, and here is last Easter's egg recipe. I like to make something at Easter that uses a lot of beaten egg, so I can blow the eggs and decorate the shells later. My mum used to make creme caramel often, and S+s like it (and flan - what is the difference?). I used this recipe.

(can do in individual ramekins - I used a smallish flat round-edged ceramic baking dish)

For the caramel:

160g/6oz sugar

butter, for greasing

 

For the custard:

4 eggs

1 tsp vanilla essence

25 g / 1 oz sugar

600 ml / 1 pint milk (I used oat milk - normal would prob have been better but it worked OK)

Heat oven 150C / 300F. Warm the dish in the oven, so it is warm when the caramel is poured in

Make the caramel. Pour the sugar and six tablespoons of water into a clean stainless steel pan. Dissolve the sugar slowly, stirring with a wooden spoon over a low heat. When there are no sugar granules left, stop stirring and boil until the sugar turns a dark copper colour. Remove immediately from the heat to ensure the caramel does not burn. Quickly pour the caramel into the warmed dish. 

Set aside to cool and become hard. (Do not put in the fridge because the sugar will absorb moisture and go soft and tacky). Once hard, butter the sides of the dish above the level of the caramel.

For the custard, whisk the eggs, vanilla extract and caster sugar together in a bowl until well mixed. Pour the milk into a saucepan, gently heat over a low heat until you can still just dip your finger in for a moment, then strain the milk through a fine sieve onto the egg mixture in the bowl. Whisk together until smooth, then pour the mixture into the prepared dish. 

Stand the dish in a roasting tin and fill the tin half-way with boiling water from a kettle. Cook in the oven for about 40-50 minutes or until the custard has set. Do not overcook the custard – check around the edges of the dish, to make sure no bubbles are appearing. Take the crème caramel out of the oven, remove the dish from the tray and set on a cooling rack. 

When cool, transfer to the fridge overnight so that the caramel is absorbed into the custard.

To serve, loosen the sides of the custard by tipping the dish and loosen with a small palette knife round the edges. Place a serving dish on top of the dish and turn upside down.