Roasted butternut squash with cardamom and black onion seeds

This is Ottolenghi, by way of our friends S and N who have been staying with us these last few days. They are the first to test our 'spare' room, which we haven't really worked out what to do with yet. The squash was really delicious: the spices were perfect, and they made it with wild rice mix, which soaked up the wonderful juices really well. It is a surprisingly straightforward recipe for Ottolenghi: basically just squash and some stuff we always have in the cupboards.

20 g unsalted butter
1 tbsp olive oil
1 large red onion, peeled and cut into 1 cm thick slices
1 large butternut squash, peeled and cut into 3 cm pieces
salt
30 g pumpkin seeds
1 tsp nigella seeds (black onion seed / kalonji), plus extra to garnish
½ tsp each ground cumin and coriander
¼ tsp ground turmeric
4 cardamom pods, lightly crushed
1 cinnamon stick
1 green chili, halved lengthways
1 tbsp caster sugar
200 ml vegetable stock
100 g Greek yoghurt
1 tbsp chopped fresh coriander

Heat the oven to 200C/400F. Put butter and oil in a large pan, and fry the onion for eight min over medium heat until soft. Add the butternut, turn the heat up to medium-high and cook for 10 min, stirring occasionally, until it starts to colour.

Remove from the heat and add half a teaspoon of salt, the seeds, spices, chili and sugar. Mix and transfer to an ovenproof dish large enough to hold everything snugly. Pour in the stock and roast for 30 minutes, by which point the butternut should be tender and all the liquid absorbed or evaporated.

Serve warm with yoghurt spooned on top, a sprinkling of chopped coriander and a few nigella seeds.


Note: This other butternut squash Ottolenghi recipe looks good too. I really ought to buy one of his books.

Coconut and pumpkin dal

I went to Paris for five days for a meeting. It was sunny all the time, and I never wore a coat. I came back, and Copenhagen had decided it was Autumn. It was chilly, windy, rainy. Dal season had started. I'd hardly spent time cooking for weeks - I've been really busy with work and house stuff. I don't feel like myself when I don't cook: it takes my mind off things and helps me relax. But I hadn't time.

So in honour of dal season, and in an attempt to use up some stuff from the kitchen cupboards, I made this rich, delicious, warming dal. I cooked red lentils and kabocha squash in coconut milk with turmeric, ginger and other spices to maximise warmth in colour and taste. Finished off with a generous amount of fresh coriander, it is warming and decadent and autumnal. And I feel a bit more like myself.

2 tbsp coconut oil
2 in piece ginger, chopped
2-3 garlic cloves, peeled and chopped
1 1/2 tbsp coriander seeds
1-2 tsp cumin seeds
seeds from 2-3 whole cardamom pods
2 tsp turmeric
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp red chilli flakes
1 1/2 cups red lentils
1 tin coconut milk
water
1 small kabocha squash
4 tbsp chopped fresh coriander
salt+black pepper
juice of 1/3 lime

Heat coconut oil in a large pan. Add ginger and garlic and cook until lightly coloured. Grind the cumin, coriander and cardamom then add to the pan along with the other dry spices. Cook until fragrant. Add the lentils and stir until slightly transparent. Add coconut milk and sufficient water to cook the lentils (you can add more later if it gets too thick). Simmer for about 20 min. Once you have started it simmering, deseed the pumpkin (squash) and chop it into smallish chunks. You can peel it if you like but wouldn't have to. Add it to the pan with about 15 min to go. Once the pumpkin and lentils are tender turn off the heat. Add coriander. Add salt, pepper and lime juice to taste. Eat right away with rice or flatbreads, or reheat (it keeps well).

Berbere lentils

I've made berbere lentils before, but at the weekend was browsing my precious weeks-old Guardian Weekend (that Y shepherded carefully over from Beccles for me), and found someone professing this berbere lentils recipe (that I had noticed then forgotten about previously) to be the best thing. And I had exactly the 250 g of red lentils it called for, so off we went.

2 medium onions, chopped
sesame oil (untoasted) or peanut oil, for frying
2–3 garlic cloves, chopped
250g red lentils
2 tbsp berbere spice mix (recipe below)
400g tin chopped tomatoes
400ml water
salt and black pepper

For berbere spice mix:
2 cloves
1 tsp fenugreek seeds
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tbsp coriander seeds
1 tsp cayenne
2 tbsp paprika
2 tsp salt
1 tsp ground turmeric
½ tsp each of ground allspice, black pepper, ground cardamom, and ground nutmeg

To make the berbere, toast the cloves with the fenugreek, cumin and coriander. Grind and then mix with the cayenne, paprika, salt, black pepper, cardamom, nutmeg, turmeric and allspice.

Fry the onions. When softened, add the garlic, lentils and berbere. Mix, then add the tomatoes and water. Bring to the boil, turn down the heat and simmer for 30 minutes, adding more water if necessary.


Pretty good. Was a bit salty - I've reduced the salt a little above (as well as tweaking spice levels to my taste).Very similar to the recipe I tried before (except a bit saltier).

Mulled wine / goodbye Boston

The clock is ticking through our final week in Boston. Doesn't quite seem real... Yesterday we had a birthday / christmas / solstice / goodbye / freeloading party - I guess things started to feel more real... Lots of friends came by to say goodbye and help us out by taking some of our stuff away (I was taken aback by the attendance, given the time of year). Seb rolled out his pretzel factory for one last time in Boston, and I kept a pan of mulled wine going on the hob all afternoon / evening.

The mulled wine is made the same way I used to make it as an undergrad, and ever since - lots of Christmassy memories. I am in the less-is-more camp when it comes to alcohol levels: I like to add orange juice rather than spirits. The orange juice provides sufficient sweetness for me, but in you like it sweeter you can add honey or have it nearby so people can add some to suit themselves.

I can't imagine there'll be much more cooking this Christmas - everything is in boxes and we have hardly any food left. So I suppose this is it.

(makes ~20 servings)

~ 2 bottles red wine (not the cheapest, but not the best either)
1.5 litres fresh orange juice
1 medium-large orange, sliced
2 cinnamon sticks
8-10 cloves
~5 whole green cardamom pods (optional; allspice / nutmeg might also be good)
honey on the side

Pour the wine into a large saucepan and add the orange juice. Add a bit at a time and taste in between until you get a wine-juice balance you like. Add the sliced orange, cinnamon sticks, cloves and cardamom to the pan and heat over a low heat until it is just below a simmer. Keep the heat really low, so the mulled wine stays warm but does not boil. Ideally keep like this for ~30 min before ladling out the first serving. You can keep it going (below boiling) a few hours, and you can top up the liquid a couple of times before the spices lose their power.

Popcorn muffins

I made a lot of popcorn and started daydreaming about baking with it. I was running short of snack muffins so muffins were the obvious choice (referred to this recipe). These are fun!

(makes ~9 muffins)

5 cups popped corn (2 1/4 cups after homogenising)
1 1/2 cups plain flour
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt (use less if the popcorn was salted)
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 cup fake milk
1 tbsp ground linseed mixed with 2 1/2 tbsp boiling water
2 tbsp veg oil
1/2 tsp vanilla essence

Version 1 = dark chocolate, sour cherry and thyme - add 1 tsp dried thyme, handfuls of sour cherries and of dark chocolate chips/chunks in with the dry ingredients.
Version 2 = mango, coconut and cardamom - add 1/2 tsp freshly ground cardamom, 2 tbsp dried shredded coconut and ~4 tbsp diced mango (from frozen) to the dry ingredients.

Heat oven to 400F. Prepare a muffin tin. Grind popcorn (I used the blender) until it is mostly pulverised (don't worry about a few remaining unground kernels - they will be fine+fun). Put ground popcorn in a medium bowl with flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and any additional dry ingredients (see Versions) and mix with a fork. In a separate bowl, beat together the fake milk, linseed mixture, veg oil and vanilla essence. Add wet to dry and mix until just combined. Dollop into prepared muffin cups and bake for 25-30 min, until lightly browned and a skewer comes out clean.


They are tasty but with so many additional flavours the popcorn is lost. I plan to tweak this to get a version that actually tastes like popcorn!

Hot toddy

This was cobbled together from the contents of my cupboards, on a snowy Saturday evening. The ginger wine is unorthodox but it seemed appropriately warming; I used bitter orange instead of lemon because it's what I had, also because I thought it might be good.

(makes two)

~1/2 cup whiskey
~1/2 cup ginger wine
juice of one seville orange and ~5 strips of zest
1/2 tsp honey
~1/2 cup hot water
2 cloves
1 cinnamon stick
1 green cardamom pod

Put all ingredients in a small pan. Heat very gently until almost boiling. Strain through a sieve into a jug, pour into small mugs and sip.

Orange, almond, cardamom, honey and polenta cake (gluten free)

It's my cake baking time of year again - both my lab cake making duty (for N, who is leaving this week, so probably the last time I will make one for him), and then S's birthday in a few weeks. Winter birthdays have their disadvantages but the enjoyment of time spent indoors baking on cold days is not one of them! N suggested nuts or fruit, so I decided to use both and make this.

This is a cake I haven't made for ages. My sister T used to make it, and I used to love it. I begged her for the recipe years ago, promptly lost, misplaced or forgot it. It took me a while to track down the source on the internet, but I am pretty sure I found it - Nigel Slater, here. I considered not adapting it, but couldn't help myself (/ had no butter and eggs in the house), so here is a veganised version. It is actually also gluten free.

For the cake:
220g refined coconut oil (or margarine)
220g sugar (for prettiness try and get golden caster)
100g slivered almonds (for prettiness use ones without skin)
200g ground almonds (for prettiness try and get blanched ones)
3 tbsp ground linseed mixed with 9 tbsp boiling water (for prettiness use golden flax)
150g polenta (optional for vegan version - add 1/4 tsp xanthan gum and 1/4 tsp turmeric to the polenta)
1 level tsp baking powder
finely grated zest and juice of a large orange
12 green cardamom pods

For the syrup:
Juice of 2 lemons
juice of 2 oranges
4 tbsp honey

For decoration:
1 whole orange, peeled neatly with a sharp knife and then sliced thinly

Line the base of the cake tin with a piece of baking parchment. Set the oven at 180C/360F.

Beat the coconut oil and sugar together til light and fluffy. Grind the slivered almonds in a blender til finely chopped, then add them, together with the ground almonds, to the cake mixture. Stir in the linseed-water mixture. Mix the polenta and baking powder, then fold into the cake mix, together with the grated orange zest and juice. Extract the black cardamom seeds (discard the green outer shells), grind them to a fine powder, then add to the cake mixture.

Transfer the cake mixture to the lined tin and smooth the top level. Bake for 30 minutes, turn down the heat to 160C/320F for a further 25 -30 minutes or until the cake is firm.

To make the syrup, squeeze the lemon and orange juice into a small saucepan, bring to the boil and dissolve in the honey. Keep the liquid boiling until it has formed a thin syrup (4-5 min). Spike holes into the top of the cake (still warm and in its tin) with a skewer (or thin knitting needle) then spoon over the hot citrus syrup.

Leave to almost cool, then lift out of the tin*. I decorated by arranging thinly sliced orange (1 whole large orange sliced into cross sections as neat and thin as I could manage with a sharp knife) on top.


*this was fairly unsuccessful - I had to leave paper and tin base stuck on for decorating and serving


This comes out dense and sticky and delicious. I suspect a little fat came out the base and burned on the bottom of the oven - prob a good idea to put it on a baking tray. Perhaps the cake could use a touch less coconut oil - could help with the sticking of the base as well as any leakage. Lining the sides and base with a continuous sheet of paper (or base+long strips) should also help with both sticking and leakage.

Curried parsnip soup

This is a Delia duvet for a cold, snowy day.

1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp refined coconut oil
2 onions, peeled and chopped
2 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
1 heaped tsp coriander seeds
1 heaped tsp cumin seeds
6 whole cardamom pods (seeds only)
1 heaped tsp turmeric
1 heaped tsp ground ginger
1½ lb / 700 g young parsnips, peeled, and chopped into ~1 inch dice
2 pints / 1.2 l  / ~ 5 cups veg stock
salt and pepper
1 small apple

For the parsnip crisps:
1 medium to large parsnip
4-6 tbsp high heat cooking oil (used safflower)
salt

Heat the oils in a large saucepan and add the onions, cooking gently for a few min before adding the garlic and cooking a bit longer til softened. Meanwhile heat a small frying pan and dry fry the cumin, coriander and cardamom until fragrant. Tip into a mortar and grind. Add to the onions, along with the turmeric and ground ginger. Mix and cook a little longer, until fragrant. Add the parsnips and stir well, then add to the stock and bring to a gentle simmer. Simmer at as low heat as possible, uncovered, for approx 1 hour. When the hour is up, liquidise the soup, taste for seasoning, then peel and grate in the apple.

While the soup is simmering, make the parsnip crisps. Heat the oil in a frying pan until very hot (smoking). Lay the parsnip slices in and fry in batches until golden brown. Remove to a paper-lined plate, sprinkle with salt and let cool.


Notes: I quite like the idea of mixing turnip and parsnips instead of using just parsnips, as well. I am quite amazed: the apple I used for this was one of three I had left from last year's apple harvests.

Spiced quince in syrup

Another thing I'd had hanging around in the fridge for too long was a couple of quinces. I love quinces, but it always takes a bit of activation energy to get through the prep: those cores are HARD. Worth it though. I noticed this recipe and it was simple enough to spur me to put those quinces into syrup (I accidentally made it even simpler, to no ill effect).

2 quinces
300 ml water
125 g brown sugar (or white)
5 green cardamom pods
1 clove
small piece of star anise (1/6 of a star)
1 cinnamon stick
2-3 strips of lemon rind
2 tbsp honey

Peel and core the quinces, and slice thinly. I had ~250 g quince when prepped. Put the quince slices in a pan with all the other ingredients, bring to the boil and simmer for ~20 min, until the quinces are softened but not falling apart. Remove spices if you like (if not then be careful not to crunch them by accident when eating the quince), transfer quince slices and liquid into a sterile, wide-mouthed jar, cover and let cool. Keep in the fridge (unless you feel like water bath processing them) for 2-3 weeks at least (if they last that long).


These are really delicious - the quince taste, spices and brown sugar balance out really beautifully to make a very fragrant, lovely snack... yup, I have been snacking these straight out of the jar with a teaspoon.

Mulberry harvest: pickled mulberries

Second experiment with my mulberry bounty was pickled mulberries: I fancied making something savoury, this idea came into my head, and I liked it. I used this recipe.

Pickled Mulberries
(quantities below would make 3 smallish jars (the official canning style of jars) - I did only one cup of mulberries' worth though)

2 cups mulberries
3/8 cup white vinegar
3/8 cup apple cider vinegar
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/8 tsp ground cardamom
1/8 tsp ground allspice
1/8 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
1 small bay leaf

Put the berries in dumpy, sterilised jars. Put the remaining ingredients in a small saucepan and bring to the boil. Pour over the berries, so that the vinegar reaches to 1/8 in below the top. Put the lids on and screw on (but not too tight). Bring a large pan of water with a rack in it to the boil. Put the jars in, bring back to the boil and keep at a simmer for 10 min. Remove the jars carefully and allow to cool.


Mulberry Salad Dressing

1 tbsp pickled mulberries - make sure to include some berries and some vinegar
1 tbsp azuki bean miso
1/2 tbsp tahini
1 tsp honey
1/2 tbsp mirin

Mix all the ingredients together in the bottom of a salad bowl to make the dressing. Add washed lettuce leaves, chopped tomatoes and a sprinkling of sesame seeds, toss and eat.


These are interesting. I opened one jar immediately out of curiosity, and they are bright pink and lovely. Quite vinegary (perhaps they will mellow over time?) and a little sweet, and unavoidably reminiscent of pickled beetroot. Thought they worked really well in the salad dressing: the azuki bean miso is also pinkish (-red-brown), so the dressing comes out really pink as well as really tasty.

Chickpeas with amchoor

I bought a bag of amchoor (powdered green mango) yesterday. It had been on my mental shopping list for a while, and although it was a rather big bag, when I found it I couldn't resist. So here is something with amchoor (which seems to be something fit for a similar kind of role to tamarind: sweet / sour flavour depths) - basically this recipe.

4 cups cooked chickpeas (+ keep 1 cup cooking liquid)
2 tbsp oil
1 tsp cumin seeds
2-3 cardamom pods, crushed
1 cinnamon stick, broken in half
1 tsp ground cumin
2 tbsp amchoor
1 tbsp ground coriander
1/2 tsp ground cayenne
1/2 tsp turmeric
2 chopped tomatoes or 2 heaped tsp tomato puree plus 1 tsp red wine vinegar and 1/2 cup water
1/4 cup chopped fresh coriander
1 1/2 tsp salt

Heat the oil over medium heat in a medium-large saucepan. When hot, add the cumin, cardamom and cinnamon, and cook for 1 min. Add the ground spices, stir, and pour in the tomatoes / tomato puree plus 1/2 cup water. Cook, uncovered, stirring often, until for 5-10 min or until the tomatoes are reduced. Add the chickpeas, cooking liquid (or sub water if you don't have), and half the chopped coriander. Cover and simmer, stirring occasionally, for 20 min or until the sauce has thickened. Remove from heat and add salt, and vinegar if it needs it. Serve with the remaining coriander.

Hedgehog cake (orange, carrot and pistachio cake with mocha-sunflower icing)

This is S's birthday cake. He mentioned carrot cake at some point, also mentioned cake in the shape of a hedgehog at some point, he likes nuts and coffee, and I'm still trying to find the perfect carrot-coffee-nut combination after he requested it a few years ago.

Cake recipe adapted from this one (my quantities are weird because I scaled it down to make two layers instead of three).

For the cake:
50g tahini
83ml sunflower oil
2 tbsp pomegranate molasses
zest of 2 oranges, and 67ml juice (juice of approx 1 orange)
150g soft light brown sugar
2 tbsp ground linseed mixed with 5 tbsp boiling water
133g carrot, grated finely
67g chopped pistachios
117g plain flour
1 2/3 tsp baking powder
1 1/3 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground cardamom
1/3 tsp grated nutmeg

For the icing:
(this made too much - half or two thirds this quantity would have been sufficient)
16 oz firm silken tofu, drained
1 tbsp veg oil
1 tbsp very strong coffee
1/2 cup icing sugar
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/8 tsp salt
2 tsp vanilla essence
1/2 cup smooth sunflower seed butter

To finish:
~1 cup slivered toasted almonds
3 raisins (1 big one for the nose and two smaller, equal-sized ones for the eyes)

Heat the oven to 360F / 180C. Grease two 8 inch round cake tins and line the bases. In a large bowl, whisk together tahini, pomegranate molasses, orange zest and brown sugar until smooth. Beat in linseed mixture, then stir in the grated carrot, pistachios and orange juice. In a separate bowl, mix the flour, baking powder and spices with a fork. Add the flour mixture to the wet mixture and fold together until just combined. Divide the mixture between the prepared tins and bake for 25-30 minutes, until a skewer comes out clean. Leave to cool in tins.

While the cake is baking, make the icing. Crumble the drained tofu into a blender jug, add the oil and coffee and blend until smooth. Add the icing sugar, cocoa, cinnamon, salt and vanilla and blend until smooth. Add the sunflower seed butter and blend until consistent. Transfer the icing into a bowl, cover and refrigerate for an hour, until thickened.

When the cakes are cool and the icing chilled, you can assemble the cake. For a normal cake, just layer it up and stop here.

I wanted to make a curved, bilaterally symmetrical hedgehog shape. I made 4 layers (plus a little bit more on top, using almost all of the two circular cakes. I took one of the circular base papers (cleaned of cake bits) and cut out a template for the bottom layer (approx egg shaped; long side length equal to diameter of circle), then cut this shape out of one of the cakes with a sharp knife (save the offcuts for the upper layers), cutting at an angle of ~45 degrees. I then trimmed about 1 cm around all the edges of the template and cut this shape out of the other cake (working at the edge). Stack them so you can see how it is looking. Trim another centimetre off the template and cut the shape out of a combination of offcuts. Repeat. Use remaining offcuts to create a rounded top. Hopefully the stacked shape will look OK, if not you can do some rearrangement / trimming.

Next, put the bottom layer on a plate. Cover it with icing then add the next layer, Repeat until all the layers are done, also using the icing to stick the pieces together where the layers comprise more than one piece. Once the pieces are all layered up, cover the outside with icing. Make sure to fill in all the cracks and to go right down to the plate; you can use the icing to correct minor irregularities in shape. Smooth it out when done. Starting about 1/4 of the way back from the pointed end, stick slivered almonds into the icing to make spines. Cover the entire back part of the cake with these. On the part without almonds, make striations with a fork to look a bit like fur. Finally, choose your raisins, squish them into shape, and press into position on the cake.


This looks really fun - the almonds and raisins are quite effective, as good as I might have hoped. The cake is delicious - bit of a faff with all the chopping and grating and zesting and juicing and so forth, but tasty enough to warrant it on a special occasion. They didn't rise much but they did hold together very well as I cut and layered them. Carrot cake should be dense anyway, so I don't think the lack of eggs mattered much.

The icing is very soft but does stay in position. I wondered if the seed (or nut) butter was a necessary addition or if it would have been just as good without. Same with the cocoa - I added it mainly for colour but it might have been brown enough without. It definitely doesn't taste of tofu at all. Does taste of sunflower butter though, and with that plus the cocoa once again I have managed to drown out the coffee flavour. Tastes fine in combination with the cake though: the flavours work together well. (note: I may have been eating the leftover icing out of the tub with a spoon like pudding, this was kind of good - it's fairly light)

Valentines Biscuits III: Cardamom and rose hearts

I made these once before, before I started this. They are, to my mind, the quintessential kitschy Valentines baked goods: cute, tiny, tasty, flowery, and very, very pink (it takes very little beetroot juice to make a really pink icing: you don't taste the beetroot at all but oh my word you can see it). I think cardamom and rose go great together, and a box of tiny biscuits makes a great friend-Valentine.

Biscuits:
4 oz plain flour
small pinch salt
1/2 tsp powdered cardamom
2 1/2 oz margarine
1 oz sugar
1/4 tbsp rose water
1/4 tbsp water

Icing:
1 tsp finely grated raw beetroot
1/2 tsp water
1/2 tsp rose water
4 tbsp icing sugar

Finishing:
petals from 1 dried rosebud
seeds from 2 green cardamom pods

Heat oven to 350F / 180C. Mix flour, salt and cardamom in a bowl with a fork. Rub in butter until it resembles coarse breadcrumbs. Stir in sugar, then add rose water and water and knead to a smooth dough.

Roll out thinly on a floured surface, cut into hearts (I happen to have three different sizes of heart cutters nowadays, but previously I have freehanded heart shapes with a knife) and place on greased baking sheets. Bake for 15-20 min and cool on a wire rack.

For the icing, mix the beetroot and water, leave for a minute or two, then squeeze all the liquid out of the beetroot and transfer to a fresh bowl. Add rose water and icing sugar to the beetroot water, check it is a good spreading consistency, then use to ice the cooled biscuits. Finally, grind the rose petals and cardamom seeds together and sprinkle a little on top of each biscuit.


Notes: this basic recipe (based on one from the WI Book of Biscuits - same source as this recipe) is the best I've tried so far for cutting shapes, and it has plenty of scope for varying the spices, shapes and flavourings. It rolls thin so you get a lot of biscuits out of this amount - I must have got about 30 tiny hearts and about 10 bigger ones out of this quantity.

Latest yellow split pea dal

Pretty much based on this recipe: trying to perfect my method.

1 cup yellow split peas
3 cups water
1 tbsp coconut oil (or olive)
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 in piece ginger, finely chopped
1/4 tsp fennel seed
1/4 tsp nigella seed
1/4 tsp mustard seed
1/4 tsp cumin seed
seeds from 4 cardamom pods
1/2 tsp turmeric
3/4 tsp salt

Put the split peas and water in a medium saucepan, cover and simmer for 45 minutes. Meanwhile, heat the oil in a frying pan and add the ginger, garlic and whole spices. Cook for a few minutes, until spices are aromatic and garlic light gold, then add the turmeric and cook for a few more seconds. Stir the peas and check they are soft and collapsing. When they are, Add the spice mixture to the peas, along with the salt, and stir. Eat with rice or with flatbreads.


This is really warming and good. I've worked through a few iterations and like this one best (with optional fried onion addition). Must be patient and make sure the peas are fully cooked - the softer the better, really.

Cardamom flatbreads

They made flatbreads on 'The Great British Bake Off' the other day (I love that show), and they looked really good.  Thus, I remembered noting this recipe from this cookbook on Amazon (the cookbook looks intriguing).

Makes 8

3/4 tbsp dried yeast
1/2 tbsp sugar
250 ml lukewarm water (test for temperature - too hot will kill the yeast)
3 cups plain flour
seeds from 15 cardamom pods, crushed in a mortar and pestle
3 tsp sea salt
1 tbsp olive oil, plus more for cooking

Combine the yeast, sugar, and water and set in a warm place until foaming, about 10 minutes. Mix the flour, cardamom, and salt in a large bowl with a fork. Add the olive oil to the yeast mixture, then pour into the flour. Mix the dough with your hands.

Knead for about 10 minutes, until dough is smooth and elastic. Cover and leave in a warm place until doubled in size, 1-1 1/2 hours. Turn the dough out on a lightly floured surface and divide into 8 balls.

Using a rolling pin, roll each ball into 1/4 inch thick pieces. Place rolled out pieces on baking sheets lined with parchment paper (you can keep in the fridge for up to a day at this point). Preheat a grill pan (or frying pan) and brush each piece with a little olive oil. Lay the piece oiled side down on the pan, and cook over medium heat, about 1 minute, or until golden brown and bubbles rise from the surface. Turn over and cook the other side. Keep warm while cooking the remaining flatbreads


These were really tasty: S loved them - lovely, soft, naan-y texture, and I enjoy cardamom in pretty much anything, sweet or savoury.  Note that the recipe suggested using other spices such as chilli flakes, nigella seeds or cumin seeds instead of the cardamom, all of which sound like great ideas.  I also fancy trying out Paul Hollywood of GBBO's own flatbread recipe, as hyped by Nigel Slater here.

We ate them with a yellow split pea dal, made combining a few recipes I've used before.

Watermelon rind preserves with ginger, rose and cardamom

While preparing our watermelon salad last weekend I looked at the rind I was removing and remembered reading about watermelon rind preserves.  I think it is an idea from the American South but I might be wrong, I don't think watermelons are native there?*  Anyway, I've never eaten it or seen it in real life but making it seemed like a good idea.  It obviously appeals to my dislike of throwing things away...

Makes approx 2 small jars.

5 cups diced watermelon rind
2.5 cups sugar
3/4 cup lemon juice
~7 strips of lemon rind
1 in piece of ginger, cut into thin slices
1-2 tbsp dried rose petals
1 tsp rose water
8 whole green cardamom pods
1 small cinnamon stick

To prepare the rind, cut off the outer green peel and the inner red flesh (if you haven't already eaten the watermelon - I had just saved all the pieces left from eating the flesh - don't worry about removing all the red), then dice the white rind into 0.5-1 cm cubes.  Our watermelon was one of the 'mini' ones, with fairly thick rind (I think the rind is thicker if the watermelon is a bit underripe), and I prepped the rind from 3/4 of the watermelon to make 5 cups.

In a large pan, mix the diced rind with the sugar (use half as many cups of sugar as rind).  Cover and leave overnight in the fridge, or for at least 2 hours, until a lot of liquid has come out of the rind and the rind pieces are effectively sitting in syrup.

Add the rest of the ingredients to the pan and simmer covered for 2 hours.  It will go golden-brown, and the rind pieces will become transparent.  After 2 hours, remove the lid and boil fast for 15 minutes.  Leave it for 10 minutes to cool slightly, then put in sterilised jars while still hot (I didn't bother removing the cardamom pods etc, you could try but it'd be a fiddle getting them out of the burning hot jam, and they look quite pretty - will just need to make sure people are aware of their presence and don't eat them by accident).


This worked really well, I was surprised - I thought it was going to be just an exercise in using stuff I'd usually throw away, and was kind of worried I'd end up with something runny and not very appealing.  When I'd finished boiling it it looked really liquid and I didn't think it was going to set, but it set beautifully.  It reminds me of apple or marrow jam, in that the rind is a fairly bland-tasting, textural background for whatever spices or flavours you may add.  The end result looks really pretty and tastes fairly subtle but pleasantly fragrant.

*OK, I've figured it out: watermelon rind preserving IS a thing in the South, but they make a vinegary pickle, not a jam.

Sweet cinnamon and cardamom rolls

I don't know why I suddenly felt like making these... Oh yes I do, I saw this recipe.  I thought I might try veganising it, but then I discovered we are low on fake butter, so decided to try a different recipe instead. I used this one, which uses oil.

Somewhere in the back of my mind, I think I am always dreaming about Fitzbillies' (the bakery in Cambridge, UK) Chelsea buns.  These buns are swirled and gloriously cinnamony like the Chelsea buns, but less sticky, less decadent and more everyday than Fitzbillies' buns.  Which is a good thing if you intend eating more than half of one.

This made nine, and neatly filled my square Pyrex dish.

Dough

1-1/2 tsp dry yeast
1/6 cup sugar + 1/2 tsp sugar
1/4 cup lukewarm water
3/8 cup fake milk
1/6 cup veg oil
3/8 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground cardamom
2 cups flour

Filling
1/8 cup brown sugar
1/8 cup white sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground cardamom
1 tbsp flour 
~1/8 cup fake butter

Icing (optional)
1/2 cup icing sugar
1 tbsp fake milk
1/2 tsp vanilla essence

Mix the yeast with the 1/2 tsp sugar and 1/8 cup lukewarm water and let sit for ~10 min until it starts to bubble.

Put the rest of the water in a bowl with the remaining dough ingredients, then add the yeast mixture.  Combine and then knead for ~5 minutes.  Let rise in a warm place for 1 hour.  Knock down.  Rest for 10 more minutes.  During the wait period mix together all the filling ingredients except the butter.

Flour a clean surface and then roll the dough out to ~30 cm x 20 cm.  Rub the butter all over the dough with your fingers, making sure to take it right up to the edges.  Sprinkle the sugar mixture evenly on top, again making sure to go right to the edges.  Then roll it up: roll starting from the long side, trying to go as tight as possible.

Oil a ~20 cm square Pyrex oven dish (or similar).  Cut the roll into 9 pieces with a sharp knife - mark and cut into thirds first, then mark and cut each piece into thirds.  Cover with a clean dishcloth and leave in a warm place for 30-45 min.  They will grow to fill the space.

Meanwhile, heat the oven to 375F.  Bake for ~20 min, until pleasantly golden brown on top and not burnt underneath.

If you are using icing, make it while the buns are baking by mixing the ingredients in a small bowl (add vanilla to sugar first, then add the milk slowly to make sure it doesn't end up too runny).  As soon as you remove the buns from the oven, spread the icing on top.


I experimented a little with how thick to cut the roll, and with whether to ice or not (I iced half of them).  I feel like there is a lot of scope for adding / removing ingredients - raisins or flaked almonds might be good, I could try varying the spice combination (that ground cardamom I have is kinda weak, could try using it with a mixture of roughly-ground seeds), adding more or less butter...

They look wonderful, and are really soft and tasty.  The somewhat crappy cardamom means they mainly taste of cinnamon.  They are mostly bready and not too sweet without the icing, which is good.  The icing does add in some goopiness though, which I feel goes quite well.  Does massively up the sweetness though.  Ooooh perhaps using mincemeat in combination with the cinnamon sugar mix would be good, I have lots of mincemeat laying around...  Still warm from the oven they are lovely - will have to see if they're still good when cooled down.  S voted for the iced ones, although I do think are prettier when you can still see the whorl.

Carrot, coconut and cardamom muffins

1 1/2 cups flour (use 2?)
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup desiccated coconut
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp ground cardamom
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 cup grated carrot (one large one)
1/2 cup golden raisins

1/4 cup veg oil
1/2 cup tinned coconut milk
1 tbsp ground linseed + 3 tbsp boiling water


Heat oven to 350F and line muffin tin with paper pieces. Mix dry ingredients (first seven, flour through cinnamon) in a mixing bowl with a fork. Add grated carrot and raisins and mix. In a separate bowl, mix the linseed and hot water, then add the coconut milk and veg oil and mix. Add the wet to the dry and mix until just combined. Dollop the mixture into the muffins cups with a spoon (made 10-11), then bake for ~45 min until golden brown on top and nicely cooked inside.


Came out tasty - the flavours seem to be really well balanced, and the texture is good. perhaps a little sticky (moist from the carrot, sweet+juicy from the raisins and fibre from the coconut). The mixture was a little bit runny - might try using 2 cups of flour instead of 1 1/2 another time. And they didn't rise that much, which doesn't matter that much, but adding 1 tsp of cider vinegar to the coconut milk mixture might help, as might adding a little bicarb as well as baking powder.

Thanksgiving - more pumpkin

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving.  Feeling a little detached - everyone is making big food plans and / or heading home across the country - S+I are privately just like: ummmm so you just want to eat lots of turkey?  not really our bag...  Although some friends from the South have invited us to help them drink beer and deep-fry turkey in their front yard.  I assumed this meant deep-frying bits of turkey in the style of KFC, but then today I saw this video and a wave of realisation swept over me - this is serious!  So yeah, right now our plan is to go to the best vegan restaurant in town and eat their 4-course thanksgiving menu, then head over to M+S's place to observe the turkey action...

One thing I love about Thanksgiving is pumpkin pie.  Well, sweet pumpkin anything is pretty much awesome.  I already cooked pumpkin for Halloween, but yeah, what's this season all about but excess?

Pumpkin Cardamom Cake

This year: Pumpkin Cardamom Cake

(from this recipe)

1/4 cup fake milk
1 tsp cider vinegar
1 cup plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
2/3 cup sugar
3/4 cup pumpkin puree
3 tbsp sunflower oil
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup chocolate chips
1 tsp ground cardamom

Put the soy milk into a jug and add the vinegar, leave to curdle.  Put dry ingredients into a bowl and mix well with a fork.

To the milk and vinegar mix add the oil, pumpkin puree and the vanilla and mix.  Add wet to dry and mix until just combined.

Spoon into muffin tin or cake tin(s) and cook at 350F until golden on top and a skewer comes out clean (25-30 min).


These are goood - lovely warm orange colour, good texture, bold cardamom taste - perhaps a little too much cardamom, but I love the stuff so that's fine by me.


Last year: Pumpkin Pie

(from this recipe)

For the crust:
1/2 cup unbleached flour
7 tbsp whole wheat pastry flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp baking powder
3 tbsp veg oil
3 tbsp soy milk + 1/2 tsp lemon juice
3 to 4 tbsp water 

For the filling:
2 cups pumpkin purée
1 cup fake milk
3/4 cup granulated sugar cane syrup (just used sugar / maple syrup instead)
1/4 cup cornflour (used regular flour instead - didn't expect it to work but it did!)
1/2 tbsp dark molasses or to taste (didn't have so used maple syrup instead)
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp grated nutmeg
1/4 tsp ground allspice

To make puree:
Heat oven to 400F, cut pumpkin or squash in half and place, cut side down, on a lightly oiled baking sheet.  Bake for 30-40 min until collapsing when poked.  Scoop out the innards and mash them up.  Can freeze if more than needed.  Can use tinned if preferred.


To make crust:
In a mixing bowl, combine both flours, salt, sugar and baking powder.  In small bowl, mix oil and soy milk mixture.
Pour liquid mixture into dry ingredients and mix with a fork until it holds together in a ball.  If it is too dry, add some water, a little at a time, until dough is moist enough to roll.  (If time allows, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour.)
Roll out dough onto clingfilm with a lightly floured rolling pin, forming an 11-inch circle.  Line a 9-inch pie plate with the dough.  Flute or crimp the edges with your fingers or a fork.  Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until ready to use.
Preheat oven to 425F.

To make filling:
In large bowl, mix all remaining ingredients until smooth and blended. Pour into prepared crust and smooth top.  Bake 10 minutes.
Reduce oven temperature to 350F; bake until filling is set, about 50 minutes.  Set on wire rack to cool, then refrigerate overnight.


I made this twice last year - it wasn't long after I'd gone vegan and this was my first successful vegan baking effort.  Despite not having some of the ingredients and thinking a vegan pumpkin pie wouldn't work, it came out amazingly - all the tastes were there.  I did almost manage to poison a friend with a nut allergy with hidden almond milk in the filling (she was fine, thank goodness).

Orange-coloured food (giant couscous with apricots + rose harissa)

Turns out I am in the mood for orange-coloured food: lunch today is this apricot couscous, plus pumpkin salad, plus a raw carrot (have run out of fruit).  Perhaps I will turn orange.
This recipe is basically Nigel Slater's from here.  Was very keen to use some of the rose harissa I bought the other day.  With apricots sounded good - used dried not fresh - quite fancied the dried fruit : couscous combination.


150g giant couscous
300ml hot water / veg stock
olive oil
2 onions, finely chopped
5 green cardamom pods, lightly crushed
1 clove garlic, finely sliced
10-15 dried apricots, roughly chopped
2 tsp rose harissa
1/2 a lemon, juice and zest
~3 tbsp parsley, chopped
salt

Bring water to the boil in a saucepan, then add the couscous and boil for ~10 min.  Drain and refresh, then put in a bowl and toss with a little olive oil.

Meanwhile, heat some olive oil in a frying pan and cook the onions, garlic and cardamom  pods until the onions are soft and pale.  Add the lemon zest and the apricots and cook for a few minutes more.

Add the apricot mixture to the couscous.  Mix the lemon juice in a bowl with the harissa, then add to the couscous.  Finally, add the parsley, mix well and taste for seasoning.


Mmhmm.  That worked.  Not spectacular but pleasant and interesting and subtle.  Not blown away by  my fancy rose harissa - can't really taste the rose.  Perhaps I overpowered it, will have to try again.