Plain stovetop rice pudding

It was the last day of børnehave in s's normal place on Friday, before they move to the summer situation next week. I think everyone had picked up early - he was the only kid left when I got there. As we were leaving, one of the teachers came running after us with two full cartons of milk - she gave them to us, saying we should take them, otherwise they go in the bin. So we did. We don't usually have normal milk in the house (oat milk and powered milk), and milk doesn't keep well, so we've been on a mission to use up all the milk ever since... We're doing quite well! I have been making s lots of milkshakes (milk blended up with banana and other fruit)... and then S had the idea of making rice pudding... Which, the more I thought about it, seemed like a good idea! I roughly followed this recipe, adding more spices but otherwise keeping it quite plain. 

120 g pudding rice

800 ml milk

200 ml water

2 tbsp maple syrup

3/4 tsp cinnamon

3/4 tsp vanilla powder

1/2 tsp grated nutmeg

Put all ingredients in a big pan, mix, then heat gently, stirring occasionally, for c. 45 min - until thick and creamy but still with a tiny bit of bite in the rice. 

We ate it with the options of (1) chopped fresh mango (the great pakistani honey mango season is still upon us!); or (2) summer fruit compote with mainly cherries, apple, blueberries and pink currants. It was surprisingly good - although s refused to eat it.

 

Baked donuts with raspberry icing

This morning, little s suddenly started talking about donuts. I have no idea why - I am pretty sure he has never eaten and probably never even seen a donut.

I'm not a donut fan, but we ended up agreeing that we would make some. I looked for a recipe while he napped. No way was I going to deep fry anything (it's so stinky), so I looked for a baked donut. Went with this one, but halved it. And did a raspberry-cream cheese glaze with desiccated coconut sprinkles.

Improvised a donut tin by molding little squares of foil around my finger and then pressing them into a muffin tin so the finger stuck up in the middle.

(makes 12 small ones)

For the donuts:

26 g butter

25 g veg oil

48 g sugar

35 g brown sugar

1 egg

3/4 tsp baking powder

1/8 tsp bicarbonate of soda

1/2 tsp nutmeg

3/8 tsp salt

1/2 tsp vanilla powder

159 g flour

113 g milk 

 

For the decoration:

c. 6 frozen raspberries, microwaved for 20 sec to defrost and smushed with a fork

c. 4 tbsp icing sugar with vanilla

c 2 tbsp cream cheese

2-3 tbsp desiccated coconut

 

Heat oven to 220C (425F). Grease the 'donut tin' lightly with oil. In a medium bowl, beat together butter, oil, sugars until smooth. Add egg, beat to combine. Stir in baking powder, bicarb, nutmeg, salt and vanilla. Stir the flour into the butter mixture alternately with the milk (start and end with flour). Batter will be thick - wooden spoon should leave a furrow. Spoon batter into the tin, leaving about 1/4 inch of the finger sticking up. Bake for 10 min. Take out of the oven and wait c. 5 min before turning out, peeling / pulling off/out the foil.

While the donuts bake, prepare the icing. Make sure there are no lumps in the icing sugar, then put it in a small bowl and beat in the raspberries. Beat in the cream cheese. Check the consistency and colour is as you want it. This only made a little - enough to ice about the top third of each donut.

After removing the foil, check the holes are still intact. I iced the bottoms of the 'donuts' because they looked neater. Ice the donuts while still warm, right after turning them out. I spread it out with a teaspoon. When the icing is on, sprinkle with desiccated coconut (toasted if you wish). Let cool or eat while still warm.

These are very cute. They didn't look great when I took them out the oven as the batter rose too much and engulfed the fingers (ideally make them stick up higher than the tin!), but I cut the holes back into the side they were missing, and the donuts survived the operation pretty good, and then the icing and sprinkles and holes made them look quite legit (if tiny). 

 

They aren't all that much like donuts, although they looked the part - not yeasted or deep fried. But that's fine with me; and they taste pretty good - the spices and brown sugar make for a tasty batter, and the raspberry goes pretty well with that. Wonder how well they will keep (we ate about half for dessert but the rest are kept til tomorrow).

Tinned-peach and custard cake

We went to Aldi, checking for the good tofu. I spontaneously purchased a huge tin of peach halves while we were there, off of some kind of thought process like: it's winter, there aren't many good fresh fruits now... how about tinned fruit? I used to love tinned peaches as a kid, maybe sage would like them... now I realize how sweet they are, I guess that's why I liked them really, but they do have a specific, nostalgic taste. I won a tin in a tombola once.

They'd been sitting in the pantry for some time when I realized I was never really going to eat 800+ g of tinned peaches... and I felt like I'd seen a German cake recipe with tinned fruit. I came across this one and it sounded good and I had pretty much all the ingredients sooooo here we are.

For the base:
1 1/2 cups plain flour
3/4 cup sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/8 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
1/4 cup (55 g) cold butter, diced
1/2 cup milk (used oat milk)
1 egg
1 large (c. 825 g) tin peach halves, drained and sliced 1/2 in thick

For the custard:
1 cup heavy cream (used oat milk)
2 tsp flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla essence
pinch of salt

Heat the oven to 400F / 204C. Grease and line a springform cake tin. Mix flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and nutmeg together with a fork in a large bowl. Add the cold butter and rub it in until the mix resembles breadcrumbs. In a separate, small bowl, whisk together the milk and egg. Pour the milk mix over the flour mix and mix with the fork until just combined. Pour the batter into the prepared tin. Arrange the peach slices on top (I had a few left over). Bake for 15 min.

Meanwhile make the custard. Combine 1/4 cup milk with the flour, and whisk to get rid of lumps. Add the rest of the milk, sugar, egg, vanilla and salt, and whisk well to mix. Take the cake out of the oven and pour the cream mix over the top. Put the cake back in and reduce the heat to 350F / 177C. Bake 35-40 min more (nb mine took longer, and I had to add a foil hat as the peaches were catching). When the cake top is puffed, and the edges are deep gold and separating from the sides of the tin, the cake is done. Remove from the oven and let cool at least 15 min before removing from the tin and letting cool completely.

Spinach lasagne

I often end up cooking to make myself feel better, and following a recipe for lasagne is about as comforting as it gets. I checked all the recipes I could find for the one heaviest on the spinach, and this one won (4 big bags!). Oh I didn't exactly follow the recipe - I added pine nuts. It was yum.

70 g butter (used naturli)
50 g plain flour
800 ml milk (used oat)
salt+pepper
1 bay leaf
800 g spinach
200 g ricotta cheese
1 whole nutmeg, for grating
300 g fresh lasagne sheets
1-2 tbsp pine nuts, toasted
100 g parmesan, grated

Heat the oven to 190C/375F. Melt 50 g of the butter in a pan and whisk in the flour. Cook for 1-2 min, then whisk in the milk till smooth. Season with salt and pepper, add the bay leaf and simmer for 5 min. Turn off the heat. Wilt the spinach with the remaining 20 g butter in a covered pan. When wilted, drain, then, when cool enough to handle, squeeze out the liquid. Chop the spinach and mix with the ricotta, a ladleful of the white sauce and a good grating of nutmeg. Season. In a baking dish, layer the lasagne sheets, white sauce, spinach mixture, toasted pine nuts and a grating of parmesan. Finish with a layer of pasta topped with sauce and more parmesan. Bake for 30 min, or until golden.


I haven't quite worked out how to make-ahead lasagne. This one I think I assembled and let sit for an hour or two in the fridge before baking, and I think it made the pasta slightly soggy. Was still delicious, but there is prob a better way - bake until nearly done then finish off in the oven before serving?

Spiced apple muffins with walnut streusel topping

Muffins for our new upstairs neighbours, in the hope we can start our neighbourhood sweetly. Using apples and walnuts from our garden. And a Delia recipe I've never actually tried before.

(makes 12 muffins, or one large cake)

For the muffins:
12 oz (350 g) apples (weight after peeling and coring), chopped into ½ inch (1 cm) cubes
3 oz (75 g) sugar
6 fl oz (175 ml) milk (used yoghurt mixed with water, as we never have milk)
4 oz (110 g) butter
10 oz (275 g) plain flour
1 tbsp plus 1 tsp baking powder
½ level tsp salt
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground cloves
½ whole nutmeg, grated
2 large eggs

For the walnut streusel topping:
2 oz (50 g) walnuts, roughly chopped
3 oz (75 g) flour
3 oz (75 g) sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 oz (25 g) butter

Heat the oven to 190C. Melt the butter in a small saucepan over a gentle heat. Put the flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, cloves and grated nutmeg in a bowl and mix with a fork.

In another large bowl, whisk the eggs, sugar and milk together, then whisk in the melted butter. Add the wet to the dry and mix until just combined, folding in the apple at the end. Spoon into muffin cups.

To make the topping, mix the flour, sugar and cinnamon in a bowl, then rub the butter in with your fingers.Add in the nuts and 1 tbsp cold water, and press loosely together. Press the topping on top of the muffins, then bake for about 30 min, until done.

Pumpkin and apple soup

More uses for our heap of windfalls. This time in soup, with hokkaido from the veg share. I used this recipe.

For the soup:
2 kg pumpkin, cut into wedges and deseeded
2 onions, peeled and chopped into 6 wedges
3 sharp apples, peeled, cored and roughly chopped
5 garlic cloves in their skin
100 ml olive oil
1 tsp ground cinnamon
salt+pepper
1/2 a nutmeg
2 litres veg stock

To finish:
yoghurt
raw apple sliced into matchsticks
walnuts

Heat the oven to 180C. Add pumpkin, onions, apple and garlic to a large baking tray. Toss in the olive oil. Sprinkle over the cinnamon, salt and pepper and grate over nutmeg. Toss again. Bake for 30-40 minutes until cooked and nicely softened. Remove and let cool a little. When still hot but safe to handle, take the skin off the pumpkin garlic.

Transfer the contents of the baking tray to a large pot. Add the stock and bring to the boil. Reduce and simmer for about 15 minutes. Turn off the heat and blend until smooth. Season to taste.


Serve topped with a swirl of yoghurt, some apple and walnuts, and salt+pepper.

S's pumpkin muffins

S made a pumpkin-carving party for his lab last week. He got them all pumpkins, and asked them to bring pumpkin themed food and then they carved pumpkins together. These muffins were his idea, slightly adapted by him from this recipe, and he even bought special silicone baking forms with pumpkin faces for baking them. He used the guts scraped out of two small-medium sized pumpkins and one butternut squash that he planned to carve the following day to make these. He spread all those pumpkin guts out on a baking sheet and baked them until soft and not liquidy, then blended them up to make the 15 oz of pumpkin puree needed.

(makes 12-13)

1 3/4 cups plain flour
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
1 tsp bicarb
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp grated nutmeg
1/2 cup walnuts
2 eggs
15 oz pumpkin puree
1/2 cup sunflower oil
1 tsp vanilla essence

Heat oven to 375F and prepare baking tin with liners (not necessary for silicone form). Mix dry ingredients in a large bowl with a fork. In a separate bowl, mix the wet ingredients. Pour the wet into the dry and mix until just combined. Dollop into baking cups, and bake for 20-25 min until a skewer comes out clean.

Apple cake

The food insert from a copy of the Guardian from February had been lying around since then, unread. I have no cutoff for how old such things have to be before I will read them. I read it a week or two ago, while drinking tea and surveying the apples on the table, and came across this apple cake recipe, which seemed so serendipitous (and a little different from anything I've made before), that I had to try it.

(makes 1 large cake)

200 g dark muscovado sugar
200 g unsalted butter, soft (or use salted and skip the salt)
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
150 g plain yoghurt
2 tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
½ tsp cinnamon
A good grating of nutmeg
4 apples (about 500 g)
2 tbsp demerara sugar

Butter and line a large (900 g) cake tin with baking paper. Heat the oven to 200C/400F/gas mark 6.

Using an electric mixer, cream together the muscovado sugar and soft butter until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs, one at a time. Add vanilla and yoghurt and mix well.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg. Add to the butter mixture and beat just until incorporated.

Grate three unpeeled apples (about 375 g) and fold into the cake mixture.

Scrape into your prepared cake tin and smooth the top. Peel and slice the remaining apple and arrange on top of the cake. Sprinkle with demerara sugar and bake about 60 min, until a skewer inserted comes out clean.


My wholemeal flour was very coarse - this works well. Also, I was unable to resist throwing in some walnuts and raisins at the last minute before putting it in the oven, which I'd highly recommend - it introduces some interesting texture - otherwise the grated apple disappears into the cake - perhaps some diced apple would also add interest. It's dense and lovely though - cooks well but v moist.

Mixed spice

Mixed spice, which I always have to remember not to confuse with allspice, is apparently distinctly British. Therefore, if I want to use it here, I have to mix it up myself.

1 tbsp ground allspice
1 tbsp ground cinnamon
1 tbsp freshly grated nutmeg
2 tsp mace (or use more nutmeg)
1 tsp ground cloves
1 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp ground ginger

Grind all the spices and mix together.

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).

Christmas: Nut loaf

Turns out S had never eaten a nut roast. So, almost as a joke, I made one for our Christmas lunch. I liked the idea of incorporating parsnips (double the Christmassiness) and when I came across this recipe I decided it was the one. I interpreted the ingredient list pretty loosely, using up various nuts etc we had lying around.

300g parsnips, peeled and roughly chopped
1 tbsp olive oil
1 onion, finely chopped
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
100g walnuts
90g unsalted cashews (used mixture of cashews and almonds)
200g breadcrumbs
100g pine nuts (used mixture of slivered almonds and sunflower seeds)
~2 tsp crumbled dried rosemary
~2 tsp crumbled dried sage
~ 1/2 tsp nutmeg
salt and pepper
50g cranberries (used ~2 tbsp dried sour cherries, rehydrated by soaking in ~ 2 tbsp boiling water)
1 egg (or 1 tbsp ground linseed mixed with 2.5 tbsp boiling water)
another ~1 tbsp olive oil

cranberry chutney or sauce (and a few sprigs of fresh rosemary or parsley) to serve

Heat the oven to 180C / 356F. Bring a pan of water to the boil and cook the parsnips until tender. In a frying pan heat 1 tbsp olive oil, add the onion and garlic and cook until softened.

Meanwhile, pulse the walnuts and cashews in a blender until roughly chopped and then mix with the breadcrumbs in a large bowl. Add the onions, garlic, pine nuts, rosemary, sage, nutmeg, sour cherries or cranberries and seasoning to the mix. Then beat in the egg.

When the parsnips are tender, drain and mash roughly with ~1 tbsp olive oil. Add the parsnip mash to the rest of the mixture. Grease a large loaf tin (and maybe line the base*), then press the mixture into it. Bake for 50-55 min, until set. Let cool for ten min, then turn out.

To serve, warm up some cranberry sauce with some added fresh cranberries (or use cranberry chutney), spoon it over the top of the nut roast, and decorate with cranberries and fresh herbs (I used two cranberries and a piece of parsley to make some kitschy-looking pretend holly.


This was really surprisingly good - deliciously crunchy around the edges but tender in the middle. Quite nutty and appetising, although the parsnips got a bit lost - another time I might mash them less or not at all. Definitely needed some sauce - luckily I had some cranberry chutney squirreled away, which was perfect (suddenly I see the point of all that preserving through Summer and Autumn - instant food in Winter!).

*I didn't grease or anything at all and it stuck to the base a little bit - not horrendously but a bit (I suspected it might, but thought I'd try the minimal effort route first). To avoid this, I'd definitely try greasing; potentially also lining the base.

Green tomato cake (+gluten-free option)

I had just about dealt with all the green tomatoes from my roof when I was gifted a pile more from ECO (thanks to D, K and A!). I actually still had lots of unrealised green tomato ideas, and ended up going with green tomato cake for these toms - a new one in my repertoire of weirdo vegetable cakes...

4 cups chopped green tomatoes (chop fairly fine)
1 tbsp salt
1/3 cup veg oil
1 1/3 cups sugar (used mixture of white and brown)
2 eggs (or 2 tbsp ground linseed mixed with 5 tbsp boiling water)
2 cups plain flour (or 2 cups TJ's GF flour mix plus 1/4 tsp xanthan gum)
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1/2 cup raisins

Put the green tomatoes in a bowl with ~1 tbsp salt. Mix and let sit for ~ 10 min, while you prepare the rest of the ingredients and start on the cake. Heat the oven to 350F. Beat the vegetable oil and sugar together in a bowl with a fork. Add the eggs (or linseed mixture) and beat until reasonably well combined and aerated. Mix the flour, xanthan gum if using, 1/4 tsp salt, spices and bicarb in a separate bowl with a fork. Add the raisins and walnuts to the dry stuff and mix. Add the wet to dry and mix until just combined. Rinse and drain (try to get most of the liquid out) the green tomatoes and then fold into the cake mixture. Grease a loaf tin and line the base. Dollop the cake mixture into the tin. Bake for 45-60 min until a skewer comes out clean (exact cooking time will depend on shape of tin used). Let cool in the tin for at least half an hour before lifting out.


This was really, surprisingly good. The green toms are hardly noticeable - visually only if you look for them, and taste-wise hardly at all. So it is basically a moist, spiced cake rich with walnuts and raisins. The GF version was a little bit crumbly when sliced but really just a little bit - quite acceptable in this type of cake (made with eggs; rose beautifully). We took it for D's birthday party, and it went down well (especially with A).

Piccalilli

I saw cauliflowers coming into season, and for some reason thought of piccalilli. I'm not even sure if I like piccalilli! But I was thinking about making some more savoury preserves for Winter - I have a lot of jam, and the aubergine chutney I made a few weeks ago reminded me how good savoury preserves can be (and how much faster I tend to eat them). And in my head piccalilli has to involve cauliflower and be really yellow and crunchy... and that's about all I knew (aside from a sketch in the James Herriot country vet books I loved as a kid where he had to eat piccalilli to be polite to a farmer's wife although he loathed it... anyway, I digress).

The version in my preserving book looked OK, but this Jamie Oliver version really grabbed my attention - the ingredient list sounded intriguing and delicious - mango, broccoli and apple as well as the cauliflower. So I followed it (more or less) - gave me the chance to preserve some Somerville-harvested apples I had hanging around the kitchen as well as broccoli, chillies and carrots from the CSA and green tomatoes and green beans from my roof garden. Surprisingly, mango is something I often have in store, owing to my frozen mango habit.

(made 3 large jars and 2 medium ones)

½ large cauliflower, cut into small florets
1 head broccoli, cut into small florets
2 bulbs fennel, cut into small chunks (subbed ~4 medium carrots, peeled and cut into small (~1cm dice), and some chopped green tomato)
4 red chillies, seeds still in, finely sliced (subbed dried)
2 green chillies, seeds still in, finely sliced
200 g fine green beans, chopped into short lengths (used roof beans - Kentucky Wonder and French Filet of varying ages - for these plus runners)
150 g runner beans, cut into short lengths (see above)
300 g shallots, cut into eighths (subbed 1 large and 2 small white onions for this and the red onion)
1 red onion, roughly chopped (see above)
2 handfuls fine sea salt
2 tbsp mustard oil (subbed canola oil)
2 heaped tbsp mustard seeds (used 1 tbsp yellow mustard seed and 1 tbsp brown mustard seed)
2 tbsp ground cumin
1 tsp fennel seed, ground (I added this to make up for the absence of fennel)
2 tbsp turmeric
1 nutmeg, grated
2 tbsp English mustard powder (subbed ground yellow mustard seeds)
4 tbsp flour
500 ml white wine vinegar (subbed cider vinegar)
100 ml water
2 apples, grated
2 mangoes, peeled, stoned and roughly chopped (used equivalent quantity chopped frozen mango)
6 tbsp sugar
3 cloves garlic, crushed (/finely chopped)
2 tbsp dried oregano
4 bay leaves

Put all the vegetables in a bowl, add the salt and enough water to cover. Leave in a cool place for about 1 hour. Meanwhile, prep the remaining ingredients and start cooking them.

Heat a saucepan big enough to hold all the vegetables. Add the mustard oil to the pan, then fry the mustard seeds, cumin, turmeric and nutmeg for a moment. Lower the heat, add the mustard powder, flour and a splash of vinegar. Stir well to make a thick paste. Gradually add the remaining vinegar and the water, stirring all the time to make a smooth paste. Add the apples, mangoes, sugar, garlic, oregano and bay leaves. Cook for 2-3 minutes.

Drain the salted vegetables and add them to the pan, stirring well to coat with the spicy paste. Cook for 10-15 minutes until the vegetables have just softened and started to release some juice. Spoon into sterilised jars and close the lids tightly. Give it at least a month to mature in a cool dark cupboard before eating.


Ha, I took a photo because having that hour of soaking veg in brine meant I was probably the most organised I've ever been before I started cooking...  I haven't tried the piccalilli yet (got to wait a month!) but it looks suitably, violently yellow - I especially enjoy how yellow the cauliflower becomes...

Spiced cocoa rice pudding

J left half a bottle of milk in the fridge. I wondered what to do with it, then thought I may as well cook with it. With the days getting crisper and the nights colder, rice pudding suggested itself. And, when it did, I couldn't resist putting all sorts of things in it - I guess I fancied hot chocolate or chai as much as I did rice pudding. I didn't feel like switching the oven on or waiting a long time so used a stovetop method, based on this rice pudding recipe.

150 g risotto rice
500 ml milk
500 ml water
4 tbsp brown sugar
2 tbsp cocoa powder
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp grated nutmeg
pinch ground cayenne
pinch desert salt
1/8 cup raisins
1/8 cup toasted flaked almonds

Put rice, water and milk in a pan and bring to a steady boil. Boil (uncovered) for about 15 min. Add sugar, cocoa, spices and salt and simmer gently for another 15 min, until thick and creamy. Mix in the raisins and almonds before eating. Store in the fridge and eat whenever you like, warm or cold.


Well, it's what I wanted. All those spices and additions might not be everyone's idea of a good rice pudding but I'm enjoying it. I was thinking of the rice pudding at my first primary school - either chocolate (we loved the skin) or plain with jam swirled through (I ate some today with added plum jam). Probably the only thing I remember liking from school dinners.

Butternut butter

I saw this butter recipe and it sounded super simple. Pumpkin season is upon us ('Pumped for Pumpkin at Dunkin'')- two butternut squashes in the CSA last weekend to emphasise the point. Right now I am into it; I'm sure the novelty will wear off eventually... Anyway, I gave the recipe a shot, with mixed results, but whatever I'll eat it.

1 small-medium butternut squash (~800g)
juice of 1/2 a lemon
60 ml water
35 g brown sugar
2 tbsp maple syrup
1/8 tsp ground cloves*
1/4 tsp ground allspice*
1/4 tsp freshly grated nutmeg*
3/4 tsp ground cinnamon*
1/2 tsp ground ginger*

Heat oven to 350F. Cut the squash in half lengthways, deseed and place cut side down on a lightly oiled baking tray. Bake for 60-90 min, until soft when poked. Let cool until handleable, then remove the skin and put the flesh into a blender. Add the remaining ingredients and whizz until smooth. Transfer to a pan and simmer gently, covered, for ~20 min until thick.

*all together = pumpkin spice


This tastes great but the texture didn't work for me - perhaps I should have roasted the squash longer; perhaps the other way up; perhaps add more water... It was very thick all the way through, and basically set in the fridge, and was kinda lumpy - not silky smooth like pumpkin butter I've eaten before (make sure to use actual blender not stick one).

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.

Pumpkin in June (M's birthday): Pumpkin muffins

I defrosted a cup of pumpkin puree to use for M's birthday pumpkin granola, and since I had half a cup left over I decided I may as well make something else pumpkinny too. Muffins seemed like a straightforward option, and this recipe looked irresistible. I have made pumpkin muffin type things a couple of times before, but neither were quite right, and besides I wanted to try these ones.

(half the quantities below made 9 small muffins)

1 3/4 cups plain flour
1 1/4 cups sugar
1 tbsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp grated nutmeg
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp ground allspice
1/8 tsp ground cloves (left this out)
1 cup pumpkin puree
1/2 cup fake milk
1/2 cup veg oil
2 tbsp molasses
1/2 cup raisins (or cranberries, or walnuts, or pecans, or some combination of all of those)

Heat oven to 400F. Prepare a muffin tin. Mix flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and spices in a bowl with a fork. In a separate bowl, beat together pumpkin, fake milk, oil, and molasses. Add the wet to the dry and mix until just combined. Fill the muffin cups two-thirds full. Bake for ~20 min, until they are lightly browned on top and a skewer comes out clean.

Pumpkin in June (M's birthday): Pumpkin and spice granola

It is M's birthday this weekend and she loves pumpkin, so I thought of making her some pumpkin stuff. Granola sprang to mind: it keeps for a good while, and if I pack it in a jar and label it, it should make a pretty gift - for snacking and for breakfasts. Ever since I made granola for the first time a week or two ago I keep thinking of potential variations - it seems like such an easy, adaptable thing to make. So I thought I'd try it using some pumpkin as part of the wet stuff, and adding pumpkin spice (cinnamon / ginger / nutmeg / allspice - also cloves but I didn't feel like grinding any), pumpkin seeds, pecans, maple and brown sugar to max out the pumpkinny/autumnal-ness. Happily I still had pumpkin puree in the freezer from last Autumn, so us being totally out of season for pumpkin was no big deal.

3 cups oats (old-fashioned)
1/2 cup pumpkin seeds
1/2 cup pecan pieces
good pinch (1/4 tsp) desert (or sea) salt
1-2 tbsp ground linseed
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
1/4 tsp allspice
1/2 cup pumpkin (or squash) puree
3 tbsp refined coconut oil (liquid state)
1/2 tbsp maple syrup + 1/2 tbsp maple cream
2-3 tbsp brown sugar
1 tbsp date molasses
1 tsp vanilla essence

Heat the oven to 350F. Mix the oats, pumpkin seeds, pecans, salt, ground linseed and spices in a medium-large bowl. Put the pumpkin puree, coconut oil, maple syrup, brown sugar, date molasses and vanilla in a small bowl and beat with a fork until smooth. Add this liquidy mixture to the dry ingredients and mix with your hands until well combined. Spread onto a large baking sheet (with edges) and put in the oven. Bake for 30-40 minutes, taking out every 10 minutes or so to move the granola around with a wooden spoon and check it is not burning. When it is lightly browned it is done. Take it out of the oven and allow to cool completely before transferring to an airtight container to store.


Came out yummy. I was a little underwhelmed by the pumpkin / spice flavour at first: it tastes good (toasty) but not intensely pumpkinny. But the next day it smells lovely when I open the jar, and the taste is definitely there.

Hot cross tart (little marmalade tart with tahini-almond crust)

Easter. This weekend feels strange. These last couple of days have really felt like Spring. But it is not a long weekend here - think those extra holiday days really make the end of Winter feel real.

I didn't feel like making hot cross buns this year, much though I love them. But, still racked by guilt at the vast quantity of marmalade I've made over the last couple of months and the slow rate at which we seem to be eating it, I'd got into the idea of baking with marmalade, and had noted this recipe as a potential way to do it.

I figured that since orange zest / candied peel is one important component of a hot cross bun, perhaps if I added all the hot cross bun spices (cloves, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg) and made the topping into a cross shape it would feel festive? My usual favourite (slightly weird) way to eat marmalade is layered with tahini, either on toast or just off a teaspoon. So couldn't resist putting tahini in the pastry.

Makes a little (6 inch diameter) tart.

50g ground almonds
65g plain flour
75g light brown sugar
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
3 cloves, ground
1/4 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
pinch salt
25g tahini
25g mild-flavoured olive oil (plus 1 tbsp)
1 tsp almond milk
100g marmalade

Mix almonds, flour, sugar, ground spices and salt in a bowl with a fork. Add oil, tahini and milk (withholding the last tbsp oil to see if you need it), then mix up into a dough (it will be a little crumbly), adding that last tbsp of oil if the dough doesn't come together. Break off a 25g piece and wrap in cling film. Press the rest into a greased 6 inch cake tin with a removable base, making a firmly-pressed, even layer with a slight lip at the edge. Put the ball and the tin in the fridge for 30 min. In the meantime heat the oven to 340F.

When ready to bake, spread the marmalade out from the middle of the tart, leaving a gap of about half an inch at the edge. Use the remaining dough ball to make a cross on top. Bake for 30 min / until the edges and top are golden brown. Let sit on a wire rack for 5 min, then remove from the tin and let cool completely.


I really like this: like a cross between a jam tart and a biscuit; crunchy, crumbly and gooey in all the right places; sweet yet not too sweet yet also sharp; bold flavours that go well together. S says the marmalade is too bitter. I think it is good. A little divisive...

The more I eat of this, the more I love it: it is getting better as it sits in a box for a few days - the marmalade-y bits are deliciously gooey, while the outer pastry remains crunchy. Although I think this may be a child only I could ever love - the tahini-marmalade-spice combo is very much tailored to my own weird tastes.

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.