Butternut squash, pea and butterbean thai green curry

Thai green curry made from the fridge and store cupboard you say? Really? Yes, really. You don’t need to go out and buy everything fresh, well maybe the coriander and green chillies, if unlike me they are not a staple in your household. For me, I was using up the ingredients I had in the fridge and store cupboard and therefore opted for a fresh and crisp Thai green curry. You can find the recipe for the curry paste here.

What you will need
500g butternut squash
1 onion
1 tin of butterbeans
2 handfuls of green peas
1 tin of coconut milk
2-3 tea spoons of green curry paste (or 3/4 of the above recipe)

This is such a satisfying and balanced dish. It encompasses the balance of flavours that Thai food aims to achieve which includes the sour, sweet, salty and bitter tastes.

Firstly peel and cube the butternut squash and slice the onions. In a little bit of oil, fry off the onion and squash for about 5 minutes before adding in the Thai green curry paste and cooking off for another minute or two. Watch out for those chilli fumes!

Next add the tin of coconut milk and the same amount of water (fill the tin and empty it into the pan). Season the pan with a little bit of salt and add the tin of drained butterbeans and the peas. Simmer the curry for another 25-35 minutes until the sauce has reduced (top up with water if it reduces too much). Serve once the butternut squash has softened and cooked through, making sure it still maintains its shape.

Serve with noodles or rice. I have yet to post about the delicious Malaysian lace bread, but hope to soon. I'm so looking forward to Borneo in two months time.

To date, Bali has been my spiritual home and I think Borneo also offers me the same. I have loved Thailand, and I hope in two months time, to bring all three together on this page through my culinary insights.

Thai green curry paste

I had half a butternut squash left and we were going away for the weekend, so I wanted to use it up. Gipsy Spread has also bought me a giant bowl (you know how I love these!) of green chillies. So, my favourite thai curry flavour was staring me right in the face. With all these green chillies to cook with, I could not possibly cheat by using a jar sauce, but rather had to make my own thai green chilli paste. I admit to cutting a few corners as I didn’t have all the ingredients at my immediate disposal. For example, no kaffir lime leaves, so I replaced these with the zest of a fresh lime. It is also convenient to have lemongrass in water in the fridge if you can’t always get your hands on fresh lemongrass. It does the job just fine and it is what I used. Blue Dragon produce this.


What you will need
2 stalks of lemongrass (or dried if unavailable)
2 spring onions
6 fresh green chillies
1 lime, grated zest and juice
8 kaffir lime leaves, torn into pieces (or the grated zest of 1 extra lime)
2 cloves of garlic
1/4 tea spoon of sugar
5cm fresh ginger
4-5 black peppercorns
A small bunch of fresh coriander
1 tea spoon ground coriander
1 tea spoon ground cumin
1 tablespoon soy sauce


This couldn’t be any simpler if I tried. I placed the lemon grass, spring onions, green chillies, ginger, black pepper and garlic, with the lime juice and zest (in place of kaffir lime leaves) into the blender with the fresh coriander. When this was all blended to a pulp, I added the ground coriander and cumin and soy sauce and mixed through to create the paste.

You could add less green chillies if you wish, but remember this is what helps give this curry it's name and distinctive flavour
You won’t need all of the paste, so I recommend freezing the rest of it. This makes eight portions, so treat as necessary.


The paste can be stirred into any vegetable, fish or meat ingredients and then simply topped off with coconut milk and cooked off for as long as is needed to cook through.

I like this spicy effort with the sublime sweetness of butternut squash and green peas.

Olive tapenade

I decided to knock up my olive tapenade as I wanted to use it in my soca pancake for a work lunch. It is so easy to blitz if you have a food processor, but can also be really satisfying and soothing if chopping by hand.

Tapenade is a really versatile and beautiful dip or accompaniment to many things. It was over 10 years ago, amongst the rolling hills of Santorini in Greece where I was eating this on a daily basis. It was served at lunch in a crusty baguette with salty, crumbly greek feta cheese and in the evenings, as a pairing to tzatziki; a condiment to the bread basket before dinner was served.

I have since made my own and realised that some of what I had in Santorini might well have had anchovies in - mine of course doesn't. This is the kind of holiday experience that I choose not to dwell on as I don't want it to ruin my food memory. These things do tend to happen to vegetarians. Don't get me started on Egypt circa 1998.

What you will need

200g good quality pitted green olives

1 table spoon capers

2 garlic cloves

2 table spoons extra-virgin olive oil

1/2 tea spoon lemon juice

Put the whole lot into a blender. My trusty (red) Magimix was on hand to help me. Be careful though as you want to retain some texture, so pulse the ingredients slowly until they are combined, but there is still some texture. Add plenty of black pepper.

Alternatively chop the olives, capers and garlic, haphazardly, but finely. Mix through the olive oil and lemon juice, then season with plenty of black pepper.

Use immediately or store in the fridge for a few days until ready to serve. If you want to keep it for a bit longer, just top it up with a little bit more olive oil.

It can also be made just with black olives or even a mix of both.

I'll be enjoying this in my work lunch tomorrow accompanied by feta in a chickpea pancake, accompanied by a beetroot and onion salad.

Summer drinks at 'The dog's'

Today was the last day off work, the sun was out and one of my favourite local walks is from our house to Dulwich village. 25 minutes after leaving home, we can reward ourselves with a potter around the village and a refreshing libation at the centre of the village in the Crown and Greyhound (http://www.thecrownandgreyhound.co.uk/). Gipsy Spread treated me to brunch, this walk and subsequent beverage today.

It was with excitement that I seated myself on a bench outside whilst Gipsy Spread headed in to buy our drinks. He hadn't asked me what I wanted and whilst seated there, I noticed the following specials drinks menu.

I was hopeful, and knowing Gipsy Spread, who knows me, I was pretty certain he would get me something from this list and that it would be boozy!

He returned and I knew I was right. He asked me to guess my drink. I correctly identified the blackcurrent and gin bramble. This was delightfully refreshing and fruity.

 

I now want to sample all of the options and I think I definitely want to try the cucumber and basil boozy lemonade! I also think that this might be one I try to make at home. Watch this space.

Spaghetti alla Sorrentina

This is a fairly simple spaghetti sauce. It is basically a tomato and mozzarella sauce. I had orginally planned to make gnocchi alla sorrentina, however a drastically spectacular failure with my gnocchi meant I had this sauce with spaghetti instead. You can read about that here.

What you will
1 onion
2-3 cloves garlic
125ml red wine
1 tin chopped tomatoes
1 tea spoon balsamic vinegar
1 ball of mozarella
Spaghetti (for 4 people)

Chop the onion and garlic and soften in some olive oil for 7-10 minutes. Then add in the wine and cook off the alcohol for a minute or two before adding the tin of chopped tomatoes, with the same amount of water. Season well with salt and add the balsamic vinegar. Cook for the sauce for 15-20 minutes until reduced and thickened.

Boil the spaghetti as per packet instructions. Once it is cooked, drain and add the tomato sauce to the pan and stir through the torn mozzarella. Heat through for a minute until the mozzarella starts to melt.

Serve seasoned with lots of fresh black pepper and parmesan.

Handmade gnocchi

It's still the bank holiday weekend; which has been a big cooking and eating weekend in our household. This theme continued today with the handmade gnocchi that I tried to make for dinner.

Inspiration struck when an Italian tomato produce and olive oil marketing booklet fell out of the Sunday Times yesterday. Whilst flicking through it, I was struck by the ricotta dumplings (didn't have the ingredients) and the gnocchi, which I have always wanted to perfect, so gave their version of the recipe a go; with my own tweaks of course.

I have to admit I had a spectacular failure once with a ricotta and spinach gnocchi (an Olive recipe), which I was hoping not to replicate on this occassion. However, I did not succeed. I have presented the recipe below to see if anyone out there has any more success. Was it me, or was it the recipe!?

What you will need
1kg floury potatoes (king edwards)
3 large eggs
300g white flour
Vegetable stock cube

So, I started by boiling the potatoes in the vegetable stock (water + stock cube) for 25-30 minutes until cooked through. I then peeled the potatoes whilst still hot (burning palms in the process). These were then mashed. In fact, I went through all the effort of passing through a sieve. I then mixed in the egg and the flour. At this point, the dough seemed to be coming together.

It was when I turned the dough out on to the floured board for rolling into sausages that I realised how disastrously this had gone. I kept trying to add flour to bring the mash together into a dough, but no joy. I think I must have added another 50-70g of flour. So this went into the bin.

The plan had been for gnocchi alla sorrentina, but with no back up shop-bought gnocchi to compensate, we will have to have spaghetti alla sorrentina instead.

So, for the moment, the perfect gnocchi continues to evade me!

Quick soda bread rolls

I knocked up these simple poppy seed soda bread rolls when I decided we needed, yes needed, to have burger and chips for our bank holiday sunday lunch. We had no buns in the house and these require no effort what so ever. They are very much, last minute baps.

What you will need
330g white flour
200g milk
1 tea spoon bicarbonate of soda
Poppy seeds


Weigh out the flour into a mixing bowl. Add the bicarbonate of soda and half a tea spoon of salt. Make a well in the flour mix and add the milk. Bring the dough together with a large spoon and knead lightly. It doesn't need to be worked very much.

Break the dough into four and turn into balls. Flatten these out with your hand slightly on a non stick surface for baking. Sprinkle over the poppy seeds

Cook them in the oven at 180 degrees for 20-25 minutes.

I had these with my mozzarella, pesto and portabello mushroom 'burger'.

Snowdonia award winning cheeses

I mentioned coming away with some cheddar in my post about the Foodies Festival (http://gipsytoast.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/the-foodies-festival.html) that I visited last week. Well, last night I indulged in one of my favourite guilty pleasures of a cheese plate for dinner. We had had a large and late lunch. Sufficient excuse!

I cracked into my award winning truckle with great joy. The pickle cheddar which I had sampled at the festival was eaten on artisinal poppy seed crackers, with some quince jelly.

The cheese was delightfully creamy, rich and crumbly in texture, with the lovely pungency of onion and tang of pickle. I would very much recommend this.

I had also tried the 'red devil' at the festival, which I now wish I had also purchased. It was a wonderful red leicester cheese with a massive kick of chilli. It was a tad too much for Gipsy Spread which is why we didn't purchase it. I won't make this mistake next time.

You can order this beautiful cheese online or find local stockists on their website http://www.snowdoniacheese.co.uk/.

Portabello mushroom burger

The bank holiday is made for over indulgance in all things. This is noticable by the bank holiday posts I have made. It is partly the luxury of more time, and the rare occurance of the bank holiday that does make me think, 'let us eat cake', or in this case 'let us eat burger and chips'. So that's what I made for our lunch today.

I have also become a massive convert to the way of soda bread as it is so easy to make and so fresh, that I decided I also needed some soda bread rolls for my burger. See here.

What you will need
4 portabello mushrooms
4 bread rolls (soda rolls in my case)
4 tea spoons pesto
1 ball of mozzarella cheese
Pinenuts
1 avocado

Place a tea spoon of pesto in the middle of the mushroom, place a quarter of the mozzarella on top of the pesto and season well with salt and pepper. Sprinkle over some pine nuts. Bake in the oven at 180 degrees for 25 minutes.

Slice the avocado before serving and split between the burgers as garnish.

These need to be served on the lovely fresh rolls with a side of (healthy?)oven baked chips.

Mustard and lemon potato salad

I knocked these simple potatoes up to have with a roast butternut squash and feta pie over the bank holiday weekend.

They are so simple and do not require a host of extra unhealthy fats as conjoured up by the idea of a usual mayo-laden potato salad.

I used my chilli 'the beast of bodmin moor' mustard on this, but you can use a simple whole grain one if that's what you have.

I am also a big fan of the beer and herb mustards you get at the better pubs with food. In particular Tracklement's mustards, which can be found in Waitrose. 


What you will need
350g new potatoes (I used anya potatoes)
Juice of half a lemon
2 tea spoons of whole grain mustard
Chives

Begin by halving the larger of your new potatoes, so that they are all even in size and will cook at the same rate.

Either boil or steam the potatoes until cooked, but still firm. Whilst the potatoes are still hot, add the juice of half a fresh lemon and the mustard, season with salt and pepper and stir through. Add a drizzle of olive oil if you wish.

Finish with the chopped chives. This can also be taken along to a picnic or served at room temperature. The butternut squash and feta pie can be found here.

Green beans with roasted garlic

This is a very simple side dish, but so tasty with it's combination of basic ingredients. This is especially good if you are cooking something in the oven anyway and you can just place several cloves of garlic in alongside whatever you are baking or roasting.

What you will need
Green beans
6-8 cloves of fresh garlic (possible a bulb)
Olive oil
Salt
Pepper
Flaked almonds

Simply steam the green beans until cooked. Roast the garlic cloves (or ideally bulb) at 180 degrees for 45-50 minutes.

Once the garlic has roasted, squezze out the softened core and add to the cooked beans. Season with plenty of salt and pepper and drizzled over some olive oil.

In a frying pan, lightly toast the almond flakes and then serve these on top of the beans.

I had these for lunch this weekend with my roast butternut squash and feta pie. See here.

Roast butternut squash and feta pie

The bank holiday weekend is here and we wanted some tasty and light lunches to satisfy us before spending time with friends.

In light of this, I set about creating several dishes that could be cooked ahead and we cook feast on over the weekend. This included this delicious roast butternut squash and feta pie.

The sweetness that comes from roasting the squash and onions complements the salty feta perfectly. The pie part is also only filo pastry, so there is no need to fear it.

The pie can also be transported and eaten at room temperature at a picnic.

What you will need
500g of peeled and cubed butternut squash
2 onions sliced
3-4 cloves garlic
A tea spoon of chilli flakes
4 sheets of fil pastry
A table spoon of balsamic vinegar
100g feta
Pine nuts


Firstly, placed the peeled and about 1-cm square cubed squash into a roasting tin. Drizzle with some olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Add the crushed garlic to the roasting tin with the chopped chillis.

Place these in the oven to roast for 45-50 minutes at 200 degrees.

Meanwhile slice the onions thickly, i.e half and then make three slices from each half. Place these in with the roasting squash about 20 minutes after it has gone in the oven.

Ten minutes before you intend to remove the squash from the oven (35-40 minutes cooking time in) drizzle over the balsamic vinegar and stir.

In a round tarte dish, layer up the four sheets of filo pastry, leave the long ends hanging over the side. When the squash is cooked through, transfer the mix to the tart dish. Crumble over the feta cheese and pine nuts.

Now 'rusticly' fold over the extra ends of filo pastry, leaving an opening in the middle and bake for a further 10-15 minutes until the pastry has crisped and browned.

 

 

We had some delicious green beans with this, along with some new potatoes simply coated in a whole grain mustard and lemon dressing.

Blueberry clafoutis

Last time we visited mother in law Spread, I came away with  several of her home grown blueberries. I froze them until I knew what I wanted to do with them. With the bank holiday here, I thought it was time for us to celebrate and eat cake. I therefore dug the blueberries out and baked. The classic clafoutis is made with cherries, but blueberries also work a treat. Clafoutis is a seriously easy, but impressive dish. It is made with a very quick batter and the berries release their beautiful blue juices in the batter whilst baking. Delicious.


What you will need
75g flour
75g caster sugar
2 medium eggs, plus 1 medium egg white
300ml whole milk
400g blueberries

Pre-heat the oven to 190 degrees and grease a tart dish.

Mix together the flour and sugear with a pinch of salt in a bowl. Beat together the eggs and egg white. Make a well in the middle of the flour and sugar mix then pour in the eggs and whisk. Slowly add the milk, whisking whilst you go, until you have a smooth batter.

Spread the blueberries in the buttered dish, then pour over the batter. Bake for 35 minutes, until risen and golden brown.

Leave to cool slightly, although this can be served warm with cream, but also at room temperature like cake.

Paneer tikka masala

I love a good indian take away, but I also like to make my own; as I like knowing exactly what I'm eating. It also enables me to control how much oil there is in the curry. Not all Indian curries are greasy, however the tikka masala is a 1970s curry house favourite. It is also sometimes, just what you need.

It was Friday and I was working from home, so I took the time to prepare this deliciously rich paneer tikka masala. It has wonderful sweetness from the cinnamon and a beautiful warmth from the cloves and cardamon.

Whilst it might seem that there are a lot of ingredients and processes for making it, it is relatively simple.

What you will need
Panner tikka
3 green cardamon pods
4 whole cloves
1 inch piece of cinnamon
1 onion
2 cloves garlic
2 tea spoons grated fresh ginger
3-4 chopped green chillis
1 table spoon tomato puree
1 table spoon garam masala
1 tin chopped tomatoes
1 tea spoon sugar
1/2 table spoons crème fraiche (or yoghurt)


Heat a table spoon of oil in a pan. Add in the crushed cardamom pods, cloves and cinnamon stick. Fry these off for a minute before adding the chopped onion. Sauté for 8-10 minutes until softened and lightly browned. Add the garlic, ginger, chillies, tomato puree, and the garam masala. Cook for 1-2 minutes to release the fragrance and cook the spices.

Add the tinned tomatoes, the same amount of water, a pinch of sugar, and salt. Bring the sauce to the boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for 10-15 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Stir in the crème fraiche or yoghurt and return to simmer. Add the paneer tikka and heat through before serving with rice or breads.

Gipsy spread also had a white fish fried in some dry curry spices.

Paneer tikka

This is another delicious paneer recipe. I have split the advice into two as you can have the paneer tikka by itself, grilled as a starter or for lunch with some salad, dips and breads (perhaps at a BBQ?). It can also be added to a rich masala sauce creating a warm, but sweet curry. I have started with the paneer tikka which is a pre-requisite for the curry itself.


What you will need
1 tea spoon ground cumin
1 tea spoon ground coriander
1 tea spoon paprika
½ tea spoon black pepper
½ tea spoon turmeric
1 (227G) packet paneer
2-3 green chillis
2-3 table spoons of plain yogurt
2-3 cloves garlic
1 table spoon grated fresh ginger
2 tea spoons groundnut oil
2 tea spoon lemon juice

 

Firstly, cube the paneer. Slice the block lengthways into five and then widthways into eight. You should come away with 40 pieces. In a large bowl, whisk together the yogurt, oil, garlic, and ginger. Then mix in the spices; the ground cumin, coriander, paprika, black pepper and turmeric with some salt. Add the chopped green chillis and lemon juice and then toss the cubed paneer through the yoghurt mix. Leave this to marinade for a minimum of two hours. I would suggest that this is done ideally overnight.

When ready to cook, remove the paneer pieces from the yoghurt sauce skewer onto sticks and then place on grease proof paper or on a non stick oven tray under a medium grill. Keep turning the pieces every 2-3 minutes until they are lightly toasted on all sides.

Serve these on their own, with salad, dips or chutneys and bread.
 

 

Alternatively, you can make a masala sauce in which to put the cooked paneer tikka for a hearty and satisfying dinner.

This was a hearty Friday night dinner treat, in front of the TV with some DVDs (True Blood series 5) for Gipsy Spread and I.

Cauliflower cheese frittata

The title to this post is not technically correct. I have cauliflower and broccoli and will be using them both in my simple, nutritious and tasty dinner tonight. I can't recommend the cauliflower and broccoli and cheese combination more. It's a great British classic that continues to endure the test of time. For a seperate pairing of the two, see http://gipsytoast.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/broccoli-and-cheese.html.

What you will need
1 onion
350g new potatoes (I used anya potatoes)
300g cauliflower and/or broccoli
5 eggs
50 ml milk
90g cheddar
1 tea spoon mustard
1 tea spoon cayenne pepper
Thyme

Halve the larger potatoes you are using, so they are all even in size and steam or boil them for five minutes, before adding the broccoli and cauliflower for another 5-10 minutes, until cooked through.

In a frying pan, heat a tablespoon of oil and add the sliced onion. Cook until they have softened and browned for five minutes.

When the cauliflower and broccoli are cooked, mash them with a potato masher. This doesn't have to be perfectly smooth as a mixed texture is nice.

In a mixing bowl, whisk together the eggs, milk, mustard and cayenne pepper with plenty of salt and pepper. Lastly stir in the grated cheese, cauliflower and broccoli mash and the leaves from several sprigs of thyme.

When the onions have softened, add the potatoes to the frying pan and top with the egg mix.

Cook the frittata on the hob on a medium heat for about 6-8 minutes until you can see that the edges have cooked. Then place the pan under a pre-heated medium grill to cook through the top for another 5-7 minutes until lovely and brown ontop.

Make sure the egg is cooked through before slicing and serving (if not, place it back on the hob for a few more minutes).

I served this with a fresh green salad and some lovely cooked beetroot dressed in balsamic vinegar.

Gipsy Spread also had a slice of the left over garlic soda bread (here: http://gipsytoast.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/garlic-soda-bread.html ) with his.

Aubergine and ricotta lasagne

 

Aubergines can be quite expensive for a single one. It might not seem that much to a carnivore compared to a steak; but it is a king of a vegetable and therefore does command a higher price. However, I have mentioned before and I will mention it again; I love the shops that sell the bowls of fruit and vegetables for £1.

I can usually get two to three decent sized aubergine for my single pound coin. I was in fact in Tachbrook market today having the best falafel in Town and the Cat bought some more yellow cherry tomatoes from a bowl. Alice simply bought some peaches.

Anyway, it is from such a bowl that I have some aubergine left. I want to cook it in a way that helps it shine. The aubergine and tomato base for this is very similar to my aubergine parmiagana, which is one of my favourite dishes.


What you will need
2 large aubergines
1 large onion sliced
3-4 cloves garlic
1 tin chopped tomatoes
1 tea spoon chilli flakes
1 table spoon balsamic vinegar
1 table spoon tomato puree
6-9 lasagne sheets (fresh is better, but dry will suffice)
250g ricotta cheese
60g parmesan
1 egg
100 ml milk
Cheddar (optional)
Lemon thyme
Basil

Dice the aubergine and crush the cloves of garlic. Slowly fry these with the sliced onion, lemon thyme, the chilli flakes and a good seasoning of salt in olive oil until they have softened. Add the tin of tomatoes, with the same amount of water, as well as the tomato puree and the balsamic vinegar. Bring to the boil and simmer for about around 10-15 minutes until the sauce has reduced and thickened. You still want it quite saucy to cook the pasta.

Mix together the ricotta cheese with the egg, milk and parmesan and lots of fresh black pepper.

Spread a layer of aubergine sauce in an oven dish suitable for 4 portions. Top with a third of the ricotta and parmesan mix, then spread over a layer of lasagna sheets. Repeat once more with aubergine sauce, ricotta mix and layer of pasta sheets. Finish with a final thinner layer of the ricotta mix and a sprinkling of Parmesan and/or optional cheddar, a scattering of basil leaves and a drizzle of olive oil.

Place in the oven for 30 to 35 minutes (or as long as advised for your pasta to cook) until bubbling and the cheese is golden brown on top.

I had this simply with a salad on the side; however Gipsy Spread wanted some garlic bread, so I also knocked him up a garlic stuffed soda bread to go with this. It will also be good with the leftovers he has for lunch tomorrow.

Garlic soda bread

I have made my aubergine and ricotta lasagne and it needs some fresh garlic bread to accompany it. Soda bread is the easiest loaf to knock up on a school night, with no yeast or time needed for it to rise. It can be mixed and then baked immediately. Any combination of filling will do. See also my marmite and cheese soda bread.

This is a small loaf. Just double the proportions for a larger loaf.

What you will need
250g plain flour
1 tea spoon bicarbonate of soda
200ml of plain (live) yoghurt
Milk (optional)
4-5 cloves chopped garlic
Chopped chives

Mix the flour and bicarbonate of soda together in a bowl and season the mix well with salt. Make a well in the middle of the mixture and add the yoghurt. Add the chopped garlic and herbs into the well with the yoghurt. Start to bring the outside in and stir the flour mix into the yoghurt to combine. If the dough is too dry, you might want to add just an extra tea spoon or two of milk to the mix to bring it all together.

Place the dough onto a floured surface and knead slightly to pull together into a ball. This shouldn’t take very long at all. Place the ball onto a non stick oven tray or some greaseproof paper.

Make a cross in the middle of the loaf with a knife or the handle of a wooden spoon, being careful not to go all the way through. Bake in the oven for 40-45 minutes at 200 degrees. The loaf should be crisp and hard on the outside and soft and light on the inside.

Eat this straightaway whilst warm, spread with butter or a drizzle of olive oil. It can also be toasted the next day or splashed with water and given a short blast in the oven to bring it back to life.

With thanks to Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall for the fail-safe base recipe for this bread. I keep meaning to try the one he makes with beer as this also does not require any yeast. Watch this space.

Courgette and cheddar fritters

I’m usually writing about being at the bottom of my fridge before the food shop comes, however today I am at the start of this cycle. The shop arrived yesterday and now I have to make sure all the fresh ingredients are eaten first to stop them going off and being wasted. I was delivered some particularly large courgettes(take a look below) and so decided to focus on these for dinner tonight. I like a nice fritter and this one again, incorporates my favorite combination of vegetables with cheese. This is so simple for a school night dinner. Having been to the Foodies Festival in Battersea yesterday, I don’t know why there weren’t more fritters on offer?

What you will need
1 large / 2 medium courgette
1 onion grated
3-4 tbsp gram flour
50g grated cheddar
1 slice of bread (for bread crumbs)
Lemon thyme
Paprika

Grate the courgette into a bowl and add the either grated or finely chopped onion and the grated cheddar. My giant gourd helped me build up some arm muscles. Blitz the slice of bread in a food processor to create breadcrumbs. Stir the gram flour and breadcrumbs into the courgette mix, with the lemon thyme and paprika and plenty of salt and pepper. The moisture from the courgettes will help bind the ingredients together. If the batter seems to think or runny, add a bit more gram flour.

Place one table spoon of oil into a frying pan until hot and then dollop in the courgette mix to create rounds. You should get 8-10 out of the mix.

 

I served these with some lettuce, a very easy garlic yoghurt dip (plain yoghurt with chopped fresh garlic and chopped chives) and a simple tomato salsa (quartered cherry tomatoes, fresh mint and chopped jalapenos).

The fritter can be stuffed inside pita bread with the lettuce, salsa and yoghurt dip.

The Foodies Festival

We had managed to get hold of VIP tickets to the Foodie Festival (www.foodiesfestival.com) in Battersea Park for this Sunday. So it was with excitement that we headed out to Battersea on the promise of a glass of fizz, a taster meal and a goody bag, plus all day access to the VIP bar.

When we arrived, the VIP bar was quaint and bijous, with not a single VIP in sight. There seemed to be other civilians like ourselves who had been duped into buying this better package for the festival, where I will admit the primary advantages were no queuing for the five select food stalls that were included in our package and access to seating in the tent.

Regardless, we went around excitedly, our single glass of fizz in hand to check out all the stalls. There was an array of stalls, with the usual restaurants represented. There were fewer produce suppliers. This included local ales and ciders and some fancy gins and vodkas.

 

 

There were actually less (traditional) street food stalls than I was expecting. For obvious reasons, I felt that Indian street food was unrepresented, considering how many different types of delicacy and providers there are in the UK. In fact the Southbank has an annual festival as part of its (free) food market, celebrating the food of India. Basically, there wasn’t as much variety for vegetarians as I had hope for.

 

 

However, with our inclusive voucher, Gipsy Spread and I headed to the food stall for the 'wandering chef' where he had a sea bream ceviche (see below) which looked fabulous. I opted for the chilli spiced chips.

 

Later he went on to have a fois gras burger with a truffle mayonnaise, whilst I opted for a vegetarian (cheese and bean) quesadilla from Whole Foods. Mine was perfectly pleasant, however I prefer my own refried beans (here: http://www.gipsytoast.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/refried-beans.html) for their kick.

 

There were also many bars, a rum bar, the ubiquitous Champagne bar and a tequila bar. We stayed away from these and went for our nation’s traditional ale (for him) and cider (for me).

 

There were also a few demonstrations which were quite interesting, although they had pretty much all been booked up by the time we got there. The one that we did watch a little bit of below, seemed to be winging it quite a bit.

I did have an enjoyable day though. Although, I’m not sure that I got much more out of it than heading to the Southbank real food market (http://www.realfoodfestival.co.uk/market). I also went to the Big Feastival a couple of years ago and that did have the added bonus of celebrity chefs (I got a photo with Levi Roots) and a good line up in terms of music (Athlete).

It wasn’t disappointing as such, but I have been to better examples of that ilk. I did though come away with a truckle of pickle cheddar and some prosecco so it was worth it.