Dhokla/Dhokra

I was recently approached by a website that promotes food recipes from bloggers to do an interview. I think in fact people can actually volunteer themselves. I however, was sufficiently flattered to partake and the interview can be found to the right of here.

At the same time, I have now been inducted in my new job as part of the group who provide Indian food treats at Diwali. So, this was the perfect opportunity to practice one of my favourite traditional, home cooked Gujerati snacks. The beauty of this is also that it is a steamed and not fried snack! It does though however require some technical expertise, stirring clockwise after adding the fruit acids (yes, it also requires fruit acids!). But, as you know, I have conquered the macaron, so why not the dhokla or dhokra as it is also known.

What you will need

100g gram flour

200ml water

1 table spoon oil

1/4 tea spoon bicarbonate of soda

2 tea spoons of fruit acids (Eno)

1 tea spoon of lemon crystals

1-2 tea spoons chopped green chilli

For the tempering

1 table spoon of oil
1-2 tea spoons mustard seeds

8-10 curry leaves

Green chillis (optional)

Mix together the gram flour and the water. Add salt to season and a pinch of sugar, then stir in the chopped green chillies, bicarbonate of soda and lemon crystals. Just before you are ready to steam, add the tea spoon of fruit acids to the mix and stir clockwise until the batter becomes light, frothy and fluffy – it should be full of air.

You should have boiling water ready in a large pan with a lid, in which you will be putting the dokra dish to steam.

When ready, pour the mix into a dish for steaming, add this dish to the larger pan with boiling water in it(use a ring to place it on if you have one - I used an upturned ramekin), then cover and steam on a low-medium heat for 30 minutes. Do not open the steamer lid whilst cooking.

You will know when it is ready as the top should not be sticky. If it is, steam for a further five-ten minutes. When cooked, remove from the steaming pan.

Now for the temper, add a little oil to a pan and when hot add the mustard seeds, chilli and curry leaves. When the seeds start popping, pour it over the dokra.

Set aside to cool and then carve into squares or diamonds to serve. Ideally with a green coriander chutney and a date and tamarind chutney.

Green bean, herby mushroom and baked feta salad

Sainsburys has now been and I am on the food come down/detox from holiday, so this week is going to be all about the soups for lunch and the warm salads/low GI meals for dinner. As you know, I love vegetables and cheese (my favourite meal!), so this is not hardship for me, however, I do have to work at creating variety in the combination of cheese and vegetable flavours and textures.

Today had also been like a 'snow day' after the largest storm in the UK in a decade having caused travel chaos. So, this was a very welcome fresh and crisp baked cheese salad.


What you will need
1 (250g) packet of green beans
200g chestnut mushrooms
2 cloves garlic
Fresh chives
Fresh parsley
Lemon thyme
1 table spoon flaked almonds
100g feta cheese
1/2 lemon


First of all prepare the feta. I use 50g per person. Add the zest of half a lemon and a good squeeze of fresh lemon juice to the feta. Place two quarters of the lemon to the dish to bake with it. Season with salt and plenty of black pepper. Top with the sprigs of fresh lemon thyme and set aside.

Thickly slice the mushrooms and crush the garlic cloves. Cook the mushrooms in some olive oil with the garlic and plenty of chopped chives and parsley for 5 minutes.

Bake the feta cheese in a preheated oven at 200 degrees for about 10-15 minutes until browned.

Meanwhile steam the green beans until al dente. Lastly, lightly dry toast the table spoon of almonds in a frying pan until slightly coloured.


Serve the salad warm, with the green beans on the bottom, top with the mushrooms, then the feta and finally the almonds. Drizzle over a tiny bit of olive oil and squeeze out and over the juices from the lemon baked with the feta.

If you want some bread with this, serve with some toasted pitta breads. I didn't, and Gipsy Spread had some lamb steaks marinated in pomegranite molasses and mint with his dinner. This meal is so satisfying with it's robust flavours that no carbs. are necessary.

Cauliflower soup

Winter is well and truly here and I find nothing more warming and comforting than a deliciously nutricious and wholesome soup for lunch. It keeps the chills at bay and provides a fantastic vitamin injection to ward away colds and the flu. I had ordered some wonderful seasonal vegetables in this week's food shop and really fancied a robust cauliflower soup.


What you will need
1 onion
1 leek
1 head of cauliflower
800ml vegetable stock
200ml milk
1 tea spoon dijon mustard
Nutmeg
2 bay leaves


Slice the onions and leeks and soften in some oil for 10-15 minutes.


Meanwhile, seperate the cauliflower into florets. Add these to the softened onion and leeks for a few minutes before adding the vegetable stock, milk, mustard, bay leaves and a grating of nutmeg. Season with plenty of salt and pepper.

Bring the ingredients to the boil, then cover and cook on a low heat for 15-20 minutes until the cauliflower has cooked and the stock has reduced slightly.


Remove the bay leaves and use a blender or hand blender to combine all the ingredients into a soup. Add some more water if you want to thin the soup. Heat through and serve immediately, or split into individual portions for an incredibly satisfying work lunch.

I took portions of the soup to work to have alongside a slice of delicious corn and jalapeno bread.

Flapjacks with mixed seeds and sour cherries

The clocks went back last night and I had an extra hour to spare. The oven was also going to be on for the corn and jalapeno bread I was baking for my lunches this week. So, I set about making some nutritious flapjacks which would be great for a mid morning snack with a cup of tea, but also perfect for breakfast in the dark dark morning to follow, with my skinny latte on the train.

Oats are also high in iron, zinc and B vitamins which is great news for vegetarians. Mine are also packed with omega 3s as I used my mixed seeds in this recipe. These flap jacks can therefore almost be considered a super food (let's just ignore all that butter and sugar!).

What you will need

250g pack salted butter

6 tablespoons golden syrup

50g golden caster sugar

350g rolled oats

50g self-raising flour

30g mixed seeds

60g dried sour cherries
1 tea spoon lin seeds
Melted chocolate (optional)

 

 

Melt the butter together with the sugar and golden syrup. Once melted, stir in the rolled oats and flour, with the mixed seeds and dried fruits.

 

 

Lay the mix flat in a greased oven tray, sprinkle over the lin seeds and bake at 160 degrees for 30-40 minutes.

Once cooked and if you have opted to do so (I didn't have any), drizzle over the melted chocolate and leave to cool before serving.

 

Corn and jalapeno bread

After the richness of holiday eating, think pastries and omelette station every morning and three course dinners every night including petit fours for dessert; where sadly, we did not stop at four desserts. I wanted some simple and wholesome meals to take me into British winter. For me this is always a delicious soup. So, with my cauliflower to hand for soup making, I set about making some delicious corn and jalapeno bread to accompany it for my work lunches this week.


What you will need

200g plain flour

120g cornmeal/cornflour

1 tea spoons salt

2 tea spoons baking powder

200ml milk

1 egg

55g melted butter 

150g sweetcorn

2 table spoons of chopped jalapenos
Fresh chives

 

Preheat the oven to 200C and prepare a loaf tin.

 

In a bowl mix together all the ingredients except for the sweetcorn. Mix until you have the consistency of a sponge cake batter, then add the sweetcorn, chopped chives and the chopped jalapenos.

 

Stir to combine thoroughly, then pour into the prepared loaf tin.

Bake in the oven for about 25-30 minutes. These can also be served as muffins if the batter is shared between muffin cases.

 

The cornbread is ready when it has a golden colour and is springy to the touch. Allow to cool slightly before slicing.

 

Roasted root vegetable and halloumi salad

Having returned from Borneo to an almost empty fridge, I had to try and create an after work dinner with some of mother in law Spread’s home grown potatoes which were still good and some vac-packed beetroot. Also, the jet lag meant that I really did not want to have to put much effort into our dinner.

 

So, I picked up some halloumi (plus wine) from the corner shop on the way home. I had left work early because I was feeling a little dazed and confused from the jet lag and arrived home to find Anna Maria, the cleaner still there (she normally cleans on a Monday morning, but we were away!).

 

So, after hiding in my bedroom until she was finished with the rest of the house, I set about creating what would be my delicious, yet simple roasted root vegetable and halloumi salad.

What you will need

250g new potatoes

1 vac-pack beetroot

1 onions

1 packed halloumi

Handful of black olives

1 tin of artichoke hearts

Lemon thyme

2 cloves crushed garlic

1 table spoon of seeds

Dressing

¾ Olive oil

¼ Cider vinegar

A tea spoon of lemon juice

1 tea spoon chopped capers

1 tea spoon mustard

 

Quarter the potatoes and beetroot. Peel and slice the onions thickly. Add these to an oven dish and drizzle over some olive oil. Season with salt and pepper, add the crushed garlic, lemon thyme and seeds (I used lin seeds) and roast for 45-50 minutes at 200 degrees until browned and roasted.

 

Meanwhile, slice the halloumi and place on grease proof paper. Add these to the oven to soften and brown for the last 10 minutes of cooking time for the beetroot and potatoes.

 

Mix together the ingredients for the dressing, 3 tablespoons of olive oil to every 1 table spoon of vinegar.

 

When ready to serve, dish up the roasted root vegetables, add the olives and drained artichoke hearts and top with the halloumi.

 

Drizzle over the dressing and eat whilst hot or warm.

 

Sun dried tomato pesto spaghetti with goats cheese

It had been a sixteen hour journey travelling overnight from Borneo. A stop in Brunei, another in Dubai and three airplane meals(plus London transport) later we arrived home at 8.30am in the morning.

It felt miserable leaving the thirty degree weather and sunshine to arrive back to the grey clouds and drizzle of Autumn in old Blightly. However, I had prepared for our first meal back by making a giant batch of chocolate and chilli bean soup and freezing. So lunch had been sorted, but what about dinner? Digging around in the cupboards, whose content I had forgetten and similarly for the freezer, I settled upon an easy sun dried tomato pesto spaghetti topped with goats cheese.


What you will need
Sun dried tomato pesto
Spaghetti (or your preferred pasta)
200g of goats cheese


Blend together the sun dried tomato pesto as per my recipe above.

Cook enough spaghetti for four people as per packet intruction.

Meanwhile, slice the goats cheese into rounds and place on some grease proof paper. Place these under a medium grill to brown and soften.

When the pasta is cooked, drain and stir through the pesto. Return to the hob to heat through slightly before serving topped with the goats cheese.

This is the type of comforting home food I'll be eating as we head into the official end of British summer time.

Sun dried tomato pesto

Sun dried tomatoes should be (and I think generally are) found in every modern kitchen. I also personally prefer the dried tomatoes which are not in oil, as I can add oil to them if I so wish. I also enjoy purchasing large bags of these whilst on the Mediterranean. You might recall my latest purchase in the south of France.


So, this is yet another great store cupboard staple for when you want to dress up some simple pasta or bruschetta; or even to pair with puff pastry and cheese for a satisfying tart.


What you will need
50g sun dried tomatoes(about 6)
1-2 cloves garlic
20g parmesan
1 tablespoon of pine nuts
Fresh basil
1/2 tea spoon chilli flakes (optional)
1 table spoon tomato puree
1 tea spoon of balsamic vinegar
3-4 table spoons olive oil


If you are in fact using dried tomatoes (not in oil), soak these in a couple of table spoons of warm water for 10-15 minutes until softened slightly.

Add all the ingredients, the softened tomatoes (and water), garlic, parmesan, pine nuts, basil, chilli flakes, tomato puree and balsamic vinegar to a blender and mix together. Slowly add in the olive oil until you reach your preferred consistency.

Season with salt and serve.

Auberge du Lac

It was in 2011 that we stayed at Brocket Hall over a long weekend and partook in some (my first in fact) Michelin star dining. This was in Auberge du Lac set in the hunting lodge of the hall, with fantastic views of the grounds and lake. It received it's Michellin star in 2009.

As is to be expected, we dressed for dinner. I believe Gipsy Spread had to wear a jacket. Upon arrival we received canapes. The beauty of these was that I was served my very own set of vegetarian canapes and Gipsy Spread did not miss out on his fishy and meaty one. The meal was off to a good start.

My starter was a goats cheese salad with micro herbs. Yes the photo is slightly blurry, however it was not possible for me to go back to 2011 for a re-do. I suspect it was most likely a tad embarrasing papping the food in a Michelin star environment at the time, hence the photo below. I do though recall the salad being fresh, delicate and vibrant.

Now for the main course. I was somewhat disappointed on reading the menu that the main dish offering for me was the baby spring vegetable risotto. As you will be aware, risotto as the only choice for vegetarians on a menu is my pet hate. I don't want to pay £15 plus for a bowl of rice! Also, I was expecting something more from this Michelin starred meal. Regardless, I had to go with it. So, I am glad to report that the risotto was delicious. It was perfectly creamy and baby spring vegetables had been cooked in a wonderfully rich vegetable and wine stock and the herb pesto lifted the whole dish. Gipsy spread opted for the duck with spinach and fondant potatoes.

 

 

Dessert was a lemon tart for me and an apple pie for Gipsy Spread. These were sweet and crisp, with both types of pastry being lovely and light. Dessert was also accompanied by the sweet little petit fours below which included fruit jellies and mini battenburg. The perfect pairing with our after dinner coffee.

 

 

I have not been back to Auberge du Lac since our stay in 2011, so it is unknown to me and also seems a shame that it recently lost it's Michelin star.

Tour de Champagne

It was in June 2012 when we undertook our french road trip through Champagne. It was during this time that I sampled many a great meal. We tend to head to France several times a year - it's just so easy with the Eurostar, ferry and cheap flights. This year we also escaped the Queen's jubilee celebrations. It was amazing how many of the french commented on this.

So, we arrived in Dover and headed straight down towards Champagne. We stayed in a wonderful B&B in the picturesque village of Ay. The breakfasts here are worth a mention. Served in the orangery, they included the best of the patisserie-boulangerie, with a wonderful selection of cheeses (and meats for Gipsy Spread), condiments and fruit. I would most definitely stay here again with the warm and welcoming hosts. You can walk in to Epernay from the village which is a necessity really to take advantage of all the opportunities for sampling the Champagne.

 

After our champange tour, we headed further south towards the town of Vendome where we stayed at Le Saint-Georges. We dined in the Hotel restaurant here. I had a delicately spiced lentil soup with naan bread strips. Gipsy Spread took the opportunity to eat steak. 'When in France...'.

 

From Vendome, we visited the mystical caves of Troo. We had hoped to stay in one of these, they do however get booked up very much in advance. We then headed to the old town of Blois in the Loire valley (yet more opportunity to sample the local wine). Whilst here, we dined at the bijous bistro Le Castelet which is set within a splendid 16th-century building. The great news about this locale is that it also has a whole seperate vegetarian menu. The starters were wonderfully eclectic, Gipsy Spread's goats cheese starter was light and nutty. It was here that I sampled their vegetarian steak. I could not for the life of me understand what it was made of, but it was delicious in a sweet madeira sauce, served with quinoa and mushrooms. As you can see, Gipsy Spread opted for the steak again!

 

 

We continued on our road trip to the town of Trouville. It was here that we unearthed a local favourite that not many tourists frequent. Les quatre chats had a changing seasonal menu written out on their chalk board. I, again was favourably surprised to find a great variety of vegetarian dishes on offer. So, it was the confits des legumes avec mozarella. The vegetables had been softened and layered perfected. The bufala was soft, delicate and moist. This relatively simple loooking dish was perfectly executed. We drank sancerre rose and enjoyed the relaxed surroundings.

 



 

 

 

So, it was a tres joyeux trip for us, particularly where the food was concerned. I had done some research ahead of time, but I was truly inspired by the french vegetarian dishes that I was presented with. France has been evolving for some time and changing it's attitude to vegetarians; which is good news as they bring their long culinary history and cooking techniques to the humble vegetable. Also, lets face it, they've always had cheese - my favourite meals then, cheese with vegetables.

Crazy Bear Fitzrovia

So Gipsy Spread has started his new job for a luxury leathers interiors company. They did the leather finishes for the Crazy Bear group of restaurants and hotel. We thought we should finally check out the décor and food and drinks offerings from the best restaurant as once voted for by London Lifestyle. Now that he is no longer working Saturdays, I took the opportunity to book us in for the dim sum champagne afternoon tea.

 

This package includes 24 pieces of dim sum to share, a flute of champagne and a special tea. The plus side was that there was also a vegetarian menu for me.

 

The décor, as expected was sumptuous and luxurious.  This meant of course that we were surrounded by equally beautiful bright young things – including ourselves! We were told that the dress code was smart and I didn’t need another excuse to get my glad rags and heels on. However, I would say that it is now perhaps in need of a slight spruce. Surely this is where Gipsy Spread comes in!?
 

The champagne was cold, crisp, and dry with the tiniest of bubbles. It was served from a beautiful looking bevelled green bottle of magnum proportions. It was so delicious, we had to order more and at £11.50 a glass, it was great value.

The dim sum was wonderfully presented and 12 pieces was more than enough to satisfy.

The menu included a wide variety of high quality dim sum for both those opting for the traditional and also vegetarian menus.

 

It was also so clever that dessert dim sum is included in the selection. Especially as I usually never get around to ordering dessert after I have had a bento box or selection of savoury dim sum. I ordered the rose and black china tea to accompany it.

We were also introduced to and tempted by the 10 course tasting menu that they are serving over christmas. Watch this space!