Spicy mushroom and mixed seed amori

Invention is the mother of necessity and tonight we needed dinner and I only had so many ingredients in the house. Inspired then by the Turkish use of yogurt and spices in oil (in manti, on eggs etc), I  came up with this delicious pasta dish for dinner. I love using tangy yogurt in place of heavy and creamy sauces on pasta. It's also wonderfully refreshing when it is hot outside.


What you will need
250g chestnut mushrooms
2 cloves garlic
Juice and zest 1/2 lemon
2 table spoon olive oil
1 tea spoon sumac (optional)
1 tea spoon paprika
1 tea spoon cayenne pepper
2 table spoons mixed seeds
Amori pasta
4-5 table spoons greek yogurt
Fresh chopped chives


Begin by cooking the pasta in accordance with the directions.


Meanwhile, slice the mushrooms and crush the garlic. Saute in some  olive oil until softened. Next, add the juice and zest of the lemon.


Prepare the spiced oil by mixing the olive oil with the sumac, paprika, cayenne pepper and the seeds.


When the pasta is cooked, drain and toss through the mushroom and lemon mix. Take off the heat and carefully add the yogurt and mix through (taking care not to split the yogurt).


Plate up the pasta, then finally, place the oil on to to heat for 10-20 seconds and drizzle over the top of the pasta.

Garnish with chopped fresh chives. Crumbled feta cheese or grated fresh parmesan are optional.


Gipsy Spread also had some chopped bacon through his.

Wahaca, London

The proliferation of Wahaca out of its Chandos Street flagship restaurant is impressive. This Mexican Street Food restaurant from Masterchef winner Thomasina Miers appears to have taken over London, not that I'm complaining. I used to hate having to arrive an hour before I wanted to eat, put my name down, disappear for an hour and then come back and queue to see if we were next on the list and could be seated at the Covent garden stalwart. So, it was with delight that I found out recently that there is a Wahaca, not 10 minutes walk from my office in One New Change, but that this one also take reservations. What a result.


We were also due a team lunch out, so I added Wahaca to the outlook email voting buttons with a couple of other choices and it won by a large margin. Many of my colleagues were extremelly excited having never been before and I eagerly booked us a table for 8 (yes, booked!).


We arrived on time, took our seats and revelled in the decor. The super efficient and keen staff were at the ready with our menus and asked about our drinks. I had a hisbicus cordial (I think) whilst my colleagues all partook in various other soft drinks.


When the waitress returned with the drinks she was keen to take our order, as they do want to turn the tables over quickly - remember its meant to be like street food, fast. Unfortunately we were waiting for a colleague and had to send her away twice for five minutes at a time. This was quite disappointing for the rest of us who were chomping at the bit to order. So, once my colleague arrived we all began in turn giving our dishes to the waitress, asking whether we were ordering too much, clearly aware our eyes were bigger than our stomachs on and the menu too large to be fulfilled in just one lunch sitting.


The fish tacos which came with frijoles and rice were extremelly popular, as were the burritos and one colleague had the fish a la pimenta.

I meanwhile, had the plantain taco, which came with the frijoles, crema, feta and the hot chipotle adabo and the black bean tostada, which special refried beans topped with avocado salsa, crema, lancashire cheese and fresh tomato salsa. As mentioned above, the too many dishes, not enough time sentiment also led me to ordering the sweet potato, wonderful chunks of sweet potato topped with smokey caramelised mojo de ajo - others did the same.

The food all came out quickly, looking beautifully presented and very appetising. It doesn't come at once, but remember, this is street food, so everyone just tucked in as the dishes arrived. Everything tasted fresh and flavourful and we also started sampling the various hot sauces on the table. The great thing about Wahaca is its commitment to sustainability and the use of local produce (to make Mexican dishes - no mean feat!), plus you get all of this at an approximate price of £15 for a lunch with a soft drink. I think that's a bargain.


It is for the consistent quality of food, freshness of ingredients and efficiency of service, that I come back to Wahaca. Now I know I can book in some of the restaurants, you'll be seeing a lot of me Wahaca.

Kachori aka spicy pea pasties

This dish is all about showcasing the humble green pea, but also provides a host of options for feeding vegans and vegetarians as a tiny canape, a small starter and several as a main dish. It is also beautiful to cut or bite into, bursting with a vibrant green interior and a cocophany of flavours. It can take a bit of practice to get used to filling the pastry, but the key is to let the pea mix cool before trying to stuff into the pastry. Go on, give the veggies a treat!

What you will need

 

Pastry

150g chapatti flour

50g fine semolina

1 table spoon olive oil
 

Filling

400g cooked green peas
1 onion finely chopped

2 tea spoons mustard seeds

8-10 curry leaves

2 tea spoons ground coriander

2 tea spoons ground cumin

1 tea spoons garam masala

½ tea spoon asafoetida

4 cloves garlic

A thumb sized piece of ginger

4-6 green chillies

 

Firstly start by making up the pastry or puri mix. Mix together the flour and oil with enough cold water to bring the dough together. It should look like the photo below. Set aside in the fridge.

 

Next, crush or blend the green chillies, garlic and grated ginger together into a paste with some salt.

 

Next, crush the green peas in a blender or crush them with a potato masher.

 

Heat some oil in a pan and add the mustard seeds and curry leaves when hot, followed by the onion, garlic, chilli and ginger mix. Cook for 5-10 minutes. Next, add all the spices, the coriander, cumin, garam masala and asafoetida. Finally add the peas.

 

Stir through and cover, leaving the mix to reduce for 10-15 minutes to remove the moisture from the peas. Leave the peas to cool and remove the curry leaves.

 

Finally, to stuff the peas into the pastry, roll out a 10p piece sized ball of the dough to about 8-10 cm in diameter. Take the pastry into your hands and place a heaped table spoon of the mix in the centre.

Next, fold the pastry in half and clip together with your fingers to seal the ends and create a crescent moon shape. Pinch the ends of the pastry together to create a pattern if desired. This dough should make about 8.

 

Finally heat some oil until hot enough to fry the pastry. Fry a few at a time for 3-4 minutes until browned and crisped.

Serve these immediately, either hot or cold with some green or tamarind chutney, or even ketchup, if you so wish!

 

 

 

Chilli cheese (Mexicana) scones

Well, I had some mexicana cheese. You know the lovely cheddar with bits of spicy chillies through it. I have been eating this tasty cheese on its own and on toast, but wanted to do something else with it. These fantastic scones came to mind as they would go wonderfully with the simple celery soup I had made and are a doddle to make.

 

 

What you will need

230g self raising flour

A pinch of salt

50g butter

75g Mexicana cheddar

150ml milk

2 tea spoon cayenne pepper

 

 

Mix together the flour and salt and rub the butter in with your finger tips. Add in the grated cheese and pour over the milk.

 

 

Bring the scone dough together with your hands and knead gently to form a ball.

 

 

Now, either roll the dough out to an inch in depth to cut out scones using a cutter or glass. Alternatively, you can roll into balls with your hands and flatten slightly to form larger scones.

 

You can make 10-12 small scones or six large ones.

 

 

Place the scones on a greased oven tray, sprinkle over the chilli powder. You can also top with extra cheese, if you're so inclined.

 

 

Bake in pre-heated oven at 200 degrees for 15-20 minutes until browned and cooked through. Larger scones might take a bit longer.

 

 

Serve fresh and warm with melting butter or keep in a tea towel and take on a picnic. They can also be split horizontally, toasted and eaten for breakfast. Yum!

 

Celery soup

I’d bought a bag of celery stalks that were just wilting away on the fridge and the simplest solution to this problem was to blitz them. I knocked up this simple quick soup that will form my work lunches a couple of days this week. It’s also soup-er healthy as the old adage that you burn more calories eating celery than are in it holds true.

 

What you will need

150g celery

½ an onion

1 small potato

2 cloves garlic

¼ tea spoon ground cinnamon

½ tea spoon cayenne pepper

½ tea spoon white pepper

750ml vegetable stock

 

Firstly chop the onions, celery and garlic and soften in some olive oil for 5 minutes.

 

Next, peel and cube the potato. Rinse off and starch and set aside.
 

Add all the spices and some salt and cook for 30 seconds to release the flavour.

 

Finally add the vegetable stock and  cubed potato and simmer for 15-20 minutes before liquidising.

 

Serve, with garnished with crème fraiche or yoghurt.

Welsh rarebit stuffed jac-pots

My feeder tendences get the better of me. Even when Gipsy Spread was going to be at home and able to cook his own lunch, I decided to take what he would have for lunch into my own hands. The oven was going to be on for roasting my fabulous vegetables for dinner last night, so I thought I'd bake a couple of small potatoes and make some gooey cheesey welsh rarebit potatoes for him to simply pop in the ovent for 20 minutes to finish.

 

 

What you will need
4 small potatoes
160g mature cheddar
2 eggs
1/2 a tea spoon cayenne pepper
1 tea spoon mustard
1 tea spoon vegetarian worcestershire sauce
1/2 an onion finely chopped


Place the potatoes in the oven to cook through for 50-60 minutes at 220 degrees.

Meanwhile chop the onion and grate the cheddar. Mix together with the eggs, cayenne pepper, mustard and worcestershire sauce and season well with salt and pepper.

When the potatoes are cooked, slice them in half and carefully scoop out the flesh and mix with the egg and cheese mix.

Scoop back into the skins and bake for a further 20 minutes at 200 degrees.

Serve hot with a nice salad, or in this case with some delicious home-made pickled onions.

Roasted butternut squash salad with feta, yoghurt and harissa dressing

Well, the holiday is over, but we are heading into summer in the England and I have to atone for all the mucnching (but it wasn't my fault!) that I did in the US. So, I have reverted back to my favourite type of meal now - vegetables with cheese. This is also such a fabulously simple, but classic dish, which does not necessitate any heavy carbs, the butternut squash being so robust. Even Gipsy Spread didn't need any meat with this dish, just pile on the veggies.


What you will need
500g butternut squash cubed
1 green pepper
1 large onion
2-3 balls cooked beetroot
2 cloves garlic
1 tea spoon chilli flakes
2 table spoons greek yoghurt
2 tea spoon harissa
60g feta cheese


Firstly slice the pepper and onions into large chunks. Toss these with the butternut squash.


Quarter the beetroon and add to an oven dish with the rest of the vegetables. Drizzle over a table spoon of olive oil, season with salt and add the crushed cloves of garlic and chilli flakes.

Roast in a pre-heated oven at 220 degrees for 45-50 minutes until the squash is caramelised and cooked through.

Place on a plate with a table spoon of the greek yoghurt, topped with a tea spoon of harrisa and then crumble over the feta cheese.

Delicious and not a carb or any meat in sight!