Seven Vegetable Soup with Goat Cheese

Malteezer Chocolate Cake

English classic - Toad in the Hole

Okay so it's time to confess that I regularly watch the long-running English soap opera, Coronation Street. Luckily they now show all of the week's episodes at once, early on Sunday mornings. In the sixties, I remember my mom watching it in the afternoons while she did the ironing, the mixture of steam, speed starch and almost incomprehensible accents creating a comforting memory for me.

In the show they often refer to local dishes, like "hot pot" (stew), "bacon butties" (bacon sandwiches) and "Toad in the Hole" (sausages baked in a Yorkshire pudding batter). I've always wanted to try the "toad" dish, and so I recently went to one of my favourite cookbook authors, Jamie Oliver and found this recipe on his website, http://www.jamieoliver.com/. It turned out really well, everyone in the family liked it and this photo is the result of my second attempt. It was as well received by the boys the second time as it was the first.

As an aside, my son, my husband and I were recently watching a DVD of the sixties power trio Cream (with Eric Clapton, Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker). The drummer, Ginger Baker, was famous at the time for an 16 minute song that was basically a long drum solo. The song was called "Toad" and we surmised perhaps, not having a better name, they named the song after what they ate for lunch. (Okay so that's my theory - when I googled that question there does not seem to be an answer...)

This recipe takes about one hour to make, but the amount of active time is low and the ingredients are very basic. Serve it with the fried onions and steamed vegetables and you have a delicious easy meal.

Toad in the Hole (with fried onions) (based on a recipe from http://www.jamieoliver.com/)

6 large honey and garlic sausages

2 tablespoons sunflower oil

115 g flour

285 ml milk

1 teaspoon salt

2 eggs (the original recipe uses 3 eggs but we found it a bit too rich)

3 onions, thinly sliced

2 tablespoons olive oil

3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

*Preheat ove to 425F. In a large, deep casserole dish, put the sunflower oil and heat in the oven for 5 minutes. Add the sausages and cook for 20 minutes, turning them over halfway through.

Mix the batter by whisking together the milk and eggs. Stir in the flour and salt until just combined. When the sausages have cooked for 20 minutes, pour the batter over them and bake for a further 35 - 40 minutes.

For the fried onions, saute the onions in the olive oil on medium heat until translucent. Add the salt and balsamic vinegar and a few splashes of water and cook for 2-3 minutes then turn the heat to low until the "toad" has finished baking.

Chicken Stew with Biscuits

I love the Food Network. I don't get to see it that often because of other demands on my time. I did manage to sit down for a few minutes before dinner one evening since both sons were out and my husband was working. The Barefoot Contessa was on at that time and the recipe demonstrated was Chicken and Biscuits.
Now, I am always on the lookout for a meal that everyone in my family likes. The first time I made this my older son proclaimed, "Mom, make this again!" It is a nutritious, comfort food meal that tastes soooooo good. I made it again last night and it was just as good as it was the first time.

This is an all-in-one meal that makes enough for 8 people (or in my family two meals for 4 people). I have changed some of the amounts of ingredients and I did not include the addition of small pearl onions and parsley (kids don't usually like flecks of green in their food!)

Chicken Stew with Biscuits
(Barefoot Contessa, Food Network - 2002)

6 small or 3 large, bone-in, skin on chicken breasts
3 tablespoons olive oil
salt and pepper
2 chicken bouillon cubes
12 tablespoons butter
2 onions, chopped
3/4 cup flour
1/4 cup half-and-half
5 carrots, peeled and chopped thinly
2 cups frozen peas
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2 cups flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 cup butter, cold and cut into pieces
3/4 cup half-and-half
1 egg

* Preheat oven 375F. Place chicken breasts in a pot, add bouillon cubes and 4 cups of water. Cover and poach for 40 minutes. Remove chicken and strain broth and set aside. When cool enough to handle, remove meat and chop.
In a large pot, melt the butter and saute onions for 15 minutes. Add the flour and cook over low heat, stirring constantly for 2 minutes. Add hot broth and stir 2 minutes. Add salt, pepper and cream. Stir in cooked chicken, carrots and peas. Mix well and place into a large deep oven-safe dish (I used my roasting pan). Bake for 15 minutes.
* Make the biscuits - Combine the flour, baking powder, salt and sugar in a medium mixing bowl. Stir in butter and using your hands, blend the butter into the flour until only small pieces remain. Add the cream and mix until just combined. Put dough on a floured surface and roll out until about 3/8" thick. Cut the dough into rough edged pieces.
*Remove the stew from the oven. Place biscuits over the top of the stew in one layer. Mix the egg with a bit of water to make an egg-wash and brush on top of the biscuit dough. Bake another 20-30 minutes. Let sit about 5 minutes and serve.

Dinner with Friends

My friend Sheri and I have a Saturday tradition of getting up early, having brunch, shopping at the market for ingredients, having coffee, parting ways and then meeting up later in the day to cook together. It is so much fun that when we plan this (almost monthly) activity, I look forward to it all week. Our husbands joined us in tasting the fruits of our labours and each dish was deemed "a keeper".

This time we took inspiration from the current issue of BBC Good Food magazine. We started with an amazing sweet potato and coconut soup with Thai pesto. The pesto recipe alone was worth trying this recipe, it was so good.

The main meal was a Gordon Ramsay recipe for fish. Pan-fried sea bass with citrus-dressed broccoli. The technique for frying the fish was really wonderful, as it resulted in a delicious, crispy-salty skin.

For dessert, we tried a cake version of a favourite English dessert. Bakewell tart is a wonderful marriage of almonds and jam in pie pastry. The cake version was a neat twist that eliminated the pastry and put the ground almonds into a layer cake. Marvelous with a "cuppa tea"!

All recipes are based on recipes in the February 2009 edition of BBC Good Food magazine. Some changes were made due to ingredient preference or availability. The amounts listed here are what we used to make our dinner for four adults.

Sweet Potato Soup with Thai Pesto

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 pound sweet potatoes, peeled and chopped into chunks

1 red onion, chopped

1 tablespoon red curry paste

500 ml (2 cups) vegetable stock

1 X 400ml tin coconut milk

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100 g salted peanuts

2 cloves garlic, chopped

2 teaspoons fresh ginger, grated

2 green chillies, deseeded and chopped

1 small bunch fresh corriander

1 large handful fresh mint

1 large handful fresh basil

2 tablespoons soy sauce

2 tablespoons fresh lime juice

1 tablespoon brown sugar

* Make the soup - in a large pot, over medium heat, add the oil, sweet potato and onion. Cook partially covered for 15 minutes. Add the curry paste and cook for 3-4 minutes. Add the stock and coconut milk and bring to a boil. Using a stick blender, process soup until it is smooth.

* Make the pesto - put all ingredients into a blender and whiz until you have a chunky green paste.

Serve the soup with a dollop of the pesto on top.

Pan-fried Sea Bass with Citrus-dressed Broccoli

1 wild sea bass fillet (not Chilean sea bass), cut into 4 pieces

1 head broccoli

2 oranges

6 tablespoons olive oil

4 tablespoons small capers

6 anchovies, chopped fine

1 lemon

*Score the fish, skin side up about 6 times, 1 cm deep. Segment the oranges by cutting away the peel and cutting out each segment (over a bowl to catch the juice). Cut the broccoli into small florets and cook in boiling salted water for 1-2 minutes. In a hot frying pan, toss in the broccoli to burn off the moisture. Turn off the heat and add the oranges, juice and 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Season with salt and pepper and set aside. Wipe out the pan and add 2 tablespoons of olive oil.
When hot lay down the fish fillets, skin-side down. Cook for 3-4 minutes (until flesh is cooked 2/3 of the way up). Flip over the fish, cook for 2 minutes and baste with pan liquid.

Plate 1/4 of the broccoli/orange salad and lay the fish skin-side up on top. In the hot frying pan, add 2 tablespoons olive oil, scatter in the capers and chopped anchovies. Grate lemon zest over top of the sauce and squeeze in the juice of 1/2 lemon. Pour the hot sauce over the fish and vegetables.

Cherry Bakewell Cake

200g (1 cup) butter, soft

200 g sugar

100g ground almonds

100g self-raising flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon almond extract

4 eggs

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1/2 (340g) jar morello cherry conserve

175g icing sugar

5 teaspoons water or lemon juice

3 tablespoons flaked almonds

* Make the cake - preheat oven to 350F and grease two 8" cake tins. Using electric beaters, cream butter and sugar together. Add a pinch of salt and the ground almonds, flour, baking powder, extract and eggs until the batter is smooth. Divide evenly between the cake pans and bake for 25-30 minutes.

*Assemble cake - when the cake layers are cool, put one on a serving plate. Spread top with cherry jam and put the second layer on top. Mix together the icing sugar and lemon juice and drizzle over the top of the cake. Sprinkle top with flaked almonds.

potatoes and swiss chard

This recipe is one that I can confidently say that I created. I first made it many years ago when I used to get a box of organic fruit and vegetables delivered to our home. In those days, organic was fairly "new" and it was the only way I could get organic milk for my children as it wasn't sold in grocery stores.

In the winter months, the vegetables consisted of root vegetables and lots of kale and Swiss chard. So I devised this recipe to use up the chard. Because it has bacon/ham in it, it can be eaten on its own, but last night I made it as a side dish to go with the stuffed pork tenderloin that my mother made for dinner. The cream cheese makes a rich and easy sauce.

Potatoes and Swiss Chard

1 onion, chopped fine

6 slices smoked ham cut up into small bits OR 6 slices of side bacon

2 tablespoons olive oil (if you are using bacon, you made not need this)

1 bunch organic red Swiss chard

4 to 5 large potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/2 inch cubes

5 tablespoons green onion cream cheese

* Fry the onion and the ham (in oil) or bacon (no oil) in a large frying pan on medium heat. Wash the Swiss chard and then cut the stalks from the leaves. Take the stalks and cut them into 1/2 inch pieces and add them into the fry pan. Add the potatoes and place the lid on top. Leave for about 10 minutes. Remove the cover, give it a stir and recover for about 10 minutes. Meanwhile cut up the chard leaves into 1 inch wide ribbons crosswise. Add the cream cheese to the potato mix and keep stirring until it has "melted" into a sauce. Pile the chard leaf pieces in a layer over the top of the mix and cover for about 10 minutes. When you remove the cover the chard will have wilted and you can mix it in. Season with salt and pepper.

Pecan Toffee Cake

Over the holidays I made this cake twice it was so good. The first one was to give to my Dad for Christmas because he really likes dates. The second was to slice and wrap up and give to my friends as gifts.

One of my secret treats is to buy British food and decorating magazines. This recipe comes from the December edition of BBC Good Food. I initally chose it because I had a container of dates leftover from celebrating the Iranian holiday Shab-e-Yalda with my class.

This cake is tender and absolutely delicious. For the sugar, I used the spiced sugar recipe from Jamie Oliver's website (http://www.jamieoliver.com/ - worth checking out and delicious in tea). I made it the first time with walnuts because I had those in the cupboard. The second time I used pecans (as in the photo). Pecans or walnuts this cake is definitely a keeper!

Pecan Toffee Cake (December 2008 BBC Good Food)

300g pecans or walnuts

140 g dates

200g butter, softened

200g sugar (or use Jamie Oliver's recipe for spiced sugar - see above)

1 tsp mixed spice

4 eggs

1/2 tsp salt

140g self-raising flour (I used all-purpose flour and 1 tsp baking powder)

maple syrup

* Put 100g of the nuts into a processor and whiz up until fine and put into a small bowl. Put the dates in a saucepan and add enough water to cover them. Bring to a boil and boil for 5 minutes. Drain, discarding the liquid. Let cool and liquify in the processor.

Preheat the oven to 350F. Butter and line with buttered wax paper a 10" springform cake pan. Beat together the butter and sugar then add in the dates, ground nuts, spice, eggs and salt. Then fold in the flour and baking powder. Put the leftover 200g of nuts over the top being careful not to push them down. Bake for 40 minutes. When it comes out of the oven, lightly pour maple syrup over top of the hot cake.

This cake freezes well. I wrap one quarter pieces of the cake in wax paper then in foil.