Green Thai curry paste (chilli optional)

I love making curry paste from scratch. The smells and flavours you get as you grind and blend are awesome. Now that I've got a little one, and a husband who's not a massive fan of spicy food I actually made it completely without chilli, and do you know what? It was still tasty!!

This is based on Jamie Oliver's The Naked Chef recipe but I've changed it a little over the years and now exclude salt and chilli!

You do need a food processor AND a pestle and mortar for this ideally.

4-6 spring onions OR 1 medium size white onion (chopped)

2 cloves of garlic (crushed)

1 inch fresh root ginger (grated or finely chopped)

1 tbsp coriander seeds (crushed in pestle and mortar)

1/2 tsp black pepper

2 lemon grass stalks (finely chopped) - I can't always get these and it's fine if you omit them

2 big handful of fresh basil on the stalk

2-3 big handfuls of coriander leaves on the stalk

3 tbsp olive oil

Zest and juice of 2 limes

Optional (less baby friendly) ingredients:

2-3 green chillies (deseeded and finely chopped)

1/4-1/2 tsp salt

Method:

Whack it all into the food processor and pulse.

Uses: 

Use in my Thai veggie burger recipe http://clearlyfood.blogspot.co.uk/2015/04/thai-sweet-potato-and-chickpea-burgers.html?m=1

Or as the base for a Thai curry

Thai sweet potato and chickpea burgers

I had some friends coming for dinner, and fancied making Jamie's Thai Green curry, but one person was veggie, so I was trying to think of something relatively quick and easy I could try to make so she had some protein too!

I found this recipe for Thai Sweet Potato burgers online: http://ohsheglows.com/2013/10/28/thai-sweet-potato-veggie-burgers-with-spicy-peanut-sauce/ but wanted something simpler so I used my Thai paste I'd made for my curry (see curry paste blog entry).

My ten month old baby loved these (if you're giving them to babies bear in mind when you add chilli to your Thai paste/ and sweet chilli sauce). 

We think these would be good for a BBQ but bake in the oven first and reheat them on the BBQ later, as they'll fall apart and potato won't cook!

Ingredients:

2 sweet potatoes 

1 400g can chick peas

2-3tbsp green Thai curry paste (I used my own but you could easily use some from a jar)

2-3 tsp sweet chilli sauce (to taste)

1 egg

Preheat oven at 180°C

Method

1. Finely grate the sweet potatoes. If you have a food processor with a grater function, definitely use it. 

2. Roughly mash the chick peas - I actually whacked these through the F.P. grater too.

3. Beat the egg and combine it with the grated potato, mushed chickpeas, Thai paste and chilli sauce. Mix really well, the combination of the egg and chickpeas should be making it hold together fairly well.

4. Form into patties, I made six burgers with this recipe. I used my crumpet rings placed on a greased baking tray to form them, and cooked them in the rings (remember to grease rings too) but equally I think you could use floured hands to form them into patties. 

5. Place in oven and bake until golden brown - this took about 35mins. 

6. Serve alone or in a bun.

Lazy Dauphinoise

I love Dauphinoise potatoes. Love them. So do my husband and ten month old. However they can take ages painstakingly finely chopping and arranging potatoes then cooking them slowly. 

I wondered tonight if it was possible to speed the process up... I also wondered if it was possible to include parsnips (we have many). This was the result.

I used:

700g white potatoes (peeled)

175g parsnips (peeled) optional

60g butter

150ml double cream

Some milk (no more than 50ml, probably less)

Cast iron roasting tin (Le Creuset)

Prep 10-15 min

Cook 50-60 min

Preheat oven to 190°C fan

1. Pop the cast iron dish on the hob. Add half the butter and heat gently until butter is melted.

2. Finely slice the potatoes, do this however you like. Your food processor might have a mandolin setting, or the side of your grater, or a cheese slice, or a knife. They don't have to be neat, just do them quickly. Potatoes can blacken if left sliced too long. I couldn't mandolin the parsnips so I used a knife for them. 

3. Whack the potato (and parsnip) slices  into the buttery dish and stir with a flat spatula (I used a wooden one) to try and get as much coated as you can. Pour over the cream and stir again. Add a little milk if it doesn't mix well enough or you feel you need more liquid to get better distribution of butter and cream. Pat down the potato (and parsnip) slices so the top appears flat.

4. Melt the remaining 30g butter in microwave or over a bowl of hot water. Use a pastry brush to coat the top slices with butter.

5. Bake in oven for 50min to 1hr. Potatoes should be soft and golden brown with the thin edges of potato slices just catching.

6. Eat immediately. We had it with chicken wrapped in bacon and fresh veg!

Earl Grey & Orange Hot Cross buns (Waitrose Kitchen recipe)

I've never made hot cross buns, so when I saw these Earl Grey and Orange ones on the cover of Waitrose magazine I really wanted to give them a try.

The ingredients list was extensive, but didn't contain anything I didn't have (except Apricot Jam which I got from my Mother-in-law's jam store https://www.facebook.com/pages/Highgate-Farm-Rosemarys-Preserves-Beef-Apple-Juice/129697147075023).

So I got all the ingredients together...

...and made a start. I made the tea in a teapot, and when I'd poured out the 160ml for the recipe I drank the rest, bonus! 

The tea, sugar, flour mix developed well (the baby woke earlier than anticipated from her nap), so it did stand a bit longer!

This recipe says "40 mins prep +proving time"; well I should've heeded that warning... You leave the liquor 15 mins, the dough one hour, and the finished rolls another half an hour. That's 1hr 45 proving with the 40 minutes prep interspersed. Basically you can't hurry this! Luckily I had a rainy afternoon at home with a baby to feed and entertain in the gaps! Including cooking I've been making these buns all afternoon (about 3hrs)! 

It was hard work but I'm pretty pleased with the end result, though I was hurrying my crosses (which is silly as that's the presentation bit) as I needed to start thinking about our dinner. 

They were looking good before going in the oven:

They looked even better when they came out and had been glazed....

They tasted really good! Yummmmmy probably not AS orangey as they could but then I used satsumas rather than full size oranges. 

Were they worth the effort? Yes, though I can't imagine having the time to spend 3hrs baking hot cross buns very often! Good to know I can do it though!

One hour bread rolls (UK measurements)

We were out of bread and it was going to be about an hour until my husband came in for breakfast (he's a farmer) so I googled "one hour bread recipe" and came across these dinner rolls from Jaclyn at "Cooking Classy" http://www.cookingclassy.com/2014/10/big-soft-fluffy-one-hour-dinner-rolls/. It's worth having a look at her blog, method and pictures but I have tried to replicate my version here to be stand alone too.

The recipe is in US cups, I have a full set but I thought I'd convert as I went (weighing out) so that if successful (it was!) I could blog the metric measurements. This is one of my excuses for it taking a little longer than 1hr to make these! I think if you had dry ingredients weighed out already and you didn't have to search the kitchen for the right baking dish then they'd be pretty much done in an hour!

Prep 20mins + 20 mins proving 

Cooking time 15 mins

Makes 16 rolls

Ingredients

• 450g plain flour + 50g or so more for adding to dough/flouring surface 
• 40g sugar
• 7g sachet (1tbsp) fast acting yeast
• 1 1/2 tsp salt
• 180ml cold water
• 160ml milk
• 40g butter, diced (plus more for tops)
• 1 1/2 tsp lemon juice

Method

• 1. Preheat oven to 75°C (not a typo this is proving temp).
• 2. In a large bowl mix together 450g flour, sugar, yeast and salt.
• 3. In a microwaveable bowl or jug put the water, milk and butter and heat in microwave on full power (800+W) for 1 min15. Stir to melt butter.
• 4. Add wet mixture into dry mixture and add lemon juice. Either do this in a mixer with dough hook if you have one (I don't) or mix with a spoon/fingers whatever it takes. 
• 5. Knead in the bowl for about 4min until smooth and elastic, you may need to add more flour (use the reserved 50g if necessary). The dough should be slightly wet/sticky but manageable.
• 6. Cover bowl and rest 5 minutes. 

• 7. Meanwhile butter a baking tray or dish. I used two 15x30cm (ish) cast iron Le Creusets. Jaclyn at Classy cook used a 13x 9inch baking dish.
• 8. Lightly flour work surface and shape dough into an evenly level square, about 9 by 9-inches. I had to use a rolling pin and tape measure! 
  

  
  
• 
  
  
• Cut into 16 equal portions (don't have to be exact). 
• 
  
  
• Shape dough into balls, and place shaped dough portions into prepared baking dish. 
• 9. Dampen hands with water and brush tops of dough with the water (just so they don't dry while rising in oven). Transfer to very low oven, shut door and turn oven off. Allow rolls to rise 20 minutes (don't open oven door). 

Before and after proving.

• 10. Remove from oven and fast preheat oven to 190°C (fan). This took my oven 6 minutes. I just had rolls resting on the side while I waited.

• 11. Bake in preheated oven 14 - 16 minutes until nicely risen and tops are golden brown. 
• 
  Remove from oven and run a knob of butter on a knife over the tops of the rolls just to coat. Serve warm with butter.

• Recipe source: Cooking Classy
• Metric conversion: Clearly Food

Sweet potato and bacon muffins DAIRY FREE

These savoury muffins have a slight sweetness to them which sets off the bacon nicely. We had them for lunch but I reckon they'd be a good weekend breakfast or brunch... I may even be tempted to pour maple syrup on them! Great for baby led weaning my 9 month old loves them!

Ingredients

1. Pre-bake the sweet potatoes and grill the bacon. Preheat the oven to 180°C (165°C fan).

2. Mash the sweet potatoes in a large bowl.

3. Beat the 3 eggs together with oil, juice and seasoning.

4. Fold in flour and baking powder. 

5. Spoon into 12 muffin tin holes. 

6. Bake for 18-25 minutes* until risen, firm and nicely golden on top. 

7. Serve warm or cold with salad or o. Their own as a snack. 

*I used a Pampered Chef stoneware muffin tray for these so they took 25mins

Butternut squash muffins

Makes 12 muffins (I use 12 cup cake tray)

Preparation 15mins

Cooking 20 mins (Preheat oven to 175°C)

300g butternut squash peeled and grated

1 onion chopped finely

1/2 red pepper chopped finely

110g cheddar cheese grated

3 large eggs beaten

2 tbsp olive oil

120g SR. flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

1. I use a food processor to grate the squash and cheese (and actually whack onion in as well). 

2. Mix together vegetables and cheese reserving about 20-30g cheese for topping muffins later. Add flour and baking powder and then stir the egg and oil mix in. Mix really well. 

3. Grease your tin (I use a well loved silicon cake tray which doesn't need greasing). The muffins are quite soft so need to be well greased so they don't fall apart when you're getting them out. You could use paper or silicon cases to help with this.

4. Spoon the mix equally between the 12 holes in the tin. Top with the reserved grated cheese.

5. Pop in the oven until risen and tops golden. 

6. Allow to cool in tin for a few minutes then move onto a cooling rack.

7. Enjoy as a snack or have a few with salad as a meal.