Spicy Sweet Potato Cakes with Rainbow Chard

Rainbow chard is now a daily staple in my kitchen, the chard bed in the garden is growing wild and the more I pick, the more sprouts forth. I have been throwing it into every kind of soup, stir frying it, serving the baby leaves as salad, adding handfuls to bolognese sauce and giving it away to passers-by, but it still keeps coming. 

Fast becoming my favourite vegetable, chard (swiss or rainbow) is super healthy, full of vitamins and minerals and incredibly adaptable but almost impossible to find in the shops, the only way to get some rainbow chard is to grow it yourself. 

So every day this week I have been looking for a new way to use it. Potato cakes (or tattie scones as they are called in Scotland) are a huge favourite in our house as breakfast, after school snacks and even as canape bases, this spicy sweet potato version would make a gorgeous starter or light lunch. To use as canapes, add a little more flour and aim for a firmer mixture.

Spicy Sweet Potato Cakes with Rainbow Chard
1 tbsp olive oil
3 large handfuls rainbow chard (or spinach), chopped
1 large clove garlic, crushed
1 hot red chilli, finely chopped
3 spring onions, finely chopped 

1kg sweet potatoes, peeled and diced
100g plain flour
1 tsp salt
3 tbsp olive oil 
Dipping sauce
2tbsp soy sauce
1 hot red chilli, sliced


Heat the olive oil gently in a frying pan or wok, then add the chard, garlic and chilli and cook for a few minutes until the spices are aromatic and the chard wilted. 
Remove from the heat and stir in the spring onions.
Boil the sweet potatoes until tender then drain and cool. 
Mash together the potatoes with the flour and salt then stir in the chard mixture.
Using wet hands, form the mixture into patties (around 5cm in diameter).
Heat olive oil in heavy based non-stick pan and fry the patties for a few minutes on each side until golden brown. 
Serve with dipping sauce made from soy sauce with a few red chillis floating through it.

Maple Syrup Granola

Ooh home-made breakfast cereal... I feel a little goddess-like, even though I went about it the speedy cheat's way. Granola recipes usually contain such a huge list of ingredients that I am put off even trying them. So, to circumvent a little of the shopping and organisation, I bought a nice high-end muesli to use as a base and then added a big bunch of whatever I had in my cupboards and oh my goodness, it is amazing. We have been eating it by the handful in place of popcorn, over vanilla yogurt as an after school snack and
covered in milk as, well, breakfast cereal.

This is a list of what I had in my cupboard but I think you can feel free to throw in any combination of dried fruit, nuts, cereals and seeds without any problems. Be careful with your oven temperature as any fruit mixed into your muesli may burn in the heat so keep it low and check it often. It should keep for a few weeks in an airtight container but in my house, there is no chance of it lasting nearly so long.

Maple Syrup Granola
200g rolled oats
300g luxury museli (I used a tropical mix)
50g wheatbran
200g mixed seeds (whatever you have - I used a mix of sesame, linseed, pumpkin, sunflower)
200g mixed nuts (whatever you have - I used hazelnuts and almonds)
2tsp ground ginger
2tsp ground cinnamon
4tbsp honey
4tbsp maple syrup
100g brown sugar
100g raisins, sultanas or dried cranberries

Mix everything together except the raisins in a very large mixing bowl. It is easiest to use your hands but you will end up very sticky!
Scatter across a large baking sheet and bake at around 130C for 20-40 minutes. Keep checking to make sure the fruit does not burn or go crispy and turn the granola over about half way through the cooking time.
When golden and aromatic, remove from the oven and allow to cool, add the raisins or other soft fruit then decant into an airtight jar or container.

Blueberry & Apple Crumble Muffins

You've gotta love America - their ability to take two lovely meals and throw them together willy nilly and create a whole new food opportunity in our day.... I love to eat brunch; the only meal where you are actively encouraged to eat bacon and eggs, cakes and muffins and cocktails and champagne all at one meal.

This is definitely a breakfast muffin, more than a cake&coffee muffin with its mix of sharp green apples and blueberries. The recipe was adapted from my favourite cookbook ever - Ottolenghi.

Scanning a table of treats, and piling on a mixture of fresh fruit, spinach & pancetta strata (recipe to follow soon), and grilled tomatoes and (hoorah) finding coffee cake, blueberry muffins and nutty bran breakfast muffins alongside is just the best way to start your day. ideally served with a glass of bucks fizz.

Blueberry & Apple Crumble Muffins
540g plain flour
4tsp baking powder
1tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/2 tsp salt
350g caster sugar
2 eggs, beaten
140g melted butter
380ml milk
2 apples, peeled & diced
200g blueberries

for the crumble topping
150g plain flour
50g caster sugar
100g butter

Heat the oven to 180C/Gas 3 and line a muffin tin with paper cases.
In a large bowl, mix together flour, baking powder, bicarbonate, salt and sugar.
In another bowl, whisk together the eggs, butter and milk, then stir in the fruit.
Combine the wet ingredients with the dry and mix lightly together, do not over mix or the batter becomes heavy.
Spoon a couple of tablespoons of the batter into each paper case until quite full.
Cover with lots of crumble topping, enough to form a small mound over the cake batter.
Bake for 20-25 minutes until golden on top and a skewer inserted into the cake comes out clean.

Maple Syrup & Oatmeal Scones

 

The sun is out.... the sky is actually blue, the snowdrops are springing around happily in the wind. I know its premature and I know I shouldn't tempt fate but I think it might be spring. Thank goodness for that too, I have never felt quite so desperate for winter to end as I do this year. I have been cooking every day recently enjoying the spring vegetables that are creeping slowly into the shops but because of school holidays, family visits and a plethora of other excuses I have only been cooking late at night (not a good time to take photographs) so have a huge backlog of recipes to share this month.... Happy Spring.... bring on the sunshine and daffodils.

This scone recipe is based on a recipe from The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook and is one of my favourite breakfast recipes. They are incredibly moreish, make the house smell A- MAZ-ING, and as this makes quite a big batch of scones, the dough will keep really well in the fridge overnight so you can bake fresh batches all weekend.... how fabulous is that.

Maple Oatmeal Scones

425g plain flour

125g whole wheat flour

125g porridge oats

2tbsp baking powder

2 tbsp light brown sugar

2tsp salt

450g butter

225ml yogurt

25ml milk

125ml maple syrup

4 eggs lightly beaten

Glaze

160g icing sugar

75g maple syrup

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 tbsp porridge oats

Pre-heat the oven to 200C. 

Mix together the dry ingredients in a large bowl: flours, oats, baking powder, sugar and salt.

Rub the butter into the dry mixture with your fingertips until it resembles fine breadcrumbs. 

Reserve a couple of tablespoons of eggs to use as an egg wash at the end.

Whisk together the yogurt, maple syrup and eggs and add to the flour and butter.

Stir together until just blended - as with any scone recipe, the scones will be lighter if they are handled as little as possible. 

The dough will be soft and sticky. 

Remove from the bowl onto a well floured surface and using a floured rolling pin, roll to 3cm thick.

Cut into 10cm scones with a round cutter.

Brush the tops with egg wash and bake for 20 minutes until the scones are golden and risen. Allow to cool on a rack while you prepare the maple syrup glaze. 

To make the glaze whisk together the syrup, icing sugar and vanilla till thick and glossy. Drizzle over the still warm scones and sprinkly with a few uncooked oats.

Serve with hot coffee and warm sunshine.

Goat Cheese and Spring Onion Muffins

Savoury muffins! Love them or hate them? I wanted something mild but tangy, light but dense to serve with a steaming bowl of soup. The soup was traditional, hot and unremarkable: red lentils, a little bit of carrot, some onion and garlic, stock, but these muffins elevated it to a new level. Strong goat cheese (I used a sharp crumbly one) melting into the smooth creaminess of the soup is the perfect partner for a mild soup. They are also beautiful made with blue cheese and walnuts.

Goat Cheese and Spring Onion Muffins

220g plain flour
3 tsp baking powder
1 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
240ml milk
100ml vegetable oil
1 egg
150g goat cheese, crumbled
4 spring onions, finely chopped

Preheat the oven to 180C. Prepare a 12 hole muffin tin.
Sift together the flour, baking powder, sugar and salt in a large bowl.
In a jug, whisk the milk, oil and egg together. Add the cheese and spring onions to the wet ingredients. Stir the wet mixture into the dry ingredients until just combined. Fill the muffin tins and bake for 20 minutes until golden and aromatic. Serve warm.

Banana Yogurt Muffins

I've been on the most wonderful hillwalking trip to the Lake District for the weekend, eating rich food and hanging out with my girlfriends. Gorgeous though it was, I've come home totally exhausted and planning to eat less, drink less wine, run harder and generally get back to basics with food. 

To this end, as well as organising lots of long runs and quiet nights, (it should last a week or so!) I am trying out healthier breakfast and snack recipes. I'd rather go hungry than find myself eating healthy food that tastes of nothing so need to find ways of getting the health benefits while making food that really tastes great. These muffins are unbelievably morish (maybe not such a good thing) but have a healthy dose of bran and natural yogurt.

Banana Muffins with yogurt and bran

250g plain flour

2tsp baking powder

1tsp bicarbonate of soda

100g caster sugar

75g bran

3 small overripe bananas

4tbsp vegetable oil

4 tbsp natural yogurt

100ml milk

1 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 180C. Fill a 12 hole muffin tin with paper cases.

Put the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate, sugar and bran into a bowl and mix well.
In another bowl, mash the bananas together with the oil, yogurt, milk and vanilla. Whisk together well.
Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and stir together until only just combined. Fill the muffin cups and bake for 15-20 minutes until risen and golden.

Yorkshire Pudding with Goat Cheese and Chutney

This week I've been trying out new recipes to showcase my sister's fantastic chutneys. (www.mcquadechutneys.com just in case I have not already mentioned it/emailed it/expunged at length on how fantastic she is.)

Similar to American popovers,these Yorkshire puddings are usually served alongside a sunday roast and are often made in a single large tin with the fat and juices from the roasting joint of meat.

I've removed the meat juices, replaced the fat with olive oil and added some goat cheese (don't tell anyone from Yorkshire) to the batter resulting in a rich cheesy golden crust with a meltingly tender centre. They are the perfect foil for the smoky undertones of whisky peach chutney or the rich sweetness of fig and ginger. (Oh and my kids ate two dozen of them variously flavoured with goat cheese, parmesan and cheddar as after-school snacks this week - a huge hit!)

Yorkshire Pudding with goat cheese and chutney

300ml of milk  

4 eggs

salt and black pepper

220g flour 

A couple of tablespoons of olive oil

6oz young goat cheese

Set the oven to 220° C.

Beat together the milk, eggs, salt and pepper.

Add the flour, give a good whisk and let the mixture stand for at least half an hour.

Drizzle a little oil into each of the holes in a 12 muffin tin (or 24 hole mini-muffin tin for canape sized yorkies.)

Put the tin in the oven.

When the oil is very hot and sizzling, add the Yorkshire pudding mixture in each tin, filling them about two thirds full.

On top of the batter, add a large teaspoon of goat cheese to the centre of each yorkshire pud.

Return it to the oven and let them cook for 20 minutes until beautifully puffed up and golden.

Serve while hot with good chutney.

Banana Oatmeal Pancakes

I love these - (reasonably) healthy pancakes. I can't bring myself to eat porridge for breakfast. Well maybe once a year on a really cold day when I have flu and want to stay in bed. Aside from that I have to get my health fix by sneaking it into other recipes. Oatmeal is full of nutrients, it is thought to have cancer fighting properties as well as reducing the liklihood of heart disease. Basically something really should eat whether we like it or not.

So another day... another pancake recipe. With bananas, oatmeal and a hint of vanilla whisked in to this batter, these are rich, filling and incredibly morish. 
These go down well with kids with a tablespoon of peanut butter whisked into the batter or served with peanut butter instead of honey. Roll on Pancake Tuesday.... although I have not quite decided what we'll be eating that day! 

Banana Oatmeal Pancakes with orange blossom honey drizzle


1 cup plain flour
1/2 cup rolled oats
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 egg 
1 tbsp sugar
2 ripe bananas, mashed
1 tsp vanilla extract
Milk to mix
A little oil 
Orange blossom honey to serve

Whisk together flour, oats, bicarbonate, baking powder, egg, sugar, bananas and vanilla. 
Add enough milk to make a thick pourable liquid.  
Heat a griddle or heavy frying pan on a medium heat. 
Lightly oil the pan.
Pour a couple of tablespoons of batter per pancake onto the pan. You may be able to fit three or four small pancakes on the surface.
When the surface of the pancakes have become covered in bubbles, flip them over using a palette knife and cook on the other side.
Once cooked on both sides, remove to a warm plate and cover with a tea-towel until ready to serve.
After each round of pancakes, lightly oil the griddle or pan once more.
Serve with a drizzle of orange blossom (or other) honey.

Blueberry Scotch Pancakes with Maple Butter

Pancake Tuesday approaches. In typically British style, there is no mardi gras or carnival to celebrate the season, just a big build up to a single day with a different sort of dessert! Although typically as soon as the reminders appear in the shops, you know the sort of thing - lemons and sugar by the till,  golden syrup in Warhol-esque towers in the middle of aisles, my boys start craving pancakes three times a day.

So Pancake Tuesday is still almost a week away and we have already exhausted our supplies of flour, baking powder and syrup having had pancakes for breakfast, after school snack and (just once so far) for dinner. We are now aiming to try a new pancake every day until next tuesday. Our latest incarnation is fruit filled and topped with the most gloriously morish butter.

Blueberry Scotch Pancakes
1 cup plain flour
1 tbsp caster sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 egg
1 tbsp maple syrup
milk to mix
2 tbsp blueberries
a smidgen of vegetable oil 

Sift the flour, sugar, baking powder and bicarbonate together.
Whisk together the egg and maple syrup.
Stir the wet ingredients into the dry then add enough milk to make a thick but pourable liquid.
Heat a griddle or heavy frying pan. Lightly oil the pan.
Pour a couple of tablespoons of batter per pancake onto the pan.
When the surface of the pancakes have become covered in bubbles, flip them over using a palette knife and cook on the other side. 
Once cooked on both sides, remove to a warm plate and cover with a tea-towel until ready to serve.
Lightly oil the pan in between rounds of pancakes.
Serve a stack of blueberry pancakes with a dollop of maple butter.(below)

Maple Butter
4tbsp butter
4 tbsp maple syrup
Whisk together till blended.

Tattie Scones

Usually made with leftovers from Sunday lunch, tattie scones are my favourite comforting and immediate afterschool snack. My boys can wolf down 10 of these a piece and look for more! So definitely an occasional treat, not a particularly healthy snack. Almost every country in the world has some kind of potato pancake, our tattie scones are made with mash worked together with flour and baking powder until the dough is firm enough to roll and cut out shapes from, then lightly fried on a griddle pan, it is simple, hot fast food like granny used to make.

I've spent all week playing with it, we've eaten spinach and feta flavour - lovely and salty; leek, ham and cheddar - horribly morish; grated courgette and dunsyre blue cheese -they'll make gorgeous christmas canapes ; and my absolute favourite breakfast tattie scone so far has to be crispy bacon and roast onion. Make these plain and serve them lip-blisteringly hot straight from the pan with a little butter melted over, or abandon tradition, throw in all the extras and have a full breakfast on a plate.


Tattie Scones  
with bacon and roast onion
2 large potatoes, cooked and mashed with a knob of butter (approx 1oz)
approx 4oz flour
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
2 slices of bacon, grilled till crisp and crumbled
1 onion, chopped
25g butter for frying

Heat the oven to 180C. Put the onion in a roasting tin (this is easier if you are using leftovers - just plan ahead and roast an onion with your meal the previous night) with a drizzle of oil and roast till golden and caramel coloured. Add the onion and bacon bits to the mash then stir 2oz of the flour with the baking powder and salt. Keep adding flour until the mixture holds together and loses its stickiness. Roll out the dough and cut 6cm rounds with a cookie cutter.
Heat a frying pan or griddle pan till hot, rub with a scant half teaspoon of butter then fry the potato scones 2-3 minutes till golden on both sides.


Tattie Scones with grated courgette and Dunsyre Blue cheese
1 courgette
2 large potatoes, cooked and mashed with a knob of butter
100g flour
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
50g strong blue cheese, cut into small cubes
25g butter for frying

Grate the courgette finely then put the fine shavings into a teatowel and squeeze all the moisture out.
Mix the mashed potatoes with the flour, salt, baking powder, courgette and cheese. Gently knead the mixture together to make a soft dough. Roll out the dough and cut 6cm rounds with a cookie cutter. Cook as above.

Scots Manna

I had breakfast last week in one of those little vans that make gorgeous flavoured porridge to take-away at Edinburgh Farmers Market. They sell porridge oats with apples, sultanas and spices or with berries and white chocolate,with cream, sugar and even plain and simple with just salt.

Where I grew up, porridge came with salt and milk... very traditional and very frugal, even sprinkling it with demerara sugar feels like sacrilege, so enriching it with cream, fruit and shrapnel of crumbly sweets seemed like a step too far....until I tried it.  So I wanted to try recreating their tablet, raspberry and fresh cream flavour at home - it might even make a new christmas morning breakfast.

The tricky part here is the tablet, a sort of firm, crumbly Scottish version of fudge. It will melt your teeth; you will not be able to stop eating it; you will make new friends if you give it away; you will melt their teeth and they will love you for it. You may be able to track this down - bizarrely it is often found in Butchers shops - but I've included a recipe just in case you've lost your grannys!

Scots Manna or Tablet and Raspberry Oatmeal
100g porridge oats
500ml milk
1 punnet of raspberries (or blackberries - whatever is in season)
50ml single cream
Tablet to crumble over the top (recipe below)

Put the oats and milk into a saucepan and bring to the boil. Turn the heat down and simmer for 4-6 minutes until thick and creamy. Stir half the cream into the oatmeal and pour the mixture into two bowls. Toss a generous handful of raspberries over the top, drizzle with a little more cream and crumble a couple of squares of tablet over the top. Heart-stoppingly wonderful.

Tablet
120g butter plus a little to grease the tin 
900g sugar
120ml milk
1 small tin (397g) condensed milk 
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Grease a swiss roll tin with butter.
Heat the sugar, butter and milk slowly in a heavy based saucepan till all the sugar dissolves.
Add the condensed milk and bring to the boil.
Turn the heat down and simmer for about 20 minutes, stirring constantly to stop it sticking. 
Allow it to become thick and gloopy and a caramel colour.
Test a little teaspoonful in a saucer of cold water, when it rolls into a soft ball, the tablet can be taken off the heat (a sugar thermometer should read 115C). 
Add the vanilla extract and stir well. 
Allow to cool a little then beat for 5 minutes with a wooden spoon till a little grainy. 
Pour into the greased tin. Cut into small squares before the tablet is fully set.

Sticky Toffee Banana Bread

This is one of those recipes that makes me feel like a good mother.
It makes a lovely after school treat or breakfast bread on the weekend (served with fresh banana and yogurt - not toffee sauce!)  It takes minutes to throw together, fills the house with a fug of spicy steam and stays moist and densely rich for days.
Banana bread is a health conscious treat filled with goodness; bananas, dates and nuts, and then just when you are feeling exceedingly virtuous, you can drizzle caramel sauce all over the top and turn it from a banana bread to a sticky toffee dessert. 

Sticky Toffee Banana Bread
150g dried dates, chopped
175g plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/2 tsp salt
125g butter
100g sugar
3 tbsp golden syrup
2 eggs, beaten
2 large ripe bananas, mashed
50g walnuts, chopped (optional)

Preheat the oven to 160C.
Cover the dates with boiling water in a bowl, add the baking soda and set aside for 30 minutes to soften, then mash or blitz in a food processor till smooth.
Sieve the flour, baking powder and salt into a bowl together.
Melt the butter in a small pan and beat in the sugar and golden syrup. Add the bananas and the eggs and finally the dates and walnuts (if using).
Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir well to ensure the flour is mixed in fully.
Pour into a loaf tin and bake for around 1 hr, poke with a skewer to check for doneness. (it will come out clean if the cake is baked through)
This cake can be eaten warm or cold with butter and a large cup of coffee....
but if you want an unbelievable treat....
drizzle with

Hot Toffee Sauce
100ml double cream
50g butter
50g dark brown sugar
Heat everything together slowly in a heavy bottomed saucepan.
Drizzle over the banana and date bread and serve with cream.

Chick Pea, Chorizo and Chard Tortilla

Dense, robustly spiced, and full to the very brim of the frying pan with flavour. This tortilla is not a particularly authentic regional dish but is a home-made amalgam of various Spanish and Moorish dishes with flavours that meld so beautifully I can just about imagine a version being served up in a back street tapas bar.

This is part of my Friday night repertoire. Friday is my favourite night to gather, the whole weekend is ahead of us and catching up with friends makes it feel like a holiday weekend, somehow much longer than the paltry saturday/sunday version. However on a friday night, finding time to do some after work shopping before swimming lessons with the kids makes it challenge to fit in cooking. Simple, fast, flavourful food has to be the order of the day.

This tortilla is full of bold flavours, strong smoky paprika and sweet peppers are held together by iron rich chard. I used the rainbow chard I have still growing rampantly in my garden, but you could substitute with swiss chard or spinach (or do without it altogether but just a few strands of greenery snaking through the dish gives it a fresher flavour and colour).

The nutty bite of chickpeas rolled around in the orange oil oozing from the chorizo give the dish a substantial feel, making it good for a full meal not a just side dish. However, tonight it will be served as tapas, along with some serrano ham, maybe some lemon and chilli mushrooms or olives and good crusty bread, it gives me lots of time to finish off a main course or throw together a dessert with no pressure from hungry visitors.

Chick Pea, Chorizo and Chard Tortilla
1 small onion
2 cloves garlic
Olive oil

1 roasted red pepper(I got mine in a deli)

1/2 tin chick peas
1/4 loop of chorizo
1 tsp smoked paprika
2 big handfuls of rainbow chard, roughly chopped
4-5 eggs, beaten
Salt

Finely chop the onion and garlic and saute in a frying pan in a good glug of olive oil until soft and fragrant.

Dice the red pepper and chorizo into chick pea sized chunks and add to the pan with the chick peas and paprika.

Saute everything together until the orangy paprika oils run from the chorizo.

Add the chard and keep stirring until it wilts and everything starts to meld together in the pan.
Add the eggs and stir gently to incorporate the eggs into the whole mixture, then allow to set over a medium heat.
Preheat the grill then slide the whole pan under the grill to set the top of the tortilla, it will only take a minute or two to become light gold and puffy.
Remove from the grill, gently loosen from the edge of the frying pan with a knife then place a large plate over the pan and invert the tortilla onto it. Then place another plate on top and invert once again so the glossy grilled top of the tortilla is on view. Sprinkle with a little sea salt.
Allow to cool slightly before slicing into canape sized cubes or wedges.
Serve hot or room temperature as a tapas or with a salad.