Tag: Summer

Categories
Mains Recipes

Sesame Miso Shrooms

This is a meal where speed is definitely of the essence.

Now that the summer weather is here, I am often out exercising or playing sport with friends in the early part of the evening, returning home later, hungry and ready for a quick, tasty dinner. This dish is perfect for that situation, as it can be thrown together in the kitchen just before my lift arrives, and flash cooked in minutes when I arrive home, famished.

If you are looking for some instant food that is a healthier option than a microwaveable ready meal, then give this a try.

Servings

This is a main meal for 1.

Timings

10 mins to prepare, and 10 mins to stir fry.

You Will Need:

  • 8 or 9 chestnut mushrooms, halved or quartered
  • 1 carrot, cut into 2 – 3cm long thin batons
  • 2 scallions (spring onions) cut into pieces the same length as the carrot batons
  • 1 celery stick, also cut into fine batons
  • 2 – 3cm piece of root ginger, skinned and finely chopped
  • 1 medium chilli cut into fine discs
  • 2 tbsp of couscous or quinoa, prepared as per packet instructions

For the Stir Fry Sauce

  • 1 tbsp miso paste
  • 1 tbsp dark soy sauce
  • 1 tbsp white wine vinegar
  • 1 tbsp runny honey
  • 1 tbsp olive oil

To Serve

  • a handful of sesame seeds

Method

  1. Place all the chopped veg in a bowl and cover.
  2. Put the Stir Fry sauce ingredients in a clean screw top jar, and leave beside the bowl of veg.
  3. When you are ready to eat, heat some oil in a wok and, once it is hot, tip in the veg. Stir until softened and browned.
  4. Shake the jar well to mix up the sauce, then pour on to the veg. You should get an immediate sizzle and a blast of a delicious aroma. Tip in the couscous or quinoa.
  5. Stir to combine, then serve on a plate, topped with the sesame seeds sprinkled over. It should look like my photo at the top of the post.

Customise It!

Stick with the shrooms, but swap in other veg if you wish. Long slices of red onion or sticks of red, green or orange pepper will go brilliantly. Add in a crushed clove of garlic if you can’t resist. To go vegan, simply replace the honey with a suitable sweetener.

This week I enjoyed choosing the vinyl now playing on the turntable at a local coffee shop. They have a wonderful collection of albums from the golden age of vinyl in the 70s, in an era long before CDs and streaming. I chose David Bowie’s Aladdin Sane – a timeless classic – with my Long Black. Here’s the closing track on Side 1: Cracked Actor.

Categories
Recipes Snacks

Pizza Twists

Heading into the Easter holidays, many of us will be looking for recipe ideas for entertaining friends and family. This one comes from the Batch Lady, Suzanne Mulholland, whose recent series on Channel 4 I’ve been enjoying.

These pizza twists are relatively quick and easy to make, and go well as a snack alongside drinks, as part of a starter or as an accompaniment to a bowl of salad – see below.

What’s more, they can be fully prepared in advance, then frozen and lifted out of the freezer when required. Once thawed, they are ready to eat, and be warned – they are very tasty!

Servings

Makes 12 twists.

Timings

Prep time 10 mins, baking time 20 mins at 190C in a fan oven.

You Will Need:

  • 375g sheet of ready rolled puff pastry
  • 2 tbsp tomato passata
  • 140g grated cheddar cheese
  • 15g fresh basil
  • 1 large egg
  • sprinkling of Italian dried herb seasoning

Method

  1. Heat a fan oven to 190C.
  2. Unroll the pastry sheet and cut into 2 halves.
  3. Spread one of the halves with the passata. Cover with the grated cheese and the basil – see my photo above.
  4. Put the other half of the pastry on top. Cut into 12 strips, each about 1cm wide.
  5. Gently hold each strip between the fingers of both hands and twist into shape.
  6. Brush all 12 twists with the beaten egg and sprinkle the Italian herb seasoning over. Place on a baking tray and put in the oven at 190C for 20 mins.
  7. Remove and place on a wire rack to cool. Once cooled, they can be frozen if required – simply remove from the freezer and thaw to room temperature to eat.

Customise It!

Replace the passata with pesto, and/or the cheddar with parmesan. Once you brush with the egg, sprinkle over some poppy seeds or sesame seeds.

Here’s a timeless classic that I never tire of and always enjoying hearing when it comes on over the speaker. Elvis Costello and the Attractions with (The Angels Wanna Wear My) Red Shoes.

Categories
Mains Recipes

Roasted Sweet Potato & Red Pepper Soup

Here’s a soup I made this week – a bowl of bright red and orange deliciousness with a mild chilli kick. The sweet potato and red pepper are chunked and roasted until soft, squishy and a little charred at the edges, then blitzed with the other veg to give a rich texture.

Once it’s cooled, keep it in the fridge for a few days. Scoop a few ladlefuls into a bowl and microwave for a quick, tasty and nutritious lunch.

Servings

6 adult portions.

Timings

The soup mix requires soaking overnight, then 30 mins to make.

You Will Need:

  • 100g soup mix
  • cold tap water
  • 1 large sweet potato
  • 1 large red pepper
  • oil
  • 1 garlic clove
  • 1 tsp cumin seeds
  • 1 tsp medium chilli powder
  • 1 onion
  • 2 – 3 carrots
  • 2 – 3 celery sticks
  • 500ml chicken or veg stock
  • about one third of a cabbage. shredded
  • sea salt and black pepper

Method

  1. Cover the soup mix with tap water in a bowl and leave to soak overnight.
  2. Next day, drain the soup mix and cover with fresh water in a saucepan. Bring to the boil, then reduce to a simmer for 30 mins.
  3. Turn a fan oven on to 180C. Chop the sweet potato and red pepper into chunks and place in a large roasting dish. Drizzle with oil and put in the oven, once up to temp, for 30 mins.
  4. While the veg is roasting, put a drizzle of oil in a large saucepan and warm on the hob. Crush in the garlic clove, then chuck in the cumin seeds and chilli powder, leaving it all to sizzle for a minute. Then chop the onion, celery and carrot, and add. Stir and leave for a few minutes to soften.
  5. Tip the stock on top of the veg in the saucepan and bring to the boil. Add in the cabbage. Reduce and simmer for 20 mins. Season with a few twists of sea salt and black pepper.
  6. Scrape the roasted sweet potato and red pepper into the soup. Blitz the soup with a handheld blender.
  7. Drain the cooked soup mix and add to the soup.
  8. Serve a few ladlefuls of soup in a bowl.

Customise It!

Keep the sweet potato and red pepper, as this is what gives the soup its foundation of taste and colour. Other than that, you can play around with whatever other veg you have to hand or which is in season. Swap kale or broccoli in for the cabbage, for example. Omit the soup mix if you want less protein. Jack up the chilli powder from medium to hot if you like it that way!

We’re enjoying a period of sunny, warm weather currently, so it’s time to get out in the garden to relax with my head phones, listening to some summertime feelgood music. Like this track, from the Random Access Memories album: Daft Punk with Lose Yourself to Dance.

Categories
Mains Recipes

Golden Corn Chowder

Fresh, golden sweetcorn is now arriving on the shelves of our supermarkets and market stalls. This is normally the time of year when I make a pot of sweetcorn soup, or chowder as it is traditionally known. This week’s creation is shown in the photo above, garnished with a sprinkling of cayenne pepper and some snipped scallions from the garden.

We are so used to having sweetcorn processed and ready-prepared for us, whether in tins, freezer packs or in cellophaned trays, that it can seem a bit strange at first to see them in natural form.

However, preparation isn’t difficult – I pull back the outer leaves to reveal the plump golden corn on the cob. Gathering the peeled-back leaves with my fist to form a grip, I stand the ear of corn in a flat-bottomed dish, and cut down the side with a sharp knife. Moving around the cob, all the corn then gathers in the bottom of the bowl.

And don’t discard those trimmed stalks just yet – snap one up to put into the chowder as it cooks, and it will add extra corn flavour (just remember to remove it before wading in with your blender, however).

One of the special pleasures about using fresh corn in this way is that one can appreciate why it is called sweet corn – taste a spoonful of this chowder and you may well wonder whether sugar has been added. However, there is no artificial sweetener involved – the pleasant taste is genuinely coming from the natural sweetness of the fresh corn.

Servings

For me, this made 2 adult portions with some leftovers for a lunch serving the next day.

Timings

10 mins to prepare, 20 mins to cook on the hob.

You Will Need

  • 1 clove garlic, crushed
  • 1 large onion
  • 2 – 3 celery sticks
  • 1 red pepper
  • 3 ears of fresh sweetcorn
  • 400ml vegetable stock
  • a few sprigs of fresh thyme
  • salt and pepper
  • a dash of milk
  • 3 scallions
  • 1 tsp cayenne pepper

Method

  1. Drizzle some oil in the bottom of a large saucepan and place over a medium heat on the hob. Add in the crushed garlic.
  2. Roughly chop the onion, celery and pepper, and add to the pan. Put the lid on the pan and let it all cook for 5 mins, while the veg sizzles and softens.
  3. Meanwhile, peel back the outer leaves of one ear of corn and gather it as a grip with your fist. Stand the cob up in a flat-bottomed bowl and cut down through the corn with a sharp knife, moving around the cob so that all the kernels fall and collect in the bowl. Repeat with the other two ears of corn.
  4. Lift the lid of the pan and add in the corn. Give it a good stir, then pour in the veg stock.
  5. Bring to the boil, then reduce to a simmer for 20 mins or so. Tear in the thyme leaves and add a few twists of salt and pepper.
  6. If you wish, snap one of the trimmed corn stalks in two and drop it into the pan – this will help add extra corn flavour as the chowder cooks.
  7. After 20 mins, remove the corn stalks and add a splash of milk.
  8. Blitz the soup with a handheld blender so that it takes on a thick and creamy texture, but with some of the corn kernels still clearly visible.
  9. Ladle into 2 bowls, topping it off with a sprinkling of cayenne pepper and chopped scallions.
  10. Serve on its own or with some fresh, crispy bread.

Customise It!

A couple of spuds will help bulk out the texture of the chowder if you wish. I have kept the dish vegetarian, but if you don’t mind your meat, then some finely chopped strips of salty bacon will also go down well as a garnish.

When it comes to pairing a fave musical track with Golden Corn Chowder, I am rather spoilt for choice. David Bowie’s Golden Years? The Stone Roses with Fool’s Gold? Maybe The Black Keys with Gold on the Ceiling? All would be excellent choices, as is this: Anymore by Alison Goldfrapp.

Categories
Bakes Recipes

It’s Blackberry Time!

Late August is the time when lots of free, fresh fruit starts ripening up on our local hedgerows – the joys of blackberry picking are here!

For me, this usually involves stowing a large sealed plastic box in the pannier of my bike, and heading off into our nearby country park. It is relatively easy there to find a quiet spot where the berries are glinting high up in the late summer sun, turning all those solar rays into vitamin C.

This week I brought home just over 300g from a half hour session. I like to bake with them when they’re still fresh, so aim to complete the transition from hedgerow to cake in under 3 – 4 hours. Solar powered baking, if you like.

I decided to make the Blackberry and Coconut Crumble Squares that I’ve featured previously on A Different Kitchen. You can see this week’s batch in my photo at the top of the post, and again below.

It’s a favourite in our household, and there is really only a short window of a few weeks every year in which this traybake can be made fresh – so why not? Just follow the above link to find the recipe.

I kept a few berries back as I like to have them topped over oats, nuts and seeds as a breakfast dish, with some milk and honey. Grating or chopping in some apple, fresh from our trees in the garden, is the perfect complement.

There may well be more blackberry recipes over the next few weeks, so stay tuned.

Choice of music today can really only be from one band – the long-awaited Oasis reunion tour has finally been announced. Along with probably the other 65 million people who live in the UK, I shall be on the Ticketmaster site this weekend trying to get a ticket before they all sell out – wish me luck!

Then it’s a case of waiting until next summer to see the concerts. That’s presuming Noel and Liam haven’t fallen out again by then, of course…

Here they are at their Beatles-influenced best, with Whatever.

Categories
Mains Recipes

Courgette & Feta Fritters with Mint Raita

Here’s a dish that really does make the best of all the seasonal summer produce around at the moment. It’s a great way to use up some of the Jenga-like pile of organic courgettes that builds up on the ADK Kitchen table around this time of year – 3 medium-sized ones went into this batch of fritters, and the taste works really well with the chunks of creamy feta.

The scallions are also fresh from the garden, as are the cucumber and mint leaves in the cooling raita served alongside.

An excellent choice for a summer evening meal on the patio – maybe to celebrate the second birthday of A Different Kitchen! More of that in a moment…

Servings

This will make 4 fritters.

Timings

15 mins to make and about 10 mins to fry.

You Will Need

  • 350g courgettes (around 3 medium-sized ones)
  • 100g feta cheese
  • 3 – 4 scallions (spring onions)
  • 50g plain flour
  • 1 egg
  • oil for frying

For the raita:

  • 4 – 5 dessert spoonfuls of natural yoghurt
  • 3 – 4 slices of cucumber, finely chopped
  • 4 – 5 leaves of fresh garden mint, finely chopped

Method

  1. Wash the courgettes and trim off the ends. Grate coarsely, either by hand or (as I did) using the speed grating tool on the food processor. Tip into a large mixing bowl.
  2. Chop the feta into cubes and add to the grated courgette. Chop the scallions into little rounds and add also.
  3. Sieve in the plain flour and crack in the egg. Now the fun begins – having washed and dried your hands, plunge them into the bowl and squish all the ingredients together between your fingers to make a well-mixed courgette batter.
  4. Next, make the raita by combining the yoghurt, cucumber and mint in a small bowl. Stir and place in the fridge until it is time to serve (for the avoidance of doubt, no plunging of fingers is required for this bit 🙂 )
  5. Warm a drizzle of oil in a frying pan. When sizzling, lift in a handful of the courgette batter. Put in another alongside and let them cook.
  6. After a minute or so, give them a gentle push around the pan with a spatula, to make sure they are not sticking. After 3 – 4 minutes, lift each fritter carefully with the spatula and flip them over, to cook on the other side.
  7. After another 3 – 4 mins, remove each fritter to a plate and keep warm. Repeat the process with the rest of the batter, to make another 2 fritters.
  8. Plate up the fritters and serve with the bowl of raita as a side.

Customise it!

Some recipes for courgette fritters advise to squeeze the water from the veg at the outset. I didn’t do this and it didn’t cause any problems, however – just sayin’.

If you wish, you could add some lemon zest, crushed garlic and ground black pepper to the batter, before cooking. Additional salt shouldn’t be necessary as there is some already in the feta.

The height of summer brings a second birthday for A Different Kitchen: that’s 2 years, 222 posts, and 3.5k followers from all around the world, now over 3 online platforms. Sadly, WordPress stats can’t tell me how much self-raising flour, caster sugar, extra virgin olive oil, garlic cloves etc have been consumed in that time, but I reckon it’s enough to fill a small branch of Tesco Express.

Maybe that’s something the WordPress engineers could get on to before next year’s anniversary? Cool – always happy to give feedback 🙂 .

Here’s Depeche Mode with World in My Eyes.

Categories
Mains Recipes

Summer Greens over Chorizo Hash

It’s the time of year when freshly picked, green summer veg is coming into the ADK Kitchen on a daily basis. French beans, mange tout, cavalo nero, cabbage leaves – they’re all tasty and nutritious, needing just the lightest touch in cooking, usually no more than a few minutes in the steamer basket.

In a continuous challenge to find new, tasty ways to serve up this delightful produce, this dish sees it generously topped over sweet potato and chorizo hash. The spicy, saltiness of the hash complements the natural simplicity of the veg, while the scent, and the bright orange and red underneath that summer garden green, ensures this is a feast for all the senses.

Servings

A main meal for 2.

Timings

20 mins to prepare/cook.

You Will Need

  • 1 medium to large sweet potato
  • around 20 French beans, ends trimmed, and cut into 3cm pieces
  • 4- 5 cabbage leaves, cut into shreds
  • a knob of butter
  • 225g spanish chorizo ring, sliced
  • 1 onion, chopped
  • 1 red pepper, chopped
  • a few splashes of tomato passata

Method

  1. Peel the sweet potato and cut into 1 – 2cm chunks. Place in a saucepan of water and bring to the boil. Reduce to a simmer.
  2. After 5 mins, place the beans and cabbage in a steamer basket and put it on top of the saucepan. Bring the water back to the boil then reduce to a simmer again. Cover with a lid and leave to simmer for 10 more mins.
  3. Meanwhile, put the chorizo, onion and pepper in a frying pan and stir over a medium heat. There is no need to add oil, garlic or spices as the chorizo already contains everything required!
  4. When the sweet potato has boiled, drain it and mash with the butter. Tip into the frying pan with the passata. Turn up the heat and stir in – you want the liquid to begin to evaporate and get some of the underside pieces crispy and charred.
  5. When cooked to your desired texture, mound the hash up on 2 plates. Take the greens from the steamer and plonk them on top. It should all look as in my photo at the top of the post.

Customise it!

Basically, anything green and seasonal goes here – broad beans, runner beans, garden peas, mange tout, cavalo nero etc will all look and taste great.

Staying on theme for the next track on the ADK Playlist, I did toy momentarily with the New Order track Everything’s Gone Green (it being an apt description of the ADK Kitchen table these past few days). However, I’ve plumped in the end for one of many tracks I love by Scritti Politti (the lead singer being the very talented Green Gartside 🙂 ). Here they are with Boom! There She Was.

Categories
Recipes Snacks

Blueberry Cream Cheese

Our current heatwave here in the UK, with temperatures beyond 30C in some places, has prompted memories of the last time I enjoyed (or endured?) such temperatures – earlier this year, in Australia.

It was in the hot climate of Queensland that we came across blueberry cream cheese, served with freshly made bagels at a cafe called O Bagel. The food tasted so good we visited their branches in both Gold Coast and Brisbane on our travels. Check out my post from Surfer’s Paradise to read more.

So this week, we’ve been inspired to have a go at making our own. The result has been a surefire hit in the ADK household, served on corn cakes, shown below.

It can also be enjoyed on rice cakes, oatcakes, as a dip with crudites and, of course, spread on a toasted bagel.

Want to know how to make it? It’s dead easy, so read on.

Servings

Around 450g of blueberry cream cheese.

Timings

15 mins to make.

You Will Need

  • 300g full fat soft cheese
  • 150g blueberries

Method

  1. Tip the blueberries into a saucepan. Heat until the juices are boiling then reduce to a simmer for about 10 mins, or until they take on a jammy consistency. Leave to cool.
  2. Stir in with the cream cheese until combined, making a vivid shade of purple.
  3. Place in the fridge, where it will keep for up to a week.

Customise it!

If you wish, you can add in a sprinkling of caster sugar to the blueberries as they cook. Also, as an alternative to serving on corn cakes, oat cakes, bagels etc, you can use this as a frosting for a cake.

My wife Lesley has been the creative force behind this recipe, so she gets to choose the next track for the ADK Playlist. She’s very much enjoying the Olympics from Paris à ce moment, so has opted for Vanessa Paradis with La Seine.

Categories
Recipes Snacks

Sweet & Sour Vegan Wraps

This week I’ve made a healthy and tasty filling mix for wraps comprising salad grains, vegetables, nuts and seeds, all in a sweet and sour dressing.

I was looking for a mix that I could keep in the fridge to speed up the making of lunchtime snacks over a few days. The grains, mushrooms and aubergine all have a succulence, and the walnuts a crunch, making a pleasant texture to bite into. The miso and sweet and sour dressing give it that umami flavour.

And it is suitable for vegetarians and vegans, so everyone is happy 🙂 !

Timings

About 30 mins to make.

Servings

Enough for about 6 wraps. The mix will keep in the fridge in a sealed box for a few days.

You Will Need

For the mix:

  • 120g grains – I used 40g brown rice, 40g pearl barley and 40 lentil soup/stew mix
  • half a carrot, finely chopped
  • 5 – 6 green beans, finely chopped
  • drizzle of oil
  • 1 clove garlic, crushed
  • 1 onion, finely chopped
  • 3 – 4 chestnut mushrooms, finely chopped
  • half an aubergine, finely chopped
  • 60g walnuts, roughly chopped
  • a handful of seeds – I used a mixture of pumpkin, sunflower and sesame seeds

For the dressing:

  • 30ml tomato passata
  • drizzle of oil
  • 2 tbsp soy sauce
  • 2 tbsp rice vinegar
  • 2 tbsp honey
  • 1 tsp sesame seeds

To serve:

  • Tortilla wraps

Method

  1. Put the grains in a saucepan of boiling water. Reduce and simmer. After about 20 mins, add the chopped green beans and carrot. Briefly bring the water back to the boil, then reduce to simmer for another 10 mins.
  2. While the grains and veg are cooking, put a wok or frying pan over a moderate heat. Pour in a drizzle of oil and add the crushed garlic. Add in the onion, mushrooms, and aubergine and stir for 5 – 10 mins. Add the miso and stir in. Leave a few mins more, then switch off.
  3. Drain the water from the saucepan, leaving the cooked veg and grains. Add in the onion, mushroom and aubergine, and finally the chopped walnuts and seeds. Stir to combine.
  4. Put the dressing ingredients in a screwtop jar. Shake and pour over the mix. Stir to combine, then leave to cool. It should look something like my photo below.
  5. Place the cooled mix in a sealed box in the fridge.
  6. Place a tortilla wrap on a plate and place a line of mix along the middle. Add in any other salad ingredients you wish, roll up and enjoy.

Customise it!

For the wrap in my photo at the top of the post, I combined the mix with chopped tomato, cucumber, scallion, grated carrot and white cabbage. Chopped celery, lettuce, rocket or other leaves would all go well. Use whatever is in season and/or what you have to hand.

On my recent visit to Belfast, I was pleased to see a mural on Great Victoria Street remembering Terri Hooley, the inspirational force behind Good Vibrations record label and shop. Good Vibes played an important role in Northern Ireland’s musical heritage, giving a platform to local punk and new wave talent, one of which I’m adding to the ADK Playlist. This is Rudi with Big Time.

Categories
Mains Recipes

Pearl Barley Risotto

Risotto is a classic Italian dish made with arborio rice – the Italian word for rice is riso and there is a rather large clue in the title of the dish that rice is, er, supposed to be the key ingredient.

However, in this dish I’ve decided to swap in pearl barley instead of the rice. Pearl barley is a nutritious grain making this a healthy, lower carb alternative to the Italian classic. Like a risotto, it is still cooked by simmering it with veg in a broth of chicken or veg stock.

Servings

2 adult portions.

Timings

20 mins to pre-cook the pearl barley, then a further 20 mins.

You Will Need:

  • 70g pearl barley
  • enough boiling water to cover the pearl barley
  • half a red onion
  • 6 – 7 mushrooms
  • half a sweet potato
  • 2 celery sticks
  • half a sweet pepper
  • about 500ml chicken or veg stock
  • a handful of mixed nuts
  • about 30g cheddar, grated
  • a handful of fresh coriander leaves
  • 1 chopped scallion
  • a spoonful of miso (optional)

Method

  1. Place the pearl barley in a saucepan and cover it with boiling water. Bring back to the boil, then simmer for 20 mins.
  2. In the meantme, chop all the veg and place in a wok with some oil, over a reasonable heat. Stir fry all the veg until it is softened and nicely charred.
  3. Drain the pearl barley in a sieve, and tip in to the wok. Stir in alongside the veg, then add the stock and bring to the boil. Reduce to a simmer and let the stock reduce for about 20 mins, while the pearl barley continues to cook and soften.
  4. When there is little liquid left, and the pearl barley has softened, add in the nuts, cheese, coriander and scallion. Add in the miso if you wish.
  5. Let the additional flavours soak in for a few minutes, then serve.

Customise it!

Lots of scope to swap in other veg here – mangetout, peas, broad beans and shredded greens all go brilliantly. Grated blue cheese will also be excellent. Use your imagination!

A risotto that doesn’t contain any rice? It’s crazy, man! Which gives me an idea for the next track to add to the ADK Playlist: here’s The Prodigy with Crazy Man.