Baked Raspberry & Coconut Oatmeal

Baked oatmeal is the answer for anyone who is just terrible at eating breakfast in a calm, prepared fashion. I rarely eat a proper breakfast in the weekdays, I admit it, I prefer to sleep a bit longer. Anything I can grab on the way out works for me, and I do admit that sometimes a chocolate bar or a piece of cake does the job. But I have been better lately and a banana or a nakd bar comes in their place.

I tried Baked Oatmeal recently after reading about Allie's recipe for it. I had previously made Heidi Swanson's baked oatmeal which was also great, although more of a pudding because it does have a fair bit of sugar and butter in it. Allie's recipe is healthier and therefore much more acceptable for breakfast. I made this first with raspberries and shaved coconut, and again with just coconut, I added a big squidge of honey the second time because it wasn't quite sweet enough for me the first.

Baked Oatmeal, from Allie in Londonland

1 ripe banana
1 egg
1 1/4 cups of non dairy milk - I used Kara coconut milk
2 cups of porridge oats
1 punnet of raspberries (about 200g)
About 2 tablespoons of shaved coconut plus extra for the top.

Preheat the oven to 190c.
Mush up the banana in a large bowl with a fork, then beat in the egg and then the milk. Fold in the oats and then your choice of fruit/other things.
Bake for 30 minutes, or until firm in the centre.
Cut in to squares when it is still slightly warm, eat!

When I get up early enough to eat breakfast from a bowl, I've been having it with yoghurt and any extra fruit I have, and with a drizzle of honey. The best thing is that you can wrap in in foil and store it in the freezer - and then just take one out the night before and grab it before work.

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Friday Favourites

Being as I seem to star, favourite, retweet and pin so many food posts each week I think a little favourites post is a good idea, and it keeps me blogging!

Some things from this week:

Hakka, Cambridge - interesting looking Chinese restaurant in Cambridge, blogged by Ireena

20 Minute Croissant Dough - The Boy Who Bakes

Roasted Green Beans with Parmesan - so easy!

Green Monster Smoothies  - this blog post is both hilarious and also gives you a less daunting introduction to green smoothies. They are yummy, promise.

Avocado Toast - how I love avocadoes

Pumpkin Cinnamon Roll Pancakes - an old pin but one I found again and now I need to make these.

Hari Chutney - mint, coriander and chilli - looks very similar to the chutney you'll find at Chaat houses

Other non food things

Pretty, pretty dress

Please can I have hair like this lady 

Nice biscuit chopping board

I think this weekend I'll be searching out green beans and snacking on some avocado toast, good summer food.

enjoy the sun everyone!

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The Cambridge Chop House

Finding a decent Sunday Roast in Cambridge can feel like a bit of a mission sometimes, especially when you are as picky as I am. On one cold, rainy Sunday the only thing that was going to warm me up was a nice roast dinner in a cosy spot. I've been to the Chop House before and I was glad that I had the brainwave to go along to try their Sunday dinners.

The location, opposite Kings College, would make you think it is an awful tourist trap, and whilst it probably can be the food is really good, hurrah. Last time we visited I had some of their housemade sausages and mash, and a sticky toffee pud.

I had roast pork this time around and Mr had the vegetarian wellington. The pork was quite huge, with all the requisite veggies and extra crackling! The veggie wellington was nicely thought out- with a big mushroom inside, greens and other veggies, with a mustardy mushroom sauce and greens. We shared a sticky toffee pudding (to which the neighbouring table all exclaimed 'wow' when it arrived, I think they ordered one too).

I really like it here, the food is homely, well made and the puds to die for.  I was really glad to hear the waitress say they have taken over the Tickell Arms in Whittlesford, which is a stones throw away from home. We'll definitely be going when it opens - they are blogging about the progress too - http://www.tickellarms.co.uk/

Cambridge Chop House
http://www.cambridgechophouse.co.uk/

Other places for a Sunday Roast (we're getting there..)
The Eight Bells, Saffron Walden 
Clarendon Arms, Cambridge - yet to try out
The First and Last - review from Ireena over here.

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Oat & Peanut Butter Sandwich Cookies

I think this recipe is the fastest read to bake ratio on the blog yet. Joy the Baker blogged this lovely recipe on Thursday and I was in the kitchen making them on Sunday. I think I would have been quicker had my car not broken down on Friday (I'll save moaning about that for my Twitter account!).

I've been searching out the Peanut Butter Co. peanut butter for a while. They are based in New York and make natural peanut butter without all the scary preservatives and palm oil that most producers use (even brands made in the UK which doesn't use as much palm oil as the States).
Sainsbury's stocks the smooth peanut butter, they have lots of different flavours (cinnamon raisin swirl! dark chocolate dreams!) so I am hoping they get more popular here and start stocking more.

These cookies are so great, I always have success making oaty cookies and these were no exception. They have tons of flavour, lots of crunch from hazelnuts and that amazing peanut butter filling. I used a touch less sugar in both the cookie mixture (2/3 cup) and added icing sugar to taste, I don't like cookies too sweet as I like to taste the rest of the ingredients.

I made up the whole batch of dough according to the recipe, but only baked half, I saved the rest and froze them in little balls in the freezer - ready for future cookie cravings! I do this a lot with cookies as we can't eat such big batches ourselves, and it is nice having cookie dough in the freezer. I made half the icing for my half batch of cookies.

Oatmeal & Peanut Butter filled Sandwich Cookies
From Joy The Baker, makes about 24 cookies.
100g / 4oz unsalted butter, softened
2/3 cup of brown sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups of porridge oats
1 cup of plain flour
1 1/2 teaspoon of baking powder
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon
few grinds of black pepper (Mr doesn't like nutmeg so I gave this a go and it worked!)
1/2 cup of chopped hazelnuts

Peanut Butter Filling (this is the whole batch, half if you are freezer stashing your dough!)
3 tablespoons of butter, softened
1/2 cup of good quality smooth peanut butter
1 cup of icing sugar
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
3/4 tablespoons of milk

Preheat the oven to gas mark 4 / 180c.

Cream the butter and sugar in a large bowl or mixer, add in the egg and mix to combine, add in the vanilla extract and combine.

Mix the oats, flour, baking powder, salt and spices in a separate bowl. Then adding a bit at a time fold in the dry ingredients with the butter mixture. Be careful not to overmix. When it is all incorporated stir in the nuts.

Prepare a flat baking sheet by lining it with baking parchment. Scoop out teaspoon size bits of dough, roll into a ball and place on the sheet 1.5 inches apart. Bake for 10 minutes for soft chewy cookies and 13 minutes for crispier cookies. Bake in batches if you don't have room.

For the filling:
Put the butter, peanut butter and vanilla in a bowl and cream together. Add the icing sugar in batches. I added in half first and mixed, tasted for sweetness and added more to taste. To get a creamier icing that is spreadable add in splashes of milk to the icing.

When the cookies are cool enough (leave in the tray for 5 minutes and then cool on a wire rack for 10 - 15 minutes) spread the icing over each underside of the cookie and then sandwich. Place in mouth. Place another one in your mouth. Make a cup of tea and dunk that cookie in it!

I'm really quite smug that I have another 12 cookies to be in my freezer.

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Rhubarb & Banana Muffins - dairy free

I'm pretty sure all banana cake recipes come about because of a bunch of bananas slowly going off in your fruit bowl, that is the only reason I've ever made a banana cake anyway. These muffins were born out of a bunch of unripe bananas, a lot of rhubarb and a desire to have something vaguely healthy to grab for breakfast.

I had no eggs in and no butter in so I experimented and created these muffins which are happily very yummy and also vegan too!

Rhubarb & Banana Muffins
makes 12 muffins

4 very ripe bananas
1/3 cup of flavourless oil (groundnut, sunflower)
3/4 cup of caster sugar
pinch salt
1 tsp of vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups of self raising flour
3 sticks of rhubarb, chopped into small pieces
extra sugar for sprinkling
oats for sprinkling - optional


Preheat your oven to 190c / gas mark 5.

Mash your bananas in a large bowl and then add in your sugar, oil, salt and vanilla. Mix together. Then sift in your flour and fold in, try not to work the mixture too much otherwise the muffins will be tough and dry.

Prepare your muffin tin with cases. Put about a tablespoon of the mixture into each case and then put a couple of pieces of the rhubarb on top of that. Sprinkle with a little sugar. Top with more mixture, fill right to the top. Put another piece or two or rhubarb on the top of each cake, sprinkle with some more sugar and then some oats.

Bake for 12 - 15 minutes until cooked through and golden brown.

I would say these are vaguely healthy enough to be ok to eat for breakfast, I think they'd be lovely with yoghurt.

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Slow Cooked Chipotle and Ancho Pork

These days my diet is mostly vegetarian, but every now and again I do get cravings of the carnivorous variety that just won't go away. This slow cooked pork is fragrant with cumin and coriander with some gentle heat from chipotles in adobo and powdered ancho chilli, brought together by a thick tomato and onion based sauce. I made various sides to go with this - onions pickled in vinegar, guacamole, grated cheese and also black beans to please the vegetarian in our household - and then piled it on to little tacos.

A word about tacos and tortillas here. I find the majority of tortilla wraps just awful, they are kind of plasticky and don't really taste of anything at all, proper Mexican tortillas they ain't. If you can pick up some better quality tortillas or have time to make your own then everything will taste all the better. I've been using the square wraps Warburtons bought out recently, they are more bready and less plasticky and just taste a bit more real. For the tacos I just used a cookie cutter to make little rounds.

Slow Cooked Chipotle & Ancho Pork
based on a recipe from Food 52, with different chillies.
serves 2  (or one greedy person with leftovers)

1 tsp of cumin seeds
1 tsp of coriander seeds
350g of pork shoulder, cubed
1/2 onion, diced
1/2 red chilli, diced
2 cloves of garlic
about 1 inch piece of dried ancho chilli, finely chopped or blitzed in a food processor
1/2 chipotle in adobo plus a bit of adobo sauce
2 tsp of dried oregano
1/2 can of peeled plum tomatoes
1 pint chicken or vegetable stock
oil for frying
fresh coriander

Heat up a large casserole dish on the hob. Toast the cumin and coriander seeds for a few minutes, keep them moving so they don't burn. Transfer to a pestle and mortar and crush the seeds. Heat some groundnut or sunflower oil in the dish and brown the pork on all sides, do this in batches if it doesn't fit. Season the pork whilst it is browning. Put the pork in a bowl and set aside.

Fry the onions next til softened, then add in the chilli and garlic and fry for a minute. Add in your ground spices, dried oregano, ancho and chipotle in adobo. Then add your pork back in and stir everything together, fry for a minute before adding your tomatoes and stock along with salt and pepper. The meat needs to be totally covered with stock, top up with boiling water if it isn't.

Bring to the boil, then cover and reduce to the lowest temperature. Bubble away for at least 2 hours, maximum about 4. When the meat is falling apart and tender it is ready to eat.

Remove the pork from the sauce. Blend up the sauce to help thicken it and then turn the heat up high to reduce the sauce, it should take about 5-10 minutes. Once it is nice and thick add in some fresh coriander and shred the pork and mix into the sauce. I removed the fat when I added the pork back in, I don't like the texture of it when it is cooked like this, and once the pork has slow cooked the fat has done its job to help add flavour to the meat.

Get all your sides ready whilst the sauce is thickening and then pile onto tacos and go!
I'll be having the rest of this pork tomorrow in a burrito and I can't wait.

More and more little delis and farm shops are stocking interesting dried chillies now, and you can find chipotles in adobo in a few places too (Cambridge people - the Cheese Shop sells them). If not you can find all of them at Mex Grocer, including proper tortillas.

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Gujarati Recipe Series - Essential Spices

Any good Indian cook will have a 'dabba' (tin) of spices essential for making pretty much any curry from their region. My Mum gave me this tin when I moved out of home to go to university - unfortunately I wasn't a very good cook then (to put it kindly) so it didn't get used until years later when I got interested in cooking.

These are the spices that are used most often, there are also some others which you'll find in other tins - things like a few cloves, asafodeita, dried chillies, ground cumin instead of cumin seed. Black mustard seeds are one of my favourite ingredients and I use it in things other than Indian cooking, they are quite different to yellow mustard seeds, if your supermarket doesn't have them try your local Asian grocer or health food shop.

If you want to buy your own tin you can also find them in Asian grocers or have a snoop on ebay, there are lots on there! Once you've got all your spices, remember to replenish them every few months otherwise they tend to go stale and lose their punch.

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