Month: October 2023

Spicy apple muffins, dairy free

This is Gemma Patterson’s adaptation from the dairy free cookbook

INGREDIENTS:

  • 170g of plain flour or rice flour
  • 2 teaspoons of baking powder
  • 140g Brown Sugar
  • 1/2 Teaspoon of Mixed Spice
  • 2 large Free Range eggs
  • 300ml apple juice
  • 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
  • 100g dairy free margarine

METHOD:

  • Sieve and then mix all the dry ingredients together.
  • Beat the eggs, apple juice, vanilla extract and margarine together until frothy.
  • Blend into the flour mixture.
  • Spoon into paper cases and bake at 200 oC for 15-20 minutes until well risen and spongy to touch.

Serve warm or cold.

Soy bean sprout salad with sesame oil

I had a packet of soya beans on the shelf for a while, wondering what to do with them. This is one of the recipes that work well. I began with a recipe from Madhur Jaffrey’s ‘Eastern Vegetarian Cooking’, a book that I have had for more than twenty years. It is old and scorched, and full of recipes I like.

INGREDIENTS:

  • Soy beans
  • Sesame oil
  • Soy sauce
  • Sesame seeds, toasted.
  • Stock

METHOD:

  • I started by sprouting the soy beans for several days, rinsing them at least twice a day in fresh water, and keeping them in a cool shaded area of the kitchen. Once the roots were about two inches long, and the beans were beginning to colour green, I put them in the fridge until I was ready.
  • Next I simmered the sprouts in stock for about seven minutes, and drained them.
  • When they were almost cool, I sprinkled the sprouts with sesame oil and a little soy sauce, and garnished with a teaspoonful of toasted sesame seeds.

Apparently you can add mung bean sprouts for the last couple of minutes of cooking. I served this slightly warm, and it was excellent.

Citrus Nut Loaf

Submitted by Fiona Ballantyne. This recipe is adapted from a recipe in a book called ‘Scones, muffins and teacakes’ by Murdoch books and works very well.

INGREDIENTS:

  • 90g butter or margarine
  • 150g golden caster sugar
  • 2 fresh eggs (large)
  • 200g self raising flour, sifted
  • 60ml orange juice (freshly squeezed)
  • 60ml lemon juice (freshly squeezed)
  • 75g chopped pecans

METHOD:

  • Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.
  • Add the eggs one at a time beating after each addition.
  • Stir in the flour alternately with the fruit juices.
  • Stir in the nuts
  • (This also works well by combining all the ingredients together in the food mixer – apart from the nuts, stir them in at the end.)
  • Spread into a greased 2 lb loaf tin.
  • Bake at 180°C for 50 minutes.Turn out and cool on a wire rack.

Coconut Loaf

Submitted by Fiona Ballantyne. This is adapted from a recipe from a book called ‘Home baking’ by Carole Handslip, which was 99p well spent in a bargain book shop.

INGREDIENTS:

  • 125g (4oz) margarine
  • 125g (4oz) golden caster sugar
  • 2 eggs (duck eggs work very well)
  • 175g (6oz) self raising flour, sifted
  • 4 tbsp desiccated coconut
  • 2 tbsp milk (may need slightly more)

METHOD:

  • Cream the fat and sugar together till light and fluffy.
  • Beat in the eggs one at a time, adding a little of the flour with the second.
  • Add the remaining flour, 3 tbsp of the coconut and the milk.
  • (This recipe also works well by adding all the ingredients to the food mixer and mixing together, and I often add all the coconut to the mix rather than sprinkling on the top and it binds well with a little extra milk).
  • Turn into a lined and greased 1lb loaf tin and sprinkle with the remaining coconut.
  • Bake at 180°C for 1 to 1¼ hours. Turn out and cool on a wire rack.

Nice plain but also very good with home made jam and desiccated coconut on the top.

Broad bean salad

I have a lot of broad beans at the moment; I planted them late and I’m just picking the last of them now. We used some to make this salad, which was perfect with barbequed food: we had shish kebabs, nan bread, yoghurt and cucumber salad, humus, lots of things. I got the idea from a Jamie Oliver Recipe, but he had added some other ingredients at the end. I stopped short of the full thing, as the salad was delicious enough without the extras. I made it at the last minute, as it is good slightly warm.

INGREDIENTS:

  • Allow around 30g beans per serving
  • Lemon juice to taste (1 lemon for 4 servings)
  • olive oil (ratio of lemon juice:olive oil is 1:3)
  • Salt and pepper
  • 1 sprig of fresh mint per serving
  • 1 spring onion per serving

METHOD:

  • Pod the beans, and blanch them, unsalted, in boiling water for a minute or two. Drain and set aside to cool.
  • Put the warm beans in the serving dish, and dress with lemon juice and olive oil. For every 1 tbsp of lemon juice, add 3 tbsp olive oil.
  • Season with salt and pepper, and add finely shopped mint. Slice the onions very finely, and fry in a little olive oil, until the onions are soft and starting to colour. Stir them into the salad.

This works really well served with sour cream or greek-style yoghurt.