weekend :: Roasted Baby Carrots with Spaghetti and Carrot Top Pesto

It's deep and crisp and even... all crunchy and frosty underfoot. Friday night howling winds squealed down the chimney calling for someone to light a fire, dark skies and icy rain chased away the balmy autumn days. The kitchen smelt of pancakes, cinnamon, star anise, cooked apples and fresh laundry. Saturday the sun came out and in true incy wincy style the rain dried up and the skies lightened to a happy bright sparkly blue. Still cold, but smiley...

It was the first weekend at home for a while and the perfect day to be indoors, except to rescue the onions before they bolted and dig up my baby carrots. They wouldn't feed a family, but the cute little orange and yellow specimens made a tasty pasta lunch. I've written the recipe at the end of the page. 

Pre food-shop, freezer and vegetable basket foraging, produced the ingredients to make a stir-fry supper. A great way to use up the stragglers before restocking.

The first issue of my birthday gift subscription of The Simple Things arrived. I've now learned how to make a hundred wishes bay leaf garland, to keep the Christmas tree pine needles to add to a bath, to make a fragrant salt body scrub, home made teabag gifts and a match box advent calender. But don't think there'll be time to save up enough matchboxes before the 1st. I'll have to try and find some  cool vintage ones like in the article. 

Oh and I was tempted to buy a copy of The Nordic Cookbook until I discovered that one of the recipes requires chopping down and pine tree to make pine bark bread and another needed boiled seal intestines! Eeek...

We did lots of sorting and painting eventually ventured out for food shopping and new twinkly lights, a bit of online Christmas shopping (love Etsy and homemade things) and there was even some time to catch up on TV viewing. The first two episodes of dark Scandinavian Drama The Bridge with the unsociable but likeable character Saga, and colourful episodes of Rachel Khoo's Kitchen notebook and Nigella Lawson's new program, Simply Nigella. I know that she flirts with the camera and has every word memorised off-pat, that inspires a myriad of micky-takers, including Ahmad, who can't resist copying every sheepish fluttering eyelid sideways look that she makes. (I try to watch it when he's not around) But I will always stick up for her, life has given her a lot of hard knocks and yet she always picks herself up and keeps on smiling, not dwelling on the sad things but celebrating good ones. She's actually cooking healthy food with no cream or butter at last. Hence my latest batch of pancake making, Nigella's Oat Pancakes.

I have to admit these are worthy and wholesome even for me, let alone Nigella. But when you feel the need to be very good they work with lots of fruit, maple syrup and plain yoghurt. I cooked windfall apples with vine fruits, honey and a little cinnamon, and star anise for that lovely childhood cough syrup hit. They would never replace Great Aunt Makiris pikelets, but they make an even healthier alternative. I think I'll probably try to make Sophie Dahl's spelt ricotta ones on my next foray into pancake making.

You can watch Nigella making her oat pancakes on the link here. 

and here's my pasta recipe:

Roasted Baby Carrots with pasta and Carrot Top Pesto. 

Ingredients for four people: 

• A bunch of carrots as fresh and small as possible with the tops still on
• Olive oil
• Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
• An unwaxed lemon
• Three or four cloves of garlic
• A handful of pine kernels
• Parmesan cheese
• Pasta of choice, about 3oz to 4oz per person. I used dried spaghetti.

Method:

1. Cut the lemon in half and squeeze most of the juice into a jug. Keep the lemon after squeezing and cut into smallish chunks.
2. Remove the carrot tops and reserve for later.
3. Scrub the carrots well with a stiff brush. Top and tail unless they are really small and tender and cut into diagonal chunks and place into an oven proof dish. Drizzle with a little olive oil, season with salt and pepper, add the chunks of lemon and roast in a moderate oven for about twenty to thirty minutes until tender and a little coloured.
4. Whilst they are roasting wash the carrot tops. Take of the top feathery bit and discard any thick stalks. Chop roughly and place into a blender.
5. Add some olive oil, a good grating of Parmesan cheese, a handful of pine nuts and the lemon juice and blend. Season with salt and pepper and adjust if necessary adding more ingredients. 
6. Cook the pasta, drain and place on a serving dish
7. Top with the roasted carrots and some of the pesto. Combine well and eat while still warm. 

This was amazingly yummy. Not as aromatic or flavourful as basil pesto but it makes a lovely garlicky sauce for the sweet, lemony carrots. Nice no fuss,comforting bowl food. 

I might try Nigella's brown rice bowls and healthy breakfast bars next...Never thought I'd say healthy and Nigella in the same sentence...

I hope that the weather was doing good things for you this weekend...I'm coming to catch up now...
debx

linking with Karen for weekends

This week in my kitchen :: Trying New Things

 

Weekdays are busy. I'm always looking for new recipes for those days. New favourites are Jamie Oliver's Sweet Potato Muffins and Hugh Fearnley-Whitingstall's Beetroot Burgers and Spinachy wraps. If you like beetroot and felafel, you will love these. I found another simple breakfast recipe for baked oats here. I made it the night before, leaving it in the fridge overnight, and then popped into the oven to bake whilst making morning coffee. Cut into squares and then served warm with butter melting on top it makes a delicious alternative to porridge or cereals. The little squares are good to eat on the go too, and would make great lunch box deserts. 

• Mango and avocado salad with Jamie Olivers sweet potato muffins video and recipe 
• Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's Spinachy Wraps. These chick pea (garbanzo bean/gram) flour wraps with a spinach filling are extremely more-ish and very easy to make. The chick pea flour adds a nutty dimension. I've also made them with left over salad leaves like watercress and rocket instead of spinach, they are just as tasty. I love them with baby gem lettuce leaves, cottage cheese and green olives. 
• crunchy pears
• this turkey mince bake but with a potato and not squash mash
• stocking up on omega three. Cheap and cheerful. I love the vintage style packaging and wish I could do something withe them...some kind of Christmas decoration? 
• Labeling what's left of the original sweet cherry wine to squirrel away for Christmas
• Hugh Fearnley Whitingstall's beetroot burgers. These along with the spinach wraps are my favourite new recipe, made by grating raw beetroot, carrot, onion, garlic with cooked chickpeas, spices and seasoning. Just blitzed together and combined to make tasty little burgeers, these are amazing. 
• Baked oats. Love this easy recipe. It's one that you can vary depending what's in your store cupboard.

Weekend now and time for a bit of slow cooking...

Hope you have a good one, 

debx

Days like these...Indian Summer, Oak smoked Peppered Mackerel Salad with Blackcurrant Syrup and Toasted Pumkin Seed Oil Dressing...

The weather is weird. Spring was awesome, summer nothing to write home about, but now that autumn's here it feels like spring again. Chilly mornings but bright dry days.  We had a funky super moon. I came down at 2am one night this week and thought someone had left an outdoor light on. It was as though magical fairy lanterns were illuminating the garden. I hung around a bit, then Ahmad came down and we stayed to watch a lunar eclipse. It gradually darkened until we could just see a baby finger nail moon...Amazing. 

So we've been making hay, trying to catch up on outdoor jobs. Painting the windows and shed. Sorting out overgrown weedy beds and generally getting the outside ready for winter. 

I started making pies so that I could use my little vintage pie funnel. I made a chicken and mushroom one and the pastry was truly crispy and delicious...No soggy bottom. So the funnel did work, but it does make it harder to cut nicely shaped slices of pie. I want to make some more of these pasties next.

And I want to show you some my other vintage kitchen finds too. On a rainy summer weekend we went with Hannah to the Aardvark Bookery. It's a bookshop, cafe and shop in an old barn. It's an unusual place, the antithesis of my favourite organised comfy Booth's. It's very higgeldy piggedly and disorganised. (You can see in the photos.) There are piles of books everywhere and it's almost impossible to find what you're looking for. It has a cosy cafe wrapped around a wood burning stove and like Booths there are old chairs and sofas to sit on although they do look a little bit more like ones that someone left out in the rain. But they do the job, and it has a nice busy atmosphere. There was a brocante...French flea market and a band playing on the day that we went. The French market was amazing and very cheap I picked up two more old ladles to go with the ones one in the kitchen for just a few pounds each. Perfect for soup. 

Did you see my blender on the window sill. I'm so pleased with it. It only cost  £6 for an old glass and stainless steel Cordon Bleu liquidiser in the local village charity shop. It's P.A.T tested and in good working order. Think how quickly I'll be able to make all those blended smooth soups like Borscht or butternut squash now. Oh and breakfast smoothies...I can't wait. 

Since Hannah first requested the espresso coffee cake I made another. It's very good but as the icing is made purely from butter, icing sugar and cocoa, I can't make it too often. But my baking mojo is definitely coming back. 

I've almost finished Ahmad's sweater. I just got a bit stuck at the wrap and turns and had to watch the video linked to here to help remind me how to do them. (please ignore any adverts that come up first)

Learning how to do it I got a bit side tracked. I found the lovely Staci Perry's videos. They are so clear and easy to understand  and I swear I must have spent at least two hours Sunday evening watching them. Probably even four. She seems such a nice fun person and has that cute little accent like Drew Barrymore. 

Oh and did you see the quilt. I found that on The Purl Bee after browsing at the pinterest page over here. I think it would look cool made from old vintage shirts. 

I even managed to do a bit of reading. Another Louise Penney, Inspector Gamache novel. A bit of comfort reading. I do still get annoyed at her use of triple or quadruple metaphors to explain one thing. But I love reading about Quebec and the snow and her descriptions of tasty food eaten by blazing fires in homely delis or friendly bookshops. Despite the murder and mayhem it all seems so cosy. 

Well best get on with my knitting. It's Ahmad's birthday tomorrow and if I manage to finish his sweater it would make a cool extra gift...

Oak smoked Peppered Mackerel Salad with Blackcurrant Syrup and Toasted Pumpkin Seed Oil Dressing

Ingredients for two people:

• Two fillets of smoke mackerel
• One medium sized plum tomato
• Half a medium sized red onion, peeled and finely sliced
• Ten or so radishes, topped, tailed and sliced finely.
• A similar number of green olives
• A handful of pomegranate seeds (about half a cup)
• Two boiled eggs, peeled and quartered
• Half a yellow bell pepper, deseeded and finely sliced
• A small red chilli sliced finely

Dressing:

• Blackcurrant or any other sweet/sour/fruity syrup. Blackberry, pomegranate or cranberry would be good examples. I make my syrup with the blackcurrants plus a sweetener usually either honey or maple syrup. Adjust to your taste. I like it quite sour. Once cleaned and de-stalked I cook them in a saucepan until the liquid reduces. I then strain the liquid to make a clear syrup. I love this for salad dressings or with pancakes, breakfast cereal, ice cream etc.
• Toasted pumpkin seed oil.

Method:

1. Wash and prepare all the fruit and vegetables.
2. Break the leaves off the lettuce and place in a serving dish.
3. Add the sliced tomatoes,bell pepper, radish and olives.
4. Toss and then top with the sliced onions. Scatter over the pomegranate seeds and chopped chilli. 
5. Finally remove the skin from the fish, break it up into largish chunks and place on top of the salad along with the egg quarters. 
6. Serve the salad and then trickle with the dressing. 

I love the combination of the salty/peppery fish with the cool crunchy radish and lettuce, the heat of chilli and sweet/sour nutty flavoured dressing. This works perfectly for me in the same way that sweet sour plum sauce works with unctuous duck but you may like to use and alternative dressing. 

n.b. COOKS NOTE...I had a mini blackcurrant syrup eruption after a bottle that I stored in a slightly warm cupboard exploded! I think it must have fermented. It's best kept in the fridge...

Bye for now,
debx