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As mentioned in Day 2 of The Challenge A friend got me 1 kg of Fenugreek seeds recently. The seeds have a beautiful, sweet, tangy smell to them. A little midnight research during a recent night shift suggested that used as they are they have a bitter flavour, but if toasted they become richer and sweeter. Apparently they have been used medicinally for centuries as an anti-inflammatory and pro-lactation ingredient. I'd never used it and was curious, so I made a couple of curries with it recently, but with so many different flavours, it is hard to identify a single note in order to figure out what it-s like and how it interacts with other flavours. This was therefore an experimental dish with fewer flavours to try and tease out the fenugreek's properties and taste. I opted for porridge as it is good base coat that I hoped would welcome and show up any variations of the fenugreek. Based on the description I thought it might match well with something citrusy and with other "sweet" spices - orange peel, cinnamon and cloves, matched with yellow raisins. Ingredients: 1 cup oats 2 cup milk 2 tsp fenugreek seeds 1 tsp ground cinnamon 1/2 tsp ground cloves 2 tsp of orange peel, dried a handful of yellow raisins 1) Put oats, milk and raisins in a saucepan and heat slowly, stirring occasionally. As porridge thickens, add cloves and cinnamon. 2) Put fenugreek seeds and orange peel in a dry pan and toast gently. 3) Add fenugreek seeds and orange peel to the porridge, and serve into two bowls. For an experiment, this came out well but it does need some tweaking. It was still a bit bitter and needed a bit of sweetness to bring out the flavours. We added a shake of a cocoa spice blend my sister brought me back from Hawaii (cocoa, cardamom, cane sugar etc.). It helped but wasn't enough. Next time I would try it with some dates, honey, or a tsp of brown sugar per bowl. I might also toast the seeds a bit further. The porridge wasn't as creamy as I would have liked either as I ran out of milk and used some water instead. The flavours did come together very nicely aside from the bitterness. the orange, raisins and spices payed off each other beautifully. I usually have my morning porridge a lot simpler, but I would definitely try this again, and I feel that the experiment to feel out the properties of fenugreek was a definite success. Other ideas are forming and bubbling up to test this new spice further... Watch this space for the next, and do chip in if you have ideas. EDIT: We tried this again, but with a couple of changes and this time, I think it is a keeper! Instead of dry roasting the spices, I fried the fenugreek seeds and orange peel in about 2tsp of butter for a few minutes, then added the cinnamon and cloves and about 8 dates, quartered. I let those all cook together for a further 5-7 minutes and then added them to the porridge and it was delectable. My husband added fresh figs to his too. I did not find that it needed further sweetening but if you did, then I think honey would be your best bet. creamy and sweet with warm spices, this was a tasty cold morning treat, and only took a little more effort than my regular porridge.

As mentioned in Day 53 of The Challenge This is the first recipe I learned to make myself, and I was very proud as a young teen to have been the one to introduce it to the family rotation. I originally got it from a cookbook, but it has evolved quite significantly since then, and it has truly become mine over the years. It is a very simple, very easy dish with a surprising amount of flavour for the effort that goes into it. It can be served with any number of different things, including bread, rice, polenta or pasta. This time we served it with steamed greens and polenta. There are a number or ways of making polenta. For this, as the chicken dish is rich and acidic, I went with a creamy polenta, cooking it in milk rather than broth, water or wine. Ingredients: 2 chickens, dismembered 2 heads of garlic 6-8 potatoes, smashed 5-6 tomatoes 2-3 lemons, sliced the juice of 1 lemon 1 c white wine 3-4 tbsp olive oil 2-3 sprigs of thyme salt and pepper to taste For the polenta: 1 tbsp butter 1 1/2 c coarse corn meal 3-4 c milk salt and pepper to taste 1) Place the dismembered chickens parts in a large oven proof dish. Scatter the garlic cloves still in their paper around the chicken. Tuck the smashed potatoes under the chicken pieces. (Smashing them allows the chicken juices to penetrate better to the centre of the potato, cooking it from the inside as well as the outside). Tuck the tomatoes in on top, and place then the lemon slices over everything. 2) Drizzle the lemon juice, olive oil and white wine evenly over the top, then salt and pepper to taste. Place the thyme sprigs on top. 3) Bake at 180°C for 35-45 minutes, until the skin is a crispy golden brown and the chicken juices run clear. 4) Meanwhile, melt the butter in a saucepan. Add the corn meal and stir. Once the corn meal is all coated and the colour has deepened, add the milk. Stir (almost) constantly as the polenta thickens. Salt and pepper to taste, and serve with the chicken. Simple satisfying and balanced, this is one of my favourite meals! I hope you enjoy it too!

chicken and spinach "sauce", and stuck with butter so the richness is all from dairy fats (a lacto free It could easily be made either gluten free or keto friendly by omitting the noodles.

Day 37 of The Challenge (I lied. We cooked tonight rather than eating leftovers before leaving on our trip). We roasted the last of our Georgia candy roaster pumpkin this evening, and had 250g of chanterelles left. It was either pumpkin pasta with a mushroom sauce or risotto. We opted for the risotto, and the pumpkin pasta will have to wait (although not to long. I do so love it and it had been a little while since I pulled out my pasta maker). This was creamy and filling (and orange) and very tasty. Ingredients: 250 g of Arborio rice 1 1/2 c roasted pumpkin in chunks 3 onions, chopped 1/2 head of garlic, peeled and chopped 250 g of chanterelles 3 tbsp olive oil 1 c of milk 1 1/2 - 2 c of water, broth or reserved mushroom water (like from prepping a chanterelle tart) 1 1/2 tsp sumac 1 tbsp lime juice 2 tsp thyme 1 tsp sage 1 tsp urfa biber (Turkish black chilli pepper) salt and pepper to taste Parmesan for sprinkling 1) Heat 1 tbsp of olive oil in a frying pan and sauté onions. When they go translucent and then begin to char a little on the bottom, add in the garlic and then keep them moving. 2) Heat the rest of the olive oil in a saucepan and add the rice. Stir until translucent then add the water/mushroom water/broth. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the liquid is absorbed. Add milk and stir. 3) Once garlic is soft, add the chanterelles, the thyme and the sage and lower the heat. Cook gently, allowing the mushrooms to give off their liquid. 4) As the rice cooks and absorbs the liquid, add the pumpkin and stir. Add sumac, and once the milk is absorbed, add lime juice and urfa biber. 5) When the rice has thickened and cooked, add the mushrooms and onions to the rice and mix. Salt and pepper to taste. Sprinkle desired parmesan over the top. Super tasty. I love making risotto and find them relatively quick and easy once you figure them out. They are endlessly adaptable too. The flavours played off each other beautifully in this tonight. It would have worked with bacon, but I wouldn't go so far as to say that it lost out by not having any.

Digesting our stew that evening, we lit the candles on our Christmas tree for the second time this year

Hubby used most of a chicken making pho this weekend, which naturally generated rather a lot of nice, rich chicken stock. What else to do with beautiful rich stock than risotto? (I do feel that I am mildly predictable on that score at times). We also had giant mushrooms in the fridge, which are quite a rare find in the grocery store. Maybe it is having read Babar Learns to Cook a few too many times recently to Little One, but the large mushrooms immediately told me to stuff them. Both seemed like good ideas, so I decided to couple them up and serve the mushrooms on the risotto. Unsure what to stuff the mushrooms with, Hubby pointed out that we had a very lovely, if somewhat lonely, aubergine in the fridge, so that became the stuffing. The rest, as they say, is history (well, half of it is anyway. the other half is waiting to become a very tasty leftover dinner sometime in the next couple of days, at which point it too will become history.) Ingredients: For the Risotto: 2 tbsp olive oil 1 onion, chopped 4-5 cloves of garlic, finely chopped 300 g arborio rice 2 1/2 c chicken stock a pinch of saffron 1 tsp (ish) dried orange peel 1 - 1/2 c parmesan 2 tbsp butter Salt and pepper to taste For the Mushrooms: 5 large stuffable mushrooms 1 tbsp olive oil 1 red onion, chopped 1/2 head garlic, sliced 1/2 aubergine, cubed 200g chopped tinned tomatoes 1 c red wine 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon 4 cloves 1 tsp rosemary 1/4 c millet Salt and pepper to taste 1) Start the risotto. Heat olive oil in a heavy-bottomed saucepan. Sauté onions and garlic for about 3 minutes, then add the rice. Stir occasionally, allowing the rice to become translucent in the oil. 2) Add the saffron and orange peel and about half of the chicken stock. Stir regularly, and keep it on medium heat. When the liquid is most of the way absorbed, add the rest of the stock and continue stirring. 3) Meanwhile, heat the oil for the mushroom filling in a small frying pan. Sauté the onions and garlic. While they are starting to sweat, cut up the aubergine and the mushroom stalks. After a couple of minutes, add these and the rosemary to the pan. Stir, cooking over medium heat. 4) Cook the mushroom filling for about 5 minutes, then add the chopped tomatoes, about half the wine, and the spices. 5) When the tomato mix has reduced a bit. add the millet and the rest of the wine. Cook for a further 5 - 10 minutes until the liquid is most of the way absorbed. When this has happened, fill the mushroom cups with the tomato mix. Set aside. 6) Use 1 tbsp of the butter to grease an ovenproof dish. Stir most of the parmesan, finely grated, into the risotto, and test a grain of rice. If it is almost cooked, make sure there is still a little liquid, adding a little stock or water if necessary, and pour into the prepared dish. Place the mushroom cups on top and spoon remaining filling around the cups on top of the risotto. Dot with the remaining tbsp of butter and the remaining cheese, either thinly sliced or grated. 7) Bake at 180°C for about 20 minutes, until the cheese is melted and golden, and the rice and mushrooms are fully cooked through. Serve piping hot. I wasn't sure how all the flavours would play together, but I needn't have worried. It was a big hit with all of us and I look forward to the leftovers. The mushrooms had a lovely nutty depth of flavour, while the warm spice notes of the sauce, contrasted with the acidity of the tomatoes created a nice balance. A minor problem though, that hubby assures me isn't an issue, is that the risotto was perhaps a little bland. I specifically didn't want to over flavour it and have it compete with the mushrooms, but it could have had a little more going for it. It was nice and creamy though. This could easily be made with vegetable stock, making this vegetarian, and for a fancier look, it could be cooked in individual ramequins. All in all, though, I am very happy with this one.

For a vegan or dairy-free experience, swap out the whey or the milk for your favourite nut milk.

I like that once you free yourself from the need to keep it traditional, it can become such a versatile

As a side note, the ricotta in this was homemade last week, as I had wanted to try freezing the ricotta This could easily be made gluten-free, by simply omitting the pasta layer, which we included primarily

Rösti is a traditional Swiss-German food, so traditional in fact that the border between the French and German speaking cantons in Switzerland is referred to as the Rösti border. It is a dish of potatoes, parboiled then fried or baked, with cheese and sometimes onion. It is often served with ham and a fried egg on top, referred to the skier's plate, and comes with a pickle or two and maybe a slice of tomato. I have grown up with rösti. It is filling, warming on a ski-day, tasty, fulfilling... Or almost. It always leaves me not quite satisfied. The stodge of pure carbs and fat leaves me looking for the veg and feeling heavy, and it often is very greasy. This dissatisfaction led me to tinker a bit with tradition, and this, or variants of this, is the result. It is never quite the same twice as it depends what I have on hand (in this case fresh beetroots from a local farmer, some of the tastiest and most flavourful I've ever had). Traditional with a twist. Ingredients: 2 large potatoes 1 large beetroot 2 courgettes (or zucchini depending on where you're from) 3 medium carrots 1 large(ish) onion 2 handfuls of spinach 2 tomatoes 100g mature cheese (given where I live this tends to be L'Etivaz or Gruyère) Bacon 1 egg per person Thyme 1) Parboil your potatoes and beetroot. You want them to be almost cooked through, but not so soft that they turn to mush in the oven. Preheat oven to 210°C. 2) Grate your potatoes, beetroot, carrots, courgettes, and cheese. Cube your bacon and slice your onion into rings. Cube one tomato, slice the other one into rings. 3) Grease an oven-proof dish with butter of lard - your choice. If you really must, then use olive oil, but don't eliminate the fat entirely, it is necessary to some extent. 4) Mix together all of the ingredients except the sliced tomato and a few slices of onion, and a handful of cheese. Place mix in the dish, and fluff is with a spoon. Sprinkle the extra cheese over the top and place the tomato and onion rings on the surface. If your grated mixture was a little dry, dot the top with a small amount of butter. 5) Bake uncovered for about 40-45 minutes until the cheese is melted and there is some crisping around the edges. Fry an egg, leaving the egg yolk runny and place one on top of each portion (season your fried egg however you wish. Red pepper flakes, salt, pepper, thyme, It is up to you). Serve hot with a salad. Results? I find this take on the traditional dish infinitely more satisfying. Minimal grease, and reduced carbs. There is veg in every bite and while retaining its traditional essence, it is lighter and more satisfying while still being filling and hitting the rösti spot. It remains a dish for a cool day, but being lighter and more veg leaning rather than stodgy, you can get away with it in the summer. I have started this blog off with this recipe at the request of a friend (Swisscleo.wixsite.com) :)