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As mentioned in Day 30 of The Challenge I used to not be a fan of tapioca pudding. I didn't like the texture, and I had been served it cold which just accentuated the texture that I didn't like. And then my grandmother got sick and struggled with solids and had minimal appetite, so we made a lot of puddings, and I came around to it. Making it again for the first time since she died was bittersweet, but certainly a tasty dessert. And because we always make healthy decisions, we added a chocolate sauce... Happy eating! Ingredients: 1/2 c tapioca 1 1/2 c milk 1 c coconut milk 1/2 c raisins 1 tsp vanilla 1/2 c sugar 1 tbsp butter 2 tbsp cocoa powder 1/4 c coconut milk cinnamon for sprinkling 1) Heat the milk, coconut milk and tapioca in a saucepan over a low heat, stirring constantly. Add vanilla, raisins and sugar and keep stirring until it thickens. If it glops at you, turn the heat down and stir. 2) Melt the butter in a small saucepan and slowly stir in the cocoa powder (personally I like dark cocoa powder, or baker's chocolate with a little sugar, but tweak it to how sweet you want it.) Once it has formed an even mass, add the coconut milk, and blend until smooth. 3) Portion out the tapioca and drizzle over the chocolate sauce, Sprinkle with cinnamon or cocoa spice and serve. Alternately, if you prefer, chill the tapioca and serve cold, with either hot or cold chocolate sauce. So many options! It took me a while to come back to this after my grandmother died, but now that I have, it might make it into more regular rotation again... I'm also wondering about a savoury version. Something to think about. I hope you enjoy and make your own memories with this!

We opted for polenta ( for a recipe, see here). We all really enjoyed this.

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.

As mentioned in Day 3 & 4 of The Challenge I love curry. It is one of my favourite foods. Some have heat, others don't. Some curries are vegetarian while others are unashamedly carnivorous. The colours, the smells and the flavours are all enticing. A year in Nepal gave me a good spice tolerance and an appreciation of the different flavours. I love that curry comes in so many different forms, from different places across the globe with different spices and blends. I have a spice cupboard that is too big for my own good. Not everything in it is labelled, others have labels like "soup spice", a meaningless name given to a blend by a spice vendor somewhere. I cook mostly by taste and smell, and the imagined combinations of things matched mentally before they are added. Most of my curries are probably not recognisable as any specific thing to anyone native to anywhere that actually makes curry, and I would love to have all the know-how about using spices, and which to add when in order to layer flavours that I might, were I from one of the cultures, but instead I play and experiment. And usually, things turn out well. This was one of those. I wanted to test the properties of fenugreek seeds a bit more, we had a pumpkin that needed using, and I thought it might go well with the sweeter spices that I wanted to use. This curry does not pretend to be authentic anything, or from anywhere except my kitchen, but it's good. Ingredients: 2 tsp mustard seeds 2 tsp cumin seeds 2 tsp fenugreek seeds 2 tbsp peanut oil a handful of dried orange peel 1/4 - 1/2 pumpkin (small), cubed 1 red onion and 1 white, diced 1 head of garlic, sliced 1 large knob of ginger, peeled and diced 2 long red chillis, sliced 1 tbsp red curry paste 1 courgette 2 carrots 1 red pepper 1/4 - 1/2 white summer squash 1 tsp cinnamon 1 tsp urfa biber (Turkish pepper) 1/4 tsp cloves 2 tsp cumin 3 c water 2 tsp Aloha Spiced Cacao Juice of 1/4 lemon 1) Heat oil in a pot. Add seeds and orange peel. Cook until the spices are fragrant and the mustard seeds start to pop. I tried a fenugreek seed at this point and it was sweet and perfumed, only the slightest hint of bitterness. 2) Add onions, garlic and ginger to the spices and cook until translucent, then add the pumpkin. Turn the heat down and, adding 2 cups of water, simmer gently for about 20-30 minutes. 3) Add other ingredients except for lemon juice and simmer further until vegetables are tender. 4) Add lemon juice 5 minutes before dishing. Serve over rice and eat hot. This turned out beautifully. It was warming and had some heat to it but without blowing your head off. I thought the spices played off each other particularly nicely. The cocoa spice was a late addition to add a deeper note that was lacking, and then the lemon juice came in to brighten it up. I had intended to toast the seeds instead of frying them, but was distracted by Little Bit's dinner, and had intended to add red lentils (initially I had planned on dal for dinner before things evolved), but forgot those too until doing clean up at the end. Overall it was very satisfying and I would definitely make it again. It did have a bit of a dry tongue after effect though. I am wondering if that was the fenugreek. My husband's guess was the cumin, but that was minimally dosed. I've never had that effect before despite using a lot of cumin all the time. Something to investigate further.

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.

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.

This being the case, I spent a couple of days musing and came up with a white lasagne recipe that I hoped

One of the rare days we didn't have soup for lunch, it was sunny and warm in the sunshine, but there was a nip in the shade with autumn coming on. This was quick and easy to whip up when I got back from running errands, and made for a great light lunch, with enough flavour and texture but no weight. A big hit with Hubby and Little Bit! Ingredients: 1 1/4 c flour (I used about 3/4 - 1 c of white flour and the rest was home ground barley flour. It is less finely milled, but the texture was great) 1 tsp Rosemary 2 eggs 2 c milk oil for cooking For the filling: Roast pumpkin wedges Mushrooms, sautéed in butter Grated cheese Bacon bits Fresh cheese or cream cheese of some kind (I used my homemade Fromage Blanc) 1) Place flour and rosemary in a bowl and add eggs then milk gradually, beating well after each addition, forming a thin batter. 2) Heat a crêpe skillet and oil it using a cloth or paper towel. Pour about 1/2 ladle of crêpe batter in and tilt to spread it evenly over the bottom of the pan. Cook over medium-low heat until the surface becomes matte, then flip using a spatula and cook for a couple more minutes on the other side. 3) Place on a warmed plate with about 1-2 tbsp fromage blanc or other cream cheese down the centre of the crêpe and other ingredients sprinkled over it. Roll and serve. I really enjoyed this flavour combination. We happened to have left-over roast pumpkin as well as the other bits and pieces so it worked out very nicely. The bacon could be left out for any vegetarians joining in this deliciousness, too. On some of the crêpes, we also added a little of our Carrot Ketchup for a little added flavour. I also, for the sake of science, tried a sweet version, with fromage blanc, pumpkin and date syrup (although honey or molasses would work too), and it was scrumptious. We had this for lunch, but it could easily work for breakfast or dinner too!

I've posted a few oaty recipes before (Persimmon Porridge, Fenugreek Porridge, Sweet Potato Porridge, Recipes: Cook time: 15 mminutes -- Portions: 2 -- Difficulty: Easy Roast Chestnut Oats: Ingredients: Swaps and substitutions: Both of these recipes would work with other forms of hot cereal. Instead of the mix spice in the first recipe, swap in pumpkin spice, or some cinnamon and cloves, or Instead of the maple sugar in the first recipe, use light brown sugar.

Appologies for the break since the last recipe. Recipe Cook Time: approx 2 hours -- Portions: 4 -- Cooking difficulty: Medium Ingredients: 3 c potatoes Swaps and substitutions: Instead of apple sauce, an interesting variant of this recipe could use pumpkin This recipe was great vegetarian but would also work very well with little bits of bacon or sausage stirred