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very basic, and hardly deserves to be called a recipe, but so very tasty and filling and the ultimate comfort food. Rather peasanty and a very good use for stale bread. It can easily be either vegetarian or meaty.

I've always really liked peanut butter cookies. When working in Greece, I entered into a bit of a relationship with tahini. Hence the idea to try a cookie variant using tahini and sesame seeds, but aiming at a similar consistency as peanut butter cookies. Little Bit came through after his nap with his kiddy baking book asking to bake, and then after deciding on peanut butter cookies with me, he promptly lost interest (toddler attention spans, anyone?), leaving me free to experiment. Here is the result. Ingredients: 3/4 c tahini 1/2 c butter 1/2 c dark brown sugar 3/4 c light brown sugar 3 tbsp milk 1 tbsp vanilla extract 2 tsp almond extract 1 egg 1 3/4 c flour 3/4 tsp baking powder a pinch of salt 1/2 c sesame seeds (I used toasted sesame seeds, but you could use regular ones too.) 1) Beat together the tahini, butter and sugars until fluffy. Work in wet ingredients. Add dry ingredients gradually. Stir in sesame seeds. 2) Drop by teaspoonfuls onto an ungreased cookie sheet and bake at 190°C for 8 minutes until golden brown. I was really pleased with how these came out and the overall flavour. What I might try next time though is to replace at least some of the brown sugar with honey as tahini and honey is a flavour I really like. Alternatively, adding in some chocolate, either mixing in cacao powder or chocolate chips, might work nicely as a combo. In any case, having the sesame seeds in the cookies worked very nicely, adding a little crunch.

It is dead easy to make and super flavourful, and a traditional food from this area.

The neighbour gave us a basket of chanterelles, and trying to decide what to do with them, a recipe we tried a few years ago came to mind. I don't remember where the recipe was from, and don't have it saved anywhere (at least, not to my knowledge), but I tried to sort of recreate it from memory, with a couple of ingredient swaps. So here is what came out of that. Ingredients: 5 onions, whole 3 c whey 1 tsp herbes de Provence 1-2 tsp dried orange peel 1 tbsp butter (and some for greasing the baking dish) 4 c (approx) chanterelles 1 c cream 1 c barley Salt and pepper to taste 1) Place the onions in a saucepan and pour over the whey (my whey was half yogurt whey, which is more acidic, and half ricotta whey). Add herbes de Provence and orange peel, salt and pepper to taste and bring to a simmer. 2) Meanwhile, melt butter in a frying pan. Add chanterelles and cook over medium heat for about 5 minutes, allowing the mushrooms to render their liquid. Mine gave up quite a lot, so instead of draining it in the sink, I poured the extra liquid over the onions. 3) Add cream and pepper to the chanterelles and stir. Cook for a few minutes, allowing the sauce to thicken, then cover and set aside. Butter an oven proof dish. 4) When the onions are tender when stabbed with a knife, transfer to the baking dish, reserving cooking liquid. Pour barley into the saucepan with the cooking liquid and cook until al dente - 15 to 20 minutes. 5) Pour the contents of the saucepan into the baking dish (it's ok if there is still a little liquid), arranging the barley snugly around the onions. Pour the chanterelle sauce over the onions and barley and place in a pre-heated oven at 180°C for about 10 minutes. This was delightfully warm and filling, without being heavy. The onions were sweet and tender, and the barley and mushrooms complemented them very nicely. I am not sure if this is exactly what we had a few years ago, but it certainly worked well! I might omit the oven step next time and see how it goes though. It might have helped marry the dish and the flavours a little, but I am not sure. Anyway, a big hit with all three of us, and then it held up very well as a left-over lunch at work for me (mostly blind with almost no onions or mushrooms, but still tasty). This could work well as a side course with meat, or with bits of bacon or something in it too.

Hot filling and comfort foody while being healthy and not too heavy.

As mentioned in Day 56 of The Challenge We had other plans for dinner, but then feeling a little under the weather we wanted something simple and easy but also packed with flavour, vitamins and energy. I've done this in various forms before, sometimes vegetarian, sometimes with sausages or other meat, sometimes with baked eggs tucked in among the veg. Sometimes the pancakes are under the veg, sometimes separate. I have yet to try the pancakes baked down over the veg, and this was the first time that I changed the pancake batter to make it more savoury. It was baked separately and came out beautifully! Ingredients: For the veg: 3 carrots, chopped 3 onions, chopped 1 head of garlic, chopped 1 red pepper, 1 yellow pepper, chopped 1 zucchini, chopped 1 1/2 - 2 c of chopped pumpkin 1 c raisins 2-3 tbsp olive oil 1-2 tbsp balsamic vinegar 2 tsp whole grain mustard 2 tsp nigella seeds 3 tsp zathar salt and pepper to taste For the pancakes: 1 1/2 c flour 3 tbsp semolina 1 c milk 2 eggs 1/3 c tomato passata 3-4 tbsp melted butter 2 1/2 tsp baking powder 2 thyme sprigs 4 sundried tomatoes 2 tsp garam masala 2 tsp thyme salt and pepper to taste 1) Place all the veg and raisins in an oven proof dish. Drizzle over the oil, balsamic and mustard, then sprinkle on the zathar and nigella seeds. Mix well and bake for approximately 45 min at 180°C. 2) Meanwhile, mix the dry ingredients for the pancakes. Add the wet ingredients and mix well. Coat a skillet in melted butter and pour in the pancake batter. Place the thyme and sundried tomatoes on top and then put in the oven for about 30-35 minutes at 180°C with the veg. 3) Serve together hot with condiments. This turned out really well! I had to use a little more liquid than the pancake batter usually calls for, but it came out well in terms of the taste and texture. It could have used a little extra baking powder, or an extra egg instead of some of the milk to make it puff a little more than it did. Having said that, the batter did rise to about twice its original size and was very light. We tried a number of different condiments with this, both sweet and savoury. Surprisingly, our favourite condiments were the Green Tomato Chutney and maple syrup (I mean pancakes and maple syrup are classic!) I highly recommend trying this!

Have I ever mentioned how much I like chestnuts? Ever? Maybe once or twice, with the Chestnut Cookies, Caramel Chestnut Risotto, or Chestnut Puddings... They are a seasonal must for me around Christmas, and I absolutely love them. The smell of them roasting conjures up images of Christmas markets, hot chestnuts in paper bags, burnt fingers and the delicious sweet earthy flesh warming you from the inside... For Christmas, we usually have pumpkin pie and mincemeat pie, but this year we decided to add in a new one, Chestnut Pie. Somehow, bouncing around ideas about something else entirely, and the idea of trying a chestnut pie came up. Other ideas are still pending testing, but the one we decided to make a reality is along the same lines as a pecan pie. However, those involved in the discussion agreed that pecan pie is generally too sweet, so we reduced the amount of sugar. I also don't like corn syrup, so instead, we used honey and citrus syrup left over from making Candied Peel. We also figured that the citrus would balance out the earthy flavour of the chestnuts. To address the sweetness, we also made a thin pie in a large dish rather than a deep one. For the first try, we used frozen chestnuts (defrosted, of course), but raw. I had thought that 40 minutes in the oven would be enough to cook them, but it wasn't. In the second try, therefore, I used cooked chestnuts, boiling some first (saving the chestnut water, we'll see what it will come in handy for. Oatmeal maybe?), some I roasted. For the pie crust, I used vinegar syrup from making pickled plums this summer. The added flavour was interesting, but a regular pie crust would work fine. Ingredients: Pie crust: 1 1/2 c flour 1/3 c butter, cold and cubed 1/3c milk/whey/plum vinegar syrup Filling 1 kg chestnuts 3 tbsp butter 1/2 c light brown sugar 1/2 c honey 1/2 c citrus syrup (use molasses or maple syrup if need be. Or more honey) 3 eggs 1) In a large bowl, rub the butter and flour together until you achieve a wet sandy texture. Stir in the liquid, gathering into a dough, manipulating as little as possible. Chill. 2) In a separate bowl, cream butter and sugar. Stir in honey and syrup, then beat in eggs. 3) If using raw chestnuts, boil for about 10 minutes until tender. Then roast about half at 190°C for 15 minutes (alternatively, I did it in the air fryer). 4) Roll out pie crust, and line a pie plate with it. Pour in the chestnuts, and then the batter. Bake at 180°C for 40min. Allow to cool and set, then serve at room temperature. I really liked this pie! And even the pecan pie doubters (*cough* Hubby) enjoyed it. I liked it better the first time around, but the chestnuts were better cooked the second time around. I would merely use pre-cooked chestnuts or boil them next time, and skip the roasting. I would also deliberately use light brown sugar. The second time I used dark brown sugar, and I think that worked less well, although that opinion was not unanimous. The pie crust worked, but a regular one would have worked equally well. The citrus syrup definitely worked, and I may even add orange zest or candied orange peel to this pie next time. We also used double the amount of chestnuts the second time around, making it super chestnutty. I would maybe split the difference in future and use 750g. The first time we had it with whipped cream, and the second time with mascarpone. Both work, but I think I preferred it with whipped cream.

After making my Yellow Carrot Tart with the barley flour crust, I started thinking. That crust base was unique, with a bit more bite and a bit more sweetness to it than regular crust. At some point when nursing in the middle of the night (sometimes that's when the best ideas happen, the problem is holding onto them in the morning) it occurred to me that the crust modified slightly would work nicely for shortbread. After thinking of it it kept niggling me until I tried it. So I did. It also dawned on my while making them that if I can get the barley flour fine enough, barley, with less gluten than regular flour, is a great replacement as in shortbread everything is done to prevent gluten chain formation (soft butter, no kneading). Starting with something even less likely to do that has the potential for even crumblier, tenderer biscuits. Ingredients: 2/3 c barley flour 2/3c flour 1/2 c butter, very soft 1/4c sugar 1/3 c dark chocolate chips 1) Place flours and butter in a bowl and mix until smooth. Add sugar and chocolate chips. Mix. Press together into a dough. Do NOT knead. 2) Turn out onto a clean surface and roll out to about 1 - 1.5 cm thick and cut into rounds of the desired thickness. Place rounds on a cookie sheet with wax paper and chill 20 minutes. 3) Bake at 190°C for 15-20 minutes until golden. These were very tasty and the flavours came together as I had hoped. The biscuits could have been a little thicker though. Also, in terms of the texture, these didn't melt in your mouth the way regular shortbread cookies do. I need to grind the barley flour a little finer next time as it had too much bite, but otherwise, I am delighted with these!

The sweet potatoes needed more flour to come together than regular ones, but the texture was good and

Stir in the juice, cranberries and zest, and finally, fold in the melted chocolate.