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There's been a bit of a hiatus since my last posts due to some travelling, the first trimester of a pregnancy and fun things like planning a move. As things are beginning to settle down again though, I have some exciting recipes to share from the last little while. I hope you enjoy! My last citrus jam that I made over the winter was a lemon jelly. Unlike most of my others, like the G+T Lime Marmalade or the Spiced Grapefruit and Rum Marmalade, I decided to take the more elaborate route for this one and actually process the peels properly rather than just blitzing them into the marmalade. I also decided to try using my Apple Pectin that I made in the autumn to see how it went. And then I added bits... NB if you do not have homemade apple pectin, replace with the recommended amount of a store bought one. Ingredients: 1 kg lemons 3 1/2 c apple pectin 1 l water 2 c sugar 2 chilis, minced 2 - 2 1/2 tbsp ginger, peeled and minced 1) Using a vegetable peeler, remove a thin layer of peel from the lemons and set the strips aside. Juice the lemons into a large pot, discarding what remains of the pith. Add the sugar and the pectin and water, and bring to a boil. Stirring, reduce to a simmer. 2) Meanwhile, thinly slice as much of the peel as you want. Add this and the chili and ginger to the pot. 3) Cook until the marmalade thickens. You'll want to test readiness by putting a drop of the hot jelly on a saucer which has been in the freezer. Give it a couple of seconds to cool and then prod it. If the top of the jelly wrinkles, it is ready to put into jars. 4) While the jelly is cooking, boil 4 or 5 jars with their lids in a large pot at a rolling boil for at least 15 minutes. When the jelly is ready, carefully extract one jar at a time from the pot and fill it. Wipe any spills from the rim of the jar, seal and place upside down on a cloth to cool. Once sealed the jars of jelly should keep well in a cool dry place for a good while. The jelly came out very nicely. It ended up being a different colour than I had originally pictured, both because of the pectin and because of the chilis. I had some doubts about my pectin, but those have been cured. If anything I used a little too much of it. I really liked the flavour when it was fresh and can't wait to try it now that the flavours have had a bit more of a chance to develop. Not using the bulk of the lemon peel as I did for the other marmalades, my output was drastically reduced, from about 10 jars to about 4. Those 4 are worth it though! They are a clear jelly instead of a thicker bodied marmalade. Occasionally not taking the lazy route pays off! They are different beasts, the marmalades and the jelly, but both very tasty. All in all, it's been a lot of fun playing around with different citrus jams this winter!

As mentioned in Day 40 of The Challenge This was an experiment. We have made the bloomer before, but as it requires you to roll out the dough into a rectangle the roll it up into a loaf, we decided to try it with nettle pesto spread on it. With black sesame seeds sprinkled on top it was a tasty snack but might need some tweaking. Certainly an idea to pursue though. Ingredients: 6 c flour 15 g cake of yeast 1 tsp sugar 1 1/5 -2 c lukewarm water 1/2 c pesto/nettle pesto 2 tsp salt water 2 tsp black sesame seeds 1) Dissolve yeast and sugar in the lukewarm water. Place flour in a bowl and make a well in it. Pour in the yeast and water mixture and gradually incorporate the flour into it. 2) Knead the dough for about 10 minutes to form a smooth elastic but heavy dough. Leave to rise covered with oiled cling film in a warm place for 4-5hours or until doubled in size. 3) Knock back and then knead for 5 minutes then leave to rise for 2 hours again, until doubled in size again. 4) Knead briefly, then roll out into a rectangular sheet about 1/2 cm thick. spread pesto on it up to 3 cm from the edge, then roll into a loaf. Preheat the oven to 230°C. 5) Leave to rise again for a half hour, and then seal the edges. Brush the top of the loaf with salt water and sprinkle the sesame seeds over the top. Cut slashes into the top of the loaf. 6) Bake the loaf on an oiled baking tray for 25 minutes then lower the temperature to 200°C and bake for a further 20 minutes. This was tasty, and an interesting idea, but the nettle pesto had too strong a flavour for the bread. It was better once the bread had cooled and the pesto's flavour had mellowed. The bread itself is tasty, but the pesto spread idea needs tweaking. Maybe a regular basil pesto, or a red pesto? PS: We used some of this loaf to make a savoury pesto bloomer French toast for dinner with kale and onion salad and some cheese and it worked surprisingly well. I do recommend trying this. This was the first time I've made a savoury French toast, but I will do so again! We had it with various condiments, both sweet and savoury, ranging from maple syrup and rhubarb jam to BBQ sauce and mustard, and they all worked delightfully well. If you try the bloomer, I do recommend trying out the French toast as well!

After my earlier attempt at a tomato ketchup, I was inspired to play around with other ketchup varieties. One that I wanted to try, thinking that the vegetable would lend itself well to this, was beetroot. The challenge in making this ketchup was to make it taste properly ketchupy and not like borscht. I think I managed! Try it out for yourself and let me know what you think! Ingredients: 4 beets, peeled and chopped 1/2 head garlic, minced 1 onion, chopped 7 tbsp red wine vinegar 3 tbsp light brown sugar 1 tsp oregano 1 - 1 1/2 tsp thyme 1/2 - 1 tsp salt 1 - 1 1/2 tsp tandoori powder 1) Place beets in a saucepan and cover with water. Bring to a boil then reduce to a simmer, cooking, covered, until beets are tender. Add other ingredients, and continue to simmer, uncovered for about 20-30 minutes. 2) Cool the beets slightly then pour the contents of the saucepan into a blender and blitz well. Taste test, adjust, then transfer back to the saucepan and cook further until reduced to the desired gloppiness. 3) Meanwhile, boil clean jars for 15 minutes, completely submerged in water, thus sterilising them. While the ketchup is still hot, spoon into the jars one at a time (canning tongs come in handy here to fish the jars out of the boiling water), then wipe the rim, seal and place upside down on a clean towel to cool. I made my ketchup last week, and then we pulled it out this evening to have some, and I am really quite pleased with it. It tastes like ketchup, but it also still tastes like beet. And to my great relief, it does not taste like cold borcht!

After a big shop for fresh veg (and not quite enough fridge space for everything), craving something quick and easy, but healthy and tasty, I pulled this together and it made a great dinner! And the Wonderbag, as so often happens, helped a huge amount (use a crock pot or slow cooker). Ingredients: 1 tbsp olive oil 2 onions, chopped 1/2 head of garlic, chopped 2 carrots, chopped 2 zucchini, chopped 1 sweet potato, chopped 2 c roasted pumpkin (I pulled mine out of the freezer from the stash I set aside during pumpkin season) 2 tsp zathar 2 tsp sumac salt and pepper to taste 400 g chickpeas 1 c bulgur wheat 1) Heat oil in a heavy bottomed pot and sauté the onions and garlic until fragrant. Add the other vegetables except the pumpkin, and the spices and stir. Allow some of the veg to char a little. 2) Add the pumpkin, the chickpeas, bulgur and enough water to cover everything to about 1 cm above the level of the veg. 3) Bring to a simmer and then place in a Wonderbag or crockpot, or keep over medium heat until the water has largely been absorbed and the veg is tender, about 45 minutes. Serve. So it took slightly longer for the veg to cook than I thought, but this was so tasty, with surprisingly complex flavours given the very little seasoning that went into the dish. It worked both fresh and as a leftover and was very satisfying. I hope you enjoy it too!

As mentioned in Day 74 of The Challenge Have I mentioned that it's pumpkin season? Once or twice maybe... Here is a another new twist on pumpkin soup. This time it was smooth rather than chunky, but sweet and gingery. Tasty and warming, it made for an excellent lunch. Ingredients: 1 small pumpkin, chopped 2 parsnips, chopped 2 carrots, chopped 2 onions, chopped A 6 cm chunk of ginger (approx), peeled and diced 1 tbsp olive oil 1/2 c vinegar 1/2 c red cooking wine 1 tsp urfa biber (Turkish black chilli) 1 tsp fenugreek seeds Salt and Pepper to taste 1) Heat oil in a heavy-bottomed soup pot and sauté onions with the fenugreek seeds until the onions are translucent. Add ginger and cook for a few minutes until fragrant (you should be smelling the fenugreek by now too!) 2) Add the vegetables to the pot and cook for a couple of minutes before adding enough water to just cover the vegetables. Simmer until the vegetables are tender (I put my pot in my Wonderbag slow cooker once it had come to a simmer and went out for a walk in the meantime.) 3) Blitz the soup until smooth. Serve with crusty bread. So tasty and a beautiful variant to the traditional pumpkin spice soup. The carrots and parsnips add some sweetness and the ginger brings a nice heat, while the fenugreek (yes, more adventures in fenugreek exploration!) brings a warm fragrance to the soup. I do like the traditional one, but this one will be sticking around too.

As mentioned in Day 64 of The Challenge I love rosehips and their season is upon us! (So many seasons, it's wonderful, I know!). They are one of those supposed super foods, especially high in vitamin c. They are the fruit of the rose, which grows if you don't deadhead and snip your roses. They also grow wild in hedgerows. I discovered them a couple of years ago and am gradually expanding what I do with rosehips. I picked these locally while on a walk this weekend which was quite exciting. Ingredients: 1/2 c rosehips Juice of 1 lemon 1 tbsp honey 1 tsp pomegranate molasses 1/4 tsp urfa biber (Turkish black chilli) 1 pinch of salt 1) Top and tail rosehips and boil them in about 1 to 1 1/2 c water with the lemon juice. Reduce heat and simmer for 15 minutes or until the rosehips are softened. 2) Strain rosehip juice using a food mill or a strainer. 3) Add other ingredients to the juice and bring it back to a gentle simmer for 10 more minutes. Serve hot or cold to add some sour-sweet pep! This was a somewhat experimental recipe as I have made something similar-ish in the past but not quite the same. I initially made it for yesterday morning's French toast as a quick easy drizzle, but it has also since worked very nicely with roasted chestnuts.

We were having a games night with some friends recently, so I decided to make nachos, as an easy finger-food nibble. Instead of fully loading them, I mixed the tortilla chips only with the Meat Sauce and cheese, and on the side, I had several dipping sauces - guacamole, Carrot Top Pesto, sour cream and this Roast Pepper Dip. Initially, I made this one really simple, with only peppers, garlic, some Kashmiri chilli and some olive oil. The taste test proved it to be rather bland though, so I added some bits. The taste came out quite interesting and unexpected - but tasty. Ingredients: 2 red peppers 1/2 head garlic 1 tbsp olive oil 1/2 tsp Kashmiri chilli powder 1/2 tsp cacao powder 1 tsp sesame oil 1/2 tsp Black Sesame seeds Squeeze of lime juice Salt to taste 1) Roast the red peppers and the half head of garlic at 200°C for about 20-30 minutes, until they are soft and the skin of the peppers is beginning to char. 2) Leave the peppers and garlic to cool for a few minutes, then peel the peppers and remove the cores and the seeds. Squeeze the garlic out of its skin and place these and all the ingredients in a blender. Blitz until smooth. Serve with dippables. I was in a hurry before people arrived and tweaked the dip without giving it much thought, or having time to do it properly, so the dip came out a little differently than I had thought, but tasty nonetheless. It is even better a day or two later once the flavours have married. I might make it a little hotter in future, but didn't want to carpet bomb my friends' tastebuds. Then again, as it currently stands it is tasty too, so pick whatever suits your mood!

From somewhere came the idea of trying a Salted Caramel Ice Cream recipe, and then on Binging with Babish I saw a trick for making Dulce De Leche. You boil a full tin of condensed milk in a pot of water for between 1 and 3 hours, and then when you open it, it is caramelised. I tried this recipe twice. The first time I used the same basic ice cream recipe as in the Rose Petal Ice Cream, but I accidentally used unsweetened condensed milk. I tried adding sugar and further caramelising it once I took it out of the tin, and it worked, but the flavour was not strong enough to hold its own once I mixed it with the cream and put it all in the churn. The result is nice, but a bit bland, more of a fiore di latte than a caramel ice cream. In my second attempt, I made sure to pick up sweetened condensed milk, and the caramelising trick worked great. On opening the tin we found a thick, rich Dulce de Leche with a beautiful colour (although I must say that I feel rather like Amelia Bedelia boiling a tin). I then tried out Michel Roux's basic ice cream recipe (sort of) based on a frozen Crème Anglaise, but unfortunately got this going when I had a number of other bits going on the stove at the same time, and Little Bit started resisting bed time. The result was that the eggs lumped a bit in the mix. I wondered whether to chuck it and whip cream for my ice cream instead, but instead decided to run with it. I mixed in my caramel and stirred more or less continuously until it all thickened up enough to go in the churn. The result has a wonderful flavour. The eggy custard base adds a beautiful depth and richness to the flavour. The small eggy lumps mar the effect a little, and are more perceptible as the ice cream melts, but initially they are barely noticeable unless you look for them. I will include both recipes - using whipped cream, which I recommend if you don't have a churn, and the custard based one - as the flaws were neither of them in the conception or recipe but rather in the execution. The first produces a lighter flavour with a firmer, harder texture when frozen, the other a softer texture and a richer flavour. Both were tasty (but I can only imagine version 1 with properly caramelised ice cream). For V1 (with or without an ice cream maker): Ingredients: 1 c sweetened condensed milk (ish, I just use the whole tin) 2 c cream 1/2 tsp salt 1/3 c caramel bits 1) Place the unopened tin of sweetened condensed milk in a saucepan and fill with enough water to cover. Place over heat and bring to a boil. Cover the saucepan and boil for 2 ish hours (less time will result in a lighter caramel, more in a darker caramel. In order for the flavour to hold its own I wouldn't boil for any less than 2 hours). Top up water as necessary. 2) Whip cream. Fold in caramel, salt and caramel bits. 3) EITHER place in Ice cream churn until thick and nearly frozen, then place in container in the freezer OR place directly in a container in the freezer, relying on the lightness of the whipped cream for the ice cream's lightness. For Version 2 (using an ice cream churn): Ingredients: 1 c condensed milk (ish, I just use the whole tin) 6 egg yolks 2 c milk 1 c sugar 1/3 c caramel bits 1/2 tsp salt 1) Place the unopened tin of sweetened condensed milk in a saucepan and fill with enough water to cover. Place over heat and bring to a boil. Cover the saucepan and boil for 2 ish hours (less time will result in a lighter caramel, more in a darker caramel. In order for the flavour to hold its own I wouldn't boil for any less than 2 hours). Top up water as necessary. 2) Place milk and 2/3 of the sugar in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Meanwhile, beat the egg yolks with remaining 1/3 of the sugar until it forms a ribbonny consistency. 3) Pour milk over the egg and sugar mixture, whisking continuously. Pour back into the saucepan, turn the heat to low and stir constantly (this is where I failed) until the custard thickens. Stir in the caramel and salt about mid-way through. 4) Remove from the heat and allow to cool thoroughly. Pour into the ice cream churn and allow to go until nearly frozen. When the mixture is very cool but not yet anywhere near set, add the caramel bits (I added mine a little early and they were less discernibly bits in the final ice cream, and more just concentrated caramel pockets of ice cream. Place in a container and freeze. To my great good fortune, when my sister stayed over last night (invited in the very solemn role of Ketchup Guinea Pig), she warned me that she would have to make brownies to bring to work while staying over. For dessert today therefore, we had Version 2 of the Salted Caramel Ice Cream with fresh brownies. There are certainly worse fates one could have to face. The consensus was that this was well worth making again, and was not ruined by my failure to stir the custard constantly yesterday. It would be nice served with some flakes of sea salt or curls of dark chocolate, something with no add sweetness which would contrast nicely with the caramel's sweetness. I am certainly glad I tried a different method for ice cream making, and that I picked up the right condensed milk this time!

A friend sent me a recipe from another blog, agoodcarrot.com, for Turkish rice. The recipe looked good and it occurred to me that I hadn't made any stuffed grape leaves in a while, and that I had the necessary ingredients on hand. Tomorrow's lunch planned! Massive caveat to doing this in the late morning with a teething 1 year old: it takes a while to fold grape leaves! The rice, slightly modified to suit my pantry and tastes, took no time to cook what so ever, but then folding was another story. Moral of this: plan a little further ahead and give yourself more time than I did! They were tasty enough to make up for the delay in lunch though, so no worries. Ingredients: for the rice: 1 onion, chopped 1/2 c raisins, chopped 2 1/2 tbsp dried mint, crushed 3 tbsp olive oil 1/2 c walnuts, chopped 2 tsp cinnamon 1 tsp allspice 2 c rice 3 c water salt and pepper to taste 1 packet grape leaves, washed 1 tbsp olive oil 2 tbsp lemon juice 1 egg, beaten 1) Heat oil in a saucepan and sauté the onions until they are translucent. Add the nuts and toast lightly. Add the raisins, spices and rice and cook for a further couple of minutes on medium heat, until the rice becomes translucent. 2) Add the mint and water and stir, and bring to the boil. At this point, put a tight lid on the pot and then you can either do what I did and put it in a Wonderbag slow cooker, or you can lower the heat and cook until all the water has been absorbed and the rice is cooked (about 20 minutes). 3) Cool the rice! Then fold into the grape leaves: cut the stem off a leaf and place it stem-stump down on your palm. Place a small amount of rice filling (approx. 2 tsp) in the centre and fold in the sides then roll it up to the top. Place seam side down in a heavy bottomed pot. Use torn or small leaves to line the pot. 4) Pour 1 1/2 c water and 1 tbsp olive oil over the top and place a plate on the stuffed bundles to keep them from floating. Heat the pot over medium heat and cook for about 10 minutes. 5) Beat the egg and lemon juice together and pour evenly over the stuffed leaves and cook for a further 2-3 minutes. 6) Serve! These were really tasty! I highly recommend them, provided you have enough time. The rice is very tasty on its own too, so if you don't have time to fold them, just serve it as a side for something else. With some of the left over rice, I made rice balls stuffed with orange peel and raisins with cloves and fenugreek, a couple of days later and served them with a very simple minty tzatziki and lentil sliders.

Sweet Potatoes are normally really expensive here, so when the price drops, I buy up loads of them. Usually, being a tuber, they last pretty well. This time though, that meant using up 4 kilos of sweet potatoes fast. After putting a couple in a few other dishes and still having a mountain of them to use, I chopped off the ugly bits and made soup. As often happens, I didn't have a very clear idea when I started of where I was heading with this soup, but I am really happy with where it ended up, so thought I'd share. I had thought maybe I would go a big veggie soup direction, or maybe cream of sweet potato soup, or something coconutty. The Fromage Blanc was the last from my most recent batch of homemade cheese, and the chives were the only ones that poked their heads through this year. The pot looked rather like a bald man's head with only a few green hairs sprinkled around. I used chicken stock as I had some from a recent chicken dish, but veggie stock would have worked well too. It all came together very nicely though! Ingredients: For the soup: 2 tbsp olive oil 3-4 onions, chopped 4 cm ginger, diced 2 - 2,5 kg sweet potatoes, chopped 4 c chicken stock 1 tsp Urfa Biber 1 tbsp nigella seeds 1 - 1 1/2 c corn Salt and pepper to taste for the red pepper paste: 1 red pepper 1 red chilli pepper 2 tbsp olive oil 2 tbsp apple cider vinegar 1 onion, chopped For the fromage blanc 3/4 c fromage blanc (or cream cheese) 2-3 tbsp fresh chives 1/2 tsp garlic powder salt 1) Place red pepper and chilli in the oven, whole at 200°C for 20-30 minutes, until the red pepper is soft and starting to char. 2) In a heavy-bottomed soup pot, heat olive oil over medium heat and sauté onion and ginger. 3) Add sweet potato and stock. Add water until the sweet potatoes are just covered and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and cook for 20 - 25 minutes until sweet potatoes are soft. 4) Using a hand blender, blitz soup until it is most of the way smooth. Add corn, Urfa and nigella seeds. 5) Meanwhile, remove peppers from the oven and blitz in a blender with the onion, olive oil and vinegar. (I used olive oil left over from preserving my Cabécou Goat's cheese). 6) In a bowl, mix the fresh cheese, chives, garlic powder and salt. 7) Serve the soup hot, with dolloping options of fresh cheese and red pepper paste. I am really happy with this soup. Having the fresh cheese and the red pepper paste on the side meant we were each able to spice it up or make it creamy according to our own tastes. This also continues the trend of keeping spicy things on the side so that Little Bit can eat the same meal as us. He wanted corn from the tin while I was cooking, so I ended up needing more corn than anticipated, but then he offered me 5 kernels for the soup. Individually of course. He was very proud of his contribution too! The fresh cheese was very tasty, and I enjoyed the creaminess as it melted into the soup, but the soul also works really well without it. The red pepper paste is tasty in its own right, and I am happy to have it around for other purposes too. I like happy accidents in cooking!