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I will still keep the other recipe too, but this is a nice alternative to have up my sleeve!

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!

The creation of these is a bit of a saga, so buckle up (or skip straight to the recipe). The recipe calls for quite a lot of oil and sometimes the dough can be oozy. I started out keeping the recipe exactly the same, just replacing the oil with apple sauce. I made the cookie recipe as per usual, just cutting the sugar and adding a little cream and some extra

As Mentioned in Day 42 of The Challenge We made baking powder biscuits ( sort of non-sweet scones, very tasty if not strongly flavoured despite the unflattering name) for our Pork Shoulder Roast, and then decided to have the rest for dessert with a blueberry and port sauce and a chocolate sauce. It was very tasty, with the sauce melting the dollop of crème fraiche over the top, although possible not strictly speaking necessary after the pork roast. A beautiful way altogether of celebrating our last night of holiday before going back to work. Ingredients: For the biscuits: 2c flour 4 tbsp butter 2/3 c milk 2 tsp baking powder For the Blueberry Port Sauce: 2 c blueberries 2 tbsp sugar 1 tsp cinnamon 1/4 c ruby port 1) Mix the flour and baking powder together and then cut the butter into the flour in small pieces. Rub the butter into the flour with fingertips until it forms a crumby dough. 2) Add milk and mix it into a light, soft dough, then knead briefly until smooth. 3) Roll the dough out to 1-1.5 cm thick on a floured surface. Cut with a floured cutter or glass into rounds and place these on a greased baking sheet, leaving a little room for the biscuits to expand. Bake 12-15 minutes at 230°C, until golden brown on top and risen. 4) To make the blueberry and port sauce, place berries in a saucepan with 1/4 c water. bring to a simmer, and cook gently for 10 minutes or so. Add the sugar, cinnamon and port and stir, cooking until the desired consistency is reached. Taste test and adjust sugar or spicing. 6) Serve the biscuits hot with the sauce drizzled over and a dollop of crème fraiche. Decadent but quick and easy, this was beautiful for a lazy evening.

made them take rather longer than planned as I had to cook off the water so as not to drain the miso (recipe

Growing up, sahlep, ground orchid root used in a Turkish milk-based hot drink, was a special treat, only after my dad had been on a trip to Istambul. I have discovered a shop here in Switzerland where I can find it now though, so while I like it as much as ever, it is less special and no longer a scarce commodity. Since discovering this, I have decided to start playing around with Sahlep as an ingredient in my cooking (Sahlep pancakes for example). As part of this, I decided a while back that I wanted to try Sahlep puddings. I tried a first iteration of these months ago, without baking. I simply chilled sahlep infused custard before serving. It was tasty, but the flavour needed some work, it was too sweet, and it never set. Summer was then crazy busy, and then there was the whole episode with the arrival of the Littler Bit, so I only revisited the idea in the last few weeks. We had been making macarons so I had egg yolks to use, so it seemed the logical thing to do. This time I decided to try baking the custards and tweaked the flavouring and sugar combo to boot. I also included whey, leftover from making ricotta to help balance out the sweetness. Ingredients: 2 tbsp flour 2 tbsp sugar 2 c milk 1 c whey 1 tsp cinnamon 2 tsp sahlep 2 1/2 tbsp maple sugar 2 tbsp butter 6 egg yolks 1 tsp mix spice 1 tbsp maple sugar 1) In a small saucepan, heat 1c of the milk over medium-low heat. stir in the sahlep, cinnamon and maple sugar. Stir until combined and thickened slightly, never allowing the milk to come above a simmer. Set aside. 2) In a saucepan over medium heat, combine sugar and flour. Stir and allow to cook for a couple of minutes, then stir in 1c of the milk and the whey. Bring to a boil and immediately lower to a simmer. Cook until thickened so that a finger dragged across the back of a spoon dipped in the pot leaves a trail. The Parting of the Milk! 3) Meanwhile, beat the egg yolks in a bowl. Once the milk mixture has thickened, stir in a spoonful of it into the egg yolks to temper them until about 1 to 1 1/2c of the milk mixture has been incorporated into the eggs. Turn the heat off and stir the egg-milk mix into the pot. 4) Add the sahlep mix from step 1 and stir. Add the butter, allowing to melt and incorporate. Taste test, and add milk or cinnamon as necessary. 5) Spoon the resulting custard into a shallow baking dish or ramequins. Sprinkle over the remaining maple sugar and the mix spice. Bake at 180°C for 45-50 minutes, until set but still slightly jiggly. Serve warm or chilled. We all very much enjoyed this, but even more so on day 2 when it was cold, with lekerli (Swiss German gingerbreads) dipped in the custards. Definitely pleased with this, especially as it is quick and easy to make and can be prepped ahead if entertaining.

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!

So this one is from a while back when we were preparing to move. I needed to use up food from the freezer, and found a container of pumpkin from when they were in season last autumn. Being in the mood for lasagna, this is what I came up with. Given the nature of pumpkin, I went for warm flavours. It was going to be vegetarian, but then I figured that bacon makes everything better, so threw some on the top. Ingredients: 4c roast pumpkin 1 red pepper, chopped 2 onions, chopped 1 carrot, diced 1/2 head garlic, minced 2 tbsp olive oil 1 tbsp sage 1 tsp thyme 1 tsp basilic 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar 1/2 tsp herbes de provence 1/2 tsp cumin Salt and pepper to taste 2 tbsp butter, melted 1 1/2 - 2 c ricotta Lasagna sheets 1/2 c Gruyère, grated (Optional: 6 ish bacon rashers) 1) In a large saucepan, heat the oil. Sauté the onions until translucent, add the garlic and fry for 30 seconds, then add the carrots, red pepper and herbs and vinegar. Cook for a few minutes then add the pumpkin. Reduce heat and cook on low for about 15 minutes. Add a little water if needed. 2) Brush a deep oven-proof dish with melted butter. lay down a layer of lasagna sheets, brush with butter then spoon over a layer of sauce then ricotta. Begin with a new layer of lasagna sheets and repeat. When you have gotten to the top of the dish or the end of the sauce, whichever comes first, lay the bacon over the top (if using), and then sprinkle over the Gruyère. 3) Bake at 180°C for about 30 minutes. Serve hot. Very tasty, and less heavy than a traditional lasagna. I was also very happy to have decided to add the bacon. It would have been tasty without, but the addition took it to another level. I was particularly happy with how this all came out, and I am very tempted to make it again this week... hmmm...

After how good the Ginger and Pear Blondies were, the idea of trying a variant using rhubarb immediately came to mind when I had a load of some of the biggest rhubarb I've ever seen (thanks to my dad and this year's freak weather conditions). These were beauteous. The acidity of the rhubarb played off against the sweetness of the blondies and apple like that was its sole purpose on Earth. I'm loving the flavour possibilities of blondies! Ingredients: 1/2 c butter, melted 1 c brown sugar 1 egg 1 tsp vanilla 1 tsp cinnamon 1/2 tsp baking powder 1/8 tsp baking soda 1 c flour 1 1/2 apples, diced 2 sticks rhubarb, diced 1/4 c milk 1) Place the diced rhubarb in a saucepan and cover with water. Simmer gently, reducing the liquid. Stir regularly! 2) In a large bowl, cream the brown sugar and butter together. Beat in egg and vanilla. Slowly add the dry ingredients and mix well. 3) Stir in the apples and rhubarb. Add enough milk or whey to make the batter thick but pourable. 4) Bake in a prepared baking tin at 175°C for 30-35 minutes or until a knife comes out clean. I loved these! The flavours played well and they were moist and caramelly and beautiful! You must try these while rhubarb is still in season! Even Little bit liked them and he is not always a cake person. Maybe a little on the cakey side, but that isn't a bad thing. They were moist and caramelised and beautiful.

Here is the recipe that worked best, although I might try it over with a couple of tweaks at some point Trying to compare different versions of a recipe, I definitely wish I had access to a test kitchen!