Mushroom Rice

Quick, simple, reliable, and can be either a light meal or a side dish. What more can anyone want?

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup Basmati rice
• 1 cup water
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 pound mushrooms (you can use any combination including field, button, shiitake, oyster, and portabello mushrooms)
• 2 scallions or shallots, or half an onion diced very fine
• 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
• 1/4 cup dry white wine
• Fresh flat-leaf parsley

Method:

1. In a large heavy saucepan, bring rice and water with salt to a boil. Stir rice once and cook, covered, over moderately low heat for 6 minutes.
2. Remove pan from heat, drain off the water, and let rice stand, covered with a towel-wrapped lid, for 5 minutes (it's fine to leave it longer until you're ready to use it!)
3. Cut mushrooms into 1/4-inch-thick slices and chop the scallions/shallots/onion.
4. In a skillet heat butter over moderately high heat until the foam subsides and sauté the mushrooms with salt to taste until golden and any liquid given off is evaporated. If you're using shallots or an onion, brown those along with the mushrooms.
5. Add the wine and simmer, stirring occasionally, until the wine is evaporated.
6. Fluff the rice up with a fork, stir in the mushrooms and scallions and sprinkle over the parsley before serving.

Tip: To make this a main meal for non-veggies, you can add stir in shredded cooked chicken at the end and heat through thoroughly.

Chicken and Mushroom Risotto

This one is a great recipe if, like me, you have a vegetarian and a meat-eater in the house and don't want to be arsing about making two seperate meals. You can just make this (using vegetarian stock) up to stage 3, then add the peas in and set aside a portion to keep meat-free before adding the chicken to the rest.

Ingredients:

• Knob of butter
• 1/2 onion , finely chopped
• 1 garlic clove , finely chopped
• 150g risotto rice
• 1 glass white wine
• 500ml chicken or vegetable stock, heated to simmering
• Handful peas, cooked
• Cooked or leftover roast chicken, torn into strips, no skin
• 25g Parmesan, grated
• 100g fresh mushrooms cleaned and sliced
• A little salt and lots of freshly ground black pepper
• Flat leaved parsley, chopped
• Lemon juice

Methodology:

1. Melt a knob of butter in a large pan, add the mushrooms, onion and garlic and cook until onions are soft and translucent. Stir in the rice until coated with butter.
2. Add half the wine and stir until evaporated. Add the stock a ladle at a time until the rice is cooked but still with a little bite, adding in the rest of the wine with the last of the stock. Season with salt and pepper.
3. Add the peas and chicken in the last 5 minutes of cooking to heat through.
4. When the rice is tender and the risotto is thick and creamy remove from the heat, stir in the Parmesan and a squirt of lemon juice and leave to rest for about 30 seconds, before garnishing with the parsley and some shavings of Parmesan cheese.

Serves two people

Apple-Honey Scones

Ingredients:

• 2 cups flour
• 2/3 cup wheat germ
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/3 cup butter, chilled
• 1 1/4 cups finely chopped apple
• 1/2 cup skim milk
• 1/3 cup honey

For the topping:

• 1 tablespoon wheat germ
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

1. Preheat oven to 400°. Lightly grease a large baking sheet.
2. Combine the first seven ingredients; cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs.
3. Combine the apple, milk and honey, and mix into the dry ingredients until they are just moistened.
4. Turn dough onto lightly floured surface - knead gently 5-6 times. Pat into 9-inch circle.
5. Combine remaining ingredients - sprinkle over dough.
6. Cut into 10 wedges; place 1/2 inch apart on prepared cookie sheet. Bake 16-18 minutes.

Phoenician Honey Cakes (Melomakarona or Finikia)

These small honey cakes offered to callers at a Greek home at Christmas and New Year. The recipe for these cakes is said to have been brought to Greece by the Phoenicians. I don't make them often, as they are far too indulgent for an everyday kind of snack - they are a special treat! Best served with a Turkish coffee.

Ingredients

• 375 ml olive oil (use one of the light varieties)
• 375 ml unsalted butter, softened
• 125ml sugar
• 375 ml orange juice (or half retsina or dry white wine)
• 10 ml baking powder
• 125 ml brandy
• Grated orange rind
• 1/2 tsp ground cloves
• 1/2 tsp grated nutmeg
• 1.3 kilos of all purpose flour
• Chopped walnuts or almonds
• Cinnamon
• A syrup made by boiling together 375 ml honey, 375 ml sugar and 375 ml water and the juice of 1 lemon for 5 minutes.

Methodology

• Preheat the oven to 180 C and lightly oil several baking sheets.
• Beat together the olive oil, butter and sugar.
• Dissolve the baking powder in the orange juice and combine in a jug with the brandy and orange rind. Beat the liquid into the oil and sugar mixture and then gradually add the flour until a soft dough is formed.
• Knead the dough lightly and form little balls the size and shape of an egg; flatten balls lightly on an oiled baking sheet.
• Bake in a moderate oven (190 C) for 15-25 minutes until they are browned. When the cakes are cooked, take them from the oven and while they are still warm, lower each one into the hot syrup for 2/3 minutes.
• Place them on greaseproof paper to cool. Sprinkle them with chopped walnuts or almonds and cinnamon.

Blackberry Muffins

At this time of year I go mad and bring home buckets of blackberries (and we don't have a freezer) and everyone ends up groaning, "Oh no, not blackberry and apple pie again!". So this is a nice alternative way of using them, and I have to say these are damned good consumed with a cup of hot chocolate in front of the wood-burning stove.

Ingredients

• 200g/7oz plain wholemeal flour
• 85g/3oz caster sugar (I usually only use 2 oz as I don't like muffins too sweet)
• 1/2 tbsp baking powder
• 1 tsp vanilla essence
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 142ml/5fl oz buttermilk* or sour cream or yoghurt
• 1 egg, beaten
• 42g/1 1/2oz butter, melted
• 125g/5oz blackberries (be generous, I normally throw in a few more for good luck)

Method

1. Preheat the oven to Gas mark 5. Grease a 6-hole muffin tin (you'll probably have more batter than just for 6 muffins, I normally get about 8 or 9)
2. Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt. Mix in the sugar.
3. In a separate bowl, beat the buttermilk, eggs, vanilla essence and melted butter together.
4. Pour the wet mixture into the dry ingredients and stir until the ingredients are just combined and the mixture is quite stiff, but be careful not to overmix - it should be lumpy!
5. Lightly fold in the blackberries, then spoon the mixture into the tins to fill the holes generously.
6. Bake for 15-18 minutes until risen and pale golden on top. Leave to cool in the tin for a few minutes, before transferring to a wire rack to cool. Like all muffins these don't keep well and are best eaten the same day. You were going to do that anyway right?

Buttermilk Substitute

Yeah, I never have any on hand either, and my local supermarkets only sporadically keep it. So, here's a good way to 'sour' milk to use in the place of buttermilk.

To each cup of milk, add 1 1/2 tbsp of fresh lemon juice or 1 1/3 tbsp of cider vinegar. For best results warm the milk through slightly first. Let the soured milk stand for at least five mins before using it to give it time to thicken.

Soured milk will keep in the refrigerator for 3-4 days in a tightly covered container.

Roasted butternut squash and sage risotto with pinenuts

I love squash but finding things to do with them apart from soup can be tricky. So I was pleased to find this recipe; even better when I tried it and it worked! You could probably also do this a pumpking, though I've not tried that - yet!

Ingredients

• 1 small butternut squash (or half a big one)
• 1 garlic clove, peeled
• 1 tbsp olive oil, plus extra for drizzling
• 7 or 8 sage leaves, chopped
• flaked sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
• Large knob of butter
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 200g arborio or other Italian risotto rice
• 1 glass white wine
• 500ml hot vegetable stock
• handful of freshly grated parmesan cheese, plus extra to serve
• 30g pinenuts, to serve

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 200C/400F/Gas 6.
2. Cut the butternut squash into 4 pieces, remove the seeds and place in a roasting tray. Pound or chop the garlic and add a generous glug of olive oil, half the sage leaves, sea salt and pepper. Tip into the tray and rub over the butternut squash with your hands. Roast in the oven for 40-50 minutes until softened and becoming golden in colour.
3. Once the squash has cooked, cool slightly, then scrape the soft flesh away from the skin into a bowl. Lightly mash with a fork or potato masher until it is fairly chunky in texture. Scrape any sticky juices left in the roasting tray into the bowl and keep warm while making the risotto.
4. Heat the olive oil and a good knob of butter in a deep, heavy-based frying pan or saute pan. Gently fry the onion until softened. Add the rice and stir for about a minute until the grains are coated with the oil and butter. Pour in the wine and stir continuously until it has cooked into the rice. Add a good ladle of hot stock and the remaining sage and season well with salt and pepper. Turn the heat down so the stock is simmering gently. Keep adding ladles of stock as it cooks into the rice, stirring and moving the rice around in the pan. After about 15-20 minutes the rice should be soft but still have a bit of bite left in it. The texture of the risotto should be thick and creamy, but not too loose. Add extra stock if necessary.
5. Remove the pan from the heat and gently stir the roasted butternut squash into the risotto with the parmesan, the remaining butter and seasoning to taste. Add any extra stock if the risotto seems particularly thick. Cover with a lid for a couple of minutes as this will give the risotto an even creamier texture.
6. During this time, place the pinenuts in a fairly hot frying pan and toss around until golden. Spoon the risotto into warmed bowls and scatter with the pinenuts and extra parmesan.

Tip: For carnivores, you can fry a couple of slices of smoked bacon til crispy and scatter over the risotto with the pinenuts.

Serves 2

Recipe from the BBC website

Spiced Banana Rum Cake

A firm fave with the partner, for obvious reasons....

Ingredients

• 200g Light Muscovado Sugar


• 200g Plain Flour


• 175g Sultanas


• 100g Pecan Nuts, toasted and chopped


• 1 tsp Ground Cinnamon


• ½ tsp Grated Nutmeg


• ½ tsp Salt


• 2 tsp Baking Powder


• 3 Ripe Bananas


• 4 tbsp Dark Rum


• 3 Eggs, beaten


• 120g Butter

Method:

1. Toss the sultanas and pecans in 2 tablespoons of the flour.


2. Cream the butter and sugar until light.


3. Mash the bananas with the rum and gradually beat into the mixture.


4. Beat in the eggs, a little at a time.


5. Sift together the dry ingredients and fold into the mixture.


6. Lightly stir in the sultanas and pecans.


7. Spoon into a greased, lined 23 cm cake tin and cook for about 1 hour, Gas 5/190°C/375°F until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.


8. Cool in the tin for a few minutes then finish cooling on a wire rack.