Colourful Family Food
I’ve never stuffed a pepper in my life so I figure if I’m going to do it I ought to make six at once.
I think I’m a convert. After all, it only takes a quick lop off of the tops and a scooping out of the seeds and you’ve an instant casing for a yummy filling. And that sure beats faffing around with pastry in my book. (Plus it’s healthier)….
I’ve categorised this post as “eating in” but arguably it should be “eating out”!
Take one box of store cupboard items that are versatile enough to be used a few ways each; mustard, mayonnaise, cocoa, peanut butter, honey, marmite, ketchup.
Between all of these you have various choices what to put on bread or toast, the makings of salad dressings and pasta sauces. I tend to buy a small bottle each of olive oil and vinegar when I get there….
I paired these two ingredients last week in my cichette Venetian style appetisers. Since I had a fair bit of each ingredient left they resurfaced in last night’s supper, a speedy tray of ciabatta mini pizzas.
Ciabatta keeps for a good week unopened in the fridge. I often buy a loaf if I’m anticipating guests who may or may not definitely be coming and not sure which day either. Everything else bar the cheese is store cupboard so it’s a very flexible appetiser or light meal that I first featured as sun blush tomato mini pizzas.
And if it turns out your guests are not coming after all, you can freeze the ciabatta until they do….
I foxed my husband on Saturday. He said “what’s for lunch” and I replied in an enthusiastic faux Spanish accent, huevos rancheros.
My husband doesn’t speak Spanish, nor for that matter do I….
Review previously published as Back to the Bush at Maison Cupcake
Deepest darkest Shepherds Bush will always have a place in my heart: we lived there for eight happy years. Our returning there from Walthamstow is rare. So an invitation to review Bush Hall Dining Rooms was an ideal opportunity to check out our old neighbourhood.
Opening a few weeks ago, this restaurant partners Uxbridge Road’s Bush Hall concert venue. A former 1920s dance hall, the Bush Hall building had been a scruffy snooker club since the 1980s but is now restored as an elegant music and events venue. Now you can book a pre-gig dinner in the adjacent restaurant….
Cooling down with hot guacamole…. Bought guacamole can be a lacklustre experience, whereas I’ll accept shop bought hummus (my own is better if available) I really can’t stick shop bought guacamole.
The slightest tinge of grey from the avocado really turns me off so only fresh will do. Finding avocados just how I like them is another minefield but makes eating them all the more satisfying when a perfect one opens up….
I ate these at a blog event recently although I’ve been racking my brains which one it was. Then I spent a weekend with Helen who served them as an appetiser. They’re kind of addictive.
If you’ve never heard of padrun peppers then I urge you to seek them out, they’re currently around £1.99 a bag in Waitrose although I’ve heard reports of Sainsbury’s stocking them too.
They’re barely bigger than hot chilli peppers and their preparation merely requires a quick stir fry in olive oil and a sprinkling of sea salt.
Padrun peppers are mildly hot although now and again you get one that blows your head off. They’re the culinary equivalent of Russian Roulette.
The packs from Waitrose claim that around 1 in 30 has a kick although I’d say it’s closer to 1 in 10.
Maybe don’t feed them to the kids just incase they take a bite of rocket fuel but they’re marvellous as an appetiser when you’ve got friends round.
I cooked them for my parents in law the other weekend. They like growing green peppers in Serbia and my father in law isn’t averse to hot chilli so I thought these would amuse him.
Now I’m keeping my fingers crossed we’ll get them imported all the year round rather than them being a seasonal flash in the pan. Or maybe I’d appreciate them more if they were seasonal. Probably that’s preferable. But please please don’t let the season be too short.
Lemon yogurt is one of my favourite flavours because it’s flexible to use in non-sweet dishes as well as more obviously dessert or breakfast.
I have marinated chicken in lemon yogurt to great effect and during the current heat wave we have enjoyed a cooling salad dressing made from Muller Light Greek Style lemon yogurt. Mix 2 tablespoon of yogurt and 1 heaped tablespoon of tahini with a fork in a mug. Add seasoning and an equal volume water and mix well. Drizzle with some olive oil and spoon over salad leaves, it’s especially good with rocket. If you make a mug full you’ll have enough for a couple of days.
Uses for tahini and lemon yogurt dressing:
Spread on flatbreads rather than mayonnaise
Drizzle over rocket salad
Omit the water and use as a dip
Someone asked me on Facebook whether using a sweet yogurt meant this dressing was sweet. I don’t think so, the texture of the tahini balances it out fine.
What’s your favourite instant salad dressing?
This is the potato salad I made using the dill and rapeseed mayonnaise in my last post.
I was wondering how to use this can of hearts of palm shown below and read on the side that it went well with smoked fish. I tend to keep a wallet of smoked salmon in my freezer, they defrost within little more than an hour meaning you have smoked salmon pretty much whenever you fancy it without hurrying to use it after purchase. You can buy frozen smoked salmon from IKEA but I don’t recommend this as the fish is very pale and lacks flavour.
So whenever I spot a reduced pack of fresh smoked salmon in the supermarket, into my freezer it goes.
Hearts of palm are a vegetable I would use again – they’re soft and not strongly flavoured, a kind of fusion between bamboo shoot, asparagus and mushroom. They’re soft and mix in well with potato. I also stir fried some hearts of palm in left over rice the next day. An interesting backdrop vegetable rather than a main star of the dish. Handy to keep in the cupboard to add extra bulk or interest to a salad.
Smoked salmon potato salad with hearts of palm
There’s no fixed amount for most of the ingredients, just use as much or as little as you fancy depending on your favourites!
Ingredients:
dill and rapeseed mayonnaise
smoked salmon
sliced radish
cooled boiled new potatoes
sliced hearts of palm
salt and pepper to season
extra chopped fresh dill to garnish
This would make an excellent ideal picnic or lunchbox dish. Or a light lunch.
With thanks to Cooks and Co for product samples.
Take one peach that’s been sat in the fridge so long you’re sick of the sight of it (even though there’s nothing actually wrong with it) one narrow strip of left over puff pastry (from Charlotte’s courgette tart) and half a dozen raspberries out of the garden.
Cut the puff pastry into circles with a crinkly cutter and drape over slices of the peach with a raspberry. Add a sprinkling of sugar (or in my case a quick grinding of Lakeland cinnamon sugar).
Bake at 200c for around 20 minutes. A speedy fridge diving dessert!