Last night I sat and watched the story of Nigel Slater in the BBC drama, Toast. Hats off to the Beeb for creating a show that had a good helping of humour with a heart-warming story and simply fabulous food and set styling, transporting me into retro-ville. It really highlighted just how important of a role food plays in our lives, through good times and bad, there’s nothing that a few hours in the kitchen can’t cure.

I’m off to dig up a lemon meringue pie recipe…

CY x

Couscous and butternut squash salad with goats cheese, red onion and pine nuts in a sweet and sour vinaigrette

2 cups of cous cous

2 cups of hot chicken stock (or vegetable)

1 kg/2 1/4 lb butternut squash or pumpkin (peeled – with a potato peeler and seeds and fibres scraped out – and cut into 2.5cm/1 inch cubes)

6 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

1 tsp salt

1 tsp freshly ground black pepper

3 garlic cloves, thinly sliced

6 tbsp red wine vinegar

3 tbsp clear honey

1 medium red onion, thinly sliced

1 level tsp crushed dried red chilli

2 tbsp chopped fresh mint

4 tablespoons toasted pine nuts

100g Goats cheese in bite size pieces

Handful of spring onions (optional)

Handful of sliced black olives (optional)

Method

Heat the oven to 200°C/400°F/Gas mark 6.

Place pumpkin cubes on a large baking sheet. Toss with 2 tbsp of the olive oil and season with the salt and pepper. Bake, shaking the baking sheet occasionally for 20 minutes or until golden and tender. Don’t expect it to go crispy – it does go soft and a little brown at the edges – seasoning is key!

While the butternut squash is roasting, pour the 2 cups of hot stock in to the couscous and leave to soak for about 5 minutes. If it’s sticking together, break it up with a fork.

Heat the remaining oil in a saute pan. Add the garlic and cook until gold and brown. Pour in the vinegar and add the honey, onion and chilli. Bring to the boil, then lower the heat and simmer for 5 minutes until syrupy.

Transfer the butternut squash/pumpkin to a large dish and add the goat’s cheese, couscous, red onion, toasted pine nuts, mint, spring onion and black olives (if using). Drizzle the dressing over, let it soak in for 30 mins and serve.

Enjoy!

CY xxx

In keeping with her recent adventures in Barefoot Contessa land, she decided to make Ina’s lamb with white beans (taken from the Barefoot in Paris book). She served it with some green beans and it was all utterly delicious. The best bit was, ofcourse, the fact I didn’t have to lift a finger! For pud she made a cherry almond tart – again really lovely. She used the Eric Lanlard recipe from Glamourpuds for her pastry and it’s definitely a recipe I’ll be filing away for future tarts!

What a lucky CY mummy I am!

xxx CY

Although she worked long hours and is utterly knackered since returning home, it sounds as though she had a great experience, worked with some lovely people and has clearly learnt a lot! She also worked with Sharon from Friendly Cottage so if you haven’t already done so – check out her blog! Some gorgeous photos of her recently renovated house and some yummy recipes!

Here’s a couple of photos of Ina’s barn…

Now that CY junior is back in blighty, blogging can resume. My lack of technical knowledge has been holding me back the past few weeks! Keep your eyes peeled for some yummy Colonel recipes coming your way!

CY x

Schnecken – isn’t that just a great word to say?! I started spotting these little delights on various blogs and just had to make them. They are a bit messy – granted – but they are so worth the time and effort and sticky gooeyness to get the final result! I would say don’t be tempted to shove one down your screech as soon as they are out of the oven as they are infinitely better if you wait until cool or at least barely warm. We reheated them the next day and they were so much better than the previous day! We thought it might be nice to sprinkle crushed pecans on the dough before you roll it and we used Wilton’s Cake Release in the muffin tin, which worked like a charm! I’m sure butter would’ve done the same job except butter can burn.

So where can I find the recipe I hear you cry? Nigella’s How To Be A Domestic Goddess – Baking and The Art Of Comfort Cooking. I’m not generally a big fan of Nigella’s books as her recipes are often poorly written and don’t always meet with expectations. I’ve had a few disasters out of it – the wet chocolate cake is a good example of this, from her first book!.

We’re getting all yeasty later again. I’ve never made Danish pastries before but resent paying £2 a pop for something I know cost pence to make. I will ofcourse be reporting back to my yummies!

Ingredients:

2 tbsp olive oil

1 onion, finely chopped

300g courgettes, grated

2 garlic cloves, crushed

200g fresh or frozen peas

2 tbsp snipped chives (optional)

20 g fine white breadcrumbs

3 medium eggs

100 ml double cream

2 packets of diced pancetta (optional if you’re not a vegetarian)

40 g finely grated parmesan

1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

Preheat oven to 180ºC

Butter 5 ramekins, line the base with a round of baking parchment and use the fine bread crumbs to swill around the edges.

Method:

1) Heat the oil in a pan over a medium heat and add the onion (and pancetta if using). Season with salt and coarse ground pepper and fry gently for 10 mins until soft and golden. Add the undrained courgettes with the garlic and cook off until the courgettes have completely wilted and the liquid they release has evaporated. Add the peas and chives (if using) and cook for a minute or two and set aside to cool slightly.

2) Lightly beat the eggs and cream together. Stir in the parmesan, cayenne and season lightly. Mix together with the vegetable mix and pile in to each ramekin until well heaped – no need to be delicate with this! Place the ramekins into a roasting tin and pour boiling water carefully in until halfway up the moulds.

3) Bake for 45mins until golden on top and firm to the touch. Remove from the oven and rest for 10 minutes (the timbales that is not you!!). Run the tip of a sharp knife around the edge and tip them out and turn the right way round again so the golden tops are uppermost. Serve warm.

We all thought these might be quite nice served with a tomato-y salsa or a picante tomato sauce. You can see from the photo they need to prettied up with some dressed rocket leaves/peashoots.

I’ve made one that I’ve chilled overnight and will warm up today and will let you know. A ‘do-ahead’ starter is always sought after.

Ingredients:

500g Courgettes, top/tailed and grated into a colander to drain

1 tbsp salt

175g of fine fresh breadcrumbs

6 finely chopped spring onions

2 lightly beaten eggs

100g crumbled feta cheese

40g chopped fresh mint

1/4 tsp nutmeg

Olive oil or rapeseed oil for frying

Preheat the oven to 190ºC

Method:

1) Sprinkle the salt over the courgettes and slowly they’ll drain (up to an hour).

2) Whazz the bread in a magimix for the breadcrumbs, reserving 8 tbsp. Spread the remaining breadcrumbs on a baking sheet and bake for 10 mins, shaking the tin a couple of times until golden and crispy. When cool, re-whazz in the magi just to make them extra fine.

3) Tip the courgettes in the centre of a tea towel, collect up the corners and just keep twisting round and round over a sink, until little comes through the fabric. Tip the vegetables into a bowl and add the onions, eggs, feta, breadcrumbs, mint and nutmeg. Mix together and season well. Using floured hands or wearing disposable gloves, form small balls if using for canape or bigger if using as a light lunch or starter. At this point they may seem a bit loose. Roll them in the fine baked breadcrumbs.

4) Heat enough oil to submerge halfway up a patty. Test the heat of the oil with a chunk of bread – if it sizzles, drop the courgette boys in gently until crisp and golden. About 3 minutes on each side. Drain on kitchen towel – they are not over greasy – and serve with some seasoned greek yoghurt to which you can add a couple of tablespoons of dill or chives would be nice too. They can be eaten hot, warm or room temperature and I’m currently experimenting whether they can be frozen and then reheated/cooked. I’ll let you know! Yum!

Ingredients:

1 finely chopped onion

2 washed and sliced leeks

900g of grated courgettes

2 1/2 pints of hot vegetable or chicken stock

2 short rosemary sprigs

4 oz Gruyere cheese, grated

A generous tbsp olive oil

(Serves about 8 people)

Method:

1) Heat the oil in the pan and add onions and leeks. Cook for about 5-10 minutes until soft then add un-drained grated courgettes and cook for a further 5 minutes.

2) Throw in the stock, rosemary and bring to the boil. Season and simmer for 20 minutes. Remove the rosemary sprigs.

3) Check for seasoning again and I ‘bamixed’ the soup until smooth. Cool if you’re using a blender or magimix.

4) Serve with generous heap of gruyere and some really nice fresh country bread for wiping the bowl! We love the Grande Paysanne Blanc from Waitrose and it freezes like a charm!

The canape I produced was courgette, feta and mint cakes with a dill yoghurt sauce – 3 out of 4 of us gave it a 9 out of 10 and it will stay on my canape list for both winter and summer. They were light and refreshing and best eaten warm.

The final dish was pea (a little too heavy on the peas) and courgette timbales. A sort of souffle without the fluffiness but a really good vegetarian starter – light, tasty and dead easy.

Ok – the presentation leaves a lot to be desired, and not anything like I would present if I was catering for a client, but this is what they should look like and then it’s down to you yummies to pretty them up!

One word of advice. The humble green vegetable produces humungous amounts of liquid – way more than you would expect. When grating them put them straight into a colander for up to an hour. You then tip them onto a clean tea towel, bundle them up and squeeze the hell out of them – just keep wringing the tea towel round and round. The juice just keeps on coming!!

I don’t mean to sound like a moaning ninny but I’ve had yet another boo-hoo moment this week. I was meant to be catering for a canapes party for 60 people on Sunday – had started cooking and buying in produce and then the snow came. At first I didn’t panic – it was only tuesday after all – but then I made the fatal error of watching multiple weather forecasts. Wednesday brought more snow with it and with a high possibility of more snow coming at the weekend, panic set in. I thought I better liaise with the client. To cut a long story short, she panicked too and pulled the plug on it, opting to serve smoked salmon and pumpernickel bread to her guests rather than my delicious canape. Don’t blame her as getting to her house would’ve been a challenge but never like to lose a job, regardless of the reason for cancelling!

I am now left with an entire box of homemade filo cups, which my daughter keeps snacking on so I don’t think they will last too long and a large number of courgettes. I’ve invited some friends for lunch and we’ll be having a courgette feast! I asked my Twitter friends for suggestions as to what I can do with them and I’ve now decided to make a courgette and leek soup, courgette griddle cakes and pea & courgette timbales if I have enough time! Will blog the recipes and some more pics later for you all to enjoy…

(Courtesy of CY junior and her photoshop skills!)

(Also thank you to my Twitter friends for such lovely suggestions!)