These are brilliant for lunchboxes, and vanish faster than a particularly fast thing. I found the recipe in Olive's July issue, and tweaked it a little bit.
You'll need:
100g porridge oats
100g self-raising flour
100g butter
50 soft brown sugar
200g stoned dates, chopped
2-3 tablespoons lemon juice
Sling the oven on at about 180 degrees C, and fish out an 18-20cm square baking tin. Line it with greaseproof paper.
Mix the oats and flour together, and tip into a food processor. Add the butter, and pulse until it's all well mixed (you could rub this in by hand, but this is far quicker). Add the sugar, and pulse again until you get a crumbly mix - tip it out of the food processor and into a bowl.
Pour the lemon juice and chopped dates into the food processor (don't bother cleaning it out from the crumble mix, it'll be fine), and blitz until you get a thick, jam-like consistency. You might need to add a little extra water to make it easier to spread.
Press half the crumble mix into the bottom of your tin. Spread over the date jam. Top with the remaining crumble mix, and press down firmly.
Bake in the oven for 30 minutes, until it's golden brown. Cut into small squares while it's in the tin, and then leave to cool (still in the tin). Once it's cold, you can lift the whole lot out using the greaseproof paper.
20 July 2010
13 July 2010
Chard and chorizo tart
The chard plants have gone rather mad on the allotment this year - here they are a month or so ago - they're now well over six feet tall.
So we've eaten lots of chard with a dash of lemon juice and olive oil, and it's been cunningly hidden in all sorts of vegetable sauces. But before outright rebellion began, I had the bright idea of combining it with chorizo...
You'll need:
a large bagful of chard leaves (you could also use spinach)
1 onion, finely chopped
lots of chorizo, sliced (I used about 10 slices for three of us)
2 eggs
a dash of milk
shortcrust pastry
Stick the oven on at about 180 degrees C, and find a quiche/flan tin or dish (preferably with a removable bottom).
Gently fry the onion in a little olive oil until it's translucent. Wash the chard, drain in a colander, and then tip into the onion pan. It'll gently wilt, and shrink to about a tenth of its former volume over a couple of minutes. Stir it occasionally to stop it sticking.
Line the flan dish with your shortcrust pastry, and then place the whole thing on a baking sheet. Tip the chard/onion mixture on top of the pastry, and then decorate roughly with the chorizo slices. Beat the two eggs together in a mixing jug, and add a splash of milk (or cream if you have it lying around the fridge). Tip into the pastry case, season with some ground black pepper, and bake in the oven for 20-30 minutes, until the pastry is crisp and the eggy mixture is set.
It goes very well with a tomato salad. Or more green leaves, if you've got an allotment glut...
So we've eaten lots of chard with a dash of lemon juice and olive oil, and it's been cunningly hidden in all sorts of vegetable sauces. But before outright rebellion began, I had the bright idea of combining it with chorizo...
You'll need:
a large bagful of chard leaves (you could also use spinach)
1 onion, finely chopped
lots of chorizo, sliced (I used about 10 slices for three of us)
2 eggs
a dash of milk
shortcrust pastry
Stick the oven on at about 180 degrees C, and find a quiche/flan tin or dish (preferably with a removable bottom).
Gently fry the onion in a little olive oil until it's translucent. Wash the chard, drain in a colander, and then tip into the onion pan. It'll gently wilt, and shrink to about a tenth of its former volume over a couple of minutes. Stir it occasionally to stop it sticking.
Line the flan dish with your shortcrust pastry, and then place the whole thing on a baking sheet. Tip the chard/onion mixture on top of the pastry, and then decorate roughly with the chorizo slices. Beat the two eggs together in a mixing jug, and add a splash of milk (or cream if you have it lying around the fridge). Tip into the pastry case, season with some ground black pepper, and bake in the oven for 20-30 minutes, until the pastry is crisp and the eggy mixture is set.
It goes very well with a tomato salad. Or more green leaves, if you've got an allotment glut...
Gooseberry icecream
We have finally found another recipe involving gooseberries that we all like. Hurrah! (Especially given that the gooseberry bush on the allotment is crawling with big fat berries this year).
If you didn't freeze this, it'd make a nice gooseberry fool (although you may want to tone down the sugar).
You'll need:
500g gooseberries, topped and tailed
150g caster sugar
a tablespoon of water
250ml greek yoghurt
250ml double cream
Sling the gooseberries in a non-stick saucepan with the sugar and water. Bring to the boil (really carefully so the sugar doesn't catch), and then simmer for 10 minutes or so until the gooseberries are pulpy.
Strain through a sieve - you'll have a beautiful green puree. In the meantime, whip the yoghurt and double cream together until it holds in soft peaks. Stir through the gooseberry puree, and then tip everything into an ice cream maker, or into a plastic box to go into the freezer.
If you're using an ice cream maker like mine, the tricky bit is remembering to put the bowl in the freezer the day before you need it so it's suitably cold. If you're using the good old-fashioned plastic box method, you'll need to take it out of the freezer every hour or two to give the ice cream a good whisk as it solidifies.
It's delicious with fresh raspberries or strawberries sprinkled on the top. You quite liked yours with hundreds and thousands (the colours aren't what they used to be though).
If you didn't freeze this, it'd make a nice gooseberry fool (although you may want to tone down the sugar).
You'll need:
500g gooseberries, topped and tailed
150g caster sugar
a tablespoon of water
250ml greek yoghurt
250ml double cream
Sling the gooseberries in a non-stick saucepan with the sugar and water. Bring to the boil (really carefully so the sugar doesn't catch), and then simmer for 10 minutes or so until the gooseberries are pulpy.
Strain through a sieve - you'll have a beautiful green puree. In the meantime, whip the yoghurt and double cream together until it holds in soft peaks. Stir through the gooseberry puree, and then tip everything into an ice cream maker, or into a plastic box to go into the freezer.
If you're using an ice cream maker like mine, the tricky bit is remembering to put the bowl in the freezer the day before you need it so it's suitably cold. If you're using the good old-fashioned plastic box method, you'll need to take it out of the freezer every hour or two to give the ice cream a good whisk as it solidifies.
It's delicious with fresh raspberries or strawberries sprinkled on the top. You quite liked yours with hundreds and thousands (the colours aren't what they used to be though).
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