Oatmeal Cookies with Raisins and Pumpkin Seeds

Healthy and delicious! When you use brown sugar, they get a more caramel-like flavour, but you can use all regular sugar if you prefer.

Ingredients:
water
½ cup raisins
¾ cup vegetable oil (or you can use butter)
1 cup brown sugar
¼ cup sugar
¼ cup cocoa
3 cups oats
1 cup flour
½ tsp baking soda
1 pinch salt
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
½ cup pumpkin seeds

Instructions:
1. Boil the water and put the raisins in it, so they plump up.
2. Mix the oil, sugars, cocoa, oats, flour, baking soda, and salt together.
3. Whisk the egg with the vanilla extract and add it to the mixture.
4. Add the raisins and some of their liquid (about ¼ to 1/3 cup, but you have to judge how moist the batter is).
5. Add the pumpkin seeds. Mix everything together.
6 . Drop by spoonfuls on a baking tray.
7. Bake for 12-15 minutes at 180 C.

Vanilla Buttercream Frosting

This recipe makes enough frosting for the cupcakes I posted in the last recipe. You can double it for a larger number.

You can also replace the vanilla extract with mint or almond or any other flavour and/or you can add cocoa powder to it.

Ingredients:
55 g butter
½-1 tbsp milk or cream (cream makes it richer; it also works well with soy cream)
¼ tsp vanilla extract
1 cup icing sugar

Instructions:
1. In a mixer, mix the butter, cream, and vanilla extract together until pretty smooth.
2. Add the icing sugar, about ¼ cup at a time. Mix well.
3. Taste and add more cream or vanilla if needed.
4. Frost the cupcakes (or cake) with the frosting.

Dark Chocolate Cupcakes

This recipe just makes 6 large cupcakes or a larger number of small ones. It’s easily doubled for a larger batch, but I like to make a small batch so I don’t eat them all. I’ll post a frosting recipe next.

Ingredients:
55 g butter
¼ cup cocoa
30 g chocolate
1 tbsp water
1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup flour
½ tsp baking powder
¼ tsp baking soda
1 pinch salt
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
¼ cup yogurt

Instructions:
1. Melt the butter, cocoa, chocolate, and water together over low heat, stirring the whole time.
2. Mix the sugar, flour, baking powder, and baking soda together, and then mix the dry ingredients in to the chocolate.
3. Whisk the egg and the vanilla together and then mix them and the yogurt in with the rest of the batter. Stir well.
4. Place in muffin cases. Bake at 180 C for about 15 minutes (7 minutes for mini-cupcakes).

Happy Birthday, M!

Happy birthday to the world’s greatest, most beautiful, most intelligent, kindest, most thoughtful, most talented partner.

I feel incredibly lucky to have M in my life. Among many other things, she puts up with me and allows me to try out all my culinary creations on her. She makes every day a true joy.

I love you! Happy, happy birthday!

Aubergine Quiche

I like to play around with different quiches/pies/tarts. I like how you make one large one and then have enough food for several days. Since I first wrote this recipe, we’ve stopped using dairy at home because it seems that M feels better without it. So we’ve been trying out various soy “cheeses”. I’m not keen on them all, but many work pretty well in dishes such as quiches or omelettes. Do experiment and see what you like.

Ingredients:
1 portion cornmeal pastry (see previous recipe)
1 aubergine
1 handful cherry tomatoes
50 g spinach
1 tsp parsley
oil
1 tbsp honey
100 g cheese (you can use any type – I used up leftover blue cheese and cheddar)
3 eggs
200 ml milk or cream
pepper

Instructions:
1. Roll out the dough into an oven-safe dish.
2. Wash and dice the aubergine. Wash and halve the tomatoes. Fry the aubergine, tomatoes, spinach, and parsley in oil. After a few minutes, add the honey. Fry another 10 or so minutes.
3. Crumble or chop the cheese. Mix it with the eggs and milk or cream and season with pepper.
4. Put the vegetables on the pastry. Top with the egg mixture.
5. Bake at 180 C for 30-40 minutes.

Cornmeal Pastry

When making a pie/tart/quiche, you can change the flavour of the pastry by adding cornmeal (also known as polenta). This gives it a richer taste and grainier consistency.

Ingredients:
150 g butter
¾ cup flour
½ cup cornmeal
3 tbsp water

Instructions:
1. Cube the butter and blend it with the flour and cornmeal either by hand or in a food processor. Add the water.
2. Either put the pastry in the pan/dish and then in the refrigerator or else just wrap it in cling film and then put it in the fridge. Let rest for 20 or so minutes.

Salmon and Prawn Stew

This is another easy dish that you can use when cooking for those who eat fish and/or seafood. Other fish and types of seafood can be used, so play around with this.

Ingredients:
rice
water
olive oil
2 tsp parsley
about 200 g prawns
about 300 g salmon
3-5 tomatoes
1 stock cube
½ cup water
½ - ¾ cup cream or soy cream
black pepper
smoked paprika

Instructions:
1. Rinse the rice and boil it in the water for about 15 minutes.
2. Warm the olive oil in a sauce pan and add the parsley. If the prawns are frozen, add them to the pan now too.
3. Chop the salmon into small cubes and remove the skin. Wash and chop the tomatoes. Add the salmon and the tomatoes to the pan and if the prawns are fresh, put them in now too.
4. Add the stock cube and water and cream.
5. Cook, covered, over medium heat for about 10 minutes.
6. Season with pepper and paprika and serve over rice.

Rhubarb and Blackberry Crumble

As I write this, rhubarb is still in season. As it will be posted, however, that’s not really the case. But if you thought ahead, you might have frozen some excess rhubarb, or you can get some from the grocery store. A crumble will warm you up on a cold night.

Ingredients:
400 g rhubarb
¼ cup sugar (or more if needed)
1 container blackberries (about 150 g)
70 g butter, plus extra for the dish
1½ cup flour (or 1 cup flour and ½ cup oats)
6 tbsp sugar (I used soft brown, but demerera or castor or some combination thereof will work too)
1 tsp vanilla
cream or ice cream, to serve with it

Instructions:
1. Wash and slice the rhubarb. Toss it in the ¼ cup sugar.
2. Lightly butter an oven-safe dish. Put the rhubarb in it. Wash the blackberries and add them on top.
3. Dice the butter and mix it with the flour (or flour and oats), sugar, and vanilla. Put the crumble topping on the fruit.
4. Bake at 180 C for 25-35 minutes, until golden brown.
5. Serve with cream or ice cream.