Mini Butternut Spice Muffins

These little muffins have been popping up all over in the past few weeks. I think I can make them with my eyes closed now. I have served them at both Supperclub nights, with an array of other little puddings alongside them such as tiny boozy Campari jellies and Chocolate and Chestnut pots... Then when The Journal got in touch to say they would like me to put together some Christmas canapés for their next edition of Taste I thought they would be perfect as a tiny sweet canapé.

 
I created four different canapés for the article, a chicory leaf cup with Stilton, toasted walnuts and honey, a mackerel and horseradish pate, a parma ham and chestnut pastry roll and these little fellas. So even though it was early November I was up in the loft looking out the Christmas decorations and setting my dining table with a Christmas party scene, ready for the photographer on a Sunday afternoon, it all felt a little bit surreal! The photos all looked lovely, much better than mine, and you can see the full article and all the recipes here.

I fed the photographer as many as I could, but then owing to the fact that it wasn't Christmas and there was no actual party happening TLI and were left staring at about 80 tiny bite size pieces of food... We made a little dent in them, but ended up taking the rest to work, as much as I love canapés it was just too much, even for me...

 
So to start preheat the oven to 200°C degrees and grease your mini muffin tin with a little butter. Then peel and chop half a butternut squash into chunks and put it in to roast for about 15 minutes or until its soft, it doesn’t need any oil or anything on it. You can also use pumpkin or sweet potato too, I've used an onion squash also which was lovely...
  
This makes about 24 mini muffins or 12 large ones, I prefer the tiny cute ones. Next mix together 125g of plain flour, 110g of sugar, 2 teaspoons of baking powder, 1 teaspoon of cinnamon, ½ a teaspoon of ginger, ½ a teaspoon of nutmeg and ½ a teaspoon of salt. Cut 50g of room temperature butter into small pieces then mix it through the flour and spice mix with your fingers until it's like breadcrumbs.

 
When the butternut squash is done mash it with a fork and allow it to cool. Then in a separate bowl, mix together the squash, 120ml of evaporated milk and 1 beaten egg. Pour the squash mixture into the flour mixture and add a handful of raisins, then fold gently until mixture is just combined. Pour the mix into the greased muffin tins, about half 2/3 full into each. Then sprinkle the tops with a mix of cinnamon, sugar and nutmeg. Then bake for about 15 minutes, until golden.
The spices are delicious in the warm little butternut buns, sweet bites of raisins and a crunchy sugary spice top make them my favourite little pudding at the moment.

Homemade Granola

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas... Well, now that the tree is up and decorated. It was less festive yesterday while we drove round trying to find a tree that didn’t cost a million pounds, a week before Christmas, when lots of places had sold out. In the end we had to take a blind gamble and get one that didn’t cost the earth but was already wrapped up in netting. This meant it was difficult to assess symmetry, bushiness, density and general beauty...

On arriving home and cutting open the netting a huge branch just fell straight off, followed by more needles than there were on the tree. The claims of it being a tree that didn't drop couldn’t have been further from the truth. It wasn't a pretty tree, there was no denying it, as it stood wonky in the window of the living room. So at that point in time, just after the hoover blocked full of needles and gave up, I can't say I felt particularly Christmassy. We left the house for Boozer's Christmas drinks, leaving the tree standing bare, uneven, lopsided and crumpled, alone in a dark house.

But I can't blame the tree, so today he is decorated and pretty, still wonky and looking a bit like he's come from the rejects pile, but glittering with lights, rosy red baubles, little tinkling bells and glass drops, and everything suddenly seems a little bit more festive.

I have been making Christmas presents for people this year. I can't say too much yet as it's not time to hand many of them over and I don't want to ruin the surprise entirely... but this is one of the most successful so far... I'm not much of a breakfast person, yes at the weekends, but in the week I am usually just a bit late and running out the door rather than towards the kitchen. But this Granola has possibly changed all that. It's delicious and I'm not even a cereal person, until now...

I looked up quite a few different recipes and tweaked and mixed and matched until I settled on this combination. In a big bowl add about 500ml of rolled oats, or 2 cups. These amounts will make 2 or 3 large jars. Add a handful of roughly chopped pecans, a handful of roughly chopped blanched almonds and a handful of sunflower seeds. Then add 2 tablespoons of caster sugar and a large pinch of table salt and mix everything together.

In a small pan add 135ml of honey and 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil and melt them until they are liquid and combined. Add this to the oat mixture and stir thoroughly until everything is totally coated with the honey mixture.

Pour everything into a big baking tray lined with greaseproof paper and bake in the oven at 150°C for half an hour. Give it a stir once or twice so it bakes evenly. The smell that fills the house while it is slowly baking is delicious, warm and toasty. When it is ready take it out and leave it to cool completely before putting it into a jar, you will need to stir it a few times so it doesn’t all stick together in one solid sheet.

Finally add a large handful of raisins and stir them through. You can use lots of combinations, different fruit, different nuts; hazelnuts, brazil nuts, pumpkin seeds, apricots, dates, cherries... Find the combination that suits you best, I'll be sticking with this one for the time being as it is so delicious. It is sweet and toasty with a hint of salt, crunchy nuts, soft raisins, just lovely. I haven't even had it with milk or yoghurt yet as it is so good just on its own. Hopefully the people who receive their little jars over Christmas will think so too...

Red Peppers stuffed with Rice, Raisins and Pine Nuts

We had some lovely friends visiting from London this weekend so a little get together was in order, some friends, some food, some wine... I even printed out little menus for everyone. It took a while to settle on a menu as the little blonde is a vegetarian and the Twinings hunk doesn't eat dairy... but Claudia Roden had the answers, as she often does...

A Moroccan Chicken Tagine with Caramelised Onions and Chestnuts, some Turkish Stuffed Peppers full of herby spiced rice, pine nuts and raisins and some buttery couscous with toasted almonds. Something for everyone I hoped, they looked like they enjoyed it anyway...

We started with little Leek Fritters with a herby yoghurt dip and some Cannellini Bean Hummus with Toasted Cumin and pittas to dip. It was lovely to catch up, chatting in the kitchen while I threw toasted almonds around and served food later than planned as ever...

We finished with an Apple and Cardamom Tart, which I will have to tell you about soon, because although it may be gauche to say, as I made it myself, was totally amazing. The aromatic, dusky flavours of the cardamom were lovely with the sweet sugary apple and warm buttery pastry. Delicious.

The peppers were pretty simple to make, but so full of flavour and not 70s dinner party at all... This will make 6 stuffed peppers. Start with the filling by slowly frying a large chopped onion in 3 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil, until it is soft. Then add 250g of risotto rice, I used arborio, and stir until it is coated with oil and turning translucent. Add 450ml of water, some salt and pepper and 2 teaspoons of sugar. Stir this well and then simmer for about 15 minutes, or until the water has been absorbed, but the rice is still slightly undercooked.

When it is ready stir in 3 tablespoons of pine nuts, 3 tablespoons of raisins, 1 large tomato chopped into pieces, a handful of chopped mint, a handful of chopped dill, a handful of chopped parsley, a teaspoon of ground cinnamon, half a teaspoon of ground allspice, the juice of a lemon and 3 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil. You can see where all the flavour comes from with this lot all hanging out together...

Now take 6 red peppers and cut a circle round the top to remove the lid and scoop out any seeds from inside. Fill the insides of the peppers with the rice mixture and pop the lids back on. Arrange them in a baking tray side by side, I had to slice a little bit off the bottom of some of the peppers to keep them steady. Pour about 1cm of water into the bottom of the tray and bake in the oven at 190°C for 50 minutes. Be careful when you take them out that the peppers don't fall apart, be very gentle...

They are lovely warm, allow them to cool a little before serving, they are also good cold with a salad and some yoghurt. The warm spices and fresh herbs are delicious with little bursts of sweet raisins and creamy pine nuts all in a sweet roasted red pepper. I've just had a little one for lunch that was leftover... I'm glad I made too many...

Saffron Cauliflower, pinenuts and raisins with Belly Pork

In honour of the Champions League Final at the weekend, we decided on a little Spanish meal, we were supporting Barcelona, controversially... Some slow cooked belly pork with herbs, cooked the same way as my previous post 'Belly Pork and Beans' teamed with Spanish side dishes. Moros y Cristianos, which is a white rice and black bean dish with orange zest and parsley, and a saffron cauliflower with pine nuts and raisins. We even took a little trip to Carruthers and Kent in Gosforth for a lovely bottle of Spanish red wine to complete the plan...

This isn't one of my cauliflowers, they are still babies, just four or five little leaves. I don't know when the actual white cauliflower part, the curd, starts growing but I'm keeping a close eye on them. They seem to be doing quite well so far. Fingers crossed.

I have not really been much more adventurous with cauliflower than a basic cauliflower cheese in the past, and as I'm growing quite a few of them this year I guess I need to learn a few alternatives. The cauliflower is quite earthy and can hold its own with quite strong flavours and spices. My 'Flavour Thesaurus' pairs it with anchovies, almonds, chilli, cumin, garlic, hard cheese and saffron. I doubt all at once.... I'd like to make some sort of smoky cauliflower purée and also a ground almond cauliflower curry at a future date... I will keep on experimenting.

This recipe is enough for 2 or 3 people as a side dish and comes from the 'Moro' cookbook by Sam and Sam Clark. You need to cut your cauliflower in half and keep one half for another day. Remove the leaves, keeping any tiny ones and break the cauliflower into little florets. I tried some of it raw and it is actually very tasty, a bit nutty and musky. Bring a large pan of salted water to the boil, add the cauliflower, bring back to the boil for one minute and then drain and set aside.

Slice half a Spanish onion into thin slices. Heat a tablespoon of olive oil until hot and add the onion, cook it with a pinch of salt for 15-20 minutes over a low heat. Stir them every 5 minutes to stop them sticking. When they are done drain them, keeping the oil.

While the onions are cooking add about 25 strands of saffron to 3 tablespoons of boiling water and leave to infuse. Also soak 35g of raisins in warm water. Finally lightly toast 2 tablespoons of pine nuts in a dry pan until golden.

Return the pan to the heat and add the reserved onion oil until it is hot. Add the cauliflower and any small leaves and fry until it begins to colour, then add the onions, the saffron water, the pine nuts, and the drained raisins. Mix everything up and cook for 5 minutes until most of the water has evaporated. Season with salt and pepper to your taste.

This was delicious with the slow cooked soft pork and the mild creamy rice and beans. The football was quite good too...