Aubergine goats cheese salad with flatbreads

It's official. This is the best salad in the world. And it's soooo worth making the flatbreads yourself! 

Ingredients:

Bread dough (see previous recipe)

Aubergine, sliced length ways

100g goats cheese, crumbled

However many slices of pancetta you can find

An avocado, sliced

Salad leaves

Olive oil

Balsamic dressing

Seasonings

Recipe:

1. Season the aubergine slices (I went for cumin and paprika) and roast for 20-30mins at 200 degrees  

2. Roll out the flat breads into thin circles the size of your frying pan ready to fry

3. Place the salad leaves, avocado and goats cheese in bowls / plates

4. Slice and very quickly fry the pancetta, then add to your plates

5. Wipe out the pan so there is no oil left and heat on a very hot hob until smoking, then place the flatbread dough in.

6. Fry for 2-3mins until bubbling with brown spots on the underneath, then flip and repeat. Repeat until you have done all the flatbreads

7. Drizzle olive oil over the flatbreads and season with salt and pepper 

8. Throw in the hot aubergine to your salad, dress and serve with the flatbreads  on the side

Asparagus and goats cheese pizza

I found this in Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's veg everyday book (which is fab btw!!) and have been wanting to try it out for a while. It was great; love a nice posh pizza!

Ingredients:

250g plain flour

250g strong white flour
1 tsp salt
2 tsp yeast

1 onion per pizza

A bunch of thin asparagus per pizza

A handful of shredded goats cheese per pizza 

Recipe:

1. Mix the flours, salt and yeast and then add 325ml warm water and a drizzle of olive oil.

2. Mix and then knead for 5-10mins. Drizzle a bit of olive oil in a clean bowl and place the dough in the bowl, rolling it around until a film of oil covers the dough.

3. Leave in a warm place covered by a tea towel for 2 hours to rise. 

4. Poke the dough until it returns to a normal size then split into 3 pieces. Each piece makes a pizza, so if you need less than 3 freeze the rest in cling film. 

5. Roll out as thin as you can on a floured surface and place on a baking sheet

6. Preheat the oven to 250 degrees

7. Thinly slice and fry the onions

8. Scatter the onions over the pizza and place the asparagus on top, drizzle with oil, scatter on the cheese and season

9. Bake for 10-12mins until the pizza is golden brown and the asparagus tender

Fish skewers with coconut rice

I came home this evening after tennis and needed a quick filling meal, this was ideal! I was eating within 20 minutes of getting home - winner.
It was a nice summery recipe too, light but still substantial.

Ingredients (for 2 people):

2 fillets of white fish (I went for haddock)
1 pepper
1 courgette
Teriyaki marinade
Coconut rice (yes I cheated and used a packet cus Tilda rice is so good! You could make it with coconut milk and lemongrass if you prefer...but who has time for that?!)
Juice of half a lime
Spring onion

Recipe:

1. Preheat the grill to 200 degrees and soak 4 bamboo skewers
2. Roughly chop the fish and veg
3. Thread the fish and veg onto the skewers and place on a plate
4. Pour the marinade over the skewers and roll them so they are covered
5. Place on a grill pan, turning regularly, and cook for around 10 minutes until the veg is just browning and the fish is cooked through
6. Serve with the rice, mixed with spring onion and a squeeze of lime

Prawn packets with mango avocado salsa

I haven't eaten prawns in years as I am against how they are caught by trawling, but have decided that as long as I buy line caught prawns from a sustainable fish farm it is okay.. So this is my first recipe in ages with prawns and wow it was a good one!

I'm sold on anything with avocado and mango in so I knew it would be good :) the added benefit was that it was super easy too!

Ingredients:

200g ish sustainably sourced king prawns
2 handfuls spinach
100g couscous
Half a mango
1 avocado
1 small red onion
A handful of cherry toms
Juice of half a lime
Seasonings

Recipe:

1. Spray some oil onto 2 pieces of tin foil and place a handful of spinach on each
2. Make the couscous with boiling water then once it has absorbed, spoon this on top of the spinach
3. Place half the prawns on each pile, season and squeeze some of the line juice on
4. Fold up the parcel to seal it and bake at 200 degrees for 10mins (steam should be released when you open the parcel)
5. Meanwhile, dice all of the other ingredients and mix in a bowl with more lime juice and seasonings
6. Serve and dig in!

Mediterranean mezze :)

I have been craving this Mediterranean mezze for weeks now and finally had the time and effort to make it! (It was definitely worth it!) probably took about an hour and a half to make, so make sure you have plenty of time.

The great thing about mezze is you can make as many parts of it as you fancy, and swap things about as you please. In this dish I had falafel, flat breads, sundried tomatoes, salad, houmous, tzatsiki, dukka aubergine and roasted peppers...

Most of these you can either buy or make, whatever you prefer.. I made the flatbreads, tzatsiki, dukka aubergine a and peppers...

Flatbreads:

250g plain flour
250g strong white flour
1 tsp salt
2 tsp yeast

Mix all of the dry ingredients and then add 325ml warm water and a drizzle of olive oil. Mix and then knead for 5-10mins. Drizzle a bit of olive oil in a clean bowl and place the dough in the bowl, rolling it around until a film of oil covers the dough. Leave in a warm place covered by a tea towel for 2 hours to rise. Poke the dough until it returns to a normal size then split into 8 pieces. Each piece makes a flatbread, so if you need less than 8 freeze the rest in cling film. Roll the flatbreads into circles 2-3mm thick and leave to rest for 5 mins. Next heat a pan on a very high heat and place in the dough, watching until it bubbles on top and is browned underneath, then flip and repeat. Take the flatbread out of the pan and pour garlic olive oil and sprinkle with salt. Keep warm until ready to serve.

Tzatsiki:

Half a cucumber
100g Greek yoghurt
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 clove garlic
Olive oil
Paprika

Peel the cucumber than grate. Squeeze in a muslin cloth or tea towel to remove the water. Stir in all of the ingredients and your done!

Dukka aubergine:

Dukka mix (ready made is so much easier!)
Aubergine
Plain flour
One egg

Slice the aubergine into 3cm circles.
Whisk the egg. Dip the aubergine into the flour, egg then dukka. Fry gently for 5 mins on each side.

Roast peppers (pretty self explanatory!)

Hope you love it :)

Warwick whizzers with roast veg

I was in town today and happened to be walking past Aubrey allen, leamington's famous butcher/deli! Being a sucker for anything vaguely deli-related I had a look and came out with these Warwick whizzers sausages, recommended by my friend.

Next we had a brainstorm of what to do with our new purchase! Considered a stew but as its quite sunny today we went for this instead.

Ingredients (for 2 people)

4 Sausages (they don't have to be Warwick whizzers!!)
Half a butternut squash
One red onion
Half a courgette
Half a can of chickpeas
Seasonings
Olive oil
Salad leaves

Recipe:

1. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees
2. Chop the vegetables into large pieces and place in a large dish
3. Coat with seasonings (I went for cumin) and drizzle with olive oil
4. Place the sausages on top of the veg
5. Roast for 30-45mins until cooked
6. Serve with an arrangement of salad leaves

Enjoy! :)

Smoked haddock kedgeree

As my flatmate has never tried smoked fish before I thought I would make a good old kedgeree as a start! Nice and flavoursome, as well as being filling for a Sunday evening.

Ingredients (for 3):
150g rice
1 onion, diced
1 carrot, diced
100g cabbage, roughly chopped
A handful of peas
1 large, or 2 small, fillets of smoked haddock
1 tbsp each of garam masala, paprika, cumin and tumeric

Recipe:
1. Wash the rice until the water runs clear, then bring to the boil and simmer for 12 mins until cooked
2. Meanwhile, place the haddock under the grill for 12 mins at 200 degrees
3. Boil the veg in with the rice for the final 5 mins
4. Drain the rice mixture and mix in the haddock in large flakes
5. Add the spices and season to taste
6. Serve with a generous dollop of mango chutney :)