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Tacos

— Guest post by Gregory Povey, @topfife.

I went to San Francisco for the first time in April and had a taste of ’real’ Mexican food. Food cooked by people from,or culturally part of, Mexico.

A burrito every day - mole, roasted tomatillos - always with the creamiest, cleanest restorative avocados inside.

Salsa, corn chips, ritual.

Apart from tomatoes, the concept of Mexican food is the best. Soft wraps concealing fresh, flavoursome spices, hot chillies, just enough vegetables to not feel horrific afterwards. A real social leveller when eaten in company. It's impossible to have a hierarchy when mole is dripping onto your basket and avocado is smushed on your cheek.

Eating in a Mission taqueria is a total eye-opener compared to the stuffy, uninspired stuff in the UK. British Mexican often feels like food arranged by people who have never tasted the food they are making. There is no love in it. No culture.

I only scratched the surface in the time I was in SF, so I’ve picked up Margarita Carrillo Arronte’s Mexico to broaden my food knowledge.

I came home knowing that I won't find the same quality avocados here, but could address the lifeless tacos available.

Since April I have been experimenting with different approaches to make the ’perfect’ taco. Noting the difference a small shift in flour ratio, flour type, beer make is incredible. Some soft and fluffy, some crispier, some with enough layers to make a latino mille feuille.

When all of this goes to the dogs, I’m opening a taco shop and it will be great. This is my current favourite taco mixture for 25-30 tacos (depending on how big you want them):

FLOURS You should have 550g of flour total - and lots of white flour aside for rolling later on. Try whatever mix you want, adding rye gives a nice nutty flavour but makes stiffer tacos; wholemeal is earthy but takes longer in the pan. You always need a good amount of strong white or it has no strength.

- 100g amarillo masa marina / yellow corn meal (P.A.N. brand is great) - 150g white spelt flour - 300g strong white flour - A healthy teaspoon of fine salt

FAT AND WET - 80g edible oil (I use TREX) - Between 300g and 400g of beer*, depending on how absorbent your flour mixture is. For a 500ml bottle, you’ll have just under a half of beer to drink whilst forming the tacos. * A hoppy pale ale or IPA of about 3.5-4% is ideal. From many experiments, these beers have proven most successful: Ilkley Mary Jane, Weird Beard Little Things That Kill, and Siren Craft Half Mast QIPA.

METHOD - Mix all the flours and salt - Break in the fat, properly integrating it into the flour mix - Gradually add the beer - Hand mix until all the flours are blended in, you have a firm ball that is just shy of being sticky - Cover and leave for 3-4 hours in a warm place - Turn dough** onto a floured surface, gently roll out then form 25-30 balls (approximately the size of a swollen ping pong) - Lightly flatten a ball with the palm of your hand - Applying light pressure - do not press down or force the dough - roll the flattened ball. Turn and flip after every roll to keep a perfect circle. - When it is about 10cm wide / 0.5cm thick, put it aside - Heat a heavy-based pan to a good but not searing heat - Lay the taco in the pan; it should slowly rise and (hopefully) form pockets of bubbles - Flip when it’s colouring - the aim is to keep it soft, but browned ** The dough can dry out if you take too long, so it’s worth doing this in batches

PEPPER SALSA

Liberally coat with olive oil and lightly salt:

- 3 bell peppers cut into quarters (I prefer 2 green, 1 red) - 12 chillies (8 green, 4 red) - 1 Jalapeño pepper (not pickled)

and grill low in the oven and for a long time.

When everything is blackened, bubbled and squealing, destalk the chillies. Pour all into a blender, including the oil, add a teaspoon of agave (or sugar) and juice of half a lime. Blend to a chunky consistency, add coriander at this point or on serving.

Lash a load of the salsa on the taco, whip an avocado and fill with everything you want that is fresh and joyful.

[blowupfood]

Vegetarian Ramen Broth

Serves 2

25g dried shiitake mushrooms

1500ml boiled water

2 onions

Grapeseed oil

3-4 tsps brown miso paste

2-3 tsps tamari (gf) or light soy sauce

20g grated ginger

Soak the dried shiitake mushrooms in the boiled water. Leave them for at least 2 hours and then remove the mushrooms (Momofuku has a great recipe for pickling soaked shiitakes so that they don't go to waste). 

Cut 2 large onions into full rings. Rub a little grapeseed oil on them and then grill until they have started to blacken in places. This will help give the broth a rich and slightly smoked flavour. Place the onions into a large saucepan, and sauté on a low heat until they have softened and given some of their colour to the pan. 

Add the (now cold) shiitake liquid to the pan and bring to boil, then drop immediately to a simmer and pop on a lid (you don't want to boil off much of your lovely broth). Remove the onions (you can always add these back into your ramen bowl at the end).

Spoon 2 ladles of broth into a bowl and mix with 3-4 tsps of the brown miso paste (according to taste). Stir the paste into the liquid until fairly well mixed, then pour back into the saucepan. Add the tamari/ soy sauce and grated ginger.

Your broth is ready! Spoon over a large bowl filled with noodles, finely chopped veggies (spring onions, carrots, radishes, pak choi, etc), and a soft boiled egg. Add a few drops of chilli oil if you like things hot. 

[blowupfood]

Thai Green Vegetable Curry

A lot of pre-made Thai curry pastes have fish sauce in them, so why not make your own? I find that some extra lime juice and tamari do the job just fine. Mix together the following ingredients with a food processor or stick blender:

4 shallots 4 large garlic cloves 4 thai green chillies A large chunk of ginger (grated) A slightly smaller chunk of galangal (sub for more ginger if you can't find it) 3 stalks of lemongrass 1/4 lime juice + some zest A small bunch of coriander root (if you can't find it use the stems and leaves) 1 tsp grapeseed oil 2 kaffir lime leaves A pinch of salt A pinch of black pepper 2 tsp ground coriander 1/2 tsp ground cumin 1/2 tsp cinnamon 1 tbsp of tamari 1 tsp sugar

Once mixed, stir into a hot pan for a few minutes before adding coconut milk. Add the veg of your choice and serve over sticky rice.

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British Asparagus Season

So long British Asparagus season - you were bloody good this year. Roll on May 2014.

[blowupfood]

British Asparagus and Watercress Salad

It’s British asparagus time and I can’t get enough of the stuff. Last night I made this delicious and simple salad, which beautifully balances the sweetness of fresh green asparagus with peppery seasonal watercress. I love vegetables.  

INGREDIENTS (serves 2-3) The Salad 1 bunch of fresh watercress 2 bunches of British asparagus 4 small, fresh beetroot 1 bunch of French breakfast radishes 1 ball of fresh Mozzarella 30g toasted walnuts Watercress Sauce Another bunch of fresh watercress 2 tablespoons of Crème fraîche Salt and pepper Dressing 1 tablespoon Extra Virgin Olive Oil 1 tablespoon lemon juice ¼ teaspoon dijon mustard Salt and pepper

RECIPE Using a hand blender, mix up 1 bunch of the watercress with 2 tablespoons of Crème fraîche. Season with salt and pepper and set aside.

Using a mandoline if you have one, peel and finely slice the beetroot into circles. Trim and quarter the breakfast radishes. Toast the walnuts in a dry frying pan and season with a tiny pinch of salt.

Prepare the Asparagus by snapping the ends off and trimming with a knife.  Boil briefly in salted water (no longer than 4 mins unless you have huge stalks). Chill in iced water and drain.

Layer all the salad ingredients into a large platter as in the picture above, dressing as you go and saving the asparagus for the centre. Serve with the watercress sauce on the side so you can add as much to your plate as you like.

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Black Pepper Tofu

Once upon a time Blow Up Food was a slightly neglected Posterous blog. As from today Posterous will cease to exist, so I thought I'd have a quick rummage to see if there's anything I'd hadn't yet salvaged and I found this old post on Black Pepper Tofu.

Black Pepper Tofu is an Ottolenghi recipe from Plenty. It's super spicy and fairly easy to make, though the heavy use of different soy sauces means it's sadly not wheat-free. I'll have a play around with some Tamari and update this post when I've figured out what will work, but if you're fine with gluten then I recommend giving this a go.

Ottolenghi's Black Pepper Tofu (Serves 4)

800g firm, fresh tofu (if you’re near an Asian supermarket, try to get there early in the morning and you can get it still warm)

Grapeseed oil, for frying

150g butter

12 small shallots (350g), peeled and thinly sliced

8 red chillies, thinly sliced

12 garlic cloves, crushed

3 tbsp chopped ginger

5 tbsp crushed black peppercorns

3 tbsp sweet soy sauce

3 tbsp light soy sauce

4 tsp dark soy sauce

2 tbsp sugar

16 small, thin spring onions, cut into segments 3cm long

Cut the tofu into 3cm x 2cm blocks fry the tofu in batches in the oil, turning the pieces as you go. Once they are golden all around, and have a thin crust, transfer to a paper towel. Remove the oil and any sediment from the pan and throw in the butter. Once it has melted, add the shallots, chillies, garlic and ginger, and sauté for about 15 minutes on low-medium heat, stirring occasionally, until the contents of the pan are shiny and totally soft.

While you wait, crush the peppercorns, using a pestle and mortar or a spice grinder. They should be quite coarse. When the shallots and chillies are soft, add the soy sauces and the sugar, stir, then stir in the crushed pepper. Warm the tofu in the sauce for about a minute, then add the spring onion and stir through.

Original recipe

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Showroom Vegan Night

My second foodie piece for Sheffield website Our Favourite Places has just been published - it's a review of the Vegan Night recently held at the Showroom Cinema, which was a bit lovely.

If you fancy a read, you can find it here.

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Smørrebrød - Danish Open Sandwiches

Mmmm, Danish food.

This Easter Sunday we made Smørrebrød - Danish Open Sandwiches. I love Denmark, and I’ve eaten some of the best meals of my life there. Everything is so fresh and full of warm Scandinavian flavours, plus you get to wash it down with a nice glass of hoppy beer, if you frequent the right places.

We’ve made Smørrebrød before, but this time we decided to do it right, with the help of this super brilliant blog, www.danishsandwich.com, which is completely devoted to the fine art of Danish Open Sandwiches.

We started with the bread. Smørrebrød needs to be on Rye, and whilst you can easily buy rye bread in most supermarkets, we really wanted to have a crack at making our own. @topfife took charge on this one, and used this smashing Rugbrød recipe, though he substituted the white flour for buckwheat flour to keep everything wheat-free.  It’s a long process, and you’ll need to start your first batch about a week before you plan to eat it - but it’s really worth it. The loaf we ended up with was dense and sour and all good things a Scandinavian loaf should be.

We then got to work on what we wanted our toppings to be. I had this lovely meat-free platter of Smørrebrød at Aamanns when I went for lunch in 2012, which gave me lots of inspiration for what I could make at home.

After a bit of thought and a fruitless search for a ripe avocado, I settled on my final selections for toppings

Soft boiled egg, pea shoots, remoulade, gherkins and dill

Potato, spinach, remoulade, chives, crispy onions (potato Smørrebrød is called kartoffelmad, which is my new favourite word)

Smoked cheese, radish, cucumber, swiss chard, chives (this topping is called sommersalat and I based mine on this recipe)

These were the results:

Anything with pickles tastes good in my opinion, but these Smørrebrød had it all - crunchy, sour, salt, fresh and creamy, all in one place. I cannot recommend making them enough, especially if you're avoiding wheat, but you’ve got a hankering for a totally awesome sandwich.

Here are a few tips to make good Smørrebrød:

1. Make sure there’s a good slather of butter on your thinly sliced Rye bread. The Smørre in Smørrebrød means butter, so that should give a good idea about how important it is to the dish.

2. Pile the toppings high There should be no bread showing in between your ingredients, and there’s always room for an extra pickle or a sprinkling of dill.

3. Add crispy onions to everything. We mandolined some shallots, dusted them in Rye flour and fried them in some grapeseed oil. They were amazing, so make loads.

4. Have a poke around www.danishsandwich.com and you’ll be a pro in no time. The recipe for Remoulade is spot on.

Seriously, crispy onions

[blowupfood]

Mexican Vegetable Soup

It's Arctic in Sheffield this month. Even though it's nearly Easter, we've got nearly a foot of snow in some places. So, I'm cold and craving soup - hella spicy soup to be precise, which is how this recipe came to be.

INGREDIENTS

1 medium onion (diced)

1 red pepper (diced)

1 green chilli (sliced - seeds in if you like it hot)

2 cloves of garlic (minced)

1 courgette (sliced)

1 box/ tin of chopped tomatoes (get good ones)

1 ½ tsp ground cumin

2 tsp cayenne pepper

4-6 drops of Tabasco

1/2 lime juice

A glug of olive oil

Salt and pepper

A big handful of roughly chopped coriander (yum)

RECIPE

Heat the olive oil in a frying pan and sauté the onion and garlic until they start to soften. Add the pepper and courgette and start to warm through (but don't colour them).

Add the tomatoes, then add the same amount of water as tomatoes - filling up the box or tin they came in is a good way of measuring this. Season with salt and pepper then add the cayenne, cumin and tabasco.

Leave to simmer on a medium heat until the sauce has reduced and the vegetables are tender - about 10-15mins.

Transfer the whole thing into a large bowl and whizz it up with a hand blender. Add water to get the consistency you're happy with then chuck in the coriander and the lime juice. Give it a stir and you're done.

Serve with a dollop of sour cream (if you're not vegan), and a huge glass of water. This soup be hot.

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Our Favourite Places - Top 3 for Veggies in Sheffield

The lovely Our Favourite Places folks have launched a brand spanking new website to house their reviews, previews and top tips for having a brilliant time in Sheffield.

I’m very proud to be a contributor to the site, writing bits and bobs on veggie, vegan and wheat-free food (as well as film - the day job!).

Have a look at my first veggie piece: Top 3 for Veggies, which includes some top tips for meat-free eating out, and keep your eye out for more in the coming months.

www.ourfaveplaces.co.uk

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Aubergine and Wild Rice Salad

I’m making a lot of my work lunches at the moment because a) I’m not loaded, and b) I’m not eating much wheat these days and my bread-free choices in Sheffield city centre are getting a bit repetitive (Fanoush aside - I love that place). Today I made this salad, which is based on my interpretation of the Ottolenghi formula - one awesome vegetable of your choice + left-over rice/ grain + a shredded up salad leaf + nuts/ dried fruit, all mixed together with a dressing. It’s a combination that you can rarely mess up, and even if you do it can usually be rescued by a big dollop of hummus on the side. This salad is roast aubergine, basmati, wild and red rice, baby spinach and pine nuts. The dressing is one part extra virgin olive oil, one part lemon juice, a small crushed garlic clove, a bit of shredded basil and a pinch of chilli flakes (+ S&P). It can be customised based on whatever you have in, or whatever you have left over. 

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The Ledbury - 8 course vegetarian tasting menu

(Saint Nectaire on toast)

Tasting menus used to seem to me to be something designed for meat-eaters -  opportunities for chefs to showcase their butchery skills, their meat cooking techniques and to introduce new types of animal bits for diners to try. No ta. However, this seems to be seriously changing. I’ve been to several places in the last few years that not only provide full vegetarian tasting options, but publicise the menus on their website - it always makes me relax to see a meat free menu in advance. As I mentioned in a previous post, I see Noma as leading the way on this, and have eaten some of the most incredibly exciting and challenging vegetarian offerings there - whilst feeling that the menu was not just a concession to my dietary choices, but a big part of the wider ethos of Noma. It’s very pleasing to see other restaurants doing the same.  As I was working in London a few weekends ago, we decided to book The Ledbury after seeing their veggie menu proudly sitting on their website. We were a bit nervous before hand, as although I’ve been to a fair few Michelin starred restaurants I’d never been to one in London - I figured with my Northernness and crap hair (my straighteners have bust), I’d stick out like a sore thumb.

And yeah, it was full of a lot of bankers and rich people but I started to realise something after the amuse bouche came out - good restaurants don’t care if you’re rich or posh. They just want you to be engaged with the food and to enjoy yourself. I relaxed quickly as I munched this lovely thing:

Matching wines also helped. The food was pretty wonderful. Brett Graham cooks with an Asian slant on his food - not in a gimmicky ‘fusion’ way, but in a way that introduces Asian flavours and ingredients with perfect balance. It’s not evident in every dish, but the ones that did introduce some Asian flavours (gnocchi with lemongrass and ginger; aubergine with black sugar and shiso) were definitely the strongest plates.

One of the highlights of the evening was when the waiter brought out a beetroot baked in clay and tapped it open in front of me. 

He then whisked it away to plate it up into this magnificent thing:

I was really pleased that they made the effort to bring something out to show to me, as this is what they'd done with a meat dish that @topfife was having. Places that make sure vegetarians don’t miss out on any of the experience are really special and worth spending your saved-up money on. I’d definitely want to go to The Ledbury again, just for that. Oh and the cheese. I’d go back for the cheese:

Oh and eucalyptus chocolate petit fours. Can these be shipped in bulk to Sheffield?

Full pics: http://www.flickr.com/photos/topfife/sets/72157631614849805/with/8020871524/

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Basil Pesto

There are a lot of pesto recipes out there, and I’ve tried them all: with/ without pecorino; with butter instead of olive oil (thanks for nothing Matthew Fort); toasting the pine nuts; roasting the garlic… I even went through a long period of persisting with the pestle and mortar after reading an article about the pesto championship in Liguria that made me feel a bit inadequate - but to be honest it just took too bloody long. Pesto should really shouldn’t take longer to make than your pasta takes to boil (6-7 mins), so resorting to a hand blender is no bad thing (sorry if I have any Italian readers. I’m so sorry). My many experiments have eventually resulted in a recipe I love, and I’ve acquired a few tips along the way that are worth sharing: 1) Don’t toast the pine nuts. You lose a bit of that lovely sweetness that the pine nuts add 2) Likewise, don’t cook the garlic, although it’s good to be frugal with it. I love garlic, but once it gets blended it can really overpower the sauce and throw the balance off 3) Invest in a really good extra virgin olive oil - bad olive oil makes for bad food 4) Trust your own tastebuds. If there’s not enough basil, add a load more. Basil’s strength varies hugely depending on the season, so you may need more in colder months 4) This is the important one - don’t mix your pesto into the pasta whilst it’s in your saucepan. Mix the pesto and pasta together in a large cold bowl. The hot saucepan will damage the delicate basil flavour and you’ll be left disappointed after your hard work to make a brilliant sauce. I’m not kidding when I say this really makes a difference - this is my super-duper, top tip, and you are welcome. INGREDIENTS 1 large basil plant (or two little ones) ½ garlic clove 70g pine nuts (reserve a few extra to top your dish) Finely grated vegetarian hard cheese A pinch of sea salt A big glug of extra virgin olive oil (I know these are imprecise, but you need to taste and mix until you’re happy)

RECIPE Add the basil leaves, the pine nuts, a big glug of olive oil, the salt and the garlic to a large bowl. Blend with a hand blender until the consistency is nearly smooth (you don’t want soup, but you don’t want big unblended chunks of garlic or nut either). Grate in the cheese and mix with a spatula. Taste and season again with more cheese or salt if needed. Add a little more olive oil if the mixture is a bit stiff. It’s your dinner so make sure you’re happy with the balance.

Tip your drained pasta (gnocchi, linguine, trofie - whatever your favourite is) into the bowl of pesto and mix with your spatula. Sprinkle in a few more pine nuts and serve with a twist of black pepper.

[blowupfood]

Yoghurt & Spelt Flatbreads

— Guest post by Gregory Povey, @topfife.

Last week, I bought Jaq Jerusalem, the new book by Yotam Ottolenghi (and Sami Tamimi). It’s a love letter to Jerusalem, taking in Israeli and Arab dishes, and covering a lot of the influences from the Mediterranean — about 60-70% of which is vegetarian or vegetable-based.

We’ve been a fan of Middle Eastern and Jewish-heritage food for a long time. Mostly through a lot of obvious things - rice dishes, lamb (me), hummous, falafel, boregi, pickles, baklava - and their massive love of salt. Oh, the salt. It’s a bit tricky, as there is obviously a lot of food that falls so far outside the remit of ‘vegetarian’ as to not be approachable, but we’re trying. This week we’ve tried a few - imam bayildi, dukkah, and flatbreads. The flatbreads present another tiny problem as Jaq is experimenting with a wheat-free diet. Most other flours don’t seem to have the strength of wheat, but spelt is working out well. It’s got a slightly earthier, wholemeal flavour to it, but it’s light enough to fill in for white wheat flour. A look in Ottolenghi’s Plenty and a couple of tweaks, leads us to Yoghurt & Spelt Flatbreads. RECIPE:

500g spelt flour (probably wheat, if you like)

500g low-fat Greek yoghurt (TOTAL 2% from FAGE is the best greek yoghurt we’ve found in supermarkets)

1tsp olive oil

1tsp baking powder (a healthy 1 tsp)

½tsp salt

Chopped coriander (optional)

Set aside the yoghurt in a bowl and mix in the olive oil. This will loosen the yoghurt up a little and provide a bit of lubricant when kneading.

Add the baking powder and salt to the flour and blend together. Scoop the yoghurt on top of the flour, before making a dough with your hands. This will get sticky. If it’s too dry, add some extra yoghurt until you’re happy with the texture. Turn out onto your work surface (it doesn’t need to be floured, really) and work the dough. Now spend a good few minutes of kneading, it will be a proper heel-of-the-hand kneading job and your triceps will benefit. (see top image)

Before long, you’ll have a luxurious, stretchy dough with a smooth texture.

Wrap it up in cling film and stick it in the fridge for about an hour, or upto a few days. The longer you leave it, the more tangy yoghurt flavour you will have in your final bread. When you want to make the flatbreads, make a long roll on a floured surface and cut it up into equal sections. Make a ball out of each section, then roll them to about about ½ inch thick - until they look like flatbreads - and put them to the side.

There are now two options of how to cook them: 1. Pan Fried. This will give you a flatter, paratha-like flatbread with a crispier texture.

Heat up a pan and add some olive oil. Lay your flatdough into the pan and let it cook. When bubble start to appear, turn it over. Cook for ~90 seconds each side, or until you’re happy with the colour and satisfied that the dough is cooked. 2. Baked. This will give a lighter, puffed-up bread along the lines of a pitta.

Pre-heat the oven to about 200dC and place the flatbread dough on a floured tray mid-high in the oven. If you’ve got a pizza stone, use that. After about 5 minutes, your dough should be puffed up and proud like a morning cockerel. Turn the bread over and leave for another five minutes. Take out, let it cool a tiny bit, then scoop up some tahini, olive oil & dukkah, or a load of tzatziki.

[blowupfood]

Zeugma, Sheffield

Zeugma, with its open grill and famed Turkish kebabs, is a Sheffield institution for meat eaters, but I wouldn’t have been a loyal patron for the last 6 years is they didn’t know how to treat a vegetarian too.   For most of those 6 years I’ve been ordering the same two things - Kisir (a spicy bulgar wheat dish with walnuts and yum) and their vegetarian kebab. The kebab is a total feast - perfectly cooked vegetables served with the best rice in the world, homemade hummus and halloumi. Whilst I‘ve been perfectly content to order the same thing for the past 6 years, I was starting to worry that the waiter was getting disappointed with me. 6 years of warm welcomes and I repay him by barely looking at the menu - as a loyal customer, I decided on my latest visit that I simply must try harder. 

I went for Iman Bayildi (Priest Fainted), a whole baked aubergine, filled with vegetables and sauce. Oh boy, it was worth dragging myself away from my usual for. Deeply rich in flavour, covered in a scrumptious sauce, served with that perfect rice I love so much and some creamy, yet tart plain yoghurt.  I have a feeling the waiter was pleased I’d been less predictable than usual, as we were treated to a portion of this delicious dessert. Pistachios are the best, especially served with crispy noodles, honey and ice cream.

 Spinach Boregi (starter)   

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Sushi Express, Sheffield

Sushi Express has been open for a while in Sheffield - the sushi is always very fresh, and the complimentary miso soup is vegetarian to boot. Happily, they also seem to frequently introduce new vegetarian options and they recently added kimchi maki to the menu. Readers of this blog may have noticed my growing obsession with Kimchi. ‘It’s very hot’ warned the waiter, and although he was right, it’s certainly not painfully so. It’s actually blooming lovely. Here are a few more items from the Sushi Express menu. Order the fried tofu if you go. No seriously, it’s more than a bit heavenly:

Tamago and Inari Maki, Kimchi Maki and Inari Nigiri

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Wheat Free Elevenses - Chocolate dipped florentines, coconut & lime macaroons

Wheat messes with a lot of people these days, but that shouldn’t mean you have to go without your biscuity/ cakey elevenses, or that you have to settle for a packet of dusty gluten-free digestives. These two recipes can be whipped up in no time and last for several days (if you don’t scoff them all before they’ve cooled). They don’t even have to be shared with your pals under the premise of being wheat-free - just make them, eat them and feel smug about your happier tummy. Chocolate-dipped Florentines This recipe is adapted from a David Lebovitz adaptation of an Ottolenghi recipe. Ingredients 1 large egg white 40g icing sugar One hearty glug maple syrup 130g of a mixture of mainly sliced almonds, pistachios and hazelnuts (or any other oily nuts) 30g cranberries or sour cherries (optional) Pinch of sea salt 50g chocolate (it’s up to you whether you prefer dark or milk) Recipe Preheat your oven to 150°C and line a baking tray with baking parchment. Pour a little vegetable oil onto the parchment and spread it around. In a glass or metal bowl mix together all of your ingredients except for the chocolate. If the mixture is a bit runny, add more nuts else you’ll get a weird meringue like situation in the oven. Using wet hands place the mixture into blobs on your baking tray. Push the blobs into flatter shapes using a wet fork. Try to make sure there are no holes in your flattened blobs. Pop the florentines into the oven for 15-20mins under they’re golden all over and all of the nuts seem to be fixed to each other. Leave until cool then remove from the tray. Now you can melt your chocolate. I like to use dark chocolate if the florentines are sweet and have berries in, and milk chocolate if they’re salty and nutty. If you don’t want your chocolate to ‘bloom’ then David Lebovitz suggests tempering the chocolate, but to be honest they’ll probably get eaten before that happens so it’s not a necessity. Once the chocolate has melted, spread some on the base of the florentines using a spatula, then pop them in the fridge to set. Gobble with a big mug of tea.

Coconut and lime macaroons (pictured at the top of the page) This recipe is adapted slightly from a BBC recipe by Jill Dupliex

Ingredients 2 egg whites 100g caster sugar 140g desiccated coconut Zest of 2 limes Juice of 1 lime

Recipe As with the florentines, preheat your oven to 150°C and line a baking tray with baking parchment. Pour a little vegetable oil onto the parchment and spread it around. Mix all of your ingredients together in a glass or metal bowl then shape into evenly sized piles on your baking tray. Try to keep their shape fairly rough so you get nice caramelised edges. Bake until they are golden all over (20-25mins). If they feel wobbly or that they’re not properly stuck together then turn the heat down a smidge and give them a bit longer. Leave them to cool, then remove from the tray (they feel a bit firmer after they’ve cooled). Again, gobble with a big mug of tea. Tea goes with everything.