Monthly Archive for novembre, 2014

Pumpkin and raisin tea loaf

Published by Lucina, on 30 novembre 2014 in cakes and English Recipes. 0 Comments

pumpkin loaf

After making my Porotos Granados  soup (see previous recipe) I was left with half a sad and lonely butternut squash in the fridge. What to do with it? Surely not another soup…. My attention was drawn to this recipe at the end of the River Cottage Veg everyday book, apparently one of Hugh’s favourites. I decided to try it. What appealed to me was the fact that it has no fat in it. YES, NO FAT! Can you believe it? Or more to the point: can a cake still taste decent without any fat in it? I was somewhat sceptical. Butter free experiments in the past hadn’t been all that successful but I have got to say I was impressed with this loaf. It was tasty and moist and it had a lovely yellowish tinge. Great with a cup of tea/coffee. I confess I did smear a little butter on my slice for added flavour but you don’t have to!   Next time I will try making it using a pumpkin. It might work well even with grated carrots. One would need to experiment. By the way: it definitely tastes better the following day!  Continue reading ‘Pumpkin and raisin tea loaf’

Porotos granados

Published by Lucina, on 22 novembre 2014 in English Recipes, Soup and vegetarian. 0 Comments

 

porotos granados

porotos granados

While waiting for Candi to re-emerge (she has been very busy with her work) you’ll have to suffer my experiments again. I haven’t blogged a soup for a long time but following a request from my sister in law Stefania who, like me, is a fan of soups and has tried most of the ones I have blogged so far, I decided the time had come to experiment again. She needed some inspiration and I was more than happy to oblige! With winter approaching what better than a nice, hot soup complete with some home made bread  (yes! I made that too !) to warm the cockles of one’s heart ? This time I went to Chile for the inspiration. The literal translation of the soup’s name, according to Google, is bean stew. Well, considering it is rather thick and rich perhaps it’s not far off a stew. The good thing about it is that it contains beans, hence proteins, making it a complete meal in itself. I used cannellini but any smallish beans will do (like pinto, aduki, borlotti etc.). I really liked it and will definitely be making it again.  Once again there are many recipes out there for porotos granados but I followed Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s recipe out of his River Cottage Veg every day book (I am afraid you will see a lot of his recipes in the near future as I have turned vegetarian) with a slight variation at the end as I added fresh basil to it which I had seen in other recipes on line. Also, and I am sure it’s not very Chilean, I served mine with grated parmesan.  Live dangerously, I say! I would put parmesan on everything, me! I have even tried it on porridge. Yummy! :-) By the way, if the Italians can’t get hold of a butternut squash I reckon this soup would be equally good made with some good quality pumpkin (not the watery and tasteless Halloweeny variety, mind!). Continue reading ‘Porotos granados’

Raspberry jam

Published by Lucina, on 15 novembre 2014 in English Recipes and jam. 0 Comments Tags: , .
raspberry jam

raspberry jam

Yes! I am afraid I am inflicting another jam on you. Raspberry this time! “Is she trying to tell us something?”, I hear you ask. “She has been blogging quite a few of the damn stuff lately!” Well….  you are not wrong. Basically I am trying to convince you to try making some, assuming you like eating jam like me , of course.  It is such a cinch! Honestly!  Have a go and you will never look back. The advantage of home made jam, taste aside- which is by far superior-, is that you can control the quality of the fruit and you know exactly what has gone into it. In this particular case I used 4 punnets of raspberries which had been reduced in price. They were expiring that day and Sainsbury was selling them off cheap. From £2.75 each to 69 p. What a bargain!  Ok some looked a bit on the soft side but basically they were perfectly fine. Luck would have it that the jam sugar was on special offer too. Only £1! So for under £4 I ended up with nearly 2 kilos of jam. Not bad, uh? I have of course given some away. One mustn’ t be greedy and forget one’s friends, must one! This afternoon I made some fresh scones (see recipe here) and topped them with my raspberry jam (see pic below) . OMG!DELICIOUS! Definitely one to make again. Continue reading ‘Raspberry jam’

Green veggies stir fry with egg-fried rice

Published by Lucina, on 9 novembre 2014 in English Recipes, vegetables, vegetarian and Verdure. 1 Comment
green veggies stir fry with egg fried rice

green veggies stir fry with egg fried rice

I don’t know why I don’t make stir fries more often, particularly now that I am the proud owner of a fabulous non-stick ceramic wok (thanks to a massive hint dropped in my husband’s ear before my birthday). :-) Stir fries are quick, they are easy to make and they are healthy. Not to mention cheap. Now, thanks to the aforementioned wok, I won’t end up with an almighty burnt mess at the bottom of the pan.  A massive plus point there, then! This recipe is from the mighty Hugh (Fearnley- Whittingstall. Who else?)’s River Cottage book Eat veg every day, which I LOVE.  I would definitely recommend it to anyone who is vegetarian. So many appealing recipes in there! In the book it  goes by the name of Summer Stir-fry but I couldn’t call it that, being November! So I re-christened it. Why not? By the way I have tried it with egg-fried rice as the recipe suggests, as well as with rice noodles. I liked them both. Of course you can add other ingredients like mushrooms, broccoli florets, cashew nuts,  prawns, etc..  and I might just do that next time. The only faff (if we can call it that) is that you have to chop all vegetables beforehand and have everything ready, which means stacks of little bowls/plates/chopping boards all over the place. Still, definitely worth the effort and the mess in the kitchen! Continue reading ‘Green veggies stir fry with egg-fried rice’

Prune and chocolate torte

Published by Lucina, on 2 novembre 2014 in cakes and English Recipes. 0 Comments Tags: , .
prune and chocolate torte

prune and chocolate torte

Well…I can’t be blogging healthy things all of the time so here’s a nice, chocolatey cake which requires egg whites rather than whole eggs. That’s right! Rather unusual, isn’t it? I had had my eyes on it for a while. As it happened today I discovered a packet of soft punes in the cupboard plus I knew I had some egg whites which had been languishing in the fridge for a few days so , voilà, I decided  to try it.  I have got to say I was impressed with its taste and texture: it was really soft and moist. A must for all lovers of chocolate then. Also on the plus side the fact that the quantity of butter in it was unusually low. The recipe comes from the BBC Good food website. I wonder if you could substitute the flour with ground almonds or rice flour to make it suitable for gluten intolerant people. I might experiment next time. Continue reading ‘Prune and chocolate torte’