Date, Bran and Spice Muffins.

Easy to make- Guilt free ( if you stop at 1)
Handy as lunch box items. Freeze them singly or in twos or threes. Just grab on the way to work.
Makes 15 standard size or 9 Texan ( very large )

Set oven to 180C or 350F
20 minutes to cook.
Ingredients:
1 cup plain flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
4 teaspoons of baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon cardamom powder if you have it or use 2 of cinnamon.
1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup stevia/ Natvia or other sweetener. Honey if you like.
2 cups unprocessed bran.
250g chopped dates, scissors make the easiest work of this.
1 cup of rice bran oil
2 beaten eggs
2 cups of milk.

1. Sift flours, baking powder, cinnamon, cardamom.
2. Add sugars
3. Stir in bran and chopped dates.
4. Make a well in the centre, stir in oil, milk and beaten eggs
5. Mix until just combined.
6. Spoon into oiled muffin tins. Fill them almost to the top.
7. Bake 20 minutes at 180C or 350F
8. They should spring back a little if cooked.
9. Cool a little, then encircle with a knife to remove. Icing sugar them before serving. 97% guilt free ha.

Flourless Choc-Nut Squares

Light and tender, handy to have with a coffee, not too sweet or sickly and no flour!
Moist in the middle.
Makes 12.

Ingredients:

vegetable oil spray
100g dark chocolate, broken into chunks.
3 medium eggs, separated.
35g Natvia/ stevia
35g caster sugar ( if you have no stevia use 70g sugar )
75g ground almonds ( meal )
1 teaspoon coffee instant or ground.
25g smashed hazelnuts, nicest if they are roasted, or walnuts-chopped.

Method:
Preheat oven to 180C or 350F/ 160C fan or 320F.
Spray and line a 20cm square cake tin, for square pieces of cake.
Put the chocolate in a bowl and microwave on low 1 min, stir and continue 1 minute apart stirs until it has melted. Don't over cook. You could use the traditional method, put the choc in a bowl over simmering water to melt.
Whisk egg yolks and sugar/natvia until pale and creamy.
Stir in the ground almonds, melted choc, coffee and nuts.
With clean beaters and a clean bowl beat egg whites until stiff peaks form.
Fold the egg whites into the mix.
Pour the mix into the tin, push to fill the edges.
Bake for 16 to 18 minutes or until the surface is slightly springy to touch. Fan bake is quicker, check at 15 minutes.
Leave to cool
Cut into squares and douse with icing sugar.
Make coffee or tea, ha.

Pasta alla Norma ( eggplant and tomato pasta)

Aubergine or eggplant has a delicious smoky flavour and can substitute, in texture, for meat.
This is vegetarian fare but you can easily add a lovely fried chicken fillet, especially with lemon, as a complement.
Easily made and budget friendly, with a touch of difference. Guest-worthy but wholesome.

Serves 4 for lunch or 4 for dinner with accompaniments like a meat, a salad and a crusty loaf.

Ingredients:
1 large eggplant, cut into 2 or 3 cm cubes
6 tbsp olive oil
2 cloves of garlic, crushed
400 g passata or 1/2 can of tomatoes and 1/2 a jar of pasta sauce
1 tbsp tomato paste
1 teaspoon chilli paste or 1 red chilli, seeds removed
300-350 g wholewheat spaghetti or rigatoni
small bunch of basil. ( you could add 1 teaspoon of dried basil if you can't get fresh )
cherry tomatoes (optional)
salt
1/2 cup grated romano or parmesan cheese.

Fry the garlic gently in a little oil then add the passata or alternatives, the paste and chilli and a few chopped basil leaves.

Simmer gently for about 30 minutes, add a little water if it gets too thick

Meanwhile, chop the aubergine/eggplant and fry in the olive oil  until golden. You will need to do this in 2 batches.
Add the second batch of fried eggplant to the first and simmer slowly until it is soft, use a lid to help this process.
When cooked, about 25 minutes, add the eggplant to the tomato sauce.

At the same time as the 2 previous steps, put on a large pot of boiling water, add 1 teaspoon of salt.
Add the pasta when boiling, it will take about 13 minutes for wholewheat.
Time this to be ready when the sauce and eggplant are cooked.

You can make the sauce ahead of time and reheat it.

Add the eggplant to the tomato sauce.
Drain pasta and add a little of the pasta water to the sauce.
Combine with the pasta, basil leaves, cherry tomatoes (halved)

Plate up or place in a serving dish.
Top with the cheese.
Put salt and ground black pepper on the table for people who like it.

Serve with a  gutsy white like a sauvignon blanc.

Healthful Last-Minute Simple Christmas Cake.

Hey, it's not too late.

This cake is quick and easy, good enough to give as a gift, tasty enough to want to make two!
It only needs one day to cool and then it's ready to devour.
Bonus: contents are nutritious and wholesome.

Serves 20.
Ingredients:
125g butter or low fat spread
1/2 cup dark-brown sugar
1/3 cup golden syrup
2/3 cup rum/ sherry/ brandy/ port/ marsala or a combination (  I didn't have enough rum so topped up the 2/3rds with marsala and brandy essence as my rum was white and lacking that great Christmas flavour. But you do need the fortified stuff.
1 teaspoon mixed spice
1 and 1/2 cups of sultanas
1/2 cup chopped prunes
1/2 cup chopped dried apricots
1/2 cup glace cherries coarsely chopped or you could use cranberries if you don't have the cherries.
1 cup currants
1 cup pitted cooking dates, chopped.
2 eggs lightly beaten
1 cup wholemeal flour
1/2 cup almond meal ( ground almonds)
1/2 cup white flour
1 teaspoon of baking powder.
small packet of slivered almonds (or whole blanched)
apricot jam if you want to glaze it.

1. Preheat oven to 130C
2. Line base and sides of a 20cm round or square cake tin with 2 layers of baking paper.
 Let the paper stand 5 cm above the top edge of the tin
3. Place butter or spread, sugar, 3/4 cup of water, golden syrup, mixed spice, all the fruit and half the alcohol in a large saucepan.
4. Bring to the boil then reduce heat and simmer for 2 minutes.
5. Remove from heat, let it cool.
6. Stir in the beaten eggs and flours and meal.
7. Spoon mix carefully into the tin, smoothing it a little.
8. Decorate with nuts, pushing them gently into the mix a little way.

Bake for 1 hour 45 minutes, test with a thin skewer, mine was done at that time but some ovens vary, it may need up to 15-30 minutes more.
Remove from the oven and brush top with the remaining alcohol.
Cover the hot cake in tinfoil, tightly and leave until completely cool before removing from the tin.
Then wrap it in the foil again.

You can microwave, to warm, a little apricot jam to make the top shiny ( brush it on gently)

Have a very HAPPY CHRISTMAS!

Mustard Pickle ( Christmas Gifts)

Pickle For Christmas.
Mustard Pickle, Easy to Make and Wonderful with Cheese, Bread and Cold Meat.

This needs to be started the night before you make it.
Ingredients:
500g cauliflower, chopped into florets
250g green beans, trimmed and chopped
2 large or 3 small/medium onions, chopped
2 red capsicums/red peppers, chopped
1/4 cup coarse salt.
Add all these vegetables to a big bowl, sprinkle with the salt, cover and leave overnight.

The next day, rinse the veg in a lot of cold water, drain.

In a large saucepan add:
 2 tablespoons seeded mustard
2 teaspoons dry mustard powder
2 teaspoons curry powder
1 teaspoon turmeric
2 cups white vinegar
1 cup loosely packed brown sugar.
Stir well over a medium heat until the sugar is dissolved
Add all the veg and mix well.
Push veg down into the vinegar mix.
Bring mix to the boil then simmer for about 10 minutes, uncovered, stirring veg around a few times.

Mix 3 dessertspoons of plain flour into 3/4 cup white vinegar until well blended.
Add this to the pickle, stir over the heat until mixture boils and thickens.

Spoon into hot sterilised jars. Seal when cold.
(The jars can be gently warmed in the oven to heat them before adding the pickle.)
Push the veg down into the sauce to cover.

Makes 3 large/medium jars or 6 small, approximately.
Why not make more to give away?
Home made gifts are always well received.

Persian Chicken with Walnuts and Pomegranate.

An Easier Take On A Traditional Persian Favourite.

Looks like jewels on a plate.

Serves 4-6
Ingredients:
8 boneless chicken thighs cut in half widthways.
1/4 cup lime juice, or juice of 2 limes.
20g butter
2 finely chopped medium onions
1 teaspoon cardamom seeds, or 3 crushed cardamom, or 1 teaspoon powder.
1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon.
2 Tablespoons olive oil.
1 red capsicum, chopped into 1 cm squares
1 yellow capsicum, chopped into 1 cm squares.
1 cup finely ground or medium ground( your preference)walnuts.
1 cup pomegranate molasses.
2 tablespoons honey.
2 bay leaves
1 Tablespoon tomato paste
3/4 cup chicken stock.
Pomegranate seeds, fresh.( 1/2 pomegranate).

1. Put chicken in a bowl and cover with the lime juice, leave 15 minutes
2. Preheat oven to 175C/340F.
3. In a frying pan melt butter on medium heat, fry onion 3-5 minutes until soft.
4. Stir in cardamom and cinnamon cook 1 more minute, put into an oven dish
5. Brown the chicken, in the frying pan, on both sides, then add to onion mix
6. Quickly fry the capsicum and add to the oven dish too.
7. Mix the walnuts, honey, bay leaves, pomegranate molasses, tomato paste and stock.
8. Pour this over the chicken
9. Cook in the oven, covered for 20 minutes.
10. Remove lid, continue to cook 10 more minutes. Test chicken is cooked through.
Serve with Persian rice.

Rice:
1 cup basmati or long grain brown rice cooked and cooled.
20g butter or 2 Tablespoons olive oil.
1 cup microwaved peas or fava or broad beans
1/4 cup chopped fresh coriander
3/4 teaspoon turmeric
1/2 teaspoon sumac or ras el hanout or even dukkah or moroccan spices.
salt and pepper.
Heat oil and toss all ingredients together until hot.

Truly rich, delicious, sweet and sour flavours. With flatbreads and a salad of chopped cucumber and tomatoes with torn lettuce leaves and a lemon/olive oil dressing it's good enough for a royal feast.

Whole Wheat Gingerbread Loaf

Gingerbread is a traditional British Treat.
This recipe includes nutritious ingredients that taste delicious.

Ingredients:
100g butter or low fat baking spread.
1/2 cup dark molasses sugar.
3 Tablespoons honey
1 teaspoon sifted baking soda
1/2 cup plain yoghurt
2 large eggs
3 Tablespoons sifted ginger powder
1 and 1/2 cups wholewheat flour (sifted) Add the bran left in the sifter.
1/2 cup almond meal
60g crystallised ginger, cut into thin small slices.

Heat oven to 180C or 350F.

1. Gently melt the butter, sugar and honey,
    stirring well.
2. When cool, beat in the eggs.
3. Add the baking soda to the yoghurt.
4. Line a 22cmx12cm loaf tin with baking paper.

5. Put the flour, the ginger powder and almond meal into a bowl.
6. Add the sliced ginger pieces.
7. Fold the flour mix into the  yoghurt, egg and melted ingredients until just incorporated.
8. Put the mixture into the tin.
    And into the oven.
9. Cook for 35 minutes or until the loaf springs back when
pressed in the centre. Don't over cook it.      

  

Serve with butter if you like, with a great cup of tea.