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Healthier marzipan

Great British Bake off got a little Nordic last night with their marzipan moments. I think all Norwegians love marzipan. No matter what season or occasion it would seem that the answer lies in a dyed, shaped figurine of marzipan. Winter is especially full of it with everything with shelves brimming with chocolate coated almond pigs. I too love it but not the commercial kind. It makes no sense to me that sugar comes first in list of ingredients. Surely its in the name, almond paste. So where are we going wrong?

I was inspired to make a new kind of marzipan because of Alex. Its his favourite sweet treat. He inherited that Nordic gene. We dont like to talk about it but there was an incident involving a 1.5kg box of marzipan, a hungry Alex and well, the rest is history.

Almonds are actually a stone fruit related to cherries, plums and peaches. Most of the almonds that we buy today tend to come from the USA and they are normally pasturised.

The vitamin E in almonds can help protect against both UV light damage and also boost brain activity. Eating almonds will help provide your body manganese, which helps form strong bones and also regulates blood sugar. They are packed with magnesium, which is essential for organ, muscle and nerve function and can help regulate your blood pressure.

By making almonds the main ingredient, you are getting all the taste but you are also getting the heart healthy LDL lowering oleic acids rather than inflammatory causing sugar.

This is a sweet treat made healthier. You need three ingredients, they taste amazing & take five minutes to make.

You can keep these naked but I can only recommend rolling them in melted raw dark chocolate and then in cocoa nibs or flaked almonds.

Ingredients
150g blanched almonds
1.25 tbsp maple syrup
1 tbsp rosewater

Method
Place the almonds into a food processor & pulse until you have a fine flour like powder
Add in the syrup & rosewater
Pulse until you have a dough
Roll into balls or any shape you like
Store in the fridge for up to a week
Enjoy

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Billionaires Shortbread

Billionaire shortbread or as i like to call it: the baby has a cold and is teething so she can only sleep upright on me & I am so tired my own teeth hurt and I need something sweet to get me through the afternoon shortbread. Seriously, I know the baby has bone cutting through her gums and that up till now I have tried to protect her from pain (bare one unfortunate dropping her off the bed incident) but can I get some sympathy too? Just for a second, I just need a hug…you can find me face down in a mug of coffee. 

Honestly though, when I’m this tired, as much as I want to power eat espresso beans & cake I find that I have to take extra care. If your body isn’t getting rest, then at the very least it needs nourishing. I’m making sure to do a quick strength training session and to walk outside for a few miles each day. I’ve been running before dawn on the mornings that I have managed to extricate the baby from my bussom. 

Every morning I start the day with hot water. I started drinking hot water because my history teacher drank it in school & I had a major crush on him. I would love to tell you that I started because of the liver cleansing properties etc etc but nope, this healthy habit is the result of a teenage infatuation. Thankfully I have a great knowledge of the World Wars & I drink hot water allday everyday which must be a win win. Then comes coffee, because I’m human. Lately I switched to oat milk because the Swedish firm Oatly brought out “barista” oat milk. It’s the only non dairy milk that i like in coffee. It doesn’t separate or float or taste oily. It’s creamy & rich & you can froth it. Seriously go Sweden!

Most days are filled with food tasting & various versions of thrown together Buddha bowls. But by the afternoon I need a little something. Women more disciplined than me may have a green juice & 12 organic almonds. I on the other hand have created billionaires shortbread. This sweet treat saves me in those exhausted afternoons when all you really want to do is lie down in bed and eat cadburys mini rolls.

I figured if millionaires got a shortbread with a caramel layer, then billionaires would get a salted caramel chocolate later. It’s a modified version of a millionaires shortbread. I would call it a healthy version but what is healthy? One mans poison and all that. What it is, is that it is made with wholesome ingredients in their natural form. Foods that your body can recognise and that it knows what to do with. And in this case, sugars that occur naturally which means no sugar crash an hour later. It’s rich and decadent. It feels like it should be terrible for you but it isn’t. It’s an instant mood booster & a perfect tea time tray bake to share (if you feel like it).

Ingredients
10 tbsp oats
1 tbsp coconut oil
1 banana
20 pitted dates (medjool or other soft ones work best – if you can only get dried dates then soak them in hot water for 20mins before using)
3-4tbsp hot water
0.5tsp salt (optional)
6 tbsp oat cream (or other cream)
60g dark chocolate (70-90%)

Method
Place the oats into a food processor and process to a flour
Add in the coconut oil and the banana and processor until you have a dough
Press the dough down into a layer in a lined baking dish (should be about 3 cm thick)
Bake for 15mins and then set aside to cool
Place the dates into a food processor, whilst the dates blend slowly drizzle in the water until you have a thick paste. You don’t want it too runny
Heat the cream in a pan, remove from the heat and add the chocolate, stir until the chocolate has melted
Add the chocolate cream and the salt into the food processor with the date mixture and blend together
Leave to cool and set and then spread over the oat base
Set in the fridge or freezer for 20 mins and remove 5 minutes before eating

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Butternut mac and ‘cheese’ with a buttery sage and oat crust

I did a little poll on Facebook the other day into what peoples comfort foods were.Mac and cheese kept getting mentioned and so I decided to see what all the fuss was about. Ill fess up now, that I have never eaten mac and cheese and that is for one simple reason. I really really don’t like melted cheese. I dont even like the smell of melted cheese and this is a real problem come lunch time in Central London. Most lunch places are rammed with folks ordering sandwiches and many of these sandwiches contain cheese (it is England after all) and lots of said sandwiches need toasting. This means that the entire place smells of slightly charred cheese. Even my beloved Fernandez and Wells isnt immune to it and whilst I am sure that they are carefully toasting a homemade sourdough with locally churned white cheddar and a cheeky pickle…I still cannot enter the smokey premises during the noon hours. It is only once the afternoon settles in and the tea pots are put to use, and the world starts thinking of cake that I can go and get my lunch.

That said I wanted to make mac and cheese but I wanted to try the ever popular butternut squash version.The logic is that you can either half the cheese in your normal recipe by adding butternut squash or you can swap it out totally. In normal mac and cheese there is a whole heap of cheese as well as butter, flour and milk or cream forming the basis of the white sauce. When you use butternut puree you do away with the need for a white sauce as it is naturally thick and clings lusciously to the pasta. I used nutritional yeast as we had some in the cupboard and I had always been a little apprehensive about trying it.

Even though it looks (and smells) a little like goldfish food, it is in fact a total powerhouse of nutrients. For anyone on a plant based diet it contains the magic Vitamin B12. It also, when used in cooking tastes remarkably like parmesan. If you want to add cheese, go ahead, try ricotta, feta or a tangy cheddar.

The topping here is toasted buttery oats flavoured with sage. They add texture, bite and a salty richness to the dish. This version is perfect comfort food. Creamy, rich and comforting but with a little hit of autumn vegetables. It is a great family friendly recipe too – the baby loves it!

Ingredients
1 butternut squash, peeled and cubed
2 cloves garlic
2 tbsp rapeseed oil

4 tablespoons nutritional yeast (or 6 tbsp grated cheese)
0.5 tsp paprika
0.5 tsp ground nutmeg
200ml oat or other milk
300g dried macaroni

50g oats
2 tbsp chopped sage leaves
1 tbsp butter or butter alternative

Method
Preheat your oven to 180C
Rub the butternut squash with oil, salt and pepper
Place into a baking dish with the garlic and roast until tender
Whilst the squash is roasting, cook the pasta according to the packet until it has a firm bite
Once cooked, drain and set aside
Place the roasted butternut squash, milk, nutmeg, nutritional yeast, and paprika into a blender and process until totally smooth
Combine with the pasta
Pour the mixture into a baking dish
In a frying pan place the oats,  butter and sage and allow to ‘fry’ until golden and crispy
Top the pasta with the oats and bake for a further 15mins

 

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One pot roasted pumpkin pasta

Even though I left Norway when I was 17 my taste buds are still pretty Scandi. I like my sandwiches open, I like the combination of cheese and jam. My coffee is always strong and my tea is always black. Marzipan is delicious to me, as is liquorice…even the salty kind. I will always be fond of cinnamon and raisin buns are my favourite thing ever. Bread should always be dark and thick, cloudberries are natures golden child. Salmon is eaten with boiled potatoes, sprinkled with dill. Chocolate milk is restorative after a hard training session.

And pumpkin, to me pumpkin is savoury. It is roasted with sage and tossed into a salad with tangy goats cheese. It is paired with charred beetroot and topped with walnuts. It is pureed and stirred through peppery mashed potatoes. To me its on the same level as sweet potatoes and parsnips and all the other delicious autumn root veg. I can’t get my head around pumpkin pie, or pumpkin lattes just yet. So when a hokkaido found its way into the shopping it was chopped, drizzled with oil and sage and roasted. Then I turned it into puree, partly because I thought it would be useful for the baby, and partly because I had the one pot pasta on my agenda.

Cooking pasta is hardly that strenuous and even with a homemade sauce you are probably only left with two pans and a colander to wash. But one pot pasta is exactly that, its a kind of self saucing pasta that doesn’t require draining. The water that the pasta cooks in helps form the sauce, so all you do is cook and serve. You could try this out with any pasta shape and with any ‘sauce’ you fancy. Throw in penne with some tomatoes, onion, chilli and basil, or try a creamy sauce with wilted greens. Honestly whatever you fancy. I wanted to do pumpkin because I could imagine that the richness of the puree would help make a thick silky sauce, and it did.

All I did was place the pasta into a large shallow pan, then added a chopped shallot, some chilli, some fresh sage and a few spoons of pumpkin puree. Add water, stir over a medium heat for 10 mins or so….watch the magic happen then devour.

Ingredients (serves 4)
300g Spaghetti
3 tbsp pumpkin puree
1 finely chopped shallot
1 tbsp chopped sage
1tsp chilli flakes
400ml boiling water
Salt and pepper

Method
Place the spaghetti into a wide enough pan for it to lie flat
Add all the ingredients to the pan
Bring to the boil and then reduce to a simmer stirring to stop the pasta clumping, If the sauce gets too thick before the pasta is fully cooked then add more water as needed
Once the pasta is cooked remove from the heat and allow the sauce to thicken for a minute or two
Stir in some goats cheese or parmesan if desired and then serve

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Baked celeriac

I love the audacity of a single ingredient meal. The fact that one product can, with a little love, provide total nourishment.

Ive thrown my back out again, I think it’s emotional. The baby turned one, the husband turned a corner, the family returned home after a blissful weekend. I haven’t had the energy or desire to cook properly but I also know that my soul needed something good even if my belly wasn’t sure. I needed something that didn’t need me. Nothing that required measuring or stirring. No weighing. No checking.

This baked celeriac simply needed a clean, then a good glug of olive oil and then to be parceled up with some rosemary & a couple of garlic cloves, salt & pepper.I put the oven on, I forgot about it. As with most root roasts, the longer & slower the better. I gave this one a good 90minutes.

This is as comforting as a jacket potato. The outside is slightly taught & crispy, the inside perfectly fluffy. You simply dive in, mix in a little of the roasted garlic & a knob of butter. If you have any good bread to hand then spread some of the fluffy celeriac on, add a sprinkle of tangy sheep cheese & a extra grind of pepper.

This is comfort food. This is food that says it doesn’t matter that your back hurts, that the baby’s teeth are annoying or that the husband let the summer pass him by. This is food that warms your belly & gives you a little hug from the inside.

One ingredient, pure comfort.

Ingredients
1 cleaned & trimmed celeriac

2 – 4 cloves garlic

2 tbsp olive/rapeseed oil

Salt & pepper

2 sprigs rosemary

Method
Preheat your oven to 160C

Place the cleaned celeriac onto a piece of tinfoil

Rub with olive oil & season

Add the garlic & rosemary to the foil and then wrap up into a parcel

Place into the oven & bake for approx 90mins

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