Cauliflower Traybake

Prep: 10 minutes
Cook: 30 minutes (or maybe 35 if the tray is crowded)

 Ingredients : 

2 teaspoons mustard seeds
2 teaspoons fennel seeds
2 teaspoon cumin seeds
2 teaspoon nigella (black onion) seeds
1 cauliflower, cut into small florets
Leaves from the cauliflower, finely chopped
220g cherry tomatoes, halved
1 red onion, sliced into 8
2 cloves of garlic, crushed
5cm fresh ginger, grated
1 tablespoon oil
1 teaspoon sea salt flakes
200g frozen peas
80g spinach, roughly chopped
1 × 400g tin of coconut milk

Note - you can do this with any vegetable - this time round I added carrots, chopped into smallish chunks. 

TO SERVE
1 lime, juice only
A handful of fresh coriander, roughly chopped
Rice or flatbreads

Steps : 

Preheat the oven to 200°C fan/220°C/gas 7. Bash the mustard, fennel, cumin and nigella seeds in a pestle and mortar and then tip them into a roasting tin with everything except the spinach and coconut milk. (Use a a roasting tin large enough to hold all the vegetables in a single layer.) 

Be sure to cut the cauliflower into small florets so that it cooks through in 30 minutes.

Transfer the tin to the oven to roast for 20 minutes.

Stir through the chopped spinach and coconut milk and let everything cook for a further 10 minutes until the cauliflower is cooked through.

Season with the lime juice, then taste and adjust the salt as needed. Scatter everything with fresh coriander before serving hot, with rice or flatbreads.

Roasted Cauliflower Cheese

Ingredients : 

For the White Sauce
50g Plain Flour
50g Butter
1 or 2 teaspoons of Mustard Powder (or 1 teaspoon of Mustard)
Salt & Pepper
300ml (ish) of milk
Whatever cheese you have - I like a decent handful of grated cheddar and a wee sprinkle of Parmesan, but it works with Red Leicester or any other cheese you have available.

For the Cauliflower
1 Cauliflower
Olive oil for drizzling
Optional - Cumin or Garam Masala

Steps

Cauliflower 

Heat the oven to 180 degrees.

Wash the Cauliflower, remove the leaves, and cut the florets into bite-sized pieces (cut them off at the root, then cut lengthways down the floret, as you half or quarter them). Try to cut the pieces to roughly the same size. They will shrink during the roasting.

Dry the florets, a bit, then spread them out in one layer on a roasting tin. Season generously with salt & pepper and a couple of good glugs of Olive Oil, then stir them round to make sure they are coated.

(Optional extra - sprinkle them with a teaspoon of either Cumin or Garam Masala - maybe leave that till the second time you make it unless you know you like it spicier)

Roast them for about 30 minutes, in the middle of the oven,  shaking and turning them over every 10 minutes or so. The cauliflower will darken and look a little burned - that's fine, that's what we are after, but if they are all looking burned after 20 minutes cover them with silver foil.

White Sauce 

Warm the butter in a pan, gently. Once it is all melted, stir in the flour, gradually, to make a roux. Add the flour a spoonful at a time, on a low heat, and let it cook a little. Add the mustard, and a generous amount of salt and pepper.

Keep stirring.

Add the milk, in small amounts, stirring all the time. The aim is to avoid lumps - you can turn the heat up a little as you add more milk, but keep stirring. If it gets lumpy, use a whisk to break it up.

Be patient with it - gentle stirring and gentle heat will get you there.

You might not need all the milk - or you might need more - it depends on how runny you like your sauce.

Add the cheese at the end - you might want to reserve some to sprinkle on the top - and stir again.

Putting it all together

Carefully take the cauliflower out the oven and put the delicious roasted florets into an oven-proof dish. Pour over the sauce. (If the sauce is too thick, add some more milk and stir!).

Sprinkle any extra cheese over the top and return to the oven for 5 minutes

banana bread

Main recipe here :

http://allrecipes.co.uk/recipe/41484/joy-s-easy-banana-bread.aspx

great for using up the bananas you never got around to.

Options - use half the sugar and replace with one or two grated apples.

Also - a teaspoon of vanilla essence is a nice change, as is a teaspoon of honey.

Spinach Pastilla Pie

The original recipe is from Thomasina Myers' excellent Chilli Notes.

Amazon Link

 Funny location for the recipe

Modifications -

 1) don't use the rum and raisins
 2) use 40% kale and 60% spinach
 3) add some smoked paprika to the mix while cooking
 4) reserve half of the feta. once you have filled the pie, crumble it over the top of the pie before you put the top layers of pastry on
 5) the recipe asks for an oven-safe pan - it also works fine in a pastry tin

Starting up

In the olden days, this blog would have been a loose leaf folder, with scribbles and updates. 

It seemed easier to gather some favourite recipes and updates to them in the modern style.