the gluttonous vegan loves YOU

crumbs.

2011-10-17T10:46:00.000+01:00

My dear internet (and now real-life) friends. I think I've come to a conclusion.

I like riding bikes.

And seeing my friends.

And baking them ginger apple crumb cakes.

I don't like feeling like I've got to rush the mixing and quickly shove it in the oven, and then take hurried photos because the light is falling outside and I want the pictures to be good for you. I know that this is self created stress, but I think I want to go back to baking for enjoyment.

Just because I make something and don't share the recipe and photos with everyone, doesn't mean it won't still taste good.

If it wasn't for this blog I would never have met Ana and spent the funnest weekend in Paris with her.

I wouldn't have hung out with Mitsu and Sasha, or Christina, or Jean, or any of the other lovelies who've stuffed their faces with me.

I wouldn't be about to leave for a trip where I'll be staying with Diana, and hanging out with Cesar, Liz and Aline

I wouldn't have spent countless hours emailing Celine, or meeting Carly in a Canadian airport.

Adeline is even coming to London soon.

So grateful for all of these friendships and people that I would never have met otherwise. Love each and every one of them and am proud to be friends with you all.

I'm so grateful for all the comments and love, all the photos of your baking efforts and the support.
I don't do this lightly.
I've been writing this blog for more than three years and it's definitely brought about some big changes in my life, but I'm ready for the next step.

I'll still be around. You can still email me, or talk to me on twitter. I'll still be baking and might even occasionally share a photo! I'll still be reading and commenting on your blogs, and I'm really glad if you've spent even a fleeting moment on mine.

I'm ready for a winter of Milwaukean friends and family and some Californian sunshine and I'm going to eat, and cook and photograph and it's all going to selfishly be for me. I'm going to leave my camera at home some days and just remember things. And I'm going to be proud of this little bit of internet space that I've been hogging, full of sugar and cinnamon and crumbs.

Lots of love,

Naomi Rose x

Quince tarte tatin

2011-10-03T22:20:00.001+01:00

This is Quince.

I had her for fifteen years, from the day she was born, until she died last year. She was named after the quince tree in the garden that was in flower when she was born.

This is us when she was getting pretty sick and had to wear a jumper to stay warm.

She was the best dog ever. She was probably half the reason I love quinces so much now. I hardly ever see them in the shops, but when I happened to be in Whole Foods this weekend with Christina, I spotted them. Grabbed a handful and took them home, thinking about my pooch.

You could definitely make this with apples, but quinces have the most amazing smell. When you cut into them they're all tough and white and don't smell like much, and definitely don't have much juice. But when you cook them, this amazing smell comes out and they turn pink.

To make a Quince tarte tatin (in honour of my furry friend), you'll need:
4-5 quinces
1 cup sugar
a vanilla pod
1 unwaxed lemon, halved

puff pastry (or shortcrust, depends on what you prefer).
By all means make it from scratch, but the pre-made stuff is pretty good.

Fill a large-ish sauce pan with water and add the sugar and the lemon. Put over a medium heat and leave to simmer.

Get a strong sharp knife and cut your first quince in half. Cut out all the fibrous middle part and cut off the skin. It's hard work and you'll probably develop a claw shaped hand for an hour or so after. Cut the quince into pieces, kind of the size of the sliced peaches you get in a can. As soon as you slice each piece, put it into the pan. Being in the water with the lemon stops it browning.

Peel and chop all of your fruit until the pan is full.
Get some greaseproof paper and cut it into a circle with a hole in the middle. Put it over the water and fruit and leave to simmer for at least an hour. This fruit is TOUGH.

Your house will smell amazing, you'll miss your dog.

When it's soft and easily poked with a knife, scoop out the fruit with a slotted spoon, but keep the poaching liquid.

Grab a reasonable sized dish to make your tarte in. You can definitely use a cast iron pan, I just haven't got one. I find it's easier to line it with greaseproof paper too. So do that.

Scoop out 1 1/4 cups of the poaching liquid and put it into a little pan. Add another couple of tbsp of sugar and reduce over a medium heat until you've got a thicker caramel type liquid. When it's reduced to about 1/4 of a cup of liquid, take off the heat and pour into your tarte pan.
Add the pieces of quince, snugly and in a appealing pattern, no one likes a messy tarte.

Grab your pastry and cut it to the size of your dish. Cover the fruit and tuck it down all around the edges.

Bake at 375F/190C for around 45 minutes, until the pastry is golden brown.

Let it rest for a few minutes, then carefully put a plate on top, and skillfully flip it over. I know you can do it.

It's crazy how pink it gets.

I've been listening to this playlist while I ride my bike down hills and through leaves, I thought you might like it too.

I miss that dog. If you live in Putney, can I stroke your dog? thanks.

Download the playlist here.

Track listing:
Feist - Comfort me
Warpaint - Billie Holiday
Alligator Creek - Death, in the soil
Benjamin Francis Leftwich - Pictures
Bon Iver - I can't make you love me
Casiotone for the painfully alone - Hot Boyz
Fleet foxes - Sim Sala Bim
Land of Talk - Yuppy Flu
National - About today
Taken by trees - Too young
Maps & Atlases - Pigeon

Cinnamon bean autumn stew, in Sweet Paul magazine!

2011-09-13T20:47:00.001+01:00

I had a good weekend, did you? Me and my old time pal Rob went to the food festival on the South bank.
He got wet. I watched.

Then he did some MJ moves. I watched.

I'm pretty into this sign. It's down near the OXO tower, and it lights up at night.

Another cool thing that happened was, one of my recipes won best Autumn recipe in the Fall edition of Sweet Paul magazine! can you believe it? I'm so thrilled, it's a gorgeous magazine and I'm super proud to be featured. You can read the whole magazine here. (I'm on page 18!)

On the way home from work I decided to make this stew for myself for dinner for tonight. Totally forgot just how good it is. Trying to catch the light before these Autumn evenings end is tricky, so my end result photos aren't as nice as Paul's, but the taste is the same.

I got some wine from work to take home today, so I replaced the vegetable stock with some lovely red wine. Either works.

To make enough Christmassy Autumn stew for a couple of dinners and some easy lunches you'll need:

a spoonful of soya butter
1 red chili deseeded and chopped
2 medium white onions chopped
2 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp each of turmeric cumin and cinnamon
5 and a half oz of new potatoes halved (i just chucked in a couple of handfuls and never really bother weighing)
1 can mixed beans
1 can chopped tomatoes
1/4 pint veg stock
handful of roughly chopped cashews
cubed butternut squash
handful of spinach

Melt the soya butter in the saucepan and add the chili, garlic and onions.

Notice that it's impossible to avoid onion-red-eye. So attractive.

Fry for ten minutes until they get soft. Add in the spices and the potatoes for about 5 minutes, you might need a bit more soya butter here. Note the wonderful Christmas smell.

Stir in the beans with their water from the can, the tomato and the veg stock. Bring to the boil, reduce heat and cover the pan. Simmer for ten minutes, then add the squash then give it another ten minutes.

Chuck in the cashews and some salt and pepper at the end. Right before we ate I added the spinach in. Eat it with some crusty bread for the juice. Tastes even better the next day!

cinnnamon bun, it's not you, it's me.

2011-08-25T11:28:00.002+01:00

This last week I have tried to make cinnamon rolls three times. THREE. Twice during the weekend when I had plenty of time to let the dough rise and knead it properly and be patient. Another time, straight after work, no dinner, diving into kneading and impatiently waiting for it to double in size.

I was so full of hope! They looked so promising all swirled up and sweet!

Every bloody time, the rolls were too dry, too hard, too soft, not right.

I am accepting that there are certain things I can't do now. Like bread making, riding a unicycle, being anywhere high up (what a baby). I am accepting defeat by cinnamon roll.

If you like cinnamon as much as I do though, what about a cinnamon apple butter cake? (Hi Autumn)

Some cinnamon blueberry animal cookies?

This plum and cinnamon oat crisp has got autumn and it's crisp leaves written all over it.

These recipes are getting me so nostalgic for last Autumn. Pretty sure this years Autumn is going to kick last years butt though.

This pumpkin and cardamom cake is flipping amazing. Plus the spiced frosting? oh YEAH.

Does this feel like a recipe cop-out to you? It's not. I really did try! Me and cinnamon buns are not meant to be but there are lots of other things to make!

Happy beginning-of-Autumn!

Peanut butter cheesecake with chocolate and caramelised bananas. (and tears?)

2011-08-15T21:25:00.001+01:00

Because I’m a real person, sometimes I make things and I think they taste good and others don’t agree. And then I say ‘no, it’s fine! I know you’re really full/haven’t got much of a sweet tooth, don’t worry!’ and then I clear the plates away and go back to my kitchen and make a sad face while I look at my cheesecake that I thought everyone would love.

I made this peanut butter cheesecake, covered in dark chocolate and topped with caramelised bananas because we were having 10 people over for dinner and I thought it would be delicious AND have mass appeal, but it only had a 50% success rate.

That’s ok, I’ll eat it in the dark, in my room, with a side of tears.

I’m half joking.

This weekend I also may have:

Eaten apple pie for breakfast

Taken my mum to see my friend, the heron.

Dozed to the kings of convenience on the train.

Eaten too much.

Told my grandma to pose for a photo.

Stroked a goose.

Enjoyed this video.

Anyway, if you like peanut butter, in a cheesecake it’s pretty rad. Topped with the other stuff, it’s even better. But don’t blame me if you get the sads when others don’t like it. More for us.

To make a 9" cheesecake you'll need:

enough biscuits to cover the base of your dish, I used about 15 normal sized cookies
3-4 tbsp vegan margarine
4 tbsp brown sugar

1 (12oz) pack of firm silken tofu, I used the mori-nu brand
1 200g pack of vegan cream cheese, I used Pure
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup smooth peanut butter
half a banana (mashed)
1 tsp vanilla extract

dark chocolate

2 bananas
1/2 cup margarine
1/2 cup brown sugar

Smash the biscuits in a blender and mash the crumbs together with the margarine (soften it in the microwave if it's being difficult). Once thoroughly combined, add the sugar and mix again. Press firmly into the bottom your pan. I'd recommend those non stick pans for this cheesecake, the kind with the spring fastening on the side, makes it super easy to release when everything's cooked.

Bake the base in the oven at 180C/350F for around ten minutes until it's golden and a little dryer.

In a mixer (or with a very energetic arm), mix the tofu, cream cheeze, and peanut butter. Mash the banana as smooth as you can, then add that and the sugar and vanilla and mix again. Once smooth, pour over the base.

Spread some foil out on your work surface and wrap the cake pan securely. You don't want any gaps because this baby's going into a water bath! Place the cake pan into a baking pan and fill with water as high as you can without making a mess. Make sure you've wrapped the foil well or you'll have a wet cheesecake.

Bake in the oven at 180C/350F for around 20-30 minutes. It's done when it's golden on top and not all jiggly if you shake the pan.

Leave to thoroughly cool, then melt some chocolate and pour it over that beautiful beast.

To caramelise the bananas, just heat the margarine and sugar in a medium height frying pan/skillet until it's brown and bubbling, then gently add the banana slices.

Leave them in for a minute or so on each side, then take them out and leave to cool on some foil.

Once the chocolate has set and everything's cool, add the bananas and serve the cheesecake.

Get ready for half smiles, half frowns. :/

I bloody liked it.

brownies for the brave

2011-08-10T21:56:00.001+01:00

Hi my internet friends.

Firstly, thank you for your kind emails from faraway places, I'm fine and everyone I know is fine. These riots are sucky but seem to be dying down now so that's a relief.

We've been holed up in the house the last couple of nights because it seems safer to be inside than out, so I baked brownies. Did you know Maida Heatter used to make peppermint brownies, then wrap them up tightly and keep them in her handbag, ready to hand out to people? I think that's the nicest thing I've ever heard.

I made brownies.

I wrapped them.

I gave some out.

I wish I had enough for each policeman, firefighter and good person who's been brave and strong this week. Also for you, you're pretty brave and strong too.

After eights are unfortunately not vegan anymore so they're no good, but the own brand kind of mint thins are so grab a box of them and make some peppermint layered brownies for your homies. People deserve brownies.

Sometimes I bake something, and it comes out all nice looking and I'm like YEAH!

And then, I get over excited and try to cut it and eat it and wrap it and hug it, and when I lift it, it breaks because I didn't let it cool.

You should always wait for it to cool.

Look how moist! (that's what she said? gross naomi.)

Make them, for loved ones. If you wrap them in a square of foil, then some greaseproof paper, you could definitely post them. Imagine getting brownies in the post. You are capable of spreading that kind of joy!

To make a tray of moist minty brownies, you'll need:

Ener-G egg replacer equivalent to 2 eggs, or, 3 tbsp water mixed with 2 tbsp flax meal (i used ener g)
1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
2 x 100g bars of dark chocolate (melted)
6 tbsp margarine (melted)
pinch of salt
2 cups sugar
soy milk (if necessary)
some dairy free mint thins

Mix your ener-g, or flax and leave to one side. Sift the flour and baking powder together, then add the salt and sugar.

In a bowl over a pan of boiling water, gently melt the chocolate and margarine together until smooth and completely melted.

Add the chocolate mix to the flour and stir. It should be pretty thick but if it's too thick to stir add a splash of soy milk (not too much)

Line a pan with foil (shiny side down) and lightly grease.

Put half of the brownie mix into the pan, then cover with a layer of mint thins. Pour the remaining mixture on top. Bake at 180C/350F for 30-35 minutes. The less you cook them, the squidgier they'll be. Don't eat them raw though?

I love you London.

I love sandwiches. Yes I do.

2011-08-03T22:06:00.001+01:00

Yep. Definitely telling you about a sandwich I had. This is because it is flipping hot in London and I definitely can't be baking or stewing anything, I'm already boiling in my skin.

This is a sandwich, but then it's heated through in a pan, so then it could be dinner?

I might have been planning it all day. Possibly drawing it on a post it.

You don't have to make the same one, you might hate artichoke hearts. You might love olives (I have no idea why you would).

This is less of a recipe, more of a recommendation that on a hot day, you slice some bread, nice and thick, slather it with some ripe avocado.

Cut up some red onion and throw that on.

Pile up some sliced artichoke hearts and some fresh coriander.

If you happened to have some leftover roasted garlic in the fridge, that'd be a good thing to add too.

Cover the other slice in some good hummus.

Smush those two halves together and put 'em in a pan that's had the tiniest bit of olive oil wiped over it. Put something heavy on top of the sandwich and leave over a medium heat for a minute or two, then flip and do the same on the other side.

You could slice up a load of cabbage and carrots and cover with some lime juice, coriander and wholegrain mustard.

Pretty good dinner.

I know a sandwich isn't a proper recipe, come talk to me when it's cooler. Go make a sandwich, I forgot how good they are, maybe you did too!

thai ten minute noodle bowl

2011-07-25T20:27:00.001+01:00

My friends, hasn't it been a horrible week? such terrible things happening around the world and lots of sadness. There have been pockets of happiness though, a kind man fixed my bike for free, the weather has been pretty sweet and I was asked to take photos of a civil partnership which was the most love filled room I've been in for a long time.

(congrats you two.)

So also, my lovely flatmates make this thing that they call 'noodle bowl' when they're tired or hungover and I love it. It's not a fancy new recipe and couldn't be less complicated, but I'm just sharing it with you on the off chance that you've got a hangover from the weekend like I have, and that you've got a sadness hangover from the bad things like most people do this week.

This noodle bowl will make your nose run, your chin wet and your stomach full. It feels good and it'll take you a maximum of ten minutes from start to finish.

It's the little things.

There are no strict rules about the veggies, I love green ones and I had broccoli, edamame, asparagus, spring onions and peas in the fridge, use whatever you've got.

To make enough for two, you'll need:

1 litre of water/about 4 cups
3 tbsp dark soy sauce
2 tsp white vinegar
1 tsp mirin (sub 1/2 tsp sugar if you haven't got it)
1 tsp sesame oil
1 big ol' chili
a nub of fresh ginger
whatever veggies you have in the fridge
noodles (I like those soft straight-to-pan noodles, but use whatever's in the cupboard)
fresh coriander to serve.

you could also definitely lightly fry some tofu and put it on top, but I bloody hate tofu.

Put the water, soy sauce, vinegar, mirin and sesame oil in a pan and bring to the boil. Roughly chop the chile and ginger and add to the water.

I mean roughly! we've got hangovers here, this isn't masterchef.

Once the water's boiling, add all your prepared veggies for a minute or so, then add the noodles.

Give it a minute to swish about so that the veggies are crisp but tender, noodles are cooked. Grab a ladle and scoop out a bowl full.

Chuck the coriander on top and carry the bowl somewhere comfy. Balance it on a cushion while you veg out to gray's anatomy and drip broth down your front (probably just me).

Drinking that broth is the cure to a hangover.

(also, naps).

If you've had a hard time this week, make this. You'll feel better. I'm thinking of you. <3

poached pear and almond tart

2011-07-20T21:25:00.000+01:00

Sometimes the weather is horrible, and it rains for days.

And then your flatmates decide to make a feast and you offer to make dessert and then get distracted by other things (like redesigning your buggy site, if you're reading this in a reader, jump out and get over here, it's all new!) and forget to buy ingredients.

And you find a bunch of pears and some almonds and some frozen pastry and decide to make something with that.

You definitely spill some sugar water, drop a pear and get in the way of small hands making delicate thai food.

The thing is with this pie, it tastes good, it just doesn't look so good. But not everything has to look perfect. That's a top life truth right there. Spend more time enjoying baking, spend less time fussing with pastry edges.

Slices of poached pear on sweet almond filling, crumbly pastry.

Hasty photos taken quickly so I could attack the thai feast.

To make enough for a 5-6 people you'll need:

a packet of ready made shortcrust pastry/your own recipe

4-5 pears, peeled

1 1/2 cups sugar

4 cups water

the juice of half a lemon

for the filling

1 1/4 cup ground almonds

1 tbsp plain flour

7 tbsp sugar

6 tbsp vegan butter substitute (melted, stick it in the microwave for a few seconds)

a splash of soya milk (possibly)

Peel the pears and cut the top and bottom so they stand flat on a surface. Put the water and sugar into a pan and heat on a medium heat until the sugar dissolves, then add the pears. Stir them gently every few minutes and leave to poach for around 20 minutes.

Remove from the pan and put aside to cool.

Roll our your pastry and line your tart dish. Wrap in a tea towel and freeze for at least an hour, this helps the pastry not to shrink. Once it's frozen, rub some margarine on some foil, then cover the pastry with the margarine side face down and bake in a pre-heated oven (375F/190C) for around ten minutes. Remove the foil, press down any bumpy bits and put back in until it's a golden colour. Remove and leave to cool.

Mix together the filling ingredients, only adding the soy milk if your mix is too thick to stir. Gently press evenly into your pastry shell.

Cut your pears in half and core them, the cores should just pop right out pretty easily. Cut them on a slant and arrange layered over each other on top of the almond filling.

Bake in the oven at around 350F/170C for about 35-45 minutes. It's cooked when the filling has browned and an inserted toothpick comes out clean. Leave to cool and serve with some ice cream or custard.

raspberry & peach cake with clouds of vanilla frosting and aromatic ground cardamom.

2011-07-10T21:09:00.001+01:00

This is my July. Peaches and raspberries. I like them raw but I also like shoving them into a bowl of sugar and stuff and then baking that. Then eating them.

I put ground cardamom in, but that's because I'm really into that right now. It's definitely optional.

With it, you've got a fruity and gently spiced cake. Without it you've got a fruit vanilla-y cake. Both good!

This week I've been riding my bike a lot.

I had a cold.

I spent the night at a party in a beautiful gallery.

I sewed these.

(that's a volcano, a mountain and two trees if you're wondering.)

To make this lovely moist summery cake you'll need:

1 1/3 cups sugar
1/2 cup vegan margarine
3 cups self raising flour
3/4 tsp salt
2 cups soy milk
1 tbsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp ground cardamom (optional)

1 not-so-ripe peach

a handful of raspberries

for the clouds of vanilla frosting:

1 3/4 cups confectioners/icing sugar

5-6 tbsp vegan margarine

2 tsp cider vinegar

1-2 tsp vanilla extract

Beat the sugar and margarine together until combined, then add the flour, salt, soy milk and vanilla. Add the ground cardamom if you're using it. Stir gently until thoroughly combined.

Grease your cake tin well and pour in half of the batter.

Grab your peach and cut all the way around the middle, then twist so that you have two halves. Slice into even pieces and lay in a circle on top of the cake batter. Throw some raspberries into the centre.

Pour on the rest of the batter and bake at around 160C/350F/Gas mark 3 for 40-50 minutes. It'll brown up on the outside but check it's done by inserting a clean skewer or knife at around the 40 minute mark.

Remove from the oven and leave to cool while you make the frosting.

This is so much easier with an electric mixer, but very doable by hand too. First beat the margarine until it's light and fluffy, then slowly add the icing sugar a bit at a time. Keep adding the sugar until it's a consistency that you're happy with, then add the vinegar and vanilla. Cover and put aside until the cakes cooled.

My friends, do not even attempt to ice this cake until it's as cold as the rest of the room. Icing a warm cake is a bad idea. I say this as someone who does it all the time.

Once it's cool, get icing!

Chuck some raspberries up on there and cut yourself a slice.

Look at the little bits of peach and berry! MMM.

You better recognise I'm going to eat that motherflipper.

banana bourbon strawberry cream pie

2011-07-03T21:15:00.001+01:00

I've got this dress. I bought it in beautiful Wisconsin last summer when it was too hot to wear anything but thin cotton. It's white and covered in tiny blue pinstripes.

Have you ever seen the film Waitress? It's (unsurprisingly) my favourite film of all time. Whenever I wear this dress I get the urge to bake pies like the pies that Jenna makes.

I know it's not quite the same but it is in my mind. I don't get inspired by tales of triumph or people overcoming huge obstacles much, I get inspired by somebody making themed pies in a southern diner.

so that's my dress and this is the pie I made.

Last week along with the lovely samphire, I got given a jar of homemade strawberry compote that I used in this, but you could definitely use fresh strawberries. Yes I used a premade pastry crust, yes I know it's lame. Time is short sometimes and if you can pick up a half-decent pastry crust, I'm not going to stop you.

Inside this beauty is a layer of banana, banana bourbon pudding, strawberry compote and soy cream. It's all gone now and I only made it yesterday so I think it gets the thumbs up.

The banana bourbon layer tastes like rich and sweet banana pudding, kind of like the filling in a banoffee pie. Leave out the bourbon if you don't have it, you could try adding a teaspoon of vanilla extract instead.

To make a dreamy pie you also need a good soundtrack so might I suggest listening to the new Bon Iver album while you stir, or putting this on repeat?

To make a 9 inch pie you'll need:
A store bought crust, some pre-made pastry, or your own pastry. I recommend this recipe but whatever works for you.

1/3 cup cornflour
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 cups soy milk
1/2 mashed banana
1 tsp vanilla extract OR 2 tsps bourbon, or both!
1 extra banana
some fresh strawberries, or some strawberry compote
a cream substitute*

*there are so many options. I used Soyatoo whippable cream and was pretty impressed with how stiff it went (that's what she said). But you could try a cashew cream, coconut cream, even a tofu based cream, loads of options!

Put the cornflour, sugar and soy milk into a pan and heat over a low heat until you can feel with your wooden spoon that the grains have pretty much dissolved.

Pour in the mashed banana and the vanilla/bourbon.

Keep stirring and turn the heat up a tiny bit. You want to keep stirring until it boils and thickens. I made a gif to show you how thick it should be! look!

When it's all thick and bubbly like that, take it off the heat and set aside to cool a little.

Slice the rest of the 1 1/2 bananas and lay them across your pastry base.

Pour over the banana pudding (doesn't it smell amazing?) until the slices are completely covered.

If there's any leftover, put it in a bowl for banana bourbon pudding breakfast funtimes.

If you're using a compote, scoop out the strawberries from the juice so that the pie doesn't get too sloppy. If you're using fresh strawberries, slice them and layer over the pudding.

Whip your soy cream furiously. I mean, this stuff is good but it takes some serious elbow grease.

Slather it on and stick the pie in the fridge for an hour (minimum) so it'll set well.

While we're waiting for that to set, would you like to see my new home? I really love it.
This is my comfy reading area where I read the letters that flew between Julia Child and Avis Devoto a long time ago.

This is my wonderful window. So big!

Where I sleep.

The view from that window in the evening is pretty lovely, that's the entire London skyline you can see right there.

Anyway, pie will be set, you'll have guests, they'll love it and you'll feel good. I hope your weekend was dreamy.

warm potato and samphire salad

2011-06-29T21:39:00.001+01:00

It's hot, then it's raining, then it's hail, then it's boiling. When the weather's indecisive, I am too. I can't decide if I want a pot of stew to warm me up or some cold salad to cool me down.

I got a generous gift on Monday of a bag of samphire and a jar of some homemade strawberry compote. I'm still working on what to do with the compote but the samphire needed eating right away and it was perfect for a day of unpredictable weather.

If you've never tried samphire, I urge you to! The only thing I can compare it to is asparagus, although really it's not even that similar to that. It's almost rubbery, filled with tiny pockets of salt water, tender and crunchy, it's delicious. I know that. It's delicious.

This salad is a combination of salty, sweet from the roasted tomatoes and sour citrus of the lemon. It makes enough for two but I ate both portions. Ha!

to make enough for 2 people (or one me):

a small bag of samphire (about two handfuls)

some small waxy type new potatoes, about 5 per person? I don't know, how hungry are you? that many

a handful of cherry tomatoes

a lemon

1 garlic clove, finely chopped

olive oil

1 bag of lambs lettuce (you could definitely use another leaf like spinach but maybe steer clear of watercress or rocket because it'll overpower the samphire)

So easy.

Chop your new potatoes into even sized halves and drop into boiling water, leave to simmer.

Grab a pretty nice dish that you might have been given by your grandmother

Chop your cherry tomatoes in half and place cut side up in the dish. Drizzle with olive oil and put into a medium heat oven for around 15 minutes, until they're all dark and crinkly.

They are SO sweet like this. Yum! Leave to cool. Check on your potatoes and if they're cooked, drain and put to one side.

Put your samphire into a bowl of cold water and swish it around a bit, try and find any odd leaves or bits that you don't want.

Grab the pan that you used for the potatoes and bring some more water to the boil, then drop the samphire in for 30 seconds-1 minute. Don't overcook it! Drain and plunge back into cold water to stop the cooking process.

In a frying pan, heat a little olive oil and gently fry the potatoes. Use a medium heat and take your time. I know this seems like a lot of steps for a salad but sometimes it's nice to spend your time slowly mastering each step and putting all the components together. Less haste, more taste, you dig?

Just before you're ready to take the now golden and crispy skinned potatoes out of the pan, add the chopped garlic for another minute or so.

Grab a bowl and layer up some lambs lettuce, then the potatoes, some tomatoes, then the samphire. Liberally squeeze the lemon juice over the whole thing then gently toss.

favourite salad so far this year. I've missed you all, I hope you're well.

life is calling, be right back

2011-06-05T17:09:00.000+01:00

Guess what? I've got a wonderful new job where I get to eat and drink things like this:

i've also got a beautiful new flat to move into so I'll be out of action for a couple of weeks. But my new place has an oven! This summer I'm going to be baking up a storm and sharing it all with YOU.
See you soon!

choc chip cheesecake brownies

2011-05-31T21:36:00.001+01:00

This is my friend Jean. Me and Jean like to eat. We meet to eat. Pretty sure the first time we ever met we ate an enormous lunch, then a bucket of sorbet. Then probably ate more. Whenever I want to go to a new restaurant, I dream of Jeanie.

Sometimes I want to bake alongside somebody. Especially if they like stuffing their face as much as I do, and I knew Jean would appreciate brownies covered in cheesecake. Who the flip wouldn't? Pretty sure I don't need to explain to you why cheesecake and brownies go together. These are so easy to make that we managed to make them while drinking wine, looking at photos of the Chelsea flower show and googling who played the hunky guy in Ps. I love you (not hunky Gerard, the other one).

To make enough brownies to make you feel sick you'll need:

8 tbsp dairy free margarine
2 x 100g bars of dark chocolate
1 1/3 cup sugar
1 1/2 cup flour
3 tbsp cocoa powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
4-5 tbsp soy milk
1/2 cup chocolate chips

(for the cheesecake top)

8 ounces vegan cream cheese, at room temperature

5 tablespoons icing sugar

1/8 teaspoon vanilla extract

Melt the chocolate and margarine over a low heat in a saucepan, then pour into a mixing bowl. Add the sugar, flour, cocoa, soy milk and vanilla and mix until combined (brownies are easy).

Line a baking dish with foil.

Pour in your brownie mix.

Sprinkle with your chocolate chips.

In another mixing bowl, beat the cream cheeze, sugar and vanilla until combined, then put big dollops of it all over the brownie mix.

Skillfully act like Jean and drag a knife loosely across to marble the top.

Put into the oven at 180C/350/gas mark 4 for around 35 minutes, until the cheesecake is golden and an inserted knife comes out clean.

You have to wait for them to cool before you can cut them. So let Jean do the washing up while you take pictures.

Stare wistfully out of a window.

Then stand around while she whips you up a bowl of carbs to offset the future diabetes from the brownies (I like that logic.)

When they're cool, cut 'em up and share those brownies with someone who loves them as much as you do.

Thanks Jean!

strawberry cardamom cake with an almond glaze and positive thoughts

2011-05-22T18:31:00.000+01:00

You guys, wonderful things are happening. Summer's coming, I'm starting an incredible new job, I've got a ticket to see Bon Iver in October, people are turning out to be even more amazing than previously thought. And I discovered I can bake in a toaster oven.

Not only can you bake a cake with perfect crumb structure in a toaster oven, you can also load it with hidden slices of strawberries and dust it with ground cardamom and edible glitter and give yourself a tongue party.

If you're lucky enough to have a normal oven, even better! But if you're a student or an alleged grown up like me and thought your baking days were over, think again. As long as your toaster oven has the switch on the front where you can turn the top element off, you're golden.

I keep buying strawberries because they're always on sale at the moment and I love them, but I was getting sick of them. And I love cardamom, you need the ground up kind for this. You could try and grind the seeds yourself though, who knows what'll happen! Try it while things are good!

To go on the top of this cake, I made a strawberry and almond glaze. It's pretty delish and after a day it'll all soak into the cake leaving you with a supermoist cake.

To make a standard sized (9 inch-ish) cake you'll need:
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cardamom
6 tablespoons of your preferred butter substitute, earth balance or the Pure range
2/3 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup canola oil
3/4 cup soy milk
1 cup fresh strawberries with the tops removed, sliced into three or four pieces each

For the glaze you'll need:
about 10 strawberries with the leaves cut off
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup ground almonds
some flaked almonds
EDIBLE GLITTER (oh yeaaaaah)

Beat the butter and sugar together with a wooden spoon.

(if you're thinking 'my, what a beautiful bowl', I think so too. I got it at Dean & Deluca in New York a few years ago and I love it. Also, thanks for loving it too. If you hate it, sorry for rambling.)

Once you've creamed the butter and sugar, add the flour, baking soda, salt and cardamom.

Gently combine then add the oil and soy milk and mix. It'll be a little lumpy but that's ok!

Add the strawberries and gently fold in.

Line your cake dish with greaseproof paper, or if it's a non-stick one just rub with a tiny bit of margarine, and pour in the batter. I've taken to using greaseproof paper because I'm anti-washing up. Yep.

Now baking times are going to vary. In my little toaster oven it has two wire shelves and two heating elements, one at the top and one at the bottom. You want to turn off the one at the top, and move a shelf as high as it will go but still leaving room for the cake to rise. I set the temperature to 180C/350F and it took about 40 minutes to bake. It's tough to give an exact time because I'm sure each tiny oven varies. Keep checking on it after about the 25 minute mark and as soon an inserted knife comes out clean, take it out and leave it to cool on a wire rack.

If you're using a normal oven, 180C/350F/Gas Mark 4 for probably 30-35 minutes, but again, please check on it regularly and take it out when it springs back to the touch and an inserted knife comes out clean!

Making the glaze was a good excuse to use up some more of the glut of strawberries. I switched the tv on and mashed some cut up strawberries with a fork until as smooth as possible. I mashed up about 10, that should be plenty.

Then sieve that so you're just left with the fluid and no pulp, and add the sugar and ground almonds. It should thicken up a bit but still be pretty fluid. Fold in some of the flaked almonds too and maybe add some glitter?

Once the cake has cooled, pour this over the top.

Add more flaked almonds to the top and more glitter! Cut yourself a slice. On the day you make it, it's great, the day after when it's absorbed the glaze? even better.

This is after a day, look at those little seams of strawberry. So good.

I hope your days are as positive as mine right now, I love you!

sundays are for stewing

2011-05-08T20:13:00.000+01:00

This is my kitchen on a sunday afternoon where i'm feeling relaxed. I've been trying to find something to have with my morning porridge that doesn't involve spoonfuls of sugar and I've decided on stewed apples. They're stewed in my wonderful Crockpot with no added sugar but with a lot of cinnamon, and they came out so sweet, I was eating the wonderful mushiness by the spoonful. It tastes just like apple pie filling so, you know, eat it whenever. Stir it into your porridge, use it in a pie, feed it to your baby. (ps. happy mothers day to all the mamas who celebrate it today, including one of my favourites, my honorary sister Marie).

You can also eat this without the guilt that would accompany eating apple pie filling straight from the can, because you're basically just eating an apple. Who feels guilty about eating apples? I made it in my slow cooker, I'm sure you can make this in a decent saucepan too, but I don't know how. Answers in the comments please!

To make about 3 cups of this lovely stuff you'll need

about 8-9 medium sized eating apples, I used granny smiths
1/2 cup apple juice
1 heaped tsp cinnamon
the juice of half a lemon

Peel, core and chop your apples into 1 inch-ish sized cubes. I did this while watching tv, it's pretty boring standing there peeling apples.

Once they're chopped, stick them into your slow cookers dish.

Add the juice of half a lemon.

Then 1/2 a cup of apple juice.

Then finally, sprinkle on the cinnamon, stir around and mix it all up, then put the lid on and set the cooker to high for about 2, to 2 1/2 hours. It depends how smooth you like it.

After 2 hours, take off the lid and stir it with a wooden spoon, if the textures right for you, turn it off. If it's not, leave it going! Pretty simple. Note that your house smells bloody amazing right now too.

Eat some, save it in the fridge, whatever you want. It'll keep for about a week if you take care of it.

Make it, it's good for you and it tastes good. I made you a playlist to listen to next Sunday while you're stewing, I hope you like it. Download here. ♥

I'm 26! OLD.

2011-04-21T22:43:00.001+01:00

Hi homies! I turned 26 this week, I'm pretty surprised to be 26. Kind of thought I'd be at least living in a house with an oven by now.

I went back to Wales for my birthday, first time in a year. I did a bunch of nice things!
Hung out on a foggy beach!

With some mutts! (they had a pretty good time)

The beach is pretty good, saw some crabs and a jellyfish.

This is circle dancing and should only be attempted by my mother and some other nature lovers, in a forest, in the sun on the day after my birthday.

This is near my house, and it's pretty awesome. There's wind in Wales, the air in London is pretty still but here it'll smack you in the face so you can't breathe for a second.

For my birthday, my sister gave me this book. It is DREAMY. There's so much to make that I had to make something while in the presence of an oven, I chose the moroccan carrot salad and the stuffed cabbage. It doesn't sound like much but it was a killer dinner and it's pretty flipping easy. I've modified both recipes slightly.

The moroccan carrot salad makes about enough for 4 hungry people, the cabbage about the same too! That's convenient isn't it?

For the carrot salad you'll need:

750g-1kg of carrots. That's about 8-10 normal sized carrots
olive oil
1 red onion, chopped
1 tsp caster sugar
3 crushed garlic cloves
1 chopped green chili
1/8 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground coriander
3/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp smoked paprika
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
a big bunch of roughly chopped fresh coriander, as much as you can grab in your sticky fist

Cut the carrots up into sticks, or little discs, or semi circles, however you like 'em.

Bring a pan of salted water to the boil, then add the carrots and turn down the heat. Let them simmer in the water until they're tender but don't let them lose their bite, you don't want a soggy salad. Remove from the heat and drain and leave to cool.

Chop the onion, chili and garlic. Put a couple of tbsp of olive oil into a large pan and saute the onion until soft, then add the carrots to this, followed by all of the remaining ingredients and spices (apart from the fresh coriander).

Make sure it's all thoroughly mixed in the pan, then remove from the heat and season well, then leave to cool in a big bowl.

Now the cabbage! You'll need:
150g basmati rice, about half a cup
1 medium white cabbage
60g pine nuts, about 1/3 cup, roughly chopped
Bunch of fresh mint and a bunch of fresh parsley
3 crushed garlic cloves
100ml dry white wine, just under 1/2 a cup
100ml vegetable stock, just under 1/2 a cup

See, now in the book, good old Yotam tells us to cut the cabbage in half, then peel the big leaves off. Don't listen to Yotam when he says this. It makes it way trickier, just grab your cabbage and peel the big leaves off until you've got the amount you want. We ate 2 of these each so that's your guide, although I actually ate 3 so whatevs.

Put the rice in some water and cook it as you normally would until it's soft and done. Drain it, then put it back into the pan (not on the heat). To the cooked rice add the pine nuts, fresh herbs and the garlic and some salt and pepper and taste it and see how good it is, it's GOOD.

Grab your cabbage leaves and a pan of water. Bring the water to the boil, then place a couple of cabbage leaves at a time in the water until they go a little floppy. Then grab them out of the water and run them under the cold water tab for a second so that they don't cook any longer. Pat dry.

Holding a cooked leaf in your hand, scoop some rice out of the pan with a spoon and place in the centre of a leaf.

Fold the edges around the filling, then place edge side down in a baking dish.

In a jug, mix the wine, stock and some salt and pepper in a jug, then pour over the cabbage leaves making sure to cover as much as possible. Place in the oven at 180C/Gas mark 4/350F until almost all of the liquid has gone, or until the cabbage is browned.

SO GOOD.

Ps, I re-joined twitter. Again! I know. Hit me up @nimnam.

rhubarb til i poobarb.

2011-03-13T17:16:00.000Z

I missed you. Did you miss me? It's been a long time since we've hung out properly hasn't it. This time last year we were hanging out weekly and we were eating chana masala and spicy tlayudas. I'm going to make it up to you, do you like rhubarb? I flipping love it.

Look at it! Ignore that I made this entire tart and now there's only half left. And I live alone so. There's that. I know rhubarb goes so well in pies and crumbles but with all the buds blooming and the birds squeaking, I'm not in the mood for heavy winter food, I want light flaky pastry, tender chunks of poached rhubarb and sweet toasted almonds. And ice-cream obvs.

Once you've poached the rhubarb, you end up with this incredible pink syrup too. Amazing as an ice-cream sauce, I'm dreaming of gin-based rhubarb cocktails now too. Hey, have you ever seen the film Stranger than fiction? I hung a mirror in my kitchen solely because of this scene.

Aw. Ok so this tart, you know how sometimes when you cook for people and they say 'This must have taken you such a long time to make' and you're all 'oh no way, it was really simple', but really, you've been slaving away in the kitchen ALL DAY? Well this is the opposite, people will be all 'whoa', but you'll be all 'oh it was nothing!'. For real! You could even skip the making the pastry part and buy pre-made sweet shortcrust pastry, I swear I wouldn't ever tell and you'd have more time to arrange your place to look like you always keep it that tidy.

To make this special tart you'll need:

either, a pre-made pastry shell, pre-made shortcrust pastry, or to make pastry yourself, I like this recipe at the moment

About 6-8 decent sized sticks of rhubarb (like the thickness of almost a broom handle, not like a pencil)

1 cup granulated sugar

1/3 cup ground almonds

1/2 cup-ish of flaked almonds

That is IT. For real!

Once the pastry is baked you don't need anything else to go into the oven, so make it/roll it out and put it in your dish and bake it until it's golden brown. You might need to bake it blind for 10 minutes or so, then finish it off to colour it.

Once your pastry is ready, put it aside and put the sugar into a pan with 1 1/2 cups of water over a medium high heat. While that's heating, chop your rhubarb into thumb sized chunks.

Add them to the sugar water when it's started bubbling.

Keep an eye on it! It will quickly go from firm and stringy to soft and tender! When it starts to flake apart when you nudge it, start scooping it out with a slotted spoon and put it into a sieve, over a bowl.

Quite a lot of fluid will come out, but look how tender those pieces are. They completely melt in your mouth.

Pour the extra back into the pan and keep the heat quite high so that the remaining fluid reduces by about two thirds. It'll make the sweetest little sauce.

While your rhubarb is cooling, spread the ground almonds out onto the base with your fingers, they do a good job of absorbing any residual liquid from the rhubarb so that the pastry doesn't get too soggy.

Use a spoon and carefully place the rhubarb all over the pastry base. (Keep an eye on your sauce!)

So yummy! Your sauce should have thickened up a bit by now and be pretty low down in the pan. Pour it into a container to cool down. Check out the amazing colour!

Now you don't even have to toast the almonds, you could just throw them straight on, but I like the flavour, so if you do too, just stick some foil on a baking sheet, throw the almonds on and sprinkle with a little sugar. Put them into the oven for a couple of minutes on a medium high heat. I'm serious, check them once a minute, they burn so easily! Then take them out, let them cool a little, then scatter over the rhubarb.

Seriously the easiest and prettiest tart ever.

I missed you all, I will try harder.

Japan, you, your people and animals are very much in my thoughts and heart.

slow cooker cake

2011-02-09T16:58:00.002Z

So, this happened. I made a cake in my slow cooker. Photographed it, you know made notes and shit. For you guys! Sat down, start typing and uploading the photos and, oh what's this? a broken laptop? Fantastic. So I did take a lot of photos, but this is all I managed to upload before the Laptop Meltdown of 2011, (blame Apple, I am right now).

I'm trying you guys. So this is a good recipe if you're a student with no oven, if you're a busy mum who'd still like to bake while cleaning up and sorting everybody out, or if you're a supposedly grown woman of almost 26 who decides to live in a cabin with no oven instead of a normal house. Here are some photos of my cabin!

the kitchen!

the fridge!

the bathroom!

the outside!

So this cake, it's not going to win any awards for it's appearance. You can't even really cut it into slices while it's all warm and gooey (the best time). But you can scoop some out and kind of press it into a heart shape and eat it with some ice cream. And it's definitely good enough to serve to guests, it's gooey and chocolately and the crumb structure is PERFECT. You're just going to have to trust me though because I can't show you the cross section, the close up of crumbs on the fork, the melty ice-cream shot. Frustrationville.

At this point in my non-oven-owning life, that's enough for me. And actually, what could be better than a cake that you can just ignore for 2 hours? To make this weird/amazing slow cooker cake you'll need:

a slow cooker obv
2 cups plain flour
1 cup sugar
4 tbsp cocoa
4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup soy milk
4 tbsp vegetable oil
1 cup chopped nuts, I used hazelnuts
1 1/2 cups dark chocolate chips

For the sauce:
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
1/2 cup cocoa
1 1/3 cups boiling water

So! In a bowl, mix all the dry ingredients, then the wet until mixed. Rub some vegetable oil onto a paper towel and just wipe the inside of the slow cooker with it. Add the chocolate chips and nuts to the mix, then pour into the slow cooker. For the sauce, mix the sugar and cocoa, then slowly add the boiling water and stir it until there aren't any more lumps. Pour over the batter.

I know it feels weird to pour fluid over cake batter but the end result is a sticky chocolate sauce that pools underneath the cake!

Put the lid on and turn the heat setting to high for around 2 hours. It's kind of hard with slow cookers because you shouldn't take the lid off, but if you can peek through the glass and see the the cake has risen, the top isn't glossy anymore and the sauce is bubbling, it's done. Stick a knife in it to check. Leave it to cool for around 30 minutes before you cut it if you want it to look vaguely normal. If you are me, eat it with a spoon straight out of the pan.

I'm sorry about the lack of photos you guys, hopefully by this time next week I'll have a fixed/better/magical computer.

xxx

♥

2011-01-16T17:13:00.000Z

Oh you guys. What is this feeling called? The one that's so common to the last ten years when you have a website that people read and you take a little break to get your life back in order, and then you don't post for a while, and feel so bad? Bloggers remorse? I've got it. I've also moved into an adorable house without an oven.

Seriously.

I can't bake like I used to. It breaks my heart (but my butt'n'gut are happier).

BUT. I've got a slow cooker! And a little counter top oven so trust, my friends. Trust that I will return with slow-cooked cakes (for real), and other junk. I'm sorry to keep you hanging on, life's like that sometimes isn't it.

Miss you all.

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

2010-11-25T14:52:00.000Z

What's new homies? I've been living in this house for the last 18 months, this big bright kitchen has helped me make a LOT of cakes. But now I'm moving to a tiny little cabin which I'm going to turn into the dreamiest grotto/nest ever. I'm also starting a new job in a new place, all in the same week. Won't be baking (or posting) for a while obviously, the cookie cutters and fairy lights won't pack themselves you know. Back soon!

ps. while I'm stressing and running out of boxes, there are a ton of recipes over there on the left to keep you busy!

pps. happy thanksgiving to my american buddies <3

I finally made a gingerbread house. It only took me ALL MY LIFE (plus a christmassy playlist)

2010-11-11T20:36:00.000Z

I have tried so many times to make a gingerbread house. Every time either the template wasn't right, the recipe sucked, the shape changed in the oven, my icing didn't hold. You name it, it happened.

But guess what? I finally did it.

This is less of a recipe post, than a, I-finally-did-it-and-you-can-too, in time for Christmas post. The winning recipe for the gingerbread came courtesy of Vegan Dad, and the template was from BBC Food, but is actually the same template as on the Martha Stewart site, so either is good. I made the icing from Vegan Dad but with coconut milk powder instead of the soy milk powder, I couldn't find that stuff anywhere.

The gingerbread and icing recipes are here, the template here. You'll need to print the template three times so you can cut out each shape.

Once you've made the gingerbread and it's cooled and you've got your icing ready, it's so simple! My favourite bit was choosing the decorations. I went for mint imperials for the paving stones because they look like little snowballs. For the roof tiles I used some dark chocolate 'thins', with an orange fondant filling. I wanted to use more of the lovehearts but I settled with just one on the front door.

You need something that the gingerbread can lean against as the icing sets, I used cans. Grab the front wall and a little side one and ice one edge, then press together and lean a can up against both walls.

Keep going all the way around until all four walls are joined, grab some more cans.

Once that's set, put a whole ton of icing cement in place ready for the roof parts, then place them on gently and help them rest with cans again, try and push the cans against the bottom part of each side of the roof.

Then to add the roof tiles, just ice underneath and gently press them on. I just basically threw icing at this and then stuck on sweets and got completely overexcited that it was actually working. I made little icicles by piping on the icing and then kind of just twisting the nozzle quickly as I pulled it away. And then I made a path out of mints but you could make anything. Gingerbread trees, or cinnamon stick log piles or snowmen made of balls of icing!

I made this this afternoon and already the left hand side of the roof has disappeared. I have no idea where it could be.

To celebrate my gingerbread success, I made a little christmassy themed playlist. You could spend your next free day listening to it and building a little sugary house, it's a pretty killer way to spend a day. Download it here.

The playlist is:
I can dream, can't I -The Andrews sisters
Lines written in Winter -Fionn Regan
White Winter hymnal -Fleet foxes
Mrs Cold -Kings of convenience
Christmas -Leona Naess
Pistachio -Lisa Hannigan
Pianni -Mara Carlyle
Winter Birds -Ray LaMontagne
The was the worst Christmas ever -Sufjan Stevens
The Christmas song -Owl city

avocado fries or, when I tasted heaven and developed a crack-like addiction to this heavenly foodstuff. It's that good.

2010-11-03T18:04:00.000Z

Don't I always do this? Come here and tell you that I've made something that tastes AMAZING and you have to make it, no seriously this time, no really. I know I do it a lot.

I'm topping all of those things, forget every other recipe on this site. Make these.

Make them.

No seriously this time.

No really.

They're that good. Imagine if you will, a french fry, a chip, whatever you want to call it. It's crispy and salty and you bite into it and there's fluffy potato inside. Yeah, yum. But then imagine it was all smooth and creamy inside. I'm not describing it right. Just try it! These took me about 20 minutes in total to make. 20 minutes and you'll be coming right back here just to say 'Omg you're totally right, I made them and I love you and I'll never doubt you again Naomi.'

You're welcome.

To make enough for two (even though you'll eat them all yourself) you'll need:
2 avocados (just a note here, don't be tempted to get ripe ones. The cooking process softens them right up and a ripe avocado just won't hold while it's cooking, get one that just gives ever so slightly when you squeeze it)
1 cup plain flour
1 cup soda water
2 tsp smoked paprika
generous pinch of salt

and enough oil of your choice to fry them in, about 3-4 inches deep in a small pan.

Put your pan of oil over a high heat and leave it to heat up. I haven't got a thermometer so I don't know what temp it should be. I bet having one would make it easier but I like living on the edge.

Put the flour, soda water, paprika and salt into a bowl and whisk it.

This is the kind of consistency you're looking for:

Grab your avocados and cut them in half then peel off the skin. If they're firm enough this shouldn't be too tough.

Cut them into thickish chunks, about 4 to an avocado half. Dip a spoon into the batter and drop it into the pan of oil, if it starts bubbling, it's ready. Pick up an avocado slice and dip it into the batter, get your fingers right in there with it so it's completely coated, then quickly drop it into the oil (don't burn yourself). Sometimes they stick a little to the bottom of the pan so just use a slotted spoon and nudge them a little. Don't put more then 3 into the pan at once so they've got space.

Leave them to cook until the batter turns golden brown then take them out and leave on some kitchen paper to soak up the excess oil.

Once they're cooked, stack 'em up in a bowl and serve with some spicy ketchup, salsa, garlicky soyannaise, anything. I promise you'll like them.

This is how it'd look if you were rocking my favourite 'blue balls' shade of nail varnish, and you were about to put one of these into your mouth. Just sayin'.

I'm an idiot.

2010-10-21T15:31:00.000+01:00

Sometimes I bake all week and everything is disastrous. Today was the final straw, I spent all day trying to make a perfect pink himalayan salted caramel tart and it was disgusting. Seriously, tip the whole thing into the bin and forget it ever happened disgusting. But I can't forget it because I was so excited to share it with you guys! I'll keep trying, cross your fingers. In the meantime there's a whole ton of recipes over there on the left if you're dying to get into the kitchen.

Hopefully I'll get it right soon but for now, please excuse me, I've got some feathered friends to hang out with.

pumpkin cardamom chocolate cake with pumpkin spiced frosting

2010-10-11T13:00:00.001+01:00

When you start baking with pumpkins, you know it's Autumn. I'm super busy getting ready for overseas visitors and doing the laundry that seems to be breeding in every corner I look and trying to get rid of all my junk (yeah, it's that time of year). But I can always find time for baking.

You can buy canned pumpkin puree in most places now, but it's so easy to make your own and it makes the house smell delicious. Instructions here if you feel like it.

The cardamom spicing in the cake is very mild, and if you use the pumpkin spice mix in the frosting it pretty much overpowers it so feel free to use a more bland frosting/no frosting. I just couldn't resist it.

Based on a recipe by Celine

You'll need:
1/4 cup soy milk
1 tsp cider vinegar
1 cup plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
half tsp bicarb of soda
2/3 cup sugar
3/4 cup pumpkin puree
3 tbsp sunflower oil
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup chocolate chips
1 tsp ground cardamom

and for the frosting:
1/3 cup vegan cream cheese
3/4 cup icing sugar
1/2 tsp of cinnamon
1/4 tsp of mixed spice, ground nutmeg and ground ginger
splash of soy milk

Put the soy milk into a jug and add the vinegar, leave to curdle. Sift all of the dry ingredients into a bowl.

To the milk and vinegar mix add the oil, pumpkin puree and the vanilla and mix, it'll look like this:

Add the wet ingredients to the dry, folding in as much as possible, try not to over-mix. Then add the chocolate chips and make sure they're evenly distributed. Grease (and line if you can be bothered) your cake pan. I used two because I wanted a layer of the frosting in the middle but it'll be fine to just use one.

Bake at Gas mark 4/180C/350F for 20-25 minutes, until it's browned on top and springy when you poke it. Leave it to cool for a little longer than you want to, because any chocolate on the bottom will be all melty and you'll have holes in the bottom from missing chocolate bits that'll drop out otherwise.

To make the frosting just beat the cream cheese, add the icing sugar and spices and beat again and add soy milk if the mix gets too stiff. Do not ice until fully cooled or there'll be trouble.

my little dove.

2010-10-04T10:42:00.000+01:00

All I'm eating recently is plums. They're on special everywhere and they're perfectly ripe. I eat them straight from the punnet, stewed, with ice-cream, and in this. This is like a crumble but without the annoying rubbing-the-fat-into-the-flour stage and with the oats make the texture of the topping intergalactic.

I can't help rubbing off that pale purpleish bloom that they get. I love autumn.

To make enough for 3-4 people you'll need:
a lot of plums. I used almost two punnets, but get enough to fill your dish (then halve them and take out the stones)
2 cups oats
3/4 cup golden syrup (you could probably use agave here too but I love golden syrup)
1 tbsp ground cinnamon
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup soy/almond/whatever milk

Halve all the fruit and take out the stones and stems. Lay them all into your dish face up and then sprinkle with a teaspoon or so of ground cinnamon.

Into a bowl put the oats, syrup and cinnamon and mix until it's a big mess.

Then add the vanilla and milk until it's clumpy but thoroughly mixed. Spread the oats gently over the fruit and try and get it all covered up, right to the edge.

Cover the whole thing up with some foil and put into the oven at gas mark 4/180C/350F for about 25 minutes, then remove the foil and give it another 10-15 minutes. You want it browned, but not burnt.

The house will fill up with an amazing smell. Eat it with ice-cream. And then eat more and look at the leaves on the floor outside the window and be happy to be inside in the warm while the air gets colder.

I'm so into this band right now.

chocolate pudding cake & caramelised hazelnuts (or, the story of how I became addicted to caramelized hazelnuts).

2010-09-19T15:02:00.001+01:00

You might have gathered by now that I've got a bit of a sweet tooth (more like an entire mouth of sweet teeth). But even I get sick of overly sweetened cakes and frosting sometimes. I was having a battle with myself all week, trying to find a way to make a cake that satisfied my desire for tooth aching sweetness but without feeling like I'd crunched my way through a giant bowl of sugar.

This cake was my fourth attempt. So many wasted ingredients this week in cakes that didn't rise, or burnt or tasted like nothing (that was the time I forgot to even add the sugar, such an idiot.) I had to come up with a new way to make cake because I'm a bit bored of how oily and not-very-crumby vegan cakes sometimes turn out. I remembered that Molly had given me some egg replacer a few months ago and it worked really well in this one. I think I might even start using egg replacer on a regular basis, recommended!

The frosting looks just like chocolate pudding and it's so tasty and thick but not too rich. It's got no icing sugar in it and you can either eat it after it's set in the fridge when it's just the right side of sweetly bitter thanks to the decent dark chocolate, or putting a slice in the microwave for 10 seconds gives you warm cake with gooey chocolate pudding frosting. I know which one I went for every 5 minutes.

I'd also suggest making double the amount of caramelised hazelnuts. Every time I went past the fridge I'd stick my hand in and pluck one off the top. The cake looked miserable after a day or so. Next time I'm just going to make a big bowl of nuts and eat them like popcorn.

To make one 9 inch-ish cake you'll need:
1 1/4 cups self raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
2/3 cup cocoa powder
1 cup sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1 cup soy milk
1/4 cup oil
2 tsp cider vinegar
1/3 cup egg replacer
1/2 cup water

In one bowl sift together all of the dry ingredients (flour-cinnamon).

Put the soy milk, oil and vinegar into a jug and leave to curdle a bit. Thoroughly mix the egg replacer with the water in a small bowl or jug until you've got a gross kind of paste. I know it says not to do this on the packet but it worked way better for me like this. Add the egg mix and the milk mix to the dry ingredients and stir until combined. Try not to over beat it. Look at the mousse-y texture you get, such a nice change from the usual oily mix!

Grease your cake pan and bake the mix at about Gas Mark 5/190C/375F for 25-30 minutes.

To make the chocolate pudding frosting, you need:
a tube of glucose syrup, it comes out to between 1/3 of a cup and 1/2 a cup
1/3 cup vegan cream cheese
1/4 cup soy milk
2 x 100g bars of dark chocolate (broken into pieces)

Put the syrup, cream cheese and soy milk into a pan and bring to the boil.

Let it boil for a minute or so, then turn off the heat and add the chocolate. Stir until it's all melted and then leave it to cool until your cake's ready.

To caramelise the hazelnuts, just put 3-4 tbsps of sugar and 1 tbsp of water into a pan over a medium heat. Heat until bubbling, then add a couple of handfuls of peeled hazelnuts and stir to make sure they're all coated evenly. Scoop them out and spread evenly over a silicone sheet until cooled.

When the cake's cooked be sure to leave it to cool properly before icing it so that it doesn't melt everywhere. When it's cool enough spread the puddingfrosting all over with a palette knife then add the hazelnuts while the frosting's still wet.

Look at that crumby structure! And gooey chocopuddingfrosting! Nommers!

chickpea, cabbage and potato stew (dull but delicious)

2010-09-11T22:10:00.001+01:00

Do you watch Mad Men? I'm a bit late but I love it. It's all I watch and it's basically resulted in me wishing for a completely different wardrobe and dying my hair red (Joan's my favourite).

My red lipstick is now in rotation again and the curlers haven't been used this much in years.

This week my friend Fern came to stay. She's pretty much my favourite, we went to New York together once (and missed our flights home, and saw Scarlett Johansson, and ate mountains of food). Here she is with All Beef Patty on east 56th st.

I knew she'd be hungry when she finally arrived so I saved her a piece of the secret heart cake and made this chickpea thing with stuff that was already hanging around the kitchen. It's nothing special but it's tasty and filling and doesn't need any fancy pants ingredients.

To make enough for four you'll need:
2 cans of chickpeas
1/2 tsp smoked paprika
1 tsp each of ground cumin, ground coriander, mustard seeds, ground turmeric, ground ginger
1/2 tsp dried chili flakes
1 onion, sliced
3 chopped cloves of garlic
700ml of vegetable stock
1/2 a shredded cabbage
a handful of potatoes, cubed or chopped into smallish pieces
half a tube of tomato puree

Into a deep-ish frying pan, put about 1 tbsp of sunflower or groundnut oil over a medium heat and add all of the spices and the onion.

Gently fry the onion for a few minutes, then add the garlic and soften for another couple of minutes. Pour in the stock and leave to simmer for 5 minutes or so while you chop the potatoes up. You could peel them, I love the skins so I didn't bother.
Chuck in the potatoes and chickpeas once it's been simmering a while and leave to cook until the potatoes are tender, then add the tomato puree and stir it all in.

Slice your cabbage quite thinly, then add to the mix (you could use whatever veg you want here, I bet kale would work nicely).

It keeps really well in the fridge and is perfect for welcoming an old friend on a cold night.

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

secret heart cake.

2010-09-05T18:37:00.005+01:00

(some of the photos are missing on this post, bear with me! working on it! xx)

So you're going to a party, or it's somebody's birthday and you've kindly offered to make a cake. What to make? So many different flavours and fillings and icings and probably somebody won't like citrus glazes and somebody else just hates raspberry jam and you start stressing out (or is it just me that does this?). Now you can make this instead! Tell me one person on the entire planet who wouldn't adore a cake that you slice into, and find a secret squishy red velvet heart inside.

If you're a patient person, yours will be so much tidier than mine. I was so excited to make this that I started carving it when it was still warm, breaking Rule #1 of baking, and I squished the sides a little. If you can bear to wait and chill each piece in the freezer for about 15 minutes before carving, it'll make the whole thing a lot easier.

(recipes at the bottom if you need them for the basic sponge, red velvet and the frosting.)

Make your bowl of frosting and put it to one side.

You start by baking a simple red velvet sponge, in any shape because you're going to break it up into crumbs anyway. Break it into chunks and put into a bowl once it's cooled and then use a fork to make it all crumby.

Add between 1/2 and 3/4 cup of frosting to this and mix it thoroughly together. Try and FAIL to resist the temptation to try this stuff, it's incredible.

Put that into the fridge while you make the sponges. You need to make three that are roughly all the same height and width. Once they're all cooked leave them to cool and find something round to use as a template to cut around, I used a mug.

Choose one of the sponges, put the template in the centre and cut around it. Remove the middle piece and put the cake into the fridge while you do the other two.

The next cake to carve is the bottom piece. Put the template on the top of the cake and mark the circle but don't go too deep. Then carefully cut at an angle so you make a kind of 'v' shape, kind of like an inverted cone. That's going to be the bottom of the heart!

Stick that one in the fridge then grab the last cake. This one you want to cut from the underside, so flip it over and put the template in the centre.

This time you want to make an inverted cone again for the top of the heart but you need to leave a little mound in the centre to make the top indentation. If you feel like you've messed it up, you can always kind of smush it into a little mound using some of the stuff you've cut out already.

Now take the others out of the fridge and grab the frosting. Put a layer of frosting between the bottom cake and the middle piece (the one with the hole right through). Then grab your red velvet crumbs and press the gently into the hole, right down to the bottom.

Frost the top of the middle layer too, ready for when you put the top on.

Grab your top piece and gently pack the red velvet crumbs around the centre mound, right up to the edge so it's flush with the edges of the hole you've cut. Quickly and carefully, flip the top cake over, onto the other two and press it firmly so that (hopefully) the frosting and red velvet bits all fuse together.

You could frost the whole cake in a thick layer, or nothing at all, I just like a really thin layer. Leave it to chill and set in the fridge until you're ready, then watch as it's cut into and the little heart inside reveals itself.

Mines a bit messy because I get overexcited and rush through doing it, I'm sure if you took time and actually waited for your cakes to cool, it'd come out perfect.

Recipe for cakes:

To make 3 sponges in 8 inch cake pans you'll need:

3 cup soy milk

3 tsp apple cider vinegar
4 cups all-purpose flour
3 cup sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup vegetable oil

Put the soy milk and vinegar into a jug and leave to curdle. Sieve the dry ingredients into a bowl and mix, then add the soy milk and the oil and mix thoroughly. Grease and line your cake pans and bake at about gas mark 4/375F/190C for around 20-25 minutes until an inserted knife comes out clean.

To make the red velvet cake you'll need:

1 cup soy milk

1 tsp apple cider vinegar
1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup sugar
2 tbsp cocoa powder
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup vegetable oil
2 tsp red food colouring (look out for the one where the colour is made from Red #40 (coal derivative) not cochineal/carmine (bug derivative)

Almost the same as before, soy milk and vinegar into a jug. All the dry ingredients into the bowl including the cocoa powder, then add the milk and oil and the red food colouring. Mix and pour into a greased and lined cake pan and cook for about 20 minutes at gas mark 4/375F/190C until an inserted knife comes out clean.

To make a frosting that isn't overly sweet, this is the recipe I used (I find a lot of vegan buttercreams including ones I've made on this site before, have been too sweet but this one came out great!)

You'll need:

1 3/4 icing sugar

6 tbsp vegan margarine

2 tsp cider vinegar

1 tsp vanilla extract

Beat the margarine and sugar together until it's smooth, then add the vinegar and vanilla and beat for another few minutes until it's fluffy and smooth.

apple caramel upside-down cake

2010-08-30T20:45:00.000+01:00

It's almost Autumn! The winds are definitely picking up, I've seen a couple of fallen leaves and the branches on the apple tree in the garden are drooping right down to the floor, heavy with all the fruit, begging to be put into pies and crumbles and cakes and MY MOUTH.

Sometimes I'd pick one that had a big wormy worm inside, I'd make this face.

I found a little secret grape vine growing through the tree (thanks neighbours!), with bunches of perfect little grapes on it! Too bad they tasted like battery acid. (thanks neighbours.)

This sticky cake has got the best texture, it's easily overcooked so you need to keep an eye on it but it's dense and moist and apple-y and sweet and you should make it.

You'll need:

for the apple caramel layer:

1/4 cup melted vegan margarine

1/4 cup brown sugar

2-3 medium-large apples (really depends what size cake pan you're using, I used a heart shaped silicon pan, yep.)

For the cake batter:

1/4 melted vegan margarine

1 cup soy milk

1/8 cup sunflower oil

1/2 cup sugar

2 cups plain/all purpose flour

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

1/4 tsp salt

2 tsp ground cinnamon

Pour the melted margarine for the caramel layer straight into your pan, then sprinkle the brown sugar evenly across it. Peel and core your apples and cut them into little wedges, then arrange evenly in the margarine/sugar mix.

In a bowl whisk together your soy milk, margarine and oil, then add the rest of the batter ingredients and mix.

Pour the mix over the apple gently, try not to let the caramel get all mixed in, gently does it.

Put your cake pan onto a baking sheet and bake at 350F/Gas mark 4/180C for about 25 minutes. After 25 minutes check on it every couple of minutes, as soon as an inserted knife comes out clean, take it out of the oven. This cake easily gets too crunchy on the top, and the top is the base, no crunchy bases.

Leave it to cool for a couple of minutes then flip it onto a serving dish. If some apple pieces fall out just shove 'em back in and act like it was meant to happen.

It's a cake you should make for your family, it's not too showy full of strange ingredients, it's comforting and it's cute and it's goddamned delicious.

After I put up a recipe cake for the last recipe, lovely Liz made me some custom ones! Look how cute! (clip art that she used is courtesy of pugly pixel)

Did you know it would have been Michael Jackson's birthday yesterday? ♥

banana brown sugar bread & butter pudding.

2010-08-25T16:30:00.001+01:00

I got back last night after 21 grueling hours of travel to realise I didn't have any food in the house. I'd managed to leave myself 2 cans of coconut milk in the cupboard and the frosty remains of some mango sorbet in the freezer so I went to bed hungry. Then this morning, jet lagged and idiotic, went to get some food and came back with bread, bananas and soy milk to make this, but nothing else. This pudding was my lunch and dinner.

It doesn't look the prettiest but the sauce is sticky and sweet and cooked bananas have the most amazing flavour. With the bread you get the top part all sugary and crunchy and then a cakey bottom part.

Inspired loosely by a recipe from Joy.

To serve 4 you'll need:
enough sliced white bread to fill your dish (toasted and buttered with a vegan butter substitute, I like the Pure brand), I used about 6 slices
3 tsp ground arrowroot
2 cups soy milk
1/2 cup brown sugar
2-3 bananas
2 tbsp of granulated sugar with 1 tbsp of cinnamon mixed into it, to top.

Lightly toast each slice of bread and butter on one side.

Cut it into diagonal pieces and arrange pointy side up in your dish.

Put the arrowroot, brown sugar and soy milk into a pan and gently bring to the boil while stirring. It should go an amazing brown colour and smell delicious. Once it's boiled, turn down the heat slightly and keep stirring for another few minutes. Make sure there are no little arrowroot lumps floating about.

Turn off the heat and pour the soy milk mix over the bread, you don't need to cover each slice, just fill the base of the dish and maybe drip a bit over the bread.

Slice up your bananas and wedge them in-between the slices, push some down into the milky part, smoosh them all in.

Push the bread and bananas around a bit with your fingers so that most of the bananas have a little sauce on them and the base of all the slices are able to soak up some of the liquid.

Put into the oven at 350F/180C/Gas mark 4 for about 25-30 minutes. When you take it out some of the banana will look a little dried so grab a spoon or some tongs and turn them around in the liquid then put back into the oven for another 10-15 minutes. When you take it out the second time it should look like this:

YUMMERZ. Sprinkle the cinnamon sugar over the whole thing and leave it to cool, let it get itself together so that the liquidy part has a chance to settle down. Nobody wants runny pudding.

Use a knife to cut it, serving spoons are no good here.

See? I told you it's not pretty, but it is totally delicious.

The squidgy parts are my favourite.

I'm going to start uploading a version of recipes that you can print/save so you don't have to scroll through the whole post making notes on your hands (is it just me that does that?) Just click on it to get the big version, then right-click and save!

I'm thinking about peanut buttery pies, stews, baked and crispy things, soft and sugary things and plane crashes.

2010-08-18T15:44:00.000+01:00

Taking a little break from the blogosphere this summer has been amazing. I've still been reading all of your blogs (and making a billion bookmarks of things I you've made that I have to try). Now I'm ready to bake up a storm as soon as I get home. Next Tuesday. Can you believe that? It's already been 2 months! Here's what I've been doing the last few weeks...

This is the library here. Can you think of a better place to sit and read than in a giant cushiony window?

I've been doing a lot of this:

Driving, with a lot of childcare (good job they're so goddamn cute).

I got sunburnt pretty badly. Such an idiot, my welsh skin doesn't take kindly to the high temperatures and constant direct sunlight here.

What kind of a person would I be if I came to America and didn't eat my weight in pies?

This was a dairy laden chocolate cream pie that I couldn't have. Sigh.

Have you seen Inception yet? I flipping loved it. Even with Leo's stiff acting and that girl from Juno's annoying voice.

Still as pale and moody as ever, that's me.

Ok so since I still haven't got any recipes for you, how about another mix tape? This is the mini playlist I've made myself for the 13 hour journey home next week. It's yours if you want it! Just click here to download.

I don't enjoy flying, cross your fingers I don't plummet into the ocean/end up on an island with a smoke monster.

since we last spoke

2010-07-20T21:11:00.001+01:00

I've been up in the air...

weathering storms outside...

and inside.

Hanging out with real rockstars...

and mini ones.

I'll be heading home in a month or so and there'll be cakes and cookies and pies and something covered in marzipan probably. Hi to all the new subscribers! sorry you've subscribed to a sleeping blog but soon it'll be back to normal, dripping with frosting and brushing off the cookie crumbs from it's sticky hands (by it I mean me, and possibly you?)

♥

where's the good in goodbye?

2010-06-13T20:58:00.001+01:00

My friends! It's been a little while hasn't it?

Sometimes you just have to take a break. I've been writing this blog for almost two years and it's been amazing meeting so many of you (on here, and in real life) but I've decided to take a little break. In a couple of days I'm going to fly away over the ocean and spend a summer without photographing everything I eat and I'll try and think up some new gluttonous cakes to make. I'll be back in a few months and I hope you'll still be around when I am,

have a great summer,

Naomi Rose x

roasted broccotato soup with chickpea croutons

2010-06-06T19:07:00.001+01:00

This is me ripping off one of Celine's delicious recipes. I wanted soup, and I wanted this soup. There are some things that we can't get over here in the UK so below is my way (for brits who can't lay their hands on liquid smoke), use Celine's if you can get the right stuff!

To make enough for 4-6 people you'll need:

(for the vegetable base)
1 whole, peeled shallot
1 lb/450g of small potatoes, halved
1/2 tsp salt
2 tbsp olive oil
12 oz/350g broccoli florets

(for the chickpea croutons)
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp wholegrain mustard
1/2 tsp smoked paprika
1 1/2 tsp maple syrup
6 whole, peeled garlic cloves
1 can drained chickpeas

4 cups/940ml vegetable stock

Grab a baking tray and put the halved potatoes and the shallot on it. Add 1 tbsp of the oil and 1/4 tsp of salt and shake around to coat.

Put into the oven at Gas mark 6/400F/200C for 10 minutes.

During that 10 minutes that they're in the oven, you need to get the broccoli and the chickpeas ready. Put the broccoli florets into another tray and add the remaining oil and salt and mix.

Grab one more tray (last one!) and put all of the chickpea crouton ingredients in together and make sure it's all thoroughly mixed.

Once 10 minutes have passed with the potatoes, put the broccoli and chickpeas into the oven too for another 10 minutes. When the potatoes have been in for 20 minutes, take them out and flip them (maybe roll the shallot around a bit too) and put everything back in the oven for another 10 minutes.

After the total 30 minutes is up, take everything out. Grab a big pan and put the potatoes, broccoli and half of the chickpea mix into it.

Add the vegetable stock and leave to simmer for 10 minutes. Put it all into a blender and blend to the right thickness for you. I like it chunky, I hate those smoothy smooth soups.

It is SO good. It's really filling and the chickpea croutons are just the best thing I've ever done with a chickpea.

Are you missing all the sweet things? They'll be back soon but there's a ton of sweet recipes around here that you might not have seen before!

How about...a dark and white chocolate raspberry truffle cake?

Or some pumpkiningeradamia cupcakes?

These little macaroonalike cakes are still my favourite.

pakoras with hummus, mint and asparagus (and Michael Jackson)

2010-06-02T15:53:00.000+01:00

My kitchen is currently a cake free zone. Imagine little border checks at the foot of the door, boxes being frisked for crumbs and sugar. Interrogation rooms set up to question suspects on whether they've ever consumed frosting. I try so hard to not be that vegan, the one who's all wholegrain-this and sugar-free that but there comes a time when you have to quit the cake. Cold tofurkey.

These little pakora treats are baked instead of fried and are on wholemeal pitta instead of delicious refined white flour but they're still good! Almost junkified, which is almost good enough for me.

The mint really bumps them up to Deliciousville. If you haven't got it you could use fresh coriander maybe? We're growing this big ol' pot-o-mint, smells amazing.

I used frozen edamame in mine because I've taken to buying them instead of frozen peas, but peas would work just as well. For the veggie crunch I had some asparagus in the fridge which worked really well, but use whatever you've got. I bet spinach would be good, or peppers if you like them (hate 'em).

To make about 16-20 little pakoras you'll need:
2 big-ish floury potatoes
1 cup frozen peas/edamame
1 tsp ground turmeric
1/2 tsp ground coriander
a handful of asparagus

some hummus, mint/coriander and pitta to serve.

Chop your potatoes into little cubes and boil for about 8-10 minutes until they're cooked. I left the skins on, I like them! Peel them if you don't.

While they're cooking, throw your peas/edamame into a smaller pan of boiling water for just a few minutes, don't overcook them, then scoop them out of the water with a slotted spoon and put into a bowl on the side.

Chop your asparagus into bite sized pieces and plunge into the boiling water you just used for the peas, for maybe a minute at the most, you don't want them to lose their crunch. Drain them, turn off the heat and leave them in the pan until later.

The potatoes should be done by now so drain them, put back into the pan and add half the peas/edamame.

Throw in the spices and season really well with salt and pepper and turn the heat to the lowest setting (this just helps get rid of the extra moisture while you mash everything). Get mashing. Mash it all up really smooth and once you can mash no more, add the rest of the peas and stir to combine.

Now you can either wait for everything to cool down, or if you're impatient like me, grab two tablespoons and make little quenelle shapes by transferring the mix between the two spoons so that it's compressed and in these little rugby ball shapes.

Gently put them onto a silicon sheet or baking parchment over a baking tray and put into the oven at 180C/350F/Gas mark 4 for around 15 minutes, until they brown at the edges.

Once they're cooked, split your pitta open and throw in some hummus, some of the mint and a few bits of asparagus. then poke in 3 or 4 pakoras and finish with more mint and hummus.

See, I even had strawberries afterwards, no cakes here. This was a pretty great lunch though.

ha! Is it catch up time now? I feel so one sided doing this, I'd really love it if you guys'd tell me what you've been doing or what you've been eating, let's have a big share-a-thon.

We had a barbeque for the bank holiday.

I handmade the bunting!

And then I went a bit sewing crazy and made these patchwork napkins for Celine.

And THEN. This happened. This amazing parcel came through my door and it was from Diana, who is the kindest girl in the whole entire world. She knows I'm a huge Michael Jackson fan and she sent me a polaroid of his star on the walk of fame AND a single sequinned glove! If I could, I'd marry her.

I've also been listening to Justin Vernon's music so much my ears might fall off. It's your turn! Share your weeks events with me? ♥

oh lime pickle, I love you.

2010-05-29T20:55:00.000+01:00

Have you ever tried lime pickle? It's my new go-to ingredient when things taste a bit flat. I've been working for the last few days on a short film and it's meant getting up at 6am and getting home at 10pm. Good job I'd made a big bowl of this and kept it in the fridge. You can throw it in the microwave, grab a spoon and eat it in your pyjamas before you collapse into sleep. Or eat it anytime, I've just been inhaling it every evening when I can't see straight with tiredness.

It's incredibly easy to make, this amount would serve 2-3 people so double it if you're going to be needing long term night-time sustenance.

You'll need:
1 red onion
3 cloves of garlic
1 heaped tsp ground turmeric
1 tsp ground coriander
1/2 tsp dried chili flakes
1/4 ts ground ginger
5-6 cardamom pods
1 can coconut milk
1 1/2 cups red lentils
1 tbsp tomato paste
3 tsp lime pickle (you can find it in most supermarkets, in the indian food section)

Slice the onion and put it over a medium heat with a tbsp of sunflower oil. Leave it to soften while you chop the garlic. After a couple of minutes add the garlic and spices and mix everything together.

Add the coconut milk and the lentils and stir to combine.

Turn the heat up slightly and let it bubble. The lentils will start absorbing the coconut milk. When it suddenly looks like everything's a bit too dry, like this:

start adding a little bit of water, not much, maybe a tbsp at a time. Add the water, stir it in, wait for it to look dry again, add more water, like that. The lentils should be cooked after about 12-15 minutes, keep tasting them until they're cooked enough for you. Turn the heat off and season with salt and pepper. When you try it, you'll think it's pretty boring but now it's pickle time!

Grab your pickle jar and add a big heaped teaspoonful. Mix it in well, then try it again. If you can't taste the pickle, add another teaspoonful and try it. 3 teaspoons made mine perfect but you might think that was too pickle-y?

You'll know when it's right.

I took some pictures during filming to share with YOU. Can you believe this backdrop?

Everyone drank a lot of coffee.

Later Pickle.

the best banana bread I've ever made.

2010-05-25T21:35:00.003+01:00

A few weeks ago I was seeing banana bread everywhere. Molly made some, the vegan mouse showed me more, and I remembered how amazing banana bread is. I love it, I like it for breakfast AND dinner AND snacks. And the rest. Molly's version is with coconut (dreamy), and the vegan mouse's version is with molasses. So I did both. In one!

It's honestly the best banana bread I've made so far, the coconut milk makes (and keeps) it moist without tasting of coconut at all.

It was my birthday last month and some of my favourite people supplied me with birthday kitchen-y things! The oven gloves were from Diana, the amazing trays are from Adeline, and the heart measuring cups and spoons were from my sister-in-law (Hi Keo!).

So I inducted them all into the kitchen for this one. Look at those chickens!

To make a biggish loaf (I made it in a giant silicon heart pan, of course, but I think it should fall into a medium sized loaf tin) you'll need:

1 1/4 cups plain flour

1/4 cup dark brown sugar

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

3 ripe bananas

1/8 tsp cinnamon

1/2 cup soy milk

1 cup coconut milk

Put your bananas into a bowl and mash 'em.

Put all of the dry ingredients into another bowl, then add the soymilk and coconut milk and mix.

Add the bananas and mix again.

This silicon stuff is where it's at, you don't even need to grease it. But if you're using another kind of pan, grease it up and pour in the mix.

Bake at 350F/180C/Gas mark 4 for about 35-45 minutes. It depends on what kind of pan you use but stick a knife into the centre after 35 minutes and if it comes out clean it's done. Just keep checking it every few minutes.

When it comes out the whole house will smell a m a z i n g.

Serve it up on a birthday tray?

Or just shove it down your neck like I did?

It stores really well, just keep it in an airtight cake tin and it'll keep for days and days. Joking! As if you can keep it for days and days! It'll be all gone within an hour, guaranteed.

Ps. I moved the site around! (again? YEAH AGAIN.) Come and have a look around? Tell me if you like it. (or hate it.) But preferably like it.

apple cider donuts with cinnamon sugar (and my thrilling life)

2010-05-21T17:51:00.002+01:00

You are all the mega sweetest, when I put up my last post I hesitated because I wasn't sure anyone would even care I'd been in a boat, or been hanging out with puppies but you all left such sweet comments I've decided to show you a little bit of what I did this week too!

I chowed down on a cup of this dark chocolate sorbet with Jaqueline, I could have eaten the entire tray, no joking here.

Hung out on one of my favourite London rooftops with one of my favourite people. Yeah, at sunset. Pretty sweet.

Attempted this coconut and cardamom ice cream. It so didn't work. It's currently a giant block of coconut ice in my freezer.

And I found this giant rosemary bush right by my house! Free fresh rosemary forevs? Oh thanks nature!

That's about it though...what a thrill. Hope you're still here, because now I can show you the FOOD. Apple cider in America is way different to the UK version. Ours is either cheap and super strong booze that you drink at the fair and then throw up on the rides, or nice and boozy for sunny days. But American apple cider is just juice! But super delicious concentrated juice with cinnamon and other goodies in. Here's a polaroid I took of my lovely friend Marie the first time I ever tried American apple cider.

Are you sick of the over-sharing yet? Sorry.

Look, donut!

Yep, an appley scented donut with cinnamon sugar, all fried and cakey. These are fried in oil. I was super nervous to do it because I haven't got a deep fryer and a big pan of bubbling oil seems like something I shouldn't be allowed near with my seemingly endless talents for burning myself but I did it! And so can you! You should probably go to a different site now though if you're looking for healthy snacks, because healthy this ain't.

To make about 6-8 donuts (and loads of little donut holes) you'll need:

2 cups apple juice (if you're in America, you could use 1 cup of apple cider)

a cinnamon stick

4 tbsp soya margarine

1 cup sugar

4 cups plain flour

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/8 tsp ground nutmeg

1/2 tsp salt

2 eggs worth of egg replacer*

1/2 cup soy milk

For the cinnamon sugar, it's just a mix of 1 cup of sugar to 1 1/2 tsp of cinnamon

A suitable frying oil. I used sunflower but I would have used peanut if I could have found it (I like the smell)

*I don't usually use this. You could definitely try making them without it, I'd usually use oil to replace an egg but it just wouldn't work to dip an oily batter into oil. If your egg replacer recommends using water to mix with it, leave it out because this is already a really wet mix.

If you're using apple juice, pour it into a pan with the cinnamon stick and turn the heat up. Leave it to boil until it's reduced by half so you've got 1 cup left.

In a bowl combine the marg and sugar until it's smooth, then add the reduced apple juice and soy milk and mix again. Sift in all the dry ingredients and mix until it all comes together. It's a really wet dough so don't worry if it looks sloppy.

Spread out some baking paper or a silicone baking tray and cover generously with flour.

Gently spread the batter out flat onto the tray with the back of a wooden spoon, try not to tear holes in it. Spread it until it's about 1/2 inch thick, then put into the freezer for 30 minutes.

Once it's been in the freezer for long enough, cover a board in more flour and find something to cut the donut shapes out. I haven't got a donut cutter so I used this mug and little glass. Cut the big circle, then move it carefully to the board, then cut out the hole and save it to make donut holes! yum.

When you make the donut holes, if they're too big they won't cook through to the centre so you could probably make two holes out of each part you cut out.

Those ones I cut in half after I took the picture, if yours are that big, split 'em. Put into the fridge for 30 minutes to firm up.

Here comes the scary part! If you've got a candy thermometer, you want to get the oil to 350F. If you haven't got one (I haven't) it takes a bit of messing about but it's totally doable. Pour it into the pan so it's about 3 inches deep and turn the heat up to about a medium high. Leave it to heat up and get a few little donut holes ready to test. When you think it's pretty hot, put a donut hole in and leave it for about 30 seconds, it should float to the top and go golden brown, turn it over for about another 20 seconds then remove from the oil.

Put it onto some kitchen towel, wait a minute for it to cool then split it open, if it's crunchy on the outside and soft and fluffy inside (and cooked right through) the oil should be fine to do the donuts.

Put them in gently, one or two at a time and cover a plate with a few layers of kitchen towel to soak up the oil. Cook the donuts for about 60 seconds on one side, then flip and give them another 40-60 seconds, until an even colour on both sides. remove from the oil, leave to cool for a minute or so, then press into the sugar (it helps if you put the sugar in a shallow, wide bowl.)

Do the donut holes a few at a time for about 30 seconds on each side and roll around to coat completely in the sugar. Don't worry if your donuts come out all oval or funny shapes, this isn't Krispy Kreme, they'll still taste good!

I sure do love these guys.

nomnomnom.

These are best eaten on the day you make them, if you going to keep them hanging around, store them in an airtight cake tin. But honestly, how could you?