Grilled Polenta with roasted vegetables

I have only cooked polenta a handful of times so I thought I'd give it another whirl. It is relatively simple to make as you just add four times the amount of boiling water to polenta and cook over a high heat until firm, about five minutes. You will need to add a good amount of flavouring like olive oil, butter, salt and pepper and Parmesan as polenta is quite bland. Once the polenta is very thick spoon out onto an oiled tray and leave to set. Once it has set, cut into long pieces and fry in a dry grill pan until it has dark grill lines on it. Then serve with whatever you like, but roasted vegetables is what you see it with most often. A healthy meal, made in minutes.

Spiced roast sweet potato salad with feta and olives

I am enjoying making recipes out the new Bill Granger cook book. One of the most successful recipes I tried this week was a recipe for roasted pumpkin with cumin and cayenne pepper but unfortunately there seemed to be a pumpkin/squash drought and so I plumped for sweet potato instead.The combination of the soft luscious sweet potato, the salty cheese and olives and the sharp shallot dressing was to die for. This is a really quick and simple recipe that I will definitely be doing again.

Serves 2

Ingredients

• 1 packet of washed salad leaves


• 2 medium sweet potatoes


• 1 tsp ground cumin


• 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper


• sea salt


• freshly ground black pepper


• olive oil


• 100g feta cheese, crumbled


• couple of handfuls of kalamata olives, pitted

Dressing

• 1 tblsp red wine vinegar


• 60 ml extra virgin olive oil


• 1 shallot finely sliced

Cut the sweet potato into roughly 2 inch cubes and place in a bowl. Add the cumin, cayenne pepper, a good slug of olive oil, sea salt and freshly ground black pepper and mix to coat all of the sweet potato. Tip the sweet potato out onto a roasting tray or tin and spread out. Bake at 220 degrees centigrade for about 30 minutes or until slightly golden on the outside and nice and soft in the middle.To make the dressing simply whisk together all the ingredients. Assemble the salad on a plate and drizzle over the dressing. Enjoy!

New Baby

I don't mean an actual baby but a new addition to my family of cook books. I got a book voucher for Christmas so what else would I buy? After much deliberation I decided on Bills Food by Bill Granger which is full of yummy looking, simple and light and mostly healthy recipes.

One of the long list of new years resolutions I made was to stop going out for lunch so much at the weekend and making something tasty at home instead. Potato cakes (much like a Rosti) with smoked salmon and mustard dressing was the recipe I plumped for as it seemed light, quick to make and relatively cheap.

It turned out nicely but I think it could do with a bit of tinkering. I made the potato cakes a little too thick and I liked the mustard dressing but I think a dressing made with creme fraiche, lemon juice, mustard, salt and pepper would be just as nice, if not better. You could also oven bake the potato cakes so you use less oil.

Ingredients :


3 large potatoes

2 tblsp chopped fresh chives

60g butter melted

sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

60ml olive oil

8 slices smoked salmon

For the mustard dressing:

2tsp Dijon mustard

2 tsp sugar

1/2 tsp salt

1 tblsp white wine vinegar

60ml canola oil

Grate the potato coarsely and squeeze out the excess liquid. Put the potato in a bowl and season, then add the chopped chives and melted butter. Heat the oil in a pan to a medium to high heat. Drop a tablespoon of mixture into the pan and flatten out a bit and cook until golden on both sides. Take out of the pan and drain on kitchen paper then place in a warm oven while you cook the rest. Make the dressing by combining the salt, sugar and vinegar until the sugar has dissolved then drizzle in the oil and whisk to combine. Serve the potato cakes topped with the salmon and drizzled with the dressing.

Serves 4

Pass the Sprouts

Unlike the vast majority, or so it seems to me, I love Brussel Spouts. It's like declaring that you enjoy wading knee deep in manure, when you get that sour-faced, nose turned up look of disgust when they are mentioned. Infact I don't know why I don't have them more often. I think I just tend to forget about them, or maybe I don't want to own up to my distasteful 20 a day sprout habit and simply pretend that you only have them on Christmas day when your mother tries to force them down your throat and the only thing you can do to stop the ever rising tide of bile is to hold you nose.

Instead of having just sprouts for Christmas day, which don't get me wrong would make me just as happy, we tend to boil them and then fry them in butter with white breadcrumbs and chopped brazil nuts or we slice them raw and fry them with pine nuts and pancetta.

Just before Christmas I thought it would be nice to try sprout soup. I thought it turned out very nicely. If you don't like sprouts, I'm not gonna lie to you, you may heave at the very sight of it.

I simply boiled the sprouts in a saucepan filled with weakish vegatable stock, a clove of garlic and a bay leaf. When the sprouts were tender I reserved the cooking liquor, refreshed them in cold water and blended them to a smooth soup with the cooking liquor, a little grated nutmeg, salt and pepper and a little butter. The soup ended up a little thick so I just thinned it out with a little water, but the consistency is, of course, entirely up to you. I then swirled a little creme fraiche into the soup and topped with ciabatta croutons that I cooked in the oven with olive oil, salt, a clove of garlic (which I removed before serving) and a handful of pine nuts.

Shortbread with Christmas spice

I made some shortbread and chutney for people to have at Christmas this year. I had had a go at making shortbread before, but it didn't really turn out quite as expected. I found a Jamie Oliver recipe, which he claimed was the best shortbread recipe in the world. Even though I didn't quite buy his bold statement, I do like his easy to follow recipes and thought that I couldn't go far wrong. This was a basic shortbread recipe which I tinkered with slightly (I can never leave things alone) to give it more of a festive edge.

Ingredients:

• 250g plain flour


• 250g unsalted butter


• 125g semolina or cornflour


• 125g golden caster sugar


• Finely grated zest of two oranges


• 1 tsp ground cinnamon


• Seeds from 1/2 vanilla pod (put the pod into a bag of caster sugar to flavour it after use or use in vanilla ice cream)


• More caster sugar and flour for dusting


• 8 inch square tin, greased

Simply cream the butter, sugar and orange zest together until light and fluffy, then sift in the flour and cornflour. Mix together lightly and then bring the mixture together with your hands and pat into a ball. Roll the mixture on a floured surface until it is the right size for the tin and press into the tin. Prick the top all over with a fork and cook at 150 deg centigrade for 50 minutes until slightly golden brown on top.

While the shortbread is cooking mix together a couple of tablespoons of caster sugar with the cinnamon and vanilla seeds. Once the shortbread is cooked sprinkle this over the top (it will give off the most amazing aroma). When the shortbread has cooled a little, cut into squares.