Lil Ms Squirrel's Cheat's Blinis

There have been accusations in the past that I am rubbish of letting go of things.  Whilst I like to protest that this is untrue, the last couple of days has made me realise that it's time to face up to my denial and admit that I am unable to let go of the Olympic Food Challenge.

It was just nineteen short days in length and yet, here I am two days after, still mourning its passing.  I must adopt a 'Feel the Fear...' approach to this and do some kind of ritual with candles and consign the OFC to a happy chapter in my past.  But for now, there's still a smidgen of caviar in my fridge and it would be a shame to let it go to waste, which is why I found myself troughing on blinis this past lunchtime.

A blini to the uninitiated is a Russian drop scone, made using buckwheat flour and yeast and served with caviar.  You also see it commonly served with prawns and smoked salmon too.  As I had the leftovers from Sunday's Danish open sandwiches to play with, it seemed like the obvious choice for a fast, tasty and posh working-from-home lunch.

Having run out of yeast at the weekend though, I faced the dilemma of whether or not the recipe would work without the extra lift.  Then I remembered an oft-used trick for pancake recipes that require a little extra bubble in them.  Fizzy water.  Or as Miss A calls it 'Funny Water'.  With some baking powder and whipped egg white, this worked a treat giving me soft, light pancakes which were perfect topped with some Philly and the aforementioned caviar and prawns.

And because they originate from Russia, I will plaster a Russian flag on the post because I can.  It's all part of the letting go.  Now I just need to come up with a non-country-specific recipe tomorrow to break the flag-waving habit.  And if I'm struggling to let go of the OFC, how on earth am I going to let go of my own blog in just 43 days time???

This is how I made them.

Makes six blinis (based on a Mary Berry recipe)

• 35g plain flour
• 35g wholemeal flour (use buckwheat if you can get it for the nutty flavour)
• 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 1 medium egg, separated
• 55ml skimmed milk, warmed
• 25ml fizzy water
• pinch of table salt



Flag addict alert! Russia

• spray oil

• caviar, prawns, lemon wedges (I forgot this in the pic!) and cream cheese or sour cream to serve

1. Whisk the egg yolk, water and milk together then combine with the flours, salt and baking powder to a smooth batter.
2. Whip the egg white until it forms stiff peaks.  Fold into the batter carefully.  Decant into a measuring jug.
3. Spray a frying pan with the spray oil and heat over a medium heat.  Pour the batter into 2-3 inch diameter circles, spaced 1-2 inches apart.  Cook for two minutes until the bottom is set and and bubbles start to form on the surface.  Carefully flip over and cook for a further minute.  Slide onto a warmed plate and continue cooking until all the batter is used.
4. Serve with the accompaniments.

Olympic Food Challenge: Abacate Com Atum - Guinea Bissau

What a weekend it's been.  Personally, I missed most of the sporting action because I was too busy enjoying myself in the bosom (not quite literally) of my extended family as we celebrated two birthdays and a wedding.  And with a huge haul of medals, Britain has literally become Great once more.  I've never been prouder to be British.  I was even pleased that dour old Andy Murray won.  Didn't get to see the final so I don't know if he actually cracked a smile, but I'm sure he deserved it.

Elegantly (not!) served in an avocado shell

As for Guinea Bissau, they have sent just four athletes to London to compete in two disciplines.  Much as I love that Team GB (the real Team GB!) are pocketing medals left, right and centre, I do still believe that it's the taking part that counts and the Bissau-Guineans should be just as proud of their competitors as we are of ours.

Known for its political instability - no elected president has served a full five year term - Guinea Bissau is situated on the west coast of Africa, bordered by Senegal and Guinea.  The official language is Portugese, although this is only spoken by 14% of the population with the rest speaking either Kriol (a Portugese version of Creole) or native African languages.  Having been colonised by the Portugese from the 16th century onwards, the cuisine still retains a huge Portugese influence.

One of the biggest problems I encountered when researching a recipe for today's post was finding something that is definitely from Guinea Bissau.  There are few recipes available online and those that are generally indicate that they're actually a Portugese recipe with no real confirmation that you would find the meal served in Guinea Bissau.

In the end, I settled for an avocado and tuna dish - mostly because I had all the ingredients to hand (I bought a huge pack of avocados last week and wanted to use the last one up).  Although not very photogenic - my food styling skills remain terrible - I did actually enjoy this dish.  I was unconvinced at the start because I thought it was trying to be a fancy prawn cocktail - minus prawns, obviously - but the addition of coconut worked really well and gave it a lovely tropical twist.

Guinea Bissau Flag

As I don't have evaporated milk and didn't want to waste a whole can on a single recipe, I used some Greek yogurt instead.  I also used grated creamed coconut rather than fresh.  I've already had one injury (burnt hand) during the Olympic Food Challenge, I didn't fancy another (hammered hand) by trying to crack open a coconut.

You can find the recipe here.  Definitely worth a try as an alternative dinner party starter.

Olympic Food Challenge: Halloumi Parcels - Cyprus

What an immense day!  A world record in the means team cycling (although thanks to the torrential rain breaking the Sky box, I missed it).  Gold and silver in the canoe slalom.  Silver for rowing and judo and another gold in the clay pigeon shoot.  Go, Team GB.

As for the challenge, I ski-ed off-piste today and didn't deliver the previously promised dish from Guinea Bissau.  I was seriously not in a mood to eat tea tonight.  So instead, I opted for a 'trip' to Cyprus and some Halloumi Parcels.  A nice, light meal before an evening slaving away in the kitchen, licking cake bowls.  It's a tough life.

So Cyprus.  Thirteen athletes competing in seven disciplines and like El Salvador from last night, still looking for that first medal of any colour.  Rather sensibly, although they've got a cyclist on their team, they've chosen not to compete in the track cycling.  As one of my Twitter buddies said - why does anyone else bother showing up given that we're so awesome?

Divided by the Turkish part and the Greek part, Cyprus is the third most populated island in the Mediterranean.  The cuisine is influenced by both Turkey and Cyprus and this particular dish is reminiscent of the Turkish borek, but using the local delicacy of Halloumi rather than Feta.  The other slight variation is the inclusion of cottage cheese in the mix.  This is also commonly done in several other countries - such as Serbian Cheese Pie (a big version of borek) whereas Turkish borek tend to just stick to feta alone.

I must confess that ever since I went to Turkey fifteen years ago, I've been slightly obsessed with borek and when I was coming up with my recipe list, desperately researched which countries I could get away with making something similar for.  Good girl that I am, I won't be making the Macedonian version in a few days time - but the need for filo is another excuse to make that other Med favourite of Baklava instead.

Simple to make, quick to cook and packed with flavour.  The Halloumi made a nice change to feta and is far less squeaky on the teeth than when you just grill or pan fry it.  I'd make them again if I had some Halloumi and cottage cheese hanging around.  However given that today is the first time I've ever bought cottage cheese, I doubt I'll be making this variation again for a long time.

Because I love borek, I'll be biased and give this one a gold.  You can find the recipe here.

One other thing, I got a shout out on the Foodies 100 Ten at Ten today.  Big up to Ewan Mitchell and the rest of the Olympic Food Challenge Team who need to share in the glory.

Olympic Food Challenge - Pan de Yuca - Colombia

This year, Colombia are sending their biggest ever delegation to the Olympic games with a total of 104 athletes.  And for the first time, the number of female competitors outnumber the men in the squad.  Wikipedia has a whole page dedicated to their presence this year so rather than pretending I've done loads of research on it, you can find the information here.

The only thing I knew about Colombia before the challenge was that it's at the top end of South America, and they do a roaring trade in cocaine and excellent coffee.  I have no personal experience of the former but am a huge advocate of the latter.

Pan de Yuca, the English way

So down to business.  I got a little bit over-excited about this recipe.  I began my quest for Colombian food on the internet and was looking for something vegetarian.  I came back with several mushroom based dishes, all of which seemed disappointingly reminiscent of dishes that I'd associate with France.

The one the husband would have liked most was simple garlic mushrooms.  A five minute recipe that suggested it would be nice served with crusty bread.  I duly Googled Columbian bread.  Came back with Pan de Yuca.  Didn't much pay attention to the ingredients list other than the need for Yuca flour (where on earth do you buy that in deepest Wiltshire?) and it was added to the list.

Last night I had a quick pick from the list to see what I could make today without the need for the Ocado delivery and the Pan de Yuca seemed like the best choice.  Google helpfully told me I could replace the Yuca flour with Tapioca or Corn Starch, Rice Flour or All Purpose (Plain) Flour.  I settled for half plain, half rice.  The required Queso Fresco I knew to be similar to Ricotta or Fromage Frais thanks to my love affair with my Thomasina Miers books.  You can also substitute it with Feta but that seemed like too huge a risk to waste my favourite cheese on a recipe from the internet.

It wasn't until I was mixing it up that I realised that it's actually the equivalent of an English scone rather than real bread.  So much for crusty bread to go with my garlic mushrooms!  The recipe uses baking powder for the rise and takes just ten minutes to cook the 'rolls'.  Looking up other recipes whilst it was cooking, I discovered many recipes for it with combinations of mozarella or hard cheeses to give it a really cheesy taste.

Colombian Flag

The resulting rolls had a crackle effect like you'd get on Tiger/Giraffe bread which comes from the use of rice flour.  The bake was soft and light - slightly different in texture to my scones and they have this weird after texture in your mouth that you don't get from a regular wheat-based scone.

They're an excellent idea if your cooking for someone with a gluten intolerance but won't be making an appearance on my bake again list - not even slathered with piles of cherry jam as per the picture or packed full of real cheese.  But if I ever happen across some Yuca flour, I might just be tempted to give it a go to see how a real authentic one tastes.  And they might go down well with some of the aforementioned Colombian coffee - but it's a bit too hot for that today.

The recipe I used can be found here

Rachel Khoo's Terrine Forestiere

One of the questions I get asked most about this blog is how much has it cost me since day one.  Part of me wishes I'd kept track.  But like when we got married, I just engaged advanced ostrich mode and pretended that it didn't matter.

I'm very lucky to earn a decent salary that allows me to do this although with things rapidly heading south for us financially, it's a good thing that there are only two months left because otherwise I'd be writing about the different ways to serve beans on toast.  Okay, that's a little flippant because I know you can eat really well on a budget if you shop wisely.  And maybe that's what I should try to do over the course of my next blog.  But pretty much with the exception of cooking with expensive seafood (I really wanted to do lobster, scallops and oysters but continue to be put off by the cost), I've not really considered too much about what I've spent.

The most expensive things are fresh herbs which I never would've bought previously.  They really make a difference to so many dishes.  I know I could grow my own - I used to have two huge herb pots when I was a kid and loved the smell of the basil on a hot summer's day - but I've not had any success with growing them at our current house.  Other more expensive items have mostly been meat-related.

So today, I gave some consideration to the cost of this meal.  The recipe is basically a baked mushroom omelette using wild mushrooms.  It's the wrong time to forage and I'd probably end up making myself ill anyway.  I know that our local Morrisons has a good selection of fresh wild mushrooms but last time I bought 100g they cost me a fiver and this recipe called for 450g.  I'm not that stupid - not even for a special occasion.

Low fat and great value

In the end, I made half of the recipe and used 250g of chestnut mushrooms (£1) plus a handful of dried mushrooms (quarter of a £1.99 pack).  The eggs were about 20p each (2 of), half a 90p tub of creme fraiche, quarter of a 60p pack of parsley (15p), three spring onions because I didn't want to buy a huge bag of shallots I won't use (so about 25p-worth).  And some salt, pepper and garlic which don't really count in the budget but probably about 15p worth.  So around £2.75 for the recipe.  Which cuts into about eight small slices if you're using it for an appetiser and would serve four with salad.  I've already road-tested it for a snack and will have another serving for tea.  It will go in my lunchbox tomorrow and I'll probably snack on the rest at some point over the next two days.

At 70p per portion, that's not too bad.  But if you were making it with wild mushrooms, it's ridiculously expensive.

But it's very tasty.  The herbs absolutely make a difference.  And I like the way it was baked in a loaf tin, making it easy to slice and transport rather than faffing around with trying to fry and then grill a round frittata to get it to set.

The only thing I will recommend is using full fat creme fraiche as mine was a bit watery. I used low-fat to keep the calories down.   Or maybe I should've dried my mushrooms in kitchen paper after frying them off.  


And if you're on a carb-free diet, it's a really filling and tasty option.


You can find the recipe on page 130 of Little Paris Kitchen.

Wahaca: Mollettes

Never let it be said that I don't like themes and patterns.  This week has mostly been about Stuff-on-Toast.  And today is no exception.  I guess it's a reflection of my current mood because I'm a) looking for something a bit comforting - toast being the cure to everything in my world in preference to a nice cup of tea - and b) because I'm feeling a little fragile healthwise and so I'm not up for big food.

Slightly over-zealous salsa application

Stuff-on-Toast started on Wednesday when I picked up some English muffins from Waitrose on my way home from seeing the Quack.  I'd intended to have them as a snack with Miss A but then quickly got swayed by Rachel Khoo's Stuff-on-Toast recipe - or to give it it's proper name "Tartines Sucrées et Salées".  Yesterday's tea was scrambled eggs and Tommy-K on muffins, washed down with a mouthful of my disasterous Pimms jelly.  Breakfast this morning after an hour of BodyCombat was peanut butter and banana on a toasted muffin and lunch has been the most recent encounter with Stuff-on-Toast in the guise of Mollettes.

I was torn about trying this recipe as it seemed to be quite similar in theme to Miers' Queso Fundido which is basically refried beans smothered in cheese and grilled.  It's probably the one bug bear I have with some recipe books where they're by the same chef.  You often get the same - or minor variations on - other recipes from their previous books.  Miers' Tortilla Soup appears in both Wahaca: Mexican Food at Home and Mexican Cooking Made Easy as do variations on Queso Fundido, Caesar Salad and Mexican Hot Chocolate (just a few off the top of my head).  I own two books by Gordon Ramsay where around 50% of the recipes appear in both books.  The original Hummingbird Bakery and Cake Days have a couple of crossover recipes too.  I appreciate that maybe it's my fault for buying more than one book by the same person.  


Anyhow, I was pleasantly surprised with this recipe.  It is a doddle and I was really tempted to make it with all storecupboard ingredients but did half and half, using Discovery refried beans in place of Miers' own recipe (which I really must get around to trying) but making the fresh tomato salsa myself - rather than using some shop-bought that I had in the fridge for using in sandwiches.


If one thing has changed in my cooking this past year it's that I'm more likely to have fresh herbs and tomatoes to hand.  This time last year, I probably hadn't bought a fresh tomato for about five years.  But today, I was able to root some from the back of the crisper, safe in the knowledge that the Ocado man will bring some more this evening.  As for the herbs, my staple is now to have a growing pot of coriander in the garden.  I really wanted to plant my own but I've never successfully grown herbs since we've had a male dog.  When he was a puppy, he took a fancy to chewing them.  I'll leave you to draw your own conclusions to what he does to them now.  I've tried growing them in a wall trough but they just died so now just pop a store-bought pot on my patio table instead.


Making the fresh salsa was a revelation.  Miers uses a combination of tomatoes, chilli, red onion, lime juice, sugar and salt.  I initially thought that the sugar would make it too sweet but it works brilliantly with the slightly salty cheese and beans and the taste combination of all the Stuff-on-Toast(ed muffin) together was amazing.  And despite the cheese and beans, the zingy salsa makes this perfect for a little summer snackage.


It actually comes from the breakfast section of the book.  Much as I love my post-workout peanut butter and banana munch when I've got the time to make it, I am so thinking of swapping it for this once in a while.  New favourite recipe.  Wahaca: Mexican Food at Home - highly recommended

Rachel Khoo's Tartines Sucrées et Salées

Or 'Sweet and Savoury Open-Faced Sandwiches' to give it it's very unsexy English name.  If we're being really pedantic here, it's actually 'Different Stuff on Toast'.  But it sounds so much nicer en Français.

Today's recipe choice comes from Rachel Khoo's Little Paris Kitchen which I accidentally bought earlier this week when the Book People were peddling their wares at work.  I picked it because for once I actually managed to get home in time to collect Miss A from nursery.  A very rare event these days.  And it was only because I had an unavoidable medical appointment just before the end of the nursery day.

I'm still trying to get my head around being the breadwinner of the family and reconciling that with being a mum too.  In my pre-baby head, the two things never went hand-in-hand.  I'd either have a career or a family.  Not both.  But life is rarely as planned.  I'm getting used to it as my skin has finally started to thicken against the barrage of outright criticism and snide comments from people who have no right to comment on my life and the thoughtless mouth-engaged-before-brain comments from some of my nearest and dearest.

Yes, that's butter, not cheese under the radishes!

The most cutting comments often come from the mouths of babes.  And Miss A has put me firmly in my place this week.  When she's angry with me she tells me 'I don't like Mummy any more' and that 'Mummy should go back to work in Bristol'.  When she's talking about her favourite people, she tells me that Emma is her 'Daytime Mummy' or her 'Other Mummy'.  As lovely as Emma is, she's only Miss A's nursery teacher from when she was in the baby room.  Miss A only spends two days a week at nursery - the rest of the time she's with the husband.  I'm now known as 'Real Mummy'.  It's nice she makes the distinction but it still makes me a tad jealous.

So of course, when I do spend time with her, I have this massive need to make up to her for the fact that I'm out trying to keep a roof over her head and keep her in stickers.  Normally, her after school snack is malt loaf or a gingerbread butterfly (all home made just in case Mrs Sconegate is still lurking - yes, I still can't let that go!) but today, I wanted to make something we could share together.

The tartines seemed ideal.  Basically, Khoo gives you a set of ideas of things to pop on toast.  Ordinarily we'd have jam or peanut butter and chocolate Philly but I love all of these different  ideas.  Toast is probably my favourite food ever.  I've mentioned previously that if I was stranded on a desert island, my luxury item would be a toaster (I forgot to say solar-powered last time).  So I was really excited to try some of the recipes out.  And the remains of Dan Lepard's Zopako from the weekend made the perfect base.

Miss A had chocolate Philly and sliced strawberries on hers (not in the book).  I plumped for Radish and Salted Butter; Feta and Nectarine (inspired by Khoo's Peaches and Brie of which I had neither in the fridge) and Strawberry and Creme Fraiche.  I knew the fruity ones would go down well but I was intrigued by the radish one as I've only recently started to eat radishes.  Except someone had other ideas and swiped it.

I was amused because I am still battling with Miss A over whether or not she'll eat veggies and had assumed if she picked anything, she'd go for the strawberry one.  Never mind.  She prodded her fingers into the thick layer of butter, spread some chocolate onto one end, ate a mouthful with a radish, added a strawberry, offered me a bite and then immediately snatched it away.  So I can only imagine how it tasted, but if she enjoyed it then I'm sure I would.

I'll definitely try out some of the other ideas - especially looking forward to Avocado and Grapefruit; and Chocolate and Olive Oil.  I guess it's all about getting out of a creativity rut and not just defaulting to jam or cheese when it's toast time.  I can see my diet going out of the window some time very soon with this book.

Cooking for Kids: Fruit Skewers

When we get back from holiday, the husband is starting a new healthy eating regime, coupled with a stupidly intense exercise regime.  I've been handed the manual and informed that I am responsible for making sure that he has a six pack like Ben Shepherd's (if you've not seen him recently, check out these pics of him in Men's Health - shame he's a bit little)

Some of your five a day

I'm sure, if he puts his mind to it, he could get most of the way there.  When I first knew him, he used to lift weights every day and had really big arm muscles for someone who was pretty slim.  Since we moved to the countryside, he's become more sedentary and the dumbells are coated in a serious layer of dust in the garage.  But the biggest challenge will be the food.

It involves very little carbs, lots of protein and lots of fresh fruit and veg.  The only veg the husband eats is bell peppers when we have fajitas (chopped toms, onions and garlic made into sauce doesn't count in my book).  He keeps saying 'it's only eight weeks'.  I'm afraid we won't get past day two.  Every so often, he'll inform me I don't feed him enough vegetables.  I stock up on broccoli, asparagus, peas etc and by the end of the week, I'm making soup for me with it and he's back to no veg at all.

Miss A is just like him in that respect; but when it comes to fruit, she's like a little fruit bat.  I've never seen a child willingly eat so much fruit as she does - all varieties (except Dragon Fruit).  The husband, on the other hand, only eats bananas.  And apple turnovers.  Only if they're accompanied by ice cream.

So I figured that this would be a good, simple, sharing family recipe for holiday.  Chop up loads of fresh fruit.  Stick it on skewers.  Drizzle with maple syrup and melted chocolate.  Eat.  Job done.  Why did I not think of this before?

Nigel Slater's Mushroom Bruschetta

This recipe is from an article on the Observer website entitled 'Seven Speedy Snacks'.  I was looking for a really quick breakfast idea that involved mushrooms and leftover sourdough and I just knew that Nigel Slater was the man who'd offer me a recipe.  He just loves putting things on toast.  I assume this is why his autobiography (which I've still got to read - note to self, download to Kindle) is entitled 'Toast'.

Breakfast!

It's one of those really simple recipes that you could probably come up with yourself and I'm sure lots of people will say 'I already make that'.  But sometimes you need inspiration.  Especially with a mammoth task of single-handedly organising a toddler for a weekend away and updating a blog on a Jubilee cake.

I'm also not popular with the hubby because I set the smoke detector off toasting the sourdough this morning.  It goes from stale to burnt remarkably quickly.  But it's a great way to use up the last slice of four-day-old sourdough bread.

And that's it for today.  Just a short blog.  Happy Jubilee weekend!

Duck Spring Rolls

If you're expecting a witty post today, I'm afraid you're going to be sorely disappointed.  Or maybe none of my previous posts have been witty.  Maybe anyone who finds them funny has just been laughing at me rather than with me.  I've been told in the past that that's been the case (not about the blog specifically, just in general).

The reason for this topic?  Well I read an article last night on the difference between male and female humour in the office.  Working in IT, I've always considered myself 'one of the boys'.  It's a very male dominated environment (despite what some people may have you believe) and although I'm very competent and good at what I do (I hope!), I'm sure I've been hired in the past because I fulfill the 'equal equalities' ratio.

I sometimes suspect because I once worked somewhere where my boss (jokingly!) asked me if I'd care to 'bat for the other side' and use a pair of crutches so that I could fulfill all his minority requirements (being that I'm mixed race - he was too which is how he just about got away with the comment).  But that's male humour for you.  It can cut close to the bone and whilst I could have gone running to HR screaming discrimination, I took it for the light-hearted bit of banter that it was.

Can you see the duck Peking out?  Not funny....

However, as I woman, I could pretty much guarantee I could make a similar joke in a room full of men and there would suddenly be an elephant in the room.  With a few tumbleweeds rolling around and some doors blowing noisily too and fro in the background (think Westerns here).  You see, men aren't used to women being funny or trying to be funny.  It's not necessarily anything to do with a lack of comic timing. Just that we're not meant to be funny in the office.

If I take the mickey out of myself, I might just raise a smile from the assembled ranks.  Apparently it's common among women in business to be self-deprecatory.  You just have to be careful not to do so to the point of being needy.  Which I think I sometimes do.  Like when I think nobody will be interested in what I have to say when I write these epic blog posts.  And yet I'm now averaging over 200 views a day on this blog (okay so there are a lot of posts to choose from) and have had nearly 16,000 page views in eight months.  At the six-month mark I was still a few views shy of 8,000 views.

Sometimes I just like to waffle about my day and then give a brief nod to the recipe I made.  Unless it was a recipe that particularly lit up my world or was such a disaster (like yesterday's chocolate cakes).  Today is one of those waffle days.

I bought some Gressingham duck mini fillets the other day with the intention of making a duck and grapefruit salad.  It sounded really nice when I picked out the recipe.  It would be perfect on a sunny day like today.  Except that I really really didn't feel like eating (not even the leftover bits of cake, nor the Flake that is stashed in my desk drawer for emergencies).  But of course, I needed a recipe for the blog.

So, I figured I'd give making my own low-fat duck pancakes a go.  With the help of the recipe on the back of the rice pancakes packet and a bit of my own making up, I found a great alternative to the calorie-fest that is Peking duck pancakes.

I love duck pancakes.  It's the best thing about going out for a big fat Chinese meal.  Not that I can remember the last time I did that - but still.  Using rice pancakes to make your own though is a bit of an experience.  They're like little disks of plastic which you then soften in hot water for a while.  Not difficult.  Until you take them out and try to flatten them out.  Then it becomes like playing with clingfilm as they annoying fold back on themselves and will not be spread flat without ripping for love nor money.

Third time lucky and I managed to fill them with gem lettuce (I used the tiny, inner leaves), bean sprouts, spring onions, carrot matchsticks and thin slices of duck that I marinated in hoisin sauce before pan frying for a few minutes.  Quick (aside from wrestling with the pancakes), low fat (less than 200 cals for three pancakes) and a simple show piece starter.  In fact, a great addition to a meal if you're having a Chinese 'fake-away' (healthy, home-cooked versions of takeaway food).

Really pleased with these and will definitely make again as a light lunch.

Duck Pancakes - Serves 2 (easily doubled)

• 6 rice pancakes (I used Blue Dragon)
• 100g duck mini fillets
• 3 tbsp hoisin sauce
• 1 carrot, cut into julienne strips
• 2 spring onions, cut into julienne strips
• 1 little gem lettuce
• handful of beansprouts
• spray oil

1. Place the duck fillets into a bowl and toss with 1 tbsp of the hoisin sauce.  Leave for 15 minutes.
2. Place a frying pan over a medium high heat, spray with oil and then pan fry the fillets for 4 minutes.  Once cooked, slice into thin strips.
3. Soften the pancakes according to the packet instructions.  Place a small piece of lettuce onto the centre of a pancake, fill with a selection of duck and vegetables then roll to form a cigarette shape.
4. Repeat with the remaining ingredients.  Serve with the rest of the hoisin in small bowls for dipping.

Bill Rona's Oatcakes

It feels like I made this recipe about three weeks ago, the day has seemed that long.  But in fact, it was only just over twelve hours ago when I decided that I'd capitalise on Miss A being poorly and get my recipe done and dusted before she woke up.

Having failed to check out my final Ocado order on Thursday, I found myself entirely lacking in the fruit and veg department.  Not good when you decide to go on yet another healthy eating jag because your husband shows you a picture of you when you were twelve weeks pregnant and says 'Wow, you used to be so slim then'.  Not knowing if I'd be able to leave the house or not, I figured I'd best try and come up with something quick and healthy to cook that didn't require fruit and veg.

Just a wee snackeroo

I've probably lost and gained nearly as many pounds as I've cooked hot dinners, having gone from 16.5 stones down to 10.5 stones and wavered between there and 12.5 stones ever since (apart from tipping the scales at 15.5 stones the day before I sprogged).  I know the healthy eating regime that used to work for me.  Eat little and often.  Do lots of exercise.  Unfortunately I find it hard to do the latter these days due to the time constraint of a full time job, having a child and only being able to exercise if I get up at about 4am.

Plus, with my new found love of home made things, I am trying to shy away from the 'low fat' shop-bought food that once crowded my diet.  So I need to look for things that are tasty, use (mostly) ingredients that 'know where they've come from' and eat them little and not too often.  I seem to remember reading somewhere that oatcakes with hummus or low fat cream cheese is an acceptable low fat, filling mid-morning or -afternoon snack and so I figured I'd have a look at making my own.

I've never really taken to shop-bought ones, finding them even more akin to eating cardboard than I do Ryvita.  But based on my experience of making my own very tasty Rye Crispbreads the other day, I thought I'd give these a whirl too.

It's one of those lovely simple recipes that once you've made it once, you'll be able to remember the ingredients off by heart next time.  Oats, salt, olive oil, boiling water.  Simple.  I made a slight change to the recipe as I have given up buying fine oatmeal (I used to use it in my homemade granola).  Now I just grab handfuls of oats and crush them up myself.  It's really easy to do - you don't even need to dirty the blender - and it's one less random packet of open stuff in the cupboard that is at risk at spilling its contents everywhere.

The mixture is quite 'thirsty'.  At first, I added the water carefully.  Then I added what I thought was too much.  And being it was too early in the day to follow Hugh's advice and let the dough rest 'for as long as it takes to open a bottle of wine and pour a glass' I left it for 30 seconds to make a cuppa and suddenly it was no longer sticky.

Broken pastry cutter

It's quite a firm dough as I then found out when I managed to bend the handle on my expensive, yet flimsy M&S pastry cutters.  I would've also made plain round ones instead of fluted ones, had Miss A not decided it would be fun to hide all of the normal cutters around the house.  If I'd thought it at the time, I could've just made little squares or rectangles.  Or even triangles.  I might do that next time.

The recipe also instructs you to cook them for twenty minutes.  Of course as luck would have it, Miss A decided to get up after mine had been in for five.  They ended up being baked for thirty-five minutes.  I was worried that they'd burn, but thankfully they just had a lovely toasted, digestive-y flavour to them.

Definitely worth taking the time to make your own.  I served myself two for my mid morning snack with a tiny sliver of Double Gloucester (7g split between two biscuits) and a spoonful of Chilli Jam on top.  A lovely, filling, tasty snack for 250 cals.  I only made half the quantity as I wasn't sure I'd like them but I'll definitely be making these again.  Diet food?  Doesn't taste like it!

You can find the original recipe here along with a couple of others from Mr F-W himself.  This is my take on the recipe:

Makes about 16 biscuits

• 280g old fashioned porridge oats
• 3/4 tsp salt
• 75ml olive oil
• 1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
• boiling water

1. Place the oats in a large bowl.  Using your hands (wash them first!), scrunch the oats up so that roughly 50% of it is finely ground.  This will help bind the biscuits together.  
2. Stir in the salt and pepper, then make a well in the centre and add the oil.  Mix to combine then add just enough boiling water to make a soft and slightly sticky dough.
3. Rest for a minute or two then turn out onto a floured board and roll to about 5mm thick.  Cut into sixteen pieces either using a knife to make squares or triangles; or use a plain 6cm cutter.  If you need to re-roll the scraps, you might need to add a dribble more water as the dough becomes drier once it's been on the floured board.  If so, don't forget to rest it for a minute before re-rolling and further cutting.
4. Bake for 30 minutes before cooling on a wire rack.  Store in an air tight container. 

By my calculation (using MyFitnessPal.com) these are about 100 cals each and worth every calorie.

Mary Berry's Orange Drop Scones

So many people have said to me this week 'I don't know how you do it' that today, it nearly became a self-fulfilling prophecy.  I didn't know how I'd do it.  Last Wednesday, sat at my desk, I scribbled down a week's worth of recipes to make sure that the Ocado man bought the majority of the things I'd need when he arrived on Thursday evening.  Okay, so I jiggled things around a bit to make sure I had time to do the curd and the fancy meringue for the cake club cake, but I thought I was safe in the knowledge that there was a plan for today's recipe.

On returning home, absolutely shattered and desperate for a quick win on the recipe front, I discovered that I'd written down 'something with vegetables'.  I have no idea what I was thinking when I wrote that, but I only turned up one pepper which has gone mouldy and a couple of sad looking spring onions in my crisper.  Along with four new potatoes and a bag of onions, it was hardly inspiring.  I was worried that this might be the end of both the challenge and my sanity in my currently sleep-deprived state.

Mmmm....pancakes!

Thankfully, Miss A saved the day by demanding to cook.  A quick flick through Mary Berry's 100 Cakes and Bakes turned up this recipe for Drop Scones.  Now in my book, they're not really a cake or a bake.  But hey, I'm not going to argue with Dame Mary.

Miss A used to have Scotch pancakes for her breakfast every Saturday and Sunday when she first started weaning.  Three small homemade pancakes, each with a slice of banana cooked into the middle for sweetness and then a pile of banana and strawberries on the side.  Then the fussy phase hit and the pancakes were cast over the side of the highchair, dog-wards.  I decided it wasn't worth the effort any more.  Cheerios are now the breakfast of choice.

So today gave me the ideal opportunity to re-introduce pancakes by letting us make them together now that she's big enough to stand on a chair and help out.  Of course, she cracked the egg, but she also had a go at squeezing oranges and using my citrus reamer.  All very messy and great fun.  When it came to the cooking bit, she peered into the pan and announced 'No eat pancakes, Mummy!'  Thankfully telling her that we'd feed them to the dogs soon changed her mind and she polished off three.

The recipe is fairly standard.  Flour, egg, sugar, milk and baking powder for the lift.  You then add orange juice and zest to the batter for flavour.  I will admit that I think it was probably lacking something to truly bring the flavour out - maybe a tiny pinch of salt or perhaps a splash of Orange Blossom Water.  But all in all, a pleasant twist on a standard recipe.  I'm sure they'd lend themselves to other citrus flavours too or to being served with a citrus butter or syrup.  Or citrus curd.  Now I'm typing I've realised they probably would've been good with the leftover raspberry curd from the cake of great epic-ness.

I can feel the weekend pancake ritual being re-instated very shortly.

Recipe - Makes 12 (adapted from 100 Cakes and Bakes)

• 1 orange, plus a little zest for sprinkling (optional)
• a little milk
• 80g self-raising flour
• 1/2 level tsp baking powder
• 20g caster sugar
• 1 large egg 
• spray oil

1. Grate the zest from the oranges and set aside, and then squeeze the juiceinto a measuring jug and make it up to 100ml with milk.
2. Measure the flour, baking powder, sugar and orange zest into a mixing bowl. Make a well in the centre and add the egg and half the orange juice and milk mixture. Beat well to make a smooth, thick batter and then beat in enough of the remaining orange juice and milk to give a batter the consistency of thick cream.
3. Spray a frying pan with spray oil and then heat over a medium flame.  Drop desertspoonfuls of mixture into the hot pan.  When the top starts to bubble, use a palette knife to flip them over and cook for a further thirty seconds.  Transfer to a plate and cover with a clean tea towel to keep warm and soft while you cook the remaining pancakes.
4. Serve with butter, golden syrup, maple syrup or a fruit curd.

Thomasina Miers' Spring Tacos with Mushrooms

Just after hitting 10,000 views

Firstly, I would like to take the opportunity to say thank you to all my readers for helping me make it to 10,000 page views in just over six months.  I am amazed and humbled that people have spent time reading my words.  I never thought in my wildest dreams that anyone other than my mother* and my lovely cousin Laura would read it.  But to reach 10,000 page views in such a short space of time has made me all warm and fuzzy inside.  So a huge thank you to everyone who has read, commented and tweeted me about it.  It's been fun and you've all kept me going.  And given me a reason to see it through to the bitter end in late September.

I would love to name everyone who I know has taken the time to read, but I'm bound to miss someone out.  Don't take offence if I do, but in no particular order thanks to Laura B, Tamara, Chantelle, Pauls L and W, both Kate S's, Dicky, Robs A, B and C, Hubby (for letting me pick on him), Paul L, Phil, Nelly, Sadia, Jaime, @UnderTheBlueGum, Amy (@WeeklyBakeOff), Laura (@Philosophobia), both Jules', Lisa, Allison, Alison (yes one has one 'l' and the other has two), Ewan who is letting me join his Olympic challenge (more about that on another day) and to all the people who have had cake foisted on them when I've had a baking frenzy.

Anyway, on to today's recipe.  Despite living in a 'Market Town' we don't actually have a proper market.  There are a few token stalls strewn down the high street on a Saturday - most selling tat, the with a couple of local producers selling cake and a few veg - but nothing to allow you to stock up.

Driving home midweek and in need of just one chilli I was sulking to myself that I'd be forced to buy an entire packet that I'd either have to use or would end up rotting slowly in the fridge.  That's the trouble with generally cooking for one.  Or cooking for three - but cooking three separate meals.

Fungi

I stopped in Morrisons for some odds and ends and was amazed to see that the latest revamp has turned the fruit and veg section into a proper market place where you can actually buy small quantities of things.  And most stuff is loose.  Meaning if you want one chilli, you can spend 8p (as I did) rather than 65p on pre-packaged ones that will go to waste.  I got overly excited by the fact that you can buy all manner of exotic things which will be great for some recipes on this blog over the remaining months.  

So having fallen out big style with Ocado, I gave up my blessed Friday afternoon off this week in favour of doing my shopping myself and buying exactly what I need with minimal waste on both food and packaging.  See David Cameron, I'm doing my bit.

The most exciting bit is that they sell loose exotic mushrooms so expect many mushroom based recipes in the coming weeks.  I have always loved mushrooms and can't believe so many of my friends don't share my passion.  At one point, I was surrounded by so many mushroom-fearing that like a parched man in the desert, I literally jumped on the husband (he was not even boyfriend back then) like he would be my foodie saviour.  Desperation leads to hasty assumptions.  Hindsight is a wonderful thing.

I'd had a few rubbish relationships around this time so with a good friend, came up with a list of ten criteria that any new beau had to meet.  Liking mushrooms was on the list.  The list became my dating yardstick and the husband was the only one who ticked all ten boxes.  

Cooked mushrooms taste better than they look!

Anyhow, although he's not being subjected to experimental mushroom-ness tonight, tea tomorrow will also contain exotic mushrooms (see no waste here now).  Like my mother, tea for him must contain meat, so I chose a recipe that would allow me to share part of the meal and for him to have chicken.

Thomasina Miers has a section in her book (Mexican Food Made Easy) about tacos and different fillings for each season.  I made the summer ones early on in this challenge.  The spring one is mushroom based so I gave this a whirl to great success.  Instead of using her taco recipe, I made Dan Lepard's corn oil tortillas.  The dough is pretty similar and I really should've just made a few smaller ones to replicate a taco - but I'm greedy so went for two bigger wraps.

As for the taste.  It sounds weird, but it was just like eating a spring woodland, in the nicest possible way!  The mushrooms - being proper mushrooms than bog standard white button mushrooms - had an amazing earthy taste.  I had a mix of Pied Bleu, Shitake and regular chestnut.  And despite having probably sat on a shelf in Morrisons for a day or two, they tasted like they were freshly picked.  I've picked mushrooms in the past with an expert, but wouldn't be brave enough to do so myself.

With a liberal sprinkling of parsley and coriander in place of the tarragon, the flavour was lifted with a kind of fresh, grassy flavour.  And the saltiness of the feta (Miers recommends this if you can't get Pecorino) gave it a depth that seasoning alone couldn't achieve.  

If I could afford to buy piles of these mushrooms (the Pied Bleu were something ridiculous like £30/kg), I'd eat this dish time and again.  As always,  top marks to Thomasina and also to Dan for the tortillas.  These I now make regularly as it's far less stressful than trying to open a packet of shop-bought ones and a darn sight tastier too.

Sadly, the recipe for the tortillas still isn't online but it's just another reason to buy the book.  But they do get rave reviews from lots of the lovely people I Tweet with.

Cooking time: 15–20 minutes

No matter how you look at them, they're not that attractive...

• 25g butter
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 750g St George's, Morell or mixed mushrooms, sliced
• Sea salt and black pepper
• 1 tablespoon truffle oil (optional)
• 2 shallots, finely chopped
• 2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped a small handful tarragon, chopped

To serve

• A small handful of parsley, roughly chopped
• Grated Pecorino cheese
• Addictive sweet chipotle paste

1. Heat half the butter and olive oil in a frying pan and add the mushrooms, seasoning with salt and pepper.

2. Cook over a high heat until the mushrooms have released their juices and the juice has started to evaporate, about 10 minutes. Add the rest of the butter and the oil (including the truffle oil if you are using it), the shallots and garlic and cook until soft. Sprinkle with the tarragon and check the seasoning.

3. Spoon the mushrooms into a heated earthenware dish that will look fun on the table and sprinkle over the parsley and cheese. This is incredibly delicious with my sweet chipotle paste, but also yummy with the Fresh tomato salsa on page 26 and a dollop of crème fraîche. 

*My mother doesn't have time to read my blog apparently.  She'd much rather spend her time playing Cityville on Facebook.

Thai Salmon Fishcakes

If I want a birthday or Christmas present from the husband, it has to be something that you can buy on the internet.  Even better if it comes from Amazon because he can get it on Super Saver Delivery and it doesn’t cost him anything.  This is because he doesn’t like having to talk to people.  It’s the exact reason why if he wants a takeaway when I’m away for the weekend, he’ll phone me and get me to phone the takeaway of choice.  I am so grateful that you can order from Dominos online so every once in a while he manages to feed himself without any input from me.

So last year, I asked for a copy of the Domestic Sluts handbook , which he actually went and bought from Waterstones(!) – probably because he only remembered the day before my birthday that he’d not bought anything and there’s no overnight delivery when your birthday is December 21st.  I came across their website/blog through Twitter when they tweeted about something or another.  It makes great reading, however, it’s become increasingly clear that there is still a wide (financial) chasm between being a Domestic Slut and a Slummy Mummy (which is what I am).  I do honestly mean to get round to reading the book one day, but with so many recipes to thumb through and my own blog to write, it’s still sat on the shelf having only been flicked through.  Like most good websites, I’m more likely to read the online offering than the hard copy version these days – a sad reflection of having a jam-packed life.

As it contains recipes, it is in amongst the cook books, but they’re all very ‘social’ recipes and as I’ve not done any socialising since long before Miss A arrived, it hasn’t warranted use.  I hope it will one day.  But in keeping up with their tweets, tonight’s recipe is courtesy of the Sluts website – Thai Fishcakes.

I’ve mentioned before that my inability to know how to make a chilli dipping sauce was one of the catalysts for starting this challenge.  Thai fishcakes are something I’ve wanted to make to force me to learn how to make the dipping sauce.  I ended up cheating and using shop-bought sauce because I didn’t have enough chillis to hand.

As the website says, the recipe is embarrassingly easy (and they don’t get you to make your own dipping sauce, so no guilt there from me).  I will say that before cooking, the mixture looks disturbingly like the innards of sausages that are made from ‘reclaimed meat’ with a few fancy herbs and spices mixed in.  But once cooked, they look far more pleasing.  Served with a sweet chilli sauce, a squeeze of lime and some healthy brown rice (that didn’t make it into the picture), it makes for a really pleasant – if sluttishly expensive – meal.

Will I make again?  Possibly although I preferred Lorraine Pascale’s salmon and sweet potato fishcakes.  But if I ever get round to making my own chilli dipping sauce then at least I know what to road test it with.

Thomasina Miers Chorizo, Potato and Thyme Quesadillas

I saved a life today.  Okay so not a human life, but the life of a sheep that had become stuck in a lake.  I just hope the sheep has gotten over the trauma.  Do sheep become traumatised?  I'm not sure.  She didn't look too stressed, and just spent most of the time bleating pitifully but I hope she's now back grazing happily with her fellow sheep.  I will think of her while I try to fall asleep tonight.

So how did I find myself in this situation?  Well every time it's sunny, this is how the day will go in our house.  I get up early.  I always do.  Despite moaning that I never get a lie in any more, I used to really have to battle with myself to stay in bed past 7am pre-child.  So this scenario has played out many a time over the past seven years, just with slightly different variants.  Anyhow, I got up.  The child got up.  We went to Sainsburys to buy almond essence (Ocado no longer sell this which is REALLY annoying).  We get home.  The husband is still in bed.

At 11.23am, he finally surfaces, forages and slopes back upstairs to surf the interweb.  Miss A has her lunch served on the dot of midday.  The husband appears at 12:02 and demands to know what we're doing for the rest of the day.  A discussion ensues about how it's now too late to go on a long distance trip to the coast; we couldn't do it anyway as we can neither leave the dogs or take them with us (two high octane dogs and a toddler outside of the house is just plain stressful); and a reminder from me to him that no matter what I suggest, he won't want to do it anyway.

He slopes back upstairs.  I email a list of suggestions.  He appears thirty minutes later and announces that we'll be doing none of the above and that we'll go to our usual pub for lunch and then to the local lake for a walk.  An hour later, we finally get out of the door, lunch and then go for a walk.

Sheep don't swim...do they?

Getting to the edge of the lake, we notice a sheep wading about three feet from the bank.  She's bleating pitifully and you can quite clearly see where she's tried to get out but failed as the bank is just to steep for a sheep in a sodden fleece.  Passersby stop and tell us she's been here for a while.  I ask what anyone's done about it.  Nothing comes the reply.  They all stand around staring whilst I try to keep Miss A from jumping in because she has a new obsession about wanting to kiss sheep.  This is bad enough with the sheep in the field, but she is particularly hung up on this wet sheep.

Still nobody volunteers to dive in and help her out (the sheep, not Miss A!).  She won't come close enough to the bank for anyone to try pulling her out now she has an audience.  People start to drift away muttering that she'll get out in her own time.  I wasn't convinced.  So being a good citizen, I whipped out my phone, found the number of the stately home the lake belongs too and put in a call to the Lord of the Manor who promptly dispatched the shepherds to rescue her.

What bothered me about this was that most people have internet enabled phones these days and nobody else cared enough to hasten the sheep's rescue.  Years ago, on an early morning drive through the New Forest with a friend, we happened across a foal racing around in the road as it had become separated from its mother (she was stuck behind a fence) and it didn't know how to get back to her.  My phone was a primitive Nokia.  Yet a couple of calls and we managed to get in touch with some Forest Rangers who came and helped us to capture the foal.

Hasty picture of tasty quesadilla

It may only be just a sheep and people may think 'Oh well someone else will do it' but seriously, in a world of instant communication, it takes just a few minutes to help these hapless animals.  At least I can go to bed with a clear conscience and not worry that if we go back tomorrow, there will be a carcass in the lake having its eyes pecked out by crows (this was the husband's suggestion - he has a thing about crows).

Anyway, all this drama meant that my plan for Melanzana all Parmiagana went south so I needed a quick storecupboard recipe to knock up for tea.  I made the aforementioned quesadillas which I've been meaning to make for ages but have never gotten round to doing so.  They were pleasant enough and would make a great snack.  You definitely need to use old potatoes for this.  I had new ones to hand, but they were more greasy rather than crisp.  I served the quesadilla with some tomato sauce that was left over from last night's pizza with some chilli thrown in to give it the necessary kick to go with the Mexican theme.

Really quick, really easy and a great way to get through a pack of flour tortillas.  I always end up throwing some away (I know, I should always make my own!).  Before my toaster blew up the other day, I'd often stick folded wraps in my toaster and stuff them with salad and cheese or hummous but I'd never thought of dry frying them with the filling inside.  Opened up lots of potential.

The recipe is on the Guardian website and comes from Mexican Food Made Easy.

BBC Good Food Spicy Chickpeas

Every so often I go through the head space that I need to eat healthily because I'm fat.  It's usually after some event or another - Christmas, Easter, general bad times.  I stop running and I start eating too much of the wrong thing.  The two things always go hand in hand.  If I'm running, I'm perfectly okay with an end of day treat of four squares of Green and Blacks.  If I'm not running, I'll just eat the whole bar there and then.  This happened yesterday with a bar of almond chocolate.  I hate myself for it.

Over the years, I've used Graze boxes (this is not a sponsored post!) to deal with my snacking needs when I'm on a health jag.  They're great and I love the idea of getting random 'treats' sent through the post.  Except they're expensive and in this new world of semi-thrift that I inhabit, they don't really fit into the budget very well.  So, I decided on a bit of a whim this evening to look into making home made snacks of my own.

After just one experiment, I've concluded it would be simpler to run more and eat less cake/chocolate/crisps (which is a general no brainer).  I happened across a recipe on the Good Food website for spicy chickpeas.  In a chickpea shell (see what I did there?), you bake a tin of chickpeas with a few spices for half an hour et voila - you'll never want another bag of crisps again.

Sadly, they're not peanuts.

Au contraire mes petit pois.  Actually, I really would rather run and then go without this snack.  Maybe I'm just fussy or I didn't cook them right but I had a weird combination where some chickpeas were still soggy - despite roasting at 200C for 30 minutes; some had a hard outside and a squashy middle; and none of them tasted like anything other than lumpy hummous (or rather chickpeas with seasoning).  Really not my idea of a tasty snack.  I'm going to road test them on Miss A tomorrow to see if I can convince her to like them so they don't go to waste.  If not, I know what the dogs are having for tea.

Of course, not all home made 'diet' food is so rubbish.  I've found two good, healthy(ish) snack recipes since doing this challenge - the first being Kale Chips and the second being Guilt Free Brownies.  But at the end of the day, for me it's definitely everything in moderation and lots of running.  And getting over the denial that I'm no longer in post-race recovery mode and I need to lose some serious weight ready for my next half marathon attempt.

Therefore, I declare the month from the Tuesday after Easter 'Healthy Eating Month' on the blog.  More veggies, less butter, less cakeage.  What a fun month that will be.  *Pout*

Anyway if you want to try the recipe, you'll find it here.

Mary Berry's Ciabatta with Mushroom Omelette

Just cos it doesn't look good, doesn't mean it's not tasty...

Tonight's recipe is really simple due to time constraints and a lack of interest in food once again.  It didn't feel like it should really be part of the challenge as it's 'just a mushroom omelette shoved in a ciabatta' but it's actually a nice idea.  I'm not sure I'd've ever thought of it.

There were no real revelations in the actual making of said omelette and she does nothing funky with the seasoning.  But then this is Mary Berry we're talking about.  I'd expect nothing more.  Especially as this book is nearly twenty years old.  It's just good, honest food; really quick to make and very filling.  I think I'd add cheese next time, but that's just because I'm greedy.

Recipe - serves 2

• 1 ciabatta, warmed and split horizontally
• 4 eggs
• 250g mushrooms, thickly sliced
• 25g butter
• fresh thyme
• salt and pepper to season

1. Place half the butter in a frying pan and heat until foaming.  Fry the mushrooms for 3-4 minutes.  Remove to a plate and clean the pan.
2. Heat the rest of the butter in the frying pan.  Whisk the eggs together with 2 tbsp water, the thyme, salt and pepper.  Cook over a medium heat until set.
3. Add the mushrooms to the omelette, roll and place in the ciabatta.  
4. Cut into two and serve with a side salad.

Thomasina Miers' Queso Fundido

I really wanted to go to the Love Food Festival in Bath this morning.  Unfortunately, being a mum of a small toddler doesn't make trips like this easy.  I know there are plenty of parents who manage all kinds of extreme activities with their under two offspring, but I have a feeling that they have placid children like the 'immaculate ladies' (more on them another day) rather than a tearaway like Miss A.

She's at that awkward age where she doesn't like to be in her buggy but she doesn't want to walk either.  And when she does walk, she generally wants to go in the opposite direction and once she exceeds the length of the reins on her Little Life Backpack, she will throw herself to the floor and have the mother of all tantrums unless you pick her up and carry her.  She's really tall (and consequently heavy) for her age and it's not easy juggling a three foot toddler and trying to shop at the same time.

'But you have a husband!' I hear you cry.  Yes, I do.  But as he does two days childcare in the week to generously(!) allow me to work full time, he sees weekends as his own time and will only join us on a day out if it's something that interests him.  Food, as you may know if you've read other post, does not interest him in the slightest.

I even tried subtly asking him to come:
'Miss A and I are going out tomorrow.'
'Where?'
'Love Food Festival.'
'Oh - that won't interest me will it?'
'It's in Bath for a change...'
'I hate Bath.'
End of conversation.

In the end, it took three hours to get Miss A dressed and out of the door by which time we were heading into that dangerous territory of her needing lunch at midday and a nap at 1.30pm.  I had things to do during her nap this afternoon so didn't want to risk her sleeping in the car on the way home, leaving me with no free time to iron in peace.

Melted cheese and chorizo. Top nosh!

So my plans to buy something interesting to cook with today went south.  Having got into a bit of a 'Life's unfair jag' this morning (it's a bit whiney, I won't take you there), I needed something to cheer me up for lunch so I thumbed through Mexican Food Made Easy and happened across Queso Fundido.  Spanish for melted cheese.  Miers says it's a bit like Welsh Rarebit.  I would liken it more to the tastiest ever pizza topping, without all that horrible stodgy bread base (I don't like pizza - unless it's that gorgeous thin and crispy base you get from a wood-fired oven).

Really simple, really tasty.  What more could you want?  I didn't have any salad to hand (save for some insipid iceberg) so I just put a sprinkling of fresh coriander on the top.

I really *love* this book.  It's in my top three favourites along with Dan Lepard and Lorraine Pascale.


Queso fundido – serves 4-5 as a starter

• 3 ripe tomatoes
• 1 tsp olive oil
• 120g chorizo cooking sausage, casings removed
• 1/2 a white onion, finely diced
• 1/4 tsp ground cumin
• 150g mozzarella, grated
• 150g mature cheddar, grated

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/gas 4. Cover the tomatoes with boiling water and leave for 20 seconds. Drain and pierce them with a knife so you can peel them easily. Scoop out the seeds and dice the flesh into small cubes.
2. Heat the oil in a heavy-bottomed saucepan and brown the chorizo over a medium heat, breaking it up with a spoon as you go. Add the onion and cumin and cook for 5-10 minutes or until the onion is translucent. Add the tomatoes and cook until most of the moisture has evaporated from the pan and you have a mince-like texture. Season.
3. Spread the mixture on to the bottom of a gratin dish so that is just covers the bottom. Cover with the grated cheeses and put in the oven for about 10 minutes until the cheese is melted and bubbling. Or you can stick it under the grill.
4. Warm your tortillas in a hot dry frying pan for a few seconds on each side. Spoon some Queso fundido and salad on your tortilla and roll them up to eat.

Nigel Slater's Posh Cheese on Toast

If you're a regular reader, you may have figured that sometimes my husband drives me more than a little nuts with his 'discerning' tastes.  We're like chalk and cheese.  We argue about anything and everything.  But for some reason, after seven years of marriage and nearly nine years, we still manage to rub along together.

There are moments when I really love him.  One such recent moment was a couple of days before Christmas.  We'd not had the best time a few days before with lots of tantrum throwing (the adults this time, not Miss A) and rather unusually, I was permitted the choice of evening telly viewing (before 9pm and probably because there's no football two days before Christmas) so I decided on Nigel Slater's Simple Christmas.

The husband abhors cookery shows.  He despaired while I was on maternity leave as I was constantly Sky plussing back-to-back episodes of CDWM.  The only thing he will remotely tolerate is Celebrity Masterchef.  But it seems only the series when Lisa Faulkner was in it.  I'm sure that's something to do with her previous days as a lads mag starlet.

So I was mightily surprised when he seemed to be actually paying attention to Mr Slater.  And then came the moment when my heart burst with love for him.  You see Nigel was making 'Posh Cheese on Toast'.  It came out from under the grill all hot and bubbly with cheese that you knew would just stretch like soft elastic when you tried to separate bits of bread.  The toast, charred crisply around the edges.  'Do you think I'd like that?' asked the husband.

Call me mean, but I had to chuckle to myself.  The husband won't eat fish at the best of times.  He'll eat Birdseye fish fingers, but offer him a fish supper and he'll go for  steak and kidney pie and a battered sausage.  Even when we've been to Whitby, the home of fish and chips by the sea, he still had a pie and chips.  So despite having seen Nigel flake in a couple of mackerel fillets, he still assumed he might like this recipe.

Give me Cathedral City any day...

He also likes his toast barely brown.  In fact some days (bless him), I think I could just get away with giving him stale bread and telling him its toast.  We have a constant battle over the dial on the toaster with me preferring level five (just this side of charcoal) and him level one (barely warm).

So tonight was the night for me to try this.  Of course, I just made his Double Gloucester on toast first, left him to that and then nuked my own 'posh' cheese on toast a bit later.  And I'm sorry to say, I'm not a fan.  When I want cheese on toast, that is what I want.  Cheese.  And toast.  Not faffed with.  No Worcestershire sauce or anything faffy like that.  Just fat, gloopy, slightly toasted bits of cheese on thick white, burnt-around-the-edges toast.

Don't get me wrong.  I love a good Croque Monsieur or a Croque Madame.  I've never had Welsh Rarebit (*scoots off to add to the list of things to try*) but fish and cheese on toast?  I'll take a rain check next time.  I may have overdone the topping.  It seemed too little to share between two bits of bread, but slightly too much for one.  I couldn't taste the horseradish - but that was my bad for being a wimp and not wanting to overpower it.

I'm sure if I was on a day when I was really in the mood for fish then it might have worked for me.  Today was not one of those days.  And now I have to figure out what to do with the two remaining mackerel fillets currently stinking out my fridge.  Watch this space...

You can watch the video for this recipe here