Salmon Pasta and Salad at Wentworth Children's Centre

Here are the salmon and brocolli pasta and accompanying beetroot salad that we made today at the Healthy Eating Course held at Wentworth Children's Centre. My workshops focus on healthy recipes that are easy to prepare and cost-effective. The workshops allow for the parents and children to prepare ingredients and cook together and try new things. We cook our meals and then sit down together to enjoy the fruits of everyone's labour.

SALMON PASTA
Ingredients
400g pasta (penne or fusili or tagliatelle)
250g skinless and boneless salmon fillets
250ml yoghurt
150 ml vegetable stock
150g broccoli - chopped very finely
25g butter
25g parmesan (optional)
1 chili finely chopped
1 lemon
bay leaf
Mixed herbs
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Method

1. First poach the salmon. In a medium saucepan, add the vegetable stock, the juice of half a lemon, bay leaf, salt, pepper and heat to medium high. Add the salmon with the skin side next to the pan. Cover, reduce the heat and cook for 5 minutes or until cooked through. Once cooked remove from pan, cover and allow to cook. Keep the poaching liquid. Break the salmon up in to smaller flakes and remove any bones that may still be in the filets.
2. Prepare the water for the pasta according to the instructions and be sure to add salt to the water. Set a timer and cook the pasta until al dente, strain and reserve.
3. Melt the butter in the pan with the poaching liquid, add the chili to the poached water and stir over medium heat for one minute.
4. Then add the brocolli, cover with a lid and cook on medium heat for three to five minutes.
5. Next add the yoghurt to the mixture and stir well until everything is combined well.
6. Add the parmesan to the mixture and combine.
7. Add the mixture and the flaked salmon to the pasta, add salt and pepper then stir and thoroughly combine.
8. Garnish with fresh parsley (or any fresh herb) and serve.

SALAD
Ingredients
Rocket
Beetroot
Cucumber
Radish
Tomato
1 tbsp Olive oil
fresh cracked pepper and a pinch of salt

Method

1. Finely chop all the ingredients with the exception of the rocket and place in a bowl.
2. Toss together with the olive oil, salt and pepper.
3. Gently stir and fold the rocket into the vegetables.

Banana & Apricot Compote Muffins

Banana & apricot compote muffin ingredients

The bananas above needed using up so I whipped together another recipe for muffins where the sugar was replaced with a Smy Goodness compote, in this case Smy Goodness apricots compote. The compote adds moistness and flavour to the muffins without them being overly sweet.

Banana  & Apricot Compote Muffins Recipe

Ingredients: 

• 100g organic spelt flour
• 100g organic plain flour  
• 100g organic butter
• 275ml apricot compote (or any flavour jam/compote) 
• 2 medium ripe bananas
• 1 egg
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp organic vanilla

Instructions  : 

1. preheat the oven  to 210°C and lightly grease a muffin tray.
2. Mix and blend the butter, compote, bananas, egg and vanilla. 
3. Sift and flours and baking powder together.
4. Fold the sifted flour and baking powder into the blended wet ingredients a bit at a time until completely blended together.
5. Add a heaped tablespoon of the mixture into cases or muffin tray and then go back and add a bit of the mixture to each muffin case or tray until they are as equal as possible. The recipe will make 12-14 muffins. 

Sifted spelt and plain flour and baking powder

Banana, butter, apricot compote, vanilla and egg

Combined wet ingredients

Mixture ready for muffin cases

Handmade Pasta - Spaghetti

Here is a fifteen second video of my first attempt at making spelt spaghetti. Check out my spelt pasta blog post for the spelt pasta recipe.

Handmade spelt spaghetti with tomato and bacon sauce

The spaghetti was the inspiration for the above print painting that I made.

Pasta sauce ingredients

Spelt Spaghetti

Tomato sauce with bacon

Tomato Sauce with Bacon Recipe

Ingredients
450g tin of tomatoes or homemade pomodoro
150g bacon or pancetta
1 red pepper
1 shallot or 1/2 an onion chopped finely
2 garlic cloves sliced thinly
1 medium chilli chopped finely
2 Tbsp coconut or olive oil
2 Tbsp Six-pepper T'chup
salt and pepper and parmesan to taste

*For this recipe I used handmade spelt spaghetti using the recipe as linked above and using my Imperia pasta maker's spaghetti section. The section needed to be cleaned between each passing of the pasta sheets as little bits were getting stuck in the grooves which turn the sheets into spaghetti which was making the spaghetti sort of twisted and broken. I cooked my spaghetti for about 7 minutes which was much longer than the 4 minutes that I needed with my spelt fettucine that I made. I think this was due to me having left the fettucine to dry out longer than I had with the spaghetti.

The resulting recipe was hearty but not overly heavy, this is probably down to the spelt flour. With each bite I was able to taste the ingredients of the pasta and the flavours of the sauce. I find I'm eating less pasta now that I'm hand making it but the levels of flavour make it much more of an enjoyable pleasure. Next up will be lasagna but for now the recipe for the spelt spaghetti and tomato sauce with bacon and red peppers.

Instructions

1. Chop and lightly fry the bacon in your preferred oil and cook for 5-7 minutes without browning or burning.
2. Add the garlic, shallot and chilli and cook gently for 3-5 minutes, stirring constantly so that they do not burn.
3. Add in the tomatoes, salt and pepper, turn the heat up to meduium hot and stir thoroughly until everything is bubbling away nicely. Cook for 5 minutes then place a lid over the sauce, reduce the heat to low and leave to cook for at least 45 minutes, checking occassionally that it is not drying out. If it is drying out you can add 75ml of water, stir it in and continue to cook.
4. Cook your pasta and once ready and drained stir the sauce into the pasta until it is evenly dispersed, top with parmesan and serve.

Beetroot & Black Carrot Cake with Nutty Six-Pepper Jelly Ice Cream

This is the Beetroot and black carrot cake served with homemade vanilla ice cream with mixed nuts roasted in six-pepper jelly with sea salt and demerara sugar and topped with candied black carrots.

It was such an enjoyable cake to make from start to finish and it finished by being one of the best cakes that I have ever made. It was put together in my favourite way to cook; I was inspired by a recipe that I had eaten, a seasonal ingredient obsession, something catching my eye, adding in an old favourite and a bit of a challenge. I was making a pudding to follow an amazing meal prepared by the incredible Frank About Food which is a pretty hard act to follow so I was looking to creating something a bit special. My cousin Sharon's courgette cake acted as my inspiration as it's delicious and I needed something totally chocolate free. I went to Swiss Cottage Green Grocers and spotted some black carrots that I thought I would want in my cake I was pre-building in my head. I'm obsessed with beetroot so I thought that would add some more natural sweetness and help with moisture. It ended up being such a light, flavourful, moist cake which went really well with the ice cream and all the different textures, with the ocassional salt and bitter tones from the sea salt and candied black carrots respectively.

Plum Jam - Jam & Chutney Making course 13/11/14

Here are some photos and the recipe from the second week of the six-week jam and chutney making course at Daubeney Children's Centre in hackney, London. You may recall that we made

pineapple and passion fruit jam in week one

. The feedback was that all the families enjoyed the jam, even children who generally do not eat much jam. I always tell customers and students that jam isn't just for toast, I put a spoonful in porridge for breakfast in the winter and in natural yoghurt in summer or an all-year round snack. I also use jam as a binder when making oatcakes, use it in muffins and in jam tarts.

This week we made plum jam. I always keep it seasonal for Smy Chutney and for the courses so this was the perfect time of the year to make plum jam.

This recipe makes such a beautiful, deep red jam, notice it up the sides of the pan and the wall.

Here is lovely Lola stirring the jam. She makes stunning cakes so we chatted a lot about different recipes that can be added to cakes, tarts and puddings. 

Plum Jam Recipe

Ingredients:

2 k Plums

2 k Sugar

2 Lemon

1. Select fully ripe plums with which to make the jam
2. Wash and rinse the fruit.
3. Carefully remove all stems, pits, skins, and blossoms, if necessary, from the plums.
4. Cut the fruit into pieces and make sure to remove each plum stone and discard.
5. Measure the fruit and place in a large saucepan.
6. Stir in the correct amount of sugar for the recipe and keep stirring as you bring the mixture to a boil.
7. Continue stirring until the mixture thickens.
8. You will need to test that the mixture has reached its setting point, or readiness for jarring, keeping in mind that the mixture will continue to thicken slightly as it cools.  There are two methods for testing: Refrigerator test – Place a plate in your refrigerator while you are making the jam. When you think that the jam is ready, remove the plate and allow a few drops of the mixture to drop onto the plate. After a few minutes, check to see if the mixture has gelled.  Push the droplet with your finger and if it wrinkles it is ready to place in your sterilised jars. Temperature test – Using a thermometer to test that the mixture has reached the optimum temperature for your altitude:  Anywhere from a sea level of 300 metres to 8,000 metres will be alright to reach a temperature of 220°C.
9. Once the mixture is ready, remove it from the heat and skim off any foam that may have formed on the surface.
10. Pour the mixture into sterile jars (see above), leaving .5 cm headspace.
11. Use a clean, damp piece of kitchen towel to wipe the rims of the jars.
12. Top each jar with a lid, screw on the cover tightly and allow to cool.
13. The jam will be best if eaten within one year, refrigerate once open.

Banella Oatcakes

I love yoghurt with granola and a spoonful of one of my jams for breakfast.  I used to have a box of granola bars to stick in my handbag I should need to be "up and out" super early.  Unfortunately they are not satisfying, relatively expensive and quite sugary.  Now I always have a batch of oatcakes handy to take with me so if I want a mobile breakfast, or a snack, I have something that's homemade, hearty, inexpensive and super easy to make.  

There isn't really a recipe but for these banella oatcakes I took a jar of banella jam which is a spread made of bananas, dark chocolate and Courvosier XO then added two bananas and oats. 

I mixed and mashed these together until the mixture was bound together.  Then I spread in on a sheet of backing paper to a thickness of about 2cm and then use a cutter to cut out the oatcakes. If they aren't holding well together you can remix with a bit of golden syrup if the mixture is too dry and more oats if seems too wet.  The drier the mixture the more crunchy they will be and the wetter will produce a chewy oatcake.  Once they've been cut I sprinkle a tiny bit of demerara sugar on them and bake them in an oven preheated to 180°C for about 20-30 minutes.  They also make a great snack and I have also used them as a pudding base for individual crumbles.

Six-pepper Sunday Roast Chicken

I love a Sunday roast.  I love six-pepper jelly.  So I massaged six-pepper jelly into a chicken and roasted it up.

I've tried this technique many times and the resulting chicken is crispy, spicy and super moist.

There's nothing like sharing a home-cooked roast dinner with friends and family but I knew that I had a hectic week and that by roasting a chicken I would be setting myself up for some easy but tasty meals to eat throughout the week. I made three tasty salads with some of the left over meat and ate those on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.  This one has the chicken, mixed greens, shredded carrot and beetroot, mixed seeds and a dollop of rhubarb chutney.

With the left over carcass, some onion, carrot, celery, bay leaf, parsley, salt and pepper I made a chicken stock.  I use stock cubes in emergencies but I always try to have an arsenal of homemade stocks in the freezer as they make such a difference in soups and gravies.

From which I then made red cabbage, chicken, parsnip and pinenut soup to have for lunch on Thursday and Friday and I was able to freeze two large portions as well.

I'll share some of my other leftovers meals as there are so many, I have a post nearly ready to go on rissoles and risottos. I'll also post the full recipe for the above soup.

Smy Rhubarb Curd & Lemon Curd Tart

I'm all about experimenting when I cook and I love to find new ways to use my homemade chutneys, jellies and jams...and curds!  It's exciting times in the studio as I am sharing space with some interesting and creative people as seen in the above video - Aimee, Lucia and Sam.  I mentioned to one of said interesting people, Aimee, that I really fancied making...and eating...a rhubarb tart.  It wasn't until later on in the evening that I realised I didn't have enough butter to make the pastry.  I think I need to stop right now and say that this NEVER happens as I adore and believe in butter.  This is mainly as I've been taking a bit of a break since Christmas and I always have kilos of butter in the fridge to satisfy lemon curd orders.  Back to tonight's tart, I was feeling a bit lazy and couldn't face popping to the shops when it occurred to me that I had a half pound kilner jar of lemon curd in the fridge and that essentially there was a lot of butter in there.  So I decided to make an alternative pastry with lemon curd binding it together rather than butter.  For the pastry I used:

100g of rice flour

50g of plain flour

50g of strong brown flour

100ml of lemon curd

4tbsp of water

I blended them all together and left it to sit and rest in the fridge for about half an hour.

I then lightly dusted the pastry, board and rolling pin and rolled the pastry to about a half a centimetre in thickness and placed in on a dish that I had lightly dusted with rice flour.  I like using rice flour in pastries as I think it gives it a lighter texture.  I then lightly pressed the pastry into place and used a fork to flute the pastry.

I put about four tablespoons of lemon curd and spread this over the pastry.  I then took four tablespoons of Smy rhubarb curd and gently layered that on top of the lemon curd.  I then repeated another layer of about four tablespoons of lemon curd and arranged rhubarb segments in the curd layers.

Then I popped the tart into an oven that had been preheated to 180℃ for half-an-hour and then I left it to cool.

The tart was light and tangy and proved a perfect Friday afternoon treat for the studio.  Rhubarb season is just about to kick off and it's one of my favourite ingredients and you can expect rhubarb chutney, rhubarb curd and rhubarb and ginger jam to all be back in stock shortly.  You can also expect more tasting videos this year and lots of new and exciting flavours and recipes.

and remember...

it's not your chutney...

it's Smy Chutney.

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Alison Pearson's Sausages with Apple & Pepper Chutney Recipe

My amazing and dear friend Alison Pearson kindly gave me a massive bag of bramley apples a few months ago that she had collected from her mother-in-law's garden.  From the apples I made a lovely Apple and Pepper Chutney with pink peppercorns and a secret ingredient - Smy Chutney six-pepper jelly.  The resulting chutney proved really tasty and became a popular seller at Whitecross Street Market with the apples, pink peppercorns and six-pepper jelly combining to create a lovely crisp chutney with just a tad of background heat

.  I gave Alison several jars to enjoy with her family and to give to her mother-in-law.  Alison and I used to work together and it was one of, if not the best working relationships that I have ever had.  I love Alison and totally respect everything about her; she is so professional, creative and family oriented and has been such a good friend to me the entire time I've known her.  My last gush is that she also has an utterly wicked sense of humour. 

Cooking and mealtimes are a total family affair at the Pearson residence and Alison rang me to tell me that everyone was really enjoying the chutney and she gave me the following recipe that her family had created using the apple and pepper chutney.  It sounded so lovely that I had to try it right away and I have since made it several times and wanted to share it here.  It couldn't be easier, couldn't be tastier and is perfect for chilly autumnal evenings.

You simply grill sausages in a bit of olive oil for 15 minutes or until they are nicely browned and then transfer them to a tray lined with a large piece of aluminium.

Using the pan that you cooked your sausages in, add a little more olive oil, heat it and add sliced brampley or cooking apples, a sliced onion and lightly grill for a few minutes until they have a nice colour.

Add the grilled sausages back into the pan and grill all together for a minute or two.

Transfer the sausages, onion and apple back to the aluminium foil and place two big tablespoons worth of apple and pepper chutney on top.  For an extra kick you could add a bit of six-pepper jelly as well.  Fold the aluminium to create a sealed parcel and place in an oven preheated to 180 ℃ for 15-20 minutes.  Remove the tray from the oven and carefully open the parcel.  Serve with creamy mashed potatoes and peas or broccoli, delicious!

Thanks again Alison for the apples and inspiration!

and remember...

it's not your chutney...

it's Smy Chutney.

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and if you haven't seen it already, here's a little video made by

Emma Crouch

about Smy Chutney:

Wheelz' Six-pepper baked chicken

Thanks to Sarah for sending this recipe suggestion for six-pepper jelly.  She marinated some chicken breasts in six-pepper jelly and then baked them.  A nice gravy resulted during cooking and she served them with boiled potatoes. Thanks Wheelz!!!

and remember...

it's not your chutney...

it's Smy Chutney.

please follow Smy Chutney on

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