After-school cheesy muffins

Desperately searching for tempting after school snacks that aren't sugary... these were previously poo-poohed by the small recipient but this time they have gone down a storm and she's suggesting other things to put in "next time"...

Original recipe from Taming Twins

Oven to 200°C/180° fan
12-hole muffin tin, greased 

Dry ingredients (mix together in large bowl)

• 250g self raising flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 small can sweetcorn, drained (160g)
• 200g grated cheese (I used 150g which was plenty)
• Adding to the recipe, I also chopped and chucked in some pepperoni left over from pizza making, and small chose to add in smoked paprika too. 

Wet ingredients (mix together in a jug)

• 250ml milk (any)
• 100ml oil (maybe a bit much?)
• 2 medium eggs, beaten

Combine wet into dry until just mixed, then portion out into the muffin tin. Ours was nearly full but this recipe doesn't rise loads so it was all fine. After cooling for a few minutes in the tin, a quick knife around each one saw it pop out beautifully. They do feel a bit greasy to touch, though, so next time I would maybe reduce the oil a bit.

Most importantly, they got the "mmmm - delish!" seal of approval :)

Squashage rolls

I take zero credit for this recipe - it's thanks to my friend Flo, who's a whizz at finding ways to use up squash :)  I baked them for a cake sale and they got rave reviews, so this is to help out those who wanted the recipe.


1 large butternut squash (1.5kg), halved and de-seeded
1 onion, finely chopped
2-3 cloves garlic, to taste, finely chopped or crushed
small handful fresh sage leaves, finely chopped
125g mascarpone
1 medium egg plus another to brush on pastry
salt and pepper
500g pack puff pastry
oil for roasting and frying the onion

Oil the cut surfaces of the squash and roast at 150°C until tender. Allow to cool while you sweat off the onion and add the garlic, sage and seasoning.

Peel the cooled squash (I find it easier this way), mash half to two-thirds of it, and chop the rest.

Mix , taste and season as needed. If your squash was quite wet you might not need all the egg - a softer mix is harder to work with. You could add breadcrumbs if it's too sloppy.

Roll out the pastry to the desired size (I did it in four lots to keep things manageable) - you need to make a longish sausage that you can then cut into individual rolls. If the mixture is too soft then it's this bit will be difficult. As you can see from the pic, my rolls were full and quite narrow, and I think wider would have been better. You could also try cutting the pastry and then adding the filling.

Use beaten egg to seal the pastry and glaze the top, then bake at 200-220°C for 20-25 mins until golden brown.

Any leftover mix  can be cooked in dollops on a non-stick baking mat and used a bit like felafel, e.g. with salad, in a pitta, etc. If it's quite soft it makes an awesome toastie filling!

Cheese & mustard scones

Adapted from a Be-Ro recipe as I was trying to use up some buttermilk (bought for the cornmeal dumplings that go with Feijoada).

Rub 25g butter into 175g seasoned self-raising flour, and stir in 75g grated cheese (I used Emmental).
Mix a good tablespoon of wholegrain mustard into a "large egg" worth of buttermilk (I estimated this by eye, but conveniently it was more or less how much buttermilk I had left...), adding a little milk if needed to bring the mix together to a soft dough.

Roll into a thick round and cut into 8 wedges. Brush the tops with milk and sprinkle with parmesan or another cheese. Bake for 10-15 mins at 180°C until they are browning at the edges. Try not to scoff them all while they are warm and springy...

The best squash lasagne?

The original recipe comes from Serious Eats, a food site I enjoy but which is US-based and it does show - like in this recipe, which I think is a bit too rich. So while it's badged as the best, I'm not so sure.

The lasagne consists of layers of a cheese sauce, creamy buttery squash puree, and sauteed squash with apple. As well as the overwhelming use of butter, cream cheese and Gruyere, the proportions of each layer seem off. There was lots of cheese sauce (which was quite thin), not so much squash puree (which was not as smooth as I'd like), and the sauteed squash and apple was more like a garnish. So while I'd try it again, I'd modify it as follows:

- make my usual cheese sauce (more butter/flour to milk, and some mustard powder for zip). ditch or reduce the garlic, which was a bit overpowering.
- roast more squash, for longer.
- try and find pumpkin or kabocha, as I could only get butternut this time and it is more solid.
- make the pumpkin puree less creamy and rich, perhaps by adding more (bramley?) apple in there, maybe a splash of cider vinegar, and skipping some or all of the cream cheese/butter.
- have more of the chopped apple and squash.
- add variety and boost the veg count by adding cooked leeks, or or add protein in the form of canellini or butter beans.
- less cheese on top, maybe some breadcrumbs with the remaining cheese.

So, worth another try, but more work needed to achieve "the best" I think.

A taste of HFW's Veg Everyday

Continuing my journey to find more meat-free meals, I borrowed Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's Veg Everyday! (exclamation mark is his) from the library. It's a hefty tome, and despite good recommendations from a couple of friends I thought I'd take a look before I thought about buying. He also has a Baby & Toddler cookbook which isn't in the library, so out of the two I'd be more likely to buy that one, I think - pending a sneaky flick through in a bookshop first of course.

Anyway. Digression alert.

The first recipe I tried was Spiced Carrot and Chickpea Pitta Pockets. The full recipe is here on the Guardian site, along with some others from the book but it really is pretty simple. Soften some thinly sliced carrots in butter along with cumin seeds and smoked paprika, add chickpeas, garlic and lemon juice, and serve in a pitta. Job done - healthy (depending on the amount of butter, perhaps), tasty and meatless.

Of course I can't leave well enough alone. I know from experience that the smoked paprika I have is hot, despite not being labelled as such, so I used sweet paprika with a dash of smoked, and added some ground cumin for luck. Next time I would allow a bit more heat, then cook for longer and add a bit more liquid (maybe water and a blob of tomato puree, or low-salt stock), as I found it all still a bit al dente when it would have been fabulous if it had been softer - and our 8 month old daughter would have been able to eat it more easily too.

So far, HFW's book looks good, and it's as well the library reservation slip was very long as I've torn it into several temporary bookmarks. Sweet potato and peanut gratin (another one on the Guardian preview), carrot houmous, most of the soups (reimagined as stews), and most of the curries. There might be a few renewals before we get through all of them!

Something that's not cake - kale, pumpkin and bacon one-pot

A BBC Good Food recipe. Basically, cook bacon and shallots, add squash or pumpkin in smallish cubes,  chopped kale and stock. Simmer and serve when the squash is tender.

The recipe says streaky bacon but I would use back bacon next time - the streaky was too fatty and didn't crisp up (I was too impatient and/or it was supermarket bacon with added water). I did my usual trick of microwaving the squash for 7-8 minutes to start it off but I needn't have as the kale took longer than I thought. I also used home made chicken stock from earlier in the week and that was pretty good - ham stock would be good too I reckon. We didn't bother with the toast. I had a smear of Kozlik's maple mustard with mine and that added a nice little wow factor - could be good in the pot next time.We also agreed we could try small crispy bits of chorizo instead of bacon next time. Definite possibilities!

Felafel burgers

Another BBC Good Food recipe. I'd possibly try this again but there are so many things to change I should really look for another recipe!

• Not enough texture - blend for less time, or maybe mash.
• Not enough oomph to the flavour - more cumin, coriander. I used Ras-el-hanout instead of harissa, so if I did that again I would (a) use more and (b) add something else for heat.
• Too oniony - chop the onion more finely first, and use only half.
  
• Too soft (crispy outside, bleh middle, hard to flip). I added water in an attempt to get the chick peas to do something other than plaster the wall of the food processor - that was a bad move.

Or I suppose I could just buy a mix ;)

Great marinade for pork

Picked up some nice pork fillet from the butcher last week, and fancied it marinaded so did a bit of a web search. This BBC recipe did the job from storecupboard ingredients. Very tasty, not too salty, slight curryish tang from the turmeric and cumin. After browning it in the pan and transferring to the oven, I used the same pan to braise some shredded savoy cabbage, adding black pepper, and we had some roast potatoes with it. An excellent easy dish.

Barbecue with friends

My contribution to mains: a roasted vegetable salad.

I started with this and made a few changes. OK, a lot of changes! Final recipe was:

2 medium-large butternut squashes, peeled, deseeded, cubed (1-1.5cm)
1 red onion, roughly chopped
3 long sweet red peppers, deseeded and roughly chopped
2 handfuls rocket
8 rashers streaky bacon
1 pack stilton

5 tbsp olive oil
3 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 tbsp dark soy sauce
1-2 tbsp sweet chilli sauce

Coat the chopped squash in oil and roast slowly (about 1hr at 150-170C) until soft, sweet but not too charred.
Roast the pepper and onion alongside for the last 20-30 mins.

Tip into a bowl with the combined dressing ingredients and leave to absorb while the veg cools.

Grill the bacon until crispy, and cut into strips.
Chop/crumble the stilton.

Add the stilton and bacon and rocket to the dressed vegetables, and toss gently. If you are serving this to vegetarians, just put the bacon (and cheese, if non-vegetarian) in separate bowls for people to add.