Month: August 2019

I’ve been working on my sourdough bread recently and try to strengthen my starter (named Liz by the way after a baker and teacher who has inspired me. I also like to take a treat for the team and clients at Smartworks where I volunteer on Wednesday. These two things came together and resulted in some of the best cookies I’ve ever made.

When you’re trying to strengthen your sourdough starter, you feed your starter everyday. This means you have discard. On the one hand, it’s only flour and water, on the other hand, I don’t like to throw stuff away. I was searching for things to make with the discard and found the basis for this recipe. I did misread the quantity in the original – it said ‘makes 20 cookies’. Accurate but those would be 20 giant American cookies, not cookies sized for normal humans. Even too big for the Davinator.

In my test bake, I rashly doubled the recipe and so I had enough dough for 40 giant cookies. I recalibrated the size (made them smaller) but of course that meant we had a lot of cookies. It rained cookies on friends and family.

The recipe below is adjusted to make 40 cookies for ordinary humans. You might not be a sourdough baker today. But these cookies are so good it’s worth making sourdough starter just for these bad boys.

Recipe

Ingredients

• 113 grams plain white flour
• 1 tsp baking soda (4 grams)
• 1 tsp salt (6 grams)
• 55 grams unsalted butter, melted
• 86 grams vegetable oil (corn or sunflower)
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 175 grams brown sugar (any type)
• 110 grams caster sugar
• 70 grams sourdough starter discard (can be straight from the fridge)
• 1 egg
• 1 egg yolk
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 280 grams rolled oats (not instant oatmeal)
• 60 grams dried cranberries or raisins
• 100 grams chopped walnuts
• 100 grams good quality chocolate chips (any variety – milk, dark, white as you like)

Method

Preheat your oven to 190C (170C fan). Cover several baking sheets with parchment paper.

1. Whisk flour, salt and baking soda (SODA) together in a bowl set to one side.
2. Chop your walnuts. You make want to rough chop your dried fruit as well depending on the size. Combine with the chocolate chips and set aside.
3. Melt the butter (microwave works well) and allow to cool for a few minutes. (Make a cup of tea or play a round of Angry Birds).
4. Stir the cinnamon into the butter. Follow with the brown sugar, caster sugar and oil – whisk until well combined. The mixture should be close to room temperature by now.
5. Add the sourdough starter, the egg, the yolk and the vanilla – whisk again until well combined.
6. Using a wooden spoon, spatula or a dough whisk (see photo below) stir in the flour mixture.
7. Follow by folding in the oats, fruit, nuts and chocolate. The mixture should be thick and stiff. Resist the temptation to eat it raw immediately. It looks yummy but it’s even better after baking.
8. Measure out your dough balls. I use a small trigger scoop (see photo below). You want about 1 1/2 to 2 tablespoons by volume for each dough ball.
9. Drop the dough on to the baking sheets, leaving about 5 cms between each cookie. Flatten slightly with your fingers or a spoon. The cookies will spread when baking.
10. Bake one sheet at a time for 8 to 10 minutes. The centre should be soft but not wet and the edges crisp and starting to brown.
11. Cool on cookie sheet for five minutes then transfer to a rack to cool completely.

Let them cool please, don’t burn your mouth like someone I know did. These cookies keep well for five days or more in the fridge. I stored mine in a cardboard box with parchment paper. Avoid a sealed ziplock or a plastic container as the cookies are very moist and will get soggy, I think.

Happy baking. Please comment, share and send requests and photos of your baking.

My homage to Paul Simon, folks.  This blog post does not have 50 recipes for your courgettes (neither does the song list the 50 ways) but it should help you use your produce.

 What is it about courgettes that make them so prolific? They must be hardy enough to resist ambivalent (and lazy) gardeners (like me).  My first year, I put in six, yes six courgette plants.  OMG – did we have a lot of courgettes.  Now I plant three.  Some bit of ancient vegetable growing wisdom I have retained says three is the minimum number for pollination purposes.   Even three produce a lot of courgettes most years.

I really hate to throw away food I grew myself.  I have therefore accumulated a number of ways to prepare, preserve and eat courgettes.

 Here’s my round up of ideas and some specific recipes to make eating courgettes a joy not a chore. Hopefully, something for everyone. All of these recipes I’ve test cooked and the Davinator has eaten. 

1.  KISS – keep it simple, spiralize.  A spiralizer (many choices for less than £10 on Amazon) turns your vegetables into noodles.  Sautéed in butter, added to soups, salads and stir fry. Cover them with your favourite pasta sauce.  This is super use of the squash, especially when you harvest early and don’t let them turn into seed filled giants.
   
2. Just eat your vegetables.  Slice into 5 millimetre pieces, then chop in half.  Cook in boiling water or steam for 2 to 5 minutes depending on size and your preferences on the texture of your vegetables.  Alternatively, cut 1 inch slices and quarter these. Sauté in butter with a few chilli flakes and salt and peppel. Divine.
   
3. Get your revenge in first.  Make fried-courgette flowers.  Pick the flowers on stems (will never be courgettes) or small courgettes when the flowers are still attached.  You can either fry the flowers with the small courgettes attached or separate them and cook them separately.   Recipe link here: <fried courgette blossoms>
    
4. Use your weapon of mass consumption.  There’s nothing like chutney to use up large and diverse amounts of fruit and vegetables.  Sugar, vinegar, spices, onions and then a squash, a vegetable and a fruit component.  Here’s my recipe – <courgette chutney>.
   
5. Do it doughnut style.  Baked chocolate courgette doughnuts are about the healthiest doughnuts you can make and eat.  Of course, ‘healthiest’ doughnuts maybe a low bar but this recipe produces crowd pleasing treats – <chocolate courgette doughnuts>.
   
6. Put summer in a jar.  Courgette marmalade with ginger and lemon tastes like summer when you open it in November or gift it to good friends at Christmas time. This is not a recipe for newbies to making jam and marmalade but if you’re not intimidated by boiling sugar go for it.  Link here:  <spiced courgette marmalade>.
   
7. Hide the vegetables by burying them in deep dark chocolate cake. It’s all in the name.  This is a favourite of family, friends and co-workers.  So rich, it doesn’t need any icing or topping but you can go wild and slather it in whipped cream.  Link here. <deep dark chocolate cake>.
   
8. Pixar it up. One of my favourite Pixar movies is Ratatouille.  And you don’t have to be a Parisian rat to make awesome ratatouille.  Most cooks have a favourite recipe but ratatouille is very flexible. The core ingredients are courgette, aubergine, tomatoes and peppers.  Here’s a basic recipe that uses canned tomatoes but if you’ve got a glut go ahead and use them.  I would peel and core the tomatoes if you’re using fresh.  Link here: easy and flexible ratatouille.
   
9. Quickly now. Make quick whole wheat courgette bread.  It’s simple and quick and makes a good on the go breakfast treat. Link here: <whole wheat courgette bread>.
   
10. Round up……. Time to use your imagination and Google: courgette fritters, courgette terrine, courgette soup, tomato courgette spaghetti sauce.  Frittata with courgettes is one of my favourites. Link here: < frittata with courgettes>
    
11. Soup it up. Here’s the best courgette soup recipe I’ve found.
    
12. Get grilling. This is my new favourite grilled vegetable recipe.
    
13. Courgette and herb pilaf, you’ll never notice the courgettes.

Hopefully, these recipes will help you mop up the courgette tsunami and dig out from under the zucchini avalanche.  Thank you for reading the blog.   Please send comments, suggestions and requests.

You’ve made fried courgette flowers, ratatouille, chocolate courgette donuts, courgette marmalade and spiralised seemingly countless squash. What’s left? Time to make chutney. Chutney is a mixture of fruit, vegetables, vinegar, spices and enough sugar to bind it all together. It is usually eaten as a condiment (like Branston pickle or piccalilli) but I can’t swear that the Davinator has not eaten a sneaky chutney sarnie from time to time.

Like ratatouille there are an endless number of chutney recipes on the internet. And to be honest if you cook it long enough and slow enough, ingredients become chutney. This one works for me – the main ingredients seem to ripen at the same time in my garden. It’s based on a recipe from BBC GoodFood which has a wealth of practical and straightforward recipes for home cooks.

Once you’re comfortable with the recipe it’s easy to vary the component fruit and vegetables. The ‘chutney base’ is the vinegar, sugar and spices. Then it’s a squash element, a vegetable element (don’t start on tomato is actually a fruit) and a fruit element.

Recipe

Ingredients

• 500ml (17.5 fluid ounces) cider vinegar or white wine vinegar
• 400g (14 ounces) brown sugar (light or dark)
• 1 tbsp allspice
• 2 tbsp yellow mustard seed
• 3 cinnamon sticks
• 1 thumb sized piece of fresh ginger, peeled and diced very small
• 4 onions, chopped
• 1kg (2.2 pounds) courgettes (zucchini), chopped
• 1kg (2.2 pounds) tomatoes, chopped with core removed
• 4 tart eating apples, chopped
• 300g (10.5 ounces) sultanas (raisins)

Method

1. Put the vinegar, 300ml water, sugar and spices in a large deep heavy pan. Heat, stirring regularly, until the sugar dissolves .
2. Add the remaining ingredients onions, courgettes, tomatoes, apples and sultanas) with a tsp of salt.
3. Bring to a simmer then bubble away uncovered for 2 to 3 hours until darkened, thick and chutney-like. Sometimes mine takes longer. I have turned it off over night.
4. Time to sterilise the jars. If you prep 6 250 to 300 ml jars that should be plenty. You can watch this video: jam jars or wash thoroughly in very hot soapy water. Rinse in very hot water then put on a baking sheet in a 140C/fan 120C/gas 1 oven until completely dry.
5. Pour the chutney into the sterilised jars while still hot, seal and leave in a cool dark place. The recipe suggests that you wait for at least 3 weeks before opening. That recipe writer has never met the Davinator. It might improve with age, I’ve never had it stay around long enough to find out.

Thanks for reading the blog. Please let me know if you’re enjoying the recipes, send comments, photos and requests.

Spicy courgette (zucchini) marmalade, reminds you of summer when you’re eating it on toast in January.

Dark delicious chocolate courgette loaf cake.

Ginger snaps for grown ups.