Vege Lentil Bake

 I heard this recipe shared on Radio New Zealand in the winter of 2024, while I was driving somewhere. It sounded great, so when I got home I tracked it down and eventually we made it.

A Julie Biuso recipe called "Lentil Pie with Puffy Cheese Sauce". To be honest that's not the most inspiring name for such a delicious dish. And the cheese sauce isn't overly puffy. But I tell you what- it is so worth making.

I have discovered that there's loads of flexibility in this bake so just use what you have and go by your own taste and preferences.

Start with the vegetable base as in Julie's recipe:

• 2 Tbsp olive oil
• 1 large onion, peeled and finely chopped
• 1 clove garlic, peeled and crushed
• 1 tsp chopped rosemary
• ¼ tsp fennel seed
• ½ tsp ground cumin
• 350g (3) carrots, peeled and grated
• 350g (3) zucchini trimmed and grated
• Salt
• Freshly ground black pepper to taste
• 1 Tbsp standard flour
• 1 x 400g can lentils, drained
• 1 Tbsp tomato concentrate
• 1 Tbsp red wine vinegar
• 1 x 400g can cherry tomatoes in sauce (Mutti band)

And here's my alternative to the onion & garlic:

In a large pot saute:

2 leeks and a whole pile of onion weed

Other vege options: mushrooms, watercress, wild greens, spinach, red pepper, sweet corn and anything else you think might work.

Left-over chicken is also good.

Basic method is to saute all the first lot of ingredients, simmer until tender.

Then add the rest & gently fold together.

Pour in to a greased dish or two smaller ones.

The sauce part:

• 45g (3 Tbsp) butter
• 4 level Tbsp standard flour
• 400ml milk
• Salt
• Freshly grated nutmeg
• Freshly ground white pepper
• ¾ cup grated vintage cheddar cheese
• 1 medium (size 6) free-range egg
• 
  

 My additions: a dsp of whole grain mustard, a dsp of Ajva, much less cheese, possibly a little parmesan over the top. I used black pepper in the sauce too. This gives a bit more flavour.

Pour the sauce over the top of the vegetable base.

I gave the top a sprinkle of my own dried herb mix of rosemary, sage and thyme & a little paprika.

Bake for around 40 minutes in a moderate oven.

This was our last version of veges cooking.

Then with the addition of the lentils and the cherry tomatoes.

Such a light yet super tasty and satisfying dish that also keeps and reheats really well.

If I've been a bit confusing you can see the original recipe just here.

Catherine X

Sweet Violet Marshmallow

What could lift our spirits more than sweet violet marshmallows, right at the end of winter!

Every year I make violet honey syrup. I would never be without it now as it takes care of almost every sore throat or cough that ever comes our way and tastes delicious.

I've made the syrup already and I was wondering what else I could do with some violets when I thought of marshmallow made with honey.

So here's what I did today: I simply picked a packed cupful of sweet violets (Viola odorata)- the scented ones. Any colour will do. I rinsed the flowers briefly as there is an abundance of pine pollen around at the moment. 

Put the flowers in a small jug and pour over them a cupful of just boiled water- pop a plate over the top and leave them to infuse for around an hour until the colours almost gone out of them. 

Meantime line a small tin with greaseproof paper- hang some over the edge so that it's easy to remove the marshmallow.

Strain the violet liquid in to a pot, add 3 tbsp of a good gelatine and leave it to bloom for a few minutes.

Heat gently (stirring) to dissolve the gelatine.

Then add the juice of a lemon & 1/2 cup of honey and stir to dissolve.

You'll notice the amazing colour transitions of the violet water as you add various things. 

I added 1 tsp of blackcurrant powder to make sure there was enough colour- stir again.

You could use an electric beater, but I don't own one as I love my vintage hand beater.

Beat the mixture until it is pale & fluffy and starting to get really hard to keep going.

Quickly pour in to the container and it will set with in minutes.

Cut with a large knife or scissors when set and roll in fine coconut with a little more blackcurrant (or other) powder rubbed through it and you're done.

The marshmallow is fine kept in a sealed container sitting on the bench.

Next time I think I might try a mix like elderberry. blackberry and violet- delicious and a fabulously easy to take immune support combo. 

Apple Sauce, Appelmoes

I love learning new, richer ways of doing familiar things- especially when that knowledge comes through friendships. These funny little organic cooking apples turned up at Cornucopia recently aned with a name like "Tydeman's Late Orange" (raised in East Maling in 1930) it would have been remiss of me not to try them. But even better my dear Dutch friend Margaret gave me a little pot of Appelmoes a month or so ago- made by cooking whole apples, sweetening just a little, working through a mouli (yay I found a little one last week in the hospice shop) and then adding a touch of vanilla. I'm never going back to the old ways now. I just know that this applesauce is good for the microbome, not to mention delicious.  

Equally delicious are these wee wild apples we found in June near the railway line in Dannevirke. 

Later I added some Mexican hawthorn fruit we found in Frimley park. 

The Mexican haws are very high in pectin so great for setting jams and jellies. They have hard little stones in them which don't go through the mouli quite so easily.

We're eating our appelmoes as we go but it can be popped in to a preserving jar for later too.

Nicola Galloway of Homegrown Kitchen writes so nicely about this process here- search Homemade Apple Sauce 15th May 2023

Katie X

Orange Frangipane Tart

 Oh how did I not understand frangipane before now!?

We fell in love with a walnut tart a while back, so when I read a recipe from @NZLife for an orange tart I knew I needed to adapt it to be frangipane too.

So here it is- an orange frangipane tart that is perfect for mid winter, while we have the sublime locally grown navel oranges in abundance & for picnics. Last week we had a wonderful wandering adventure out in Havelock North. Our afternoon tea under a leafless oak tree up at Keirunga gardens simply comprised of an orange frangipane tart & a tea of rose petal, hibiscus (sabdariffa), linden & double pink hawthorn blossom that was light & floral & perfect.

So to make the tart:

Pastry: 125 gms of chilled, cubed butter, a pinch of salt if it's unsalted like ours

1 1/4 cups of flour- I used 1 cup of wholemeal spelt & 1/4 white spelt flour

1 rounded tbsp of jaggery or brown sugar & a 1/4 tsp ground cardamom

2 tbsps cold water.

Either process the mix to a fine crumb & then pulse in the water, or rub the butter through the flour & sugar & mix the water in. Chill while you get organised- like turning on the oven to 180 degrees C 

Bake for 10 minutes in a 23cm tart tin lined with baking paper, or several smaller ones 

Filling: soften 75 grams of butter & a large tbsp of jaggery, raw or brown sugar, beat together 

Add 1/2 cup of lovely honey

Beat in 4 eggs one at a time

Add the grated zest of a good rough (easier to grate) large orange so that you have at least a tbsp of zest

Add the juice of the orange, a tsp of lemon zest & the juice of half a lemon

Then stir through a cup of ground almonds & a tbsp of flour

Pour in to the par baked shell. Add mandarin segments in a pattern on top if you like.

Bake 180 degrees for 10 mins & then 20- 25 minutes at 160 until the tart is golden & set.

Cool before removing from the tin/s

Katie X

Sweet Persimmon Chutney

It's never really occurred to me to actually "make" anything with sweet persimmons before, but this season I have discovered that they slow bake brilliantly, that they also make a unique and delicious chutney & they're jolly good in a loaf. 

To slow bake them simply slice them through as evenly as possible- no need to peel them, lay them out in a baking dish on baking paper & bake at about 140 for around 40 minutes. Once cool they keep really well in the fridge uncovered.

The sweet persimmon and turmeric chutney I came across at This NZ Life. 

I had a few misgivings about the recipe but decided to more or less follow it the first time round- cooking it in a pot, but also reducing the enormous volume of fresh turmeric (2 cups full!) and tweeking a few other aspects. Even then it tasted like an odd kind of jam thing as it had no vinegar in the recipe. Nice but strange.

So, the second time round I made it in a baking dish & cooked it in the oven and what a difference that makes.

I think that it needs to be a loose recipe- use what you've got and adjust to your own taste.

This last batch was made with around 8 pretty ripe, but not squishy sweet persimmons. No need to peel. Cut them all up fairly finely and add to the baking dish.

Add 1/2 apple cider vinegar or white wine vinegar or white balsamic vinegar.

1 cup of mango juice- yip you can taste the mango flavour in and it works

1/3 cup of jaggery, or other sugar

A large tsp of good salt

1 tsp ground ginger, 1 tsp cinnamon (cinnamon stick if you prefer) 1 tsp cardamom, a pinch of cayenne pepper or a little chilli 

3 fresh turmeric roots, a knob of fresh ginger grated

1 cup dried cranberries & a cup of dates if you like, but I prefer golden raisins.

Mix altogether & bake in a moderate oven stirring occasionally for around an hour or until it tastes amazing and looks about right to you. Adjust the the balance if you need to- more salt, spice etc.

Pour into sterilized jars and pop the lids on. Hot or cold doesn't seem to matter.

Label!

Katie X

More Violets- Simple Syrup & Cheesecake

Violets are amazing- they turn up in the depths of winter and provide such a wonderful lift through the coldest months with their glorious scent, sweet little flowers and their gentle medicine. Last week I popped in to the valley at Keirunga gardens to visit the wild violets under the oak trees and gathered a little basketful of sweetly scented blooms.

 I tried another recipe for making violet syrup this time round. It was so simple and so much fun.

Put 2 cups of violet flowers in to a bowl or jug & pour over them 2 cups of just boiled water.

Cover & let the violets steep for around half an hour.

After this time the colour will have drained from the flowers & the liquid will have become a gorgeous colour. Violet water is highly ph sensitive so your violet "tea" will alter in shade depending on what water you use and what else you add to the syrup.

 The little jug on the left is just the infused water, the one on the right has had a few drops of lemon juice added to it. 

Strain when you're ready & while the liquid is still warm stir in a tbsp of honey (to taste). This violet "syrup can now be stored in the fridge for a week or so, but I wanted to use the syrup so I made a cheesecake. 

I used my trusty base of 1/3 cup each of broken cashews, walnut pieces and coconut, 

add 4 or 5 soft dates (remove the stones first) 

Add a tbsp of melted coconut oil and briefly combine in a food processor until mixed to a fine crumb. Press in to a greased springform tin. I used two small tins.

The middle layer is so simple and tastes quite a lot like milk bottle lollies.

Gently warm a tin of coconut milk in a small pot until the fats have melted. Cool, pour most of the milk in to a bowl. Add 1 tsp vanilla essence, and a tbsp of honey and stir to dissolve. 

Add 2 tsps of gelatine to the remaining 1/2 cup of coconut milk in the pot. Stand a few minutes and allow to bloom. Then heat gently, stirring to dissolve the gelatine. Mix the two lots together in the bowl and pop in to the fridge. 

Now go through the same process for the violet syrup. Add some more lemon juice to the syrup if you like as it enhances the flavour of the violets. Pour a little of the cooled violet syrup in to a bowl and sprinkle over 2 tsps of gelatine. Allow to bloom. Heat for 30 seconds in the microwave, or in a small pot. Stir to dissolve. Cool- add back in to the main syrup and stir well. 

Now pour the coconut mixture over the base and return to the fridge.

When the mixture is just set, pour over the violet jelly very gently.

Chill for several hours or overnight until well set.

For a firmer jelly add an extra 1/2 tsp of gelatine to each layer.

 It seems like a strange thing to do- head to the river for a picnic in winter, but honestly winter picnics are wonderful! This is one of our favourite spots up Ellis Wallace road alongside the Esk river. In under the hawthorn bushes there can be found a carpet of wild violets.

The spring flowers were gathered at Pandora Pond on our journey here- we mostly picked the ones with broken or bent stems that would otherwise have been wasted.

  I even found a little patch of white violets on this visit- perfect for the top of our little cheesecake.

 I made a decoction of Silver Linden flowers and bracts (simmered for 15 minutes with half a cinnamon stick) and short brewed Sagewood and Elderflower tea. Such a glorious fragrant combination that was perfect for sipping in the outdoors...

while eating such a delicious and delicate treat.

More about using violets just here.

And the recipe for violet honey cough syrup here.

Katie X

Glorious Sweet Violet Jelly & Cheesecake

It may seem a bit odd- a whole lot of pictures of flowers in a food blog, but truly it is not. I've come to believe that the presence of violets in the landscape redeems winter beautifully, not to mention that they are the loveliest of medicines. I have posted here about making violet honey syrup- a resource we would now never be without. We have both been irritated by the abundant drenching of the whole province with pine pollen over the last month & heavily relied on the violet honey syrup to get us through the night. It is amazing for soothing a cough- instantly! 

There are several places that we know we can gather wild violets locally: Ellis Wallace road, Keirunga valley- under the oaks & at the top of the Karituwhenua walkway off Te Mata road in Havelock North 

 If you are picking for making violet syrup it's quicker to pull the flowers rather making a bunch of them.

 Every part of the gathering process is a joy- the heady fragrance,

 the visit to the land & the blessing that the plants offer as we gather them with so much respect & gratitude.

And of course, you may find other treasures along the way.

 Violets come in so many pretty hues- all are valuable.

 As long as you have a good proportion of purple the colour comes out much the same.

The syrup, once made, is best stored in small jars in the freezer, but since Rob still had a particularly niggly cough I thought that little jellies might be useful. Useful- they are amazing! 

 I simply set the syrup with a good amount of gelatine. Left uncovered in a little dish in the fridge it lasts for ages or until it disappears!

 After making the violet jelly I wondered what a little cheesecake might be like.
I decided to use a simple base of soft dates & nuts- a mix of flaked almonds, cashews & home shelled walnuts. Didn't take long to come together in my little food processor. I used quite a few dates so I didn't need to add any other sweetening. I added the juice of half a lemon & a tbsp of melted coconut oil & it set to a lovely texture.

 I used a 400ml jar of Raglan blackcurrant & vanilla coconut yoghurt as the middle layer, set with a large dsp of gelatine dissolved in a little juice or water. It's a good idea to mix in some yoghurt  to the gelatine before adding to the rest. Mine started to set too quickly in the cold yoghurt.

The violet honey syrup was also set with a lovely organic gelatine in the same way.

The flavours are just delicious together.

It's amazing how many edible winter flowers that there are- violets, grape hyacinths, forget-me-nots, jasmine & sweet alyssum look lovely with the violet cheesecake.

The other winter flower that is just delicious & works nicely with violets & lemon (or lime) to make an amazing natural fizzy drink is magnolia. You can find how to make Fee just here. 

Love Katie xx