Moroccan Filo Pie

On my way home from work I posted my stitched postcard, photos of which will follow once I know it has been received.  Once home I finished off my rainbow magnet and made a cloud magnet.  Next in the series will be a sunshine magnet!

Last night I made Moroccan Filo Pie and was really pleased with how it turned out.  It tasted good and looked, if I do say so myself, pretty fantastic!

Moroccan Filo Pie (serves 6)

2 tablespoons of oil

3 tablespoons of ras el hanout*

14 oz spinach

2 400g tins of green lentils

270g pack of filo pastry

2 oz pinenuts

3 oz grated cheese

2 tablespoons of fresh parsley and coriander

2 large eggs

• Heat half the oil in a large pan.  Add spices then spinach and a splash of water.  Stir in lentils and tip into a bowl to cool.
• Preheat oven to 180C.
• Stir pinenuts, cheese, herbs and beaten egg into the lentil mix.
• Cut pastry to fit an 8″x11″ dish.  Brush one layer with oil and place in the dish, repeat four times then cover with lentil mix.  Brush remaining pastry with oil, scrunch up and arrange on top.  Cook for 30-40 mins.  Serve with naan bread.

Alternatively make half quantities of the filo pie then use the remain pastry to make chickpea and potato rolls…

Chickpea and potato rolls

1 tin of chickpeas

A few sliced and cooked new potatoes

Handful of chopped coriander

Ground coriander

Ground cumin

1 clove of garlic, crushed

Half a pack of filo pastry

Oil

• Mix the potatoes, chickpeas, herbs and spices.
• Brush a small rectangle of the filo with oil.  Layer with another piece of filo, again brush with oil.  Repeat so there are three layers.
• Spoon on some of the mix.
• Roll the filo around the mix.  Seal edges.  Brush with oil.  Repeat with remaining pastry and mix.  Cook for 15 mins till golden.

*Ras el hanout (makes 1 jar)

2 cinnamon sticks, broken in a few pieces

1 tablespoon each of cloves, coriander seeds, cumin seeds, fenugreek, fennel seeds and mustard seeds

• Place all ingredients in a frying pan and place over a gentle heat.  Cook until the seeds start to pop then toss them and cook for another couple of minutes.  Grind ingredients whilst still warm.
• Store in an airtight container for one to two weeks.

And the week ahead…

We had some really nice food towards the end of last week which I shall come to shortly.  First though, this coming week…

Tonight is steamed fish with new potatoes (sadly not yet homegrown ones)

Tomorrow is undecided

Thursday is eating on the run

Friday is mushroom and coriander gratin

Saturday is gnocchi and garlic bread.

Open ravioli with squash and porcini mushrooms

Sadly ours didn't look like this...

… but it still tasted pretty good!  We followed the recipe almost entirely, the only changes we made were using lactofree soft cheese instead of parmesan in the butternut squash mash and we missed out the saffron.  It was a really lovely combination of textures and flavours (just don’t accidently put in twice the amount of vinegar…!) and was fairly easy despite the unnecessarily complicated instructions.  Basically you cook the squash in butter and water then mash, adding some cheese and nutmeg.  Whilst the squash is cooking you prepare the dressing by combining chopped porcini mushrooms, soy sauce and vinegar.  Then whilst the lasagna sheets are cooking fry the chestnut mushrooms, whilst the spinach and serve.  you prepare the dressing by combining chopped porcini mushrooms, soy sauce and vinegar.

Herbed Polenta with Beans

Again this was a lovely recipe.  The herbed polenta can be made in advance and was apparently really easy to do (I was out all day Saturday so the boy did this).  When it came to getting it ready to eat we fried the polenta (you could grill it instead) in one pan and in another pan we fried some garlic, peppers and mushrooms, then added some stock followed by some kidney beans (although I wonder about butter beans instead) and the seasoning et voila!  The herbed polenta would be a great base for any number of toppings.

Please insert a squash related pun here

So the boy got his act together and participated in choosing our meals!  He likes to cook he just seems resentful of the idea we have to plan ahead… So…

Saturday is takeaway!

Sunday is the above mentioned open ravioli

Monday is herby polenta

Tuesday is sweet potato curry with spinach

Wednesday our kitchen gets a rest as we’re both out

Thursday is macaroni cheese (a first for me!)

Friday is as yet undecided

Saturday is pizza

We’ve decided to try out the Open ravioli with squash and porcini mushrooms recipe I mentioned in an earlier post.  As the name might suggest this calls for a squash however, as with most squash recipes it doesn’t call for all the squash.  Meaning we’ll have leftovers.  So today I’m focussed on finding a recipe to use up the remaining squash (but not soup!) for fridays food.

Butternut squash and garlic bake

Squash Risotto

Squash, cheese and chives muffins sound rather appealing although they won’t make a meal… but they might work well as part of a lunch!

Butternut squash bake

Roasted Sticky Butternut Squash & broccoli

A few recipes to satisfy a sweet tooth!

Store Cupboard Lemon Cupcakes

This is a really lovely lemon cupcake recipe and it contains no milk or eggs so is really only using store cupboard ingredients!

4oz self raising flour

1 teaspoon of baking powder

3oz sugar

3 tablespoons of oil

110ml water

Zest of 1 lemon

• Preheat the oven to 180C.
• Mix all the dry ingredients together then add the oil and water.  Stir in the lemon zest till it’s a smooth consistency.
• Spoon into bun cases and bake for 10-15 minutes.  The recipe makes about 10.
• Allow to cool then ice using your preferred method.  I’m a sucker for lemon buttercream!

Lemon Buttercream

This will make enough for 10 cupcakes or enough to fill one 18″ cake.

2 oz icing sugar

1 oz butter

Juice of one lemon

• Mix all ingredients until they are a smooth consistency.

Gorgeous lemon cupcakes

More gorgeous lemon cupcakes!

Gingerbread Muffins (adapted from “Sweet food“)

250g self raising flour

90g plain flour

1/2 teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda

4 teaspoons of ground ginger

1 teaspoon cinnamon

230g soft brown sugar

235g golden syrup

100g butter

250ml milk

1 egg, lightly beaten

Ginger Icing

60g butter

1 1/2 tablespoons of golden syrup

125g icing sugar

1 teaspoon ground ginger

• Preheat the oven to 200C.
• Mix all the dry ingredients together.
• Melt the golden syrup and butter in a pan, stirring constantly then allow to cool.  Add the milk and egg to this mixture and mix well.
• Stir the liquid into the dry ingredients and fold until you have a lumpy batter.
• Spoon into bun tins and cook for 20-25 minutes.  This recipe makes about 10 large muffins.
• Once the muffins are cool, mix the icing ingredients together then spread over the muffins!

Confession time…

Ok.. so earlier in the week I told anyone who’s interested and online that I was going to have gnocchi for my tea today.  At the time I highly doubted that this would happen and that the reality would involve me taking something out the freezer and throwing it in the direction of the oven.  However, it’s looking like the gnocchi might happen!  So here’s the recipe:

Gnocchi (Serves 2)

2 potatoes (approximately 500g overall)

1 egg

200g plain flour

Salt and pepper

• Peel and boil the potatoes for about 15 to 20 minutes.
• Once they are cooked drain them and put them in a food processor.  Blend.
• Add the egg, salt and pepper and blend again.
• Add the flour in slowly and blend until you get a firm dough.
• Shape into small sausages (half an inch thick and an inch long).
• Add to a pan of hot water and when they rise to the surface they’re cooked.

I will be having my gnocchi with chilli oil and basil but we’ve had them with a herby cheese sauce in the past which was very yummy.  Nice served with homemade garlic bread.