Gorgeous veggies from a tiny Cretan market

Kalispera from Crete! Just a very quick post before i go out for my evening meal (sosmug hehehe) to implore people to buy fruit and veg from local markets when abroad! Me mum and dad trapsed down to Elounda town this morning to the tiny little veg market with some of the sweetest old folk running the stalls. A tiny 7 euros later

For such a small amount of money we have some of the freshest most gorgeous veggies and herbs I've had in a very long time, so sweet, colourful and quirky - look at the funky round courgettes and stripey aubergines! I feel like a kid in a sweetshop thinking of all the things I could do with them (yes I realised how incredibly sad that just made me look. I'll take the hit) Im definitely gonna whip up a Greek salad with the cucumber, tomatoes, peppers and red onion. Could make a tempura, or roast them all to put into pasta, or I could make tzatziki with the cucumber and fresh mint and cut the rest of the veg into crudités to dip into it. Anyway. I'm sure whatever I make I'll post. All this talk of food is making me hungry Just wanted an excuse to post a pretty picture hehe H x P.s. I'm writing on an iPad and apparently I'm too special to work out how to format words. Pin It Now!

Pizza from scratch, made SO easy

I go on holiday tomorrow, so all we had left in the fridge was some veg and a lump of cheese, so I used this and some essentials we always have in the cupboard.  I timed myself this evening making this pizza, it took me 42 minutes from beginning to out-of-the-oven ready to eat.  I made it from scratch. It really is so very easy (and a great way to avoid packing...)

Here's How:



for the base:

4 heaped tablespoons of plain flour

1 teaspoon of dried yeast

A lug of Olive oil

6 tablespoons of hot water from the tap (add more if needed)

A pinch of salt

for the sauce:

A tin of tomatoes

A bunch of fresh basil

A squeeze of tomato puree

A pinch of sugar

Salt and Pepper

A sprinkling of orgeano

for the topping

Grated cheese (however much or little you like!)

Half a yellow pepper

Half a red pepper

Quarter of a red onion

A large portobello mushroom

Half a courgette

Olive oil

A knob of soft butter (sorry but I can't see it never not being funny to say this)

A good few garlic cloves

A few fresh basil leaves

Preheat your oven to 180



Firstly, cut all your veg except the mushroom lengthways and making sure it's quite chunky, lob it all in a roasting dish with some whole garlic cloves (don't bother peeling them), cover in olive oil, season, give it all a shake an put in the oven.


Crush a garlic clove, tear the basil and mix both in with the butter.  Spoon this into your mushroom and put it in the oven.


Literally put all of the sauce ingredients in a pan at once, blend until smooth and put on a very low heat to simmer and reduce down.


For the base, just mix together all of the ingredients, if it feels stiff, add some more water to loosen it.  On a floured surface, knead for about a minute and roll out into a thin big circle (if you don't have a rolling pin in your student house, a wine bottle always works a treat).  Put the rolled out dough onto a circular tray, greased with a little olive oil.  Put it in the oven for a few minutes until a tiny tiny bit brown.


Once brown, take out your pizza base, roasted veg and mushrooms.  Cut the mushroom lengthways.  Spoon as much or little sauce as you like onto the base and spread evenly.  Sprinkle some oregano on.  Now for the cheese.  Then place your veg on top.


Put back in the oven until the cheese is bubbling away.


MMmm

H x

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Lemon French teatime loaf

It's sticky, its sweet and it's tangy. The freshness of this is enough to wake anybody up, no matter how many trebles they managed to keep down the night before.  Enjoy a slice with a cup of tea and you'll be feeling fresh and ready to face the day. (well...Maybe...).  This is my Nanny Audrey's favourite thing in the world, something I am now forced to bake every time I visit her.  It's so easy to rustle up and is a perfect replacement to a boring digestive biscuit.  Most recipes online will instruct you to use 1 or 2 lemons. I use 5 or 6.

Ingredients

 200g soft butter

200g self-raising flour

200g caster sugar for the cake

100g caster sugar for the syrup

3 eggs

5 or 6 lemons

100g icing sugar

Preheat your oven to 180 degrees.  In a mixing bowl, cream the butter and sugar together.  Beat in the eggs, then sift in the flour.  Grate the zest of the lemons, adding most to the cake mix, leaving about a fifth for the topping.  Pour into a greased loaf tin and which in the oven. Easy.


Whilst your loaf is cooking juice ALL BUT ONE of the lemons into a small jug and mix in the caster sugar until it forms a sweet sticky syrup.  Taste it - if it tastes too harsh and acidic, add more sugar until it has a really intense sweet tangy flavour.


With the remaining lemon, make a quick, runny icing, mixing the juice with the icing sugar.


Remove the loaf when it is risen and golden (usually after 15-20 minutes), insert a skewer and if it comes out clean, it is done, if not, put it in for a little longer.  Set aside to cool.


When luke warm, upturn the tin and place the loaf on a plate.  Get a skewer and cover it in deep holes, all over (top and bottom), as many as you can get away with without completely massacring it. Upturn the cake (remember you've put holes on this side too), and pour half of the syrup very slowly and watch it all soak up with a sponge.  It will seem a lot but it should all be absorbed pretty easily.  Turn it back up and do the same to the top. 


With a spoon, drizzle the icing over the top and use the left over lemon zest and sprinkle on top.


Voila.


H x


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Here's another one I made at Easter (hence obligatory Easter chick..)

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Soft boiled eggs and soldiers, cooked to perfection

Boiling an egg is such an essential thing to know, but unfortunately far too many people are clueless.  Boiled eggs are a real home comfort when you are at uni, not to mention cheap as chips (or eggs..).  If you don't have egg cups, shot glasses work a treat!  Follow these achingly simple steps for guaranteed dippiness (or 'chuckiness' as my mum says) of your eggs. Getting your eggs right is a fine art - undercooked and they're too runny and you get what I very maturely call 'egg bogies', overcooked and dipping becomes impossible.  Perfect for long breakfasts on a lazy Saturday morning or for a Sunday Supper.

I know with student budgets and all, food is expensive, but (and here's the vegetarian in me coming out) please please try and go free range, or even better, organic a) they taste SO much better (who wants pale-yellow anaemic yolks) b) they will be packed with so many more nutrients. C)you really will be doing your bit to fight the very cruel battery hen industry.  The difference in price is really quite small.

Here is the big secret: 5 AND A HALF MINUTES! Straight in to a pan of already-boiling water, making sure the eggs are totally covered (otherwise you could end up with one egg cooked and the other side gooey and gross).


Get a couple of slices of toast. Be generous with your butter.  Make sure to use salt on your chucky eggs, it makes such a difference.  Enjoy with a cold glass of milk or OJ.


H x Pin It Now!

Cheat's leek and ricotta cannelloni

A really really easy way to make pretend cannelloni without the impossible-to-find pasta and piping tubes.  A seriously impressive showy-off main course, for any up and coming come dine with me cook-offs (yes, we all do them).

 

 

You'll need:

 

 

For the cheese sauce:

40g butter

40g flour

100g cheddar cheese (grated)

Salt and pepper to season (although with the amount of cheese I doubt you'll need much salt, if any)

200ml (or thereabouts) of milk.

For the tomato sauce:

1 tin of chopped tomatoes in their juice

1/2 tube of tomato puree ( or about half a jar of sundried tomato paste if you're feeling an extra boost of flavour)

Half an onion

A crushed garlic clove

A good lug of olive oil

A splash of balsamic vinegar

A pinch of sugar

Salt and pepper to season

For the pasta and filling:

Lasagne sheets

250g tub of ricotta cheese

3 Leeks

2 cloves of garlic

Zest of half a lemon

Salt and pepper to taste

A knob (hehe) of butter

Preheat your oven to about 180 degrees.

 

Firstly prepare the leeks by cutting them in half lengthways then thinly slicing them from the bottom of the leek to the top. 

 

In a large pan, melt the butter on a medium heat and crush the garlic in (being careful not to burn it - burnt garlic is one of the worst tastes in the world) then throw in the chopped leak, stirring occasionally.

 

For the tomato sauce, get a medium sized pan, on a medium heat, and crush in another garlic clove (with the olive oil), dice the onion and whack in in too.  When the onions are see-through (but not brown!), throw in all of the other ingredients and give a good stir, leave to simmer on a low heat.

 

At this point, put a pan of water to boil, with some olive oil.

 

Go back to your leek mixture and add the ricotta and lemon zest. Season and take off the heat and transfer to a bowl.  Wash the pan - you'll need it for the cheese sauce.

 

For the cheese sauce, melt the butter on a medium heat, add the flour and stir to get a smooth paste.  Gradually add the milk, bit by bit as the sauce continues to thicken (I use a whisk by this stage to avoid lumps).  Once all the milk is in, add the cheese and stir continuously.  Season.  How does it taste? More cheese? More pepper? You decide!

 

Spoon your tomato mixture onto the bottom of a big roasting dish.

 

Get one lasagne sheet and drop into the boiling water (most sheets will go floppy in seconds), fish it out (using a spatula or something - anything!).  On a clean surface, spoon the ricotta mixture in a line on the short end and roll it up.  Carefully place (seam-down) onto the tomato sauce mix.  Repeat until your tray is full (usually after 4 or 5 depending on size).  Cover with the cheese sauce.  If you're feeling super cheesy, grate some on top.

 

Put in the oven and leave for 15-20 minutes (or until golden brown on top).

 

De-lish

 

Love H x

 

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Avocado and Haloumi Salad in a fresh chilli and honey dressing

The easiest gourmet salad you will ever rustle up! The sweet honey dressing goes perfectly with the salty haloumi, the lemon freshens it and the chilli gives it a good bit of attitude!  I work during the holidays, so I'm always thinking of new exciting packed lunch ideas.
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Made in minutes on a mad dash before work this morning, cue envious looks from the others in the office...

You'll need:


For the salad:

1/2 a ripe avocado

Some greek (or cypriot) haloumi cheese

Salad leaves

For the dressing:

A few lugs of olive oil (say 6 tablespoons)

2 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar

the juice of a lemon

A squeeze of honey

One finely chopped fresh red chilli

One grated large (or 2 small) garlic clove

Slice your haloumi (4 or 5 slices usually does me just fine for a lunch) and put under a high grill, when you hear popping and hissing, it should nearly be done (or until golden), turn the slices and cook the other side. Once done, slice and wrap in foil separately to your salad to avoid heating the leaves making them go limp.


Literally get your lunchbox (or a salad bowl), whack some leaves in it.  Chop your avocado into chucks and distribute among the leaves.


Whack everything for your dressing in a jar, put the lid on and shake.  If you are having it as a packed lunch DON'T DRESS YOUR SALAD! By the time lunch comes around, your leaves will resemble dark green soggy mush.  Instead, get a piece of cling film, and spoon a few tablespoons into the middle, lift the edges up and twist (see picture...)


Sit and look at the clock waiting for lunchtime.


Bon Appetite.


H x

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The esstentials for pretence...

So, as promised, we will graduate from this blog a bunch of sophisticated, classy well educated domestic goddesses (yeah, right)...


Firstly, a domestic goddess wouldn't be seen dead with food sloshed down her front, so an apron is a must, I can predict most student houses will not own an apron, so here's a great excuse to go shopping... apron's don't have to be boring old black and white striped jobbies.  Check out www.anthropologie.eu for some absolutely gorgeous (if-only-it-had-a-back-to-it-I-would-SO-wear-it-as-a-dress) aprons, like this beaut...

Secondly, your new best friend is a sharp knife, cutting veg will never be so satisfying.  Yes, the IKEA 3 in a pack for 10 pence or whatever it is are ridiculously cheap, but your carrot sticks will look more like a bunch of hacksaws that smooth crunchy batons.  Invest, ladies (and gents...) www.groupon.com do fantastic deals on great sharp knives, so keep an eye out, TK maxx also do excellent discounted kitchen ware.

Thirdly, the hallowed REDUCED section of your local supermarket must never be overlooked, I find myself walking away, dejected if I have to (begrudgingly) pay full price for most things these days.  Get your head in the game and scour those shelves for those 7 beautiful letters plastered on your favourite items (or ANY for that matter - a SHARON fruit FOR 5p!!!!!! Bloody Norah!)

And finally, prove your ulitmate poise and sophistication when you demonstrate you can cook with wine it really does add great flavour to dull dishes (a marriage made in heaven with risotto) and let's be honest, anybody who can sacrifice a few precious drops to cooking is a fully fledged grown up culinary queen (or king...but we'll get on to cooking with beer in time)..

Let's get cooking.

H x



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Welcome!


Formalities first: My name is Hannah, I'm a student at Newcastle Uni, I'm 21 and I love food.  So I guess you could label this a food kind of a blog...but being a student I know that we are poor (but always have enough money for a night out), all grown-up (but still have our favourite teddies tucked up in our student beds) and most of all are so completely and utterly clueless about the world as we were when we began....

Me, cut the boyfriend out, harsh...

So I present you a blog which perfects the art of impersonating sophistication, class and culinary wizardry.... Pin It Now!