Veggischmooze Goodness can it be September?          

 

Dear lovely followers. Firstly huge apologies for the gap in submissions recently. Ahh our Sarah, the clever technical one that mixes the copy and the photos and subs to the internet has been frolicking at festivals with wellies and garlands of flowers and enjoying other lovely holidays. But we’ll put it all right now with wonderful entries. But Ruth has still been submitting to the Guardian with brilliant results. So please keep watching our pages   

Now our news, our lovely girls, Jasmine age 12 and Phoebe age 9, were thrilled when their delicious Choc Chip biscuits made it to the Kids’ Pages and we all celebrated. Try the recipe it works and that’s always a bonus.

http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2013/jul/29/readers-recipe-swap-kids-recipes-felicity-cloake

And then although we didn’t achieve page fame in the Sticky section, all these recipes are tried and tested and work like a dream.

We wanted to offer something a little different so try our   

 

                             Posh Lemon and Coconut Syrup Tart –oooh!!

 

 

We’ve called it posh as we’ve bothered to make Paté Sucrée instead of shortcrust as we wanted a super crispy pastry with a buttery finish. We think it’s worth the ‘potch’ as they say in Wales and we have added masses of lemon juice and rind, plus vanilla seeds to counteract the sweetness of the syrup.    

Grease and flour a swiss roll tin 18cms x 28cms

Set oven on 170C, Gas mark 3    

Pastry

 90g butter or margarine 

60g soft brown sugar – we prefer the taste

10g vanilla sugar

3 free range organic egg yolks

200g plain flour + a little for rolling out

Grated zest ½ lemon

Cream the butter and the sugars in the processor. Slowly incorporate the egg yolks, and wiz the flour just until a soft ball of dough is formed. Flatten into a long rectangular shape, cover with cling film on both sides and chill for at least ½ hour.

Filling

300g golden syrup

150g desiccated coconut

100g homemade breadcrumbs made from a white loaf and processed

zest of 2 lemons+ juice of 1½

flaked coconut for topping as decoration

3 free-range- organic eggs

 

Roll out pastry and line tin pricking the mixture with a fork to prevent it rising. Line the tin with crumpled paper and baking beans. Bake for approximately 10 - 12 minutes or until it starts to look slightly gilded.

Remove the paper and beans. Mix the filling ingredients together and pour into the pastry case topping with a little flaked coconut for texture.

Place in the oven and bake for 30 minutes until gloriously golden and fragrant. Becomes sticky as it cools. And the inside is gorgeously gooey and sticky. Serve with masses of thick custard and lovely chats.

 

 

Then try our glorious Powerhouse Flapjacks – makes 24 delicious squares

 

These delicious flapjacks are made in an instant and will satisfy the hungriest child coming out from school or indeed a starving adult with a need for a healthier snack .With their toasted oat-rich contents and luscious nutty flavour, they will beat any so-called healthy granola bar. We found that these fabulous easy-to-make squares were brilliant fun to make with my grandchildren, as they are all mixed in one saucepan and have to be pressed or squidged into a lined tin and then sticky fingers licked. Enjoy.

Set the oven on 180C, Gas 4. Line a rectangle tin 29x19cms with baking parchment

Powerhouse Flapjacks – makes 24 delicious squares

 

350g jumbo or quick oats – not the ground variety

50g plain flour

175g luxury mixed dried fruit

70g pistachios

30g walnuts

150g light olive oil

160g golden syrup or honey

grated zest 1 orange

zest and juice ½ lemon

3 medium free range eggs

Pinch salt

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

200g glace cherries roughly chopped

55g desiccated coconut

 

Toast oats in a large roasting tin for 10 minutes or until slightly golden. Leave to cool slightly. Measure oil and golden syrup or honey in a large saucepan and heat slightly or until syrup or honey melts. Remove from heat. Leave to cool. Roughly chop nuts and cherries. Add to cooled pan with remaining ingredients and spread onto tin. Bake for 40 – 45 minutes or until slightly golden. Cut into 5 cm squares approximately when warm. Leave to cool before removing from the tin.               

 

Enjoy!!

 

 

              

Finally our

Sticky Toffee Honey Nectarine and Apple Pudding

is a true winner and keeps like a dream. Warm and delectable this recipe was originally created by Ruth to serve on the Jewish New Year as its original contained apples and honey. But for the sticky challenge she decided to add one nectarine and half a cooking apple for tartness plus extra gooey stem ginger and half a tablespoon of black molasses.

 And ooh what a combo – soo chuffed – please try it. It’s sweet, spicy and ultra sticky and the stickiness grows if it’s left! Ha            

Serves 8-10

 

225g plain flour

¾ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

½ teaspoon mixed spice

3 cardamom seeds ground and husks discarded

¼ teaspoon allspice

¼ teaspoon ground ginger

120g fair-trade dark muscovado sugar

120g margarine or butter

150ml honey or golden syrup

1 scant tablespoon black molasses or treacle

2 organic free-range eggs

4 tablespoons soya or whole milk

1 nectarine

½ cooking apple with skin

Juice and grated zest ½ lemon

100g dates stoned and finely chopped

2 pieces stem ginger finely sliced plus 1 tablespoon syrup for topping

 

Preheat the oven to 170C, gas mark 3 and line a 22cm round loose-bottomed cake tin with parchment paper.

Sift the flour with the bicarbonate of soda and mixed spice, ground ginger and allspice into a bowl. Melt the margarine /butter with the muscovado sugar, and honey or golden syrup and molasses in a pan. Set aside to cool.

Beat the eggs with the milk in a large mixing bowl. Grate the nectarine and apple and mix with the lemon juice and zest. Combine with the egg mixture and stir in the dates. Pour in the melted golden syrup/honey mixture and combine thoroughly. Quickly fold in the flour and spices and spoon into the prepared tin.

Bake in the oven for 1 hour or until the pudding is gloriously fragrant, golden brown and risen. It will feel firm on top. In a small dish combine 1 tablespoon golden syrup + 1 tablespoon syrup from a jar of stem ginger. Glaze the top of the warm pudding. It is rather gilding the lily but goodness it’s luscious.  

 Serve hot or cold with ice cream and enjoy

 

 

 

Please keep following for another lovely chat next week. Cheers folks.

                                   Veggischmooze Gets Barbecuing

 So it’s really hot at last and maybe your summer food seems a little bland and boring. We have the answer – a fabulous mildly spiced veganburger with a hint of coconut which is high in flavour, high in protein and will cook either in the oven or on the barbecue. It freezes well and can be eaten hot or cold. Make it early in the day when it’s still cool and those spicy flavours will sing. Serve in Yossi’s pitta recipe excuse us for repeating it but it will save you a little time scrolling back and it is the best. Then add the Wicked Chilli Sauce as accompaniment – you’ll be delighted, we promise.    

    

The Ultimate Vegan Burger with Kerala Spices

 Ruth says,’ This may seem like a huge number of ingredients but I’ve reduced the processes and the results are fabulous. I made them once as a tryout for the blog and they were so successful with the whole family that everyone was delighted when I had an excuse to make them again so soon. They are as filling as non-vegan burger and choc-full of magical foods such as sunflower seeds, oats and carrots. What a wonderful way to persuade the family to eat veggies.’

Make 12 generous burgers – probably serves 6 adults        

Grease two baking sheets with a little oil

Set oven on 190 C gas mark 5

150g TVP mince

600ml hot water

4 teaspoons Marigold bouillon soup powder

250g fresh carrots finely grated

150 g chopped onions – frozen are fab

2 tablespoons oil

1 tablespoon cumin seeds

1 tablespoon coriander seeds

1 tablespoon yellow mustard seeds

1 tablespoon black mustard seeds

1 tablespoon fenugreek seeds

1 tablespoon sweet paprika

1 tablespoon garam masala

¼ teaspoon turmeric

2 heaped teaspoons chopped chillies - approximately 1 medium heat  

1 heaped teaspoon crushed garlic – approximately 2 cloves

1 thumb of fresh ginger finely grated

2 tablespoons + 1 teaspoon authentic Modena Balsamic Vinegar – check as this is vegan    

1 tablespoon tomato puree

100g sunflower seeds

30g porridge oats

15g pumpkin seeds

200 g cooked rice

2 teaspoons salt

150 desiccated coconut

25 g fresh coriander finely chopped

25g fresh parsley finely chopped

 

Place the TVP in a large jug and top with the water and stock powder. Leave to stand and to swell. Finely grate the carrots and leave in a large bowl. Take the sunflower seeds, oats and pumpkin seeds and place on an oven tray and toast for ten minutes on approximately 150 C, gas mark 2 just to colour a little. Pour the oil into a large saucepan and add the whole spices – the cumin seeds, coriander seeds, yellow mustard seeds, black mustard seeds and fenugreek seeds and cook over a medium heat until they begin to pop. Add the onions, garlic, chopped chilli, and ginger and fry gently until the onions soften slightly and the fragrance is glorious. Add the garam masala, paprika and turmeric. Remove the seed/oat mixture from the oven and process until reasonably smooth with half the rice, the tomato puree, the balsamic vinegar and salt. Add this mixture to the grated carrot with the remaining rice, the coconut, chopped coriander and parsley and combine into a smooth mixture.

Form into large patties approximately 10cm in diameter and place on greased baking sheets. Bake for approximately 30 minutes until tops are firm and brown .Turn with a spatula and bake on the other side for approximately 10 minutes until golden.

 

Enjoy hot or cold – can be frozen and reheated in the oven or the microwave 

 

Seedy Pitta Bread

 This recipe is based on a lovely recipe given to us by Yossi who runs a falafel stall in Netanya, Israel. The locals visit every day and stop to buy his luscious falafel stuffed into his own extra fluffy pitta. We were thrilled when he offered to give us his recipe and chuffed he was being blogged. But we wanted to go even further and make these pitta even more special so we have added sesame and nigella seeds for extra flavour. We are so thrilled with the results and surely a decent flat bread recipe that suits vegans and carnivores alike has to be a bonus? 

Makes 25 – 30 

1 kilo plain flour

2 tablespoons dried yeast

700ml warm water

120ml oil

3 teaspoons salt

1 tablespoons sugar

100g sesame seeds

100g nigella seeds

 

Mix the sugar, 100gms flour, yeast and water in a small bowl and leave to prove in a warm place. When the mixture is frothy and bubbling, whisk in the oil. In a large bowl place the remaining flour, the seeds plus the salt then the yeast/ oil mixture and knead well until a satin-smooth dough is obtained. It is quite wet to begin so don’t panic. Leave to double in bulk in a warm place covered with an oiled piece of plastic wrap. When it has doubled in size remove and form into cricket ball sized dough lumps – or daintier if you prefer. Divide the dough into 25-30 balls. Roll them out to approximately 2 ½ cms thick and place on a floured board.           

 If you have a baking stone in your oven this is ideal as the hotter the oven the better. Heat the oven to maximum and lay 3 on the baking stone, taking great care.

Bake for approximately 5- 7 minutes or until the pitas are puffed and golden. Serve and enjoy.

 

 

                Wicked Homemade Chilli Sauce – You’ll Never Buy It Again!

 

Along with dozens of shop-bought sauces lie the lurid coloured chilli sauces. They can seem pleasant but often there’s a slight after-taste, maybe MSG within the mixtures, and there’s no doubt that many contain e numbers and chemicals. But I have the answer. At last you can make your own chilli sauce in minutes which is probably the best and easiest chilli sauce you have ever tasted and trust us it’s so worth doing. Use frozen ready chopped ginger, garlic, chilli and coriander for speed and ease.  

It’s the perfect accompaniment to a veggie burger or mix with a veggie stir-fry for a delicious tasty supper. Finally combine with a can of low-fat coconut milk for a luscious creamy sauce.

 Because of the vinegar content, this sauce will keep in the fridge for weeks. 

 Makes 400ml

.225ml rice or white wine vinegar

225ml water

170g Fair trade soft brown sugar

1 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons finely chopped frozen ginger

2½ teaspoons finely chopped frozen chilli

1 teaspoon finely chopped frozen garlic

1 tablespoon frozen chopped coriander

2 teaspoon brown sauce

5 teaspoons corn-flour slaked with a little water

 

 Place the ingredients, except the corn flour in a sauce-pan and simmer gently for five minutes. Remove from heat. Then slake the corn flour with a little water and stir so that it is a little like cream. Add to corn-flour mixture to the slightly cooled sauce and stir well. Return to the heat and keep stirring until the mixture becomes thick and syrupy. Taste and be proud!

 soo fab!      

 Enjoy folks, keep cool and enjoy this lovely weather – it won’t last forever.

 And thank you all for your wonderful continuous support. Please let us know when

 you enjoy our blog. We love your feedback.

     Love Ruth and Sarah xxxxxxxxxxxxx 

                                   Guardian Wrapped Challenge

 

Sarah and I were beside ourselves with joy when our luscious Gazelles Horns were published in the Guardian today.

 

They are adapted from a traditional Moroccan recipe and have an intriguing type of pastry which rolls out really thin and this crisp pastry is wrapped around a type of marzipan with a delicate hint of orange flower fragrance. They are exotically unusual and even more delicious served with hot mint tea for good friends who deserve a little more effort.      
Please try them xx
Cheers

Ruth and Sarah

 

                                       Gazelles’ Horns – Moroccan Pastries

These fabulous pastries are offered all over Morocco and after tasting one in a restaurant I had to make them. Malika my lovely Moroccan friend gave me clues but there were many blanks as the recipe was discussed with pursed fingers, tea glasses and pigeon French. Nevertheless it was a huge privilege to talk food and laugh.

 

Please note the one egg should be beaten and a tablespoon goes into the pastry and filling. Although not traditional you could glaze the pastries with the remaining egg.

 

Makes 26 Gazelles horns

Line 2 baking sheets.  Set oven on 180C, gas mark 4  

Pastry

250g flour

1 pinch salt

1 tablespoon icing sugar 

1 tablespoon free-range organic egg

25 ml melted butter or marg

1 tablespoon non flavoured oil

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Grated zest 1 orange

60ml water

 

Filling

250g ground almonds

125g icing sugar

30ml non-flavoured oil

1 tablespoon egg

25 ml melted butter or margarine

1¼ teaspoons orange flower water

¼ teaspoon almond extract

1 teaspoon vanilla extract 

  Icing sugar to dust when warm

 

Pastry

Beat the one egg in a glass. Sieve the flour, salt and icing sugar in a large bowl, then add the liquid ingredients work together until a soft pastry is obtained. Wrap in cling film and chill it while you make the filling.

 

Filling

Combine all the ingredients and make a soft fragrant dough. Work it for a minute to bring out the flavourings. Form into small sausage shapes approximately 5cms centimetres by 2 cms making a slight curve and tapering the ends as if they are horn-shaped. Take the chilled pasty and form into walnut-sized balls. Roll out each ball quite thinly and wet with a little water.  Lay the sausage shape on the front of the shape and wrap the remaining pastry around the filling curving it to fit the filling in a gazelle’s horn. Cut around with a pastry cutter and place the finished horns on the baking sheets and bake for 25-30 minutes or until deliciously light brown. Serve warm or cold with mint tea or strong coffee.     

     

 Pearled Spelt Tabbouleh

Hi Lovely followers

Thank you for your ongoing support and here’s an easy luscious savoury dish that sits in the fridge and satisfies veggies and carnivores alike.        

 Sarah and I had a serious conflab on this one. We knew we had to make a savoury to keep our lovely followers happy. It had to be some thing substantial, summery and of course tasty but maybe vegan. Then her lovely little rescue Heinz dog, Luna came in from a walk and breathed wild garlic in her face and the inspiration arrived.

We had already decided to make a Pearled Spelt Tabbouleh dressing it with lemon juice and olive oil while it was warm. But after our chat we added a handful of finely chopped garlic leaves, fresh peas, plus the posh element of a bunch of asparagus chopped so that they mixed in beautifully plus the first fresh sprigs of freshly chopped mint and parsley from the garden. A grating of fine lemon zest with a handful of toasted nuts on the top to add crunch – (I always want to add walnut oil and walnuts but Sarah goes with mixed seeds and that’s no hardship) and our tabbouleh was complete. Totally sustainable, summery, substantial and fab veggie food.

If the seasons had been kinder we should have had our first broad beans by now but never mind we could use frozen to add another texture if wanted.

Hope you like the recipe we enjoyed the eating!!!

Love and hugs

Ruth  and Sarah

                                         Pearled Spelt Tabbouleh serves 4

125 g pearled spelt

Vegetable stock made with marigold bouillon 

150g fresh or frozen peas defrosted 

1 bunch fresh asparagus

Zest of a whole and juice ½ lemon

2 tablespoons olive oil

15 g fresh wild garlic leaves finely chopped

25 g fresh mint finely chopped

25 g fresh flat leaf parsley finely chopped

100g toasted seeds or walnuts

Freshly milled black pepper and salt

Variation

Add 10 black olives stoned and chopped

1 tablespoon capers finely chopped

  

The simple way is to use a microwave or pressure cooker for cooking the spelt. But obviously the pressure cooker is more sustainable. In both instances cover the spelt with double the stock. Cook for 1 hour until really tender. Some prefer their spelt to be firmer so then cook for 45 minutes. You may need to add a little more stock as it might dry out. So check after 30 minutes and stir to ensure the middle and sides are all cooked and there are no uncooked grains.

Leave to cool. While the spelt is cooking, break off the woody bases of the asparagus and save for soup etc and pop the delicate tops into a pan of boiling salted water. Have another bowl with iced water ready.

Chop all the herbs and leave on the side. After 3 minutes check the asparagus which should be ready at this time of the year. Drop into the bowl of iced water to preserve the colour and also the peas if using frozen.

When cool, remove the asparagus and peas, if frozen, from the iced water and when the spelt is cold combine with the lemon- juice and zest, olive oil, the chopped herbs with the spelt. Season well with freshly milled black pepper and salt and top with the seeds.

.Serve as a luscious lunch and enjoy.

The Bank Holiday End of May and the Summer Seems to have Forgotten to Arrive.

Hello lovely followers of our blog. Thank you first of all for your continued support. We are so thrilled to see that you are visiting us and some are trying our recipes. Please continue and let us know what you enjoyed. 

Well the summer was promised and the bright floaty summer clothes sit in the wardrobe waiting for their big moment, while we huddle into our comfy jumpers and boost the central heating. But we thought about the lovely things that still happen even though it is so chilly.

We live opposite a man-made lake and at this time of the year the geese are producing young ones – so we thought it would be lovely to celebrate that moment with their debut on our blog.

And also a photograph which pays homage to my husband and Sarah’s Dad – our patient gardener Merv, who plants and watches over his green fingered produce. In the first few years of our marriage he planted some tree peonies. Every time we moved he asked, in the conditions of the sale, whether he could take his plants with him and while others removed light fittings or curtains, we moved plants – his treasures. This year the tree peonies late of course, like all the plants in the garden, have emerged, like oriental paintings and blessed us with blooms the size of cauliflowers. Absolutely glorious.

And how about our food you ask – well it’s been veggie week and we have been honoured to have features about our veggie lifestyle in Lynn Albutt’s lovely page in the Western Mail Magazine, Abbie Whitewick’s superb feature about us – the Three Generations of Veggies,http://www.walesonline.co.uk/lifestyle/food-drink/three-generations-cardiff-family-vegetarian-4007512 the Jewish Chronicle who have published Ruth’s Vegetarian Friday Night feature – thank you Victoria Prever, and a wonderful chat with Louise on Radio Wales on making bagels for the folks in New York and enjoying a veggie lifestyle.

And so to our cooking.

We looked at Guardian Felicity Cloak’s challenge for Sugar on Top and although we didn’t win this time we felt we had two magnificent winners. Sorry it’s baking again. We promise after the holidays to create some veggie main meals. They are there but just need the photos. In the meantime these two recipes are stunners. Savoury next time we promise.                         

But how’s about a

                                               Margarita Drizzle Cake

This fabulous cake turned out soo moist and has a touch of naughtiness as well. You could up the Tequila and Grand Marnier for a very grown up dessert. But this is a lighter version and still delicious. Perfect served with lashings of custard or the rather posh fromage frais mixed with the seeds from a vanilla bean

.

And our other favourite idea that we’ve been dying to try was A Sugary Tear and Share Bread – a sweet yeast dough layered in slices with a little butter or margarine, grated lemon rind, mixed dried fruit, plus optional chopped dates soaked in orange juice and mixed spice  for extra moisture and pulls away like slices of fanciable Chelsea Bun             

   So here they are and we so hope we can tempt you to try them

Warmest wishes and huge veggie hugs

                                      Margarita Drizzle Cake

Serves 8 luscious sugary portions

175g self-raising flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

a pinch of salt

175g margarine or butter

175g fair-trade light brown muscovado sugar

10g vanilla sugar

zest of 1 orange 

3 large organic free-range eggs

For the icing

130g fair-trade granulated sugar

10ml tequila

10ml Cointreau

40ml lime juice + coarsely grated zest 

Pinch salt

Preheat the oven to 180°C/gas mark 4 and line a loaf tin 23cm x 7½ cms.

Using the all in method 

Sieve flour and baking powder into a bowl and add the salt. Then add the remaining ingredients and whisk to a smooth batter. Pour into the prepared tin and bake in the oven for about 45–50 minutes. To check it is cooked, insert a skewer – it should come out clean. Leave to cool in the tin.

To make the fantastic sugary Margarita drizzle topping, combine the sugar with the tequila, Cointreau, lime zest and juice and the salt. Using a skewer make holes in the top of the cake and pour over the drizzle topping.

Sensational, we are soo chuffed!!!

                                    A Sugary Tear and Share Bread

This is a little trouble – there’s the yeast dough to make and then the layers to roll, butter and shape but the result is soo extraordinary and so different from a standard fruit loaf that we felt it was well worth the effort.

As it was our first time to invent and test our own recipe. But we didn’t fill the tin fully, so the photographs show some extras that didn’t make it into the tin.

Next time we create this baby and there will be a next time, we would stuff the tin full.

OHH enjoy!! It’s like the best sugary buttery Chelsea bun you have ever tasted.  

Serves 8 hungry portions

For the rich yeast dough

150ml lukewarm milk

2 level teaspoons dried yeast

350g organic strong white bread flour

a pinch of salt

60g margarine or butter

60g caster sugar, plus 1 teaspoon

10g vanilla sugar

grated zest of 1⁄2 orange

grated zest of 1⁄2 lemon

2 organic free-range eggs

Filling

40g Demerara sugar

1 teaspoon mixed spice

30 butter or margarine

50g mixed dried fruit

For a shiny top, use one beaten egg yolk

Or a little extra Golden Syrup

Variations

Soak the dried fruit with the juice of ½ orange

Substitute mixed spice with cinnamon

Exchange the dried fruit for the equivalent in chopped dates or chopped stem ginger

Line a Line a loaf tin 23cm x 7½ cms

Heat oven to 200C, Gas mark 6 

Make up the yeast dough by heating the milk slightly until just gently warm. Add the yeast and a generously heaped tablespoon of flour. Whisk the mixture together and leave in a warm place for roughly 20 minutes until the mixture is bubbling. In the meantime, in a large bowl, sieve the flour with the sugar in case of lumps and rub in the butter or margarine. Beat the eggs and add with the zests to the yeast mixture. Work them well together and knead until you have a soft pliable dough – depending on the type of flour and the size of the eggs you may have to add another 50g of flour.

Leave to rise in a greased bowl covered with a cloth.

When the dough has doubled in size – this takes approximately 1 hour, remove from the bowl and roughly shape the mixture into a long rectangle. Divide the mixture firstly into half, then quarters, then eights, then sixteenths and roll each into its separate length so they are roughly the same size.

Melt the butter or margarine from the filling and brush the layers. Combine the Demerara sugar and the spice and sprinkle each layer generously. Now sprinkle with the dried fruit. Place each rectangle on top of each other like a long sandwich. Cut them in half down the middle of the sandwich and placed them, cut side down, into the lined tin.

Leave the tin in a warm place for the dough to double in size

Either brush with the little amount of butter/margarine that is left and sprinkle with remaining spiced sugar.

 Then when the bread comes out of the oven drizzle golden syrup over the warm layers. To make a shiny top. Ha Sugar on Sugar!!!

 

Or glaze with one beaten egg yolk for a shiny top and then sprinkle with more sugar and spice.

Freeze the remaining white for another time

.

Bake for approximately 30 minutes until the top is golden and crusty and the base well cooked    

           

Fabulous warm with more butter, a decent cuppa and lovely chats!

      

  And the Challenge is Crunch!

How is it possible to be thrilled and gutted all in one go? I was overjoyed to see my lovely invention – my Lemon Cloud Cake pictured in all its blueberry creamy Limoncelloness. But pipped at the post yet again. I feel like the bridesmaid.

But now I feel compelled to answer the challenge of Crunch – ha that is despite a fractured vertebra gained after fainting from a middle ear infection and summer-salting? Is that how you spell it? And landing on the Terrazzo floor! Agony!

At six am I was downstairs waiting for the papers; then sat in my dressing gown gazing at this week’s results. But I’m a positive person. So I have to try again and meet your challenge. And ‘crunch’ sweet or savoury. The mind whirrs doesn’t it?

So yesterday I made Home-made Potato Crisps with Salted, Sweet Smoked Pimenton and yes they were gorgeous but not crunchy enough! My grandchildren ate them, loved them and I went back to the drawing board.

Ahh now the sweet.

Firstly I looked at a crunchy Granola

Made it and yes it was crunchy but a subdued crunch. Not crunchy enough!

Back to the drawing board yet again.  I wanted to achieve that ultimate Crunch thing. And so I decided to devise a brand new biscuit for the competition and something to tempt . It had to be a totally original recipe. And perfect.

I made the mixture blending new and lovely spices and soft brown sugar into its softness. The gentle dough rolled into a walnut shape and I placed it on the paper. Placed the one test button into the oven and baked it - it smelt glorious and I loved the golden round shape. I waited as it cooled and it gradually became crisper and crisper. I called my husband and waited with baited breath as he bit into it.

‘Lovely flavour,’ he said, ‘very crunchy.’

I cracked it.

I believe, I hope I have created the best, absolute crunchiest biscuit with that extra spicy hit. I have always been fascinated by the Northern European use of cardamom and allspice and added a hint with a boost of my store of cinnamon and ginger from a Marrakech souk with a zest of orange rind to cut through the sweetness. A ginger nut with attitude!

Maybe, hopefully my luscious crunchy buttons will crack it for me at last?

                 Ruth’s Ginger, Spiced Buttons with Absolute Crunch

Makes 60 generous crunchy Buttons  

225g margarine or butter

320g fair trade soft brown sugar

20g vanilla sugar

440g plain flour

½ teaspoon baking powder

1 tablespoon mixed spice

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon allspice

3 green cardamom seeds de-husked and ground with a mortar and pestle

2 teaspoons ground ginger   

pinch salt

1 free range organic egg

zest of 1 orange

Variation

For grand occasions drizzle with a little melted chocolate and decorate with a pecan half as in the photograph. 

Either, sieve the flour together with the baking powder and the spices in a large bowl and leave to one side. Cream the margarine and the sugars together until light and fluffy then add the egg. Combine with the flour to make a very soft dough.

Or if you have a processor,

Wiz all the ingredients together, apart from the egg, to make sure the sugar is lump free. Add the egg and process until a smooth very soft mixture is obtained. Scoop out of the processor and leave to chill for one hour if possible.

Preheat the oven to 180C, gas mark 4 and line at least three tins with baking parchment. Roll mixture into walnut sized balls. Leave plenty of room for the biscuits to spread. Bake for approximately 20 - 25 minutes. Leave to cool on a wire rack.

Enjoy the Crunch when cooked with masses of hot coffee and laughter.  

 http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2013/apr/20/readers-recipe-swap-crunchy    
       

By the way folks

Ruth is speaking at the Jewish Museum on the 12^th May

-         her subject is a very precious cake tin and its hundred year history

-         we will also be serving the cake that was traditionally cooked in that tin plus we are making special biscuits in aid of Jewish Care

    

-         Also The Gefiltefest festival is Sunday May 19th and all the details are on the website, www.gefiltefest.org.

If you are in North London on either of those dates please support these events if possible

Thank you

                                 

  Netanya and Yossi’s Felafel in Pitta 

So we arrive in Israel to visit our lovely elderly relatives. It’s always a worry how they will look, after all they are both in their nineties – will the experience be traumatic? Will they be pleased to see us? Will they like our presents chosen in Wales and brought out of a land of leaden skies to the bright blue haze of an Israeli beach. And most of all how will we cope when it’s time to say goodbye – that absolute separation just days later? 

            Yes it was tough emotionally but we loved and laughed and enjoyed and hugged and made the connection of family with family and when we left yes, with tears it was good and we were glad we’d made the effort.

            But this year there was another huge bonus. We met Yossi who runs the tiny falafel bar in Shmuel Hanazif.

After a morning talking to my aunt we popped out for a falafel to the brightness of a sun-drenched bustling street. Shmuel Hanazif is a busy active hub of Netanya neighbourhood life. It houses a taxi service, one bookshop that specialises in Russian books and jigsaws even a cardboard Kremlin plus a couple of interesting fashion shops with large nightdresses swinging in the breeze. Just two doors away lies a tiny falafel bar surrounded by a few metal tables and chairs. Not elegant. No one would call Yossi’s falafel house glamorous. BUT it is always clean and busy with locals. They know what’s good. He makes you welcome with a crooked smile and gives one woman a falafel in her hand while she waits as she’s too starving to stand and just look. Yossi patiently listens to ‘hot sauce, no hot sauce but double salad – no onions –plenty of onions but no hummus,’ the varieties are endless and he smiles through it all.

And there’s more. Apart from the golden fragrant falafel balls, crisp and golden on the outside but tender and soft when tasted, it’s the magical envelope – the pitta that lovingly holds the ingredients. Yossi makes pitta bread pillow-soft and fluffy. We taste and taste again. We cannot believe the glorious texture. If that isn’t enough he shmears them with hummus and techina, a drop of hot sauce, then chopped onions, cabbage salad, grated pickled cucumber, tomato and cucumber salad. More and more flavours are jammed into these fluffy parcels. And to add to the already generous packed pittas laid out on an immaculate stand, are pickles of all types to add as you please and often purloined by hungry customers standing in queues.

Everything is washed down with ice cold drinks from a tiny fridge and well; it works.  

We watch as he scoops a bowl of mixture with a miniature ice cream type scoop plucking golf-ball sized golden balls which he plunges into hot oil. They drop and rise bubbling and golden and then he briskly shakes them into a metal bowl. They are then lovingly added to Yossi’s wonderful pitta with absolute pride.   

          

We are desperate to know and at last we ask,

‘How do you make them soo fluffy? How do you manage to get that soft texture?

  And joy of joys – he offers to give us the recipe for you to try!!!!!!!!!

What a thrill!

Yossi’s Magical Pitta

1 Kilo plain Flour

700ml warm water – the temperature of your hand

2 tablespoons of fast dried yeast

½ cup oil

3 teaspoons salt

1 tablespoon sugar

The process is more or less the same as any bread. The dough is all combined together in a mixer and it is quite wet. It is worked well and then left to prove until it really rises. Then beaten down and made into balls which have to rise again. These are then patted down and baked as hot as possible with heart from above and below – we are trying to crack that part of the process.

We can’t wait to have a go. Why not try it and let us know how you manage. Remember a wet dough makes a light bread. Good luck and thank you to Yossi. We love you x 

And when you are in Netanya visit Yossi’s falafel bar and taste that glorious blend of soft and crunchy spice and creamy – the perfect vegetarian Israeli meal created by Yossi with love and pride.