lunch pastries

I used to buy spinach pastries from a local bakery to have as my lunch, but then I found that too much salt was added and the poppy seeds were getting annoying as they always stuck in my teeth. I thought it would be simple enough to make them myself and regularly make them to take to work with me for lunch. Store-bought puff pastry makes it easy of course, and a roll of it provides enough pastry dough for four lunch pastries. They freeze well too, so I always make four at a time.

Unroll the puff pastry and cut into four pieces.

Decide on what you want to put inside: slice some cheese (I like cheddar or feta), some pesto (wild garlic is in bloom now, so here is my simple recipe for that!), and cherry tomatoes.

if including spinach (which I sometimes do if I happen to have it), be sure to steam it first in order to get out some of the water. In the past I have also whipped up an egg and divided it between the four pastries.

When the pastries are all folded and closed, I turn up the sides and gently slide the baking paper of pastries onto a cookie tray.

They bake in a preheated oven for about 15 minutes, till nicely browned and puffed. Please note, they do deflate a bit once they are cooled.

Sometimes I add too much cheese, or I have not properly closed the sides and the contents spill out. This is okay as once the pastries cool, any spillage (which is cooked) hardens and can just be cut and included with the pastry in the freezer container, to be re-heated later. These are always delicious and appreciated at lunch!

pizza dough

Well we are coming up to the year mark now, since coronavirus has become part of our lives! As usual, it seems, we are in the middle of a lockdown, yet there is at least not the panic at the grocery store that there was in the beginning. A year ago we just barely managed to get flour and yeast when we decided that we would make pizzas on Saturdays to cheer ourselves up. Nearly a year later there doesn't seem to be any problem with food supplies and the Saturday pizza tradition is firmly ensconced - we only gave it a short hiatus when we were busy with other foodie traditions (like at xmas and Chinese New Year). Happily, we have a brilliant child's cookbook with an easy, fool-proof and perfect bread dough recipe that I have made slight modifications to and use weekly for our base. I make my pizza dough on Fridays so it has plenty of time to rise and I have plenty of time to do other things on Saturday. Here are the ingredients: 4 oz coarse, brown or wholemeal flour; 12 oz flour (plain or self-raising); 1 tsp salt; 1 tsp brown sugar; 1 sachet yeast (2 tsp), 10 fl oz warm water (not too hot, not too cold), 1 oz butter. Mix all dry ingredients together in a large bowl. Rub in the butter.

Then add the water. It is very important that the temperature is not too hot or cold. I usually boil a kettle first and put some boiled water in my measuring cup which is already partly filled with cold water. I just dip in a finger to test the heat (so you never say "ow" but sometimes it's too cool - a bit like testing a bath).

Mix around with a wooden spoon at first, then use your hand.

Knead the dough. I do it directly in the bowl, sometimes adding a bit more flour if it seems too moist.

Knead for about 5 minutes until it looks happy!

I just pick up the ball of dough, add a bit of sunflower oil to the bottom of the bowl and use the dough ball to move it around so that there's some oil covering all the dough. I cover the bowl with a dish towel and don't go near it again till the next morning.

The dough has risen quite nicely overnight, and in the morning I reknead it. Usually it has gotten a bit dry or crusty on top, but with some kneading it will be back to a nice dough ball again. Then I leave it for the rest of the day, so it rises again. In preparing for dinner, the dough is divided into 4 

and each section rolled out separately. 

I prefer thin-crust pizza, so this recipe fits perfectly on 4 oiled, standard cookie trays. If a thicker pizza crust is preferred, obviously divide the dough only in 2 or 3 and don't roll out as much. In my house we like a tomato sauce base, and I have previously given that simple recipe here.

Year of the Ox

Kung Hei Fat Choy! I used to live near Chinatown in Toronto and always enjoyed the celebratory atmosphere in the darkness of winter, late Jan or early Feb. When we moved to Ireland we decided to appropriate the celebration of the lunar new year, certainly because evenings are still dark at this time of year, but also because we like having an excuse to celebrate with good food and learn something about another culture. We decorate the house, and adhere to certain rituals of cleaning and luck. I blogged here about the celebration we had with my Mum in 2016, before her death a few months later.

A number of years ago, I bought a Chinese cookbook and tried quite a few of the recipes. We always start our meal with a Phoenix Tail salad (a display of raw vegetables and egg slices arranged to resemble the extraordinary tail of this mythical bird) and sesame soy dip. I have given details of how to make this dip and arrange the salad on a previous blog, here. I also make Szechuan cucumbers annually to accompany this meal. I was delighted last year when I gave a jar of these pickles to my friend from Hong Kong and she reported back that they were both delicious and authentic! I blogged about them and give the recipe here.

Because the celebration this year was so close to Valentine's Day, we interspersed our Chinese decorations with red paper hearts. Click here for more information about the traditions surrounding the lunar new year.

We originally got this elaborate decoration in the Year of the Dog, some years back, when visiting family in Prague. We  were invited to dinner by friends whom we had met on previous visits. Our child loved the Chinese decoration (New Year was over) and was given it as a keepsake. We have kept it since, just making our own appropriate designs annually to cover up the dogs! In a previous blog I have shown a Year of the Pig cover up, but I also posted a picture of the full decoration.

This year, as well as having our fabulous Chinese New Year feast, we also logged on to China Spirit for a zoom celebration. China Spirit is located physically in Wallesley, UK, but we were made aware of the organisation when they were offering free tai ch'i classes by zoom during the spring 2020 lockdown. We have just found out that they received National Lottery Funding (UK) to offer free zoom classes again and those tai ch'i classes start next week. Hurray! Happy New Year!

preparing aubergine deliciously!

I seem to know a lot of people who don't like eggplant/aubergine/melanzane (your choice of word!) but I have always enjoyed this vegetable as a real treat. I have several specific recipes where it is the key ingredient - my recipe for Imam Bayildi is here - and I always try Melanzane alla Parmigiana when given the opportunity in a restaurant (like in Rome or an Italian restaurant in Barelona...) to see if my version is authentic (it is). But aubergines are fabulous also when they are simply prepared and fried or grilled and eaten with some crusty bread, olive oil, and some cheese. The first time I went to Rome, every morning for breakfast I enjoyed an omelette, sundried tomatoes, mozzarella cheese & a slice of melanzane all jammed and heated deliciously in a panini. As you might expect, this kept me fortified for intensive site-seeing for 5 days in this magnificent city!

To prepare the aubergines, top and tail, and then slice lenthways as if slicing a loaf of bread (I always prepare 2 at the same time). Place in layers in a collander, salting each layer before adding another layer. Leave to drain for at least 5 minutes.

Rinse well, and then pat dry, gently on a clean dish towel.

Put some flower on a plate and coat the aubergine on both sides.

Add coated aubergines to a hot, oiled pan. They will cook fairly quickly, which is obvious as they start to brown. They can be eaten hot or cold, or used as the basis for Melanzane alla Parmigiana (put in layers with a simple tomato sauce and cheeses - a method similar to a lasagne but there is no pasta in the dish). I think these would be lovely grilled on the bbq too, and must try this over the al fresco season!

easy peasy delicious bean patties

I had a hankering to make some simple bean burgers, but was told they tasted very similar to falafels, so I am calling them "patties". I tried to keep an eye on actual amounts, since I planned to write down this recipe for future use (if it worked, and it did produce something tasty - which it did!) but my measurements are always approximate. Here is a list of ingredients:

prepared kidney beans (equivalent to approx 1.5-2 drained cans), 2 tblsp olive oil, 1 onion, 1 egg, 1/3 tube of tomato paste (or 1 little tin if that is the way it is sold in your country), 125 g bread crumbs, 100 g oats, 2 tsp mixed spices (I happened to have this Smoky Brae rub of mixed spices that included cumin, dried garlic, chilli flakes, and other things, but you may just prefer to add a clove of fresh garlic and some salt & pepper - to your own taste!)

I use dried kidney beans, so I soak them the night before and boil them up the next day. I have started adding a bay leaf to the pot as they are boiling. 

I whizzed the beans in a food processor with the oil (necessary to keep the processor working) then added everything together in a big bowl

and mixed it up thoroughly.

Form into patties, like you would burgers and place on oiled cookie sheets.

Bake at 190C about 15 mins, then flip and bake for another 15 mins. They are a bit dry on their own, but either treat as a burger (with toppings) or eat with sweet chilli sauce, mango chutney or raita (or anything you like) as you would a falafel. Very nutritious and delicious! They freeze just like any meat burger and are great on the bbq.

Summer bean salad!

It's Irish summer, which means -- maybe there'll be warm, dry days, maybe there'll be cold, wet days. In other words, not much change from weather any other season! As I write, it's cold, wet, grey and miserable. There was hail a couple of days ago. But last weekend was sunny, dry and quite warm, perfect for at least one bbq. I suspected it would be so, in advance, and started making my favourite summery bean salad. This is a simple recipe, though it has to be made in two stages, which means two days. It is perfect for making in anticipation of a bbq, but also works as a fresh veg accompaniment to any meal, or with pitta or crusty bread as a meal in itself.

Even though I say a two stage recipe, I really have to start the night before stage one as I prefer to use dried chick peas (garbanzo beans) and kidney beans, rather than canned. They need to be fully soaked and then boiled the next day. I always add some bay leaves when boiling; the flavour they add is subtle but the house sure smells nice while the beans are boiling!

The other stage one ingredients are an onion, red pepper, runner beans, vinegar, sunflower oil, sugar. Chop vegetables, and in a large bowl add 2 tlbsp vinegar, 4 tblsp oil, and 4-6 tblsp sugar. Cover and leave overnight, periodically stirring. I never have room in my fridge, but because I live in Ireland there are plenty of cool storage spaces. If you live in a country that has a hot summer, do be sure to refrigerate!

The next day drain and rinse well.

For the second stage dressing, which will stay in the salad, I go all out and use olive oil, balsamic vinegar, and brown sugar, but this is not necessary (so go ahead and continue to use sunflower oil, regular vinegar, white sugar). My version is just a little more special and decadent, but the original recipe I found did not use these ingredients.

Again, leave refrigerated overnight, stirring occasionally. Add salt and pepper to your taste. This is an incredibly fresh and tasty salad.

Delicious tomato pizza sauce!

In my family, we all love pizza! With the final exam and the ending of school for the summer, I decided it would be a great treat to have homemade pizzas for dinner.

 This fairly simple sauce for pizza is only time consuming in that you have to wait for it to cool before whizzing in the food processor. So what I do is make the sauce in the morning, go about my day and whizz it just before I put together the pizzas in the evening. Anything left over can be frozen. I made my own pizza dough once the sauce was made, but everyone has their own favourite dough recipe or convenient store-bought pizza bases to use, so I am just concentrating on the sauce here.

The ingredients: 4 cans peeled tomatoes; small onion, garlic, oregano (fresh or dried), bay leaves, tomato purée (I just use half this tube), black pepper, about 2 tbsp balsamic vinegar, and some oil for sautéeing onion and garlic before adding the rest of the ingredients. Cook it all up for about 20 mins to half an hour. Cool and remove the bay & oregano leaves before processing to make a smooth sauce. This amount made about 3 ice cream tub containers, which was plenty to cover four cookie trays of pizza! In fact, less than half the sauce was actually used, so I put the rest in the freezer for next time.

I use cookie trays and bake the pizza in the oven for about 20 mins at 180C, for thin crusted pizza. Everyone has their own favourite toppings, but I put the sauce down first and add the grated mozzarella last, over whatever toppings I want on my pizza as the mozzarella browns a bit, which I like. Delicious delish! If there is any leftover pizza, it also tastes great warmed up the next day.

First shinrinyoku of 2019!

Spring definitely seems to be here! Lately, I have seen so many beautiful trees in full bloom - magnolias, cherry blossom, apple blossom - and the days are getting brighter and longer. Sunday was a perfect day to go for some much-needed shinrinyoku, that is, forest bathing.

Not far from my home is the lovely village of Enniskerry, where one of my favourite outdoor places, Knocksink Woods, is located. It is a wood divided by the Glencullen River's quick flow. This reminds me of Taylor Creek in Toronto (where I grew up); it is the kind of "river" where the bottom can easily be seen and one can get to the other side by getting your feet a little wet or stepping on stones. Knocksink Woods does have several sturdy bridges though, so there is no problem exploring either bank without wet feet. And a game of Pooh Sticks is de rigeur for every bridge.

The sun was shining quite a bit. I didn't bring my sketchbook with me, but I love all the spindly trees.

And spindly branches and gnarly trees.

To my surprise the wild garlic ground cover in shady areas was coming up healthily! Though I didn't expect to see it, I had brought a collecting bag and picked enough leaves to make some wild garlic pesto to go with dinner. There were even flower buds; I will return next week (weather permitting) to do a bigger forage and make batches of pesto for the freezer too. I make wild garlic pesto every year and a full recipe with pictures can be found on a previous post, here.

More tree tangles!

On the glen path back to the road I loved seeing the trees tilt down the slope

with shadows undulating on the uneven ground of the hill.

Recipe: Imam Bayildi made easy!

Although traditionally this delicious Turkish recipe is complicated to prepare because the final appearance of the aubergines (eggplants) is striped, through scoring of the skin, I decided to adjust the recipe so that it was a one-pot dish. The adjusted recipe tastes just as wonderful as the complicated recipe, so the Imam (and anyone else who eats it) may still faint because it tastes so good! [NB: the translation for "Imam Bayildi" is "the Imam fainted".]

This is a vegetarian dish, which can be eaten as a full meal (with rice) or in smaller portions as a side or starter.

The ingredients: 2 med/large aubergines. 1 large onion (or 3 small onions as I have used), 3 tomatoes, 2-3 garlic cloves, 1/4 cup water, juice of 1/2 lemon, large handful of chopped parsley, large handful of chopped dillweed, pinch of salt (if desired), 2/3 cup olive oil, tsp sugar.

Use some of the olive oil to cover the bottom of lidded casserole dish Chop tomatoes and aubergines, slice onions and crush garlic; add to casserole dish. Then add chopped parsley, dill, sugar, salt (if using), lemon juice, water and the rest of the olive oil to the casserole.

Cover casserole and bake at 180C for about 40 minutes. Stir the casserole at least twice during this time. Serve with lemon slices and rice; I prefer wild rice with this treat of a dish. Some warm pitta or crusty bread is also nice to have with this dish as the juices are gorgeous.

You can see how large the casserole dish is from this photo before I turned on the oven.

I meant to take a picture of the cooked meal, but forgot! Or maybe I fainted...