The start of BBQ season

 We started BBQ season just right with this super easy and tasty feast, I was inspired by some fabulous produce from the St.Lawrence Market of fresh plump favas and wild garlic ... truly one of the best things I've eaten in a while!

It's also the first time I do chicken hearts on the grill, and I must say I'll never go back to cooking them any other way. This method was recommended to me by a friend and it's just DELICIOUS!

Enjoy!

Grilled Fava Beans

Detailed recipe here

Toss the fava beans in their skins with olive oil and salt.

Heat your grill to a medium heat and grill the beans, flipping once to char both sides. The objective is to maintain a medium heat and allow the beans to steam inside the shell, they should be tender and easy to pop out of their skins.  Squeeze with lemon and enjoy!

Chicken hearts shishkebob

Chicken hearts

Worstershire sauce

Salt

Olive oil

Toss, and marinade briefly. Skewer on presoaked wooden skewers of metal skewers and grill until done.


Wild Garlic

Brush with oil and season with salt

Grill until soft. Remove the garlic from the grill and add to a bowl, seal with plastic wrap. You need to let these steam to tenderize.
Before eating remove the outer layers and eat the soft insides, season with more salt if needed.


Grilled Artichokes:

Follow the instructions here and enjoy!

Throw a couple of lemon halves on the grill too, they're perfect for squeezing over this feast

Leg of lamb: Super easy boneless leg of lamb, preseasoned from New Zealand spring lamb and simply grilled on medium (350 F) on the BBQ for about 35 minutes.

Feels like Summer :D

Watermelon Juice!
Love, love, love it! It's all the rage but I've been making it for the last couple of summers. Super easy

Blitz a bunch of watermelon flesh in a blender.
Run the juice through a sieve to strain out the lumps and crushed seed
Pour in glasses, and enjoy!
Add a splash of lemon or lime if you want or turn in into a mojito ;)

Mango salsa! I just adore mangoes, they've been some of my favourite fruit since my early days growing up in Pakistan.
They've consistently maintained their delicious taste even when other fruits have become tasteless these days *sad*

Easy mango Salsa, perfect to accompany some chicken or beef tacos!

2-3 mangoes, peeled and flesh cubed

juice of 1 lime

1/2 red onion, finely diced

A big sprig of cilantro, chopped

Salt 

It's that easy!
Add some strawberry in for a variation.

A delicious trick for Lasagna is to throw on some blue cheese, I used Blue Haze here from Country Cheese Company and the tang really balances out that richness from all the cheese and sauce, just what I've been looking for!  Inside this lasagna is a layer of oven roasted zucchini and eggplant between red meat sauce and creamy white sauce with layers of smoked fontina. So good!

Roasted vegetables:

 (chop zucchini and eggplant in medium sized cubes, toss with salt, let it sit for about 30 minutes, squeeze out excess liquid, drizzle with EVOO from Olive That! and bake on 400 until nice and roasted)

Cilantro Dressing:

This is perfect on ANYTHING

Lots of fresh cilantro

Lemon Juice

EVOO

Salt
Fresh garlic

Blitz! And enjoy on warm boiled or roasted potatoes or for a "Fancier" option, fish!
A couple of drops of Styrian Gold Pumpkin Seed Oil. MMMM... 

.. and last but not least, the humble Celery, I forget how perfect (and healthy) a snack if can be.

Dip in some Lebneh turned into a quick little sauce with the addition of lemon juice and fresh garlic, sprinkled with Aleppo peppers, healthy and delicious!

Moroccan inspired Haddock bowl!

Today I'm sharing a recipe that is super easy and elegant, it's perfect for summertime or Autumn!

.. it's basically just my lunch when I'm inspired to whip something quick and healthy...

As always I'll be using my favourite Highliner Flame Savours which are already pre-seasoned and just go directly from freezer to oven for 20 minutes on 400 F.  I use these so often that you may be wondering if Highliner is paying me to do these posts but the truth is they're not and I simply adore these!

Who would't love how easy, convenient and healthy without the hassle of thawing fish in the sink, seasoning and cooking.

I've highlighted key instructions that need to be prepared first with a (*) beside it so everything can run smoothly.

The elements of this dish are a saffron couscous with a lentil and vegetable medley and then the fish. Really super easy!

*Lentils: Use canned but I prefer to use dry.
1/4 cup lentils, washed and boiled in a saucepan in lots of water. Season water with salt and simmer until tender.  Drain and set aside.


For the vegetable medley: 

*1 zucchini, diced and salted in a colander for about 15 minutes, squeeze the excess liquid out with hands and rinse under cool water then squeeze again. Set aside

Olive Oil

1/2 large red onion, diced
1/2 green bell pepper, diced

1 tomato diced
1 heaping tsp tomato pasta

Salt & black pepper

Turmeric

Paprika
2 tbsp water
1 tsp apple cider vinegar (or sherry vinegar)

Heat the olive oil and add the vegetables all at once, stir and add the spices then tomato pasta and fry it around a bit. Add water, vinegar and cover then simmer on low.  Half way through remove all the veggies to one side of the pan and add the lentils to keep them warm. Cover and wait for the fish to be ready for serving.


At this point you can bake your Highliner Flame Savours Haddock fish according to instructions! 

Meanwhile.... prepare the couscous! 

Couscous:
Ahead of time I prepare the couscous, 1/2 cup serves 2 people.

In a bowl add:

(The rule of thumb is to add equal parts couscous and water, never mind the instructions on the box that says add double the amount of water - it's simply too much!!)

*Presoak (even the night before if you wish but about 15 minutes is ideal if you're in a hurry, want to extract as much flavour as Saffron is an expensive ingredient)

1 tbsp warm water and a couple of threads of saffron

For the couscous

1/2 cup dry couscous

1 tsp olive oil

Salt 

Lemon zest

Mix all this up with a fork and then add 1/2 cup of hot boiling water, cover with a cling wrap and set aside for 5 minutes.

Drizzle the saffron water over the couscous once it's done and after fluffing with a fork, set aside.

Serve!
To serve layer the couscous on a plate and add lentils and the veggies over top then a piece of fish with a squeeze of lemon juice.
You could garnish with cilantro or add cilantro into the chopped medley if desired.

Enjoy!

April Fools!

Kitty litter cake!

So much fun to make and more fun to eat... pranking people with it is also rather amusing

The recipe I'm using today is inspired by the "Better than Sex Cake" recipe which is wildly famous (so it seems!) and it's quite tasty. Here's my spin on it.

Cake:  2 X the following recipe

Hershey's Black Magic Cake

(I baked this recipe twice and it yielded 2 long rectangular pans)

Ingredients:

1/2 cup oil  (I used butter flavoured EVOO From Olive That!) or grape seed oil 

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 eggs

1 cup buttermilk (Or mix yogurt with water to a nice thick liquid creamy consistency) 

1 cup strong black coffee OR 2 teaspoons powdered instant coffee plus 1 cup boiling water (or just plain boiling water) 

Dry ingredients:

1 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 cup Cocoa Powder 

2 cups sugar

1/3 cup sweetened condensed milk, warm slightly in the microwave for a couple of seconds so it's easy to pour. 

Directions

1. Heat oven to 350°F.  Lay a piece of parchment to fit the bottom of a 13x9x2-inch rectangular baking pan.

2. Stir together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder and salt in large bowl. Add eggs, buttermilk, coffee, oil and vanilla; beat on medium speed of mixer 2 minutes (Batter will be thin). Pour batter evenly into prepared pan.

3. Bake 35 to 40 minutes for rectangular pan or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes. Loosen cake from side of pan and remove from pans to wire racks. Cool completely.

For the second cake I removed from the oven and poked it all over with a skewer (not all the way through to the bottom) and then I poured some condensed milk (1/3 cup) by gently spooning some over the top and spreading it for the warm cake to absorb.

Set both cakes aside.

Salted Caramel Sauce: Recipe adapted slightly from Strawberry Chocolate Concoction 

Ingredients:

1 cup granulated sugar

3 tbsp unsalted butter, cut in three squares from the stick 

(should but firm - from the fridge is fine, but not melty)

2/3 cup heavy cream

1/4 tsp sea salt (fleur de sel is best)

You can use raw cane sugar, which is a light brown color, which is why my caramel is a bit darker than if you were to start with white sugar

Instructions

Heat sugar in a medium saucepan over medium heat, stirring occasionally with a rubber spatula.

Sugar will form clumps and eventually melt into a deep, golden-brown, amber-colored viscous liquid. At all times, be careful not to burn!

Once the sugar is all melted, immediately add the butter. The mixture will bubble, so do watch out. Stir until the butter has completely melted and is mixed well into the sugar.

Slowly pour in the heavy cream. Due to the reaction between the cold cream and hot sugar mixture, the final mixture will bubble vigorously. Allow the mixture to boil/bubble for 30 seconds. It will rise in the pan as it does so. Once again, watch that it's not burning!

Remove from heat and stir in salt.. Allow to cool.

Store in a tightly-capped jar in the fridge for up to two weeks.

Warm slightly before using again.

(You may have some leftover, which is ok) 

Whipping cream:

2 (500 ml) small cartons of heavy (35%) cream

3 heaping tbsp powder sugar

1 tbsp vanilla

(Whip all together in the blender or kitchen aid until it is fluffy but not too whipped, just softer peaks.)


Assembly

Prepare your food safe tub or container that resembles a kitty litter. Place a piece of parchment at the bottom and then set your first cake inside (the one without the sweetened condensed milk!)

Layer with half the whipped cream and drizzle caramel next.

The next layer of cake may have to be sliced horizontally into 2 layers if your container isn't a perfect square, otherwise there will be gaps as in my case where the tub got wider at the top and more narrow at the bottom.

I sliced the cake horizontally in a diagonal angle downwards from the middle and out to the side and was able to gently slide that piece over to cover the gap.  In the end it will look and taste delicious so no worries.


Another layer of whipped cream and more caramel.

At the very end and before serving sprinkle the entire top with toffee bits (skor?) and make sure no gaps are visible.  It will look exactly like kitty litter (more precisely the type I use which is corn litter by World's best cat litter)

Treat as a trifle and scoop pieces out.  It's absolutely delicious!

The Netherlands 2013