Chocolate and Walnut Brownies

Chocolate & walnut brownies

These brownies are deliciously moreish, and my go-to baked goods. I’ve tried many a brownie, and many a brownie recipe, over the years, but this one belongs to the lovely Nigella, and is far and away my favourite. These are not cake-y brownies (if you can even call cake-y brownies, brownies) and are not for the faint-hearted. These are dense, gooey and rich, with a crisp top and a moist, intense middle. The walnuts provide the perfect crunchy contrast to the soft brownie, and the nuttiness compliments the richness of the chocolate wonderfully. If you can stop yourself eating all of the mixture out of the bowl before it’s cooked, then these brownies are a quick and easy treat to whip up, and will never fail to please anyone who happens to pop one in their mouth.

Ingredients (makes 48 small brownies)

375g unsalted butter

375g good quality dark chocolate (70/80% cocoa)

6 large eggs

1tbsp vanilla extract

500g caster sugar

225g plain flour

1 tsp salt

300g chopped walnuts

Heat the oven to 180c. Line a large baking tray (33 x 23 x 5cm) with greaseproof paper, or foil which you then need to grease with butter or oil. In a large, heavy-bottomed pan, melt the butter and the chocolate on a low heat. Stir frequently to make sure it doesn’t burn. Once melted, take off the heat and leave to cool.

In a separate, large mixing bowl, beat the eggs, vanilla extract and the sugar together. Measure out the flour and salt, then add this to the egg and sugar mixture. Once cooled, add the chocolate and stir until everything is combined thoroughly and there are no lumps of flour of sugar. Finally, add the chopped walnuts and make sure they are evenly distributed throughout the mixture. Pour the mixture into the greased baking tray and pop into the oven for around 30 minutes.

Sometimes, and I don’t know why, these brownies take much longer to cook, so check on them after half an hour, and if they are still ridiculously gooey (yes there is such thing as a brownie being too gooey) then put them back in. If you are worried about the top of the brownies catching, you can lay a sheet of tin foil over the tray so they don’t burn.

Whilst the brownies cook, you could have a look at this man’s beardtastic blog, which is one of my new favourite things. It is a mad and fantastic idea – a man with a more than brilliant beard takes various items and puts them in his beard and photographs the effect, and then sometimes shakes his beard so they all come flying out, and captures this all on camera, in slow motion. It sounds silly and absurd, but don’t mock it till you’ve seen it – it’s hilarious and somewhat genius.

Brownies ready to eat!

Once half an hour is up, or your brownies are cooked, take them out of the oven. Leave them to cool for a bit, and then lift them out of the tray, and onto a cooling rack where you can slice then into (giant) portion sizes and then tuck in. Happy eating!

Black Olive Tapenade with Crostini

Black olive tapenade with crostini

This is more of a snack than a meal, but I made it the other day as a starter and loved it, so thought I’d just do a quick post about it so that all you lovely readers can make it too should you wish to do so. It can be served as a starter or nibbles at a dinner party, or simply as an afternoon snack when you are feeling peckish and want something other than your usual biscuit!

I know olive tapenade is very easy to get hold of in the supermarket, but the cheap stuff isn’t that nice, and it’s much nicer, and still very easy, to make it yourself. That way, you can choose the type of olive you want, and can decide how much lemon and anchovy you want to put in, as well as the texture of the tapenade. I don’t like mine to be too smooth, and making it at home means I can achieve a slightly coarser texture which I think makes it more interesting.

This is delicious served with crusty white bread, which you can either thinly slice and warm in the oven, so that you get homemade crostini, or just have as it is. If you don’t want to have it bread, tapenade is also delicious on little biscuits or crackers, take your pick!

Ingredients (makes enough for 4)

1 crusty, white baguette or baton

2 garlic cloves

5 anchovy fillets

3tbsp capers

Juice of 1 lemon

250g black pitted olives

3-4 tbsp virgin olive oil

Salt and pepper to season

Heat the grill in the oven to 180c. Finely slice the bread into thin rounds (about 1-2 cm thick). Lay the slices out flat in a large baking tray, and drizzle with a little bit of olive oil and a dusting of salt. Once the oven is hot, place these under the grill and leave for 3-5 minutes. They should become hard and crispy, but shouldn’t take on any colour.

Meanwhile, finely chop the anchovy fillets and garlic cloves. Place in a blender, then add the lemon juice and the capers. Blend until combined and smooth. Add the olives and olive oil and blend once more. How long you blend it for this time around depends on the texture you want to achieve. Finally, taste and season with salt and pepper.

Once the bread is ready, take it out of the oven and spread each piece with the tapenade, and you are ready to tuck in!

One more thing – I am aware I haven’t followed my normal rule of giving you something to do whilst the food cooks, but this is such a speedy recipe that really there was no need to, so you can just concentrate on eating and enjoying it!

Linguine with Mussels

Linguine with Mussels

This meal is a massive treat. Mussels are not something I cook with often as they are quite expensive, especially if you buy sustainably sourced ones (something I recommend doing for the sake of our sea beds!). However, for special occasions they are fab, and completely delicious. This recipe in particular is brilliant as the simple ingredients let the flavour of the mussels take centre stage, and the rich tomatoes and fresh coriander provide the perfect backdrop to the mussels’ salty, tasty goodness.

I think this dish is perfect on its own, but if you would like something alongside it, then I would recommend a green salad and some crusty white bread to mop up whatever is left of the pasta sauce once you’ve finished. And if you really want to go all out and treat yourself, this meal is even better washed down with a glass of crisp, cold white wine.

Ingredients (serves 2)

Extra virgin olive oil

2 cloves of garlic

1 red chilli

1 anchovy fillet

12 cherry tomatoes

250g linguine

1kg mussels

Handful of fresh coriander

Salt and pepper to season

First things first, you need to prepare the mussels. This takes a bit of time but is well worth it as it means the mussels will be clean and safe to eat by the time you are finished with them. Firstly, discard any mussels that are damaged (broken shells, cracked). If any of them are open, tap them firmly against a hard counter or the side of the sink to see if they close. Discard those that do not close, as this means they are dead and not safe to eat. Take the remaining mussels and scrub them to remove any mud or barnacles from the exterior of the shells. The mussels will have a seaweed-like string attached to them, pull this firmly and it should come away from the inside of the mussel. Discard these ‘beards’. If you’re worried about these preparation techniques, have a watch of this video from BBC Good Food, to make sure you are doing it properly, and that your mussels are safe to eat once prepared.

Prepared mussels

Finely chop the garlic, anchovy fillet and chilli. I prefer a spicier dish so keep the chilli seeds, but if you want something more mild you can discard them and just use the external flesh of the chilli. Heat 3tbsp of extra virgin olive oil in a large pan, and then add the chilli, anchovy and garlic once hot. Fry on a low heat for a couple of minutes, so the anchovy dissolves a bit, but the garlic doesn’t take on too much colour.

Whilst this fries, put a pan of salted water onto boil for the linguine. Slice the cherry tomatoes in half and add them to the pan with the chilli, garlic and anchovy. Stir them around, and squash them down with a spoon so they give off all their delicious juice and seeds. Leave this to cook on a low heat, allowing the tomatoes to break down and form the base of your delicious sauce!

Whilst the sauce cooks, and the pasta water comes up to the boil, you could have a quick read of this article from the Guardian. It is a series of brief interviews with famous chefs and foodies about what their guilty pleasures are when it comes to eating. Given how much time these chefs spend cooking up wondrous delicacies to please our palates, it’s always interesting to hear what they like to eat in their downtime when they feel in need of some comforting, guilty pleasures! The bacon frazzles on curried instant noodles are a particularly interesting-sounding combination!

Once the pasta water is boiling, add the linguine. Cook for 2 minutes less than the packet recommends, as the pasta will do the remainder of its cooking later on in the pan with the mussels and sauce. Once the pasta has 3/4 minutes to go, add the mussels to the pan with the sauce – stir them around and give the pan a good shake to make sure everything combines and the mussels are covered by the sauce. Put a lid on the pan and leave to cook for a few minutes. During this time, the mussels should open up so you can see their delicious insides – make sure to throw away any that do not open.

Once the linguine is a couple of minutes off being ready, drain most of the water from the pan, and then add the linguine and the remaining cooking water to the pan of mussels and sauce. Mix everything together, put the lid on and leave to cook for a further 2 minutes.

Whilst this cooks, chop the coriander. Once the mussels are all open, and the linguine is cooked, season the sauce with salt and pepper. Then dish up the pasta, sauce and mussels and top with the fresh coriander. Happy eating!

Roasted Vegetables with Harissa Couscous and Halloumi

The finished article!

This meal is such a treat, as it is the most fantastic and delicious combination of (many) flavours. There are hints of Spanish, Italian, North African and Greek food thrown in here, which is a giveaway sign that I made the recipe up as they are four cuisines of which I am rather fond, and which work together very well. And besides, the more the better.

This is another meal where you can vary it to suit your own tastes, particularly with the vegetables that you choose to roast. On this occasion, I roasted peppers and courgettes, but equally tasty are aubergines and cherry tomatoes. This is quite a bitty meal to make, as there are lots of different elements, but if you get your timing and planning right then it shouldn’t take too long, and won’t create horrendous amounts of washing up!

Ingredients (serves 2)

Vegetable/sunflower oil

1 large red pepper

1 large courgette

4 cloves garlic

Sweet paprika

175g couscous

125g halloumi

1 tin chickpeas

Handful of dried apricots

Handful of fresh coriander

1tsp dijon mustard

2tsp white wine vinegar

5 tbsp virgin olive oil

1 tbsp harissa paste (or more if you can take the heat!)

Salt and pepper to season

Heat the oven to 190c. Chop the pepper and courgette into small chunks, and place in a roasting tray. Squash the cloves of garlic with the flat of a knife blade, and then put these in too. Drizzle over some sunflower or vegetable oil, dust with sweet paprika, salt and pepper and put in the oven for 30 minutes.

Whilst the vegetables cook, finely chop the apricots and the coriander. Leaving aside a small handful of the coriander, place the rest, and the apricots, in a large serving dish or bowl. Drain the chickpeas and add these to the bowl too.

Next, make your dressing. Put the vinegar and the mustard in a jam jar (or mug or bowl) and mix together until combined. (My preference for a jam jar stems from the fact that once all the ingredients are in, you can screw the lid on and give the dressing a really good shake, which is the best way to properly combine all the ingredients, and leads to a lovely, thick dressing.) Add the olive oil, and a dash of salt and pepper and stir thoroughly. Taste to make sure it is not too vinegar-y (I for one like a very sharp dressing but I know that some don’t!), and then stir through the harissa paste. Again, if you can handle the heat, add some more harissa, or leave it as it is if you prefer a more mild dressing.

Weigh out the couscous into a heatproof bowl, and boil the kettle. Once boiled, add 300ml of water to the bowl of couscous, and cover with a tea-towel. Leave the couscous for a couple of minutes, then stir through with a fork to make sure you break up any lumps that have formed. Once all the water is absorbed, and the couscous is soft, add it to the serving dish, with the chickpeas, coriander and apricots.

Last job! Slice the halloumi to about 1cm thick, and heat up a frying pan. Once hot, place the slices of halloumi in the pan and leave to cook for 2-3 minutes. Give them a gentle prod every so often to ensure they don’t stick to your pan. Once pale brown and speckled, flip the slices over and repeat the process. Once it’s cooked, put the halloumi to one side.

By now your veggies should be almost done, but in case you have a few minutes to spare, have a look at this amazing earth wind map. Now before you presume that I am a weather geek (which I suppose I somewhat am) click on the link. It is a fascinating, real-time animated map of wind conditions all around the globe. Given how insanely windy it is right now in England, it makes for a pretty interesting picture. And even if you don’t care about the weather, or are jammy and sunning yourself on a beach somewhere/going helter skelter down a mountain, it is also just a very peaceful and beautiful graphic to look at and explore.

Once your veg is roasted, take it out of the oven and put it in the serving dish with all your other components. Pour the dressing over the top and mix everything together. Scatter the remaining chopped coriander over the couscous, and place the halloumi slices on top, and then you’re ready to tuck in. Happy eating!

Halloumi on top of the couscous!

Baked Rice with Chickpeas, Apricots and Raisins

Baked rice with chickpeas, raisins and apricots

This a wonderfully easy, warming and comforting one-pot meal that is perfect for whipping up on a cold, wet evening. It is surprisingly simple given how flavoursome it is, largely due to the contrast and combination of the sweet paprika, juicy apricots and raisins, and roasted garlic. The centrepiece of the dish is the whole garlic head placed in the middle of the rice, which the Valencians term the ‘Partridge’, something I rather quite like. I travelled around Spain last summer for a month, and this recipe is a lovely reminder of that trip, and the delicious food I ate whilst I was travelling. During the trip, I noticed time and again the influence the Moors had on Spanish cuisine – and what an influence it is when it means there are recipes like this to make for your dinner!

Ingredients (serves 4)

2 1/2 tbsp vegetable or sunflower oil

1 head of garlic

75g raisins

75g dried apricots, chopped

1 tin chickpeas

1 large tomato, chopped

1 tsp sweet paprika

600ml vegetable stock

350g Spanish paella rice

Salt and pepper to season

Heat the oven to 200c. Heat the oil in a large, heavy-based and oven-proof pan. Wash the garlic head, and leaving its skin on, place in the pan whole and leave to fry for 2-3 minutes. Finely chop the tomato and add to the pan followed by the paprika. Leave aside a small handful of raisins and chopped apricots, and put the rest in the pan. Leave to fry for a further 2 minutes. Drain the chickpeas and then add them to the pan, followed by the stock and some salt and pepper. Bring this mixture to the boil and then add in the rice. Scatter the remaining apricots and raisins on top, and prod your garlic head around until it is sitting roughly in the middle of the pan.

Take the pan off the hob and place it in the oven for half an hour. Don’t panic – this method won’t ruin your pan. It is a wonderful way to achieve a chewy, crisp crust of rice, raisins, chickpeas and apricots on top of the gooey, risotto-like base. A bit like an upside down Paella I suppose!

Whilst the rice bakes, you could watch this fantastic TED talk given by Jackson Katz – violence against women – it’s a men’s issue. Katz is an author and film-maker who campaigns against sexism and gender violence, and in this video discusses how violence against women is in fact a men’s issue, because of the ways in which this violence is tied to our current definitions of manhood and masculinity. This video is a brilliant wakeup call to the fact that if we want sexism to disappear, and gender equality to skyrocket, we have to address, and change, the way we socialise boys and men in our society.

Once half an hour is up, there should be a good crust on your baked rice, and all the liquid should have been absorbed. Serve the rice with a couple of garlic cloves per person. Make sure to squeeze the soft, roasted garlic out from each clove and mix it through the rice – the baked garlic, seeped in stock and paprika, is divine! Happy eating fellow foodies.