Slow Cooked Butternut Squash and Chickpea Stew

The leaves on the trees are starting to display their wonderful autumn colours and so today I am featuring a Butternut Squash and Chickpea Stew which features equally beautiful autumn colours. We love butternut squash in our house. As well as tasting absolutely delicious, butternut squash contains high levels of vitamin C and is a really rich source of antioxidants. In this stew, I have combined the butternut squash with chickpeas for added protein and kidney beans for added fibre and iron.

Butternut squash in the UK is typically in season between September and January. There are lots of great things you can do with butternut squash, and slow cooking is one of them as the flavour deepens the longer that you cook it. This is a wonderful stew and is great for those autumn months when the weather outside is starting to get cold. It is also really easy to cook and can be left to cook all day without too much attention,so it makes a fab family meal to put on the dinner table.

I am linking this recipe up to Slow Cooker Sunday over at Mediocre Mum's blog.

I am linking this up to Slow Cooker Sunday over at Mediocre Mum's blog. I am also linking this recipe up to "Simple and in Season" created by Ren at Fabulicious Food and being hosted this month by 
Franglais Kitchen.

Finally, I am entering this into the "One Ingredient" linky - also being hosted by Franglais Kitchen

Butternut Squash and Chickpea Stew Print this Recipe Ingredients 2 tbsp Olive Oil 2 cloves Garlic, crushed 2 Onions, peeled and chopped into small pieces 1 red Pepper, peeled and chopped into small pieces 1 green Pepper, peeled and chopped into small pieces 2tsp Mild Chilli Powder 1tsp Paprika 1tsp Sea Salt flakes 1tsp Oregano 1tsp Cumin 1tsp Mustard Seeds 2tbsp Honey 800g Passata 1 x tin of Chickpeas - drained 1 x tin of Kidney Beans - drained 1 medium Butternut Squash - peeled and chopped into cubes Method Fry the onions and garlic in the olive oil over a medium heat for around five minutes or until they become transparent. Add the peppers, chilli powder, salt, oregano, cumin and mustard seeds to the pan. Stir well and cook for a further five minutes or until softened. Place the chickpeas, kidney beans, butternut squash, passata and honey in the slow cooker. Add the peppers, onions, herbs and spices to the slow cooker and stir well. Cook on low for 6-7 hours, or high for around 3-4 hours, stirring during the cooking time if possible. The dish is ready once the butternut squash cubes have softened. Serve immediately, or allow to cool and then freeze.

Strawberry Jam and Lemon Curd Tarts

A couple of Friday's ago saw the first Mum's social of the year at school - a bring and share supper. I had been all set to make a lemon drizzle cake to take on the evening, however, as I set out in my task at the last minute, I realised that I had failed at the first hurdle - I only had one egg left rather than the numerous eggs I needed for my lemon cake.

This presented another situation where I had to think on my feet and come up with something quickly. Rather than just going to the shops on the way and buying a cake, as any sane person might have done, I decided to embark upon a bakery project using the ingredients I already had. The kids were also keen to help and so I had to choose something that was easy for them to make too.

Opening the fridge and seeing some open jars of lemon curd and strawberry jam , I decided to make some lemon curd and strawberry jam tarts. The Tarts were really simple and quick to make, and they tasted delicious. I enjoyed the lemon curd ones the most!

These tarts could be made with many different flavours, including mincemeat! and even frozen for Christmas or another occasion.

Print this Recipe

Strawberry Jam and Lemon Curd Tarts Makes 24 mini tarts Ingredients Flour pinch of Salt Butter Caster Sugar 1 Egg 1tsp Vanilla Essence 3tbsp Ice Cold Water For the Filling: approx half a jar of Lemon Curd approx half a jar of Jam Method Preheat the oven to around 180 degrees or gas mark 4. Brush two shallow 12 holed pastry tins with oil. Sift the flour and salt into a bowl and rub in the butter using your fingertips until the butter and flour are well combined. Add the egg yolk, sugar, vanilla essence and iced water to the mixture.  Using a round edged knife, mix the ingredients to form a dough. Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and knead until smooth. Cover the dough in cling-film and refrigerate for 10 minutes. Remove the dough from the fridge and roll out to around a 3mm thickness. Using a fluted pastry cutter, cut circular shapes out of the dough and press them into the pastry tin circles. Lightly prick each circle 3 times. Bake for around 10 minutes, until the dough starts to turn golden Remove from the oven and place two teaspoons of jam or lemon curd into each tart case. I filled mine with half lemon curd and half jam, but feel free to make however many of each you would like. Return the pastry tins to the oven and cook the tarts for around 5 minutes, or until the filling has set. Remove from the oven once cooked and allow to cool before eating. Serve immediately or store in an airtight container.

How To Make Cheese Straws

Today I am publishing my first ever video log or "Vlog" as those in the know call it.

For my first Vlog, I am demonstrating how to make Cheese Straws. I bought a cheese straw at the bakery this week and after eating it, I wondered why I have never made them myself. Cheese Straws look really fancy and difficult to make, but actually, they couldn't be simper. They are made even more simple if you buy ready made puff pastry sheets from the supermarket. I buy ready-to-roll puff pastry quite often and then freeze it and defrost on the day I want to use it.

Cheese Straws are so quick and easy to make, and are great for an after school snack, or for making dinner a little more substantial. They are also great for whipping up if someone turn's up unexpectedly to visit and you want something impressive to give them. For Cheese Straws, it's best to use a cheese with some real flavour, or you could combine a few different flavoured cheeses. You could then also try adding herbs and spices to your cheese straws like mustard powder, paprika, parsley, basil. oregano, or even sun dried tomatoes.

Never one to miss out on the action, eldest decided that she wanted to help me make the Cheese Straws and so those are her hands in the video! I hope that you enjoy the video. I would love to hear what you think of my first Vlog!.

Here are the ingredients I used in my video

Ingredients:

1 sheet of Puff Pastry

1 beaten Egg

100-150g Cheddar Cheese

Handful of Coarse Salt

Handful of Mustard Seeds

Here is the finished product - delicious Cheese Straws, best enjoyed straight from the oven!. What do you add to your cheese straws? What is your favourite veggie snack to make in a hurry?

Morphy Richards Hand Blender Work Centre - Review

A while ago, I was lucky enough to receive a Morphy Richards Hand Blender Work Centre, as I previously blogged about. Over the last few weeks I have been busy testing out the new Hand Blender Work Centre. With 700 watts of motor behind it, this sleek aesthetically pleasing piece of equipment is a fantastic piece of machinery and looks great on the kitchen worktop!

I love making soup, especially as the autumn is now upon us. My previous blenders have taken a while to get the soup blended to the consistency I like it, but this blender works it's way through the soup and does the job quickly and easily. What is especially great though. is that as the hand blender leg is heat resistant, you can blend the soup over a heated pan whilst it's still cooking, rather than making a mess transferring it from a saucepan to a blender.

The work centre also includes an 800ml jug. My kids love their milkshakes - especially banana and strawberry, and so we have been enjoying making strawberry and banana milkshakes by blending the fruit with the milk and a little ice cream using the hand blender inside the jug. It's a great way of getting fruit into the kids and they have been requesting milkshakes and smoothies every day!

Additionally, the work centre also features stainless steel shredding, chopping and shredding blades. As a busy mum, anything that saves me time in the kitchen is always welcome, and so I have been using the work centre to chop my vegetables for cooking. This has been a lot easier and quicker than chopping them myself as all I have to too is feed them in and press the button. You can also make a great coleslaw using the shredding device. The Morphy Richards Work Centre is dishwasher safe, so it is really easy to clean as you just have to pop it into the dishwasher.

Altogether, I am very impressed with the Morphy Richards Hand Blender Work Centre  It has a wonderful design, looks fabulous, and saves time on lots of tasks - it really is an essential piece of kitchen equipment. One for the Christmas list perhaps!!

Thanks to Morphy Richards for sending me the Hand Blender Work Centre to review. To see the hand blender in action, feel free to watch the video below.

Disclosure: Hand Blender Work Centre offered in consideration of review

Messy Eggs with Onion and Pepper

Youngest is a big fan of scrambled eggs or "scrambly eggs" as she calls them. The other day she begged me for scrambly eggs all day for tea and I agreed to honour her request. As we got to tea time and I began to make her eggs, I suddenly realised that I had no milk and so I couldn't make her the eggs as she likes. Therefore, I had to improvise.

Instead of her usual scrambly eggs, I came up with a cross between scrambled eggs and an omlette. Hardly ground breaking or rocket science, but sometimes us Mum's have to think on our feet to get tea on the table asap and I always like to blog about everything I cook, no matter how mundane or revoluntionary it is. Grabbing what I had from the fridge, I decided to mix some veg and cheese with the eggs and see whether youngest would eat it. I knew that she would not eat an omelette like substance, so I had to keep her eggs scrambly.

The result, although not overly aesthetically appealing, was a resounding success - scrambly eggs, with veg and cheese, which youngest ate with some buttered toast. This is a great light lunch or tea, or a good breakfast too.

Here's what I did:

Ingredients
1 Egg, whisked
1 tbsp Cheese
1/4 of a red chopped Pepper
1/4 of an Onion - chopped
Butter for cooking

Method

1. Shallow fry the pepper and onion in some heated butter and allow to cook for around five minutes over a medium heat until the veg has begun to soften.
2. Add the whisked egg and cheese to the mix and stir until the egg has cooked thoroughly.
3. Serve immediately with some bread or toast and lashings of ketchup!

TONIGHT!! - A Night of Vegetarian Cookery for St Albans Food Festival

Stop Press!!

I have been told that there are two places left on a Vegetarian Cookery Course tonight, Thursday 4th October. An evening of vegetarian cookery is being organised in conjunction with The St Albans Food Festival.

It looks to be a great evening.

See Below For Details:

A Great Vegetarian Dinner Party! 

Thursday 4^th October, 7.30 pm – 9.30 pm (approx)

£20  (special offer as part of the St Albans Food & Drink Festival) – only 5 places available

Come and attend a friendly cookery demonstration by BBC Author Roselyne Masselin at La Cuisine Imaginaire. 

We will demonstrate exciting vegetarian dishes suitable for a Dinner Party with a difference! 

The evening will be a ‘watch and taste’ session where you will have the chance to use ingredients you may not have come across before, and taste the dishes at the end. A great social evening! 

Only five places available so book early to avoid disappointment! 

Click Here for more info or to book