Category: Make Ahead

Wild Garlic (“leurda”) Pesto

This is a pesto that screams out that Spring is sprunging. It also packs a mighty punch of chlorphyll, vits and all things immune system boosting which is welcome relief after a long winter.

Its vibrant and warming with “Urda gnocchi”  excellent as a pasta sauce with young green beans and a personal fave…use as a sauce for grilled halloumi. But pungent it is – eat with those you love or those who love garlic!

In strange times it guarantees “social distancing” and aids social isolation greatly.

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Purple basil and sunflower seed pesto

Purple is the new green/ green is the new purple… something like that…

Ingredients

Pesto recipes are always “to taste” – use a little bit of what you have and work around how pungent the herbs are and what you have in the kitchen. Here is what I did with this really strong, sunny number:

  • 2 large bunches of purple basil, leaves carefully wiped with a damp cloth
  • 200g sunflower seeds (I often use sunflower seeds in pesto as a perfectly good healthy alternative to pine nuts and considerably cheaper)
  • 100g parmesan
  • 200ml extra virgin olive oil
  • 3 fat cloves of garlic
  • The zest of half a lemon pared

How To

Blend the ingredients all together in a blender into a thick paste. I like to still retain some texture – a little bit like “crunchy” peanut butter.

The uses for pesto are almost too numerous to list but start with the obvious: pasta and gnocchi and then think crusts on chicken and fish and then spread on crackers and fresh bread….

Raspberry & Redcurrant Streusel Bars

Favourite things …think shortbread , jam and streusel, able to be wrapped up as brown paper packages ..how could these not be stupendously great bakes? And they are.  Ive long been thinking how to make a crumble bar but crumble? too crumbly. The answer is streusel.

These are the way to use up left over jam – fillings are endless.  A few improvs and ideas: Apple chunks with salted caramel sauce, mincemeat (when mince pies become too much) , apricot and white chocolate, prune, plum and dark chocolate, marmalade and quince and my favourite apple chunks with blackberry jam.

These are pretty simple to make because the base is just pressed into the tin and streusel is well…lumpy crumble 😉

Ingredients for 1 x 13 x 9 inch baking tin (the aluminium one from IKEA)

Base

  • 130g butter
  • 80g sugar
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 125g wholemeal flour
  • 250g white flour

Filling

  • 2 jars of leftover jam; or
  • 1 jar of jam and 1 pack of fresh or frozen fruit

Streusel

  • 80g oats
  • 130g light brown sugar
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 1/4 cup (75g) white flour
  • 120g very cold and cubed butter (I freeze it then cube it)

Drizzle

for showing off – totally unecessary

The juice and a little zest (the rest add to the jam) of 1 lemon and enough icing sugar until the glaze fribbles off a spoon.  I didnt have an icing bag to hand so I used a plastic bag and snipped the corner off and froze the rest for another batch.

How To:

  • Preheat the oven to 160C. Line the bottom and sides of the baking tin with baking paper
  • Make the base: Stir the melted butter, sugar, vanilla,  together in a medium bowl. Add the flour and stir until everything is combined. Press the mixture evenly into the prepared baking pan. Prick with a fork which will prevent the base “bubbling”
  • Bake for 15 minutes – do not let the base brown.
  • Remove the crust from the oven, and turn the oven up to 180C
  • Spread the jam/ fruit over the warm base  (make sure the choice is not too watery)
  • Make the streusel as the base is baking:  Place the oats, brown sugar, cinnamon, and flour together in a medium bowl. Cut in the chilled butter with a knife.  I blend the butter with my hands into crumbs because Ive been doing this since childhood.  For streusel the crumbs should be slightly larger than the fine sand of crumble.
  • Sprinkle the streusel over the filling. Press down because these are bars and you want them to all hold together.
  • Bake for 20-25 minutes until just golden.
  • Zig zag the glaze over if you feel like it
  • Chill in the fridge or eat warm as a dessert.
  • Top Tip: Cut into squares while still warm.  They freeze perfectly