Today I was inspired to experiment in the kitchen again. In my ongoing quest to create high protein vegetarian dishes I made drop scones. (Some may call them pikelets, or even thick pancakes - where I come from they are drop scones.)
Basic recipe
1 cup skim milk ricotta
4 eggs
pinch salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/8 cup besan (chick pea flour)
1/8 cup soy flour
1/4 cup ground almonds
Whisk eggs and ricotta. Mix together with the dry ingredients.
Once I got to this stage I decided to make both savoury and sweet versions. To do this, I divided the mixture in half.
Savoury variation:
I added some grated cheese (with cumin) and some chilli powder.
Sweet variation:
Add 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract (never, never, never vanilla essence!)
1 packet splenda (artificial sweetener)
Melt some butter in a fairly hot pan. Drop spoonfulls of the mixture into the pan. Cook on one side until golden then turn and cook the other side.
Serve. The cheese ones are perfect by themselves. I topped a sweet one with no sugar added strawberry jam. Delicious.
The rest are in the fridge for later in the week!
Saturday 23 October 2010
Saturday 16 October 2010
Playing in the Kitchen
Today I decided to experiment to create a high protein vegetarian dish. I was inspired by the ending of an episode of Iron Chef America where one of the chefs created what she called Farro and Edamame Polpette. I searched for hours in vain for a similar recipe and finally had to resort to creating something myself, with a little guidance from Carluccio's Chef Guilio.
1/4 cup farro (spelt)
200 grams edamame (in their pods)
1 onion, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
olive oil
besan flour (chickpea flour)
1/2 egg, beaten (well, of course you have to beat the whole thing!)
salt and pepper to taste
sprig of rosemary, chopped (about 1/2 tbspn)
sprig of thyme, chopped (about 1/2 tbspn)
soy flour (for tossing)
Your favourite tomato pasta sauce
Grated parmesan
Heat some olive oil and cook the farro for about two minutes. Add 1 1/2 cups boiling water and simmer farro until cooked (about 30 minutes).
Boil some water and cook the edamame in their pods for about 2 minutes. Remove from the pods (and yes, you throw the pods away) and chop the edamame in a food processor.
Fry chopped onion, taking care not to brown it, then add the garlic and continue frying. Add rosemary and thyme.
Drain farro and mix in a bowl with chopped edamame and onion mixture. Season with salt and pepper. Add the egg and mix well, then add as much besan as you need to form a mixture that you can roll into about 8 small balls. You want the mixture to be firm but not too dry as it will fall apart. Toss the balls in soy flour.
Heat some more oil. Fry the polpette (okay, it's pretentious to use the Italian name, but I can't think what else to call them - balls, I guess), turning regularly, until brown and crisp on the outside.
Put balls in a baking dish, top with the tomato sauce and cover with grated parmesan. Bake for about 10-15 minutes in a moderate oven (180 degrees C, 350 degrees F for my American readers).
Enjoy.
1/4 cup farro (spelt)
200 grams edamame (in their pods)
1 onion, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
olive oil
besan flour (chickpea flour)
1/2 egg, beaten (well, of course you have to beat the whole thing!)
salt and pepper to taste
sprig of rosemary, chopped (about 1/2 tbspn)
sprig of thyme, chopped (about 1/2 tbspn)
soy flour (for tossing)
Your favourite tomato pasta sauce
Grated parmesan
Heat some olive oil and cook the farro for about two minutes. Add 1 1/2 cups boiling water and simmer farro until cooked (about 30 minutes).
Boil some water and cook the edamame in their pods for about 2 minutes. Remove from the pods (and yes, you throw the pods away) and chop the edamame in a food processor.
Fry chopped onion, taking care not to brown it, then add the garlic and continue frying. Add rosemary and thyme.
Drain farro and mix in a bowl with chopped edamame and onion mixture. Season with salt and pepper. Add the egg and mix well, then add as much besan as you need to form a mixture that you can roll into about 8 small balls. You want the mixture to be firm but not too dry as it will fall apart. Toss the balls in soy flour.
Heat some more oil. Fry the polpette (okay, it's pretentious to use the Italian name, but I can't think what else to call them - balls, I guess), turning regularly, until brown and crisp on the outside.
Put balls in a baking dish, top with the tomato sauce and cover with grated parmesan. Bake for about 10-15 minutes in a moderate oven (180 degrees C, 350 degrees F for my American readers).
Enjoy.
Saturday 9 October 2010
A hint of chocolate
Well this week saw my return to work after a break and I decided to bake some treats for my colleagues. I was only going to make a vanilla layer cake, but my boss put forward a pretty persuasive argument for some chocolate cake so my colleagues got both.
Chocolate Almond Cake
180g 70% chocolate
180g unsalted butter
Extra butter for greasing tin
200g ground almonds
8 eggs
1 tspn vanilla extract
215g caster sugar
60g cocoa powder
pinch of salt
Extra cocoa powder for decorating
Preheat oven to 150 degrees C. Line a 23 cm tin with greaseproof paper and grease with extra butter.
Break up chocolate and cut up butter. Place in a bowl over simmering water and melt them together. Cool.
Meanwhile beat together 2 whole eggs with 6 egg yolks and 200 g of the sugar until it thickens and is light. Fold in the cocoa powder and the ground almonds. Mix together with the melted chocolate/butter mixture and stir in vanilla extract (Don't use essence - it tastes yucky).
Beat 4 of the egg whites with pinch of salt to form stiff peaks. Fold in the remaining 15g sugar. Add a couple of spoonfuls of beaten egg white to chocolate mix and stir it in. Then fold in the rest of the egg whites gently keeping as much air in the mixture as possible.
Pour the mix into your prepared tin and bake in the preheated oven for 25 minutes.
Cool cake in tin, then turn out.
Dust with extra cocoa powder and maybe, if you want it a little sweeter, some icing sugar - you can make nice patterns on the top by putting strips of paper across the cake when you dust it.
Serve it plain, with cream or with some yummy vanilla icecream.
So there it is. A nice easy cake. Great for people with gluten intolerances, but not for those with nut allergies.
Sorry, I didn't think to take a photo until it had all disappeared!!
Chocolate Almond Cake
180g 70% chocolate
180g unsalted butter
Extra butter for greasing tin
200g ground almonds
8 eggs
1 tspn vanilla extract
215g caster sugar
60g cocoa powder
pinch of salt
Extra cocoa powder for decorating
Preheat oven to 150 degrees C. Line a 23 cm tin with greaseproof paper and grease with extra butter.
Break up chocolate and cut up butter. Place in a bowl over simmering water and melt them together. Cool.
Meanwhile beat together 2 whole eggs with 6 egg yolks and 200 g of the sugar until it thickens and is light. Fold in the cocoa powder and the ground almonds. Mix together with the melted chocolate/butter mixture and stir in vanilla extract (Don't use essence - it tastes yucky).
Beat 4 of the egg whites with pinch of salt to form stiff peaks. Fold in the remaining 15g sugar. Add a couple of spoonfuls of beaten egg white to chocolate mix and stir it in. Then fold in the rest of the egg whites gently keeping as much air in the mixture as possible.
Pour the mix into your prepared tin and bake in the preheated oven for 25 minutes.
Cool cake in tin, then turn out.
Dust with extra cocoa powder and maybe, if you want it a little sweeter, some icing sugar - you can make nice patterns on the top by putting strips of paper across the cake when you dust it.
Serve it plain, with cream or with some yummy vanilla icecream.
So there it is. A nice easy cake. Great for people with gluten intolerances, but not for those with nut allergies.
Sorry, I didn't think to take a photo until it had all disappeared!!
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