Food In My Home

Peppers are such a great vessel for stuffing with delicious things. I was introduced to giant cous cous over the summer, which isn't really like cous cous at all, it's more of a mini round pasta. Mix with herb oils, vegetables and cheese and you have a pretty yummy side dish to go along with your dinner! Serves 4 2 red peppers halved long ways, de seeded giant cous cous 1 aubergine, diced into small squares 1 sweet potato, peeled and diced into small squares small bunch basil and parsley 1 clove garlic, crushed olive oil feta/goats cheese or mozzarella Preheat the oven to 180˚C. Roast the aubergine and sweet potato cubes until golden and cooked through with some olive oil on a baking tray.  Cook the peppers too for about 15 minutes until soft but still holding their shape. Boil the giant cous cous to the pack instructions and then rinse in a sieve with cold water. For the herb oil, pick the leaves off the basil and parsley and pour over about 4 tbsps olive oil and add the garli

Don't be put off by the slightly grey, something you might find in a babies nappy, colour of this dip, it is really good I promise! Served along side some healthy pitta crisps and you have yourself a good little chip and dip for the party season. makes 2 dipping size bowls 100ml olive oil 1 onion, finely diced 2 garlic cloves, roughly chopped small 1 tbsp thyme leaves large pinch of chopped rosemary leaves 2 medium aubergines, finely diced 125g soft goats cheese, mild or cream cheese if you prefer salt and pepper pack of pitta breads olive oil handful fresh rosemary leaves, roughly chopped salt and pepper Heat the olive oil in a large sauté pan, add the onion, garlic, thyme and rosemary and sauté gently until soft. Add the aubergine, and cook for about 15 minutes until it is cooked through, stir regulary to stop it from catching and season. Allow to cool slightly before pureeing in a food processor with the goats cheese, check the seasoning and add more goats cheese to taste if nee

I made this salad lots over the summer, it is so fresh and colourful, I use that cute mini flower pasta most of the time because orzo can sometimes be hard to find. Great served along side a bbq. serves 4 250g Orzo 2 red peppers handful pine nuts toasted 2 oranges, segmented small bunch parsley roughly chopped olive oil 1 lemon zested salt and pepper Start by cutting your peppers in half and placing them on a foil covered tray, skin side up. Put them under the grill and cook until the skin becomes black all over. Transfer the peppers into a bowl and cover with cling film, this lets them steam a bit as they cool down. Put a pan of water on and when it's boiled cook the orzo to packet instructions, then drain and run cold water over it until it's totally cool, leave in the sieve until all the water has gone, then transfer into a mixing bowl. While the peppers are cooling segment your oranges and put in the bowl with the orzo, parsley and pine nuts. Once the peppers are cool peel

Puff pastry pizzas are the BEST, they are so easy to do and like most things involving puff pastry and cheese they are so delicious. Perfect to do for kids or as part of a lunch for your friends. Use whatever toppings you like... 1 pre rolled packet puff pastry 1/2 a jar of passata or tinned tomatoes pureed handful of basil leaves 1 big ball of mozzarella torn apart 4 slices prosciutto, ham, salami 1 fresh chilli sliced or pinch of dried chilli flakes Preheat you oven to 180˚C and score a crust line about 2 cm thick around the edge of your pastry, using a fork prick the middle gently all over. This stops the pastry from rising too much in the middle so it's easy to apply your toppings. Cook the pastry on its own in the oven for about 15-20 mins until it is slightly golden and the pastry is almost cooked. If you don't cook it enough now then the pastry will become very soggy in the middle, although lots of people love that! Take the pastry out and spread the passata over the bas

Oooh I just got sent photos from my last work trip to Ibiza and boy oh boy has it made me miss the summer! I am currently sitting in my flat wearing a hat, jumper and wrist warmers, after a morning of making winter soups for the freezer brrr. I went to Ibiza at the end of September to cook for the FIND Ibiza workshop for 20 wedding photographers from all over the world. We stayed in a beautiful villa and they spent all day taking photos with all kinds of crazy looking cameras and I cooked away in the kitchen and lay in the sun trying desperately to get the last bronzing of the year. Thank you to  Catherine Abegg for the great photos and Jonathan Canlas  for flying me out to cook for you guys!

This is a really really good cake recipe, it's from Ottolenghi like most of all my favourite recipes and its a perfect winter cake, you could always swap the apples for pears if you like. makes one cake or around 25-30 cupcakes 80g sultanas 4 tbsp water 280g flour ½  tsp ground cinnamon ¼  tsp salt ½  tsp baking powder 1  ¼  tsp bicarbonate of soda 120ml olive oil 160g caster sugar ½  vanilla pod 2 eggs lightly beaten 3 brambly apples, peeled, cored and cut into 1cm dice grated zest 1 lemon 2 egg whites Maple icing 100g unsalted butter at room temp 100g light muscavado sugar 85ml maple syrup 220g cream cheese room temp Prepare your cupcake trays and put cases inside them, or if your making it into a cake grease a springform cake tin and line the base and sides with baking parchment. Place the sultanas in 4 tbsp of water and simmer on a medium heat until all the water has been absorbed and then leave to cool. Preheat the oven to 170˚C. Sift together the flour, cinnamon, salt, baking

So normally I would say I am a very relaxed cook, not much goes wrong and I don't really do panicking, but on Saturday night I had a really clumsy day. I had some girls over for steak and a movie and while drinking wine and gossiping in the kitchen I had one of the most dangerous accidents so far, I chucked in my potatoes to the boiling hot pan of oil and it went mad and overflowed all over the cooker top, thankfully I turned the gas off and nothing caught fire but there was a dangerous amount of boiling hot oil all over the kitchen. And then while clearing up the oil around one of the gas burners I set fire to some kitchen roll. Anyway a few things dropped on the floor and glasses spilled later, we had awesome steak with the best shoestring fries. So just a warning when using a pan of hot oil compared to a controlled fryer, check the temperature and gently lower in the chips in small amounts and don't drink wine and talk about boys! 2 sirloin steaks 2 medium potatoes, peeled a