Potato coleslaw

It’s all ‘red white and blue’ everywhere you look! Any one would think there was a celebration coming up…!

The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee is a pretty big deal, it’s not every day that comes around, plus we all get an extra days bank holiday! That said, I have been a little slow on the uptake and my patriotic baking creativity hasn’t really happened…but I may have a little something up my sleeve for Tuesday (the day of the Jubilee itself) but you’ll have to wait for it. Plus I will have another reason to celebrate on Tuesday…you’ll have to wait for that too.

In the mean time I thought I’d share some patriotic baking of another kind….these cakes were baked and decorated by the kids my mum looks after (she’s a childminder), I think the iced tops were supposed to resemble Union Jacks….not so much, but still pretty cute!

Yesterday's dinner time was a good opportunity to see what the garden had to offer. My mum wanted to dig up some of the potatoes she’d planted to see if they were ready. 

Um, that will be a no then....

I posted this photo via Instagram on twitter yesterday, so some of you may have seen it there.  I have recently joined Instagram, and the link to my profile is now added to the top of the page so please come and find me!

I had originally planned a potato salad with homemade mayonnaise, but due to the potatoes being less plentiful than hoped for, I made a potato coleslaw of sorts which was pretty good with great texture. I had no cabbage to hand so once i’d cooked the baby potatoes and coated them with the mayonnaise, I grated some raw carrot and courgette over the top and mixed it through.

A lovely simple side dish. This would be great served up with these burgers!

Whether you are celebrating or not, I hope you have a great weekend…I hope the Queen does too!

Recipe: Mayonnaise

Makes ¾ cup

Ingredients

½ raw cashews (or 1/3 cup cashew butter)

1 garlic clove

¼ cup soy milk (I imagine water would also suffice)

2 tbs apple cider vinegar

1/2tsp salt

Pinch ground cayenne or parika

2 tbs olive oil

Method

Grind the cashews along with the garlic to a paste (or use cashew butter). Add the remaining ingredients and blend again until smooth and creamy.

Stores in the fridge in a covered container for up to 3 days.

For potato coleslaw, coat boiled new potatoes with the mayonnaise and stir through raw grated carrot and courgette. Sprinkle with fresh herbs or seasonings if desired and serve immediately.

For tips and info on recipe measurement conversions, ingredients, substitutions and the methods behind how I do things.... check out my 'baking tips' tab at the top of the page.

Baked chocolate fudge custard tarts

I’ve been looking to make a healthy vegan ‘custard’ for some time. Ever since my egg nog experiment, where the warm and spicy flavours of vanilla and nutmeg enveloped me.

I was recently inspired by this recipe for a cashew custard by Quirky Cooking, it looked deliciously simple but since I was in a ‘tart baking mood’ at the time I decided to modify it a bit to create a thicker custard that would suit a tart or pie filling. I also added a little nutmeg for a warming spice kick. If you want a thinner custard suitable for pouring you could reduce the amount of cashews and chia a little and slightly increase the water (or simply follow this recipe).

I had fun playing around with tart case options.  Originally I wanted to go with a basic pastry shell and then pile the tart with fresh fruit berries, but as it happened I didn’t have any berries or suitable pretty fruit. So then I began thinking of ways to flavour the tart case in interesting ways.

Options…options!   Either gingerbread and chocolate initially sprang to mind. Since I also had planned to make some of my healthy chocolate fudge to snack on during the week I thought it would be a good opportunity to test it out as a baked crust!

So, the tarts in the photos have a baked chocolate fudge crust, but you could also use your own tart case recipe. Baking the chocolate fudge seems to work really well as a sweet ‘pastry substitute’. It was really easy since the dough itself is very soft and easy to mould so I flattened a ball of it in my hands and then pressed it into a tart case with my fingers, or you could roll the dough and use cutters.

Taste test for the sweetness of the custard as soon as it’s mixed before you spoon it into the cases and add extra agave or a little stevia as necessary. I used a sweet tart case so the custard itself didn’t  need to be overly sweet, if you were using a less sweet tart pastry style case then you may prefer a sweeter custard filling.

 

Recipe: Baked chocolate fudge custard tarts

Makes 1 medium bowl of thick custard

Ingredients- custard

100g raw cashews

400g water

2 tsp vanilla paste or powder (best quality)

½ tsp ground nutmeg

1 tbs ground chia

70g agave (plus a pinch of stevia is you require additional sweetness to taste)

30g cornflour

Method

To make the custard, grind the cashews to get a fine meal. Add all ingredients along with the cashews to medium pan and bring to the boil for 5 minutes stirring continuously.

Alternatively using a Thermomix, grind the cashews for 10 seconds speed 9 and then add all ingredients to the bowl. Cook the mixture at 90C speed 4 for 5 minutes.

Lightly grease the tart pans and line with you chosen tart case. Spoon the custard into the prepared tart cases (if using the chocolate fudge crust line the tart pans with a 3mm thick layer of raw fudge dough) and bake at 180C  for  approx.10 minutes until the tart tops are on the verge of going golden, keep a close eye so they don’t brown.

For tips and info on recipe measurement conversions, ingredients, substitutions and the methods behind how I do things.... check out my 'baking tips' tab at the top of the page.

Spiced coconut roast cashews

Three meals a day… not for me, I function best on the ‘little and often’ philosophy, always needing a good snack to hand. Often it’s a good old bowl of oats, or some veg sticks and hummous, or sometimes I just crave the sweet kick of these babies! However today I fancied a savoury snack, a few little nibbles to pick at, and what better than nuts. 

Not any old nuts, these are my coconut roasted spiced nuts… oh yeah! 

What- coconut?  Don’t worry, they don’t taste of coconut, this is simple the ‘oily’ medium I’ve used to help the spices stick to the cashews and as a bonus the coconut flesh in the butter  gives a delightful (haven’t said that word in a while!) crumbly powdery coating to the nuts. Coconut is a ‘superfood’ and so it’s a pretty healthy snack too! I’ve used coconut butter over coconut oil as it has more body and I also really wanted to achieve that slightly ‘powdery’ coating which you wouldn’t get to the same degree with regular oil containing no flesh. You can make your own coconut butter here.

So simple to make and endlessly variable, I made three flavours as I just couldn’t decide…..

Recipe: Spiced coconut roast cashews

Makes one smallish bowl.

Ingredients

100g plain cashews (organic if possible)

1tsp melted coconut butter

Spices to taste- see below

Option 1- ground sea salt and black pepper

Option 2- garlic puree or granules  and ground mixed Italian herbs

Option 3- Tabasco chipotle sauce (a few drops!), paprika and cayenne pepper

(as a rough guide use a total of 1 tsp of combined spices per 100g of cashews)

Method

Place all ingredients into a mixing bowl and swirl with a spoon or hands until well coated. Lay out on a parchment lined baking sheet and roast in the oven at 180C for approx. 8-10 mins until beginning to go golden. Keep a close eye on these and they have a tendency to go from ‘done’ to ‘overdone’ very quickly!