Mexican Tortilla Lasagne with Roasted Salsa Verde

This is the best vegetarian lasagne you’ll ever make. High praise I know, there’s nothing like setting yourself up for a fall but I really believe it. Lasagnes are one of those meals that have been done to death, diluted and destroyed by frozen food manufacturers.

When we first opened the restaurant, one of the things that I promised myself is that we would never serve a vegetable lasagne as the vegetarian option. It is the fallback/default veggie option in many restaurants and I think it’s just lazy. Most of them are a frozen, watery, disgusting, flavourless disgrace. Enough ranting…. I also said we would never serve chips or Traditional Sunday Lunch, ha! That didn’t last very long, Sunday lunch was the best thing we ever did and chips are what the people want. It was a steep learning curve.

Chargrilled Vegetable “Sandwich” with Feta, Basil and Pine Nuts

I’ve been toying with the idea of making a sandwich without the bread for a while. Alli at Pease Pudding recreated a version of this that she had for lunch in a cafe.

She lives in New Zealand and every time I visit her blog it makes me want to visit New Zealand even more. The choice of food apart from everything else is inspiring. One of her latest posts is a breakfast she had in another cafe which was Baba Ghanoush topped with a Poached Egg (heaven), that is definitely next on my list. Maybe for brunch tomorrow, if I can wait that long…. 

Caribbean Chargrilled Sweetcorn

The sweetcorn plants that I walk past every morning with the dog are starting to show their sweet kernels, which means it must be nearly ready for harvesting.

This recipe could easily be adapted to suit a variety of different influences. I made it Caribbean because I have so many scotch bonnet chillis at the moment but I have also made a Thai version with birds-eye chilli, ginger, red curry paste and fresh coriander which is also fantastic.

You start by making a flavoured butter (or I used an olive oil spread) that you pack as much flavour into as possible. Then you remove the corn silk from inside the leaves, but keep the leaves on.

Smear the flavoured butter all over the sweetcorn kernels then cover them back up with the leaves. Heat up your griddle pan or barbecue to hot and cook for about 12 minutes rotating slightly, with tongs, every 3 minutes until all sides are cooked. The leaves with be blackened, you may need to open a window!

Caribbean Chargrilled Sweetcorn Recipe

Serves 2, vegan, gluten-free. Inspired by Como Water (Tiffany made a version using harissa paste which I will be trying out next time)

• 2 ears of sweetcorn, with leaves still attached
• about 3 tbsp olive oil spread (flora) or butter
• 1 or 2 spring onions, finely chopped
• 1 scotch bonnet chilli pepper, stemmed and finely chopped
• 1 or 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 1 tsp minced ginger
•  a small handful of fresh parsley, chopped (marjoram would be nice too, I couldn’t get any)
• 1 sprig fresh thyme leaves, stripped
• 1/4 tsp ground allspice
• a tiny pinch of ground cloves
• the juice of half a lime
• salt & black pepper

Remove the butter from the fridge to soften if using. Mix the olive oil spread (or butter) with the rest of the ingredients, except the corn and season with salt & pepper. Store, covered in the fridge until you are ready to use it.

Carefully peel back the leaves of the corn without removing them and pull off the corn silk (strands). Smear the flavoured spread all over the corn kernels and replace the leaves to cover the corn.

Heat your griddle pan or barbecue to hot and cook the corn in the leaves for about 3 minutes on each side, using tongs to turn them, 12 minutes in total.

Serve immediately sprinkled with a little more salt. 

I served mine with some of my homemade Scotch Bonnet Hot Pepper Sauce.

As I said before, adapt this recipe to suit your preferences or the style of meal you are planning. I would always start by adding spring onions, garlic, salt & pepper to the butter and then add…

Thai: minced ginger, chilli, red/green curry paste, fresh coriander, lime juice.

Mexican: cumin, oregano, fresh coriander, chipotle sauce, lime juice

Indian: garam masala (or curry paste), minced ginger, fresh coriander, chilli powder, lemon juice

Middle Eastern: cumin, coriander, cinnamon, fresh coriander, harissa paste, lemon juice

Cajun/Creole: paprika, cayenne, oregano, thyme, dried basil, white pepper, lemon juice

Italian: dried oregano, fresh basil, sundried tomatoes, dried chilli flakes

Greek: dried oregano, fresh mint, fresh thyme, crushed fennel seeds,cinnamon, black olives, lemon juice

Things That Made Me Smile Today……

Beautiful bright coloured gerberas……

And sunflowers reaching for the sky…..

Also, I have a new camera which I am very excited about. I will still be using my trusty point and shoot for when I’m walking the dog but I am using a “proper” SLR camera for my food pictures. Please bear with me as I have no idea what I’m doing and the instructions are in Spanish, which could take a while. 

I’m learning as I go and loving it, any advice?

Chargrilled Broccoli and Beans with Chilli, Garlic and Sweet Soy Rice Noodles

I know broccoli isn’t usually the most exciting of vegetables. I know it can be a bit bland and boring. Time to rethink that. With this treatment it transforms into a shining star.

Seriously, we can’t get enough of it. The Washer Up, my toughest critic, has claimed it his favourite thing. To quote “This is the best thing you’ve ever made”. You can’t argue with that can you?

My best friend Tara bought me the Ottolenghi cookbook for my birthday. I am steadily working my way through it and every recipe that I have tried has been a definite winner. It’s all about the flavour and colour which is the kind of food I love. It has a definite Middle Eastern theme, but not solely. There are recipes from all over the world.

What I noticed, while flicking through, was that a lot of the food is cooked on a griddle pan. It adds to the flavour and appearance of a dish, giving a certain smokiness and the attractive black stripes that make such a difference to the overall impression.

I didn’t own griddle pan. I do now. Get ready for chargrilled everything.

It is chargrilling the broccoli and then drenching it in a garlic & chilli infused olive oil that makes this dish so special. You can serve it on its own, as a side dish with anything, or make it the star on top of some sweet soy rice noodles. Either way it’s delicious. You need to try this. 

Chargrilled Broccoli & Beans with Garlic, Chilli & Sweet Soy Rice Noodles

serves 2 -3, vegan, gluten-free. Adapted from Ottolenghi The Cookbook

• 1 large head broccoli
• a handful of french beans
• 3 tbsp olive oil
• 75 ml olive oil
• 3 or 4 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
• 2 mild red chillies, thinly sliced (or 1 hot red chilli)
• sea salt & black pepper
• 250 gr fat (XL) rice noodles (or any noodles)
• 2 tbsp kecap manis (Indonesian sweet soy sauce) or use soy sauce plus 1 tsp honey
• 1 tsp sesame oil
• 1 tbsp oyster sauce (vegetarian)
• 1 tbsp lemon/lime juice
• a handful of fresh coriander, chopped
• a handful of cashew nuts or flaked almonds, toasted

Separate the broccoli into florets with small stems still attached. Trim off  the stalk ends of the beans. Cook the broccoli in boiling salted water for exactly 2 minutes (no more). Then quickly transfer it, with a slotted spoon, to a large bowl of iced water, to stop the cooking. Now do the same with the beans.

Drain the broccoli & beans in a colander and then spread them out on a clean tea towel and leave to dry completely.

Cook the noodles according to the instructions on the packet, drain and rinse under the cold tap to stop them sticking together. Set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, toss the dried veg with 3 tbsp olive oil and season generously with salt & black pepper. Place a ridged griddle pan over a high heat and leave it for 5 minutes to heat up. Grill the veg in batches so it’s not too crowded. Leave them for a minute on one side then turn them over so they get nice char marks on all sides. Transfer to a heatproof bowl and continue to griddle the rest.

Meanwhile put the 75 ml olive oil in a small saucepan with the sliced garlic & chillies. Cook them over a medium heat until the garlic just starts to turn golden brown. Don’t let it burn. Remove from the heat and pour the hot oil over the bowl of hot broccoli & beans and toss together well. Check seasoning.

Heat up a wok, or large frying pan, over a medium high heat, add in the cooked noodles, kecap manis (or soy sauce & honey), sesame oil and oyster sauce. Heat through the noodles and then throw in the veg. Toss everything together well and serve in deep bowls.

Squeeze over some lemon/lime juice and sprinkle with the toasted nuts and chopped coriander.

You are going to love this. Broccoli has never tasted so good, honestly. If you don’t own a grill pan go out and buy one now.

It’s just a bit of a bitch to clean….. Apparently.

Things that made me smile today…..

Dragonflies…

Butterflies….

And bugs…

Hasta Luego!!