Cheese Biscuits (American Style)

Easy recipe that makes a really nice flaky American style cheese biscuit (kinda like a scone). Great with soup. Best served straight from the oven with a little butter on top.

Ingredients:

2 cups flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
5 tbsp butter (roughly 75grams)
1 cup milk
1 cup grated cheddar

Sift together flour, salt and baking powder.
To this add in the butter in cubes and combine until you get coarse cumbs.
Mix in the milk and cheese. Make sure you combine all the ingredients well but don't over mix the batter.
Drop heaped tablespoons of batter on to a greased baking sheet.

Bake for 15-20 minutes on 220C.
Makes 10-12 biscuits

Sausage, bean, and cabbage casserole

It may not sound exciting but this recipe is a firm favourite in our house. Searching for new recipes for sausages, my husband found this online. I've adapted it for our tastes. 

Ingredients: 

6 Lincolnshire sausages (or any other sausages you like really)
1 onion
1 can black beans
1 can butter beans
(you can use whatever beans you like. We just happen to like these)
Rosemary (fresh or dry) - 1 tbsp
Sour cream - 200g
Apple cider vinegar - 2-3tbsp
Whole grain mustard - 1tbsp
Water

Cut the onion in half, and then slice it into long thin strips. Fry these off until soft then put aside. 

Cut the sausages in half, and then in half again but this time length ways. You want to end up with four pieces from one sausage. Make sure that you leave the skin on as this helps to keep the pieces together as they cook. 

Using the same pan you cooked the onions in, place the pieces of sausage in skin side down. You want to cook them on a high heat until they are really crispy on all sides. The skin will shrink and crisp up, and make the sausage pieces curl over slightly. That's fine. 

It should end up looking like this: 

There might be quite a bit of fat from the sausages left when this is done. I would advise to drain some off. 

Add the onions back to the pan with the sausages. Then add in the two cans of beans (drained), the apple cider vinegar, the whole grain mustard, and the rosemary. Mix these all together and cook on a low heat for a few minutes. 

At this point I usually take the pan off the heat for a couple of minutes to allow it to cool before I add the sour cream. I've had it curdle before when I added cold cream to a hot pan. If your sour cream is at room temp then you should be fine to add while on a low heat. 

Once the sour cream is added, mix thoroughly, coating all the ingredients. At this point I usually add a little bit of water just to thin the cream a bit and help to coat everything. You will want to taste the sauce to see whether it needs more vinegar. I usually end up adding a little more vinegar, water and sour cream before the end to get the flavour and consistency just how I like it. I would suggest you do the same for your taste. 

Take your half cabbage and chop it finely. Place the cabbage on top of the mixture and put the lid on your pan for a few minutes. Once it's softened a little, mix it into the sausage casserole and replace the lid. Cook until the cabbage is to your preferred softness. I like mine to still be a little crunchy. 

Before you serve, taste the sauce again to make sure it's as you want it. Add more of whichever liquid it needs. 

Your casserole should end up looking like this: 

Enjoy!!

Hummus

A friend of mine is allergic to sesame seeds so doesn't eat hummus.  I came across these recipes recently and thought of her.  None of them have sesame in them!

Hummus

Ingredients

For the hummus...

300g freshly cooked chickpeas
3cm piece fresh ginger, peeled and grated
2 T (tablespoons) olive oil
1 small clove garlic
2 lemons (shave off five thin strips of peel, then juice, to get 3 T
Flaked sea salt

For the fried aromatics...

4 T olive oil
1 red chilli, deseeded and finely sliced
1 large clove of garlic, peeled an thinly sliced
2cm piece fresh ginger, peeled and julienned
1 cinnamon stick, lightly crushed
5g coriander stalks (cut into 4cm lengths, plus 2 T picked leaves

To make 300 g cooked chickpeas

1. Soak 125g dried chickpeas in plenty of cold water and half a teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda overnight.

2. Next day, drain, put in a pot with 900 ml water and a quarter teaspoon of bicarb, bring to boil, then simmer for 30 minutes (or longer, depending on the freshness and variety of the chickpeas), until very soft but still retaining their shape, then drain.

(I can't help but think that it might be easier just to buy a can of chickpeas!)

To make the hummus

1. Put the first 4 ingredients for the hummus in a small bowl of a food processor with the lemon peel, two T of lemon juice, 1/2 t (teaspoon) of flaked salt and a T of water.  Blitz for about 2 minutes, until you have a smooth paste. 

2. For the fried aromatics, heat the oil in a medium pan on a medium heat, then gently fry the chilli, garlic, ginger and cinnamon for 5 minutes, stirring every once in a while, until the garlic is just starting to brown.

3. Add the coriander stalks and fry for a minute or two more, until the garlic is golden brown and the chilli aromatic.

4. Transfer the solids to a plate with a slotted spoon and reserve the oil.

5. Sprinkle generously with flaked salt.

6. Spoon the hummus onto a large plate, creating a large well in the centre with the back of a spoon.

7. Spoon the oil into the well and drizzle over the remaining tablespoon of lemon juice.

8. Top with the fried aromatics and fresh coriander, and serve.

And for a slightly simpler hummus...

Ingredients

200g freshly cooked chickpeas

1/2 garlic clove peeled and crushed

1 lemon - the zest finely grated, to get 2 t. and juiced to get 1 T.

1T olive oil

5-6 T Greek-style yoghurt (not low fat is possible)

Flaked sea salt and black pepper

Instructions

1. Combine the ingredients in a food processor and blitz smooth