I want to thank all the bloggers who took part in this challenge. I was not going to take part, but Paula was going to have her ingredient list ‘orphaned’ so I decided to participate. I love making food with a random set of ingredients and so this challenge is a pleasure for me. Paula challenged me to use the following 7 ingredients:

• fresh spinach
• fish – fresh or frozen, freshwater or saltwater
• berries – fresh or frozen
• cheese – Gruyere or Emmentaler
• portabello mushrooms
• quinoa
• turnips, parsnips or rutabaga – or any combination of the three

Together with the 7 ingredients, I had devised quite an extensive pantry list of ingredients the participants could use – based on the original challenge I did, and I asked each blogger to add an ingredient. These were as follows:

• Milk/Cream
• Eggs
• Flour (or a flour substitute)
• Lemons
• Garlic
• Ginger
• Chillies
• Fresh Herbs
• Dried Herbs
• Dried Spices
• Sugar (or a sugar substitute)
• Butter/margarine
• Salt
• Pepper
• Oil – any of your choice
• Vinegar
• Pasta / Noodles / Rice
• Tinned Tomatoes
• Tinned Chickpeas
• Chocolate / Cacao
• Stock

For starters I decided to do a turnip and spinach soup. This was easy, and perfect for the night I decided to make my ready steady cook meal, as the heatwave had broken and it was raining.

TURNIP AND SPINACH SOUP

ingredients:

2 teaspoons olive oil

1 large turnip cut up into a large dice

1 cup stock

1 cup water

1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg

salt and freshly ground black pepper for seasoning

80g baby spinach

method:

heat the oil over a medium heat in a soup pot

add the turnips and stir well, until they are starting to cook

add the stock, the water, the nutmeg and the seasoning

bring to the boil, reduce the heat and cover and simmer for 30 minutes

blend until smooth

add the spinach and bring back to the boil

blend again, adjust the seasoning and serve

TURNIP AND SPINACH SOUP PRINTABLE VERSION

My side dish for the main course was easy to prepare. I chose the biggest portabello mushrooms I could find and I chose a locally manufactured Gruyere cheese. The cheesery is less than 100km’s from us and they make a really nice selection of cheeses. I added the rest of my spinach to these and came up with a really good side dish, which could be served as a starter.

MUSHROOMS WITH SPINACH AND GRUYERE

ingredients:

2 portabello mushrooms, stalks removed

100g baby spinach

2 cloves garlic, crushed

salt and freshly ground black pepper for seasoning

a pinch of nutmeg

30g Gruyere, grated

10g butter

olive oil for drizzling

method:

preheat the oven to 180° Celsius

wilt the spinach with the garlic and season

set aside to cool

squeeze out the excess liquid and add the nutmeg

chop finely and mix in the cheese

place the butter into a frying pan and cook the top of the mushroom

drizzle the bottom (ribbed side) with olive oil and season

distribute the spinach mix into each mushroom

bake for 10 minutes

MUSHROOMS WITH SPINACH AND GRUYERE PRINTABLE VERSION

For my main course I chose hake – a soft white fish that is fished for off the coast in False Bay. These come directly from the company that fishes for them. I have never used quinoa before and so the night before, I made up some to go with our meal. This is a low GI grain with an unusual taste and texture – and Dave loves it. We are quite addicted to Chopped and so I used the the program for my inspiration here. I took the quinoa and ground it up to ‘bread’ the fish with. It added a great texture to this soft fish, and I am going to do this again.

QUINOA COATED HAKE GOUJONS

ingredients:

¼ cup flour

salt and freshly ground black pepper for seasoning

1 egg, beaten

¼ cup quinoa

½ teaspoon coriander seeds

½ teaspoon salt

1 hake fillet, sliced into goujons

15g butter

1 tablespoon olive oil

method:

season the flour

grind the quinoa together with the coriander seeds and the ½ teaspoon salt

pat dry your fish

set up a breading station and place the fish first into the flour, then into the egg and finally into the quinoa

heat the butter and the oil in a large frying pan

cook the fish one minute per side, skin side down first

QUINOA COATED HAKE GOUJONS PRINTABLE VERSION

After such a healthy starter and main course, a decadent dessert was in order. I made a Swiss roll that has me thinking about other options with the base. Raspberries and blackberries were on special and so I bought a punnet of each, knowing the colours would be great in contrast to the chocolate base, and whipped cream centre.

CHOCOLATE AND BERRY SWISS ROLL

adapted from James Martin BBC Hands On Workshop

ingredients:

for the Swiss roll:

2 eggs

55g caster sugar – I used fructose

50g self raising flour

5g cacao and more for dusting

for the filling:

125mls cream

24 assorted berries

method:

for the Swiss roll:

preheat the oven to 180° Celsius

line a small Swiss roll tin with baking paper

whisk together the eggs and the sugar until they are light, fluffy and thickened

sieve together the flour and the cacao

fold the flour into the eggs until well combined

pour the batter into the tin and smooth the top with a spatula

bake for 8 – 10 minutes – watch from 8 minutes as you want a skewer to come out clean and you don’t want the surface to crust

place a piece of baking paper on your work surface that is larger than the Swiss roll

dust lightly with cacao

turn the sponge out onto the baking paper and then peel the baking paper gently off the exposed side of the sponge

set aside to cool slightly

whisk the cream until stiff

spread the cream over the sponge, leaving a 2cm gap along one of the long sides

on the long side that has the cream to the bottom, place a row of berries

and then place a second row quite close to the first one

starting at this edge, use the baking paper to roll up the sponge to form the Swiss roll

make sure you press tightly to encase the filling

CHOCOLATE AND BERRY SWISS ROLL PRINTABLE VERSION

Tandy

To see what all the lovely  challengers did, click the linky below


Top of Page