Lavender cake with buttercream icing

The long-awaited lavender cake recipe is finally here, albeit not in the form you would have expected. I decided to make a loaf cake this time, which was full of its own surprises to say the least. The lavender flowers imparted a lovely spicy-sweet fragrance and taste to the cake, and the lavender buttercream was satisfyingly rich. This is what afternoon tea was made for.

Lavender is part of the mint family of plants, which means its somewhat related to other aromatic herbs and flowers such as basil, rosemary, mint and oregano. Lavender itself cross-pollinates very easily, so there’s a whole range of different variations of the lavender species. In culinary use, lavender flowers have been used for making honey, cake decorations, additions to chocolate and tea. L. Angustifolia, better known as English Lavender, has the sweetest aroma out of all the variations and is most commonly used in culinary applications of lavender.

Lavender should be used sparingly as you can easily overdo it with the flavour, as the essential oil of lavender is contained within the flowers that are used in cooking. I use lavender sugar (with the dried flowers) in my cooking simply because the lavender and sugar complement each other really well, and the lavender scented sugar is useful for flavouring the buttercream icing (and other various ingredients not necessarily related to the cake).

The recipe itself is incredibly straightforward, although I don’t think I’ll be making the loaf again as it took much longer in the oven than previous incarnations of the lavender cake to the point where it began to harden on top and wasn’t as satisfying as, say, a pound cake. But less of the whinging and lets get onto the actual recipe. You will need:

• 175g unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 175g golden caster sugar
• 175g self-raising flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp vanilla essence
• 3 eggs
• 1-2 tbsp whole milk (optional)
• 1 tsp of lavender flowers

Start by preheating your oven to to 180°C and line the cake tin (either an 8-9 inch loaf tin or more preferably a 20cm springform cake tin) with baking parchment. Then cream the butter and sugar together in a large mixing bowl until pale.

Crack the eggs into the butter mix one at a time and beat until fully combined, then add the vanilla essence and then sift over the flour and fold in using a large metal spoon. Add the baking powder at this point and combine well. I broke out the good ol’ electric whisk for the first part of the cake-mixing, and it gave me this beautiful pale mixture which I added my lavender flowers (with a bit of lavender sugar for luck) to.

At this point, if the mixture is not of a dropping consistency, add 1 to 2 tbsp of whole milk to loosen it up a little. Put the mixture in the lined cake tin and bake for approximately 20-25 minutes (or if you’re my crazy loaf cake apparently for around 45-50 minutes). Really, I’d suggest to just keep an eye on it from around 25 minutes, using a skewer to check if the middle of the cake is cooked. If the skewer comes out clean, you’re good to go.

Stand the cake for about 5 minutes after removing it from the oven and then cool it on a wire rack while you prepare the buttercream icing filling:

• 25g unsalted butter, softened
• 60g icing sugar, sifted
• 2 tsp whole milk
• ½ tsp lavender flowers

Beat the butter until its creamy, then sift in the icing sugar (or just bung it in as it is if you’re lazy like me). Beat the icing sugar and butter together, then add the milk a teaspoon at a time and combine well. Sprinkle the lavender flowers on top and mix well.

Slice your cooled cake in half, spread the buttercream icing lavishly in the middle and stick the top back on. This is heavenly with a cup of Chai tea. Actually. So much so, in fact, that when I went downstairs to the kitchen the next morning to have a slice with my morning cuppa, I found that half my cake had gone!

I think that’s a good testament to its deliciousness as any. Bake it, and enjoy.

Best-ever vegetable lasagne and awards

2010 is finally here. Albeit, this post is a little late to wish you all a very Happy New Year, but I sincerely hope you brought the new year in with pomp and style. Let’s hope that this shiny new decade does not disappoint, and I mean to ensure satisfaction with this year’s culinary treats and teases that I have lined up for you.

Now, you may be wondering why I’ve included awards in the title (you can’t eat awards.. what’s she going on about?). My wonderful friend Katie has nominated me (amongst some excellent others) for the Kreativ Blogger Award. Perhaps you’ve heard of this delightful award, perhaps not – apparently the award itself was handmade from fabric scraps by a Norwegian lady named Husfraus Memoarer in May 2008 to give to her sister a few friends to denote how much she felt their creativity had inspired her, and others. Another blogger, Simon Leung, has suggested an updated alternative to this award, which as a food blogger myself I think it’s an excellent idea!

The concept of adding rules and passing it onto others probably wasn’t part of the original plan, but it has acquired this history of being passed on and shared between bloggers to appreciate creativity in the blogging community. I personally think it’s a fantastic concept, but less about my opinions, and more about the rules of the award!

1. Thank the person who nominated you for this award.
2. Copy the logo and place it on your blog.
3. Link to the person who nominated you for this award.
4. Name seven things about yourself that people might find interesting.
5. Nominate seven Kreativ Bloggers.
6. Post links to the seven blogs you nominate.
7. Leave a comment on each of the blogs letting them know they have been nominated.

So, thank you my dear Katie for nominating me for this award and for the lovely comments! I’ll be sure to reward you with another batch of lavender cupcakes when I next see you… for those who haven’t visited Katie’s movie blog yet, please do – it’s absolutely fantastic, well-written and an engaging read.

Now onto seven interesting things about myself:

1. Before I became interested in photography, I was an avid digital artist, having (possibly) kicked off a trend of visual poetry pieces. If you’re interested, you can see my older works here.
2. I was a radio presenter for a brief two summers following my GCSEs and AS levels, showcasing alternative rock music and emerging talent, and once managed to order pizza via one of my shows. I think that is quite an achievement.
3. I’m an Indian classical music singer-in-training, having been taught theory all my life (owing to the fact that my mother’s an Indian classical music teacher) on and off, depending on my studies. I also play the harmonium, tambura and sitar, which are truly beautiful instruments.
4. Although I’m classically trained in Indian music, the only performance I’ve given is in ‘Macbeth’ the opera, which was perhaps the most exciting and exhilirating (not to mention demanding) experience of my entire life. I hope to take part in more operas in the future, but that depends on whether I ever move back into London.
5. Speaking of London, I’ve moved house approximately seven times (in and out of London), and have lived with my parents, with family friends, with my sister, with friends and by myself. So far, I have found that living by myself is definitely the easiest option!
6. I used to be the Play Photo Editor of the London Student, where my job description in the first year of my post was basically organising fashion photo-shoots, taking cover photographs and eating cupcakes.
7. And finally, speaking of cupcakes, I’ve always had an interest in cooking, and my lasagne recipe (which you’ll find below) was my first culinary success, however it wasn’t until I decided to experiment and make the aforementioned lavender cupcakes in June 2009 that I really developed a passion for putting an unusual twist on traditional recipes. Before then my culinary skills were mostly reserved for myself and a very close group of friends.

And now for the nominations!

1. Of course, Katie tops my list of nominations. Why? Because her blog, The Stories That Really Mattered, makes movies interesting, exciting, but first and foremost, a topic of intellectual discussion. The lucid analysis of the pros and cons of upcoming movies and the clear depiction of trends in movies over time have me fascinated time and time again. I’m not much of a cinema person, and will probably only watch a movie if I’m stirred enough by its trailer/storyline, but Katie makes me want to watch movies I’d barely heard of before reading her posts. A truly remarkable talent.
2. Mara and Kesha, of Shared Sugar, really have such an imaginative, beautiful cookery blog. It absolutely captivated me when I first came across it, not only because the recipes are delicious but also because their photography has such progression in each post – the images tell a story, which is hard to find in food photography in general. I really congratulate them for their excellent work, because I know it’s definitely inspired me to be a bit more creative in mine.
3. Sneh’s fantastic cookery blog Gel’s Kitchen is honestly the most imaginatively cross-cultural cookery blog I’ve ever come across. There’s nuances of different countries’ cuisines in several of her beautifully-presented recipes, and each is as mouth-watering as the next. Not only this, her design talents are extraordinary, and if you follow her on twitter you’ll find a wealth of design ideas and web management tips.
4. Lydia’s Swimsuit Issue is an excellent feminist perspective blog on popular culture and current news. Lydia’s determination and fierce conviction is apparent in each and every one of her posts. What’s more, she inspires women like myself to celebrate their strength and embrace their opinions and views, but also to question how popular culture represents the independent women of this contemporary world. An brilliantly inspiring read, and her activities outside of the blogosphere (co-running a feminist club night ‘Girl Germs’) are commendable.
5. Karin’s delightful Reading & Reviewing literature blog gets me engrossed everytime. Having worked in a bookshop I especially appreciate the full details included at the top of every post, couple with the incredibly creative summary photographs (featuring the lovely Karin Elizabeth herself).
6. Ele’s Kitchenist ecotarian cooking blog is so comprehensive and vibrant, that my mouth seems to automatically start drooling whenever I open up her blog on my web browser. I especially like the natural and organic feel to her blog, which makes me invariably guilty when she’s mentioning farmer’s market and I’m figuratively munching down on a stick of butter and a cupful of sugar… all in all, a very fresh, vibrant blog.
7. Last, but by no means least, Saam’s music and films blog Faded Glamour regularly brings to light new and underrated talent. I’ve found out about new bands that I’d never have heard of before had it not been for his enlightening posts and podcasts, and his film (and TV) reviews are honest, down-to-earth accounts – informative and innovative.

Now, onto today’s tidbit. Having experimented with a range of vegetables, poultry and meat for this dish, I find it to be the most versatile recipe as you can create a wonderfully light lasagne or a comforting, rich dish that really satisfies. Vegetable lasagne is a healthier alternative to the traditional beef lasagne, but the explosion of flavours on your palate that this dish creates will not leave you lamenting the lack of meat.

You can try different combinations of vegetables for this dish, but I find that courgettes and peppers are by far the simplest and most flavoursome pairing. To start off, you’ll need:

• 1 large onion, thinly sliced
• 2 cloves of garlic, diced
• 1 medium courgette, evenly sliced
• 1 large red pepper, sliced, or chopped into large pieces
• 1 large orange pepper, sliced, or chopped into large pieces
• 300-400g passata
• 1 tsp basil
• 1 tsp oregano
• A pinch of sugar
• 1 tsp chilli flakes
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 3-4 tbsp olive oil
• 2 large lasagna sheets

Preheat your oven to 200°C. Slice up the vegetables and put aside. Heat 3 to 4 tbsp of olive oil in a large saucepan over a fairly high heat. Once the oil is hot, add the sliced onion, stir quickly and let it fry for a minute or so. Then reduce to a medium heat and let the onions begin to caramelise for about 5 minutes. Once the onions have just started to caramelise, add the chopped garlic and let it all fry for another 2-3 minutes.

At this point, when the smells of fried onion and garlic start to become intoxicating, add your sliced courgette and stir gently to thoroughly coat the courgette in the oil and onion. Cover your saucepan and let the vegetables fry for approximately 5 minutes, or until the courgettes start to become softer and slightly translucent.

You can now add the sliced, or chopped, peppers, stirring to combine and coat all the vegetables evenly in the oil. Cover for another 5 minutes, then stirring to loosen any vegetables at the bottom of the pan add your passata to the vegetables and turn the heat down to medium-low. Stir well, cover and leave for about 5-10 minutes.

Uncovering your pan, your sauce should have started to simmer gently. Add your basil, oregano, chilli flakes and pinch of sugar at this point and stir well. Then, season to taste with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Increase the heat to high and allow the sauce to come to the boil before turning off the heat. Stir once more, then spoon half the quantity into your lasagne dish. Arrange a lasagna sheet over the sauce layer, then spoon the rest of the sauce over the top. Arrange your second lasagna sheet over this sauce layer. Otherwise, you can arrange the sauce between three sheets of lasagne if desired. Set aside.

You will need to make your cheese sauce for the topping now. For this you will need:

• 1 tbsp butter
• 1 tbsp plain flour
• 100ml whole milk
• ½ tsp Dijon mustard
• 1 bay leaf
• A pinch of ground nutmeg
• Salt to taste and plenty of freshly ground black pepper
• 100g cheddar cheese
• 1½ tsp thyme

Melt the butter in a small saucepan and add the flour when just bubbling (be careful not to let the butter brown). Combine to form a paste and stir vigorously for about a minute. Reduce the heat to medium and gradually add the milk, stirring constantly, so that you form a smooth sauce. Add your bay leaf and continue to stir the sauce for about 10 minutes until your sauce begins to thicken.

Once your sauce reaches dropping consistency, add your mustard and nutmeg and stir well. Then gradually sprinkle about 30g of the cheddar cheese into the sauce and stir to melt. Season well with salt and lots of freshly ground pepper to taste. Turn off the heat, discard the bay leaf, and then pour the cheese sauce directly over the lasagne sheets in the dish.

Sprinkle the remaining cheese evenly over the rest of the dish, ensuring that the cheese sauce is completely covered. Then sprinkle the thyme over the cheese layer, so that the topmost cheese layer crisps up nicely.

Place into your preheated oven for 25-30 minutes, or until golden brown and bubbling on top. Stand for 5 minutes, then serve immediately.

Pear and plum crumble

Merry Christmas, everyone! I hope you all have a wonderful time – eat plenty, drink to your fill and enjoy the presents (and the company)! Winter’s the best season for food, as you find that the majority of winter dishes are a culmination of rich flavours, drawn out from slow-cooking or comforting combinations that never fail to hit the spot. One of my favourite winter dishes is pear and plum crumble, a deviation from the usual apple crumble that is perhaps more suited to the autumn season.

The variations of pears and plums that you can find are endless. Plums are especially flexible, as they warm up most winter desserts, but the first bite into a ripe plum can take you back to late summer afternoons. The different varieties you might find at your local store may include Fortune plums, which are burgundy from the outside, with yellow flesh (these are probably the most common variants you could use for this recipe), to Black Diamond plums which have dark red skin and plump red flesh.

Most plums will have a juicy, sweet flavour once they have ripened, and it is at this point that they are perfect for putting into a crumble. With pears, I tend to be more picky about which pears I will use in this crumble. Taking pink and red as the theme of the dish, Blush pears are the best variant to use as their sweet flesh is soft and blends well with the plums while the crumble is baking. Alternatively, Red Williams pears, when ripe, can be equally delicious in this dish.

The crumble itself is a wonderful comfort food that doesn’t have to be limited to the winter season, but it is especially warming when it’s chilly and miserable outdoors. Using dark soft brown sugar imparts a touch of a treacle-like taste to the topping, which caramelises and blends with the fruit juices to create a warming and satisfying dish. You will need:

• 200g plain flour, sifted
• a pinch of salt
• 150g unsalted butter, cut into cubes
• 200g dark soft brown sugar
• 450g plums, stoned
• 4 ripe blush pears, thinly sliced
• 3 tbsp water
• a handful of rolled oats

Preheat your oven to 200°C. Sift the flour and pinch of salt into a large mixing bowl, add the cubed butter and rub together with your fingertips until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. If the dough starts clumping together, just use your fingertips to break larger pieces apart. Add 150g of the dark soft brown sugar and the handful of rolled oats to the mixture and combine well.

Quarter your plums in order to stone them, and then slice each quarter in half. Set these aside. Thinly slice the pear (you can peel the pears if you really want to, but I like to keep the skin on). Measure out 50g of the dark soft brown sugar into a large mixing bowl and add 3 tbsp of cold water to it, mixing well to produce a dark brown sugar syrup. Mix together the fruits and the sugar syrup, gently, ensuring even coverage.

Tip the fruit mixture into a buttered dish; a 9-inch baking dish will do. Then sprinkle over the topping evenly. Bake for about 25-30 minutes, or until golden.

A deliciously comforting dessert that can be eaten for breakfast, as a quick snack, or a treat after dinner. Best served with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, or a little poured double cream.

Pandan cupcakes with coconut snow frosting

Christmas with a tropical twist – I’ve never been a fan of cold weather, and as deranged as I might sound I actually don’t like snow very much… it’s cold, wet and makes my fingers go numb. I’ll stop being a wet blanket now and tell you about this lovely treat that brings a little Christmas spirit to your tummy, as well as some tropical island flavours!

Recently I made some pandan tea, which was a lovely warming drink, but I’d been itching to make pandan cake since I got back from Tioman which is over a year and a half ago! That’s a long time to crave cake. However, as simple as it was to make the tea, pandan cupcakes are not as straightforward as adding the leaves to the cupcake mixture.

Additionally, pandan is usually incorporated into chiffon cake, which is a very light, airy sponge cake that needs a special chiffon cake tin (it has a hole in the middle to help the circulation of heat in the cake to give it that wonderful fluffy consistency). So, it seemed as though pandan cupcakes might not be possible at all! However, considering pandan is heralded the ‘Eastern alternative to vanilla’, by extracting the pandan essence from the leaves, we might be onto something…

As it happens, you need to use both vanilla essence and pandan essence to flavour these cupcakes, but the general base of the cupcakes is very similar to the Earl Grey cupcakes recipe. To make around 20 odd cupcakes you will need:

• 120g unsalted butter at room temperature
• 210g golden caster sugar
• 1 egg
• 1-2 pandan leaves
• ½ tsp vanilla essence
• 300g plain flour
• 1¼ tsp baking powder
• 150 whole milk

Start off by preheating your oven to 190°C, grease and line a cupcake tray and set it aside. Sift the flour and baking powder into a separate bowl to add to the cake mixture in a little while.

It’s time to extract your pandan essence. This sounds complicated but it’s fairly easy as long as you have a food processor, otherwise you’ll be slaving over a pestle and mortar for quite a while and that’s not really very practical. So set up your food processor, snip the pandan leaves into the top in about 2cm strips, put the lid on the food processor and blend just until shredded finely. You then scoop out the shredded leaves and with just a tiny splash of water to get the juices flowing, squeeze the leaves through a sieve to extract the pandan essence which will be a beautiful shade of green. Set this aside.

In your main mixing bowl, cream the butter and the sugar together and then add the egg, beating the mixture until smooth.

At this point you add the pandan and vanilla essence to the beaten mixture and combine well to give you a very lightly tinted mixture.

Add half the flour mixture to the batter and mix until just combined, then alternate with adding milk and flour (ending on the dry ingredients) until the batter is smooth and blended. Fill the cupcake cases with the batter and bake in the oven for about 20 minutes.

While the cupcakes are baking in the oven you can prepare your coconut snow frosting. You will need:

• 3 heaped tbsp icing sugar
• 1 tbsp desiccated coconut
• 2 tbsp cold water

Mix the sugar and coconut together and then spoon over the cold water. Beat the frosting until smooth and translucent with a dripping consistency.

Once you’ve taken the cupcakes out of the oven let them cool for a little while, then drop a spoonful of the coconut frosting onto each cupcake until the coconut resembles snowflakes! The coconut complements the pandan brilliantly (most Malaysian desserts combine the two flavours), and the decoration befits the season quite well, I think.

Macaroni cheese with broccoli

I apologise for the infrequent posting, it’s been a busy few weeks with interviews and driving lessons, so I haven’t been able to spend much time in the kitchen! I only have a tidbit for now, but I promise there will be some exciting pandan-inspired recipes and cakey goodness coming up to grace your screens.

Mac and cheese is an alltime favourite comfort food – beautifully simple, yet filling and satisfying. You can’t go wrong with mac and cheese, however you can add more food groups to it to make it a tad healthier than the usual cheese and carbs fare. Broccoli is one of those vegetables which is a hidden gem – you spend your childhood hating it because you’re forced to eat it and then suddenly you discover it when you’re in your teens (or as a young adult) and it opens up a wholly new culinary world to you.

Okay, perhaps I’m glamourising broccoli too much, but it’s definitely a versatile ingredient. You can pair it with creamy sauces, or throw it into a stir-fry or just steam it and melt some butter over it, and it will always accompany a dish wonderfully. Not only that, it’s rich in Vitamin C and A as well as containing a high amount of dietary fibre. Apparently it’s useful for prevention of heart disease too… although I think the amount of cheese you use for this dish may possibly cancel that out…

So lets get right to it. You’ll need:

• 450-500g dried macaroni
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 2 large garlic cloves, chopped
• 1 small head of broccoli, cut into florets
• 150g cheddar cheese (I used mature cheddar cheese but if you don’t want a very strong cheese taste feel free to use milder cheeses)
• 2 tbsp butter
• 2 tbsp plain flour
• about 200ml whole milk
• 1 tsp Dijon mustard
• A pinch of ground nutmeg
• 1 tsp tarragon
• A pinch of crushed chilli flakes
• Salt and ground black pepper to taste
• 100g breadcrumbs

Preheat your oven to 200°C. Bring a large pan of water to boil, add salt and a drizzle of olive oil, then add the macaroni and leave to boil for 12-15 minutes until soft, stirring occasionally to loosen pieces sticking to the bottom of the pan. Drain well once cooked through. In a separate pan, boil the broccoli florets in salted water, or use a steamer like I did, putting it in the microwave for around 5 minutes until just tender.

Meanwhile, melt the butter in a medium sized saucepan and add the onion and garlic when bubbling. Fry gently for 3-4 minutes, then add the flour and stir vigorously for 1 minute until you form a paste. Reduce to a medium heat, then pour in the milk gradually, stirring gently to combine the paste with the milk to form a smooth sauce. You’ll need to stir the sauce for about 10 minutes, or until it begins to thicken.

Once the béchamel sauce has just about begun to thicken, add the mustard, nutmeg, chilli flakes and tarragon and combine. Sprinkle in about 50g of the cheese and stir until melted – you can add a little more cheese if you want a stronger taste but keep  in mind that extra cheese will thicken your sauce more. Add the steamed/boiled and drained broccoli, mix well and season to taste.

Add your drained macaroni to the cheese sauce and mix well to ensure the pasta is thoroughly coated. Transfer the mixture to an ovenproof dish and sprinkle the remaining cheese evenly over the top. Now sprinkle the breadcrumbs over the top so that you can form a golden crust on top of the macaroni. Season with black pepper, and bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes or until the top os golden. Stand for 5 minutes then serve with a salad if desired.

I can guarantee this dish will warm you up, cheer you up and pick you up on a cold winter’s night, as well as giving you one of your five-a-day!

Cashew and coconut cookies with pandan tea

It’s been an absolute age since I last posted, mostly because it’s been a manic few weeks and the fun (haha yes, note the intense sarcasm here) hasn’t stopped. Luckily today I woke up to a beautifully sunny, albeit cold day and having completed my mission to find pandan leaves in Chinatown yesterday, I was determined to serve up some delicious-looking and tasting delights for you all.

It’s officially winter here in the middle of nowhere (best known as Buckinghamshire), so I was in dire need of something warm and comforting, but also quite exotic. Whilst playing around in mangroves and waterfalls in Singapore and Malaysia, my friends and I often came across various local delights such as pandan leaves in desserts and beverages. These desserts would usually also contain nuts or coconut to complement the delicate taste of pandan. Pandan itself has been hailed the ‘vanilla of the East’, despite not actually tasting of vanilla at all – the allusion to vanilla is derived from the way that pandan is used to flavour desserts and sweets.

Coconut is a perfect complement to pandan, and cashew nuts are also often used in oriental cuisine so a pairing between these two ingredients would surely produce a smashing accompaniment to a calming brew of pandan tea? Although I found it amusing that in all my exotic ingredients I’ve still managed to come up with the time old classic of a cuppa and a biscuit.

Making these cookies was relatively simple, although you do need various ingredients which are easily found in most supermarkets:

• 240g plain flour
• 60g rice flour
• 40g cornflour
• 60g coarsely chopped cashew nuts
• 60g desiccated coconut
• 125g unsalted butter (at room temperature)
• 150g caster sugar
• ½ tsp vanilla extract
• 4 tbsp whole milk

Start off by creaming the butter and sugar together, until light and fluffy. Add the vanilla essence and beat well.

Now you can either chop the cashew nuts roughly, or you can take the easier option which is to put the cashew nuts into a resealable plastic food bag, close it and take a rolling pin to it to reduce the nuts to small pieces. This is a wonderful stress relieving activity! Then, mix the desiccated coconut with the contents of the food bag.

Measure out the three types of flour, sift them into a separate bowl and add the cashew/coconut mixture. Combine thoroughly before adding the butter mixture. Mix well to give a breadcrumb-like texture.

At this point you will probably start using your hands to manipulate the mixture into a dough. Add the milk a tablespoon at a time, mixing thoroughly to form a dough. Work the dough together with your hands until it starts to come clean away from the sides of the mixing bowl. Knead the dough onto a well-floured surface until it is smooth, then wrap in cling film and refridgerate for one hour.

Pre-heat your oven to 160°C and grease and line two baking trays generously. Once the hour has elapsed, take your dough out of the refridgerator, divide it into equal pieces (usually about 3 or so) and roll out the dough to a 1cm thickness. Using a cookie-cutter, cut out shapes and place onto the baking tray about an inch apart.

Bake the cookies for 20-25 minutes and then cool on a wire rack.

Whilst your cookies are cooling down, you can prepare the pandan tea:

• 200ml boiling water
• 1 blade of pandan leaf, shredded
• 1 Ceylon tea bag
• Honey to sweeten

You can buy pandan leaves from most Asian food supermarkets or Thai speciality markets. I found mine in a small store in Chinatown, London. While fresh pandan leaf is ideal for this recipe, you could probably use frozen to the same effect, but would be advised to defrost it thoroughly first. Wash your pandan leaf to get rid of any dirt that might be from the packaging. Then, cut the leaf up into small sections, about 2 inches across and shred using a fork.

Place the shredded pandan leaf into a small saucepan and pour the boiling water over. Steep for 5 minutes so as to release the aroma of the pandan leaf. Add the tea bag and brew according to taste – I didn’t want a strong tea taste, so opted to brew for only 1 minute; obviously if you want a stronger tea, leave the tea bag in for longer. Remove the tea bag before serving and sweeten with honey if required.

A delicately comforting snack, cashew nut and coconut cookies provide a lovely accompaniment to pandan tea, and you can easily dip the cookies into the honey for a sweeter taste. A touch of the exotic brought to your table.

Chilli-chocolate covered strawberries

With the weather becoming more miserable by the hour and the cold creeping in through every corner it was time to heat things up a little. Being Indian, I’m predisposed to liking the taste of chilli, so when I saw Lindt’s chilli chocolate on offer in Waitrose the other day I simply had to have it. Chilli and chocolate, which otherwise go very well together in a Mexican dish by a similar name, is a divine combination. The dark chocolate simply melts in your mouth leaving a fiery afterthought. The idea of chilli-chocolate is by no means a radical new one though, apparently the Mayans and Aztecs were incredibly fond of the flavours and chilli-chocolate has been popular in South America and Mexico since this time.

Having racked my brains as to how I could put this exquisite ingredient to use, I finally lingered upon the memory of balsamic dark chocolate-dipped strawberries I had at my friend Spence’s birthday picnic. A very unusual but successful combination – perhaps another unusual combination like chilli and chocolate may be quite tasty when put together with strawberries?

So I got to work, and what with the price of strawberries these days (I’m shaking my fist at you, Tesco) I ended up having to delay this delectable treat for a few days until my Sainsburys delivery came to the rescue (once again). My strawberries finally arrived, plump and bright red, in the arms of a drenched delivery man. It was time to get started:

• 40g dark chilli-chocolate (I used Lindt’s chilli chocolate)
• 40g 85% dark chocolate (again, Lindt is good but the better quality, the more exquisite the taste)
• 10 large strawberries, ideally with long stems

Firstly you’ll need to chop up the chocolate so that it melts more easily; this should be easily achieved using a sharp knife, slicing down the chocolate in 5mm slices so it fragments (as in the above photograph). Once both types of chocolate have been sliced up, put aside. Pick out your large strawberries, ensuring they do not have any rot and aren’t over-ripe. Wash them gently under a cold tap.

Pat them dry on a tea towel or kitchen paper to get rid of excess water – if the water gets into your chocolate when you dip the strawberries in, it ain’t pretty. To melt the chocolate you’ll need to set up a double boiler, or if you’re well-equipped you’ll have a bain-marie to hand. If not, you can set one up very simply, just put 1-2 inches of boiling hot water in a saucepan over a low heat, and set a glass bowl above it, not touching the water. This separates the chocolate from the pan and the water and so the heat from the boiling water will effectively heat the glass bowl and melt the chocolate. Meanwhile, halve your strawberries as so, and once your double boiler is set up, scoop all of your dark chocolate fragments into the bowl at the top.

Once your chocolate has melted to a smooth, shiny consistency, you can either reduce your heat to the minimum or switch it off altogether. At this point you should line a baking sheet with some parchment paper and set it next to the double boiler.

Then you can start dipping! Hold the strawberries by the leaves or long stems at the top, then dip into the melted chocolate, coating thoroughly and twisting the strawberry as you take it out to ensure smooth edges. Set the coated strawberries onto the baking sheet, leaving a little space in between each of the halves.

By the time I had finished dipping my strawberries the sun was already setting!

Once all of your strawberries have been dipped and set onto the parchment paper, put them into the refridgerator to chill for 10-15 minutes, so the chocolate hardens. They will lose their sheen, but will be ready more quickly – if you want them to stay shiny, you could try leaving them out until they are set but it’ll take a lot longer!

The result is a gorgeous treat, that is a lovely gift (especially for Valentine’s, which is ages away) that has a naughty kick to it, subtle but definitely suggestive.

Earl Grey cupcakes

I think I’ve become obsessed with cupcakes. Truly. Especially putting flowers and leaves in them, for some bizarre reason, because it always seems to turn out the best ever cakes I’ve eaten – and I don’t usually have a sweet-tooth. Now, before you start saying I’m tooting my own horn, try making these and then tell me it’s not better than the usual victoria sandwich you crack out at tea-time.

My fascination with Earl Grey tea is no secret, that’s for sure. I have turned many to its wily wonders, including my best friend Tim. Earl Grey is a distinctly British tea, having been presented to the second Earl Grey, the British Prime Minister in the 1830s. As the story goes, he was gifted with a present of tea leaves flavoured with the oil of the bergamot fruit, extracted from its rind. There’s different variations on the original Earl Grey tea, including French Earl Grey which apparently has additional rose petal flavouring (oooh) and also a concoction called “London Fog” which comprises of Earl Grey tea, steamed milk and vanilla syrup – a delicious combination. Incredibly rich in antioxidants, Earl Grey tea is an all-round winner when it comes to everyday tea-drinking.

So why put them in cupcakes? Well, why not? It seems as though the contents of teabags are perfectly delicious when added to cupcake batter, so it was time to test the theory out. The result is a tea-time treat that is a wonderful substitute between a tea-bread and a cake, that you can have with tea or quickly munch on the go. It’ll even give you a bit of a caffeine boost! To make about 15-20 cupcakes (give or take a few) you’ll need:

• 120g unsalted butter at room temperature
• 240g caster sugar
• 2 eggs
• 360g self-raising flour
• 120ml milk
• 1 tbsp Earl Grey tea (or 1 tea bag)

First you’ll want to preheat our oven to 175°C and line your cupcake tray with cases, alternatively greasing it generously. Beat the butter until creamy, adding the sugar and creaming them together until the mixture is light and fluffy.

Then add the eggs one at a time, beating them well until properly combined to produce a smooth mixture.

At this point, you put the tea leaves into a pestle and mortar and grind until powdery, so you won’t get a mouthful of leaf when you eventually take a bite out of the cupcakes. Then add half of the flour to the egg mixture with the ground tea, mixing well. Add the milk to loosen the mixture a little, then the remaining flour, stirring until just combined.

While you’re adding the milk, the mixture will resemble cookies and cream ice cream but should become more sticky and firm after the second half of the flour is combined. Fill your cupcake cases with the batter so that they are two-thirds full. Bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes.

When you take the cupcakes out of the oven, cool them on a wire rack and then you can serve them with some tea (Earl Grey is you must) or eat them as they are. They’re really quite the treat, and as a thoughtful gift you could bake up a batch of these and give them with a tin of loose Earl Grey tea.

Olive, sweetcorn and parmesan pasta

I do apologise for the long delay between this post and my last – it’s been very hectic around here! Following my last recipe, Diwali celebrations were in full swing and the parents were preparing to depart to India the following weekend, so cooking up dishes has been a little bit difficult. I only have a tidbit for now, as I’m planning something deliciously wicked with chilli-flavoured chocolate, which will be making its way to you soon. I was pleasantly surprised by the beautiful scent of lilies that filled our kitchen when making this dish – a relative brought over a bouquet to our dinner party and now all the lilies are in full bloom. They smell wonderful.

Quick pasta dishes are a godsend. When your stomach is growling and having a general tantrum, what better than a quick carbohydrate boost to keep it happy and smiling for a few hours? They’re great for lunch, a quick snack, even a family dinner if you’ve got young ‘uns who aren’t the most patient angels. Plus, you can pack them full of vegetables to fulfil some of your 5-a-day requirements, or meat for something more wholesome.

Storecupboard ingredients can go quite a long way for a quick pasta, if you don’t have the time to gather up a plethora of fresh ingredients. Cans of sweetcorn or jars of olives can last a long, long time and there’s always bound to be some lurking around at the back of the cupboard on a rainy day.

However, most pasta dishes benefit from having a little touch of authenticity, such as parmesan, or mozzarella cheese, as these ingredients bring together the tastes in the dish. Parmesan (actually called Parmigiano Reggiano)  is an Italian hard cheese that can be aged from a minium of 12-14 months, up until 2 years. When I visited the Taste Festival in Regents Park this summer, one stall had three types of parmesan that had been aged for different periods and the longer it is aged for, the more complex the taste… truly lovely – especially with port!

So, onto the pasta. You’ll need:

• About 100-150g of pasta per person, penne is usually the best to go for
• 6-10 olives,evenly sliced
• 1 can sweetcorn
• A jar of basic tomato sauce (or you can make your own with 400g chopped tomatoes, 1tbsp tomato puree, drizzle of olive oil, pinch of salt and sugar, and herbs to taste)
• 1 onion finely chopped
• 1-2 garlic cloves, crushed
• 20g grated parmesan

Put your pasta in a pan of salted boiling water to cook while you make the sauce. Drain the pasta after 12-15 minutes, depending on whether you want the pasta al dente or softer. In a separate saucepan, heat 1tbsp of olive oil and add the chopped onion and garlic. Fry for about 5 minutes or until the onion has become translucent. Then add the tomato sauce, bring to the boil and then simmer for 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, drain the sweetcorn and rinse with a little cold water. Add the sliced olives and sweetcorn to the sauce and stir thoroughly. Then stir in half the grated parmesan into the sauce, season with salt and pepper to taste.

Once you have drained the pasta, add it to the sauce and combine the two. Transfer to a serving dish and sprinkle the remaining parmesan over the top. There you have it – a meal that takes a maximum of 20 minutes to prepare and will be on the table before you know it.

Vegetable moussaka with harissa

Yesterday was my sister’s 26th birthday. We started off the day by surprising her in her bed at 7AM with a coffee cake and a big box of chocolates, and while she was at work I planned out a birthday dinner for her. I wanted to make something with Middle Eastern influences, but really fresh flavours, so eventually settled on the idea of a vegetable moussaka. The last time I made moussaka for the family it felt like there was something missing from the tomato base, which made it a somewhat plain dish – tasty but not incredibly interesting. This time, I decided to use harissa to flavour the tomato sauce, which provided it with a much-needed kick that completely transformed the dish.

Moussaka comes in several different forms, as varying versions of the dish are made across the Middle East. The Greek dish is often layered with potato, aubergine (or courgette), lamb mince and a tomato sauce that includes kidney beans. However, Arab versions of the dish usually don’t layer the vegetables, giving the dish more of a stew-like appearance and taste. The Greek version of moussaka is the one I went with, layering aubergines, potatoes, cheese and tomato sauce to create a more substantial dish that kept together more easily when serving.

Harissa on the other hand, is used in a wide range of Middle Eastern dishes, from Tunisian to Moroccan dishes, but also in North African cuisine. It’s basically a chilli paste flavoured with various spices to create a hot condiment or ingredient for a wide range of recipes. The chilli peppers are usually smoked and combined with garlic to create the base for harissa, after which a combination of spices or peppers, tomatoes, even rose petals are added. I used rose harissa (from the world foods section of Sainsburys) which worked brilliantly with the flavours in this dish to combine Greek influences with Moroccan and Turkish tastes.

Making moussaka is fairly easy once you’ve done it a couple of times, but there are a number of stages which means you need a whole kitchen to yourself to get it done. The moussaka is made in two parts: filling and base.

For the filling you’ll need:

• 2 large potatoes, peeled
• 5 tbsp olive oil (or soya oil)
• 1 large onion, finely chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, crushed
• 2 x 400g cans chopped tomatoes
• 2-4 tsp harissa paste
• 1 tsp dried or fresh oregano
• a pinch of ground cinnamon
• a pinch of sugar
• 2 tbsp tomato purée
• 1 x 400g can of red kidney beans (drain these and rinse gently under a cold tap)
• 2 aubergines, sliced
• 2 tbsp chopped fresh parsley
• salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

Start off by boiling the potatoes until they are tender, then drain them and slice into 5mm pieces. Separately, in a heavy based saucepan, heat 1 tbsp olive oil and fry the onion and garlic gently until softened (which is usually around 5 minutes).

Add the tomatoes, harissa paste, oregano, cinnamon, sugar and tomato purée. Then bring the tomato sauce to a boil, reduce the heat, cover and simmer for 10 minutes. Meanwhile, heat some of the remaining oil in a large frying pan and fry the aubergine slices in batches until just soft and golden-brown on both sides. Add more oil as you go along because as you’ll notice, aubergine really soaks up oil quickly.

Your aubergine slices should be coming along nicely while you simmer the sauce. Set the fried slices aside on kitchen paper as you fry each batch in a single layer.

Going back to your tomato sauce, once your 10 minutes are up, remove the cover and add the kidney beans, seasoning and parsley. Then re-cover and simmer for a further 20 minutes.

Now you can preheat your oven to 190°C and get started on making your topping. Traditionally, moussaka has a yoghurt-based topping or cheese sauce topping that has eggs whipped into it, but as Diwali started from the next day (as in today) I decided to substitute the usual topping (which I didn’t really find appealing anyway) with a basic cheese sauce, for which you’ll need:

• 20g butter
• 20g flour
• 400ml milk (full-fat is the best to use for this sauce)
• 100g cheddar cheese, grated plus extra for sprinkling and middle layers (can be up to around 250g altogether)
• 20g parmesan cheese, finely grated
• ½ tsp mustard

Melt the butter in a small saucepan over a gentle heat, adding the flour gradually and stirring well for 2 minutes to avoid lumps. Then pour the milk in gradually, beating well with a wooden spoon to a make a smooth, thin sauce. Simmer and stir until the sauce begins to thicken. Then add the mustard, stir well, the gradually add cheese to taste, stirring until fully melted. Add a little grated Parmesan (around 5-10g) to the mixture and stir well again. At this point, a pinch of nutmeg, salt and freshly ground pepper and a pinch of parsley will really brighten up the cheese sauce and bring out some delicious flavours.

Now to assemble the dish. In a large 9 inch square dish (lasagne dish will be suitable), spoon a layer of the tomato mixture, then arrange aubergine slices in a single layer, then a layer of grated cheese, topped with potato slices. Repeat and continue the layering, finishing with a layer of the aubergine slices. Pour over the topping and sprinkle with the remaining cheddar cheese, then grating the remaining Parmesan over the dish. Transfer the dish to the oven and bake for approximately an hour, or until bubbling and golden-brown on top. Remove from the oven and stand for 10 minutes before eating.

You can serve the dish with an olive, feta cheese and tomato salad if you want. Dress the salad with a good glug of extra virgin olive oil, a splash of lemon juice, freshly ground black pepper and some chopped mint. And there you have it! A delicious Middle Eastern moussaka with delicious harissa, which is not too spicy, but not too plain either. This dish is perfectly complemented by a New Zealand 2008 Sauvignon Blanc.