Rocky road

I have a confession to make… I love dark chocolate.

Love, love, love it. In fact, I think I have a slight problem with how much I love it. This is probably due to the fact it’s one of the few sweet treats I can afford myself, ensuring it’s the gluten and dairy free kind of dark chocolate, like Lindt or Green & Blacks.

This got me thinking about how to make dark chocolate even better… by adding other things that I love to it!

Okay. It wasn’t quite like that.

One day I saw some (milk chocolate) rocky road in a cafe that had some extra ingredients in it. So I had a go at making my own, and came up with this combination which has proved to be a favourite amongst my friends. In fact, I was asked to bring it to the Good Friday lunch that we attend at our friends’ house, hence making it recently. It was also my fiance’s birthday on Easter weekend, so he got a special tray too 🙂

Gourmet dairy and gluten free rocky road

Ingredients:

I made sure I measured the ingredients when I made it this time. I usually throw in however much I have handy. The trick is to make sure the amount of chocolate is just right. You need to make sure it coats the rest of the ingredients without overpowering them. Dare I say, there could be such a thing as too much chocolate…?

• 1 x 250g packet of marshmallows (gluten free, and vegan if that’s your thang…)
• 3/4 cup roasted almonds (see below for how to roast your own almonds)
• 1/2 cup dried cranberries
• 1/2 cup pistachios (out of shells)
• 3/4 (dairy and gluten free) dark chocolate buds (this seemed the right amount of chocolate for this quantity of ingredients)

Method:

1. Place the dark chocolate buds in a metal bowl over a saucepan of water on the stove. The boiling water will gradually melt the chocolate. Stir it until it is a smooth, shiny consistency.
2. Add the remaining ingredients and stir until they are all well coated.
3. Place the mixture into a container, pressing the mixture into the corners and edges for a consistent slice. I use a TupperChef Slice Form. It’s ideal for this purpose as it’s flexible, making the rocky road easy to remove. It’s 27.0 cm long x 15.0 cm wide x 3.3 cm high, which is perfect for this quantity.
4. Place the tray of rocky road mixture in the fridge and allow to set for at least 30 minutes.
5. Once set, remove from form and slice into desired sizes, using a sharp knife. Heating the knife can help.

How to roast your own almonds

To roast your own almonds:

1. Preheat oven to 180˙C.
2. Spread raw almonds out on oven tray, ensuring they are only one high (i.e. not stacked).
3. Roast for 16-18 minutes. This seems to be the sweet spot, and you need to be very careful to get the timing just right. You’ll need to judge this on your own oven. Take them out to early and they won’t be roasted; too late and they’ll burn. So stand by and wait for that sweet, sweet roasted almond smell. Then they should be perfect!
4. When they’re cooked perfectly, remove tray from oven and allow to cool. Try to refrain from eating them until they are cooled. They may smell delicious when they are hot, but they will taste oh so much better when they have cooled down.

3 easy dip recipes: Hummus, Lentil and Beetroot

I love nibbly picky food, which is probably why I love dips. I love easy to make dips as well, AND knowing what’s in them, since so many dips these days are getting all very gourmet with cashews and parmesan and all these things that don’t agree with me in them…

One of my favourite things is when friends drop in for a drink and knowing that I can quickly whip up some dips with what’s in our cupboard. And rice crackers are always in there too.

These three dips are my staples, and can all be made with tinned ingredients, or the key ingredients can be cooked from scratch, but to be honest, the tinned versions are very, very good. And the quicker they’re ready, the quicker I’m back socialising and enjoying them!

Beetroot Dip

This dip always goes down a treat. In fact, there was none left to photograph…

Ingredients:

• Tin of sliced or whole baby beets (can also use home roasted beetroot, but the tinned ones have a nice sweetness to them)
• Garlic (I LOVE garlic, and am told I tend to put a bit too much in… I figure if we all have it tho, we’re fine! Use as much as you’re comfortable with tho, 1-2 cloves minimum)
• 1-2 teaspoons cumin (to taste)
• Cracked pepper and rock salt (to taste)

Seriously, that’s it.

If you can tolerate it, you can also stir through a tablespoon or 2 of natural yoghurt at the end.

Method:

1. Drain the beetroot (if using tinned), place in a container that’s suitable for blending (e.g. a tall jug if using a hand held blitzer thingy, or if using a food processor, in the food processor).
2. Peel and roughly chop the garlic cloves, and add to bowl of beetroots, along with the cumin, salt and pepper.
3. Blend with the food processor or the hand held blitzer thingy. I was given my blitzer by my old crazy neighbour Greg* when he got a proper food processor and it’s great for this type of use.
4. Blend until all ingredients are mixed, but I prefer to leave it with a bit of texture.
5. As mentioned above, add a tablespoon or 2 of natural yoghurt (e.g. sheep’s milk yoghurt) at the end for a creamy texture.
6. Serve in a bowl, garnished with some fresh parsley leaves, and accompanied with gluten free rice crackers, vegetable sticks etc.

*Not to be confused with Old Greg from The Mighty Boosh.

Lentil Dip

This dip is my fiance’s new fav…

Ingredients:

• Tin of lentils (can also cook red lentils in the stock, but this is the easy version)
• Half a red onion, finely chopped
• 1-2 cloves of garlic (or as much as you’re comfortable with)
• 1/2 cup chopped parsley leaves
• 1-2 teaspoons (gluten and dairy free) vegetable stock (to taste)
• 1-2 teaspoons cumin (to taste)
• Cracked pepper and rock salt (to taste)
• Olive oil

Method:

1. Drain and rinse the lentils (if using tinned), place in a container that’s suitable for blending (as above).
2. Peel and roughly chop the garlic cloves, and add to bowl of lentils, along with the onion, parsley, stock, cumin, salt, pepper, and 1 tablespoon of olive oil to begin with.
3. Blend with the food processor or the hand held blitzer thingy.
4. Once you’ve done the initial blend, you can taste and adjust as required, e.g. extra olive oil if dry, stock, cumin etc, to your tastes.
5. Blend until all ingredients are mixed, again, I prefer to leave it with a bit of texture.
6. Serve in a bowl, garnished with some fresh parsley leaves, and accompanied with gluten free rice crackers, vegetable sticks etc.

Hummus

To be honest, I haven’t found a great combination/balance for hummus yet, and the above two dips are my preferred ones. We tend to always have chickpeas in the cupboard though, making this one a good option. I once had a bought hummus made from cannellini beans and am keen to try making that. Will let you know how it goes.

This is the best combination for hummus I’ve found so far, happy to hear your version though…

Ingredients:

• Tin of chick peas
• 1-2 cloves of garlic (or as much as you’re comfortable with)
• 3 or so tablespoons of olive oil
• 2 tablespoons tahini paste (ground sesame seeds)
• Juice of 1 lemon
• 1-2 teaspoons cumin (to taste)
• Cracked pepper and rock salt (to taste, if required/desired)
• Cayenne pepper (to garnish, if desired)

Method:

1. Drain and rinse the chickpeas, place in a container that’s suitable for blending (as above).
2. Peel and roughly chop the garlic cloves, and add to bowl of chickpeas, along with the olive oil, tahini, lemon juice and cumin.
3. Blend with the food processor or the hand held blitzer thingy.
4. Once you’ve done the initial blend, you can taste and adjust as required, e.g. extra olive oil if dry, salt and pepper, cumin etc, to your tastes.
5. Blend until all ingredients are mixed.
6. Serve in a bowl, garnished with a drizzle* of olive oil and a sprinkling of cayenne pepper, and accompanied with gluten free rice crackers, vegetable sticks etc.

And enjoy!

*How good a word is “drizzle”!?

Pumpkin and chickpea flour muffins

This is another recipe from the My New Roots Holiday Reader Recipe Challenge PDF download on the My New Roots food blog and was submitted by Jana of the Jana Round The World food blog.

I think it will become my own “Julie & Julia”-esque challenges to try every recipe in this collation.

This recipe caught my eye as I tend to miss out on baked goods, and love both pumpkin and besam – or chickpea flour.

It also made a good filler while I was making the time consuming (but oh so worth it) vegetarian moussaka.

I have to admit. These were not the most awesome thing I have ever made. They were interesting, and made for a good, savoury snack. I will try them again sometime, but might mix up the flavours somewhat.

Makes 8 muffins

Ingredients:

• 2-3 cups of grated pumpkin (the more pumpkin, the more moist the muffins. I used jap pumpkin)
• 1.5 cups besam (or chickpea flour, also referred to as “gram”)
• 2 tablespoons mustard seeds
• 2 tablespoons flax seeds
• 1/2 tablespoon cayenne pepper (yes, this much, it does make them spicy, so if you’re not into hot foods, reduce the amount)
• pinch of sea salt and ground black pepper to season
• 1 tablespoon curry powder (optional, I haven’t tried this yet)
• 5-6 tablespoons coconut milk
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 tablespoon baking powder (gluten free)
• raw pepitas or sunflower seeds to decorate the top (optional)

Method:

1. Clean and grate the pumpkin, then combine with the besam.
2. Add the seeds, spices, coconut milk, oil and baking powder, and combine.
3. If required, add some water to assist with the mixing.
4. Place the mixture in a greased muffin tin.
5. Sprinkle the pepitas or sunflower seeds on the top of the raw muffins.
6. Leave for 1 hour before baking! (I’m not sure why, but this is what the recipe said).
7. Preheat the oven to 200˙C.
8. Bake at this temperature for 10 minutes, then reduce heat to 100˙C and bake for a further 20 minutes until cooked through.
9. Remove tray from oven, and leave for a few minutes before removing the muffins from the tray and cooling on a wire rack.

As you can probably tell from the ingredients, these muffins are very spicy and savoury, making them a great, healthy snack.

The grated pumpkin is so bright and pretty!

Before…

And… after!