Sweet Potato & Peanut Butter Gratin

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Oh Yum, this dish I found on the Whole Earths website, I just love their Peanut Butter especially the crunchy one….yum!  My curiosity got the better of me because I wouldn’t have thought to put sweet potato and peanut butter together but wow, this was so tasty.

I also used my automatic setting on my Hotpoint Class 9 oven, the Potato Gratin setting. This was great as I didn’t need to worry about what temperature or oven function to set for a perfect bake the oven worked it all out for me.

This made 4 small servings (2 bakes in a 19cm x 30cm baking dish)

3 large Sweet Potatoes

2 tsp Crushed Chillies (or 2 chopped chillies)

100g Spinach – Chopped

300g Creme Friache

3 tbsp Peanut Butter, Crunchy

2 tsp dried coriander leaves

Salt & Pepper to taste

 

  1. If not using automatic programmes, preheat oven on fan to about 200 deg then finish off under the grill to crisp and brown.
  2. Peel & Slice the sweet potatoes to about 1/2 cm thick and place in a bowl, add the chopped spinach, coriander, chillies, salt & pepper.                                              20200210_122807
  3. Mix the creme friache and peanut butter together until smooth ad combined then pour into the sweet potatoes and mix until potatoes are coated.                              20200210_123350
  4. Spray a baking dish with spray oil and then layer the sweet potato in the dish making two rows.                                                                                          20200210_124357
  5. Cover with Tin foil and bake for about 30 minutes, remove the tin foil and continue to bake for the further 30 minutes or until sweet potatoes are softened and slightly browned.
  6. Serve.

 

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Scottish Salmon & Sweet Potato Chowder

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I do love my salmon. This was a last minute little dish as I was going to have steamed teriyaki salmon and sweet potato fries tonight for dinner, but changed my mind as I fancied a warming soup type dish. It was delicious and with the lemon zest added that extra bit of flavour.

 

Makes 2 portions

2 Salmon Fillets – cut into chunks

1 large sweet potato – cut in 1 cm chunks

1 cup sweetcorn (I used frozen)

1 cup baby carrots ( I used frozen)

1 cup garden peas (I used frozen)

1 onion – chopped finely

1 tbsp butter

1 tsp dried dill

Salt & Pepper

200ml water

2 tbsp flour

150ml Milk

Grated Lemon zest and juice of 1 lemon

 

  1. In a large pot, melt the butter and saute the onion.
  2. Add in the sweet potato, sweetcorn, peas, carrots, dried dill, salt & pepper and mix.
  3. Pour in the water and bring to the boil, reduce and simmer covered for about 10 minutes or until sweet potatoes are tender.
  4. Whisk the flour into the milk and slowly add to the pan while stirring through.
  5. Add in the chunks of Salmon, remove the lid and simmer uncovered for about 5 minutes or until salmon is opaque. Be gentle but stir every now and again but watch not to beak up the salmon pieces.
  6. Squeeze in lemon juice and grated lemon zest. Serve with a turn of rainbow peppercorns.

 

 

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Egg, Bacon & Spinach Pastry Bites

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OMG!, these were absolutely delicious. I don’t normally eat pastries but I was trying out some new recipes for an event and my first idea didn’t go to well, so I got my thinking cap on and tried out these instead……oh wow! they were so tasty. I was so naughty though as I couldn’t stop my hand from grabbing one then another then another….lol! But we are allowed on occassions……aren’t we?

 

Makes 12

1 x ready rolled puff pastry

2 tbsp grated gruyere cheese

1 tbsp creme friache

4-6 smoked bacon rashers – chopped into bite size pieces

100g baby spinach

2 large eggs

Salt & pepper to taste

 

  1. Heat a little spray oil in a pan and cook bacon until slightly brown, remove with slotted spoon and keep to the side.
  2. Place spinach into the bacon and wilt down (will take a few minutes)   20180804_092158
  3. Meanwhile mix the grated cheese with creme friache
  4. Beat the eggs and season well, pour over the wilted spinach and stir until scrambled in pan, remove from heat.                                                                                             20180804_092417
  5. Cut the pastry into 12 small squares about 4″ x 4″ roughly
  6. Place 1 tsp of the cheese mixture on base, then top with bacon and spinach mix, season well.

     

  7. Wet your finger in water and run your finger along outer edge of pastry square, carefully lift 1 corner and pull over mixture making a diamond like shape, take the opposite corner and pull over the pastry corner you have just moved and seal. Make sure they are sealed well or they will open when cooking.                                                                               20180804_093424
  8. Refrigerate for about 10 minutes as this will help the pastry puff better.
  9. When ready to cook preheat your crisper plate for 2 minutes on dynamic crisp setting and then bake for 7 minutes or until browned. If you don’t have one of these, then you could cook on baking tray at 200 deg for about 16-18 minutes or until golden.

 

 

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Crisper plate Burgers

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I know I’ve said this before but I do love this little Crisper Plate from Hotpoint, it really does cook your food in a fraction of the time and the plate is so easy to clean as it’s non stick. Check out their range at Hotpoint

 

This was the cooking instructions on the packaging for the burgers:-

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As you can see 14 mins is minimum time up to 30 mins in oven. With an added time of around 5-10 mins for the grill or oven to heat up first.

Using the Dynamic Crisp setting you preheat the plate for only 2 minutes, then I cooked the burgers for 8 minutes for a nice crisp finish. Amazing! Dinner in 10 minutes.

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Avocado Love on Toast

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I just love playing with my food….lol! I was feeling in a creative mood this morning so rather than smashing the avocado (as I normally do) I thought it’s time to try the Avocado Rose bowl design that has been going about for a while now. Not only did I master that, since it’s February, the month of Love, a wee love heart appeared also.

Here’s how to do it.

1/2 Avocado

Little oil and a sharp knife

  1. Firstly rub your knife and your work surface with a little oil, this helps the knife glide smoothly through the avocado.                                                                                                                                                             20170204_102141
  2. Slowly slice the avocado as thinly as you can.                                                                                                                           20170204_102118
  3. Wet your fingers slightly, then slowly fan out the avocado slices to make a long line or u shape.                                                                                               20170204_102057
  4. Gently start to roll up into your rose bowl design or in fact any design you want to.

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I then placed on a piece of toast with a poached egg inside and devoured!

Creative Scotland – How creative are you?

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Hello,

I can be creative with my house decoration, creative with clothes and very creative with my food, but where do we get our inspiration from?

It’s the Year of Innovation, Architecture & Design 2016, and no better Country to look at than Scotland. Have a wee look at this link and discover your place for inspiration and go be creative!

https://www.visitscotland.com/blog/scotland/creative-places/

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