Fatayer

Back in the day, when I was an impoverished university student, I often used to spend holiday weekends helping my parents sell their assorted breads, buns and preserves at farmers' markets around the Welsh borders. Each market was assessed by me on the grounds of distance from home (i.e. how early I had to get up) and lunch options. Ludlow Food Festival was by far the winner: only 20 mins from home, an excellent lunch option range - and held in a rather nice ruined castle. The loser by some margin was Nantwich farmers' market. Absolutely bloody miles away and the lunch options were so bad I actually ended up leaving the market and heading into town*. Though I believe it was there that Dad and I met Clarissa Dickson Wright, one of the Two Fat Ladies, who went mad over our preserved lemons, used them in a demo and sent swarms of middle aged ladies over to the stall, elbowing each other in their attempts to scoop up the last jars. 

Despite the brush with celebrity cheffiness, I would never ever do it again. The general public, I discovered, can be very rude, demanding and are obsessed with free samples. And my parents gave it up too - I think that the amount of effort required to get the food to their standards far outstripped the rewards. 

However I do still have fond memories of the food they used to make. Bath buns, onion marmalade, fantastic bread - and something called bishak. This was a little bready pie with a simple filling of butternut squash and a bit of onion. Delicious! And I've always wondered about where they got it from, never having seen reference to it anywhere else. And when I saw this fatayer recipe in The Moro Cookbook I thought, 'Ah ha! The bishak prototype'. But a quick google search (why didn't I do it earlier?!) revealed that actually the bishak recipe is from Claudia Roden's Book of Jewish Food - which has been sitting on my bookshelf for about two years! I can't believe it's been there, under my nose for so long. 

But now I get to play a game of 'compare the little pumpkin pie recipe'. So, first up is the Fatayer, which according to Sam and Sam of Moro, are from Lebanon and Syria, and usually stuffed with spinach and labneh. The pumpkin/squash version is a Moro innovation. Maybe they've been reading Claudia Roden....

Anyway, I loved these little pies. The filling is a mixture of squash (in my case) or pumpkin (if you're feeling hallowe'eny), feta, pine nuts and oregano, which is then parcelled up in flatbread. It's one of those recipes that demand a little fiddling about without actually being difficult, leading (in my case anyway) to a disproportionate amount of pride in the final result. The recipe suggested making four fatayer, but I made eight little ones instead - perfect for packed lunches.

Fatayer

from The Moro Cookbook

Serves 4

Dough

220g strong white bread flour, plus a little extra for dusting

½ tsp salt

½ tsp dried yeast

100ml tepid water

2 tbsp olive oil

Filling

800g pumpkin or squash, seeded and chopped into 5cm square chunks

½ garlic clove, crushed to a paste with salt

1 tbsp olive oil 

80g feta, crumbled and mixed with ½ small bunch fresh oregano, chopped

1 tbsp pine nuts, lightly toasted 

Put the flour and salt into a mixing bowl. Dissolve the yeast in the water and add the olive oil. Add this gradually to the flour and salt, mixing as you go. (Sam and Sam recommend doing this by hand.) When it's all been incorporated, transfer to a floured surface and knead for about 5 minutes. If necessary, add more flour or water. You're after a soft, smooth, elastic dough. Cover with a cloth and leave while you get on with the filling. 

Preheat the oven to 230C/450F/Gas Mark 8. Toss the pumpkin in the garlic and olive oil. Season with salt and pepper. Transfer to a baking tray and bake for about 25 minutes, or until soft. Cool slightly and then purée. Check the seasoning and add more if necessary.

Roll the dough into four/eight balls, depending on whether you want four big fatayer or eight smaller ones. Roll each ball out on a floured surface until it's about 5mm thick. Try to keep the shape as circular as possible. Put ½/1 tbps (depending on number of pies) pumpkin in the middle of the bread, in a roughly triangular shape, then top with some feta and pinenuts. Use some water to moisten the edge of the bread and bring together to create a pyramid shape. Squeeze the edges together to seal the pie. Use scissors to trim any excess dough and squeeze together again. 

Bake on an oiled baking tray for about 10-15 minutes. The dough should begin to colour, but not be totally crisp. 

We served this with a wonderful chickpea salad from the same book, ,which was basically chickpeas, cucumber, tomatoes, mint and coriander in a dressing made of garlic, chilli, lemon juice, vinegar, olive oil and red onion. Really fresh and full of flavour.

*This was some years ago, so it may have changed. I don't mean to damn Nantwich's offerings forever and ever. But I'm not volunteering to go back and find out.

Spiced lentil soup

I love a bit of Kitchen Nightmares - there's nothing better than a redemptive tale of people who initially resist an expert's advice, getting shouted at a bit, before realising that he was right all along and doing what he says, to the universal acclaim of all the punters. (Though that's not to say it can't get repetitive after four or five seasons... ) But I never really thought of Gordon Ramsay as a man who wrote cookery books I'd get on board with. But I think I might have been wrong. 

I picked up Gordon Ramsay's Healthy Appetite in a charity shop a while ago, more for the healthy bit than the Ramsay name. It doesn't really look like I imagined a diet food book should look - lots of inviting, colourful recipes that encourage you to eat more good things, rather than obsessing over carbs, fats, etc. And if this recipe is anything to go by, this book is going to be a regular feature. Obviously a recipe for lentil soup is a fairly healthy place to start, and is also one of my favourites. But when I made this for the first time, I was blown away by how good it tasted, especially considering the negligible amount of effort required. All you have to do is fry some onions and garlic with some spices from the cupboard, add the lentils and some stock and cook it for a bit. If you want to make it fancy, you add some yoghurt, and mustard seeds and kalonji (black onion) seeds. Luckily, I'm a sucker for buying random spices for particular recipes, so I had both of those in the store cupboard, but I don't think it's a deal breaker.

Spiced lentil soup 

Serves 4

275g split red lentils
2 tbsp olive oil
1 large onion
2 large garlic cloves
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground coriander
2 tsp garam masala
½ tsp ground ginger
½ tsp ground turmeric
1 tbsp tomato purée
800ml vegetable or chicken stock

For the extra fanciness:
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp mustard seeds
1 tsp kalonji (black onion) seeds
3-4 tbsp natural yoghurt
coriander leaves

Rinse and drain the lentils. Peel and finely chop the onion and garlic. Heat the oil in a pan and add the onion and garlic. Fry for about 5 minutes until lightly coloured. Add the spices and tomato purée, stir and cook for a couple more minutes.
Add the lentils and the stock. Bring to the boil and then turn the heat down. Simmer for about half an hour, stirring occasionally, until the lentils are very soft. If the soup seems too thick, add a little water. Taste and season if necessary.
My new friend Gordon instructs us to blend half the soup and then mix it with the chunky lentils. I've also tried it without the blending (not due an experimental nature, just not reading the recipe properly) and it was also good. It all depends how smooth you like your soup, I guess.
If you're getting fancy, heat the olive oil in a small frying pan and add the two types of seeds. When they start popping and bouncing around, tip the contents of the pan into the soup and stir.
Once the soup is in the bowls, top with a spoonful of the yoghurt, some coriander leaves.
Gordon suggests a side of warm Indian bread, which is really good, but not totally necessary.

Nutella cookies

This is my extremely last minute entry for October's We Should Cocoa, hosted by Choclette of Chocolate Log Blog, in which we have been challenged to make something with chocolate and hazelnuts or cobnuts. I thought I was going to miss it, having been quite busy lately. But I just couldn't let this one pass me by, because chocolate and hazelnuts is such a winning combination. Plus, Mr 'Splorer's face lighting up when he got home and saw me spooning the best part of a jar of Nutella into a cookie dough was a delight to behold!

I got the recipe from A Chica Bakes, where it's called Chocolate and hazelnut biscotti, but to me these were definitely Nutella cookies. I thought it was about time I made some proper, American style cookies, having admired so very many recipes online. And I can really see why they are so popular - very straightforward to make and such a sweet treat. I think I overcooked mine a little, forgetting that I was aiming for that bit of squishy chewiness in the middle. And they needed to be a little further apart than in the picture on the right, but I only just managed to get them all in the oven as it was. And a bit of splurging never hurt anyone, right? I can't say as Mr 'Splorer or I were that worried about it as we tucked into these little numbers with a glass of milk (just like in the movies!) and an episode of Wallander. (Have you seen it? You really must.)
So, I'd really recommend this recipe - all you have to do to mix some Nutella and hazelnuts into a cookie dough, cook it for 10 minutes or so, and you've got yourself a huge pile of scrumptious, really chocolatey cookies.
The recipe is here.

Warm corn and courgette salad with a touch of spice

Attentive readers will remember my tale of badmouthing Delia on Christmas Eve last year, only to find that a parcel containing Delia's Happy Christmas had been lurking on the windowsill (the quite frankly inadequate subsitute for under the tree) the whole time. Well, it seems that this is a family trait. Just before my birthday, my Mum started slagging off Mexican Food Made Simple by Thomasina Miers, of wonderful Wahaca fame. The recipes have got cheddar in, and feta and mozzarella in, you see. These are not Mexican cheeses. Where's the authenticity, the real Mexican ingredients, was the cry. 

And so what do I get for my birthday? Not one, but two copies of Mexican Food Made Simple, one provided by Mr 'Splorer (who heard all this) and one from two beloved chums (who hadn't). Luckily, I would much rather have a recipe book that contains recipes that I can actually make at home, rather than one that maintains that if you're REALLY desperate, you could probably just about substitute something you can buy here, but you're missing the whole point of the cuisine and really you shouldn't bother. And luckily, so would little sis, who bagged herself a free copy. 

And, if this recipe is anything to go by, this is a fantastic book. This salad was delicious - and so easy. You just cook up sweetcorn and a courgette with an onion, some chilli and garlic, and some allspice, then top with fresh coriander and mint. The mint, I must say, is a total stroke of genius - it really gives it an extra burst of fresh flavour.

A note on variations: the courgette is an optional addition to the original recipe, so feel free to leave it out. Also, I didn't have any allspice, but a quick google search suggested a mix of nutmeg, cinnamon and cloves. This worked very well (I was a bit worried it was going to make it seem too desserty but not so).

Warm corn and courgette salad with a touch of spice 

adapted from Mexican Food Made Simple by Thomasina Miers

Serves 3 (or makes 2 dinners and 1 wonderful packed lunch)

3 corn on the cobs

1 courgette, diced into small pieces

slug of olive oil and knob of butter

1 onion, finely chopped 

1 chilli, finely chopped 

2 cloves of garlic, chopped 

a few pinches of allspice (or a nutmeg/cinnamon/clove combo)

juice of 1 lime

handful of chopped coriander and mint leaves 

Get your corn off the cob. Thomasina says to do this by popping it in a bowl and scraping a knife down along the cob at a 45 degree angle. I was confused by that 45 degree thing and just held it upright on a chopping board and chopped the corn off. The corn proceeded to go everywhere, so I'd go with the bowl in the future! 

Heat the oil and butter in a pan on a medium heat and when it's hot, pop in the onion, corn, courgette and chilli. Cook until the onion is translucent (at least 5 mins), then add the garlic, allspice, and some salt pepper. Turn up the heat and cook for another 5-10 mins. Thomasina says that the corn should caramelize, which sounds lovely, but didn't happen for me! 

Pour over the lime juice and scatter with the herbs.

I served this with avocado, refried beans (another great Thomasina recipe), corn tortillas, cheddar and sour cream. Yum!

And if you want to see how the professionals do it, here's a video of Thomasina herself showing how to make this.