Panettone

Well its been a while since I last posted, but I am busy with other things at the moment. Every Christmas I always get the urge to buy Panettone, but I don’t always eat them until much later in the year. I decided I would try to make one this year. I have made brioche so I guessed it wouldn’t be too much different and it wasn’t! I found a recipe and ingredients from bakery bits  They even have a kit with all the ingredients that you need and the recipe online. I must say I am proud of these. I haven’t baked in a while and its just so nice to create something like this, can’t wait to cut in!

Autumn fruitfulness

I may have said it before, but I love this time of year. There is so much fresh produce around and I get to enjoy cooking, as I have been doing minimal excercise since Ironman Wales. My oldest son has discovered a passion for mushroom hunting (partly inspired by mine craft!) but it has meant that on Saturday and Sunday this weekend we went foraging in the woods for shrooms. We hit the jackpot with a beefsteak fungus, some chantrelles, deceivers, russulas, and slippery jacks.

A mix of fungi, found in my local woods

The beefsteak fungus, an amazing piece of nature!

After reading about my tempting looking beefsteak fungus, I decided to have it raw in a salad, the books don’t rate it much and say it has an acid taste. I could not taste any acidity, (maybe thats because I smothered it in garlic dressing) I used a vegetable peeler to shave off thin strips, and found it delicious! It does look alarmingly like liver though if you are a vegetarian!

Garlicky mushroom salad. looks like carpaccio I think.

I have also been processing apples from the garden, and have a few pots of frozen puree in the freezer now.

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I also got into the baking groove, as I had picked up some cute little eggs from my neighbour, got slightly carried away with my egg theme, (as I have in the past! see here) and made an apple tart, with creme patissierie, and creme d’amande, then used my remaining creme patissierie to make some Portuguese custard tarts. I also decided to do a lemon meringue! Good job I have a couple of boys to help me out eating the spoils!

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Its kicking off in my kitchen

Ironman portables

With less than a week to go before Ironman Wales, I have been making up batches of portables for the race. I made a variety of stuff and have put it in my freezer.

Bacon, egg, and mushroom loaf.

Made with cubed bread.

Some rice cakes…. I find them easier to transport when they are made into balls.

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And last, but not least, some sweet potato cakes, with cinnamon. Silicone baking cases are a must in my kitchen!

 

So this time next week it will all be over, I’m sure that the food I am taking will help me have a great race, and I look forward to spending a bit more time in my kitchen when I have finished Ironman!

Ironman snacks

Strawberry and chia gels

These popped up on my facebook feed, and I had all the ingredients so had to give it a go! They turned out pretty well for a first time. I had to adjust a bit as I was using frozen strawberries and did not have as much agar agar as they suggested, but here are my creations.The original recipe is here

Mochi

I have been playing about a bit with making mochi, and I had some red bean filling in my freezer that I needed to use up. I thought that I would use the strawberry gel as a filling for my mochi, as I usually have too much mochi dough for the amount of red bean paste. They also seemed to work out pretty well. I’m not sure I will take any strawberry gels on Ironman, (they are a bit squidgy), but I may well sneak in a couple of mochi, as they are easier to transport . I love the texture of them too, yummy…

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Its baking (taper) time again!

Beetroot Gnocci

I have been meaning to post these for a while, I am enjoying making my own gnocchi, and this is a variation on the sweet potato one that I have tried. This contains, buckwheat flour, sweet potato, and beetroot, I used some swiss chard out of the garden as a green, but you can use beet tops in the same way if you like. I just love the colours of rainbow chard!

Fresh from the garden

Shaped and ready to cook

Plated up with homemade pesto and rainbow chard

Sourdough fun

I’m starting to taper for Ironman Wales, this usually involves me baking, as I have a lot of free time to fill! I had a sourdough fest this week ,and made sourdough crumpets, and bread. The crumpets are delicious, luckily I have a freezer, so I have a supply to keep me going. My only problem is what to bake next!

sourdough bread

Tasty crumpets!

Foraging for fruit

Oh, and its also blackberry time again, so cue blackberry ripple ice cream, and some blackberry and apple turnovers. the kids are permanently covered in blackberry juice at this time of year!

Cooking up the blackberry ripple.

Filling for turnovers

 

Experimenting with nutrition and some tasty carbs

After a lot of interest in my portables on Facebook, someone suggested that I make a portable type gel, so I got experimenting! I was due for a long run on Wednesday, so it was the ideal opportunity to test. I normally don’t bother taking anything with me when I run, as I hate carrying anything in my hands, but I wanted to try out my new recipe.

 

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I sipped at the mix all the way round (it was a 2 hour run!) and it seemed to keep me going, I also didn’t have any adverse reaction to it so a thumbs up from me!

One of my favourite recepies at the moment is sweet potato gnocchi, from the Isa does it book. I picked it up in Carmarthen, and have tried out quite a few things from there, very tasty stuff.

so sunny looking, and delicious

I had a bit of an unintended consequence, when I let the gnocchi rest in polenta, and a lot of the polenta stayed on, so we had a bit of a polenta stew mixed in with the tarragon sauce. Still yummy though 🙂

Cycling fuel

This weekend is The long course weekend. This is a weekend of training for me and comprises a 2.4 mile swim on Friday evening, followed by a cycle of either 42,70, or 112 mile bike ride on Saturday, and a marathon or half marathon on Sunday.

I am doing the swim, the 70 mile ride and half marathon as part of my training for Ironman Wales.

I have been experimenting for a while with food to take out on the bike, and feeling inspired by my new book “The Vibrant Table” I decided to make some muffins from the book. I made kale, and pumpkin seed muffins, then as I had some lovely free range eggs I baked some eggs in smoked ham, (inspired my feed zone portables book) and I also made prune caramel and hemp bars from the vibrant table. This should be enough to keep me going on Saturday on my bike ride!

Portable food

Recovery drinks and immune boosting

I have been using coconut milk as a recovery drink this week. I had some blackberries in the freezer that my son picked last year, so I made a syrup with them, and added some cinnamon. I mixed it with coconut milk and drank it after a long ride last week, delicious…

Coconut and blackberry recovery

My oldest boy has been ill this week so I have been juicing, and eating lots of raw food, in the hope that I will not catch his lurgy. Yesterday was beetroot, carrot, apple, and spirulina. Today was mango, strawberry and banana smoothie, with chia and spirulina. It helps that we have loads of fresh produce in the garden at the moment, yummy!

Fresh Salad from the garden

An amazing time of year

Abundance

Its the time of year when there is beautiful produce starting to appear, the first strawberries, asparagus, and baby veg. I dug up the leeks that were about to start seeding themselves and poached them with some other delicious vegetables, then made a caper mayonnaise, from Ottolenghis book Plenty.

poached vegetables, and rhubarb from the garden

Crab and pasta

I also bought a crab from the farmers market, and made one of my favourite dishes, linguine with crab, chilli, garlic and coriander. I don’t think I’d ever get tired of this meal (well maybe!)

ready to be stirred into pasta

 

Inspiration

New books

I need a bit of inspiration from time to time, and food blogs are great, but I love having a book to flick through and dream about. These are the books that I have on the side at the moment.

A mixture of books

I don’t think I needed to buy the racing weight book, as I know most of the stuff in there, but its good to know I’m on the right track. I also thought it would help me when I start my business, watch this space!

Back on the lunchtime yumminess

I’ve got back to cooking up my wild rice and quinoa mix, and mixing in some veggies and cheese. The salad below is an adapted version one from the “Isa does it” book, with a delicious garlic and ginger dressing. I added some feta so its not vegan anymore, but I’m not, so never mind!

Roasted sweet potato and beetroot, with black eyed beans, kale, wild rice, quinoa, and feta.