Boston Baked Beans & Bacon on Toast

This recipe is comforting, hearty, deep flavoured and purse friendly, not to mention versatile... good for brekkie or(/and) dinner. Boston baked beans are traditionally slow cooked, but if you use tinned beans, as I do here, cooking time can be significantly slashed.
What makes Boston baked beans specifically Bostonian? The molasses of course! Boston has long been linked to sugar refining (Molasses is a by product). The city was the trade centre for rum (made from molasses) from the Caribbean in Colonial times and it's said that the sweet scent of this dark gloop still hangs in the air there.  

Ingredients

1 tablespoon of Olive oil
1 red Onion, sliced
1 clove of Garlic, crushed
1 heaped teaspoon of Paprika
2 teaspoons of Mustard seeds
1 teaspoon of Molasses sugar (brown sugar is fine if you don't have molasses)
1 red bell Pepper, chopped into chunks
1 (300g) tin of chopped Tomatoes
1 teaspoon of Tomato paste
1 (300g) tin of Haricot beans
1 tablespoon of Balsamic vinegar
Salt and black pepper


Method
Heat the olive oil in a large pan over a medium high heat. Add the red onion and a little salt and fry for 4-5 minutes until the is becoming onion soft and translucent. 
Add in the garlic, paprika, mustard, sugar, tomato paste and red pepper. Fry for a further 2-3 minutes. 
Add in the tomatoes, beans & vinegar. Bring to a simmer, turn the heat right down, and allow to cook for 10 minutes, stirring regularly, until the liquid has reduced, shiny and thick. 
Season to taste and heap over thick toast. Serve, topped with crispy grilled streaky bacon. 

Serves 2 -3. Prep time 5 mins. Cooking time 20 mins.

The most ragedy tomato plant in the land.

It's a good day when the only plant I have been able to keep alive in our sun-starved outside area bears fruit :) What? You need proof...

Roasted Butternut Squash, Asparagus and soft goats cheese salad

In London its autumn already! And in this kind of weather, there cant be any namby pamby, airy fairy food. Yes, this is a "salad", but it is not of the family that consists mostly of leaf (there are a few mind). 

Ingredients
1 Butternut squash, peeled & cut into inch-ish chunks
6 asparagus stems per person, trimmed
1 red onion, peeled & cut into quarters
Soft goats cheese, 40g (ish) per person
Rocket leaves
Parmesan, (only a smidge) finely grated
Olive oil, about 2 tablespoons
Salt & pepper
Method
Roast the Butternut squash & onion on a large baking sheet in a preheated oven (at 200oC) for around 30 mins (timing will depend on the age of the squash and the size of your chunks), sprinkled with olive oil and a little salt. 
When the 30 mins is up, add the asparagus and return to the oven for a further 10 minutes.
Remove the tray from the oven. 
Top rocket leaves with the squash, onion and asparagus. Sprinkle with Parmesan, crumble over the goats cheese and generously grind over the black pepper. Munch. 


10 mins prep time. 40 - 60 mins cooking time. Feeds 2 or 3 (you'll probably need more than 1 squash if your feeding more) 

Courgette Fritters

So, the word fritter usually alludes to deep fried, fat saturated, artery clogging, all too often greasy, sugary, heavy (but oh so very satisfying) beige comfort food. This recipe, however, is not any of the above. These are the light, fresh, flavour packed and super healthy kind of fritters. And a brilliant way of putting to use a glut of courgettes.

Prep time 10 mins. Cooking time 10 mins. Serves 2.

• 
  Ingredients
  1 courgette, grated
  Salt and black pepper
  1 spring onion, finely chopped
  1 tablespoon of roughly chopped parsley
  1 tablespoon of roughly chopped mint
  1 tablespoon of roughly chopped coriander
  1-2oz cheddar cheese, cut into centimetre cubes
  2oz gram (chickpea) flour
  Veg oil, for frying
  Lovely, ripe & red, on the vine cherry toms to serve & ketchup.
  Method
• Sprinkle the courgette with a little salt and squeeze out as much of the liquid as you can, using either a sieve or a clean tea towel. 
• Place the grated courgette in a large bowl and mix with the onion, herbs, pepper, cheese and enough gram flour to make a sticky batter. Add a little water (or a squeeze of lime if you have one) if it seems dry.
• Heat the oil in a large frying pan over a medium-high heat.  Fry tablespoons of the mixture until golden (around 4 or 5 mins). Then flip with a spatula and cook for the same time on the other side. Serve immediately.

Some pics of the GIANT veg and other bits n pieces from a Day out: (of the city) at The National Gardening Show at the Bath & West showground.

Whoa what a spud! That's a world record smasher (ahem) for your information! The onions were easiliy as big as my head (I have a pretty BIG head) and the pumpkin... Oh my! The Pumkin! I probably could've lived in there happily with at least seven dwarves. Click here to visit the official site.

Guacamole

I recently ventured out of my kitchen and to Wahaca. How cool is that place?! The decor and ambience is vibrant, fresh & fun, but unfortunately the food didn't quite match up for me. It was good Mexican, don't get me wrong, but for me its a bit heavy. There were, however a couple of items that really made my taste buds tingle. Firstly the guacamole. OMG! I have never had guac that good. And secondly, the bright pink-purple hibiscus cooler..yum yum yum. I haven't quite managed to emulate the cooler yet, but this guac recipe below is pretty damn close to perfection. It's really quick, oh so very good for you and tastes like summer hasn't quite left us! Serve with corn chips. 

Ingredients
2 ripe avocados, peeled & de-stoned
Juice of half a lime
Salt & pepper
1 Red chilli, finely chopped
1 spring onion, finely sliced
Fresh coriander, roughly chopped
A handful of cherry tomatoes, quartered
Method
Mash the avocados with the lime juice. Season with salt and pepper. Add in the chilli, spring onion, coriander and toms. Mix roughly. Eat at once!
If you are making this a little ahead of time, keep it in the fridge with a piece of baking paper pushed onto the top (think tucking your kids into bed). This will stop the oxidation process and ensure your guac doesn't go brown really quickly.

Pasta with creamy spinach sauce, goats cheese, beetroot & toasted pine nuts

Ingredients
Pasta, enough to feed one 
A  knob of butter and a drizzle of olive oil
1 garlic clove, crushed
2 bricks of frozen spinach
4 tablespoons of cream
A handful of pine nuts
30g crumbly soft goats cheese
grated Parmesan
Salt and black pepper
1 or 2 cooked beetroot's, cut into chunks
Method
Put a big pan of water on the heat to come to the boil. Chuck in the pasta and a dribble of olive oil and cook according the instructions on the pack.
Toast the pine nuts in a dry frying pan over a medium heat until golden brown. Remove from the pan and set aside.
Defrost the spinach blocks in the microwave.
Melt the butter in the pan with a little olive oil and gently fry the garlic until golden and fragrant. Add in the defrosted spinach and stir. Add the cream and season with salt and pepper.
When the pasta is cooked, add it to the spinach pan and toss.
Serve sprinkled with the pine nuts, crumbled goats cheese, a little Parmesan and the chunked beetroot.