Chickpea flour, also known as gram flour or garbanzo bean flour, is nothing other than dried chickpeas ground to a flour-like powder. It’s been a pantry staple of mine ever since I discovered what the Italians call ‘farinata’ – thick, pancake like slabs of chickpea flour batter, flavoured with rosemary and salt and that have been cooked (well, practically deep-fried given the amount of oil used) at a high temperature on well-oiled baking trays. Street food at its finest (and simplest). Chickpea flour is also great to have on hand when making veggie burgers as it helps absorb excess moisture. And, chickpea flour is a nutrition powerhouse, containing at least double the amount of protein than regular wheat flour while being rich in vitamin B6, iron, magnesium and potassium. Why should you care you ask? Because baking chocolate chip cookies with chickpea flour yields what are possibly the most delicious chocolate chip cookies ever (and that just happen to be gluten-free). Moreish,
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Rose Petal and Raspberry Spelt Muffins
I did not intend to be away from this space for this long without stopping by to say hello but somehow the usual one week turned into two and those quickly turned into three. Suffice to say work has been busy, I have been away, first in Italy and then in Germany, I have been trying to get on top of my never-ending list of final moving and flat-related errands and some recipes have been taking longer to test than expected (white chocolate miso brownies, I am looking at you!). These muffins were inspired by a rosy tart I am working on and that will be shared on food& in a few weeks. While Monday mornings are as good a time as any to swap weekend indulgences like buttery croissants or pancakes doused in maple syrup for porridge, there is nothing like a homemade pastry and a good cup of coffee to take the edge off the start to another
North African Long Pepper Steak and Preserved Lemon Sauce
Lest you all worry about me surviving solely off caffeine and cake (I know for a fact my mum certainly gets worried at times) today I have a savoury recipe for you (and if you follow me on instagram you might have already seen some of these shots). Although I mainly post sweet recipes here, I do actually really enjoy cooking and experimenting with savoury ingredients too. Like with baking I don’t tend to limit myself to a single regional cuisine although I do go through phases of cooking a lot of Indian, Thai, Italian or Mexican Food (in addition to spots of nostalgia-induced cooking of some of the German dishes I grew up with). The Peppermongers had asked me to come up with a few savoury recipes using their peppers and here is the first one – a North African twist on the classic steak au poivre (or pepper steak). Pepper steak is a tried and tested classic that
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Vegan Meringue & an article
You might remember that a while back I got all excited about what I like to call vegan ‘meringue’, i.e. a gel made from boiled flax seeds and that can be whipped just like egg whites, and that I started replacing egg whites with flax seed gel in marshmallows and mousse au chocolate. Well, I was so excited about this discovery (and the slight lack around the web of useful recipes using it), I went out and wrote an article about it which is included in Chickpea magazine’s Spring 2014 edition. The article includes a recipe for making flax seed gel as well as a few recipes using it, including a recipe for vegan marshmallows. It is this last recipe which I am most proud of, because it was just so darn difficult to get right. There was about a month when there was no surface left in our kitchen that wasn’t at some point covered in marshmallow splatter, my
Panna Cotta with a Green Peppercorn and Mango Coulis
I have just come back from a weekend visiting one of my oldest friends from back home. Laura and I
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Moroccan-inspired Cubeb Pepper Mince Pies
As promised, here is the link to the second recipe I developed for the Peppermongers – a recipe for Moroccan-inspired mincemeat using Cubeb Pepper. I am clearly a fan of giving mincemeat my own unique twist and this version is inspired by Moroccan Tagines that I so adore and that often include dried fruits like prunes or dried apricots. The mincemeat gets a bit of kick from a generous pinch of cubeb pepper – a key ingredient in Morocco’s famous Ras el hanout spice mix and whose woody ‘Christmas tree’ aroma lends wonderful warmth to the mincemeat. For our first batch of mince pies this year, I made a rich almond and orange zest pastry filled with this spicy mincemeat and served it with a dollop of crème fraiche flavoured which I had flavoured with orange blossom water. This is also the mincemeat which made its way into copious batches of mincemeat scones, another delicious way of using up a glut of
German Peppernuts with Indonesian Long Pepper
If you have been reading my blog for a while now, you will have noticed that I am a big fan of bold and unusual flavours and that I don’t shy away from baking with ingredients we typically associate more with savoury preparations. So it was only ever going to be a matter of time before I started playing around with all the wonderful and different types of pepper. In fact I have been playing with pepper quite a lot over the recent months as I have been developing some recipes for the Peppermongers using their incredible range of different types of pepper, including lesser known varieties like Indonesian long pepper and cubeb pepper. I first came across the Peppermongers when I read their interview in CEREAL magazine last Christmas and it was that interview which really sparked my interest in creating sweets with pepper and kick-started what is still an incredible learning experience. Armed with Christine McFadden‘s Pepper bible and a whole plethora of different types
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