Overdue Avocado - Fruit No Waste Food challenge

Using up fruit was this month's No Waste Food Challenge hosted over at Elizabeth's Kitchen for Kate at Turquoise Lemons.  Now it may seem strange but we don't often have fruit that needs using up; I'm more of a 'when I want it I'll go and buy it and eat it there and then' kind of person when it comes to fruit.  A large swathe of the recipes out there for using up fruit seem to focus on bananas as well and as I can't stand the smell of them (it makes me nauseous) they aren't allowed in the house!
However - one fruit I occasionally forget about and then have to use up is avocados.  I love avocados; and I know they're a love it or hate it kind of thing, I think primarily because of the texture for a lot of people.  What I don't like is the whopping price tag stupormarkets seem to put on them, especially when they're often half the price in Aldi or the greengrocers.  As they're massively high in calories too I tend to just have them as an occasional treat.  I will get them when they're reduced on the CFC with the good old yellow sticker on but I find that they're invariably still too hard to eat so have to be stashed for a few days to ripen and soften up.  This is when I sometimes forget about them and end up having to chop some of the more brown portions out meaning any ideas of a pretty fan of slices for presentation has gone out of the window.  (I know, I know - how very 70's eh?!) 

So - a recipe where the avocado makes it's appearance in chunks or mashed would be a good one to utilise.  The obvious one is guacamole which I love but I fancied something different.  A warm cheesy treat on toasted bread... I give you - the avocado melt.  :-)
If you have any 'overdue' avocados to use make sure to chop any brown / black bits out as they will ruin the taste otherwise.  Just use the green bits.  Mash them with some grated cheese to your taste - I use mature cheddar for preference.  Season with some ground black pepper and a little splash of lemon or lime juice if liked.
Toast your bread - I use seeded wholegrain style stuff.  Spread liberally with the avocado and cheese mix and sprinkle a little additional cheese over the top then grill until melty and lovely.  Easy unctuous goodness packed with nutrients that would otherwise have gone in the bin - what could be better?  [Apologies for the lack of photo - having probs getting it off the card.]  If you have a couple of sad mushrooms or a tomato lurking in the fridge to use up then give them a quick slice (and cook in the case of the sh'rooms) and pop them on the toast before covering with the avocado and cheese.  This guy has some other ideas on the same lines.
There's info on the nutritional value and loads of recipes on this site amongst others   Apparently they're not as high in calories as I thought according to that site so if only the price would come down I'd have them more often.  :-)
Another of my fave ways of using up avocados is this lovely avocado and lime ice-cream I made before.  Do give it a try - it's waaay nicer than you might think if you've only had avocados as a savoury item before.

'Baking' for insomniacs - quick (non-baked) breakfast muffins

By muffins here I mean English ones - hence the 'breakfast' in the title - not the overpumped cake mix ones that seem to come in childs head sizes nowadays.  Ooh wait - I had this rant before right?

This recipe also isn't technically baked but it was made at some godawful hour of the morning. Just gone 5am really but as we switched to BST yesterday technically it was just after 6am. Either way my brain was WIDE AWAKE so that was that.
Now this month I have been tardy with my blog challenges – random recipes should have been in 2 days ago although in my defence it was with some surprise I realised it was April 1st today and not March 31st – oops! One of the other challenges I like is Turquoise Lemon’s ‘No Waste Food Challenge’ which for March was hosted by Elizabeth’s Kitchen and had the theme of eggs.

 One of the *freebie books I downloaded to my kindle some time back was the intriguing ‘Many Ways for Cooking Eggs’ by Mrs S.T. Rorer, a book from the late 1800’s / early 1900’s written by the cook for a substantial household it seems, and I think, in America. It’s one of those old books that have been converted to a digital format by volunteers who don’t want to lose these historical records. I’m fascinated by old cook books as much for the social history they tell you as for the (sometimes hilarious) recipes and thought I’d have a quick skim through that in search of an intriguing egg recipe. Although it’s packed with really random ways to serve eggs they all seemed to take the form of ‘make a sauce with X in it, hard boil / shirr etc your egg. Serve on sippets of toast in a platter and cover with the sauce and send to the table at once.’ Not really the inspiration I was looking for. Until I happened upon the ‘Eggs Benedict’ recipe and saw that it gave a quick muffin method that’s then cooked on a flat griddle on the hob. This was more like it. So – quick non-baked breakfast muffins it is for my entry (if they’ll still let me link in) to March’s egg themed no waste food challenge.
Made 8 muffins
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1.5 cups plain flour
0.5 tsp salt (after tasting the first one I’d up this to at least a full teaspoon)
1 tbsp melted butter
2 tsp baking powder
 >I then also added 0.5 tbsp wholegrain mustard to the mix for 2 muffins and a whole lot of ground pepper and some finely grated strong hard cheese to the mix for another 2.

Separate the eggs. Beat the milk into the yolks, then sieve in the flour bit by bit and beat this in. Add the salt and butter and beat in. Finally beat in the baking powder. The recipe calls for level teaspoons; my BP was out of date so I used slightly rounded ones.

In a separate bowl beat the whites vigorously – I did mine by hand and got them to what I believe would be called ‘soft peaks’. Fold them into the yolk/flour mix.
Cook in very well greased muffin rings on a griddle. I don’t have a griddle so used the frying pan I know has the most even heat distribution. Added a little olive oil and keep re-greasing the rings between batches; due to the size of the pan I could only do 2 at one.
The mix rises as it cooks – if you overfill the rings it will spill over the top! Oops!

About 2/3 full is right I found. Once the underside is nicely golden brown and the mix has risen ease a small knife around the inside of the ring before turning the whole thing over. Then carefully using a glove/ cloth etc ease the ring off – you’ll need to use something like the handle of the knife to press the muffin out from the ring at the same time.

>Once I had the second batch in the pan I split what mix was left and added the wholegrain mustard /cheese and pepper as mentioned above so had 4 plain and 2 in each flavor. I used to love the cheese and pepper muffins S’burys used to do so this is very exciting for me! You could also try adding a pinch of herbs or spices too – endless possibilities.

I had a plain one with a little cheese melted on. Very good indeed and pretty quick and easy – in fact it’s the cooking that took me the time – and cost me a few burnt finger tips – be careful breakfast buddies!
*It’s now 77p. In my version this recipe is 52% of the way into the book.

Another challenge recipe - Marmalade & Carrot Ginger Spice Bread

You'd be forgiven for thinking I'd gone blog challenge mad.  I've just realised that 4 out of the last 5 posts are linked to challenges.  This one's no different either!  It's been a bug I've been getting recently as it's been inspiring me to cook and try out different things so that must be a good thing yes?  There's some belters out there; sad to say I don't have the time to do as many as I'd like what with having to work (booorrring) and all but in the process of looking up different things to do you often stumble across interesting recipes, techniques and ideas.

This is one of those cases.  Whilst hunting down who originally wrote the marmalade ice-cream recipe I wrote about yesterday I saw a mention on a blog post of marmalade ginger bread.  This intriguing idea led me on a hunt round the t'internet to find a definitive recipe and also - whose it was.  This last is difficult as I've found exactly the same recipe several places but here seems to be the earliest.  I've adapted it but that's the base original.  I adapted it primarily because I wanted to use up some carrot (left over from the stuffed carrots I made for random recipes) and replace some of the flour with wholewheat.  I then discovered I had less golden syrup that the recipe called for so upped the amount of marmalade in it's place.  I also changed the spices and if I made it again I'd change them more. 
So for Turquoise Lemons' Preserves No Waste food challenge here's my unplanned yet snappily titled:

Marmalade & Carrot Ginger Spice Bread
75g butter
115g golden syrup
75g lemon marmalade
185g orange marmalade
100g carrot
50g wholewheat flour*
175g SR Flour
0.5 tsp BP
4tsp ground ginger
1tsp ground cinnamon

1tsp ground all spice (If you don't have this use 0.5tsp nutmeg and 0.5tsp clove)
1 large egg

Preheat oven to 170˚ / 160˚ on a fan oven.  Grease and line a tray / tin.

Melt the butter, golden syrup and marmalade together. I did mine in the microwave in a pyrex jug, heating for a minute at a time to avoid any boiling jam splashes.
Grate the carrot into a mixing bowl.
Sift the dry ingredients into the bowl on top of the carrot.  When you get to the end of the sifting and have all the wheat pieces left from the wholewheat flour give everything a last press to ensure any lumps of spices or flour are through the sieve then tip the wheat in.  We're sifting to add some air but don't want to lose the goodness brought by using some wholewheat flour.
Stir gently to coat the carrot in flour so it doesn't clump together then make a well in the centre.

Pour the melty butter, syrup and marmalade mix in and gently fold in.

Beat the egg (use the same pyrex jug - saves on washing up!) and add to the mix.  Fold in gently again so we don't lose all the lovely air.  You should have a batter that is slightly runny, but not totally liquid; a gloopy sort of consistency.  At this point I will mention that all of the recipes I saw also called for 'a little' or 2tbsp milk or warm water at this point.  I'd imagine if you're using a smaller egg maybe this would be needed but my egg was pretty big so I didn't feel extra liquid was necessary.

Pour into your tin/tray.  I used an 8" x 12" tray.
Bake.  Mine took 40 minutes in this tray.  Some recipes quoted up to an hour if using a smaller tray or a tin; therefore a greater depth of cake.  It's done when a skewer pushed in comes out clean - though do be aware it could hit a spot of marmalade so it's worth doing it in 2 or 3 different places.  The cake itself will be a nice golden brown and should spring back when pressed gently in the centre.

*I used 50g only of wholewheat flour as I hadn't made this recipe before and was already changing it with the addition of the carrot so I was wary of making it too heavy.  As it is the bake has come out moist from the carrot but stayed light and airy so you could add up to 100g I think and it still be a good light bake.  Don't forget the baking powder though!

Apparently like gingerbreads normally are, this is one of those bakes that improves after time; 3 days being the quoted timescale.  Having tried it fresh my current impression is that I'm inclined to switch the spices round more next time by swapping out some of the ginger.  At the moment the marmalade and general spices come through first then the ginger follows which seems a little unbalanced to me. However, I will come back in a few days and tell you how it is then.  As I did end up using less golden syrup and more marmalade than originally planned this may have tipped the balance of the flavours.  All in all I'm pleased though as it's stayed light, it's tasty, and it used up some odds and ends of marmalade and excess carrot innards.  :-)

Marmalade Ice-Cream, a No Waste food challenge

There's a No Waste food challenge set up over at Turquoise Lemons new for 2013.  Inspired by the 'love food hate waste' campaign Kate has come up with the spiffing idea of picking a common 'leftover' as the ingredient each month to use up.  This month's theme is preserves.  So I humbly offer - marmalade ice-cream.  I have adapted the original recipe but this came from the Observer Magazine colour supplement sometime in the late 90's; I think most likely to be '95-'97 but that's based on where it appears in my little notebook in comparison to where others are against my memories of what was in there when I went to uni and what got written in later.  If that makes sense.  So with appropriate thanks to the original author* this is my adapted version.  I feel the original recipe which just used orange marmalade and cream could be a little too rich so I use lemon or lime marmalade, or both, plus fresh zest and juice to zing it up.  It will depend what you have in that needs using up though.  This recipe uses nigh on a whole jar.  It's super easy to make and pretty quick; it's also pretty cheap, especially if you get the fruit on Aldi's super 6 or just get the cream only.  Massively unhealthy so enjoy in moderation!
*With thanks to Phil in the comments I am now sure this was originally a recipe of Sophie Grigsons from 'Sophie's Table'.  Originally published in 1990 it seems to have a second edition in '98 so I'm guessing that's when and why her recipe was in the mag I saw it in.

375g marmalade - this time I had lemon to use
2 limes
300ml double cream

Put marmalade in a bowl or - I used the container I will freeze the ice cream in.  This recipe makes one of these standard litre-ish sized containers full.
Zest the limes in then juice them really well into the bowl / container.  I use the 'microwave for 10-20 seconds then roll on the counter top' method before cutting the fruit open to get the most juice from lemons and limes.  Squish the pulp in too - it all means more flavour and less waste! 
Remember that frozen foods dull the taste sense which is why recipes always call for more sugar and more flavour than you'd think in ice-cream.  So don't be worried if you think it's too limey - it needs it.
Beat the cream until stiff - I used my FP here, bit easier on the arm muscles!
Fold it into the marmalade.
Freeze. 

That's it - none of that beating every few hours to keep the crystals small.  Every time I've made this previously I haven't and it's turned out fine, I think because you whip the cream and marmalade first.  It can be a little on the firm side so I'd advocate removal from the freezer 10 mins before serving.**  Yum!

**Edit - it wasn't nearly as solid this time, I think because I used the whisk on the FP where I've done it by hand before so it was undoubtedly better beaten.  As it is now I wouldn't stand it for any time, and 10 mins would make it a bit too melty!