Something a bit different...Baba Ganoush

Baba ganoush

Writing about the houmous recipe the other day reminded me of another beautiful little dip/sandwich filling that I love: baba ganoush.  This yummy aubergine (eggplant) dish has a lovely smoky flavour and is great with flatbreads like roti (see the recipe here), as a dip with crudites or in a sandwich.  Makes a nice change.

We are hoping for some sunshine today to show off the best of the Welsh coast to my mum.  Fingers crossed ;-)

Wishing you a lovely weekend - I'll be back next week with some more tasty recipe ideas!

Houmous, hummus, humous?

1952 edition

Mr Happy Larder is on his way to London to collect my mum from the airport whilst I finish making the last preparations.  The house is clean and tidy, there's food ready for when they arrive.  And whilst I am happy and excited, I also know how lucky we are and feel for the people of Oklahoma who have suffered so badly as a result of the tornado - it never ceases to shock me how Nature can be so beautiful and yet so cruel at the same time.

As I was tidying up, I found yet another old cookbook.  This one is a 1952 edition of Duncan Hines' " Adventures in Good Cooking" - it's brilliant and has fabulous recipes as well as lots of little captions which make for very entertaining reading.  Here's a quote that I am sure would not appear in a cookbook nowadays: "A word to dinner givers.  Please have ashtrays larger than thimbles.".  That really made me laugh :-)  I will see if I can find some easy recipes in there that will appeal...

One that definitely appeals to me is this easy version of houmous.  I always used to eat the shopbought version, thinking it would be impossible to make it at home and get it to taste right.  Well, I was wrong - it's super easy and the homemade version tastes delicious.  No need for additives or similar - just a handful of simple ingredients.  This is perfect in salad stuffed pitta bread pockets, as a dip for crudites,...

Food when we were kids - potato roesti

My mum will be coming to visit on Wednesday for a few days and I want to have some nice things prepared for when she arrives.  I made the base for a coffee walnut cake and some jam donut muffins - all safely stored in the freezer now and ready to be finished off when she's here. 

As I was baking, I thought back to when we were kids and how much patience she must have had to bake and cook for all of us.  I thought the same when I cooked dinner last night because it was something she used to make for us (or at least a variation of it): potato roesti.  I am sure she would have made 30 - 40 of these to feed all of us kids and no doubt they all disappeared within minutes.  Her version, the traditional German "Reibekuchen", contains both flour and eggs but the ones I made last night are just potato, onion and seasoning. 

Both types go extremely well with homemade apple sauce or you could top them with a dollop of sour cream and some smoked salmon.  Delicious! 

We had the traditional apple sauce and black pudding (not everyone's cup of tea but we like it, especially when baked in the oven as it's not greasy at all).

I think they make for a very nice change and go with pretty much anything that normally calls for potatoes as a side dish.