Pete's Food Blog

Gnocci with sumac onions and brown butter pine nuts; Cookies; Next level baked potatoes; Pea soup;

1st March, 2022

Gnocci with sumac onions and brown butter pine nuts

2nd March, 2022

Cookies

Ingredients:

275 g butter. diced into 2 cm cubes

175 g soft brown sugar

75 g white sugar

4 tsp vanilla sugar

180 g large rolled oats (I use spelt)

155 rolled oats blitzed to form a bran

100 g plain flour

1 tsp cinnamon

½ tsp ground nutmeg

¼ tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

200 g raisins

1 egg

Method:

Combine all the sugars with 75 g of the butter.

In a large bowl, combine all the remaining ingredients except the butter and egg.

Place the remaining 200 g butter in a saucepan and heat and whisk for 6 minutes until deeply brown. Immediately pour over the butter and sugars mixture. Whisk together (it doesn't matter that the butter floats to the surface). Leave to cool for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally, then whisk in the egg.

Add the oats to the butter & sugar mixture and combine thoroughly using a spatula.

Cover the dough with cling film and leave to rest in the fridge for 2 hrs.

Preheat the oven to 180°C

Roll 40 g batches of dough into balls, placing 6-8 of them, well spaced, onto an oven tray lined with parchment. Flatten the balls down with the palm of your hand.

Bake each batch for 11-12 minutes.

4th March, 2022

Next level baked potatoes

Ingredients:

2 medium sized baking potatoes - well scrubbed and dried.

60 g stilton, gorgonzola or other blue cheese - crumbled

25g butter

1½ tbl olive oil

3 tbl double cream

Optional 20 g roughly chopped walnuts

Salt and pepper

Method:

Deeply prick the potatoes with a fork and bake at 200°C for 1 hour.

Meanwhile, in a medium sized bowl, use a knife to combine the cheese and butter and a good amount of freshly ground pepper.

When the potatoes are ready, cut in halves and using a teatowel to hold them, spoon out the flesh into the bowl with the cheese/butter. Thoroughly combine using a fork, then mix in the cream.

Brush the inside of the potato skins with olive oil, sprinkle with salt and bake for 8 minutes until crisp.

Spoon the filling into the crispy skins and bake for a further 15 minutes until golden.

Serve topped with walnuts together with coleslaw, chutney or sauerkraut.

Ingredients:

500 g dried peas

3 litres of water

1 onion finely chopped

3 Carrots peeled and cut in 1cm pieces

500 g smoked ham (fatty cut is possible in 1 cm pieces)

2 bay leaves

2 tsp marjoram

12 berries of allspice

1 tsp salt

(Sweet mustard to serve)

Method:

Combine ALL the ingredients in the slow cooker pot. Set the temperature to high for the first 4 hours. Thereafter leave the cooker on medium heat for at least 12 hrs. The longer the better.

Before serving, blitz with a stick blender until at least half of the peas are liquidized. Season to taste. Finns usually stir  1 tbl of mustard (see blog) into each bowl of soup.