Recipe Watercress and hazelnut pesto with home made pasta
This delightful recipe is a direct result of my exceptionally excellent food box this week, from the local company Food Float. Amongst many wonderful items were two big bunches of watercress. Now I love watercress, I love its vibrancy, pepperiness and it is a really good source of vitamin A so very healthy. I knew if I did not use it up it, it would wilt in the back of the fridge and really it should be eaten as fresh as possible. Also on my to-do list was to make some fresh pasta for a workshop in a couple of weeks so I was delighted to dig out a fantastic recipe by food writer Florence Knight. What I love about this recipe is the texture and taste of the toasted hazelnuts, they really bring something special to the plate. Hazelnut skin is quite bitter and needs to be removed – if you can buy them peeled- fantastic, if not boil them for 4 mins in water with some baking powder, plunge them straight into cold water and the skins should come off with ease.
makes 1 small container
- Hazelnuts 75g, blanched, toasted and cooled
- Parmesan 50g
- Salt ½ tsp
- Watercress 90g, thick stalks removed
- Garlic ¼ small clove
- Olive oil 190ml
- Black pepper
- Nutmeg
- Put the cooled hazelnuts, parmesan and salt into a food processor and pulse a few times to a coarse crumb.
- Add the watercress and garlic, and pulse again a further few times.
- Scrape down the sides of the machine and gradually pour over the oil until you have your desired texture.
- Grind over a little fresh black pepper and nutmeg, and adjust the seasoning to taste. Spoon the pesto into a container, cover the surface with a little oil and refrigerate until needed.
Ginger nut biscuits Recipe
There were quite a few benefits from being brought up in a hotel as a child. One glass of coke a night from the bar, and quite exciting midnight feasts when I had friends to stay. In the dead of night we would creep down and rustle through the cupboards in the pantry. Now, it may sound like there would have been huge amounts of goodies to choose from in our raid, but pickings were few as everything was cooked from scratch. However, I do fondly remember bars of Bournville chocolate, later to be replaced by Mernier and then later gigantic thick slabs of chocolate quite impossible to break down fast for little hands intent on a quick getaway.
There were two puddings made that required shop bought biscuits – Chocolate Fridge Cake – which required digestive biscuits and Ginger pudding – which I think, had simply layers of ginger nut biscuits, brandy and cream. Ginger nuts were a firm favourite of mine and any friends. Whilst I am not a huge fan of a shop-bought biscuit, there is something quite wonderful about these little spicy rounds and they are just perfect with a cup of tea. I have lots of variations of this tea time favourite but for today and in celebration of Great British Bake Off Biscuit week 2020– here they are. Super snappy and quick to make.
I will be making these Live on Instagram – so do have a look. Also why not subscribe and like (it is free) to my fledgling You Tube Channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVmAXYqcjutR67m5wxKAFKg
Ginger nut biscuit recipe
60g (2oz) unsalted butter
90g (3oz) golden syrup
125g (4oz) self-raising flour
2.5 tsp ground ginger
½ tsp bicarb of soda
1 tbsp of caster sugar
Preheat oven to 190C/fan 170C/Gas Mark 5. Line 2 baking sheets with greaseproof paper or non-stick mats
- Add butter and golden syrup to a pan and melt on a low heat. Leave to cool slightly.
- Sift flour, ground ginger and bicarb of soda into a bowl and stir in the sugar.
- Add the flour etc to cooled butter mixture and stir
- Make walnut size balls and space them evenly between the trays. They will spread!
- Flatten with the palm of your hand.
- Bake in the middle shelf for 14-15 min, depending on your oven, they should be a golden colour but not burnt round the edges
- Leave to cool in tray for a few min, before moving to a cooling rack.
- Remove from the oven and transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.