Chocolate Cranberry Pumpkin Breakfast Bars

If you've been following this blog for a while, you'll know that each month I like to play along at the Secret Recipe Club.  The club has over a hundred members, divided into four groups, and each month one member is assigned (in secret) to another member from their group.  That person then selects a recipe (or more) to make, photograph, and prepare a blog post - all in secret.  Then everyone in the group posts their recipe on the same day, and of course the secret is then out.  It's a always a thrill to find out who has posted something from your own blog, and is a great way to meet and discover some new blogs.   If you are a food blogger and interested in joining the Secret Recipe Club, be sure to check out the Join SRC page.

This month I was assigned to  A Kitchen Hoor's Adventures, hosted by Christine, who says she has been in the kitchen since she could see over the counter-top.  Christine's cooking and baking took a healthy twist a few years back when she joined Weight Watchers and lost about 100 pounds - wow, just wow!  Christine loves to cook healthy, low-fat fare for her husband and dog, Missy, and she even appeared on Emeril Live with her Elegant Sweet Potato Skins.

Christine's blog has an easy to use recipe index (something I always like to see on a good blog), which made searching through the hundreds of recipes she has posted very easy, and there were plenty of great looking dishes that appealed to me.  I've bookmarked a few to try at a later date:  Roasted Mushroom & Goat Cheese Alfredo, Portobello Stroganoff, (clearly I have a thing for mushrooms and pasta), and Peanut Ginger Stir-Fry over Soba Noodles.  In the end though, I'm always looking for something for a quick and easy breakfast-on-the-run, and it was Christine's Cranberry Pumpkin Breakfast Cookies that were calling to me.

I'm ashamed to admit that breakfast, along with a cup of coffee, is often something that happens in the car on the way to work these day, so these were ticking all the right boxes for me - packed with enough wholesome goodness to see me through to lunchtime, and very portable.

I did make a couple of very small changes to the original recipe.  Firstly, the recipe calls for canned pumpkin puree.  This is something which is simply not available in my country, so I steamed up some fresh pumpkin and then mashed up the required amount.  Secondly the recipe uses egg substitute, but I just used a regular egg.  Also I didn't have all the spices that Christine used in her recipe, so I just swapped it out for mixed spice.  And lastly, because I am an inherently lazy person, instead of spending time forming the mixture into little balls to make cookies, I just pushed the whole lot into a slice tin and made them into bars.

These bars have great texture, with nice bits of crunch coming through from the toasted quinoa and sunflower seeds, and lovely bursts of flavour from the cranberries.  I don't have a particularly sweet tooth, but did feel I would have liked a little more sweetness, and next time around (yes there will definitely be a next time) I'm going to try adding a bit of honey or maple syrup.  This time around though I added a chocolate topping.  This added just that little something I was looking for, and let's face it who doesn't want to start the day with a little bit of chocolate!  This also enables you to pass off what is really a very healthy little snack as something slightly more indulgent - "put some chocolate on top of it and they'll never know they're eating something healthy" are words to live by!

Chocolate Cranberry Pumpkin Breakfast Bars Recipe
Adapted, just barely, from this recipe
from A Kitchen Hoor's Adventures

For the bars:
1 cup pureed pumpkin
1/4 cup apple sauce
2-1/2 teaspoons mixed spice
2 cups jumbo rolled oats
1/2 cup toasted quinoa
1 cup dried cranberries
1/2 cup sunflower seeds
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 egg, lightly beaten

For the topping:
100g (3-1/2 oz) cacao butter, gently melted
30g (1 oz) cacao powder
1/4 cup honey or maple syrup
pinch salt

Preheat oven to 180 degrees C (350 degrees F), and lightly grease a 32cm x 18cm (13in x 7in) slice tin.

In a large mixing bowl, combine all of the ingredients for the bars.  Once everything is thoroughly combined, empty everything into the slice tin and press well, evening out the surface.

Bake in the preheated oven for 15 to 20 minutes (mine took about 18 minutes), until golden brown.

Remove from the oven and set tin on a wire rack.  Leave to cool completely.

Mix topping ingredients together well, pour over the top of the slice, and then set in the fridge until the topping has set.

Slice into bars and enjoy - on the run or at your leisure!

I hope you enjoy this dish as much as I did, and visit the links below to check out all the other great dishes my Secret Recipe Club friends made.

An InLinkz Link-up

Paprika Roasted Prawns with Tomato Nectarine Salad - Salad Days # 2

This is one of my favourite summer salads - it's fresh and vibrant, and has great texture.  There have been numerous versions around of the nectarine and tomato salad - with good reason.  They are surprisingly good together - the sweet, juicy nectarines are a perfect foil to the more acid-sweetness of the tomatoes.  It makes a great side salad to just about anything, but I like to amp things up a bit by adding some peppery salad leaves and some paprika roasted prawns to make a complete meal.

Now before I share the recipe, I want to talk a bit more about salads in general.  I've said it here a dozen times or more ... I love salads.  A big bowl, substantial salad is hands down my favourite meal any time of the year.  Such is my love of salad, that I'm challenging myself to come up with a different salad every day for the month of February - that's 28 days of salads - and I plan to share as many of them as I can with you.  I'll also be doing some flashbacks to some of my favourite salads I've shared in the past.

What's more, I'm giving you the opportunity to share some of your favourite salads with me too.  Have a favourite salad you'd like to share?  Simply link up your salad recipe using the linky tool at the bottom of this post.  The linky will be open all month, and you can join in any day or every day, and link as many recipes as you like.  Feel free to grab the Salad Days badge from the sidebar to include in your post if you'd like to.  There's really no rules around linking up, other than please, use your manners and link your post back to this one.  Linking old posts is fine too, just please edit them to include the back link.

I always find that thinking about salads sparks the most creativity in me around food, and I thought I would share with you some of my suggestions for creating a great salad of your own.

Salads are not just summer fare.  I like a salad which is substantial enough to constitute a meal in its own right, and this can be surprisingly easy to achieve in winter when all sorts of root vegetables are in season.  So what are my salad rules?

Firstly, a good salad should ideally, in my opinion, contain some form of protein.  This could come in the form of:

• Cheese - grilled haloumi, feta, blue cheese, brie, soft goats-milk cheeses, bocconcini or mozzarella are all great in salads
• Poultry - try chicken, duck or quail
• Fish and seafood - salmon, smoked white fish, prawns, lobster, crab, squid, mussels are all wonderful additions to any salad
• Meat - personally I don't use much meat in my salads other than perhaps some chorizo sausage or some crispy prosciutto or pancetta, but you could certainly experiment with the inclusion of some rare lamb or beef
• Nuts and seeds - I like cashews, pecans, walnuts, pine nuts, hazelnuts, almonds, pistachios, peanuts, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds and sesame seeds
• Pulses & legumes - try chickpeas, lentils, cannellini beans, lima beans, borlotti beans
• And yes, if you must, tofu - I have to say it definitely wouldn't find its way into any salad of mine, but it would certainly be a good inclusion for those whose gastronomic ethos doesn't extend to the consumption of various other forms of protein and, apparently, some people even like it.

Secondly, I like a grain of some sort - noodles, pasta, rice, quinoa, couscous, croutons are a few suggestions. It is useful to know, if your diet doesn't include any animal products, that pulses combined with grains form a complete protein.

Thirdly, a great meal in a salad should have great texture and colour - consider the inclusion of some fruit (fresh or dried) and fresh herbs (mint, coriander, flat-leaf parsley, basil, tarragon are all wonderful in salads).

And lastly, your salad should have a great dressing which pulls the whole meal together - it's the dressing which really balances out all the ingredients you have chosen for your salad and creates beautiful layers of flavour.

Above all, don't be afraid to experiment and come up with your own wonderful creations. Like all experimenting in the kitchen, not everything will be a success, but along the way you will learn a great deal about flavours and textures that work well together, and you will without doubt get many pleasant surprises.

Paprika Roasted Prawns with Tomato Nectarine Salad Recipe
Click here for a printable copy of this recipe

No need to follow quantities too literally here - use your instincts, and this can easily be multiplied to feed any number of people

For each person allow:
100g-150g (3-1/2 to 5 oz) raw prawns
1x large, ripe nectarine, stone removed and cut into wedges
6-8 cherry tomatoes, halved, use a variety of colours if you can get them
large handful of peppery salad leaves such as rocket and mizuna
handful of flat leaf parsley, roughly chopped

To flavour the prawns:
1-2 teaspoons smoky paprika (depending on your tastes)
1-2 tablespoons olive oil (or more, depending on the quantity of prawns you are cooking)
flaky sea salt & freshly ground black pepper

Dressing (this will probably make enough for two generous servings):
1 tablespoon white balsamic vinegar
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon maple syrup
flaky sea salt & freshly ground black pepper

Preheat oven to 180 degrees C (350 degrees F).

Meanwhile make the dressing - place all the ingredients in a small jar, cover, and shake until everything is well combined.  Taste and adjust seasonings to your liking.  Set aside.

In a small bowl mix together the paprika, olive oil, flaky sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.  Toss the prawns in the bowl until they are all well coated, then place prawns in a single layer in an ovenproof dish.  Place dish in the oven and roast until the prawns are just cooked through.  This will only take about 5 minutes so keep an eye on them.

Place the nectarines, cherry tomatoes, and half the parsley in a bowl, pour over half of the dressing, and toss to combine everything well.  Leave to stand while the prawns are cooking to allow the juices from the nectarines and cherry tomatoes to "meld" with the dressing.

Arrange salad greens on a serving platter, and nestle the nectarines and tomatoes (with their dressing) in amongst the leaves.  Arrange the cooked prawns over the top, drizzle with the remaining dressing, and finish with a sprinkling of the remaining parsley.

Serve immediately.

What's your favourite salad?  I'd love you to tell me about ... better yet, why not share it.

Saffron Roasted Tomatoes with Labneh and Triple Tomato Quinoa Risotto with Black Olives & Feta

For the first time since I started this blog, some five and a half years ago, I'm experiencing some serious writer's block.  I've been trying to write this post for the last week, and every time I sit down at the desk to write I allow myself to be distracted by just about anything else - that great "crack house" that is Pinterest (who of us can't get lost in that for hours), a little bit of filing (even though filing is my least favourite thing to do), a couple of scraps of paper, a magazine, I've even developed an uncommon interest in the tiniest speck of dust.  Pretty much anything to distract me from the admission that perhaps I have nothing to say!

Right now it's a glorious Sunday morning, the sun is shining, the birds are singing, the cicadas are chirping, and it is taking every shred of willpower I possess to resist the siren call of the sea and sand.  But I've vowed not to hit the beach until this post is done, so perhaps I better get on with it.

I fully intended to bring you these glorious saffron-roasted tomatoes last week, when my friends and I at I Heart Cook Clubs were exploring the theme Along the Spice Trail with our current chef, Diana Henry.  For reasons already disclosed, that just didn't happen.  Which is sad, because withholding these from you is nothing short of a travesty. On a positive note though, this is Pot Luck week at IHCC, so I still get to share this plate of deliciousness with you.  When I brought you these Maple Roasted Tomatoes, way back when my blog was in its infancy, I thought I was really onto something, and I've been making them that way ever since.  Taking inspiration however from Diana's book A Change of Appetite, and adding harissa and saffron into the mix elevates these tomatoes to something positively sublime.  The kick of heat from the harissa, and the earthiness of the saffron, lend perfect balance to the sweet tomatoes, and some cooling tang from garlicky, herby labneh on top is the perfect accompaniment.

I didn't depart too much from Diana's recipe, though I pretty much ignored quantities and just used what suited me. This is the kind of dish where you really don't need to adhere to things too closely, which is something I always like in a recipe.  You need to begin by making your labneh ... Set a sieve over a bowl and line it with a paper towel or piece of clean muslin.  Add a few good dollops of natural yoghurt to the sieve, and place in the fridge for several hours until all the liquid has drained away, and you are left with something the consistency of thick cream cheese.  I use lovely thick Greek yoghurt that really only takes a couple of hours, but depending on the yoghurt you start with it may take up to 24 hours.  Once yoghurt has reached it's desired consistency, remove from sieve to a small bowl and mix in a clove of crushed garlic, some chopped herbs of your liking, and season with salt and pepper.  Now onto the tomatoes ... Choose several of your favourite tomatoes - I used a variety of tomatoes picked straight from the garden.  Cut them in half and lay them in a single layer in an ovenproof dish.  In a small bowl mix together a generous slosh or two of olive oil, two or three tablespoons of harissa, and a good pinch of saffron threads.  Pour the mixture over the tomatoes, and turn them to make sure they are well coated all over.  Set the tomatoes cut side up, drizzle liberally with maple syrup, and season generously.  Roast them in a preheated oven, 190 degrees C (375 degrees F) for around 45 minutes, remove from oven, and leave to cool slightly.  Arrange the roasted tomatoes on a platter and top with good dollops of the labneh.  Drizzle with any of the cooking juices, and strew a few toasted almonds and coriander leaves over the top to finish.

These are sensational served warm or at room temperature.  I tossed some of them with a few peppery rocket leaves and served them with this harissa marinated fish.

As is frequently the case in my house, however, I did end up with quite a lot of leftovers, which I decided to turn into risotto.  Since I'm on a bit of a "health-kick" at the moment, I experimented with using quinoa for my risotto instead of the traditional arborio rice, and I have to say I was pretty pleased with the results.  The quinoa had a really pleasant nutty flavour and slight chew to it, but the best thing of all was that I wasn't left with that heavy, weighed down kind of feeling afterwards.  This delivered all the comforting satisfaction that you expect from a risotto, with none of the "heft".  I love bringing layers of flavour and texture to a dish, and I achieved that here by using tomatoes three ways - the leftover saffron roasted tomatoes, a few sun-dried tomatoes, and finished off with a few fresh tomatoes.  The other great thing I discovered about using the quinoa in this risotto, is that it reheated really well the next day, which cannot generally be said for a risotto made with arborio rice.  Making risotto with quinoa is definitely set to become a regular feature in my kitchen now, and I can't wait to experiment with a few different flavours.  In the meantime, I hope you'll give this one a try.

On that note, I'm off to the beach now.  Enjoy what's left of your weekend xo

Triple Tomato Quinoa Risotto with Black Olives & Feta Recipe
a Couscous & Consciousness original

olive oil

1 clove garlic, finely chopped

1/2 small leek, finely sliced

1 cup quinoa

juice of 1/2 lemon

2 to 3 cups of vegetable stock, hot

3x saffron-roasted tomatoes (= 6x halves), roughly chopped (see above)

3 or 4 sun-dried tomatoes, roughly chopped

half a dozen fresh cherry tomatoes, halved

generous handful of black olives

chunks of crumbled goat feta - as much or as little as you like

flaky sea salt & freshly ground black pepper

fresh basil leaves, roughly torn, to finish

Heat a good slosh of olive oil in a heavy based pan over medium heat.  Add the leek and garlic to the pan - cooking until they just begin to soften - take care not to burn the garlic.  Almost as soon as you can smell the garlic it is time to add the quinoa to the pan.  Continue cooking the quinoa with the leek and garlic, stirring constantly, until every single grain is coated with the oil and it begins to appear a little "toasted".

Now is the time to add the lemon juice, and continue stirring until virtually all the liquid has been absorbed by the quinoa.  Then reduce the heat a little, and begin to add the stock, one ladleful at a time - stirring constantly until each ladleful has been absorbed before adding the next.

Keep stirring and adding stock until the quinoa has plumped up and is tender (but not mushy) to the bite - this will probably take around 20 minutes.  Round about the 10 minute mark, stir in the chopped roasted tomatoes and sun-dried tomatoes.

Once the quinoa is cooked, remove from the heat, stir in the fresh tomatoes, olives, feta and basil.  Taste, then season to your liking with flaky sea salt and freshly ground pepper.  Stir to combine, then cover and leave to rest for 5 minutes to enable all the flavours to infuse.

Serve immediately, with some extra fresh basil on top.

If you would like to get to know Diana Henry a little better, and to see what everyone else has cooked up this week, then do go and visit my friends at I Heart Cooking Clubs and check out the links (who knows, you might even want to join the journey and cook along with us) ...

... or check out A Change of Appetite and Diana's many other great titles available from Amazon USA, Amazon UK, or Fishpond NZ.

Green Tomato Cake with Maple Mascarpone Frosting

I was surprised to notice the other day that I've been blogging for a little over three and a half years now - where did that time go?!  Less surprising though, was the realisation that I've learnt a thing or two in that time.  Not to sound big-headed, mind you - I do know that what I don't know still massively surpasses what I do know.  But I have picked up the odd thing along the way.

For example, I now know that if you come up with a great idea for a cake that you just know you're going to want to write a blog post about, then it's not such a good idea to bake your cake in the middle of the night and thus not be able to take a decent photo of said cake.  I also know that having decided to set the cake aside in order to capture a good photo in the morning, you shouldn't let someone cut a big hunk out of the cake for supper!  I also know that trying to hurriedly snap off a good photo at 7.00am, before getting ready for work, is going to be no more successful than capturing a decent photo the night before - not only is the light still poor, but working in haste will render 9 out of 10 photos shaky and out of focus.

All these things I know, and yet somehow I still came to break every single one of those rules in the preparation of this post.  I tell you this for two reasons.  Firstly, so that hopefully you won't make the same foolish mistakes I did;  and secondly, and really more importantly, in the hope that you will not judge this cake harshly on the basis of my mediocre photos.  After all, the idea of a green tomato cake might be a little scary to some of you, and it's really going to take some kind of killer photo to sell it. 

Well, I clearly failed on the "knock-out" photo front, but I'm urging you to look beyond the photos, and give this cake a try, for, scary though this may sound, I can promise you that this cake is a stunner.  Trust me on this.

Pedestal cake plate courtesy of Stevens Homewares, Nelson (see details below)

I stumbled upon this idea after I'd been staking up my abundant tomato crop, and a whole lot of green tomatoes fell off the vines.  I did a bit of a google search on green tomatoes, thinking maybe I would come up with a good chutney recipe, when I stumbled upon this recipe from Paula Deen for a green tomato cake.  That definitely peeked my curiosity, and made me think it would be similar in many ways to a carrot cake.  So then I turned to my Mum's recipe for carrot cake,  tricked it up a little, and added a maple and mascarpone frosting using the mascarpone cheese I made last week.

The result is surprisingly light, definitely lighter than your average carrot cake, and incredibly moist.  I served this to several people without telling them what it was, and no-one picked that it had green tomatoes in it.  In fact, once cooked the green tomato becomes almost like apple in both taste and texture.  This was so good I've had requests for a repeat performance, and trust me when I tell you that does not often happen with my baking.  Personally, I can't wait to give it another try, and I think that next time I might make it into little mini cakes.  Might even get a decent photo next time!!

Green Tomato Cake with Maple Mascarpone Frosting Recipe

Click here for a printable copy of this recipe

250g (9 oz) plain flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

pinch of salt

100ml (3.5 fl oz) sunflower oil

100ml (3.5 fl oz) olive oil

250g (9 oz) soft brown sugar

3x eggs

2x green tomatoes, finely diced

juice of 1/2 a lemon

100g (3.5 oz) toasted walnuts, roughly chopped

For the frosting

2x cups mascarpone cheese

1/4 cup maple syrup

extra toasted walnuts, a generous handful

Preheat oven to 180 degrees C (350 degrees F).  Lightly grease and line a 23cm (9 inch) cake tin.

Sift together flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt.  Set aside.

In a separate, large bowl, using an electric beater, cream together the oil and sugar.  Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after adding each one until the egg is fully incorporated.  Add the diced green tomatoes, lemon juice, and walnuts, and stir to combine.

Add the sifted dry ingredients, and gently fold in until everything is well combined.

Tip the mixture into the prepared cake tin, smooth the top, and bake in the preheated oven for 45-50 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean.

Remove from the oven and allow to cool in the tin for 10-15 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to cool.

Prepare the frosting, by beating together the mascarpone cheese and maple syrup until smooth, then spread over the top and sides of the cooled cake.  Decorate the top with toasted walnuts.

Props courtesy of Stevens Homewares Ltd 

Stevens Delicious Cake Pedestal 

This will be a submission to Sweet New Zealand, inspired by Alessandra Zecchini and hosted this month by Michele at Greedybread.

Wild Rice, Black Cherry & Goat Cheese Salad and Cookbook Sundays # 4

It's Saturday evening in my part of the world, which means that it's time to dust off another of my cookbooks and share something with you for Cookbook Sundays.  If you'd also like to scare a few moths out of some of your own seldom used cookbooks and join the fun, you'll find full details later on in this post.

It's also New Year's Eve here and, although I have no plans for partying, I still felt compelled to make something a bit special and seemingly celebratory for my dinner.  At the same time, since I've been a bit unwell this week, I wanted something that was both healthy and slightly comforting.

For healthy and comforting, one of the best places to turn in my opinion is the divine Heidi Swanson.  A couple of weeks ago I shared a recipe from her first book Super Natural Cooking;  however, I thought it was time I turned to her more recent book Super Natural Every Day.

I came across a recipe for "Whole Grain Rice Salad", which certainly sounded wholesome enough, but that seriously doesn't sound like celebration fare, now does it?  Still the picture in the book looked pretty and a read through of the ingredients convinced me that this dish could indeed be a festive dinner.  Now, really, don't you think that a dish of wild rice, studded with black cherries, toasted hazelnuts, goat cheese and tossed with a cherry vinaigrette, and which looks like this, deserves a better name than Whole Grain Rice Salad?

I did change things a bit from the original recipe.  Firstly, I used half wild rice and half brown rice, since my budget didn't run to using all wild rice.  The original recipe claimed to serve six, but since I didn't have five other people to feed, I reduced the amount of rice by half.  But as I still wanted this to be a substantial meal, and I wanted there to be leftovers, I kept all the other quantities roughly the same.  For the dressing I adjusted the ratio of vinegar to olive oil as I found it to be just a bit too, well ... vinegary.  I also added a bit of maple syrup to the dressing as I felt it need just a bit more sweetness - this of course might depend on how sweet your cherries are.  I replaced walnuts with toasted hazelnuts, just because I love them and also because I love the way shape of the hazelnuts echoes the shape of the cherries.  And, lastly, because I am ever one to gild the lily, I added some pomegranate seeds.

Wild Rice, Black Cherry & Goat Cheese Salad

(previously known as Whole Grain Rice Salad)

adapted from a recipe by Heidi Swanson from

Super Natural Every Day

Serve 2 as a substantial meal or

serve 3 as a light meal or

serve 4 as a side dish

Vegetarian

(for a vegan alternative omit the goat cheese)

Click here for a printable copy of this recipe

125g (4.5 oz) wild rice

125g (4.5 oz) brown rice

3 large handfuls of baby spinach leaves

2/3 cup toasted hazelnuts

200g (7 oz) black cherries

125ml (4.2 fl oz) extra virgin olive oil

40ml (1.4 fl oz) white balsamic vinegar

1 teaspoon maple syrup (optional)

flaky sea salt

handful of crumbled goat cheese

small handful of baby basil leaves

small handful of pomegranate seeds (optional)

Put the rice into a large saucepan with plenty of salted water, and boil until tender - about 30-45 minutes.

Meanwhile, make the cherry vinaigrette:  remove the pits from and combine one third of the cherries in a blender with the olive oil, vinegar, salt and maple syrup.  Blend until the mixture is smooth, taste and adjust any of the elements as necessary.  Set aside.

Once the rice is cooked, drain, and put into a large bowl along with spinach leaves and most of the hazelnuts.  Toss together well until the spinach begins to wilt slightly.  Add a generous amount of the dressing and toss well.  Taste and add more salt if necessary.

Cut the rest of the cherries in half and remove the pits.  Then stir most of them into the rice.

Tip everything out onto a platter.  Strew the remaining cherries and hazelnuts over the top, along with chunks of the goat cheese and the pomegranate seeds.  Finally stud with the sprigs of basil and serve immediately.

This is a great dish for a summer celebration - packed full of amazing flavours and textures - and I do hope you'll try it.

This last year has not been without its difficulties, and I won't be sad to close the door on it in a few hours time.  However, there have also been wonderful moments in my year - new friendships forged, the kindness of strangers, memorable travels, and the opportunity to start a new life in a new home and city.  Most of all I am immensely grateful for all of you who stop by here regularly, who take the time to read what I have to say, leave me your comments, and lend me your support and wisdom.  I am optimistic about the year ahead, and for all of you I wish you a happy and inspirational time in 2012.

 

Earlier I mentioned Cookbook Sundays.  What is that all about, you are perhaps wondering.  Well, if you're anything like me you have dozens of cookbooks gathering dust on your bookshelves, some of which have never even been cooked from.  Sure I spent hours browsing through them when I first bought them, marking all the recipes I was going to make with little post-it notes, and yet still those books languish in the bookcase and never make it to the kitchen.  There are others from which I have made but one recipe which was such a resounding success that I've made it over and over again, and yet somehow I've never made anything else from that book.  Sound a bit familiar?!

Take comfort - you are not alone, and now Cookbook Sundays is your opportunity to change that.  Every Sunday I'm going to share with you a recipe that I haven't made before from one of my ever expanding collection of cookbooks.  And, because I know that if you have read this far then you are guilty of this too, I'm inviting you to join in with me.  Each week my Cookbook Sundays post will have a linky for you to share something you've cooked from one of your cookbooks.

The rules for joining in are simple:

1. Your post must state the author and the title of the book your recipe has come from.
2. Your post must mention Cookbook Sundays and link back to this post.  Including the Cookbook Sundays badge is optional, but always appreciated.
3. You may submit as many entries as you like, and you may use the same cookbook as many times as you like.  Old posts are also welcome.
4. Lastly,  remember that what goes around, comes around - one of the reasons you are participating in this is because you want people to read your posts, so do the right thing and go and visit a few of the other participants. 

Now, go and dust off those cookbooks and get cooking!  Use the linky tool at the end of this post to submit your entry/entries - simply scroll down to where it says "You are next ... Click here to enter", and then follow the instructions.  The linky will be open for one week.

Lastly, if you would like to use the Cookbook Sundays badge in your post, simply copy the code in the box beside the badge below and paste it into your post.  Feel free to also use it in your sidebar if you wish.

<a href="http://couscous-consciousness.blogspot.com/p/cookbook-sundays.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1199.photobucket.com/albums/aa476/Susan_Busch/CookbookSundaysBadge.jpg" border="0" alt="CookbookSundays"></a>

I'm also sharing this post at Souper (and Sammies & Salads) Sundays hosted by my lovely friend Deb, at Kahakai Kitchen, and at My Meatless Mondays hosted by Chaya at My Sweet & Savory.

Solitary Pleasures

Some of you will be surprised to know that I am a woman of few words in the morning. It's simply not my best time of day, and just being upright is challenging enough for me without being required to make any kind of meaningful conversation within the first hour of being roused. Once my general reticence to start the day has subsided, the first words that I usually utter are "what would you like for dinner?". The response usually goes along the lines of "I don't know - I'm not even dressed yet". Whilst this might be a fairly predictable reply, I'm sure you'll agree it's not particularly helpful!

Occasionally though my partner will be working late, or might be in a totally different "food mood" to me and will suggest that I fix something for myself and he will organize his own dinner. I used to be totally hopeless at cooking just for myself - solo dining used to be something like a couple of boiled eggs or a few crackers and a piece of cheese. Now I love such opportunities - these are the times when I can make something for myself that my partner doesn't like, or indulge in something that might be too extravagent to cook for a crowd but which is a wonderful treat for one.

When just such an opportunity presented itself the other morning, my mind immediately leapt to thoughts of two of my spring time favourites - asparagus and scallops. Casting my mind around for inspiration on how to put them together I remembered something I had seen Giada de Laurentiis do on Food TV (have I mentioned that I am a Food TV addict?) - a grilled asparagus and melon salad.

Using that as my inspiration I decided to use peaches instead of melon - this is after all not the season for melon, and I knew that any melons in the shops at present would be watery and tasteless. I know it's not the season for peaches either, but I have a peach secret ... in my opinion, even when they are in season, peaches these days just seem to be usually flabby, thick skinned and horrible - they taste nothing like the peaches of my childhood. But I have discovered these fantastic tinned peaches from Spain, available from the Mediterranean Warehouse, which of course you can have all year round.

I drizzled the asparagus with a little olive oil, sprinkled them with a little flakey sea salt, put them on a hot grill pan, along with the peaches, until tender and charred.

Meanwhile, I popped a couple of slices of prosciutto in a hot oven until crisp. I treated the scallops to a tamarind and maple syrup glaze, which I marinated them in for a while, before then cooking them also on the hot grill pan. They literally take only a couple of minutes.

Some peppery wild rocket I had picked up at the organic vege market went into the final assembly, along with a little drizzle of very good extra virgin olive oil, and I have to say this was a taste sensation. I know that I will be making this again and again.

The quantities in the recipe following are for one serving, but you could easily just multiply that if you wanted to serve more people - this would be fantastic served on a big platter for a light but luxurious lunch.

Tamarind Glazed Scallops
with Grilled Asparagus & Peaches Recipe

Click here for a printable copy of this recipe

Serves 1 or several

For each person:

6x asparagus spears

2x peach halves

6-8 scallops

1x slice of prosciutto

(I actually used 2 slices, because I am greedy)

handful of rocket leaves

extra virgin olive oil

Tamarind Glaze:

2T tamarind concentrate (refer Source Guide)

(you could use the pulp which you soak and then drain,

but I prefer to use the concentrate)

2T maple syrup

1tsp olive oil

salt & pepper

(this amount would easily be enough for 12x scallops)

Preheat oven to 180 degrees, with an empty baking tray in the oven while it heats.

Mix all ingredients for the Tamarind Glaze together in a small bowl. Add scallops to the bowl, making sure they are all completely covered with the glaze, and leave to marinate while you prepare the other ingredients.

Place slice/s of prosciutto on the hot baking tray, and place in the oven until crispy - this will really only take a few minutes, so keep an eye on it.

Drizzle a little bit of olive oil over the asparagus spears, and place on a very hot grill pan. Place peach halves on the grill pan at the same time. Sprinkle a little flakey sea salt over the asparagus and cook until charred and tender.

Remove asparagus from the pan. Continue cooking the peaches. Shake excess marinade off the scallops and add them to the pan. Cook until caramelised on each side - this literally takes just seconds on each side.

To assemble, place asparagus on plate. Arrange peach halves and scallops over the top. Strew a few torn up rocket leaves over the top. Crumble the crispy prosciutto over the top of everything, and finish with a drizzle of the best extra virgin olive oil you can lay your hands on.

I'm sharing this post at Food on Friday: Scallops, hosted by Carole at Carole's Chatter.