Featured/ Sides & Snacks/ Vegetarian

Goat’s Cheese & Roasted Beetroot terrine

Featured/ Vegetarian

Rainspotting Porcini Mushroom Risotto

Bread/ Salads/ Vegetarian

Blackberry, Goats Cheese & Spelt Toast Salad

Newsletter

Inspiration/ Salads/ Vegetarian

Seize The Salad for World Ballet Day

Sustarian Living

Today is World Ballet Day and what better way to mark this occasion with a post relating to my very recent trip to watch the Nederlands Dans Theatre performing Stage One
in Rotterdam.
If there was ever something to kick start a focus on my fitness level, it has to be watching contemporary dance. Last Saturday evening I was treated to a mix of movement, light and sound that stimulated all of my senses. Bodies moved with liquid precision. Streams of emotion, sweat and solid fleshy forms morphed before me into new shapes as they told their tale. It was truly memorising and inspirational.

Sustarian Living

My friend and I left the theatre full of body lust and chatter. Continuing our evening by hitting the damp & drizzly streets of Rotterdam. As seems to be the case with me – I arrive, it rains! Once we’d done the rounds and talked our throats sore we headed back to the Hotel. Why is it, when you arrive back at any given hotel at a small hour in the morning there is always that intense urge to raid the mini bar? As it happened, the more we walked through the mini bar menu (and the accompanying astronomical price tag of each item) we talked ourselves hungry. Moving swiftly on to the room service menu.
The choice was extremely limited, more so when we called and announced at 1.30 am we would like feeding. The 5 options were reduced to 2.
Club Sandwich & Vegetarian Caesar salad it was then.
The equally astronomical room service request, seemed to have caused quite a stir. The front desk got panicky. Food? Room Service at this time of night at those prices? Have they lost their minds? We decided that it ‘must’ be because most Dutch people would probably come prepared, bring their own food rather than suffer the service charge. We imagined the staff frantically running around trying to rustle something up, we suspected by the delivery that no member of  kitchen staff must have played a hand in our food preparation – it had night porter repertoire written all over it!
The Club was so bad, I’m going to focus only on the Caesar salad: made up with a total of 6 WHOLE cos lettuce heads, huge heady clumps, with no effort made to separate the leaves. It was accompanied by 3 lone croutons, a swath of slab like parmesan shavings and NO dressing! Seriously?!
This is not the type of food that satisfies your small hour, wine induced hungers!
So in honour of World Ballet day and my bad salad memories of that evening, I bring you a salad to shake your lettuce at. This beautiful twist on a traditional Caesar. A middle eastern inspired vegetarian feast using fried halloumi, avocado and a low fat yoghurt & lemon dressing. What every salad wants to be; Healthy, crisp and deliscioulsy satisfying.

Seize this salad and serve with croutons or flatbread!

Seize The Salad
 
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Middle eastern inspired vegetarian feast using fried halloumi, avocado and a low fat yoghurt & lemon dressing
Author:
Recipe type: Salad
Cuisine: Middle Eastern
Ingredients
  • 1 Organic Cos Lettuce
  • 1 Organic Avocado
  • 1 small Red Organic Salad Onion
  • 1 Lime
  • 200ml Organic Low Fat Plain Yoghurt
  • 2 tablespoons of Organic Olive Oil
  • 2 tablespoons of squeezed Lemon
  • ½ teaspoon Cayenne Pepper
  • 250g Halloumi
  • Oil for cooking
  • Sprinkle of Sumac
  • Flatbread or Croutons to serve
  • Salt & Pepper to season
Instructions
  1. Find a Salad bowl and large frying pan
  2. Salad
  3. Chop the Cos lettuce roughly into large chunks
  4. Dice the avocado and add to the salad bowl
  5. Finely slice & chop one red onion into small pieces, soak in lime juice for 10 minutes
  6. Dressing
  7. Mix the organic plain yoghurt, the lemon juice, olive oil and cayenne pepper together.
  8. Slice and drizzle the halloumi cheese lightly with oil to just enough to coat them
  9. Fry the halloumi slices until golden brown on both sides in a non stick pan.
  10. Drain the onions, discarding the lime juice and add to the salad bowl.
  11. Gently toss the salad, and serve on 2 plates.
  12. Place the halloumi on top of the salad and drizzle with the dressing.
  13. Sprinkle a little sumac over the top
  14. Serve immediately with flatbreads or homemade croutons

Sustarian Living

a delicious plate of grilled halloumi cheese served with a lettuce and avocado salad, seasoned with sumac and other spices.


Sustarian Living

 

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Featured/ Recipes/ Sides & Snacks

This Charming Man’s Soufflé

This Charming Man's Soufflé

This Charming Man’s Soufflé

Firstly,  the soundtrack as it’s related to the recipe.  I’ll waffle a while to get there,  but hopefully you’ll  see the connection.

He (Morrissey) uses the word ‘pantry’ in this track.  This seems to be a bit of a word for me at the moment,  as I’ve noticed (in my absence) that supermarkets here have started using this term – a lot!  I can’t help but laugh out loud when I notice I’m buying ‘Pantry Potatoes’ or something else from the pantry for that matter.  It’s just too much.  When did we Brit’s go back into the Pantry?
Anyway I digress.  How did I get from Soufflé to The Smiths??

I have a good friend from Holland,  who recently visited with a posse of lovely Dutch ladies and stayed at her Brothers house,  which just happens to be spitting distance from me (translation: just up the road, or up the hill in this case).….‘I would go out tonight, but I haven’t got a stitch to wear’

Actually having nothing to wear didn’t stop me at all,  I legged it up the road to a beautiful pub/eatery  The George.  As always with this gang,  much fun was had… until we reached the dessert. It was that moment when two of you order the same thing;  Banana Soufflé was the offending sweet treat.
They arrived,  one perfectly risen,  towering above the rim of the ramekin.  The other was sunken,  wallowing in its own banana egg white at the bottom of the bowl.  I received the one flat as a pancake and in a fit of tipsy jealously,  I stabbed my spoon,  wounding my friends Soufflé. Thankfully she laughed as it collapsed inside its self.

But this was the beginning of the ‘soufflé-off’,  like a ‘bake off challenge’ we laid down the eggy gauntlet.  We both confessed as to never making one before,  so we agreed to tackle a simple savory style,  take pictures & post.  In the past we’d have probably challenged each other to shots and dancing on the table,  now it’s soufflé – very rock and roll…..clearly we’re getting old!

So,  after reading up on recipes from Mr Roux,  Mr Oliver,  Mrs Hay and good old Delia,  I went in search of a charismatic local cheese.  Something strong and flavorsome,  smelly maybe but with its own identity to stand out in the soufflé crowd.  That’s when I found this charming Sussex Charmer from Bookham & Harrison

A cross between a mature cheddar & parmesan.  It had all the qualities I was looking for.  I especially liked the packing,  on the back it reads:  ‘to keep your charmer charming,  wrap in greaseproof paper’  if only this tactic worked for men…. We’d be buying body bag sized rolls of greaseproof and carefully wrapping them every night before they went to bed (too much?!).

I walked back from the deli,  Charmer in hand,  humming a song from my misspent youth: This Charming Man.  It has now inevitably become my Sunday sound track whilst attempting to make my Charming Man a soufflé for dinner!

See photo for results. Whilst i didn’t reach my desired height ( and it dropped a little whilst taking the photo) the flavour was fabulous. Light in texture, rich in flavour with a nice kick from the cayenne pepper.

4.0 from 1 reviews
Note: No photos of husband wrapped in greaseproof though!This Charming Man’s Soufflé
 
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Author:
Recipe type: Starter
Cuisine: French
Serves: 4 large
Ingredients
  • 50g softened Organic Butter, Extra to grease dishes
  • 50g Grated Breadcrumbs, to coat dishes
  • 40g Plain Organic Flour
  • 300ml Organic Milk
  • Salt and freshly ground pepper
  • Pinch of cayenne
  • 4 Large Organic Eggs, Separated
  • 100g Sussex Charmer Cheese finely grated,
  • Plus 4 15cm Ramekin dishes
Instructions
  1. Generously grease the insides of 4 standard 15cm ramekins with the softened butter.
  2. Lightly coat the inside of the ramekins with the breadcrumbs, tip out any excess.
  3. To make the béchamel, melt the 50g butter in a pan. Add the flour and cook for 2 minutes, stirring with a whisk, to make a roux.
  4. Still stirring, add the cold milk and bring to the boil over a medium heat.
  5. Let the mixture boil for around two minutes, then pour the béchamel into a bowl.
  6. Season with salt, pepper, and cayenne, then whisk in the egg yolks.
  7. Cover the bowl and let cool slightly.
  8. Preheat the oven to 200C/Gas 6.
  9. Beat the egg whites with a pinch of salt until soft peaks form.
  10. Immediately mix one-third of the egg whites into the warm soufflé mixture with a whisk, then, using a large spoon, fold in the rest with one hand whilst showering in the grated cheese with the other.
  11. Once fully mixed immediately spoon the mixture into the ramekins to come 5mm above the rim.
  12. Smooth the surface with a palette knife.
  13. Use a knife tip to ease the mixture away from the side of each ramekins to help it rise.
  14. Stand the ramekins in a deep ovenproof dish lined with greaseproof paper and pour in enough almost-boiling water to come halfway up the sides.
  15. Bake the soufflés for 14 -18 minutes.
  16. Place the cooked soufflés on individual plates, serve and enjoy immediately!

This Charming Man’s Soufflé This Charming Man's Soufflé

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Cakes & Bakes/ Cakes and Bakes/ Featured

Bad Times Bakewell Tart

Sustarian Bakewell tart

Bad Times & Bakewell Tart

One of my first social invites after landing on British soil, was to attend the Goodwood Revival.

The Revival is a very popular historic motor race meeting staged entirely in the nostalgic time capsule of the 1940s, 50s and 60s. It offers visitors the unique opportunity to take a step back in time and leave the ‘modern world’ behind.
The event hosts an array of beautifully crafted vintage cars, lovingly restored and tuned to perfection and then there’s the people. People ‘dressed up to the nines’ following a vintage dress code – it’s hard not to fall in love with such a romantic stage set, unless it’s raining!

Sadly, I arrived the day it was raining. I had four days to choose from. I picked rainy day. It wasn’t just spitting, it was raining large and heavy cats and dogs.

My perfectly retro round toed shoes,  let water in like sinking ships.  My lovely bottle green flared 50’s dress,  dripped limply over my damp figure and the hat… That I’d trawled the second hand shops of Rye for and had first seemed so helpful against the rain, betrayed me on an unforgivable level.
It started with a drip,  a bright red drip before my nose,  followed by a series of bright red drips  slowly forming streams falling like a bloodbath waterfall from the brim.  My hat was leaking dye.
Leave it on and keep calm,  take it off and carry on – the dilemma?!  I left it on.

Once I’d found my port from the storm,  the offending article was removed.  My bright blond hair bore the scar of British weather,  a blood red circle running round the back of my head and right across my forehead.  I tried and failed to remove the impossibly indelible dye from my skin.  It was no good,   I just had to keep a stiff upper lip and brace the fact that whilst everyone else looked stunning (even if slightly wet) I had to spend the next 6 hours walking around looking like the bride of Frankenstein.  Not a good look!

So when fate deals bad times,  It’s Bakewell Tart and a cup of English tea for me every time.

On returning home, it was basically bath,  wash hair,  re wash hair,  accept the pink rim hairdo then go to bed.  The next day it was tart baking  for me.

It’s actually the end of the Raspberry season, but with the summer sun continuing late into September,  you can still grab local fresh raspberries. I’d stopped off at one of the many country roadside stalls from Brighton to Rye and picked up bags of berries and put them to work.
I made this rich buttery short crust,  filled with moist almond frangipane filling with a tart raspberry jam cutting in between.  This quniteseential British combination when drunk with a mug of builders tea will only bring you pleasure,  perfect for removing painful memories and forgetting about bad hair days!

Bad Times Bakewell Tart

Bad Times Bakewell Tart

Bad Times Bakewell Tart
 
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A rich buttery short crust, filled with moist almond frangipane filling with a tart raspberry jam cutting in between the decedent layers will only bring you pleasure. Perfect for removing painful memories!
Author:
Recipe type: Sweets & Treats
Cuisine: British
Ingredients
  • 275g Organic Plain Flour
  • 150g Unsalted Organic Butter
  • 75g Golden Caster Sugar
  • 1 Organic Egg + 1 extra Egg White
  • ½ Lemon Zested
  • Frangipane
  • 125g Organic Unsalted Butter
  • 125g Golden Caster Sugar
  • 2 Organic Eggs
  • 150g Fairtrade ground Almonds
  • 50g Organic plain Flour
  • 1 Tablespoon Organic Milk
  • 5 drops of Almond Extract
  • Raspberry Jam
  • 150g Locally Sourced Raspberries
  • 50g Caster Sugar
  • 1 Tablespoon Lemon Juice
Instructions
  1. Pastry
  2. Sift the flour and cubed butter into a bowl, add a pinch of salt and rub into a crumb like texture.
  3. Add the sugar, whole egg and lemon zest. mix all together and quickly knead into a flat circular form.
  4. Wrap the pastry in clingfilm and place in the fridge. Chill for about 1 hour.
  5. Jam
  6. Place the rasperries, sugar and lemon juice into a pan and bring to a rolling simmer.
  7. Simmer for aprox 10 minutes, stirring with a wooden spoon until the raspberries loose their shape.
  8. Strain the mixture through a sieve into a glass bowl to remove the seeds.
  9. Set the jam mixture to one side and allow to cool.
  10. Pre heat oven to 180oc/ gas 4
  11. Pastry Baking
  12. Using a pre greased 22cm baking tin, Roll the pastry out onto a lightly floured surface.
  13. Once the pastry is aprox 4mm thick, place inside the tin, trim the edges & prick the base with a fork
  14. Using a piece of uneven baking paper, place on top of the tart and cover with baking beans
  15. Blind bake for 15 mins, remove the beans and paper and bake for a further 5 mins.
  16. Whilst hot brush the base with egg white and then allow to cool.
  17. Frangipane mix
  18. Beat the butter, sugar, Almond extract together.
  19. Add the eggs and ground almonds in two parts to allow them to bind together. Sift in the flour. Mix thoroughly.
  20. If the mixture is too thick and stiff, add a little milk and mix again.
  21. Tart
  22. Spoon the jam over the base. Spread evenly.
  23. Spoon the frangipane mix on top and smooth with pallet knife.
  24. Bake for 20 mins.
  25. Whilst keeping the tart inside the oven, sprinkle some flaked almonds on top. Bake for a further 10 mins. Skewer check to ensure baked, bake a little longer if required.
  26. Dust with icing sugar, serve slightly warm with a cuppa!

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Bread/ Super Food

Buckwheat Banana Bread

Buckwheat Banana Bread

Beating the Bloat with Buckwheat Banana Bread

Watching Bananas slowly turning black is always a sad & sorry sight,  so when I spotted 3 flagging in the fruit bowl – I knew exactly what they needed to transform them into something health shatteringly good.
The lustrous batter,  combined with the sweet ripe bananas laced with cinnamon and spice will have you breaking down the oven door to get a slice.
Not only is this the perfect offering to strangers coming to view your home with an eye to buy as the warm wafts of cinnamon could definitely help put a sale in sight – It’s a healthy protein packed powerhouse of a loaf.

Bake this during the weekend,  double up and then you can freeze half.   This way you get to enjoy guilt-free snacks all week,  skip the cookies and grab a slice of this healthy banana bread to help beat the bloat!

Facts and Flavours:

Buckwheat has a wealth of health benefits including the ability to reduce blood pressure,  management of diabetes,  improved digestion and cholesterol levels, boost the immune system, help with the elimination of gallstones, provide protection from asthma attacks,  and relief from constipation and other intestinal conditions…quite a list.

These benefits can mostly be attributed to the density of proteins,  minerals and antioxidant compounds found in buckwheat.
Though it is usually thought of as a grain,  Buckwheat is actually the seed of a plant related to the rhubarb family.
It’s high in specific essential amino acids in which other major cereal crops are deficient.  It has a very low Glycaemic index and contains no gluten,  therefore safe for people with gluten allergy or celiac disease. Convinced yet?

I like my Bread just out of the oven,  smeared with rich Almond Butter –  How do you like yours?

Top tip: Cut into slices before you freeze.

Buckwheat Banana Bread
 
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Author:
Recipe type: Vegetarian
Cuisine: Baking
Ingredients
  • 235g Organic Buckwheat flour
  • 135 Coconut sugar
  • 1 Teaspoon Baking powder
  • 1 Tablespoon Chai seed
  • ½ Teaspoon Bicarbonate of soda
  • 180g Natural thick yoghurt
  • 3 Ripe mashed bananas
  • 1 Large egg
  • 60g Maple Syrup
  • 20ml Rapeseed oil
  • 1 Teaspoon Cinnamon
  • 1 Teaspoon mixed spices
Instructions
  1. Pre heat the oven to 160oc
  2. Sift the flour and the coconut sugar into the mixing bowl
  3. Weigh and add all of the other 'dry' ingredients:
  4. Baking powder, bicarb, chai seeds, spices
  5. In a separate bowl weigh all the 'wet' ingredients:
  6. Egg, yoghurt, maple syrup, rapeseed oil
  7. Add the wet ingredients to the mixing bowl
  8. Mix thoroughly
  9. Add the mashed bananas
  10. Mix until a glossy thick bread batter is formed
  11. Place in the oven for approx 1 hour at 160oc
  12. I used a gas oven with the air circulating.
  13. Prod the bread with a metal skewer, if you pull it out clean, the bread is ready
  14. if not, bake a little longer and check progress every 10 mins with the skewer
  15. Slice & serve with slick of almond butter

IMG_2652IMG_2669

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Cakes & Bakes/ Featured/ Puddings/ Recipes

The Tides of Change & Oma’s Epic Apple Tart

The Tides of Change & Oma’s Apple Tart

Over the past few months It’s been a little quiet here at Sustarian Living. This is mainly due to change. Not just one,  but a string of both physical and chemical changes resulting in a rather uncomfortably loud and messy bang.

A change in career,  for both myself & my husband.  A change in country.  An international house move under the belt with new schools for the children and new routines,  but also (more seismic than the afore mentioned) a fundamental change in the fabric of our family.
The loss of a loved one.

Somewhere amongst the unpacked boxes and standing on the shore of a life waiting to unfold, the bang that brings you back down to earth.  Suddenly your picture of life has an unexpected vacant spot,  a gap,  a hole that will remain.

Grief in times of change seems even less tangible,  there is no place to put it.  Everything is new and foreign to us,  there are no reminders here.  So we spent time remembering,  hanging our thoughts on bare walls & walking shores in search of stones.

When the tide of life changes you pause.  Time spools by as if your existing inside an old video taped version of a vaguely familiar soap opera.

Today is no different from any other.  From my bed I hear the faint electronic alarm bell of the level crossing closing,  the 5.36am from Rye to Ashford quietly rumbles by.  I lay awake,  and for the first time in a long time I was thinking about writing,  Life,  Oma and Apple Tart.

This post is in honour of the late Geertje Kist, who amongst many other things used to make an epic Apple Tart

This offering is laden with sustainable memories, calories and is the perfect pick me up when acknowledging a ‘lost in life’ moment!

Tip: Eat it as if you’ve run a marathon and need the sugar! #survivingloss

Oma's Apple Tart

Oma's Apple Tart

Oma's Apple Tart

Rich & Buttery Dutch Apple Tart

Oma’s Epic Apple Tart
 
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This Rich and Buttery Dutch Apple Tart is laden with calories and is the perfect pick me up when acknowledging a 'lost in life' moment.
Author:
Recipe type: Sweet Apple Tart
Cuisine: Dutch
Ingredients
  • The Sweet Pastry
  • 300g Plain Organic Flour
  • 180g Organic Butter
  • 150g Caster Sugar
  • ½ Teaspoon Baking Powder
  • 1 Organic Egg
  • For the Filling
  • 4-6 Apples (Slightly sour type is better: Golden Rush, Braeburn)
  • 50g Soft Brown Sugar
  • 2 Teaspoon of Cinnamon
  • 1 Teaspoon Mixed Spice
  • 1 Teaspoon Freshly Squeezed Lemon Juice
Instructions
  1. Pre heat the oven to 180oc & grease a deep 8'' round baking tin
  2. Mix the flour, softened butter and egg into a pie dough
  3. Place in the fridge for apron 20 mins
  4. Peel the apples, removing the core and chop into large slices. Place into a bowl.
  5. Toss the apples with the lemon juice
  6. Add the sugar, cinnamon and mixed spice to the apple mix.
  7. Ensure all the apples are coated in the sugar and spices. Set aside.
  8. Remove the pie dough from the fridge.
  9. Take the pre greased baking tin and breaking pieces of the dough, push together to form a base
  10. Repeat the technique around the sides of the tin ( should be approx 1cm thick)
  11. Once you have a closed tart base and sides, tip the apple mix into the center
  12. Using the remaining strips of dough form a lattice across the face of the tart.
  13. Brush with a little egg yolk and sprinkle with sugar.
  14. bake in a pre heated oven at 180 oc for 60 mins
  15. Eat Hot or cold, with cream or a cup of coffee

 

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Puddings/ Recipes/ Sides & Snacks/ Vegetarian

Vintage Bon Voyage

Vintage High Tea

Vintage High Tea and a Bon Voyage!

It’s been kind of quiet here on the Sustarian Living front for the last few months. This is not down to laziness or lack of interest, the inactivity can be attributed to my total preoccupation with relocating!

Yes, a head bending phenomenon of picking up one’s life, boxing it and opening it up again on the other side. Whilst I’m optimistic about the future move, everything else in my life at the moment is in turmoil.

The boxes, the bank accounts, the kids….did I mention the boxes?!

The hardest part of leaving the life you’ve built behind is saying goodbye to all the friends you’ve made along the way. Even though those goodbyes are not forever, the ease of dropping by for a cuppa will no longer be possible – and so it remains painful to contemplate this life changing decision.

To celebrate long friendships and new beginnings, my lovely girlfriends treated me to a Vintage Bon Voyage with High tea at the beautiful Biodynamic gardens here at http://deserresgraveland.nl/home.html in Hilversum.

And a high tea it was! With tiers of crustless sandwiches, savory nibbles and the obligatory sweet treats. Traditionally it’s all about the cucumber sandwiches, scones with clotted cream & strawberry jam, this one however had a more sophisticated earthy feel to it, as nearly everything that was presented on the pretty porcelain platters had been grown in the very gardens that surrounded us.

We had caramelized carrot cake, the shortest of shortbread tartlets filled with freshly plucked berries and topped with the most delicate of toppings. Ricotta & spinach scones, cheeses, artisan breads and buckets of tea to wash it all down. For me it was the Courgette, Toasted Pine Nut and Cream Cheese Rolls that stole the show. These  veggie rolls were a revelation! So perfectly in balance and deliciously moorish and very easy to make as no cooking is required.

I tried them at home and thought I’d share the joy – best eaten when  contemplating life changing decisions accompanied with a chilled glass of Sauvignon blanc!

Courgette, Toasted Pine Nut and Cream Cheese Rolls
 
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Vintage Bon Voyage Cuisine: vegetarian Author: Kaylie Kist Prep time: 5 mins Total time: 5 mins
Author:
Ingredients
  • 2 x large courgettes
  • 150 g cream cheese
  • 50g Toasted pine nuts
  • 1 teaspoon of lemon olive oil
Instructions
  1. Using a flat edged slicer, slice the courgette into as many 2-3cm slices as possible
  2. Toast the pine nuts in a dry frying pan
  3. Mix the cream cheese, pine nuts and oil together
  4. Spoon a blob onto a courgette strip
  5. Carefully roll
  6. Eat & Enjoy!

vintage bon voyagevintage high tea

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