Warm cous cous salad with haloumi and Middle Eastern spices

Dinner.

Hmmm, so I wasn't sure what to cook in order to top my last post, so I opted for something completely different. Dinner.

I've made this dish a few times before. It's pretty yummy and quite healthy. (Unlike pretty much every other thing I've posted on here.) My Mum is the original inspiration; she makes hers with pumpkin and it's delicious! Thanks Mum : ) 

Basically you have to prepare all the different ingredients, chuck them into a pot and stir. However... depending on how many ingredients you want to use, it can be time consuming. It's worth it though! It's so fresh and light and the spices make it really tasty. 

So, this is what I used:

• Onion (cooked until soft)
• Garlic
• Eggplant (fried in lemon juice and olive oil)
• Cherry tomatoes (halved, uncooked)
• Pine nuts (toasted)
• Sesame seeds (toasted)
• Mixed Middle Eastern spices (turmeric, sumac, cumin, etc)
• Fried haloumi cheese 
• Flat leaf parsley
• Rocket

You can use one pan to prepare each ingredient and then transfer it to the larger pot. Start with the onion and garlic. Prepare the cous cous and haloumi last. 

My spice jar ... oh and I grew these herbs!

Once you've prepared everything, add the cous cous to the pot. Stir and add salt, pepper and spices to taste. It doesn't need to be hot, just warm enough to be enjoyable. Once you're happy, add the rocket and flat leaf parsley. Let it wilt but not too much. Save some of each for plating up. 

Serve the salad with the extra rocket on top. Pile the haloumi on top of that and finish with some extra pine nuts and flat leaf parsley. Season and eat. 

Fresh and very tasty.

Dark chocolate panna cotta with blackberry coulis and vanilla bean cream

Chocolate, blackberries and cream.

I haven't made panna cotta for a long time, so I was really excited to have an excuse to make it again. I've done this one with dark chocolate a few times now. It's a Donna Hay recipe; I use dark 75% cocoa Lindt chocolate though.

Panna cotta ingredients.

I thought a blackberry coulis would be a bit more interesting than raspberry, which I've used in the past. I needed something tart and sweet to even out the bitterness of the dark chocolate. 

Frozen blackberries are also good because they hold their shape nicely when defrosted, unlike frozen raspberries. They're much better as a garnish.

Everything in the pot.

The dessert also needed something creamy. I had actually prepared some thick cream with vanilla paste through it, but unfortunately it didn't hold its shape. The idea was to quenelle it, which was of course impossible with runny cream. I served it on some cocoa dust (with a bit of icing sugar in it) so that it didn't disappear into the white plate.

I ended up using mostly plain cream which was a bit of a shame. Next time I will add a bit of gelatine. Meanwhile, I have two prep bowls of vanilla bean cream in my fridge. Hmmm. 

Edible flowers.

To garnish, I used some of the extra blackberries, a bit of mint from my garden and some pansies. Where did I get pansies from? Erm, I may have stolen them from next door's garden. Well, what was I supposed to do if Harris Farm wasn't stocking them yesterday?! I put them to good use. 

I want to make it again.

Fettuccine in burnt butter sauce with toasted pine nuts, sage and parmesan

A classic combination of flavours. 

I have been making pasta quite a bit lately, but I haven't really posted much. Sometimes I eat it with really simple ingredients like a bit of cream, olive oil, chives and parmesan. It really doesn't need a lot to taste good when you make it yourself. 

There are so many possibilities too; I don't want my blog to end up being one long string of fettuccine. But I got my camera out the other day to share at least one of my really simple recipes. 

So... I made the pasta from scratch with my pasta machine. I blogged about this earlier here. I'm a bit fancier now - I have a pasta drying rack!

Homemade pasta drying on the rack.

Before I continue, I'd like to note that I will no longer be buying Barilla pasta flour or other products. This is due to recent homophobic comments made by their Chairman. 

I find his remarks offensive in general, and I also object to his definition of a "sacred" or "classic family", which seems to revolve around a woman in the kitchen making dinner. So I find his remarks misogynistic and discriminatory in a broader sense.

Who is he to define family? My friends, gay and straight, are my family. I also live alone. I therefore do not fit his definition of an ideal customer either. I wonder if he realises how many single young professionals buy his pasta? Given that it's one of the more expensive ones, he has most likely ostracised a decent part of his customer base. 

He says that if we don't like his comments, we should eat another brand. So I will.

So anyway... I created the pasta sauce with some olive oil and butter in a pan. This is heated until the butter turns golden. The pine nuts and sage are added towards the end so that they do not overcook. 

Simple but very yummy ingredients.

After cooking the pasta, I poured the sauce over it, adding an extra splash of olive oil, salt and pepper and grated parmesan. 

I do think it's worth spending more time on the pasta itself than the sauce sometimes. It's all about making the pasta the hero of the dish. Haha, I can't believe I just wrote that. 

Anyway... these pictures are making me hungry. Enjoy : )

I want to eat it all over again.