Orange and Coconut Polenta Cake

This is one of my favourite creations. Really moist (love/hate that word) and FULL of flavours that just go on and on. Smells amazing too. It's gluten and dairy free and uses coconut sugar so has caramel-ly depth to it. I used eggs from a friend's chickens and most of the ingredients are from local independent shops - except the oranges which I had to get from a supermarket. 

I originally made this as a lemon and coconut cake with postachios on top for mummy but works so well as an orange version too. I used light olive oil and a splash of almond milk as the fat content. The combination of polenta, ground almonds and desiccated coconut make a delectable texture and flavour. I recently made this cake for a parent at school and I believe it went down very well at her birthday lunch.... Happy Birthday! 

You will need:

9inch spring form cake tin

Oven at 180 degrees c

Scales

Electric hand whisk 

2 large bowls.

For the cake:

150ml light olive oil

200g coconut sugar

120g dry fine polenta

80g desiccated coconut 

100g ground almonds

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

3 large eggs

Zest of 1 1/2 large oranges

For the syrup:

1 1/2 oranges - juice of

100g coconut sugar

To decorate:

Toasted flakes almonds

Toasted nuts

Extra desiccated coconut

Any fruit or berries

Prepare your tin by greasing with a little olive oil and line the bottom with baking parchment. Heat your oven

Mix together the oil and sugar. In a separate bowl mix the polenta, almonds, baking powder and coconut.

Add 1 egg and a third of the dry mix to the sugar and oil, mixing well each time. Add your zest and a splash of almond milk. Mix again.

Spoon into your tine and bake for 25-35 minutes until the sides are just coming away from the tin and it is springy to the touch. 

Make your syrup by melting the sugar and juice together over a medium heat until the sugar has dissolved.

Leave to cool a little before pricking holes all over and pouring your syup over the top. Leave to cool completely in the tin, preferably over night. 

Carefully remove from the tin and transfer to your chosen plate. Decorate as you wish with flaked almonds, other nuts, seeds, coconut or berries.

Enjoy with a glass of champagne! 

Sweet potato and chicken curry

My boyfriend is an amazing cook. He creates these incredible meals with scraps and not much more but they always come out tasting insanely good. He has a gift. Sadly he is away travelling for work a lot so I have taken to trying to recreate his dishes with a Paleo twist. The following is his original recipe but with some additions and maybe one ingredient which some Paleo purists will disagree with. The humble pea. When I originally transferred to eating the Paleo way, I thought all legumes were off limits. I accepted this and carried on cooking without out them. Quite by accident I came across several articles which said that peas could be enjoyed as part of a Paleo diet, so long as you didn't make them a staple. They have much less of the nasty phytates and the lecithins aren't as toxic or as numerous as with other legumes. I read a piece in the Paleo Magazine which helped to make things slightly clearer. It seems if they are fresh and not dried and you eat them occasionally then they are ok. Phew, justification over, let's get back to the serious matter of cooking. You'll need a good spice selection but a pestle and mortar is not obligatory! 

Serves 2 very hungry/greedy people or 4 normal ones!

You will need:

4 - 6 chicken things, preferable free range/organic, take the skin off

1 large sweet potato, peeled and chopped into 1 inch chunks

Plenty of fresh coriander

500 ml of good chicken stock (you may need a little more to add in the cooking process)

2 large white onions

2-3 garlic cloves

1/3 cup coconut milk

1 tsp coconut oil

1 cup fresh peas

pinch sea salt

freshly ground black pepper

5 cardamom pods

few sprigs of thyme

1 tsp garam masala

1 tsp turmeric

1 tsp ground cumin

1/2 tsp cumin seed

1/2 - 1 tsp cayenne pepper (to taste)

1/2 tsp allspice

1 tsp fenugreek 

1/2 tsp coriander seed

1/2 tsp ginger

Pop all the spices and the thyme into a pestle and mortar (or small bowl and handle of wooden spoon) and mix them up. Gently and only slightly crush the cardamom pods.

Gently melt the coconut oil over a medium heat in a deep pan. Brown the chicken thighs on both sides. Add the spices, thyme, salt and pepper and stir so that the mix covers the meat. Continue cooking for 1 minute. Take a moment to enjoy the aromas being released. Add the onions and garlic and fry off until the onions begin to soften. 

Add the sweet potatoes and the stock, bring to the boil then turn down and simmer for about 40 minutes (you may need to add a little more stock depending of how thick you want it to be) until the potatoes can be squashed against the side of the pan. Add the peas and a handful of freshly chopped coriander and stir through. Finally add your coconut milk and simmer gently for 30 seconds. 

Serve in bowls with a little extra coriander sprinkled on top. A delicious and nutritious dish that is packed full of flavour and goodness. Enjoy!

Coconut and berry breakfast pot

I slept really badly last night. Woke up in the small hours thinking about what I could be doing instead of wasting time sleeping. I curled up and forced my eyes shut for about half an hour. Then I made a terrible mistake. I looked at my phone. Cue the next hour fiddling around and not really doing much apart from feeding my social media addiction. When I eventually got back to sleep, I woke up feeling groggy and not at all rested. I craved something fresh to try and wipe away the taste of my dalliance with a night-time spent flicking through my Pinterest board, and hoping someone would like a picture from my Instagram. Sad but true and in the end I really did waste time.

My little breakfast pots are quick and easy to make and I find them very restorative after a bad night's sleep. You could use normal yoghurt if you'd rather but the coconut flavour and creaminess of coyo is heavenly. I sometimes sweeten mine with a little date syrup (see earlier post) or add cocoa nibs with the pumpkin seeds. Whatever you do I promise you won't be disappointed and on the plus side this is a hit with children too!

          

Serves 1 hungry, groggy soul

You will need: 

small jam jar or bowl

handful of raspberries

handful of blueberries

1 tsp almond butter

1 tsp pumpkin seeds

1 small pot of coyo

1/4 tsp raw cacao powder

                                                       

Mix the cacao in with the coyo and stir until all combined. Make sure you incorporate all the powder as it will not be a nice surprise if you find a dry bit of cacao when you eat it. Carefully layer the yoghurt and then fruit. Top with your almond butter, seeds and one more raspberry. Not only is this very quick but it is so pretty too! You'll have a smile on your face for that reason alone. 

Raw Chocolate Truffle Almond Tart

Like many of you I have been embarking on a fresh start to 2015 and gave up gluten, alcohol and refined sugar in the hopes I would be reborn into a new 'me'. In some ways this has happened, although not in some miraculous I-now-have-a-six-pack-and-am-living-in-a-grass-hut-making-my-own-clothes way (which is a brilliant way of life and I am totally envious), but I do feel 100 times better than I did in the run up to New Year. Being a teacher, there are always children bringing in all sorts of bugs and coughs and sneezes so we are bound to get ill. However, I felt that the entire Autumn term I was barely getting over one illness before something else hit me. I was exhausted (as I have been most of my adolescent and adult life - my boyfriend was always telling me to 'get it checked out'). I had blood tests but they seemed normal and my blood pressure, although fairly low, was considered healthy. I have often suffered with a sudden plummeting of blood sugar resulting in cold sweats, shaking and dizziness, sometimes fainting. In the last 3 weeks I have only had one such 'episode' which was in the supermarket after having been to the gym and not having had time for breakfast - silly me. I have been dabbling in the gluten free world off and on for a couple of years but never really stuck to it. This year is different, I can feel it in my bones! I am really trying to avoid refined sugars and gluten as much as I can (with the exception of when others cook for me as I don't want to be THAT person just yet). I can feel my energy levels up and I am not constantly hungry, tired and bloated.

                            

My biggest inspiration has come from an old friend who has an amazing blog called 'Paleo with Mrs P'. She converted to this way of eating for a pre-wedding diet but it has transformed her health and well-being and the recipes she posts are truly wonderful - she's an incredible photographer too! I have been following her recipes for the last three weeks and this weekend I tried out my own recipe to see how it went. My friend was having a few of us over for supper and we offered to bring puddings. Enter the Raw Dark Chocolate Tart! Another guest made an amazing cake made from pistachios, carrot and hazelnuts which I must admit I had a sneaky morsel from even though it contained refined sugar....it was heavenly - watch this space for a recipe soon. Anyway...back to the tart...the original recipe is taken from 'Bareroot Girl' but I have altered some of the ingredients and method to my tastes. It is so deliciously chocolatey and delicious without a smidge of gluten, dairy or refined sugar near it. Most of the guests thought it was really tasty (it didn't go down well with one of the children!), with some not believing me when I said there was no dairy in it at all. For those used to a sweeter pud this is probably not for you but for the chocoholics it is a must. It has a smooth truffle-like texture in the middle and a nutty, crunchy base. The different flavours hit you at intervals and are quite spectacular. This is definitely a new favourite of mine and one I will be making again and again and again.....and again. 

No oven required, simple ingredients

You will need:

9inch/23cm loose bottomed tart tin

food processor

blender (if making your own date paste)

For the base:

1.5 cups almond flour

half cup raw cocoa nibs (I use naturya)

3 medjool dates, roughly chopped

1/4 cup coconut oil, melted

pinch salt

For the filling:

1 cup coconut oil

1 cup full fat coconut milk (from a can)

1 cup date paste (see below)

1 cup raw cacao powder (I used The Raw Chocolate Company's)

1 tsp good quality vanilla extract

For the date paste - this yields 2 cups:

15 dates, chopped 

1 1/2 cups chilled water

Soak the dates in hot water for 10 minutes then drain and put into the blender with the chilled water for 1-2 minutes until smooth. This will produce quite a runny paste but you can add less water if you want a spreadable consistency.

To make the base put all the ingredients into a food processor and pulse for 30 seconds to roughly break up the nibs. Then blend for 1 minute until the mixture sticks together when pinched. The mixture will still be quite chunky but should be all mixed.

Tip the mixture into your tin and press it down and around to cover the base and sides. Don't worry if it doesn't quite reach the top of the sides of the tin, but make sure it is firmly pressed into the edges and sides. Pop this into the fridge for 15 minutes to firm up.

To make the filling put all the ingredients in the order shown into a food processor. It s important that you do it like this because if the cacao is at the bottom it will not mix properly. 

Mix for 1-2 minutes until it is smooth and glossy.

Pour into the chilled case, smooth the top with a warm palette knife and pop back into the fridge for at least 1 hour before serving.

You will need to bring it out of the fridge about 10 minutes before serving so that the oils melt slightly and you can gently push the bottom through. Scatter the top with berries of your choice, I chose raspberries as I think there is no better union than chocolate and these little berries of delight. 

Cut into slices and serve immediately. This tart should be covered and kept in the fridge and will keep (if you can restrain yourself) for up to a week. 

Enjoy every flavour hit and bathe in the pleasure and knowledge that it is doing you oh so much good. 

Empty plates, happy faces!