Izy Hossack - Top With Cinnamon

Flexitarian & Baking Recipes from Londoner, Izy Hossack

Aubergine, Basil & Pomegranate Lettuce Cups

Aubergine Basil & Pomegranate Lettuce Cups

Thanks to OXO for sponsoring this post

It’s getting to that muggy, sunny part of the year where the days are long and all I want to do is lie outside in the sun and consume ice cream, strawberries and salads. <– I’ve actually been doing all of this since May when I was revising for my exams, as proven by my impressive tan lines underneath my rings.

For me, salad wasn’t always a delicious way to consume vegetables as I grew up eating sad shredded iceberg, WITH NO DRESSING, at school. I’m not a rabbit. It ruined my opinion of salads for years until I eventually started eating them at home and realised that really salads are delicious bowls of toppings padded out with crispy leaves and brought together by a zippy vinaigrette. I can get into salad ruts – tomato, red onion, spinach, mustard dressing is my standard – but one of my favourite things to do when this happens is go for salady ‘tacos’ like this. Using gem/romaine lettuce, chicory, endive or even rice paper wrappers you can scoop up a bunch of fillings straight into your gob. The outer casing just holds it all together for you!

Aubergine, Basil & Pomegranate Lettuce Cups

My main bugbear between me and these salads used to be the leaf washing. My dad often grows lettuce, spinach and kale at his allotment and this stuff is real muddy. It requires an even more thorough cleaning and tbh I’m just a lazy person. I’ve been using the OXO salad spinner for my leaves (and herbs! and berries!) this summer and not only is it easy to use, it’s also so satisfying (see the GIF below of it in action). This, paired with their salad dressing mixer which a) includes measurements on the side for easy measuring straight into the jar and b) doesn’t leak, (unlike many jam jars I’ve used in the past), makes for super streamlined salad making.

Aubergine Basil & Pomegranate Lettuce Cups

These salad cups are a play on one of my favourite Japanese dishes ‘nasu dengaku’ which is a baked aubergine, brushed with miso glaze. Here I’ve cubed and roasted aubergine then layered that up in gem lettuce leaves with walnuts, pomegranate seeds, basil and a miso-ginger dressing. It’s my ideal kind of salad (i.e. mostly toppings & dressing) and is a bit more interesting than your standard bowl of chopped leaves. Hope you enjoy the recipe, let me know if you try it out!

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Aubergine, Basil & Pomegranate Lettuce Cups

Serves 4

Ingredients

  • 2 aubergines
  • 1 tbsp olive oil
  • 2 heads gem lettuce, leaves separated
  • 30 g basil leaves
  • 50 g walnuts, roughly chopped
  • 1 pomegranate, seeds only

For the miso-ginger dressing:

  • 2 tsp finely grated ginger
  • 1 clove garlic, crushed
  • 1 tsp honey or maple syrup
  • 1 tbsp miso (use gluten-free, if needed)
  • 50 ml rice vinegar
  • 100 ml refined olive oil

Instructions

  1. Preheat the oven to 180oC (350oF). Cut the aubergines into 2cm cubes, toss with the olive oil on a baking tray and roast for 30 minutes until browned and shrunken. Set aside. 

  2. Rinse the lettuce leaves and basil leaves then spin dry (I used the OXO salad spinner). Arrange the lettuce leaves on a serving plate or large chopping board. Tear the basil into small shreds. 

  3. Fill the lettuce cups with cubes of roasted aubergine, then pomegranate seeds, chopped walnuts and torn basil. 

Make the dressing:

  1. Combine all the dressing ingredients in the OXO salad dressing mixer and twist the green band until the mixture is emulsified. Pour the dressing over the filled lettuce cups and serve immediately. 

 

Carrot Gnudi with Creamy Walnut Sauce

Carrot Gnudi with Creamy Walnut Sauce

Thanks to Vitamix for sponsoring this post!

Hello lovelies! After that brief hiatus I am well and truly back. Like properly, this time, as I’ve just actually finished all my coursework and finals for university. I haven’t *officially* graduated yet but I will officially have my Food Science and Nutrition BSc degree in about a month and a half.

Carrot Gnudi with Creamy Walnut SauceSo now that I’m properly moved back to London I can focus on creating recipes again! And that break has given me ample time to get inspired so there’s much content in the works. I’m also going to Portland and New Mexico in a few weeks which I’m sure will inspire some future recipes. Today, however, we’re focusing on these little gnudi (pronounced nyew-dee) dudes!Carrot Gnudi with Creamy Walnut SauceCarrot Gnudi with Creamy Walnut Sauce

You may be wondering what these are: think of them like ricotta gnocchi but less flour-y and more ricotta-y. As a result, the dough is a LOT wetter than a classic gnocchi dough and thus, they have a little clever step to help you form them; you blob the mixture into a tray generously lined with semolina and sprinkle even more semolina on top. This then sits in the fridge for 2-48 hours so that the gnudi soak up that semolina and form a light crust around the outside. This stops them falling apart when you boil them.

Carrot Gnudi with Creamy Walnut Sauce

Carrot Gnudi with Creamy Walnut Sauce

Usually, gnudi are plain but here I’ve used my Vitamix Ascent Series blender to blitz cooked carrots into a puree which I folded into the dough. They’re boiled and then fried in a bit of sage butter to get super criiiiispy. I made a classic Italian walnut sauce which the Vitamix is perfect for, blitzing the nuts into THE MOST smooth, luscious sauce which sits under the gnudi. I even scattered on some roasted carrot coins to add extra flavour & veg to the dish. All in all it’s a pretty easy yet impressive dish to make (so perfect for dinner parties) but it’s also fun and a bit hands-on so is great to make with kids!

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Carrot Gnudi with Creamy Walnut Sauce

Makes 35-40 gnudi (serves ~6 people as a main or 12 people as a starter) 

Ingredients

For the carrot gnudi:

  • 1250 g carrots, tops removed
  • 250 g semolina
  • 1 tbsp olive oil
  • 2 medium eggs
  • 500 g ricotta cheese
  • 150 g plain white flour
  • salt + black pepper

For the creamy walnut sauce:

  • 150 g walnuts, toasted
  • 1 slice (~50g) bread, crusts removed
  • 200 ml water
  • 30 g Parmesan cheese, grated
  • 3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
  • 1 clove garlic, peeled

To finish:

  • 3 tbsp olive oil (refined)
  • 1 tbsp unsalted butter
  • 12 sage leaves

Instructions

  1. Preheat the oven to 200oC (400oF). Dust two baking trays with half of the semolina.

  2. Take 500g of the carrots and slice into 2mm thick coins. Toss on a tray with the olive oil and roast in the oven for 30-40 minutes until golden.

Make the gnudi:

  1. Cut the remaining carrots into quarters and add to a pot of boiling water. Leave to simmer on the stove for 20-30 minutes until super soft. Drain and tip into a blender and blitz until you get a mostly smooth puree (I use the tamper stick with the Vitamix to help it all blend up). Tip the puree into a large bowl. 

  2. Line a plate with two pieces of paper kitchen towel and dump the ricotta out onto it. Cover with two more pieces of paper kitchen towel and press down to flatten the ricotta out (this is to remove lots of the moisture from the ricotta). Peel off the paper towels and tip the ricotta into the bowl. Crack in the eggs and mix together until well combined.

  3. Add the flour and a generous pinch of salt and ground black pepper to the bowl. Gently stir together until just combined. 

  4. Use a mechanical ice cream scoop or a tablespoon to scoop up some of the mixture - you want about 2 tablespoons of dough per gnudi. Blob that onto the tray lined with semolina and repeat until all the mixture is used up. Sprinkle the remaining semolina over the top of the blobs (and you can even spoon the semolina off the tray onto the gnudi). Set in the fridge for 2 to 48 hours so they soak up the semolina. 

Make the walnut sauce:

  1. Tear the bread into small pieces and soak in the water for 5 minutes. Tip the bread and water into the jug of a blender (like a Vitamix) along with the walnuts, parmesan, olive oil and garlic. Blitz until silky smooth then season with salt and pepper, to taste. 

To serve:

  1. Bring a large pot of salted water to the boil. Lower in some of the gnudi (I think 4-5 per person is a good amount) and let simmer for 5 minutes. 

  2. Meanwhile heat the olive oil, butter and sage leaves in a large frying pan over a medium-low heat. Lift the gnudi out of the pot with a slotted spoon and gently place into the frying pan. Let cook until golden underneath (about 2-3 minutes) then flip and let the other side get golden before removing them from the frying pan along with the sage leaves. 

  3. Spread a heaped tablespoon of the walnut sauce in the bottom of the bowl. Top with the gnudi, crispy sage and the roasted carrots. You can also grate some extra parmesan on top, if desired! Eat immediately. 

Recipe Notes

  • once the gnudi have been soaking up the semolina for at least 2 hours, you can freeze them for later: Just freeze on the baking tray for 1 hour until firm before sliding them into a sandwich bag and placing back into the freezer. You can cook them straight from frozen in 6 minutes as per usual!

Hot Cross Chelsea Buns

Hot Cross Chelsea Buns

I’ve been making different versions of hot cross buns each year – last year it was bagels, the year before that a HCB loaf. I also made Earl Grey & Orange ones for Waitrose a few years ago! This year I went with another English classic to hybridise them with, Chelsea buns, which are my dad’s fave.

Chelsea buns are pretty much an English version of a cinnamon roll – a yeasted dough rolled very thinly, covered with butter and caster sugar and currants, rolled into tight swirls and baked all nestled together. I’ve had a few buns from bakeries in London before and usually there’s little to no spice involved here! I think the key feature of a good bun though is having thin layers of dough which you can satisfyingly unreel as you eat, like a little ritual. To achieve this effect, I laminated the dough with some filling inside before rolling up, giving me a croissant-like bun.

Hot Cross Chelsea Buns

The ‘hot cross’ aspect here is brought in by using mixed spice in the dough and filling along with cinnamon and mixed dried fruits (which includes currants, candied lemon and orange peel). Usually a hot cross bun has a flour and water paste piped over before baking but I thought that might mess with the layers of dough here. Instead I opted for a simple cream cheese icing piped onto the cooled buns post-bake. The first time I made them, they were demolished by my housemates and me in a few days – just remember that when they’re a few days old and getting a bit dry, zapping one in the microwave for 20-30 seconds helps a lot!

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Hot Cross Chelsea Buns

Ingredients

For the paste:

  • 2 tbsp white plain flour or bread flour
  • 90 ml water
  • 200 ml milk (you can use a non-dairy one here)
  • 50 g rapeseed oil (or another neutral oil)

For the dough:

  • 250 g white bread flour
  • 200 g wholemeal bread flour
  • 50 g granulated sugar
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 2 tsp easy-bake ('instant') dried yeast
  • 1 tsp mixed spice
  • zest of 1 orange

For the filling:

  • 2 tsp mixed spice
  • 2 tsp ground cinnamon
  • 150 g light brown sugar
  • 80 g unsalted butter, melted*
  • 150 g mixed dried fruits**

For the frosting:

  • 2 tbsp cream cheese
  • icing sugar (powdered sugar)

Instructions

Make the paste:

  1. Combine the plain flour and water, then pour into a small saucepan and stir over a medium heat until the mixture thickens into a paste. Take it off the heat then pour in the oil and milk - leave to cool to lukewarm.

Make the dough:

  1. Place the wholemeal and white flours, sugar, salt, yeast, mixed spice and orange zest into a large bowl. Stir them together then make a well in the centre of these dry ingredients. Pour the contents of the small saucepan (the paste and liquids) into the well then stir everything together to make a dough.

  2. Tip the dough onto a work surface dusted with flour and knead for 6 to 8 minutes until smooth and slightly sticky, adding flour as needed.

  3. Place the dough back into the bowl and cover it with clingfilm. Leave it in a warm place for 2 hours. The dough should have doubled in size.

Mix the filling:

  1. In a small bowl mix the mixed spice, ground cinnamon and light brown sugar together.

Make the rolls:

  1. Lightly flour a work surface and tip the risen dough out onto it. Lightly flour the dough and roll it out into a 15 x 26 inch (35 x 65cm) rectangle. Spread half of the melted butter over the surface of the dough. Evenly sprinkle on half of the spiced sugar and press it into the dough by rolling it over it gently. Fold the dough into thirds like a business letter. (see bottom of post for a .gif to explain).

  2. Roll this out again into a 15 x 26 inch (35 x 65cm) rectangle. Spread the remaining butter over the surface, evenly sprinkle on the remaining spiced sugar and all of the mixed dried fruit. Starting at the short edge of the rectangle, roll the dough up tightly into a log.

  3. Cut the dough into 12 even pieces. Place cut side-up into an oiled 9x13-inch baking tin. Cover with a clean tea towel and leave somewhere warm for 30 minutes to almost double in volume.

  4. Meanwhile preheat the oven to 180oC (350oF). 

  5. Once risen, bake the rolls for 20-25 minutes until golden brown around the edges. Leave to cool. 

Make the frosting:

  1. Place the cream cheese into a medium bowl and mix with enough powdered sugar to make a thick-ish glaze that will hold its shape when piped. If it's not thin enough you can mix in water a dribble at a time to get the right consistency. Transfer the mixture to a sandwich bag, snip of the tip of one of the corners, and use as a piping bag to pipe cross-shapes over the rolls. 

Recipe Notes

  • *replace the butter in the filling with melted vegan margarine or just more rapeseed oil to make the recipe suitable for vegans
  • ** in the UK 'mixed dried fruit' is usually a mixture of sultanas, raisins, candied lemon peel and candied orange peel. If you can't get that mix you can just use straight up raisins, currants or sultanas.