Cranachan

40 grams steel cut oats
2 tablespoons honey
150 grams frozen raspberries (fresh if possible, but...)
2 tablespoons Scottish whisky
250 ml cream

Heat the oats and one teaspoon of the honey in a frying pan until toasted.

Spread on baking paper and leave to cool.
Defrost the raspberries and pick out some whole ones for the top.
Puree half the remaining fruit.
Whip the cream until it's thick.
Mix the whisky with the remaining honey and stir through the cream.
Break up the oats and stir this through the cream.
Stir together the pureed fruit and the other half of the fruit (but not the whole berries you have set aside) an stir this lightly through the cream, leaving streaks of colour.
Serve in wine glasses with the whole fruit on top.
Eat the same day.

Yoghurt with ginger berries

A very simple breakfast, but pretty, and tasty.

500 ml plain yoghurt - ideally greek yoghurt

1 knob of ginger, grated or chopped finely

200 frozen blueberries

200 grams froxen blackberries

200 grams frozen strawberries

1 heaped teaspoon ground ginger

Mint to garnish

Put the fruit, ginger and ground ginger in a pan and warm over a low heat until the fruit has reduced down.

Set aside some of the juice. Puree the rest of the fruit using a hand blender. Stir this gently through the yoghurt, so that it is streaked with fruit.

Drizzle the juice over.

Serve garnished with mint.

Cloud bread

Now, first of all, this really isn't bread.

That said, it does taste good and works really well at holding stuff together so that I can once again have sandwiches. And anything with cheese in, well, basically, it's good...
This is the basic recipe - I reckon it'd take some additions - some grated cheddar, some mustard, some poppy seeds, pepper, nutmeg, etc.
Anyway, it works.

Ingredients

4 eggs, separated.

1 teaspoon salt

Quarter teaspoon cream of tartar

50g cream cheese

Preheat the oven to 200 C.

Whisk the egg whites till they peak (and you can, if you are brave enough, turn the bowl upside down).

In a separate bowl, whisk the other ingredients.

Fold the egg whites into the yolk mix, taking care to keep as much air as possible in the mixture.

Spoon the mixture onto an oiled baking tray and cook for 20 minutes.

Eat hot or cold. 

Stoneground dark rye soda bread

Sandwiches, marmite on toast, anything on toast, buns, burgers, chapatis, nan, and a host of others. I miss them. I haven't had too many problems cutting out rice, pasta is ok, potatoes, well I miss, but I'm managing, but bread. I love bread. I miss bread. I always knew I wasn't going to cut bread out for life - it's got to be a lifestyle change and one I can live with long long long term, so this week I finally cracked and decided to experiment with bread.
Bread isn't all the same, GI wise. A baguette is horrendous with GI readings up in the 90s, white and even wholemeal are better, but not necessarily by much. Course barley kernal bread is really low, but I can't source the ingredients for that one. Wholegrain bread, pumpernickel and rye bread have a relatively low GI, so this seemed to be the way to go. And cramming it with low GI nuts and seeds would reduce it further. Stone ground seems to be the best processing to keep the GI low, so I wanted to use that too.
First I bought some pumpernickel. Seemed fairly low GI as bread goes. I wasn't familiar with it and it was frighteningly expensive, but, hey, I only planned to have it as an occasional treat.
Yeah, turns out pumpernickel isn't my thing. Not at all.
Back to the drawing board.
First the flour. I had some stoneground dark rye flour so decided to start with this.
I added nuts and seeds, and made a batch of soda bread buns which I then froze individually. I'm allowing myself one a week to satisfy those marmite cravings.

Ingredients
450g stoneground dark rye flour
450ml milk
Juice one lime
2 tablespoons whole almonds
2 tablespoons sliced almonds
1 tablespoon sunflower seeds
1 tablespoon pumpkin seeds
2 tablespoons steel cut oats
1 teaspoon poppy seeds
1 teaspoon sesame seeds
Half teaspoon salt
1 level teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1 teaspoon honey

Preheat the oven to 200C.
Mix the milk and the lime juice together and leave to stand for ten minutes. It'll curdle. That's fine.
Add the honey and stir well.
Mix the dry ingredients together.
Add the milk mix and stir to form a dough.
Make into buns, or a loaf and arrange, with a little space around on a floured baking tray.
Bake for around 15 - 20 minutes (buns) or around 30 minutes for a loaf (it'll sound hollow when tapped when it is ready).
Serve hot, cold, freeze, toast, enjoy.

Tahini and celery soup

This is one of my all time favourite soups. It's great hot or cold and is packed with veggies.

Ingredients

2 leeks chopped
A head of celery chopped
4 or 5 spring onions chopped
A tablespoon soy sauce
2 tablespoons tahini
1 tablespoon butter
1 teaspoon olive oil
Juice of one lime
Salt and pepper to taste
2 cups vegetable stock
Paprika and dill to serve

Fry the leeks in the butter for 2 minutes
Add the celery.
Fry for one more minute
Add the spring onions
Fry for one more minute
Add the soy sauce and stir.
Add the salt and pepper.
Add the tahini and stir.
Slowly add the stock, one spoonful at a time, stirring all the time.

Don't worry if it curdles a little, it'll sort out in the blender.
Once cooked, add the olive oil and lime juice.
Blitz briefly with a hand blender, leaving plenty of chunks.
Serve with paprika and dill.

Pomelo and pistachio salad

Ingredients

1 pomelo
A handful of pistachios, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds and sesame seeds.
Some lettuce of other salad ingredients
Parsley - leaves only
Feta cheese for crumbling on top - you can also cube it if you prefer - to taste
And for the dressing:
Olive oil,
lime juice,
salt and pepper
Start with 2:1 oil:lime juice and adjust to taste.

Roast in the oven or dry roast on the hob the nuts and seeds.
Add the dressing ingredients to a jar, shake vigorously and taste. Adjust as necessary.
Shred the lettuce (or arrange it beautifully on a plate, if you prefer)
Top with the pomelo which has been peeled and all pith and seeds removed (from a low GI factor, any tropical fruit is going to be higher than most of the other ingredients we use, but sparingly, it is worth it, plus the fibre means that the GL (Glycaemic Load) is lower).
Sprinkle with the nuts and seeds.
Top with the parsley.
Crumble the feta cheese over, then, just before serving, pour over the dressing and serve immediately.
Crumble the feta

Savoury asparagus cheesecake

I don't know why I didn't think of this before. Cheesecake works wonderfully as a savoury dish. This one, loaded up with cheese and asparagus is really tasty.

Ingredients

300 grams cream cheese

50 grams grated cheddar cheese

2 eggs and one egg yolk

100 grams cream

1tablespoon cornflour

15 stems asparagus

1 teaspoon mustard

salt 

pepper

1 - 2 tablespoons butter

a handful of sliced almonds, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds and sesame seeds

a handful of almond flour

Around 2 hours before you start cooking, remove the cream cheese from the fridge. You want it to be room temperature.

Cook the asparagus tips and some chopped up pieces of asparagus for around 5 - 10 minutes in boiling water until soft. Drain and put to one side.

Toast the nuts and seeds in a metal tray in the oven (or dry fry them) for about 5 minutes.

Turn the oven down to around 150 C.

Melt the butter in a frying pan and add the nuts and seeds, together with the almond flour.

The mixture has the right balance of butter and nuts, etc. when it sticks together when pressed, but crumbles when rubbed in between your fingers. Add more butter, or nuts and seeds until this is achieved. 

Press the nut mix into the bottom of a loose based tin with high sides. We used one around 15 cms in diameter.

Mix the cream cheese and the cream together by pressing it against the side of the bowl.

Add the whisked eggs.

Sift and stir in the cornflour.

Stir in the mustard, cheddar, salt and pepper.

Gently add the chopped asparagus.

Arrange a few of the tips on the nut mixture.

Pour on the cheese mixture, gently pressing down till it is even.

Arrange the asparagus tips on top.

Put in the oven for 2 - 3 hours. 

When turning golden on top, switch off the oven and leave till cool. Remove from the pan and keep in the fridge until ready to eat.

This should be eaten cold. Try to resist till then. It's so so good.