Carrying on from my Rose Apple Tarts, I decided to make a similar savoury version using bright coloured vegetables – courgettes, carrots and aubergines. It turned out to be very pretty, but it did take a lot of work and patience! It’s a good one to make if you have a glut of vegetables in the summer, and a bit of time on your hands 🙂 Continue Reading…
For many people St.Patrick’s Day is a day of drinking, gaudy parades, lurid green leprechauns and shamrock shakes. There are a lot of great things about Ireland and very little of these are ever celebrated on our national feast day. Last weekend I had the opportunity to spend some time in a beautiful unspoiled part of Ireland, on Inchydoney Island in West Cork. It got me thinking a lot about Ireland and made me appreciate some of our real hidden treasures. Continue Reading…
Thanks to my OH’s work colleagues, we’ve recently been getting a lot of great home grown organic produce as gifts. Kevin Cooke gave us some lovely courgettes which, as I mentioned before, are not the OH’s favourite food. So, once again, I was faced with the challenge of glorifying this great vegetable. I created some delicious courgette, chive and cheese scones. The courgette in these scones make them deliciously moist and they’re a perfect lunch box filler. Continue Reading…
Unlike me, my other half doesn’t love courgettes. He claims they squeak – like green beans and aubergines – they’re on his “I’ll only eat those if there’s another famine'” list. So I spend a lot of time trying to create recipes which make these vegetables more appetising and less….squeaky. These fritters have been the greatest success so far, though it may be due to the fact that they are completely, cheesy, crispy and delicious. You could probably create these fritters with other squeaky vegetables like aubergines and they also work great with leeks. My Dad has a glut of courgettes in the garden, so these fritters are great to use them up. The fritters are accompanied by my other half’s special recipe for tomato and chilli jam which is rich and sweet and a perfect match for them. This dish makes a great tea-time snack or a scrummy starter. Continue Reading…
There are some vegetables that I just never buy or cook with. The unpopular vegetables, the ones you rarely see on regular restaurant menus or in your local supermarket. The kind of vegetable which you have to hunt down, which are only ever available in season and are usually organic. Vegetables with funny names and funny tastes that rarely make it onto our plates: Kohlrabi, Samphire, Black salsify, Jerusalem artichokes and Swedes. These vegetables may have lots of flavour, but have little or no reputation. The kind of vegetable that you excitedly pick up and think ‘Hmm what would I do with that’, then promptly put it back as you don’t have the time to contemplate a new recipe with an unusual looking vegetable. These are the forgotten vegetables.
As this was a sunny Greek inspired dish I thought it only natural to try and capture some sunlight for the picture. As I have a normal nine-to-five job I only get time to do my blog outside office hours, so I have a very small window of opportunity to capture the light. So, I waited and I waited and I waited. By the time a few watery rays of sunshine appeared, I was almost falling down with hunger. When the photos were finally taken, I grabbed the closest available prop and tucked in with gleeful abandon. The evening sun was now warm and bright and had illuminated the entire balcony as I savoured this sweet and salty summer salad. This is my favourite kind of summer snack – light, fruity and fresh with a bite of salty olives and crispy pistachio nuts. Haloumi and Watermelon are a match made in heaven and the honey and lemon dressing really brings out all the flavours. This salad takes only minutes to make and is a perfect after work snack. Continue Reading…
You can find some of my favorite gluten-free recipes in my eBook available from Amazon.
I'm Vicky and Stasty is my simple and tasty food recipe blog. I love to cook and I love to talk about food, so this blog is really my ramblings and thoughts about cooking and eating. Some of the recipes are my own and some are ones that I found on the net or picked up from my favorite cookbooks. I cook everything in our little kitchen in beautiful Washington. I am aided and abetted by my I.T guru/tantrum-trouble-shooter/editor and chief-taster otherwise known as the OH or Nelius.