Jacket Potatoes

To quote Mr VST sometimes there's nothing better than a jacket potato. These beauties were baked in the oven only as nature intended and tasted great with cheese and home made houmous. 

Blue Juice, Cotham, Bristol

On Wednesday Mr VST and I had a day off. We went up to Bristol to spend the day with friends and popped into Blue Juice in Cotham for lunch. Sometimes the most simple food is the most delicious. There was a lunch deal on, a wrap and a fresh juice for a fiver. Mr VST went for a falafel wrap and I went for a houmous and cous cous wrap and we shared them. They were so good. 

Quorn Tortilla Stack, Potato Wedges, Houmous and Refried Beans

Exactly what it says in the title. Quorn mince tortilla stack. Thought I'd put the recipe up as I've made it quite a few times now and it's a good one. I guess it could be made with real mince or soya mince too. 

Ingredients:

300g Mince of your choice

1 small onion, finely chopped

1 clove garlic, minced

2 tsp ground paprika

1 tsp chilli powder

400g chopped tomatoes

2 tbsp tomato puree

1 tbsp soy sauce (or vegetarian Worcestershire sauce)

4 soft flour tortillas

50g mature cheddar cheese

Method:

1. Pre-heat oven to 200 degrees celcius/400 farenheit/gas mark 6.

2. Heat a little oil in a frying pan until hot, cook the onion and garlic for 5 minutes.

3. Add the mince, paprika, chilli powder, chopped tomatoes, tomato puree and soya sauce and season.

4. Simmer for 10-15 minutes.

5. Place a large tortilla on a large non-stick baking tray, spoon over a portion of mince mixture. Repeat with the remaining tortillas and mince and then add the cheese on the top of the final tortilla.

6. Bake for 10 minutes, cut into quarters and serve. 

Home made houmous, hummus, homas, however you want to spell it!

Mr VST is getting hungry! He's pretty much always hungry or at the very least ready to eat food but with his promotion at work his brain is having to work harder than it has in a while and it's creating a demand for calories. He has pretty much been eating two lunches a day for the last few weeks (and annoyingly has lost weight!). One of the snacks I thought I could send him to work with was some houmous and various things to dip into it. I googled for recipes, as you do, and came across a whole blog just on making houmous called the hummus blog! As they appear to have tried quite a few recipes and come up with the ultimate one I thought I'd try that one so here it is. The bag of chickpeas I bought was 500g I thought I'd make the lot into houmous!  

Ingredients
[4 bowls of houmous]
200g dried chickpeas (the smallest you can find)
150g tahini
juice from 1 squeezed lemons
1-2 garlic cloves
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1 tablespoon + 1/8-1/4 teaspoon baking soda
salt
olive oil
parsley

Method

1. Poor the chickpeas over a large plate. Go over them and look for damaged grains small stones, or any other thing you would rather leave out of the plate.

2. Wash the chickpeas several times, until the water is transparent. Soak them in clean water over night with 1 tablespoon of baking soda. Then, wash it, and soak again in tap water for a few more hours. The grains should absorb most of the water and almost double their volume.

3. Wash the chickpeas well and put them in a large pot. Cover with water, add the rest baking soda and NO salt. Cook until the grains are very easily smashed when pressed between two fingers. It should take around 1-1.5 hours, during which it is advised to switch the water once again, and remove the peels and foam which float over the cooking water. When done, sieve the grains and keep the cooking water.

4. Put the chickpeas into a food processor and grind well. Leave it to chill a little while before you continue.

5. Add the tahini , lemon juice, crushed garlic, cumin and salt if desired and go on with the food processor until you get the desired texture. If the Humus is too thick, add some of the cooking water. It should be thinner than the actual desired texture.

Serve with some good olive oil and chopped parsley

I needed to add a little bit of water to the mix as mine was a little thick. I was also a little lazy and didn't remove the skins of the chickpeas. I wish I had as I'm pretty sure it was them that caused the slightly bitter aftertaste. The houmous was less bitter though after it had cooled and I had thinned it a little.

I was slightly concerned after cooking all my chickpeas and then reading the recipe which said it made four large bowls already. I used only 2/5 of the chickpeas for the houmous and then sorted the skins from the remaining 'peas. There weren't actually that many left and the recipe didn't make as much as I first thought it would so I think I'm going to make a skinless batch of houmous and see if I can get rid of the bitter taste.