Pea Green Potatoes

The sun is suddenly shining in London and I felt like spring time. This salad is a culmination of two of my "nevers" no longer being true.

Frozen veg is a lifesaver. However, I hated peas as a child and my frozen green of choice has long been spinach. I bought peas recently which I used in my delicious lentil kedgeree, which I will post another day. I don't think I have ever bought them before.

Secondly, after a childhood of spuds, I rarely buy them either. My mum was always keen on new potatoes and this weekend I think I finally grew up. They may even rate with mash as my spud of choice!

I ate pea puree with chicken and new spuds yesterday, and have combined it today with the leftover cold spuds. It is such a glorious zingy vibrant green, and the taste of the peas with mint seems to be the English spring in a mouthful. As I said to a friend- it's so good it could almost be served as a diabetic ice cream!


To make:
Everyone goes on about fresh peas, but I used frozen petits pois, 2 cups
Cream cheese (I used a value variety)- two heaped tablespoonfuls
Mild olive oil
Pinch of salt.
Spring of mint


You will need a blender of some variety- I used a stick blender in a bowl.



Put your peas and cream cheese in a deep bowl. The more de-frosted your peas are the easier this will be, and the fewer peas will jump out of the bowl- a real possibility if you're not careful! Add tiny drizzles of oil if blending is difficult as this will help  it come into a smooth paste. Add mint to taste- mine ended up obviously but not overwhelmingly minty and I used 4 or 5 large mint leaves. Add the salt to taste. Blitz until you are happy with the texture (this is like hummus- you can have lumps or you can have it super-smooth).

My peas were semi-frozen when I made it, so it did end up ice-cream like and quite moreish, and melted delightfully on my hot new potatoes.

With my quartered tiny new spuds mixed into my tupperwear this was delicious.

Moreover, this can be used as a dip for crudites, a spread (much in the way of hummus)- delicious with a bit of ham or bacon, or on canapes.

Salmon, Beetroot and Orange Pate

I love making canapes- they can look beautiful and be a talking point at a party. This particular party at the weekend had a circus theme (we also watched the film "Butterfly Circus") and I wanted food that was colourful and witty.

One of the canapes I made was smoked salmon based- a lovely pink tinged pate  on a  bagel slice  topped with a piece of smoked  salmon and a dab of pistachio-green wasabi.

To make the pate:
240 g smoked salmon trimmings
one box cream cheese
one small beetroot + beetroot juice (you can also get a food colouring made entirely from concentrate beetroot juice)
zest of 1/8 orange (a tiny bit)
black pepper (freshly ground and to taste).

I marinaded the smoked salmon trimming overnight with the beetroot juice and the crushed beetroot, before blending it with all of the other ingredients. This would also be great without the wasabi but mixed with fresh dill and plenty of lemon zest.

To make the canape:
I cut multi seed bagels into 1/3 cm slices- this is more economic than crackers as, after all, it is just a mount for the yummy stuff! Slather the slice generously with pate, top with a piece of smoked salmon, half the size of the slice of bagel and add a dab of wasabi which will counteract the sweetness of the pate.

YUM YUM : )

A stellar spring dessert

Canadian WONDER woman Maria contributed this recipe from her blog

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A recipe for no-bake cheesecake came through my Twitter feed this week. I hardly ever make cheesecake because every recipe I've come across seems to be so complicated and expensive. This particular recipe, however, is nice and small, calling for only one 250-gram block of cream cheese and yielding 4 individual-sized cheesecakes.

You will need a hand-mixer to whip the cream cheese and cream. The whipped cream adds lightness to the mixture, and a dash of lemon juice adds a bright note. Once properly chilled, the resulting cheesecake is sweet-tart, with a full, rich bite.

The original recipe suggested blueberries for the topping, but you can use any fruit you like. I thought I'd use strawberries. I was at my friendly neighbourhood Asian market, and actually had a container of strawberries in my hand when I spotted this beauty: the star fruit.

Not only is this fruit good-looking and exotic, it is also rich in vitamin C, fiber, antioxidants and flavonoids. Eat it (minus the cheesecake) if you want to lose weight. Or eat it with the cheesecake but with a little less guilt, because each whole fruit contains only 30 calories.

If you want an extra shot of sweetness, glaze the star fruit slices with a little sugar syrup, or drizzle the tops of the cheesecakes with honey or balsamic vinegar syrup before serving.

As for the crust, I added ground-up macadamia nuts and wildflower honey to the usual graham cracker crumbs, to make this an extra-special dessert from top to bottom. (You could also use almonds or hazelnuts.)

For the crust:

1/4 cup graham cracker crumbs
1/4 ground macadamia nuts
2 tbsp honey

Mix in a small bowl with a fork until evenly moist and sticky. Press evenly into the bottoms of four small, clear dessert cups.

For the cheesecake:

1 250-g block of cream cheese
1/4 cup white sugar
1 tbsp lemon juice
Whip together until smooth, then fold in:
1/2 cup heavy cream, whipped

Scoop the cream cheese mixture into the dessert cups, pressing down lightly to ensure there are no air pockets.

Chill for at least 3 hours or overnight.