Persian Halloumi and a Toshiba Cookalong

Gousto are a company who deliver everything you need to cook delicious healthy recipes, delivered weekly for you to make at home.  You might wonder why you would do such a thing, but you only have to have tried one of their recipes to know that what you are getting is all the expertise of their chef in putting together fabulous flavours and none of the hassle of having to buy larger quantities of specialist ingredients that you may not use again.

I've reviewed Gousto boxes before and really enjoyed all the recipes, I also learned a few different techniques that I have used again. 


Here are the ingredients for the Persian Halloumi recipe.  I was familiar with all of them except the barberries, which I have heard of but never tried. 


However, this isn't the usual sort of food box review, because this time I had been invited, along with some other bloggers,  to be part of a Cookalong on Skype using the
Toshiba Satellite Radius 11 - The ultimate cook along companion.  We were guided through the recipe by Gousto Chef Alice,  the Cookalong experience was quite intense and, unfortunately the connection was not too good for some of us.  However, there was the Gousto recipe card to follow as well so, one way or another, we all managed to make the recipe which was really delicious.  

Persian Halloumi
Serves 2 - 3

250g halloumi cheese
50g bulgur wheat
2 red onions
20g dried barberries
1 tbsp pomegranate molasses
10g fresh mint
1 tbsp ras el hanout
1 lemon

1. Boil a kettle. Add the bulgur to a pot with 275 ml of boiling water, cover with a lid over a medium-low heat. 
2. Simmer for 5-7 min or until almost all the water is absorbed. Remove and set aside with the lid on for 10 min, until dry and fluffy 
3. Meanwhile, put the barberries in a small bowl and add 100 ml of hot water, add 1 tbsp of sugar and mix well.
4. Peel the onions, cut them in half and slice finely. Chop the mint finely and grate the zest of the lemon. 
5. Cut the halloumi into thin slices (approx. 1cm thick) 
6. Cut the lemon in half and squeeze the juice over the halloumi ,combine half the ras el hanout with 1 tsp of black pepper for the spice mix.  Coat the halloumi in the spice mix.
7. Add 1-2 tbsp of olive oil to a large pan on a medium-high heat,  once the oil is hot, add the onion and cook for 4-5 min or until soft and lightly caramelised.
8. Add 3 tbsp of the barberry water to the bulgur wheat,  drain the barberries and add to the bulgur wheat. Combine the barberry bulgur with the mint, lemon zest, remaining ras el hanout, pomegranate molasses and 1-2 tbsp of olive oil,  season to your taste with salt and pepper.
9. Push the onion to one side of the pan and add 1-2 tbsp of olive oil, add the halloumi and cook for 1-2 min on each side or until golden all over.
10. Serve the bulgur wheat with the onion and halloumi 

Here you can see Camilla from FabFood4All  on the left and Helen from Fuss Free Flavours on the right.  There wasn't much time for chatting and I didn't manage to see all of the other bloggers involved, but I did have a chat with Leslie Williams, the Dublin food writer, at the end of the cookalong when we were the only two left online. The built-in high-quality webcam and microphone on the Toshiba Radius 11  lets you easily chat with friends or take part in group Skype calls, as we did.  It would be a great way to talk your friend through a recipe with which they are unfamiliar.


The  Toshiba Satellite Radius 11 is a Windows 8.1 laptop and a tablet all in one. It was ideal for the Cookalong and also for viewing recipes online.  I use fewer cookbooks than I used to and often cook recipes by other bloggers, or from websites and, of course, I also return to Farmersgirl Kitchen to look up favourite recipes to make again.  

The versatility of the Toshiba Satelitte Radius 11 makes it ideal as a perfectly portable kitchen companion, The innovative hinge lets you transform the Satellite Radius 11 into any one of five different modes – laptop, tabletop, presentation, audience and tablet. Its touchscreen makes it easy to flick through recipes, or catch up on your favourite TV cookery programmes online and cook along in your kitchen at the same time.  I also found it quite easy to set up and navigate my way around, much though I love my tablet, it is not very good for writing up blog posts and I enjoy having a proper keyboard and the full functionality of a laptop.

It's also amazingly compact, the Satellite Radius 11 easily fits onto kitchen worktops, and when in tablet mode the 29.5cm (11.6”) devices take up less space than a traditional cookbook, giving you more room to get creative.

Toshiba Satellite Radius 11
 £300.00
www.toshiba.co.uk
Designed for mobility, delivering a smooth, seamless PC experience anywhere
500 GB hard drive for storage along with a responsive 32 GB of cloud storage
Fast boot-up and online access
www.facebook.com/toshibauk
@ToshibaUK
www.facebook.com/followgousto
@FollowGousto goustocooking

If you would like to try a Gousto box I have a code which will save you £20 on your first box, simply click through the code below to claim your discount. 

Gousto Code: gousto.co.uk/farmersgirlkitchen

Labels: Bulgar wheat, cookalong, Gousto, Gousto Box, halloumi, laptop, review, Tablet, Toshiba, Toshiba Satellite Radius 11

posted by Janice @ 20:00 12 Comments

Escape for the Night - My Dream Wedding Menu

I don't do a lot of competition posts but I've been tempted by the prospect of a night in at Stanley House, a luxury hotel in the North West of England, with breakfast, dinner and spa treatments included.  Anyone who knows me, knows I love an overnight in a hotel with spa treatments. 
Brian and I have been married for 32 years, the photo above is from 2011 which was our 30th Wedding Anniversary and is taken outside the hotel where we had our wedding reception.

To enter this competition you have to write about your dream wedding menu which really got me thinking.  At our wedding, so long ago, I went for simplicity.  As it was June, I chose traditional Scottish summer dishes: a whole side of poached salmon served cold with a buffet, followed by Scottish strawberries and cream, to be honest I can't remember much else about the food.  I didn't want a big wedding, just family and a few close friends, it was all very informal.


For my Dream Wedding Menu, I would still choose beautiful fresh Scottish produce, but this time it would be a slightly more formal dinner, for a slightly different group of family and friends as many of those invited to our wedding are no longer with us. 

Labels: Iced Cranachan, langoustines, Menu, raspberries, Scotland, Scottish, Sirloin Steak, Spa, Stanley House Hotel, Tablet, wedding

posted by Janice @ 21:29 5 Comments

Best of British - The Scottish Round Up

Loch Tay from Kenmore

When the sun shines, Scotland is one of the most stunning places you could ever visit.  Glorious hills, lochs and coastal villages.  There is also a rich heritage and culture to enjoy.

Pittenweem Harbour

We also have some incredible produce, beef, lamb, seafood, milk, cheese, butter cream and glorious raspberries, strawberries and blackcurrants.

Langoustines

Blackcurrants

We are lucky that New World Appliances as proud BRITISH manufacturers of kitchen appliances are sponsoring this event for the first six months.  Each month, one entrant will be picked AT RANDOM to receive a £50 Amazon voucher.  And, at the end of the six month period we will have a regional showdown, with a judge to pick the best entry (we are still working on who that will be and should be able to announce it shortly).  New World Appliances have kindly offered £300 of Amazon vouchers for the overall winner, so if you enter every month you have 6 chances to win the grand prize!


Thank you to all the lovely food bloggers who entered the Scottish challenge for Best of British in partnership with New World Appliances , it was fun to read about what Scottish food means to you and see the delicious meals that you made.  Fiona will also be blogging the round up at the Face of New World blog 'A Whole New World', in the next few days.

1. First past the post was Chris Halfmann from 'Cooking Around the World' with his Scottish Whisky Cake and remember, the whisky is supposed to go IN the cake!

2. Next up is this fantastic Pork and Haggis Meatloaf with Honey Mustard and Whisky Apples from Claire at Under the Blue Gum Tree. Claire is based in South Africa and really impressed me sourcing haggis from local butcher with Scottish roots!

Skirlie

Selkirk Bannock

3.  Jill from Lapin d'Or and More wrote a lovely post telling about her time cooking at a shooting lodge in Tomintoul and a bit about Catherine Brown, author of  Scottish Regional Recipes, the book the recipes for Skirlie and the Selkirk Bannock came from.

4. Ros at The More Occassional Baker  consulted her Scottish friends who suggested she make one of the most difficult, but total delicious, Scottish sweets - TABLET!  Tablet is notoriously difficult to get right and although Ros felt hers was a bit on the soft side, it tasted just right, mmmmm I love tablet.


5.  Scottish Mum brings us Traditional Scottish Oatcakes a quick and simple biscuit (cracker) and a great accompaniment to stovies, corned beef hash, or any slow cooked meal, stew or stroganoff.  In fact that reminded me that as children, we used to crumble them into any gravy left on the plate, usually from mince, totally delicious!

6. Jacqueline of How to be a Gourmand made me laugh with her quote from Billy Connolly “There are two seasons in Scotland – Winter and July” although I have to say that this year, it would be hard to tell them apart!  Jacqueline chose Scottish Raspberries and made this lovely looking Scottish Raspberry and Pinenut Bake.


7. Caroline of Caroline Makes decided to recreate a Scottish tea time favourite, 'Tunnocks Teacakes' using some Marshmallow Fluff she had found at a bargain price and was happy enough with the results that she plans to make them again and may even make her own marshmallow next time.

 My own entry is an Iced Cranachan with Raspberries.  Cranachan contains cream, honey, oatmeal and whisky.  I used these ingredients to make an icecream and froze it into little moulds just to make it look more cheffy! 

8. Karen at Lavender and Lovage brings us some traditional Scottish baking, not in the oven but on the girdle, as we call it in Scotland, with her Scotch Griddle Cakes with Heather Honey .  These were probably the first thing I ever baked, standing on a stool at my granny's cooker, dropping spoonfuls onto the girdle and the eating them warm and dripping with butter.

9. It's breakfast time and time for Tattie Scones at the home of Tinned Tomatoes blogger, Jac!  Jac says "These are traditional potato scones, made in Scotland. A simple scone made from mashed potato, flour and butter. Once cooked they can be kept in the fridge and re-heated in a toaster or under a grill."

10. Back to the sweet stuff with traditional shortbread with a twist: this is Chocolate Scottish Shortbread from Janine at Cake of the Week and it come highly recommended!

11. Choclette at Chocolate Log Blog used the challenge as an opportunity to make Cranachan, she says  "It's been on my list of things to make for years AND I wasn't going to miss this opportunity to give it a whirl. For the uninitiated cranachan is a traditional Scottish celebration dish consisting of oatmeal, whipped cream, honey & whisky and sometimes raspberries."  It looks great and, of course, as it was from Choclette, it includes some sprinkles of white chocolate!


12. Caroline from Cake, Crumbs and Cooking is a big fan of Scottish Cook, Sue Lawrence, and chose to make Treacle Scones and Parlies.  Here's a photo of the Treacle Scones but you will have to visit Caroline's blog to exactly what the Parlies might be!


13. And so back to breakfast again, you would think that we Scots ate nothing but breakfast and tea, although those are some of our best meals.  Fiona of London Unattached is the instigator of the Best of British Challenge with help from Karen at Lavender and Lovage and a few co-conspirators hosting the regions.  Inspired by childhood memories of her Scottish aunts, Fiona chose to make a breakfast dish of Kippers and Oatcakes.

14. And so we come round full circle with a Whisky and Honey Cake from Gloria's Canela Kitchen.  A lovely confection of whisky, honey and almonds.

And the WINNER, chosen by Random Number Generator, is......drum roll please..........................

Labels: Best of British, cake, Cranachan, Griddle, haggis, honey, kippers, oatcakes, pancakes, raspberry, Scotland, Scottish, Selkirk Bannock, shortbread, skirlie, Tablet, Tattie Scones, whisky

posted by Janice @ 20:47 15 Comments

Sweets

When we were on holiday (vacation) we visited the House of Bruar near Blair Athol, it is a very up market shopping centre and has a lovely food hall.  The abundance and colours of the sweets attracted my attention.




I didn't buy any of the brightly coloured sweets, but did buy a couple of boxes of tablet to take back to work colleagues.  Tablet is a Scottish sweet which is a bit like fudge but has a firmer texture.

Labels: House of Bruar, Sweets, Tablet

posted by Janice @ 22:26 2 Comments