Cinnamon toffee apples

I had a brainwave this afternoon - why not make cinnamon toffee apples?! It's already an excellent combination, and toffee really is a lot easier to make than people make out. These turned out fabulously.

The past 2 years I've wanted to eat a toffee apple while watching fireworks and I searched high and low among the marshmallow and Haribo stalls (what's the world coming to? Not even candy floss was available!) at the fireworks/funfair and I could not find a toffee apple. This year Hubby managed to find them in the supermarket buried among Halloween things - perhaps it was because I was looking at the wrong time... Anyhow, now I have my beloved break-your-teeth toffee apples with a glorious twist!

Cinnamon toffee apples

I'm not sure I'd recommend using treacle but I had run out of golden syrup. I think the treacle would lower the boiling point so you'd have to guess when it's going to make toffee which perhaps isn't that safe!


Makes 4 toffee apples


200g caster sugar
50 ml water
1 large teaspoon treacle (but preferably golden syrup)
3 teaspoons cinnamon

Place the apples in a bowl or large pan and pour boiling water over them. Take them out and dry thoroughly. This helps to remove the natural wax coating on the apples, which enables the toffee to stick better. Stick a lolly stick (or in my case, a cake fork!) into the apples and place on a baking sheet lined with greaseproof paper. Mine stuck to the paper, so there's probably a better non-stick option. You could grease the paper but only put the apples on once they're covered in toffee.

Add the sugar, water and treacle to a pan and agitate (don't stir) over a high heat. When it is all liquid insert a sugar thermometer and watch the temperature creep up to Hard Crack (or just under 150 degrees Celsius). This will take about 10 minutes. While keeping one beady eye on your pan (and keeping all children and pets out of the kitchen – hot sugar really is very hot) fill a large bowl (or another pan) with cold water and set it next to your sugar pan. You can dip the base of the pan into this if the toffee gets too hot. Once sugar is hot, the temperature keeps rising until you cool it with something - otherwise it can burn.

Add the cinnamon and stir it in quickly. When the toffee has reached the right temperature, dip the apples in, one by one, and place on the baking sheet. Leave to cool for 20 mins.

Chicken salad

We've been having unseasonably warm weather recently (even though it's October, temperatures have reached 29 degrees celcius!), and I try not to complain, but it has been a bit too hot at times. I feel able to say this because I hardly ever complain about it being too cold in the winter (what's not to like about wrapping up warm in layers of clothing, and having an excuse to stop and get a hot chocolate, and having rosy wind-beaten cheeks and toasty feet in boots and curling up under a blanket to watch a film on tv at 4pm because it's already dark?). Mmmmm winter...

Anyway, I made this chicken salad because it was too hot to cook anything else. I was pretty impressed with the results, if I do say so myself. My inspiration came vaguely from Pret's Italian Chicken Salad and a Caesar salad (and whatever was in the fridge!). This recipe looks a little complex, with a lot of ingredients, but they're all things you will probably have in the house and once you get going it'll all come together nicely.

Chicken salad
Serves 2

2 chicken breasts
1 teaspoon sunflower oil
Juice of half a lemon
Black pepper


70 g quinoa with a little vegetable bouillon
1 little gem lettuce (and other salad leaves of your choice)
30 g butternut squash (or a couple of thick slices)
A handful of radishes
Cherry tomatoes
Olives
Parmasan cheese


For the dressing:
3 tablespoons low-fat yoghurt
A few teaspoons lemon juice (to taste)
1 tablespoon white wine vinegar
Salt and pepper (to taste)

Add the quinoa to a pan of boiling water and cook for about 10 minutes (I didn't overcook it this time!) with a little vegetable bouillon.

Flatten the chicken (I cover it in clingfilm and then hammer it with a rolling pin) then add to a frying pan with the oil and lemon juice and a good sprinkle of black pepper. Fry until it is cooked through (5–8 minutes). The lemon juice caramelises beautifully on the outside of the chicken. You may need to turn the heat up at the end to get it really brown.

Meanwhile, prepare the salad. Slice the radishes (I used a mandolin, which my sister-in-law bought me before I even knew the fun that could be had with it!) and the olives and toss with the salad leaves – I did this in two serving bowls to save on washing-up. Chop the butternut squash and put into a microwaveable bowl with a little water and cling film over the top to seal it. Microwave on full power for 3 minutes. Add the butternut squash to the salad.

Drain any water off the quinoa and add the tomatoes (I have a thing about cold tomatoes from the fridge - I think it's to do with my sensitive teeth) to warm them up. Then add to the salad bowls.

Mix the ingredients for the dressing in a small bowl. When the chicken is done, place one piece on each salad, drizzle all over with dressing and shave parmasan on the top (I used the same mandolin again).

Sausage and mash pie

I love a good sausage casserole and sausages on their own are losing their appeal (maybe I've had them too many times? They're so easy and tasty though!). I used to use the word tasty so much when I was younger that it became a family in-joke: "How was dinner, Jessie?", "very tasty!". Like all in-jokes, they only really work when you're in the moment. It looks particularly unfunny written down!
So I had this great idea to combine sausage and mash into one dish (and serve with vegetables), like a shepherd's pie. It is a bit more work but it's really tasty!

Sausage and mash pie
Serves 4

8–10 good quality sausages
1 small onion
1–2 garlic cloves
1 carrot

1/2 pint ale (my husband always keeps a good stock of bottled ale in the house)

1/2 teaspoon caraway seeds

2 tablespoons gravy powder
500g potatoes (I used Desiree)
Dash of milk

Put the sausages into a hot oven on a baking tray. Slice the onion thinly and add to a large pan with a little oil. Cook on a low heat for 10 minutes with the lid on to really soften the onion. (I actually used a cartouche - a piece of scrumpled up wet baking parchment or greaseproof paper - because I was feeling fancy, but it's probably not necessary in this case!)

Peel and chop up the potatoes and add to a pan of boiling water (I usually boil the kettle before I start cooking to speed up this stage).

Thinly slice (or crush) the garlic cloves and add to the onions along with the carrot, chopped into small pieces. Turn up the heat and add the ale. Let the alcohol boil off for a minute or two, then turn the heat down again. Add the caraway seeds. Add the gravy powder and as much water as is necessary to make a rich gravy.

Take the sausages out of the oven and chop into pieces (I find scissors and tongs works well here), straight into the onion-gravy pan.

Finish off the mash by draining the water off the potatoes, adding a dash of milk, salt and pepper and mashing.

Tip the sausage mix into a dish (or two, in my case) and spread the mash on top with a fork. Drizzle with olive oil (and garnish with a sprig of rosemary, if you like). Place back in the oven under the grill for 5 minutes.

Serve with runner beans from the garden! Or any other greens you have.

Quinoa dinner

I really like the nutty flavour of this grain – quinoa – but I only thought to use it as the basis of a meal the other day (when we had eaten pasta too often!). Halfway through cooking, I had the idea that vinegar and honey would complement the flavour of the quinoa, and it worked really well. I added a bit of pomegranate molasses for extra zing (I think lemon juice would work equally well).

The only problem was that I overcooked the quinoa – so don't try and make it look like the picture! I'm also still using up my (wonderful) glut of tomatoes and runner beans, but you could substitute the vegetables with other ones. I think butternut squash and spinach could work really well.

Quinoa dinner

Serves 2

100g quinoa, rinsed

1 tablespoon vegetable stock (such as Boullion)

A handful of cherry tomatoes

6 runner beans

1 yellow or red bell pepper

2 tablespoons white wine vinegar

1 1/2 tablespoons honey

2 teaspoons pomegranate molasses

Cook the quinoa according to the packet instructions (it's available in Waitrose, and don't let it lose its grainy-ness - mine turned into stodge quite quickly!). Add the vegetable stock to the quinoa and water as it's boiling and give it a quick stir. Add the runner beans, tomatoes and bell pepper towards the end of cooking. When the quinoa is cooked (you may have to drain excess water) add the vinegar, honey and pomegranate molasses, and season to taste. Serve hot with bread on the side (the bread in the picture is from a wonderful Turkish deli on Isabella street in Southwark).

Indian spiced pitta pockets

I was chatting to a friend at work this week and she told me about how her family cook Indian food. She was brought up in a Hindu home in Birmingham and explained that the base flavour of every curry consists of three spices: black mustard seeds, turmeric and ground coriander, and all the different variations of Indian dishes can be made from this base. I was inspired to try this for lunch today so I made this filling for pitta bread.  It had a nice, subtle flavour because I didn't add any chilli (which you could, of course, add if you like).

Indian spiced pitta pockets
Serves 2

2 pitta breads
1 chicken breast
10 cherry tomatoes
1 teaspoon sunflower oil
1 teaspoon turmeric
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1 teaspoon black mustard seeds
1/2 teaspoon salt

To serve:
Salad leaves
Mango chutney

Heat a frying pan to a medium heat with the oil and add the black mustard seeds. Heat until they pop, then turn down the heat and add the turmeric, ground coriander and salt. Chop the chicken into strips and add to the pan. Fry until almost cooked through and then cut each tomato in half and add them to the pan. Toast the pitta breads while the tomatoes are warming (I used our toaster, so much easier than the oven!). Cut open the pitta pockets and fill with the chicken mixture once all pieces are cooked through. Serve with salad leaves and a teaspoon of mango chutney on the side.