DF & GF Lemon Ginger Muffins

Utilising beautiful fresh ginger and lemon, these are a delicious treat any time of the day.

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup coconut flour

• 1/2 teaspoon sea salt

• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda

• 1 tablespoons ground ginger

• 1/4 cup coconut oil

• Honey, to taste

• 3 large free-range eggs

• 2 tablespoons fresh lemon zest (about 2 medium sized lemons)

Directions:

Thoroughly combine the above ingredients into a large mixing bowl. Fill a lined muffin tray about 3/4 way up, and bake at 180 degrees for about 15 minutes (until a toothpick comes out clean in the centre). Cool, and enjoy.

Makes six muffins.

Make Your Own Confit Garlic & Oil

Making your own confit garlic doesn't sound like an appealing idea; however, once you make it once and use the garlic and the residual oil, you'll be a convert too. Confiting means to cook in fat (usually a meat cooked in its own fat) - and instead of frying at a higher heat, a confit cooks over a longer period at a lower temperature.

You can use confit garlic on, well, anything. It's delicious. It converts the raw, pungentness of garlic into a rich, sweet clove that can be crushed between your fingers. Throw some into a hummus, with roast vegetables, or with any protein to add a subtle garlic richness to the dish. By making this, you'll also be left with garlic oil - so use this liberally across everything, too.

Ingredients:

- Garlic bulbs, peeled (buy them this way to save time). You'll want to make at least two bulbs worth at a time, or even more, so buy in bulk here.

- Extra Virgin Olive Oil, or an oil low in saturated fat

- Herbs (thyme or rosemary)

Method:

To make just the right amount, find a jar you'd like to store the end product in, and fill it with garlic and top with oil. Tip all of this into a small saucepan with a lid. Alternatively, cover the bottom of a small saucepan with garlic cloves, covering a single layer.

Cover the cloves with enough olive oil. Throw in a couple of sprigs of rosemary or thyme, cover, and set over a medium/medium low heat for 25 minutes. You don't want big bubbles - this means you're deep frying, and they'll burn - but little bubbles from the cloves are perfect. Once the cloves have a light colouring, remove from the heat and allow to cool.

Grilled sweet potatoes with hot sauce butter, sour cream and pumpkin seeds

This is an incredible way to jazz up sweet potatoes and add huge, punchy flavour. You'll appreciate the end result after completing each step. Consider using the elements on their own to spice up a dish you already love - there's some great techniques here. Recipe by Yotam Ottolenghi.

Ingredients:

For the Potatoes

• Salt and pepper

• 1kg sweet potatoes, unpeeled, cut in half lengthways then cut in half at an angle into quarters.

• 3 tbsp olive oil

For the soured cream

• 300g sour cream

• 25g chives

• 1 1/2 tsp lime juice

For the hot sauce butter

• 100g unsalted butter

• 3 small garlic cloves, peeled and finely chopped/pressed

• 1/2 tbsp tomato paste

• 1/2 tsp cinnamon

• 80ml hot sauce of your choice

• 30ml maple syrup

• 1 1/2 tbsp lime juice

To serve

• 30g pumpkin seeds, toasted and lightly crushed

• 1 lime, quartered

• 5g chives, roughly chopped for garnish.

Method

Put two litres of water in a large saucepan, add three tablespoons of salt and bring to a boil. Add the sweet potatoes, turn down the heat to medium-high and leave to simmer for 20-25 minutes, until tender – a small, sharp knife should go through easily, but you don’t want them mushy or breaking apart. Drain, transfer to a large bowl, add the olive oil and toss gently with your hands so the sweet potatoes are well coated but still hold their shape.

Now make the chive soured cream. Put 100g soured cream in the small bowl of a food processor, add the chives, lime juice and half a teaspoon of salt, and blitz smooth. Pour into a bowl, fold in the remaining 200g soured cream and refrigerate until it’s time to serve.

For the hot sauce butter, put the butter, garlic and tomato paste in a small saucepan set over a medium heat and leave to cook for five minutes, until the garlic is fragrant and the butter bubbling. Take off the heat, stir in the cinnamon until the mixture is smooth, then stir in the hot sauce, maple syrup, lime juice and half a teaspoon of salt, and set aside.

Advertisement

Put a griddle pan on a medium-high heat and, once it’s really hot, grill the sweet potatoes in batches for two to three minutes on each side, including the skin, until dark grill marks appear. Transfer to a large bowl and repeat with the remaining sweet potatoes.

Return the butter to a low heat, until gently bubbling, pour over the sweet potatoes and toss gently to coat.

To assemble the dish, spoon half the chive soured cream on to a large platter with a lip. Arrange the sweet potatoes on top, then generously spoon over the hot sauce butter. Sprinkle over a quarter of the pumpkin seeds and the chopped chives, and serve warm with the remaining soured cream, pumpkin seeds and lime wedges on the side for everyone to help themselves.