Spice Mixes and Fancy Salt

Santa Maria Season All (Home Bargains)

A spice mix that can be used for an array of cuisines including Mexican, Indian, Spanish and Moroccan.  It is a good blend, the predominant flavour is that of paprika.  Also included is black pepper, celery seed, onion, garlic, coriander, ginger, cumin and cayenne.  It is not too hot, well balanced and full of flavour.

Santa Maria Rock and Sea Salt

I do not eat very much salt in my diet but it is very important for bringing out flavour in food.  This blend of two salts,was attractive as there was a mix in the size of flakes.  The addition of sea salt meant that it was a more intense salty flavour, therefore less was needed it and it is lasting well.

Pink Himalayan Salt (Aldi)

Seek out and like natural products.  This is attractive to look at and a very interesting product.  It has a mill on the top too which makes it great to have on the table for guests to use.   Vaguely aware of the benefits,. that it is packed full of minerals and elements.  That can only be a good thing.  It is certainly the aesthetics, origin and story behind it which encouraged the purchase.

 

Santa Maria Teriyaki (Home Bargains)

This Japanese inspired spice blend contains a hint soy.  It contains roasted black and ordinary sesame seeds and it looks very good.  Have used it in stir fry's for the most part but also as a coating for chicken when cooking for family.  There is a pleasant warmth from ginger and the blend is quite aromatic.

Homemade Pitta Bread and Cauli Falafel

A Little Bit Busy In The Kitchen....

Was delighted to get the afternoon off work.  Decided that I'd take advantage of the time and get down to some cooking and baking (of the bread variety).  Pitta breads have always been a staple on my shopping list, handy for a quick lunch and my favourite thing to dip into a mug of soup.  How hard could they be to make?  Along with having a go at ptita's, I also made a variety of different salads- a cous-cous with roasted pepper, a raw cauliflower, lemon and dill as well as a grated carrot and lime salad (Summer Salad Recipes).  Made fairly decent sized batches of each to have alongside leaves, pita/baked tatty for easy meals over the next few days.  As there was a bit of a Middle Eastern theme developing,g also made a small batch of mini cauliflower and pink peppercorn falafels.  With cauliflower on offer at Lidl it is a veg I really enjoy but rarely buy.  Most often have it in a curry or raw but it is about time I thought outside of the box!  As well as the recipes today; Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall has a recipe for a cauliflower snack that I suppose eats as a kind of crisp- intrigued to try those out (Hugh's Cauliflower Recipe Ideas). 

As there was a 100g bar of white chocolate in the back of the cupboard, leftover from the chocolate barks I made at Christmas.  With this I had a go at  making some white chocolate peanut butter cups.  Melting the choc, mixed up the peanut butter with some vanilla in separate bowl and used paper cake cases.  Encased the whipped peanut butter in chocolate by spooning the choc into the cups distributing thinly and added a spoon of peanut butter then sealed with more choc.  Allowed these to set in fridge.  Provided pictures but are poor quality as they were taken via laptops webcam.