Courgette, Basil, Polenta and Cheese Wedges

This is a great recipe for a simple weeknight meal. It does take a little bit of prep time but it's well worth it.  It's also vegetarian if you are looking to eat less meat of if you are a vegetarian. The recipe is quite versatile and you can add in a few extra ingredients if you wish. It's great for lunchboxes the next day and will also be good for picnics in the summer. I've made this a few times at home each time with a slight variation so I thought I'd share it with you. Mine turned out a little soft but it tasted delicious warm with the tomato sauce. You can really taste the polenta and the chili and tomatoes added an extra kick and bite to it. I loved the basil as well and used a lot of it in my recipe. I think it's going on the menu plan again this week! 

I'm sending this to a few blog challenges this month. 

Treat Petite hosted by Kat from The Baking Explorer and Stuart from Cakeyboi. The theme this month is fruit and veg. There's courgette and tomatoes in this recipe and as it's served in wedges I hope it qualifies for the challenge!

Cooking with Herbs hosted by Karen from Lavender and Lovage. This recipe uses a lot of fresh basil. 

Extra Veg hosted by Helen from Fuss Free Flavours and Michelle from Utterly Scrummy. 

Tea Time Treats hosted by Janie from The Hedgecombers and Karen from Lavender and Lovage. There's no theme this month and these would make for a great tea time treat! 

Meat Free Mondays hosted by Jacqueline from Tinned Tomatoes.

 courgette and cheese mixture

 polenta 

 ready to go in the oven

 making the tomato sauce

Recipe adapted slightly from The Veg Space

For the wedges
1 courgette, coarsely grated
50g cheddar cheese, grated
1 red chilli, finely chopped

2 fresh tomatoes, roughly chopped (also works well with sundried tomatoes)
20g butter, cut into small cubes
large handful fresh basil, roughly chopped
120g instant polenta
450ml vegetable stock

For the tomato sauce
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 red chilli, finely chopped
6 pitted black olives, finely chopped
250g passata
1 tsp balsamic vinegar
1 tsp caster sugar

• In a large bowl, mix the grated courgette, cheese, chili, fresh tomatoes, butter and basil leaves. 
• Place the polenta in a medium sized pan.
• Add in the hot vegetable stock, stirring constantly.
• Cook the polenta and stock over a low heat whilst stirring continuously. 
• Remove from the heat and stir in the courgette and cheese mixture. 
• Pour the batter into a springform tin lined with greaseproof paper. 
• Allow to cool and then place in the fridge for about half an hour (I skipped this step once and it still turned out ok).
• Make the tomato sauce by heating the olive oil in a small saucepan. Add in the garlic and chili and cook over a low heat for a few minutes. 
• Add the passata, balsamic vinegar, sugar and olives and simmer gently for 10-15 minutes. 
• Preheat the oven to 180C. 
• Bake the polenta for 45-40 minutes or until golden brown on top. 
• Slice into wedges and serve with the tomato sauce. 

Bacon, Blue Cheese and Polenta Muffins

We had a BBQ party at home recently and ended up with quite a lot of leftover food. Amongst them was a whole box of cheese as there was too much food and we didn't get round to eating it on the day. We ate some of the cheese but there was so much and I didn't want to waste it so I thought I'd bake with it. I found a pack of bacon in the fridge and immediately decided on bacon and blue cheese muffins. I spied some polenta which has been in my cupboard for a while so I added them in as well. The result was a delicious, crumbly savoury muffin. You can definitely taste the bacon and depending on which bit you get you also get a hit of the blue cheese. The basil was very subtle and almost undetectable but added a lovely fragrance and hint of sweetness to the muffin. The polenta made them quite crumbly but I thought that was the best bit. 

I'm sending this to the No Waste Food Challenge hosted by Elizabeth from Elizabeth's Kitchen Diary. This recipe is made from leftovers - blue cheese, bacon and polenta. 

It's also perfect for Love Cake hosted by Ness from Jibber Jabber UK as the theme this month is 'Pack me a Picnic' These muffins are perfect for picnics as they are easy to bake and easy to transport. 

 I added a bit of brie as I didnt have enough blue cheese 

 adding blue cheese, basil and bacon

 top with a small piece of bacon

 I put them under the grill for a minute or two just to brown the tops. 

 You can see the crumbly texture 

Makes 10 large muffins

Recipe adapted from Fold in the Flour



6 rashers of smoked bacon (you need 5 for the recipe and 1 for the decoration)
200g plain flour
150g fine polenta
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
80g caster sugar
1 egg, lightly beaten
5 tablespoons water
5 tablespoons vegetable oil
175mls milk
20 fresh small basil leaves, finely chopped

90g blue cheese, crumbled (I used about 70g of blue cheese and 20g of brie as that was all I had) 

• Preheat the oven to 180C. 
• Cook the bacon under a grill or on a frying pan and drain the excess oil. Cut into small bite size pieces.
• In a large bowl, mix the flour, polenta, salt and sugar. 
• In another bowl, mix the egg, oil, water and milk.
• Tip the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix gently.
• Add in the blue cheese, chopped bacon and chopped basil leaves.
• Stir again until just mixed. 
• Divide the batter evenly between 10 muffin cases.
• Place a small strip of bacon on top of each muffin.
• Bake in the pre heated oven for 20-25 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.
• Mine were only slightly browned but cooked so I placed them under the grill for a minute or two until the tops were browned. 

SRC: Cranberry Cornbread

It's the fourth Monday of the month which means that it's Secret Recipe Club Group D Reveal day! I love the Secret Recipe Club and look forward to reveal day every month. The concept is simple each blog is assigned another blog in secret and the idea is that you choose a recipe to make from your secret blog and reveal it on the same day. 

My assignment this month is Fried Ice and Donut Holes written by Melissa who is a teacher by profession. She loves to cook and bake and started her blog back in 2009. The story behind the name of her blog comes from her grandpa telling them to behave or they would have fried ice and donut holes aka nothing for dinner! 

She has a lovely blog full of wonderful recipes so do head on over to say hi and to check them out. I shortlisted a few recipes to make including Citrus Kissed Honey Buttons, Peanut Butter Bars, Salted Caramel Cashew Bark and Irish Coffee Cupcakes. In the end I decided on this Cranberry Cornbread as it sounded really interesting and look really tasty. 

It's a really simple recipe and the results were amazing. I love the coarse texture of the polenta and the sweetness of the cranberries. I usually think of cornbread as savoury so it was good to try a sweet version. Everyone at work really enjoyed it as it was different to normal cake and it felt quite healthy to eat! 

 buttermilk, sugar, flour, polenta, dried cranberries, eggs, butter 

 wet ingredients and dry ingredients 

 stir in dried cranberries

 ready to bake 

 love the golden colour 

Recipe from Fried Ice and Donut Holes

70g butter, melted
250mls (1 cup) buttermilk
225g polenta or cornmeal
85g flour
110g sugar
1.5 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
170g dried cranberries

• Preheat the oven to 170C.
• Whisk the butter, eggs and buttermilk in a bowl. 
• Mix the polenta, flour, sugar, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda in another bowl.
• Mix the dry ingredients with the wet ingredients.
• Stir in the dried cranberries. 
• Pour into a cake tin (I used a 23cm round cake tin but you can also use a square tin) and bake for approximately 25 minutes or until golden brown and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. 

An InLinkz Link-up

Chocolate and Polenta Cake and a review

I was really excited to receive my review copy of World's Best Cakes by Roger Pizey, published by Jacqui Small having had a sneak preview earlier in the year.  It's a large hardback book with 304 pages including index and acknowledgements. Roger is a celebrated baker and patissier and founded Peyton & Byrne bakery. He has also appeared on television in Hell's Kitchen and Willie's Chocolate Factory. 

The first thing that catches my eye on flicking through the pages are the stunning photographs. They are bright, vibrant and there's lots of them which I like. There's at least one photograph per recipe which I love. The book is beautifully presented and each recipe does not exceed 1 page in length. There's a brief introduction which includes the history, culture or origin of the recipe. 

Each chapter contains a cake travel guide "Where to eat cake...(city)" and I'm pleased to see that I've tried some of them already! There are also recipes from guest chefs including Mark Hix and Marco Pierre White dotted throughout the book. 

The book is divided into the following chapters (I've included a few recipes per chapter to give you a flavour of the book) 

Foreword - written by Marco Pierre White 

Introduction 

Basic techniques - Handy picture step by step guide which covers all the basic techniques

Sponges & Layer Cakes - Kasutera, Tres Leche Cake, Bolo de Fuba, Dobos Cake, Thierry Busset's Ten Layer Coffee Chocolate Cake (guest chef)

Loaves and Pound Cakes - Pain d'Epices, Sobaos Pasiegos, Mark Hix's Oyster Ale Cake (guest chef), Sugee Cake, 

Fruit, Nut & Seed Cakes - Mandarin, Polenta and Macadamia Cake, Turkish Tahini Cake, Rachel Allen's Lime Yoghurt Cake with Rosewater and Pistachios (guest chef), Nusskuchen

Tray Bakes - Panforte di Siena, Swiss Roll, Basbousa, Brownies

Cheesecakes - Chocolate Cheesecake, Vanilla Cheesecake, Banana Cheesecake

Small Cakes - Madeleines, Macarons, Mustikkapiiraat, Singing Hinnies, Sfenz, Sonhos, Shannon Bennett's Lamingtons (guest chef) 

Leavened Cakes - Brioche, Kolache, Cinnamon Bear Claws, Rum Baba, Chocolate Kugelhopf

Pastries - Macanese egg tarts, Millefeuille, Kateifi, Baklava, Eclairs

Tarts - Tarte Tatin, Gateau Basque, Linzer Torte, Oliver Peyton's Strawberry and Marjoram Cream Tart (guest chef), Far Breton

Celebration Cakes - Simnel Cake, Mooncakes, Tarta de Santiago, Pandoro, Croquembouche, Kransekaka

Baking Basics - recipes for creams, syrups, glazes and icings

Essential equipments

Index

Acknowledgements 

So what did I decide to make? To be honest, I felt like baking almost everything as everything looked so tempting. I was also intrigued to learn about different cakes from around the world and the history/tradition behind it. In the end, I chose this chocolate and polenta cake as it's something I've not tried before and I needed a gluten free cake to bring to a party. In Roman times, polenta was the staple of the Roman legions who would eat it in a porridge or baked hard into a 'cake'. The polenta produces a really crumbly and grainy texture and was absolutely delicious. I'm sure I'll be baking a lot more from this book so keep an eye out for more recipes in the future.

My verdict - A perfect gift for yourself or anyone who enjoys baking. The book is beautifully presented with a nice, clear layout. The pictures are stunning and there's at least one per recipe - sometimes there's a picture of a cross section as well as the whole bake. I particularly like the guest chef recipes and the where to eat cake travel guide.

 ready to go in the oven 

 fresh from the oven 

 I used chocolate decorations as some sprinkles contain gluten 

 You can see the crumbly, grainy texture here 

Recipe extracted from World's Best Cakes by Roger Pizey, published by Jacqui Small
www.jacquismallpub.com
- re produced with permission

320g butter, softened
320g caster sugar
30g cocoa powder, sifted
300g ground almonds
160g fine polenta or cornmeal
5g baking powder
4 eggs, beaten
100ml full fat milk
1 teaspoon almond essence
200g chocolate buttercream - I made my own with butter, icing sugar and melted chocolate
20g cocoa nibs, for decoration - I used chocolate stars

• Preheat the oven to 160C and grease a deep 21cm (8in) square cake tin. 
• Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.
• Stir in the sifted cocoa powder, ground almonds, polenta and baking powder. 
• Add in the eggs, one at a time, scraping down after each addition until well combined then fold in the milk and almond essence.
• Spoon the mixture into the prepared tin and bake in a preheated oven for 45 minutes.
• Remove from the oven, allow to cool for 10 minutes in the tin and then turn out onto a wire rack.
• Meanwhile make the chocolate buttercream.
• Once completely cool, spread the buttercream evenly over the top of the cake and sprinkle with cocoa nibs (or something similar). 

Disclaimer: I received a free review copy from the publishers. I was not required to write a positive review. All opinions expressed are my own.

Browned butter, orange, rosemary and polenta madeleines

One day I decided I wanted to make madeleines. I didn't want to make plain ones so I started looking online for recipes and when I came across this recipe from Baker by Nature, I knew I had to make it.... immediately! I was intrigued by the use of browned butter and the addition of rosemary. I don't often bake with herbs but when I do, they always turn out beautifully and this was no exception.

These madeleines are gorgeous. They have a crunchy texture from the polenta and I love the subtle taste of rosemary which pairs well with orange. The browned butter adds a slight nutty flavour to it. I now feel inspired to experiment with other flavours.

I'm sending this to AlphaBakes which is hosted by Caroline from Caroline Makes and co-hosted by myself on alternate months. The letter this month is O for Orange.

I'm also sending this to Made with Love Mondays hosted by Javelin Warrior where the idea is to make everything from scratch.

And to Cooking with Herbs hosted by Karen from Lavender and Lovage.

 adding chopped rosemary and orange zest 

 browned butter 

 ready to go in the oven 

 delicious!

Recipe adapted slightly from Baker by Nature 

Makes 30 madeleines

185g flour

90g butter

30g polenta

4 eggs

165g sugar

zest of 1 orange

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 tablespoon honey

1 tablespoon chopped rosemary 

• Preheat the oven to 180C.
• Start by making the browned butter - place butter in a small pan and melt gently over low heat until brown which will take approximately 8 - 10 minutes. Be careful not to burn your butter. 
• Place eggs in an electric mixer and beat on high speed until almost doubled in volume.
• Add sugar and continue mixing.
• Add vanilla extract, honey, orange zest and rosemary and mix well.
• Next gently fold in the flour and polenta with a spatula/wooden spoon.
• Finally add the browned butter and mix until just incorporated -do not over mix. 
• Spoon into madeleine moulds until 3/4 full and bake for 7 - 9 minutes or until golden brown and the madeleines are shrinking from the side.
• Remove from the tin and transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Sage, Thyme and Emmental Madeleines

My regular readers will know that I love entering blogging challenges. I think I've mentioned previously that sometimes I happen to bake something or I've already planned a bake that will fit. Other times, I will create a recipe specially for the challenge. I really enjoy creating my own recipes which are usually based around the ingredients I want to use. 

Karen from Lavender and Lovage hosts Herbs on Saturday where you can submit any recipe with herbs. I love this challenge as it gets me thinking how I can incorporate herbs into my baking. Last month, I submitted lemon, lime and basil cookies so this month I decided I'd get out of my comfort zone and bake something savoury. I had a few ideas but in the end I decided to bake savoury madeleines. Yes madeleines which are not sweet!! They were a real hit with everyone particularly those without a sweet tooth (I get a few regular requests for savoury bakes!). 

Sage was the predominant flavour here and I may have been a little generous with my herbs so they were quite strong but not overpowering. I chose emmental cheese as it's one of my favourites but the flavour was quite mild. The madeleines smelt amazing whilst baking and they tasted like light cornbread with herby notes. The recipe is based loosely on a Martha Stewart recipe and I am already thinking about different combinations of herbs/spices and cheese to use. They were lovely on their own but would also make a great side dish to your main meal or provide an alternative bread accompaniment.  

As these were made from scratch and with lots of love, I'm entering them to Made with Love Mondays hosted by Javelin Warrior where the theme is to cook from scratch. 

I'm also entering them to Simple and in Season started by Ren from Fabulicious Food and guest hosted this month by Laura from How to Cook Good Food as sage is in season.

 simple recipe with few ingredients = cornmeal, cheese, sage and thyme 

 brown the butter - important for the flavour, do not skip this step! 

 lovely chopped , fresh herbs - a generous portion as you can see!  

 dry ingredients and wet ingredients- mix!

 adding the herbs and cheese 

 ready to go in the oven 

 fresh from the oven 

 I also made some muffins with tomatoes for breakfast. I found these teeny, tiny tomatoes called tomberries at the supermarket - really sweet and juicy!

 I actually preferred them with the tomatoes as the acid helped to lift the flavours. 

 with herbs and cheese 

Recipe adapted from Martha Stewart

(Makes ~36 madeleines and 8 muffins I think - I can't remember now but it makes a lot of madeleines!! Would recommend halving the recipe if you only want a small batch) 

113g butter

250g plain flour

160g cornmeal (polenta)

50g sugar

2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

2 teaspoon salt

4 eggs

2 cups milk

3.5 tablespoons of chopped sage

1 tablespoon thyme

100g cheese, grated 

• Preheat the oven to 170C.
• Grease and flour a madeleine pan.  
• Melt the butter in a small saucepan until lightly browned. 
• In a large bowl, whisk together the cornmeal, sugar, bicarbonate of soda and salt.
• In a separate bowl, which the eggs, milk and slightly cooled browned butter (you don't want to cook the eggs!).
• Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix. 
• Finally stir in the chopped herbs and cheese. 
• Pour into a madeleine pan and bake for 8 - 10 minutes.