2paw

Friday Food: Iced Vovo Tart

I feel very proud of my Iced Vovo Tart. It wasn't that difficult, I was able to source all the ingredients very easily, and it was really a question of following the steps and waiting for things to set.

I didn't have the right tin and so I cut some card and made a box to fill half the larger tray and used foil to keep it all together.

I think it is best to remove the jammy section of the Iced Vovos, it didn't really crush up well. I used Granitas for the plain sweet biscuits as they do crush up well.

If your marshmallow mixture sets too much, and mine did, beat it in your mixer for a minute or two and then continue..

The recipe asks for leaf gelatine, which I was able to buy here- McKenzies brand, but you can use powdered gelatine. You need the correct amount to set 2/3 cup liquid for the jelly.

None of the steps in themselves are difficult, but it did take me all day. I cheated by putting the tart in the freezer to start off to cooling and then transferred it to the fridge.

I bought a piping set at the supermarket with a star shaped nozzle and used that to pipe the cream. I had a few trial runs and then threw caution to the wind.

This post is quite long and I have been a tad tired, so please excuse any typos!!!

Oops, I fogot to say this is from the Good Taste Magazine's January issue.

Iced Vovo Tart   serves 8-10

Base

• 100g Iced Vovo biscuits (8)
• 150g plain sweet biscuits (12)
• 130 g butter, melted

Marshmallow Layer

• 150g pink marshmallows
• 20ml milk
• pink food colouring
• 200ml thickened cream
• 1 tspn vanilla extract or paste. I used one vanilla bean

Raspberry Jelly

• 2 McKenzies Gelatine leaves
• 1 cup frozen raspberries
• 80ml water
• 1 tbspn caster sugar (20ml)

Topping

• 400ml thickened cream
• pink food colouring
• coconut flakes- I used desiccated

 

You also need a 35 x 11cm loose base fluted tin. I used my 22 x 35cm tray, divided in half.

Base

Process or crush the biscuits in a bag with a heavy kitchen implement.

Combine with the butter.

Press into the tin, up the sides as well. Use a glass to press into every nook and cranny. Then refrigerate for an hour.

Marshmallow Layer

Put the marshmallows, milk and pink food colouring in a pan over a low heat and stir for about 3 minutes until the marshmallows are melted and smooth. I used natural food colouring and it took quite a lot of a 'few drops' to make a nice pink colour. Cool, longer than you think. At least 10 minutes.

Whip the cream and vanilla till firm peaks appear, then fold a little of the cream into the marshmallow mixture. Then a little more. Finally add this to the cream and fold in gently but well. By folding a little cream into the marshmallow mixture first, you lighten it and make it easier to fold into the cream.

Spread into the base, smooth the top and refrigerate for 2 hours. Mine didn't take that long, only an hour, so do check.

Raspberry Jelly

Soak two leaves of gelatine in cold water for 6 minutes. Put the raspberries, water and sugar in a pan over a medium heat, stirring for 1 minute until the sugar dissolves. Continue to stir and cook for 2-3 minutes.

Squeeze the water from the gelatine leaves, add to the raspberries and stir till dissolved.

Push the raspberry mixture through a fine sieve to remove the pips, remember to check the underneath of the sieve too. Cool in a bowl for about 25 minutes and then pour over the marshmallow layer. Refrigerate for a further 2 hours till set.

Topping

Whip the remaining 400ml of thickened cream with some pink food colouring, a shade you like, until firm. I fill the piping bag after I have attached the nozzle by standing it in a cup and spooning in the cream till it is half full.

Pipe one row of little rosettes and then another to match along one long side, and then repeat along the other. Sprinkle some coconut over the centre jelly strip and the pink rosettes.

Refrigerate till ready to serve. I found the base to be a tad crumbly, but the slight tartness of the jelly ameliorates the sweetness of the marshmallow layer.

Friday Food: Little Banana Pancakes

Friday Food was on the list for Friday, but then I had a doctor's appointment, went to see Star Trek Into Darkness with MrsDrWho and found it necessary to have a long rest.

So once again I have declared Saturday, Friday.

These are based on Jill Dupleix's banana pancakes, but honestly, who has the time or inclination to whip the egg whites separately and fold them in?? Not me. To make these more pikelety, add another teaspoon of baking powder, just one egg and only 3/4 cup of milk and proceed the same way. The mixture is best if you leave it to rest for 30 minutes, but if you are in a hurry, adding a squeeze of lemon juice and resting for 5 minutes could do the trick.

I made 18 little pancakes using my large tablespoon for each one. If you don't like banana, then substitute some grated apple, berries- frozen or fresh, or whatever fruit you fancy. These can be eaten straight away or frozen for later on.

 

Little Banana Pancakes   makes 16-ish

• 2 eggs
• 250ml milk
• 1 tspn vegetable oil
• 150g plain flour
• 1 tspn baking powder
• 1 tbspn caster sugar
• pinch of salt
• 2 bananas
• butter or oil for frying
• golden or maple syrup for drizzling
• extra banana for presentation
• pure icing sugar for dusting

Whisk the eggs, milk, sugar and oil. In another bowl sift the flour, salt and baking powder together.

Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients and, adding a little of milk and egg mixture, begin to incorporate the flour with a fork or whisk. Slowly pour in the wet ingredients as you stir until they are all well combined. You can sieve out any lumps, but I never do. Good whisking and sifted ingredients seems to help.

Refrigerate (and cover if necessary) for 30 minutes.

Slice the bananas, and here I'd like to say that a finer dice or mash may be more to your liking, and fold gently into the pancake mixture.

Heat a teaspoon of oil or butter in a pan over a medium heat and then add tablespoons of the pancake batter. If you drop it vertically from the tip of the spoon, rather then over the edge, it is supposed to make your pancakes rounder. I usually only make 3 at a time in my pan. Of course a non-stick electric frypan allows you to make lots more with no chance of disasters!!! Cook for about 2 minutes, or until the top of the pancake has lots of tiny bubbles. You can check underneath, but it should be golden brown. Flip the pancakes and cook for another 30-60 seconds then place on kitchen paper.

And continue as before, adding butter to the pan and cooking the little pancakes. You can keep them warm in the oven.

Serve with some extra sliced banana, a drizzle of golden or maple syrup and a dusting of pure icing sugar.

Friday Food: Char Siu Beef with Greens

There is so little actual cooking in this, it barely qualifies for Friday Food. It is, however, so fast to make -  less than 10 minutes from start to finish and I was really tired today and needed something quick and good.

I couldn't find any Char Siu sauce in a bottle so I made do with some out of a sachet: beggars can't be choosers. Though the recipe specifies broccolini, I think any greens can be substituted and I had some pak choy already. I am not a coriander fan, so I left that out and I had almonds instead of peanuts.

Oh and I can't let a day go by without using an onion. I love onions and so I added one to the beef.

And that's pretty much it, so here's the recipe from Taste.com.au and originally from Delicious magazine. And I actually think this does serve 4.

 

Char Siu Beef with Greens   serves 4

• 100g rice or glass noodles, the kind that cook in boiling water
• 400g beef mince, or pork or chicken if that's what you have
• 20ml oil
• 2 cloves of garlic, chopped
• 2cm fresh ginger, grated
• 60ml Chinese rice wine/Shaohsing
• 60ml Char Siu sauce, Chinese BBQ sauce
• 2 bunches of broccolini, or whatever greens you fancy
• 1/3 cup unsalted roasted peanuts
• 1 long red chilli, sliced into rings, seeds removed if you like chilli cooler.
• coriander to serve

Cook the rice noodles as per the instructions. I just needed to pour boiling water over my noodles and leave them for 5 minutes before draining.

Heat a frypan or wok over a high heat, add the oil, ginger and garlic and then the mince. Break the mince up and stir pretty constantly for 3-4 minutes. The mince should be very separate.

Once the beef is browned add the rice wine and Char Siu sauce and simmer for 1 minute.

Add the greens. I like to slice them on an angle because they look nice. Stir to coat with the sauce and cook until they are slightly wilted and tender.

 

Drain the noodles and place on each plate. Top with the beef mixture and then garnish with the chilli, coriander and peanuts. And then eat and enjoy.

Friday Food: Cherry Ripe Brownie

Oh my, this looks just like a giant Cherry Ripe and I am assured by the people who ate it that it tastes Cherry Ripe-ish as well. It's from the March 2013 Good Taste magazine. I shall have to search out their February magazine as they had an Iced Vovo tart.

I think this recipe has the most photos I've taken for a while, but it is not daunting. It has stages and while one part is baking, you can start the next stage.

I didn't have a working 22 x 7.5cm bar tin. Mine has been used for fudge and it is a bit warped. I wasn't able to buy one either, so I settled on a 30 x 7cm and the result was fine. You do need a high sided, fairly narrow tin though. Other than that, unusually for me, I pretty much followed the recipe and was extremely happy with the resulting brownie bar.

 

Cherry Ripe Brownie Bar    serves 15

• 60g butter
• 52g Cherry Ripe, chopped
• 250g dark chocolate, finely chopped (Divide into 120g and 130g)
• 1 egg, whisked
• 55g (1/4 cup) caster sugar
• 45g (1/4 cup) brown sugar
• 75g (1/2 cup) plain flour
• 100g red glace cherries
• 125ml (1/2 cup) sweetened condensed milk
• 65g (3/4 cup) desiccated coconut
• 4-6 drops red food colouring which is optional

Grease and line a 22 x 7.5cm bar tin. Make sure the lining is very high at the sides.

Melt the butter, 120g of the chocolate and the Cherry Ripe bar in a pan over a medium heat. Take it off just before it is all melted and stir to dissolve any lumps of chocolate. Cool a little. Preheat the oven to 160*C.

Whisk in the sugars and the egg and then sift in the flour.

Pour into the bar tin, smooth the top and then bake for 20-25 minutes. The recipe says cook until crumbs stick to a skewer inserted into the centre. I found I needed to cook mine for 30 minutes. I did check frequently as I didn't want the brownie to over cook. Set aside to cool.

While the base is cooking and cooling, make the cherry topping. Finely chop half the glace cherries and then halve the rest. Place into a bowl with the condensed milk and coconut. Mix till well combined. Then decide whether you want to add some food colouring. I decided to add some. I used 6 drops in the end. Mix so the colour is evenly distributed.

Carefully spoon the cherry topping over the brownie base in the bar tin and smooth. Bake for a further 20-25 minutes or until the edges are golden brown. Take out of the oven and leave in the tin to cool completely.

Remove from the tin. I then trimmed the ends and the top edges to make the bar more even and smooth. Melt the remaining 130g of chocolate and put about 2 tbspn in a ziplock bag to use later. I put the bar on a cake rack over a plastic container so the extra chocolate dripped off easily. Pour the chocolate over the bar and spread it over the top and the sides.

Cut a tiny corner off the ziplock bag and use it to pipe stripes along the length of the bar as the chocolate is setting. If you start too soon the stripes will just melt into the covering chocolate. Set aside until the chocolate sets and cut with a hot non-serrated knife.

Here is one poor photo and a reasonable one!!!

I sent this off to be eaten in MrsDrWho's staffroom so I don't have a photo of the finished brownie bar, but it looked  like the one in the magazine. So here it is.

Friday Food: Mini Pizzas

This is one of those recipes that I know I can make very quickly in an entertaining emergency, and the tiny pizza squares are always tasty and very acceptable. I saw this recipe years ago in a Better Homes & Gardens magazine in a Retro appetiser section. What I especially love is that you can use whatever you have in the cupboard or fridge and somehow they always turn out well.

I made some for Sewing supper on Wednesday and I had pineapple, hot salami, tasty cheese, ham, tomatoes, cheeses etc. These were made with the leftovers and were so yummy. I had them for tea last night with some soup.

There is no measuring per se. I am using just one sheet of puff pastry, but the recipe idea is easily adapted to your ingredients and numbers. And yes, I just love tiny cubes of Philadelphia cream cheese on these tiny pizzas. It's perfect, even though it seems strange.

 

Mini Pizzas   makes 16 small squares

• a sheet of puff pastry, almost thawed
• 50g of tomato paste. I used 'no added salt' because of the cheeses
• 1/2 red onion, finely chopped
• 1 or 2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
• tiny tomatoes, sliced
• pineapple, diced or sectioned
• ham, salami, chicken, smoked salmon etc I used 75g of ham
• cheeses: Philadelphia cream cheese, feta, tasty, Parmesan
• basil, parsley, rocket, baby spinach: finely chopped
• lemon juice
• seasoning to taste

Preheat the oven to 200*C and I also heat my oven tray at the same time It helps to crisp up the mini pizza bases. Oh, and cut some baking paper to fit the tray now.

If you are using pineapple or tiny tomatoes, it's helpful to slice them and use paper towel to soak up the excess moisture. It keeps the mini pizzas crispy.

I mix the tomato paste, onion and garlic and use it as the base for my pizzas. Onion by itself seems to burn easily and this say it can be distributed evenly across the puff pastry. Remember to remove any plastic backing from the pastry sheet before you begin. Once the tomato mixture is spread over the pastry, divide it into 16 little squares. I do not measure, I just eyeball it.

Then start adding the toppings, I add the ham, then tomato and finally the cheese. I like to top it all off with a tiny amount of grated Parmesan cheese.

Now whip the hot tray from the oven very carefully, line it with the baking paper and arrange the pizzas with a little room between them. Turn the oven down to 180*C and bake for about 20 minutes. I turn the tray at 10 minutes and start checking at 15. The tomato paste can burn quickly.

I like to sprinkle them with some fresh herbs, or even baby spinach or rocket, and then a good squeeze of lemon juice and you are done. These are also just as nice warm or cold the next day- as attested  by MrsDrWho with glee as she packed the leftovers for her lunch on Thursday.

Friday Food: Beef Burritos, Lentils, Rocket and Guacamole

Wow, that's a long title, I shall just abbreviate it to Beef Burritos from now on. It's a recipe from the April 2013 Good Taste: The Chocolate Issue.

This is quick and very delicious. It has Mexican flavours without needing lots of cheese or tomato or spices. I really only needed to buy cumin, burritos and some rump steak. I don't like coriander, so I substituted parsley & red onion. Coriander lovers should use coriander. I prefer a stronger lemon taste so I squeezed the rest of the lemon into the lentils and avocado mixtures. I like baby spinach instead of rocket. Truly, this is the same recipe, just with a few substitutions.

It was really delicious, I can recommend it.

 

Beef Burritos with lentils, rocket and guacamole   serves 4

• 500g rump steak
• 2 tspn ground cumin
• 80ml olive oil
• 40ml lemon juice
• 2 garlic cloves, crushed
• 2 ripe avocados, mashed
• 1/2 bunch coriander, leaves picked and chopped
• 400 can lentils, drained and rinsed
• 1 red chilli, seeded and chopped
• 4 floury tortillas
• 60g baby rocket
• salt and pepper to taste

 

Preheat a frypan, grill or BBQ to high. Make sure the rump steak is not straight from the fridge, it cooks best if it has been acclimatised to the room temperature. Obviously if you live in The Tropics you take great care. Rub both sides of the steak with 2 tspn of the oil and then rub in the cumin. Cook for 3-4 minutes on both sides, or to your liking. Remove from the pan, wrap in foil and allow to rest.

Combine the rest of the oil, lemon juice and garlic. Pour 1/3 into a bowl with the mashed avocado and 1/2 the coriander. Mix well and season to taste.

Combine the remaining lemon/oil mixture and coriander with the lentils and chilli. Again, season to taste.

Char-grill, or dry fry the burritos for 30 seconds or so on each side and then slice up the steak. Assemble each burrito with 1/4 of the guacamole & lentil mixtures and rocket, and then pile on 1/4 of the steak. Squeeze on a little more lemon juice and serve immediately.

Friday Food: Chocolate Crackle Easter Eggs

We made Chocolate Crackles at home when I was a little girl. They were a treat, in white paper patty pans, and only for special times. They tasted best straight from the fridge.

I made Chocolate Crackle Easter Eggs with MrsDrWho's class but I had a trial run at home first. I used Dutch Cocoa to make them a bit more upmarket!! Copha is frowned upon now, and you could make these with just some melted milk chocolate to bind the dry ingredients together. However, this is a traditional recipe, and as Cookie Monster says: It's a sometimes food. The children took home two each.

The children decorated them with white chocolate and 100s & 1000s (I like the spherical kind best, the long squibby ones are called Sprinkles here) I dipped the pointy end in some melted white chocolate and then piped on a little extra coloured pink and then lobbed on some candy butterflies.

I bought the fillable eggs, 6 and 4.5cm, at Spotlight for about $3 a packet. This recipe fills 12-15 of the 6cm eggs. I know not how many of the smaller, but lots I think.

 

Chocolate Crackle Easter Eggs   makes 12-15 6cm eggs

• 125g Copha
• 2 cups puffed rice
• 1/2 cup pure icing sugar (sifted)
• 1/2 cup desiccated coconut
• 2 tbspn good cocoa
• 1 tspn vanilla extract
  
• extra bits and bobs for decoration

 

Before I started, I put the fillable plastic eggs in some boiling water for a few seconds, just to make sure they were clean.

Melt the copha in a pan over a very low heat. It is oil, and if it gets too hot it spits and will burn. I'd recommend the stove top over the microwave in this case.

Place the puffed rice, icing sugar, desiccated coconut, vanilla and cocoa in a large bowl and mix well to combine. Make a well in the centre and carefully pour in the melted copha.

Stir thoroughly to ensure that all the dry ingredients are 'wet' and that each rice puff is coated.

Fill each half of the egg: it must be neither too full, nor too empty. It takes a little patience, and I poked and prodded the rice puffs to close any gaps. The eggs click together. I used an egg carton to stop them rolling about everywhere. When all the mixture is used place the filled plastic eggs on a tray or in a bowl, and freeze for 15-20 minutes. Don't try to freeze them in the egg carton, it insulates them and the don't set. (Ask me how I know this)

Test one egg. I opened them with a blunt butter knife. I edged the long part of the blade into the gap between the halves and then wriggled it about until they parted. If your halves refuse to stay together use some extra chocolate to join them.

Then decorate as you please. These should be kept in a sealed container in the refrigerator. As you can see, I am not very good at tizzy-ing up things!!!

Friday Food: Tomato Sauce - the condiment

Tomato sauce is Australia's condiment of choice. Lately it has become difficult to buy locally made sauce with locally sourced ingredients. I had MrsDrWho's mum's tomatoes, I had a jar, I had the will - I decided to make tomato sauce (ketchup to some other people I believe)  It is so easy. My only difficulty was actually making the sauce stay in the jar. I knocked it over the first time and then it sealed so well I couldn't undo the jolly lid the next day in spite of running it under hot, hot water. I think I ended up with one cup of sauce, only a quarter of what I made, but now I have the Sauce Urge and I shall definitely be making more. It tasted like home made tomato sauce I have tasted at other people's houses.

I used Sally Wise's recipe and I like the spicy additions but you can totally miss them out to make a milder sauce. I love that there is no need to worry about the skin on the tomatoes, it just gets left behind in the sieve.

I used a jar for the sauce because that's what I had but a bottle would have been infinitely better. I sterilised the jar and lid by washing them in soapy water and then plunging them into boiling water for a few minutes. Then careful remove - I used a spatula I soaked with the jar- and microwave on high for about 4 minutes or until it is dry. Do Not microwave the lid!!! Fill the jar with the hot sauce while the jar is hot. My sauce was still bubbling in the jar.

 

Tomato Sauce   makes about 4 cups

• 2 tspn of mustard powder
• 1 tspn curry powder
• dash of oil
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 clove garlic, crushed
• 1 green cooking apple, peeled, cored and chopped
• 250g sugar, I used half brown and half white
• 1 kg tomatoes, roughly chopped
• 1 1/2 cups white or cider vinegar  (I used cider)
• 1 tspn salt

I used a larger non-stick casserole type pan, it needs to hold at least 2-3 litres.

Quickly fry off the mustard and curry, then add the onion and garlic for a minute or two. Next the apple and the sugar.

Add the rest of the ingredients, bring to the boil and simmer for 1 1/4 hours. You need to stir relatively frequently, about every 10-15 minutes. I also found I needed to turn the temperature up to keep the sauce simmering fast enough.

The sauce reduces quite a lot, you can see the line on the inside of the pan. Now you either very carefully push the sauce through a sieve using a soft spatula or a round ladle, or whiz it with a processor or with a hand held blender stick. I prefer to push it through a sieve as it takes out any skin that has not softened. Remember to check the underside of the sieve where lots of sauce hides.

Rinse out the pan, pour the sieved sauce back in and simmer for a further 5-10 minutes or until the sauce has thickened slightly. It will thicken further when it is cool. Now is the time to  prepare your bottle. Sterilise and prepare to fill. A jug or a funnel will help fill a narrow neck bottle.

Label the sauce and then once opened keep it in the fridge. I made some delicious pork and apple sausage rolls and they were perfect with my home made tomato sauce. It doesn't have the same consistency as commercial sauce, but it certainly tastes great.

Friday Food: Apple Pecan Banana Bread

Good Taste Magazine March 2013 has four variations on a basic banana bread: Bonza Banana, Choc Chunk Banana, Raspberry and Coconut and finally the one MrsDrWho chose: Apple and Pecan.

It's a loaf made with oil and so it's all just mixed into one bowl. You need green cooking apples and here it's always Granny Smiths. I toasted my pecans while the oven was heating up, they only needed a few minutes and you need to watch them in case they go too far.

I can smell the banana bread cooking as I type this and it smells absolutely wonderful.

The top is brushed with honey, but as MrsDrWho doesn't like honey I missed that step completely. You could use some apricot jam, golden or maple syrup instead. You will need a 20 x 10 x 7cm** loaf tin.

 

Apple Pecan Banana Bread   makes 1 loaf

• 20g butter
• 2 Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored and roughly chopped
• 1 1/2 cups halved pecans
• 340g (2 1/4 cups ) plain flour
• 2 tspn ground cinnamon
• 2 tspn baking powder
• 1/4 tspn bicarbonate of soda
• pinch of salt
• 155g (3/4 cup) light brown sugar
• 250ml (1cup) light olive oil
• 3 eggs, lightly whisked
• 1 tspn vanilla extract
• 2 1/2 cups mashed banana
• 40ml (2 tbspn) honey

 

Preheat oven to 180*C. (ETA 160*C fan-forced) Reserve 1/2 cup of the nicest pecan halves and then roughly chop the rest and toast in the heating oven for a few minutes. Be sure to keep an eye on them. Set aside to cool.

Prepare the apples.

Melt the butter in a pan and then measure out the sugar and put two tbspn (that's 8 tspn) into the pan with the butter and add the chopped apple. Once the butter and sugar melt and bubble, cook for 5 minutes or until the apple is tender and set aside to cool a little.

Sift the flour, baking powder, bicarb soda, cinnamon and salt into a mixing bowl and then stir in the rest of the brown sugar. Make a well in the centre and add the oil, eggs and vanilla and stir gently until just combined.

 

Spoon in the banana, apples and pecans and fold in till just combined. This is made in the same way as muffins with oil: the less stirring the better.

Grease and line a loaf tin.

 

Scoop the mixture in and smooth the top. Arrange the 1/2 cup pecans on top and then bake for 1 1/4 hours.

I always turn the tin around half way through even though the oven is fan-forced. Half way through I turned the temperature down to 160*C and it was cooked after 1 hour and 5 minutes. The oven was too hot, because the banana bread has risen too sharply and cracked. I've made a note of this at the beginning of the recipe method.

Cool in the tin for 20 minutes and then turn out onto a rack to cool completely. In a warmer climate you need to keep the banana bread in the fridge and it really only lasts for 3 or 4 days either way.

** My tin was actually 24 x 10 x 7

Friday Food: Tzatziki

Another recipe that requires no cooking. The continuing saga of our record temperatures is impinging on my cooking. There are myriad recipes for tzatziki, so this is just my usual approach.

It's a short recipe, but you can pick and choose what you'd like to add or subtract:

• You may like to strain some of the liquid from the yoghurt or grated cucumber through a lined sieve
• add 1/2 or 1 clove of garlic. Raw garlic is quite strong
• The cucumber can be grated finely, or chopped
• Lemon juice adds a nice tartness
• A little honey will sweeten the final product

I am always whining and moaning about the use of preservatives like 282 in flatbreads (not mountain bread but that's a bit to papery and crumbly for my tastes) and so I was motivated to make my own. Again. Why I ever fogot I could I don't know. Jan says I can freeze them as they are, or cooked and always have some on hand. Mine were supple enough to wrap around a filling.

 

Tzatziki   makes about 1 cup

• 200g Greek yoghurt (drained or not)
• mint, finely chopped: a tablespoon
• 1/2 - 1 clove of garlic, finely chopped
• 1 medium Labanese cucumber, peeled and seeded
• salt and pepper to taste
• squeeze of lemon juice
• a little honey to taste

Combine the finely chopped mint and garlic in a bowl. I seed the cucumber by running my thumb down the centre and just scooping out most of the seeds. I like to chop half the cucumber and finely grate the rest to give the tzatziki an interesting texture. I like the little chopped pieces.

You may be able to squeeze quite a lot of liquid from the cucumber, discard this before you add it to the mint and garlic. Season to taste and add a squeeze of lemon juice. Spoon in the yoghurt.

Mix well and then taste. I decided it could do with a little sweetness, so I added about 1/2 a teaspoon of honey. Mix again and then store in a covered container in the fridge for up to a week. It actually improves with time. It's best to leave it for at least an hour before you use it, after it is first made, to allow the flavours to meld.

I ate mine with some salad and lamb/ham. With my home made flatbread.