Gruffalo Crumble

November 17, 2019August 4, 2020 | Rohana Aisha Dewfall

My son’s current obsession is the Gruffalo! He can recite parts of it and will read along with us when we have the book out so this weekend we decided we would make a crumble as part of our Saturday morning activities.

It’s a normal (and very tasty) apple crumble which we called Gruffalo crumble and so I thought I’d share our treat!

Ingredients needed:

3 bramley cooking apples
Flour 170g
Sugar 110g
Butter 110g
Cinnamon powder
Salt

Method:

Peel and slice apples, laying them in your crumble dish. Sprinkle cimmamon as you go.
Sprinkle sugar over the top.
Mix well to allow sugar to coat apples and lay to one side.
Mix flour and butter with your hands until the consistency resembles breadcrumbs.
Add a pinch off salt and more cinammon as liked.
Pour crumble mix over apples.
Flaten.
Bake at Gas 5 for 45 minutes – 1 hour.

Here is TP and his dad making it. We thoroughly enjoyed it with a bit of double cream over the top. Definitely not an every day kind of treat, but a great one as something special!

If you try it, comment and let me know how it went.

Enjoy.

Banana Bread

July 20, 2018July 29, 2020 | Rohana Aisha Dewfall

Tried and tested, I absolutely love a bit of banana bread… if I can make it vegan, even better!

This one is also a fab recipe for Baby Led Weaning because I don’t put in any nuts. That said, if you have no babies to worry about, or older kids (no whole nuts above 5) then go nuts! Pun obviously intended there.

Ingredients:

3 Bananas (blacker = better)

75g Coconut Oil – 5 tbsp

100g Brown sugar (brown is best but it works with white too)

225g Plain flour ( if you use self-raising, cut down on the baking powder)

3 tsp Baking powder

3 tsp Cinnamon

Dried Fruit / Nuts – 2 small handfuls is plenty.

Method:

Grease a tin/muffin tray*.

Mash the banana in a mixing bowl.

Add Sugar and Oil and mix well.

Add Flour, Baking powder and Cinnamon, and work into a thick mixture.

If adding nuts/fruit, add these last and combine the mixture well. You should be able to leave the bowl relatively clean.

Put mixture into tin/tray and spread evenly.

Put oven on** at Gas Mark 6, or 180 Degrees Celsius. Bake for 20 minutes. Check. Cover with foil if the top is browning. Bake for another 15 minutes, or until a knife comes out clean from the centre of the bread.

*If you make muffins, the time will be reduced.

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** Most methods tell you to preheat the oven but with modern-day ovens it’s often not needed, so if you can skip that step, please do so. It saves energy, better for the environment and better for your pocket too!

My Favourite Coffee Shop

July 19, 2018July 29, 2020 | Rohana Aisha Dewfall

I lived in Portsmouth for 3 years and only in the last 5 months did I find the gem of a coffee shop right by my front door. For anyone in Portsmouth who hasn’t been, or anyone who visits; pop by Southsea Coffee on Osborn Road.

If you are anything like me (and love, veggie/vegan food, good coffee and amazing cakes), then you won’t be disappointed!

Xox

Homemade Humus

July 13, 2018July 29, 2020 | Rohana Aisha Dewfall

I am SUPER excited about this because I have struggled SO much to make humus all year-long. Theo Prana absolutely loves it and so do I, so this success has been one of my highlights of the week!

I’ll cut straight to the chase:

Recipe:

3-4 tbsp Tahini

1 full cup of boiled chickpeas

Lemon juice (1 lemon plus some lemon concentrate – depends on how much you want!)

3 Cloves Garlic

1 tsp Cumin

1/4 tsp Salt (approximately)

1/4 cup Olive Oil

1/3 cup Water (approximately)

** Disclaimer: We (Mum and I) looked up a number of recipes online (just google “how to make humus”) and then did our own thing. This is just a guideline of what we did.

Method:

Blend Tahini and Lemon Juice together until they combine into thicker paste

Add Garlic, Cumin and Salt and blend again briefly

Add half the oil and mix in.

Add chickpeas – we did a couple of handfuls. Blend.

Add the rest of the oil.

Add the rest of the chickpeas and water as needed – this might mean checking and blending a couple of times!

Blend until smooth in consistency.
Serve and enjoy :)ì

Recommended: Drizzle olive oil and sprinkle paprika when served.
This worked amazingly for us… though we didn’t add the paprika this time. It was a bit of trial and error at first, but we got there and it was worth it. Next time we might try adding pepper or beetroot or something else to spice things up and create new flavours. If/When we do, I’ll post about it!

If you try this, let us know how it goes – I’d be interested to hear/see your experiences.

Xoxo

R & D

Basil Pesto

July 12, 2018July 29, 2020 | Rohana Aisha Dewfall

This week has been full of homemade food! My love for food grows every time we try something, and this week has been especially exciting. We’ve made pesto, humus AND banana bread. The humus is my biggest win because I’ve struggled to successfully make it all year, but the Basil Pesto was the most yummy.

Baby and I enjoy a wide variety a veggie food; mostly homemade and sometimes store-bought. However, I am experimenting when I can with vegan alternatives when possible and we are trying to be conscious about what we eat. I fail a lot, but I succeed too, and this week has been no different, I have succumbed to temptation of desserts, enjoyed some wine and eaten a lot of fresh fruit, veg and some amazing ‘normal’ food courtesy of mum. She brought home some fresh basil the other day, and a whole lot of Pesto was what we turned it into. It’s easily the best pesto I’ve ever smelt, and tasted too!

Recipe:

** Disclaimer: When I cook, I often look at a few online recipes for a guideline and then do whatever feels like it will work best. These measurements and steps were the result of our experiment.

Ingredients

1 big (mixing bowl) bowl of fresh Basil leaves

1 small (cereal sized) bowl of almonds (blanched and peeled)

1/3 cup of Olive oil

3 garlic gloves

Himalayan Salt and Black Pepper (optional) to taste.

Method:

Blend together the basil and nuts.

Add Garlic, Salt and Pepper. Blend again.

Move the mixture around with a spoon, making sure it’s well mixed.

Add the Olive Oil slowly to mixture while blending.

Check that its all blended well, decant into a jar or box, and enjoy.

* This made at least 6 portions of Pesto for us, so we gave some away and froze some too.

If you try it, let me know how it goes!

xoxo

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