Once again, Moomin's struggle to keep her daughter allergy-free bears fruit for all babykind in the form of these easy and delicious bhajis. And parentkind too, by the sound of things.



Grate one medium potato and half an onion.
Add 75g gram flour and a splash of water.
Add spices of your choice - I used a bit of cumin and coriander.
Drop one tablespoon into hot oil and fry for 4 mins each side.
This mix made six bhajis, but I don't imagine we'll be freezing that many as Minky, Mr Moomin and I are polishing them all off!

These were a big hit and will work as another picnic lunch. Hooray!

I've rescued this recipe from the relative obscurity of the comments section of one of Moomin's recipes, it was posted by one of our many Jenns and it really does sound amazing. I'm not completely sure of the temperatures, they sound American to me, but I wouldn't think of doing the pecans at anything over 180degrees in an electric oven (in Scotland. If you're from abroad then you'll have to work things out for yourselves). I'm also wondering if pistachios would substitute for pecans, which are kinda hard to get hold of round my way. However, we've not given Babybear any nuts yet so this might be a strictly adults-only recipe in our house for a while. No bad thing, I should say...



I've got one to share that is a crowd pleaser. I made them for a party and everyone copied the recipe.

Pecan Lentil Burger

3/4 cup uncooked green lentils
3/4 cup pecans
4 cloves garlic
1 1/2 teasppon cumin
1 1/2 teaspoon coriander
1 teaspoon chili flakes
3 tablespoons olive oil
3/4 cup bread crumbs (may use wheatless bread such as spelt, or any kind of wheatless subsitute)
1 egg (optional-I've made it without and they were fine)

Cook lentils according to package directions until tender...approx 25 minutes. Drain.

Roast pecans at 300 - 325 for 10-15 minutes. (Use your own discretion with temperature and timing because I find the pecans can burn fast) Set aside.

In food processor, mince garlic;add pecans, mince;add lentils, spices, bread crumbs and olive oil. Puree until dough-like. Put mixture into big bowl and work in egg if you choose to. Form into patties and fry on pan with a bit of oil.

Delicious!

There's lots to like about this recipe, not least the taste, which I'm sure is fabulous judging by the photo of Minky enjoying her lamb. However, I'm most drawn to it for the phrase 'grease of your choice', which made me splurt my tea all over my keyboard.

Fry one chopped onion in the grease of your choice (we tolerate sunflower oil).
Coat 450g of diced lamb in flour (rice flour for us), add to the onion and brown.
Add two chopped carrots, 400g of chopped tomatoes, 200g of dried apricots and 50g of sultanas (or raisins - what is the difference?).
Chuck in a bit of water (200ml?) and simmer until the lamb falls apart. I left it for an hour and a half because I fell asleep. Ahem.

Minky had this with buckwheat pasta but feel free to choose your own carbohydrate. Couscous might be nice.

Post them wherever you like, of course, but if you'd rather they didn't get lost in the scrum of comments then it's a good idea to email them to me and I'll stick them up 'officially' for you. With all due credit, of course...
Press on the Aitch above and you'll get my email address, along with a miniscule photo of Babybear and I, you poor creatures.

Babybear really likes these and they are easy to make so I'm happy to oblige.

You can grill the peppers or oven-bake them but I find the easiest thing to do is stick a fork into the bit where the stem is and then lay it onto the gas ring... I mean, I'm not actually recommending that you do that as it's probably some sort of hellish fire risk so I couldn't possibly... but it's certainly what I do. Turn the pepper round when it starts to soften and bubbles of brown/black start appearing. Should smell LOVELY, by the way.

When it's done all over, stick it in a plastic bag and let the skins steam for a while. I tend to wash/rub off the burned bits under a cold running tap which has the advantage of cooling the peppers down. There was some publicity a while back about burned things having a carcinogenic effect so I am always pretty careful to scrape off any bits that are left.

Don't get me wrong, these aren't completely soft peppers, they still have a bit of bounce to them, but the gas ring thing takes about 5 minutes and really takes the edge off the raw taste which I myself amn't that fond of.

Then, you know, slice the three cheeks of the pepper and then you'll probably be left with one longer thinner bit. Oh god, you know how to cut up a pepper. I think I normally cut the bumcheeks in half (ouch!) so I end off with a good few long pieces.

Anyway, spread some Philly or cream cheese on the slices and there you have it. Babybear likes them and you can leave the pepper pieces in the fridge for a couple of days. God knows I've probably totally over-explained this 'recipe' but the point is that at least it's not more bread and cheese...it's peppers and cheese.

We gave Babybear some Heinz baked beans tonight with cheese and toast (what's not to like, you'd think)  but actually she wasn't that fussed for them. I must say it did occur to me as I was eating mine that they did taste very salty.
So I haven't actually made these before but I've had the recipe for ages. What was holding me up, you ask? Why, the molasses... I've searched high and low, from health food shop to supermarket for it to no avail. However, some Christian soul has finally put me out of my misery and told me that treacle (which I have in the damned cupboard) is the same thing. Durrrr.
Anyway, Franny's recipe and her comments are below. Apparently they are very tasty. I'm not 100% sure about the bean soaking bit as I am rarely that organised so I reserve the right to used tinned haricots.

8 oz haricot beans
1 lb toms, skinned and deseeded (I used tinned and it is ok if maybe a little runny)
2 tbsp tomato puree
2 tbsp molasses
2 tsp mustard powder
3/4 pint hot stock (that's three quarters, not 3 or 4 )

Soak beans overnight in large bowl covered with cold water. Drain well, put in sauce pan and cover with cold water by at least 2 ins. Bring to boil, skim surface, cover pan and cook at rolling boil for 30 mins. Drain well. Preheat oven to GM 2. Put beans in large casserole and stir in all remaining ingredients. Mix well. Cover casserole and cook for 2.5 hours. Stir gently and cook for another 35 mins or until tender and sauce thickened. (normally takes up to 4 hours to get really tender and not too runny IME).

Freezes well and is popular with dads as well as children. I normally cook at least double and freeze lots. It has been pointed out to me that with having to cook them for so long, and with baked beans being so cheap, that it is probably cheaper to buy them, but I would far rather have this sort with no salt and no artificial sweeteners. I think baked beans are a truly healthy food but the tinned sort normally have a lot of rubbish added. These are easy to make and also make the house smell lovely.

Moomin is avoiding dairy and wheat, amongst other things, for her daughter Minky, a fact that forces her to be a bit more inventive when it comes to BLW cooking, I am glad to say. Luckily, she is pretty generous with her findings and we all benefit from her investigations.
Seriously, though, my pal was showing me the other day how difficult it is to exclude dairy. You wouldn't believe it, there is milk powder in jars of organic ratatouille...

Recipe for chickpea burgers:
Whizz together 1 tin of chickpeas, 110g gram flour, 1 tsp cumin, 1 tsp coriander, 4 spring onions, 4 garlic cloves and a bit of water. Shape a bit into a patty and fry on each side for five mins. Makes about 8, so I freeze the leftovers (7!) and they're good for taking out with us. I slice them in half lengthways so Minky can get a good grip on them. My husband reckons they're a bit bland but they do have a pleasant texture.

As I mentioned, we have a very allergic-y family (name a food group, I'll find someone that can't have it). I'm avoiding wheat, dairy, citrus, fish, berries, nuts. It does make life a bit more difficult. However, we are doing okay at finding alternatives. Have got some recipes for corn tortillas, buckwheat pancakes, onion bhajis and potato scones. I've only tried potato scones so far and they're good if you want to get away from the normal potato wedges, boiled potatoes etc...

Recipe for potato scones:
255g mashed potato, 1tsp baking powder, 55g rice flour, 1/2 tsp salt (eeek - I guess you could leave this out). Mix together, roll into a ball and roll out into a 5mm thick circle. I cut bits out of it with a pastry cutter and then fried until brown. You can add butter and milk to the mashed potato if you're normal.

I am normal and I love potato scones, so I will go mad and add both. In sunny Scotland, home of the tattie scone, though, what we do is use plain flour (if we aren't avoiding wheat) and rather than using pastry cutters you can just roll out a thin circle of dough on a floured surface to fit the size of a small frying pan. Making sure that there was a good shoogle of flour on the circle I would then dry-fry it, as this makes the trademark dark brown spots appear on the potato scone and they add to the flavour (and they then look spookily like the ones you buy in the shops). Plus, I'm thinking that if you dry-fry them they might keep better. Technically, tattie scones are an excellent way of using up leftover mashed potato but it's academic in our house as such a thing rarely occurs.

And I reckon that some salt sprinkled on mummy and daddy's chickpea burgers will sort out the blandness issue. Gram flour is, of course, just chickpea flour and readily available from Asian stores. Thanks for the recipes, Moomin.