WTSIM ... Red Onion, Feta and Olive Tart

Being at home during the day with a small baby, I love listening to talk back radio and my favourite radio show host is Jon Faine on the ABC. He is intelligent, provocative, amusing and compassionate. While I enjoy the robust political debate, I love the quirky things I hear too. Last week he was talking about how much he loves doing the dishes. What a guy! Following on from this admission, his guest, Mick Thomas, recited a poem his mum had above the kitchen sink when he was young. It goes like this:

Thank God for dirty dishes. They have a tale to tell. While others may go hungry we're eating very well. With home, health, and happiness, I shouldn't want to fuss; By the stack of evidence, God's been very good to us.

I had never heard it before but I love the sentiment of dishes telling the story of the meal. Our dishes from last weekend would have displayed a confetti of pastry flakes in a smear of vinaigrette. I guess, that tells is of a cook who likes to indulge and try to stay healthy at the same time. Isn’t that the story of my life!

In fact, I don’t often cook with puff pastry because I think it will be heavy but the red onion, feta and olive tart that I made was quite light. Possibly because it wasn’t so full of cream and eggs but also it might be that, because I used ready-rolled pastry, it was only half the weight of that suggested in the recipe.

By the way, I always thought puff pastry was made with butter and was surprised that our supermarket has a special ‘butter’ puff pastry. I bought this because it had half the ingredients of that in the regular puff pastry.

I found this recipe for Red Onion, Feta and Olive Tart in the BBC Good Food Magazine cookbook called 101 Veggie Dishes. I first made it a few years back when friends came over for dinner. Served with a pumpkin and tahini salad, it went down a treat. Tarts seem like great food for entertaining because they make an attractive centre to a meal and a buttery pastry always seems indulgent. The BBC website also suggests these would make good appetisers if cut into smaller pieces.

When I finally managed to make the tart again last weekend, I was a little concerned that the reality spoil the memory. Perhaps I only loved it because we had a great night with Kim and Jo. But it was every bit as delicious and appealing. The sweetness of the caramelised onion and salty olives paired perfectly. The darkness of the onion and olives contrasted pleasingly with the white feta. The pastry was light and flaky. It is easy to make and reheats nicely if you keep leftovers for a second night.

The recipe says to serve it with a green salad but I felt the meal needed more vegetables. I made a salad a bit like this one. On the first night I served it with rocket, baby spinach, roasted pumpkin, sun dried tomatoes and pinenuts. The second night I felt the salad needed more oomph and added chickpeas.

I noticed that Johanna of the Passionate Cook is hosting Waiter There’s Something in My … Event and this month the theme is Bistro Classics. She describes the food as ‘simple, hearty and bursting with flavour’. I am not sure how hearty this tart is but it is simple and flavoursome, and so often vegetarians are offered pastry dishes when eating out in cafes and pubs that I thought this was appropriate.

Red Onion, Feta and Olive Tart
(from BBC Good Food 101 Veggie Recipes)
serves 4

25g butter
2 large red onions, sliced
2 tbsp brown sugar
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
450g puff pastry (I used 270g)
100g feta cheese, crumbled
175g black olives, pitted and chopped
1 tbsp olive oil
fresh herbs to garnish

Preheat oven to 200 C.

Melt butter in a frypan and fry onion in it for about 10-15 minutes with a pinch of salt until onions are soft and caremalised. Stir in sugar and vinegar and simmer about 5 minutes until the liquid thickens slightly and becomes syrupy. Cool slightly.

Roll out pastry (if your pastry isn’t ready rolled) and line a greased 30 x 22 cm swiss roll tin. Spread onion mixture on pastry. Scatter olives and feta over the onions. Drizzle olive oil over the tart.

Bake for 15-20 minutes (it took me 30 minutes) until pastry is golden and puffy at the sides. Serve hot with salad.

On the Stereo:
Flood: They might be giants

Pumpkin Hummus

A walk down the aisles of any supermarket will find us spoilt for choice. In fact it is a tyranny of choice. Years ago a trip to buy dips and chips was easy. For example, when I was little we had three flavours of chips (or crisps) in the local milk bar – chicken, salt and vinegar and plain. Everyone had their favourite. Mine was (gulp) chicken. Now we head off to the supermarket in search of lime and black pepper or morrocan seasoning chips and – ooh, aah – we spy a new line of roasted garlic chips. Must try those. We are now a nation of fickle consumers. Where is the loyalty?

Unfortunately loyalty is becoming a thing of the past in processed foods, just like last year’s taste sensation. We are forever being tempted by the new and creative. It is all well and good if we just want to be seeking the elusive best ever But what if you arrive at your favourite and find it is just a fleeting fad.

We never had dips when I was a little tacker but when I moved to Melbourne as a young university student, wide-eyed in wonder at all the fabulous cafes, dips became all the rage. There were a few you would expect to encounter everywhere – hummus, tsatsiki and baba ganoush.

Interestingly, these dips still feature heavily in cafes but the supermarket shelves of dips have become overwhelming in their variety. Beetroot, pumpkin, rocket, pesto, carrot, lentil, sweet potato, spicy, nutty, cheesy. Like chips, fashions come and go in dips.

Ricki recently posted about curried pumpkin hummus and I was reminded of the pumpkin hummus I used to buy regularly. It was one of my favourites but it seems others did not share my enthusiasm. Or maybe it just had to go to make way for the new flavours. Anyway it disappeared from the supermarket shelves without explanation.

I miss my pumpkin hummus and so I was inspired by Ricki to make some. As I buy my pumpkin raw, I decided to roast it for more flavour. I had plenty of garlic about so I also roasted a bulb of that while the oven was on. I didn’t add any oil because the pumpkin, with the little oil used for roasting, gave enough moisture.

The resulting pumpkin hummus was delicious and creamy. It was full of deep warm flavours without the bite usually found in dips with raw garlic. It lasted well for about a week without becoming watery as dips often do. I enjoyed it for lunches with fresh vegetables and corn thins. In fact, it was better than the stuff I was buying from the shops. Not as convenient but a recipe is forever, unlike a new flavoured processed food!

Roasted Pumpkin and Garlic Hummus

650g pumpkin, peeled and diced
oil spray
seasoning
1 bulb of garlic
drizzle of olive oil
450g can chickpeas, rinsed and drained
½ cup tahini
juice of one small lemon
pinch cumin
pinch cayenne pepper

Place the pumpkin in a roasting tray and toss with the oil and seasoning. Chop the top of the garlic bulb off and place on a large square of foil. Drizzle a little olive oil over garlic and bring the foil up to make a little bag that is sealed at the top, enclosing the garlic. Place garlic in the same tray as the pumpkin. Roast in 200 C oven for 30 minutes. Remove garlic and cool a little. Roast the pumpkin an additional 15 minutes. When garlic is cool enough to handle, unwrap from foil and squeeze cloves out of the peel and discard peel.

Place pumpkin, garlic and remaining ingredients in a food processor and blend til smooth. Check seasoning and adjust as necessary.

Update: Sept 2011 made these with carrot instead of pumpkin - roasted carrot about about 200-220 C for about 1 hour until it was starting to blacken on the outside but soft inside - fantastic!


On the stereo:
A Secret History: the Best of the Divine Comedy – The Divine Comedy

Pear and walnut muffins

Since starting blogging, I have got braver at using fresh fruit in muffins and in creating my own recipes. I look at what other bloggers do with recipes and realise I am not held hostage by what is written on the page. It is quite liberating to make the recipe fit what is in the house rather than running around the shops at the beck and call of the cookbook.

For example, recently I had a couple of pears in the fruit bowl that were threatening to go mushy before I could eat them, so I decided to make muffins with them. The combination of pears and walnuts was inspired by seeing them paired in a chutney recipe. I checked my cookbooks for ideas and cobbled the best bits together.

The resulting muffins were a wee bit moist but tasted great. They were best warm from the oven but were getting on the soggy side the next day. I took them along to a gathering at lunchtime and they were quite welcome. But when I got home I put them in the freezer and since then have been taking them out and popping them in the microwave when I want one. So if I was to make this recipe again I think I would add a bit more flour or bake them a little longer.

These muffins are not that pretty to look at – though some fun polkadot muffin cups were helpful. But they are pleasingly spicy with the nice contrast between the soft sweet juicy pear and the gentle firmness of the walnut. Perfect for snacks or entertaining.

Pear and Walnut Muffins
Makes 48 mini muffins

1 cup plain flour
½ cup wholemeal flour (or more)
½ cup oatmeal
¼ cup brown sugar (packed)
¼ cup golden syrup
3 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
½ tsp mixed spice
⅓ cup walnuts, chopped
½ tsp ginger
¼ cup oil
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla essence
2 pears, chopped
⅓ orange juice

Mix dry ingredients in a large bowl. Use a whisk or fork to lightly blend wet ingredients in a small bowl. Add to dry ingredients and gently mix till just combined. It should be quite a stiff mixture because the pear will make them moist when it cooks. Spoon into mini muffin tins (either lined with muffin cups or greased.) Bake 20 minutes at 180 C.

On the Stereo:
Music from Twin Peaks: Angelo Badalamenti

Heidi’s Chocolate Cake

We had some visitors a few weekends back. It was a great excuse to bake a chocolate cake so I could be the hostess with the mostess. Actually, these days when I have visitors, I am usually so busy with Sylvia that I forget about offering a cuppa but fortunately E is always quick to put on the kettle.

I had been wanting to try a chocolate cake made by Heidi from 101 Cookbooks. It is what she calls a ‘basic’ chocolate cake but I think it is far from it. For a start it has a cup of maple syrup instead of sugar. This is both a delicious and healthy alternative sweetner but not a cheap one and not one I would ever have considered when making my mum’s basic chocolate cake in my youth. It also has coconut milk, which is unusual but a great dairy-free alternative.

I made a few changes to the recipe. I added a bit of wattleseed and cinnamon for added depth of flavour, and I used choc chips instead of chopped chocolate. My most noticeable change was to use a different frosting.

Heidi used a mixture of chocolate, butter, maple syrup and cream for her frosting. I don’t like cream much and don’t usually have it on hand. But I did have some cream cheese and still had fond memories of the cream cheese frosting I had made for the Wholemeal Chocolate Cake recently. I decided to make the chocolate cream cheese frosting but instead of using icing sugar I used maple syrup. It was delicious, though not so sweet. The cream cheese was low fat so it was a healthier frosting than Heidi’s. (I have just seen in this month’s Australian BBC Good Food magazine a suggestion for a chocolate ganache made with chocolate and coconut milk, which I think would also be an appropriate topping for this cake.)

When making the cake I had a CRAFT moment (ie Can’t Remember A Flaming Thing). I tipped the mixture into the cake tin and remembered I hadn’t added the choc chips so I gently stirred these into the mixture while in the tin – but I don’t recommend this to anyone unless you are as forgetful as me.

The cake was lovely. Not overly sweet but soft and fudgy. In fact, it fell in half in my hands when I transferred it from the wire rack to the cake holder before going to bed. This may be the reason that Heidi cooled and served it in the tin. However I am in the habit of turning out cakes onto a wire rack to cool. It tasted fantastic warm out of the oven without frosting. But with a lick of frosting it went down well with our visitors – everyone happily took a second slice. Even the little giraffe (which Kym and Nick brought for Sylvia) loved the cake :-)

Heidi’s Chocolate Cake
(adapted from 101 Cookbooks)

2½ cups wholemeal self raising flour
¾ cup cocoa powder
½ teaspoon salt
½ tsp ground wattleseed
½ tsp ground cinnamon
125g melted unsalted butter
1 cup pure maple syrup
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup coconut milk (I used a 270ml tin)
180g dark choc chips

Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting:
125g cream cheese, softened
2 tbsp maple syrup (or agave syrup)
1 tbsp cocoa

Preheat oven to 180 C (350 F). Grease and line a 23 x 23 cm square cake tin.

Place the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, spices and salt into a large mixing bowl. In a separate medium bowl mix together the melted butter and maple syrup. Add eggs vanilla and coconut . Use a fork to lightly whisk these wet ingredients together and then add to flour mixture. Stir until just combined. Add chocolate chips and fold in to the mixture.

Pour mixture into prepared cake tin. Bake for 30-40 minutes (it was 30 minutes for me). Heidi suggests it is ok to be slightly under-baked and I agree. So the skewer needs to come out of the centre of the cake almost clean to show cake is ready to come out of the oven. Heidi also says to cool in tin but I turned out onto a wire rack to cool after about 10 minutes.

To make frosting, mix all ingredients in a small bowl with a spoon til creamy. Spread frosting over the top of the cooled cake.

On the stereo:
Aleph at Hallucinatory Mountain: Current 93

Polenta cups and Seasonal salad

Blogging: so many great ideas and so little time. So it is always a pleasure to actually make the food I drool over rather than just dreaming about it. I made these polenta cups with pea puree just a few nights ago. I had seen Kristy post about polenta cups only the day before and was excited about the idea so I wanted to share it.

Kristy had made polenta cups with smoky bean chilli filling but she had got the idea from Rachel Ray who had baked them with an egg inside them. It seemed such a brilliant idea that I wish I liked eggs. Fantastic for gluten free diets! I had been thinking about making a green pea and bean spread inspired by these dips. This appealed to me as a filling for the polenta cups.

My other inspiration was Ashely at Eat Me Delicious. She had recently made a Herbed Cauliflower with Capers and Lemon. What interested me was her comment that she enjoyed it with quinoa, cranberries, feta and walnuts. What a combination! It appealed even more when Lisa announced the theme for the No Croutons Required Event that she and Holler organise each month. This month it was to be a soup or salad with berries. It is not berry season here so I drew a blank. Then I thought that cranberries would fit the bill and it gave me the perfect excuse to try a version of Ashley’s salad.

The polenta cups and cauliflower salad paired wonderfully, tasting both delicious and healthy. By the time the cups came out of the oven we were hungry. Even a gentle knife to lever them out of the muffin tins was too harsh for these soft cups. The first one out collapsed completely. The second wobbled like the bottom lip of a baby about to cry, but it held together enough for photos. Leaving them for 20 minutes till I prised them from the muffin tin and then baking them another 20 minutes made them just the right crispiness and shape (as you can see on the photo). I am not sure how this extra baking would affect an egg in the polenta cup but it worked fine with the puree.

Now that I have discovered these polenta cups, I want to try them in other ways. The possibilities are endless. I am interested to try them in my silicone mould mini muffin cups. I think they might come out easier that way. Another idea is to put them in cupcake papers. They would be a great for entertaining or lunchboxes – actually I had one cold for breakfast and it was great. Rachel Ray served hers with egg in the cups and sausages on the side. I would like to try these with quiches or chlli non carne. I have even wondered about a sweet version with custard or berries. Making polenta is so easy since I have started making it in the microwave and, since my niece was diagnosed as a celiac, I have been interested in gluten free recipes.

The salad was also gluten free, as many salads are. More importantly, it was delicious and seasonal. I used some herbs from the garden. I was not brave enough to include capers. I don’t use capers much and was not sure they would taste right with the cranberries, feta and walnuts. I also didn’t do the quinoa that Ashley suggested because I wanted to keep it simple, but with quinoa this salad would be more substantial. But the salad, with the polenta cups, makes a most pleasing meal.

Polenta cups with pea puree
(inspired by Rachael Ray)
Makes 8 cups

Polenta cups:
½ cup polenta
1½ cup stock (or water and salt)
50g parmesan cheese, finely grated*

Pea Puree:
2 cups peas, lightly cooked
400g tin cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
2 tsp lemon juice
generous pinch cayenne
1 tsp garlic flakes, crumbled
¾ tsp smoked paprika
¼ tsp soy sauce

* other grated cheeses would work well too - or omit cheese to make vegan.

Microwave polenta and stock (or water and salt) for 3½ minutes – stirring every minute till a porridge consistency. Stir in parmesan cheese. Check seasoning. Spoon into greased muffin tray (mine made 7-8 cups). Use back of spoon and/or fingers to mould into cups. Set aside.

Make pea puree by blitzing all ingredients in the food processor.

Fill the polenta cups with pea puree and smooth on top with the back of a spoon (Use leftover puree as a spread if you have any). Bake in 220 C oven for 20 minutes. Remove from oven and sit for about 20 minutes. Carefully remove from muffin tray with a knife. Place on greased tray and return to oven for 20 minutes or until crisp on the outside.

Serve warm or room temperature with salad and chutney. These would be good as part of a buffet, for breakfast or in your lunchbox.

Cauliflower, Cranberry, Feta and Walnut Salad
(adapted from Eat Me Delicious)
Serves 2

1 head cauliflower, trimmed and chopped
1 handful fresh herbs, chopped (I used parsley, chives, rosemary and thyme)
¼ cup cranberries
¼ cup walnuts, chopped
70g feta cheese, crumbled
juice of half a small lemon
3 tbsp olive oil

Steam cauliflower (I did it in the microwave) till tender. Toss with remaining ingredients and serve warm or at room temperature.

On the stereo:
The Captain: Kasey Chambers

Mothering, Stew and Bread

My daughter is a night owl – just like her parents. She sleeps so well in the morning and gets worse and worse as the day goes on. By evening both Sylvia and I are usually cranky. She wants to feed. I want to blog. I shouldn’t complain too much. She slept till 10am on Saturday. But this was after going down to sleep at 2am. I told someone about this sleep-in and they asked if I was waiting to feed her. Of course I was sleeping while she was. Last night she went down at 12.30am which is an early night for her.

I feel a wee bit shamefaced about this whinge. Here I am with a beautiful daughter (who sleeps 7 hours most nights at the age of almost 12 weeks) and we eat very well. Yet I want more. Just a little extra time to blog. I have the photos and recipes for many meals but I need time to pull it all together.

Too many days I feel foolishly optimistic. I am so sure I will be able to write a post and then there is the wail from the cot. I had thought I might be able to get this post written on Sunday for Mother’s Day but it is now Friday. I was determined to finish it in the morning but it is now afternoon and I am still writing it. The days seem to pass all too quickly.

Last week I had one of those days when even making dinner was a struggle. We had a dodgy leaking tap and called the plumber. My mum rang to see how I was doing. ‘Mum,’ I said, ‘The plumber is looking for the stop tap, E is visiting a neighbour who was mugged, I am feeding Sylvia and am midway through making dinner!’ Earlier that day I had been to the liquor superstore to buy beer for baking and I knocked over a bottle which broke and splashed all over me and the pram. Great, I thought, now I smell like a boozy mother!

Fortunately the soup I was making for dinner was easy and able to be paused while I was distracted by other things. But the three cheese and beer bread I had planned to bake just was not possible on that night. The next day I was determined to bake the bread and started in the morning when Sylvia was sleeping. I put it in the oven and went off for my shower. It all seemed to be going without a hitch until I checked the oven temperature. I accidentally had the oven on 150 C instead of 180 C. This was followed by a lot of angst in trying to get the bread cooked. Finally I had to go out and took it out, despite the skewer not coming out cleanly.

The soup and bread were both hugely enjoyed. This was all the more satisfying because I had altered both recipes. The soup was inspired by Nava Atlas’ Swiss Chard Stew with Tortellini and Sun-Dried Tomatoes. I changed the flavouring, added more vegetables and beans. I love ravioli and was pleased that using it in the soup made it last longer than just adding some tomato sauce and broccoli.

The bread also was slightly altered as I didn’t have the right ingredients. I substituted oatbran for flour on a whim because I found some oatbran that had been in the pantry too long, and when I went to use wholemeal flour I found the container almost empty. I didn’t have buttermilk so I used milk and lemon juice. (Ironically, I originally had planned the bread to use up yoghurt but by the time I baked it, the yoghurt was smelling dodgy and had to be binned.) And I used fresh herbs from the garden because they were there.

The bread was slightly oozy when it came out of the oven but was so full of cheese and flavours that this didn’t matter too much. We ate it with the silverbeet and ravioli stew, spread with chutney or promite, and accompanying tinned tomato soup. I took it to my mum’s on the weekend when I visited for mother’s day. It went well with a slice of spinach tomato and feta quiche (from Vegetarian Times, April 2009) that my mum had cooked. ('Did you notice I finished off the cheese bread your mum put out?' asked E when we were driving home.)

When I got home I found that my mum had filled the tub that I took the bread down in. I took a photo which doesn’t show it in its best light but gives an idea of it. It was full of quiche, some cheese and beer bread, scones, little gluten free cakes, and a wonderful date and pistachio slice. After a day with the family, I was glad to have her offerings for dinner.

Yes, my mum’s baking is impressive. Whenever we visit she has lots of great homebaking that she just whipped up. She even often brings some to my place when she visits. From her I learnt to love food and how to cook. She is not only a whizz in the kitchen but helps me out with gardening, housework and my children. I wouldn't have my herb garden without the little pots of herbs she brings me. She even has some kale in her garden for me. Both she and my dad have always been such a great example in enjoying life - they still go to films and restaurants, have holidays in the country and take an interest in current affairs and the arts. She is such a great support and inspiration. If I can do half as much as a mother as she has done for me, I will be proud of my achievements. (As you will see at the top of this post, I am not at all perfect.)

I thought Mother’s Day was a good opportunity to celebrate my mum but I want to extend my admiration and gratitude to all women. Not all women are mothers in the narrow sense that greeting card companies dictate. But I have received the gifts of inspiration, teaching and nurturing from grandmothers, aunts, sisters, friends, colleagues, bloggers and strangers. I much prefer the term Mothering Sunday to Mother’s Day so we can celebrate what all women give to others.

I am sending the three cheese and beer bread to Poornima at Tasty Treats who is hosting this month’s My Favourite Things Event, which was started by Bindiya. The theme is All Things Cheese.

Silverbeet and Ravioli Stew
(adapted from Nava Atlas’ Vegetarian Soups for All Seasons)
serves 4

1 tbsp olive oil
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
2 carrots, chopped
1 stalk celery, chopped
4 cups water
2 tsp stock powder
400g tin of tomatoes
400g tin of kidney beans, rinsed and drained
2 zucchini, chopped
2 tbsp tahini
2 tbsp fresh herbs, chopped
3 bay leaves
dash each of cinnamon, cayene and smoked paprika
375g fresh roasted veg ravioli
½ bunch silverbeet (chard), 10-12 large stalks, chopped
½ cup semi sundried tomatoes, chopped
grated cheese to serve (optional)

Heat olive oil in stockpot. Fry onion, garlic, carrots and celery on low heat for about 10 minutes. Add water, stock powder, tomatoes, kidney beans, zucchini, tahini, herbs, bay leaves and spices. Simmer for about 10 minutes. Add ravioli and silverbeet stalks. Simmer for another 10 minutes. Add silverbeet leaves and simmer 5 minutes. Add semi-sundried tomatoes and heat another couple of minutes. Remove bay leaves. Serve with a handful of grated cheese on top if desired.

Three cheese and beer bread
(Adapted from Cooking Bread)
makes 2 loaves

5½ cups white flour
1 cup oat bran (or wholemeal flour)
2 tablespoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
2 teaspoon dry mustard
¼ cup chopped fresh herbs – I used rosemary, parsley, sage, chives and thyme
1½ cups milk
1 tsp lemon juice
2 cups (500ml) room temperature beer
½ cup tomato juice
1 tablespoon worcestershire sauce
2 beaten eggs
2⅓ cup or 7 oz gruyere cheese, grated
⅔ cup or 2 oz parmesan cheese, finely grated
2 cups or 6 oz cheddar cheese, grated

Preheat oven to 220 C. Grease and line 2 loaf tins.

Mix the cheeses and set aside 1¼ cups of cheese. In a large bowl combine the flour, oatbran, baking powder, salt, mustard, herbs and remaining 4¾ cups of cheese. Mix to combine.

In a separate bowl combine the beer, sour cream, tomato juice, eggs and worcestershire sauce and lightly whisk together. Add the liquid to the dry ingredients and mix till just mixed. Do not over mix. Mine was quite a soft mixture.

Pour the mixture into prepared loaf tins. Sprinkle the cheese that you set aside earlier. Bake at 180 C for 50 -55 minutes or till done (mine were in at 150 C for 40 minutes at then another 50 minutes at 180 C at the bottom of oven – not recommended!) Allow to cool in the tins for 15 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to cool.

On the stereo:
The Best of Mozart

Peach Smoothie

I have been making lots of smoothies lately but nothing worthy of posting. Most are banana, berries/kiwifruit and milk. I even added half an avocado to a recent one. Most of the smoothies I have posted don’t have milk but lately I wanted to increase my calcium intake.

However this morning I felt like a milk-free smoothie. My mum had given me a punnet of strawberries which had grown a beard. I could only rescue about four. There was no juice in the fridge, no banana in the fruit bowl and my strawberries needed to be used pronto. What to do? Then my eye fell upon a tin of peaches in the pantry. Perfect.

This smoothie brought a breath of summer into this cool autumn morning. The only change I would make next time would be to use a whole punnet of strawberries if they were not mouldy. If it was summertime and I had a ripe peach or two, then I would use those and a little juice. In fact my tinned peaches are in apple/pear juice if you read the small print. But I was very happy with this refreshing smoothie and the pretty flecks of colour in it. In fact, you might say it was just peachy, if you excuse the pun.

Tropical Peach Smoothie
makes a little over 2 glasses

400g tin of sliced peaches in lite juice (not drained)
4 strawberries, trimmed (or a whole punnet if you have one)
1 kiwi fruit, peeled and chopped
pulp and seeds of 1 passionfruit
1 tsp maple syrup (or honey)

Blend (I use my handheld blender in a tall jug) and drink.

On the stereo:
The Best of Bach