Georgina Hayden

Feeding since 1982

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Pancake Day!

03.05.2019 by georgie // Leave a Comment

I’m like a big kid on pancake day – all normal eating rules go out the window and anything goes. Fluffy pancakes with cream, butter and maple syrup, crepe style with copious amounts of lemon and sugar. I even like to properly regress and have a savoury pancake with beans and sausages. If you do want to move away from the standard crepes and American style bad boys, here are a couple of ideas for you. My apple pancakes are like little tart tatins – with a fluffy praline-esque pancake and caramelised fruit underneath. And my wholemeal dutch baby makes the whole event a bit simpler, you just make one big pancake in a pan and let everyone tuck in. It’s a showstopper, and doesn’t feel particularly indulgent (great for little ones if you don’t want to ply them with too much white flour and sugar). But don’t worry if you don’t have wholemeal flour – regular flour is fine too.

Photography by Laura Edwards

 

Apple, ricotta and hazelnuts pancakes

Serves 4

  • 2 nice eating apples (I like coxes or braeburn, nothing with a waxy skin)
  • 1 orange
  • 4 tablespoons maple syrup
  • A good pinch of salt
  • Groundnut oil
  • 250g ricotta
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 125g wholemeal flour
  • 50g hazelnuts, toasted
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 2 large eggs, separated
  • 175ml milk
  • Greek yoghurt, to serve

Place the nuts in a food processor and grind until slightly coarse. Slice the apple into thin 1/2cm slices, then toss in a bowl with the orange zest and mixed spice. Spoon the ricotta into a sieve and press out any excess liquid. Transfer it to a bowl and mix in the egg yolks, vanilla and milk. Add the flour, baking powder, salt and most of the hazelnuts and mix till just combined.

Whisk the egg whites in a clean bowl with an electric whisk (or just good strong arms) until you have stiff peaks. Fold one spoonful into the ricotta mixture to loosen, then fold through the rest of the egg whites.

Using a pastry brush or some kitchen towel, rub a large non-stick frying pan with an even thin layer of groundnut oil. Pop onto a medium heat and add all of the apple slices (if you have 2 pans make them all in one go). Squeeze over the orange juice and cook the apples for 3 – 4 minutes to soften slightly, then flip them over for a couple more minutes. Remove half of the apple and leave to one side on a plate. Push the slices in the pan into 4 rounds and drizzle with half the maple syrup. Ladle over 4 ladles full of the pancake batter over the apples- about half the mixture. Fry for 4 minutes, until the underneath is golden, crisp yet sticky then flip over and cook for a further 3-4 minutes on the other side. Serve the pancakes straight away with a dollop of yoghurt, a sprinkle of the reserved hazelnuts and extra maple syrup on the side. Then repeat for the final batch of cooked apples and batter.

Photography by Laura Edwards

 

Blueberry and honey wholemeal dutch baby

Serves 4

  • A knob butter
  • 180 milk
  • 3 large eggs
  • 1 teaspoon poppy seeds
  • 120g plain wholemeal flour
  • Sea salt
  • 4 tablespoons honey or maple syrup
  • A few sprigs of basil
  • 250g blueberries
  • 200g Greek yoghurt

Preheat your oven to 220. Whisk the flour, poppy seeds and a good pinch of salt together, then beat in the eggs and milk until you have a smooth batter. Add a splash more milk if it feels too thick, it should be pourable. Also, if you are making the batter in advance, just give it a quick whisk beforehand, with a little more milk. Melt the butter in a large ovenproof skillet or frying pan, around 28cm, and when it’s really hot and bubbling pour in the pancake batter. Quickly transfer the pan to the oven, and leave it to bake for 16-18 minutes. Don’t open the oven door or you’ll have a flat pancake! While the dutch baby is cooking poach the blueberries. Pop them in a small pan with the honey and basil and place on a medium heat. Bring to the boil then reduce the heat and simmer for 3 – 4 minutes, until the blueberries have softened slightly and the honey is rippled with their purple juices. As soon as the dutch baby is ready remove from the oven and serve in wedges with a big dollop of Greek yoghurt and a spoonful of the honey poached blueberries. Delicious.

Categories // Baking & puddings, Breakfast & brunch, Celebration, Cookbooks, Light meals, Parenting, Pregnancy and Parenting, Stirring Slowly, Vegan and Vegetarian

Sweet tahini Easter bread

03.04.2016 by georgie // Leave a Comment


Greek Lent is almost here! I normally just give up one thing (coffee, cheese, chocolate…) but this year I’m going to do it properly, I’m going to basically be vegan for 50 days. OK, so it’s not as straight forward as that, there are some days you can eat fish, and some days you can’t eat olive oil, but I’ll turn to my yiayia for guidance. I still find it quite confusing. Anyway, I’m going to try, and I’ll share my progress with you all and hopefully find and create some exciting recipes in the process

So, the bread. The inspiration for this recipe, tahinopita, is one of my favourite things about Greek Easter. Traditionally eating during times of lent and fasting, you can buy individual ones all year round from Greek and Turkish bakers (or make it yourself of course). But growing up it was always eaten around Easter time, due to its lack of animal products, and I just love it. The soft dough, caramelised crispy edges, and gooey middle (a bit like frangipane)… insanely moreish.

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Most commonly known for its addition to houmous, savoury dishes and dressings, tahini is brilliant for baking with. Sweetened, like in this recipe, it has a peanut butter vibe, and works wonderfully with honey, maple syrup or brown sugars. (Also a little bit in a smoothie with banana, honey, milk and cinnamon is ridiculously good). The most complicated thing about this recipe is making the bread, which isn’t difficult at all, I promise. The filling and ring part is even easier, and is perfect for a rainy day at home. I hope you like it as much as I do.

Read on for recipe…

Categories // Baking & puddings, Breakfast & brunch, Greek and Cypriot Tags // Baking, Breakfast, Cyprus, Dairy-free, Greek, Sweets, Vegan, Vegetarian

Dukkah egg and avo hash

01.16.2015 by georgie // Leave a Comment

What an intro to 2015! There have been lurgies, house hunts, port binges and last week I started back at work part-time. Its been lovely to see friendly faces, and even though it’s a bit scary/ daunting at times, I’m enjoying the routine and sociability of it. I just don’t know how I used to get anything done though! So today I stripped it back, went to the gym and made myself some nice food. Super simple day. It feels good to have time at home again and time to breathe.

I’ve genuinely missed my ‘lunches for one’ over Christmas and New Year. I feel like I’ve nourished myself over the last few months, and taken time out to make myself strong again. It feels like a crucial part of my journey, so it’s been good to get back in the kitchen.

Today for lunch I made myself a bang on trend brunch dish (eggs and dukkah) but with a more substantial base. If you ever come to stay at our house chances are I will make you a hash at some point. I love it. Anything goes and its one of our favourite weeknight dinners. And as a very wise person once told me ‘there is no meal that can’t be improved with an egg on top’ and I actually think they’re right.

 

Dukkah egg and avo hash
Not the most perfect egg but tasted darn good!

 

DUKKAH EGG AND AVO HASH

Serves 1 (multiply as needed! Simple as that)

  • 350g potatoes (I like to use half maris piper and half sweet potato for a lighter dish)
  • Olive oil
  • Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
  • A few sprigs of coriander, leaves picked
  • 1/2 a small onion (or 1/4 of a normal one) red or white, peeled
  • Red wine vinegar
  • 1/2 tablespoon runny honey
  • 1/2 a ripe avocado, sliced
  • 1 large egg, free range or organic
  • 1/2 teaspoon dukkah, homemade or store bought – see below
  • Squeeze of lemon juice

Start by giving you potatoes a good scrub (I leave the skins on for added nutrients and texture) and then cut into even sized chunks. Place in a pan of boiling salted water and boil for around 8 – 10 minutes, depending on the size of your pieces, until cooked through.

Whilst the potato is cooking slice the onion as finely as you can and place in a bowl. Cover with a good splash of red wine vinegar and the honey. Give it all a good stir, making sure the onion is covered in the vinegar mix and leave to one side.

When the potato is cooked drain completely and mash the potatoes in the pan (I like to keep the hash a little chunky so mash the veg enough to break them down but not completely smooth). Add most of the coriander leaves, season well and poor a lug of oil into the bottom of the pan and place it back on a medium heat. Fry the the hash for around 8 – 10 minutes, mixing it up and flipping it over now and then, till it is golden and crisp, with lovely crunchy bits throughout.

Half way through frying the hash, place a small pan of water onto boil and poach the egg to your liking – I do mine for 2.5 minutes for a runny yolk.

Plate up! Spoon the hash onto a plate, scatter over the lightly pickled onions (leaving the vinegar behind) and top with the sliced avocado. Squeeze over a little lemon juice, and finish with the poached egg and sprinkled dukkah (and an extra pinch of salt and pepper). Scatter over any remaining coriander leaves and tuck in.

 

EGYPTIAN DUKKAH

You’ll find dukkah in the spice aisle of most supermarkets now. However if you struggle to get hold of it, or just fancy making your own, it’s dead easy to make. It lasts ages and is fantastic sprinkled on almost anything, especially eggs.

  • 100g sesame seeds
  • 100g blanched almonds or hazelnuts (or a mix)
  • 2 tablespoons coriander seeds
  • 2 tablespoons cumin seeds
  • 1 teaspoon fennel seeds 
  • 1 heaped teaspoon sea salt
  • 1 tablespoon freshly ground black pepper

Preheat your oven to 180. Spread the nuts out in a tray and roast in the oven for around 4 minutes, until lightly golden. Pour onto a plate or into a bowl and leave to one side to cool.

Toast the sesame seeds into a dry frying pan until golden and again, spoon into a bowl, and leave to cool. Toast the cumin, coriander and fennel seeds for a minute or so until they start to smell wonderful and remove from the heat. Once all the nuts and seeds have cooled either grind them in a pestle and mortar, or blitz in a food processor with the salt and pepper until you have a coarse blend. Et voila! Homemade dukkah.

Categories // Breakfast & brunch, Light meals, Main meals, Vegan and Vegetarian Tags // Avocado, Breakfast, Dairy-free, Dukkah, Egg, Fertility, Gluten-free, Mains, Nutrition, Potato, Pregnancy, Vegetarian, Wheat-free

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Georgina is an award winning food writer, cook and presenter from North London.
Read more about Georgina

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Lamb and pistachio kofta with houmous
Hello 👋🏼 just wanted to come on here and say hi and also to apologise. This week has been a bit crappy and I had to do something I’ve never done before, which was cancel a big event. I had been so excited about my talk at @helleniccentre (with the wonderful @toniabuxton . Over 150 people had tickets and the excellent team at @bbcradiolondon were going to have me on to talk about it). But it’s been a bit of a scary week health wise within the family and I had to pull out. I absolutely hate letting people down, I’m a total people pleaser, and this was something I was so excited about. Please know it’s something I wouldn’t do half heartedly - hopefully we can reschedule for a later date. But at the moment I just need to be with these guys.
Yesterday I received a card from a friend who has sent me one every Mother’s Day since I had Archie. It had a pack of wildflower seeds attached and she wrote ‘if you plant these now they might grow in time for Archie’s birthday, to cut and put on his bench’. (Obviously I cried).
Patates antinaxtes! Top 3 potato recipe right here. Pleeeeeease please trust me when I say these taste far better than they look/ sum of parts etc.
45 years! A day late, but yesterday my folks celebrated 45 years of marriage. They’ve been together since they were 17 (17!!!). They’ve stuck by each other through thick and thin and are proper couple goals.
(Vegan) Rizogalo with roasted strawberries

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  • Pancake Day!

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