Super Seedy Flapjacks

Revision is mind numbing. 

But only two more weeks of drowning in post-it notes and going over things I've already done, and then it's summer, so can't really complain....

 

All this work hasn't made it particularly easy to get much cooking done, let alone blogging. I've been living off freezer food, toast and takeaways. 

The most exciting thing that's happened in my kitchen this term was Alex managing to set fire to some butter in the microwave. Apparently that's possible... I think it was the fact he put it in there still wrapped in metallic foil. Oh dear.

I did manage to bake myself some revision fuel though: 

Super seedy energy boosting flapjacks.

I made mine with gluten free oats, but you can use ordinary ones as well. This recipe is incredibly easy and very quick - you could probably make this in around an hour's revision break.

Here's what you need:

150g Rolled Oats

50g Pumpkin Seeds

50g Sunflower Seeds

100g Sultanas

3 tablespoons Golden Syrup

100g Butter

2 Bananas, peeled and chopped

75g Dark Chocolate, broken or chopped into small pieces

1. Preheat the oven to 180C and use greaseproof paper to line a small roasting tray, or a square baking tin, or even a round cake tin if you don’t have anything square.

2. Weigh out the oats, the pumpkin seeds, the sunflower seeds and the sultanas, and mix them together in a bowl along with the sliced bananas.

3. Melt butter and golden syrup in a saucepan over a low heat – make sure it doesn’t boil or burn – until the butter is all melted and the mixture is completely combined. Turn off the heat.

4. Tip the bowl full of mixed ingredients into the saucepan and stir until they’re covered in the syrup-butter mixture.

5. Put the flapjack mixture into the lined tin and bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes, until golden on top. Take it out of the oven and set aside to cool.

6. Now its time to melt the chocolate. I do this by putting a small amount of water in a small saucepan, placing a ceramic (non meltable) bowl on top, and placing the chocolate in the bowl. As the water starts to boil, the bowl heats up and the chocolate melts. Make sure the water doesn't boil too much or the water will boil over. 

7. Once the chocolate is melted, use a spoon to scatter the melted chocolate artistically over the flapjack (you can tell from the photos I’m really bad at this. But who doesn’t love big chunks of chocolate?) Leave the flapjack to cool completely, then cut it into even sized bars. Enjoy!

Stuff My Mushrooms.

 

The evenings are getting lighter! 

It's seven o' clock as I write and it's still light outside. Which is lovely. 

This time of year always makes me want to go wandering round National Trust properties and do lots of studying. It's sort of lucky that I have a dissertation and a whole bunch of exam revision to do really... (I also got to go to a National Trust place this weekend - Ightham Mote, it was lovely-pictures below.) 

These lighter evenings make it an awful lot easier to take food photos - living in a flat in halls with awful neon lighting doesn't make for particularly appetising ones. But, tonight I was in the kitchen making dinner, the light looked lovely and I just had to get some photos. 

 Basically, I love mushrooms. (Bryony doesn't! Which means that if we're out and she has food with mushrooms in I always get to eat her mushrooms, so I'm not really complaining...) These are my rice stuffed mushrooms. I've blogged stuffed mushrooms before, but these ones are different. Possibly better.... 

But you'll just have to make both recipes and try them out for yourselves... 

 

Rice stuffed mushrooms (to serve two as a main or four as a side):

150g long grain rice 

2 white onions 

6 spring onions 

2 cloves of garlic 

2 tsp mixed Italian herbs 

1 stock cube 

4 flat cap mushrooms 

A liberal handful of grated cheddar cheese 

A knob of butter and a dash of olive oil 

Salt and Pepper to taste

1. Preheat the oven to 180C. Cook the rice (You place in a saucepan of boiling water and cook for about fifteen minutes until the rice is tender. Don't stir it too much or the starch from the rice is released and it goes all gooey. Drain the rice in a colander, and rinse it through with hot water.) 

2. While the rice is cooking, finely chop the onions. Heat a knob of butter and dash of olive oil in a large saucepan, and add the onion. Fry gently. 

3. Slice the spring onions and add to the pan, along with the dried herbs and a crushed stock cube. Stir in thoroughly. 

4. Crush the garlic (using a knife, or a special garlic crusher if you have one) and add to the pan. 

5. Cut the stems out of your mushrooms, chop these and add to the pan as well. 

6. By now your rice should be cooked. Add it to the onion/garlic/spring onion pan, season with salt and pepper and stir through thoroughly. Turn off the heat. 

7. Place your mushrooms in a reasonably high sided dish or roasting tray, and add a generous spoonful of the rice mixture to each mushroom. If there's any left in the pan after you've run out of room in your mushrooms just stuff it into the gaps between them in the tray, burying the mushrooms. Top with the cheese. 

8. Place the mushroom/rice tray into the oven and cook for about twenty to thirty minutes until the cheese is melted and golden. 

9. Take the tray out and serve the mushrooms. I ate mine with parsnips, but I think this would go really well with cheesy leeks, or even as a side to go with a quiche or a tart.