Scottish Oatcakes

We've got a Scottish treat for Burns Night tonight - some delicious oatcakes! Have a go at these with your children.

Ingredients

• 160g medium oatmeal

• 140g medium porridge oats

• a small handful of sunflower seeds

• 75ml olive oil (rapeseed works well too)

Method

1. Mix all the dry ingredients together in a bowl and mix in the oil.

2. Pour in the boiling water - it should be around 150ml, but add less because you can always add more.

3. Mix with a spoon at first until it's cooled a bit, then knead with your hands and shape the dough into a ball

4. Sprinkle some oatmeal on a flat surface, turn out the dough and roll or pat it out until it's 5mm thick.

5. Cut into rounds with a biscuit cutter, re-roll and continue until all the dough is used up.

6. Carefully lift the oatcakes onto a lightly greased baking tray and bake in an oven preheated to 180°C for 20-25 minutes.

7. Place on a wire cooling rack and then store in an airtight tin for up to a week.

Variations

As long as you keep the basic mix the same, you can experiment with the flavours: use different seeds or add your favourite herbs or spices. These oatcakes work equally well with savoury or sweet toppings, so get creative! We love them with butter, cream cheese, cheddar or dips. What are your favourite toppings?

Baked apples with crumble topping

Ingredients

For the crumble topping:

• 30g rolled oats

• 20g butter

• 10g dark brown soft sugar

For the stuffed apples:

• 4 dessert apples (washed)

• 30g finely chopped dates

• 15g butter

• ½ tsp ground cinnamon

Method

Preheat oven to 180 degrees and line a small baking dish with baking parchment.

Make the crumble topping:

Mix the oats and sugar together in a small mixing bowl. Melt the butter then add it to the oats and sugar, combine thoroughly and set aside.

Prepare the stuffed apples:       

1. Peel the top quarter of the apples, slice off the peeled section and turn the apples onto the cut side to stop them browning.

2. Dice the peeled apple tops, discarding the stem.

3. Melt the butter in a small pan, stir in the chopped apple and cinnamon. Cook gently for 3-4 minutes, remove from the heat and combine with the dates.

4. Using a vegetable peeler or melon baller, remove the cores from the apples, being careful not to go through the bottom of the apple.

5. Fill the apples with the date mixture, firming down the stuffing gently.

6. Top with a spoonful of crumble mix, cover with foil and cook in the oven for 10 minutes. Remove the foil and cook for a further 10-15 minutes until the apples are soft and the crumble topping is golden brown.

7. Serve with crème fraiche, cream or ice cream and a sprinkle of cinnamon.

This recipe is gluten free. For dairy free, use coconut oil instead of butter and serve with coconut yoghurt.

Vegetable Sushi

What you'll need

A selection of fresh vegetables and herbs in season. We used:

• Beetroot, roasted

• Carrot

• Broad beans

• Cucumber

• Chives

Sushi Rice

• Rice Wine Vinegar

• Nori sheets

• Black sesame seeds

Reduced salt soy sauce for dipping.

A sushi mat or new J-Cloth for rolling.

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Method

1. Prepare your vegetables by cutting the carrots, cucumber and beetroot into batons, podding and skinning the broad beans and finely chopping the chives. Blanch the carrots and broad beans in boiling water for a minute then drain and refresh in cold water.

2. Rinse and cook the sushi rice according to the packet instructions until it is tender and sticky. Drain any excess liquid and stir through a good splash of rice wine vinegar and cool quickly by spreading out on a board or plate.

3. Take a sheet of nori and place it on the sushi mat or damp J-Cloth. With damp hands spread a handful of rice over the nori leaving the top third empty. Make a thin line of vegetables down the middle of the rice.

4. Take the nearest edge of the mat or cloth and use it to roll the nori around the filling as tightly as you can, keeping the filling in place. Seal the top edge of the nori in place by dampening with water. With a sharp knife slice the roll into sections and arrange on a plate, cut side up.

You can make rolls in the same way without the nori sheet and then roll the sushi in black sesame seeds and chopped chives like we did!

Eat as they are or dip into low salt soy sauce.

Healthier Coronation Chicken Sandwich

As it's National Sandwich Week, we thought we'd rustle up one of our favourites for you to try at home.

Ingredients

• Shredded chicken from 2 breasts

• 1 tbsp mayonnaise

• 1 tbsp low fat yoghurt

• 1 heaped tsp mild curry powder

• 1/2 diced mango

• Juice of half a lime

Method

1. Mix the mayo, yoghurt and curry powder, together. Add the mango, chicken and lime juice and mix again.

2. Serve in a wholemeal bread sandwich. Delicious with jacket potatoes too!

Herby pasta with pea & basil sauce

We're back with a delicious fresh pasta dish that is so simple you'll wonder why you've never tried it before! Fresh pasta is just the best and you can free batches of the dough for use later. It should always either be frozen or eaten on the day you make it - it should never see the inside of a fridge!

Ingredients (serves 4)

• 300g plain 00 flour

• 3 eggs

• Fresh chives, parsley and marjoram

For the sauce

• 300g peas

• 1 clove garlic

• 40g parmesan, grated

• 150g ricotta

• Small bunch basil

• Grated zest and juice of ½ lemon

• Black pepper

Method

1. Put the flour in a bowl and add the eggs then gradually work the flour in until the mixture comes together. If it’s dry add a little water. Turn out onto the work surface and knead for 10 minutes or until smooth and elastic. Tear, snip or chop the herbs and work them into the dough until evenly distributed.

2. Tear off little balls of the dough and roll them between your hands or on the work surface to form the worm-like pici. Of course, you can make any pasta shapes you like and use a pasta machine to help if you have one.

3. To make the sauce, boil the peas for 2 minutes, then drain. Add garlic, herbs, lemon zest and juice, then blitz in a food processor. Stir in the ricotta and parmesan and a little black pepper.

4. Cook the pasta for 5 minutes in boiling water then drain, retaining a little of the cooking water which you can add to the sauce if it seems too dry. Mix the sauce and pasta then serve with an extra grating of parmesan.

Hot Cross Buns

We've had some great responses to our first episodes of The Nursery Kitchen and now have some new surprises to share with you.

You'll now be able to download our recipes as printable cards, that you can store and keep at home, meaning you can easily get up and cook with your children whenever you want to! These are the same cards we provide our nurseries with too, so your children will be cooking the same tasty recipes at nursery with their friends.

We've got two so far, but more to follow, so grab your chefs' hats and cook along with us!

Pizza

Hot Cross Buns

Proper pizzas

Our new episode of The Nursery Kitchen is all about making the perfect pizza! We see a lot of attempts at making pizza that just don't make the grade, so want to make sure everyone knows how easy it is to make your own dough for a base. For our guide below, we've made a simple mozzarella and garlicky basil topping, but feel free to experiment with some others of your own!

Ingredients for dough

• 500g bread flour, plus extra for dusting
• ½ sachet dried yeast
• 400ml warm water
• oil, for greasing

Ingredients for basil puree

• bunch of basil
• olive oil
• clove of garlic

Toppings

• Tomato passata (not tomato puree)
• 3 balls mozzarella, sliced

Method

1. Measure the flour into a large mixing bowl. Stir yeast into the warm water and pour into the flour. Mix first with a spoon then turn onto a floured surface and knead with your hands until it is smooth and not sticky. Oil the bowl and place the dough back, covering with clingfilm before leaving it to prove for an hour.
2. Meanwhile, pick the leaves off a bunch of basil and put them in a small jug with a glug of olive oil and a crushed clove of garlic. Blitz with a stick blender to make a puree.  
3. When the dough has risen, turn it out onto a floured surface and divide it into even sized balls. The recipe makes 4 large pizzas or about 12 child-sized. Roll the dough out until it's your favourite thickness, then place on an oven tray.
4. Spoon on some passata (not tomato puree!) and spread it around, then place some slices of mozzarella on top and drizzle with your lovely basil puree.
5. Cook in a hot oven for 10-12 minutes or until the cheese is bubbly. Eat!

Welcome to The Nursery Kitchen

We're excited to bring you a new series, all about cooking and we've called it The Nursery Kitchen! We love cooking at Snapdragons and try to encourage the children to prepare and eat healthy and fun meals throughout their nursery day and their lives in general.

With Shrove Tuesday coming up tomorrow, the first episode is all about pancakes! Big fluffy American ones that are a bit different than your usual crepes. We show you three variations on a theme, all using the same basic recipe. Try blueberries paired with lemon curd, roasted butternut squash pancakes topped with grated cheese, or spinach pancakes partnered with homemade tomato sauce. Have a read of the recipe below and then watch the video to see how easy it is!

Ingredients (to serve 4-6)
135g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
130ml milk
1 egg
2 tbsp butter