As a food blogger I am afforded the opportunity to try new products and promote new businesses every now and then. I was contacted a while back by Erbology and asked if I would like to try some of their products and maybe create a recipe to use some of them in.

If there is one thing I love to do it is to try new things I have never tried before and to try out new products!

Erbology is a London Based business which specialises in providing quality whole foods for healthy living.  It is a business owned by siblings Irina and Victor Turcan and they have all sorts of wonderful products such as snacks, drinks, powders, berries, nuts, oils, etc.  I was most impressed with the products which I was sent. 

I had not heard of some of these things so it was a wonderful opportunity for me to learn something new and to try something new as well.  I have to say I am very impressed with their packaging which is recyclable for the most part, or a least it was with the products I was sent.

Here is a bit about the things I got to try.


As a breakfast cereal - Simmered correctly, amaranth develops a delicious sweetness and porridge-like consistency that make it a great breakfast option. Use a ratio of  3 parts to one. (1 1/2 cups liquid to 1/2 cup amaranth will give you a yield of 1 1/2 cups cooked.) Place the amaranth and water or fruit juice in a small saucepan. Bring to the boil, then reduce heat and simmer, uncovered, until water is absorbed. This should take about 20 minutes. Do keep a close eye on it towards the end. Serve immediately, as it will turn gummy and congeal if overcooked or left to sit. You can add fruit, nuts, cinnamon, and honey or sugar to serve. I like date syrup.

Popped - You can toast a tablespoon of amaranth seeds a time in a covered hot, dry skillet just l ike making popcorn. Continually shake or stir until the seeds pop. Popped these nutritious seeds work perfectly when enjoyed as a snack. You can also use the popped seeds to top soups, salads, and vegetable dishes.

Combined with other grains -  Amaranth is wonderful combined and cooked together with another grain, such as brown rice.  It adds a nutty sweetness. Use a ratio of 1/4 cup amaranth to 3/4 cup other grain and cook as per usual.

Added to soups and stews - Amaranth’s gelatinous qualities make it perfect for use in thickening soups and stews. You will need no more than a few tablespoons which you can add while the soup is cooking.

Almond oil nourishes your body and skin with healthy fats, vitamins and phytonutrients. Enjoy its light nutty flavour in sweet and savoury dishes or apply a small amount to the skin at night. Source of vitamin E and vitamin A that help your body fight free radicals.

This oil is cold-pressed from unpasteurised Italian almonds  and comes in a recyclable glass bottle.

I had never heard of Sweet Almond Oil before either.  It smells amazing. I suffer from dry skin and exema and I have been applying some to my worst spots each night when I go to bed.
Mildly tangy and exceptionally nutritious, sea buckthorn powder is a source of rare omega-7, beta-carotene and phytonutrients that work together to support your immunity, mucosa function and skin health.

It is sustainably grown by small farmers in Eastern Europe  and produced in small batches. Delicious  sprinkled over salad, soup or yoghur. I like to add some to my morning smoothies.

   

ORGANIC TRANSYLVANIAN WALNUTS

These organic raw walnuts are sustainably sourced from the heart of Transylvania and delivered to you straight from the farm. Walnuts are a valuable source of protein. They are rich in omega-3 unsaturated fatty acids  and high in magnesium, vitamin B-6 and ellagic acid.

These are lovely eaten out of hand, but I wanted to showcase them with a fabulous recipe.  Walnut and Chocolate Pie.  This is beautifully rich and moreish.  If you can resist a slice of this then you are a much stronger person than I am!

It was my husband's birthday yesterday and I decided to break with tradition and bake him a pie instead of the usual cake.





Okay true confessions here, the pie is more for me than for him.  I am honest if nothing else. I did also bake him his favourite Victoria Sponge Cake.

Yes, he also enjoyed the pie, but in all truth he also really enjoyed the cake. Birthdays just need cakes. I used to bake my ex his favourite Butterscotch Pie every year on his birthday, but we also had cake as well.

Why not bake two delights for your loved ones special days?  Why not indeed!




To learn more about Erbology and all that they provide do check out their website.  You can find that here. These are not supplements, but food. Rare, plant based, ingredients that nourish your body and create delicious dishes. They also offer personalised boxes which make for great gifts for others and for yourself. Organic and 100% plant based and delivered right to your door.

What more can I say, but do check them out!

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The next time you are getting ready to watch a big game, or entertaining a group of children, you may want to consider making this simple, yet delicious, Sweet and Salty Snack Mix!

There is something incredibly moreish about the combination of salty and sweet, and I know I am not along.  It is this delicious mix of salty and sweet which inspires such goodies as chocolate dipped pretzels or potato chips, amongst other things.


A number of years back I was in Ketchum Idaho, while my oldest daughter was competing in the Special Olympics International Winter Games in Sun Valley. (On a side note my daughter did very well, bring back to Canada two gold medals and a bronze! Go Team Canada!)

One day while we were there, my friend Lura and I popped into one of the local shops to have a boo around and they were selling these Chocolate Dipped Pretzel Rods.  These were the epitome of the ultimate sweet and salty combination!


I had of course heard of Pretzel Rods, but had never actually seen one, much less had the opportunity to buy or taste one.  

King sized pretzels are not exactly a British thing.  Even finding plain salted mini pretzels can be hard over here.  Mostly they have them coated in salty powders and flavours. Like sour cream and onion, or salt and vinegar, cheese, etc.

 
The pretzel rods in this shop were HUGE.  The pretzel rods themselves were at least nine inches long or more, wth each one being about one inch in diameter.

They had been dipped in things like salted caramel and rolled in salted nuts and then dipped in chocolate and then decorated with more goodies.  I had never seen anything like it. 



They were the size of chicken drumsticks! Seriously!  I did what any sweet and salty loving foodie would do.

I bought a couple to bring home and share with my husband. I knew he would be totally fascinated with not only the idea but also the size. 

I am quite sure each one of them weighed a good half pound. I was a bit concerned about getting them home safely without having them confiscated. (In Canada they have food sniffing dogs in the baggage area.) Not here in the UK.  Any food sniffing out must be done incognito, or not at all.


He thought that was the strangest thing, but was still not tempted to want to try it. He is so not a foodie. I am not sure how we ever ended up together. 

I have to say that my personal preference is for Peanut Butter and Strawberry Jam however, and that is perhaps because my mother  never bought Grape Jelly.

She used to make her own jam and it was always strawberry.  She only ever very rarely purchased ready made jam.  And yes, once again, always strawberry. It was our father's favourite.





I conbined these tortilla crisps with an equal quantity of plain salted mini pretzels. I wasn't able to get them in a full bag. I had to buy a big bag of fun sized ones.  Whatever gives you the result you want. That's my motto.

I also used some small mini cheese crackers.  Jacobson's mini cheddars.  In North American I would use the cheese flavoured gold fish crackers.  They have been very difficult to come by over here in recent months.



Or even yogurt covered dried cranberries or raisins.  Chocolate covered raisins.  Chocolate covered peanuts. Peanut M & M's.

Its also really nice to add some honey roasted nuts if you have them. I did not on this day. Another great addition would be toffee popcorn.





Of course any leftovers will keep very well stores in an airtight container or a large zip lock baggie. 

This content (written and photography) is the sole property of  The English Kitchen. Any reposting or misuse is not permitted. If you are reading this elsewhere, please know that it is stolen content and you may report it to me at: mariealicejoan at aol dot com 

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Usually at the weekend I like to bake us something that we can enjoy for breakfast or with a hot drink.  I do bake sweet things too.

I am not sure why I always bake at the weekend. I suppose it is a habit that started when I was working full time. I did not really have much time during the week to bake us anything special. We were lucky I managed to get dinner done!


The recipe I am sharing with you today for Sugar-Free Banana Nut Muffins has been adapted  from a cookbook of mine entitled Bread for Breakfast by Beth Hensperger.

It is filled with lots of baked Breakfast options, including muffins, loaves (both sweet and savoury, quick and yeasted), Scones, Biscuits, cornbreads, etc.

There are also a sections on coffee cakes and holiday bakes, pancakes and waffles, as well as butters, jams and fruit and cheese spreads.





Bananas are quite  sweet fruit and the longer you allow them to ripen the sweeter they get. The best bananas for baking are ones which are heavily speckled with brown, maybe even to the point where you think they are past it.

But they are not past it.  They are perfect and sweet and ready to be baked into muffins and loaves, cookies, cakes, etc.


These are lovely and moist.  There is buttermilk in the batter.  I love bakes with buttermilk. Buttermilk adds a special lightness and tenderness to bakes such as this.

It is an acid as well, so it helps to create a nice lift.  You always need to add bicarbonate of soda to a bake using something acidic like buttermilk, yogurt, sour cream, etc.


When baking soda is combined with the lactic acids of buttermilk, the acid neutralizes the metallic taste of sodium carbonate, and the batter will bubble and expand.


This is why when you are baking something with buttermilk and soda in it you need to get your bake into the oven as quickly as possible. This is to help take advantage of that chemical reaction. 

The heat of the oven will immediately increase the effects of that action giving you a nice tall and light bake. If you wait too long to put your bakes into the oven you will risk losing that effect, and in fact you will decrease the action of the buttermilk and the soda as well.


So speed is the key factor here.  Make sure you have your pan greased and everything ready to go as soon as you mix the wet and dry ingredients together!

So, no sugar.  These muffins have no sugar whatsoever.  I didn't mind.  The end result was not sweet at all actually. It was just right.  Just what I would expect a true muffin to taste like.

If you want sweet, you will have to add a bit of sugar into the mix.  I wouldn't think you would need a lot actually, maybe only 1 or 2 TBS of either caster sugar or soft light brown sugar.



We enjoyed them just as they were, served warm with some butter for spreading on top.  Look at the texture of these beauties.  I call that perfection.

The recipe only makes 9 muffins. That's another thing I liked about the recipe.  Nine muffins is a perfectly reasonable amount.  They also freeze really well according to the recipe.  Up to three months in an airtight container.



Baking things like this at the weekend means I also get to use my roll cover. My good friend Monique sent this sweet embroidered roll cover to me last year, or possibly even the year before, for my Birthday.

Every time I use it I cannot help but think of her, and her many kindnesses to me through the years.  Meeting good and kind people is one of the blessings you gain from being a member of the blogging community. 

Like is attracted to like. These sweet friendships are one of the things I love most about blogging. That sense of community. Oh sure there is the odd nasty person, or troll as they are called, but the good ones far outweigh them.



There are some pecans in these muffins.  Chopped pecans. I always like to toast my nuts before baking with them.  It doesn't take much of an effort.  It only takes a few minutes on a dry baking sheet in a hot oven.

They are done when they start to smell all nice and nutty. Do watch them however, as they can go from toasty to burnt in milliseconds.  Five to eight minutes at 200*C/400*F will do the trick.


You could also use walnuts if you prefer, or even leave the nuts out all together if you cannot abide nuts or are allergic.

You could add chocolate chips. Just saying.  I like semi-sweet chocolate chips or milk chocolate chips.  Both are quite nice in banana muffins. You could even add some berries.  Blueberries would be nice.





This content (written and photography) is the sole property of  The English Kitchen. Any reposting or misuse is not permitted. If you are reading this elsewhere, please know that it is stolen content and you may report it to me at: mariealicejoan at aol dot com 

 Thanks so much for visiting. Do come again!



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