Sluttishly Vegan: Roasted Red Pepper Houmous

Give me a loaf of crusty bread, some houmous and a glass (or three) of wine and I am one seriously happy lady.  Houmous is just so easy to make and if, like me, you eat so much of it that you have started thinking of it as a food group in itself, then a new twist on it is always good.

I have had a jar of roasted red peppers in my cupboard for so long now that I feel guilty whenever I see it.  I tried hiding it behind tins of beans but somehow it always managed to sneak its way back to the front, so today I gave in and threw the peppers in with the houmous mix. The result: houmous taken to another level! Why hadn't I done this ages ago?  The sweet chargrilled peppers work so beautifully with the earthy sesame flavour that I'm still kicking myself that it has taken me so long to try!

You'll need:

• 1 can chickpeas
• 1 jar roasted red peppers in oil (about 200g drained)
• 2 cloves garlic
• juice of 1 lemon
• heaped tablespoon light tahini
• pinch of ground cumin
• small pinch dried chilli flakes (optional)
• sea salt
• pepper
• sesame seeds to sprinkle (if you feel that way inclined!)

Make it!

This couldn't be easier, just pop everything in a processor and blend until smooth.  Add more tahini, lemon, seasoning etc to taste.  If you have the willpower then this really does benefit from being left for 30 minutes so that all the flavours can develop before you dive in with the crusty bread and scoff the lot!

The Friday Five: Door knobs

Interiors shops and hardware don't really go hand in hand. If you're looking for fancy door knobs, you don't many options outside of B&Q. So this week the Friday Five is having a look at some fancy knobs to brighten up your doors.

Graham & Green have some gorgeous options. This double door knob is solid wood and £30.

The V&A have got dragonflies and butterflies.  Both are £8.

Fancy some polka dots? This one is £3 from John Lewis.

Yep, I want squirrel door knobs. They're from Anthropologie and £6.

These distressed knobs from Nkuku are my favourite. Just £4.95 each.

Sluttishly sweet: Sea Salt Caramel Popcorn

Caramel popcorn is the easiest thing in the world to make, and it's even easier to eat! Make sure that you let it sit in the oven for as long as you can (filling the kitchen with a decadent buttery smell) as that's what helps the caramel mix to soften and coat the kernels. They'll cool to a delicious crispy texture.

You can pop the corn in a saucepan using oil or just use microwave popcorn - just as good. Have a sugar thermometer to hand.

You will need:

• Plain popcorn - either a couple of bags of microwave or a big saucepan full of kernels
• 225g unsalted butter
• 400g brown sugar
• 150ml light corn syrup or Golden Syrup
• 2 tbsp unsulphured molasses
• ½ tsp salt
• ¾ tsp baking powder
• 1½ tsp pure vanilla extract
• 100g salted jumbo peanuts, chopped
• 1-2 tsp sea salt 

Pop it!

1. Pop the corn then spread it out on a nonstick baking pan. Preheat the oven to the lowest temp, 130C/250G/Gas Mark 1.
2. Melt the butter in a pan over medium heat, add the salt, sugar, syrup and molasses and heat to  ‘Soft Ball’ stage on the candy thermometer, 235-240F, or 118-120C
3. Remove the pan from the heat and carefully add the salt, baking powder and vanilla extract - it will bubble up massively.
4. Pour over the popcorn on the tray, incorporate all the kernels, scatter over the peanuts and sea salt to taste, put tray in the oven.
5. Bake for 35-50 mins, removing it halfway through to stir and redistribute the caramel.

Omit the peanuts if anyone has allergies, and I'd recommend chopping them smaller than I did to balance it all out a bit more!

The ultimate cushion for a lady

I LOVE this cushion. It inhabits a teetering world bordering on smug but has dominion over totally brilliant. I think it's the cursive script that does it.

It's not very often that I feel grateful not to own a cat, because I know that if I did and then bought this, the creature would turn it into a throne and I wouldn't get to see it ever again. This cushion is £18 from Past Times and if I get it, I will mostly be lying on it, grinning, and nomming on Hazel's amazing mojito and margarita truffles.

Shop in the Spotlight: Cachette

Cachette is a new French/English hybrid of a shop. You know what that means? European style with UK delivery prices. Brilliant. Here are my favourite monochrome pieces.

I want white enamel cutlery! Do I want to spend ten quid on a teaspoon? No I do not, Cachette. Let's look at something else.

Love this oven dish. It's £30, which is still pricey. But it is really beautiful. Your reddish casseroles and veggies will look lovely in it.

It doesn't matter if you use this as a vase or a bottle, it's pretty either way. It's £19.

Black cleaning soap for £7.95. A hundred and one uses and some very lovely packaging to boot.

Design Porn: Tri and Gull jewellery

Going to local craft fairs is often a little hit or miss. It can be all knitted tea cups and nicknacks, or it might be full of up and coming designer makers with real talent. Luckily I've found more in the latter category lately.

Sarah from Tri and Gull is a London designer who makes dramatic yet very wearable geometric pieces. Much of her material is reclaimed and upcycled - with colour and sparkle added to make them really stand out - and made with precision.

Mirror Triangle Necklace: Equilateral is £15.72.

Triangle and Circle Pink Glitter Earrings are £13.10.  I like the way that the distinctive grain on the reclaimed plywood is going in different different direction on each one. Plus the glitter is totally Dynasty.

 

Wood Triangle and Ceramic Bead Necklace is also £15.72 - imagine wearing this with [fake] tanned skin in the summer.

Shipping is approximately £1.50 for the first item, and about 50p per additional item.

Sluttishly Vegetarian: Mayonnaise

This week it's apparently National Chip Week on top of Shrove Tuesday (how were your pancakes?) I don't know who makes up National Weeks and I don't much care. What a happy bonanza of a food week this is. If you're going to have chips (please do, in sandwiches with squishy white bread and loads of salt and vinegar) then you're going to need something to go with them. Some of you might be die hard ketchup fans, but I'm all about the mayonnaise. I love the stuff. Usually my mayo comes out of a jar, but not this week. This week I made my own. In your face, Hellman's.

Real mayonnaise is one of those food myth foods. "Ooooh, it's difficult!" and "Why bother? Why not just buy it in a jar?"are a couple of things people have said to me. But here's the thing, it's not difficult. And it really doesn't take that long. And holy crap it's good. That said, you are a FOOL if you try this with a balloon whisk. I used an electric whisk (admittedly with only one whizzer), and an hour later I still couldn't feel my whisking arm properly. Don't do it by hand. Just don't.

The recipe? It's a mash up of ALL OF THEM. Delia says groundnut oil and I had some of that in already. But she also says use mustard powder and I wanted to use fancy Dijon a la Michel Roux. Some say pour the oil in a steady stream, some say drop by drop to stop the mixture from splitting. It's confusing, but a mish mash of the methods worked brilliantly and now I've got about 275ml of mayonnaise to go with my chippy tea.

You'll need:

• 2 large egg yolks
• 1tbsp Dijon mustard
• salt and pepper
• 250ml groundnut oil
• 1tbsp white wine vinegar

Make it!

• Pop the egg yolks in a bowl with the mustard and salt and pepper.
• Pour the oil into a measuring jug that's easy to pour from (mine does not have a good spout, my kitchen counter was a bit of a state).
• Whisk up your eggs and mustard and then start pouring the oil in drop by drop. This will involve you shouting "nooooo, that's too much oil! please don't curdle!" at your bowl. If you're pouring in about 5-8ml at a time, you're doing OK. Once one drop is mixed in, pour in another.
• Keep adding drop by drop. Soon it'll start to thicken (eventually, you'll probably have swapped arms a couple of times) and then you can add a little more oil at a time - you've gone past the 'point of no return'. If it does split, Delia recommends starting from scratch and adding the curdled mix in small parts to the new mix. I'd probably have just sulked.
• Once the oil is all mixed in (that should take about 15 minutes), you're nearly done! Try it, and add the white wine vinegar to taste. You should be left with a glossy, gloopy mayonnaise that's sharp and yet oh so creamy. And whizzers to lick clean.
• What now? Chips, obviously.