The best granola you will ever taste

Home made granola - no dust

All wrapped in a little cellophane bag with a chic black ribbon. A nice present to take to someone if you're stuck for ideas.

Granola is one of those things it's so worth making yourself. The shop-bought stuff is either purse-clenchingly expensive or fairly full of dust-type ingredients. Or sometimes, both.

I first started making granola from a Nigella Lawson recipe. It was great. Then I started having babies and for the duration of my pregnancies, and about a year post-partum, all I wanted were two croissants and caffe latte (in a big bowl) for breakfast. Granola? Far too crunchy and munchy.

Then I got the first Ottolenghi cookbook and made his granola. And all other granolas faded into memory. I've been meaning to put this recipe up since last year, but some how never managed it. But I went to lunch at my friend Mary's house the other week, to discuss the Global Agenda for Women and Children 2011 (you mean you don't discuss stuff like this at lunch?). And I thought, what on earth can I bring her? I'm of the mind you can't turn up for lunch empty handed. I didn't want to bring a loaf of sourdough, cos so many people don't eat wheat these days. I wondered if she'd think me terribly gauche if I turned up with some granola. I'd just made it. I have some nice cellophane bags and lots of ribbon. I asked my partner what he thought. "What can I bring?" I lamented. "What about some granola?" he ventured.

So I knew it was must be a good idea.

When I got there I was so glad I'd brought it as Mary said she loved granola and then, a few days later, she emailed me to say it was the best ever and it had all gone already.

Anyway, here is the recipe. The original recipe doesn't call for linseeds, but as they are the highest vegetable source of omega 3s, I add 'em. I'm not always exact with the recipe. Sometimes I chuck more almonds in, or more brazils. You can tailor it to suit. But if you start really adding tons to the 'dry stuff' then it won't be so gloriously crispy or tasty (because there won't be so much wet stuff to coat it, of course you could just up that too, but I think if you play around with some things too much, you lose the essence of it), so don't go crazy.

The dry stuff

60g whole, unskinned almonds
40g brazils
40g cashews
300g  rolled oats
60g pumpkin seeds
60g sunflower seeds
60g linseeds

The wet stuff

quarter of a teaspoon of salt (I use rock salt, ground up in a pestle and mortar, I think rock salt adds a sweeter, more complex taste, probably rubbish but that's what I think)
3 tablespoons of water
2 tablespoons of rapeseed oil
2 tablespoons of sunflower oil
120ml maple syrup
120ml honey

The after stuff

100g dried apricots, roughly chopped
120g other dried fruits - Ottolenghi originally asks for 60/60 of dried cranberries and blueberries, I use those and/or figs or raisins etc. Use your imagination and also what's on offer.

Method

Preheat the oven to 140C. You'll need two baking sheets lined with baking parchment.

Roughly chop the nuts and put them in a bowl. This is the hardest, for me, part of the recipe. I HATE HATE HATE chopping nuts. But don't be tempted to do this in a food processor cos you'll end up with tiny bits of nuts. And that's really not what you want. When my mum is visiting, I ask her to do it for me and she's great at it - you can tell she was a professional cook because she chops them evenly. I get all frustrated at the nuts richocheting off the chopping board and end up with tiny chopped bits and huge bits. But I tell myself it adds to the character of the granola.

To the nuts, add the seeds and the oats. Set to one side. This is the dry stuff.

In a sauce pan, put all the wet ingredients and put over a low heat until everything has melted together. You just need to heat things up gently. Pour the wet stuff over the dry stuff (DON'T ADD THE AFTER STUFF YET! THAT'S FOR AFTERS). Mix with a wooden spoon until everything is nicely coated and then divide up over the two trays. Don't spread too thick a layer or the granola won't crisp up. I put one on the top tray of the oven (don't use a fan oven, just a regular oven is fine) and one on the bottom. It takes about 40 mins to be ready - the granola should be golden brown. Obviously the top tray is done quicker, so when that's done put the bottom tray on the top shelf and give it like another 20 mins or so.

Then you just mix the cooked dry stuff with the after stuff. The granola will crisp up as it cools. Wait for it to be absolutely cool, then put in an air tight container. It keeps for weeks but it won't last that long.

You can eat it as it is - like a snack. You can eat it just with yoghurt. I eat mine, of a morning, with a dollop of live yoghurt, a handful of fresh blueberries/fruit and some organic semi skimmed milk. I still drink a giant bowl of caffe latte too, since some habits die hard.

Beetroot salad dressing

I've been meaning to post this up for ages, as it's my current favourite salad dressing. But I couldn't remember where I'd found it. It was getting pressing as it's coming into beetroot season now (er, I think, at least ours are being harvested).

When I like a recipe that I see in a magazine, I tear it out and put it in a Muji folder that has clear sleeves, so you end up making your own recipe book. It works really well: you can change the order round, very easily get rid of recipes you don't end up using much, and the plastic sleeve that encases every page keeps them clean of cooking splashes.

Here is the one of the pages from one of my many recipe books using torn out magazines put into Muji PP folders. It just so happens it's a pic of some chocolate cheesecake ice cream cookies..also I know that when I post this on Facebook this is the picture that will come up, and I bet more people will read it thinking it's about biscuits/chocolate rather than vegetables.

Here's the same book closed, not easy to take a pic of as not the most photogenic article, but bloody useful.

If I really like a recipe and use it lots, I write it out in my Travelling Cookbook, which is so named as we take it with us when we go away and is a large Moleskine book, much used, much loved and I like that it's all handwritten (I have romantic ideas that my daughters will one day inherit this book and say things like "look, that's Mamma's famous chocolate mousse recipe"). This is what I'd done with the beetroot dressing recipe, which is why I had no idea whose it was. I have about 10 of those Muji folders, each housing 60 sleeves, ergo 120 recipes, so I kept meaning to go through and find the original.

You get the point.

Finally, as is the way of these things, I found it whilst looking for something else. It was by Yotam Ottolenghi, who is fantastic. He gives it as part of a bigger recipe involving gorgonzola, radiccio and toasted almonds, but you can put this dressing on almost any type of salad. Drizzle it on (use one of those squeezy bottles chef use if you have one) as if you actually toss the salad in it, whilst it will still taste delicious, it really won't look so hot.

This dressing makes a fair amount - I'd say enough for six very greedy people, it keeps for a day or two but not much longer so make less if there are less of you.

One small beetroot, cooked (I buy mine precooked, otherwise roast it til soft)
20g honey
15g Dijon mustard
1 garlic clove (I tend to leave this out)
25ml cider vinegar
salt and pepper
120ml extra virgin olive oil

Yotam (cos we're on first name terms, I wish), suggests you blend everything together (I use a mini blender, the one that attachs to my Braun Multistick thing, really useful piece of equipment) and then add half the oil, mix up and then other half. I have to say I just bung it all in and it's fine.