Anne's Kitchen

Espresso, Chocolate and Ginger Pudding Cake

noreply@blogger.com (Annes S) — Mon, 13 May 2013 09:50:00 +0000

Coffee coffee coffee is mainly what I have been consuming these past few days, all in the name of research you see! De'Longhi set me a challenge to create a dessert, using their Vintage Icona Bar Pump coffee machine. Unfortunately when you work shifts for a living, fitting blogging and trial runs around can be a challenge in itself, and I found myself Saturday night priming the machine and making a few test espresso's, Bedtime was very late that night!

After mastering the machine, which is far easier when you have read the instruction booklet before the quick start guide its amazingly quick to product the perfect espresso! There is the option of single or double filtered, both which produce a beautifully smooth espresso in moments. I have also used the espresso to make my favoured americano coffee and have been very impressed by the results.

Preparing the coffee - I am learning to just slightly under fill it as otherwise I can't get it to clip into the machine:

The perfect Espresso -

So now the coffee was mastered, it was on to making something sweet with its results! I did have ideas of creating a somewhat fanicer dessert than cake but then reality reminded me that all my cookery books are currently boxed up ahead of moving house at the end of this week, and the fact is fancy desserts are not really an area I am experienced in. The other challenge was that most of my cooking items were also boxed up, and I had to take my ingredients over to my mums house in order to bake so I had to be relatively organised with my planning for once!

When doing my planning, I started by writing down a few ideas, then deciding what flavour's work well with coffee, I.e. dates, chocolate, cream, cardamom, rum, ginger....and allowing for my current circumstances what was going to be achievable! Mum was in the kitchen helping me to decide and sniffing the selection of ingredients, ginger is not the best one to sniff!

Cake is something I don't think you can go too wrong with, and I decided to go along the lines of a pudding style of cake, baked in a dish rather than an iced type of sponge. One of the thoughts was sticky coffee pudding, rather than sticky toffee but I couldn't decide on whether to make a seperate sauce or bake it in the style of a self saucing pudding... I wanted to get the espresso flavour really into the cake, and soaked the dates for a good few hours in freshly made espresso, before incorporating it all into the mixture. The final result was a surprisingly light and moist cake, with a nice, smooth espresso flavour, compared to a coffee cake, which has an entirely different taste.

Ingredients:

225ml freshly brewed single espresso

100g ready to eat dates, chopped up

150g Self raising flour

175g butter or margarine

Butter for greasing dish

25g good quality cocoa powder - I always use a Polish one

3 eggs beaten

1 tsp baking powder

100g cinnamon infused sugar (from Sainsbury's)

1tsp ground ginger

Start by soaking the chopped dates in the espresso for at least two hours

Pre-heat oven to gas 4

1) Cream the butter and sugar together until pale and fluffy

2) Mix together the dried ingredients

3) Using a handwhisk or similar, add a third or so of the egg to the butter mixture, followed by about a third of the dried mixture, mix and repeat until fully incorporated.

4) Fold in the dates, reserving the soaking liquid

5) Butter the baking dish - I used a large rectangular pyrex dish, roughly a4 sized

6) Fill the dish with cake mixture and smooth over. Pour over the reserved liquid and bake for 55 minutes, or until the sponge bounces back. It should be moist inside but cooked through

7) Portion up and serve with lashings of custard or cream

Mum loved the cake, I think I would make a teeny bit sweeter next time but that's because I have a sweeter tooth!

New in my kitchen this week...well actually in the dining room!

noreply@blogger.com (Annes S) — Fri, 10 May 2013 10:36:00 +0000

Those who know me, know I like flowers. Pretty flowers. Though they do die off far to quickly and you end up left with a stinky vase and spending a good afternoon scrubbing it if like me you have neglected it for a few days... I will never be a domestic goddess and therapy has taught me that I am perfect just the way I am... the next best thing for me is anything flowery patterned...and my tablecloth from Dunelm Mill is simply quite perfect!

The pattern comes from a range called Homestead, and I had previously bought a seat cushion in the range for my office chair (ha office..more like desk / dressing table/ stationary storage etc in my bedroom, and I love it!) So when the nice pr lady for Dunelm Mill got in touch, I decided to extend to my small range and chose the 'Homestead' tablecloth, to go on my dining table. Though this is my old dining table...once again I have restless feet and am moving house again next week! I am starting to resent having so many cookery books...

Here you can see it underneath a rather delicious Cappuchino cake my super mum baked for my birthday! (And yes they are Christmas crackers...we are a special family!)

So back to my lovely tablecloth- its really good quality. It consists of a thick cotton and polyester blend, which has been treated with 3m Scotchguard and claims that stains will simply wash out without any pre-treatment. Despite having my brother over last week for dinner, it remained fairly unblemished so I will find out at some point in the future how true this claim is! (I am sorry dear brother if you read this but I never got any of those wine stains out of the previous tablecloths!)

Many thanks to Dunelm mill and Jennifer from Diffusion PR for all your help.

What's in my Nutribox?

noreply@blogger.com (Annes S) — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 14:17:00 +0000

I am a self confessed snacker, and pretty much have always been. Working shifts can play havoc with my appetite, which I also use as some justification to the amount of chocolate and snacky things that end up in my basket, much to the chagrin of my dentist! Despite managing to eat quite full meals I still manage to snack my way through the day happily on whatever is quick and easy, varying from rice cakes to secret stashes of fudge!

However I am always on the lookout for more healthier snacks and recently I was contacted by The Nutribox about trying one of their boxes of healthy snacks - it didn't take me long to reply yes please! Its a very easy to use site - you simply choose your box size, and whether you want it at the beginning or middle of the month either as a one off or on subscription. Each box is packed full of a mixture of fruit and nut selections, snacky bars and even treats such as chocolate!

My box had a mix of raw chocolate bars, snack bars and dried fruit and nut mixes - and all are delicious so far!

The first product I tried was an 'Choc Crisp Energy Bomb', during a recent night shift. Normally by about 5am I feel myself flagging and the blood sugar depleting, and so I tucked into it at about 5.15am and waited to see...by 7.30am I felt sorry for my patients because I was very perky and still full of beans! The only downside was realising I had eaten it a little too close to the end of my shift and then had to sleep...! Will time it better next time! I was surprised how much natural energy it gave me and how well it kept me alert, in comparison to my usual strong black coffee!

I've also had a few nibbles of the 'Ombar' dark chocolate, with hints of cranberry and mandarin. Its delicious, smooth but nicely bitter and despite my initial wariness following my revulsion at eating some raw cacao a few years back at a food festival, this was a very pleasant surprise! You only need a small piece to to feel that lovely chocolatey buzz, so my dentist might be more happier next time....!

One of my fruit mixes was pleasingly called 'Hot Cross Bun' and consists of sultanas, cranberries and hazlenuts, which is a delicious little snack mix.

Many thanks to The Nutribox for my box, its delicious and very useful!

Brie Stuffed Mushrooms with Balsamic Courgettes

noreply@blogger.com (Annes S) — Thu, 18 Apr 2013 10:23:00 +0000

Firstly, whilst I've been cooking an awful lot, I've not been really photographing, yet alone making notes, and so in turn the blog has become a little redundant... Over the past few months, my circumstances have evolved for the better, I have completed a course of therapy to help my understanding of me better, and as a result things I used to needlessly prioritize have changed.

I made this delicious recipe up months back, if I recall correctly after Christmas, when we had a glut of brie leftover and my dad bought me a tray of gorgeous flat mushrooms over. Its since been patiently sitting on my 'to post' list. Not sure why I hadn't gotten around to it but like life but finally it is here!

Looking back, I think my blogging became an outlet of sorts, maybe even escapism from a situation where I didn't feel my cooking was appreciated, and allowed me to vent and I suppose seek opinion and reassurance that what was I making, was infact good/ edible etc! Whereas now I know whilst its not always perfect, I can cook well, even quite brilliant at times and I am more accepting of my strengths and weaknesses. Not just in food, pretty much everything in my life really.

I can honestly say, that to anyone who has gone through the ugliness of crippling anxiety and depression - you have my upmost respect and sympathy. Its only when you look back and realise just how many corners of your life that it had crept into, how much power it had over you that you find out how strong you really are, and can start cutting back those weeds, until they eventually clear. Then its a case of the odd sprinkle of weedkiller to keep it at bay. If you ever feel like you might be in the same position - please do seek help - its nothing to be ashamed of!

So getting back to the one that has remained a passion of mine - the food - its been a love hate relationship at times but this was definitely love! The brie goes oozingly meltingly lovely against the earthy mushrooms and it makes a perfect lunch for one, two or more.

Ingredients:
2 heaped tbsp fresh breadcrumbs
6 leaves purple basil (regular will be fine too!)
A small wedge of brie
2 large flat mushrooms
Spray oil

1 courgette
½ tbsp. balsamic vinegar
S&p

Start by preheating the grill, spay the mushrooms with generous chunks of brie, pack with breadcrumbs and season with salt and pepper, and add a few torn up basil leaves.

Spray liberally with oil and grill at medium-hot for approx. 10 minutes or until bubbling and golden.

Meanwhile, for the courgettes, slice into 1cm chunks. Pan fry in a little oil over a moderate heat to get some colour on - they should still have some bite to them, season with salt and pepper, swirl in about a tbsp. of balsamic vinegar to coat, serve immediately alongside the mushrooms.

Anne's Kitchens new Cafetiere

noreply@blogger.com (Annes S) — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 16:12:00 +0000

Coffee is one of life's essentials for me! Even though I do the occasional battle with acid reflux nothing gets between me and my caffeine, I am a firm believer in everything in moderation and providing I stick to small quantities the stomach behaves just fine!

Whilst I normally like the higher end instant coffee's, sometimes I just like to relax back and make a proper cup of ground coffee. Previously I had a rather old cafetiere which had seen better days and I had been eyeing up smaller versions to replace it with, when Bodum gave me opportunity to try one of their models. After perusing the website for some time debating what would suit me best, I fell in love with a pretty little red number with the rather cute name of Bean!

Since Bean's arrival, it has firmly earned its place and whilst being advertised as a 3 cup - that means small espresso cup sized, alternatively I get one large one mug out of it and buzz for a few hours! My cafetiere is perfectly sized for making coffee for one and we are both very happy together!

A really great feature is the heat sealing lid, as I am rather forgetful and it keeps my coffee piping hot until I remember its sitting waiting for me in the kitchen! It also doesn't drip either, resulting in less mess, always a good thing!

Perfect coffee with a lovely slice of homemade upside down pear cake:

Many thanks to Bodum!

Coconut Buns

noreply@blogger.com (Annes S) — Tue, 02 Apr 2013 16:16:00 +0000

One of my favourite ingredients in baking, is coconut. I just adore the sweet, nuttyness and most of bakes seem to end up with a handful thrown in! These babies are no exception! Everyone loved them, to the point this is their own picture as they mysteriously vanished! They are similar in flavour to coconut macaroons but just a little more cakey, and delicious in their own right. My brother suggested rice paper for next time...trouble is I can just eat that stuff and it probably wouldn't hang around long enough!

When my beloved Nanny J passed away, I inherited some of her well worn cookbooks, and I spotted this recipe some time back within a copy of Farmhouse Kitchen, which apparently was in connection with a TV series circa 1978 and consists of recipes sent in by viewers. I love to flick through it, snagging ideas and wondering as to how much my nanny might have used the book too. There are no pictures, which sometimes isn't a bad thing as you can interpret how you like without fretting that its doesn't look like the picture does!

These buns were super easy to make, and the cherries were my addition, and a good one too as they make the buns a little more attractive and lets be honest, who can resist the lure of a sticky sweet glace cherry?

When I went to bake these, I was also mid making a lemon sponge for my mums birthday, but fancied something coconutty and quickly whipped these up alongside, they are pretty much weigh, mix, splodge onto tray and bake!

Makes 16

100g self raising flour

100g desiccated coconut

75g caster sugar

100g margarine

1 beaten egg

8 glace cherries, halved

Pre-heat oven to 190o/ gas 5

1) Mix together the dry ingredients, using fingers rub in the margaraine to form smaller lumps, as in the style of making pastry.

2) Use a fork to beat in the egg and mix thoroughly.

3) Blob the mixture onto a baking tray, allowing a little room in between and top with the cherries

4) Bake in the top part of the oven for 10-15 minutes or until cooked and lightly golden. They took about 14 minutes in mine, be careful as they go from anaemic to sun tanned quickly!

I am also sending these lovely buns over to Bookmarked Recipes held by the Jacqueline of Tinned Tomatoes

Venison Steak with Barley, Beetroot and Red Wine Orzotto

noreply@blogger.com (Annes S) — Wed, 27 Mar 2013 15:26:00 +0000

A few months back in a restaurant, I had a lovely meal of a Venison Wellington. I am not sure as to why I ordered it, as it was not a meat I was overly familiar with both eating and preparing it but it just seemed like a great idea at the time. And I am glad I did as it was utterly delicious! I remember it came with this swirl of butternut squash puree and tenderstem broccoli, and whilst initially I thought hmm that looks it a bit small, infact I was perfectly full afterwards. Eyes bigger than my belly perhaps?!

As a result, ever since then I had fancied trying to experiment with cooking venison, and by good fortune I received an email from the pr for Farmer's Choice asking if I wanted to try their products....automatically I thought 'Venison' and shortly after received two lovely packs of Venison haunch steaks. I didn't have the foggiest what to do with it, and whilst the Wellington idea was pretty tempting I am ashamedly a Wellington virgin and also wanted to initially try cooking it fairly simply, to gauge its quality, flavour etc.

After deciding to keep with simple idea for the Venison, I wanted to serve something complimentary alongside, and after a little scheming in my brain VS cupboards/ fridge contents I thought I would go down the earthy route by trying to combine peal barley, and beetroot....

Now I wasn't entirely sure what to call the barley thingy, and tried googling a variety of names and their definitions from Tian's to Ragout's but then I remembered making a risotto of sorts with barley, and after a check it is indeed called an Orzotto. Even now I am not happy, as in my head I conisder both pearl barley and beetroot as fairly English staples and the word Orzotto just sounds a bit flairy Italian style, which its not.. If anyone has a better name, please do let me know!

Serves Two

Meaty bit:

2x Venison Haunch steaks

1 tbsp rapeseed oil

Black pepper grinder

Barley bit:

1 tbsp rapeseed oil

100g pearl barley, soaked in water for a couple of hours and rinsed

1 stick celery, finely chopped

1 medium carrot, finely chopped

1 knorr rich beef stock pot into 700ml boiling water

50ml red wine

130g cooked beetroot (vac pack is fine) cut into 1/2 cm chunks

1 tsp dried thyme

Finishing Sauce:

Knob of butter

Glug of port

Pan juices

Start by taking out the steaks out of the fridge (ensure they are thawed if frozen!) to come to room temperature

1) In a large saute pan, heat the oil and gently fry the carrot and celery for approx 5 minutes or until softening, stir in the barley and red wine, allow the alcohol to cook off then cover with the stock and add the thyme, cover the pan and simmer gently for about an hour, or until the liquid has absorbed and the barley is almost cooked through, stir in the beetroot.

2) Rub the Venison steaks with a the oil and a generous sprinkle of freshly ground black pepper. Pre-heat a griddle till smoking hot, then carefully place both steaks into the pan. Cooking time will depend on how rare you like your meat - for me about 4 minutes each side came out medium rare, which was perfect. My steaks were very thick so you might need to adjust accordingly!

3) When the steaks are cooked to your liking, keep warm in foil and add the butter to the still hot griddle, stir in the port, allow to reduce slightly, scraping up any juices from the pan, if necessary transfer into a small pan to keep warm if it is reducing too much.

4) Now I decided to be fancy and served the orzotto via my chef rings but feel free to plate up as you desire. Serve the steaks alongside and pour over your finishing sauce.

Lighting conditions in my flat are appalling in winter and this picture doesn't do it any justice but it gives you an idea at least!

Many thanks to Farmer's Choice for the Venison. It was really tasty, the meat had a great texture and flavour, and it was not dry at all like people had warned me! My orzotto was rich and flavoursome and went really well with the Venison, complimenting its meaty flavour but without overpowering.

Spinach and Chickpea Eggah (Frugal and Fabulous)

noreply@blogger.com (Annes S) — Thu, 14 Mar 2013 18:44:00 +0000

Whilst I love my good quality meat, and of late had been the lucky recipient of some excellent quality meat I can be rather cheap when its comes to cooking. I still spend a fair amount on monthly shop as I like nice things (and tend to also hoard things on special - I have enough teabags and pasta until Christmas I think!) but I do also like a bargain, and this recipe is definitely one of them. Its nutritious, filling and delicious! Perfect hot for dinner, or cold the next day for lunch.

One of my money saving tips is that the chickpeas I always purchase are from the supermarkets 'world food' aisle - I recently got 4 tins under the brand name of Pride, for £1 in Sainsbury's! This compared to their own brand ones retailing at 69p per can! I am really not sure how that maths makes sense.....they still certainly taste like chickpeas..and both say chickpeas on the ingredients.....hmmm...

Last week my dad was coming around for dinner, and due to my shift patterns I hadn't been able (bothered) to go to the shops and instead did the sensible thing of poking around the kitchen cupboards and perusing cookbooks as to what I could make for dinner...... I love veggie food, infact I make it way more than carnivorous recipes but Dad is Dad. And Dad likes meat. But since he admitted to ordering a veggie pie a few months a few months back in a restaurant I have been working the veggie card and my normal anxieties over not serving him meat got put on hold. And I am rather pleased I did. The 'eggah' was soo tasty! And Dad liked it too!

The recipe was based upon a recipe for a Courgette and Onion Eggah, from a readers digest cookbook called 'Healthy one dish cooking' (that is surprisingly excellent - am working my way through it, thus far without disappointment). However I had no courgettes in, but spotted in the small print you could try a chickpea and spinach version.....I knew I had a tin in the cupboard, and a small amount of the latter in the freezer...and a lot of eggs...and the brain got ticking! Now whilst the book suggests two tins, believe me that one is enough! I also added an extra two eggs to bulk up my mixture (I buy trays of free range mixed weight as cheaper) and the one tin was the perfect ratio. I also did a little tweaking to the original recipe and they were very good tweaks!

Primarily I cook nowadays for one, and whilst I love garlic, I am sure my patients on the receiving end do not, so tend to limit its usage. Fresh doesn't keep forever, and some time back a friend introduced me to frozen little cubes of garlic and I was a overnight convert! In lieu of these, I suggest 1-2 cloves fresh garlic, finely chopped.

As mentioned earlier on - it was delicious served warm, with our supper consisting of olives, salad, freshly baked chilli cheese bread and equally great the next day cold for lunch too!

Serves 4

Ingredients

1 large white onion, finely sliced
1 garlic dorit (see abocve)
1 400g tin chickpeas, rinsed and drained
50g frozen weight of chopped spinach, thawed
2 tbsp + 2 tbsp olive oil (or use a little from the tomatoes)
4 sundried tomatoes, diced up
1 heaped tsp dried italian herb mix
6 eggs
4 tbsp milk
s&p

1) Heat the oil, fry the onion over a medium hot heat to cook through but add a little colour, adding the garlic at the end. Cool slightly

2) Beat the eggs, sundried tomatoes, milk, herbs, a little s&p and stir in the chickpeas and drained spinach until thoroughly mixed. Add the cooled onions

3) Pre-heat the grill to medium hot

4) In a oven proof frying pan, heat 2 tbsp oil, pour in the mixture, allow to sit for a minute, then gently start folding in the sides and folding over - think omelette not scrambled! gently repeat for a couple of minutes until nearly set.

5) Transfer the pan under the grill and cook for a further 5 or so minutes, or until evenly golden brown

6) Cool for a few minutes, then carefully ease onto a serving plate. However, I think my beloved pan is getting old and this didn't happen. If you have the same problem, use a blunt instrument to seperate into slices, then carefully ease out using a spatuala.

I'm also sending my eggah over to this months 'Credit Crunch Munch' held by Helen and Camila, as it such a great dish which is so inexpensive! I roughly costed it at £2.25, so roughly 56p per serving!

Spiced Lamb Chops with Kala Chana, Cheese and Spinach bake

noreply@blogger.com (Annes S) — Thu, 07 Mar 2013 15:20:00 +0000

Woohoo I finally have a working laptop again! It has been nearly a month since she decided to give up the ghost on me, she has been pieced back together, complete with a new hard drive and fortunately I had done a back up just in the nick of time so didn't lose everything..... However it also in the process deleted my Office package, and as I don't have the original discs anymore due to a change of personal circumstances. I have managed to get installed a very ancient version but I can't actually open 90% of my documents until I find someone elses pc to convert them all to pre-historic stage. Oh and it has somehow lost its sensor that moved the cursor up and down , and the zoomy thing. Not sure why?!

Also quite sadly I have lost all my links to recipes I wanted to try, which after a good 2 years of collecting has upset me somewhat! I thought I was being more eco friendly not printing them out but now am gutted to have lost them all :( I just reinstalled chrome and set my theme and I have them all back! Huge relief!!!

Fortunately its not been all bad in February, I was sent a box full of fabulous lamb from Farmison which helped to soften the blow:

When I was initially approached about trying out Farmison, it was an easy decision of yes - whilst I hadn't been all that familiar with them as a brand, I have become increasingly wary of buying meat at supermarkets with everything that has been in the press and even more importantly for me - the taste.

After a peruse through their website I liked what I saw. The products looked good quality, the website was easy to use, and I really liked the fact that all their meat comes from higher welfare farms and is mostly free range or organic. Going back to the subject of taste, whilst I try to go to the butchers, I don't unfortunately have one very close to me and I have to go out of my way to go to my favoured one, so being able to purchase online, choosing the exact cuts and products I want delivered to my doorstep is far more ideal.

Then came the choice of what to choose.....I never buy lamb at the supermarket as find the taste frequently off putting, it also isn't the cheapest of meats so its something I only buy as a rare treat from my butchers, and so I decided to test out their lamb as for me it would be a good test of the quality, and I was not disappointed at all. I had a small selection of cuts, and they were all quite perfect. My lamb arrived perfectly packaged, when expected and was a very smooth transaction - always admirable! We all have our share of horror deliveries I am sure and fortunately this was not one of them!

Out of the four dishes I made, this recipe was my favourite and wanted to blog about it first but I daresay the other three recipes will follow in due course! This made a really quite wonderful lunch, and for something so simple it really was quite divine.

One of the ingredients I used was a bit of a cheat - I buy from Lidl jars of pre-marinated cheese cubes and olives which come in a herby oil - great for throwing into salads too. If you are unable to source, it would be easy enough to combine something like feta or salad cheese cubes with a few olives and some dried herbs, with a little oil. In fact I could make my own easily enough but as I said above - they are my cheat ingredient!! The jar is 300g, and I used roughly half of it.

Spiced Lamb chops with Chickpea, Cheese and Spinach Bake

Serves two
Easy

Ingredients:

2 large lamb chops
200g frozen chopped spinach, thawed
1 tin kala chana (brown chickpeas)
1 red romana pepper, sliced
1 tbsp rapeseed oil
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp coriander seeds
150g jar of cheese cubes & olives in herb oil
Squeeze of lemon juice
S&P to taste

Start by toasting the spices and then grinding them finely, either in a mill or using a pestle and mortar. Please don't be tempted to buy them ready ground! It really doesn't take more than 5 minutes whilst you get on with other things, like making a nice cup of tea and it makes so much difference!

Combine the ground spices with the oil, rub all over the chops thoroughly and leave somewhere cool for a good hour.

Pre-heat the oven to 200o

Heat a heavy based frying pan big enough to fit the chops, add the chops when hot and fry for 3 minutes each side. Meanwhile, when the chops start releasing some oil, throw in the peppers and stir well - you want to get a little colour on them.

Toss together the kala chana, spinach, cheese cubes with 2 tbsp of the oil from the cheese jar and spread out into a small roasting tin.

place the chops and peppers on top and transfer to the oven. Roast for ten minutes, allow to stand for 5 minutes and then its time to eat!!

Your kitchen should smell rather lovely and you will be itching to get your photos taken so you can get your knife and fork into it!!

Many thanks to Farmison and and Laura at Riva PR

Computer Says No...

noreply@blogger.com (Annes S) — Fri, 22 Feb 2013 12:30:00 +0000

Sincere apologies for lack of blogging/ tweeting etc - I am still here! Unfortunately my stupid pc has decided to go kaput (remind me never to buy a Dell again!) and I am currently sitting in my works library typing this! If anyone knows where it might find its operating system do drop me a line!

Food wise has been very exciting however I just can't share any pictures right now! We have been eating lots of delicious lamb via Farmison, recipes to which will follow when I have the technology. I've been baking a few treats, lncluding a slightly ugly but good pear and chocolate sort of brownie sponge and I also spent a very interesting evening last night at the British Library which involved lots of chocolate.....!

Back soon!

Anne
xx

Sticky Cornish Cake

noreply@blogger.com (Annes S) — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 20:55:00 +0000

I have always been a magpie for snipping recipes out from magazines. flyers etc (I have two ring binders and a file to be 'filed' full of them) and last week whilst staying with family in Devon, I found out where I get this from - my beloved auntie T! I think we had both already spotted this recipe in one of the weekly magazines on her coffee table and I was going to ask if I could steal the magazine to make this when I got home but auntie did one better by suggesting we actually might bake it whilst I was there..

Now I can't take any credit for this bake - I was merely merrily cooking our main course that night (a delicious veggie curry feast!), alongside my auntie in her lovely big kitchen over looking the sea (aka Heaven but with food) but auntie gave me full permission to post here for you all to drool over her super cake!

The cake has a surprising amount of ground ginger in - we both were a bit hmm is it a typo but went with it, and its perfect, a nice warming roundess without slapping you round the face gingeryness!

Its really moist, sticky, sweet and fruity. The topping reminded me of a softer version of those glorious florentines you tend to find around Christmas and are lucky if they make it past December in my home! Even a friends husband who claims not to like ginger ate a slice quite happily when I came back! The last piece disappeared yesterday.....but it won't be for long as I will definitely add this to the keepers list!

The original recipe was taken from You magazine and written by baking queen Mary Berry.

You will need a 2lb loaf tin, lined with baking parchment (or one of those super ready cut out ones!)

Fruity layer:
1 tablespoon golden syrup
50g butter
25g brown sugar
40g flaked almonds
40g glacé cherries, quartered
25g sultanas
25g stem ginger, finely chopped

Cakey bit:175g soft butter (auntie did half butter half stork)
175g caster sugar
3 large eggs
175g self-raising flour
1½ teaspoons baking powder
1 heaped tablespoon ground ginger

Preheat the oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4. Grease and line a 900g (2lb) loaf tin.

Start with making the fruit layer - put the syrup, butter and sugar into a saucepan and gently heat, stirring, until just melted. Add the almonds, cherries, sultanas and ginger pieces and stir until combined. Spoon into the base of the (lined!) tin.

Then beat together all the cake ingredients until smooth and combined. Spoon over the fruit layer in the tin and spread out evenly.

Bake for 45 minutes until well risen and lightly golden. Leave to cool for 5 minutes, then tip upside down and remove the paper*. Cut into slices to serve

*Optional - Get carried away chatting and remember after half about half an hour the cake is still in its tin, then attempt to gently prise off paper using fingers and a sharp knife. The first option is preferable however!

And question of the week - why do jars of stem ginger always seem way too large?...

Olive Pastry Swirls

noreply@blogger.com (Annes S) — Tue, 05 Feb 2013 18:12:00 +0000

I am on holiday this week in what I refer to as my second home aka my lovely Auntie T's house in Devon so will be a bit quiet on the blogging/ tweeting front whilst I relax back and either take the dogs walking on the beach or drinking beer. All good stuff :)

This was a rather frugal recipe which I made back at Christmas – I had some leftover puff pastry from making another dish, and half a jar of black olive pate lonely in the fridge…the mind put yum and yum together to equal:

Simply spread the pastry with the pate, and roll up tightly from one end to the other, bake in a hot oven around 200o for about 15 minutes or until golden and puffy

These make a great little canape, they also freeze beautifully so are handy to store in the freezer for unexpected guests! Simply warm through in hot oven to serve.

The olive pate was one of my 'whim' purchases, reduced to clear in the local supermarket for something like 70p from around £3, a great little bargain! I used it also making turkey roulade's which worked also really well.

Peashoot, Bacon and Ricotta Penne

noreply@blogger.com (Annes S) — Sat, 26 Jan 2013 22:09:00 +0000

As much as I have learned to now love cooking just for myself, I really do prefer to share my food. And even more so if I have little helpers to assist! There is something about sharing that ignites my inner 'feeder' setting, no one ever leaves hungry!

My eldest niece A is also a little culinary gem of the future and eats far more ‘weird stuff’ than I did at her age and makes a great sous chef in the kitchen! I hope to bring you lots more of recipes me make together, however we are both rather greedy and have often forgotten to take pictures!

We made this great, speedy and surprisingly frugal pasta dish a few months back but I just hadn't gotten around to posting it …. Its full of bold flavours and was thoroughly tasty!

Serves two:

Ingredients

125g ricotta
Cooking Bacon trim - a rough handful
100g bag peashoots
2 heaped tbsp Purple basil
Black pepper
200g penne pasta

1) Boil pasta as per packet instructions

2) Meanwhile, when the pasta is almost cooked through, fry the bacon in its own fat until browned, turn off the heat. Drain the pasta, reserving about half a cupful.

3) Gently stir in ricotta to the bacon pan along with a little of the reserved cooking water to loosen slightly, add to the pasta, wilt in the peashoots and basil, season with black pepper and garnish with a few more leaves.

Whilst it has sadly died off now, the purple basil was a delight to grow and made an interesting sight on the kitchen windowsill! When warmth beckons again upon the windowsill I hopefully will be able to seed some more!

I am sending my pasta over to Lavender and Lovage's Herbs on a Saturday event, this month held by Bangers and Mash which showcases the best herb adorned recipes!

Budgets are definitely tightening for a lot, I know mine has been both ends of the spectrum over the past few years, what with redundancies, moving and illness and as a result I have managed to become very thrifty in the kitchen - and this dish whilst including the luxury item of peashoots, everything else was already to hand.

The Bacon was a real economical purchase – I picked up Sainsbury’s cooking bacon for the first time - heck it was getting chopped up anyway who cares if its pretty rashers - it was a huge packet for 99p and I froze four separate portions, which contained about 6 chunky rashers and various, meaty, not too fatty/rindy offcuts that I had expected! I costed this dish as being approximately £2.10 to serve two, a winner I think for something so fresh and tasty! The ricotta was also leftover from cheesecake so was a great use up of it too!

This is also being sent over to Helen's Credit Crunch Munch event:

Potato, Mushroom and Blue Cheese Melt

noreply@blogger.com (Annes S) — Sun, 20 Jan 2013 16:52:00 +0000

Its a little over due this post but just before Christmas I was sent a bag of some lovely red skinned Rudolph Potatoes, which in turn got turned into a few different potato based dishes!

Whilst these snow white centred beauties made excellent mini roast potatoes - one of my favourite ways to cook potatoes - simply tossed in oil - in this case Mr Hugh's Extra Virgin Rapeseed oil, sea salt and some freshly chopped rosemary sprigs:

However, a new personal favourite was this proper fridge raid supper, and in about 20 minutes I had this gorgeous mini roasting pan full of my favourite foods, grilled until meltingly delicious!

Just before Christmas I treated myself to a small hardy non-stick roasting pan - ideal for one or two portions, if not use a small gratin style or small shallow casserole dish

2 medium sized rudolph potatoes, cut into 2cm chunks

4 chestnut mushrooms, sliced

A few sliced green olives - mine were leftover from Boxing day

Small wedge of gorganzola cheese

S&P

1) Start by boiling the potatoes until just tender – about 12 minutes.

2) Meanwhile fry the mushrooms in a little oil until nicely browned.

3) Drain the potatoes well, place in a greased non-stick roasting pan in an even layer, dot over the olives, scattering of the cheese, mushrooms and season with salt and pepper. Place until a hot grill until everything is starting to brown and the cheese has melted nicely.

Serve garnished with fresh parsley and your choice of vegetable – mine was my Christmas favourite of spiced red cabbage, which I made a job lot of before Christmas - it freezes a treat!

Thanks to both Rudolph Potatoes and Mr Hugh's oil for the Samples

Marmite Noodle Soup and its Variations...

noreply@blogger.com (Annes S) — Mon, 14 Jan 2013 12:08:00 +0000

In an effort to fit into not one, but two bridesmaid dresses at the end of last year, drast action was needed as what with winter approaching vs bad knees; resulting in a distinct lack of exercise, and thus resulting in being a little curvier than the dresses required, this soup became my trusty dieting friend – and hooray the dresses both did up perfectly!

This is a soup that lacks finesse but makes up for on flavour! I love the savoury kick the marmite gives it, if however you are not a fan, you could substitute soy sauce. It is also a staple meal of mine post working late shift when you are hungry but don't want a heavy meal sitting on your stomach.

Method:

Start by grabbing your intended serving bowl, fill with water, transfer to a pan and bring to the boil

Then stir in 1 tsp marmite and ½ tsp vegetable bouillon powder, add a handful of soup pasta/ noodles and add in either of the following

Half a grated carrot
Half a grated courgette

Sliced mushrooms (lightly fry first in the pan)
Handful frozen mixed vegetables
Frozen peas
Sliced peppers
etc!

Then reduce the heat to a moderate simmer for about five minutes or until the pasta is cooked through.

If you prefer a thicker soup, add a little cornflour slackened with water to the boiling soup and stir vigorously. You can now serve up or turn it into a more protein boosted version with these optional extras:

Courgette version

Egg versions:

Turn off the heat, crack in an egg, don’t touch for 30 seconds then lightly whisk with a fork and serve immediately, preferably garnished with a little fresh coriander and a twist of black pepper. It doesn't look pretty but it tastes good!

Or quickly fry a one egg omelette, shred into the cooked soup

Prawn:
Once the soup is almost cooked, throw in a small handful of cooked peeled prawns, a little fresh coriander here too is welcome.

Mushroom and Egg version

Basically the list is endless! Leftover scraps of meat work perfectly well too. It is a great way of using up fridge leftovers and super frugal!

I am also sending this over to Credit Crunch Munch created between Camilla from Fab Food 4 All and Helen from Fuss Free Flavours and also held this month by Helen

Jamie’s 15 minute meals - Mushroom Farfalle

noreply@blogger.com (Annes S) — Mon, 07 Jan 2013 16:47:00 +0000

In all honesty, I’ve not cooked as much from the 30 minute meals book as much as I had initially planned to, despite the fact I did want to eat it all but the 15 minute book in comparison is much more up more street practical wise! There is a rare cook book that has me wanting to make at least 90% of the recipes from it, and more importantly thinking I can manage them in an ill equipped kitchen with electric hob, and a random selection of herbs and spices that live rammed into the corner of the kitchen counter!

One thing I must mention is my love of salad, most of mine are born of random ingredients, indeed my beloved colleague and friend Ces knows me if anything else that I will nearly always have a mystery salad in my lunchbag for her to pick at too, however Jamie’s are far more exciting, combining big flavours and yet without having to buy something much more than my local shops can cater for where I live!

Friends also know me rather well for my cookery book love, and I read through most of this one with Miss L, overall we wanted everything but there was a certain ‘ohhrgghh’ when we spotted sausage gnocchi! I just need to convert her to the love of fennel…give me time.. mwah!

Whenever I get a new book, I used to use an excel sheet to document but have gone back to mostly scribbling out page numbers and reasons to make, however with this book it was a complete waste of time as I filled in 3 pages worth and pretty much realised wanted to make everything, or at least my take on it anyway! Always a good sign of things to come!

So what to make first was the biggest question!! I normally do rough meal planners based around what I have in, combined with what I fancy eating so it needed to fit in without too many changes, however I was recently staying at my aunts house and had taken the book with me (as you do!), and between us decided to try the Mushroom Farfalle, with blue cheese salad...

As I was in my lovely Aunties brand spanking new kitchen, it took me a little longer than 15 minutes to pull off dinner but now I know where everything is, it really wouldn't take long at all to make next time, and there will be a next time!

One of the erm , slightly unusual ingredients was cottage cheese. I have never, ever cooked with cottage cheese and wondered how it would work within the pasta etc but we were pleasantly surprised, and its definitely an ingredient I now look at in a new light!

The recipe portions were very generous considering the calorie count was quite sinless - and it was all delicious! I really liked the crunch of the salad, and the pasta was just perfect - a nice bit of spice courtesy of my aunties home grown chillies, earthy mushrooms and the creamy cottage cheese all worked together in harmony. We would happily make both dishes again!

Almost ready to eat!

Finished plateful:

I'm also sending my pasta over to the new Pasta Please challenge over at Tinned Tomatoes, which is born out of the ashes from the now sadly ended Presto Pasta Nights!

Sausage and Sweet Potato Stew

noreply@blogger.com (Annes S) — Wed, 02 Jan 2013 16:43:00 +0000

One thing I frequently do is go shopping with a list, then change my mind or spot something on offer that I just can’t resist – on this occasion it was a bag of sweet potatoes for something silly like 65p – how could I say no! Over the following days amongst other recipes I had it cut into wedges and roasted, mashed up with mango chutney (from a Jamie recipe) and also this rather delicious, warming Sausage and sweet potato stew. Like most of my recipes I made it up as I cooked, and it was delicious. It tastes like a barbecue style of sauce and great for a chilly night!

A great little cheat item I discovered last year was Knorr’s herb infusion pots – if like me you have limited space for growing herbs, they make a great little shortcut, adding lots of flavour and minimal effort! I even accidentally added one to a curry I made the other week after getting the coloured lids confused, fortunately it was still as delicious!

This an easy to prepare and make dinner for one, two or more – I froze a spare portion as like to have my own ‘ready meals’ for days when time or energy are in short supply!

Ingredients:

2 smallish sweet potatoes, peeled and diced into 1cm cubes
500ml passatta/ sieved tomatoes
1 tsp English mustard
1 tsp smoked paprika
8 sausages
Knorr Herb infusion pot
S&P
1 courgette, diced into 1cm chunks
½ red pepper, sliced
1 onion
Spray oil

1) Fry the onion and sausages for 10 minutes, until browned and the onions are soft and golden, adding more oil as necessary.

2) Stir in the sweet potato cubes, courgette and peppers, fry over a moderate heat for five minutes until just softening.

3) Stir through the stock pot and passatta, mustard and smoked paprika, cover and simmer over a gentle bubbling heat for about 15 minutes, add a splash of water if it looks a little dry. Test the potato using a sharp knife - if it pierces easily then its time to eat!

Serve with some nice carbs, I used groats and my home made chilli cheese bread but rice or mash would be equally good here. When I reheated one of the portions I grated over a cloud of grana padano, which was a delicious addition!

Upside down Pear and Almond cake

noreply@blogger.com (Annes S) — Sun, 23 Dec 2012 19:06:00 +0000

This glorious, moist pudding cake was adapted from 'Saved By Cake', which was given to me by the lovely blogger Helen last year... The book is by Marian Keyes, who you may be more familiar as a popular fiction writer, however this book came about following Marian's battle with depression, and how she learned to bake and get on the road to recovery.

Depression, afflicts a lot of us at points during our lives, and it took me a long time to realise I actually was under its grey thumb, thinking I was just a little ‘off colour’ following some pretty life changing events, and I was not realising how much it was affecting both me and those around me. Thankfully I sought help, spurred on by Helens enlightening post about her own challenge with it and my life is considerably better now for it and life is looking up again. I urge anyone suffering from this horrible illness to seek help of their doctor and don't be afraid to speak to your friends and family even when all you want to do is batten down the hatches and hide!

The original recipe was for a mango upside down cake, however I make a pretty mean version myself but this recipe was different enough and as I had some pears that had become very ripe after buying far too much fruit after a small spending spree in Aldi’s super six – honestly forget I only buy for one sometimes, and knowing from a previous experiment with some lush almond extract, I knew how well the flavours marry together so well, and thus the cake was born!

Topping:
2 ripe pears, peeled cored and sliced into 1/4cm slices
50g butter
50g light muscovado sugar

Cake
100g butter
100g caster sugar
2 eggs
100g self raising flour
1 tsp baking powder

Preheat oven to 180o/ gas4

Liberally grease a 20cm cake pan – don’t use a loose bottom one or it will leak (apparently so anyway!). I can definitely assume this would happen! I used my sealed bottom tin and a cake liner to doubly ensure no leakages!

For the topping beat the butter and sugar and spread over the base of the pan, top with the pear slices in an even fashion.

Cream the butter and sugar together, add the eggs and a ¼ tsp almond extract (mine is from Bakery Bits and pretty intense so judge your own accordingly). Fold in the sieved flour and baking powder

Spoon over the pears evenly and bake for approx. 35 minutes, cool slightly for 5 minutes in the tin and turn quickly and carefully onto a suitable pretty cake plate. Serve warm with custard or cream

Unfortunately my camera was out on loan, and my old camera just doesn't do it justice - it was a lot more photogenic than the image suggests!

Christmas with Knorr

noreply@blogger.com (Annes S) — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 18:37:00 +0000

Over the past year I've been working with Knorr to bring you an array of recipes I've developed and exclusive content and features, and this year Christmas came early for me when a gigantic parcel, and I mean the delivery driver had to lug it up the stairs gigantic - and he very kindly placed it in the hallway for me, arrived direct from Forman and Fields last Friday! A far more joyous affair for a day that involved hideous weather and a wasted journey which I won't go into here, and a temporary loss of very important cards, needless to say I was just a teeny bit annoyed...this and a very nice takeaway was friends was a welcome diversion!

This Christmas, I will be working throughout - joy of shift work, so it will be relatively low key affair spread between parents. On boxing day, its my turn to cook our late lunch, and we will be having from the parcel a rather gigantic Turkey, which after logistical issues is now safely stored in my mum's freezer! Keep posted of 101 ways to use leftover Turkey in 2013! I have the tiniest freezer where I live, is not geared up to storing much more than some frozen spinach and a few UFO's so it proved a challenge! Within the hamper, were some other goodies, some which are being eaten before then due to freshness - tonight is some gorgeous smelling pork stuffing, and later in the week I plan to use the orange to bake something nice...! I have not fully decided how the Turkey will be cooked yet, partially as my mum is doing the hard part but included in my box was a really good sounding bacon baste recipe, so it might well involve that!

So have you had a mince pie yet? I was shocked this year as only had my first one last week but I have made up for it since - the ones that came within my box are absolutely gorgeous! I keep meaning to make a batch myself for work but just have been too busy! If I am lucky in the new year I hope to pick up some reduced jars of mincemeat, last time I got some for 25p!

Many thanks to Golin Harris and Knorr

Chai Fruity Tear and Share Bread

noreply@blogger.com (Annes S) — Mon, 10 Dec 2012 19:17:00 +0000

Oh oh oh..

Is it a cake? Is it a bread? Pudding. Breakfast. Snack? Who knows apart from its super bloomin good!

I have polished off my ‘feeder’ crown. I think on behalf of other food bloggers I can quietly and confidently confirm there is a little feeder within us all. This bread got shared with two close friends who live within walking distance (mainly as I didn’t trust myself alone with it) and it didn’t last very long! One of the texts did involve the quote ‘sharing the fat’!

Come into my lair said the fruit to the belly!

Whoever said baking is an exact science obviously didn’t get out much. A little knowledge can be dangerous, but only to the hip to waist ratio. I think once you master the basics, the cookery world is your oyster, to explore and enjoy! I rarely stick to a recipe and this one was plucked from various inspirations, partially previous experience with other breads; seeing another blog and her sumptuous Swedish buns, plus above all having a curious mind and discovery of a love for chai tea thanks to the lovely Jenny. Oh and for some reason of late (hmm maybe Christmas...) I have recently seen lots of use for ground cardamom (have since purchased), one of my favourite spices and it must have tattooed its fragrant imprint upon my brain cells it appears!

The day of baking I hadn’t planned to make this recipe at all, but having my lovely beef stew simmering away on the hob, the smells were so good and triggered thoughts of lovely bread….

On went the kettle, out came the dried fruit mix, enroute spotted the box of chai teabags and voila! I pretty much made it up as a I went along and to be honest I don’t think I would change a thing. It barely made it 24 hours from birth to death. And that was with some restraint.

A sweet slice of heaven:

It’s the first time I’ve properly experimented with a sweet yeasted dough, and a lot of cross fingers went on but I couldn’t ask for more. Its slightly sweet, soft, light and full of plump fruit scented with cloves and hints of sweet spice. Oh and it looks rather pretty too! The mix smelt rather festive too, a gentle reminder of the approaching festive season…

Requires love and a 23cm springform tin

450g strong white flour
50g caster sugar
200ml milk – I used soya
25g butter/ margarine
½ tsp vanilla extract
Sachet fast action yeast
300ml boiling water
100g dried fruit
25g glace cherries roughly chopped
2 tbsp unrefined sugar
1 chai teabag
Egg wash – I swear by the spray one from Lakelands! If not just use a little beaten egg

1) Cover the fruit and cherries with 300ml boiling water and add the teabag. Allow to sit for a good hour or more before doing the next bits

Gleaming like jewels:

2) Meanwhile gently warm the milk with the butter till just melted, allow to cool to just above room temperature

3) Sieve together the flour and caster sugar. Add the yeast to the milk along with a heaped spoonful of the flour mix, mix well then rest for five or so minutes

4) Stir the milky liquid gently into the flour, along with a couple of spoons of the soaking liquor to get a sticky dough, turn out onto a lightly floured surface and knead for 10 minutes – try not to add any further flour as you want a dampish dough, just enough so it doesn’t stick entirely to the counter top! It should all be lovely, smooth and elastic. Place in a floured bowl, cover and leave somewhere warm until doubled in size.

5) Knock back the dough, smooth out into a long baguette shape and cut into around 14 or so chunks. I love my metal dough slicer! Use your fist to flatten each chunk – trust me it’s the best way and quite stress relieving – and fill roughly with a spoon of the drained fruit mix, pinch over stretching into sort of ball shaped – don’t be too precise, you want a few bits sneaking out and place in the centre of the tin and repeat until all the dough is used up in one layer – sprinkle over and press in any remaining fruit mix. Glaze with egg and sprinkle over the unrefined sugar. Allow to rest for a further 10 minutes or so whilst the oven preheats to 200o/ Gas 6.

6) Place the tin in the middle of the oven, throw half a cup of water into the bottom, close the door quickly and bake for thirty minutes or until it sounds hollow when you tap the sides – don’t try to turn it upside down like you would with a loaf – it will be very hot and it’s not the kind of bread!

7) Once your beautiful beast is out of the oven, allow to stand for a couple of minutes then undo the tin clip, carefully loosen and slide onto an airing rack, cool for a good thirty minutes before brandishing your bread knife and losing your dignity as you make strange noises in earshot of your flatmate mumbling ‘oh its so good’ and realise instincts are the best thing in baking. And life.

Nb: I hold no responsibility for weight gain.

Thanks to Paul for helping me with the final name for this!

Don't forget I am also on facebook and its comments like these 'P.s. Best bread ever' makes my heart go all squishy happy so fire away with your thoughts! I love hearing from you!

Jam and Coconut Microwave Bundt cake

noreply@blogger.com (Annes S) — Tue, 04 Dec 2012 15:56:00 +0000

Some time back whilst perusing the homeware’s selection in the local hospice shop my eyes settled upon a microwaveable bundt cake pan! My heart did a little skip and I swiftly grabbed it and handed over my shiny £1 for it! A pound very well spent as after it sat in the cupboard for a good year, I recently had a want for cake but lacked energy to put the oven on etc and remembered it was stashed away, following a quick wash its now been used several times and no longer gathering dust in the recesses of the cupboard!

One of the cakes I most frequently bake is jam and coconut. It is my favourite of cakes and so it was an obvious choice to test the bundt pan out! My mum recently put me onto Sainsbury's basics mixed fruit jam – is perfect for cakes and a bargain at around 27p a jar and ideal for this cake.

I was a little wary of how the microwave cake would taste for something so quick but it really does hit the mark and thanks to the pretty jam and coconut flake topping it doesn’t look anaemic at all and is so quick and easy. A little custard doesn't go amiss either!

Ingredients

Sponge:

2 large eggs (at room temperature)

125g soft butter/ stork margarine

125g self raising flour

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp baking powder

4 tbsp dessicated coconut

Topping:

3 tbsp coconut chips

3 tbsp mixed fruit jam

1) Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy, beat in remaining ingredients to make the cake batter

2) Sprinkle the coconut chips into the bottom of the bundt pan and dot over the jam. Spoon over the cake batter, smooth over and microwave on high for 6 minutes in a 700w oven or until it bounces back and a skewer comes away clean.

3) Allow to stand for 5 minutes, then turn onto a plate, gently tap to loosen and serve warm

Border Biscuits for Christmas

noreply@blogger.com (Annes S) — Fri, 30 Nov 2012 16:53:00 +0000

Eep - this is the first of my Christmas posts! Whilst I've had a fair few emails offering a range of things I would rather just post up things that really do interest me, and that my friend's is biscuits!

I love biscuits. The tin is never empty and ranges from basics digestives, which are surprisingly my favourite, to rather posh end ones and everything in between! So when the lovely Border Biscuits got in touch it didn’t exactly take much arm twisting to agree to ‘trying’ some! The things I do for you dear reader!!

There is something quite special I feel about having a cup of tea and biscuit, something people really do not do enough of in our busy lives! I know when I'm at work I look forward to sitting down with a piping hot cup of tea, and a sneaky biscuit or two and the chance to relax and unwind for a few minutes. I don’t know if anyone saw Heston the other night with his giant pack of biccies, didn't they look awesome!! And I just loved the giant teapot and saucer, was so cute! Just imagine all that lovely tea! Above all I also have very fond memories of sitting down to have ‘elevenses’ with my beloved late Nanny Jean, and it always makes me think of her :)

Whilst I love baking, and from scratch I rarely make biscuits due to not much success other than cookies and so I have eaten a fair few shop bought biscuits varying in niceness! Border Biscuits sent me a fair few packets (did I mention I love you?) to ‘try’ including a lovely tin full which are just perfect for both giving, and receiving this Christmas.

Within its depths there is one of my favourite flavour combinations – chocolate and orange shortbread! And sorry dearest brother, they are all mine.

I doubt anyone would be disappointed to receive a box of these! I know I wasn't!

Many thanks to Border Biscuits for the lovely biscuit supplies!

Beef and Red wine Stew with baby Onions and Mushrooms

noreply@blogger.com (Annes S) — Fri, 23 Nov 2012 17:21:00 +0000

Oh my. Its been a long time since I made beef stew. Its not really something to be honest that crops up in my mind as I tend to cook fairly quick meal but having been sent a lovely piece of brisket in my Knorr Hamper – cue me googling it and subsequently trying to explain delicately whilst manoeuvring into cow position within the kitchen as to where it comes from on the cow to a bemused friend (google it if you want a giggle), it needed using up and what better than a winter warming stew! Even more considering the ghastly weather of late - I hope that everyone is keeping well and warm! This is also 'the beef' that should have been intended for an ill fated beef bourginnon the previous week!

Whilst I had heard of brisket, it wasn't really something that I was familiar with cooking, even less so handling a huge slab of beef but with a sharp knife it was quickly reduced to more familiar chunks! Nothing fancy went into the stew, however the beef was such good quality it really didn’t need any lights or bells on to take it to new heights!

Serves 4

Ingredients

2 tbsp sunflower oil
1 onion roughly chopped
800g beef brisket
3 sticks celery, sliced at an angle into 1cm chunks
3 carrots, diced into 1 cm chunks
1 knorr beef stock pot
2 heaped tbsp. plain flour
Medium sized glass of red wine
400ml water
S&P to taste

*I sold my old casserole pan, which would be perfect however my largest saute pan did the job nicely!*

1) Start by heating 1 tbsp of the oil and browning the beef, you might need to do this in two stages – don’t crowd the pan

2) Remove any remaining beef from the pan to one side, add the remaining oil and brown the onion, stir in the flour, stock pot, then gently add the water stirring briskly and scraping off any stuck on bits, return the beef, cover and simmer on low for a good hour.

3) Add the carrots and celery, stir and cover and allow to gently plod away for a good 2 to 3 hours, giving the cursory stir when the lovely smells draw you into its path. Remove the lid for the last half hour to allow the sauce to thicken if desired.

4) To finish the dish, I used up some cute little onions that also came in my Knorr hamper, though totally optional!

Ingredients:

200g Baby onions
3tbsp port
100g white mushrooms. Sliced into 4

1) Cover the onions in boiling water and sit for a few minutes, fish them out carefully, top and tail and peel – most of the skins should rub off. Reserve the soaking water.

2) Heat roughly 100ml of the onion water with 3 tbsp of port, add the halved onions and gently boil for around five minutes or until just softeneing, add the mushrooms and a splash more of the water if drying out, repeat for about 15 minutes or until the onions are cooked but retain a little bite. Use these to garnish your stew

Finish) Once the stew is at the desired thickness, and tenderness top with the onion mix, and serve with fresh green vegetables I.e. broccoli and maybe a nice potato dish. After my success with the other potatoes, I picked up a small bag of a variety called Corrole, though this time instead I boiled them, drained, added butter, fresh parsley and lemon juice (from a bottle), s&p to the same success, albeit minus the nice crispy bits. Still delicious. You can’t taste the lemon, it just adds a certain something and I will be repeatedly making potatoes this way!

Re-heats and freezes beautifully

Thanks again to Knorr and Golin Harris for my goodies :)

Turkey and Black Olive Roulade

noreply@blogger.com (Annes S) — Sat, 17 Nov 2012 18:33:00 +0000

Some nights I eat relatively quick and simple meals..some nights I feel like making more of an effort, and this was one of them! However it still was ready in under 20 minutes so not really too much effort was needed!

Serving meals up that look good on the plate always help I think, you do eat with your eyes after all as the saying goes! Also most importantly when cooking for one, you really do have artistic licence and you should make a little effort to treat yourself! Recently on a food forum we were discussing the highs and lows of cooking for one, and its a constant balancing act, however this is a perfect meal for one - you don't have leftovers for three days or even more tupperware to squeeze into the freezer and as it looks pretty, it feels that bit more special. As I used the rice water to poach it in, it also equalled less washing up - never a bad thing!

Prior to this I’d never made a roulade before and not even sure why I thought about it at the time, however I was glad I did. It actually was very easy to make, the only scary bit was trying work out how long it would take before it was cooked through due to my inexperience! Luckily my judgement paid off and the turkey was beautifully moist. This would also work really well with chicken breasts.

Ingredients:

1 turkey breast fillet,

Heaped tbsp black olive pate

Couple of freshly basil leaves

Method:

Start by covering the turkey in cling film and bash with a rolling pin evenly, until about 1/2cm thick and spread with the pate, tear over a couple of the basil leaves

Carefully roll up the turkey really tightly in the cling film, a little like a Christmas sweetie and firmly pinch/ tie the ends together.

I was cooking rice anyway to go alongside the turkey, so also went in the roulade and boiled gently for about ten minutes, then very gently unwrap on a paper towel lined board. Alternatively simmer in boiling water.

Once the cling film has been removed, then brown the roulade in a hot lightly oiled pan to make it look pretty and golden all over.

Slice the roulade into rounds and serve with whatever you fancy. I had rice and roasted vegetables with a little onion gravy, which worked very well. Making nice gravy too can be a bit of effort for a single serving, however I tart up instant with a spoonful of onion marmalade - works a treat!

N.b. The olive pate was one of my random purchases for 75p reduced from about £3 – I do love a bargain! If you can't lay your hands on some, something like tapenade would be suitable.

Bacon and cheese stuffed Butternut Squash with Wild mushroom potatoes

noreply@blogger.com (Annes S) — Tue, 13 Nov 2012 19:03:00 +0000

Some days everything just falls into place..and some days, well it just doesn't ... though the latter I find are usually entirely your own fault. A recent Thursday is an excellent example; In the morning I received my lovely little hamper from Knorr, packed full of goodies to make Marco Pierre Whites Boeuf Bourginnon. So what do I do? Think, hmm beef stew…yeah about three hours or so…texted mum, promised her dinner and meanwhile go to see dear friend and my gorgeous godson…lose track of time…chatting as us girlies do so well…check on my phone just how long recipe takes..oops…change of plan!

So its now about 4pm, rummage through fridge..look in freezer…hmm what to make that mum will eat. Mr butternut is squash poking out its smooth egg shaped head from the fruit bowl..really fancy squash now…what the hell to make with it. Especially when mum bless her is a meat and potatoes kinda girl.

Re-check fridge..hmm oh and half a block of red Leicester, albeit from Iceland and one I wont hurry to buy again but made sense at time of purchase. Also note some lovely quality bacon thats for the Bourginnon recipe, and a punnet of wild mushrooms also intended for the it. Realise I am about to not be at home for the next three nights due to work schedule and prior dinner plans and the lovely mushroomies wont hang around that long.. so how to combine mr squash and wild mushrooms. Bearing in mind I am surprisingly unfamiliar with cooking both ingredients. Google shows some rather interesting recipes, including a curious sounding wild mushroom and squash bread and butter pudding but mother sounds less than enthused at this suggestion when I quickly phoned her, and even I am a bit hmm… thoughts go down lasagne route, but have to bear in mind will be cooking dinner at mums house, complete with tiny kitchen and work space of a postage stamp. But it does have a gas oven! Another thought was some kind of lasagne but it just seems too much effort, not to mention washing up and its now nearly 4.30pm, mum likes to eat about 5.30 with Neighbours.

Consulted several cook books too, still nothing quite fits. Rifle through brains, remember having a lush chilli stuffed squash many moons back, albeit not about to make chilli but then thought hmm bacon and cheese…hmm indeed.. and so this dish was born. I am also super pleased to say mum ate everything without complaint, and I rather liked this one too!

Whilst the squash is the star of the plate, a real credit must go to the potatoes. For such a simple dish, it was quite beautiful and was born out of trying to find something to do with the wild mushrooms. I urge you to try it. Since have repeated with smaller baby potatoes and equally good. Just cover your eyes when you add the butter. It is borrowed from Simon Hopkinson's Week In, Week out book. Trust me you can't taste the lemon, it just adds a wonderful note to the potatoes.

Serves Two:

Ingredients:
One medium sized butternut squash – nicely shaped enough to lay flat when baked
Handful grated red Leicester or similar cheese
3 rashers good bacon, roughly chopped
2 tbsp grated grana padano
3 tbsp double cream
2 sprigs fresh thyme leaves
S&P
1 tbsp sunflower oil (mum had no olive oil..)

Step One:
Stab your squash all over with a sharp knife. Microwave for a good 8 minutes or until a knife goes through very easily. Allow to cool slightly before handling carefully.

Step Two:
Heat the oil and fry your onions and bacon until golden, softened and cooked through but not too brown. Transfer to a mixing bowl.

Step three:
Once the squash is cool enough to handle, pre-heat oven to gas 5. Halve it lengthways and using a knife and spoon, carefully remove and discard the seeds, then scrape out all the lovely flesh into the bowl with the bacon in. Add ¾ of the cheeses, thyme leaves and cream, mash up well using a fork, season well to taste. Loosely pack back into the shells, top with remaining cheese, and bake for a good 25 minutes or until lightly browned.

Wild Mushroom Potatoes

Mum told me on the phone they were salad type potatoes. On arrival, well more new potato but still workable...

Ingredients:
4 large new potatoes
200g wild mushrooms
2 tbsp sunflower oil
2 tbsp butter
S&P
lemon juice - about 1/2 tbsp
1 tbsp freshly chopped parsley

Step one:
Place the potatoes in a suitable dish, stab them a few times, cover and microwave for about 10 minutes or until cooked through. Cool slightly, and try to slice into 1/3 cm slices. Alternatively steam them.

Step two:
Using the bacon frying pan, heat a little more oil, fry the potatoes until lightly golden, stir in the mushrooms, wilt in for 2-3 minutes, turning gently

Step three:
Add a good knob of butter to the pan, squirt over a little lemon juice and season, Season to taste, sprinkle over the parsley and serve immediately.

Moral of the story: Great quality ingredients and an inquisitive mind will always make

something delicious!

Many thanks to Jen at Golin Harris and Knorr for the ingredients