Farmersgirl Kitchen

ABC of me

2012-05-24T22:15:00.000+01:00

Many thanks to Choclette at Chocolate Log Blog for passing on the ABC (Awesome Blog Content) Award to me. This means I now have to think of 26 words that mean something to me, one for each letter of the alphabet.

A - Art. One day I will have time to develop my skills, for now I appreciate the skill of others.

B - Baking. I've been baking since I was a little girl and still love it.

C - Create. Making things makes me happy.

D - Digital Scrapbooking. I love the immediacy and flexibility of scrapping my photographs with digitial kits.

E - Earrings. I have many pairs.

F -Farm. Where I live.

G -Garden. A place to potter around, my garden has changed purpose many times.

H - Home. I love my home and like to spend as much time here as possible.

I - Images. I love words, but I love images more.

J - Joni Mitchell. My favourite musician.

K - Kitchen. Somewhere I like to spend my time.

L -Laugh. I can usually find the funny side of any situation, I love to laugh.

M - Massage. I'm a bit of a spa junkie.

N -Non-judgemental. I strive to be non-judgemental, it's not easy.

O -Optimistic. Always look on the bright side of life.

P -Parents. There is my Mother and Mother-in-law and these are also my roles.

Q - QI. Makes me laugh so much.

R - Relax. Sometimes I find it hard to relax (see M).

S - Saxophone. My husband plays the saxophone and I hear it every day.

T - Twitter - I know, I spend far too much time on Twitter.

U - University. I loved my time studying at university and now work at one.

V - Vote. I was very affected by 'Shoulder to Shoulder' the suffragette TV series and always vote.

W -Wine. No explanation needed.

X - Xylophone. I used to play a little bit of xylophone when I was at school.

Y - You! My blog would be nothing with YOU my readers. Thanks.

Z -Zabaglione. Totally delicious.

Now I have to nominate some other bloggers for the ABC award. I've decided to nominate three bloggers:

Jenny Eatwell's Rhubarb and Ginger

The More than Occasional Baker

Homemade by Fleur

Please feel free to join in!

Lamb Steaks with Adobo Seasoning

2012-05-24T21:27:00.000+01:00

The theme for May's Sweet Heat Challenge is 'Mexican'. I love mexican food and have several Mexican cook books. I decided to try something different that I had never made before and chose an Adobo Seasoning which I adapted as a marinade for lamb steaks.

The Sweet Heat Challenge is hosted this month by Souperior, it's usual home being Lyndsey Fleenor's Vanilla Clouds and Lemon Drops.

Adobo Seasoning

Ingredients
3 cloves of garlic crushed
3 hot chillis, deseeded and chopped
1tbsp dried oregano
1 tsp cumin seeds
6 cloves or 1/2 tsp ground cloves
1 tsp coriander seeds
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp salt
120ml white wine vinegar
3 lamb steaks
1tbsp sunflower oil

1. Put the chillies and garlic in a blender or mortar. Add the oregano, cum seeds, cloves, coriander seeds cinnamon aand salt. Process or grind with a pestle to a rough powder, add the vinegar and blend again.

Cover the lamb steaks with the marinade cover with cling film and leave to marinade for 3- 4 hours.

Heat the oil in a pan and sear the steaks, then turn down the heat, add the rest of the marinade and cook for about 10 minutes until the lamb is cooked through.

Although hot, this wasn't overpowering and the flavours are totally delicious and a very different type of Mexican food from the standard chilli con carne, fajitas and other various tortilla based dishes.

Rhubarb and Elderflower Tarts

2012-05-22T22:23:00.002+01:00

It's time for Tea Time Treats! So, get floral in the kitchen, bring me some flowers please! ALL types of bakes or cooked goodies that would be suitable for a Tea Time Table are acceptable, so that can be scones, pancakes, muffins, cakes, bakes, biscuits, cookies, pies, tarts etc etc…….

The Tea Time Treats is run by Karen at Lavender and Lovage and Kate at What Kate Baked

Rhubarb and Elderflower Tarts (makes 3)

Enough leftover Avoca pastry to make three tartlet cases

2 sticks of garden rhubarb, sliced finely

2 tsp sugar

1 tsp cornflour

2 tsp Elderflower Cordial

1. Cut out pastry and line three tart tins.

2. Mix together the sugar, cornflour and rhubarb in a bowl. Add the Elderflower Cordial and mix together.

3. Divide the mixture between the pastry cases and bake for 10-15 minutes until the pastry is golden brown and the rhubarb has softened.

White Bean Soup - Random Recipe #16

2012-05-21T21:24:00.002+01:00

It wasn't really soup weather yesterday, but I had planned to make my Random Recipe for the challenge at Belleau Kitchen and I was bloomin' sure I was going to make it! The theme this month is 'First and Last' with the rules as follows:

randomly select a book
2. look at the first and last recipes
3. choose one (or both if you're feeling flash..) of the recipes and make it
4. post the recipe on your blog with a link back to my blog and include the random recipes logo
5. deadline is midnight on the 29th May

The book I picked was the Good Housekeeping Best 30 Minute Recipes which I see is still available to buy, although I must have had mine for over 20 years. It's a great book which I have used a lot, but never have I made the first recipe for White Bean Soup.

White Bean Soup
Serves 4

1tbsp oil
125g onion, finely chopped
1 garlic clove, crushed
2 level tsp copped fresh rosemary or 1/2 level tsp dried
425g can haricot beans, drained and rinsed (I soaked dried cannelini beans overnight then boiled for 30 minutes before adding to soup)
1.1 litres vegetable stock
salt and pepper
Toasted wholemeal croutons and sprigs of fresh rosemary to garnish

1. Heat the oil in a large saucepan and saute the onion with the garlic and rosemary for 1-2 minutes. Add the beans, stock and salt and pepper to taste. Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat, cover and simmer for 10 minutes.
2. Puree half the soup mixture in a blender or food processor and return to pan. Bring back to the boil, stirring all the time. Adjust the seasoning.
3. Serve the soup sprinkled with croutons. Garnish each bowl with a sprig of rosemary.

This was our first meal outside on the patio this year, my son joined us and, on taking a spoonful of soup, pronounced 'That's really good' with a sound of surprise in his voice! Praise indeed.

The Great Macaron Challenge!

2012-05-20T20:15:00.001+01:00

When I saw that the 'We should Cocoa' blog challenge was to combine chocolate and almonds, I knew that it was time to overcome my fear and make chocolate macarons! I decided to tweet my intention just to make sure I didn't back out and Sue, from A little bit of heaven on a plate, tweeted right back that she would make them if I would! And so the Great Macaron Challenge had begun.

I am fortunate enough to own a copy of 'Mad about Macarons!' by Jill Colonna and used the technique and recipe in there for the Dark Chocolate Macarons. Everything was very precise and very clearly explained with text and step-by-step photographs.

This is the mixture or macaronnage with all the air pushed out of the beaten egg whites and the ground almonds, cocoa and icing sugar.

The mixture was then piped onto baking sheets covered with baking paper. If I'm going to be making many of these I will invest in a macaron mat to make it easy to make them all the same size.

Yes, they are rather flat (more practice required) but at least there is an obvious 'foot' which pleased me no end.

The filling is a chocolate/coffee ganache, and I was pleased that when they were put together, the macarons looked more like they should.

Sadly, Sue's macarons did not work out, not even enough to show on her blog. I hope she will have another go, I definitely will be making more.

We should Cocoa is being hosted this month by Laura at How to Cook Good Food full details of the challenge are available on Choclette's Chocolate Log Blog the other founding member of this challenge is Chele at Chocolate Teapot who is taking a bit of a break just now.

Hazelnut, Apricot and Honey Wholemeal Loaf

2012-05-19T19:11:00.000+01:00

The Alpha Bakes challenge for May is to bake something beginning with the letter 'H'. It's hosted this month by Caroline of Caroline Makes who alternates hosting with Ros from The more than occasional Baker I had a browse through my books and found this Hazelnut, Apricot and Honey Wholemeal Loaf in The Great British Bake Off, How to Bake. That gives me two H's!

It's a sweet wholemeal bread mix, with honey instead of sugar and milk instead of water. Added to it are toasted hazelnuts and chopped apricots. I think I would add a little more liquid to the mix next time as the dough was quite tight and heavy.

In the book they loaf was made as a plait, so I followed suit, then brushed with milk to give a shine to the loaf.

I served the loaf sliced, lightly buttered with sliced Fair Trade bananas and a bowl of Fairtrade oranges and Fairtrade Bananas. It was a really nice change for breakfast and very filling.

I'm entering this for 'Breakfast Club #22, Let's hear it for Fair Trade' run by Helen at Fuss Free Flavours. The challenge runs every month with details of hosts on its own Breakfast Club page.

This month there is a prize for entering the Breakfast Club challenge so get over there and join in!

Pizza Night!

2012-05-18T20:27:00.000+01:00

Sometimes, I just don't feel like cooking, usually it is on a Friday night. So I was delighted to be asked to review a Dr Oetker's Ristorante Pizza, I chose the Pizza Mozzarella, these were priced £2.78 at Tesco Online.

You put the pizza straight onto the oven tray so it cooks from below as well as above.

10 - 12 minutes in the oven and the pizza is ready straight from the freezer.

We have eaten many ready-made pizzas, both chilled and frozen and I have to say that it was a really delicious pizza. The crust was thin and crisp and the topping had real pesto and mozzarella on top and was well distributed across the pizza base.

Disclosure Statement: I received this Dr Oetkers Pizza for review. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. The prices are correct at time of posting.

Make it Moussaka!

2012-05-14T20:10:00.000+01:00

I seemed to have a lot of bits and pieces of food left over after my visitors had been. I had also bought two aubergines which were on special offer, so I decided to make a sort of moussaka.

Here are the ingredients I had, but you could use any combination as filling between the aubergines:

2 aubergines

2 rashers of bacon

1 tin of tomatoes

Left over chilli

Left over shepherd's pie

400g mushrooms (half a family pack) sliced

4 grilled tomato halves

small quantity of cooked mangetout peas

200ml soured cream

1 egg

olive oil for brushing

Switch on your grill to full heat. Slice the aubergines lengthways and lay out on a baking tray, brush with olive oil.

Put the tray of aubergines under the grill and gril until golden brown and soft, turn and brush with more oil. Do this until all of your aubergine slices are cooked.

Fry the bacon in a little oil in a large pan, when it is cooked, add the sliced mushrooms and saute gently until soft. Add the left over chilli mixture and shepherd's pie. Add a tin of tomatoes and heat through, mixing the ingredients together.

Place a layer of the mixture in the base of a large baking dish, then add a layer of aubergines, another layer of the meat and tomato mixture and then put the remaining aubergines on top.

Mix together the soured cream and egg together and season, spread over the aubergines.

Bake at 180C for 40 minutes until golden brown and bubbling around the edges. Serve with crusty bread and a salad.

Rhubarb and Marionberries

2012-05-13T18:35:00.001+01:00

I had rather a busy time recently, both with work, visitors and attending the cupcake class last weekend. So here I am again with very little in the way of tasty treats to show to you. On Friday night we ate Donal's ultimate chilli from Delicious Magazine (June 2012) with the guacamole and the tomato salsa salad also featured as accompaniments. I served it with rice and crusty bread. That went down a treat, I didn't even add any chilli to make it palatable for my grandson and served some chilli sauce on the side, but it really didn't need it.

Yesterday, we went to visit Threave Gardens, near Castle Douglas. There is a lovely walled garden, it's a little bare at the moment but with promise of things to come. The glass house is a little more fruitful, we were lucky to be able to enjoy a walk around the grounds as it was a dry day and not too windy or cold, unlike today!

In the walled garden I saw these lovely rhubarb forcing pots. They look so attractive sitting over the pale stems of rhubarb, while it tries to escape through the ground to reach the light, popping up round about the pots.

There were also many apple trees, standard ones and also those which had been espaliered along some wires, plenty of blossom, so hopefully a good apple year.

Inside the glass house, I spotted this passionflower, high up on it's vine. I had to hold the camera up and guess, it took a few goes to get this shot, but I think it was worth it.

Another area of the garden which was growing well, was the herb garden. There was fennel, oregano, chives and mint, all looking fresh and delicious.

Tayberry is a cross between a raspberry and a blackberry

On our way out of the walled garden, I noticed these little tags showing the various berries that were grown in the garden. I thought they looked so good and I'd love to try all these berries. Particularly when I saw the tag for 'Marionberries' which I'd seen mentioned on the White on Rice blog just last week, I certainly didn't expect to see them locally.

The Loganberry is also a cross between a blackberry and a raspberry but resembles the blackberry more than the raspberry.

The Boysenberry is a cross between a raspberry, a blackberry AND a loganberry!

The Marionberry is a Marion Blackberry, a hybrid cross produced mainly in Marion County, Oregon, USA.

A Sunberry is a hybrid cross between two members of the nightshade family, Solanum villosum and Solanum guineense.

Blackberry variety

The Tummelberry takes it a stage further: a purple soft hybrid fruit (tayberry) of the blackberry and raspberry created by crossing it with another hybrid of the blackberry and raspberry

Another Blackberry variety

I'll be back soon with some cooking, I created a sort of faux mousakka tonight with all the leftovers from the weekend, so will be sharing my 'sustainable' cooking with you shortly. Hope you enjoyed the excursion to Threave Castle and it inspires you to find some different sorts of berries.

Club Chocolat Francais - French Chocolate Club

2012-05-10T20:21:00.002+01:00

The delicious smell when you open this box of 'folies gourmandes' from Club Chocolat Francais is not just of chocolate and sugar, but there is a strong smell of fruit! This selection of chocolates includes glorious slices of crystalised orange dipped in dark chocolate, and chocolates flavoured with strawberry, raspberry, cranberry, passionfruit as well as caramel, coconut and almonds. I really enjoyed these chocolates, the chocolate is very good quality and the flavours are not the same sort of selection we have here in the UK.

Club Chocolat Francais is a gourmet chocolate tasting club. Members are invited to participate in the creation of new and exciting chocolates as well as to share tasting notes and experiences with other members. They are currently running an introductory offer on their 12 month subscription with the first month costing £9.95, the 11 months will be the usual price of £19.95.

I'm afraid I would not be willing to spend £20 on a box of chocolates and certainly not every month, no matter how good they are. But if you are passionate about your chocolate have a look at the Club Chocolat Francais or if your purse or your inclination does not stretch to a large box of chocs every month then you might also want to check out the chocolate boutique where smaller quantities of chocolates, including Agen Prunes dipped in chocolate, are on sale.

Club Chocolat Francais also have a Facebook Page and a range of Pinterest Boards

Disclosure Statement: I received this box of Club Chocolat Francais chocolates for review. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. The prices are correct at time of posting.

Victory Tea

2012-05-08T10:00:00.000+01:00

When I was asked if I would like to try 'Victory Tea' I jumped at the chance. I love tea and am quite discerning in my tastes. We generally drink Assam tea for our daily brew and, as we don't put milk or sugar in our tea, the taste is really important.

Victory Tea comes from Rington's Ltd, it's a family firm and Victory Tea is the idea of Sarah Holmes, the fifth generation and first female of the family to hold a senior position. Sarah wanted to provide her customers with a premium quality, cost effective tea, cutting out the supermarket middleman.

I brewed up a pot of Victory Tea this afternoon and put it to the test. I would say it is a good everyday tea, it has a pleasant taste and no bitter aftertaste. It certainly compared well with our usual Assam and it passed the acid test - the remaining bags went into the tea caddy!

You can get a trial pack of 16 teabags direct from Victory Tea for £1.50; the Superior Box contains 640 teabags and costs £16 and the Victorious Box contains 1600 teabags and costs £30 which works out at £1.50 per 80 teabags. The more teabags you buy the better value you get. There's a 'cuppa calculator' which helps you work out how much you can save. Victory Tea is not a budget brand, the price comparisons are with premium brands, they can make these savings because they sell direct.

And if you want to buy British, Victory Tea is blended and packed in the UK.

Would I buy Victory Tea? Probably not, and my reasoning is that while we enjoy tea, we simply don't drink enough to make it worthwhile. There is also the issue of storing the tea, however have a look at the website and make up your own mind.

Disclosure Statement: I received atrial packet of Victory Tea for review. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. The prices are correct at time of posting.

Cupcake Decorating Masterclass!

2012-05-06T20:55:00.000+01:00

I've had a really fun day today, decorating cupcakes! When Jac from Tinned Tomatoes spied this class at 3D Cakes in Edinburgh, being offered on Groupon, she contacted me to see if I wanted to go too. We finally found a date which suited us and Claire of A Kiss of Cookies joined us too.

It's a good two hours drive to Edinburgh for me, I had planned on getting the train which is only an hour but with the Bank Holiday, the trains were disrupted by work on the line. Luckily my SIL lives just outside Edinburgh, so Brian drove up and took his Mum over to see her after dropping me off at Roseburn Terrace.

Our Cupcake decorating tutor was called Sue and she started by telling us about 3D cakes and some of the unusual cakes they have made, like a lion and lioness for a wedding anniversary cake.

Sue started us off with flowerpaste which we learned to roll very thinly and use cutters to cut out butterflies and daisies.

The dusting and decorating came later, but I was surprised how easy it was to make an effective flower with the cutters. We then moved on to the trickier rose, again helped by a special cutter for the petals.

Mine is slightly dodgy but it looks rose-like enough for a first try. The leaf is cut from green flower paste, the veining is part of the cutter.

We left our flowerpaste efforts to dry and moved on to working with fondant. I love the little parcels with fondant bows and can see that I will be using these quite a lot.

Again I could probably do this better with more practice, but learning the technique by 'show and tell' followed by making them yourself and getting personal attention from Sue, really made the difference.

We also made some chunky hearts, I didn't use mine on my cakes as I had enough other things to use, they also look a bit rude ;-)

Here are few of the decorations before they were dusted and glittered. I think I like the parcels better without the glitter.

We then learned how to make ladybirds. They are rather large but that was how we were shown. I'd like to try making them smaller, now I know how.

I also cut out some little hearts with some cutters that were at our work stations.

We then made fondant roses, they took a bit of getting the hang of, but I think I may be making more of them.

Now it was time to dust and glitter, dry brush for dust, so all that had to be done first, then damp edges and dip in glitter.

Here is Claire, working hard making something, look how fast her hands are moving!!!

And here is Jac, relaxing with her finished decorations.

The next step was to pipe the butter cream onto the 12 cupcakes provided for us to decorate and then place our fondant and flowerpaste on top of the swirls.
I haven't actually eaten any of the cupcakes yet, but they do look pretty and I am definitely going to have a go at making more.

Many thanks to Jac for organising the day out and to Sue for creating such a relaxed atmosphere.

Versatile Blogger Award

2012-05-04T21:27:00.000+01:00

Many thanks to Caroline at Caroline Makes for nominating me for the Versatile Blogger Award. The world of food blogs is full of lovely, generous people who share their time providing challenges and recipes with each other and others who do not blog (or at least not about food!). Caroline runs the Alphabakes Challenge with Ros from 'The more than occasional baker'.

Rules for the award are :
1. Thank the person who nominated you for this Award and link them back.
2. Say some 5 random facts about you.
3. Spread the joy by nominating other bloggers.
4. Convey the blogger about the nomination.

1. see above

2. Fact #1 I have two sons aged 25 and 23, Fact #2 I have recently started to go to a yoga class, Fact #3 my hands and feet are usually cold, Fact #4 I like to read murder and forensic novels, Fact #5 my grandfather was a butcher and my great-grandfather was a baker.

3. I am nominating the following bloggers:

Thanks again to Caroline and I hope the bloggers I nominate enjoy the award.

Turkey and Peppadew Pie

2012-05-03T20:31:00.000+01:00

I made this little pie the day after the Rhubarb Bakewell Tart as I had some pastry left. You can see the recipe for the pastry on this post for Rhubarb Bakewell Tart

Use just over half of the pastry to line the base of the tin (these are the same 17cm tins used in the Rhubarb Bakewell)

I guess if I was making it from scratch I would add a pinch of salt rather than the sugar, but the sweetness in the pastry was really quite pleasant with the mild turkey mince and the sweet heat of the Peppadew Piquante Peppers.

Gently fry an onion in a little oil, let it cool slightly and mix with 400g raw turkey mince and season with salt & pepper. Fill the base of the pie with half the minced turkey mix, cover with a layer of Peppadew Piquante Peppers and then put the rest of the mince mixture on top.

Cover with remaining pastry and brush with beaten egg. Bake for 30- 40 minutes at 180C until the pastry is golden brown. Serve warm with new potatoes and green vegetables or cold with salad. This is the perfect picnic pie as the filling holds together really well when cold.

Fat! - A cook book review

2012-05-01T12:45:00.000+01:00

I'm not sure that Jennifer McLagan did herself any favours by naming her cook book, 'Fat'!

It's not the most appealing of book titles and those chops featured on the front don't really do justice to the variety of recipes in the book, which is actually really very good.

Whilst, these days, we may know everything about olive oil, we’re less aware of how to use lard and bone marrow. Jennifer McLagan offers extensive guidance on sourcing, rendering, flavouring, using and storing animal fats, whether bacon, schmaltz or suet. Stories, lore, quotations and tips round out this rich and unapologetic celebration of food at its very best.

The chapters are divided into different types of fat:

Butter: worth it

Butter recipes include: Butter Chicken, Salted Caramel Sauce and Pepper and Orange Pound Cake which is definitely on my 'to make' list. However, I had some sage leaves left over from making the Turkey Saltimboca so tried this recipe:

Spaghetti with Butter and Sage (serves 2)

Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
200g spaghetti (or tagliatelle)
115g unsalted butter
20 - 30 sage leaves

Bring a large saucepan of salted water to a boil over high heat. Add the spaghetti (I didn't have any so used tagliatelle), stir, and return to a boil. Adjust the heat so the water boils gently and cook until the spaghetti is al dente, 10-12 minutes. Drain well.

While the spaghetti is cooking, cut the butter into pieces and place them in a large frying pan over medium-low heat. When the butter is melted, add the sage leaves and cook, turning once, until the leaves are crisp and the butter begins to brown, about 7 minutes.

Add the cooked drained spaghetti to the frying pan and toss to coat with the sage butter sauce.

Season well with salt and pepper and serve immediately. For such a simple dish, this was absolutely delicious and made a quick and easy supper for me after my yoga class this week.

Pork Fat - The King!

Recipes include: Country style Terrine, Dandelion Salad with Hot Bacon Dressing, Bacon Fat Spice Cookies

Poultry Fat: Versatile and Good for You

Simple Roast Chicken
One 1.4Kg free-range chicken
A large handful of mixed fresh herbs such as parsley, chives, tarragon and marjoram
1 large clove of garlic
100g unsalted butter, softened
Coarse sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Pre-heat the oven to 230C. Pat the chicken dry, fold the neck flap under the bird, and secure it in place using the wings.

Set aside a few herb sprigs and chop the remainder; you should have about 1/2 cup. Using your hands, mix the chopped herbs and garlic into the butter until blended. Smear the herb butter all over the bird, placing a little inside the bird, too.

Season the bird well with salt and pepper. Place the bird in a roasting pan and squeeze the lemon juice over the top. Put the lemon juice over the top. Put the lemon halves in the bird's cavity with the reserved herb sprigs.

Roast the chicken for 15 minutes. Remove from the oven and baste the chicken with it's own juices. Reduce the heat to 375F and continue to roast, basting occasionally, until the thigh juices run clear when pieced with a skewer or the temperature of the thigh registers 165F on on a kitchen thermometer, 45 - 55 minutes. Turn off the oven, open the oven door, and leave the chicken in the pan in the oven to rest for at least 15 minutes.

Transfer the chicken to a chopping board and cut into serving pieces. Add any juices from the chicken to the pan and place the pan over medium heat. Bring to a boil, deglaze the pan, using a wooden spoon to scrape up the browned bits from the bottom, then strain through a fine-mesh sieve and serve the pan sauce with the chicken.

I pushed some of the herb butter up under the skin of the chicken as well as over the skin. It certainly kept the chicken moist and the sauce was really flavoursome.

More Poultry Fat recipes: Red Cabbage with Goose Fat, Cassoulet, Vegetable Cake

Beef and Lamb Fats: Overlooked but tasty

Recipes include: Roast Beef with All the Trimmings, Suet Pastry, Bone Marrow in Red Wine Butter Sauce, Cape Malay Lamb Shoulder.

I would certainly recommend this book, there are loads of interesting facts about the different types of fat as well as a range of recipes for all tastes.

The paperback edition of 'Fat' by Jennifer McLagan is published on 18th May 2012 at £16.99

Disclosure Statement: I received a copy of 'Fat' by Jennifer McLagan for review. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. The prices are correct at time of posting.

Chocolate and Amaretti Slice

2012-04-29T19:05:00.000+01:00

Dom is celebrating the second birthday of Belleau Kitchen, his superb food and cooking blog. So Random Recipes #15 has gone all cakey- bakey in a birthday kind of way!

I piled up a selection of my baking books, praying that the macaron book would not be the one picked, anyway I needn't have worried because the random number picker chose #1 which is The Best of Cadbury Chocolate Cooking.

Opening the book it fell open at a page 77 with a choice of four delicious recipes. I chose to make 'Bournville and Amaretti Slice' but as I didn't use Bournville chocolate but a generic brand which is why I have called it

Chocolate and Amaretti Slice

175g Amaretti biscuits

3 tablespoons Amaretto Di Saronno liqueur

275g plain dark chocolate, broken into pieces

300ml double cream

75g unsalted butter, softened

50g caster sugar

1. Line a 500g loaf tin with clingfilm. Crush the biscuits into small pieces. Put them in a bowl and pour over the liqueur.

2. Melt the chocolate and half the cream. Cream together the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. Stir in the chocolate and cream mixture, then the remaining cream.

3. Spoon about one third of the chocolate mixture into the tin. Scatter half of the biscuit pieces over the top. Spread half of the remaining mixture, then add the remaining biscuits. Finish with the remaining chocolate mixture.

4. Chill the chocolate cake over night until set. Invert on to a plate and peel off the film.

5. You can decorate by creating scribbly lines with melted chocolate piped across the top. Or you can just slice and serve because it's quite rich enough as it is!

This is totally indulgent, rich and needs to be served in very small slices. If I made it again, I think I would simply mix the biscuits into the chocolate, because it does tend to crumble a bit when you cut it. The liqueur comes through strongly so it's a grown up slice, but you could use orange juice and if you don't like almond flavours at all, then other crunchy biscuits like gingersnaps would probably work just as well.

Lamb Naan Calzone

2012-04-28T20:21:00.000+01:00

Regular readers of my blog will know that I like to use up my left overs. On Friday night we had Lamb Curry which had been made from the left overs of the lamb leg we had at Easter and had frozen. There was some of the curry still left from last night, so I decided to make it into a kind of pasty for lunch. I was going to make pastry, but forgot to defrost the butter so, with a bit of lateral thinking, I thought Naan - pizza - calzone!

Naan Calzone

1 tsp dried yeast
125ml milk
250g strong white flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/1 tsp sugar
1 1/2 tbsp yogurt
15g butter

I made my dough in the bread maker on 'dough' setting, which involves throwing everything in there and switching on. However, if you want to do it the hard way, it's just a basic white bread but with milk and yogurt as the liquid.

Once the dough is made, split it in two and roll out into a large round.

Add the filling (anything will do, mine was leftover lamb curry, but whatever you have) and then fold over and crimp the edge.

Leave to rise in a warm place for about 30-40 mintues. Pre-heat the oven to 200C, put the Naan Calzone into the oven and bake for 15-20 minutes.

Serve with a tomato, cucumber and red onion salad.

If anything I think I probably made the Naan Calzone too big, there was too much bread and not enough filling, dividing the dough into three would probably be better and would provide a better balance of filling to bread.

Sundried Tomato and Carrot Soup

2012-04-27T20:34:00.000+01:00

Oh dear, I missed the deadline for No Croutons Required. This is a soup I've been making for years with carrots and tinned tomatoes, but I've never included sun-dried tomatoes before and it certainly added a depth of flavour to an already gutsy soup.

It's pretty easy, just an onion, some peeled and chopped carrots, 2 tins of tomatoes, some stock and about 6 sun-dried tomatoes. Cook them up until the carrots are soft, then liquidise or blitz until smooth.

Go and check out the round up of this month's challenge (the one I missed!) and join Lisa at Lisa's Kitchen and Jac at Tinned Tomatoes in this challenge next month.

Turkey Saltimbocca Piquante

2012-04-23T21:46:00.000+01:00

Saltimbocca is a dish made with veal, prosciutto and sage, which is popular in Italy, Switzerland, Spain and Greece. You can read more about it here.

My version of this famous dish is for a competition run by British Turkey to create an all year round dish using British Turkey and Peppadew Peppers.

Turkey Saltimbocca Piquante
500g British Turkey fillets
100g Peppadew Whole Sweet and Mild Piquante Peppers
84g Prosciutto
6 sage leaves
8-10 wooden skewers

For the marinade
4 sun dried tomatoes in oil, roughly chopped
2 tbsp oil from the tomatoes
1 tbsp white wine vinegar
200ml dry white wine
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

1. Cut the turkey into small chunks about 2cm square. Cut the sage leaves into strips and slice up the Peppadew peppers, cut each slice of prosciutto cross ways into five pieces (see below)

2. Place the turkey cube onto the slice of prosciutto, add a small strip of sage and a slice of Peppadew pepper, roll the prosciutto around the turkey, sage and pepper and put the skewer through.

3. Add further pieces of rolled turkey to the skewer, 4 pieces seemed about right for the size of skewers I was using.

4. Put all the marinade ingredients, except the wine, into a liquidiser or food processor and blitz until well combined. Add the wine and blitz again.

5. Place all the skewers into a non-metallic dish and pour over the marinade. Cover with clingfilm and refrigerate for a minimum of two hours.

6. Grill the skewers on a high heat for 5 minutes each side, then lower the heat and grill for a further 5 minutes. Drain the marinade into a saucepan, bring to the boil, then turn down the heat and simmer for 5 minutes. Serve the sauce with the skewers.

The marinade ensures that the skewers are deliciously moist and the punchy flavour of the Piquante Peppadew peppers really complemented the turkey and prosciutto.

I served these Turkey Saltimbocca Piquante skewers hot with buttered new potatoes and spring greens, but they would go well with rice or couscous. They would be ideal for a barbeque and would also be delicious chilled and served with salad or as finger food at a buffet.

Rhubarb Bakewell Tart and a Giveaway!

2012-04-22T08:56:00.000+01:00

There is some dispute on line as to whether there is a traditional food to celebrate May Day. However, although some recipes appear, there doesn't seem to be any one dish that defines May Day.

I decided that I would try to create a seasonal dish to celebrate May Day and I'd like you to do the same.

Applicances Online have agreed to give one of you £30 of Amazon Vouchers for telling me what your May Day Dish would be. Enter using the Rafflecopter widget at the bottom of this post.

May Day Rhubarb Bakewell Tart

Shortcrust Pastry

225g plain flour
50g vegetable fat

100g butter
25g caster sugar

2 egg yolks

Frangipane
55g butter or margerine (I used Pure spread)
55g caster sugar
1 large egg beaten
40g ground almonds
15g plain flour

Fruit

8 sticks of rhubarb, chopped into even sized pieces
50g golden caster sugar

25g flaked almonds to finish

1. Make the shortcrust pastry by rubbing the vegetable fat and butter into the flour until it resembles fine breadcrumbs. Add the egg yolks and bring the mixture together. Knead only very lightly, then wrap in clingfilm and chill for at least 20 minutes.

2. Roll out and line a 17cm diameter deep pie tin (the pastry will line two of these tins, you need to double up the fruit and frangipane to fill two though) and put some baking paper inside then fill with baking beans.

3. Blind bake at 200C for 20 - 25 minutes. Remove the beans and paper and bake for a further 5 minutes until the base is baked through and the pastry is golden brown. Leave to cool for 10 minutes.

4. Place the rhubarb and sugar and in a baking dish and place in the oven while the flan is blind baking. Roast until just soft but not mushy.

5. Fill the base of the flan with rhubarb, try not to get too much juice on the base of the flan or it will go soggy.

6. Make the frangipane. Turn the heat down to 170C. Beat all the frangipane ingredients together until well combined and cover the rhubarb with the mixture. Scatter over the flaked almonds.

7. Bake for about 25 minutes until the frangipane is risen and golden.

Serve warm with custard.

So what would you make to celebrate May Day?

Apologies if your comment does not show, it will still be counted through the Rafflecopter widget. I'm having a little bit of trouble with the Google 'no follow' ettiquette!
a Rafflecopter giveaway

'Groovy' Focaccia and Salmon with Tomato Vinaigrette

2012-04-20T20:57:00.000+01:00

I love olive oil, so I was intrigued when I was asked to review some oils from Groovy Food, I was sent two different oils:

Omega Cool Oil –a clever organic blend of Omega 3, 6 and 9. Specially pressed from flax, hemp, pumpkin and evening primrose seed oils, serving up a perfectly balanced amount of essential fatty acids, which our bodies crave. Cool Oil is also the perfect accompaniment to cold foods and as such is ideal when drizzled onto salads, blended into smoothies or used simply for dipping breads and olives.

High Five Cooking Oil – sees a unique yet complimentary fusion of five cold pressed virgin seed oils. Blended to perfection High Five Cooking Oil is the ideal healthier alternative to other cooking fats. Offering high nutritional properties whilst graced with a subtle flavour, the oils unique characteristics ensure the great taste is retained even when cooking at high temperatures.

I thought I'd put the oil to the test with a bit of baking and some cooking.

Groovy Focaccia

500g strong white flour

2tsp dried yeast

1 1/2tsp salt

1 tsp caster sugar

175ml water

75ml white wine

75ml High Five Omega Cooking Oil

2 tbsp rosemary, finely chopped

3 tbsp Omega Cool Oil for drizzling

Sea salt flakes for scattering

1. Put the flour, yeast, salt, sugar, water, wine and High Five Cooking Oil into your bread maker and set for dough.

2. When the dough programme finishes, roll or pull the dough out, oil a baking sheet or roasting tin and fill with the dough.

3. Cover with a tea towel and put in a warm place to rise for about an hour to an hour and a half.

4. Us your fingertips to gently press into the surface of the dough, brush with a little High Five Cooling Oil and scatter over the rosemary and sea salt.

5. Heat the oven to 200C and bake for 30 minutes until golden brown.

6. Sprinkle with the remaining Omega Cool Oil.

The Groovy Focaccia was very good, although I did miss the taste provided by the olive oil. I also tried dipping the focaccia in the Omega Cool Oil but I felt that the flavour of the oil didn't lend itself to dipping.

I was planning on having some salmon fillets for supper so used the oil in Recipe #2:

Salmon with Tomato Vinaigrette

4 salmon fillets

2 tbsp Omega Cool Oil

1 tbsp champagne or wine vinegar

1 tsp Dijon mustard

2 garlic cloves, crushed

1 tsp caster sugar

4 ripe tomatoes, deseeded and finely chopped

salt & freshly ground pepper

1. Mix the Omega Cool Oil, mustard, vinegar, garlic and sugar together. Add the diced tomatoes.

2. Brush the salmon with oil and place in a hot frying pan skin side down to crisp the skin, when skin is brown, turn the salmon and cook for 2 minutes, then switch off the heat and leave as the heat in the pan will cook the salmon through.

3. Place the salmon onto the plate and spoon over the vinaigrette.

Serve with roasted red peppers filled with chopped tomatoes and garlic and drizzled with High Five Cooking Oil.

The salmon was delicious as was the roasted red pepper and I would say that the lighter flavour of the seed oil was a really good match for the fish and the vinaigrette was quick easy and one of the best ways of adding a bit of zing to farmed salmon that I have found.

The Groovy Food Oils collection is available throughout Tesco and Sainsbury’s stores nationwide, selected health food retailers and online at freefromandfinefoods.co.uk.

Omega Cool Oil – 250ml – from £8.49

High Five Cooking Oil – 500ml - from £6.99

The company themselves are very passionate about their products as you can see from their website: www.groovyfood.co.uk.

Disclosure Statement: I received two bottles of oil from Groovy Foods to review. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. The prices are correct at time of posting.

Chocolate Dipped Cannoli

2012-04-17T20:24:00.002+01:00

I was thrown a little by the theme for this month's 'We should Cocoa', (the blogger challenge run by Choclette at Chocolate Log Blog and Chele at Chocolate Teapot) it's Chocolate and Cheese! I've been mulling this over since it was announced, trying to think what I could make. Then I remembered the ricotta and chocolate filled cannoli that my SIL used to bring to us from a Sicilian Bakery in Edinburgh.

I did a bit of research online, but decided that, rather than making the biscuit shells, I would use filo pastry. I bought the pastry and then it occurred to me that I had no idea what I would use to create the tubes...but you will see that I did manage to come up with something.

Chocolate Dipped Cannoli

1 pack Filo pastry

25g butter, melted

Tub of Ricotta cheese

50g dark chocolate, chopped

1 tbsp Amaretto liqueur

1/2 tsp cinnamon

2 tbsp icing sugar

You can get two large cannoli from two sheets of filo pastry, they did come out quite large but would be quite fiddly to make smaller.

Heat the oven to 200C or 180C (fan). Lay out one sheet of filo, brush with melted butter and lay another sheet on top.

Using a small plate, cut out two circles per sheet, or more if you are making them smaller. Brush them with more butter.

So here is my solution for making the cannoli tubes, rolled up aluminium foil! Roll the circle round the foil with the butter side out and bake in the oven for about 10 minutes until the tubes are golden brown. Leave to cool then carefully remove the foil.

Mix the ricotta, 25g of the chocolate, the Amaretto and the sugar. Fill a disposable piping bag without a nozzle and snip off the end. Fill from both ends with the cheese mixture.

Melt the rest of chocolate in a bowl over a pan of simmering water and dip the end of the cannoli into the melted chocolate. Place onto a plate covered with baking paper and place in the fridge for about an hour until the chocolate and filling are set. Dust with icing sugar.

I was really pleased with the way the Cannoli turned out, they were totally delicious, the crunch of the filo and the soft sweetness of the ricotta mixture with a hit of dark chocolate. These ones were a little on the big size, so I may try and make some smaller ones in future.

Thai Vegetable Stir Fry with Coriander Rice

2012-04-15T13:00:00.000+01:00

It's Thai New Year or Songkran so "สุขสันต์วันสงกรานต์" (suk san wan songkran) — meaning "Happy Songkran Day"

I'm a big fan of Tilda rice and use their brown rice on a regular basis. Emma at Wildcard, sent me a couple of packs of their Lime and Coriander Microwave Rice and a recipe to celebrate Thai New Year:

Thai Vegetable Stir Fry with Coriander Rice
Serves 4

Prep time: 10 minutes
Cook time: 10 minutes

2 x 250g packs Tilda Lime & Coriander rice
1 tbsp oil
250g mushrooms, halved
100g soya beans
175g baby corn, halved
1 red pepper, sliced into long strips
2 tbsp Thai Taste Thai green curry paste (60g)
2 pak choi, sliced (235g)
160ml can coconut cream
2 tsp Thai fish sauce
2 tsp toasted sesame seeds (opt)

My additions: 50g mangetout peas, chilli oil

Heat the oil in a large frying pan and fry the mushrooms, soya beans, corn and
pepper for 3-4 minutes. Add the curry paste and fry for 2-3 minutes. Stir in the
pak choi and fry for 2 minutes. Add the coconut cream and fish sauce, simmer
for 1-2 minutes.
Meanwhile, cook the rice according to the pack and garnish with the sesame
seeds if using. Serve with the vegetable stir fry.

Cooks tip
For a meat option, replace the mushrooms, soya beans and baby corn with
500g minced turkey.

Like us on Facebook www.facebook.com/TildaRice and follow us on Twitter @Tildabasmati

Ingredients


Scottish Chilli Oil

It was a really tasty stir-fry and the rice was delicious, full of flavour and no artificial taste at all. Ideal if you are in a hurry or want something really flavourful without too much time in the kitchen.

The Songkran festival (Thai: สงกรานต์, Khmer: សង្រ្កាន្ត; from the Sanskrit word saṃkrānti,^[1] or literally "astrological passage") is celebrated in Thailand as the traditional New Year's Day from 13 to 15 April. It coincides with the New Year of many calendars of South and Southeast Asia.

The date of the festival was originally set by astrological calculation, but it is now fixed. If these days fall on a weekend, the missed days off are taken on the weekdays immediately following. Songkran falls in the hottest time of the year in Thailand, at the end of the dry season. Until 1888 the Thai New Year was the beginning of the year in Thailand; thereafter 1 April was used until 1940. 1 January is now the beginning of the year. The traditional Thai New Year has been a national holiday since then.

Songkran has traditionally been celebrated as the New Year for many centuries, and is believed to have been adapted from an Indian festival. It is now observed nationwide, even in the far south. However, the most famous Songkran celebrations are still in the northern city of Chiang Mai, where it continues for six days and even longer. It has also become a party for foreigners and an additional reason for many to visit Thailand for immersion in another culture. (source Wikipedia)

See what the Thai people get up to for their New Year celebrations:

Songkran festival: new year in Thailand and Myanmar marked with water fights

Many thanks to Emma at Wildcard and to Tilda for the rice.

This month's Sweet Heat challenge at Vanilla Clouds and Lemon Drops is Spicy Thai Food, so I'm entering this stir fry.

Blue and Green Soup with Gluten Free Cheese Scones

2012-04-14T14:05:00.001+01:00

That got you thinking didn't it? Blue and Green? Well there is a little bit of Danish Blue in the predominantly Green vegetable soup. However, this is really just another version of what Fiona at London Unattached described so well as 'Stone' Soup. You can read all about it on her blog HERE.

Because I have been eating the Bulgar Salad for lunch, I haven't had my usual sandwiches and therefore we have not used as much lettuce as before. I was blissfully unaware of this when I ordered the shopping online and ordered up another pack of Romaine lettuces. We also seemed to have a head of broccoli left over. I know, I really should check the fridge before doing my shopping.

The No Waste Food Challenge run by Kate at Turquoise Lemons also asked us to use up left over Fennel. Now, I love fennel and rarely have any left over, but it was a good excuse to go and buy some so I have included at little of it in this recipe.

Blue and Green Soup

1 head broccoli chopped

2 Romaine lettuces, chopped

The stalky ends of a bulb of fennel chopped

1 large onion chopped

1 tsp vegetable oil

1 litre of vegetable stock

200ml milk

30g of Danish Blue cheese crumbled

Put the oil in the pan at a medium heat, add the onion and saute for about 5 minutes until soft. Add the chopped broccoli.

The fennel,

and the chopped lettuce

and stir to coat with the oil and onion. Add the stock, I use Marigold Swiss Vegetable Bouillon but you can use any stock.

Season and cook until the vegetables are soft. Take off the heat for about 10 minutes and then blitz with a stick blender or in a liquidiser. Add the milk and the Blue Cheese to taste and blitz again.

While the soup was cooking, I thought I'd make something nice to have with them. I had bought some gluten free ingredients for the guest who was expected last weekend but was unable to come. So I thought I would 'use them up' making some scones.

I turned to my standard scone recipe from Mary Berry's Fast Cakes, it's never failed me yet, even when I change the ingredients as much as I have here!

Gluten Free Special Scones
225g White self-raising Gluten and Wheat Free flour
1 level tsp gluten free baking powder
50g Pure Sunflower dairy free margarine
1/2 tsp Coleman's mustard powder
50g grated cheese
1 egg
milk or natural yogurt

Heat the oven to 220C and lightly grease a baking sheet
Put the flour and baking powder in a bowl and add the margarine, rub it in with your fingertips until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Stir in the mustard powder and the grated cheese.

Crack the egg into a jug, lightly beat it and then make up to 150ml with milk or yogurt. Stir the egg mixture into the flour and mix to a soft dough.

Turn onto a lightly floured table and pat out to about 1.25 (1/2 inch) thickness.
Cut into rounds, I made my big as we were having them as 'rolls' with our soup. Place spaced out on the baking sheet and brush the tops with milk or yogurt and sprinkle with a little more cheese.

I'm showing you this so you can see how thick they are cut.

Bake in the oven for about 10-15 minutes (depending on how big you made them) until they are pale golden brown. Remove and leave to cool on a wire rack.

Not only was the soup good, although dominated by the broccoli and blue cheese flavours, but the scones were excellent. A little more chewy in texture than the wheat flour ones, but definitely good and a very acceptable substitute. They could also be adapted to be dairy free by using substitutes for the milk/yogurt and cheese.

I'm entering this recipe for Bookmarked Recipes run by Jac at Tinned Tomatoes and founded by Ruth from Ruth's Kitchen Experiments

Bulgar Wheat Salad

2012-04-12T21:23:00.000+01:00

When I'm trying to lose a few pounds, I like to have something nice and filling for my lunch but without too many calories or too much fat. Somehow, many of the sandwiches that are fit the healthy remit don't seem to fill me up. So I made this Bulgar Wheat Salad, the wheat fills you up and the vegetables add the taste. You can vary the vegetables and the dressing add chickpeas or kidney beans to add a bit of interest.

Bulgar Wheat Salad

200g Bulgar Wheat

1 whole cucumber, deseeded

4 tomatoes, deseeded

2 sticks celery

half a red pepper, deseeded and chopped

half a yellow pepper, deseeded and chopped

1 teaspoon olive oil (I used some chilli infused oil which really added to the flavour)

juice of half a lemon

Put the wheat in a bowl and cover with boiling water, about half an inch over the wheat. Leave for 30 minutes to absorb the water, the wheat will swell. Add the oil and lemon juice while the wheat is still warm. Leave to cool.

Chop the vegetables to small even pieces and mix through the wheat.