Archive for Recipes

Monday Munchies

{ September 14, 2010 @ 11:00 am } · { Baking, Family, Recipes }
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I’m a lucky enough girl to have a husband who likes cooking and so the balance of cooking is generally tipped in his direction. Even if I’m cooking or we’re cooking together he has a tendency to interfere or take over, despite the fact I can cook! So a recent phenomenon in our house is for me to don my pink flamingo apron, choose a new recipe and cook without interruption on a Monday evening! The idea is not meant to be fancy, but to be simple tasty and hopefully seasonal midweek suppers.

On the table this Monday:

Mushroom papardelle

This recipe is in the September section of Nigel Slater’s Kitchen Diaries, but has also been featured on the Guardian website here. It appealed to me as I am a big fan of pasta, and to me, mushrooms are the epitome of an autumnal ingredient. Perfect as the weather feels distinctly more autumnal this week. My little twist was to add a touch of double cream and the juice of a lemon before adding the parmesan & parsley. There is something incredibly savoury and good about this dish, and the lemon really lifted it. I also used a mix of thinly sliced chestnut mushrooms and field mushrooms, which gave a pleasing variation of size and texture in the finished dish.

Orange drizzle marmalade cake

I love a good loaf cake and my intention was to make my lemon curd cake, with marmalade instead. However, as I was leafing through the Kitchen Diaries book I noticed this recipe in there and thought I would give it a go. I thought it was probably important to choose the right marmalade so after much consideration I chose the Tiptree orange & tangerine marmalade, which is really tasty and tangy and not too sweet. The cake did indeed turn out just like the picture after the specified cooking time – sticky and moist and golden. I am not always a fan of icing on loaf cakes but the sweetness of the orange drizzle frosting just balances the tartness of the marmalade in the sponge. I’ll definitely make this again!

Tom’s review: “A nice choice for this time of year, a good mixture of earthy mushroom flavour and citrus. The cake had a subtle orange flavour and wasn’t too sweet. “

Tom’s scores on the doors: Main course 7.4/10 Dessert 8.2/10

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The best lemon curd cake ever

{ August 25, 2010 @ 11:00 am } · { Baking, Family, Recipes }
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This is a family recipe of mine that comes from my great granny on my mum’s side. Its a nice alternative to a standard lemon cake, and works best made in a loaf tin with no need for icing or decoration. Because of the lemon curd it’s a moist and slightly dense cake, and I love having it with a glass of milk as a treat. It reminds me of my childhood when I used to help my mum bake and memories of this batter being very tasty to lick off the wooden spoon!

You can almost do no wrong with this recipe – the only caveat being that you must use a nice lemon curd! Rubbish lemon curd doesn’t do it justice, home made lemon curd or a good thick lemon cheese (like you can buy in farm shops) are best.

  • Cream 6oz butter and add 4oz caster sugar
  • Add 3 eggs
  • Add 8oz self raising flour
  • Fold in 5 tablespoons of lemon curd (it’s important not to over mix this part or it’s too light a batter)
  • Pour into a lined loaf tin and bake at 140 degrees C
  • Check if it’s done after an hour, the knife should come out clean, not gooey. Sometimes it needs an extra 5 -10 mins cooking time.

This really is a great cake that can brighten up a coffee break at work or equally be served when the in-laws pop in, it won’t stay in your cake tin for long. I hope you have a go at making it and enjoy it too!

Easy peasy peppermint creams

{ August 24, 2010 @ 11:00 am } · { Baking, Recipes }
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I made these as an after dinner treat to take round to our friends’ house. They were dead quick and easy to make and very tasty too.

  • Beat an egg white
  • Add 1 tsp lemon juice
  • Add roughly 400g icing sugar
  • Add some peppermint essence to taste – (I used confectioners peppermint which is strong, so it only needed 2 drops)
  • Add food colouring if you like
  • You can also use an optional splosh of double cream (around 30ml), which makes them a bit more rich
  • roll out & shape however you like
  • place on a plate or tray covered in greaseproof paper & allow to dry for 15 mins or so
  • melt some good chocolate (I used Green & Blacks 72% dark) and dip or drizzle over the creams
  • allow chocolate to set before enjoying these more-ish treats!

Baby biscotti

{ July 24, 2010 @ 12:00 pm } · { Baking, Family, Recipes }
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I’m not a big fan of giving Millie rusks, but she does sometimes need something good to gnaw on. The solution? Make your own! I trawled the internet for a good recipe and couldn’t quite find what I wanted so this is a bit of a hybrid of what I read. It’s great because you don’t use a lot of sugar, but add flavours like vanilla and spices to give them sweetness and taste. You can also swap out a bit of flour for some cocoa powder to make them chocolatey. Because you bake them twice they are good and solid to be chewed on but are still edible. In fact, I have been known to dunk one in a cup of tea!

Ingredients:

  • unsalted butter 30g
  • caster sugar 80g
  • 1 egg
  • baking powder 1/2 teaspoon
  • pinch of salt
  • 1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon or ginger
  • 1 teaspoon of vanilla essence
  • plain flour 140g

Method:

  • preheat fan oven to 180 degrees C
  • cream butter & sugar, then add the egg
  • add vanilla, cinnamon, baking powder, salt
  • add the flour until mixture holds together (you may not need it all)
  • form the mixture into a wide sausage shape on a greased baking tray, or using parchment (pic 1 below)
  • bake for 20 mins
  • slice into thin pieces and lay flat on the tray, bake for 10 mins (pic 2 below)
  • turn over the biscuits and bake for a further 10 mins

These biscotti will keep for ages in an air tight box and can also freeze.

Jamie Oliver’s Lamb Stew

{ July 23, 2010 @ 12:00 pm } · { Recipes }
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This is a tasty warming sticky stew for one of those days when you need a bit of comfort food. We have made it twice this month because the weather has been so cold! It’s from the ‘Jamie’s Kitchen‘ cookbook but the recipe is available online here.

Great things about this stew:

  • It’s quite versatile because you can keep it light and serve with salad and crusty bread or you can add the traditional sunday lunch accoutrements.
  • It has hidden flavours in it that I wouldn’t particularly like individually. For example marmite and parsnips (they are grated up!)
  • It only takes about 1 1/2 hours to cook and will keep for a couple of days.
  • It has chippolatas skewered on rosemary stalks resting on top – what a great idea!
  • It’s not an expensive meal – a little lamb goes a long way

Iron Cupcake – Pink & Blue

{ June 13, 2010 @ 8:42 pm } · { Baking, Pubs, Recipes }
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Well, tonight was my first experience of the Iron Cupcake competition in Leeds…. and it was certainly a tough one! It’s a monthly challenge to all budding cupcake bakers out there to come up with the yummiest and most beautiful creation according to the theme of the month.

This month it was ‘blue & pink’ in aid of Cancer Research uk and people had come up with some very clever ideas (14 entries in total). Everyone arrived & set out their cakes and signs. The best cake from each entry was photographed and displayed, whilst the rest were cut up for judging. The entry fee for each ‘baker’ is £5 (which usually gets you a free drink – but tonight was donated to charity). You can also put yourself forward as an ‘eater’ (which Tom did – see his picposterous) and go round with a scorecard – marks out of 5 for presentation & out of 10 for taste. Everyone was having a greattime and giving it careful consideration! And you weren’t allowed to linger around your entry to put any pressure on people!!

I liked the ‘Strawberry & Cream’ cupcake, which was delicious and light, and a gorgeous ‘Blueberry’ one (which came 2nd.) There were some amazing cocktail themed ones, like ‘Blue Lagoon’, ’Cosmopolitan’ (which won) with umbrellas & adornments and lots with very bright blue & pink frosting.

My entry was ‘Turkish Delights’ – based on the red velvet chocolate cupcakes (Hummingbird Bakery recipe) topped with a pink rosewater & cinnamon buttercream, pink glitter and pieces of turkish delight. I was pleased with how they turned out, the cake was rich, the topping was just sweet enough but unfortunately slightly gooey! When cut into quarters, it did somewhat ruin the presentation :( (But I did get some hints from some of the other bakers!) I also forgot to take a photo until they had nearly all gone – oops!

Prizes are given out for first & second place, but that’s not really the point. It was great fun to do the planning and baking and even better to enjoy everyone else’s! And in true competitive spirit I have now retreated to plan my next attempt!

Details:

When: Sunday @ 6pm – see website for dates

Where: The Adelphi, Leeds (lovely function room upstairs)

Idea: Bake 12 cupcakes in line with the theme of the month, bring 3 whole to display and the rest cut into quarters for tasting. You must have a pretty sign to tell folks about your creation.

Website: http://www.ironcupcakeleeds.co.uk/

Cranberry & Almond Scones

{ February 9, 2010 @ 7:38 pm } · { Recipes }
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My aunt & uncle are coming to visit tomorrow and I wanted to make some homemade scones. On a recent trip to Costco I thought it was a good idea to buy a jumbo sized bag of dried cranberries to be used for baking (much cheaper than in the supermarket!) – and so am eager to try them out in different recipes. I had a look on the internet and through my entire shelf of cookbooks and couldn’t find an appropriate recipe, so I decided to experiment a little.

I used a basic cherry scone recipe, substituting cranberries (soaked in OJ) for cherries, added some flaked almonds and glazed the top with the left over orange juice and a dusting of brown sugar. They have turned out really well, and aren’t too sweet (which is the danger with sweetened dried fruit) as I only put in a tablespoon of sugar into the mixture. Give it a try, they took less than half an hour and are much nicer than bought ones!

Ingredients:

  • Self raising flour – 225g
  • Pinch of salt
  • Caster sugar – 1 tablespoon
  • Butter – 75g
  • Dried cranberries – 80g
  • Flaked almonds – 40g
  • Egg x 1 beaten
  • Milk – 50ml
  • Fresh orange juice – a splash (enough to soak the cranberries in)
  • Golden caster sugar to dust

Method:

  • Preheat oven to 220 degrees C (mine is a fan oven)
  • Soak cranberries in orange juice for about 10 mins, then chop them up a little. Save the OJ for glazing later.
  • Sieve flour, salt & caster sugar into a bowl
  • Add the butter (preferably cold) chopped into small cubes & rub in until you get a breadcrumb consistency
  • Add the chopped cranberries and flaked almonds
  • Add the beaten egg and mix
  • Add the milk little by little and mix until you get a soft but not wet dough
  • Roll out on a floured surface to about 2cm thick
  • Cut out scone shapes – I used a round 5cm cutter
  • Place on a greased baking tray/baking parchment
  • Brush the left over orange juice over the scones and sprinkle golden caster sugar over the top to give them a little crunch
  • Bake for about 12 mins and they should be golden on top

Chocolate Chilli Pudding

{ October 16, 2009 @ 10:55 am } · { Recipes }
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In honour of chocolate week, we had this gorgeous Nigella Lawson Recipe last night for pudding (From her ‘Feast’ recipe book). It’s a very easy recipe involving gorgeous ingredients like cocoa, chilli, cinnamon and rum which turns out like a lovely light souffle with its own gooey sauce.

It’s a very indulgent, warming winter pudding which is perfect served with some pouring cream. It’s quick and easy enough to make mid-week, but is also impressive at a dinner party. In fact it’s so good we scoffed it before remembering to take a photo! But luckily someone else has previously blogged about it  – so have a look at what they thought! (The Big Mama Blog)

An autumnal cake

{ September 27, 2009 @ 5:02 pm } · { Recipes }
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Spotted some plums on 1/2 price this afternoon and decided to make a very seasonal cake. The recipe is from one of my favourite cookbooks – Nigel Slater’s Kitchen Diaries. The recipes are arranged by month to give you a clue which ingredients are at their best, and I have to say everything we have cooked from this book to date has been lovely!

You need:

20cm cake tin
Butter 150g
Golden caster sugar 150g
Eggs 3
Plain flour 75g
Baking powder 1 1/2 tsp
Ground almonds 100g
Chopped walnuts 50g
16 plums (de-stoned and cut in quarters)

Mix cake batter ingredients together and put into cake tin. Arrange plum quarters on top, then bake at 180 degrees C for 45 mins.

Delicious!

A day for a Garden party

{ July 26, 2009 @ 7:27 pm } · { Family, Garden, Recipes }
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Last weekend we went to a lovely garden party at my mother-in-law’s. Luckily the unreliable summer weather was kind and stayed sunny for the occasion – the garden was decked out with bunting and filled full of friends having a good time. The theme was ‘afternoon tea’ and so there was a great array of homemade cakes to be marvelled at (see pics) and there was a good effort made by all to sample a piece of each! Some of the inspiration & recipes came from two really good cookbooks – ‘Bake me I’m yours…cupcake’ and ‘Afternoon tea parties’.

Rose water cupcakes

Rose water cupcakes

Festive bunting

Festive bunting

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