Colehill Kitchen

Thai Green Chicken and King Prawn Curry

2011-02-24T07:39:00.000-08:00

After reading Nigella's book Kitchen, my latest new obsession is sushi rice. I know it's nothing earth shattering, but it's my absolute favourite carbohydrate at the moment. There's something so comforting about the slightly sweet flavour of the grains that cling to each other and soak up whatever juices or sauce that you spoon over it. The sticky texture is the ultimate comfort food, warming and satisfying on these colder days that we've had in the last couple of months - and without the guilt, that I at least, certainly feel with a big bowl of pasta or a bread-heavy meal. I can justify a big bowl of sushi rice to myself with 'It's ok, it's unprocessed and natural,' unlike the other carbs that I usually turn to for comfort - cue bread based meals like pizza, fried foods like chips or breadcrumbed dishes, or pasta dishes which, let's face it, usually come topped with cheese!!

So, on to my other current obsession - the topping for this rice: Thai Green Curry. The gentle heat with the creamy (yet not as hideously detrimental for the waistline as actual cream!) coconut milk, and subtle flavourings of lemongrass, lime and ginger creates my ultimate weekend treat at the moment. Obviously you could put whatever you wanted in it meat-wise, or in fact you could make a vegetarian one, however my particular favourite is chicken and king prawn. You don't need many prawns, they're sort of the icing on the cake, and chicken seems to compliment the flavours beautifully.

The recipe I've used is a Waitrose one which I tailored slightly to my taste, but I imagine they're all fairly similar:

Serves 3:
For the chicken:
3 chicken breasts
2 tbsp Thai green curry paste

For the curry sauce:
1 tsp olive oil
1 red onion
1cm fresh root ginger, peeled and finely chopped
3-5 tbsp Thai green curry paste
half a jar of tamarind paste (about 40-50g)
400ml coconut milk (one can)
1-2 kaffir lime leaves (I haven't managed to get my hands on these yet so I used a few strips of lime zest, about half a lime's worth
1 lemongrass stalk, bruised
1/2 tbsp soy sauce
1 1/2 tbsp Thai fish sauce
1/2 tbsp sweet chilli sauce
frozen peas (the recipe suggests about 40g, but i just pour in as many as I feel like)

Marinade the chicken in the Thai green curry paste for at least 15 minutes before starting cooking.
Fry the onion in the oil for 3 minutes, then add the ginger and fry till it's all soft.
Still in the paste and cook for 5 minutes, then add the chicken and fry for 5 minutes.
Add 150ml boiling water to the tamarind paste, then add this along with the coconut milk, lime leaves (or zest), lemongrass, and slowly bring to a simmer - but don't boil or the chicken will toughen.
Simmer gently for 5 minutes until the chicken is cooked, then add the soy, fish sauce and chilli sauce along with the peas and simmer till the peas are tender.
Remove the lemongrass and leaves or zest, serve over rice and sprinkle with coriander and spring onions if you fancy.

Obviously this recipe doesn't include the prawns, I added them right at the end, just before the peas, so they had a few minutes to cook through. Pile high on a plate and dive in - perfection!!

Dedication Cake

2011-02-02T11:45:00.000-08:00

Here is my latest attempt at cake decorating, it was for Mr. Colehill's nephew (for whom the New Baby Cake was for in August) who had his dedication last weekend. It was a lovely occasion, with all eyes and attention on the beautiful boy.

This is the first time I've been 'commissioned' to do a cake as it were, as opposed to just deciding to make one, so I was pretty excited to say the least!!

The cakes were layers of chocolate and victoria sponges, with white chocolate buttercream between each layer and between the sponge and the royal icing. The baby in the basket and building blocks were pure icing...not to be given to any children for fear of some extremely hyper-active playing and probably some very tired parents at the end of the day!!

Hope you like it, this could be the beginning of a beautiful business :-)

Borough Market Sea Bass and Chorizo

2011-01-18T01:28:00.000-08:00

Last Saturday Mr. Colehill and I took a trip to Borough Market to have a little wander and hopefully stock up on some interesting and delicious morsels for the weekend, and we weren't disappointed. I have to admit that Borough Market really is one of my all time favourite places to spend my time, closely followed by the Wholefoods Market in High Street Kensington. I just love the abundance of weird and wonderful products that surround you as you amble through the winding paths through the market, and the gems that you stumble across when you're not sure what you're there to buy.

This time we knew we wanted some fish - yes, I admit it, we were completely drawn in by the Hugh's Fish Fight and Borough Market seemed the ideal place to pick up something wild and a bit different. The amount of choice was quite astonishing - I'm always impressed with the number of stalls and the amount of variety on each stall when I go there, and after perusing the counters we eventually settled on wild Sea Bass. It's a firm favourite and definitely worth a little extra expense, although having said that, I don't think eleven pounds is too bad for a whole fish.

The next couple of things we bought weren't on our list but they were really worth splashing out on: Soft goat's cheese, a lovely multi-grain loaf of bread and some baked delights - a ginormous and overwhelming chocolate brownie and an equally large and very full apple strudel. The cheese was nearly seven pounds, but my god was it worth it. I can't remember the name now but it was a sort of triangular shape with the point lopped off if you can imagine it, and a grey colour from the charcoal ash that it was covered in. Once you cut into it however you unearth the purest creamy white interior, beautiful against the ash and completely irresistible. We demolished an impressive amount of it with the multi-grain bread that afternoon, before moving on to the brownie and strudel which made me feel like someone out of Gulliver's Travels - they. were. huge. But hey, at least you feel like you're getting your money's worth when they're that size. The brownie was gorgeous but waaaaaay too sweet and rich for one person to eat the whole lot, luckily I had the human bin, aka Mr. Colehill with me, so that wasn't too much of an issue!

After our purchases we picked up some lunch - a beautifully tender pork belly and apple sauce baguette for Mr. Colehill, and a fragrant and creamy Thai Green Curry with chicken and seafood on white rice for me. It really was worth every penny, I got a generous amount of chicken which was thigh meat, full of flavour and juicy tenderness, as well as a giant prawn sitting proudly atop the mound of pale green sauce flecked with white rice, and a couple of rogue mussels waiting to be discovered as I made my way through it. It definitely inspired me to make my own Thai Green Curry next weekend, and I've already got my eye on the prawns I want for it from the Wholefoods Market, which is where we visited next.

Yes, it was a very food oriented shopping day - the best kind! So we made our way to Kensington from Borough Market and bought some Chorizo Picante from the deli counter, as well as a very large sack of sushi rice (a new obsession at Colehill Kitchen) and some other random dried goods in brown bags because we got over excited using the 'pour it yourself' funnels. Yes, we're that childish.

The result of a day's dedication to shopping was, among other things, this fish dish.

I baked the Bass pretty much plain (other than a little seasoning) in foil at 180 degrees for about 18 minutes, and while that was cooking I par boiled some new potatoes then tossed them in with the chorizo, which I had fried for a couple of minutes first until the oils were released a little. They cooked together for about 5 or 6 minutes until the firy red of the chorizo oil had covered and infused the potatoes. When that was done I transferred the potatoes and chorizo into a warm bowl and deglazed the pan with some white wine before adding a splash of cream and some of the juices from the baked fish right at the very end before serving.

Served with vibrant green beans, this was a really simple but special meal. I know that white fish with chorizo isn't exactly a groundbreaking combination, but it's a classic because it's just so damned delicious!! The slightly spicy flavour of the chorizo compliments the softer but still firm flavour of the Bass, which can also stand up to the saltiness in the meat. Alongside the waxy potatoes which give texture and soak up the salty liquor from the chorizo, and the slight crunch of the green beans, this dish was a real winner and I'll definitely make it again!

Chocolate Orange Cookies

2011-01-14T02:59:00.001-08:00

It's always exciting to try new recipes, and even more so to tweak recipes in your own individual way to make something extra special, but for me, the most exciting thing is to create a recipe that's completely your own. This is the first sweet recipe that I've ever invented myself, and as something from the baking realm it was quite daunting - things can go so easily wrong (and trust me, they did a couple of times) but when it works you get the greatest sense of achievement, well, in my opinion anyway.

So here's my little creation: Chocolate Orange Cookies. They're sort of cracked and glossy on the top and soft and squidgy in the middle - my ideal texture for a cookie. The orange flavour comes through quite strongly which is just my own taste, and the slightly bitter tones of the dark chocolate really set of the sweetness of the orange beautifully.

Chocolate Orange Cookies
300g dark chocolate
50g butter
2 eggs
170g soft light brown sugar
half a teaspoon of baking powder
125g plain flour
Zest of 2 oranges
Juice of half an orange

Preheat your oven to 170 degrees.
Melt the butter with 200g of the chocolate, set aside. Chop the remaining chocolate into chunks.
Beat the eggs, sugar and zest until pale and fluffy, then add the melted chocolate mixture.
Sieve in the flour and baking powder and combine.
Add the orange juice and the remaining dark chocolate chunks, then spoon on to a lined baking tray and bake for 0-5 minutes until they are beginning to crack on the top.
Leave to cool on the baking tray for a few minutes before transferring on to a cooling rack as they'll be very fragile and near impossible to transfer at first.

I gave these to a friend as part of her Christmas present and she seemed to thoroughly enjoy them and told me that the rest of her family were fans too, so I'm thrilled - I hope you try them, and try your own recipes too :-)

Hugh's Fish Fight

2011-01-12T13:10:00.000-08:00

No recipes this time I'm afraid, but something far more important in my opinion - the conservation of our fish stocks. As I write I'm watching the second in a three part series by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall called Hugh's Fish Fight, a programme which has quite rightly caused a stir in the media and I can only hope indignation across the country.

As well as the launch of this campaign, I coincidentally got Hugh F-W's River Cottage Meat Book for Christmas and this too has whipped me up in to a frenzy of anger and resentment over bad farming practices and unacceptable treatment of animals before they are killed for meat. Now, I hold my hands up and say that I probably haven't educated myself on this subject as well as I should have done as a food lover, but it's time to change. A New Year's resolution of mine this year was to do just that, to learn as much as I can about the meat and fish industry and to ensure that I only buy meat and fish from ethical farms, and if that isn't available, well I'll just do without and turn temporarily vegetarian until I can buy well sourced meat.

I hope if you're reading this that you too are interested in this topic, as I'm sure you are if you're a bonafide foodie like me and the rest of the food blog writing and reading world. After writing this post I'm going to attempt to add the Fish Fight widget to this blog (ambitious words for my practically computer illiterate self) and hopefully the next website you visit will be the Fish Fight campaign that accompanies the programme currently airing. Do send an email to your MP, do sign the petition, but most importantly, if you're like me, change your own buying and eating habits.

I don't pretend to be perfect, and I'm sure over the coming months I'll have a hiccup or two and forget my resolution by picking up a can of tuna (I gather even Princes are less than perfect in their fishing practices) or grabbing a chicken sandwich on the run, but hey - I'm putting one hundred per cent effort in to trying, and sticking to the principles that really, I think I've always had, I just haven't done the research into before.

Wish me luck, and here's to a happy, healthy and conscientious 2011!

Rocket, Moon and Astronaut Space Themed Cake

2010-11-22T05:37:00.001-08:00

This weekend was hectic in the best possible way, lots of family and fun!! It was Mr.Colehill's nephew's fourth birthday party, and I (somewhat bravely) offered to make the cake for the occasion, and here is the finished article!! I'm quite pleased with it since it's only my second go at cake decorating - the first being the baby cake for the birthday boy's new baby brother a few months ago.

I definitely want to take a course at some point to learn the tricks of the trade and improve on the basics and foundations of cake decorating, but for a new hobby and a fairly ambitious idea I'm happy with it. If anyone knows of any good courses that run I'd appreciate some tips!!
Both the moon and the rocket are entirely cake - a vanilla sponge with chocolate buttercream, and the astronaut is modeled out of sugarpaste. hope you like it!!

Nigella's Devil's Food Cake

2010-11-11T05:31:00.000-08:00

All hail Nigella, she's done it again. I recently bought her latest book Kitchen without having read any reviews, without flicking through it first, and without umm-ing and ahh-ing over it as I usually do with a hefty new cookbook. Should I have been a little more cautious before racing to the counter? A resounding no. It's a triumph and an absolute gem of a book to read, let alone use any of the recipes. There is a beautifully written introduction and a lengthy section on utensils worth having, and perhaps more importantly, gadgets absolutely not worth having. I hold my hands up to making some of the same purchasing errors as her, but it's so tempting at the time!!

Anyway, I couldn't wait to get started and have a go at some of her recipes, and yes I know this is utterly predictable, but I went straight to the desserts chapter and landed satisfyingly on her Devil's Food Cake. If you are on a diet, this is not for you. However if you enjoy a hefty dose of chocolate and cake, then do not hesitate to make this little (or rather large) beauty.

Devil's Food Cake
50g cocoa powder, sifted
100g dark muscovado sugar
250ml boiling water
125g soft unsalted butter
150g caster sugar
225g plain flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp bicarb
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 eggs

Frosting
125ml water
30g dark muscovado sugar
175g unsalted butter, cubed
300g dark chocolate

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees and line 2 sandwich tins.
Put the cocoa and muscovado sugar into a bowl and add the boiling water, set aside.
Cream the butter and caster sugar until pale and fluffy.
Sift the flour, baking powder and bicarb in another bowl, set aside.
Add the vanilla extract to the butter mixture, still mixing, then the eggs one at a time.
Keep mixing then add the flour mixture, then fold in the cocoa mixture.
Divide between the two tins and bake for about 30 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean.

For the frosting put the water, muscovado sugar and butter in a pan and melt over a low heat.
When it begins to bubble take off the heat and add the chopped chocolate, leave for a minute to melt before whisking till smooth and glossy.
Leave for about one hour, giving it a whisk every now and then.
When the cakes have cooled and the frosting is ready, put some frosting between the cakes, then cover with the rest.

Although Nigella suggests an hour is long enough to set the frosting, mine wasn't ready at this point and I needed to speed up the process so I put it in the freezer for 5 minutes. I did the trick, however I sacrificed the glossiness that the frosting should have had for speed. I would suggest making the icing before you make the cake and give it plenty of time to firm up at room temperature.

Utterly delicious and dangerously moreish, I highly recommend this cake. This was demolished within 48 hours, leaving only some rather snug waistbands and a smattering of crumbs on the plate!

Rachel Allen's Chocolate and Vanilla Semifreddo

2010-09-17T01:43:00.000-07:00

As you may know if you've happened to skim over the 'About Me' part of this blog, I've worked as a pastry chef, and I have to say that the thing I miss most and really struggle to make outside of the confines of a professional kitchen is ice cream. In the restaurant, I had a massive industrial type ice cream churner, and made freshly churned ice creams and sorbets every day, which were beyond delicious. We had chocolate, vanilla, tonka bean, pistachio, coconut, raspberry, pear, passion fruit, coffee...the list is endless, and each one was smooth and soft, set but yielding, and utterly irresistable.

After I left, I really missed freshly made ice cream so I bought a do-it-yourself-at-home gadget for churning ice cream. It's a fairly teeny little device that holds a litre of ice cream, and churns while in the freezer, working off a battery. Sounds great huh? Well, take my advice - don't bother wasting your money on one. Seriously. It made patchy uneven ice cream, some parts frozen, some still liquid, with ice crystals all the way through it. Not delicious.

So what's a girl with an ice cream craving to do? Good old Rachel Allen to the rescue again, I found a recipe for semifreddo in her book Home Cooking, a resident life saver in my kitchen, and it was a real success.

Semifreddo

3 eggs, separated

150g caster sugar

500ml double cream

200g dark chcolate, finely chopped

Line a loaf tin with 2 layers of cling film, with plenty extra over the sides so that you can fold it over to cover the semifredo when freezing.

Whisk the egg yolks and sugar in a large bowl until pale and fluffy.

In a separate bowl, whisk the cream until you have soft peaks.

In yet another bowl, whisk the egg whites until they form firm peaks.

Gently fold the cream into the yolks and sugar, then fold the egg whites into the mixture, being careful not to knock out the air you've whisked in.

Sprinkle a third of the chopped chocolate into the bottom of the loaf tin, then pour on half of the semifreddo mix. Then sprinkle a second third of the chocolate on top of this, then the remaining semifreddo mix, anf finally the last of the chocolate.

Fold the cling film over the top so that it's all covered, then freeze for at least 6 hours.

To go along with this, Rachel suggests a hot chocolate sauce, a pretty fine suggestion if you ask me!

Hot Chocolate Sauce

75g dark chocolate, chopped

100ml double cream

Melt the chocolate in a heatproof bowl over simmering water, then whisk in the cream to give a smooth sauce.

The trick is here to have the cream and chocolate as close in temperature as possible before combining them, so let the chocolate cool, a bit after melting, and don't have the cream fridge cold.

This is a really delicious alternative to ice cream, and it softens so beautifully when it's been out of the freezer a few minutes. It doesn't melt exactly, but becomes the semifreddo it's meant to be - half frozen. It has a firm texture, but the smooth creaminess really comes through and is utterly beautiful...and dangerously moreish! Perfect for a dessert after a fairly heavy meal as portions are flexible and the whipping keeps it fairly light, and is a great standby to have in the freezer if you have people over at short notice and need a delicious pudding!!

Orange Madeira Loaf Cake

2010-09-05T07:47:00.000-07:00

It's been a hectic few weeks and I've abandoned the blogosphere since the New Baby Cake which kind of took it out of me to be honest! Anyway, I finally found time to get back in the kitchen and made something considerably less complicated yet utterly delicious. It's a Rachel Allen recipe from her Home Cooking book which I love, I've mentioned it in previous blog posts and really rely on it as a go-to whenever I'm lacking in inspiration; in fact, it is probably second only to Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's Everyday book in terms of how often it gets used at Colehill Kitchen.

This time it was a lovely warming orange loaf cake, perfect now that the weather is cooling off, but not in the realms of dense wintery fruit or chocolate cakes. It's a nice change from the traditional lemon drizzle cake, but no less delicious.

Orange Cake

175g butter, softened

175g caster sugar

3 eggs

Zest of 2 oranges

225g plain flour

1 tsp baking powder

4 tsp freshly squeezed orange juice

Cream the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. I used part golden caster sugar and part normal caster sugar, but it's entirely up to you!

Add the eggs one at a time, beating well between each one, then add the orange zest.

Sift the flour and baking powder then fold in with the juice, stopping as soon as all the flour is combined.

Transfer into a greased and lined loaf tin, then smoth out the top.

Bake in the oven at 170 degrees for 50-55 minutes until a skewer comes out clean.

Allow to cool on a wire rack.

The icing in particular went down a storm, which was simply 75g icing sugar and 2-3 tbsp of freshly squeezed orange juice. Combine the juice with the icing sugar gradually until it is soft but not runny, then spoon over the cake.

Slice and enjoy with a cuppa for the perfect afternoon tea!

New Baby Cake!!

2010-08-13T02:21:00.001-07:00

This is an exciting post for me, because this is my first ever attempt at cake decoration in this way. I've always stuck to buttercream frosting and simple cakes, but this is a special occasion, so I tried my hand at something a little more detailed. The occasion in question is a beautiful baby boy, Mr. Colehill's new little nephew, and I wanted to do something special for the event. However, that is easier said than done because I've never done it before. This has been a week in the making in the evenings after work, starting with designing, making the sugarpaste decorations, baking the cake and finally assembling.

Anyway, here is the final product - The cake is layers of chocolate sponge and victoria sponge, with white chocolate buttercream between each layer. The building blocks are also cake, but the rest of the decorations are made out of sugarpaste.

I'd say this is my proudest achievement to date, I'm really pleased with the way it came out, but of course I'd love to hear ny tips and tricks you may have for cake decorating!!

P. S. excuse the milk bottle coming off at the side, it needs to be fixed on firmly before I give it to the new family!!

Julia Child's Quiche Lorraine

2010-08-09T08:45:00.000-07:00

A rare savoury recipe has snuck on to Colehill Kitchen this week, a shock I'm sure, but at least it involves pastry!! Mr. Colehill is quite the quiche connoisseur, and while I was flicking through Julia Child's book, Mastering the Art of French cooking, which was a gift from him, he decided that the first recipe used from it should really be a 'gift' for him. I can hardly disagree. And so, a plan to make quiche was born.

I assumed it would be really time consuming for some reason, probably the notion of making pastry from scratch, but it was fairly simple quick and very simple to make. The pastry is a standard recipe, no surprises there. It's written in ounces so that's how I'll do it here:

Pastry:

5oz plain flour

1/2 tsp salt

Pinch sugar

4oz chilled butter, cubed.

4-4.5 tblsp cold water

Sieve the flour, salt and sugar into a large mixing bowl, add the butter and rub together quickly until you get and oat flake texture, careful not to overdo it though.

Then add the water and blend quickly shaping into a ball, before tipping out onto a surface and make one kneading motion for the final blending of fat and flour, the fraisage.

Leave to rest in the fridge for at least half an hour, or until needed.

Roll out and lay in a greased tin, and blind bake for 8 to 10 minutes until it is becoming golden.

Filling:

3 - 4 oz lean bacon

3 eggs

1/2 pint double cream

1/2 tsp salt

pinch pepper

1/2 - 1 oz butter cut in to little dots.

Cut the bacon in to bitesize pieces and blanch in fresh water for a couple of minutes, drain and pat dry. Fry in a pan until crispy and slightly golden - I was too impatient at this step and should have fried them longer. Then place in the pastry case.

Combine the eggs, cream and seasoning in a jug and pour over the bacon, and dot the top with the butter. Bake in the oven at about 180 degrees for 25 to 30 minutes, or until the top is beginning to brown.

Although it isn't traditional, I added a handful of grated cheese into the egg and cream mix, yum!...we are lovers of cheese at Colehill Kitchen!

I have to say I would probably leave out the extra butter on top, as it resulted in a patchy surface to the quiche. As well as this, I think I would use half and half double and single cream next time too, as all double cream is just a tad too rich for my taste!

Leave to sink a little while it cools, and enjoy!! This of course is lovely cold too with salad and other chilled foods. Perfect for sitting in the garden sipping a cold glass of white wine!

Nigella's Chocolate and Nut Brownies

2010-07-26T08:47:00.000-07:00

I've been on a hunt recently, a hunt for the best brownie. There are about a billion squillion recipes out there for brownies, and I really wanted to find one worth keeping hold of for those times when nothing else will do but dense, chocolatey, soft, squidgy brownie. You know the moments... when it's cold and gloomy outside and you want a hot mug of tea and something heavy and indulgent, or when you've had a hard day at work and you really deserve a treat, or, you know, when it just tickles your fancy - no excuses necessary!! Anyway, I tried a recipe recently and it was pretty pants if I'm honest. It was a dark and white chocolate swirl brownie and I could just tell as soon as I'd made the batter it was going to be rubbish. Thick and gungy, and kind of oily, just bad bad bad. So, I promised myself, and those who suffered the tantrum when the brownie making didn't go so well, that I'd find a stonking good recipe to make up for it.

I scoured the internet, I trawled through my books, I asked around... and eventually I came across what I really should have gone looking for in the first place: Nigella. You know that I love Nigella, and one of the reasons I love her is because she is oh-so-good at coming up with recipes that are completely indulgent, without feeling bad about it. She knows if you're looking for a brownie recipe, you want it to be rich, heavy, gooey in the middle and choc-tastic. None of this fancy malarkey, she even admits trying to posh up the brownies with pistachios but it doesn't work, and we all know why: brownies aren't posh. They are the opposite of posh. A good brownie should leave your fingers a little sticky, and they should not be eaten in front of someone you want to impress (say, a first date). A brownie should not be eaten delicately, but demolished in warp speed. This is not a mille-feuille or a delicate little tart people, this is the land of over-the-top, completely indulgent, naughty, messy pudds. Oh, and she also knows that if you are making these sqaures of wickedness, you want a lot of them, which is why the recipe makes enough to feed an army...or you know, 3 or 4 greedy people.

Chocolate Brownie:

375g unsalted butter

375g dark chocolate

6 eggs
500g caster sugar

225g plain flour

1 tsp salt
300g chopped walnuts

Melt the chocolate and butter together in a heavy-set pan, stirring regularly to avoid it catching on the bottom.

In a jug, combine the eggs and sugar, and in another separate bowl sieve together the flour and salt.

When the chocolate mixture has melted and cooled slightly, beat in the eggs and sugar, then the flour and nuts. Beat until smooth then pour into a lined tin, about 33 x 23 x 5.5 cm.

Bake at 180 degrees for about 25 minutes, but keep an eye from 20 minutes onward. The top should be pale speckled with dark brown, and will still have a little wobble in the middle. It will be quite soft but have faith in your convictions and get it out of the oven! The difference between soft gooey brownie and dry crumbly brownie is only a minute or two in the oven after all!

Leave to cool as long as you can before slipping the giant slab out of the tin and slicing into hearty wedges!!

You could add any kind of nuts (don't go posh though - Nigella said so!!), dried fruit such as dates or apricots, seeds, whatever really, but I like the basic recipe of dark chocolate and walnuts. The crunch is key here, the brownie should be so soft and squidgy that the walnuts give it a bit of solidity and texture...when you take a bite and find a walnut encased in soft brownie, the combination is utterly divine.

I definitely suggest making the quantity specified here - trust me, you'll never be short of takers. Intensely rich yet frustratingly moreish, these are a winner across the board. No one, and I mean no one, can resist a good old wedge of brownie.

Oatmeal and Raisin Cookies

2010-07-21T00:24:00.001-07:00

More delicious and delectable delights from the Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook you'll be pleased to hear!! After the Cheesecake and Blueberry Cake I thought I'd try something equally tempting but a little less artery-clogging next. So I flipped straight to the cookies section and settled fairly quickly on these treats. They went down a storm yesterday, I came in to work with a fairly hefty box full of them and my bag was considerably lighter on the way home...only a few crumbs left! Soft and chewy, they are the perfect mid-morning or afternoon snack, as my office colleagues will attest to!! One was converted to raisins after years of thinking she didn't like them, which I think is the highest achievement and greatest feeling of satisfaction possible when people try something you've made!!

Oatmeal and Raisin Cookies:

270g unsalted butter

160g caster sugar

160g soft dark brown sugar

2 eggs

380g plain flour

1 tsp salt

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

110g rolled oats

220g raisins

Cream together the butter and sugars, before adding the eggs one at a time.

Sift together the flour, cinnamon, bicarbonate of soda and salt, then mix in the oats.

Combine the dry ingredients with the butter, sugar and eggs, before mixing in the raisins.

Place balls of dough slightly smaller than a golf ball on to a baking tray, leaving plenty of space between each one to allow them to spread, and bake in the oven at 170 degreees for about 12 minutes.

As is usual with cookies, be brave and take them out when they are only just turning golden. They will still be very soft and need a delicate touch so that they don't fall apart when you transfer them on to a wire rack to cool. Leave for a few minutes until they are solid enough to pick up, then munch away!!

These cookies really are lovely. Raisins of course add to the sweetness and chewy-factor, and are hugged by soft cookie in which the cinnamon flavour is very delicate, just enough to give a warming flavour to the cookies, and the addition of brown sugar gives a slightly toffee-ish essence.

A doddle to make and perfect with a nice cup of tea, you can't go wrong!!

Gooey Chocolate Cake

2010-07-14T04:53:00.001-07:00

Here I am again with another Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall recipe… I hope they aren’t getting tedious, but I just love his food as well as his ideology so much! I think I might get an ‘I heart Hugh F-W’ t-shirt printed one of these days… anyway, I digress!!

Here is another success from his Everyday cookbook, and is a little different from the normal chocolate cakes you get. It’s made with almonds in the mix which gives it a lovely moist texture as well as a sort of warm taste if you know what I mean. There’s something really comforting about almonds, and whenever they sneak in to a recipe you really can tell, there’s a certain flavour that sort of envelopes you, they make the dish that little bit more luxurious and rich without overwhelming you. I don’t know if I’m explaining this very well, let’s just say they bring a certain je ne sais quoi to the cake!!

As well as this, the cake isn’t really a cake… I’m worried I’m going to lose you here, but bear with me! This is a good thing!! Instead of a run-of-the-mill sponge, this one is kind of gooey inside due to the lack of flour and when warm it’s a little difficult to tame but wonderfully smooth, soft and sticky, and then when it’s been cooling for a few hours and comes to room temperature – Oh. My. God!! The mix of brown sugar with caster sugar gives it a wonderfully caramelly flavour and it’s like chocolate fudge encased in chocolate cake! Completely delicious and oh-so-moreish!!

Chocolate Cake:

250g dark chocolate
250g unsalted butter
4 medium eggs, separated
100g caster sugar
100g soft light brown sugar
50g plain flour
50g ground almonds

Melt the chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl over a pan of simmering water.
Whisk the egg yolks with the sugar until well combined, then add the melted chocolate and butter to the yolk mix.
Combine the flour and almonds then fold these in too.
In a separate bowl whisk the egg whites until they form firm peaks.
Stir in one spoonful of whites to the chocolate mix to loosen it, then continue to fold in the rest of the whites, careful not to knock out the air.
Put the mixture into a prepared baking tin anf bake at 170 degrees for 30 minutes, until only just set. Take it out when there is still a wobble in the middle - this will result in the sticky gooey texture I was raving about!!
Leave to cool on a wire rack before turning out of the tin.
Dig in!!!

It isn’t decorated with anything; no frills, no frosting, nothing, and honestly – it’s at its best this way. The texture is too delicate to sustain any buttercream, and the flavour of the almonds with the chocolate really shines and would be completely overwhelmed by any heavy frosting.

I don’t think this is a special occasion cake, it’s more of an ‘I need a cup of tea and a treat’ type of cake. It’s not decadent and fancy, but humble and utterly satisfying, enjoy!!

Hummingbrid Blueberry Cake

2010-07-09T01:14:00.001-07:00

This week I decided a knock-your-socks of cake was in order. I've been on a rather more delicate trend with my baking exploits recently with Lemon cake, Snickerdoodles, and Bakewell Slices. Even the heavier desserts I’ve made like the Cheesecake and Chocolate Mousse Cake haven’t been sponge based, and I had a real hankering for a proper cakey cake if you know what I mean!! With tons of icing and everything!!

So I asked myself, which recipe book that I own is most likely to contain lots of delicious cakes? Clearly Hummingbird was the only answer!! Despite wanting a big old cake, with all this lovely hot weather I wasn’t quite in the mood for chocolate, and berries seemed the obvious choice of flavouring. This cake is baked in a ring shape in the Hummingbird book, however I don’t own one of those (yet!) so my reliable old round cake tin had to make do!!

It’s no ordinary cake recipe; the ratio of eggs, butter, sugar and flour is nothing like any other cake I’ve made – for starters there are SIX eggs!! … and then the very healthy addition of sour cream, which, you know, I have no problem with!!

Blueberry Cake:
350g unsalted butter
350g caster sugar
6 eggs
450g flour
2 tblsp and 2 tsp baking powder
280ml soured cream
250g fresh blueberries plus extra to decorate

Cream the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy, then add the eggs one at a time.
Beat in the sifted flour and baking powder until well mixed, then add the soured cream and mix well until liht and fluffy.
Gently stir in the blueberries and pour into a tin and bake at 170 degrees for 40 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean.
Leave to cool on a wire rack. When completely cooled cover with the cream cheese frosting and sprinkle with blueberries.

Cream Cheese Frosting:
600g icing sugar
100g unsalted butter
250g cream cheese

Combine the icing sugar and butter until well mixed, before adding the cream cheese and beat until light and fluffy.

The blueberries all sank to the bottom of the mix while it was baking which was disappointing, but I was more grumpy with myself because I completely forgot that a good way to avoid this is to quickly toss the berries in flour before mixing them into the batter. A handy hint for if you decide to make it!! Anyway, all was not lost because I turned the cake upside down to ice it, which resulted in almost a layering of sponge, then a really moist and berry-heavy section before hitting the cream cheese frosting…deeeeee-licious!!!

I’m not completely convinced by this cake; I think there are better sponge recipes out there, however I did want a really dense cakey-cake and that’s exactly what I got! As for its aesthetics, the snowy white of the frosting looked beautiful speckled with deep navy blueberries, and I did like the way the colour from the layer of blueberries bled into the pale yellow sponge dappling it with a deep purple which faded in to a paler lilac colour.

This is definitely a heavy cake, in typical Hummingbird fashion – they don’t do anything by halves!! I would say it’s probably best as an afternoon tea type of thing rather than dessert – I just can’t imagine ever having enough room for this cake after a meal! Either way though, completely indulgent and berries add a summery touch, enjoy!!

Nigella's Snickerdoodles

2010-07-05T01:16:00.000-07:00

Sometimes, because I'm a bit of a loser, I like to browse through my old blog posts. Sometimes to find recipes I want to make again, but more often than not, I have a peruse because I like to see the change in it. I like to see how at the beginning it was quite clear I was just getting to grips with blogging; the writing, the photos, the layout, and over the last year I would like to think that my posting has improved, I love to see the increase in the amount of you that comment and chat, and I'm a little more comfortable in this little space of mine.

However something had been bothering me as I glanced over old blog posts recently, and I couldn't quite figure out what it was. It was nothing that stood out and screamed 'Umm, Becca, Hello?!?! This is wrong!!', nothing conspicuously incorrect or missing, and I just couldn't put my finger on what was. Then it hit me. Nigella. Oh, Nigella, how could I possibly have neglected you so?! As I scrolled through my posts, I realised there was just one lonely little post on a Nigella recipe. One. Now, you may not know this, (chances are you don't since I have carelessly disregarded her books on this blog) but I'm a Nigella devotee, so this is qute an upsetting revelation for me. I have loved Nigella for years, my cookbook collection has ended up including several of her books which I love, and I look forward to her television programmes when we are treated to them. She epitomises home comforts, she shows luxurious food without being ostentacious, and never apologises for her indulgences. And on top of all these home-making efforts, and the importance she clearly places on her family, she has managed to become a successful businesswoman in her own right. Superwoman or what? Anyway, the point of my waxing lyrical about Nigella is this: I haven't written about enough of her recipes here, and I plan to rectify the situation!

So I thought I'd start with something fairly simple but utterly gratifying and enjoyable: Snickerdoodles, or as Mr. Colehill insists on calling them, Snickerdimdums. Don't ask me why, sometimes it's just better to nod along...

These are remarkably simple and quick to make,and the warming smell of cinnamon and nutmeg is completely divine, not to mention the sweet crumbly texture which is truly delightful and very very moreish! Nigella describes them as sort of a baked doughnut, shall we say a 'healthier' version or is that pushing it a little?! Mine were a little crumblier than I expected from the 'doughnut' comparison but perhaps I baked them a minute or so too long. Either way, they weren't exactly snubbed by the hungry mouths around me, and I don't think anyone had a problem with the more biscuit-y texture.

Snickerdoodles

125g unsalted butter

100g caster sugar plus 2 tblsp

1 egg

250g plain flour

1/2 tsp nutmeg

1/2 tsp salt

3/4 tsp baking powder

1 tblsp ground cinnamon

Combine the flour, nutmeg, salt and baking powder and set aside.

Next, cream the butter and 100g caster sugar until pale and fluffy, then beat in the egg.

Now beat in the flour until you have a soft and smooth paste/dough.

Combine the rest of the sugar and cinnamon on a plate.

Roll walnut sized pieces of dough in the suagr and cinnamon before placing on a lined baking tray.

Bake in the oven at 180 degrees for about 15 minutes when they should be turning a pale golden brown.

Leave to cool on a wire rack.

I challenge you to stop eating these without either removing yourself from the room or the Snickerdoodles from eyesight!! These biscuits are pretty much perfection in my eyes. They aren't too over the top, just right for an afternoon snack with a cup of tea. Obviously there is room for your Hummingbird type hit-you-over-the-head-with-chocolate Double Chocolate Cookies, but sometimes something a little more refined is in order. And we at Colehill Kitchen are British after all; it's in our nature to get over-excited about a little treat, as Bill Bryson has so aptly pointed out!! So here's to a dainty little morsel of perfection, courtesy of Nigella...I think she would throughly approve of a little indulgence!

Hummingbird Bakery Chocolate Cheesecake

2010-07-01T01:18:00.000-07:00

Ok, so I'm back on the chocolate bandwagon in a big big way, I know. This is possibly one of the most chocolate heavy desserts you could make, but it was a celebratory dessert!!! Well that's my excuse anyway. The oven at Colehill Kitchen has always been a bit of a disaster zone; it doesn't seem to have temperature control, so once you turn it on it just keeps getting hotter and hotter and hotter until it's like a furnace in there. This is great for bread making when you want the oven ridiculously hot, but it makes baking large cakes a real challenge (think black cinders on the outside, raw batter on the inside) and anything that needs a cool oven an absolute no-no. But a few days ago we got a new oven, YAYYY!!!! And what's the yummiest thing that needs a cool oven? Umm, hello? Cheesecake!

As well as the other Hummingbird recipes I've made, I've made this cheesecake before, about a year ago, and it really is rather huge. But it went down a storm with everyone (no surprise there really!) so I knew there would be no problem getting rid of this beast, and I was not wrong!! Despite the almost unbearable heat over the weekend, a third of the cheesecake was swiftly demolished, and now there are but a few crumbs left to prove it was ever there!!

Chocolate Cheesecake
Base:
200g digestive biscuits, finely crushed
2 tbs cocoa powder
150g unsalted butter, melted

Filling:
900g cream cheese
190g caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
4 eggs
200g dark chocolate, roughly chopped

The base is your usual biscuit base. Melt the butter then mix it into the crushed biscuits and cocoa powder before pressing into a a 23cm round springform cake tin, greased and base-lined with greaseproof paper. Leave this to chill and harden in the fridge while you make the filling.

For the filling, melt the chocolate in a bowl over simmering water, then set aside to cool slightly.

Meanwhile beat the cream cheese and caster sugar until thick. Add the vanilla extract and the eggs one by one, beating until fluffy. Careful not to overdo the mixing though or the cheese may split.

Then spoon on blob of cheese mix into the melted chocolate and mix, then a couple more dollops to bring both mixes to similar temperatures, before finally combining the lot and mixing until it is all an even colour.

Pour onto the base and bake in the oven for 40-50 minutes. Check it after 40 minutes to keep an eye out for burning around the edges, and take it out while there is still a wobble in the middle. Be brave about this!! If you leave it in too long the filling will be dry and crumbly, this you do not want - smooth and creamy all the way!!

Leave to cool and ideally chill overnight...if you can hold off that long!!

This recipe from the Hummingbird Bakery cookbook is competely over the top, rich and dense but not ridiculously heavy. Perhaps not the ideal dessert for a tropically hot and humid weekend but hey, it was a special oven-related occasion!! We deserved cheesecake after all this time!!

Super Moist Lemon Drizzle Cake

2010-06-28T00:28:00.001-07:00

After that monstrous chocolate fix, I felt something lighter was in order, and my sparkly new loaf tin that I used for the banana bread was being severely underused, so I settled on this lemon drizzle cake (or lemon trickle cake as Hugh calls it.) it looks beautiful baked in a loaf tin (and somehow seems less bad for me than if it was a round cake shape!!), and it made me pine after some mini loaf tins so that I can make individual little lemon loaves, or carrot cake loaves, fruit loaves...the possibilities are endless! I just love the idea of individual little portions, it seems so much more special than a boring old slice...maybe it’s just me being odd though!!

Anyway, back to the loaf at hand. Another one of Hugh’s lovely recipes from his Everyday cookbook, this was easy to make (Mr. Colehill barely noticed it was being made, THAT is how quick and easy it is: a man who loves food, particularly cake, didn’t notice a cake being made!) and it’s one of those beauties of a recipe where you are almost certainly going to have everything you need already in the house. I swear I’m going to make my way through that book at warp speed; whatever I’m looking for, I seem to find it in there, and the recipes always turn out wonderfully. Buy it buy it buy it!!

Anyway, here is the recipe

Lemon Trickle Cake
175g softened butter

175g caster sugar

zest 3 lemons

3 medium eggs

175g self raising flour

pinch salt

splash of milk (optional)

Lemon Icing
75ml lemon juice

200g icing sugar

Beat the butter, sugar and zest until pale and fluffy, the add the eggs one at a time, alternating with a spoonful of flour per egg to stop curdling, then add the rest of the flour.

The mix should drop off a spoon easily with a little tap, if it’s a little stiff, add a splash of milk to loosen it.

Pour into a lined loaf tin and bake at 180 degrees for 30-40 minutes, or until a skewer comes out clean.

Meanwhile to make the syrup, squeeze the zested lemons until you have 75ml of juice, then gradually whisk in the icing sugar.

When the cake is done, remove from the oven and pierce it deeply several times with a skewer (although not right down to the bottom) before pouring over the icing.

Leave to cool completely before removing from the tin.

The trick for this recipe is to beat the sugar and butter until either your arms just can’t take any more (if you are doing it by hand) or you are bored to tears (if you are using an electric whisk). The longer you beat and the paler and fluffier the butter and sugar become, the lighter your cake will end up being. This is something you definitely want: the combination of light sponge with the softness and moist texture from the icing is utterly divine.

This is a great afternoon tea cake, a lovely alternative to heavier flavours like chocolate or carrot. The lack of a heavy frosting is also refreshing, although I love a good helping of buttercream this cake really didn’t need anything like that to overpower it; the subtle lemony flavour and light sponge were elegant and delicate and deserve to be sitting on a dainty little plate next to a bone china teacup!!

I hope you enjoy this recipe, it really is a lovely one and I thoroughly recommend it; it may not look like much, but its testimony is in the tasting!!

Totally Wicked Chocolate Mousse Cake.

2010-06-23T08:21:00.000-07:00

I’ve recently been on a bit of a chocolate hiatus, not for dietary reasons or any such noble cause, more because I was scrolling through my posts on this blog and noticed that almost a third of them were labelled with chocolate!! And it seemed a tad over the top to me.

How wrong could I be?! After perhaps rashly commenting in a previous post that chocolate can be a bit boring, a few of you disagreed (I take it all back!!) and I then suffered the grumpy wrath of Mr. Colehill, (a self confessed chocoholic) who demanded that the next recipe I use be chocolate based, and kindly offered up a suggestion from my ‘Bake and Decorate’ book by Fiona Cairns. The suggestion, as you can see, is probably the most rich and indulgent chocolate desert in the world; completely wicked, and completely delicious!!

This is a bake-less desert and so is really very easy to prepare, however it does demand an overnight refrigeration, which was quite the challenge let me tell you! The base is chocolate tiffin cake, and the top a surprisingly light chocolate mousse which is then sprinkled with cocoa powder to decorate. Is that enough chocolate for you?!

The recipe for the base is:

Chocolate Tiffin

100g butter

80g shelled pistachios (I used almonds because we are an almond-loving lot at Colehill Kitchen!!)

1 tblsp golden syrup

100g dark chocolate

100g biscuits (I used digestives)

80g dried fruit (dates were my choice!!)

Melt the butter, syrup and chocolate in a bowl over simmering water.
Meanwhile, chop the nuts and dried fruit, and bash up the biscuits until they are a fine crumb. Mix the fruit and nuts into the crumbs, then add the chocolate and mix well.
Press into the bottom of a springform cake tin, and leave to chill in the fridge for a few hours.

Next make the mousse topping…I say topping, but really this is the body of the desert. That’s right; the body of the desert is chocolate mousse. Cream and chocolate. On a base of more chocolate. I’m warning you, you’ll feel your arteries clogging up just looking at it.

So, on with the recipe:

Chocolate Mousse
300g dark chocolate

500ml double cream

Cairns suggesting adding a tablespoon of Kirsch or Cointreau if you like, but I completely forgot!

Melt the chocolate in a bowl over simmering water and set aside to cool.
While it’s cooling, whip the cream to a soft peak.
The trick here is to have the chocolate and the cream at the same temperature before combining them, this will stop it seizing, going grainy, curdling…all those nasty things you don’t want to happen!!
Transfer a spoonful of the cream into the chocolate and combine, then another spoonful. As the chocolate loosens up from these additions, add the rest of the cream and fold in gently until completely combined.
Pour on to the tiffin base and leave to set overnight…if you can!

When ready to serve, run a hot knife around the edge of the tin and gently open it. It may help to put a disk of greaseproof paper on the bottom of the tin so that lifting slices out is easier, but if you have a greaseproof tin (which mine is) you shouldn’t have too much trouble.

I’m going to be honest here, this is way too rich for my taste. However it went down a storm with the chocoholics in my life, and because it’s so rich it lasts a fair few servings. The soft and light mousse is beautiful alongside the more solid texture of the tiffin, especially with the crunch of the almonds you discover as you take a bite. On top of this the almonds just look wonderful, their pure cream colour speckling the rich, dark brown of the chocolate. The dates hidden in the base also give it an extra and different sweetness which offsets that flavour of the dark chocolate really well, and keeps the base from being too hard and completely solid. They also contrast nicely against the almonds, the old fruit and nut combo is an oldie but a goodie, and all this enclosed in a chocolate-y casing is heaven on my plate!

Health Warning: I do not advise trying to consume a slice this size, but hey, it’s fun trying!!

Sweet and Soft Chelsea Buns

2010-06-21T02:28:00.000-07:00

This weekend Mr. Colehill bought me 'Julie and Julia' and I watched it for the first time. I know, I know, I should have watched it months ago but somehow it slipped through my fingers, until two days ago that is. It was such a lovely film, and it reminded me what I love about food and cooking, as well as why I write this blog. I love the escape that cooking provides for me. No matter how crappy your day is, or however heavy your shoulders feel with the weight of all the pressures of life, cooking is a haven. You can hide from the world and hole up in the kitchen for hours, and produce delicious creations. Something that has started off as a few humble ingredients becomes completely different and amazing because of you, and what you have done to them. I don't think I take pride in anything else as much as I do when something I have cooked comes out beautifully, there's nothing quite like the feeling. And as for writing about these moments of pride and satisfaction, well, I don't know how many people read these words that I send out into the blogosphere, but I love the idea that there is a community of people out there who are reading each others' blogs. We share recipes, successes, failures, and support each other and learn from other bloggers' words and pictures.

Anyway, I digress!!

Even better, the DVD came with a recipe book!! How great is that? How many DVDs have you bought that came with a book, let alone a selection of recipes from Julia Child's book Mastering the Art of French Cooking? Hands down the best DVD I have ever received!! And I adored the film. Not only was it a lovely story, but it had plenty of beautiful food to salivate over and scenes of Paris that made me long for a life in France; all set with plenty of butter, baguettes, multiple types of cheese and, of course, pastries!! Which brings me to my choice of baked good here: Chelsea Buns.

Fulham is Colehill Kitchen's home, which is right next door to Chelsea, so these seemed an apt choice of pastry! I've never tried them before, so I was quite nervous and excited for the outcome. The nerves turned out to be deserved since the first batch of dough didn't rise. I had something akin to one Julie's meltdowns in the film, which Mr. Colehill took great pleasure in mocking me for, however everything came good in the end when the second batch worked nicely and produced buns of delight!!!

The recipe is from the River Cottage Handbook No. 3 Bread. As I'm sure you know, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall is a firm favourite with me and this book by Daniel Stevens, Hugh's bread man, taught me so much about bread making. This little gem of a book not only includes invaluable information about baking loaves of bread, it also has recipes for other bread based treats, like cornbread, tortillas, summer pudding and so on. My next two trials from this particular book are crumpets and croissants. I'll be sure to let you know when I rise to the challenge!!

As for the Chelsea Buns, here is the recipe:

Chelsea Buns

For the dough:

550g strong white bread flour

50g caster sugar

5g powdered dried yeast

10g salt

150ml warm milk

225g melted butter

1 medium egg

For the Filling:

25g melted butter

100g caster sugar

200g currants

For the Glaze:

50ml milk

50g caster sugar

Mix together the flour, sugar, yeast and salt, then add the milk, butter and egg.

Knead until smooth and silky, then leave to rise for about an hour until doubled in size.

Brush the base and sides of a deep 30cm square (mine was rectangular and a little larger, but hey, not the ned of the world!) with a little of the melted butter and dust with a little of the sugar for the filling, shaking out the excess.

Roll out the dough to about 60cm x 40cm, brush with the butter, dust with the sugar and sprinkle over the currants, leaving a margin at the top. Roll the dough up to the margin, and moisten at the top with water to seal it.

Cut into 3cm slices, then flatten slightly on to the tray. Sprinkle a little of the sugar for the glaze on top and leave to prove for about half an hour, then bake at 200 degrees for 20 minutes until golden brown.

Warm the milk and remaining sugar in a pan, and brush the buns with it when you bring them out of the oven while they are still warm.

These. Are. Divine.

Whatever you do, eat one fresh out of the oven. They are completely indulgent, completely naughty and completely moreish!! I had to resort to freezing a load so that I didn't eat them

all in one weekend. Completely delightful and well worth making.

Oat, Seed and Fruit Booster Bars, HF-W Style!!

2010-06-18T00:38:00.000-07:00

Following the banana heavy theme from my Banana Bread post, to finish using up my nine blackened bananas I made what I think may be the most tasty thing ever to have come from my kitchen, and it’s all thanks to Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall. I’ve said before how I pretty much idolise him and everything he stands for, and his book River Cottage Everyday has to be one of my favourite cook books, hands down. This time I made his Booster Bars to continue using up the bananas and generally because they look so absolutely scrumptious, and in typical fashion, Hugh delivers another delicious recipe.

These are also wonderfully simple to make, and so so so satisfying when they’re done!! The recipe is as follows:

Booster Bars
125g unsalted butter
150g soft brown sugar
75g runny honey
1 orange zest
1 lemon zest
200g porridge oats (not jumbo)
150g mixed dried fruit
150g mixed seeds
1 mashed banana

Melt the butter, sugar and honey in a saucepan on a low heat. I substituted half the honey for golden syrup merely because I ran out of honey, but I think it gave the bars an even more indulgent texture and taste, and would thoroughly recommend it if you have any syrup in the house!

In a separate bowl combine the oats, orange and lemon zest, dried fruit and seeds. I used raisins, chopped dried apricots and chopped dates, along with pumpkin and sunflower seeds. Pour the melted mixture over the oats and fruit and combine thoroughly, mixing in the mashed banana at the end.

Flatten the mix into a lined baking tray and drizzle with a little more honey or syrup if you're feeling indulgent!! Then bake at 180 degrees for about 20-30 minutes or until the top begins to go golden.

The next step tested every shred of willpower and self discipline I had, and I almost broke a couple of times: leave in the tray until it has completely cooled!!! It is almost impossible to get the whole thing out of the baking tray when it’s warm (trust me, I tried) so hold back and leave it until it has had time to harden slightly, before tipping out onto a board.

Then comes the fun part, slice into whatever size bars you want, and be sure to devour any crumbs or edges that may not make the final cut!! This recipe is more delicious when freshly baked than a few hours or days later so make the most of it and scarf down whatever falls off the board before anyone else catches on! The ever so slight warmth when they’re fresh allows the orange and lemon zest to really come alive, and the bars have an ever so subtle festive taste to them that reminds me of Christmas…this is definitely a recipe I’ll be digging out in December!

The oats are soft and yielding when you take a bite, contrasted with the crunch of the seeds and the gooey dried fruit chunks. A truly spectacular recipe that is so easy it defies belief, I urge you to throw together a batch – they are perfect for a breakfast on the go, a snack for a boost of energy you need during that mid-afternoon slump (hence the name!!) or just as a treat that thanks to all the fruit and seeds isn’t completely guilt-heavy!!

A slice of the traditional, a slice of Bakewell!!

2010-06-14T04:40:00.000-07:00

Let me begin by saying, I love chocolate. When you need a chocolate fix nothing else will do, no matter how tasty it is. But let’s be honest here, chocolate can get a bit boring after a while and recently I have found myself all chocolate-ed out. So as I’ve been looking through my mountain of cook books for ideas and inspiration I’ve vetoed every chocolate based recipe in search of alternative delicious-ness, and this time I settled on a traditional recipe that have never tried before: Bakewell Slice. I was actually kind of horrified to realise that I’d never made this most British and traditional of tasty treats before, but now I’ve remedied that, and it was definitely worth doing!!

I used a Nigella recipe from her Feast book, partly because I adore Mrs. Lawson and every recipe of hers that I’ve ever used has been a success, (probably due to the copious amounts of naughty ingredients that go in to them, and this recipe is no exception!!) and also because the recipe looked so simple and easy!!

Bakewell Slice

Pastry:
225g butter
60g icing sugar
Pinch salt
225g plain flour

Filling:
150g butter
150g ground almonds
150g caster sugar
4 eggs
325g raspberry jam
100g flaked almonds (Nigella says 60g, but I’m a big fan of these so I whacked the whole packet in the pan to toast!)

The pastry is actually more of a shortbread that you squidge into a tray.
Sieve the flour, icing sugar and salt into a mixing bowl, then add the butter (it helps if it’s cubed) then combine with your fingers until it becomes a crumby mixture, just about coming together. Nigella suggests using a food mixer to do this which is even easier!

Then tip the mix out onto a lined baking tray (mine was about 30cm by 25cm and about 1-2cm deep) and patiently push it into an even layer. Nigella admits to using throwaway tin trays for this recipe so I lined my tray with foil rather than greaseproof paper, which I think made the base extra buttery and sumptuous.

Bless Nigella, she warns that this will take some time and you will feel like you don’t have enough pastry (both true) but stick with it and you will end up with plenty of mix to cover the entire tray.

Bake this in the oven at 180 degrees, until it starts to turn a pale golden colour.
Meanwhile toast the almonds in a pan and then make the frangipane filling.

Melt the butter and set aside, and combine the almonds, flour and eggs in a separate mixing bowl. Then add the melted butter to the almond mix gradually, mixing as you go.

Remove the pastry from the oven and allow it to cool for a few minutes before slathering on plenty of jam!

Pour the frangipane mix over the jam then sprinkle with the toasted almonds before putting back in the oven for about 30-35 minutes until it is golden brown.

As a side note, if you toast the almonds fairly close to when you need to sprinkle them, careful of your fingers!! The oil in the nuts gets very hot, so let them cool a little before diving in!!

Allow the giant slice to cool completely before removing from the tray and slicing into whatever size you fancy!!

I iced about a third because it was requested by a certain high maintenance person (you know who you are!). I prefer it un-iced though, I think the sweetness of the icing overpowers the almond flavour and the jam, and in any case, the golden flakes of almond on the spongy soft pillow of frangipane is a far more aesthetically pleasing than plain white icing!!

Nigella never fails me; I’m so so so pleased with this recipe!!! Pressing the pastry in takes a little extra time and effort, but the end result is a light buttery base filled with a sweet and soft almondy delight, perfect for a lazy Sunday afternoon with a nice cup of tea!

Dense and Sticky Banana Bread

2010-06-10T04:30:00.000-07:00

I have just looked at when my last post was written, and I’m horrified to see it was over two months ago!! I have no idea where that time went…actually, I know exactly where it went; straight to the library where a cavern full of books awaited me and several essays to write for the end of term beckoned. And that is why food and cooking has taken a massive back seat, which makes me really, really sad. On the bright side university is now over for the summer, which means I have plenty of time on my hands to dedicate to cooking. I celebrated by getting stuck into lots of time in the kitchen!!

This weekend I baked a couple of loaves of bread with a shiny new loaf tin; one packed full of seeds and one covered in oaty goodness, which were absolutely delightful. There is nothing quite as homely and comforting as the smell of fermenting dough and the subsequent aroma of the loaves baking in the oven, which fills the house. Following in the bready theme I made a loaf of banana bread, using a recipe from Sophie Dahl’s cookbook. It’s a beautiful book and I love to flick through it from time to time, but this is the first time I’ve actually used one of her recipes. This is quite the norm for me: I buy books and books and books, and spend hours perusing the pictures and recipes before I finally settle on one to actually make. There are usually far too many to choose from to make a quick decision!!! Anyway, we had a glut of overripe bananas in the house, so my mission was to use them all up (nine in total - why we had managed to collect nine overripe bananas is beyond me but there you go!) and Banana Bread seemed the obvious first choice.

It’s a wonderfully easy recipe, quick to assemble before waiting patiently for an hour as the bananas caramelise and the batter becomes a soft, sweet and sticky delight! The recipe calls for:

Banana Bread
75g soft unsalted butter
4 overripe bananas, mashed
200 soft brown sugar
1 egg
170g flour (I used self raising flour and forfeited the baking powder she lists as it was all I had in the cupboard)
I also added a sprinkling or cinnamon, just because I like it!!

Combine the butter, mashed bananas, sugar and egg, then add the flour and cinnamon (if you decide to add some) until it’s just combined.
Pour into a lined loaf tin and bake at 180 degrees for an hour.
Leave to cool on a wire rack.

This recipe produces a dense banana loaf…rather more like a heavy cake than a bread-like end result. I impatiently (as is tradition!) tipped it out of the tin and cut a slice as soon as I could, with a little dab of butter smeared over it. The smell of bananas infused with cinnamon saturated the kitchen, and it was all I could do not to eat slice after slice of this deep caramel coloured indulgence!!

This recipe really is best when you use completely black skinned bananas, as the more overripe they are the better the mashed banana will caramelise while it bakes, resulting in a toffee sweet luxury that will have you sneaking slivers every ten minutes!!

Chocolate Dipped Coconut Macaroons

2010-03-29T06:06:00.000-07:00

I'm all for spending the weekend in the kitchen, trying out new and delicious recipes, which take time and energy. I love experimenting with more complicated dishes, (I think I get that from my Dad, he once found a recipe which required pretty much every single utensil, pot, pan and dish in the kitchen which is no mean feat considering how well equiped his kitchen is!!) but sometimes it's nice to find a recipe that requires minimum effort and produces delicious results. This is that recipe. I have honestly never made anything so simple in the hundreds of collective hours I've spent in the kitchen, and they're beautiful!! And just to add to the brilliance, no one would ever guess how easy they are!!

This is a Rachel Allen recipe, which is in her Home Cooking book. I've tried her dishes before, and I've never been disappointed, and this is another successful recipe. You throw lightly beaten egg white (just enough to 'break' or loosen it), desiccated coconut and caster sugar in a bowl, then with damp hands, mould into balls and bake for 10 minutes or so, or until golden.

Coconut Macaroons
100g desiccated coconut
75g caster sugar
1 egg white

(The one missing in the top right hand corner is because I was impatient...they smelled so wonderful and I couldn't wait to try one!!)

They need to be left on the tray to cool, as they're so delicate they will fall apart if you try to peel them off when warm. While they are cooling, melt some dark chocolate, then dip the macaroons in the chocolate and leave to set on a cling filmed surface - this makes it so easy to peel away when they're set.

I love the way these look - the contrast between the rich dark chocolate, the golden outer casing and the snowy white inside, and when you take a bite the dark chocolate compliments the sweet coconut mix beautifully. These keep well in an air tight container, and are a delicious treat to have to hand, try them out when you have a spare twenty minutes!!

Cupcake City

2010-03-16T06:57:00.001-07:00

I know, I know, more cupcakes. But really, who doesn't like cupcakes? And when have there ever been too many cupcake recipes to drool over? I for one can't get enough of these little gems, I think they're perfect for so many occasions, and are often prettier and more fun than an entire cake. So here's a couple more recipes, just for the hell of it!

This weekend I went on a bit of a cupcake bender...I decided that the best way to spend my Sunday was baking enough cupcakes to feed a sugar deficient army. And it was a fine way to spend a few hours!! I had a couple of birthdays to provide cakey goodness for, which is why I was baking in the first place, and I decided to make a selection of flavours to keep everyone happy! We had vanilla and raspberry sponge with white chocolate butter icing, dark chocolate sponge with white chocolate butter icing, and chocolate orange sponge with dark chocolate icing...so plenty to choose from, and plenty of chocolate!

All the cupcakes I made were from the Primrose Hill Bakery cookbook, which I love for the sheer volume of cupcake recipes it provides, as well as the lovely flavour combinations and more interesting and different flavours they suggest. The first lot which where iced with pastel coloured white chocolate icing were vanilla sponge with raspberry jam, which I've made before and were a real winner with everyone around! I also made a plain chocolate sponge cupcake with the same icing, which was lovely and light. The recipe is a little different to the usual cake mix, and a touch more effort, but definitely worth it, they are as light as air - which makes one feel a little less guilty when eating them...well I do anyway!!

Chocolate Sponge

115g dark chocolate
85g unsalted butter
175g soft brown sugar
2 eggs separated
185g plain flour
3/4 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda
pinch salt
250ml milk

Melt the chocolate, and leave aside to cool slightly.
Cream the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy.
In a separate bowl whisk the yolks for a few minutes, then add to the butter and beat, before adding the chocolate and beating.
Combine the flour, baking powder, bicarb and salt in a bowl, and add to the the mix a third at a time, alternating with a third of the milk at a time, until it is all incorporated.
With clean attachments, whisk the egg whites to soft peaks, before gently folding into the mix, careful not to beat the air out.
Divide into cupcake cases and bake at 180 degrees for about 15 minutes, or until a skewer comes out clean.
Ice with a batch of white chocolate buttercream, any colour you fancy!

The next batch were chocolate orange sponge with dark chocolate icing that really packs a punch!!

Chocolate Orange Sponge

115g dark chocolate
175g golden caster sugar
90g unsalted butter
zest and juice 1 orange - you need 75ml juice
2 eggs
185g plain flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tblsp milk

Melt the chocolate, and leave aside to cool slightly.
Cream the butter, sugar and zest until pale and fluffy.
Add the eggs, then the chocolate.
Combine the flour, bicarb, baking powder, salt in a bowl, and the juice and milk in a separate jug.
Add the flour mix and milk mix alternately, a third at a time, until it is all incorporated. I actually added a little more orange juice here, but this is up to your personal taste.
Divide into cupcake cases and bake at 180 degrees for about 15 minutes, or until a skewer comes out clean.

Then top with dark chocolate buttercream generously. I've found that it's really worthwhile taking an extra couple of minutes beating the buttercream, it makes for a deliciously silky smooth icing, which also looks wonderfully glossy and luxurious. I topped them with smarties for a splash of colour, but you can decorate them with whatever you like, and then enjoy!

Eggs Benedict - The Ultimate Breakfast

2010-02-28T07:50:00.000-08:00

I think breakfast is my favourite meal of the day. It's worth taking time over and enjoying, however I'm definitely guilty of inhaling whatever I can lay my hands on when I'm in a rush, barely having time to blink let alone savour and what I'm eating, and enjoy the most important meal of the day. It's a strange meal, because it's the only one that we think nothing of having the same thing every day, we hardly prioritise, and that we demolish in seconds before rushing out of the house. On top of this, unlike an evening meal, I certainly don't spend time wondering what to have, reading recipe books, looking forward to... but sometimes it's necessary to give priority to the first food that we gobble up in the morning, and really revel in the luxury of a lazy breakfast with the papers and a calmness on the weekend which we are rarely afforded during the week. Eggs are a given really when it comes to breakfast, and there's no dish more indulgent than Eggs Benedict in my opinion. Soft toasted muffin, topped with crispy bacon, poached egg and creamy hollandaise sauce - and some wilted spinach in there too if you fancy it. The last time I had this delight was at the Wolseley last August, which I wrote about here, so I was slightly daunted at the prospect of trying it myself - let's be honest, it was never going to be as good as it was there!

It didn't quite measure up to The Wolseley's standards, but I don't think I did too shoddy a job. It's pretty easy really, it's just about timing and being able to do a good poached egg. I made the hollandaise sauce first, using Rachel Allen's recipe. Her books are beautiful and I've used a couple of her recipes before, including butternut squash gratin, which is included here. First place a bowl over a pan of simmering water and put two egg yolks and a tablespoon of water into the bowl. whisk for a few minutes, then gradually add cold diced butter (110g), one cube at a time, whisking until it has all melted and emulsified. Then add seasoning and a little lemon juice. I found it a little thick, so loosened it up with a little more water. Leave to one side, covered with cling film, over the pan of water (no longer over heat) to keep warm until you need it. Then toast the muffin, grill the bacon and poach the egg. Try to get the freshest eggs you can, as the whites will hold together better the fresher they are. A tip I have found really helpful when poaching eggs is to crack the egg into a mug or shallow tumbler first, then when your water is nearly simmering, swirl it a little so that it creates a whirlpool, and drop the egg in, pouring it out of the tumbler as low and close to the water as you can without burning your fingers! Poach for about 3 minutes, and remove with a slotted spoon. I poached my eggs a little to early, so took them out about 30 seconds before they were done, then replaced them into the simmering water just before I was ready to serve so that they were warm and right on time! Build your tower of deliciousness - muffin first, then bacon, then egg, and pour over lashings of your creamy hollandaise sauce and dig in!

Not a breakfast for everyday obviously, or I'd end up rolling out of the house rather than rushing! But it is worth taking the time once in a while and indulging...what are weekends for after all?!

Bibendum and then some...

2010-02-15T10:13:00.000-08:00

Bibendum, South Kensington

I have a list in my head that consistently grows longer and longer and I'm fairly confident that you have a similar list in your head, because you probably wouldn't be such a foodie if you didn't...it's a list of all the restaurants I want to go to, and honestly, it never gets shorter. For every restaurant that I tick off, I think of about four more that find their way on to the list and make themselves comfortable. The usual suspects are there...The Fat Duck, Royal Hospital Road, River Cottage HQ (this is going to be for a very special occasion I think!!) The Harwood Arms is a new one, and up until this weekend, Bibendum was on there. I was spoilt rotten for Valentine's Day this year, because a very clever young man surprised me with a long luxurious lunch at Bibendum, knowing that I'd been yearning to go there for at least a year now. Obviously, you can't fail to notice the stunning building as you walk along Fulham Road, and the inside doesn't disappoint. Magnificent stained glass windows with Bibendum the Michelin man striking a pose frame the room, and grasp your attention as soon as you walk in. The layout of the room is spacious yet buzzing, there is plenty of room between the tables, without it feeling sparse. There are comfortable, almost sofa-like armchairs at many tables, and the waiting staff just glide around, seamlessly making your dining experience as perfect as possible, without being too conspicuous. It's a real art to be a good waiter or waitress, there's a fine line between attentive and annoying...I think the mark of a good waiting staff is at the end of the meal everything has gone smoothly and you've barely noticed anybody working around you. You sort of think 'Wow, everything worked so well, but I'm sure we hardly saw the waiter!'. The entire team at Bibendum were like this, they seemed effortless in their service, but attentive at the same time. Brilliant.

However, the reason I was taken there in the first place was of course the food. He started with lamb sweetbreads, with a Bearnaise sauce and puff pastry, all of which was utterly melt in the mouth, and an envy-inducing starter! I had rabbit rillettes, which was beautiful, with an onion chutney alongside it, a fine bean and hazelnut salad and some toasted brioche. The rillete was obviously quite fatty, but not unpleasantly so, the chutney cut through it and the bean salad lightened up the dish. For mains he had roasted guinea fowl, and I had the very delicate and feminine lamb shank. The bird was tender and juicy, cooked to perfection, with a buttery garlicky sauce seeping from it when it was pierced. The lamb though, was really special. I barely had to touch it with my fork before the meat yielded and fell off, leaving an almost pristine white bone behind. It sat in a dish of deep and meaty sauce, served alongside mustard pearl barley. This felt indulgent and creamy, with a lovely kick to it, without being so spicy that it took over the rich flavour from the lamb. For dessert we shared a vanilla pannacotta, and then had a plate of Brie de Meaux. Usually I'm a little apprehensive of Pannacotta as it can so easily be a disappointment - it can become rubbery, flavourless, too stiff...but I had the utmost faith in Bibendum, especially going by the first two courses, and I wasn't let down. The pannacotta was soft and wobbly, made with the perfect amount of gelatine, speckled with tiny black vanilla seeds that delicately flavoured the creamy dome. Elegant and simple, it was served with poached rhubarb, which although sweet, had a tang to it which was the perfect accompaniment to lift the heavy cream flavour and texture. Petit fours were served with coffee, of apricot pate de fruits, and the richest dark chocolate truffles I've ever tasted!! One was definitely enough to curb any chocolate desire for the next week!

All in all, it was the perfect lunch. We had beautiful, well cooked food, served by brilliant waiters in a breath taking environment. What more could a girl ask for for Valentine's Day??

Raspberry and White Chocolate Cupcakes...and some Chocolate and Banana ones too!

2010-02-09T13:07:00.001-08:00

Have you ever had a craving to just spend the day in the kitchen and cook all day long, or is that just me? Last week I ordered three new cookery books through no fault of my own...I had these three books in my Amazon basket, pondering which one - yes, just one - to buy, when someone (who shall remain nameless!) clicked on 'place order' when I wasn't looking. Unbeknownst to him, my card details were saved on Amazon, and the order was placed without asking me for payment or shipping details. So, now I have three shiny new books with zero guilt - because I didn't order them!! I can't be too grumpy really can I?! Anyway, They arrived last Monday, and all week I've been poring over them all week, desperately waiting for a free day to try out some of the recipes. I imagine you're interested in which books I actually bought, and if you aren't you should be...they're all beautiful books, brimming with delicious recipes.

The first was Rachel Allen's Home Cooking, an absolute gem of a book, just a delight to sit and read, whether or not you get around to cooking anything from it! Now, because I am the height of cool, I got my Post-Its out and started noting which recipes I really really really wanted to make (because I really really want to try them all, but short term this is clearly not feasible!!) and before I knew it, the book had little pink feathers peeking out from pretty much every other page, if not more!! The book is just jam packed with delicious ideas for breakfast, Sunday Lunch, Suppers, Puddings, Treats, Snacks...even Baby Purees!! You could just have this one cook book in your life and I doubt you'd ever get bored of the recipes - if only because of the sheer volume of them! Before I get completely carried away, I'll stop myself from waxing lyrical anymore, and just tell you that I ended up making one of her Stuffing recipes (because it was Sunday when I spent the day in the kitchen, and Sundays demand roast chicken), which was utterly delicious - I just wish I'd had the foresight to double the recipe - as well as her Butternut Squash Gratin. I'm actually salivating as I think about that gratin. It was so delicious, and so simple! Just bring some cream with a finely chopped clove of garlic in it to the boil, then pour over thinly sliced squash, sprinkle with parmesan, and bake for 45 minutes or so. The cream and the cheese, of course, made it a winner, but I definitely prefer it to potato gratin for the velvety texture of the squash. The orange flesh just melts in the mouth, and the sweetness from it works beautifully with the fairly subtle flavoured cream sauce and bubbly cheese topping. Five stars for that recipe!

Now, I know what you're thinking. You're wondering 'Why is she banging on about stuffing and gratin when all I can see are pictures of cupcakes?!'. Well, that is because the second book in my basket was Cupcakes from the Primrose Hill Bakery. I have about a thousand cupcake books now...I'm going to need a whole room dedicated to cupcake books one day, but they're so pretty! This is another example of a well put together book, the pictures are mouth-wateringly beautiful, and make you want to drop everything and spend hours in the kitchen whipping up batch after batch of cupcakes! (This, incidentally is what I did on Sunday...I ended up with 36 cupcakes...and only 4 people in the house). I couldn't decide on one type to make, so I settled on Raspberry and White Chocolate, and Banana and Chocolate. One word: Yum. I thought I'd found the Holy Grail of cupcakes with the Hummingbird Bakery book, I made some utterly delicious cupcakes from that book, including the Black Bottom recipe, and I'm not saying they've been beaten - but they've definitely got a run for their money!

The first batch I made were these delights - Raspberry and White Chocolate cupcakes. The batter is pretty basic - cream the butter and sugar until pale, combine the egg, milk and vanilla essence in a separate jug, and sieve flours into a separate bowl, then add the flour and liquid alternately a third at a time until everything is incorporated. This is then marbled with raspberry jam. When the cakes are cooked and cooled, you then hollow out a little well in the centre of them, and fill with even more jam!! Then cover with the ivory white chocolate buttercream icing...generously!!

Raspberry Jam Cupcakes
110g unsalted butter
180 caster sugar
2 eggs
125g self raising flour
120g plain flour
125ml semi-skimmed milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 tblsp raspberry jam

White Chocolate Buttercream
Make up a batch of Vanilla Buttercream by combining the following ingredients, then add 100g of melted white chocolate to four tablespoons of the mix.

110g unsalted butter
60ml semi-skimmed milk
500g icing sugar

These were certainly popular, I'd say they outdid the Banana and Chocolate batch, but this was really a question of 'which delicious cake is more delicious than the other?!!' The other delicious cake was just are irresistible - underneath a thick blanket of chocolate buttercream hid a deliciously soft sponge, laden with slightly bitter dark chocolate chunks and soft, sweet swirls of banana.

Banana and Chocolate Cupcakes
125g unsalted butter
250g caster sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
250g plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
4 ripe bananas, mashed
175g dark chocolate, chopped

As usual, cream the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy, then beat in the eggs and vanilla extract, before adding the siefted flour and baking powder. When the batter comes together, gently fold in the bananas and chocolate. These, and the Raspberry cupcakes took about 10-12 minutes at 180 degrees, test with a skewer, if it comes out clean they're ready to take out of the oven.

Chocolate Buttercream
175g dark chocolate
225g unsalted butter
1 tblsp semi-skimmed milk
250g icing sugar

Melt the chocolate over a pan of simmering water, then set a side to cool slightly. Beat the remaining ingredients together, and when smooth, add the melted chocolate to create a delightfully decadent and sinful bowl full of glossy goodness!! When cooled and iced, sprinkle a few chopped walnuts on top if you like (for the healthy element you see...)

I've well and truly got the cupcake bug again...I'm just warning you, it could result in an inordinate amount of posts on these little beauties, not that you'd complain I'm sure!! There's something so dainty and civilised, yet greedy and naughty about cupcakes, that they are completely irresitible. I can't think of anything I'd rather have as a treat, or what I'd rather give as a home made gift, or offer to guests...they fit every occasion, and everyone gets so excited by them!! There's nothing better than making someone smile with something you've made, and cupcakes seem to win every time. They're perfection in a paper case!

Chocolate Centered Biscuits

2010-02-02T01:34:00.001-08:00

January is a bit of a difficult month really isn't it? What with the post Christmas blues, the long gap between paydays and the gloomy weather, it's not the most cheery of months, and this year I've finished it off with a monster cold. Typical. However, just before I got the lurgy, I'd made a batch of these biscuits from Jamie Oliver's website, which let me tell you, have made feeling groggy a whole lot more bearable!! Between cups of Lemsip and tea, I've been sneakily eating these little delights which are a tasty treat and really easy to whip up.

They are definitely a biscuit rather than a cookie, the dough is rather dry to work with, which doesn't cause any problems, but results in a crunchier biscuit, especially when it has cooled. However, when warm and fresh from the oven it still has a bit of give - and as usual I take mine out of the oven a little early to keep them slightly soft - and the inside is a mouth-watering delight of melted chocolate. The recipe is to make a batch of chocolate dough and leave to chill, then cutting out two sets of circles, one about 4cm diameter and the other about 5cm diameter. You then place a chunk of chocolate, any type you like, on the small circle, and lay the bigger circle over the top, pressing the edges down to stop any chocolate escaping when they bake.

The first batch I baked were a little overdone for my liking, and they came out a little cracked on the top and crunchier than I would have liked. Jamie admits in this recipe that the dough produces a cracked and rustic look, so the first batch weren't necessarily worse than the second, it was merely personal taste. I took the second lot out a minute or two earlier and they had a much smoother surface, delicate to the touch, and completely divine when I broke into them.

These weren't quite as sinfully decadent as the Hummingbird Double Chocolate Cookies, but definitely a delicious treat, perfect with a cup of tea and a good book on a weekend afternoon...or curled up in bed watching films waiting for the sneezes to stop!! As much as it pains me, I think it's time I move on from my chocolate biscuit phase now, or I might have trouble getting my skinny jeans on...ah well, it was fun while it lasted, something with vegetables next time I think.

Hummingbird Double Chocolate Cookies

2010-01-25T13:20:00.000-08:00

All this snow has done nothing for my waistline. It inspires in me the desire to trudge about in my wellies (a Christmas gift which have become invaluable during the last few weeks, plus, you know, they're really pretty!!), making snow angels and snowmen, kidding myself that this is all 'exercise' then returning to the comfort and cosiness of home to whip a batch of treats, which obviously I deserve as a reward for all my hard work... and what better treat is there than a huge hit of warm, gooey, rich, soft cookies? And to make them even more irresistible, they are an absolute doddle to make. There is nothing, and I mean nothing, stopping you from making these...which brings me back to the old waistline issue. Hey ho, one has to prioritise, and I don't know about you but I prioritise chocolate.

I have searched high and low for the best double chocolate chip cookies. I've bought many recipe books dedicated to cookies, I've trawled the internet, I've asked friends and family...and now, I can put my hand on heart and tell you that I have found the best recipe, and it has been sitting in front of me for months! Once again, I turned to my relatively new friend, the Hummingbird Bakery cookbook. (I think I might be addicted to this book. It seems all I ever make are delicious morsels from it, Cupcakes, Brownies, Cakes... but I promise to find recipes elsewhere from now on, I'm going cold turkey.)

So, one particularly cold weekend after finding untouched snow in Fulham Palace Gardens and promptly making lots of footprints and smiley faces in it, I shook the snow of my wellies and made my way into the kitchen to prepare my reward for all that virtuous exercise. First, melt lots of dark chocolate and butter over a pan of simmering water (I know, it's a good start isn't it?!), and when it's cooled beat in a couple of eggs. Then add flour and baking powder and a pinch of salted if using unsalted butter, and mix until smooth and glossy and utterly irresistible. Then throw in some generously sized chunks of chocolate, any type you want, I used dark again. I'm a firm believer that if you're making chocolate chip cookies, they should really be chocolate chunk cookies, and the chunks should be big so that when you take a bite you get a big old mouthful of gooey chocolatey goodness! Then place in dollops on a greased baking tray.

Then lick the bowl clean (I guarantee you won't be able to resist) while the cookies bake for about 10-15 minutes until they begin to crack on the top. As usual with cookies, I took them out a little early because they continue to cook while they cool, and besides, I love it when they're still squidgy inside.

Then there really is nothing left to do but to devour greedily while warm with a cup of tea and watch the snow fall outside. Alternatively, if you are lacking the snow, just tuck in! These keep really well in an air tight container too, ours lasted a week until they were all gone - yes, a whole week! - and they were just as squidgy at the end of that week. So I thoroughly recommend these delicious cookies; they're easy and quick to make, completely irresistible, and as is tradition with most Hummingbird recipes, absolutely jam packed with chocolate!!

Perfect Pecan Pie.

2010-01-19T10:25:00.001-08:00

I disappeared of the face of the earth again. I honestly don't know where the last month went, I could have sworn my last post was just the other day, but it turns out it was over a month ago!! Shocking.

Anyway, I'm back again with some delicious treats that I've cooked up in the last week or so, and first off is a Pecan Pie that will just make your New Year virtue melt away...it's one of the yummiest things I've ever made, and I didn't even know I liked Pecan Pie!! Once again, it's a recipe from the Hummingbird cookbook, a firm favourite with me and those around me!!

I was given some maple syrup brought all the way from Canada from my sister not long ago, and wanted to use it for something really special, so when I came across this recipe after a flick through my growing collection of recipe books, I knew this was the perfect time to open it. The recipe tells you to use golden syrup, but I think the maple syrup gave it a really lovely subtle taste, and probabaly a slightly lighter filling, which was mouth-wateringly moist, buttery and sweet. God bless those Canadians and their syrup!

I have to admit that I wasn't overly impressed by the pastry recipe from the Hummingbird book, it needed much more liquid than the recipe specified, and was rather hard to work with. Neverthless, it did the job and was tasty enough with the filling. It was a plain pastry recipe without any sugar, which I think was probably for the best - any more sugar on top of the maple syrup and sugar in the filling would have been overkill.

So on to the filling, let me just list the ingredients for you: maple syrup, sugar, butter, eggs, pecans...need I say more? When has a recipe consisting of those ingredients ever been something other than deliciously naughty, and completely irresistible?! Melt everything down, pour on to the eggs, beat, then add the crushed pecans, and pour the silky mixture into the pastry case. Then lay on top pecan halves to decorate, put in the oven, and try to distract yourself for 40 minutes untill the pie has browned on top, with a slight wobble in the middle.

The mixture rises while it cooks, creating some cracks on the top, but I personally love how it looks with the caramelised top giving away sneaky peaks of the golden centre, just begging me to cut a slice an tuck in! Eventually, as it cools, the pie sinks back to its original height, and the cracks disappear, keeping the secret inside until you dive in.

This is hardly a good start to the traditional January detox, but it's worth it. Perfect for those cold evenings, or with a cup of tea for a decadent afternoon snack, I can't think of a more satisfying sweet fix. This is definitely a recipe I'll be using again, surprisingly easy and completely hassle free, it ticks all the boxes, and of course, as seems to be tradition with the Hummingbird book, completely extravagant and wicked. Enjoy!

Pear and Almond Cake and Chocolate Chip Cookies

2009-12-13T09:37:00.000-08:00

I recently bought Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's book River Cottage Everyday, which I've been pouring over for hours, accumulating an ever growing list of recipes I want to try, and longing for a life out in the countryside, with land, a big vegetable patch with what seems to be a relentless supply of produce during every season, a few chickens, ducks, maybe a goat or two...ahhh, to live Hugh's life!!! Anyway, fantasy life aside, the book is filled to the brim with delicious, comforting and homely recipes, which avoid the pitfall of most recipe books - hideously long lists of ingredients to buy for one single recipe.

I finally settled on a pear and almond cake, which was on the television programme River Cottage 2009 too, and looked too good to pass up. I've never really given much thought to pears, I tend to get over excited by apples, pumpkin, squash, and so on when autumn rolls around, however good old Hugh inspired me to give the humble pear some attention this year. And I'm really, really, really glad I did. I think this is probably the nicest cake I've ever made (well, the Chocolate Cake I made is a fairly strong contender, maybe I have two favourites!!).

The pears are quartered and cored, and softened in butter and sugar (I used vanilla infused sugar for a little extra delicious-ness) which are then set aside to cool while the sponge batter is made. This is a mix of the usual suspects - butter sugar eggs and flour, but with the addition of ground almonds for an extra moist sponge which also gives it a denser texture. The butter is whipped until pale and glossy, then the sugar is added, followed by the eggs, then flour and ground almonds. This produces a satisfyingly gloopy batter, thick and heavy, which is then transferred into a lined cake tin, and the pears are laid on top of the mix, with the sugar and butter caramel-syrup poured on top - for extra nutritional value!!

Then bake in the oven at about 180 degrees for 40 minutes. The pears will sink slightly into the cake, which is a little less pretty than when it first goes in the oven, but when you slice into it you discover hidden gems of pear, soft and yielding, sweet and buttery, encased in moist, dense and almond flavoured sponge, which is truly lovely.

Now, I'm not going to lie, we got through an embarrassingly large amount of this cake in a very short amount of time. However, there was a distinct chocolate shortage going on in the house, so I made a batch of chocolate chip cookies - using Terry's Chocolate Orange to give it a bit of a Christmassy feel! Another Hugh recipe, I melted some butter, then beat it into some caster sugar and soft brown sugar, before adding eggs and flour. Eight minutes in the oven, and hey presto, chocolate fix sorted!!

Roasted Partridge with Roasted Carrots and Redcurrant Sauce.

2009-11-15T02:03:00.000-08:00

I love this time of year food-wise generally, but I particularly love the variety of meat we're offered when the colder weather draws in and the leaves are turning golden. There's autumn lamb, pheasant, venison, beautiful duck, and what we decided on last week, partridge. We popped in to the butchers at the end of the day on Sunday looking for something a bit different, and settled on a couple of partridges. They were inexpensive and ideal for a quick meal, as they are so dainty and cook in no time at all - just under thirty minutes in the oven after searing. We had fairly simple vegetables with them, roasted carrots (mmmmm, I loooove roasred carrots, really sweet and caramelised, delicious!), and some lovely boiled new potatoes and cabbage. We also had a simple redcurrant sauce with it, which was just some sweated onions and garlic, redcurrant jelly, a splash of red wine and a little stock.

A lovely quick dinner that took all of 40 minutes, and beautiful meat that needed nothing much done to it for a deeply satisfying Sunday night meal.

Just a short blog post this week, I'll be back soon with what I hope are some more delicious cooking exploits!

Delicious Lasagne and Apple Pie

2009-11-01T11:35:00.000-08:00

Autumn just makes me want to snuggle up on the sofa with a giant mug of tea and lots of warming food. The colder weather and drizzly days are such a great excuse for whipping up a load of comforting food and indulging in some really cosy nights in. I love baking on a wet and rainy Sunday afternoon, filling the house with delicious smells and eating home made scrumptiousness!! This weekend we had a busy Friday and Saturday, and Sunday was really gloomy and rainy, so it seemed the perfect day to hole up in the kitchen and make lasagne and apple pie - possibly two of the most warming, comforting dishes ever to have been invented. I mean, having a creamy, rich and meaty lasagne followed by sweet apple pie with melt-in-the-mouth pastry for dinner can only make things better...and a perfect end to the weekend!

The lasagne was a giant dish of hearty goodness, layers of deep tomato and meat sauce, cheesy bechamel and pasta, topped with even more cheese. I softened some onion and garlic, then added the beef mince and browned it off. After that I squeezed in a tablespoon or so of tomato puree and cooked it out for a couple of mintes, a splash of red wine, a tin of chopped tomatoes, about half a tin of water, and seasoning. Then I let it simmer for about 45 minutes for a really deep flavour. For the cheese sauce I made a simple bechamel and added a generous couple of handfuls of cheddar cheese. Then I assembled the lot layering the meat, then pasta, then cheese sauce, and repeat finishing with the cheese sauce and an extra sprinkling of cheese. Bake for about 30-40 minutes in an oven at 180 degrees until the pasta is soft (I checked it by skewering it with a butter knife, and took it out of the oven when the knife slid through easily). And then a lovely big portion each, Yummmmmm!!!

Then on to the apple pie :-)

I used a pastry recipe from Valentine Warner's book 'What to Eat Now, More Please!' which was really lovely. Pastry is always a slightly nerve-wracking prospect I think, but this one was really buttery and short, and deliciously melt-in-the-mouth. Not overly sweet, it complemented the cinnamon flavoured apples beautifully, and an extra sprinkling of vanilla sugar on top was perfection! I didn't have a pie dish, so I used a cake tin, which worked just as well, and made for a deeper pie, which can never be a bad thing!! For the apple filling I followed a Hummingbird Bakery recipe, which I've used before for brownies, cupcakes and a chocolate cake. The Bramley apples are sliced and cooked in butter, cinnamon and caster sugar until slightly softened, then placed in the raw pastry case, and baked for about 35-40 minutes at 180 degrees until golden brown. Leave to cool for a while, then we had it with a healthy dollop of custard.

Needless to say we put away a hefty amount of pie in one sitting, and were completely stuffed... and happy!!!

Rich Indulgent Chocolate Cake

2009-10-26T12:26:00.001-07:00

Cake is the answer to all problems. There is nothing that cake can't make you feel better about (except maybe feeling sick from too much cake...but let's not focus on that). And when cake is on the cards, why do it half-heartedly? I baked the most rich, indulgent, and completely over the top chocolate cake this weekend. It was another Hummingbird recipe, like the cupcakes I made a few weeks ago. The sponge is so rich yet not heavy, and the frosting will completely blow you away!! It is creamy, buttery, chocolatey heaven, and teamed with the sponge it's a chocolate hit that really hits the spot!

When freshly baked the sponge was delicious on it's own, add a lashing of frosting which slowly melted with some seeping into the cake, and it was comfort food perfection! Obviously, my impatience got the better of me and I iced the cake slightly too early...but it led to the lovely warm icing bleeding into the sponge, which, whether or not it looks perfect, tastes divine. Obviously we demolished a wedge right away with a cup of tea, and after it had cooled later in the evening I couldn't resist another sneaky slice with a glass of wine - complete and utter heaven!!

This is definitely my absolute favourite sponge recipe. You whisk the dry ingredients and the butter until they resemble a sandy texture, then add the egg and milk to make a batter. So easy, yet so successful. So you go from this...

To this...!!

The cupcakes take about 12 minutes, and the large cake took about 25 minutes - however, my oven is pretty bizarre and I think is hotter than usual, so a normal oven at 180 degrees may take a little longer!

Considering how big the cake was, it was pretty impressive how quickly it disappeared!! Between very few of us, a considerable amount was devoured over the weekend, and I brought some back to Bath for my housemates which went down pretty well, leaving a satisfyingly small wedge at the end of the weekend. If ever there was proof of a delicious cake, it's a plate covered only in crumbs a mere 48 hours after baking!!

Carrot Cake Extraordinaire!

2009-10-19T13:38:00.000-07:00

Trust me when I say, you need not try another carrot cake once you've tried this one. Immodest, I know, but honestly, this is the god of all carrot cakes. My quest for the perfect carrot cake came to an end when I was given the recipe for this delight when I was working at Michael Caines' restaurant in Exeter. Soft and moist in texture, dense yet not overly rich...that is, it's quite easy to reach for another slice. A quality I truly respect in cake.

I can never have too much cake.

It doesn't really rise that much, there is a small amount of bicarbonate of soda, but you don't want it to rise like a sponge, or you sacrifice the moist texture that makes this carrot cake so spectacular. You need to keep an eye on the cake when it's coming to the end of it's baking time, and take it out as soon as a knife comes out just about clean when you skewer it. Be brave when you take it out of the oven, it's ok if a few crumbs stick to the knife, better to be slightly underdone than over done in my opinion.

The cake itself is something to salivate over, but add the indulgent and rich cream cheese frosting, and you've got something truly special in your kitchen. A mix of butter, cream cheese and icing sugar, this is not for those looking to keep an eye on their waistline...that said, I think this cake is probably worth a little restraint the next day to even out the balance!

So here's the recipe:

Carrot Cake
120ml vegetable oil
160g caster sugar
2 eggs
large pinch of salt
110g plain flour
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tsp ground cinnamon
140g grated carrot
handful chopped walnuts

Beat the oil and sugar until it's thick.
Add the eggs gradually.
Then add the salt, flour, bicarbonate of soda and cinnamon.
Lastly mix in the carrots and walnuts.
Transfer the mix into a cake tin, at bake at 160 degrees for 45 minutes to an hour, checking regularly.
Transfer to a wire rack and allow to cool.

Cream Cheese Frosting
75g soft butter
110g icing sugar
150g Philadelphia

Beat butter and icing sugar together until smooth, then add the cream cheese.
Generously dollop on the cake, and spread to the edges.

So there you have it, the perfect carrot cake. Try it, trust me, you'll thank me.

Stuffed Butternut Squash and White Chocolate and Strawberry Cupcakes

2009-10-06T11:26:00.000-07:00

Well, I have had a goooood food weekend!!

It was a busy Friday and Saturday, but on Sunday I had some time to indulge my culinary desires, and decided to welcome the autumnal delights with a stuffed butternut squash. I can't tell you how much I love this dish, I look forward to October when the golden leaves which crunch and crackle as you stomp through them, and the crisp cool mornings also spell the beginning of a new food season, and one of the most exciting vegetables for me is butternut squash. It's soft sweet flesh is utterly comforting, and roasted and stuffed is a lovely start to Autumn. It's warming yet not overly stodgy, and works as a great accompaniment to a dish, as well as acting as the base for this particular recipe.

I sliced the squash in half, and scooped out the seeds as well as hollowing out some of the flesh to create a squash 'bowl' as it were, with a deep enough cavity to hold a decent amount of filling, but a thick enough wall (about 1.5cm) to support the filling and hold up during roasting.

Then I softened some onion, garlic and mushrooms in a pan and threw in some lardons until they were just cooked, and allowed to cool in a bowl. I then chopped up some of the squash into a fine mush (or as fine as you can get it!!), and added this to the onion mix, along with a handful of basmati rice, some mixed herbs, and salt and pepper. Mix all this together then spoon into the butternut squash.

Put both halves together and rub all over with some olive oil. Wrap in foil and place on a baking tray. Bake in a preheated oven at about 180 degrees for about an hour and a quarter. Then unwrap the silver blanket and I served it with some grated cheese. Delicious!!

For dessert, we had vanilla cupcakes with white chocolate and cream cheese frosting topped with fresh strawberries. They were amazing!!

I made a basic sponge mixture for the cupcakes and for the frosting I melted 150g white chocolate and set aside to cool. In a separate bowl I beat 150g of cream cheese with 50g of soft butter and 5 tablespoons of icing sugar. Then add the white chocolate to the mixture and leave to cool and set slightly.

To be honest, as usual I was too impatient and tried to ice the cupcakes before the frosting had set a little, so it was still quite runny. Instead of scooping the frosting on the top of the cupcake, I hollowed out a little of the cupcake and filled it with the runny frosting before adding sliced strwaberries. It tasted amazing slightly warm but just didn't look quite as nice. Turns out patience really is a virtue. Wonder when I'll finally learn my lesson.

After about half an hour or so in the fridge, the frosting had set and was the perfect consistency for icing the cupcakes for a cleaner and more professional look. Totally indulgent and a perfect end to the weekend!!

Brownie Semi-Success

2009-09-25T03:08:00.000-07:00

I attempted a recipe from my Hummingbird Bakery cookbook the other day, one that I've been dying to try for months - basically since I got the book, and let's just say, it didn't go swimmingly.

It was brownie with a layer of cheesecake then whipped raspberry cream completing the three layers. You can see why I've been wanting to make it for so long! Well, the making the brownie mix went well, making the cheesecake mix was fine, then I put two trays of it in the oven and left it for 25 of the 40 minutes cooking time the recipe suggests. Mistake.

I had forgotten about the oven's uneven temperature and the one on the right side of the oven burnt to a cinder. The one on the left however, was still slightly overcooked but ok. After getting all grumpy and upset about my brownies, I turned them out, and left them to cool. Now, as much as it pains me to throw away food, I really did have to throw away the burnt one, it was practically inedible. When the brownies were cooled I topped them with the cream which was a gorgeous bubblegum pink flavour, and left them to set a little in the fridge.

They were lovely slightly warm ( I couldn't resist eating the trimmings straight away!!), but it has to be said they were better after an overnight stint in the fridge. The cookbook did say to leave them in the fridge overnight, but I'm just too impatient when it comes to food, but I do recommend following the rules it if you try this recipe!! (Well, after snaffling the trimmings immediately after cooking of course!!).

After the overnight stay in the fridge, they soon disappeared due to excessive yummy-ness and I think I'll end up making them again - but keeping a keen eye on them while they cook next time!!

The Emerald Isle

2009-09-23T01:59:00.000-07:00

Hello!!! I'm back from the land of Guinness, leprechauns and St. Patrick's day, well rested and well fed. We spent one day and night in Dublin, then drove south for about an hour and a half for two nights at the Brookledge Hotel, a beautiful hotel and spa with a really fantastic restaurant.

But I won't get ahead of myself, first, Dublin. We arrived at lunch time, ready for something to re-fuel us and keep us going for the afternoon. Avoca is a shop in central Dublin which sells all manner of things from aprons, to cooking utensils, to childrens toys, but it also has a lovely cafe downstairs and a more formal restaurant upstairs. We opted for the cafe as we were laden with bags and didn't feel like walking up any steps to be honest, and it turned out to be a great choice. With two salad bars to choose from, as well as home made tarts, sandwiches and hot meals, and much much more, we were spoiled for choice. We all settled on the salad bar as it was just so colourful and a real variety to choose from. I had a mix of about five different 'salads', which were distinctly un-leafy, but totally delicious, like a pasta and roasted pepper salad, mange-tout, hazelnut and beef salad, tomato and mozzarella salad... I can't remember the rest but they were yummy!

Then we ambled over to where we were staying to leave our luggage, before heading off to the Guinness Storehouse. What an impressive building!! It's sort of a cross between a museum, and a bar, and a brewery! The building is 'the world's largest pint glass', which you can't really tell until you look at the map. As you go up the many, many, many floors, the glass middle of the building widens in the proportions of a pint glass. Hmm, I'm not really doing a very good job of explaining, so I suggest you go there and see for yourselves!! Each floor is fascinating, ranging from the way Guinness is made, to the history of the brewery, to the advertising through the years. It really is worth seeing, http://www.guinness-storehouse.com/ and you get a complimentary pint when you reach the top of the building to quench your thirst!!

Our first night at the spa was a real treat for the tastebuds, as we went to their fine dining restaurant The Strawberry Tree. It's Ireland's only certified organic restaurant, and serves only organic produce (unless it's wild of course!). So, let's get down to the important stuff, the food!
To start I had a beautiful mackerel with hollandaise sauce and caper cake. I wasn't sure what caper cake would be, but it was a sort of cross between a spongy savoury souffle and a fishcake with capers. It sounds odd I know, but it was really light and delicious, with the acidity of the capers complimenting the creamy hollandaise and fishy mackerel.
Then, there was a palette cleansing course - the others had an elderflower sorbet which was lovely, and I had an olive, feta and leaf salad. Really tasty lettuce and zingy feta, but it was quite a mountian of salad which was probably a little too much.
Then for the piece de resistance, my main course. I had an absolutely phenomenal beef fillet atop caramelised roasted sweet potato, and a blue cheese crust crowning the beef. It was quite a tower! It came with a red wine jus and green beans. There was also a dish of mixed vegetables for us all to share which were just lovely. Although the whole dish was fantastic, I didn't think it needed the cheese. The beef was just so good and the cheese overpowered it, turning it from a rich and indulgent meal to something a little too overwhelming. Saying that, this is just my opinion!
And for dessert I had a chocolate platter which was so indulgent! There were about five different mini-desserts on the plate, all fabulously rich! However, as much as I loved it, my sister chose a passion fruit pannacotta with white wine soaked peaches, which was just to die for. The pannacotta was so soft, only just set, and completely melt in the mouth. Yum. I was totally envious of her choice.

Then we went back to our rooms and collapsed in a heap,looking forward to breakfast!

Breakfast was quite an impressive affair too, with the usual array of cereals, fresh fruit, some really amazing yoghurt, and pastries. Then there was a choice of a cooked breakfasts, one of which was poached egg and potato cake which I had on the first morning, and the second morning I chose pancakes with maple syrup. The potato 'cake' was actually just cooked potatoes with onions, not quite what I was expecting, but delicious nonetheless. The pancakes were a better choice though I think. Very light and fluffy, and not too filling after a heavy meal the night before, with great maple syrup to give me a bit of a sugar boost for the morning!

All too soon it was time to come home, and back to normality. Hey ho, I'll just have to find an excuse for another foodie break soon!

P.S apologies for the distinct lack of photos - I was too excited about eating and completely forgot!! I promise photos next time!

An Abundance of Organic

2009-09-13T07:41:00.000-07:00

I'm having a relaxing day today, after a hectic couple of days travelling, and before heading across to the Emerald Isle tomorrow. Yesterday was a busy but fascinating and really fun day at the Bristol Organic Food Festival, which was a treat for the tastebuds!! Actually, it was a treat for the nose and eyes too! Beautiful stalls overflowing with vegetables, cheeses stacked high, butchery stalls full of matured meats, obviously full of flavour and depth just by looking at them!! Bottles of wine lined tables, jars of jams, pickles, chutneys and jellies adorned stalls, and smells of barbeques, cheeses and cooking demonstrations from jam to fish permeated the air.

Obviously, being the type of person I am, I didn't turn down a single offer of a taster ( I certainly didn't need to buy any lunch!!)- and my oh my did I taste dome strange things!! Of course there were the cheese stalls offering up morsels of excellence, from soft ripe cheeses to vintage cheddars to the more aquired taste of blue cheese and a particularly lovely mozzarella stand from buffalo in Hampshire, which offered a fresh clean taste. I picked up some Perl Wen cheese from one of the many cheese producers, which is a mild but tasty soft cheese in the sort of brie/camembert style. I was tempted to buy some wonderful Parmesan on display, stacked high in giant wheels which made my mouth water just at the sight of these incredible wheels, alas, I didn't want to overload on cheese when there was so much else to be experienced!!There were also Jars as far as the eye could see, the humble strawberry jam as well as more experimental flavours like carrot and cardamom chutney. As well as this, there was a demonstration for plum jam which used lavender sugar for an extra twist, which inspired me to get collecing jars and make the most of the last of the summer berries and fruits!!

Some of the most impressive stands were the vegetables. Tables overflowing with mountains of carrots, corn tumbling down the slopes made by the multible cobs piled high, a wall of regal beetroot, it's deep purple jumping out at you as you meander past. A variety of lettuce shooting up from earthy beds, tempting me to rip off a bunch of leaves and make a salad that actually tastes of lettuce, rather than the watery excuse we're offered at the supermarket.

There were interesting 'pastes' to try from Bio-Grape, with flavours such as Chilli Shiraz and

Cabernet Pepperberry Paste. Set with natural pectin they were a curious product, I would have thought most appropriate eaten with cheese, as you would a quince jelly.

Another interesting stall was Kentish Cobnuts. I'd never tried cobnuts before, and was pleasantly surprised by the delicate flavour and crunchy texture of the nuts. Quite 'green' in flavour, (if that makes any sense!) and a texture much like macademias, they were subtle and would be fantastic in salads. Rick Stein even has a meringue recipe using cobnuts from the producer herself in one of his cookbooks, which was proudly on display on their stall!

More inventive ideas came fram The Organic Seed and Bean Company who produce flavoured chocolates. Of course they sell the usual plain chocolate, mint chocolate which is award-winning, and the fashionable chilli chocolate, but more interestingly they also make lavender chocolate - another award winner, lime flavoured, rose flavoured, and mandarin & ginger flavoured chocolate.

I was particularly drawn to the Bacheldre Mill stall, which had an array of different flours (hardly surprising I ended up browsing there for quite some time considering my newfound obsesion with bread-making!!) from unbleached white flour, to spelt, malted blend, rye, wholemeal, and something I'd never come across before; oak smoked flour.

There were some absolutely stunning bread stalls dotted around the festival, selling beautiful loaves of a variety of loaves. We picked up some fig and walnut bread, but I was also interested to hear how they make their seeded bread. I was told that they soak the grains and seeds overnight and then add them to the mix the following day to create an even more moist and soft loaf, which would hold it's moisture for four or five days. This is a tactic I must try!!

Perhaps less sophisticated, but by no means less alluring, was a stall called Mr. Organic. Run by very enthusiastic Italian men, whose sales tactic seemed to be being loud and excitable and flirting with the women, they produced tomato based products like ketchup, passata, tinned toamtoes and other tomato based sauces. Their tactics worked though, as we picked up a very modestly priced jar of tomato sauce, which I have yet to try, so I can't tell you whether their product lives up to their enthusiasm!!

But by far my favourite stall was a Welsh farmer from mid Wales, whose farm is just outside of Newtown in mid Wales - Welsh Farm Organics. Showing off beautifully dark joints of red meat, just asking to be roasted, and glossy livers perfect for making a pate, or simply pan frying and serving with fresh salad and a balsamic dressing and maybe a sprinkling of toasted pine nuts. Delicious!! Watch this space though, because as well as their very impressive meat (the cattle is Welsh Black if you're interested, an absolutely stunning breed), I was told that they have recently aqcuired another farm to start producing wheat, grains and generally use the land for crops. If their crops are anything like their meat in terms of quality and yum-factor, then that's definitely a producer worth keeping an eye on!

By lunchtime, I was completely unhungry after having filled up on morsels of cheese, dollops of jam on crackers, cubes of chocolate, sips of wine, mini hunks of bread, dips from every corner of the world, and much much more!! So instead of queuing for an age for a burger, (which although I'm sure would have been sensational, would definitely have been too heavy) I decided on a corn on the cob from that mountain I mentioned earlier, which was served brushed with butter (a choice of normal or garlic, I chose normal for the sake of those around me!) and freshly ground black pepper. And what a lunch!! Tender kernels which fell off the cob oh-so-softly and were so sweet you'd think they'd been dipped in sugar!! Delicious!!

So, if you're free for it next year - go go go!!! It's only £5 entrance, and it really is an abundance of organic!!

Clotted Cream Ice Cream - especially for Helen!!

2009-09-08T06:02:00.001-07:00

I've been attempting Twitter these past few days to try and chat and meet like minded foodies, who love to discuss and share recipes, and it's becoming quite addictive...

I find myself logging on while I'm bored at work, eagerly awaiting new Tweets from other food bloggers, hoping that they have posted links to wonderful and delicious new recipes that I can try. So far, I've come across some great people who always have brilliant links, and are just as enthusiastic over food as I am...and to think they're all there at the click of a mouse!!

Anyway, the point is, I have promised to post a recipe for Helen, who writes Food Stories, and has a wonderful blog. She has an ice cream maker waiting to be used (lucky thing, mine is at my Dad's house, wasted in a cupboard!!), and asked for ideas for ice cream flavours.

Well, here is my absolute favourite. I was taught it when I worked in the pastry section at one of Michael Caines' restaurants, and it truly is the most beautiful ice cream I've ever tasted.

Clotted cream ice cream is the height of indulgence It's silky texture and creamy taste transport you to days of summer instantly, perfection with summer berries, or for a more warming dish in the autumn it marries wonderfully with warm apple tart, when it melts slightly and creates a mess of creamy appley vanilla-ey heaven!!

Clotted Cream Ice Cream

190g milk
100g sugar
3 whole eggs
6 egg yolks
200g clotted cream

Whisk the eggs, egg yolks and sugar in a bowl.
Bring the milk to the boil, then pour over the eggs while whisking.
Place the clotted cream in a blender.
Pour the mixture back in to the pan and place back on the heat.
Cook the miture out well - it will scramble, but don't worry!!
Pour the mixture into the blender over the clotted cream quickly, and blend while still hot until smooth.
Pass and churn.

And there you have my idea of the perfect ice cream!!

Moving Day

2009-09-07T02:19:00.000-07:00

It's been a busy few days at the Colehill Kitchen, we've moved to a shiny new flat (luckily just a few doors down - which was a godsend!) and spent the weekend turning it into a home. It's a beautiful flat, but most importantly it has a lovely kitchen, perfect for cooking up a storm in!

It's taken a little getting used to, the oven, for example, has a mind of it's own. Completely different to the old oven, so far I have discovered that one side is hotter than the other, and that the temperature on the dial is nowhere near as hot as the temperature is in reality!! However, it's a challenge and so far it hasn't caused any disasters. In fact, my bread is actually better in this oven as the initial baking heat is higher, and the bread has a much more flavourful crust on it - delicious!!.

I decided that as we were all in need of a little relaxation and something soothing during the hectic weekend, I would bake scones for cream tea on Sunday afternoon. I love scones, especially with jam and clotted cream. They are so wonderfully British and elegant. You can't help but feel civilised when you have a dainty scone and little pots of jam and cream. I'm more of an 'eat each half separately' kind of person. If you sandwich them together with the jam and cream, as soon as you take a bite it all squirts out everywhere with ensuing chaos and the jam and cream has seemingly travelled an amazing distance, managing to cover your hands and clothes and your eating companions. Kind of takes away from the whole 'cream tea is so elegant' notion! With four of us eating, two girls and two boys, guess which two decided to sandwich their scones together and cause a mess?!?!?

So, I made the scone recipe from my River Cottage bread handbook,

Scones (makes 12 mini scones)

300g flour

75g butter (if it's unsalted add a good pinch of salt) plus extra for greasing

2 tsp baking powder

50g caster sugar

1 egg

120ml cream

1 tsp vanilla extract

a little milk

Sieve the flour, baking powder, caster sugar and salt (if needed) into a mixing bowl.

Add the butter at cool room temperature (not fridge cold but not soft either) and rub together until it resembles a breadcrumb texture.

If you prefer you can put it all in a food mixer and use the whisk attachment to combine.

Combine the cream, egg and vanilla essence, then add to the dry ingredients and bring together to form a rough dough.

Tip out onto a floured surface and knead for about 10 seconds.

Roll out to about 1 1/2 centimetres (these make mini scones, you can increase the thickness and use a larger cutter to make bigger ones).

Cut out scones, don't twist the cutter though, try and push it straight down and straight up again, this will help the scones to rise up. It may help to dip your cutter in flour to prevent it sticking to the dough.

Place on a greased baking tray and cook in a preheated oven at 180 degrees for about 10 minutes or until the scones are turning golden and a skewer comes out clean.

Leave to cool on a wire rack for a few minutes, then demolish when still warm with jam and cream and a cup of tea!!

Perfection on a Sunday afternoon!!!

Step-by-Step Breadmaking

2009-09-03T05:43:00.000-07:00

I made bread again this weekend, it's becoming something of a Sunday afternoon tradition, it's so nice to have fresh home-made bread during the week. And while I was playing with ingredients and watching the dough develop from a sticky mess to something quite amazing, I thought it would be useful to take some pictures to put up here to give you a better guide to baking bread than my previous post. I've always felt that pictures are an invaluable addition to any recipe, as it gives a much clearer indication of what everything is supposed to look like!! I find this particularly useful when baking, because it's such a technical from of cooking, and if one step is wrong, it can spell disaster for your end result!

So here are some photos from my last batch of bread for you to browse through!

When you have combined all your ingredients, you will have a sticky dough. Place it on a large work surface to knead.
It will stick to the surface, but don't panic - this will actually help with the kneading process and do some of the work for you!! It will also become less sticky as you knead, so have patience and wash and flour your hands every few minutes to help.

When you are kneading, if you are right handed, place your left fingers into the nearest part of the dough, and push the rest of the dough with the knuckles of your right hand away from you as far as you can go (or vise versa if you are left handed!). Scrape the dough back towards you, turn 90 degrees clockwise and repeat. Knead for about 15 minutes.
This will get easier with time, and eventually you won't even think about it!!

Shape into a round, oil a bowl and the dough and place upside down in the bowl. Leave to ferment in the bowl with a black bag around it and tucked underneath the bowl (keep it loose though, the dough needs room to rise!!) for about 30 minutes, or until it has doubled in size.

Now is the stage called 'beating back'. However, as Daniel Stevens says in the River Cottage Handbook, this is far too violent a description, and that you have loved your bread up until this point, don't ruin it now! Most recipes suggest giving it a good punch, however a better and more gentle method is to prod it with your fingers until the air is pushed out and the dough rather flat.

Bring the edges into the middle to create a round again. You can leave the dough to rise another 2 or 3 times by repeating this process, which will make the dough softer and more pillowy, and result in an easier bread to digest, and I've found, a lighter bread.

Next you need to shape your loaves however you want. My favourite is this short loaf. To do this you need to press out all the air as before, then roll it tightly towards yourself, pressing on the seam to seal. Then flatten out lengthways so that it is three times as long. Fold in the left third, then the remaining right third on top of it. Press down again so that you have a fairly square shaped dough. Then roll tightly towards yourself again and press the join gently to seal. If you want to coat your loaves, now is the time. I love oats, but it's the same method for any coating. Roll your loaf in little milk or water all over, then transfer onto a plate or work surface covered with oats (or whatever yoy are coating your loaf in). Roll in the oats then transfer onto a board to prove for the last time before baking. Wrap loosely in a black bag and leave to prove until it has almost, but not quite, doubled in size, and the dough bounces back lightly when you give it a gentle squueze. I usually leave mine for about 30-40 minutes, but every dough is different, so follow your instincts.

Place a baking tray in your oven while it preheats to the top temperature, and one at the bottom of your oven, deep enough to hold some water. Boil the kettle. When your dough is ready, take the preheated tray out, place the loaves on it and if you want, make some slashes in the dough about a centimetre deep, then place the tray in the oven. Pour some water from the kettle into the bottom tray before closing the oven door. Bake at the top temperature of your oven for about 10 minutes, then if the bread is browning quickly turn to 170 degrees, if it's visibly browning turn to 180 degress, or if it's still quite pale turn to 190 degrees, and bake for a further 30-40 minutes. To check if they are done, tap the bottom with your knuckle, if they sound hollow, they are ready!!
Leave to cool for 20-30 minutes, then slice gently, apply lashings of butter, and devour!!

Chewy or Crunchy??

2009-09-02T01:59:00.000-07:00

There's nothing quite like the smell of freshly home made cookies to welcome you when you walk through the front door. There is something so comforting, so soothing and so tempting about them, like the weight of the world has been lifted off your shoulders just for a few moments while you bite into the warm, chewy, chocolatey treat.

Cookies are universal comfort food that I don't think anyone would pass up...from cookies and milk before bed, to a delicious offering for visitors, to home made gifts or just a cup of tea and a cookie mid morning, or mid afternoon...or any time of the day really (let's be honest, when would you pass up on a homemade cookie?!). They make us feel better when we are down, they make us feel appreciated if someone has made the effort to bake for us, and they give us a little energy boost when we need it...it's the ideal remedy for that afternoon slump at work!! And they are so simple to make!!

They are also so versatile, I doubt you could find a person who doesn't have their favourite flavour, or indeed someone who claims not to like cookies at all!! They lend themselves so well to an array of flavours; there's chocolate of course, whichever chocolate you choose, oatmeal and raisin, apple and cinnamon, ginger, blueberry and almond, apple and sultana, or even just the humble butter cookie. The list is endless, and it's a vehicle that you can use to try out different combinations of ingredients.

Quite apart from the flavours added to the cookie, there is the question of texture. Are you a crunchy person or a squidgy person? Do you like them crispy on the outside and chewy inside, or do you prefer a harder, crunchier treat? Sugar and cooking time are the key when deciding this. More white sugar will make them crispier, and more brown will make them chewier, so a combination of these can create a cookie to your taste. But slightly more importantly in my opinion is the cooking time. Often we are tempted to leave them in the oven until they are completely golden as this is so aesthetically pleasing, however this will result in a very crispy crunchy cookie that although lovely, is not to my taste. For a softer cookie, you must be brave and take them out when they are only just browning around the edges, and are still soft to the touch. They may look uncooked, but they will continue to cook as they cool, and the result is a beautifully soft and chewy cookie.

So here is a recipe I tried out on the weekend, it's a combination of white and demerera sugar (although it probably would have benefited from some soft brown sugar for an even more chewy texture). Also, I say chocoalte chunks here as I have an aversion to the 'chocolate chips' you can buy in a bag...they taste suspiciously un-chocolatey, and if you're going to bake chocolate chip cookies, you should probably be able to taste the chocolate!!!

Chocolate Chunk Cookies

280g caster sugar

170g demerera sugar

225g unsalted butter

2 eggs

1 1/2 tsp vanilla essence

450g plain flour

1 1/4 tsp baking powder (this makes for quite an airy cookie, if you want a denser texture, reduce this amount)

3/4 tsp salt

as many chocolate chunks as you can squeeze in!!

Beat the butter and sugars until pale and fluffy.

Add the vanilla essence and eggs one at a time.

Combine the flour, salt and baking powder in a separate bowl.

Add the flour mix to the wet mix gradually and combine until you have a fairly sturdy cookie dough...it does take some elbow grease!!

Add your chocoalte chunks, then make balls about 1 1/2 inches in size and place on a baking tray. Be sure to leave space between them as they will spread when they are cooking.

Bake in a preheated oven at 180 degrees for about 10 minutes, or until they are just about browning around the edges, but still look a little undercooked, then be brave and take them out!!!!

Leave to cool, then eat eat eat!!!

These lasted quite well when wrapped in cling film, and were perfect with a cup of tea on a rainy Sunday afternoon!

Mmmmm...bread!

2009-08-26T02:25:00.000-07:00

They say bread is the staff of life...so it must be important right? Well, it's important to me. Bread seems to have become my new obsession. I'm fascinated by it, every last detail - from the combining of ingredients, to the magic that happens when the dough is fermenting, to the unrivalled joy and satisfaction when you watch it rise even further in the oven and become a loaf that is a result of your own craftmanship...be it well crafted or not!! Perfection in baking bread is not necessarily what I aim for. Obviously the end result is far more satisfying if the soft inside is light and tasty, and your bread has risen and baked properly (without the dreaded flying crust, or a dense heavy bread), but I think bread tastes better if it looks a little...rustic, shall we say? There's so much more enjoyment in eating home made bread than mass-produced rubbish, and I quite like it when I can tell that it is the product of hands rather than machines. Those imperfections make it all the better for me!

I was given the River Cottage Handbook for Bread a few days ago, and between that and The Wolseley book (Yes!! I now own a real live copy of Mr. Gill's beautiful book!) I've pretty much disappeared into a black hole of food writing over the last week or so. It's fascinating to learn why ingredients do what they do when you mix them together, rather than blindly following a recipe and hoping for the best! The River Cottage Handbook in particular is a really detailed account, it goes into the minutiae of breadmaking, which inevitably leads to the reader's bread being all the better for it!

I have to admit, that although I have baked bread before, plenty of times, I've never known why each step in the process is important. I've never known what makes one loaf wildly different from another, or in fact, one loaf much better than another - so thank you Daniel Stevens for writing such a brilliant and informative book!! The book also has far more steps for making bread than your run-of-the-mill bread recipes from chefs who don't specialise in breadmaking, which make a world of difference, and I thoroughly recommend taking the time to incorporate them when you make bread (which I really really really hope you do, when you taste it you'll wonder why you never made home-made bread earlier, I promise!!).

I decided to start simple, a wholemeal dough enough for two loaves - one plain, and the other coated in oats. And my oh my, putting the extra effort in and taking those extra steps really did make this bread stand apart from loaves I've baked before. Daniel Stevens differentiates between fermenting, rising, and proving, which I had never come across before (most recipes just say 'prove') and recommends letting the dough rise for a further two or three times after the first fermentation, so that your dough becomes more pillowy with a satin-like feel to it, and this really did make for a much lighter and softer bread.

So here is the recipe and method, bear with me, it's rather long, but trust me, it's worth it!!

For two large loaves:

1kg flour

600-650ml tepid water

20g salt

10g yeast

1 tblsp olive oil

1 tblsp runny honey

Mix the flour, water, salt, yeast and honey to a loose dough, then add the oil and squidge together. This will be quite sticky, but don't worry, it will become less so with kneading.

Knead for about 15 minutes until you can stretch it as thin as a pair of tights.

Oil a bowl and the top of the dough and leave to ferment in the bowl wrapped in a bin bag until it has doubled in size.

Take out the dough and press the air out gently with your fingers. You can leave to rise again another 2 or 3 times to make the dough softer and pillowy.

Press with your fingers again to push the air out.

Shape the loaves.

Coat in anything you fancy!!

Preheat your oven to maximum temperature and place your baking tray and a tray that will hold some water at the bottom of the oven.

Leave to prove until almost doubled in size and when you give the loaves a gentle squeeze they bounce back.

Slash the tops and spray with water.

Place on the baking tray and pour some some water from the kettle into the tray at the bottom of the oven then place the loaves in the oven on the top temperature for 10 minutes.

If the loaves have browned quickly, turn the oven down to 170 degrees and bake for a further 40 minutes. If they are a pale brown, turn the oven to 190 degrees and bake for 40 minutes.

Tap the bottom of the loaves with your knuckles, if they sound hollow, they're done. For a harder crust, you can leave them in the oven a little longer.

After all that time and effort, I wanted a quick and easy dessert...which just so happened to involve more bread...I'm a woman obsessed!! Summer pudding is such an easy pudding, and really, it's not summer until you've made one! I hate to waste food, so this is a great pudding as it prefers slightly stale bread, and you can chuck in any summer fruits you happen to have.

Summer Pudding

600g mixed berries

100g caster sugar

100ml water

8-10 slices white bread

Line a bowl (this recipe makes enough for about an 800ml bowl) with cling film - have two sheets crossing each other so you have the cling film in a sort of X shape.

Put the berries, sugar and water in a pan, and cook for a few minutes until the fruit is tender.

Remove the fruit, and reserve all the juice.

Cut your bread into rectangles, and dip into the juice before lining the bowl with them.

Put the berries into the lined bowl and then fold over the bread to create a lid, or if your bread isn't long enough, just place more soaked slices on top.

Fold over the cling film sheets fairly tightly so that the pudding firms up in a good shape in the fridge.

Ideally leave it in the fridge overnight...but we're too impatient so a few hours in the fridge will do!!

Enjoy your summer in a bowl!!

A Pork Epiphany

2009-08-18T01:04:00.000-07:00

I'm feeling very peaceful and relaxed now after a week of frantic organisation, diligent preparation and thorough enjoyment at the end of it all! So I've finally found time to sit down and write a post to update you on all the delicious food we've been indulging in! Unfortunately, due to being a bit of a whirling dirvish while cooking the pork, I completely forgot to take any photos, and was too interested in eating it when it was ready. So you'll have to trust me when I say how fabulous it was, and try it for yourselves! I did however remember to take some pictures of the cake, so enjoy!

It's been a flurry of birthday celebrations in the Colehill Kitchen this past week, and a birthday is not a good birthday without good food! I'm a firm believer in enjoying food as part of a celebration. I don't feel like it's been a real occasion unless the kitchen is brimming with ingredients and a medley of delicious smells has been emanating from it all day. This time there were aromas of chocolate (of course!!) and baking, as well as roasting pork, garlic and onions, balsamic vinegar and herbs galore!! It was quite a feast and began the week in true decadence!

Thanks to these birthday celebrations, I've had an epiphany about pork. I never thought I liked pork really. I always found it a little dull compared to other meats, and quite often dry and chewy, as well as finding crackling a complete and utter anti-climax.

How wrong I was.

We had the MOST beautiful pork loin from our local butcher (The Parson's Nose on Fulham Road if you're interested, which you really should be if you live nearby, their meat is phenomenal!). I asked for it boned and rolled, which the butcher did right there in front of me in a matter of minutes, quite an impressive sight, let me tell you! I hurried on home to cook it, and stuffed it with a rustic herby stuffing from Jamie Oliver's website (jamieoliver.com) which I tweaked a little. I don't often use his recipes, but this one was a real winner, beautiful tasting stuffing that complimented the pork perfectly. Obviously we had to have roast potatoes with it, and then some steamed brocolli for a bit of goodness!! And to finish, a chocolate mud cake with mascarpone cream. I know, restrained wasn't I?

I had a complete meltdown with the mudcake. I had arrived home from work after a nightmare-ish journey, and a frantic dash to the shop to get the ingredients, and was baking up a storm in a frazzled state, just finishing adding the chocolate mix to the rest of the mix, about ready to put it into the tins, when I happened to look around and see an unopened bag of caster sugar sitting next to me. Bugger. In my manic state, I had completely forgotten to add the sugar to the flour mix. What to do? Well, I decided to just add it to the melted chocolate and continue pouring this into the rest. The recipe said to put the sugar in with the dry ingredients, but the cake turned out so well, I'm sticking to my accidental method now!!

We've been indulging in delicious delights for quite a few days now - it's probably time to reign it in a bit... but before I do, let me share with you these recipes that I've been using during the celebrations!

Roast pork with herb stuffing

Pork loin, off the bone
500g rustic bread
small handful picked Rosemary
2 red onions, finely sliced
2-3 cloves garlic, finely sliced
3 heaped tblsp fennel seeds
sea salt and black pepper
handful pinenuts
4 tblsp balsamic vinegar
generous drizzle of olive oil

Throw it all in a mixing bowl and toss so that the oil and vinegar cover everything, then stuff into the pork. This makes quite a lot of stuffing, but try and get as much under the pork as possible, trust me, you'll thank me when it's cooked!! Then score the skin thickly and rub with sea salt to make extra crispy crackling!

I had a 3.4 lb piece of pork, the general rule is 20 minutes per pound plus 20-30 minutes, but I cooked mine for about an hour and a quarter at 180 degrees and it was perfect. Then let it rest for 20 minutes so that it's really juicy and tender when you eat it.

Roast potatoes

Maris piper potatoes
Vegeatable/sunflower oil

Boil the potatoes until the outsides are soft, drain and put back in the pan.
Hold a lid over the top and shake the pan to bash up the outsides of the potatoes.
Allow to cool.
Meanwhile, heat some oil (about 1/2 inch deep) in a baking tray in the oven.
After it's been heating for about 5-10 minutes, carefully place the potatoes in the oil, and put back in the oven at 180-200 degrees for about 20 minutes, basting now and then, until nice and golden and crispy. If they aren't crisping up then turn the oven to full heat for the last five minutes and they will be lovely and crunchy when you take them out.

Chocolate mud cake

125g dark chocolate
125g milk chocolate
250g butter (if unsalted, add 1/2 tsp salt)
188ml water
500g caster sugar
160g plain flour
165g self-raising flour
30g cocoa powder
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
4 large eggs
40ml oil
125ml buttermilk (I couldn't find buttermilk but a substitute is to add 1 tblsp of lemon juice to 240ml whole milk, then use 125ml of this)
1 tsp vanilla extract

Put the chocolate, butter, sugar and water in a pan and warm gently until the chocolate and butter have melted. Stir occasionally to stop it from sticking to the bottom of the pan and burning.
Sift the flour, cocoa powder, and bicarbonate of sodatogether.
Place eggs, oil, buttermilk and extract in a bowl and mix.
Add egg mix to flour mix, then add chocolate mix in 3 stages.

Split into two springorm tins and bake for 45-50 minutes at 170 degress, or until a skewer comes out clean.

Mascarpone Cream

250g mascarpone
130 ml double cream
90g icing sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Beat the mascarpone, vanilla extract and sifted icing suagr together.
Whip the cream to a soft peak, and fold this into the mascarpone.
Slather onto the bottom sponge, place the other cake on top, then top with more mascarpone cream and dust with a little extra cocoa powder.

A healthy nutritious dessert!! ;-)

Pitta nachos and cupcakes

2009-08-10T07:19:00.000-07:00

As I was in the baking mood over the weekend, I decided to try my hand at making pitta bread for some 'healthy (ish) nachos'. I can't tell you how exciting it is to see your pittas puff in the oven in matter of minutes!! I've never made pitta bread before and I found the recipe on http://www.thefreshloaf.com/ and it came out beautifully!!

Pitta Bread
260g white bread flour
130g wholewheat bread flour
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 tblsp honey
1 packet dried yeast
300-350ml tepid water
2 tblsp olive oil

Very similar to my previous post on white bread, the method goes like this:
Combine yeast, flour, salt, honey.
Make a well and stir in water and oil slowly, mixing with a fork until you are able to get your hands stuck in and then knead for 10-15 minutes.
Leave to prove in a floured bowl and covered with a warm damp cloth for 90 minutes, or until doubled in size.
Beat back, and divide into 8 balls, then prove for a further 20-30 minutes.

Roll out into 1/2 cm thickness and bake in a preheated oven at 200 degrees on a hot baking tray.

The first couple I tried didn't puff up as impressively as I was hoping for, until I realised I wasn't rolling them thin enough. This seems to be the trick to puffing pitta bread!! The other important factor is that the baking tray you put them on be very hot too, I put mine in while the oven was preheating and then left it for another 5 or 10 minutes to really heat up.

When they had cooled a little I cut them into sixths, and then opened each trangle up and cut it in two, so each pitta produced 12 nachos. Then I put them on a baking tray, drizzled some olive oil on them and a couple of pinches of salt sprinkled over, then back in a hot oven for 3-5 minutes to crisp up a bit more.

I made them with some minced beef, yoghurt dressing and fresh vegetable salad for a mountain of yummy goodness!!

500g beef mince, fried with:
1 red onion, chopped

3 cloves of garlic
1 tsp ground coriander
1 1/2 tsp cumin seeds

1/2 tsp hot chilli powder

For the dressing: yoghurt, feta, lemon juice, fresh mint and seasoning (all to taste).

And a salad of chopped cucumber, tomatoes and sugarsnap peas.

I could have eaten and eaten and eaten!! The freshness of the dressing complimented the fried beef well, with the sharpness of the lemon juice cutting through the fat from the meat.

I did eventually did stop eating though, because I had made some pretty exciting cupcakes for dessert. This is a recipe from the Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook, and these cupcakes, as the author says, really do pack a punch. They are a dark, dense chocolate sponge with cheesecake baked into them and cream cheese frosting on top. Indulgent you say?...maybe a little!!

The sponge is egg and butter-less, and uses cocoa powder rather than chocolate, so quite good for those who are non-dairy, however, the cheesecake obviously involves dairy (the clue is in the title I guess!) as does the frosting (which although extravagant, I think the cupcakes need, as the sponge is really not that sweet...and you know, who doesn't like a little extra frosting on their cupcake?!?!). I would say that the cheesecake mix is a little thin in this recipe, as it sort of baked around the cupcake rather than into it, and I suspect that if the mix was heavier and less liquid, it would fall into the cupcake rather than let the rising sponge push it up. Nevertheless, they were a delightful treat, a dense moist sponge with the creaminess of the cheesecake and frosting setting it off.

Blackbottom Cupcakes

Chocolate Sponge Base

190g plain flour

120g caster sugar

40g cocoa powder

1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda

40ml sunflower oil

1 1/2 tsp white vinegar (I only had white wine vinegar but it seemed to do the trick!)

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

125ml water (I needed a little extra splash)

Cheesecake filling

140g cream cheese

60g caster sugar

1 egg

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

pinch of salt

100g milk chocolate chips

Cream cheese frosting

300g icing sugar, sifted

50g unsalted butter

125g cream cheese

For the sponge, put the flour, sugar, cocoa powder and bicarbonate of soda in a large bowl and whisk to combine.

Put the oil, vinegar, vanilla extract and water in a jug and whisk to combine. Add gradually to the flour mix, whisking as you pour. I needed a splash more water to create a smooth mix.

Spoon into paper cases until two-thirds full.

For the cheesecake filling, beat together the cream cheese, sugar, egg, vanilla extract and salt until smooth and fluffy.

Fold in the chocolate chips. Don't overmix or the cream cheese may start to split.
Scoop about 1 tblsp of the mix on top of the sponge mix, and bake in a preheated oven at 170 degrees for 18-20 minutes, or until the sponge bounces back and the cheesecake has a golden colour.

Don't overcook or the cheesecake will become crumbly.

Leave to cool on a wire rack.

For the frosting, beat the icing sugar and butter together until well combined.

Then add the cream cheese and beat till smooth and fluffy.

When the cupcakes have cooled, spread a generous dollop of frosting on top and enjoy!!!

Heavenly Benediction

2009-08-10T06:12:00.000-07:00

Oh my.

People, I have experienced the holy grail of breakfast. I'm not joking.

I had a birthday treat last weekend, and quite a treat it was. We went to the Wolseley for breakfast on Saturday morning and basked in the glory of it while we drank copious amounts of tea (honestly, the best tea I've ever tasted, hands down), and had a selection of mini pastries to share followed by Eggs Benedict.

Whoever Benedict is, I want to thank him.

I've never experienced a breakfast quite like it. Now, I've had eggs benedict before, but nothing compares to the tower of deliciousness that sat before me on Saturday morning. The doughy muffin lightly toasted topped with a generously sized and beautifully salty slice of ham which married so well with the creaminess of the hollandaise sauce, and the most perfect poached egg I've ever seen. Good thing we'd had the pastries really, otherwise when my tower arrived I probably would have scoffed it down in an instant. As it was, my appetite had been curbed slightly by the support act, and I took my time over the headliner.

AA Gill has written a book on The Wolseley which I am in the process of tracking down now that I have experienced the place. Before we went there were copies of it everywhere, now that I want to find the thing and buy it so that I can pour over it and dream of more perfect breakfasts, it's nowhere to be found!! It's a beautiful book that is filled with the history of the restaurant as well as recipes, and as soon as I happen across it, I'm grabbing it and running to the till!!

I left wanting to recreate the magic, but decided that it would take many many many attempts before I even came close to producing something as exceptional as what we'd eaten there, so I restrained, and decided to bake bread instead, an eternally rewarding and satisfying experience.

I love to bake bread, I love the long process which requires patience from the baker, which makes the ultimate loaf so much more rewarding - you've been waiting for hours from when you started baking to when you can break into the hard crust and reveal the soft interior, then spread on some butter which melts on the fresh, warm dough. It's the ultimate in comfort food for me. Fresh bread with butter and jam and a cup of tea, it doesn't get much better than that.

Here's the simple white bread recipe I use:

500g bread flour
300-350ml tepid water
1 packet yeast (dried)
1 tsp sugar
1 1/2 tsp salt
3 tblsp olive oil
flour for dusting

Mix the flour, yeast, salt and sugar in a bowl.
Make a well in the flour mix and add the water and oil gradually.
Stir with a fork until it comes together enough to be able to knead.
Knead for 10-15 minutes.
Leave to rest in a floured bowl with a warm damp cloth over the top for 90 minutes, or until it has doubled in size.
Beat back (give it a good couple of punches to knock the air out) then knead into a ball and leave to rest for a further 30 minutes.
Shape into a loaf tin, or if you don't have one, into a ball on a baking tray, and spray with a little water (this helps give the bread a crispier crust).
Bake in a preheated oven at 200 degrees for 30-35 minutes.

To check if it's done, tap the bottom with your knuckles, if it sounds hollow, it's done.

Temporary Insanity

2009-08-06T06:49:00.000-07:00

Boredom is a dangerous thing. When boredom strikes me, inevitably hunger strikes too, and this, my friends, is a dangerous situation to be in. If I were at home, and I found myself in the grip of immense boredom (knowing that hunger was not too far away), I could easily pop out for a walk, call a friend, have a long bubble bath, paint my nails…the list is endless. If, however, as I currently find myself, I am bored in an office, with only a computer to entertain me, the risks of online purchasing and browsing endless food websites are upon me. Amazon is the Devil in disguise.

I am working through the summer in various temp jobs, about 99% of which are reception work. Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m thrilled to have work, and, quite frankly, so is my bank balance, but these environments are hazardous to my purse and to my stomach. I’m keeping Mr. Amazon’s kids in school with the amount of money I spend on there. I’m obsessed with the River Cottage Handbooks at the moment, they are SO beautiful...one day I'll have the whole set...
As well as this, I spend all day browsing through food websites, food blogs, online recipes…I’ve even begun to search random ingredients on the BBC site to see what lovely recipes come up. All this browsing through recipes and mouth watering pictures means that I am RAVENOUS by the time I get home, armed with dozens of recipes I want to try!

Sooo, which one to make??? I decided to make chicken kievs from Something for the Weekend, with roasted broccoli and sweet potato on Friday (something indulgent to celebrate the end of the week, it has to be done!). They were a real success. The filling was full of flavour and the coating made a really crispy crunch when you cut into it. The recipe suggested tarragon but I used parsley which worked beautifully, it gave it a little more freshness against all the butter and the roasted vegetables. I didn't have any breadcrumbs to hand so cut some baguette into cubes (about a centimetre square) and I dried them out in a cool oven (about 100-120 degrees) to make them really really crispy, and then ground them up. I think this added to the crunchiness of the coating and would thoroughly recommend it if you find youself without any breadcrumbs in the freezer (it also means you don't have to plan ahead and buy bread to go stale a couple of days before!!). We had them with broccoli roasted with coriander, cumin and chilli (you must must must try this, I'm sure it will convert those who aren't brocolli fans!!), and roasted sweet potatoes. Yum.

Chicken Kievs
2 Chicken breasts
120g butter
2-3 garlic cloves (finely chopped)
Juice of 1/2 lemon
1 tblsp fresh chopped parsley
Salt and pepper (to taste)

1 egg

2 tblsp flour

2-3 handfuls breadcrumbs

Oil for frying

Mix the butter, garlic, lemon juice, parley and salt and pepper in a bowl.
Cut a pocket in each chicken breast and stuff with th 2-3 spoonfuls of the filling.
Dip each breast in the flour, pat off, then in the egg, then in the breadcrumbs. (The recipe suggested patting off any excess breadcrumbs but I packed as many as I could on for an extra crispy texture!)
Fry in oil on each side until golden, then transfer to a baking tray and bake for 15-18mins and 180 degrees.

For the broccoli i threw the florets in a bowl with:

2 tablespoons of olive oil

1/2 tsp ground coriander

1 tsp cumin seeds

1/4 tsp chilli powder

Salt and pepper

and roast at 180 degrees for 20-25 minutes

And the sweet potato I cut into wedges and tossed in some olive oil, salt and pepper, and roasted them for about half an hour.

Into the Great Wide Open

2009-08-06T02:29:00.000-07:00

Since I began thinking about starting this blog, I’ve had Tom Petty’s ‘Into the Great Wide Open’ stuck in my head. Pretty apt I think you’ll agree. ‘Out in the great wide open, A rebel without a clue’. Now, I’ll be honest, I’m not much of a rebel, (I’m fairly mainstream to be honest, I’m pretty much a Jack Wills and Gap type of girl) but I am now in the great wide open, totally and utterly without a clue.

Here is where it all begins, my notes and scribbles, thoughts and ponderings, trials and tribulations from the kitchen written down for anybody to see. They are no longer kept locked up tight in my own little world, where thoughts of dainty cupcakes, creamy frosting, soothing apple pie (or any pie for that matter), comforting freshly baked bread, sticky jams and all manner of other delightful treats swirl around in my mind and keep me day-dreaming all day.
But first, before I dive head first into caking, baking and generally making a mess of my kitchen and telling you about the results, let me explain a little how I got to this point, and why I have decided to (hopefully) entertain and interest you with lots of yummy recipes. I’ve always loved cooking and eating (who doesn’t enjoy eating?!?!) mostly thanks to my Dad, who taught me a LOT of what I’ve learnt over the last few years, and so after I finished my A-levels, I hopped on a plane and landed in the Swiss Alps, all set to whip up a bevy of delights for guests who were staying in my chalet. I spent four months cooking breakfasts, afternoon tea and three-course meals for the guests, as well as a spot of skiing in between! This, dear readers, is where I think my obsession with food and cooking began (cooking for others especially, I love providing delicious meals for people – food always makes people happy doesn’t it?!). My Dad and I spent the month before I left trying out the recipes, seeing what worked and what needed tweaking, and let me tell you, it was one of the most enjoyable months of my life.

After my adventure in the mountains, I came back and started a degree.

It did not go to plan.

I still had that hankering to work with food which would just not go away, and so after a year, I decided to leave my course and start working full time in a restaurant. The obsession develops. I learnt an invaluable amount working in the pastry section there, and had an amazing experience working in a professional kitchen. However, I decided after a year that working in the kitchen of a restaurant was not for me. I left and began an English Literature degree, and that brings us up to date!

So, with a passion for food (and talking about food), while studying English, what’s a girl to do? Start a blog of course!

And so this is the beginning. I plan on cooking as much as I possibly can and telling you all about it, let’s get started!!