At Anna's kitchen table

Psarosoupa (Fish soup)

2012-02-09T16:11:00.003Z

I'm lucky enough to have unlimited access to beautiful, fresh fish, which is delivered daily to my workplace. I'm usually fast asleep when I hear the fish man delivering his wares at ungodly hours of the morning. Sea fresh cod, haddock and plaice are readily available to me, so I really have no excuse not to be using them more often. Healthy, nutritious and low in fat:

Fresh Cod

I was reading through a few blogs today when Elpiniki's post caught my eye and being as I hadn't even started planning the evening meal, it didn't take me long to put 2+2 together and decide to make Elpi's soup. I did change a few things, so here is my version of psarosoupa:

Elpiniki's Psarosoupa
Serves 3.

400-500g fish fillets (I used the large piece of cod you see above)
1 potato, peeled and finely cubed
2 carrots, peeled and sliced into rounds
2 sticks of celery, finely sliced
3 spring onons, finely sliced
Half a cup of rice
1 vegetable stock cube
salt & pepper
fresh parsley
Olive oil to taste.
Juice of half a lemon.

1. Place about 1 litre of water in a large saucepan and bring to the boil, add the vegetable stock cube and the potatoes, carrots, onions and potatoes. Simmer for about 10 minutes until the vegetables are half cooked.

2. With a slotted spoon, remove some of the vegetables with a little stock, blend with a stick blender to a puree and set aside.

3. Add the fish which you have cut into large chunks to the soup in the pan along with the rice, simmer for 10-12 minutes until both the rice and fish are cooked.

4. Add the pureed veg back to the soup and stir, add salt and pepper, parsley and olive oil and lemon to taste.

5. Your soup is now ready!

Enjoy!

Happy cooking from my kitchen to yours.....and thanks to Elpiniki for the inspiration!

Nigella's Scallops with chorizo

2012-02-07T15:30:00.000Z

I've been a little quiet here on my blog lately and I feel that I should explain why, so that if I do post a little less regularly than is usual, you'll at least know why.
I've been on a bit of a health kick recently, trying to lose some extra weight which has crept on steadily over the past few years. Unfortunately when you like your food and baking as much as I do, this can be one of the side effects.

I'm not very good at moderation.

I've decided that I'll be very strict with myself until most of the weight has gone and then try Weight Watchers or similar to help keep the weight off.
That being said, I can now tell you that I had quite a tough time, because I decided to cut out carbs, sugar, diet coke (My great vice!) sweeteners, caffeine and most dairy in the space of a week! Looking back now, that may not have been the wisest thing to do...I had headaches, nausea, aching bones for a whole week. A really bad case of Induction flu. I really felt awful.
But now it's over, I feel great, like a fog has lifted, that's the only way I can think of to describe it.
Being as I'm restricting myself so much, I feel that the little food I do eat, must completely satisfy me and be of the highest quality my pocket can manage.

And be lovely. Really lovely.

That's why I treated myself today to these lovely Waitrose King scallops, which I generously shared with my husband.

Aren't I kind?

I've made Nigella's scallops with chorizo a few times and to me it feels like you've been spoilt when you've had this.

Spoilt but happy.

Nigella's Scallops with Chorizo
Adapted from Nigella Express.

110g Chorizo sausage
400g Small scallops (mine were huge, so I halved them)
Juice of half a lemon
Chopped fresh parsley.

1. Slice the chorizo into rounds (No thicker than 3mm says Nigella)

2. Heat a pan on the hob and fry the chorizo until crisped on either side, you won't need to use oil as the chorizo releases lots of lovely orange oil.

3. Remove chorizo from pan and fry scallops in the chorizo oil for about a minute a side.

4. Return the chorizo to the pan with the scallops, add the lemon juice and let it bubble for a few seconds before adding the parsley.

(Apparently serves 8 as a starter. I must disagree here, 4 sounds better, but then maybe that's why I need to diet in the first place!!)

My Mum's Stifado

2012-02-06T15:11:00.000Z

I think my Mother's father was a foodie!
He had a great love of Cypriot delicacies and when I was small I distinctly remember him coming round with a hare, or failing that, a rabbit, in order that my mum could make stifado for him.
His appreciation, I have no doubt, made the 'labour of love' distinctly worthwile.
Now, I love it made with either meats, but I find that I tend to make it more with beef cubes as it is more readily available than game.
Stifado is a Greek stew made with the aforementioned meats and plenty of onions...when I say plenty, I really do mean that, there must be twice the weight of onions as there is meat, so for instance, if you make the stifado with 2lb of meat, you must use 4lb of onions!
It's lovely served with a steaming pile of Basmati rice, though I have heard that in parts of Greece it is more generally served with noodles.
My mother's recipe is very basic, there are no additions that I have heard about and read about, no red wine, no tomato paste.
Just beef, onions, olive oil and red wine vinegar and a couple of bay leaves.....it couldn't be any easier.

My Mum's Stifado

2lb beef stewing steak, cut into medium sized cubes (about the size of a walnut)
4lb Spanish onions, peeled and sliced
Extra-Virgin olive oil (For frying)
1 small wineglass of red wine vinegar
2-3 bay leaves.

1. Fry the beef in plenty of olive oil until well browned, place in the bottom of an ovenproof dish.

2. Fry the onion slices in batches, in the same oil, you want the onion slices to become well browned and golden, this helps with the flavour and colour immeasurably.

3. Place the onions on top of the beef.

4. Pour over the glass of red wine vinegar, season with salt and place 2-3 bay leaves on top also.

5. Cook in a medium oven (Gas mark 3, 170degC, 150degC fan oven) for about 3 hours.

I never grew up with meatloaf....

2012-01-28T13:16:00.001Z

....At least I don't think I did. Others? Maybe.....but us....
We may have grown up on squid and octopus and halloumi with watermelon...but not meatloaf.

The first time I remember eating meatloaf was at my sister-in-law's house in Cyprus, but there it was wrapped in caul fat and enclosed a layer of hard boiled eggs.

Now, if you know me well, you will know I don't do eggs.

Not fried.
Not boiled.
Not scrambled.

No way, uh uh, never!

We can attribute this loathing to Mama Kouzari who fearing her little girl would be missing some kind of valuable vitamins and minerals that only eggs have, would try and feed me with it, only for me to spit it out.
I would probably have the same reaction now.
Unless of course they're heavily disguised in a chocolate cake or something.......
She even mixed it up with my weetabix, trying to disguise the taste...

Mom, did you really do that?

The best meatloaf I've ever had was a recipe that my Australian friend Coby supplied me with.
It's great hot, served with mash or rice or whichever carb you prefer, but try it cold the next day in thick slices sandwiched between thick white bread.

To die for.

Here's the recipe, which Coby kindly agreed to let me share:

Coby's Meatloaf.

In Coby's words "The sauce is interesting and really delicious in this. I don't like coffee, but I like this sauce inspite of it. There's always a long list of ingredients in meatloaf, but it's super easy to just scrunch it all together".

I would have to agree Coby, but say that I love the sauce because of the coffee. :))
Just the very idea that it's there, makes it all a bit more adventurous and gets people intruiged and wanting to try it. Even though the finished sauce doesn't actually taste of coffee.....

For the meatloaf:
3 slices white bread, crusts removed and cut into squares.
Half a cup of milk
500g beef mince
500g sausage or pork mince (sausage is the tradition)
2 onions, finely chopped
2 teaspoons curry powder
Quarter cup chopped parsley
2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1 tbsp Dijon mustard
salt and pepper
1 grated carrot
1 grated turnip (I sub another carrot or a parsnip if I don't have turnip at home)

For the sauce:
Half a cup water
Half a cup of tomato sauce (Ketchup)
Half a cup Worcestershire sauce
2 tbsp vinegar
1 teaspoon instant coffee
30g butter
2 tbsp lemon juice
Quarter cup brown sugar.

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 180 deg C or 160 deg C, if you have a fan oven.

2. Pour the milk over the bread and let stand until milk is absorbed.

3. Place all the meatloaf ingredients in a bowl. Add the bread and mix until very well combined.

4. Press mixture into a greased 4 litre capacity loaf tin. Bake for 30 minutes.

5. Combine the sauce ingredients in a small saucepan, bring to the boil, reduce heat and simmer for five minutes.

6. Drain fat from the meatloaf and invert onto a baking dish, pour over the sauce and cook for a further 30 minutes, basting every ten minutes.

Thanks to Coby for a recipe which has become part of my family and our lives.

A huge and heartfelt Thank you!

2012-01-24T17:38:00.001Z

....to Caroline Smith AKA CARRIE from The Patterned Plate for making my title header look so beautiful!It is something I could never have done without you!

What's in a name?

2012-01-24T13:18:00.002Z

My favourite posts are unsurprisingly maybe, centred around my most favourite recipes of all, the ones that I grew up with, the ones that are closest to my heart. I'm hoping that these recipes are the ones that my daughters will one day ask my help with, as I did with my mom and I can direct them to this blog if circumstances dictate that I'm not in the same kitchen helping them- you could say that they can come here to my virtual kitchen! :))
I needed mom's help with the naming of this recipe, because it gets a little complicated.
When I was small this dish was called 'Kapama', a casserole made with either meat or chicken, potatoes and red wine, I remember my mom adding crushed coriander seeds to the finished dish, but after I got engaged and was influenced by another village's way of cooking (the village is Aradhippou, in Cyprus by the way) and another woman's way of cooking (My Mother-in-law) I saw that she and most of the other women there, made the same dish that I remember when growing up, but made it without the crushed coriander seeds and called it 'Kokkinisto' which means 'reddened' in Greek.
Bear with me reader, for here is where it gets complicated.....talk about regional cooking.....
In Xylophagou, which is where my family's from, 'Kokkinisto' refers to a dish that has been cooked with tomatoes, not red wine. But also to a dish which involves meat and potatoes being dunked into red wine and the fried until golden and cooked through.

So what's in a name?
I call this glorious dish 'Kokkinisto', it's my blog, here we go:

My Mom's Kokkinisto

Kokkinisto

1. This is how I usually calculate how much to make. For every person eating, allow 1-2 chicken portions (by a portion I mean either a leg, wing, thigh or breast of chicken) and 1-2 potatoes each.
You know the appetite of your family!
One can also use pork chops (1 per person is fine) lamb chops, pork ribs or belly slices, anything you fancy really.

2. You will also need a bottle of good, full bodied red wine.

3. Open the bottle of red wine, and pour it into a large bowl (if you wish for a lighter colour to the finished dish and in fact a lighter taste, too, you could use only half of the bottle)
Place the chicken or meat portions into the wine and get on with heating some vegetable oil in a large, shallow pan, we are going to brown the meat next.

4. Heat the oil to a high heat, and being very wary of splashes, place the meat carefully into the pan, now, you want to brown the meat very well, so that it's lovely and dark brown (the wine will aid with the colouring)
Now place the halved potatoes in the same wine.
Place the meat into a large casserole, or Dutch oven.

5. Do exactly the same with the potatoes, brown them off well in the oil and place over the meat in the casserole.

6. Pour the wine over the meat and potatoes, Pour water in too, to barely cover them, also salt and pepper to taste, if liked one can also add a pinch of cinnamon (This is a Cypriot recipe- we put cinnamon in everything!)
And the secret ingredient...pour in about a tablespoon or two of the oil...mmmmmm.
Bring to a boil, turn down heat to a simmer and simmer until the potatoes are tender, by this time both the meat and potatoes will be cooked through.

7. Serve in bowls, with lots of the lovely sauce and lots of good, crusty bread.

As you can see in the photo, it's also possible to add a layer of cauliflower florets which have been fried off in the oil and placed over the meat and potatoes. My eldest son loves it this way!
This is a beloved dish in my part of Cyprus, it's made weekly without a doubt, loved by everyone!
The first time I made it, mum reminded me just the other day was when I was about 15-16. As Mum used to work, she'd tell me what she wanted cooked that day and I would write the instructions down and by the time she got home, there'd be a cooked meal on the table :)) You see I loved cooking, even back then.....

1. Off the Shelf ~ Japanese Bible by Fiona Hammond

2012-01-20T16:03:00.000Z

D'you know, the funny thing about kicking off my 'Off the Shelf cook book challenge' with this book, is the fact that it's one of my latest purchases! It's hardly had time to settle in, before it's being whipped off the shelf!
It's a cute little book, which has achievable, yet tasty, Japanese recipes. I've always wanted to know a little bit more about Japanese food, so this easy book is the ideal, painless way in.

The recipe I chose was the Chicken Teriyaki, a family favourite of ours.
Easier, even, than the recipe I usually follow from Nigella Lawson's book 'Kitchen'.
Authentic? I don't really know...

Chicken pieces are fried off in a little vegetable oil to colour them, removed from the pan and set aside.

A Teriyaki sauce is made up from: half a cup of sake, half a cup of mirin, half a cup of soy sauce and 1 tablespoon of caster sugar.

This bubbles away for a few minutes, reducing slightly, the chicken is added back and it's cooked for a few more minutes so that the chicken cooks through.

That's it!

Marks out of ten? 6.

Would I make it again? No.

Would I do anything differently? I'm sticking to Nigella's recipe from now on, a little more complex in the taste department!

Off the Shelf ~ My Cook book challenge

2012-01-18T14:26:00.000Z

Lately it seems, that every time I browse through my local book shop, or on the net, something which feels an awful lot like guilt, stops me from buying any more cook books.
I have so many on my shelves, a lot which have been cooked from, but a lot which haven't been.

My challenge is this - to cook at least one recipe from EVERY book in my collection....

Can it be done?

I don't know, but I'm going to try.

I've put an 'Off the Shelf' tab at the top of the page, where I will list the books I cook from alphabetically by author and then name of book. I will link back to the relevant post as I complete them.

I hope you'll enjoy this as much as I'm going to.

At the bottom of the post, I'll also answer these three questions:

Marks out of ten?

Would I make this again?

Would I do anything differently?

(These are my books which are not relegated to boxes in the loft!)

Lentils and rice with caramelised onions

2012-01-18T11:46:00.001Z

Cyprus' proximity to the Middle East favours and aids the inter-mingling of each others recipes. In fact, a lot of Cypriot recipes bear more in common with recipes from the Middle East than Greece!This homely peasant dish of lentils and rice with caramelised onions is also called 'Mujendra' in Cyprus, and 'Mujadarah' or 'mejadra' in the Middle East. So you can see, even the names are similar. Apart from tasting delicious and being an inexpensive meal, lentils and rice provide a low-fat, complete protein meal chock-full of Fibre, iron and other minerals.

We really enjoy this in our family, it's one of those meals that everyone will eat willingly, wink, wink.

No arm twisting involved.

Lentils and rice with caramelised onions
Serves 4.

2 measuring cups of green lentils
1 measuring cup of long grain rice
1 large onion, halved and finely sliced
2 tbsp olive oil (for frying onion)
salt

1. Rinse the lentils, place in a saucepan, cover with water, bring to the boil and simmer until almost, but not quite, cooked.

2. Add more water if needed, so that the lentils are well covered, then add the washed rice. At this stage the water should cover both the lentils and rice, so add more if needed.

3. Bring to the boil, turn down to a simmer, and get on with frying the onions.

4. Heat the olive oil in a frying pan, add the onions and fry over a medium-high heat until they are caramelised, very well browned.
Don't chicken out at this stage and leave them pale, they need to be really dark (but not burnt, obviously!) as this is what adds the lovely, sweet flavour to the finished dish.

5. Add the onions to the almost cooked lentils and rice, add salt at this stage too.

5. By the time the rice and lentils are tender, the water should have been completely absorbed.

6. Serve with a squeeze of lemon juice and black olives. Delicious!

Nigella's American pancakes

2012-01-17T14:02:00.000Z

Bearing in mind that this blog is first and foremost aimed at collecting my favourite recipes and recording them here for posterity, one will always need a good recipe for pancakes.
Is that not so?

I love American pancakes.
While the elegant and sophisticated, slim French Crepe, will always be there in the wings, the real Star of the show, in my eyes, is the fluffy but substantial cousin.

Nigella's American Pancakes
Recipe adapted from 'Nigella Bites'. By Nigella Lawson.

2 tbsp butter
225g plain flour
2 heaped tsp. Baking powder
1 tsp sugar
pinch of salt
300ml full-fat milk
2 eggs
1-2 teaspoons vegetable oil for frying.

1. Melt butter and set aside.

2. Blitz all the ingredients including the butter in either a blender or mixer.

3. Using a quarter cup measure (or just guess!) cook the pancakes in the vegetable oil, turning over when you see bubbles erupting on the surface. cook for another couple of minutes.

4. Serve with maple syrup and, if you so desire, crispy bacon. Mmmmmmmm!

This is what I wrote about them a few years back.....

Yes! Don't shout......I know.........

I write in my books.

Happy New Soup! Errr, I mean, Year!

2012-01-14T13:51:00.003Z

I know.....I know.....

It's the middle of January and my poor blog has been somewhat neglected of late.
Fear not, I have been cooking and baking but just haven't had the time to come here and share it with you.

I hope you've not turned away from me dear reader, because I want to share with you my very latest obsession...

Soup.

Yes, soup!

I've not really been much of a soup person, fearing that the family will feel that they've not really been fed.
Apart from the obligatory Soupa Avgholemoni.

Obligatory, that is, for a good Greek girl like me.

But these soups have proved to be filling and warming and just darn tasty! Perfect for the Wintery, cold months.

I made Nigella's lentil and chestnut soup on Boxing day and apart from it's murky appearance (More than one person thought that I'd made some kind of curry sauce to go with the Boxing day buffet) It was received warmly and enthusiastically by everyone.
The crispy bacon really makes this soup.

Nigella's pea and pesto soup from her book 'Nigella Express' is another soup we enjoyed, this time all I had at home was jarred pesto, not the nicer fresh pesto, but still, it was a great soup. Sorry Nigella.

Another soup from 'Nigella Express', the 'Minestrone in minutes', to which I added some small cubes of cooked ham, went down well too...

As did the Sweetcorn chowder, also from 'Express'.

It seems the 'odd soup out', but in no way any less tasty, is this soup from the Waitrose website.
A deliciously creamy Ham, leek and Butter Bean soup.

You can find the recipe HERE.

So, you see, I've been busy..... making soup!

It's nice to be back.

See you soon.

Wishing you all....

2011-12-19T20:37:00.002Z

.....A very merry Christmas.....from my house.....

.....to yours.

....And a peaceful and perfect New Year.

Join me for a festive tipple....

.....A slice of Christmas Cake....(Delia Smith's Classic Christmas Cake)...

....And a Frangipane mince pie (Recipe from Nigella Lawson's 'How to be a Domestic Goddess')....

See you in 2012.
For a brand new Year!

My Top Ten Food Pics (Of all time!)

2011-12-11T14:48:00.001Z

....Do join in if you like, I think this could be fun.

Nigella's Bang Bang Turkey salad

This salad has the most amazing peanutty sauce, reminiscent of satay, I think it's my most favourite salad ever! I made it when I fist bought Nigella Lawson's book 'Feast', which has remained my most loved cookbook of all time.

Black Bean Salad

It's the colours that make me love this photo, that and the fact that you can feel it doing you good almost just by looking at the screen - think of all those vitamins, minerals and anti-oxidants, it's just bursting with them!

Carine Goren's Dreamy Creamy vanilla cupcakes

I really like the candle light on this photo, just so pretty.
You can read about these fab cupcakes HERE.

Simple Bruschette from Nigella Express

That photo reminds me of Summer. Full stop.

I like the natural daylight on this one.......

Cream cheese peppermint brownies

....And the 'reach out and grab me' quality of Carine Goren's cinnamon rolls.
The recipe is HERE.

Yummy cinnamon rolls

Have you all met Coco, The Burlesque Wonder cake????

The Lovebite.

Coco in all her glory!

...Crayfish and avocado salad from Nigella's 'Express' book.

Crayfish and avocado salad

Nigella's lemon puddings from her 'Nigellapp'.
Recipe here.

Little lemon puddings

And finally......Jamie Oliver's Yorkshire puds....

Jamie O's Yorkshire puds

...Hope you enjoyed looking at those.
Do join in, I'd love to see yours!!

Nigella's cherry and almond loaf cake

2011-12-06T14:00:00.001Z

I love this cake!
I love it made with multi-coloured glace cherries....

Nooooo, go on, do it! Especially at this time of year.
Trashy is GOOD!

now is not the time for prim and proper natural coloured glace cherries!

See how pretty?

You can find the recipe here for this gorgeous cake

December 'We should Cocoa'

2011-12-06T13:22:00.001Z

I was determined this month, as soon as I read about the December 'We should cocoa' challenge, that I would be entering. I always have such good intentions to enter, but when time is limited, as it has been lately, sometimes it's just not possible.
So, I was really pleased to read on Chocolate log blog that this month's added ingredient, chosen by Choclette, is orange,

because chocolate and orange together ROCK!

What could be easier than Nigella's storecupboard chocolate and orange cake?
Basically a cake made with chocolate and most of a jar of orange marmalade!

It's a lovely cake, because the texture is moist and fudgy (I suppose because of the marmalade) and the finished article is not sickly sweet, but has that bitter, orangey edge.

Nigella's Storecupboard Chocolate and Orange Cake
Recipe adapted from 'How to be a Domestic Goddess' by Nigella Lawson.

125g unsalted butter
100g dark chocolate, broken into pieces
300g thin-cut marmalade
150g caster sugar
pinch of salt
2 lg eggs, beaten
150g self-raising flour

20cm springform tin, buttered and floured (I always line mine with baking parchment too, because this cake is moist and I'm always scared that it will stick!)

Preheat the oven to 180 deg.C (Gas mark 4)

1. Put butter in a pan, melt over low heat, stir in the chocolate, leave for a moment, take off the heat and keep stirring until butter and chocolate are both melted.

2. Add the marmalade, sugar, salt and eggs, stir with a spoon, then add the flour bit by bit.

3. Pour into tin and bake for about 50 mins.

4. Cool for 10 mins, before turning out.

Now, full steam ahead, Dom's challenge next!

'Make space for some Christmas Charity'

Madhur Jaffrey's Chicken in a Fried Onion Sauce

2011-12-01T17:12:00.001Z

This recipe has got to be my 'most made recipe ever from a cook book'
In fact, while talking favourite curries on a food group I belong to, I mentioned this Madhur Jaffrey curry, but then after checking this blog, realised that I've never actually blogged this recipe, even after mentioning it a few times over the years!

Big mistake.

Quick, blog.
One day someone will ask me for my favourite chicken curry recipe and here it will be. Phew.

The recipe comes from Madhur Jaffrey's book 'Indian Cookery', first published in 1982 by BBC books. My oldest and most loved Indian cook book.

If you've never tried making a curry from scratch before, do try this one, I promise you will not be disappointed!

Chicken in a fried onion sauce
Adapted from the Madhur Jaffrey recipe.

Madhur refers to this recipe as her children's 'everyday' chicken.

Serves 4-6.

1 and a quarter kg chicken joints
350g onions, peeled
4cm cube fresh ginger, peeled and coarsely chopped
6 cloves garlic, peeled
7tbsp vegetable oil
1 tbsp ground coriander seeds
1 tbsp ground cumin seeds
1/2 tsp. ground turmeric
1/4-1/2 tsp. cayenne pepper
4 tbsp plain yoghurt
1 pint (570ml) water
225g tomatoes, peeled and finely chopped (tinned tomatoes may be used)
2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. garam masala
1 tbsp finely chopped fresh green coriander.

1. Cut the chicken into serving pieces and skin all the pieces.

2. Chop half of the onions coarsely, cut remaining onions into halves lengthwise and then finely slice crossways.

3. Put the chopped onions (NOT the sliced ones) ginger and garlic into a processor and blend until you have a paste.

4. Heat the oil in a large, wide pot (I've successfully made this recipe with much less oil) over a medium flame, when hot put in the sliced onions, stir and fry until they are a deep reddish-brown, remove the onions and set aside, leaving as much of the oil as possible in the pot.

5. Take the pot off the flame and put in the paste blend. Put the pot back on the heat and fry until the paste is brown, about 3-4 mins. (I've never had much success browning the paste, I don't know why)

6. Now put in the coriander, cumin, turmeric and cayenne, stir, now add the yoghurt tablespoon by tablespoon, making sure after each spoon that it has been incorporated into the sauce.

7. Add the chicken pieces and stir well. Por in the water, add the tomatoes and salt, stir to mix and bring to a simmer.
Cover, turn heat to low and cook for 20 minutes.

8. Sprinkle in the garam masala and fried onions , mix and cook, uncovered, for 7-8 minutes more until the sauce reduces and thickens. Skim off the fat, and sprinkle the fresh coriander over the top.

9. Serve with plenty of steaming, hot Basmati rice.

10. Enjoy!

Nigel Slater's Chicken with vermouth, tarragon and cream

2011-11-24T16:06:00.001Z

Nigel Slater calls this 'A dish that exploits the magical chemistry between chicken, cream, wine and herbs to the full'.

Couldn't have put it better myself.

Can I let you in to a little secret reader? I really only tried this dish as an excuse to try tarragon which I've never tried before.

It's fragrance is heady, aniseed to the max, almost like liquorice.
I was quite surprised as to how pungent it actually is.

You may not like tarragon if you hate any of these things-

Aniseed.
Liquorice.
Pernod.
Ouzo.

Don't say I didn't warn you.

Chicken with Vermouth, Tarragon and cream
Adapted from 'Real Food' by Nigel Slater.

Serves 4.

8 Free range chicken pieces, preferably thighs, on the bone
75g butter
150ml dry vermouth (I used white wine)
2 tbsp Tarragon vinegar (I used sherry vinegar)
300ml double cream
2 heaped tbsp chopped tarragon leaves
a squeeze of lemon juice.

1. Season chicken with a little salt and pepper and brown it in the butter until golden.

2. lift out the chicken pieces, add the vermouth (or wine) and vinegar to the pan, bring to the boil, scraping away at al the lovely sticky bits at the bottom of the pan.

3. Once the liquid has reduced a little add the cream and tarragon leaves, return the chicken to the pan and simmer gently for 15-20 minutes untilt the chicken is cooked through.

4. Add salt, pepper and a squeeze of lemon juice and serve.

Marks out of ten? 8.

Would I make this again? I don't know!....I mean, I loved most elements of it, but not necessarily the tarragon so much!

Would I do anything differently? I'd use much less tarragon!

Delia's Chestnut cupcakes

2011-11-24T15:30:00.001Z

I can't help but feeling that these delightful little cupcakes from Delia Smith's 'Happy Christmas' book need a blog post devoted entirely to them. They are in an altogether more grown-up league than your usual run of the mill cupcakes, though they too have their own special place in my heart of course.
Can one have an 'adult' cupcake? If so, then these are they.
Tender, mildly chestnut flavoured, not too sweet sponge, topped with a glorious combination of mascarpone and sweetened chestnut puree and topped with heavenly, indulgent marron glace..

Too special to be shared with the children.

Did I really just say that?

Well, when you see the price of these little beauties (only 6 of the little darlings in this box!) You may understand my reluctance.

Delia's Chestnut Cupcakes
Adapted from her book 'Delia's Happy Christmas'.

Makes 8.

150g creme de marrons (sweetened chestnut puree)
110g butter, very soft
2 eggs, beaten
110g chestnut flour (about as elusive as the Scarlet Pimpernel! So I used plain flour)
1 and a half tsp baking powder
4 tbsp milk

For the topping:
100g creme de marrons
200g light mascarpone
3 marrons glace, thinly sliced
1 tsp icing sugar

Preheat oven to 170deg.C or 150deg.C if you have a fan oven.

1. Whip the butter and 150g creme de marrons until you get a beautiful pale and fluffy mixture.

2. Add the eggs a little at a time, until incorporated.

3. Sift in the flour and baking powder, using a large metal spoon to cut and fold the flour in.

4. Add the milk when half of the flour is in.

5. Divide the mixture between the muffin cases and bake for 35-40 mins.

6. When the cakes have cooled make up the topping by mixing the remaining chestnut puree with the mascarpone.

7. Spread or pipe over the top of each cupcake, decorate with the marron glace and a light dusting of icing sugar (and in my case, pretty little gold and silver balls)

Marks out of ten? 10!

Would I make these again? I'm already planning the next time....

Would I do anything differently? I'm still trying to find chestnut flour, then I'll let you know!

Thanks for a wonderful recipe Delia! I'm very impressed.

King Arthur Flour Cinnamon puffs

2011-11-23T15:39:00.001Z

I love these. And I hadn't made any for the longest time.....:-D

But, reader, it's an irrefutable fact....

I cannot be trusted with 12 of them.

Not at all.

So, I halved the recipe. Clever, huh?

Now, 6, I can deal with.

I have a teensy weensy little problem with their name though. To me, they are not puffs.
No. Puffs conjure up airy fairy little morsels, but these are altogether sturdier - butter, cinnamon and sugar topped little cakes.
But, what's in a name...don't let that put you off! No....you will love them! :-D

Cinnamon Puffs

Adapted from the hefty tome that is the 'King Arthur Flour Baker's Companion'.

Makes 12 large muffins.

3 cups plain flour
1 cup sugar
2 and a half tsp. baking powder
1 and a quarter tsp ground nutmeg
3/4 tsp salt
2 lg eggs
1 and a quarter cups (10 0z) milk
75g butter

topping:
1/4 cup sugar
half tsp ground cinnamon
55g butter, melted.

Preheat oven to 350degF, Gas mark 4, or 160degC Fan oven.

1. In a mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, nutmeg and salt. Make a well in the centre,

2. In a jug beat egg lightly, then add milk and melted butter. Add to well.

3. Stir until just mixed in (Batter may be lumpy)

4. Lightly grease muffin cups, or use paper liners (Or silicone as I did) Fill three-quarters full.

5. Bake for 20-25 mins.

6. For the topping, whilst muffins are baking, combine sugar and cinnamon in a small, shallow bowl until blended.

7. When muffins come out of the oven, let them cool enough so that you don't burn your fingers as you pick them up, dip the tops well in the melted butter, then into the cinnamon sugar mixture.

8. Serve warm.

Don't say I didn't warn you about making the full amount......

Our early Christmas dinner.

2011-11-23T14:24:00.001Z

My parents decided on Sunday that they would host an 'Early Christmas Dinner' for all the family, as my brother and his family were coming down from South Wales on a pre-Christmas visit. I thought it was a great idea! We ~~love~~ adore Christmas dinner- so why save it for only one meal a year? Anyway, it was a great idea to get us all into the festive spirit.
Mom had all bases covered, so I decided to take my special Christmas stuffing which I also made last year and which earnt me lots of the family's praise. As my daughter-in-law says, and I agree, she could forgo the turkey and just have a plateful of stuffing and gravy! I'd have to add cranberry sauce to that, love the stuff!
It's simple to make, try and buy the best quality sausage meat that you can, it seems to make a big difference.

The first thing I did was start off by frying 200g lardons (or chopped up bacon) in a little oil,
to this I added 1 onion, finely chopped and a small bunch of sage, finely chopped, fry off for a few minutes until softened.

Add the lardons, sage and onion to 900g best quality sausagemeat, 170g pack of sage and onion stuffing mix (which has been re-constituted with water as per packet instructions)
To this, add 200g cooked chestnuts which have been roughly chopped (I like to chop them into quite large pieces as I feel it adds to the texture of the final dish. I really like the feel of them, grainy, nutty but soft)
Also add a 250g jar of wholeberry cranberry sauce and plenty of seasoning.

Bake in an ovenproof dish, at 160degC (fan oven) for about 60-90 minutes. The final cooking time depends on the dimensions of your chosen dish, the deeper the stuffing is, the more cooking is needed. Mine needed the whole 90 minutes.
Bear in mind that this recipe makes a large amount, you could halve the recipe, or make the whole amount and do as I did by having stuffing and gravy sandwiches the day after! Heaven.

What could be nicer after our Christmas meal than some festive cupcakes?
These ones are Delia Smith's chestnut cupcakes, from her Christmas book, made with sweetened chestnut puree, both in the batter and in the topping, and topped with the most heavenly (and expensive!) marrons glace.......

The children really loved these ones....

Chocolate chip muffins with peppermint buttercream frosting, topped with candy canes and little gold stars.

Roll on our next Christmas dinner I say!

Rice, egg and lemon soup...The Cypriot cure-all soup

2011-11-17T16:44:00.001Z

I was searching through my blog and could not believe that I've not shared the recipe for the most famous Greek Cypriot soup of all, the one we were all brought up with, the one that cures all......the one that my daughters will definitely want to know the recipe for one day.......

Soupa Avgolemoni (Rice, egg and lemon soup)

While Mr. AAKT hasn't been able to work and I've been covering his shifts, who was going to cook? So, I wrote the recipe down step-by-step and can you believe it? HIS soup was voted better than mine by him AND my son and daughter.....

*Harumphhhh. Walks off in an almighty strop*

How you begin depends on whether you want boiled chicken to accompany the soup, we generally cut the chicken into bite-size pieces and add it to the soup, it's really delicious like that!

If you do, cover your chosen chicken pieces (1 per person should be ample) with cold water, add a generous amount of salt, bring to the boil, skim off the scum and simmer for approximately 40-45 mins, so that the chicken is perfectly cooked. I always add a stock cube to mine.

If you don't want chicken (or you don't eat meat) you can use just stock cubes - chicken or vegetable, in approx 2 litres of water.

Anyway, simmer 1 heaped cup of long-grain rice in the stock, for about 10 minutes, so it's just cooked.

Turn off the heat.

In a separate bowl, beat together 3 eggs with the juice of 2 lemons.

Now, very slowly, add ladlefuls of the stock to the egg and lemon mixture (what you're trying to do is to slowly increase the temperature of the eggs before adding them to the stock so that you don't end up with scrambled eggs)

When you have added about half of the stock to the egg-lemon mix, slowly pour back into the rice-stock mix.

Your soup is now ready to eat!

We like ours thick and creamy, but you can always add more water if you think it's toooo thick.

Ground black pepper goes really well atop your lovely soup.

Beef and vegetable casserole, a hug from within during a challenging week.

2011-11-17T15:54:00.001Z

This is one of my mum's dishes that we used to love when we were small, admittedly I have messed about with it a bit, adding a small amount of alcohol - marsala to be precise - I love it's raisiny sweetness, though sherry or red wine could be used instead.
Mum used to stick to adding a basic mix of potatoes, carrots and onions to the meat, while I have been a little more adventurous and also added swede and sweet potato. I have, in the past, also added mushrooms and/or peppers too.
It's a forgiving recipe, just add whatever vegetables you have to hand.

My family have always called this dish a stew, but here Queen Delia of Smith explains the difference:

So, If Delia says it's a casserole, it's a casserole! (But we're still going to call it a stew!)

"Stewing is done on the top of a cooker with heat being applied directly to the underneath of the pot; while casseroling takes place inside the oven with heat circulating all around the pot. In both cases the meat is cut up fairly small and cooked in a liquid (stock, wine, water, cider or whatever)"

It's been quite a difficult week for us, Mr. AAKT had a bit of an accident last Thursday night with an oil filter machine. To cut a long story short we've been to hospital three times during the past week and he's had almost a week off work, which has been quite challenging in itself as we are self-employed, and as such have no back-up staff to take over in emergencies. But, he's improving and is back at work as of today.
So, I've been working more and as such have needed to make meals which are as hassle-free as possible, this casserole apart from the initial chopping of the veg, can be left on it's own to cook in the oven for hours (In my case while I was at work)

Mum's beef Stew (Insert the word casserole here if wanted)

Serves 4-5.

800g diced beef, suitable for stewing
750g small new potatoes
3 large carrots, peeled and sliced into coins
2 small onions, peeled and finely sliced
1 small sweet potato, peeled and cut into small cubes
quarter of a large swede, peeled and cut into small cubes
1 cup tomato passata
half a cup of marsala, sherry or red wine
salt & pepper
1 tsp ground cinnamon
2 tbsp flavourless vegetable oil.

1. Simply place all the ingredients into an oven proof baking dish, mix well and cover either with a lid, or foil.

2. Cook at 150deg.C (fan oven) 170deg.C (Electric oven) or gas mark 3, for about 3-4 hours, keep an eye on it though, you may need to turn it down even more for the final hour.

3. Serve in bowls, wrapped in a blanket, with the heating on, on the settee! (maybe not if you're somewhere hot!)

Oops!

2011-11-15T14:48:00.001Z

Can't believe I posted about my sweet chilli chicken and then forgot to post the recipe for it!

Apologies readers, I have now amended it.

Sweet chilli chicken

2011-11-13T14:59:00.001Z

Chicken? Check.
Basmati rice? Check.
Sweet chilli sauce? Check.
Recipe?
Recipe?
.......Errr.....
No.
A quick flick through my cookbooks was futile. The closest I got to it was a Bill Granger recipe mixed up with a Nigel Slater recipe!
So, how hard can it be to make up a recipe for sweet chilli chicken?
Not difficult at all as it turns out!
Plus, it was darn tasty.

Sweet Chilli Chicken (My own recipe)

Serves 3 with hearty appetites!

6 small boneless, skinless chicken thighs
1 onion, thinly sliced
1 tsp. garlic puree
1 tsp. ginger puree
half cup sweet chilli sauce
quarter cup soy sauce
1 tbsp. rice vinegar
2 tbsp. honey.

1. Heat a little vegetable oil and fry the chicken until nicely golden.

2. A few minutes before the chicken is ready, add the onions too, so that they also become golden along with the chicken.

3. Add the rest of the ingredients and simmer for about 10 minutes or so until the chicken is cooked through.

4. Serve with steaming bowls of plain Basmati rice.

No co-incidence.

2011-11-05T12:32:00.000Z

I firmly believe there are no co-incidences in this world we live in, I believe God sets up his plans in the way that he wishes, puts us on the same frequency as the other main players in the drama, and then watches as we act things out, become ourselves and learn life lessons.

I'm chilling today, it's like my body's saying 'Sit down, just SIT DOWN, do NOTHING, no housework, no work, no cooking! Just RELAX'.

So, I'm sitting here with the laptop on my knees (warming me up from the heat it emits!) when I decide to look through my food photographs and sort them out... and I come across a cake I made in remembrance of a foodie friend of ours, Lorraine (Pistachio) that passed away three years ago and next to the cake, another photograph of an Indonesian chicken recipe which was hers.
Then it suddenly comes to mind, which month was it when this strong-willed, independent, Warrior Queen of ours passed away? Could it have been November? Early November? I believe it was.

So Thank You God! (Or 'The Universe' if you prefer) for bringing our friend Pistachio to mind. For willing me to think of her today.
I hope you'll join with me for a few moments in remembering our foodie blogger friend.

Pistachio En La Cocina

Rosemary for Remembrance

Remembrance cake for Pi

Pistachio's Indonesian Chicken

You can find the recipe here

Rest in Peace dear Lorraine and know that you are remembered.

3rd November 2011*

2011-11-03T18:02:00.000Z

*Today is the day that my best friend's eldest daughter has given birth to her first child, a beautiful baby girl, healthy and bonny and destined for greatness.

Shine angel, shine your light for all to see.

*Today is also the day I ordered my marmite tea cosy from Amazon. It's not just a tea cosy, it's much, much more.
It represents new beginnings for my family and I.
We have been through two difficult years, years where I would go shopping and really, really want this tea cosy, but could think of a million other things we needed more, bills to pay, ways of staying afloat. So the tea cosy stayed on the shelf and never became mine.
But circumstances change and now the tea cosy WILL be mine and every time I make a cuppa I'll remember that circumstances change and that when one door closes another one opens and beckons you forth into greater things.

*Today is the day that the heavens opened and the rain poured down, but rather than letting it get me down, I just thought of all the good that rain can do.

The way it washes everything clean and new again, so, I gave a customer a carrier bag to put over her hair and as she rushed to her car in the rain, it made me smile again and I thought of something wonderfully warming for today...

Indian spiced split peas,
served with my favourite Basmati rice.

Adapted from 'Prima' magazine:

1 tbsp olive oil
1 onion, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 tsp coriander seeds
2 tsp turmeric powder
2 tsp Garam masala
1 bay leaf
225g Yellow split peas, rinsed
400ml can coconut milk
750ml hot vegetable stock.

1. Heat oil in a large pan and fry onion for 2-3 minutes until soft, season well.

2. Add garlic, coriander, turmeric, garam masala and bay leaf, stir and cook for a couple of minutes, add split peas, then coconut milk.

3. Bring to boil, reduce to simmer, then add stock, simmer on a low heat for about an hour. (Mine needed slightly longer - nothing worse than crunchy split peas!)

Today has been a good day!

Here's to tomorrow!

and the day after.....

and the day after that.......

Ree and Ribs

2011-11-02T15:36:00.000Z

I've made a couple of meaty dishes in the past few days which I've really enjoyed and would like to share with you here, I hope you'll enjoy them too.

I based this recipe on one of the Pioneer Woman's recipes that I read a while back, it kind of got put to the back of my mind, not completely forgotten, in the 'try one day' section....You know the one.....

I had friends coming round last night and I was eager to make them something different that none of us had tried, but would have the 'wow factor' and just as importantly would be tasty.

That's when I remembered the recipe.

I have changed it quite a bit, not least because finding 'chipotle peppers in adobo sauce' is nigh on impossible, but I didn't let that stop me, so here's my recipe.

Thanks for the inspiration Ree!

Dr. Pepper pulled pork

Small pork shoulder joint (which will fit comfortably in your slow cooker)
1 can Dr. Pepper
half cup BBQ sauce
1 onion quartered
2 tbsp. brown sugar
salt and pepper.

1. Place the pork in your slow cooker along with the rest of the ingredients.

2. Cook on high for 6-8 hours, turning a couple of times during that period as the sauce will not cover the joint.

3. When the time is up, remove the pork into a serving dish, pour the sauce into a saucepan and reduce it until it is nice and thick and syrupy, while it's reducing, shred the pork with your fingers into pulled shreds, removing any fat or gristle you find.

4. Pour the sauce over the pork and stir until combined.

5. Serve in soft floury buns, topped with creamy coleslaw.

Yummalicious!!!!!!!!

Quick Barbecue ribs:

2 racks of pork ribs (Or use boneless belly slices as I have)
1 cup tomato ketchup
half cup sweet chilli sauce
quarter cup soy sauce
quarter cup sherry or marsala
half tsp ginger puree
half tsp garlic puree
half tsp five spice powder

1. Put the pork in a baking dish and cook for about 30 minutes at 180deg.c (160 fan oven) When the ribs have released their juices and started to brown, remove the juices from the pan.

2. While the pork is cooking mix all the sauce ingredients together over a medium heat until amalgamated (Or as nigel slater would say 'they've all got to know one another')

3. Pour the sauce over the ribs and cook for about another 30 minutes or until the ribs are dark and sticky.

Paula Deen's Praline French Toast Casserole

2011-10-29T11:14:00.001+01:00

I don't know if you know this fact about me....

I adore American recipes!

American recipes in general, but American South recipes in particular.

Ergo, I love the ebullient, effusive Paula Deen, who, to me is the shining beacon of this form of cooking. I like her generous ways, her love of butter and cream and sugar and I just like to watch her and listen to her Southern drawl y'all......

So, of course, when I saw that Ms. Deen had a Southern cooking bible due to be published, I put it on pre-order months back. And can I say - it's fantastic!
It's comprehensive, detailed, interesting, with page after page of recipes that I'm dying to try!

Here's the first one:

Praline French Toast Casserole

It's a kind of sweet, creamy, nutty, deluxe bread and butter pudding, the praline topping really takes this gorgeous dessert into another league.

Stellar.

Butter, for the baking dish
1 loaf French bread, 13-16 oz.
8 large eggs
2 cups half and half (double cream)
1 cup whole milk
2 tbsp granulated sugar
1 tbsp vanilla extract
half tsp ground cinnamon
half tsp grated nutmeg
pinch of salt.

Praline topping:
2 sticks (8oz) butter at room temperature
1 cup packed light brown sugar
1 cup chopped pecans
2 tbsp light corn syrup
half tsp ground cinnamon
half tsp grated nutmeg.

1. Grease a 13x9 inch baking dish with butter (I left this step out and used a large, round ceramic deep pie dish instead)

2. Cut the bread into thick slices, place in dish overlapping. (I used small brioche rolls, about 10 of them)

3. In a large bowl combine the eggs (I only used three because I don't like things too 'eggy') cream, milk, sugar, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt. Beat with a whisk until blended, pour over the bread slices, cover with foil and refrigerate overnight (I didn't do this as I didn't have time, I don't think it mattered as I used brioche, not crusty French bread)

4. Preheat oven to 350deg.F, Gas mark 4, 180deg.C or 160deg.C if you have a fan oven like me.

5. Prepare the praline topping by mixing the butter, brown sugar, pecans, corn (or golden) syrup, cinnamon and nutmeg and blend well. Spread topping over bread slices, bake until puffed and golden, about 45 minutes.

After this resounding sweet success I think I love Paula Deen even more.

Cheat's Fish Pie

2011-10-27T17:34:00.000+01:00

Another quick and easy family recipe, for when time is minimal, but you (and your family!) still want a warming, tasty meal on the table.
This recipe is a real keeper, which I've made time and time again. It's from an old magazine cutting which I saved over the years, a BBC Good Food magazine recipe. I have tampered with the recipe and made it my own.
We really enjoy it. Yes there are a few short cuts here, but I feel that it still counts as a 'real' recipe, not an assembly job.

Cheat's Fish Pie
Inspired by a recipe in BBC Good Food Magazine. November 2001.

550g skinless, boneless cod chunks
2 small fillets salmon, cut into cubes (skinless and boneless)
handful of prawns, shelled
cup of frozen peas, thawed out
500g tub fresh Cheese sauce (from supermarket chiller cabinet)
400g packet long-life potato saute or rosti
large knob of butter.

1. Preheat oven to 180deg C (Fan oven otherwise increase by 20 degrees)

2. Place cod, salmon and prawns in an oven-proof dish, add peas and cheese sauce and stir well.

3. Break up potato saute/rosti well and scatter over filling, top with butter cubes.

4. Bake for 30-40 mins until top is nicely browned and golden.

Maureen's Microwaveable Fudge

2011-10-15T16:10:00.000+01:00

So unbelievably easy and so, so very good! It has quite a sturdy (for want of a better word!) texture, slightly crumbly and melt- in- the- mouth good.
*I know it looks a different colour in each of the photos- one was taken on my phone and the other on my daughter's camera*

Facebook has a lot to answer for don't you think?
Reading through a food group I belong to, a member was asking for an easy fudge recipe as she had a tin of condensed milk languishing in the cupboard...

Maureen to the rescue!
Who came up trumps with a microwaveable fudge recipe, using only a few ingredients.
Of course then it was a slippery slide into fudge heaven!

Here's the recipe, do try it.
And Maureen, thanks for allowing me to share the recipe here.

Maureen's Microwaveable Fudge

1 tin Nestle condensed milk (MUST be full fat/cream)
500ml castor sugar or 500ml granulated sugar and 1 tablespoon golden syrup
125g Stork margarine (block type)
5ml caramel or vanilla essence

Combine all ingredients except essence in a large deep plastic bowl (glass will crack with the high heat) Microwave on full power (750 watt) for 2 minutes, stir, 5 minutes, stir, 4 minutes, stir then 1 minute and stir. Colour changes when its ready to set to quite a golden brown.
Add essence and beat well, should “sound” grainy.
Pour into greased heatproof tray and leave 10 minutes. Score into squares and leave till set.

Marks out of ten? 9.

Would I make it again? It's so easy, I'd be mad not to!

Would I do anything differently? Maureen suggested that sometimes she adds chocolate or nuts to hers, I'm definitely going to try that next time.
I used butter instead of stork as that is what I had at home.

100.

2011-10-15T12:01:00.000+01:00

Thank you so much to 'Autumn' for being my 100th follower!

And a big Thank you to all my other followers and readers.
your comments, help and advice are what keep me blogging.

Yesterday I made vine leaves stuffed with a minced meat, rice, tomato and onion mixture. An old family recipe that we grew up with, back in the days when people looked at us with horrified faces when we told them, yes, you are eating LEAVES!
Ha ha, how times have changed.....back then, the only place we could get olive oil was in a small glass bottle from the Chemist!

If you'd like to see my step-by-step guide to stuffing vine leaves, HERE it is!

What to cook, when there's no time to cook...

2011-09-29T16:46:00.001+01:00

So what do you do, when you find that it's one of those days you hardly find time to stand still, let alone slave over the stove?
For me, the answer's simple....Let the appliances take the strain! By appliances, I'm talking about my slow cooker and my rice cooker.
So, before I went to work today, I assembled the Apricot chicken ingredients in the slow cooker (One can hardly call it cooking...) and let it bubble away on high for about 5 hours.

No stress.

Not even a little.

Great, huh?

You can find the recipe here on this great blog!

About half an hour before we ate, I put the rice cooker on and then boiled the broccoli. Nice and easy.

Marks out of ten? 7

Would I make this again? Yes, I'd give it another whirl, definitely!

Would I do anything differently? Yes, I'd make sure to use light/ordinary soy sauce as opposed to dark. If you compare my meal to Stephanie's on her blog, you will see that mine's way darker.
I'd use a sprinkle of chilli flakes for a bit of a spicy kick, and I'd use only half a jar of jam as it was way too sweet.

*I used skinless, boneless, frozen chicken breasts (No need to defrost before use, another time saving tip from Stephanie!)
*I used about a tbsp ginger puree.

3 cheers for small kitchen appliances! And for Stephanie and her great blog!

Mango and apple chutney

2011-09-22T15:08:00.005+01:00

Such a pretty colour!

I love mango chutney! Especially in Indian restaurants- I'm the one who can just spoon it out of the preserve jar straight into my greedy mouth. And have you ever tried a white bread, ham and mango chutney sandwich?

No? You simply must.

This is my first attempt at making my own chutney and it came about because I had a large, ripe mango languishing about in the fruit bowl and a recipe in a 'Weight Watchers' magazine which caught my eye.
I changed the recipe rather a lot, so much so, that it bears little resemblance to the recipe any more. But it was definitely my inspiration, so that's why I mention it here.

I don't really know how I'm going to wait for it to mature. Delia says of her mango chutney recipe (which was also one of my inspirations for this recipe) that it needs '8 weeks to mellow and mature', in a cool, dark place.

8 weeks????

I really must learn to be more patient.

Mango and apple chutney

1 large mango
1 small eating apple
1 small onion (preferably a red one) finely chopped
1 clove of garlic, finely chopped
half a tsp grated, fresh ginger
half a tsp each of-
ground cumin
ground coriander
ground turmeric
quarter to half a teaspoon of red chilli flakes
1 cinnamon stick, halved
3 cloves
3 green cardamom pods
a little lemon zest
a squeeze of fresh lemon juice
a little salt and coarsely ground black pepper (Or as Monica from my Facebook Food group** suggested a few whole black pepper corns)
60 ml cider vinegar
60 ml apple juice (Or cider)
100g sugar.

You will need a small kilner jar, or small jam jar, which you have sterilised by washing in hot, soapy water and then putting in the oven at 120deg.C for 15 minutes.

1. Add all the ingredients to a saucepan except for the sugar, apple juice and cider vinegar.

2. Cook on a medium heat for 15-20 mins until thick and juicy.

3. Add sugar, apple juice and cider vinegar and stir until sugar disolves. Simmer for a further 15-20 minutes, you may need to add a little water if the mixture looks too dry.

4. Taste your chutney before potting for seasoning. Try and fill your jar to the top.

5. Seal and Store in a cool, dark place for a minimum of 8 weeks.

6. Use within 12 months. Once opened keep in the fridge and eat within 6 weeks.

Marks out of ten?
Would I make this again?
Would I do anything differently?........Can I get back to you once I've actually eaten some?

** Thanks to the ladies in the facebook group for their advice!

Nigella's breakfast bars

2011-09-20T12:31:00.001+01:00

I love these full of goodness bars, that I wanted to do a new post all about them, just to remind you, dear readers, of how good they are, but that would have been a bit silly being as I've already posted about them.

Do check out the old post I published about them.

I love the fact that I can wrap them in clingfilm and keep them in the fridge for a quick breakfast, or a nutritious treat.

Nigella's breakfast bars
(Adapted from 'Nigella Express)

1 x 397g can condensed milk
250g rolled oats
75g shredded coconut (I use dessicated coconut as it's easier to find in the shops)
100g dried cranberries
125g mixed seeds
125g natural unsalted peanuts (I use a mixture of all kinds of nuts, or whatever I happen to have at home)

Preheat the oven to 130deg.C (110 fan oven)

1. Warm milk in a large pan (I tend to do it in the microwave)

2. Mix together all the other ingredients, then add the warm milk, mix well.

3. Spread mixture into a throw away foil tray or a 9x9 inch (ish) baking tin which has been oiled. Press down, I find this easier to do with wet hands.

4. Bake for 1 hr. Until pale golden.

Makes 16 bars.

A Superfood Breakfast topper

2011-09-15T16:10:00.000+01:00

This is a bit of an assembly job, rather than a full-blown recipe. I thought I'd make it, store in an air-tight container in the fridge, to enable the making of the Bircher muesli even easier!

I simply mixed together an assortment of dried fruits and nuts (Here there are dried cranberries and dates, walnuts, peanuts and almonds) A mixture of seeds (Pumpkin, sunflower, sesame and flaxseed)
Ground flaxseed and wheatgerm.

Then all I need to do is add a handful or so to the Bircher muesli. Good idea eh?

A great way to start the day. Thanks for the inspiration Oprah!

2011-09-08T12:42:00.001+01:00

So, I don't finish work usually until around 11pm, I'm tired, hot and cranky, I need time to wind down before jumping in to bed. Flicking through the channels one night I came across an old episode of the 'Oprah' show, I can't remember clearly which one it was now, but it could have been one of those amazing Christmas episodes where Oprah delights in giving free gifts to the crazed, ecstatic audience. That was all I needed to rope me in, that and Sky's 'series link' where I can make sure I don't miss an episode.
Another episode involved Oprah and her staff going vegan for a week and it was this episode which really got me thinking on my bad eating habits, the main one being no breakfast, or if I do get time for breakfast it usually involves toast made with white bread - not the healthiest choice.
I have a book at home which always gets pulled out when I'm going through a 'healthier' phase:

Superfoods RX by Steven. G. Pratt and Kathy Matthews.

It's a great little book, informative and easy to understand, but also really, really interesting.
Did you know that simply adding spinach, blueberries and wild salmon to one's diet, regularly, there can be a huge jump in the right direction health-wise?

I've always wanted to enjoy porridge, a great way of enjoying oats, another superfood, but I'm not good with lumpy, milky, warm textures.
Lumpy and warm I can do.
Milky and warm? I can do that too.
But lumpy, milky and warm? Eeuuuuuuuughhhhhhh. Gross.

Then, the other night, speaking to my friend Nicky, she mentioned Sophie Grigson's Bircher muesli, which I 'googled'.
I've read about Bircher muesli quite a few times. Bircher muesli consist of soaking oats, preferably over-night in liquid- this could be water, milk or apple juice, then adding yoghurt, fruit, nuts and seeds and either honey or condensed milk if you like it sweet(er)

I soaked the oats last night, and this morning, after adding the other ingredients this is what I ended up with:

I can't tell you how good it tasted, it was fruity, nutty, milky and sweet.
A perfect way to start the day! Chock full of 'superfoods'. And 2-3 of one's daily fruit and veg quota. Each spoon had me feeling virtuous, angelic, and yes, healthier! And a BIG plus point- filled up for hours!

(Adapted from and based on) Sophie Grigson's Bircher Muesli:

2 heaped tbsp rolled oats, soaked overnight in 3 tbsp water.
2 tbsp Greek yoghurt (Or any other plain yoghurt)
1 tbsp honey
1 apple, grated, with skin on.
2 dried dates, roughly chopped into tiny pieces
half a banana sliced
small handful of chopped nuts, I used a mixture of macadamia, almonds and pecans.

Marks out of ten? 11.

Would I make it again? This is going to be a regular breakfast from now on!

Would I do anything differently? I'm going to try condensed milk as a sweetener next time, and soak the oats in milk to see what difference it makes.

**I'm also going to add ground flaxseed and wheatgerm, to make it into a truly SUPER breakfast!**

Fat Witch Lemon Bars

2011-09-06T17:55:00.004+01:00

Zingy, lemony, zesty.......
What's not to like?

I'm really enjoying baking from the 'Fat Witch Brownies' book! So far I've tried the 'Fat Witch brownies', the 'White chocolate bars' and, this time, the 'Lemon Bars', and d'you know what? Each recipe has worked perfectly, apart from mine needing a little longer in the oven.

So, if you don't have this book....you need it.

Fat Witch Lemon Bars

Crust:
1 cup plain flour
half a cup icing sugar
half a tsp salt
8 tbsp (120g) unsalted butter, not yet at room temperature, cut into pieces.

Filling:
3 lg eggs
1 cup sugar
half a cup fresh lemon juice (about 3 lemons)
1 1/2 tbsp lemon zest
3 tbsp plain flour
big pinch salt.

Grease a 9x9 inch baking pan with butter (I use either foil or baking parchment as I find it easier to remove bars and brownies this way)
Preheat oven to 350deg.F. (160 deg.C Fan oven)

1. Make the crust- Sift flour, sugar and salt into a bowl, add the butter and mix in until it comes together.

2. Pat mixture into baking pan and bake for 15 mins. Allow to cool, make filling.

3. Beat eggs, slowly add sugar, beat in lemon juice and zest, mix well.

4. Add flour and salt, mix gently.

5. Pour filling over baked crust and bake for 15 mins.

6. Cool for at least 1 hr and cut just before serving.

Marks out of ten? 10.

Would I make this again? Definitely.

Would I do anything differently? No. Not a thing.

Recipe adapted from 'Fat Witch brownies' by Patricia Helding.

Is this the easiest dessert ever?

2011-09-06T17:21:00.000+01:00

Blackcurrant poached pears

Simply simmer 1 peeled pear per person (whole lotta 'P's there, don't ya think) in a glassful of blackcurrant cordial until tender.
If the cordial is not enough to cover the pears, add a little water.
Simmer until the pears are tender.
Serve with vanilla ice-cream and if you like, some chocolate syrup.

Thanks to my friend Nicky.P for a lovely, easy dessert idea!

Cypriot Afelia

2011-09-01T19:11:00.000+01:00

Afelia can be made with pork, squid, potatoes, mushrooms or liver. It is an easy, and more importantly, tasty, Cypriot dish. The main stars of the show being red wine and crushed coriander seeds.

I tend to serve afelia when I'm making either a bulgar wheat or rice pilaf. It goes so well!

Cypriot Pork Afelia
Serves 3, when accompanied by dishes suggested above.

500g diced, boneless pork, preferably with a little fat still attached (The taste is all there!)
2 cups of red wine
1-2 tbsp crushed coriander seeds
1 tsp salt, or to taste.
2 tbsp olive oil.

1. Marinate the pork pieces in the red wine and coriander seeds for at least half an hour, or overnight would be GREAT.

2. Drain the pork, reserving the marinade.

3. Heat the oil over a high flame and fry the pork until golden and caramelised on all sides.

4. Add the reserved marinade and salt to the pan, turn to medium heat and simmer until the red wine has completely evaporated and the pork is cooked through, this should take about 15 minutes.

Serve. Eat. Enjoy.

Fat Witch Brownies

2011-09-01T00:37:00.000+01:00

Brownies really fit the bill when it comes to wanting something home-made, sweet and chocolatey.
I love the way that you can get that great chocolate high easily and with minimum fuss!
Now that I don't have as much time on my hands, due to working extra hours, it's nice that we can still bake, but in a slightly less languorous way.
This was my first recipe from the 'Fat Witch Brownies' book. And it definitely won't be my last! The only slight problem I have is the fact that, being an American book, the butter is measured in sticks and tablespoons, which I find slightly confusing. It's not too difficult however to find conversions on the internet.

Fat Witch Brownies.

14 tbsp (1 3/4 sticks) unsalted butter. (I count each tablespoon as 15 g of butter)
Half a cup plus 2 tbsp bittersweet (plain) chocolate chips (I only had milk chocolate chips at home, so used those)
1 1/4 cups sugar
4 lg eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
Half a cup plus 2 tbsp plain flour
pinch of salt.

Grease a 9 x 9 inch pan with butter, dust with flour and tap out excess. I generally just line my pan with aluminium foil which I lightly butter, I find the brownies come out really well this way.

1. Melt butter and chocolate in a small pan over a low heat (I do mine slowly in the microwave in short bursts, checking every 20-30 seconds) Set aside to cool.

2. Cream the sugar, eggs and vanilla together. Add the cooled chocolate mixture and mix.

3. sift the flour and salt in next, mix the batter gently. Stir in any extras you desire eg walnuts, choc chips.

4. Spread batter evenly in pan. Bake for 33 minutes at 350 Deg.F. or 160 Deg. C in a fan assisted oven.
Mine needed an extra 10 minutes.

5. Cool on a rack for 1 hour.....if you can wait that long.....

Marks out of ten? 9.

Would I make them again? I'm working my way through the book at the minute....

Would I do anything differently? No, they're nigh on perfect.

And yes, I know I swore allegiance to Mary Berry's brownies a couple of posts ago....... But a girl's allowed to change her mind, right?

Recipe adapted from 'Fat Witch Brownies' by Patricia Helding.

Bill Granger's caramel salmon

2011-08-31T18:20:00.001+01:00

I'm sure it can't just be my family now can it, that doesn't get enough oily fish into it's weekly diet?
I love salmon, but one of my daughter's wants it 'pimped' up before she'll eat it.
This Bill Granger recipe is great. It's sweet, savoury and delicious.

It's moreish.

Can salmon be moreish? I think so.

And it's great for a quick mid-week meal, when there's not much time. That's something I'm increasingly finding now that I'm working more hours. (One of the perks of being self-employed, if there's no staff.....)

Bill Granger's Caramel Salmon

Serves 4. A tad optimistic I feel.

1 tbsp. veg. oil
800g skin-on salmon, cut into cubes
1 red onion, sliced (I used white onion as that's all I had at home)
3 cloves garlic, sliced
3 tbsp dark soy sauce
115g brown sugar
3 tbsp fish sauce (I used mirin here as we don't like fish sauce!)
1 tbsp. lime juice.

1. Fry the cubes of salmon in the oil quickly, until golden brown. Remove from pan.

2. Fry the onion and garlic for 3 minutes, then add the sugar, fish sauce (if using) and soy.

3. Return salmon to the pan and cook for a further minute or until the sauce is thick and syrupy. add lime juice.

4. Serve with steamed rice and lime wedges.

Adapted from Bill Granger's book 'Every Day'.

Marks out of ten? 10.

Would I make it again? Hell, yeah!

How to make a Christening Cake

2011-08-27T12:36:00.001+01:00

How to make a christening cake for a beautiful little boy.

Lucas is my best friend's grand-son, so it was an absolute joy and honour for me to be asked to make the christening cake.

People have such faith in me, that they would entrust me with such an important job and I really don't want to let them down in any way, but can I admit to not feeling quite as positive about the whole thing as they are? Maybe even feeling a little nervous that I'd only ever made one other tiered cake before?

(You can see it here)

But this little boy is SO worth it. How could I let him down?

Here's the finished christening cake, along with the requested train cake topper and baby blocks...

It's not perfect. but made with much love.

1. I started off about five days before the christening by making the train cake topper, I bought some gumpaste powder from Hobbycraft to make it, gum paste is for modelling and it sets harder than fondant does.
I googled 'train cake topper' and ended up at this great blog, which co-incidentally I already had on my google reader list! The instructions and photographs made the job of making the train nice and simple. After it was finished, I just covered it with a clean tea-towel and put it to one side to dry off.

2. The second job which needed completing were the baby blocks. Now I really had to get my thinking cap on for these, should I make them from cake then cover them with buttercream before the fondant? Hmmm, well, being as there were still quite a few days before the christening I was a bit worried about the keeping qualities if the blocks were made in that way.
I did a bit more googling and read somewhere, I forget where, about someone making baby blocks from rice crispie squares! It occurred to me that if I bought the ready-made crispie squares, halved them, them put one on top of the other, they should be a 'cube' shape, just right for the baby blocks!

Rather than buttercream, I covered them with marzipan, then fondant.

First of all I tried moulding the fondant round the cube, but the sides were not definite enough, not sharp enough, so I used the rice-crispie square as a template and cut out each side individually.
five squares, six sides each = 30 squares of fondant. Phew.
The 'LUCAS' letters were cut-out from the remaining gum-paste which was used to make the train, left to dry for a few hours and stuck onto the blocks with edible glue.

I made up a little royal icing for the piping on the squares, coloured blue. It dried nice and hard very quickly.
Cover and put to one side.

3. For the actual cake, I used two square cake pans, one 9 inch, the other 7 inch and a couple of days before the christening made a simple madeira cake. I used a madeira cake recipe because I wanted the cake to be dense and moist and flavourful.
The cakes were split and filled with strawberry jam and buttercream.

4. I used the remaining buttercream to cover both cakes with a thin layer (what is commonly known as a crumbcoat) The smaller cake was sat on a thin cake board the same size as the cake (I had to cut it with a stanley knife so that it didn't show.
The larger cake was sat on a cake board.
I covered the larger cake with white fondant, edged in a pretty ribbon (secured with dressmaking pins, the ones with large pearl heads) Just make sure you remove the pins before the cake is cut!!

5. To support the top tier, cut 4 lengths of dowelling rods just a smidge taller than the bottom cake, they should just show. Place them in a square shape (smaller than the top cake) in the bottom cake. Place the top tier in place, after it has been covered with fondant (I coloured the top tier blue with gel colouring)
Edge again with a pretty ribbon and secure with pins.
Use the ribbon to edge the cake board too, we did this with double-sided sticky tape.

6. Place the cake topper and blocks in place.

There you go, now don't you feel a great sense of accomplishment and pride even?
It was so worth it.

What do you get when you mix up Mary Berry and the Hummingbird bakery?

2011-08-20T08:40:00.000+01:00

You get my family's favourite brownies! that's what.

You may like to skip past this post if you like your brownies very fudgy, bitter and made with lots of extravagantly priced chocolate.

This is not that kind of recipe.

Think of a family-friendly brownie that both children and adults alike will enjoy, made with cocoa powder and chocolate chips, covered with a tangy, creamy chocolate cream cheese frosting.

Heavenly.

Mary Berry's chocolate chip brownies:

275g softened butter
375g caster sugar
4 large eggs
75g cocoa powder
100g self-raising flour
100g plain chocolate chips.

Preheat oven to 180deg. C or 160 deg. C if you have a fan oven.

Grease and line a 12x9inch tray with baking parchment or foil.

Measure all the ingredients into a large bowl and beat until blended.

Spoon mixture into the prepared tin, levelling the top.

Bake for 40-45 minutes. cover with foil if browning too much towards the end of the cooking time.

Leave to cool in the tin, then remove and cut into 24 squares. (I never, ever get 24 squares, LOL!)

Hummingbird bakery's chocolate cream cheese frosting:

200g icing sugar, sifted
75g unsalted butter at room temperature
30g cocoa powder, sifted
150g cream cheese, cold.

Beat together the icing sugar, cocoa powder and butter in a mixer fitted with a paddle attatchment on medium-low until mixture has come together.
Add the cream cheese in one go and beat until completely incorporated.
Turn mixer up to medium high, continue beating until frosting is light and fluffy, at least five minutes.

When the brownies are cold, spread the gorgeous frosting over the top.
Scrummy and yummy and gorgeous!

...and carrying on with the Asian theme...

2011-08-17T11:55:00.002+01:00

.......Nigella's 'Korean keema'.

Perfect for those days when you need a quick family meal, that fills tummies, but is tasty and a little spicy.
We enjoyed this, but I'd definitely add more Gochujang next time.

Korean Keema:

Serves 2, generously.

150g Basmati rice
250g turkey mince
6 thin, or 3 fat spring onions, chopped
125g frozen peas
1 tsp veg. oil
2 tbsp rice wine
1-2 tbsp chopped fresh coriander

for the sauce:
2 tbsp Gochujang (red pepper paste)
1 tbsp honey
1 tbsp rice wine
2 tbsp soy sauce

Cook yer rice as you would normally do!

Whisk together the sauce ingredients and stir in the minced turkey, leave to steep for about 5 mins.

Heat a wok. While it's heating up, pour boiling water over the peas which are in a colander (to defrost them)

When the wok is hot add the oil then the peas and spring onions and stir-fry for 3-4 mins.

Add the turkey mince and sauce and stir-fry for 4-5 mins until cooked.

Add the rice wine along with 4 tbsp water to swill out the residue sauce from the meat-steeping bowl, pour into the pan and fry for a further 30 seconds until everything is piping hot.

Serve over the rice sprinkled with fresh coriander.

Marks out of ten? 8

Would I make it again? Yes.

Would I do anything differently? I'd add more of the spicy pepper paste - we like spicy in this family!

China Modern

2011-08-13T11:52:00.001+01:00

Do you ever go through phases with your cooking?
I do.
I may go through a Greek cooking phase (natch!)
An American South phase (regularly)
And sometimes, an Asian food phase.
What got me into my Chinese cooking phase was a cookery challenge on another food blog 'Belleau Kitchen', where a book and recipe are randomly chosen off one's bookshelves.
In order to make sure that I didn't cheat in any way, shape or form I asked my daughter to choose a book with her eyes closed, then open the book randomly, put her hand on a page and I would cook the recipe on that page.
The book she chose was Ching-He Huang's 'China Modern'.
And the recipe? Well, you'll have to wait another day for that.
But that's how I got into the Chinese cooking phase....luckily Birmingham has a thriving Chinese community, near to the town centre, there are numerous Chinese supermarkets within walking distance, so off I went clutching my pennies, with a vague idea of what I wanted and walked out with spring roll wrappers, wanton wrappers, Chinkiang black vinegar, yellow bean paste, panko breadcrumbs, glutinous rice flour, noodles and a pretty bowl....
Yup, a good haul!

Maybe one or two of these will be used in the monthly challenge....maybe.....:-))

But here's what I made this time- my first attempt at anything vaguely sushi-ish.

Duck Nigiri:

Which were a huge hit in my house, I have orders to make them again! I even had one daughter search in the fridge for them the day after 'Mom, are there any more of those sushi duck things?'

Fat chance.

All gone.

Here's the recipe....

Peking Duck Nigiri Sushi

1 large duck breast fillet, skin on (I used 2 smaller ones)

For the marinade:
half a teaspoon Chinese five spice powder
1 tbsp sesame oil
3 tbsp hoi sin sauce
3 tbsp brown sugar
3 tbsp water
1 tbsp dark soy sauce

For the Sushi rice:
150g shortgrain sushi rice, washed until water runs clear
240 ml water
half a teaspoon salt
2 tbsp mirin
1 teaspoon sugar
2 tbsp rice vinegar
2 tbsp hot water

12 fine slices cucumber
12 fine slices spring onion.

Mix marinade ingredients in a bowl, place duck in bowl and leave to marinate for as long as possible, ideally overnight. Unfortunately I left mine in the marinade for all of ten minutes, but it was fine.

Drain the marinade into a pan and bring to a boil, this makes an amazing dipping sauce for the duck, yum, yum!

Preheat your oven to 220 deg. C.
Place duck, skin side down in a wok or grill, cook for 1 minute on both sides until golden-brown. Place on a roasting tray and cook for about 15 minutes.
I let mine cook for 20 minutes as I have an extremely anti-pink-meat husband!

Put the rice and measured water in a pan with a tight-fitting lid, boil the rice until only a little water remains, reduce the heat and simmer for 10 minutes until water is completely absorbed.
Remove from the pan and let it cool down for about 10 minutes, mix the seasoning ingredients in a bowl and pour into the rice, mix with a flat wooden spoon or spatula.

Take a tbsp of the sushi rice and shape into an oval mound (the rice is extremely sticky, so try wetting your hands beforehand, place a cucumber slice on top.

Slice the duck into lovely pieces, place on top of the rice mounds, shove a few into your mouth while no-one's looking.

Yep, you read right. Oh my Gosh! Are they GOOD!!

Place slices of spring onion on top.

Serve with that yummy dipping sauce.

Serves one. Erm, sorry, serves 4.

Zheijiang Mein:

An uncomplicated and tasty noodle and minced beef dish.

For the sauce:
250ml chicken stock
3 tbsp hoi sin sauce
2 tbsp Shaosing rice wine or dry sherry
1 tbsp chilli bean sauce

1 tbsp groundnut oil, or other flavourless oil
2 garlic cloves, peeled and finely chopped
350g minced beef
200g dried vermicelli rice noodles (I used ordinary wheat noodles)

To garnish:
1 spring onion, finely chopped
small handful coriander leaves, finely chopped
1 small carrot, finely sliced into matchsticks.

Combine sauce ingredients in a bowl.
Heat a wok over high heat, fry garlic for less than a minute, add beef and fry until browned.

Pour in sauce, bring to a boil and cook for about 4 minutes.

Cook the noodles, drain then divide between 2 bowls, sprinkle over meat sauce, then garnish with spring onion, coriander and carrot sticks.
(I mixed the noodles and meat sauce together)

Serves 2.

Both recipes adapted from 'China Modern' by Ching-He Huang.

Arancini Di Riso

2011-07-30T16:57:00.000+01:00

Here's a great use for any kind of left over rice!
As long as it's not plain rice and is left over from either a risotto or some kind of flavoured rice (mine was left-over chicken, chorizo and prawn rice. Highly flavoured and ideal for turning into aranci (Italian for 'oranges' and you can see why in the finished dish) The more subtly flavoured the rice, the more subtle the arancini.
If you want to add flavour to the arancini, for instance if your rice is a little on the plain side, you can stuff the arancini with left-over ragu sauce, if you have some in the freezer, or with little cubes of mozzarella, or indeed, both.

Left-over rice

First of all form the cold rice into large walnut sized balls:

If you are going to stuff the arancini, then make sure the filling is properly enclosed.
It's not as fiddly a job as it looks really, as the cold rice will hold itself together really well.

Coat the arancini, first in egg, which has been thinned down with a little water so it's not too thick and 'eggy' for want of a better word, then in breadcrumbs, the staler the better, shop-bought will do.
Deep fry on a medium heat, so that they have a chance to cook through and ensure the cold rice is piping hot, before they become wonderfully golden.

How can anything coated in breadcrumbs and deep-fried not taste great, right?

Before I go, I want to wish you all a wonderful Sunday and show you Nigella's old-fashioned cheesecake from her latest book 'Kitchen'.

I love baked cheesecake, but don't feel that I can recommend this one, it was neither sweet enough, lemony enough, or tasty enough. Mediocre is the only word I can think of to describe it.
A shame, but there you go. Not everything is worth making again, right?

A Birthday, a Charm, a Satay and a pie.

2011-07-22T10:44:00.001+01:00

A long time ago in the flower power 60's, a child was born....who would change the World....

Well, maybe not the World! Just a little corner of Birmingham.

Today is my birthday.

I don't know why my family would choose a cupcake charm for my bracelet?
Do you?

Ha ha.

Anyway, changing the subject...
I asked for some help deciding what to make with some chicken thighs on my facebook group:

'Yes, I do take photos of my food. I admit it.'

There were some nice suggestions, but one really caught my eye. Chicken Satay.
I've never made chicken Satay before, but Billie who is a member there gave me a really nice recipe for it.
As per usual, I decided to play around with the recipe, googled.
Natch.
And came up with my own recipe for it.
It was soooooo nice! Am I allowed to feel a teeny tiny bit of pride for creating it?

Would you like the recipe dear reader?

Chicken in Satay Sauce (Serves 3)

600g skinless, boneless chicken strips (I used thigh, because that is what I had at home, but I'm sure breast would be lovely too)
2 tbsp dark soy sauce
2 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
2 tbsp brown sugar
3 heaped tbsp smooth peanut butter
3 tbsp sweet chilli sauce
1 tbsp lime juice
6 tbsp coconut milk
half a pint of chicken stock (plain water would also be fine)
crushed chilli flakes (optional)
small handful of crushed peanuts
2 spring onions, finely sliced .

1. Marinate the chicken in the soy, garlic and sugar for at least an hour if you can.
2. Fry off the chicken, until beautifully golden and caramelised. Reserve the marinade.

3. In the reserved marinade also mix in the peanut butter, sweet chilli sauce, lime juice, coconut milk and stock, mix well.
4. Pour over the chicken and simmer for 10 minutes.
5. Taste, and if you like things spicy, add more heat in the form of the crushed chillies flakes.
6. Serve over rice, garnish with the crushed peanuts and spring onions.

Keeping with the nutty theme I also made Carine Goren's 'Go Nuts pie'

Oh.
My.
Word.

A pastry shell filled with toffee and loooooads of salted peanuts and cashews.
A new take on the salty/sweet combo.

Heavenly!

Going Nuts Pie
Adapted from Carine Goren's amazing book 'Sweet Secrets'

Pastry:
1 3/4 cups flour
pinch salt
3/4 cup icing (powdered) sugar
3/4 cup butter, cold and cubed
1 egg, beaten.

Filling:
1/2 cup butter
1/3 cup dark brown sugar, packed
1/3 cup honey
1/4 cup double (heavy) cream
1 1/2 cups salted peanuts, toasted
1 1/2 cups salted cashews, toasted.

9 inch square pie pan or 14x4 inch rectangular pie pan.

Make the pastry and bake:
1. Process the flour, salt, icing sugar and butter into coarse crumbs (I used my Kitchen Aid fitted with the beater)
2. Flatten the dough out, wrap with plastic and place in the refrigerator for 2 hours.
3. Roll into a rectangle on a floured sheet of parchment paper and transfer to the pie pan by flipping it over into the pan and then removing the paper.
4. Press the dough into the pan, going up the sides too, prick with a fork and freeze for 15 minutes.
5. Heat oven to 180 deg. C.
Bake the pie for 15 minutes until golden brown (mine needed 20 minutes)
Cool, while you make the filling.

Make the filling, assemble and bake:
6. Reduce the oven to 160 deg. C.
7. In a saucepan heat the butter, sugar and honey, stirring until the sugar melts. Add the cream and bring to a boil. Remove from the heat and add the nuts.
8. Pour nut mixture into pie shell and bake for 10-15 minutes until filling is bubbling.
9. carefully remove pie from pan while filling is still hot, otherwise as it cools it will stick the pie to the pan. (I made mine in a pyrex dish, left it in there and it IS difficult, but not impossible to remove, so do as Corine says :-)))
10. Keep refrigerated and serve at room temperature.

Do try and get your hands on a copy of 'Sweet Secrets'. It's a fabulous book!

Dom, send the blog fairy out!

2011-07-20T17:37:00.000+01:00

Well, where do I start?
This is supposed to be my first entry into Belleau Kitchen's monthly bloggers challenge....

But I don't know if it counts...

July's challenge is to select a random recipe from your favourite cookbook.

This is where the problem begins....
I chose my favourite cookbook - Carine Goren's 'Sweet Secrets'.....
(Or second favourite if you count 'Feast' by Nigella Lawson)

But then I CHOSE a recipe, not randomly, but completely intentionally.

Against the rules.

Dom, send the blog fairy out!!

Is there a Bloggers court? Send me there too....I think we need a jury.....

Will this quick and easy chocolate cake appease the blog fairy?

Or this? (made previously)

Dreamy, creamy vanilla cupcakes

Dreamy, creamy vanilla cupcakes

Or this? (Made previously)

Better than store-bought Cinnamon rolls

Better than store bought Cinnamon rolls

Next month I promise I'll behave.

Quick n Easy Chocolate cake
Adapted from 'Sweet Secrets' by Corine Goren.

Cake:
1 cup vegetable oil
1 cup sugar
4 eggs
1 cup chocolate drink mix (eg Nesquick)
3/4 cup sour cream
1 cup flour
1 tsp BP

Topping:
1/2 cup double cream
120g plain chocolate (I used a mix of milk and plain)

8 inch baking pan or 1 loaf pan.

Make the cake:
Preheat oven to 170deg. C.

This is where the difficult bit begins.....

Mix the cake ingredients in a mixer.

Erm, that's it.

Pour into an oiled pan and cook for 40 minutes.

40??? Mine took 70.....
I really don't know why...could be I used a wrong sized tin (Too square)....it took ages for the middle to cook....by which time the edges had turned, shall we say, a tad too crispy?

While the cake is cooking melt the cream and chocolate together (I did it in the microwave)
Pour the topping over the hot cake, yum.....

Cool slightly and serve.

Marks out of ten? 7.

Would I make it again? Yes! Try again.

Would I do anything differently? I think I'd bake it in a narrower, longer loaf tin, mine is quite short and square-ish, so it takes longer for the middle to cook....

There is a law which states....

2011-07-20T13:11:00.000+01:00

...There can be no 'Anna's family' recipe journal without a recipe for keftedhes (Greek meatballs)
If I am hoping that my kids will at some point come to this blog searching for a recipe that Mom makes, then this will probably be the recipe they come searching for.

So who am I to argue?

Keftedhes are great and one of our most loved family recipes. When the children where growing up I loved making them especially, because they're a great finger food and along with a simple salad, a great family-friendly meal.
I can still see the kids in my mind's eye toddling along, holding keftedhes in their hands and pleased looks on their faces...

No family get-together is complete without a huge dish of these. Here's my recipe (which I usually make double of) I usually make them with pork mince, but have also been known to use turkey mince...I don't see why you couldn't try making them with chicken mince either.
Personally I wouldn't make them with beef or lamb mince, they're both too strong tasting here I feel.

Keftedhes (makes about 25)

500g pork mince
1 lg onion, peeled and then either very finely chopped or almost pureed in a little whizzing machine!
1 egg
3 slices of white bread, made into breadcrumbs
2 small potatoes, peeled and then grated on the fine 'shred' side of the grater
small bunch fresh parsley, finely chopped
1 tsp salt, ground black pepper
1 tsp ground cinnamon
half a tsp ground cloves
1 tsp dried mint.

Put the pork mince in a bowl, then add the onion, egg, bread and the grated potato.
The grated potato must be squeezed out before adding to the bowl as there will be lots of watery liquid which is not needed, if the potato is too wet, the finished meatball mixture will be too wet.
Add the salt, pepper, cinnamon, cloves, mint and parsley.
Mix, with your hands, really well, so that it comes together well.
Shape into large walnut sized balls, or into torpedo shapes (ie an elongated ball) which is the shape I prefer.
Fry in a copious amount of vegetable oil, so that the keftedhes are hidden by oil while they are frying, depending on the size of your saucepan, you should be able to fry between 8-12 at a time.
Don't have your oil too hot as they need to cook inside before becoming golden brown.

Serve and enjoy!

Apricot, white chocolate & macadamia cookies

2011-07-11T07:37:00.001+01:00

These cookies constitute my first ever entry into the 'We should Cocoa' monthly chocolate challenge. So I'm really excited to be entering!

'We should Cocoa' was set up by two food bloggers - Choclette of 'Chocolate log blog' and Chele from 'Chocolate Teapot'
They take turns to select an ingredient, which along with chocolate, should be used in the entry.

July's added ingredient is APRICOT. Fresh or dried.

I decided to make apricot, white chocolate and macadamia cookies based on Nigella Lawson's 'Cranberry and white chocolate cookies' from her book 'Feast'.**
Snowy from 'Cookbooks Galore' has entered a very similar cookie, so thanks for the inspiration!

**I love that book.
I adore it.
Not to be morbid, but I want it buried with me.

I'm not joking.

I think this was a wholly successful experiment!

Here's my version:

Apricot, white chocolate and macadamia cookies (Makes 25-30)

140g plain flour
half a tsp. Baking powder
half a tsp. salt
75g rolled oats
125g soft butter
75g dark brown sugar
100g caster sugar
1 egg
half a tsp. vanilla extract
75g dried apricots, chopped
50g macadamia nuts, roughly chopped
140g white chocolate chips.

Preheat the oven to 180deg.C (160deg.C Fan oven)

1. Put the flour, oats, baking powder and salt into a bowl.

2. In another bowl beat the soft butter and both sugars together, add the egg and vanilla and mix.

3. mix both bowls together, then fold in the apricots, nuts and chocolate chips. Put the bowl in the fridge for about 15 minutes.

4. Roll tablespoons of dough onto greased baking sheets, flatten down very slightly with a fork.

5. Cook for about 15 minutes, by which time the cookies will be pale golden. Let them harden for about five minutes before removing from the tray.

Lemon curd cheesecake with summer fruits & white chocolate

2011-07-10T16:13:00.002+01:00

Ever since I read Nigella Lawson's recipe for her 'No-fuss fruit tart' I've loved the idea of adding lemon curd to cream cheese to create a cheesecake filling.

I love short-cuts, I really do.

I've been playing around with the idea, I can't help it....and this is what I've come up with:

Lemon curd cheesecake with summer fruits and white chocolate

15 digestive biscuits
50g butter

600g cream cheese
200g lemon curd
zest of 1 lemon
juice of half a lemon
none-half a cup of sugar (try before adding)

various summer fruits for topping, along with a handful of white chocolate chips.

1. Whizz the digestives up in the processor and add the butter which has been melted. Use to line the base and sides of a pie dish.

2. Mix the cream cheese, lemon curd, zest, juice and sugar (if needed) in a mixer. I started off mixing it by hand, but it went really lumpy!
Pour into the pie dish.

3. Put in the fridge for an hour or so to firm up the filling a little, then cover with your Summer fruit. I had a little helper to stone the cherries for me:

Sprinkle chocolate chips over..... (grated white chocolate would be even better here I think)
Put in the fridge to chill.

Mmmmmmmm. It's lemony and light and fruity....just don't expect it to cut cleanly...it's more of a spoon job as it were...

'Throw it all in the slow cooker' soup!

2011-07-09T17:44:00.000+01:00

Do you use a slow cooker?
I'm asking you because it seems to me that slow cookers are a bit like the 'marmite' of the small kitchen appliance world....one either loves them or hates them.

There doesn't seem to be an in-between.

I love mine.

I'm aware of it's limitations, but I try and work with them as much as I can and give it a gentle, helping nudge along the way.
Treat it (the ingredients) properly during their pereparation and your slow cooker will reward you with hearty, warming meals, notably flavourful soups and stews.

I was reading the 'Claytons blog' and Coby was, this time, making a 'freestyle' soup.
Coby has a basic soup 'recipe' which she varies depending on what she has in the house and of course, what she feels like eating that particular day!
If you read my comment to her, you'll see that 'freestyling' a recipe actually scares me. I worry that what I will end up with will be neither delicious nor pleasing to the beholder.

Coby's soup post is here.

But, I decided to be brave and give it a whirl in my slow cooker. This is what I ended up with..

A really gorgeous, nutritious, colourful, filling soup, which we really enjoyed!

The first thing I did was to soak a handful of dried Porcini mushrooms in a little marsala, put to one side.

Anything you can do to add more flavour, DO.
Think savoury.
Think frying off the vegetables and chicken to give them an appealing appearance and more flavour and to aid hugely in the cooking process!
Think TASTE.

I began by sweating off in a little olive oil, some chopped onions (2), garlic (2 cloves, grated), carrot(1), celery (2-3 stalks) and yellow pepper(half).
When they had softened, I poured them straight into the slow cooker. In the same pan I fried off some chicken thighs (4 skinless and boneless) , which I'd cut into small pieces,when the chicken was golden, but before it was ready to come off the heat, I added a couple of slices of chopped up bacon and fried them together for a few minutes. This also went into the slow cooker.

I'd already put (at a guess) about a litre of stock in the slow cooker, made by adding a couple of teaspoons of Bouillon powder to some boiling water.
After throwing in the veggies, chicken and bacon, also add the mushrooms and the marsala, 1 tin of butter beans (or what ever pulse you like) and 1 tin of chopped tomatoes.
Strain the marsala through a tea-strainer though, as little gritty pieces tend to collect in the bottom of the bowl and you don't want those of course.
Add a little salt (Bear in mind the stock already contains salt) pepper and about a teaspoon of dried, mixed herbs or whatever you have at home.

I put mine on 'high' for about 5 hours...

Let your slow cooker work it's magic. And you will be repaid with empty bowls.

Now doesn't that gladden the heart?

Thanks Coby for the inspiration!

The Hankering Palate

2011-07-08T16:36:00.000+01:00

Even the title of this blog lets you know that you're in for a wonderful treat by delving into it's pages.
Sarah-Nicole is an articulate, creative and gutsy Puerto Rican New Yorker who has a huge passion for food and the written word.

I enjoy reading Sarah's blog immensely and as such felt really touched and honoured when she asked me to contribute a little piece towards it.

The Hankering Palate.

In her own words:

"you are very much like me: You are English and Cypriot with a love for American trashy food and I am Puerto Rican (a US Commonwealth, but it has its own culture and ideals) and American with a love for English foods".

The world has become a much smaller place don't you think?

we can make friends and come to know people we have never met in the flesh and become part of their worlds.

Thank you Sarah-Nicole for a great series! I enjoyed reading it so much.

Do check it out!

Salted Caramel Sponge Pudding

2011-06-30T14:13:00.001+01:00

The inspiration for this salted caramel sponge pudding came from Nigella Lawson's new recipe for salted caramel sauce which appears on her up-dated iPhone app.

Oooh, it's really yummy, but be very careful when adding the salt, stick to the lower amount unless you're really, really sure you need that extra salt.
even though mine was delicious, it was far too salty..(My own fault, I admit)

Nigella's Salted Caramel Sauce

75g salted butter
50g soft light brown sugar
50g caster sugar
50g golden syrup
125ml double cream
0.5-1.5 tsp finest salt.

Melt the butter, both sugars and the golden syrup in a pan and let it simmer for 3 minutes. Stir it now and again. The sauce will slightly darken as it cooks.
Carefully add the cream, then half a tsp of salt and swirl around again.
Carefully taste it before adding any more salt (Watch you don't burn yourself!)
Pour into a serving jug. And serve, maybe over a plain cake, or ice-cream, or how about making a caramel pudding?

do this by pouring some of the sauce to cover the bottom of an ovenproof pie dish, then make up a plain sponge by mixing together:

125g soft butter
125g caster sugar
125g plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
2 eggs.

(I used Nigella's sponge recipe for the little lemon puddings, adapted slightly)
Spoon over the caramel sauce, don't worry if it doesn't cover the sauce perfectly, it will spread as it cooks.

Bake at 180deg.C. for about 20 minutes, then pour the rest of the caramel sauce over it as it comes out of the oven.
The sauce will be mostly absorbed, yum...sigh......heaven!

Let it cool slightly before digging in.....you don't want to burn your mouth do you?

Tava Lefkaritiko

2011-06-30T12:42:00.003+01:00

Can't choose between your carbs? Love both potatoes and rice? We have a lot in common then...
With 'Tava Lefkaritiko' there's no reason to choose, it contains both.
I've blogged about 'Tava' before (The recipe is there too) and this one is made exactly the same, but about half an hour before it's cooked, I also add a cup of rice and 2 cups of water to the dish. By the time it's ready the rice should be cooked perfectly, keep an eye on it though and if it looks too dry add a little more water.
Served with a nice, fresh, crispy salad, it's the bee's knees!

Oh and before I go...
Happy Anniversary to me and my husband. 26 years is a long time....

We were babies.....

Lemon curd & Nigella's little Lemon puddings

2011-06-25T14:01:00.001+01:00

I need to start this post off by letting you know that I have a Facebook group called:

'NEW Yes, I do take photos of my food. I admit it'.

Which you are most welcome to join (Just let me know that you found out about the group via this blog) There are quite a few active members in the group who love posting their food pics as much as I do! It's really nice to see what they've cooked and their thoughts on it, be they good or, occasionally, bad.
Hazzer New Zealand, one of the members posted a pic of their lemon curd just the other day, and you know how it is. From that moment on, I couldn't get lemon curd out of my head!!!! I just had to make it.
Hazzer has posted the recipe on the Facebook group, which was adapted from Rachel Allen's orange curd recipe.
It was simple to make, but not without a certain level of stress which only surfaced when I started noticing a very few bits of egg in the curd! Had it started curdling? Read on, dear reader.....

I started off by whisking 2 eggs with 1 egg yolk:

I then gently melted the 100g of butter in a saucepan and added the 175g of caster sugar to it, the finely grated zest and juice of 3 lemons:
(I wish my lemons had been erm, yellower....but it didn't seem to make much difference to the finished curd)

I then poured in the eggs....

This is where the stress came in folks....while I kept it on a low/medium heat and stirred for about 15 minutes, I began noticing little bits of white egg...

I should have added the eggs much more slowly. I should know that by now.
It's one of the cardinal rules of cookery:

ADD EGGS SLOWLY TO HOT LIQUIDS.

Aaaaaagggghhhhhhhh.

Quickly, I took it off the heat, and passed the whole lot through a sieve, which caught the egg, but also the zest!
I fiddled through the eggy zest, got rid of the egg, then added the zest back to the curd and put the curd back on to heat.
By this time I'd started getting really hot, opening windows and perspiring!
I kept it on the heat for slightly longer than 15 minutes just to make sure that it would set.
You can see from this pic that the consistency has changed, becoming thicker and 'set'.

Phew.

Another crisis averted!
The curd went into a disposable plastic container, which had just been through the dishwasher (Sterilized? I don't know. But at least spotlessly clean!)

Now I'd got the curd all done, I couldn't shake off thoughts of making Nigella's little lemon puddings which I'd seen on the up-dated version of her iPhone app.
A little voice in my head kept crying out 'Make them, make them, MAKE THEM!'

I had planned to at least wait until the day after to make them.

But it didn't work out that way.

I barely gave the curd a chance to cool down and set.

Sigh, there's no hope for me is there?

I placed about a (generous) tablespoon of the curd in the bottom of 6 lightly greased non-stick ramekins.
Then made up the lemon sponge mixture. Nigella says to whizz it all up in the processor, but I just made it the old-fashioned way, by hand in a bowl.

The lemon sponge ingredients are:

125 g soft butter
125g caster sugar
125g plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
2 eggs
1 lemon, juice and finely grated zest.

Divide the sponge mixture between the ramekins, place them on a baking tray and bake at 180 deg. C. for 20 minutes.
Turn the little puddings out and enjoy!

The meatballs that morphed

2011-06-25T00:16:00.002+01:00

So....
I made the meatballs and rice from Nigella Lawson's brilliant book 'Feast'. The ones from the kiddie chapter.

Nigella's meatballs & rice

I slaved over them. treasured them, made each little ball with love.

This is how my youngest daughter reviewed them a few years ago.....

But now the family ask 'What's for tea?'.....then turn their noses up. Won't even try them.
Nada. Zilch.

what to do.....what to do......

Sudden light bulb moment!

Turn them into a curry**.
then everyone eats them, raves over them, wants them again.

Crisis averted.

Sigh....my family are Curryholics.

Meatball curry with peas

Mind you it does look quite good right?

**I did this by frying off a couple of chopped onions in a little oil, adding 2-3 tbsp curry powder, which I fried for a few minutes with the onions to take away the raw spice taste. Then, tablespoon by tablespoon, add about 6 tbsp yoghurt, stirring between each addition until it is incorporated into the sauce.
Add the original meatball recipe to the onion, curry powder and yoghurt, add a couple of handfuls of frozen peas, a few chopped fresh green chillies (We like things spicy so I tend to add about five of them!) and about a cupful of water, simmer for about 20 minutes.
A couple of minutes before it's ready stir in a small bunch of chopped fresh coriander and a tbsp of garam masala.

Serve again.To rapturous delight this time.

Coby's tuna Mornay

2011-06-24T00:00:00.003+01:00

Now, whilst I know this is not, strictly speaking, Coby's tuna mornay, in my head it always will be - so that's what I'm calling it!
Do you know Coby?
Let me tell you about her...
she's a very sweet Australian lady that I came to know because we both enjoyed spending time at Nigella's forum on her old web-site, which sadly is there no more. I've know her since about 2005.
Coby is a woman who adores her family- that really comes across in everything she does. She is kind, non-judgmental, someone who is a true friend. Someone you'd love to have on 'your side'.
She is also beautiful, motivating and inspirational, as we read her ongoing adventures to re-haul and re-vamp her family's diets.
you can read Coby's (and other great foody writers) words over at the brilliant 'Claytons blog'.

I remembered the tuna mornay recipe one day, when I'd not got much fresh in the fridge (Was the day before my shopping day) and I needed to make a meal from only store-cupboard ingredients.
You can see the recipe here.

We all really enjoyed it and I'd definitely make it again!

Topped with tortilla chips and grated cheese

Thanks Coby for a great recipe! And for being such a lovely, lovely lady.

Do check out 'The Claytons blog'. It's always worth a read. If you enjoy recipes using pulses, my 'Fasolia Yiakhni' recipe is there too.

Good Food's Sweet and Spicy Wings with Summer Slaw

2011-06-22T22:46:00.000+01:00

Need something quick and easy for a mid-week meal? Run out of ideas? Bored?
Then I think I may have found an answer. Actually 'Good Food' magazine found the answer for me.

My family loves spicy food and especially the combination of spicy and sweet, so when I came across this recipe it went straight into my 'Recipes I'm going to try one day' folder.

That day came sooner than I thought....

Sweet and Spicy Wings with Summer Slaw (Serves 4)
Recipe adapted from 'Good Food magazine' July 2011.

4 tbsp curry paste (I used Pataks Tikka paste)
3 tbsp mango chutney
1 kg chicken wings
200g bag radishes, sliced thinly
1 cucumber, halved lengthways and sliced
small bunch mint, roughly chopped
juice of 1 lemon
cooked rice to serve (optional)

Start by preheating your oven- 200deg. C or 180deg. C if you have a fan oven like me.
Mix the curry paste with 2 tbsp of the mango chutney in a big bowl, throw in the chicken wings and mix well.
Put them in a single layer on a large baking tray and roast for 40-45 minutes.
While the wings are cooking, mix the cucumber, radish and mint, remaining mango chutney and the lemon juice.
Serve with cooked rice if you like.

Marks out of ten: 7.

Would I make it again: The chicken wings - yes definitely. The slaw - yes, with a few changes.

Would I do anything differently: I'd only use a tiny sprig of mint as it was really overpowering in the salad.
I used about an extra tbsp of mango chutney in the salad as we like things sweet.

Anna's individual chocolate pudding-cakes

2011-06-17T16:51:00.001+01:00

Dear reader,
You may not know, but I have been busy working in the background on your behalf. When I say on your behalf, I guess that only applies if you're a complete chocaholic like me!

Really, there's no need to thank me.

It's for the good of Mankind.

No, really....

I have been experimenting, trying to perfect a recipe for an individual chocolate pudding-cake, for those times when we want a chocolate cake, but don't necessarily need or want to make 4,6 or 8 portions (depending on whose recipe one is following.

It was Nigella's chocohotopots which started me off thinking....yes, I really, really enjoy them...but what do I do with the remaining pots of gorgeousness, short of eating them all myself? Sometimes my family are just soooo unhelpful! Though I guess I should be just a little pleased that they don't have as sweet a tooth as me....

My search led me to google (where else?) where I stumbled upon a microwave chocolate mug cake, ready in 3 minutes....great! I thought.....but

Oh. My. Word.

It was hideous.

Tasteless, rubbery.....yuk.

I did take a photo of it, but don't know how, I've managed to lose it.

This, dear reader, is probably a blessing in disguise. Trust me.
If I find it, I'll upload it here, so you can see just how vile it was.

I found it....

Aren't you glad?

But one good thing I did get from the mug cake, was that I realised I wanted the perfect recipe to be measured in tablespoons, so that there would be no need for kitchen scales. After all, when we ~~want~~ need an individual chocolate cake, we want it Quick, right?

So here's the recipe, tried, trusted and indeed loved (By me at least)

Anna's individual chocolate pudding-cake
Serves one very lucky individual.

3 level tablespoons plain flour
1 egg
5 level tablespoons sugar
3 tablespoons of butter, melted
1 tablespoon of milk
2 level tablespoons of cocoa powder
a dash of vanilla essence
2 tablespoons of chocolate chips (milk, white or plain, your choice)

Mix everything up in a small bowl.
Place in an oven-proof ramekin.
Bake at 180 deg. C. for about 20 minutes. This will depend on if you want a molten middle, if you don't simply leave in a few minutes longer.

Enjoy!

Our Chilli.. step-by-step..

2011-06-15T22:47:00.000+01:00

Surely every family has their own recipe for chilli con carne?
It's one of those meals, that takes little time or fuss to prepare, but pleases everyone.
Just in case you don't, here's ours:

Chilli con carne: (Serves 3-4)

500g lean minced beef
1 tbsp vegetable oil
1 clove garlic, minced or finely chopped
1 lg or 2 small onions, peeled and finely chopped
1 - 400g tin of chopped tomatoes
1 - 410g tin of red kidney beans, drained
1-2 handfuls frozen corn or 1 small tin
1 tbsp tomato puree
1 level teaspoon of salt
freshly ground black pepper
between 1 pinch and 1 tsp of chilli flakes (depending how hot you like it!)

Basmati rice- 100g raw weight, per person.

1. Fry the onion, garlic and peppers in the vegetable oil until softened.

2. Add the minced beef and continue frying until no trace of pink remains-

3. Add the kidney beans, tomatoes, puree, corn, salt, pepper and chilli flakes and simmer for 20 minutes.

4. Meanwhile measure out 100g per person raw weight Basmati rice, steam or boil until cooked to perfection.

5. Feed the hungry hordes, then marvel at yourself how clever you are making such a filling, tasty meal which includes a good few portions of their 8-a-day!

Nigella's chocolate choc chip muffins

2011-06-10T17:58:00.002+01:00

For when a quick and easy (but not overly sweet) chocolate hit is needed.

25 minutes from a thought in your head to a cake in your tum! Not bad eh?

Recipe here.

My Yiayia and Black eyed beans (Louvi)

2011-06-09T13:02:00.000+01:00

Perhaps I should begin this post by explaining my short absence? I have been in Cyprus for my Grand-mother's funeral.

My Grand-mother was blessed to have had a long life, 9 children and many, many grand-children and great-grandchildren.

1918-2011

Whenever I go to Cyprus, there are a few, OK, quite a few, food items that I simply have to bring back with me, one of these being black eyed beans (peas) For some reason the ones available in Cyprus are larger and plumper than the ones available to us in the UK. I don't eat black-eyed beans, have never really enjoyed them and probably never will, but other family members do, so that's good enough for me and anyway they are a healthy and nutritious meal (Plenty of calcium, folate and vitamin A) when served with vegetables, extra-virgin olive oil and fresh lemon juice, which is the traditional Cypriot way of serving them.

This is hardly even a recipe, it's so simple, so forgive me, but I am writing this blog based on the assumption that one day my daughters, daughters-in-law and other family members will ask 'How do you make so-and-so?' and I can simply direct them to this little blog, so here goes....

Black eyed beans with a random green vegetable!!
(Serves between 2-4)
** I usually use courgettes sliced into thick chunks or a bag of spinach, or a few handfuls of mange-tout..this time I used Brussels sprouts**

250-300g black-eyed beans/peas
green veggies.

I usually soak the peas from the night before which makes them easier to cook, however, if I've not had time, on the day, I soak them in boiling water for an hour or so, change the water and then cook them for about 5 minutes in the pressure cooker until about half-way cooked.

(Note the reflection, lol)

Add the veggies, a little salt and cook for another few minutes until both the vegetables and peas are tender and cooked through.
Serve in the traditional Cypriot way with plenty of Extra Virgin olive oil and fresh lemon juice.

My mother-in-law taught me to use any leftovers by frying a chopped onion in olive oil, adding to the leftovers, stirring until heated through, then add a tablespoon of red wine vinegar. This turns the leftovers into a different tasting meal, great for when there is a husband and ten children to be fed and not much money around.....

River Cottage Golden Syrup Cake

2011-05-31T19:49:00.000+01:00

Dearest reader.

Precious reader....You know I love ya, right?....

If there's only one item that you ever, ever think of making from this blog, please, pleeeease let it be this River Cottage golden syrup cake.

Pretty please.

Pretty please with a cherry on the top?

Seriously, it has become my new bezzie mate!
Imagine a cross between an English 'treacle' tart (which incidentally is made with golden syrup anyway) and a steamed syrup sponge pudding, but without the palaver of making pastry or steaming for hours...
and you end up with this cake.

Fragrant, delicious, moist...I could go on and on and on....but here's the recipe instead.
Oh and if you don't have the River Cottage Handbook - Cakes, yet, please make it your next cookbook purchase. It's a lovely book, small, but perfectly formed, with lots of colour photographs of the finished cakes, easy to understand instructions.
In short - A must have.

River Cottage Golden Syrup Cake

250g golden syrup
100g butter
150g self-raising flour
half a tsp. bicarb
half a tsp fine sea salt
50g fresh white breadcrumbs
finely grated zest of half a lemon
1 egg
150ml plain yoghurt

1 ltr loaf tin, lightly greased and lined.

Preheat the oven to 180deg. C. (160deg. C Fan oven)

Melt 200g of the golden syrup along with the butter in a saucepan, put to one side to cool down.

Sift the flour, bicarb and salt into a mixing bowl (I used my Kitchen Aid mixer) add the breadcrumbs and the lemon zest.
I veered off course here a little, because believe it or not, I had no fresh lemon at home, but I did have a bitter orange spoon sweet, in a container in the fridge.

Needs must, so I used that instead!

In another bowl beat together the egg and yoghurt, then add to the other ingredients, along with the syrup and butter.
Beat until smooth and glossy.
Pour the mixture into the tin and bake for 40 minutes until golden.
Just before the cake is ready, mix the final 50g of syrup with a tablespoon of just boiled water.
Take the cake out of the oven, prick all over with a skewer and pour the golden syrup over it.
Leave the cake to cool in the tin before turning it out.

Sit back and wait for the compliments to roll in.
They will, trust me.

Recipe adapted from River Cottage Handbook No.8 - Cakes. By Pam Corbin.

River Cottage Bounty Bar Cake

2011-05-27T17:00:00.002+01:00

The delivery man came today.
And we all know what that means, right?

A parcel from Amazon.

YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!!

In today's parcel was 'River Cottage Handbook No. 8 - Cakes' and Paula Deen's 'The Deen family cookbook'.
Don't ya just love Amazon?!
(Yes, I know, I know, I pay for them, they don't deliver them out of the goodness of their hearts, but still.....)

Flicking through the River Cottage book, the first recipes that caught me eye were the Bounty cake and a golden syrup cake, swoon......we'll leave the golden syrup cake for another day - today it's the turn of the

BOUNTY BAR CAKE

For the cake:
50g dessicated coconut
150 ml coconut milk, or ordinary milk
150g self-raising flour
25g cocoa powder
150g caster sugar
150g butter, softened
2 eggs

For the topping:
125g chocolate (I used half dark and half milk)
125g creme fraiche or yoghurt

1. The first thing you need to do, a couple of hours before you make the cake, is to soak the dessicated coconut in the milk and set aside. This is to re-hydrate the coconut. I used ordinary milk, but added 1tsp of coconut flavouring for a really coconutty flavour.

2. Mix together the flour, sugar and cocoa powder (I never bother sifting, a few seconds dry mixing in my KA is equivalent to sifting I reckon!)

3. Add the eggs, the milky coconut and the softened butter and beat until light and creamy.
I need to confess - at this step the cake batter almost didn't get as far as the cake tin! It's delicious...like a melted Bounty bar!

4. Pour into a buttered and lined 1 ltr loaf tin.

5. Cook at 180deg. C (160 deg. C- fan oven) for about 40 mins.

6. Leave to cool and top with the chocolate creme-fraiche topping, which is made by adding either yoghurt or creme fraiche to melted, cooled chocolate.

Changes/tips:
* I added a teaspoon of coconut flavouring to both the cake mix and to the frosting, I wanted it really, really coconutty!

*I added a little dessicated coconut also to the frosting, for texture and taste.

* My cake took 45 minutes at 160deg. C in my fan oven.

* I decorated with chopped up Bounty bar, instead of chocolate buttons as the book suggests.

* I used yoghurt this time for the topping. Next time I'll try it with creme fraiche to see if there's a big difference.

This was a beautiful cake, moist, chocolatey and delicious. I'll definitely make it again!

Recipe adapted from River Cottage Handbook No.8 by Pam Corbin.

Our big fat Greek family bbq!

2011-05-24T18:17:00.001+01:00

Greek family = bbq or...

Bbq= Greek family .......both work.....

...and both are true.

It's a fact of life. Where we go, our bbq goes.....

So we had huge chunks of Spring lamb and fresh chicken portions...

Cooked to perfection!

On the spit, going round and round...

(Note the motorised bbq).....a small motor keeps the meat turning and cooking. Happy days!

Of course then we needed side dishes to go with our delicious hunks of meat. So we had:

Prawn and Ocean stick salad

Prawn and ocean stick salad

Made by my 12 year old daughter, more of an assembly job than a recipe, it consists simply of small, peeled prawns, about 10-12 shredded ocean sticks (Also called crab sticks or surimi) mixed together with seafood sauce or Thousand Island dressing, piled on top of fresh, crisp, shredded lettuce leaves.
Of course you can make your own sauce, but we didn't this time.

Tsatsiki

Tsatsiki

Also known as raita, or cucumber and yoghurt dip.
Also made by my daughter - mix 1 large tub of yoghurt, with half a large, grated (on the side with the large holes on the grater) cucumber. Make sure you squeeze as much of the water out of the shredded cucumber as you can, so that the finished tsatziki is not watery- 2 cloves of peeled and crushed garlic, dried mint (about a teaspoon) and salt to taste.

I made-up a couscous recipe, which I've called

Mediterranean couscous:

Soak 250g (half a packet) of couscous in enough boiling water to cover it by about an inch, add a little salt and some Marigold stock cube powder, or similar. Leave the couscous for about 10 minutes to absorb the stock.
you can chop the rest of the ingredients while you're waiting.

No slacking. Chop Chop. (Pun intended)

Chop into small pieces-
about 5-6 sun-dried tomatoes (The ones in oil)
about 15 pitted black olives
3-4 spring onions
2-3 small, ripe tomatoes
plenty of fresh parsley.

Now mix these into the couscous and drizzle a little of the oil that the tomatoes are packed in over it.
Colourful and summery.

And fast.

And last but not least:

Home-made humous

- nice and easy, because it's all simply whizzed up in the processor.

I used:

1 tin of chickpeas (400g)
2 cloves of garlic
2 tbsp of tahini
2 tbsp yoghurt
juice of 1 lemon, or according to taste
salt.

Whizz it all up in the blender, place it in a suitable bowl.....I know, I know......mine is pink plastic....but it's pretty!
Decorate with fresh parsley, a pinch of ground cumin and some reserved chickpeas.

Kiwibird's Coca-cola chicken

2011-05-20T12:28:00.000+01:00

A long time ago, in the distant past, I used to enjoy spending time on Nigella.com. At that time there used to be a forum there too, where I would spend time chatting and making friends with other foodies. A big part of that was the sharing of our favourite recipes.
One of the recipes became a family favourite, which we all really enjoy - coca-cola chicken, submitted by Kiwibird.
I've tried to find the original recipe on Nigella's site and to provide you with a link for it, but sadly, the recipe, nor Kiwibird seem to be there anymore and as I'm no longer in touch with Kiwibird and as such unable to ask her permission to share her recipe, I'm hoping that she wouldn't mind me sharing it with you here.
After all, I'm sure she would be pleased to know that her recipe is loved and made regularly in my family. I know I would be over the moon if some-one said the same about one of my recipes.....

So, here goes, thanks to Kiwibird.

Coca-cola chicken:

Enough chicken pieces for your whole family (Kiwibird says that about 12 pieces is ideal for the amount of ingredients and that thighs and drumsticks seem to work best**)
olive oil
4 tbsp dark soy sauce
750 ml coca-cola
2 cloves of garlic, crushed
2cm fresh ginger, grated
2 tbsp brown sugar.

Fry the chicken pieces in the oil and soy until browned.
Turn down the heat and add the ginger and garlic and cook for a few minutes, take care not to burn the garlic.
Sprinkle over the brown sugar and allow to caramelise.
Pour over about half of the coke and simmer until the coke has reduced, adding more coke until the chicken is cooked (30-40 mins)
Once the chicken is cooked let the sauce reduce down to a thick, syrupy consistency.

Serve over rice. I use Basmati rice, but Kiwibird suggests Sushi rice.
Whichever rice you decide to use, I'm sure you'll enjoy this immensely!
I steam some cabbage too, it seems to go really nicely with this dish and with Teriyaki chicken which is very similar in taste.

**Last time I made this dish I used skinless and boneless chicken breasts.

Louvana (Yellow split pea soup)

2011-05-19T14:41:00.001+01:00

Louvana is a traditional Cypriot soup, usually made during lent or at other times of fasting as it contains no meat or dairy products. It's a delicious, nutritious, filling soup made with 'louvana' which are small, yellow split peas.
I'd heard of this soup many times before, but had never made it and then while we were in Cyprus over Easter, for some reason talking about food again..(Who? me? never!)...louvana was mentioned by my husband's niece while we were out one night. My ears immediately pricked up and I asked her how it was made, it seemed to be easy enough.
Sooooo, I brought some louvana back from Cyprus with me (It's a dried pulse, sold in packets)

It's a habit I've got!!
Forgive me.
Bringing food stuff back off holiday with me...would you believe me if I told you that one of our suitcases contained only foodsfuff?!

Anyhow, I spent most of today at the hairdressers and needed to make something quick for lunch - so louvana it was!
There's no need to soak the peas as they cook easily.

Recipe serves 4-6. (Depending on how hungry/greedy one's eaters are)

250g louvana or yellow split peas
2 stock cubes, vegetable if one is fasting/vegetarian. Chicken if not, though one could also use a home-made stock if it is available.
1 mug full of long grain rice, washed
1 onion, peeled, halved and sliced finely
a little olive oil for frying onion
juice of half a lemon
salt and pepper.

Simmer the louvana in plenty of water to which you have added the two stock cubes.
Ten minutes before the louvana is perfectly tender, add the rice.
While the rice is cooking, fry the onion slices in the olive oil until golden-brown.
Add to the soup, along with the lemon juice, a little salt and pepper.
When the rice has cooked, the soup is ready.

Louvana can be served very soupy, or more like a soupy risotto, depending on what you prefer.

Good, nutritious, easy family recipe. Do try it.

When nothing else will do.....

2011-05-17T20:05:00.000+01:00

luscious molten chocolate centre

....Nigella Lawson's chocohotopots from her fantastic book 'Feast'.
Warm chocolate puddings, with a delicious liquid chocolate centre.

For those times when nothing but chocolate will do.

Eliotes (small olive pastries)

2011-05-15T23:26:00.000+01:00

I treasure this and other hand-written recipes from my cousin Georgeina in Cyprus.
Georgeina and I grew up together, but were separated, when at the tender age of 16, she went to Cyprus to live.
Cuz if you read this - Love you lots!! xxx

Eliotes: makes about 30.

For the olive filling:
about 1 heaped measuring cup of black, chopped olives (no stones)
1 lg onion - chopped
as much chopped coriander as you like (about half- 1 cup)
few pinches of dried mint

Olive filling

for the pastry:
4 cups of plain flour
3tsp. baking powder
half a cup olive oil
half a cup vegetable oil
1 cup of orange juice.

Place the flour and baking powder in a bowl and pour on the oils, rub in with your fingers until the flour is well coated.

Now trust me. Pour in ALL the orange juice.
You will be faced with a hideous, gloopy mess, but as I said, TRUST ME!
Keep mixing and it will all eventually come together into a lovely, soft, billowy dough.

Break off small pieces and roll into round shapes, about the same size as a small saucer (or do as I did - roll the pastry out and use a large, round cutter)

Fill with about a heaped teaspoon of the olive mixture, and roll up.

cook in a medium oven (180 deg. C / 160 deg. C fan oven) for about 20 minutes until golden brown.

You may enjoy this old post about my cousin and her recipes.

Goubes/ kibbe/ kubbeh/ ostrich eggs?!

2011-05-14T21:25:00.001+01:00

By Bobbi Kyprianou

A very long time ago, in my dim, distant past, an eighteen year old English- Cypriot girl met and got engaged to a Cypriot boy all in the space of a month (Yes, in those days that's how things were done!) and along with so many new experiences and new family members to get used to, went to live with him in his home in Larnaca. While helping my new sister-in-law to cook one day, she asked me 'Do you know how to cook?'.
Paralysed by fear and nerves, I somehow managed to whisper an embarrassed 'no', when the truth was I had some knowledge, because I'd enjoyed cooking with my mom at home in England and had picked up some of the basics of Cypriot cooking as I did so. But rather than risk more of her questioning I'd denied all knowledge, because it was easier for me.

I don't like that memory. Sigh.

But anyhow, I came back from Cyprus armed with my new little Cyprus cookbooks as well as a new fiancé! Determined to learn how to cook Cypriot food as good as, if not better than some, Cypriot housewives.
These little books are great, published in the early 80's, they cover any Cypriot dish you can think of! And it was from these books that I got the recipe for goubes from.
I've made them quite a few times over the years, but they are definitely a labour of love! Time consuming and fiddly - one's worth as a Greek housewife is measured by how thin one can make the bulgar wheat casing.

I'm not joking.

Goubes/kibbe/kubbeh/koubes are basically bulgar wheat 'shells' filled with a minced meat and onion filling and then deep fried. There are many variations from the Middle-East and around that area, some baked, some fried, some layered in a tray and baked, much like the disastrous Nadia Sawalha's kibbe which I blogged about previously.

Goubes: makes about 30.

3 cups of fine bulgar wheat
4 and a half cups of water.
800g pork (or lamb) mince
3 small onions, very finely chopped
about 2 cups of chopped parsley
2 tsp. salt
freshly ground black pepper
1 tsp. cinnamon.

1. Add the water to the bulgar wheat and simmer for 5-10 mins until the water has been absorbed, add 1 tsp of the salt and set aside.

2. Fry the onions in a little oil until softened, add the mince and fry until browned, there should be no trace of pinkness left. Add the other teaspoon of salt, pepper, the parsley and cinnamon.

3. When the bulgar wheat has cooled down knead it well until it becomes a cohesive mixture, almost like a bulgar dough.

Now take egg sized lumps of the bulgar and insert one finger while building it up into a well (it should look like an elongated egg, with a cavity running from one side, almost to the other (Oh, dear, I hope I'm explaining this ok)
Now fill the cavity with about a tablespoon of the mince meat, then close the cavity, while shaping the 'egg' so that it is as elongated as you can get it, bearing in mind that the bulgar wheat casing should be as thin as you can get it.

Do you want to be known as a good Greek housewife? Then it needs to be THIN!

You should now have an elongated-egg shaped bulgar wheat shell, filled with mincemeat.

4. I dread to think of the gossiping that will ensue....
my goubes are neither thin walled, nor elongated........sigh........

Fry in plenty of vegetable oil, medium/high heat until golden brown.

Then sit back and bask in the glory.

Or not, as the case may be.

Wink, wink!

Bourekia me anari

2011-05-07T12:58:00.002+01:00

Fresh Anari

'Anari ' is a Cypriot cheese made from whey. The whey is usually a by-product from the production of halloumi cheese. The whey is brought to boiling point by which time curds will have formed, which are skimmed off to produce this soft cheese.
Anari is not generally known here in the UK yet, but we keep our fingers crossed! I remember when I was a child the same could be said of halloumi, which we brought back by the suitcase-load from holidays in Cyprus, probably illegally!
However if you live near a Greek/ Cypriot grocer I'm sure he could get his hands on some for you if you ask nicely enough.
Anari is available salted or un-salted, once crumbled it resembles slightly dry cottage cheese curds (Though cottage cheese is made from curds and not whey)
I've made these bourekia in the past succesfully using ricotta cheese, though if you do try this recipe with ricotta, please try and get the genuine, good stuff from an Italian deli/grocer, the texture will be much more similar to anari. The ricotta I've bought in the past from supermarkets has been more cream-cheese in appearance, though even this produces good bourekia - I mean how can anything deep-fried and then covered in sugar and syrup not taste good, right?!
Bourekia are small, half-moon pastries, filled with a mixture of anari, sugar and cinnamon, deep-fried and then dipped in a simple-sugar syrup and sprinkled with granulated sugar.
And as I'd brought some anari back from Cyprus......

1. I crumbled a pack of un-salted anari (300g) and mixed it with 1 scant tbsp cinnamon and 2 level tablespoons of sugar.

Crumbled anari, cinnamon and sugar mixture

2. I made a simple pastry using 500g plain flour, half a cup of oil, half a cup of cold water and a pinch of salt (add more or less as needed) which I then rolled out as thinly as possible and cut rounds out of using a biscuit cutter. My sister-in-laws use a pasta machine to get their pastry thin, thin, THIN!

pastry rounds

3. I filled each round with a heaped tsp of the anari mixture, folded the top over into a semi-circle and crimped the edges with a fork (there's no need to wet the edges with water)

Filling with anari

little 'pasty' shapes

4. I then deep fried the pastries in vegetable oil, on a low/ medium setting (so that the pastry cooks before they turn a golden colour)
While I was frying the pastries I made a simple sugar syrup using a cup of sugar and a cup and a half of water, which I simmered for 5 minutes.

After I'd fried all the pastries, I dipped them briefly in the sugar syrup, then sprinkled them with granulated sugar...

Bourekia

Makes about 30, which is a good job because I could wolf down half of them in one sitting, lol !!!
........Yummy!.......Do try them.......

Normal service will shortly be resumed...

2011-05-04T18:08:00.000+01:00

.....But until then........a few Easter highlights...

Red Easter eggs

The reason for our visit xxx

Happy Easter

St. George church, Xylophagou, Larnaca

Agia Napa

THE most divine mussels

Sparklingly fresh sea bream

Battered squid

Local spoon sweets

Mother-in-law's beloved garden

The ancient archway

Louisa - the beautiful bride

The ceremony

Becoming husband and wife

Cape Greco

Bye for a bit...

2011-04-20T16:41:00.000+01:00

There are times when blogs have to be put aside, when real life takes over..and this is one of those times.
My mother-in-law in Cyprus is seriously ill and as such we have decided to go and visit her for what could turn out to be the last time.
Hopefully we will be back with happy memories and not just sad ones,
so I leave you with a few photos of Leoni's birthday cake which I made at the weekend..
chocolate cake, covered with chocolate buttercream and lovingly decorated with ferrero rocher chocolates, maltesers, gold glitter and 'Artisan Du Chocolat' gold 'South Sea pearls'.

See you all soon!

Ooops! Nadia Sawalha's kibbe..not a success...

2011-04-09T18:16:00.001+01:00

Israeli goodies

My friend Fran, who lives in Israel, has been kind enough to send me a box of foodie goodies, which I'm really excited about - spices, which are either unobtainable, or exorbitantly priced, over here - za'atar, baharat and hawaij.
Vanilla pudding mix, which is used in a few of Carine Goren's recipes, is not really available here in the UK, unless I order online, or buy the American 'Jello' brand in the little box, from places with fancy food halls such as Selfridges or House of Fraser.
Fran also included some cute little disposable paper baking cases, some for cupcakes and some larger ones, suitable for making the chocolate pear puddings in Carine's book. As soon as I can get my hot little hands on some tiny pears, I'll be making these.

I had some kind of exuberant vision of making kibbe, a suitably Middle-Eastern dish, to kind of celebrate the arrival of my box of goodies, and as a virtual way of saying thank you to Fran for being so kind, but things didn't work out quite as I'd planned.......

The kibbe are in the bin.

They were overwhelmingly greasy, crumbly and smelt heavily of lamb, which I hasten to add, I usually like the smell of.
My husband took one bite, pulled a face, which looked like he'd just stepped on, or tasted something very unpleasant, put his fork and plate down and refused to eat any more.

Kibbe are supposed to be a dish of layered bulgar wheat mixed with lamb mince and pounded (or processed) to a paste, with added spices, layered with a filling of, again, lamb mince, fried with chopped onions, pine nuts and spices, covered with lots of butter, fried in lots of butter and baked until golden brown.

Baked kibbe

Crumbly kibbe

They sound delicious...I don't really know where I went wrong....
I should have realised when I was adding butter and more butter, with fatty lamb mince.

Well, as they say, you live and learn.
I don't think I'll be in a hurry to make these again.

From Nadia Sawalha's book 'Stuffed vine leaves saved my life'.

Marks out of ten? 1.

Would I make them again? No, unless I found a very different recipe on personal recommendation!

Would I do anything differently? Can't really answer my own question, as I'm not making them again.

Have a look at this old 2007 post - Coco, the burlesque wonder cake.

Two dishy Cypriots...

2011-04-02T18:04:00.000+01:00

.....Ha, ha....made you look, made you stare, made the barber cut your hair...

Or rather, two Cypriot dishes.

It's a beautiful Spring day today, sunny with a light breeze, the sun is streaming in through the open window, perfect for clearing away those Wintery cobwebs.
I've told you before I know how overly excited I get when I see Cypriot potatoes at the supermarket.

Not that I'm biased or anything you understand.

but they are, just perfect for so many things- fry them, boil them, roast them.
Waxy, sturdy little spuds they are, capable of being cooked in liquid, without collapsing hysterically in a mushy mess (albeit an appetizing one!)

And what better way to honour these jewels of the Mediterranean, than a traditional Cypriot dish?

Tava is traditionally cooked in a clay pot, with a tight fitting lid, which is where it's name originated.
Lamb, potatoes, onions and tomatoes are cooked for hours and hours until the meat is mouth-wateringly falling off the bone, the potatoes are meltingly tender and imbued with the cinnamony, meaty, tomatoey juices and the onions will have become sticky, caramelised and sweet as will the fat of the lamb, think crispy and crunchy.

Just gorgeous.

Tava:

Serves 4 hungry Greeks!

about 8-10 small lamb chops
about 8 small Cyprus potatoes
2 onions, halved, then sliced
1 tin of chopped tomatoes (or fresh sliced tomatoes if it's summertime and you can lay your hands on beautiful ones)
1 tsp-1 tbsp ground cinnamon (depending on how cinnamony you like your food, I use 1 tbsp)
1 tsp ground cumin (Entirely optional, many households use it in tava, but mine don't)
salt and pepper
a little vegetable oil to drizzle over to help with the cooking process.
A small glassful of water or white wine.

Method:
Peel and slice the potatoes in half lengthways, place in an ovenproof dish along with the chops and the rest of the ingredients.
Cover, either with a lid or foil.
Bake for 3 hours at 170 deg. C. (Gas mark 3, or 150 deg. C, if you have a fan oven, as I do)
You will probably need to uncover it for the last 15-20 mins and maybe turn the oven up too, to make sure everything becomes dark and caramelised.

The whole kitchen smells homely and warm, like it's just been transported from Cyprus in some kind of Dr. Who/Tardis kind of way and the sun colludes in the illusion, fooling me for a split second.

Can I see the blue sky and hear the waves lapping at my feet?

No.

Ah, well.

I'm here in my kitchen in Great Barr.

About as far away as one can get. Sigh.

Anyway, we've started as we mean to go on. What better cake to make today, than my Mum's Cypriot semolina cake?

Still warm, syrupy, fragrant and fresh from the oven.

Kate's photographic challenge ~ March.

2011-03-31T14:01:00.000+01:00

My friend Kate over at It's the Norm set her readers a photographic challenge for the month of March.
She gave us a list of 16 words, to be the title of 16 photographs.
Here are my interpretations:

1. Celebration: It was my daughter's 12th birthday at the beginning of March. She ended up blowing out candles not once, but three times. Once with her friends, once on the actual day of her birthday and once with family. These cupcakes with candles were the ones she blew out on the actual day.
There's something gleaming and sparkly about this photo which draws me to it.

2. Stripy: This is one of my favourites.

3. Empty and 6. Work (Is this cheating, using one photo for two headings?)
This photograph was taken on my phone the day we sold our business. It's quite a sad photo I think.
I mean, what's a business when it's empty, closed, lifeless?
I'm glad this chapter in our lives is over. Nuf said.

4. A Game. No photo, sorry.

5. New. My pretty new bookmark. Lovingly handmade for me by my daughter! She's recently taken up scrap-booking and has a new box filled with gems, stickers, appliques.

6. Work. See above.

7. Growing. Another, for me, thought-provoking photograph.
It makes me sad to see natural, growing, beautiful plants, doing their best to thrive in an artificially lit, indoors shopping mall. It's akin to keeping animals in a zoo.

8. Home-made. My cinnamon rolls - sweet, yummy, light, fragrant, yeasty.

9. Favourite. This isn't even one of my photographs, but have you ever, and I mean EVER, seen anything as cute?! (It's a cousin's little daughter on her first birthday)

10. Blue. When you have a 12 year old daughter who likes to keep herself amused, you can often find yourself sat down getting your hair and make-up done. Not that I'm complaining you understand...apart from when the freezing cold water in that blue, plastic spray 'accidentally' gets sprayed on my face....

11. Evening. This is a photo I took from my living room window (Not this month though- maybe last month?) We live in a big city, so to see such a beautiful sunset was memorable.

12. Pattern I got my daughter assisting in the photographic challenge, she insisted that this counts as 'a pattern', so who am I to argue?

13. Flight No photo, sorry.

14. Yesterday When the boys were small... On my kitchen shelf.

15. Fabric. I have a 12 year old daughter, as you've already heard, who went to a Justin Bieber concert. Nuf said on that subject too. :-))

16. Loud. Mr. Pumpkin lives on my kitchen shelf, originally he only came out at Halloween, but I've grown quite attached to him and now he lives there all year round. He is quite loud though, don't you think?

I really enjoyed the challenge Kate! I wish I could have completed the whole project, but still, quite good going I think!

Whoopie pies from Hummingbird's new book 'Cake days'.

2011-03-30T16:32:00.000+01:00

It started off with the chocolate chip whoopie pies...

I just wanted to dive head first into the cake mix...

But in my haste I'd forgotten to grease my new whoopie pie tins....

Luckily the non-stick pan lived up to it's name.

Then because I had chocolate marshmallow filling left over which needed to be used, I made carrot cake whoopie pies...

I added some chopped nuts with a little brown sugar and cinnamon to the filling for a bit of crunch.

Then it was time to try the red velvet whoopie pies....

Which were a rather alarming shade of tandoori chicken red......

But were sooo pretty in the end.......

Eliopitta. Cypriot olive cake.

2011-03-26T17:18:00.003Z

You know when you're wondering half-dazed around the supermarket, talking to yourself, thinking a million thoughts about what to cook next, what looks nice, what's on offer....and suddenly you come across a jewel that makes your flippin' day!! For me, these 'jewels' may be in the form of Cyprus potatoes with a covering of red soil from my ancestral land still clinging to them, or it could be a nice bottle of vanilla extract that I've not seen before....today that 'jewel was a jar of olives.
I kid you not.

Yes, readers, I have maybe gotten a tad too excited to find these, but nevertheless I hope you will share my enthusiasm (Or at the very least, pretend to)

My 'needle in a haystack' olives

I can and have found black olives, green olives, olives in brine, stuffed olives, Kalamata olives, in fact all manner of olives in my local supermarkets. But hardly ever these olives!

Greek style pitted dry black olives.

I love them!
and they are perfect for my Cypriot savoury olive and onion cake.

In fact if I don't have these specific olives I don't bother making it.

I like the fact they are salty and dry and pitted (saves me from a fiddly, boring job) and darn tasty.

olives, chopped onion, coriander and dried mint

A rather 'rustic' look

Take a peek inside!

Lovely with a huge cuppa, still warm from the oven.

Eliopitta

2 small jars of crespo pitted, dry black olives (or 1 cup approx of other pitted black olives if you must!)
1 onion, finely chopped (I like the taste of onion, so next time I may add another)
1 small bunch of fresh coriander (to yield half a cup, tightly packed)
1 tbsp dried mint (optional)
1 tsp salt
4 eggs
3 cups plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 cup of oil (half olive and half vegetable oil)
1 cup (contents of 1 tin) of evaporated milk

I'd love to say that there is a wildly complicated method, full of fiddly, time consuming steps only for the more advanced (ahem!) cook...

But it's not. It's really easy.

just bung it all into a bowl and give it a good ole stir!

Pour into a greased bundt or ring pan and cook at 160 deg. C for between 50 mins - 1 hr.
(Check if it's cooked with a knife or skewer, if it comes out clean it's cooked.)

Recipes from Nigella Lawson's 'Kitchen'.

2011-03-23T17:21:00.001Z

I'm just going to come right out with it.

I write down on a sticky note attached to the inside cover of my Nigella Lawson books, which recipes I make.

And then I give them marks out of ten.

What's that? I heard you! OCD you say? Well, OK, maybe just a tad.....

1. Rapid roastini:

Marks out of ten? 4.

Would I make them again? Not unless I had a packet of gnocchi in the fridge, that I couldn't use in any other way!

Would I do anything differently? I used to much oil to fry these in, so instead of becoming all lovely and caramelised, they kind of took on a very pale golden colour all over. Not half as appetising as Nigella's. Boo Hoo.

2. African drumsticks:

Marks out of ten? 7.

Would I make them again? Yes. Definitely. In fact I want them now!

Would I do anything differently? I did already. Can't help it. Ok, so I have a sweet tooth and doubled the amount of apricot jam!

3. Chicken teriyaki:

Marks out of ten? 10. We adore this, make it regularly, best recipe thus far!

Would I make it again? Answered above..

Would I do anything differently? Not differently, but I always steam some cabbage to serve with it. That's how Yo! Sushi do it and we love theirs too.

4. Coconut & cherry banana bread:

No photo sorry. It was too ugly by far.

Marks out of ten? 7.5

Would I make it again? Not if it was for company.

Would I do anything differently? My notes scribbled in my copy of 'Kitchen' read: "Made into 12 muffins, Hideous looking, didn't rise at all!"

5. Apple & cinnamon muffins:

Marks out of ten? 10.

Would I make them again? Everyone adored these - my family, the bosses downstairs, their family, everyone!

Would I do anything differently? Not a thing!

6. No fuss fruit tart:

Marks out of ten? 8.

Would I make it again? Yes, but with a fresh fruit topping.

Would I do anything differently? I loved this tart, how easy it was to assemble. I'd definitely make it with beautiful, fresh fruit.

7. Chocolate banana muffins:

Marks out of ten? 9.

Would I make them again? Yes, even children could make this recipe with only minimum help.

Would I do anything differently? I added white chocolate chunks to mine as you can see above. It's that sweet tooth rearing it's head again readers....

8. Everyday brownies:

No photo, sorry. Looked very erm, brownie-ish.

Marks out of ten: 8.

Would I make them again? Yes, I like the fact that they're made with cocoa powder, so they're not too rich.

Would I do anything differently? Be extremely careful not too overbake, as they go from fudge-like to cake-like very, very quickly.

9. Chocolate chip cookies:

Marks out of ten? 10.

Would I make them again? I've already made them quite a few times....maybe too many....

Would I do anything differently? No. They're perfect as they are. Crisp on the edges, chewy and soft within. Perfect cookies!

10. Blondies:

Marks out of ten? 7.

Would I make them again? May do. If I fancy a flap-jacky sweet. They're definitely not blondies as we know them (A brownie made with white chocolate)

Would I do anything differently? No.

11. Crustless pizza:

Marks out of ten? 9.

Would I make it again? Yup! Very quick and easy!

Would I do anything differently? No. But it's more like a cheesy Yorkshire pudding than pizza...

12. Cheesy chilli:

Marks out of ten? 2.

Would I make it again? No. No way. The chorizo was overpowering and I missed some veggy additions like onion, peppers, sweetcorn....anything vaguely veggy...

Would I do anything differently? Yes. Stick to my own in future!

13. Sunshine soup:

Marks out of ten? 5.

Would I make it again? er, dunno really, jury's out on this one (guess that's a no...)

Would I do anything differently? Yes. Make a different soup recipe.

14. Peanut butter humous:

Marks out of ten? 8.

Would I make it again? Yes, for my Mum!

would I do anything differently? No.

15. Red velvet cupcakes:

Marks out of ten? 8.

Would I make them again? Yes!

Would I do anything differently? No, the frosting and cupcakes were delish.

Cheers Nigella! Here's to the next 15 recipes!

Wonder what they'll be.......