Anne's Kitchen

Savoury Quorn 'Chicken' rice

2012-01-27T09:54:00.000Z

The other day I was flicking through my lovely but slightly battered notebook I use for planning meals and making recipe notes in and I came across my scribblings for this recipe I made a few times last year, and realised it had never quite made it onto the blog. I’m not sure why, it was delicious but maybe the word ‘quorn’ just isn’t that appealing? I must admit it doesn’t exactly conjour up ‘ooh yum’ kinda thoughts!

Whilst I’m not vegetarian, at the same time I’ve never been a huge meat eater either. In fact I rarely cook meat for myself, is normally reserved for guests. My mum certainly had no trouble getting me to eat my vegetables growing up! Though she did tear her hair out slightly I think during my ‘veggie’ phase as a teen and I honestly never want to eat another cauliflower cheese bake during my lifetime!

I normally have a bag of quorn pieces stashed away in the freezer for emergencies. They are very handy for cooking from frozen, are frequently on special offer so purse friendly, and solve the issue of having some protein, something I seem to somehow forget when cooking just for myself! If you don't have the chunks, the quorn chicken style fillets work just as well, simply dice into 1cm cubes.

As mentioned at the the beginning, I’ve made this a few times now, its really tasty hot but also works well as part of a cold buffet or picnic recipe or for your lunchbox. Just make sure you cool everything down quickly.

Oh and this dish also reminds me of why I never want to touch Pimm's again but that's a whole other story.....!

The herbs and spices can be tweaked as to what you have in, think of this as a base recipe and let your mind wander!

From my rough scribbles this batch served two but is easily adjusted in quantities

Ingredients

100g basmati rice
150g Quorn chicken chunks or the fillets chopped up
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp cumin seeds
2 red peppers from a chopped, sliced into chunks or 1/2 a fresh one, diced
1 tsp smoked paprika
1/2 tsp garlic powder (or use fresh)

1 tsp Dried oregano
1/2 tsp marigold stock powder into 1 pint boiling water
1/2 onion finely chopped
3 heaped tbsp frozen peas
3 heaped tbsp frozen sweetcorn
s&p

You will need a large lidded saute/ frying pan

Place the quorn chunks in a mixing bowl with all the spices and herbs, and 2 tbsp water, mix well and leave to one side.

Heat the pan, spray with oil and gently soften the onion, add the rice and half of the stock, cover and simmer for ten minutes, stirring occasionally.

Now add the remaining ingredients and stock, stir well and cover, simmer for a further 10 minutes or until the liquid has absorbed. Remove the lid if the mixture is too wet still.

Meal Planning Monday w/c 23.01.2012

2012-01-23T21:03:00.003Z

I keep meaning to take part in this but either remember it on the Wednesday or completely forget! Over the past few months, what with moving house, twice, starting college of an evening, working full time shifts and nowadays just cooking for one, meal planning is both an essential but also a frustrating battle at times! Getting to blog even has been a challenge!

For example I had planned out all of last weeks menu, in fact a fortnights worth but then midweek got a cancellation appointment at the hospital and found myself the next morning closing my eyes and humming to myself 'find a happy place find a happy place find a happy place' as I had two teeth taken out, one on each side of mouth. Nice. Eating has been fun but I've been inventive with soft foods, including a delicious barley and swede soup, semolina pudding for the first time from scratch and celery soup...

This week the gums are a little less sore, but still not quite on solids so have re-jigged everything to as follows, though still subject to change if I change my mind!

Monday - Mushroom, spinach and coconut dal with carrot & sultana salad, cucumber raita (was lush)

Tuesday - leftovers from Monday night

Wednesday - late dinner will probably be soup, however lunch will be roasted pepper orzo with cheese and salad leaves, chopped very small

Thursday and Friday - Pea and pancetta risotto

Saturday - Cod mornay, new potatoes and brussel sprouts

Sunday - Rest of potatoes, beetroot and peas in honey and mustard dressing, parsley fishcakes

A day of Shiny pans and Fine Dining

2012-01-20T09:49:00.002Z

When an invite dropped into my inbox to spend a day with saucepans, my first thoughts were ooh saucepans, shiny, yey, so obviously it didn’t take long for me to say yes. Then I did a quick google and saw the price list and had to pick up my jaw from shock. These were very shiny, expensive shiny. Don’t get me wrong, I love my cookware as previous posts will tell and over the years have acquired some expensive toys but these were still a little on the eek side! However it did alert my curiosity that little bit further as to why these babies warrant a higher price tag..

And so a few days later, clutching my tickets like a lost tourist I boarded the early train out of Exeter with birdsong around me and made the pleasant but slow commute to Chippenham, somewhere deep in the wilds of Wiltshire. Those who know me will probably be wondering why I was getting the train at Exeter, rather than my usual haunt of Surrey/ Middlesex borders – I was actually on holiday in Devon but due to come back that day, so decided to extend my trip by a day and stay another night in Devon – no real hardship really – one day….sigh…! This was despite moving house that week and having a fair few bits to do inbetween – I’m never one to sit still long or make it easy on myself!

Upon arrival at Whatley Manor, the setting for the All-clad demo, it set my jaw slightly gaping and feelings of looking slightly like a raggy Anne doll set in. My oh my do I need to find myself a rich husband, and fast. I really could get used to living a life of luxury! The place was elegance in itself, everything was just perfect, from the warmth of the staff to the artwork in the toilets!

Also very welcome was a cup of fresh coffee with a delicious little biscuit – far nicer than the one I had purchased on the train!

First up, we got to see the All-clad pans in use under the guidance of Martin Burge, the head chef of their 2 star Michelin restaurant, and his team as they demonstrated a stunning looking Pear and Blackberry gratin.

After building up an appetite, we then had a lovely lunch of braised veal cheeks on a bed of spinach. Those bad boys ain’t the prettiest thing I’ve sat down to eat but the meat just melted in your mouth.

I’m gutted I didn’t photograph the rest of the meal, was too busy eating! Alongside the veal cheeks there was a creamy parmesan risotto, though in all honesty I just wanted to smuggle the pan out in my handbag – it was so weeny and cute! Pudding was also a triumph – a heavenly tiramisu, served in a generously sized martini glass, which rather upsettingly was so filling I let the side down and couldn’t finish it though I did try my best L one thing I do plan to steal is the idea of having layers of chocolate within all that lovely creaminess – it was a joy to crack through and I am looking forward to attempting to recreate this part!

Unfortunately the day wasn’t all about eating lovely food - we had to earn our keep and so trudged back into the very shiny kitchen, and then got set to recreating the earlier demonstrated pear and blackberry gratin, using the All-clad range of pans and bowls. I paired up with the rather charming Hugues, one of All-clad’s managers who was great to work with – we managed the dish in perfect harmony, with no problems encountered and my dish was first to finish! The dish was constructed of caramelised blackberries, pear sorbet, shortbreads, sabayon and poached pears. The pears were my personal favourite – I would happily eat them all, so perfectly flavoured and delicate!

Spot the difference - One of these dishes was mine, one was chef’s: (scroll down for the answer!)

Picture A:

Picture B:

How I don’t really know but am rather smugly pleased at myself and Hugues efforts! It was my first, and probably last time cooking in this kind of setting but it was a great experience!

To give you a little history, All Clad was born in 1971 in Pennsylvania, and the range is still made there to this day. The pans were originally developed between a metalworker and a chef, and each pan is hand finished, to provide you with the very best in cookware. They are durable, made of the finest materials available and are suitable for all hobs – including induction, which is handy if you move house in the future. Across the range there are a huge variety of sizes of pans, falling into three main styles – copper core, stainless d5 and stainless steel.

My favourite pan was the saucier, it just felt so right to use! The curved inner made the spatula dance with happy abandon around the pan and despite being slightly scared to make caramel, and then add liquid to it, in a shiny pan, it magically worked. No burned pan to scrub! No sticking either! It also was a great size, not too big, not to small, not too heavy, just right. This is a picture of my caramelised blackberries:

Think I will be sweet talking father Christmas next year! To show you in comparison why I was scared – this is what I recently did to another brand of pan whilst attempting popcorn!

What can I say. Are they worth it? I do think so. I currently use Meyer hard anodized pans, which I am rather fond of and for now will be sticking with – more so that I’ve just moved into a flatshare and wouldn’t want to use the beautiful All Clad pans or my er rather antique cooker but if I was in the market for new ones, then I think I could very happily find a home for these! They are aimed at the home gourmet and chef – both titles way over my station but I do appreciate good quality cookware and these were a joy to use. They come with a lifetime guarantee and I think would prove a worthwhile investment.

Many thanks to Live, Chloe, Hugues and everyone at All Clad for both the invite and experience, and also to everyone at Whatley Manor.

P.s. Did you guess right? Picture B was mine, A was chefs!

Turkey steaks with Mushroom and Mustard sauce

2012-01-11T10:28:00.000Z

Do you have any leftover Turkey still from Christmas? Hopefully not! If however you did stash some away unto the depths of the freezer and can't face another turkey curry/ sandwich etc then my quick and easy mustard sauce will be a quick salvation for you!

I often use yoghurt nowadays for making both sweet and savoury sauces, ever since I had a job lot of Total yoghurt a few years back it really made me think about using yoghurt in cooking, and not just for breakfast! You could easily interchange the yoghurt for a light cream cheese or even fromage frais would probably work. Maybe even some naughty double cream for those not making January a healthy month! Don't feel you have to be too precise on the measurements - this was very a much judged by eye, than spoon!

You can use any type of plain natural yoghurt in this, this batch was made with a probiotic low fat one..as long as its not strawberry flavoured you can’t really go too wrong! Its such a quick and tasty dinner with very little effort involved. Perfect for busy evenings when you want something fast, but without lacking on flavour. I had dinner on the table in under 15 minutes, which is always good especially when it tastes great too! Better still it cooks in one pan so less washing up to do as well!

Serves one - easily up-scaled though

Simply heat a good solid based pan, fry a turkey breast steak in a little garlic oil for a couple of minutes both sides, until just cooked through, reserve and keep warm. Try and get a little colour on the turkey.

Using the same pan, return to the heat, add a handful of sliced chestnut mushrooms and brown over a moderate heat for 4-5 minutes - you will want some of the juices for the sauce so don't cook over too high a heat but enough to brown them. Stir in 1 heaped tsp of wholegrain mustard and 2 tbsp of yoghurt, reduce the heat and return the turkey to the pan, gently heat everything through and serve immediately topped with the sauce. Easy as that!

I served mine with spinach and orzo but any green vegetables would be good here!

*If you want to make it a little healthier, use spray oil in lieu of the garlic oil and add a little garlic puree to the mushrooms. Though turkey is pretty healthy anyway and I only used a smidge of oil so totally up to you!*

A Happy, Healthy New Year - Introducing The Complete Kitchen and giveaway

2012-01-04T16:32:00.000Z

Happy New Year everyone! I thought long and hard and asked several questions before agreeing to review a diet cookbook on my blog. Mainly as you will have no doubt of I am sure - I love my food!

Also whilst being a not so secret cookbook fan, its not often I review them, and if I do I prefer to normally choose and do things a bit more organically. However I was intrigued by this particular book and agreed to have a bash at it!

Firstly, I am not getting any younger - a big scary milestone approaches this year - gulp - and after a year of health issues that’s seen me verge from barely being able to eat and being underweight; to now having to physically restrain myself from the baked goods aisle, something needs to give! ...Its also been an emotional few months and I know that I’ve been comfort eating too a little too much.. my friend L knows that my chocolate addiction has a gotten a little out of hand..!

Secondly I rarely cook for more than little old me now, which brings another issue of portion sizes! I am never particularly fond of wasting food so will often end up eating things for the sake of it. In addition I find cooking one single portion near impossible. When it comes to lunch, I am not very bread inclined, yet alone into sandwiches so for a long time I've been cooking extra for dinner etc but I am now finding I am eating two main meals a day, and the work trousers are feeling a wee bit tooo tight for comfort of late!

In addition I work shifts, which are an excellent way to confuse your body as I eat at all different times.

A few years back I had gained a couple of stone more than needed due to eating mainly too many sausage rolls from the dirty snack van whilst working in an office of nearly all men, and having an excellent Chinese takeaway around the corner, but then successfully with that old saying ‘diet and exercise’ I managed to get back to a healthy weight, and this is where I want to be again. Finding time to exercise is not easy (nor do dogdy knee’s!), life is pretty busy right now but I am moving house next week, to be closer to work and will be gaining a whole extra hour a day so no excuses! I also have a new bike and I am determined to get out on it come rain or shine!

And so this brings me to introduce the new Weight Watchers book ‘The Complete Kitchen’, just launched which has the tagline of ‘The Ultimate guide to cooking the Weight Watchers way. This is a book aimed for those who enjoy their food and cook from scratch, like me but want to make some healthier changes, to either lose or maintain weight, and also in general be that little bit healthier.

Over the past few years I have changed my cooking habits, I use a lot less oil and butter now, as you might have noticed in some of my recipes, (excluding of course the recent Amaretto Butterfly cakes!) choosing half fat crème fraiche instead of whole, using spray oil to cook with etc but with having like most, a busy lifestyle it can be a challenge at times to not only plan healthy meals but also to make them satisfying – there is no point in my eyes of eating something that leaves you underwhelmed, and therefore more likely to raid the biscuit tin afterwards!

The Complete Kitchen book has a huge selection of recipes, with normal ingredients so no needing to buy anything weird and wonderful (unless of course you want too!) and if you ignore the pro-points logos splashed throughout you would think it was a ‘regular style’ of cookbook. I honestly have no idea how many you are supposed to do/ use (?), nor intention right now to start doing the ProPoints system but it is a handy guide to see what recipes are a bit more naughtier than others, allowing me to balance my meals a little better.

For me personally the book will be a great start for the New Year to get back into a healthier way of eating. Once all the Christmas sweets are gone that is! I am starting fresh with near empty cupboards so can make a more concentrated effort!

The book starts with some cooking know how’s such as frying onions with stock, rather than butter – something which I discovered a few years back and it’s a great way of not adding extra calories to a meal (and in my eyes leaves more calories to a bigger pudding!). Additionally it gives a list of store cupboard basics, how to organise your kitchen and a very useful list of roasting times.

I must say on my first read through, I was pretty impressed with the book – I really like the clean, modern layout and how its split into sections including Soups, Salads and sandwiches; Weekend Suppers; The Modern Vegetarian and Sweet Endings. There really is something for everyone! Additionally the recipes also advise if they are freezeable – ideal for when I don’t want to cook from scratch everyday but at the same time don’t want to eat the same dish three days running!

After going through the book, I had one main problem – I couldn’t decide what I wanted to make the most first! There were lots of tempting recipes that sound distinctly un-diet food including Roast Lamb with jewelled rice stuffing, Barley salad with gorganzola, Ricotta gnocchi, Autumnal Chicken stew, Apple and Cranberry traybake, Marbled meringues with chocolate mousse……and the list went on! However with moving house so soon, and a dreaded trip to the dentists coming up and also a short break coming up, I’ve decided to hold off testing a recipe immediately but once I am settled in I will let you know what I finally decided to make!

In the meantime though I am very pleased to announce I have a copy of this book to giveaway to one UK based winner, simply enter via the below rafflecopter form and good luck!

Amaretto Butterfly cakes and Goodbye 2011!

2011-12-30T23:18:00.000Z

I spent a long time deliberating over my final post for 2011. Its been a rollercoaster of a year to say the least, what with illness casting a shadow on most of the year, moving house, a relationship break up, and more; I am honestly quite glad to see the back of it! I also learnt never to cook mushrooms, and then stir in polenta. Cement springs to mind both in texture and colour!

Whilst there were a lot of low points, there were also highs and new beginnings. I made beautiful macarons for the first time. Did battle with cake pops. I learned to love wholemeal pasta. My dearest friends celebrated the birth of their lovely little son. Plus I finally went back to college, something that had been on the back burner for a long time! And my recent visit to the oncologist was all good! What a year!!

So a big hello to 2012, may you be more joyful!

And so for my final post of 2011, something sweet was in order, and what could be more fitting than if I do say so myself, these rather gorgeous butterfly cakes! Move over cupcakes - butterfly cakes rock! These cakes also had two special purposes - firstly as mentionned above, to celebrate the birth of my friends little boy, and secondly I was taking them to meet a very dear friend, who I shall name as M on here, whom I first got talking to many years back via a food forum, and finally that day we were meeting face to face! Needless to say we talked about food mostly and put the world to rights. She is a special lady, and I hope 2012 is amazing for both her and her lovely husband!

When I was growing up my mum was a child-minder, and she ran a playgroup at the local church hall. To raise funds (I presume slightly here!) there was frequent bake sales and I have fond memories of the kitchen being filled with all sorts of cakes but my favourite were the butterfly cakes! How pretty they were to eat and most importantly, how good they tasted! Nothing beats a home made cake, and whilst my icing skills are erm rustic, to put it politely I think that’s half the charm of them!

Whilst the ones my mum made were definitely aimed at children, these ones are all grown-up with a naughty spike of Disaronno liqueur, and a heavenly mascarpone frosting on top! I also got to play with some new delicious 100% fruity jam’s sent very kindly to me by Nell from Superjam, who I got into correspondence with recently over a fantastic scheme they are running to host tea-parties for the elderly. You can find out more on their website! Their jam is delicious by the way, a nice balance of fruit and nothing dodgy inside!

At the time of making these for some unknown reason I really wanted to add some ground almonds but couldn’t find any in the cupboard, I think I must of used them all when making my Christmas swirls the other week… However these cakes were rather glorious and whilst I am still curious to how they would alter the taste, as these stand they are pretty darn perfect!

The mascarpone frosting is amazing, if I do say so myself. If you find yourself eating it with a spoon I shall not be held responsible. Its easy to work with, deliciously creamy and very slightly boozy and well, need I say more really?

Makes 12

Pre-heat oven to 160o fan/ 180o regular oven

125g soft butter/ stork margarine
125g self-raising flour
125g caster sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1 heaped tbsp good quality cocoa powder (Mix the cocoa powder with 2-3 tbsp of water to make a thickish paste)
2 eggs
40g broken up milk chocolate or chocolate chips
1 tbsp disaronno / amaretto liqueur

Start by beating together the sugar and butter, until pale and fluffy.

Beat in the first egg, then half the flour, repeat with second egg and flour, plus the baking powder.

Fold in the cocoa mix and liqueur. Stir in the chocolate bits. A hand mixer is advisable but do by hand if you like manual labour! I love my new allure mixer toy in particular! My Kenwood Chef is in storage, due to its size so this little hand whisk is an excellent substitute.

Fill the bun cases and bake for 20 minutes, or until risen and cooked through, allow to cool thoroughly before icing them. I used some pretty Christmassy cases from Sainsburys’.

Mascarpone frosting:

Fills 12 butterfly cakes, plus a little leftover for chefs’ perk.

250g mascarpone
125g icing sugar
1 tbsp disaronno / amaretto liqueur

Beat all the ingredients together, fill a piping bag with a large star nozzle.

Jam:

I used Superjam’s strawberry spread. This or a similar good quality jam would be ideal.

To assemble:
Once the buns are cool, take a small paring knife and carefully cut the top off, if they are not very risen just aim the knife slightly inwards, cut the removed piece in half to form two ‘wings’ and trim lightly if necessary. Repeat with the remaining buns.

Pipe a circle on the cut bun, leaving a slight indent in the middle, fill this gap with a good teaspoon of jam,

Gently place the wings carefully on and voila! You have pretty butterfly cakes!

Stilton and Port Pastries..

2011-12-28T20:49:00.005Z

This post is another relating back to the giant hamper Knorr sent me! And there's still a little more to come!

Within the depths of my hamper, was a gorgeous chunk of Colston Bassett Stilton from Forman and Fields. Ten years ago this would of filled me with dread, infact I remember trying a piece of Stilton as a child and immediately spat it out and wondered why anyone on earth would want to eat something so mouldy but nowadays I can't get enough of the stuff! My conversion to blue cheese was thanks to an Italian restaurant surprisingly - I was told the soup of the day was Broccoli and Sweetcorn, though it actually turned out to be Broccoli and Stilton! I was hooked at first slurp!

Blue cheese is really the way forward I think, and this Colston Bassett Stilton was a real treat! It was gorgeously creamy, yet sufficiently 'stinky' and vanished at an alarming speed! It was definitely the highlight of the whole hamper for me!

Gaze at its beauty:

Whilst on its own, its perfect in every way and I ate *a lot* of cheese and crackers that week; I still did have quite a lot to get through I decided to play around in the kitchen a little, just for a change! Amongst these little savouries, I also made a delicious mushroom and Stilton pasta dish - a match made in heaven!

The pastries were not quite perfect in the looks department, a little tweaking is needed but ohhhh boy did they taste good! As a result I'm reluctant to give any real recipes for now but to give you a taster, I roughly mixed a few chunks with some sultanas that I had soaked in port, plus a handful of chopped pecans. This then got lightly mashed to a rather hmmm looking purple/grey concoction but at the same time was an amazing tasting mixture! I stuffed the mix into both little pasties and on to mini pastry squares and baked them until golden.

Whilst delicious the slight downside was my poor pastry sealing and over generous topping as it leaked EVERYWHERE. Rather unashamedly I admittedly ate the scrapings. Waste not, want not!

Spiced root Vegetable and Lentil soup

2011-12-22T20:11:00.003Z

This year I seem to be on a roll with soups! Sometimes in the past they have been a bit hit and miss at times but so far the one thing that I've managed to do successfully is to make some gorgeous tasting soups! If only life was that easy too..!

Out of all my soups, this Spiced root Vegetable and Lentil one was really delicious and my favourite! Its very easy to make, low in fat and full of flavour! A real winter warmer! All you need is a nice hunk of bread and a spoon, then tuck in! You'll be warm in no time at all! The hint of coconut just adds a little something and I am sure you will love it too!

The ingredients for this one came out of my it seems never ending Knorr hamper sent from Forman and Fields. I really rated the curry powder they sent me, though despite my best efforts I've not managed to get my hands on their recipe for it! I guess to try substituting it for a standard spice mix, and tweak as necessary.

Whilst I have used a Knorr chicken stock pot, if you are veggie simply substitute accordingly.

Serves 2-3

25 minutes Easy

Re-heats well

½ white onion, finely chopped
250g carrot, peeled and diced
125g parsnip, peeled and diced

1 chicken knorr stock pot into 750ml hot water
40g moong dal chilka lentils (or similar lentil)
2 tbsp unsweetened dessicated coconut
1 heaped tsp medium curry powder

S&P
Spray oil

Spray some oil into a saucepan and heat, gently fry the onion for a couple of minutes to soften but not colour.

Stir in the carrot, parsnip, lentils and curry powder. Fry for a couple of minutes then add the stock. Cover and bring to the boil, then simmer for 20 minutes, adding the coconut after 10 minutes.

Transfer to a liquidizer and blitz until all smooth and lovely!

Some fresh coriander would be gorgeous here but alas I had none. Next time!

Best of British Sausage and Apple Tart and Stuffing Meatballs

2011-12-17T10:38:00.000Z

Following on to some of my earlier posts, I am now excited to bring you a couple of Christmas inspired recipes made using some lovely festive ingredients sent to me by Forman and Field’s, on behalf of knorr.

Sometime back in November I was very lucky to receive a whole hamper full of goodies including everything to make a big Christmas dinner, including a giant Kelly Bronze Turkey, carrots, parsnips, chestnuts and more! With the various goodies I made a variety of dishes including this winter warming Turkey and Barley stew (which was so good I am making it again tomorrow for dinner!)

One of the ingredients in my hamper was a container of 'Cranberry, walnut & smoked bacon stuffing'. Therein came my first challenge!

Hmm what to do with stuffing, other than well basically putting it up mr turkeys bottom? Whilst the stuffing was good, it was also very different to others I've had. In fact it was a more like a very coarsely minced meat mixture, compared to the rather smooth sausagemeat I normally buy from the butchers. It was also nothing like the paxo type. Before playing with it, I decided to quickly cook a weeny bit of it to test the flavouring. However I then also burnt my tongue in the process which once again taught me the hard way to have some patience and let things cool first! It needed a little more seasoning but provided a good base, with lots of texture.

I decided some kind of tart was in order and decided to play around with the pastry and came with this rather cute looking gb flag:

As I had best of british ingredients, so I thought a Union Jack flag was quite fitting! However I am so used to cooking previously for two, the results were rather large but it did result in me having a lunch that had admirers the next day at work! I am very lucky working with people from all over the world; we have some very interesting food chats and smells in our staffroom!

Best of British Sausage and Apple Tart

Makes two large tarts - serves 4

Easy

300g good quality sausagemeat stuffing

300g fresh puff pastry (roughly 2/3 of a block)

1 cox apple, thinly sliced

1 tsp English mustard powder, made up with 1 tsp water

Beaten egg to glaze (or egg spray)

Pre-heat oven to 180 fan/ 200 regular

Roll out the puff pastry until its the thickness of a pound coin, cut into half lengthways. Then cut a 4cm strip off each rectangle. Cut this bit into four thin strips lenghthways

Score a line about 1cm from the edge of each big rectangle, then fill this gap with the stuffing, to form a thin layer. Covered with the apple slices, and glaze with mustard mixture.

Now take two of the reserved strips and carefully stretch them and place over the two longest areas of your flag, lightly egg glaze the overlapping parts to stick. Use the two shorter strips to complete the flag. Glaze all over with the beaten and, place on a lined baking tray. Repeat for the other block of pastry to give you two tarts, then bake for 40 minutes or until its cooked through.

When cooked through, cut into half and serve with seasonal vegetables - I went with my favourite Brussels sprouts:

Whilst the recipe was very successful, I think next time will make four smaller flags as you lose some of the flag effect by cutting in half.

Enjoy!

Stuffing Meatballs:

Whilst with the remaining stuffing, I made a tray of little meatballs. These would be ideal as a canapé as part of a festive buffet, however I must point out that they also do very well as an emergency breakfast when you’ve slept through your alarm and grabbed the first thing that looks edible from the fridge!

I made them by mixing 200g of the stuffing, with a couple of tbsp of apple sauce (shh from a jar!), rolled it into small walnut sized balls, rolled them in fairly coarse dried breadcrumbs and then baked them for around 25 minutes.

They had both a good meaty flavour and texture, a dish I will definitely make again.

Food Bloggers Unplugged

2011-12-15T10:12:00.003Z

I've been tagged by both Suelle and Kim to take part in Food Bloggers Unplugged, a little exercise started by Susan at A Little Bit of Heaven on a Plate as a way of getting to know fellow food bloggers. The idea is that we answer 10 questions about ourselves, then tag five other food bloggers to take part, if they want to.

So, here are my answers:

What, or who, inspired you to start a blog?

I’m a bit of a veteran…Ijoined as was trying to organise my recipes at home, my excel sheet wasn’tworking on a practical level and then found I got asked by random people for myrecipes, realised a website was a bit hmm scary and somehow stumbled uponblogger, mainly as was free and looked simple!

Who is your foodie inspiration?

My dearest nanny Jean, who sadly left thisworld in August. She cooked simply but with good basic ingredients and alwaysproduced something wonderful. She made fantastic jams, marmalades and made sureno one ever went hungry. Her bread and butter pudding was the best I’ve evereaten.

Your greasiest, batter - splattered food/drink book is?

Despite being relatively new my Nigella Lawson’s Kitchen hasquite a few splashes! Saying that I love my ‘Baking’ book, picked up cheaplyyears back from the dangerous shop for my purse that is ‘The Works’. Every recipehas worked a treat and I wouldn’t swap it for the world.

Tell us all about the best thing you have ever eaten in another country, wherewas it, what was it?

I have two – sweet first was an amaretto & pistachiocrème brulee in Brussels about 6 years ago. Was a basic looking local restaurant, inthe (possibly!) Turkish quarter and it was perfect. Simple and delicious.Creamy, boozy, nutty. Heaven in itself! Savoury was an amazing gravy I had inLille, I was eating with my dad in a fairly relaxed restaurant around ten yearsago, we'd ordered roast chicken and it was soo soo good, it was served up on awooden board which had this weeny pot of gravy and it was quite simply the bestI have ever eaten! Perfectly savoury and unctuous.

Another food bloggers table you'd like to eat at is?

I can never choose just one thing, I much prefer to pick on lots of little dishes so would have to just go to everyone on my blogroll I think!

What is the one kitchen gadget you would ask Santa for this year (money noobject of course)?

Erm it’s a bit far fetched but a magic clean up robot!

Who taught you how to cook?

I taught myself using books and a very basicfounding from GCSE Food Technology. Also learned to bake with mum growing up. That and greed!

I'm coming to you for dinner what's your signaturedish?

I always struggle with this as depends on my mood and who ismy guest but my aubergine bhajis are my most requested dish! I’ve never had anyleftovers!

What is your guilty food pleasure?

I have a weakness for mcflurry’s. I love them. Especially the new mint one *drool*

Reveal something about yourself that others would be surprised to learn?

I prefer to drink bitter and ale, rather than the more ladylike drink of wine!

In turn, I would like to tag these 5 bloggers, although I hope they won'tfeel obliged to join in if they would rather not!

Jan glug of oil http://www.aglugofoil.com/

Anna http://atannaskitchentable.blogspot.com/

Jenny http://jennyeatwellsrhubarbginger.blogspot.com/

New Carly http://yummerliciousbycarly.blogspot.com/

Tracey http://thewanderingpit.blogspot.com/

Wholemeal Penne, Pancetta and Cauliflower bake

2011-12-12T18:52:00.000Z

This post probably should be titled as 'How to make a healthy-ish pasta bake!'

For the record I love pasta bake. Whilst there are admittedly a lot of things I love, pasta bake is definitely very high on that list! Though a little devil on my shoulder often whispers nooo however you can silence him with some little tweakings and this is my recent take on attempting a healthy and yet still satisfying pasta bake! Nowadays as I only cook for one, I was not initially wanting to cook for hours - this pasta bake was ready in around 30 minutes and was perfect for dinner the following night too.

I didn't measure anything, just for a change ha-ha but went by eye - was around 150g wholemeal penne, plus around 1/3 a head of cauliflower, plus about 6 strips of the smoked pancetta.

First up is the pasta – despite telling myself no more buying random dried carbs until I’ve used up the other 15 odd pasta and noodle variations, I couldn’t resist a bag of wholemeal penne on sale at 22p. *This was despite not actually liking wholemeal pasta*. I was determined however I would find a way of making it edible and this dish certainly does achieve that! Wholemeal pasta just sounds healthier so you can collect your first virtuous point. It has also been successful in converting me to its wholemealy goodness!

Next up is the sauce. Oh I do do do love a proper cheese sauce, in fact a white sauce was one of the first techniques I taught myself from a book many moons ago. However all that lovely butter and milk are not exactly skinny jeans friendly. As a result this was made using mostly vegetable stock, semi skimmed milk, a brief dusting of grated cheddar, and a heaped tsp of wholegrain mustard to boost its flavour. Collect shiny point number two!

Number three is the smoked pancetta = skinnier than bacon, dry fried, and as its full of flavour you don’t actually need very much of it – I merely broke it up and then dotted it amongst the cooked pasta. Hello there shiny point three!

And now to make it also contribute to your five a day without having to wash up more pans…whilst the pasta is boiling, add a good handful of cauliflower florets. These blend perfectly in with the pasta, both bulking it out and being good for you. In fact I think its the way forward.

Then to add a little eye candy with some red streaks to break up the pale but interesting look, I had half a red pepper lurking in the fridge, quickly he got sliced and thrown in at the end.

And so finally to assemble your healthy but delicious pasta bake; tip the drained pasta into a grill-proof dish, scatter with the crispy bits of pancetta, top with the sauce, poking it into the pasta, give it a little shake whilst you're there. Top with a brief handful of grated mature cheddar and a good sprinkle of dried breadcrumbs. Grill until its all golden and bubbling nicely.

And the result?

Not too shabby at all hey! It has all the good elements of a pasta bake but you can have seconds and still feel less gannet-esque.Re-heats very well. Enjoy!

My pasta bake is also an entry into this weeks Presto Pasta Nights, this week hosted by Rachel

Joseph Joseph Baking Set Giveaway

2011-12-10T13:50:00.001Z

Christmas is coming around very soon it appears! Time hasjust flown by this year! I’ve somehow managed to do nearly all of my Christmas shopping; however if you are still struggling for ideas on what to buy people then lookno further than the http://www.find-me-a-gift.co.uk/website.

Find me a Gift have a really great range of gifts for every budget and for everyone in your life! Youcan use this link to go directly to their Christmas Gift section, which isconveniently split by mens, womens, couples, baby and more! http://www.find-me-a-gift.co.uk/christmas-gifts/

I particularly like their ‘bargain’ section, especiallyif you are looking for a few stocking fillers. Though are not for the seriousminded person but will cause a few giggles I am sure! http://www.find-me-a-gift.co.uk/special-offer/womens-bargain-gifts.html

Obviously, I tend to frequent the kitchen section, and ifyou are looking to buy for a foodieminded friend this Christmas, here are a couple of my favourite ideas to get youstarted:

Giant Jelly Baby Mould

My mum adores jelly babies and this is an ideal gift forher! He is so cute and would make a fun jelly!

Russian Doll cups

I am a real magpie for anything cute looking for the kitchen and just adore these glasses, they are just so pretty and would make water so muchmore interesting!

And last but not least this rather gorgeous yet practical baking set! Ilove pastry, despite it being quite a fragile beast to work with, at the sametime its so worth it! I am occasionally lazy and buy it ready made but Inormally do try to make my own!

Rolling out the pastry to the right height can be a bitof a challenge, however with the Joseph Joseph rolling pin, it has these clever little bits that stick on the end to make thisstage a doddle! To make your pastry that bit more special, the kit also comeswith a silicon spatula for mixing up your filling, and a silicon pastry brush –perfect for lovingly glazing your finished product and both have a great little feature with a built in ledge to stop your mixture touching the work surfaces, a genius idea I think! Additionally the kit also contains a rather cute littlepie timer to make sure your baked delights are cooked to perfection! A greatlittle kit for any keen pastry maker!

If you like the pastryset…the great news is that you could also win one! I am using a new toy called Rafflecopter to help collate entries, please e-mail me if any problems!

Turkey, Root Vegetable & Barley Stew

2011-12-07T11:04:00.001Z

When I originally made this stew I was full of cold and at the time all Iweirdly wanted was to eat cheese. Blue cheese to precise (damn you heavenly Colston Basset Stilton that calls me from the fridge!). However I persevered and thestew was actually rather delicious, in that winter warming one pot way.

Themerest hint of lemon in it lifts it nicely without being at all lemony, in fact you would be hard pressed to know its in there. I reallywanted fresh rosemary but had to make do with dried; however in a slow cooklike this I think it has a nice flavour of all its own, especially as its freshcounterpart can be a little over powering in a medicinal sort of way I’ve found at times..

A few moons back I spotted ‘oatmeal’ in one of thoseweigh what you want places and purchased some on a whim, and this stew was itfirst outing. It did thicken the dish slightly and certainly added a littlesomething I can’t place my finger on.. I think the idea of adding it stemmed back to when I was in hospital earlierthis year, amongst some er interesting dishes I sort of ate was a surprisinglyedible chicken and oatmeal casserole. Needless to saymy turkey stew though is a little nicer on the palette ;-)

Despite only ‘cooking for one’ nowadays, I really can’t.It’s impossible. At the same time I think its more economical anyway to cookfor the upcoming days (or for the freezer) plus I love leftovers so makingextra is never a bad thing! It does freeze relatively well, just thaw gently and add a splash of water to loosen if needed. It doesn't look as pretty when its re-heated but it still tastes great!

This recipe was made using some of the lovely things that Knorr sent me recently from Forman and Fields, I really do rate their stock pots. The stew was full of flavour and I can't wait to make another batch! Perfect for these chilly winter nights! It also smells gorgeous when cooking which is never a bad thing!

Makes 3 portions.

1 knorr chicken stock pot dissolved in 750ml hot water

1 medium carrot, diced

1 large parsnip, diced

4 tbsp oatmeal

75g pearl barley, soaked in cold water (you may needextra stock if you skip this stage)

½ white onion finely chopped

½ lemon zested

Lots of black pepper, pinch of salt

1 heaped tsp dried rosemary

400g turkey thigh meat, diced small

Takes 1 hour

Fry the onion until slightly colouring, add a littledrizzle of olive oil and the turkey, brown all over. Add the vegetables and barley,stir in the rosemary, oatmeal and stock. Simmer for 30 minutes, stirringoccasionally. Add the lemon zest, season well and simmer for a further 15-20minutes or until the barley is tender.

Easy as that!

Banana, Caramel pecan and Date Ice cream

2011-12-04T17:09:00.001Z

Winter doesn't usually conjour up dreams of ice cream but strangely this winter I've already got through two tubs, hmmm must be comfort eating!

I don’t often make icecream, infact I will admit now that I’ve never made ‘real’ icecream using eggs etc, preferring to use condensed milk and cream. Health conscious you see ;-) As it uses fresh banana you could even trick yourself into believing its one of your 5 day! And nuts are good for you to, full of essential stuff!

This recipe came about firstly after buying far too many bananas in the market some weeks back (I only managed to look at banana's again this week!), secondly being slightly addicted right now to dates and thirdly, the caramel pecans, well, erm not sure how they came about but I love them and thought that it would work well with the banana flavour! Oh and fourthly (is that a real word, looks wrong?!) I had bought some double cream that needed using up that day, so had whipped it up to go into the freezer but reserved some for this icecream, to make it extra indulgent!

You don’t (probably shouldn’t) eat this in huge quantities. Personally I would rather have a small amount of something indulgent rather than a large portion of something low fat anyway!

Oh and the recipes is in ounces as accidentally pressed the wrong button on the scales, sorry!

Makes 1 medium sized tub - about the size of a margarine container

3 bananas mashed
7 oz sweetened condensed milk
1 tsp ground cinnamon
4 dates, soaked in hot water for 10 minutes, then roughly shredded
4oz whipped double cream
1 heaped tbsp. margarine
1 heaped tbsp. dark muscovado sugar

Firstly, make the Caramel pecans:
Melt together the sugar and margarine. Butter would have been excellent here, however I forgot to buy any and improvised with the Stork I use for baking with! Once its bubbling and looking a caramel colour, stir in the chopped pecans to coat, transfer to a sheet of non stick baking paper and try to separate them. Once cooled down and set, roughly chop.

Using a hand mixer, lightly whip the condensed milk with the cinnamon and mashed bananas with the cream for a couple of minutes to combine thoroughly. Fold in the double cream, caramel pecans and dates.

Transfer to a suitable container and place in freezer. After an hour or so, gently fork through to break up any ice crystals and then repeat this stage a couple of times for a couple of hours until its frozen.

Grab a spoon and dive in!

Sorry about horrific pictures! Oh and the chipped dish oops!

Christmas made easy with Knorr and Marco Pierre White

2011-12-02T22:40:00.001Z

Christmas can be one of many things, from a relaxed affair with perhaps a glass or two of your favourite bubbly, to a frenzied mad rush! Following on from my recent post about cooking with Knorr, here are some exclusive tips I've hand picked for you from Marco Pierre White on how to make your Christmas cooking more enjoyable this year, along with my notes!

Shopping list
Organisation is the key to a stress-free Christmas. If you want to enjoy a bird or a large joint, make sure you order it in advance; don’t, whatever you do, leave it until the last minute. (been there, done that, have the turkey crown to feed an army t-shirt!)

Make a list of what you need to buy and be sure you get the shopping done in plenty of time. This is the time of year when supermarkets will run out of ingredients like brussel sprouts, fresh cranberries, chestnuts and double cream, so thinking ahead will really pay off. (I started my planning in early November and have already made my stuffing, Christmas pastries and par-boiled my sprouts!)

Kitchen kit
Being organised also pays off when it comes to the kitchen. Check you have a roasting tin large enough for your turkey or goose; this is the same for serving dishes and the cheese board. Don’t forget to stock up with plenty of kitchen foil and cling film. (This year I am cooking in my brother’s kitchen I.e. a small cupboard. I have invested in disposable foil dishes for ease!)

Christmas canapés
Get the meal off to a great start by serving a glass of fizz with a pre-dinner nibble. Smoked Salmon Pate and Stilton Pate are perfect this time of year and can be made in advance; serve them on crackers, mini oatcakes or home-made crostini. (I have been experimenting with Stilton – check out my next post for the results!)

Bread sauce
Home-made bread sauce really is the best; try Marco’s recipe and see for yourself. The trick to making bread sauce is the 3:1 ratio; three times the amount of milk to breadcrumbs. Simple to remember and you can make as much as you like.(I am going to try this one out this year, Christmas wouldn’t be the same without bread sauce!)

Above all, try to relax! Christmas should be enjoyable for everyone – delegate tasks to ease the burden and don’t try to over complicate your meal.

This year see's a big change for me as I have previously spent Christmases with my ex-partners family, being cooked for, but this year me and my brother are sharing the cooking - its going to prove interesting! My brother is very laid back, whereas I prefer military precision in planning...!

We are also going for a slightly alternative Christmas dinner too, on the big day we are actually having a full mixed grill, however on Boxing day is going to be the full kit-n-kaboodle with the turkey and all the trimmings! I love turkey but didn't wanted to do two days exactly the same, also fitting things around work shifts means in theory this should all work perfectly...! What is everyone else planning this year?

With my Forman and Field/ Knorr goodies I have been working on some great Christmas recipes, which will coming up on the blog soon!

Winner of my Hotel Chocolat Giveaway..

2011-12-02T09:04:00.001Z

Well the wait is over...and after a staggering 162 entries to sift through, and the help of random.org number generator I am very pleased to announce that the winner of my Christmas Hotel Chocolat Giveaway is...lucky number 157 - 'Kev'

Kev - congratulations, I have dropped you an email!

Many thanks for all your entries!

Amaretti Kisses with Hot Chocolate Cherry Sauce

2011-11-30T11:06:00.001Z

Okay I will be honest the kisses whilst delicious, didn’tquite look as presentable as I’d planned in my head or notebook. Yes I do agree they look *slightly* like chicken goujons. Though fortunately do not taste anything like them! However thesauce is ohmigod unbelievably simple but omigod soo soo good! It will change your life.

The Hot Chocolate Cherry sauce is mostdefinitely the best dessert sauce I have ever made. A thing of greatness. Postfilming of this recipe saw both me and my brother, and also excellent cameramanvery un-elegantly devour the remaining sauce, along with making a secondbatch of the kisses mixture for dipping into. This is also why I didn't manage to take a picture of the finished dish as greed took over!

Its got a real ‘naughty treat’feeling! Its also ready in less thanten minutes, which is either very dangerous or very good? I can imagine it being rather lush served over vanilla icecream. Or just secretly with a spoon when you are alone.

As most of you will know I am a complete chocoholic and whilst I canbe fussy when it comes to choosing, I am not fussy on price and will pay forwhat I like. For this recipe its best not to crack out your finest stuff boughtfor best – I used Sainsburys basics dark chocolate, which was surprisinglyedible and for a meagre 30p per bar was absolutely perfect for the sauce.

This recipe is also the final in my video’s for RussellHobbs, you can vote for this recipe on this link! Many thanks to all who voted so far and I hope they didn’t put you off visitingmy blog! You can check out my other three here and there is still time to vote if you like them - all you have to do is click on the 'like' bit underneath the video:

Spiced Cauliflower Soup with Chickpea Raita topping

Banana Meringue Pie

Winter Barbecue Sauce

I would like to give a special thanks to the lovely Agata at Manning Gottlieb OMD who has been a great help at times during the last four challenging weeks! Also a big thanks to Russell Hobbs for inviting me to take part and getting to play with lots of your lovely shiny kitchen stuff!

This weeks theme was 'freestyle' and I chose to play with the 3-in-1 Hand blender. Its a great piece of multi-tasking kit, and my favourite out of all the Allure range. As well as making this recipe, I've also used it for lots of other kitchen jobs and have been very pleased with its performace. If you have a small kitchen and are considering a multi-tasking tool then I would highly recommend this, as it will cover most of your mixing, chopping and blending jobs, with ease.

Recipe:

Serves 2

Easy

Under 10 minutes

Sauce:

½ Tin pitted black cherries in juice

25g Dark chocolate, broken up

1 tbsp Disaronno liqueur (amaretto)

Amaretti Kisses:

100g Ricotta

50g Double cream

20g Icing sugar

8 Amaretti biscuits (Doria brand are ideal)

Firstly, drain the cherries reserving the juice. Place 75gof cherries in a bowl, and 100ml of the juice in a small pan, place on a mediumheat

Meanwhile blitz the amaretti in the Allure chopperattachment to thick crumbs and lay on a plate. Add the drained cherries to the chopperattachment and blitz to a thick mixture, stir into the bubbling cherry juice.

Put the double cream in the Allure beaker, whisk briefly usingthe whisk attachment until just thickened, add the ricotta and icing sugar, andwhisk briefly until creamy and thick, being careful not to get into butterterritory! Use two dessert spoons to very carefully shape into quenelles, rollcarefully in the crumbs and place on your serving dish

Stir the disaronno into the bubbling cherry mixture and cookfor a further two minutes. Remove from the heat and stir in the chocolate.Allow to melt then serve in little bowls, alongside the Amaretti kisses.

Enjoy!

You can see my video also via Youtube:

Sorry again about awful picture - as mentionned above, greed took its hold and so this is taken from the video!

Christmas Swirls

2011-11-28T18:52:00.001Z

Is it too early to mention the C word yet? No? Okay phew! Aveen - I know you have been waiting patiently for these!

This year I am trying to be organised and have already started squirrelling things away in the freezer for Christmas meals. As someone who does shift work, and will be working throughout the festive season getting ahead now will hopefully mean calm in the future, and more importantly less washing up on the big day itself! As well as a batch of these lovely little swirls, ready for Christmas snacking, I’ve already made up a batch of carrot and swede mash, and two batches of pork, cranberry and apple stuffing mixes!

The inspiration for these lovely, festive little swirls came from having a spare block of puff pastry that needed using up, and a recipe from the latest Tesco instore magazine (please tell me I am not the only magpie who picks up every freebie recipe card/ magazine/ newspaper?) Plus I’ve also always wanted to make Danish pastries and finally seized my chance on a treasured day off this week!

I adapted the original recipe to what I had in the various boxes I moved house with and adjusted quantities as to what felt right! These little puffs are rather good and are great with a nice cup of coffee or tea! They are easy and fun to make and will be very popular, judging by how quickly mine vanished!

Makes 30 swirls - Keep half, freeze half. Or all. Depends if you can wait till Christmas!

Ingredients

500g block puff pastry
plain flour and icing sugar for dusting
200g good quality mincemeat – I used Sainsburys Taste the Difference
2 tsp runny honey
1 tsp orange extract (I love Sainsburys TTD Valencian orange extract)
50g + 10g flaked almonds, roughly crushed in your hand
40g + 20g dried and sweetened sour cherries, roughly chopped
Small chunk of Angelica, sliced into little bits

Method:

In a bowl mix together the mincemeat, orange extract, honey, 50g of the almonds and 40g of the cherries.
Cut the pastry block in half, roll one block out on a floured surface into a rectangle shape, about 1/4cm thick or so. I laid mine at this stage onto cling film – makes the next stages easier! Spread over half the mincemeat mixture in a thin layer, right to the edges.

Now use the cling wrap to help roll it really tightly, like a swiss roll, wrap tightly in flim and freeze for 15 minutes

For the second batch, assuming you are going to freeze them, repeat the above stage

Pre-heat oven to 200 fan

Line a baking tray(s) with baking/ parchment paper

Carefully remove your rolls from the freezer. Using a sharp knife cut the first roll into 1cm strips and lay flat on the baking tray, leaving space for them to expand a little. Press over the little bits of angelica

Bake for 15 minutes or until golden and your kitchen smells a little like heaven. Whilst still hot, sprinkle with remaining almonds and cherries and dust with icing sugar. Allow to cool on the paper, then transfer to a wire rack. They will be a little sticky underneath so just nudge now and again to loosen.

With the remaining roll, also cut into 1cm rounds but transfer onto baking / parchment paper, in small layers and transfer to a suitable container for freezing. Freeze until Santa is on his way.

*Note the 10/g20g almond/ cherry mix is only for 15 freshly baked swirls You will need more for when the frozen friends come out to play*

I've sent my Christmas Swirls over to Sweets for a Saturday #45- a fabulous blog full of naughty but nice treats!

Cooking with Knorr..

2011-11-26T18:17:00.001Z

Over the next year I will be working with Knorr tobring you a selection of seasonal recipes. It’s an exciting project and I hopeto bring you some fantastic ideas and recipes!

On a personal note, since the launch of the Knorrstock pots I’ve been using them frequently and find they give an excellent baseto stews, sauces etc. I really like how quickly they dissolve, and anotherbonus is that I don’t have to crumble up a stock cube – a pet hate of mine!Most importantly they taste natural, not over salty and produce excellentresults every time.

Over the last decade or so Britain has really caughtup with our European counterparts in the food stakes, and I am very proud ofthe excellent quality of products that are now available. So when Knorr approachedme and asked if I would like to cook with some produce from Forman and Fields, Inaturally jumped at the opportunity! They are quintessentially British and sourcethe highest quality products for your table.

Recently I took delivery of a rather fabulous seasonalhamper from Forman and Fields, and with the contents of it I have been playingwith my food, something our mothers most likely criticised us for doing when wewere young! I probably should have been busy revising but cooking is far more fun todo than Maths!

Within my hamper I was given everything to make theultimate Christmas Dinner. However factor in shifts, attending college and ingeneral being fairly occupied, I was not able to produce said dinner in one goand some bits have been squirreled away into the freezer (including a giganticturkey that my poor brother had to cycle home with in his rucksack – I so wouldlove a picture of this!). However, I have instead been busy making stuff withall the lovely ingredients!

These are a little teaser of what will appear on theblog shortly!

Spiced Cauliflower soup with Chickpea Raita Topping

2011-11-22T22:44:00.001Z

This lovely, gloriously green soup is packed with fresh herbs and flavour, and its also my third Video recipe in the Russell Hobbs Blogger VS Fans challenge that’s currently in progress over on Facebook!

This week I got to play with their Allure Jug Blender and I must say I am seriously impressed with this new shiny toy! I’ve used a couple of different blenders over the past few years, ranging in quality but this is a mighty beast! The key features for me are the pull out cord (which admittedly my brother discovered after the first use!) and the speed settings which are easy to control; always important for someone who doesn’t like to read instruction manuals! Another bonus is its little rubber feet that stop it dancing on the counter! Its a big machine, but its still pretty and shiny!

Whilst the soup has a range of herbs and spices in, its not actually hot as in spicy heat. Regrettably I can’t tolerate much chilli nowadays and this is pleasantly mild but flavourful. If you would prefer a little heat, add a green chilli or two to the mix. The blender does a great job at making it really smooth, so no nasty gravelly bits which I’ve had in the past with other liquidizers!

Serves 6, Easy, Ready in under 30 minutes

Ingredients:

1/2 a large or 1 regular sized cauliflower, cut into smallish chunks
1 white onion, finely chopped
1 medium sized potato, diced
1 bunch fresh coriander, roughly chopped
1 tsp cumin seeds
1tsp freshly ground coriander seeds
1 tsp turmeric
1 tsp black mustard seeds
40g cooked chickpeas
1500ml vegetable stock
Spray cooking oil or olive oil
S&P to taste

Topping:

40g cooked chickpeas
Pinch of garam masala

Raita:

120g plain natural yoghurt
1 small bunch fresh mint, roughly chopped

Start by sweating the onion in a large saucepan in spray oil, until soft but not too browned. Stir in the ground coriander, mustard seeds, turmeric and cumin, and potatoes, stir well, add the cauliflower, cover with the stock and bring to the boil, reduce the heat and gently simmer for 15 minutes, stir in the chickpeas for final minute to warm through.

Meanwhile stir the mint into the yoghurt. In a small pan, add a teeny bit of oil, toast the chickpeas for a couple of minutes with the garam masala. Reserve to one side

Blitz the soup in the blender, until all lovely and smooth. You will need to do this in two batches – have a clean saucepan ready for transferring the soup back into, to keep warm. Season the soup, and ladle into bowls. Swirl in a little of the yoghurt and sprinkle over a couple of the chickpeas and a sprig of fresh coriander to garnish and serve. Some little naan’s would be lovely on the side but I forgot to buy any so had granary toast, which works equally well!

The soup will keep up to four days in the fridge and re-heats very well. In fact it reminded me I must buy a new portable soup container after accidentally melting mine at work the other week…

You can also watch me cook this recipe on Youtube:

Enjoy!

Who would like to win some Hotel Chocolat goodies?

2011-11-20T19:16:00.001Z

***COMPETITION HAS NOW CLOSED***

You do? Thought so!!

This Christmas I am very excited to bring you a fantastic Hotel Chocolat competition to win a fabulous box of their Signature Dark Collection, consisting of 26 glorious chocolates for you to play eeeny-meeny-miney-mo with to your hearts content!

Those that know me, know that I am a complete choco-holic and judging by my last competition I know I am not alone! Christmas is a time for giving, and receiving and I have been happily testing ~~munching~~ my way through a box deciding which I like best, the things I do for you ;-). Though I am just going to have to try just one more to make sure......So far the 'Florentine Isabelle is my favourite, consisting of lush hazelnut praline and topped with a honey and almond florentine *drool*.

The box is beautifully presented and would make an ideal gift, both for yourself or a loved one. You can also check out Hotel Chocolat's full glorious Christmas range here. Good luck choosing, I would be happy with any of them!

Whilst the dark signature box completely floats my boat, there really is something for everyone, including your table - I am completely in love with these little adorably cute crackers, though I don't think I could trust myself staring at these for too long knowing what's inside!

*I did notice that they are currently offering a free gift for you if you spend over £60, so you can definitely both give and receive this year!*

If you fancy winning a Signature Dark collection for yourself this Christmas, you have a couple of ways to be in chance of winning: -

First entry is by leaving me a comment on this post telling me which Hotel Chocolat treat you would like Santa to bring you most

Second entry is by Tweeting the following "I would like to win a Hotel Chocolat Signature Dark Selection from Anne's Kitchen" @anneskitchen and following me. Leave me a comment telling me you have done so below.

Third entry is by following my blog, and leaving a comment to tell me

Fourth entry is by following Hotel Chocolat on twitter and leaving a comment to tell me

And last but not least, liking my Facebook page and telling me via a comment

**Please leave a valid email address with your comments**

The competition will remain open until the 30th November 2011 and the winner will be announced shortly after on this blog. Good Luck!

A few nibbley bits:

Competition is for UK based residents only. Hotel Chocolat will be posting the chocolates directly to you. If I am unable to contact the winner within 7 days, I will re-generate the numbers to pick a new winner.

Apple Streusel Cake

2011-11-16T18:36:00.001Z

This is a new cake for me, as I’ve never made, or remember eating a ‘streusel’ topping before! I recently picked up a packet of bramley apples for my Christmas stuffing and had two spare...There was lots of debates between myself over what to make with the remainder and then I spotted this cake in one of my friend’s book ‘Grandmas Favourite Recipes’ and with a morning spare (well, sort of, have never been good at prioritising!) I decided to have a bash at making it!

Whilst there are a couple of separate stages to the recipe (hello three mixing bowls!) its easy to follow and make. Its also a very nice cake to sit down and have a cup of tea with in the afternoon. I did eat mine cold, though I think it would be very good served warm as pudding, perhaps with a nice scoop of vanilla icecream! One thing that did surprise me is that the cake wasn’t overly sweet but completely in a good way, the girls at worked loved it and I hope you will too!

Whilst the streusel topping does make it a little more challenging to slice up, it did give the cake a nice edge and I found myself picking at the all the remnants in the in after cutting! I do love chef’s perks!

You will need a 23cm springform cake tin, lined

Serves 8-10

Ingredients:

115g butter (plus extra if greasing your tin - I am lazy and always use liners!)
450 cooking apples
175g self raising flour
1 tsp ground cinnamon
pinch of salt
115g caster sugar
2 eggs
2 tbsp milk
icing sugar to dust (forgot this bit!)

Topping ingredients:

115g self raising flour
85g butter
85g caster sugar

Method:

Firstly make the topping by sifting the flour into a bowl, rub together with the butter to form coarse breadcrumbs I.e. small lumps. Stir in the sugar

Pre-heat oven to 160fan/ 180/ gas 4

Peel, core and thinly slice the apples and reserve (I did this stage last)

Sift the flour, cinnamon and salt together. Separately beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, gradually beat in the eggs, adding some of the flour each time. Gently fold in remaining flour and milk.

Spoon the batter into your prepared tin, top with the apple slices and sprinkle over the topping. Bake for about an hour – due to the topping I found judging it hard so gave it an extra ten minutes! The topping should be firm and golden. Leave to cool down in the tin before opening the sides up.

Dust with icing sugar before serving. (I forgot this bit!)

I'm also sending this one over to Bookmarked Recipes number#6!

Banana Meringue Pie

2011-11-14T09:42:00.001Z

These simple tarts have a sweet banana and almond filling, with a crispy yet marshmallow-y meringue topping . The inspiration for the recipe came from an old Good Housekeeping recipe for pineapple meringue pie. However I have a fond dislike of pineapples (its the texture!), plus at the time of dreaming up recipe I had a surplus of bananas (remind me to look next time on the market how many there in those £1 bowls!) and with a little tweaking came up with this recipe!

The tarts are also are my second video recipe for the Russell Hobbs Blogger vs Fans challenge! This week I got to play with the Allure hand mixer, which is really good. I’ve never had a ‘handheld’ mixer before so its rather nice to finally own one, even better in that its an excellent, well designed product. The main thing I love is the little LCD panel which tells me what speed I am at, and how long its been on for! If you like my recipe, please pretty please come over to Facebook and click on the ‘like’ underneath my video!

Being filmed cooking is one of the hardest challenges I have done! I am not naturally organised and when I cook it normally involves finding random ingredients and the hope it will produce something edible. Also me and meringue are not best of friends, being a relative novice but if I can manage it, I am quite sure it will be a breeze for you!

There are a few scenes not shown on the video – I never normally have a problem with eggs breaking but these were evil – I broke three and had to wash up the bowls halfway through! It did remind me of a less than fun time when I was in a supermarket buying eggs – I was carefully checking that none of them were cracked etc, picked one up and it broke in my hand! Truly nasty and I had to rather embarrassingly ask for some paper towels, I couldn’t wait to get home and wash my hands!

Somehow though it all came together, and the recipe whilst is unusual, it actually tastes really good! I originally thought these would serve 2 but the tarts were actually quite big so probably best to share between 4 of you!

Serves 2-4

Ingredients

2 x 10x10 dessert pastry squares
Egg spray or 1 small beaten egg
1 large whole egg, separated
2 bananas
1 tbsp cornflour
2 tbsp water
1 tbsp ground almonds

Spray the pastry squares with egg wash or beaten egg, score a line about 1cm in from the edge and make a few shallow knife dents, bake for 6 minutes at 180 fan/ 200, allow to cool slightly

Heat a small pan. Blend the cornflour and water, add to pan and bring to boil, when its started to thicken – it won’t take very long – stir in the mashed banana and almonds, beat for a minute and add the egg yolk, stir over a moderate heat for a further minute and then turn off the heat – it should be thick and creamy

Whisk the egg white in a clean bowl for no less than 5 minutes, slowly adding the sugar after it has started to whiten, beat in until the meringue is all glossy and white,holding a soft peak. Carefully spoon into a piping bag with a large star nozzle

Place the banana mixture in the centre of the tarts, pipe over the meringue and bake for 16 minutes or until crisp and cooked through. Reduce the heat if browning too much. Transfer to a cooling rack to cool down completely.

Best eaten on day of making. It still tastes great the next day but visually not so good...!

Roasted Vegetable and Fennel Bulghur Salad

2011-11-12T10:47:00.001Z

Oh how I love this salad! Its delicious freshly made served warm, and also in my lunch box the next day. Its what I like to call a happy dish, as it contains all my favourite vegetables and it can’t help but bring a smile to face when eating it too!

Makes two portions, Easy

Ingredients:

1 medium sized aubergine
1 courgette
1 red pepper
100g bulghur wheat
1 tsp marigold bouillon powder
2 tbsp garlic infused olive oil
1 tsp fennel seeds

Pre-heat your oven to 180o

Cut all the vegetables into even sized chunks – around 1cm squares, toss with oil and place on a lined baking tray. Sprinkle over the fennel seeds and roast for 35-40 minutes, giving them a shake halfway.

Meanwhile, make up the bulghur wheat by combining with the bouillon powder in a lidded dish. Cover with boiling water by just under a centimetre. Cover with a lid and leave to absorb the water for a good ten minutes, or until your vegetables are ready.

Once the vegetables are cooked, stir into the bulghur wheat and simply serve!

Sweet n Spice Pumpkin Seeds

2011-11-09T18:58:00.001Z

So did you keep your pumpkin seeds from Halloween? If not please get some and make a batch of these lush, very slightly addictive seeds!

After making my Honey roasted Pumpkin, Pancetta and Coriander soup I couldn’t bear to part with the seeds, “waste not want not” and all that, and having bought some rather yummy treacle-y dark brown muscovado sugar for my sauce recipe, a plot was hatched and these sweet n spice seeds were a triumph of the snack world!

Ingredients:

50g pumpkin seeds
1/2 tsp sea salt
2 tsp dark brown muscovado sugar
1/2 tsp black pepper, freshly ground
2 tsp olive oil

Pre-heat oven to 190o

If your seeds are freshly removed from your pumpkin, give them a good clean up, discarding any fleshy bits, rinse well and place on a parchment lined baking tray, bake for approximately 5 minutes to dry out.

Remove from the oven and allow to cool slightly. Mix together the remaining ingredients, combine with the seeds and scatter loosely onto the baking tray.

Roast for a further 5 minutes, or until the sugar has melted and the seeds look dry.
Allow to cool for five minutes on the tray, then transfer to a serving bowl and snack away!
They are so moreish and are a great way to use up your leftover seeds rather than going in the bin!

Honey Roasted Pumpkin, Pancetta and Coriander Soup

2011-11-07T16:45:00.001Z

Halloween has been and gone but if you still have a pumpkin or two hanging around then this is a great soup to use it in!

I bought on the market these ridiculously cute mini pumpkins, I added my pencil in the shot so you can gauge how weeny these babies were:

After a close examination, I realised just how fiddly carving them would actually be and so I opted to make something a little more edible with them, this combined with a few random ingredients that needed using and this tasty, warming soup was born! The pancetta isn’t essential and you could substitute a little more smoked paprika to make it veggie friendly.

The big orange Halloween style Pumpkins can be a little watery, in comparison to squashes designed for eating but by roasting the flesh first, and with careful seasoning, plus a blob of double cream this soup is a real treat, and its even better eaten the next day, as the flavours mellow together

Once you have peeled and diced up your pumpkin, please don’t throw away your seeds! Give them a clean up, rinse and keep your eyes peeled for my next blog post!

Serves 4

Ingredients

620g pumpkin flesh, cut into 1cm dice – this is net weight, my babies weighed in at nearly 1.2kg before trimming. Save your seeds!

15g fresh leaf coriander, roughly chopped.

1 heaped tsp smoked paprika

2-3 tsp clear honey

salt and pepper

Spray sunflower oil

1 onion, diced

90g pancetta cubes

1 heaped tsp marigold bouillon dissolved into 1 litre boiling water

Double cream for serving

Method:

Pre-heat the oven to 190o, spray a couple of baking sheets with oil and scatter over the pumpkin, spray with a little more oil and roast for 15 minutes, drizzle with the honey, toss lightly and roast for a further 10 minutes or until the pumpkin is tender

Heat a large saucepan, spray with a little oil and fry your onion over a moderate heat until softened, without browning, add the pancetta and fry until lightly browned. Stir in the roasted pumpkin, smoked paprika and stock, plus most of the coriander, reserving a few sprigs for serving. Cover and bring back to a gentle boil, simmer for five minutes.

Remove from the heat and blitz until smooth with a hand blender (I used my new toy) or in a liquidizer. Season well, serve garnished with a little cream, a few sprigs of coriander. And your special seeds, which I will add here shortly!

Winter Barbecue Sauce with Sausage Bites - Video Recipe!

2011-11-04T22:09:00.000Z

Dearest friends, family and visitors to my blog – please be kind to me – for I am finally...cooking on film! Its possibly the most scariest thing I've done since agreeing to go para-sailing in Mexico a few years back but it was a lot of fun to do! I hope you like the recipes and will vote for me!

You can watch me here on Youtube or directly through Facebook

Over the next four weeks, I will be road testing four fabulous Russell Hobbs kitchen gadgets from their new Allure range and I have created some tasty recipes for you!

First up is my very special Winter Barbecue Sauce:

Which was made using this little beast - the Mini Ball Chopper:

The sausage bites are optional – the sauce tastes great so pair it with whatever meats or vegetables you fancy! The sauce has a perfect balance of spice, sweet and sour and is perfect for warming up a cold winters night!

The sauce takes 30 minutes to make, I oven baked some delicious ‘Jimmy’s Farm’ free range pork sausages, then cut them into bitesize chunks and speared with cocktail sticks. Great for serving up at parties!

Makes one large bowl of dipping sauce

1 medium red pepper, roughly diced
1 medium yellow pepper, roughly diced
1 red onion, diced
1 dsp of flora cuisine or olive oil
4 dates
1 bramley apple
Approx 2 tbsp fresh thyme, chopped, plus extra to garnish
3 tbsp red wine vinegar
160ml water

Sugar and Spice mix:
3 tbsp Natural dark Muscovado unrefined cane sugar
2 tsp smoked paprika
Scant tsp colmans English mustard powder
½ tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp garlic puree

Method:

Step one:

Firstly, place the dates in freshly boiled water and leave to soak.

Heat the pan over a moderate flame, add the oil, heat through and add the onions, stir then cover with a lid. After 5 minutes add the chopped up peppers, stirring occasionally and keep covered. You want them to gently cook, not burn or brown too much, add a little more oil if needed.

Step two

Peel, core and dice the apple. Remove the dates from their bath, stone and roughly chop then add them along with the apples to the pan, stir and re-cover, gently simmer.

Step three

After a further five or so minutes, the apple should be softening, stir in the vinegar, stir well and allow to evaporate, stir in the sugar and spice mixture, cover and simmer for a further minute

Step four

Add the water slowly to the mixture, stir gently, re-cover the pan and bring gently to the boil and simmer for a further 2-3 minutes,stirring occasionally then remove from the heat

Step Five

Transfer the mixture into the mini ball chopper, blitz in a couple of bursts to lightly blend the sauce - you don't want to puree it. Then simply serve in a pretty bowl garnished with a few extra thyme leaves!

The sauce can be frozen without any loss in quality, and thawed quickly in the microwave for emergency dipping!

Pork Loins with a Red onion and Date sauce

2011-11-03T10:27:00.001Z

Dates always remind me of Christmas (Is it too early to mention the C word?) as I remember my mum buying packets of Eat-me' ones in the market and they seemed to hang around for ages! Though as I got older I developed a real taste for them, and to me they are now like eating sweets.

I’d never really thought about using dates in savoury cooking before butwhen planning what to cook for dinner for when my brother came over the other night; post visiting the market andcoming away with 3 packets of dates for a bargain price of one pound, this idea came to me, and I kind ofwinged it from there!

I didn’t really measure anything (no surprise there!) but have tried to remember what quantities I added. Will update if I think of anything else!

Makes enough for two portions

Ready in 15 minutes

3 pork loin steaks - I’m agirl and had one, two for my brother!

½ red onion, sliced thinly

6 dates, soaked in hot water for 15 minutes

Fresh mint to garnish

100ml or so of light vegetable stock (I always use marigold bouillon)

1 heaped tsp cornflour, made up with a tbsp of water

Spray oil

Fry the onion until softened over a moderate heat, push tothe side of the pan and add the pork steaks and use a small plate or similar toweigh down, fry for about 4-5 minutes on each side, until cooked through andnicely coloured, re-distribute the onions, stir in the dates, and stock, bringto the boil and simmer for a couple of minutes, stir in the cornflour mixture,allow to bubble up stirring continuously until the sauce has thickened, andserve.

The pork would be lovely served with rice, but I wasexperimenting with some spare ingredients so ended up with minted aubergineslices, and a packet of new potatoes in garlic butter!

Overall it was a very tasty, quick and simple dish and I will be definitely using dates again in cooking, rather than sitting and eating them all straight from the packet!

Penne with Minted Courgette, Pancetta and Mushroom Sauce

2011-10-30T22:10:00.002Z

I frequently find the best kind of meals are ones that are thrown together ~~out of desperation~~ due to sudden changes to my plans. This lovely little pasta dish was born out of such a situation, and is most definitely my favourite lunch I've eaten this week! It certainly beats hands down the questionable Prawn jacket potato I ate in a cafe the other day, which literally was as it reads. I know I'm not hugely keen on mayo but surely a little sauce even to compensate the rather bland prawns would have improved things!

Anyway, back to this lovely pasta! Previous attempts at trying to make myself enjoy wholemeal pasta have failed, however with a certain supermarket reducing bags of it to clear at 22p, I thought I would try again, and in this recipe I think I've finally cracked it! For once I embraced the nuttiness of it, though do feel free to make it with regular penne if you are not a convert.

One of my favourite vegetables are mushrooms, closely followed by courgette, so a combination of the two means it already a keeper! The rest came about as to what I fancied and what was lurking in the fridge! I find the little pots of pancetta cubes such a handy standby in the fridge and are great for a quick meal, and pesto is a saviour for these types of dishes as its just so versatile! The sauce is ready in the time it takes to boil the pasta, what's not to like?

This is what my lunch looked like today:

Roasted Carrot and Pesto Risotto

2011-10-28T17:16:00.003+01:00

Oh my oh my oh my – a dish that admittedly sounds a bit hmm but tastes a lot of mmm!

This risotto was born out of a cupboard scratch around (hello to my 77p bank balance!) and is arguably one of my new favourites! It has a delicate balance of flavours, and is oh so perfect for warming up with on these sudden chilly nights! Oh for my hands to warm just for once please! Roll on summer 2012!

The risotto is so cheap to make but doesn't taste it and it won’t be long before I will be cooking this one again!

Serves 2-3

Ingredients:

4 small to medium sized carrots (mine came from Osterley park farm shop – can highly recommend!)
1 large white onion, finely diced
150g arborio rice
½ glass vermouth
A 1cm slice of garlic butter
Spray oil
1 vegetable knorr stock pot, dissolved in 1.25 litres of boiling water
3 heaped teaspoons green pesto
2 generous tbsp. of freshly grated grana padano

Pre-heat you oven to 180o

Firstly, sauté your onion over a moderate heat in the garlic butter and a good few sprays of oil, until softened but not too golden.

Meanwhile spray a little more oil on a baking tray, take 4 carrots, chop into half, then halve again, and cut into ½ cm or so dice. Place on oiled tray and squirt with another 4-5 sprays of oil. Roast for 20 minutes, giving a shake halfway

When the onion has softened, add the vermouth and allow the alcohol to burn off, stir in the rice and a ladle of stock. Simmer over a gentle heat until absorbed, and repeat until the rice is cooked through- I like mine fairly soft, around 25 minutes. Use a little more hot water if needed to loosen the rice.

When the ‘base’ is ready, stir in the carrots and pesto, plus most of the cheese, season to taste with salt and pepper and serve immediately garnished with any remaining cheese.

I daresay some pretty little herb leaves would finish this dish off perfectly, but sadly it was not in the budget!

Reheats very well the next day!

The evolution of Apple, Oat and Nutmeg Fairy Cakes

2011-10-24T20:39:00.000+01:00

I’ve been in two minds on whether to publish this one as the fairy cakes came about during a moment of madness (or perhaps genius?!). Whilst moving house, I found lots of odd bitsand bobs in the dried good boxes and fancying a bit of cake one afternoon (just for a changehaha) I decided to tart up a basic batch of fairy cakes…

For the most part, I am fairly confident with the traditionalbaking flavours combinations but sometimes the old brain cells go a littlecrazy and hence these apple and nutmeg cakes were born!

My first instinct flavour wise was more towards the warming spice cinnamon, as whatgoes better than apple and cinnamon? Though unfortunately I realised mid bakingthat I couldn't find said cinnamon, mainly as I had forgotten that I had lentit to my mum! I did however find some ground nutmeg and after holding the jar precariouslyabove the mixing bowl debating its addition, I decided why not; its worth ashot, surely? Both are warming spices …

The second additional ingredient was some toasted oats. Priorto the fairy cake idea, I was thinking along the lines of something crumble-ythough I didn’t have enough apple, but still fancied an apple/ oat mixture,mainly as anything with oats in it is highly appealing to me. And so also on awhim I quickly browned some rolled oats in the microwave, then promptly singedmy fingers testing if they were in fact browned, yep they were! Incase you tryand repeat this stage, gloves are advisable!

And last but not least, going back to the earlier applemention, I didn’t actually have any apples, just a jar of apple sauce that hadalso migrated with me and needed using up, so thinking it wouldn’t do any harm Iadded a few generous tablespoons to the bowl. Somewhere in the recesses of my mind I was quite sure I had noted afew American baking recipes involving apple sauce so its addition seemed fairlylogical, compared to the nutmeg and oat additions...

Sixteen minutes later and a kitchen smelling rather mmm they wereready, and when just about cool enough to handle I tucked in. And then I rememberedI am not actually that fond of nutmeg. It has its place don't get me wrong, though for me, in these cakes it wasn’t one of them. However, the girls at work and my mum really did enjoy them, so atleast they were not a complete write off!

I shall be remaking these fairy cakes again, with theapple sauce, as it kept them moist, and the oats as their toastiness addedanother sort of nutty dimension to the mix but above all I will be definitely reclaiming the cinnamonfrom my mum!

Awful picture but custard is the saviour of all puddings I think!

Pork Korma with Potatoes and Spinach

2011-10-22T17:08:00.006+01:00

There is something I need to say first about this recipe.Its not Korma as you know it. I generally avoid any of the heavy, cream ladenIndian recipes, and so Korma’s as a result have never really appealed to me. In fact mystomach recoils in horror to be honest at the thought of actually eating one! However, this recipe isa real exception as I completely love it! Out goes the cream, in comes yoghurt, groundalmonds and pork mince!

A few months back I was given for my birthday a voucher for WH Smith’sand spent a good hour happily perusing their cookery section, and finallysettled on a copy of Readers Digest Healthy One Dish Cooking much to the relief of my poor family members waiting patiently...

Now the one thing I must mention about the book is that the title for me was a little misleading, I used at least four dishes whilst making thisrecipe, however it does all end up in one dish so technically is correct…!

Quite often after getting a new cookery book, and lots of reading through, despite the original appeal it ends up being neglected but I made this curry within days of buying the book,and I've cooked it again several times since! Infact I am getting impatient to make it again, will have to squeeze it into my meal planner somewhere!

I love the mildness of the dish, thegentle aromatic flavour from the mild spicing, and more importantly how you can have secondswithout feeling too guilty! It also reheats very well the next day, as it allows the flavours to mingle nicely together. The thirdtime around I added a little ground turmeric for colour and I think its definitely worth adding some!

The yoghurt/ cornflour/ almond stage of the recipe felt a bit wrong when making and I was rather worried the first time around but please bear with it, as it will honestly be so good!

The book actually contains lots of very tasty looking recipes,all low in fat etc but still remaining highly appealing! Definitely worth aflick through and I am planning to cook a lot more from it.

Serves 4, generously

2 large onions. sliced

450g lean Pork mince

300ml low fat natural yoghurt

75g Ground almonds

600ml hot Chicken stock

25g toasted flaked almonds

750g small new potatoes, havled

250g young leaf Spinach (I thawed frozen spinach, more economical!)

2 crushed garlic cloves

2 tsp cornflour

1 tbsp Cumin seeds

8 green Cardamoms, crushed and pods discarded (I.e. keep the seeds!)

1 tbsp vegetable oil

1 tsp ground turmeric - optional

1) Heat the oil in a large saute pan or casserole and cook the onions over a medium heat for around 10 minutes or until softened and lightly browned, transfer to a bowl for later

2) Using the same pan, add the pork, garlic, cardamom and cumin seeds, cook for 5 minutes, stirring often to break up the mince.

3) Return half of the reserved onions to the pan, the turmeric if using, the stock and cover, bring to the boil and then reduce to a gentle simmer for 15 minutes

4) Add the potatoes and bring back to a simmering point, then re-cover and cook until the potatoes are tender, around 20 minutes.

5) Blend the cornflour to a paste with 6 tbsp of the yoghurt and the ground almonds. Stir into the curry and bring gently to the boil, stirring, simmer for a further minute to thicken slightly. Season to taste

6) Add the spinach leaves, reserving a few smaller ones for garnishing. *if using frozen, add at the end of stage five and cook for around 3 minutes to heat through*

7) Mix the remaining onions with the toasted almonds, serve the curry garnished with this and the reserved spinach leaves.

Serve immediately, you probably won't want to eat much more with it as its pretty filling but I have served up naan's and also I've made chickpea flatbreads, which were good for dunking!

*According to the book its 552 cals and includes 2 of your 5 a day :)

Creamy Turkey and Broccoli Pasta bake

2011-10-18T23:13:00.000+01:00

My dearest readers - apologies but this is yet another meal I cooked from the previously unpublished archives but it doesn’t mean it was a bad dish by any means, in fact it wasrather delicious! Being newly single after many years of cooking for two, and more, along with working overtime, and studying, it doesn't leave much time for cooking anything particularly new and blogworthy but I will be back in gear soon now things are falling into place, and come November I am hoping to bring you some rather exciting posts that I have lined up, so please bear with me!

As previously mentioned on Anne's Kitchen, I am a big fan of turkey - providing it is of course cookedwell! We all have had experiences I am sure of suffering dried up turkey for three weeks post the Christmas season; however it doesn’t have to be that way! One bonus of turkey being so lean, isthat you can sort of justify adding more cheese or other naughty but nice delights to the dish, its all aboutbalance you know ;-)

This rather economical pasta bake was made with strips of turkey breast, I gently fried them until golden brown, then mixed into a white sauce, which was made using a mixture of milk andvegetable stock (made from Marigold bouillon), plus a little wholegrain mustard to give it a boost inflavour. To be honest nowadays if I can get away with adding wholegrain mustardto a dish, it goes in! The broccoli was added to fusilli pasta when it wasnearly cooked, to save on using an extra pan, and was from the freezer. Frozen broccoli is not my favourite of frozen vegetables, however used in this manner you really can't tell the difference and its about a third cheaper compared to fresh, plus no chopping involved!

Once everything was mixed in nicely, it was topped with a generous helping of grated mature cheddar and baked until all golden and crispy on top.

I can’t honestly remember any exact quantities but I doremember it tasting good, and I always feel pasta bakes don’t require exactmeasurements, just go with the flow and hopefully the above rough instructionsgive you an idea!

Philly Meatball Pasta

2011-10-12T22:22:00.002+01:00

This recipe originates from a recipe card, sent throughmonths back from the nice people at Golin Harris, on behalf of Philadelphia and I am somewhat overdue in posting!

The meatballs were quick and easy to make, and I reallyliked the creamy sauce. Its a great work night dinner that doesn’t require toomuch effort and delivers on flavour! I particularly liked the mustard in the sauce asit gives a gentle kick! I really do find any excuse nowadays to add wholegrain mustard to a dish!

Serves 4

300g linguine (I used spaghetti)

6 cumberland or similar sausages

Splash sunflower oil

1 large onion, finely chopped (I used a red onion instead)

1 clove garlic, sliced

150g light philiadelphia

2tsp wholegrain mustard

75ml approx. beef stock

1 tbsp chopped parsley, optional

Boil pasta as per packet instructions

Meanwhile skin the sausges, and roll the meat into smallballs. Brown in a pan until cooked through and reserve

Fry the onion and garlic in the pan , until softened. Stirin the philly, stock and mustard and gently warm through. Add the parsley, ifusing, and the meatballs. Heat through, add to the drained pasta and serveimmediately.

Apologies for the bad picture - it looks a lot better in real life!

Why you should always write down what went in..

2011-10-06T13:04:00.001+01:00

What type of Blogger are you? Do you get an idea, plan your dish from the start to the final photo, or like me make something, realise its actually rather great then try and remember what went in, and when, then go to take a photo with your lovely new toy but the camera battery has gone dead after being unused since you moved home last month?

Last night I really couldn't decide to what to eat for my dinner. The latest cold that's doing the rounds is trying to sink its teeth into my immune system, which had my head all blurred and I threw together some lentils, frozen spinach and a few other random cupboard finds and prayed a little it would be edible...

And typically it turned out rather blooming tasty and I have only a vague memory of what went in, and when. It's gorgeously creamy, with hints of spice and despite being neat free, is very filling and satisfying.

Fortunately I did have some remaining working braincells and made enough for my lunch today, tomorrow and another stashed in the freezer so I can extend my enjoyment of the dal for a little while longer!

So until I recreate this really rather delicious dal, I shall leave you with a photo to enjoy. Taken from my phone as I've still not charged the camera ;-)

Creamy Garlic and Herb stuffed Chicken

2011-10-02T22:01:00.004+01:00

Firstly, apologies for lack of blogging and visitingeveryone elses blogs! Life has once again gotten in the way, plus I’ve not beenactually cooking that much... Not that I am eating ready meals by any means but I've not made anything particularly blogworthy!

This is one from my computers archives, I only remembered to take a picture of it before cooking, though it gives you a good idea of how it will turn out! Greed prevailed and it was half eaten when I'd remembered that I had not taken a picture!

Its not a new idea by any means but sometimes simplicitywins hands down! It is super quick to prepare and very tasty for such minimal effort!

Dolcelatte and Smoked Pancetta baked Mushrooms

2011-09-24T09:28:00.001+01:00

This recipe dear readers is a little bit overdue, it was originally developed for Tesco's Real Food BBQ campaign. Unfortunately between then and now I've had a major shift in personal circumstances, not to mention moving house amongst the many things going on, and BBQ season has passed in a whiff of smoke it seems! However, these mushrooms were very tasty, and could equally be baked in your oven, without needing to brave standing out in the cold whilst these lovelies cook!

These stuffed mushrooms were rather good if I dare say so myself, however I am very tempted to try a slightly stronger blue cheese next time around, perhaps some picante gorganzola. However with a pack of that in the fridge and me knowing its sitting there waiting to be eaten, it never hangs around for very long!

Ingredients - serves 3

1 tsp garlic butter

3 large flat portobello mushrooms

3 rashers smoked pancetta,halved across the middle

2 nuggets frozen spinach,thawed, super drained of liquid and finely chopped

2 tsp dried natural breadcrumbs

2 tsp grated grana padano (or parmesan)

1 tsp plain yoghurt

S&P

1 tbsp roasted red onion (see notes on my potato salad recipe)

15 x 1cm cubes dolcelatte (try not to eat them all whilst chopping!)

Method:

Take a large square of foil,and spray with oil.

Carefully cut out mushroom stalks, and finely chop.

Place the whole mushroomscut side up on the oiled foil.

Gently saute the mushroom trimmings inthe garlic butter for 4-5 minutes or until golden but not browned. Remove the panfrom the heat and allow to cool for a couple of minutes.

To the cooled mixture, add the chopped spinach, onionsand yoghurt, a small pinch of salt and pepper and mix well.

Pile into themushrooms and smooth over. Dot with the dolcelatte, Criss cross the pancettaover, and sprinkle over the grana padano and breadcrumbs.

Seal the parcel andbbq (or bake!) until the mushroom has cooked through.

Serve with the bbq essentials - corn on the cob and a good salad!

Blackberry Compote - Also almost free!

2011-09-12T21:55:00.003+01:00

The BBC Good Food magazine arrivedaround Wednesday and by Thursday night I had a stash of this compote frozen!Apart from being very messy – please wear an apron and protect any whitesurfaces – its super easy to make, requires no cooking and is a great use for aglut of blackberries!

Once I’d made the mixture, I filled 3 silicon icecube trayswith it, then once they were frozen solid, quickly transferred into a sealablefood bag, thus therefore taking up less room up in the freezer. If you are moreorganised you could take it out the night before, and eat with your chosen breakfast.Or alternatively if like me organisation is a fleeting fashion, simply placesome of the cubes in a ramekin and put in microwave on the defrost function forabout 20 seconds! The compote tastes really fruity and so fresh, and it makes alovely addition to your porridge or muesli. Having bright purple muesli makes avery colourful start to the day! The magazine also recommends using it as afilling for some very lovely sounding apple scones, which I am planning to makesoon!

Apple Curd - Almost free!

2011-09-06T20:54:00.002+01:00

I recently discovered a great little website that via the moneysavingexpert forums called 'Cheap Family recipes' tothank for this wonderful recipe!

You honestly have to try it to believe:

a) how easy it is to make and

B) howdelicious it is!

I had my full doubt radar on when making this recipe but it wasperfect first time, even with my rough adjustments to the quantities. Evenbetter still was that the apples actually came from the grounds of where I usedto live, no idea what variety they actually are so worked out dirt cheap tomake.

Unfortunately it was too popular and I ended up giving away all of my first batch, and am now scrambling for empty jars to make batch number two!

The resulting curd is velvety textured, slightly tart but in a good way, light green in colour ‘smoosh’and is fabulous on toast, crumpets or even atop rice pudding as we discovered!!

Caribbean Slice

2011-09-02T22:34:00.001+01:00

I very rarely bake anything for pudding requiring more thanmy beloved mixer and simply lining a cake tin but sometimes the urge hits me todestroy the kitchen and these did not let me down! Not sure why I chose to bakethem, at the same time as making these lovely chocolate chip shortbread I sawat Cooking at Marystow, and to make dinner, as it was clearly a recipe fordisaster – these slices were delicious, the shortbreads good, but the toad inhole was once again a disaster, and I have now admitted defeat. Batter will nolonger be featuring within Annes Kitchen put it that way.

These slices came about as once again we had some slightlyover-ripe bananas lurking in the fruit bowl, and having recently over-indulgedin fruit due to over-shopping,the last thing I wanted was anything resembling fruit in its natural form! Fora while I considered doing some kind of shortbread-y base, topped with the‘nanas and then an oaty sort of topping resulting in a crumble type affair,though whilst I have squirreled that thought down for another time, didn’treally fancy it today. Another option was a banana and chocolate crumble thatI’d saved a link on my favourites yonks back, unfortunately when clicking onit, it was no longer there so that was out, typical! Yet another idea was mylovely chocolate and banana muffins, though we’ve had quite a few muffinslately so it was not quite hitting the mark either.

And then I stumbled ongreatness – I remembered baking a long time back a rather messy, but fabulousraspberry and coconut slice, from an old favourite blog Baking Cakes Galore, itgot me looking at the bananas and my head conjuring up some sort of banana jamto replace the raspberry jam…. After mashing the bananas, with my hands,slightly ewwwy in texture but provides excellent results, it was quite gloopyand I thought it needed a little glue and remembered I still had some groundalmonds knocking around from my Macarons, so added enough to lightly bind,which worked a treat. As my tin was a different shape and depth, I adjusted thequantities to what felt right, switched some of the sugar and baked it a bitlonger, and a star was born! Only mild critiscim is that I should ofwaited for the oven to cool off a little from the t-i-t-h as it browned alittle quickly at first and resulted in an awful picture, though fortunatelywasn’t singed enough to affect the flavour and a good dollop of custard hides amultitude of sins! Despite appearances its also actually quite moist andfruity!

Beetroot and Potato Salad, with Mustard dressing

2011-08-26T09:39:00.002+01:00

What is up with our weather this week? I finally get my hands on a BBQ, albeit to use in other peoples gardens due to living in a flat and then it rains non stop all week, how typical of our lovely British climate!

I whipped up this easy salad last weekend, to go with our planned-but-rained-on-BBQ and can see it being a regular for parties or even just to go in my lunchbox! Its a lovely combination of ingredients and will happily sit alongside your barbecue, whether it be indoors or outside!

If you are feeling all domesticated, its best to start this the day before when you are making your dinner etc and then on the actual day you can just throw everything together to save time! I roasted both the potatoes and onions the night before, as I had the oven on anyway, which made perfect sense. In fact with the onion I actually roasted a whole tray full as they will keep for a few days covered in the fridge ready to use as desired, or even freeze for future dishes. I like how efficiency feels!

This is also my Salad entry in Tesco Real Food's BBQ Challenge - don't forget to enter your favourite BBQ recipe or idea to be in with a chance of winning a fantastic gas Barbecue!

Pesto Monkey Bread

2011-08-23T19:38:00.001+01:00

As promised in my recent post about my heavenly Macaroni cheese with spinach, bacon and Dolcelatte, this is the special bread you have been waiting for!

Whenever I make bread, firstly I have to be in the mood – rest of the time D gets supermarket stuff, and secondly I *really* like to play around with dough and see how the mood takes me…every time the results are different but overall I've never had an inedible or really bad loaf, so I must be doing something right!

Read more »

Are you a Queen of the Barbecue? Enter your recipe in the Tesco Real Food BBQ Challenge!

2011-08-21T17:30:00.002+01:00

For me, nothing fits the description of a typical British summer better than the classic barbecue! It gives me mental images of men who don’t usually cook, suddenly decide they are going to be king of the Barbie and go in all guns blazing with their pack of burgers and case or two of beer.

However, whilst I am sure there are plenty of excellent male BBQ’ers out there, its time for us girls to show off our fantastic BBQ skills, so my lovely ladies if you think your bbq recipe burns away the competition, plus you fancy having your idea or recipe featured on the Tesco Real Food site, then all you need to do is visit the Tesco Real Food site, and enter your great BBQ suggestion. Easy as that!

There are eight different categories under which you can enter your recipe idea, and each week for the next four weeks you have the chance of winning a fantastic gas BBQ from Tesco Direct!

*Closing date for this week’s competition is Wednesday 24th August*

Click here for Terms and Conditions

I have two great BBQ recipes for you coming up shortly on here so don't forget to come back and check - also good luck in the competition! Lets show those boys what we can do!

Many thanks to Helen for the lovely pink BBQ and speakers, I will be testing them out soon!

Macaroni cheese with Spinach, Bacon and Dolcelatte

2011-08-19T16:41:00.001+01:00

Rather excitingly this weekend ‘Anne's Kitchen’ has been featured in ‘Most Wanted’ a great little online magazine site from the people behind the Voucher Codes website which has the best voucher deals on the web, along with my heavenly recipe for Macaroni cheese with Spinach, Bacon and Dolcelatte in! Its macaroni cheese for grown-up’s and quite possibly my most favourite dish to eat!

Please head on over to Most Wanted to check out my recipe, and also keep your eyes peeled here for the follow up recipe with my very special bread…

Sundried tomato and pea Risotto and Nigella’s Lamb steaks with Rosemary and port

2011-08-13T22:33:00.002+01:00

I love risotto, in particular when either myself of D’s mum makes it. For some reason though when eating risotto out it never tastes quite as good as homemade, I think its just one of those dishes that really does benefit from all the love you stir into it (I am thinking of the mushroom and baby spinach one I had last week out whilst typing this up!) . I like to grab something food based to read (in this case it was the latest GoodFood magazine) , a nice glass perhaps of something and gently while away a good 45 minutes giving it the occasional top up of stock and a stir. Most of the risotto's I've made have come about with what needs using up, rather than a planned recipe, and this one was no exception!

Finally a Batter success – Tuna, Olive and Vegetable pancakes

2011-08-08T11:27:00.000+01:00

After my sharing of my batter nightmare some time back with you all, and abstinence from all batter related items for a considerable amount of time since, the fear of failure had finally diminished and after having several successful recipes of late, decided it was high time the scary world of batter was revisited!

Firstly, I will be honest in that I actually don’t like pancakes. There is just something to me that’s not quite right about them, this has stemmed from an early age, so you may now be wondering why I chose to make them…..well, many moons back D and I spent a sunny two weeks in Greece, and in one of our favourite lunch places they used to serve filled savoury crepes, baked in a cheese sauce. Now these were the exception to my no pancake rule – they were really delicious and if I recall correctly we had them a good five times or so during the fortnight! Also being of the mindset that anything is salvageable with a cheese sauce, I spotted this recipe on the good to know site a few weeks and pencilled them into our meal planner, D loves pancakes and my friend / sous chef was coming over, who equally likes them so in the back of my mind I thought if I didn’t like them, I could just eat something scraped together from the cupboards! D was actually out in the end, so we roughly halved the recipe, tweaked the sauce and filling a little……and... they were delicious! I will still avoid regular pancakes but baked in this manner, with the yummy filling it was a big hit with both of us!

They also actually work out very cheap to make, and served with a nice green salad make an ideal light dinner.

Whilst the original recipe served 4, as mentioned earlier I roughly halved it, and we ended up with 3 regular sized pancakes and one halfy! Additionally, I made a quick light sauce to pour over the pancakes, to moisten and also make them slightly more appealing to me! If you save the pancake pan to make it, its also one less pan to wash up!

There are a few stages to the dish but don't let this put you off, it is very easy, even better if you have another pair of hands to help you!

So roughly to serve 2, with our tweaks:

For the pancake filling:
150ml milk
15g butter and 15g plain flour
½ can tuna steak in spring water, drained
I didn’t weigh out but used a small handful each of frozen sweetcorn and peas (the original recipe suggests either frozen or leftover veggies)
8 green olives, roughly sliced
S&P to taste
½ tsp garlic puree
grated cheddar cheese – also didn’t weigh, a scant handful was used to fill AND to finish the dish with

For the pancake batter:
37g plain flour
Pinch of salt
1 large egg
75ml milk
A little oil for frying

For the sauce:

(Roughly)
125ml freshly boiled water
125ml milk
1 heaped tsp cornflour
1 tsp marigold boullion powder

Method

For the filling:
1. Place the milk, butter and flour in a medium pan, bring to the boil, whisking all the time until a smooth sauce forms. Simmer for 1 min. (I had never done all-in-one method and was dubious but am converted!)
2. Drain and flake tuna steak and stir into the sauce with the garlic, vegetables and olives. If using frozen vegetables steam for a couple of minutes in microwave/ boil in saucepan first.
3. Divide the filling between the pancakes and place in heatproof dishes

For the batter:
1. Place the flour, salt and eggs in a large bowl with half the milk. Whisk until the mixture is lump free. Add the remaining milk and whisk again until smooth.
2. Heat a 20cm/8in diameter non-stick frying pan until hot, drizzle a little oil over the centre and wipe it around with a piece of kitchen paper. Now pour a little of the batter into the pan and immediately tilt the pan to spread the batter thinly and evenly over the base. Cook for 2 mins or until the top is set and the base golden. Turn the pancake over with a spatula or if you are feeling brave, flip the pancake!
3. Cook for a further 1-2mins or until the base is golden. Transfer to a plate and interleave with greaseproof paper, keep warm. Use the batter and a little more oil to make a further 3 pancakes in the same way - it depends upon their thickness.

For the sauce:
1. Place the water, stock powder and milk in the frying pan, bring to boil, add the cornflour and whisk very quickly together, until thickened, remove from heat
2. Pour over the pancakes and sprinkle with the remaining grated cheese and pop under a hot grill until the top is crisp and golden.

Turkey Meatballs

2011-08-02T18:38:00.000+01:00

This post is a little overdue, seemed to have gotten buried within a pile of stuff I've been meaning to blog about! A few weeks back I bought a packet of turkey mince in the reduced section for a whopping 75p; having never really cooked with turkey mince before that point but I just couldn't resist for that price to give it a try! When I made this, it must of also been a week for meatballs as separately the lovely Jenny from Jenny Eatwells Rhubarb & ginger blog had also made a similar batch!

I didn’t look at any recipe in particular, was more a bit of this, and a bit of that! Considering it was my first time with the turkey mince, I was pretty impressed and will be definitely making these again, as I oven baked them with just a little spray oil, they are a very lean, and healthy option for dinner!

Whilst the meatballs are quite delicious on their own, especially cold the next day for lunch (though maybe less garlic if you work close to people, sorry to my fiancee!), you could also serve these hot with a tomato sauce if desired. Due to some health issues I’ve been avoiding off anything saucey or tomatoey for some time (oh how I miss you tomatoes!) but I quickly made up a tomato and smoked paprika sauce for my nieces to go with theirs, apparently it tasted delicious – the plates were licked clean so always a good sign! I additionally made the meatballs a couple of weeks later for my D’s family but with a bacon and tomato sauce, it smelt so good but I managed to resist it! We really are converts now to turkey mince and it is starting to feature quite regularly here!

Makes 35 meatballs – around 6 servings depending on appetites and ages!

665g Turkey mince
Breadcrumbs – a good handful (mine were from ASDA!)
1 beaten Egg
2 heaped tbsp plain Flour
1 heaped tbsp freshly chopped Parsley
S&P to taste (white pepper makes a nice change here)
2 cloves garlic finely minced
½ white onion, finely chopped

Pre-heat the oven to 160o fan/ 180o regular

Place the onion and garlic in a shallow dish, microwave uncovered for 3 minutes to soften them and take the raw edge off. Having made batches with both raw, and the cooked mixture, the latter is far superior so don’t skip this stage! Though if raw garlic appeals you might just like...!

Combine all the ingredients using your hands, until all squished together nicely. Roll into walnut sized balls and place on a lightly oiled baking sheet (I recently discovered a non-stick baking sheet thingy that is awesome!) and bake approximately for 15-20 minutes, or until cooked through - always worthwhile chopping one in half to double check, and of course if cooked then it becomes chefs perk!

Serve with sauce if desired, or chill and eat cold later.

Mango and Chocolate Pudding cake

2011-07-25T19:57:00.000+01:00

I'm fully back in the kitchen now, and thoroughly enjoying it all once again. I'm back meal planning and have even started taking my cookery books to bed me for a little light bedtime reading! Had some strange dreams afterwards though! This weeks book has been The New English Kitchen, its a couple of years old now but still a very worthwhile read if you are interested in making good food go that bit further, along with some great economical recipes.

Whilst I most definitely have a sweet tooth, I've doing a lot more savoury cooking lately but I just had to sneak this pudding cake in the other night - and I'm glad I did - it was delicious! So much so that quite disturbingly 3/4 of it went in one sitting......there was only two of us....! Note to self: dust off the Wii fit!

This particular cake came about as I was feeling all domesticated for some bizarre reason the other night, and whilst making dinner decided that we needed a nice cake for pudding. Not wanting all the faff of allowing it to cool, and icing it etc, I decided to make a simple sponge, tarted up and just made into a single layer, along with some tinned mango slices to turn it more into a ‘pudding cake’!

Delicious served warm with a lots of lovely custard

Makes 1 x 20cm sponge cake - would hypothetically serve 8..

Ingredients

45g light brown muscavado sugar

75g caster sugar

2 eggs

4 tbsp desiccated coconut

1 tbsp good quality cocoa powder, mixed with 2 tbsp hot water

120g self raising flour

120g softened butter/ stork margarine

1/2 tsp baking powder

½ tin mango slices

1 glace cherry, halved

Line a 20cm sandwich pan with baking paper (or even better a cake liner!) and pre-heat oven to fan 160/ gas 180

If using a stand mixer, cream together the butter and sugar for a couple of minutes, add flour, baking powder, cocoa, eggs, sugar and coconut, mix well until smooth and creamy. Alternatively, beat all the above ingredients together bit by bit!

Place the drained mango slices in the bottom of the pan, in a daisy type of pattern, with the cherry in the middle, cut side up.

Spoon over the cake batter and smooth over, bake for 25 minutes or until it passes the skewer test. Allow to cool for 10 minutes in the pan and then invert onto a suitable plate or cake stand. Dust lightly with icing sugar and serve warm, though it will keep for a day or so in a cool room.

I am particularly pleased with my cake plate - I had been looking for one for ages, with budget in mind and picked up the blue one shown in the picture for a whole pound in poundland! Amazing what you can sometimes find in the cheapy shops!

Creamy Onion and Bacon pasta

2011-07-21T20:54:00.000+01:00

I picked this recipe out to try recently from one of the instore magazines from Sainsbury's which was advertised as being family friendly, and also was one of their ‘feed your family under a fiver’ recipes. At present it’s not available online, or at least I couldn’t find a valid link..

As it’s only the two of us adults at home, I halved the recipe and to boost the vegetable content I added some finely chopped carrot and a handful of sweetcorn to the mixture, as felt it was a bit lacking otherwise. Also I didn’t want to wash up another pan for the vegetables and this way I could add those two particular vegetables easily! Whilst the parsley does add a hint of greenery, I will experiment next time around with maybe some green beans or broccoli thrown in..however I do love my vegetables so feel free to omit all of them if you just want a bit of a carby comfort food!

Whilst I will definitely make the recipe again, I would cut down on the sugar as it was a tad sweet for me personally (I have adjusted it in the ingredients list), D also commented it tasted a little like hot coleslaw but apparently not in a bad way... Personally I can’t stand coleslaw so can’t really comment there!

Overall it’s a good worknight pasta dish and the caramelized onions make a nice change, as I tend to have both bacon and onions in the fridge it’s a handy standby recipe too! Sainsbury’s claim their original recipe works out at £1.24 per person based on 4 servings, and so based roughly on my adjusted recipe for two persons, I guess you would get change from £3, so its pretty economical!

Serves 2

4 rashers of smoked Bacon, cut into small bite sized pieces
200g Farfalle pasta
1 carrot, finely diced
1/2 cup of frozen sweetcorn
½ tbsp sugar
4 heaped tbsp. Half fat Crème fraiche
1 large white onion, finely sliced
Approx 1 tbsp Fresh parsley leaves to garnish and stir through
Black pepper to serve – I just added to mine as D isn’t keen on it
1 tbsp olive oil
1 garlic clove, finely sliced

Gently heat the oil and add the carrot, garlic, onions and sugar, cook over a medium heat for around 15 minutes or until softened and have slightly caramelized – I put a lid on the pan to stop them drying out and burning

Meanwhile fry the bacon until brown and crispy, stir into the onions. Boil the pasta as per packet instructions, adding the sweetcorn for the final 4 minutes. Drain well and return to the pan. Stir in the bacon and onion mixture, along with the crème fraiche and parsley, serve immediately

Crab, Red pepper and Potato cakes

2011-07-17T10:19:00.000+01:00

I had some leftover mashed potato the other week and after trying to decide on what to make with it I came up with these cakes (patties?), mainly as I had a tin of white crabmeat in the cupboard, and not much else!

Whilst these would benefit from a little chilli perhaps, unfortunately I have had to pretty much give up anything spicy or tomato based due to ongoing stomach issues, however these were still quite tasty, both hot for dinner, and the next day eaten cold in my lunchbox with a salad.

As with a lot of recipes lately I’ve been making, I have been trying to make them slightly healthier and instead of pan-frying the fishcakes, I simply sprayed with oil and baked on a non-stick sheet in the oven, which worked perfectly. Next time around I will leave them to firm up in the fridge for a while, as they were a little too flexible on turning over halfway through cooking!

Makes 9 patties – serves 2

1 tin white crabmeat
2 spring onions, finely sliced
Quantity of leftover cold mashed potato – about 300g
½ cup or so of Fine breadcrumbs
Spray oil
2 tbsp plain flour
½ red pepper, finely chopped
S&P

Pre-heat the oven to 180o fan/ 200 regular

Fry the red pepper for a couple of minutes with a little of the spray oil, until lightly browned, remove from the heat

Mix together all of the ingredients, excluding the flour and breadcrumbs, and season with salt and pepper (taking into account if the mash has already been seasoned!), form into small patties, dust lightly with flour and press onto the breadcrumbs, place on a lined and greased baking tray.

Spray with a little more oil and bake for approx. 25 minutes, turning halfway.

Serve with sweet chilli sauce to dip into.

Florentine Grill

2011-07-11T20:27:00.000+01:00

If there was one word I had to use to describe this dish it would probably be ‘magical’. You look at the picture, its nice enough, look at the ingredients, yep, got most of them in, should be alright. You make the dish….and suddenly your tastebuds go heh, we weren’t expecting this, whats going on, ooh its rather good. In fact more than good! So much so I was eyeing up D’s portion and using every inch of self control to stop me eating his as well as mine, and blaming a ghost for his missing dinner! With a teeny amount of pre-planning (thawing the spinach), you can have this on the table in under 20 minutes and it makes the perfect light supper.

I did make two minor tweaks to the original recipe by replacing the cream with crème fraiche as I happened to have some in, and using some grated cheddar straight from the freezer (bought on reduced a few weeks back!) instead of the gruyere, and you know what? I wouldn’t change a thing! A final flourish was a light sprinkling of breadcrumbs, which helped to make the dish complete. Oh and I baked it too instead of grilling. So minor adjustments really!

Ingredients with my adaptations:

Serves 1 as a light supper, double up for a main meal or when feeding a man!

1 egg
2 blocks frozen spinach, thawed
1 big slice of good quality cooked ham
1 heaped tbsp crème fraiche
1 tbsp grated cheddar
1 heaped tsp breadcrumbs (I liked Asda’s unless you have your own!)

Using a small pie dish or ideally a gratin dish (I really can’t justify buying any more kitchen stuff but it doesn’t stop me wanting one!) line it with the ham, add the thawed (and well drained!) spinach, leaving a well in the middle, add the egg.

Mix the cheese with the crème fraiche and dot mostly over the spinach outer, sprinkle the breadcrumbs over, and a twist of s&p:

Bake for 15 minutes in a medium hot oven, think was about 180o from memory…or until the eggs are set and it has lightly browned on top:

I served mine with home made little roasties, however a nice green salad would also work well with it.

Double Chocolate and Cranberry Muffins - Post 300!

2011-07-05T20:27:00.000+01:00

I was going to bring you something savoury today.........however this being my 300th post I thought something more sweeter was a bit more fitting!! As much as I do like my savoury, I most definitely have a sweet tooth and find most forms of cake pretty irresistible!

These are the latest muffins I baked, and they are really rather delicious! I used my tried and trusty Mingle muffin recipe, with some minor tweakings. The muffins are so quick and easy to make, and come out perfect every time. They have a lovely light, cakey texture and are very moreish!

Makes 12
Easy

Ingredients

250g self-raising flour
25g cocoa powder (I use extra dark Polish cocoa, do try and seek some out!)
2tsp baking powder
125g caster sugar
50g light muscavado sugar
175ml milk
2 large eggs, beaten
100ml sunflower oil (though had to use vegetable as had accidentally run out!)
50g white chocolate chips

50g craisins or dried cranberries1tsp vanilla extract

Pre-heat the oven to 170ºC/ 150o fan (375ºF, gas mark 5).

Line a 12-hole deep muffin tray with paper muffin cases.

Sift together the flour, cocoa and baking powder; stir in the sugar. Add the remaining ingredients and mix lightly together - do not over beat the mixture. It should have a sort of custardy texture - don't worry if it looks a little runny!

Spoon the mixture into the prepared cases. Bake for approximately 20 mins or until springy to touch and a skewer comes away clean. Leave for 10 minutes in the tray and then transfer to a wire rack to cool down.

Dust with icing sugar if desired

I took a batch of the muffins into work with me, freshly baked yesterday morning and they vanished very quickly and were very popular with my colleagues! Can see these being a regular bake!

Enjoy!

Chicken and Sweetcorn Pie

2011-06-30T20:33:00.001+01:00

Oh how I love pie! Previously all my pies were made in my rather lovely and elegant granite Le Creuset pie dish. Well, that is now resigned to the depths of the dusty hallway cupboard (aka Kitchen Narnia!) as say hellloooo there to my new beauty:

I cannot honestly express to you here how much I LOVE this pie dish. Those who know me well know I have a thing for polka dots, and obviously I love baking but combine the two – and well its like Christmas has come early!!

Since being given the beauty last month for my birthday, I had been itching to christen it and finally the day came around when we had friends around for dinner, and I decided to make one of my favourites – chicken and sweetcorn pie! *I do marginally love chicken and mushroom slightly even more but as D detests them, this was the next best thing!*

The pie dish is a little deeper than my old one and I was trying to gauge how much filling to make, in all honesty it was a teeny bit under the rim but was more than enough to feed us four for dinner plus a portion for my lunchbox the next day so isn't far out!

Having been at work all day, I cheated slightly and bought ready rolled puff pastry, which as predicted worked perfectly, though you could of course make your own! I was also a bit lazy and just topped the pie, rather than doing the base as well but as it can be a bit stodgy I was glad to skip this part! Also no blind baking so much more straightforward to make!

Ingredients

5 skinless and boneless chicken thighs, trimmed and diced into ½ inch chunks
½ pint Milk
2 tsp Marigold boullion powder (or veg stock cube) made up with ½ pint boiling water
1 white Onion, finely diced
1 celery stick, sliced thinly
1x 200g tinned sweetcorn
1 Puff pastry sheet
1 tbsp olive oil
1 heaped tbsp. freshly chopped parsley
S&P to taste
2 tbsp cornflour
Egg to glaze – or my new discovery egg glaze from Lakeland!

Pre-heat the oven to 170fan/ 190 regular.

Heat the oil in a large sauté pan and soften the onion, without too much browning.

Turn up the heat slightly and brown the chicken in the pan, add a little more oil if needed, and the celery, cook for about 10 minutes or until the chicken has cooked through, add the celery, mix well and transfer to a bowl using a slotted spoon, leaving any juices in the pan.

Mix the cornflour with a little of the milk, to form a paste.

Return the pan to the heat, add the stock and milk, bring to the boil and whisk in the cornflour quickly, until the sauce has thickened, it will happen quickly! Add the reserved chicken mixture, parsley, season and transfer to the pie dish.

Brush the egdes of the pie dish with a little beaten egg (see egg notes!) and affix the pastry sheet over, pressing down firmly to seal. Glaze with the egg and make a couple of holes to allow the steam to escape and bake for approx. 25 minutes or until its all golden and puffed up nicely!

Serve with your favourite vegetables –we had sautéed cabbage and lots of lovely swede mash!

Pouting with Cabbage, Bacon and Beans

2011-06-26T10:45:00.000+01:00

A few months back you couldn't go online or read a paper without seeing some kind of reference to Hugh’s fish fight, and rightly so. I was shocked and appalled at how much waste there was within the fishing industry with quotas that seem to be of no use to anyone, least alone the poor fish!

Admittedly I was guilty of buying haddock, salmon and cod, despite being overfished. However, without much personal knowledge about cooking other species, I also slightly ashamedly wasn’t buying anything different at home. Somewhere In the back of mind, along with receiving an excellent Fish book that I will write about shortly, I had vowed to change this, and so last week I was very brave and purchased instead of usual haddock – some Pouting fillets. Unfortunately the fishmonger (it was in Tesco) didn’t know much about it and was trying instead to push the £17 a kilo haddock on me, but with the Pouting at only £5 a kilo, it was infinitely more appealing and so armed with all the knowledge the little placard gave me (I.e. not much) and a newly found confidence I took my fillets home and decided to try out a recipe that had been recommended from the BBC Good Food website!

My fish repertoire is normally limited to baking fillets or poaching, which I do perfectly well but I wanted to liven things up a bit and this recipe allowed me to pan fry the fillets, something of a first for me! It was a little scary but now its done, its certainly something i am no longer in fear of!

Like always I didn’t follow the recipe exactly; I omitted the flageolet beans for cannellini, mainly as I have a thing about them lately, also substituted vermouth for the wine, and accidently bought bacon medallions rather than streaky, so didn’t quite impart the full bacony flavour. Additionally I had to keep the cabbage part bit warm for a little longer than anticipated so lost its shine slightly, however despite all this I do think this recipe is a keeper, and with a little tweaking it could be a very good dish indeed! I really liked the bacon and fish combination, as some time back at a food show I had tried scallops cooked with pancetta, and was very pleasantly surprised at how well it worked together! Now I've finally made this I will be definitely exploring this area of cooking further!

The recipe is easy to make, and ideal for a work night meal, taking no longer than about 30 minutes to assemble and cook.

Serves 2 - original recipes serves 4

Ingredients

2 sustainable white fish fillets, skin on and pinboned (why do I always get the bones?!) - I used Pouting
2 tbsp plain flour
s&p
1-2 tbsp olive oil

1/2 savoy cabbage, shredded - use your judgement - my cabbage was a beast so used about a third of it
2 rashers smokey bacon, diced
1/2 onion, finely sliced
1 celery stick - I forgot to buy some!
1 carrot, diced into 1/2 cm pieces
small bunch thyme - I used dried
2 tbsp vermouth
1/2 carton cannellini beans
small knob of butter
150 ml light chicken stock

In a large saute pan, melt the butter and add the bacon, fry for a couple of minutes and then add the carrot, celery and onion, fry for about 8-10 minutes until softened without browning. Add the cabbage, fry for a couple of minutes until just wilted, stir in the vermouth (or wine), simmer until it has evaporated and then add the stock and beans, cover the pan and simmer for a further 10 minutes or until the cabbage is cooked but still nicely green.

Heat the olive oil in a frying pan until bubbling, dust the fish fillets in the seasoned flour and fry skin side down for 4 minutes, until crisp - press down to stop the fish curling up (ideally using a fish slice rather than your fingers!) - turn over and fry until cooked through - about 2-3 minutes, the fish should be opaque and flake easily.

Place the cabbage and its juices into serving bowls, top with the fish and garnish if desired. These are our new pasta bowls - don't you just love a Whittards sale!

The recipe suggests serving with some new potatoes if desired, personally I found it quite filling but served with some freshly baked rolls, which were great for dunking in the juices!

Bulghur Wheat with Feta and Roasted Vegetables

2011-06-19T20:36:00.000+01:00

This is a bit of an accidental entry - I had planned to post something else tonight but then spotted over at Cake, Crumbs and Cooking her delicious roasted vegetable and giant couscous salad, which additionally was her No Croutons Required entry - and remembered I'd taken a picture of my lunch today, which just happened to be Bulghur Wheat with Roasted Vegetables and so decided to post this instead!

Like C has said, I too had been meaning to participate in so many NCR challenges but always missed the deadline, so I'm quite pleased that I spotted her post, and actually had something I could add!

I really enjoyed this salad in my lunchbox; I'd made enough yesterday morning to cover both last nights dinner and today's lunch at work, it travelled well and made a nice change to my usual salad of a few leaves and leftovers, something which had become a bit of a joke in my works staffroom! At least with this I could prove I did not dine solely on cucumber!

Ingredients for 2 lunch servings

100g bulghur wheat
1 tbsp olive oil
1 large carrot, cut into 1 cm dice
1 medium sized courgette, as above
1/2 yellow pepper, cut into chunks
100g feta or similar cheese, cut into 1/2 cm chunks
5 basil leaves, shredded
3 mushrooms quartered
2 tsp marigold bouillon powder

Pre-heat the oven to 180 fan/ 200 regular. Line a baking tray with baking parchment or a silicon sheet and pour on the olive oil

Place all the vegetables on the baking tray, toss well in the oil and roast for approx 30 minutes, or until the vegetables are cooked and golden brown, allow to cool

In a bowl, mix the bulghur wheat with marigold powder, pour over boiling water to cover by about a centimetre, cover with cling film and allow to stand for 15 minutes, remove the cover, stir well - all of the liquid should have been absorbed, allow to cool.

Once everythings cooled down, combine the bulghur wheat, vegetables, cheese, and basil. Either serve immediately or pack into tubs for lunch!

Salmon and Broccoli Risotto

2011-06-14T16:34:00.001+01:00

With the events over the past six months or so zapping my energy, amongst other things happening I’ve not been cooking from scratch as much as before, or indeed blogging many of my own recipes.. . However, recently I’ve started to enjoy being properly back in the kitchen again and this is one of my new favourite risottos.

Unfortunately I didn't exactly measure anything, as I wasn't expecting this to be so good, though I will of course update properly when I re-make it! If you're a bit like me and tend to go more by eye, rather than actual quantities it will hopefully make perfect sense to you! If not, then apologies, and I will try and update the exact ingredients shortly!

Firstly, I really liked the appearance of this dish, the soft pinkness of the salmon against the vivid greenery from the broccoli and green beans, it gave it a lovely summery feel to our dinner. Even D who isn’t that much of a salmon fan rather enjoyed this dish too!

Secondly, whilst this dish sounds a little luxurious, it was in fact rather a cheapish dinner using frozen salmon fillets and frozen mixed vegetables!

And thirdly, its delicious!

Served 2, would probably stretch to 3 lesser greedy persons!

Ingredients:

2 frozen salmon fillets/ pieces, cooked in microwave as per packet instructions until just cooked through (around 3-4 minutes)
A cereal bowl or so of frozen broccoli, along with mixed farmhouse vegetables such as peas, sweetcorn and carrot mix, steamed
160g Arborio risotto rice
1 small diced white onion
1 tbsp garlic butter (or butter + separate garlic, I was lazy!)
1 tsp olive oil
2 tbsp vermouth I.e. a good splash!
About 1.5 pints light vegetable stock
3 tbsp or so freshly grated parmesan
Fresh basil leaves – around 5-6 finely chopped, plus a couple to make it look pretty at the end
S&P to taste

1) Gently melt the oil and butter together, sauté the onion until softened, but not coloured, add the rice, mix well, add the vermouth, stir well uncovered for a couple of minutes to evaporate. Add a ladleful of hot stock, allow to gently cook away and when the stock has evaporated, repeat this stage until your risotto rice is cooked, and has a creamy texture – anywhere up to 30 minutes or so. Grab yourself a glass of wine and a favourite cookbook to help the process along!

2) When the rice is soft and cooked, break the cooked salmon fillets into small chunks and gently stir into the rice along with the vegetables, being careful not to break it up, gently cook for a couple more minutes to warm through.

3) Remove from the heat and stir the in parmesan to taste and season with salt and pepper, and the shredded basil leaves. The risotto should be creamy consistency.

Serve immediately, garnished preferably with fresh basil leaves

Winner of Macarons book Giveaway!

2011-06-11T22:40:00.001+01:00

Thankyou for all of your entries unto my Macarons book giveaway- I now have a stash of delicious sounding sweet treats so some of you might find an email requesting more recipe information shortly but sadly there can only be one winner - congratulations to entry number 23 - chosen with the help of random.org - the lucky 'Miss Whiplash'! Can Miss Whiplash please send me your details to anneskitchen@ymail.com and I will arrange for delivery.

True Random Number GeneratorMin: Max: Result:23Powered by RANDOM.ORG

The Joy of Home made (and oven baked!) Scotch Eggs

2011-06-08T22:06:00.001+01:00

For months, if not years now I have been meaning to make scotch eggs, they seem to me at least to be coming back into food 'fashion' but mainly the last time I made them was in 'Food Technology' class approximately 15 years ago (how old do I feel right now!) with a girlfriend and I have vague recollections of things exploding in deep fat fryers but overall successful results.... were definitely one of the better cookery class dishes..

Additionally a few months back the lovely Helen bought over a fantastic scotch egg made by her local butchers, which reignited the flames and tonight ...courtesy of my favourite sausage meat from a fantastic local butcher to me, and going on these memories we finally made scotch eggs again!

Whilst I hold no fear of deep fat frying, in the back of my mind trying to be healthy, plus increasing oil costs I decided to try and bake them instead of deep frying, afterall my chicken kievs worked out well being baked the other week so had high hopes for these babies....and ... my oh my why have we waited soooo long!

One picture I think says it all:

But...that would just be cruel, I guess you wanna see inside too...

These were beasts! Packed to the rafters with perfect, tasty sausage meat encasing a lovely free range egg! Whilst due to our glorious English climate these were not enjoyed as part of the planed picnic in the park, they were no less delicious eaten indoors, and in the dry!

We didn't use a recipe, merely followed our memories and what seemed right, and I wouldn't change a thing! I flattened out a ball of sausage meat on some cling film, popped the soft boiled egg in the middle, then gently shaped the sausage meat around it, then dusted in a flour bath, drenched in egg and then rolled in seasoned breadcrumbs; which were half paxo natural and half Waitrose posh crumbs, plus a little fresh parsley. I sprayed with a little oil then baked for about 30 minutes in a hot oven. Pretty simple, and yet pretty darn good if I say so myself!

Pecan and Marmalade loaf cake

2011-06-04T21:34:00.001+01:00

Pecan nuts are one of favourite kind of nuts and when I spotted this recipe in the BBC Good Food Collection book (a very well used book too I might add!) I knew it was calling my name to be baked! Its title in the book is down as Sticky marmalade tealoaf, but I think Pecan and Marmalade loaf cake is a better description, well was for me anyway as the word ‘sticky’ kinda put me off it until I saw the ingredients! By the way the cake is in no way sticky, just gloriously glossy on top!

I really loved this cake! It was perfectly balanced with the tang of marmalade, a hint of ginger, a little crunch from the pecan’s and bound together with the heady aromas of mixed spice! It smells so good when being baked and is definitely my new favourite cake recipe, it’s also super easy to make!

Another bonus is that the cake also travels very well, if that’s something you have to frequently consider! This one was made to take with me to visit my family down in Devon, and they all thoroughly enjoyed it too. I say this though with slight regret as I would have been quite happy to lock myself away with the cake and not share it! Guess I will just have to bake it again, sigh!

Makes 1 2lb loaf – cuts into about 12 slices

Ingredients

175g butter, softened

3 eggs, beaten

175g light muscovado sugar

225g Self raising flour

140g marmalade (I used my favourite blood orange marmalade!)

½ tsp baking powder

2tsp ground ginger

1 tsp mixed spice

100g pecan nut halves (I just chopped mine roughly up)

Pre-heat oven to 180o/ gas4/ fan 160o and line a 2lb loaf tin

Set aside 1 tbsp of marmalade into a small saucepan (I have metal cup measurements which are perfect for this job!)

Blend together in a bowl the remaining marmalade, flour, sugar,. Butter, eggs, baking powder and spices, (I used the food processors dough blade!), stir in 2/3 or so of the pecans, saving the remainder to top the cake

Pour into the lined tin, and arrange the remaining pecans on top. Bake in the middle of the oven for 1-1 ¼ hours, or until a skewer comes away clean. Cover the cake about 40 minutes into cooking loosely with foil. When cooked through, transfer to a cooling rack

Heat the reserved marmalade and spread over the top of the cake, I find silicon brushes ideal for this part!

Serve whilst warm and enjoy!

I've also entered this cake at Bookmarked Recipes, thanks to Jacqueline for the reminder, don't forget to check out her fabulous blog and also Ruths Kitchen Experiments who has set the challenge up!

**Don't forget my competition to win a copy of Macarons is still running - you have until 10th of June to enter!**

Macarons book Giveaway

2011-05-28T10:24:00.001+01:00

Firstly, no you are not seeing double, parts of a similar post appeared and disappeared due to technical issues a few weeks back, however I can confirm this post is now definitely real!

A few months back whilst I was a bit under the weather, the lovely Helen from Fuss Free Flavours braved our local transport system and came to visit me, bringing with her some delicious treats, including some very good scotch eggs!

Amongst our little lunch feast, Helen also very kindly gave me a copy of an elegant little book simply called Macarons, by Annie Rigg, and after baking my first and successful batch of Macarons, I am now very happy to confirm I have an additional copy to give away to one lucky UK based reader!

The book is perfect and petite, a little like the macarons themselves! It contains a selection of mouthwatering recipes and combinations, including step by step instructions on how to make and fill them, I can highly recommend it!

These were our first macarons - of course we had to dye them pink but you could use any colouring you wish for! Prior to this I'd never made them, or tried before but am a definite convert! They are so light and delicious, a little time consuming but the results are worth it!

Its very easy to enter the competition - just leave me a comment below telling me your favourite sweet treat!

To gain additional entries, you can re-tweet this competition using the T button below this post, please leave an additional comment advising you have done so. Additionally you can gain extra entries by 'liking' my facebook page, and leaving a comment below.

The competition closes on the 10th June 2011, and the winner be chosen at random and will be announced shortly after here. Please leave a valid contact email address.

Don't forget to check out Helens blog too, its jam packed full of treats!

Ham and Sweetcorn Philly Frittata

2011-05-22T11:11:00.000+01:00

Frittata's (tortilla) are a common dinner in our house - mainly as they are so versatile, and also economical as you can you use up a mixture of leftovers and whatever needs using up quickly! We normally have eggs in so it’s quick and handy supper!

Eggs are your base, and from there the options are endless!

I often vary the dairy part between what needs using up - sometimes its cream, or crème fraiche, and sometimes its cream cheese. This one however was slightly different, I used cream cheese but this time a Basil and Sundried tomato flavoured one recently launched from Philiadelphia, which worked very well and gave the Frittata a new twist.

So once your eggs and dairy bit are in the bowl, from there you could use some cooked meat, I.e. strips of ham or salami, tinned fish including tuna and salmon or even cooked vegetables such as courgette, slices of potato and mushrooms, and even tinned vegetables such as sweetcorn work really well here too. Cheese wise, I like to add a handful of grated cheddar, along with any other odd bits of cheese - parmesan, red leicester, mozzarella etc all work very well. I used fresh basil roughly chopped into the mixture but parsley is also a good addition.

I rarely weigh anything, normally judging by eye until you have a well mixed batter, with even distribution between the eggy bit and your additions:

For my 23cm sauté pan, my base is 6 eggs plus additions, which will give you a frittata about 2cm deep. Gently heat your pan, add a knob of butter and a splash of olive oil, then tip in the mixture and gently poke around to get a nice layer of all the fillings, allow to gently cook away, once the topping is starting to set, transfer under a hot grill for a couple of minutes to brown nicely.

You can serve it either hot as a light dinner with a nice crisp green salad, or let it cool down, then cut into strips and serve as part of a buffet or picnic. Is also delicious in a lunchbox as travels well.

Enjoy!

Many thanks to Jo at Golin Harris for the Philadelphia samples :)

Cake Pops..

2011-05-16T19:36:00.000+01:00

A couple of weeks back I had a few hours to kill, and as I normally rather enjoy baking, decided to finally get around to baking some cake pops, which seem to be a newish trend in baking...several hours later, and covered in a light film of cocoa and icing sugar dust they were finally complete!

They tasted fantastic, gorgeously dense and chocolately with a cherry kick, though were very much a labour of love! Mine were dipped in white chocolate and then topped with a variety of hundreds & thousands, crushed butterscotch pieces and honeycomb. They make a great novelty dessert and are ideal for parties and family gatherings...

However my dearest friends and family – I know you loved these heart stopping chunky chocolate boulders of sweet delight but please note they were a one off as I don’t intend to ever bake these again anytime soon. Or at least until maybe I own a dishwasher, decent hand whisk and learn to be patient. Oh, and have someone to clean up after me!

Creamy Sun-dried tomato Turkey

2011-05-08T11:50:00.000+01:00

I will be honest in that right up to serving this dish the first time around that I made it, I was slightly hesitant. Firstly, I've never really cooked with sun-dried tomatoes, other than stuffing them into bread dough and tend to usually keep things simple when cooking with turkey steaks. Secondly it didn't look very attractive during cooking at all and therefore I didn’t initially bother taking a photo of it!

However all my fears were gone upon one mouthful – the sauce was truly delicious, both creamy and tomatoey, and the turkey remained moist and was perfectly cooked through, I can’t remember enjoying turkey so much before this dish! Everyone was mopping out the remaining sauce in the Le Creuset, always a good sign!!

As we enjoyed it so much, I made it again last week for my mum and brother, for a very belated Mothers Day meal, and luckily they both loved it too!

I originally found the recipe on the I love British Turkey site, after buying the steaks reduced (shh!) and made only minor tweaks as to what I had in stock.

Ingredients

4 turkey breast steaks, about 150g/5oz each in weight
1½ tbsp seasoned plain flour
1 tbsp olive oil – I had to add more than this
2-4 garlic cloves, peeled and chopped
2 medium onions, peeled and cut into wedges – was a little too much, used only one onion the 2nd time around, also I sliced them quite thinly
5-6 sun-dried tomatoes, roughly chopped
2 tbsp tomato purée
300ml/½ pint white wine – didn’t have any so used a good splash of vermouth and doubled the stock quantity
150ml/¼ pint turkey or chicken stock – see above note!
4 tbsp half fat crème fraîche – I used full fat version both times
50g/2oz pitted black olives, roughly chopped – omitted as didn't have any in, think the dish is tasty enough anyway!
Flat leaf parsley to garnish – omitted first time around, 2nd time had curly leaf parsley, pretty garnish but not essential by any means!

1. Coat the turkey steaks in the flour then heat the oil in a large frying pan and seal the turkey steaks on all sides. Remove from the pan and reserve. Add the garlic, onions and sun-dried tomatoes to the pan, sauté for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally then return the turkey steaks to the pan.

2. Blend the tomato purée with the wine, add to the pan with the stock and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat then simmer gently for 10-15 minutes or until the turkey is thoroughly cooked.

3. Remove the turkey from the pan and keep warm. Stir the crème fraîche into the pan with the olives and heat through for 1 minute. Pour the sauce over the steaks, garnish with the parsley. I served the dish with rice, broccoli and peas, makes a good combination to soak up the lovely sauce!

Chicken Kiev's and new Cookery School book

2011-05-03T13:59:00.000+01:00

I've always felt that there is something quite special about Chicken Kiev's, a kind of happy nostalgia and despite eating many a kiev over the years, good and bad I had never actually attempted to make them! The thought of all that lovely garlicky herby butter can't help but raise a smile and after seeing the recipe in the new Cookery School book, I finally made them!

I am not very good at following instructions admittedly, and struggled with cutting the chicken breast correctly, I felt maybe one more image in the book would have solved my ‘diagonal’ query, however overall it was very clear to follow, and the kiev’s were delicious.

Trying to be slightly healthier instead of deep frying them, I sprayed them with oil and baked for about 30 minutes instead, they were still beautifully crispy and very moist, though I need to make bigger pockets next time as could of done with a touch more of the lovely garlicky butter!

On the front of the Cookery School book it claims to be able to teach anyone to cook.. I initially thought would be a perfect book for D, who has as you’ll know by my recent postings has been learning to cook with me…Additionally, whilst I did food technology for GCSE many moons ago, I don’t recall ever learning any specific techniques and I have got this far mainly through trial and error! I make good cakes, am fairly confident with pastry and give me a tin of tomatoes and I can knock up a pretty good sauce but beyond that its very hit and miss!

The Cookery School book has recipes from the Michelin starred chef Richard Corrigan, and lots of helpful advice from the glamorous chef and food writer Gizzi Erskine. After watching several programs, Richard seems to favour bad cop and Gizzi provides a more nurturing, friendly cop role, which strikes a good balance most of the time!

Each section in the book has clear, photographic and written instructions, and highlights what skills you will learn making the recipe, which is very useful. You can feel proud afterwards and also know the name of what you have learned, which is good!

For me personally, some of the recipes and general feel of the book leans towards what I would call restaurant style dishes; whereas we are more home style cooks and eaters; several recipes didn’t appeal to both D or my brother, who claimed there were ‘no man food recipes’! Additionally I felt a lot of the ingredients are quite expensive or a bit random (dandelion leaves?!) and not readily available if you live out outside of a major cities, though there are a number of mail order companies around now so they are not completely unachievable.

Whilst I went fairly simple with making the Chicken Kiev's; to give you an idea of the recipes contained within the book, here are a few examples of ones that I particularly liked the sound of:

Basic:

Halloumi, tomato and green bean salad
Moules Mariniére
Thai pork lettuce cups

Intermediate:

Razor clams with a tomato sauce
Baby chicken with puy lentil dhal
Lemon posset with butter shortbread

Advanced:

Onion, spinach and ricotta ravioli with a lemon cream sauce
Stuffed lemon sole with scampi and tenderstem broccoli
Raspberry millefeuille

The Cookery School book is published by Penguin and is available in the shops now.

With thanks to Julie @ Traffic Partners

Gammon and Potato bake aka Leftovers go to Heaven

2011-05-01T08:49:00.001+01:00

I adore potatoes, they are my favourite carb and are just so versatile, from new potatoes simply boiled, and finished with a little butter and a few mint leaves; to being jazzed up into Gnocchi. Infact I don’t think I have ever come across a potato dish I have not enjoyed!

A few weeks back I had a quantity of cold, cooked gammon leftover from Sunday lunch; we’d already had gammon sandwiches and being a chilly evening I didn’t really fancy having a cold dinner again so I put out my dilemma to Twitter and the lovely Hampshire cook answered my prayers with her fabulous potato bake!

After a quick scan of the recipe I didn’t have any leeks, or indeed the correct potatoes and improvised with the last of some rather large new potatoes, sliced thinly, along with some sautéed onions, that were abandoned from a plan to make a frittata with the previous night.

Oh my it was lush! Beautiful layers of creamy potatoes, smokey salty ham and the onion disbursed through. Next time I cook gammon I will be ensuring we have leftovers, specifically to make this dish!

Happy Easter

2011-04-24T19:49:00.001+01:00

I'm a little late in posting but wanted to wish you all a Happy Easter!

Do you believe in Fairies?

2011-04-20T18:00:00.000+01:00

Do you believe in Fairies? Not sure? Well the good news is there is one that definitely exists, and its called the Fairy Hobmother!!

I recently commented on a post at Fuss Free Flavours and shortly after I had an email from the Fairy Hobmother (Fairies are high-tech nowadays ;-)) from Appliances Online granting me a wish! I had admittedly asked for a tumble dryer, which understandably the fairy couldn't quite run to but instead granted me a book wish and I am now happily reading through a copy of the River Cottage Everyday cookbook!

Appliances Online are one of the UK's largest Online Kitchen Appliance retailers, selling a whole host of appliances including Range Cookers and Wine Coolers (aka to be in my dream house!)

So now do you believe in Fairies? If so then please leave me a comment below advising what you would like from the Fairy Hobmother in your kitchen and they may just visit you soon! Good luck!

Spinach and Ricotta Cannelloni

2011-04-13T17:11:00.000+01:00

Whilst Spinach and Ricotta cannelloni is amongst one of my favourite pasta dishes, and at one point practically the only dish I would order on a restaurant menu as a child; somehow I have only managed to cook this dish just once, many years back! Unfortunately it was whilst I had a balance problem due to an ear infection and so it took me several hours, in between the room ‘spinning’ and trying to stand long enough to assemble the dish! I'm not sure I even remember whether it turned out good or not, something most unusual for me as I seem to recall nearly every other meal I've had!

Since then, due to that D’s mum makes a very delicious spinach and ricotta cannelloni, I’ve not really needed to make it again. However, when this months copy of Jamie magazine arrived containing a recipe for Spinach and Ricotta cannelloni I decided it was high time that I tried again. D also agreed we could actually make it together and after a not so fun Saturday afternoon spent doing battle with a trolley, though slightly allieved by a glass of very nice Shiraz when we got home, Spinach and Ricotta cannelloni finally got made again!

Overall the recipe is easy to follow, though it does suggest pre-heating the oven about an hour in advance, if you are following it word perfectly but I will definitely make this one again and know for next time! I really liked the lightness of this dish, there is a subtle hint of lemon zest which lifts the filling to a new level and I urge you not to omit it from the recipe! D wants to add more cheese next time, never a bad thing really for a pasta dish but totally up to you!

It also reminded me to order some disposable piping bags for filling the shells, as my DIY greaseproof paper ones I use for icing fell apart and caused a temporary mayhem! I think we were wearing more spinach at one point than the cannelloni had in it!

Serves 6 (though I upped the quantities by a third, as always good to have leftovers but we had none despite there being 5 of us!)

400g spinach
250g ricotta
1 egg, beaten
2tsp grated parmesan
¼ tsp ground nutmeg
2 tins chopped tomatoes
1 onion, diced
2 garlic, crushed
Grated zest ½ lemon
½ bunch basil leaves
1 bay leaf
250g mozzarella, sliced
150g canneloni, approx 14 shells

Extra Virgin Olive Oil for drizzling (I forgot this bit)

Pre-heat oven to 160 fan/ 180/ gas 4 (though do this a bit later on, as above!)

Put the spinach and a drizzle of olive oil in a large saute pan, on a low heat. Add the nutmeg, a little s&p and cover, gently cook the spinach down (I.e dark green and all wilted) stirring occasionally, transfer to a bowl to cool down.

Use the same pan to heat a little more olive oil, sweat the onion until soft, then add the garlic, tomatoes, bay leaf, a few basil leaves, lemon zest and simmer gently for 20 minutes, until it has thickened, season to taste.

Squeeze the moisture out of the spinach, back into the bowl and chop up the spinach, return to the liquid in the bowl and stir in the egg, ricotta and parmesan. (I did omit some of the liquid as my spinach was quite wet when cooking)

Pipe or fill the canneloni with the mixture and place in a dish to hold them all snugly, in one layer. Spread over the tomato sauce (dont 't forget to pick out the bay leaf!), scatter the basil and add the mozzarella slices, drizzle with the EVOO and cook for 35-40 minutes or until golden and the pasta is cooked through.

Allow to stand for a couple of minutes, then top with remaining basil. Serve with a nice green baby leaf salad.

March Round-up

2011-04-05T10:27:00.001+01:00

March was quite a busy month on Annes Kitchen, I managed to do twelve blog posts, possibly a record for me! Annes Kitchen also celebrated its 4th birthday, and I did my first blog giveaway to win a gorgeous Hotel Chocolat Easter Egg, which was won by the lovely Jacqueline of Tinned Tomatoes!

Somehow I also found the time to take part in a few blogging events, including making some Mocha Coconut clusters for Random Recipes, Olive and Herb bread for Fresh From the Oven, and last but not least a batch of fabulously minty Mingle muffins for Sweets for a Saturday.

Whilst not everything I made during March found its way on to my blog (poor lighting playing its part too!), I must share with you my little Mushroom, spinach and feta tarts, which are ideal for a starter (or two for a main course!). They also meant I finally got to play with the new mini fluted, loose bottomed tins I bought myself for Christmas! I did think they would be quite fiddly but they took no time at all to line with pastry, and due to the size didn’t require blind baking! A great result!

The tart filling consisted of cooked spinach, crumbled feta cheese and lightly browned field mushrooms, bound together with egg and a splash of milk, plus a small handful of grated mature cheddar, then baked for around 30 minutes. Nothing got weighed or measured, hence no recipe but I will be definitely making again as they were so tasty and I will try to write the full recipe down next time!

During March, I also took part in the Forever Nigella #3 ‘Ciao Italia’ blogging challenge held by Maison Cupcake, and whilst I entered the deliciously addictive Baci Di Ricotta, I had also made Nigella’s Pasta alla Genovese, a deliciously vibrant green pasta dish consisting of linguine, potatoes, green beans and an easy pesto sauce. Part of me was a bit hmm about having potatoes and pasta in the same meal but it actually worked really well and even D begrudgingly enjoyed it, despite it being meatless! The recipe is in Nigella’s latest book Kitchen (and is still one of my favourite cookery books!). and also appears on BBC Food

I adore aubergines, they are one of my favourite vegetables to eat, providing they are cooked right, which can be tricky and I admittedly have not always got it right! They can go from being sponge like to charred or stringy, in a relatively short space of time and I am sure people have been deterred from them for life! A thorough shame though as when cooked well, they are heavenly! Unfortunately I’ve not managed to convince D of this yet but I am working on it!

Whilst I have a few favourite ways to cook aubergines, I found this great little side / mezze style dish from BBC Good Food this month for ‘Aubergines with Garlic and Herb dressing’, which despite the name has an unusual but delicious, almost sweet and sour taste. It is an ideal dish to prepare ahead of time and serve at room temperature.

Despite buying various books and kit, I am not what you would call gifted when it comes to cake decorating and I accept that, the cake itself tasted great so can't have everything! Though I did try hard this month when making two birthday cakes; the first one did not quite go to plan and the icing colour is somewhat unusual..

But the second birthday cake I am rather proud of the finished result:

And lastly I must share with you the fabulous fudge cheesecake that my brother made this week! I will be definitely exercising this week!

So whilst March was quite a busy month, I am now finally back at work this week, so please bear with me if the blog tails off a little! **Edited: no such luck, am off sick again already :( **

Macarons

2011-04-01T09:51:00.008+01:00

This post also appears on Fuss Free Flavours!

Over the last few months I was a bit under the weather and when the horizon appeared a little brighter, a very kind and generous Helen who runs Fuss Free Flavours braved the local transport system and came all the way over to visit me, along with some delicious treats!

Alongside the delicious treats, Helen also kindly gave me a copy of an elegant little book simply called Macarons, by Annie Rigg, to help ease some of my boredom!

Initially I felt like a bit an outsider in the fact that I’d never tried, or dared to make a Macaron before, but yet quite convinced I would like them! The book has a lots of enticing recipes, from tempting both visually and by word, from Mint chocolate flavoured to the rather more exotic Gingerbread spice! There are clear instructions on how to make the Macarons and is ideal for a complete novice like me, and slightly egg white phobic cook, along with all the lovely fillings and ideas for combinations.

With the help of a fellow baker, (also a Macaron virgin!) and her rather lovely new kitchen (also with a dishwasher thankfully!) we recently set about making Macarons for the first time! Being both rather girly orientated we decided to dye them all pink! The book recommends paste colourings but we used liquid without any problems. I must admit the mixture looked rather glorious in all its soft pink foaminess but fighting the urge to eat it, we battled through with the piping bag and hoped they were successful, having no previous Macaron knowledge to go by!

Sadly, the first tray came out black as the night, fortunately with a keener eye the remaining came out near perfect! We then made both the buttercream and chocolate ganache (using Filthy Rich chocolate, quite intense!) recipes from the book and very carefully filled our macarons! They are fragile little beasts though so be careful handling them!

Not too shabby for our first attempt!

I am hoping to bring you a giveaway for the book but am waiting for confirmation - will let you know later!

With thanks to Helen for allowing me to post :)

Mocha Coconut Clusters - Random Recipes and new Kenco Millicano

2011-03-29T15:28:00.000+01:00

Whilst I had this months Random Recipe challenge somewhere in the back of my mind, Dom kindly reminded me over twitter the other night that it was due soon. As promised, I went immediately to the bookshelves, and with his advice on which shelf to choose (five to choose from, excluding the two magazine shelves!), plus the guidance that it must be book number 18 – I pulled out a book titled Sweet Treats: 30 minutes or Less that I had picked up several years back cheaply but I had never made anything from it before. Though I got off lightly, book number 19 was an awful book involving pre-packaged crap from the 1980’s!

The first recipe I flicked too was titled ‘Mexican glazed Pumpkin. Erm yeah no, sorry, I am cheating, its not exactly pumpkin season and along with the fact that D really does not care for pumpkin or squash in general it was never going to happen! I decided to re-flick at random and fortunately the book opened at Mocha Coconut Clusters! Far more to our tastes (well mine anyway!), and also I had everything in the cupboards which sealed the deal!

Makes 30 (ish)

Ingredients – see notes after!

115g milk chocolate
2 tbsp butter -
1tsp instant coffee granules
55g desiccated coconut

Notes: –

a) I used Tesco’s 33% cocoa Ecuador milk chocolate, despite being more of a plain chocolate girl I rather liked this one, was smooth and creamy.

b) 2 tbsp butter – what an awkward measurement?! Nearly broke my plastic measuring spoon trying to carve
it! Roughly weighed in at 25g.

c) Coffee – I used new Kenco Millicano, which is also my new favourite instant coffee, though it tastes more like filter coffee! Please see the bottom of this post for more information about it.

d) 55g coconut is a lie! I made the recipe up as per the instructions, tried to spoon onto the baking tray but it spread out rather than 'clustered'. I scraped the mixture back in the pan, added about 4 heaped dessert spoons more of coconut until it was more solidified and able to form into clusters, rather than smoosh!

So after all that, if you still fancy having a go, they are actually very quick and easy to make, and more importantly I rather like them! The initial taste is the chocolate, then comes the crispy coconut and its texture, then a gorgeous coffee flavour hits you gently, yet firmly. Yum! Though strictly for coffee lovers only!

1) Gently melt the butter and chocolate together. The recipe suggests doing this in a bowl over simmering water; however I use Meyer Analon saucepans which have some fancy coating and never bother with this stage!

2) Remove from the heat and stir in the coffee until its dissolved

3) Stir in the coconut, referring to above guidance, use a teaspoon (and fingers!) to spoon small heaps onto a tray lined with baking paper.

4) Place in the fridge to set – this doesn’t take very long. Transfer into petit four cases and bring to stand at room temperature briefly before serving. The clusters will keep for several days refrigerated.

With thanks also to Sophie at Golin Harris and Kenco for sending me the lovely goody bag that brightened up a very dull afternoon during my recent bout of illness. I had regrettably been unable to attend an event launching the new Kenco Millicano instant coffee, which is made from a combination of instant coffee and finely-milled beans and is available now in the shops.

Amongst other things, I had been unable to tolerate coffee during the last few months and I had been missing it terribly, so the coffee arrived with perfect timing as better health thankfully returned! I celebrated my return to coffee with a welcome cup of coffee made using the Kenco Millicano, along with the lovely Helen from Fuss Free Flavours who braved our local bus service and very kindly visited me for lunch.

As I've gotten older, I have become quite fussy with my coffee, I like it strong, black and a little sugar to sweeten, (or tar as my dearest likes to refer to it as!) Unfortunately in my first cup I added too much water and it was a little weak for my liking, though on my second cup I perfected it and used my favourite small bunny mug instead, a heaped teaspoon of Millicano and a spoonful of sugar. Bliss! The coffee has all the convenience of an instant yet has the smooth taste of filter coffee, particularly handy as I am currently cafetiere-less and it saves me buying a replacement!

Fresh From the Oven - Olive and Herb bread

2011-03-27T10:56:00.001+01:00

This months Fresh From The Oven challenge was set by the lovely Helen from Fuss Free Flavours and was ‘To bake something yeasted, using flour where you know either where it was grown or where it was milled’.

I did try to find a local supplier of flour but unfortunately didn’t manage to get very far, but then luckily I remembered I had bought some lovely flours bought at a food show from Gilchester Organics. They are based in Northumberland, and both grow and mill their own grains and produce fantastic, flavoursome flours! I remember talking in depth with them about dough and they really were both lovely and helpful to deal with, advising on what would suit my baking style best. Though lugging 3 bags of flour home after on the tube was not so good!

I used a mixture of 4 parts Pizza and ciabatta flour and 1 part Farmhouse flour to make a sort of focaccia style bread; made with basil infused extra virgin olive oil and stuffed with green olives and finished with a little grated Parmesan, sprinkling of Maldon sea salt and a generous pinch of dried Italian herbs.

320 ml warm water
½ tsp sugar
2 tbsp basil infused extra virgin olive oil + extra for finishing
8 green olives, roughly chopped
1 tbsp grated Parmesan
500g bread flour – see above for my combination
1/2 tsp fine sea salt
Good pinch salt flakes for finishing
7g fast action yeast

Combine the water, yeast, sugar and oil, set to one side

Sift together the flour and salt, make a well and stir in nearly all of the liquid, leave a little back as you don’t want the dough too wet but I find different flours can be thirstier than others, you can always add more if needed

Turn out onto the counter and knead*, you shouldn’t need any extra flour; the dough should be pliable, springy and soft, without being sticky. Add a little extra liquid if its too dry. You can either knead by hand for 10 minutes or in a mixer for about 5 minutes, though I do prefer to knead by hand, I find it relaxing!

Form the kneaded dough into a ball, cover and allow to rest somewhere warm for 1-2 hours or until at least doubled in size. I find the airing cupboard most useful for this part!

Knock out the air, you can now shape and garnish with the oil, herbs olives and cheese as desired, leave to rest for up to a further hour or until it has puffed up a little further.

Bake for about 18-22 minutes at 170 fan/ 190o, depending on size of bread, check its cooked through by carefully tapping on the bottom of the bread, it should sound hollow.

Allow to cool on a wire rack and serve with salted butter if desired. Is very good for dipping into the sauces left from dinner! Best eaten on the day of making.

Hotel Chocolat Easter Giveaway - WINNER

2011-03-26T15:17:00.000Z

Well after a whopping 70 entries into my delicious Hotel Chocolat competition to win a Serious Dark Fix Easter Egg, I am very pleased to announce the lucky winner is comment number 14 - JACQUELINE!!!

I used random.org to generate the winning comment number.

Jacqueline - please can you e-mail me at anneskitchen1 AT yahoo DOT co.uk with your address so I can arrange delivery of your egg!

<p>&amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;lt;p class="MsoNormal"&amp;amp;gt;The numbers generated by this widget come from RANDOM.ORG's true random number generator.&amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;lt;p class="MsoNormal"&amp;amp;gt;</p>

Many thanks for all your entries, sorry there could only be one winner!

Baci Di Ricotta - Forever Nigella #3 “Ciao Italia”

2011-03-24T09:25:00.000Z

After making several Nigella recipes this month, though none remotely Italian in theme or ingredient, I thought I may have to forgo this months Forever Nigella challenge over at Maison Cupcake…but I ended up making two Nigella recipes on the same day, both involving Italian ingredients! Typical hey!

Then came the challenge of deciding which one to post! Both were good…but the winner had to be the Baci di Ricotta, taken from Nigella's book Feast. (which roughly translate as Ricotta Kisses! How adorable is that!) Over the previous weekend me and D had made Spinach and Ricotta cannelloni together (post to follow shortly), and were left with just over half a tub of ricotta to use up; admittedly not something I use very often and it had been banished it to the back of the fridge, promising myself to turn it into pasta sauce of some kind….However, following a sunny Monday afternoon spent perusing various cook books on the chance of a recipe using up the ricotta, Feast came up trumps with this tempting dessert recipe. Whilst the original recipe called for 200g ricotta, I roughly scaled it down to the leftover quantity and took it from there! Fortunately my rough calculations worked a treat and made myself very popular with D, especially after serving up a meatless dinner that evening!

The Baci di Ricotta puff up so beautifully, do not be tempted to put any more than a teaspoon of mixture into the hot oil! Once cooked and a short rest on kitchen paper, give them a thorough shaking with plenty of icing sugar and serve warm, then watch them disappear! They take no longer to prepare than it takes than to heat the oil, and I will be definitely making them again. They are so light, puffy, sweet and yet not too sweet at the same time. Though I do admit part of me was thinking a little chocolate sauce to dip into next time would not be a bad thing!

Baci di Ricotta recipe can be found over on the Nigella website, I am not posting here, as per the Forever Nigella rules.

Annes Kitchen is four years old today!

2011-03-22T08:58:00.000Z

276 posts and four whole years later - where has the time gone?! Yep, Annes Kitchen is 4 years old today! Over the past few years I’ve changed and moved things around a fair amount but I am constantly amazed just how many other food blogs there are out there now! Initially it seemed only a handful of us floating around the internet but there is a whole host of you guys n gals now!! I’ve discovered some wonderful recipes from you all, and I am proud to be part of the food blogging community.

Technology has also changed so much in such a short space of time too; I can now even blog directly from my mobile phone! Where would I also be without twitter or even facebook?! I suppose they are a bit like Marmite, you either love them or you hate them; for me personally I find they are a great way of bringing together lots of like-minded people. I’ve met some fantastic people via blogging, attended some inspiring events and also made good friends all over the world – makes Earth seem very small sometimes!

I really do love to write about food (and the occasional drink!) -and it makes me so happy to ramble away about food on here, plus it also helps to ease the burden on friends and family! Most of our conversations nowadays seem to involve food in some form, as I’m sure many other food bloggers do! We always seem to be either planning the next meal or talking about the one we just had!

Blogging has also helped me through both good and bad times in my life and provides me with a constant source of both comfort and inspiration. I’ve shared highs, lows and most importantly, some great recipes! (Well mostly anyway!)

I am at my most happiness pottering away in the kitchen and it gives me so much pleasure to be able to feed my friends and family, they’ve put up with a lot of interesting dishes over the years and have been very patient whilst I’ve learned to cook! Am also sorry to D mostly for ever serving that special fish curry, I promise to never, ever repeat that one!

Food can be simple, complex, fun, challenging and more, but above all it brings people together through both happy and sad times – meal times should be enjoyed, never rushed, and shared with those we love.

And so to end my ramble, we must always remember to Eat, drink (in moderation), to love and be Happy! The last six months have shown me how short life is, don’t put off today for tomorrow, as you never know what it will bring.

Anne
Xx

Chocolate and Cranberry Crunchies

2011-03-19T15:18:00.002Z

I spotted these biscuits recently over at a great baking blog called Cake, Crumbs and Cooking, and after seeing that I had all the ingredients for once in the kitchen, I promptly made them the next morning!

The texture is halfway between a crunchy biscotti and flapjack, and despite thinking I’d made a hash of making them as I had melted butter seemingly everywhere, they came out very successful! I have a fan assisted oven, which normally likes to cinder-ise small bakes so I reduced the temperature to 150o and gave them exactly 16 minutes – they definitely didn’t need any longer!

They are crunchy, chocolatey and fruity, and just perfect for dunking in a good cuppa with falling apart (am currently hooked on new Kenco Millicano)! I used a combination of dark chocolate chips (though didn't manage to put 40g worth in...some might have been, erm gone missing..) and my favourite Craisins (which are my favourite dried cranberries, as they are so plump and juicy!) though you can play around with the additions...I fancy trying white chocolate chips next time..

These biscuits were very popular and only hung around a short while, even with D who claims to dislike dried cranberries! I can see these being a very regular bake in our home!

You can find the recipe over at Cake, Crumbs and Cooking on this link

You can also see them over at Sweets for a Saturday along with a whole host of delicious sweet treats!

**Also my Hotel Chocolat Giveaway is still open - you have until 25th March to enter!**

Hotel Chocolat Easter Giveaway - COMPETITION HAS CLOSED

2011-03-16T12:46:00.002Z

Like I’m sure most people do, I love chocolate, and in particular good, dark chocolate. A day is not complete without chocolate in some form! You can now imagine my glee when this beautiful ‘The Serious Dark Fix’ Easter Egg from Hotel Chocolat arrived, it certainly beats getting hospital letters in the post!!

My dad also shares my taste in chocolate, and so after a sneaky peek in to the box (and several sniffs!!) I then very patiently waited for him to come over for dinner and help me try them out, aren't I a good daughter! Universal decision was that we are now addicted to Hotel Chocolat’s dark chocolate! I also know now what to get Dad for his birthday for once!

‘The Serious Dark Fix’ consists of two extra thick, dark chocolate shells which hide a selection of dark chocolates, including my all time favourite ‘House Praline’. The chocolate is deliciously dark, silky smooth and just melts in the mouth, the praline leaving a lasting nutty, chocolaty impression on your tastebuds, a real chocolatey treat!

It would be very greedy though for me to keep all this deliciousness to myself, and I rather excitingly have another one to give away to one lucky UK based winner! The competition closes on the 25th March, so enter now to be in with a chance of winning!

To enter the competition, all you have to do is leave me a comment below letting me know your favourite Hotel Chocolat Easter treat, you can see their full Easter range here. (If you are leaving an anonymous comment please leave a contact e-mail incase you win!)

Additionally, to maximise your chance of winning, you can gain an additional three entries by either:

Re-Tweeting this competition, using the T button at the bottom of this post
Following me on twitter @anneskitchen
And by liking my facebook page

Please leave me a separate comment below for each entry you make, if you already ‘like’ or follow me, you can also leave a comment notifying and it will count as an entry.

A winner will be picked using an online randomiser and notified by email, and also here on my blog when the competition closes on the 25th March, so don’t forget to come back and check if you have won!

With thanks to Anurag and Hotel Chocolat

Good luck!

Anne's Kitchen

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Baci Di Ricotta - Forever Nigella #3 “Ciao Italia”

Annes Kitchen is four years old today!

Chocolate and Cranberry Crunchies

Hotel Chocolat Easter Giveaway - **COMPETITION HAS CLOSED**

Hotel Chocolat Easter Giveaway - COMPETITION HAS CLOSED