Rocky Road for July's No Waste Food Challenge

This was a proper clear out the cupboards recipe, and I am using it to open up July’s No Waste Food challenge which I am hosting this month, with thanks to Elizabeth’s Kitchen Diary who is allowing me to take hold of the reins for July! I have been a bit sparse what with life getting in the way so its a good way to dive back in to blogging!

Normally biscuits are like gold dust here, I fill the tin... a few days later...its empty.. however for some reason un-be known to the laws of biscuit munching, a box of shortbread fingers was sadly gathering dust at the back of the cupboard. In fact the box informed me it was best before November last year. Oops. It was sealed however and for this recipe it worked perfectly! 

Next came the white chocolate – chocolate in this household is like those fast car movies – gone in 60 seconds but it turns out my boyfriend doesn’t like white chocolate and I’d had a few bars hanging around from about Christmas time that Sainsbury's had very kindly sent my way, that were simply begging to be used up, along with a bar of milk hazelnut chocolate that I had hidden from the other resident chocoholic… 

Last but not least was a bag of some fancy dried fruit and nut mix, that we just didn't seem to be getting through despite it being here since Christmas! Since a career change recently, I now have weekends to myself and find myself making things most weekends, and this Rocky Road was no exception! Born out of using up these odds and sods to create something a bit more special. Turns out neglected ingredients can work a treat!

Now prior to decorating with lots of sugar confetti and magic sparkle it er, looked like baby sick and I have decided to not share that picture with you to save putting you off! Now don’t leave me – it is salvageable trust me! Like most things in life a little sparkle saves the day!  

Ingredients:

200g white chocolate

100g milk hazelnut chocolate

100g shortbread

50g dried fruit and nut mix
40g mini marshmallows

Sugar confetti/ sprinkles of choice

Start by crumbling up the shortbread into small pieces, stir in the fruit and nuts. Melt all the white chocolate with half the milk chocolate either slowly on the hob in a heavy pan/ bain marie or gently zap in bursts in the microwave and stir through the biscuit fruit mix, spoon into a 8” square silicon cake pan or line a tin with baking paper and chill until set.

Melt the remaining chocolate and spoon over the rocky road in drizzles, sprinkle over your desired confetti or cake sprinkles/ fairy dust and chill for a couple of hours.

When its fully set, turn out onto a chopping board and with a sharp knife cut into squares:

My Rocky Road was shockingly good, it lasted less than a day in the tub! I took some over on Father's Day to my brothers house and it seemed to vanish into thin air! I think we fought over the scraps...Considering it was my first attempt at Rocky Road we were all very happy to eat it! Even the white chocolate haters wolfed it down! And I have to thank one of my eagle eyed commenters - I had indeed forgotten to write that I also added the last of a bag of mini marshmallows - not a leftover at all as they vanish fast here!

So now the challenge is out there bloggers - send me your best recipes for what would have otherwise gone to waste! I am looking forward to seeing what you all come up with! This is my first time using a linky software so apologies if it doesn't quite work!

Challenge Conditions:

1. Please link up your url using the linky at the bottom of this challenge post.

2. Feel free to republish old posts just make sure you add a link to the current challenge and add the challenge badge (the blue badge at the top of this post).

3. Make sure you link up before the end of July!

4. Posts will be added to the No Waste Food Challenge Pinterest Board to help spread the food waste prevention love!

5. Please make sure your post includes a link back to this blog post and the relevant month’s host.

6. Tweet @TangoRaindrop and me @anneskitchen with the tag #NoWasteFoodChallenge and we will re-tweet all that we see.

Banana and Chocolate Cookies

For months now I've had a packet of home made cranberry and orange butter in the freezer. Initially I think I made it to go with Christmas meats or pastry even but for some reason it got forgotten... it was in the frosty depths for quite a while.. but when you only have two freezer draws you have to be fairly efficient at rotating things though somehow this kept off the radar...until yesterday... as in the fruit bowl was also this:

Fruit ripens very quickly at home, its a warm flat at the best of times and I am sure the bananas were a fairly recent buy but had already gone er, black nearly and it was high time it got used.. I have a repertoire of banana recipes but most use two or more, and I only had this sad one... fortunately I remembered a recipe I had picked out a few months back for a Random Recipe challenge but never got entered as life typically interfered.. the butter called for was the regular kind, however I was determined to use the flavoured butter up and after a quick lick to check it wasn't too far gone I decided to give it life in the form of these cookies:

It was also my birthday this week, and I finally got a 2nd decent baking tray so managed to cook them all in one go, rather than improvising with a roasting tin and swapping trays around, so much easier! Unfortunately I am still off sick from work but without speaking too soon I am finally feeling a bit more human and hoping to return in the near future...now I can just about get the ingredients out of the bottom cupboard I definitely feel happier at least!

I have borrowed this cookie recipe from a book simply called 'Cookies' by Love Food. Its a great book packed with 200 cookie recipes! The original recipe called for raisins so I have listed as optional but I decided to omit them with using the cranberry studded butter, I also used cinnamon instead of mixed spice, mainly as I don't have any! For the chocolate chunks I used 3/4 of a bar of Fine Cook's milk chocolate from Dr Oetker hacked up with a knife, which worked perfectly and kept its shape well and tasted good too!

Makes apparently up to 20, I got er 12. They are nicely sized though...

Ingredients:

125g caster sugar
125g soft butter
175g self raising flour
1 large beaten egg
1 mashed ripe banana
2 tbsp milk
100g chocolate, cut into chunks
1 tsp cinnamon (or the mixed spice)

Optional:
55g raisins
1 tsp mixed spice

Oven 190o/ 375f/ gas 5

Line two large baking trays/ cookie sheets

Cream the butter and sugar until fluffy, beat in the egg. Add the mashed banana and mix until smooth.

Sift the flour and cinnamon together, add to the mix followed by them milk to make a smooth consistency. (I used my k chef on low speed) Fold in the chocolate, and raisins if using.

Drop dessertspoons onto a baking sheet, allowing them space! They will spread out!

Bake for 15-20 minutes or until golden and still soft in the middle. Leave to cool slightly on the trays and transfer to a wire rack to fully cool down.

This is what one looks upside down - so you can see the lovely chocolatey chunks - they are really rather too edible, soft and cake like but just about keep together. I love the fragrant orange scented butter and will now have to make some more I think for the next batch, providing of course I can fully remember what went in it...

As I managed to not only use the sad lonely banana and the frosty orange butter I am entering these cookies into the No Waste Food challenge, set up by Elizabeth's Kitchen Diary and this month hosted by Farmers Girl. Don't forget I am July's host so save your leftovers ;-)!

Thanks also to Dr Oetker for providing the chocolate!

Christmas Cardamom and Ginger Biscuits

Well here we are on the 18th December and despite uploading pictures on facebook weeks back I realise I forgot to blog them! So here we go with my Christmas Cardamom and Ginger Biscuits, and just in the (saint) nick of time! They don't take too long to make and will keep a good few days in an airtight tin!

Its not often I make biscuits, in fact probably I can count on one hand the amount of times since school that I've baked proper biscuits requiring cutters but my dad had bought over a set of cutters and thought it was about time...the trouble is I am an inpatient baker and I also share my kitchen with a stranger ..so leaving dusty work tops has to be planned around when I know they are out!

Back in October time I had snagged a biscuit recipe from a Tesco instore magazine for Bat cookies which topped with chocolate for Halloween but I decided to tweak very slightly and add a little cardamom to give it a slightly spicy, Christmas feel. For some reason whenever I write down the word Cardamom it just doesn't feel right. I even spell checked it to make sure! I feel like it needs a 'n' in there somewhere! Anyone else feel this way too? 

The first batch of these biscuits were made to take over to one of my lovely Auntie and Uncle's house in a long overdue visit - I do hope they like them! As it was, I hadn't used all the dough as ran out of baking sheets (I have one) so kept the remaining dough for a few days chilled - and it worked perfectly still then!

As you can see my icing skills are limited but I quite like my crazy reindeers!

Ingredients:

100g (31⁄2oz) butter, softened
100g (31⁄2oz) soft brown sugar
100g (31⁄2oz) golden syrup
1 large egg
350g (12oz) plain flour
1tsp ground ginger root
1 level tsp ground cardamom

Icing:

1/4 box Icing sugar

water

sprinkles

edible glitter

Method:

Beat the butter and sugar together, (I used a hand mixer) until creamy and fluffy, then beat in the egg and syrup.

Separately sieve together the flour, spices and fold into the butter mixture. Wrap in cling film and chill for an hour.

Roll out onto a lightly floured surface, to the depth of a pound coin and cut with desired cutters. Bake for 12-14 minutes or until just turning golden brown - they should be very slightly soft to touch. Cool on tray for about ten minutes then transfer to a wire sheet.

When you are ready to decorate, sieve the icing sugar and slowly add a teaspoon at a time of water until you have a smooth mixture, either spoon into a icing bag or use a small spoon to decorate. Then go nuts with the sprinkles as you desire!

With a little practice my tree's came out quite pretty - plus a sprinkle of edible glitter never goes amiss at Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone!

Anne

xx

Coconut Buns

One of my favourite ingredients in baking, is coconut. I just adore the sweet, nuttyness and most of bakes seem to end up with a handful thrown in! These babies are no exception! Everyone loved them, to the point this is their own picture as they mysteriously vanished! They are similar in flavour to coconut macaroons but just a little more cakey, and delicious in their own right. My brother suggested rice paper for next time...trouble is I can just eat that stuff and it probably wouldn't hang around long enough!

When my beloved Nanny J passed away, I inherited some of her well worn cookbooks, and I spotted this recipe some time back within a copy of Farmhouse Kitchen, which apparently was in connection with a TV series circa 1978 and consists of recipes sent in by viewers. I love to flick through it, snagging ideas and wondering as to how much my nanny might have used the book too. There are no pictures, which sometimes isn't a bad thing as you can interpret how you like without fretting that its doesn't look like the picture does!

These buns were super easy to make, and the cherries were my addition, and a good one too as they make the buns a little more attractive and lets be honest, who can resist the lure of a sticky sweet glace cherry?

When I went to bake these, I was also mid making a lemon sponge for my mums birthday, but fancied something coconutty and quickly whipped these up alongside, they are pretty much weigh, mix, splodge onto  tray and bake!

Makes 16

100g self raising flour

100g desiccated coconut

75g caster sugar

100g margarine

1 beaten egg

8 glace cherries, halved

Pre-heat oven to 190o/ gas 5

1) Mix together the dry ingredients, using fingers rub in the margaraine to form smaller lumps, as in the style of making pastry.

2) Use a fork to beat in the egg and mix thoroughly.

3) Blob the mixture onto a baking tray, allowing a little room in between and top with the cherries

4) Bake in the top part of the oven for 10-15 minutes or until cooked and lightly golden. They took about 14 minutes in mine, be careful as they go from anaemic to sun tanned quickly!

I am also sending these lovely buns over to Bookmarked Recipes held by the Jacqueline of Tinned Tomatoes

Cherry, Cranberry and Chocolate oaty Cookies

Wow, just looking at the title would make my English langauge teacher proud with the use of three capital C's - a great example of 'the power of three'! And I am rather proud right now, as this past year I decided after many years to go back to college and resit my English Language and Maths GCSE's - and I am delighted to say I passed both! Got my first ever A for the English exam, and a very happy C for my maths! All those nights studying till the wee hours and tears of frustration have been worth it!

Whilst these cookies are not my most favourite biscuit in comparison to other oaty things I've ever baked but at same time were quite edible and vanished pretty quickly! I think the only thing I would change would be a touch more sugar...

This is also my first ever entry into the We Should Cocoa challenge run by Chocolate Teapot and Chocolate Log Blog that I have followed with both envy and forgetfulness for a very long time! This month the special ingredient was glorious Cherries, and is being hosted by the lovely Janice of Farmersgirl Kitchen

Whilst fresh cherries would have been delicious to play with, the weather outside was rather soggy and so I decided to use glacé cherries instead for my entry, and baked these from what I had in stock already! The original recipe was found amongst a huge pile of magazine clippings that got finally sorted the other day into the proper sections of my ever expanding ringbinder (s)!, so I am sure where it came from..

Makes about 15

Ingredients 

65g glace cherries, roughly chopped

65g craisins, roughly chopped

110g margarine

50g golden caster sugar

3 tbsp Runny honey

1 egg, beaten

½ tsp vanilla extract

75g oats

75g self raising flour
2 tbsp cocoa powder

Pre-heat your oven to 190, line 2-3 baking trays with parchment paper

Cream together the margarine and sugar, until smooth and light in colour, whisk in the honey, egg and vanilla. (This is why I love my hand mixer!) Fold in the oats, cocoa and flour. Use a dessert sized spoon to blob the mixture onto the trays, keeping a gap in between as they will expand!

Bake for 12-15 minutes or until still soft on top but golden - they will harden on cooling. Once cooked, leave to cool on the tray for five minutes before transferring to a wire rack

Even Dory was excited to see all the cookies!

Cake style choc chip cookies

What a miserable day its been outside! My plans to get fresh air (and a little retail therapy!) were scrapped when the rain started splattering across the car windscreen after picking up my eldest niece this morning, and she decided we should bake instead. I don't need much excuse to do a spot of baking and after a quick trip to get some more butter, then came the hard part - what to bake!

Alice suggested cookies. This is all good and well. Except for some reason I rarely make cookies, I am much more a cake kinda girl. There is also the slightly embarrassing fact I have not baked cookies in a long time, and didn't really fancy the perfectly edible ones that I've had previous success with. I'm not sure what it is with cookies, anything that requires resting in the fridge for x amount of hours puts me off. I am very much in the instant gratification camp of baking! And overall I really do like cake.

Whilst I am slightly sad to report that my cookbooks are also being decreased, I really do not have room or need for so many and in the process of selling a selection of them, fortunately however I had saved this particular 'Best ever Cookies' book from the 'to-go' pile and managed to find a cookie recipe in it which appealed to both of us, and more importantly could be whizzed up, baked and consumed with a lovely cup of tea in rapid time! It also helped that I had all the ingredients in my limited baking supplies cupboard (read that as shut the door quickly and hope it doesn't collapse on itself cupboard) So as the recipe worked, I guess it was fate to keep the book and will have to find room for it!

Our resulting cookies were whilst falling within the cookie camp, also reminded me more of a rock cake but softer kinda cookie, and are very moreish! They are quite soft but not so soft they fall apart, making them ideal for dunking! The texture inside is cakey like, I think the use of self-raising flour does give them quite a good lift and lightens their texture nicely.

I didn't have the full amount of chocolate to hand, so made do with a 100g bar of dark swiss chocolate bashed up, and a good handful of descicated coconut which worked really well with the flavours. 

Also I am still getting the hang of the new oven, our first two trays came out a little more suntanned than planned so I reduced the temperature by 10 degrees and shaved a minute off the cooking time, which worked perfectly. Your oven may well behave differently, I think mine is older than me...!

Makes 18-20

Oven 180-190 - see above!

115g soft butter (I used stork)

115g light muscovado sugar

1 egg

1/2 tsp vanilla extract (or 1 tsp vanilla essence)

150g self raising flour

75g porridge oats

100g plain chocolate (book calls for 230g white and dark or choc chips)

4 heaped tbsp desiccated coconut

Cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the egg and vanilla, beat well, sift in the flour (I actually have no sieve at the moment but fortunately didn't affect the recipe!) and fold in using a metal spoon, along with the oats and chocolate until mixed. 

Place dessert spoon sized blobs on lined baking trays, leaving a gap as they will spread out. Bake for 14 minutes or until golden brown and your kitchen smells delicious. Cool for a couple of minutes then transfer to a wire rack and resist the urge until cooled sufficiently enough not to burn yourself.

Beetroot and Oat cookies with Sugar Icing

Yes your eyes are not deceiving you. Cookies and beetroot do indeed appear in the same sentence! And what's more – they make great friends, who would of known? Call it opposites attract perhaps?

And why I thought to make beetroot cookies? Not sure. Call it sleep deprivation post night shifts or something. The original recipe calls for carrots. I had lots of carrots courtesy of market man at the time but something made my brain go hmmm beetroot….! I frequently buy the ready cooked beetroot's (un-vinegared)in their little shrink wrap casings but after about 3 days worth of it in salads of some sort, the appeal can start to wane even for a devout beetroot fan... 

..There's been a plethora of beetroot and chocolate cake recipes over the net these past few years, and as I am huge fan of adding carrots, and indeed parsnips to my bakes; thought mostly why the hell not. Like how most of my recipes come about really!

The original recipe comes from the very delicious blog Yummy Choo Eats, and the lovely hostess Selina has given me kind permission to re-publish it here with my tweaks.

Many thanks also to the ladies of twitter confirming I could swap maple syrup for golden - my store cupboard is somewhat shrunken and have no room for new bottles to gather dust! Cooking in the new oven is a bit of a trial and error - I'd spent 5 years getting used to cooking with fan assisted and now back to a regular, ancient beast of an oven and was pleasantly surprised these survived so well!

Makes 12 cookies

60g grated cooked beetroot (roughly 1 ball)
60g wholemeal flour
60g porridge oats
1/2 tsp baking powder
Pinch of salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
A pinch of ground ginger
25g desiccated Coconut, extra for sprinkling
40 ml golden Syrup - roughly 1 very heaped tbsp
75 ml Olive Oil

Icing sugar /water for decoration


**CSI style gloves are very handy for this recipe**

Method:

Pre-heat oven to Gas Mark 6 / 200 and line a baking tray or two with parchment/ baking paper.

In a large bowl whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt, and oats. Add the grated beetroot, ginger, coconut and cinnamon.

In a separate smaller bowl use a whisk to combine the golden syrup and oil. Add this to the flour mixture and stir until just combined.

Use your hands to shape into walnut sized balls and flatten slightly, place on to baking sheet, leaving about 2 inches between each cookie. 

Bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes or until cookies are golden brown on top and underneath. - Mine took 18 minutes.

Allow to cool slightly and transfer to a cooling rack.

Mix some icing sugar and water, then drizzle as desired over the top. Sprinkle over a little more coconut if liked,

And the verdict - I found that I grew to love these. They had hints of gingerbread, and softened over a couple of days into a most agreeable chewy, soft cookie. Definitely making again! I did think initially they were not sweet enough however by the time had finished them, had changed my mind. The girls at work also thought they were just right. So no meddling needed!


I had the original carrot version of these saved on my 'favourites' for ages, so I am also sending these over to the Bookmarked Recipes challenge for February:

Apple Streusel Cake

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!

Thai Spicy Red Bean and Baby corn Curry

The Thai New Year is coming up soon, 13th to 15th April and to help celebrate, Thai Taste sent me a pot of their Red curry paste. A few years back when I first started getting into cooking I completed a cookery course on Thai cookery at a local college, and whilst some of the Thai dishes were just not for me, I did find a few favourites, including this recipe, that I have made some minor tweaks to. This recipe also converted me into liking green beans!

I really love the slight creaminess, and gentle spiciness of this curry and hope you enjoy it too! Be careful with your pastes though, as I find brands do vary greatly in spice levels, it is always easier to add than to takeaway! Thai Tastes paste was quite mild, so you can use a teaspoon quite safely!

Some ingredients can be hard to track down depending where you live and so good quality, ready made curry pastes are very handy. Thai Tastes’ paste contains no nasties and made of all natural ingredients, just how you would make at home. D is not keen on spicy food either so having the paste on standby is ideal for when I want to whip up something just for me to feast upon!

Easy – 10 minutes
Serves 2-4 as a side dish

400g mix of green beans, trimmed and baby corn, halved (you can use just green beans if preferred)
1 tsp red curry paste (see above guidance)
1 garlic clove
100ml coconut milk
4 spring onions, thinly sliced and roughly split between whiter and green parts
2 tsp Nam pla (also known as Fish sauce)
1 tbsp ground roasted peanut, optional
1 stick lemongrass or 2 tsp dried, soaked in hot water
S&P to taste (Nam Pla is quite salty tasting, so best to taste before adding any salt)
1 tbsp sunflower oil
1 tbsp mint and coriander leaves

Blitz together the curry paste, garlic, lemongrass, fish sauce and coconut to make a smooth paste

Blanch the vegetables, refresh in cold water and drain

Heat the oil in a wok, add the whiter spring onion parts and fry for 2 minutes, add the paste and reduce by half, add the vegetables and simmer for 3 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Serve immediately, garnish with peanuts if using, remaining spring onions and a scattering of fresh mint and coriander leaves.

Alongside our curry, I roasted cod fillets, with a topping of finely grated ginger, garlic, lime juice and zest, red chilli, spring onions and a bit of s&p:

And some red pepper and aubergine tempura. Whilst they were nice, and all were eaten, the batter was not as light as I’d hoped. Not sure if it was the recipe or me though! I did manage to accidentally forget to put the first batch actually into the batter after flouring and only realised when I wondered why they looked so pale!

Can you spot my chilli flower in the picture? This has also been entered over this months Create and Carve event, this month being held over at Fuss Free Flavours, don't forget to check back there at the end of the month for the the round-up!

To end our mini Thai feast, I also made these Thai Coconut custards. Whilst the recipe was successful, I am not entirely sure I would make them again, can’t decide if I liked them or not! Neither could my Dad!

Thanks to Clementine at Storm Communications.

Spiced Carrot and Sultana salad, Lamb Koftas and more!

Following on from the gorgeous Chickpea fritters, these are some of the other dishes I made alongside our feast, though please excuse the awful pictures, the lighting was very bad!

Spiced Carrot and Sultana salad

This makes a tasty, interesting side salad, packed with fresh flavours

200g freshly grated carrot
50g sultanas
Lots of lemon juice (bottled is fine)
½ tsp freshly ground cumin seed
½ tsp freshly ground coriander seed
¼ tsp chilli powder
1 tsp runny honey
1-2 tsp dried oregano
S&P, to taste
1-2 tbsp Extra virgin olive oil, preferably a nice fruity one

Simply mix together all the ingredients, adding lemon juice to taste and enough oil to make it glisten! It is really worthwhile grinding the spices freshly, I used my latest kitchen toy. This salad is best made several hours ahead so that the flavours can infuse together.

The salad is shown in the middle of the dish, we also had some surprisingly good olives from my local Budgen's, mini cheese kabanos, roasted peppers and my precious jar of Caponata that I had been saving, which I bought at a food festival back in the summer, which was really tasty, must remember to buy more jars next time!

Moroccan Spiced Courgettes

This is probably best made with smaller courgettes than I used, as I had to adjust the cooking time by at least double! The recipe is taken from the ‘Best of Morocco’ book. Think I still need to adjust time/ temperature slightly as was only just about cooked through but overall the dish was pretty well received – it was all eaten so always a good sign!

500g small courgettes

Lemon juice, chopped fresh coriander and parsley, to serve

For the Charmoula:

1 onion, finely chopped

1-2 garlic cloves

¼ red or green chilli, seeded and sliced

½ tsp paprika

½ tsp ground cumin

3 tbsp olive oil

S&P

Pre-heat the oven to 190o/ 350F

Cut the courgettes lengthways and place in a baking dish, snugly together

Blend together the Charmoula ingredients with 60ml water, spoon over the courgettes and cover with foil. Bake for 15 minutes, baste and un-cover and cook for 5-10 minutes more (or in my case about 35 minutes more!) Serve with the lemon, coriander and parsley, though I forgot the lemon and not very keen on parsley so just the coriander for us!

The picture isn't pretty but it tasted good!

Lamb Kofta

I used this recipe from BBC food site, minor amendments were that I used smoked paprika instead of the paprika and also added some finely chopped fresh mint leaves, as I just love the combination together!

For the lamb kofta kebabs

500g/17½oz lean minced lamb

3 tsp paprika

2 tsp ground coriander

2 tsp ground cumin

1 clove garlic, peeled, chopped

½ chilli, finely chopped

pinch cayenne pepper

salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Preheat the grill to high. (not too high though unless you want a very smoky kitchen!)

Place all of the kebab ingredients together in a bowl and mix together with your hands until the meat sticks together.

With damp hands, take a handful of the kebab mixture and shape into a long sausage shape around a metal skewer. Repeat with the remaining kebab mixture, using a new skewer each time (or fit two kebabs onto each skewer, if space allows).

Place the skewers under the grill for 10-12 minutes, turning them halfway, until the lamb is golden-brown and cooked through. Slide the kebabs off the skewers serve.

Spinach Pilaf

Not sure why I haven’t blogged this one before but I also cooked this lovely simple rice dish, just without the lamb addition this time as we were already having the lamb koftas, however I can recommend the whole recipe for a simple and tasty mid-week dinner!

Serves 4

olive oil

1 onion, sliced

2 garlic cloves, crushed

1 tsp cumin seeds

4 cardamom pods , lightly crushed

300g basmati rice

550ml chicken stock

100g spinach , washed and chopped

Heat 1 tbsp olive oil in a pan, add the onion and garlic and cook for 5 minutes until softened then stir in the spices and rice. Pour over the stock, bring to a simmer and cover with a tight-fitting lid.

Turn the heat down and cook gently until all the stock has been absorbed, about 15 minutes. Stir through the spinach for the last minute of cooking until wilted.

Here is a picture of my plate loaded up with everything!

And if you are anything like me, you find the packet of pitta breads in the bread bin, after dinner is finished……

Possibly the best ever Choc chip cookies?

I've been waiting to post about these as I needed to post this months 'Fresh from the Oven challenge' first! I've had this recipe for a while, taken from Olive magazine and finally baked them last week - they are really, really good.

Beautifully buttery, oaty, chocolatey, soft, slightly chewy and are even better eaten still warm from the oven. I can see these being a regular bake for me! The only real amendment was that I left the walnuts out, mainly as I'm sure I had some but couldn't find! I did adjust the sugar as to what I had in the cupboard and it thankfully worked perfectly!



Chunky chocolate cookies

Ingredients:
Ingredients100g plain flour
¼ tsp bicarbonate of soda
¼ tsp baking powder
¼ tsp salt
125g unsalted butter
175g soft brown sugar (I only had dark soft brown, used 150g and 50g golden caster sugar)
25g caster sugar (see above)
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
50g walnuts , chopped
175g porridge oats
50g dark chocolate , chopped into small chunks

Heat the oven to 180C/fan 160C/gas 4. Mix the flour, bicarb, baking powder and salt in a bowl.

Cream the butter, sugars, egg and vanilla with electric beaters. Stir in the flour mixture, then add the nuts, oats and chocolate.

Line 2 baking sheets with non-stick baking parchment and drop large tbsps of dough onto them (mine were more ball like in shape). Press down gently. Bake for 8-10 minutes until light golden. (I cooked a few mins longer as made bigger ones)

Let them cool for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack. They will look underdone but will finish cooking on the hot tray. Wait until they are completely cool then pack into a tin lined with baking paper.

Eat-Me gifts - Chocolate Spiced shortbread

Following on from my previous post for Coconut shortbread, here comes hot on its footsteps - Chocolate spiced shortbread. This is a slightly thicker mix, more biscuity than the coconut version, mainly because I should not have weighed out the ingredients, whilst enjoying a nice glass of red from Calloways Crossing (hey it was Friday night!), as I got them slightly back to front at one point - however they did still work and just goes to show deviating from a basic recipe can sometimes prove worthwhile!

Makes 20

175g butter
220g plain flour
120g unrefined icing sugar

2 tsp mixed spice

3 tsp cocoa powder - I used green and blacks

For decorating:

Chocolate sprinkles

Edible Silver balls

Icing sugar for dusting

6 squares white chocolate

1) Pre-heat the oven to 180/ 160 fan. Cream together the icing sugar and butter until fluffy.

2) Now add the flour, cocoa powder and mixed spice and mix until thoroughly combined. Roll into walnut shell sized balls and place on a lined baking sheet, place a piece of cherry in the middle and flatten using the palm of your hand, if you like you can sprinkle over some chocolate flakes at this stage. These do spread out so allow room between them

3) Bake for approx 8 minutes or until they are just colouring at the bottom and slightly firm to the touch, allow to cool for 5 minutes on the tray and transfer carefully to a wire rack.

4) Once they are completely cooled, dust with icing sugar, melt the white chocolate in a bowl over hot water or on a low heat in a heavy based pan, using a wooden spoon, slowly drizzle and flick the melted chocolate over the biscuits, sprinkle over the chocolate sprinkles and place the silver balls on the melted chocolate

I've also sent these over to foodblogga.blogspot.com/2008/11/eat-christmas-cookies-season-2. and mykitchentreasures.blogspot.com/2008/11/home-made-christmas-gifts. where you can check out lots of other lovely looking treats this Christmas!

Eat-Me Gifts - Cherry topped Coconut shortbread

Currently my partner has been struck down with this nasty cold thats doing the rounds, already had my share so hoping not to re-catch it!

On Friday night I decided to keep out of his way and spend some quality time with the kitchen, to make some early Christmas biscuits. I took my favourite whipped shortbread recipe from my Baking Book, split the base mix and now have two new favourites!

Cherry topped Coconut shortbread

Makes 9

60g Plain flour
25g Unrefined icing sugar
75g butter
2 tbsp descicated coconut
2 glace cherries, diced up

1) Pre-heat the oven to 180 / 160 fan. Beat the icing sugar and butter until creamy and light

2) Beat in the flour and coconut, roll into walnut shell sized balls, place on a lined baking sheet, place a piece of cherry in the middle and flatten using the palm of your hand. These do spread out so allow room between them

3) Bake for approx 8 minutes or until they are just colouring at the bottom, allow to cool for 5 minutes on the tray and transfer carefully to a wire rack.

These are lovely, melt in your mouth biscuits but very fragile so package carefully!



I've also entered these this month over at foodblogga.blogspot.com/2008/11/eat-christmas-cookies-season-2. and mykitchentreasures.blogspot.com/2008/11/home-made-christmas-gifts. where you can check out lots of other lovely looking treats this Christmas!

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Who doesn't like Chocolate Chip Cookies? No one, that's good then!

Anyway, I have tried many cookie recipes, some better than others, including a slightly bizarre one that ended up like a flat chocolate brownie and actually had to be baked in a baking dish, not the cookie sheet as recommended, not made that one again though the brownie wasn't too bad.....

One of my colleagues asked me yesterday to bring in chocolate chip cookies today and as I had been meaning to try a new recipe, I agreed, I think much to his surprise!

This is taken from my increasingly favourite 'Baking' book and marginally adapted and re-written as to what I had in the house!

Makes about 25 small cookies

Ingredients

75g butter

175g Plain flour

1 heaped tbsp bournville cocoa powder

1 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda

3/4 bag plain choc chips

25g demerara sugar

25g dark soft brown sugar

Weeny pinch of salt

4 heaped tbsp golden syrup

1) Blend together the sugar's

2) In a large bowl sift the flour, bicarb, salt and baking powder, chop the butter into small pieces and add to the flour mix and rub together until it resembles breadcrumbs, almost pastry like

3) Add the sugar, cocoa powder, golden syrup and choc chips and mix until its dough like. I used my Kenwood chef for this part as my butter was cold out of the fridge and proving feisty, add more syrup if required until its all come together and slightly pliable.

4) Pinch off small balls teaspoon sized and place on a greased or lined baking tray, flatten slightly and bake for about 12 minutes or until golden, they should be slightly soft still. Allow to cool and transfer to a wire rack.