RMR

New lights

2012-01-24T23:17:00.000-08:00

Apparently experts are a sayin that some of us lucky UK residents may spot a little light show by none other than the Northern Lights himself! How awesome, I aint holding out for it though. Instead I'll settle for mild sunsets in January, early morning field walks accompanied by Whisky and a cuppa, and at last, some studio time. Loving it. The logburner man is coming on Friday to give me a quote too...

2012-01-20T13:40:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I made aztec coffee, received a wicked fleece lined gilet from junkaholique, got started on a LEPUS CALIFORNICUS mask, haha, and marveled at how good looking Whisky is. All piss is forgiven. (some).

2012-01-18T13:46:00.000-08:00

Aint fooling no one but myself here. So, my craft/food ratio is ever so slightly food heavy lately. Been snacking on cherries, chocolate and coffee, nutmeg porridge, rye bread and freakin ace sardines, SARDINES! Just cant get enough of these guys. Not only drawn to this great packaging (hi5 waitrose!) but the contents are awesome too. Got the store cupboard stacked high.

Slowly does it

2012-01-15T10:30:00.000-08:00

I have hardly known what day of the week its been the past couple weeks but am finally taking a grip on myself. A little grip but a grip none the less. Not the start to 2012 that I had anticipateted but no point moping around feeling sorry for oneself! A lot of people have it a lot worse. Papa is recovering and I can slowly feel myself getting inspired about the studio. Organising my space and beginning to organise my time with puppy in tow. Heres a couple snaps.

Tell ya what, i'm certainly looking forward to the day Whisky is house trained and comes when called!

Full time dog-mom

2012-01-05T02:00:00.000-08:00

Having a puppeh makes me re-evaluate the future plans I have for myself. This is FULL ON doggy day care. It's bloody knackering and I have no time for work. Alarms set for 3am toilet breaks, play sessions and puke filled car rides. Where do these super-human successful working mums come from? But I'm seeing progress and that.is.delightful. I cant wait till he's all jabbed up so we can go for walks. He's so pretty, Whiskey my dog-child.

What to expect when your expecting...

2011-12-30T03:32:00.001-08:00

This is keeping me up at night. Tossing and turning, I CANNOT SLEEP. It's only going to get worse too, as my new arrival arrives soon. I'm excited and terrified, but mostly excited for our life together chasing foxes in fields, lounging by log burners, cosy afternoon naps and slinking around the streets of london. My crafty companion on cold and potentially lonely days in the studio. But I've dodged that lonely bullet!
I even stayed up sewing a bed for him out of a blanket, and comparing pet insurance quotes. It's love.

2011-12-30T00:58:00.000-08:00

Christmas took a fair battering this year, with Papa being whisked off into hospital for a big op a couple of days before the big ol' X.MAS day. All good though, just a bit of routine plumbling as he calls it...charmer.
So, for our unconventional christmas, Ben and I ruled the roost and had relatives popping in and out for a number of days. Plans were re-jigged and we roasted an array of animals, including aromatic shoulder of lamb over the fire in the library, drank many flagons of wine and too many vodka tonics. We also became 2 of those people who get scorned at for jogging on christmas day.
Since then Dads home and recovering, the studio is getting organised, and I'm looking forward to the new year!

2011-12-25T00:51:00.000-08:00

Pinprick of light at the end of the never-ending tunnel

2011-12-09T14:35:00.000-08:00

This last week I have been home alone in SW6...the living room turned into a crafty haven of leathery dreams. Been necking 'erbal tea, eating loads of fishcakes, tomatoes and eggs, coffee, dates and doob, bonding with Stanford-cat of the household, and burning incense to my hearts content. Work till 2am, rise at 7am. The finished product is the most satisfying object to stare at, and I couldnt have done it without my pals.

So, all, go and buy your fox masks in selected Jigsaws now! More suppliers coming soon, and online too. So watch this space...

Hats hang time

2011-12-09T11:11:00.000-08:00

A couple of weeks ago I had the most delicious day out in the country. I got given an incredible bootload of leather offcuts from my friend Hattie, and we then proceeded to eat, drink and cackle. We wandered and brainstormed, cackled some more, drank some more, ate some more, drank some more. Then I had to drive to birmingham at 6.30am...

Come aboard, Come aboard

2011-12-03T13:32:00.000-08:00

This be the space I'll be calling my studio come January. At present its a store room for bikes, ladders, leaves and Dads sculpture stands. Just needs a wee clear up. Already I cant help but to stir up scenarios that leave my head in a spin with joy...im thinkin' log burners, groovy tunes and a cold harsh winter outside. Cashmere jumpers, steel cap boots and thick knit over-the-knee socks. Leather draped beems, a heavy wood workdesk and baskets loaded with extremely sharp tools that never get blunt. And pools of PVA. And perhaps some home grown outside the front door. And potentially a pet dawg.

Ahhh. The list goes on.

2011-11-12T14:57:00.000-08:00

Been off work for a week but rather than relaxing my mind and soul i've been freakin' out, drinking too much wine, eating too much cheese and chain smoking, resulting in subtle hangovers, mental cheese dreams and minor self loathing for smoking again.

All good though! Dont get me wrong, life could be a lot worse, I've had an amazing hard working week, am very satisfied with the work thats been done, had a wicked time and am looking forward to some zzzzz's.

Early starters

2011-11-09T01:34:00.000-08:00

Got some gal pals down crafting, laughing and having a jolly ol time.

2011-11-06T05:38:00.000-08:00

Country attire, hearty grub, coffee and dates, crisp sun walks and fires in every room.

Bless the nest

2011-11-04T16:08:00.000-07:00

Here at last, what a mad few days! Preparing for a full on, nerve wracking week, but hopefully very exciting. I'm learning a lot. All the time. Including to never buy costa coffee again, what a pile o shit.

change of scene

2011-10-23T11:55:00.000-07:00

2011-07-21T14:08:00.001-07:00

Trying to organise my time better. Full time crafting for the past month and loving.it. There aint nothing like posi feedback to boost your confidence and lift the mood! Off to Port Eliot fest tomorrow night. Awooga.
Im not feeling to hot with words lately, I feel like i keep muddling my sentences and losing my train of thought. Daydreamin.

Location:Inspire me

Cacti catch up

2011-06-25T15:37:00.001-07:00

Had a gorgeous afternoon. Lounging with tea and terraniums, planting some cacti and cracking down to some designing, exciting new project in the works. More on that later. Cooked a rad summer stew, really simple, healthy and light!

Summer stew

2 chicken breasts
Half red onion, sliced
1 garlic clove
4 spring cabbage leaves, finely sliced into long strips
Handful of peas
Handful of green olives, sliced
800ml chicken or veg stock
Pesto to taste
Olive oil
S+P

Preheat the oven to 200c. Sweat the onions in a heavy based casserole dish, add the garlic, peas, cabbage and olives and cook for 2 mins, stirring. Add everything else and season, adding pesto to taste. Cover with lid and cook for about 30 mins.
Serve in bowls with an extra blob of pesto on top!
Yummers.

2011-06-13T12:06:00.001-07:00

Clogs are slowly creaking as plans to escape the uk for a few months are beginning to take shape. Out of town crafting, sunning, cooking. Get up and go road trips down the golden coast and beyond. Sun on our faces, wind in our hair, music in our ears and not a worry in our minds. Life's too short and London's claustrophobic. It's strange to love family and friends but feel no connection to the land you were born in, maybe distance will make the heart grow fonder.

c.a.l.i.f.o.r.n.i.a d.r.e.a.m.i.n

2011-06-02T12:43:00.001-07:00

2011-05-28T08:48:00.000-07:00

2011-05-26T15:32:00.001-07:00

What a difference a day makes - not in a posi way. The daily grind, grey faces, vacant eyes, hustle no bustle and angry skies. Get. Me. Outta. Here, and back to carefree California sun.

Location:Shitty England

Work in progress

2011-05-09T05:01:00.001-07:00

Newest addition to my cat pack, hiya!

Curiosity might kill the kitty

2011-05-05T11:55:00.001-07:00

Stan stomps all over my craft desk, only when I'm working. Shameless. Meiow.
Getting mentally prepared for road trippin round Cali in 4 DAYS - ohhh cali, you got my heart.

Watch yo backs

2011-05-04T13:49:00.001-07:00

The cats, are about to hit the desert

Bunk holidays

2011-04-25T05:34:00.001-07:00

All this sun calls for chilled cucumber and mint water by the jug load, and not a lot else. A few drawings and some lazy afternoon naps perhaps. Plenty of Hendricks cocktails. Plenty of tea.

Graceful grazing (guzzling)

2011-04-25T02:39:00.001-07:00

All this early summer sun is dampening my winter appetite, making me crave cold and wholesome snacks to graze on throughout the day. Move over hearty winter stews, theres some new summer staples hanging in my fridge.

Now I don't know about you but the last thing I want is to feel uncomfortably full while trying to manoeuvre my way around town in the heat, or even when you want to sit pool side, elegantly. A bloated belly does not fit the bill so stick to light, fresh dishes. Here's a couple I've whipped up this weekend, make a big batch and fridge it then dip in whenever your feeling peckish. They're also a brill alternative to take to bbq's, a refreshing change to endless sausages!

Gazpacho

Take your time chopping the ingredients, you want a chunky soup made up of lots of small pieces, not a few enormous ones!

serves 6

1 and a half cucumbers, peeled, deseeded and cubed
1 red onion, chopped
6 medium tomatoes
1 red pepper
1 red Romano pepper
2 cloves garlic, crushed
Good bunch on fresh coriander, finely chopped
3 tbsp red wine vinegar
3 tbsp olive oil
Juice of 2 limes
Tomato juice
S+P to taste
Tabasco to taste

Combine all the ingredients apart from the tomato juice, tabasco and s+p in a big bowl, pour over enough tomato juice to cover all the veg, then season to taste. cover with cling film and refrigerate for at least hour. Serve in deep bowls or mugs and garnish with some fresh coriander.

Next up is Peruvian cerviche, this is so fresh it will blow your mind!!!

Cerviche

The fresher the fish the better the dish! Like sushi it's not tasty or safe if the fish has had it's day so hunt down the freshest ingredients you can.

Serves 4

500g White meaty fish- I used small scallops with roes removed, cod, and monkfish - cubed fairly small
Juice of 8 limes ( juice needs to cover the fish)
1 red chilli, deseeded and finely chopped
4 cloves garlic, crushed
Half red onion, finely sliced
Medium bunch of coriander, finely chopped
Small tsp salt
Pepper to taste
1 Avocado, chopped
2 tomatoes, chopped

Rinse the fish and red onion then combine all ingredients except the tomato and avocado, and leave in the fridge for a couple of hours, until it all turns white! Stir in the avo and tomato and serve immediately with a colorful salad. Would also be gorgeous spooned over a piece of toast.

Stay with me sunshine,I need you!!!

Arm Candy.

2011-04-09T16:00:00.000-07:00

Yes.

Glamour mag!

2011-04-07T00:31:00.001-07:00

I feel so proud to have one of my masks featured in the May issue of glamour mag, the clothes in the story were all adorable, and I can't believe my masks were part of it, lucky me!

In other news, this is what is running through my mind 24hours a day. In the words of Jessie:

IM SO EXCITED IM GONNNA BE SICK!!!! seriously, imagine being in shorts and crop tops with beads and jangles, holding beers, cameras, doobies, gins with neon straws, smelling like BBQS, sun cream, hemp, coconut oil and incense, meeting hairy bikers, sexy vegas pimps, la hustlers, sugar daddies, naked muscly females, getting day drunk on the beach, all dizzy, having endless power naps, chips, sushi, burgers, veggie burgers, korn dogz, root beer, buying trinkets, feathers, endless bob marley lighters, straw hats, lets all get matching weaves, tattoos, venice beach bikini bums and rash vests, lets all snog a skater, and a stoner
YAYYYYY xxxxxxx

Peace

Aztecca Mecca

2011-03-29T10:28:00.001-07:00

Crafting hard

Never rush.

Cheats guide to the art of jam

2011-03-20T08:14:00.000-07:00

Oh yuuum, Jess and I have got into the swing of waste not want not. Since learning how to use the magi mix, we have been Queens of the kitchen, blendin, juicin, squeezin, n' kneadin. I have stopped boozing for lent, although this weekend may have been a total write-off...absinthe induced haze of friends and sunshine.

On saturday we made awesome carrot, apple, ginger and celery juice and pimped out the leftover pulp into delicious breakfast muffins. Just take the pulp, add self raising flour, light brown sugar, couple of eggs, some oil and then extra treats of your choice. Currants and oats went in ours. Not exactly sure of the quantities as we did a bit of guessing but you want a firm and slightly sticky consistency. Straight out the oven with some butter, these beauty's are packed full o' fibre and absolutely delicious with some home made "jam."

For a quick and easy cheats method of apricot jam, use soft dried apricots. Pop 'em in a pan and cover with cold water, bring to the boil and simmer for about 20 mins. Pour the apricots and water into a magi mix and voila! It stores in the fridge for a week or so and makes an awesome and wholesome topping stirred into porridge or lavishly spread on hot buttered toast. It be jammin' mon!

Lately things are oh so greatly

2011-03-16T15:22:00.000-07:00

Stepped it up a notch and pulled in some family and friend favors in order to get some awesome snaps for my mask webpage. My gawjus Jess modelled, my ever inspiring cousin Julian snapped away, and I strategically positioned things. Love love love the final pictures. There were too many to choose from but here's a couple to see from the batch. I chose the first one. So sexi red fox.

Over and out.

Jetty update

2011-03-06T02:01:00.000-08:00

Ben and I are building a jetty to put in the pond. I am patiently anticipating hazy afternoons spent lounging in a small wooden boat overflowing with cushions and blankets, sippin on some gin in a jar, while sonja reads me poetry. Magic.

It's alright in the end

2011-03-02T14:23:00.000-08:00

Woke up not knowing what yesterday would bring. Mind wondered,... incense, ironing, pot of coffee and some rad tunes. Mood lifted. So grateful to find pleasure in mundane tasks.

Mum came over to scope out the new flat, what better occasion to bake a cake! Apple cake sprang to mind once I caught a glimpse of the overflowing fruit bowl.

So as this cake did it's thang in the oven, I had a looming feeling of, well, not knowing what it would bring. Everytime I peeked in the oven all I could see was oil. Everytime! I was bubbling with uncertainty, it was bubbling with oil. The centre, sides and everywhere in between. I half heartedly soaked a little up with kitchen towel, but next time I aint gonna bother! What makes this cake is its utterly indulgent texture of caramelised toffee sponge and gorgeous gently spiced burnt sugar slashed with bursts of sweet fragrant apple. None of which could have been done without the oil. Hail oil!!

o.m.gee seriousleee this cake is so good!

Spiced apple cake

2 eggs
250ml vegetable oil
275g plain flour
200g dark brown sugar
200g golden caster sugar
1 tsp b.o.s
2 tsp ground cinnamon
pinch of salt
5 medium apples, cored and sliced
1tsp vanilla extract
flaked almonds

Optional - 1 tsp date syrup

1. Preheat the oven to 180c than grease and line a medium cake tin.

2. Beat the eggs and oil together till well combined then add everything else and mix well. Keep back a few apple slices to decorate with. Pour the mixture into the tin, decorate and sprinkle the centre with almonds.

3. Bake for an hour then cool in tin for at least 15 mins

Dope day off

2011-03-01T11:38:00.000-08:00

Resting body and mind for a couple days. Ladies who lunch mid week, we be kickin' back, maxin' relaxin' with smoothies and sorts. Jess and I are overwhelmed with fruit and veg from north end road market. ALL that goodness for 14 quido's.

Enjoying life

Too much of a good thing?

2011-02-22T14:13:00.000-08:00

Meet my new train craft sack. My back needs to be ironed out from carrying a hefty sack o' tools around on my shoulders, so to give it a break I got a wicked wicka basket to float around with instead.

Just putting it out there...is this tail a step too far...

Studio saturday Studio sunday

2011-02-07T09:45:00.000-08:00

Burnt a new cd and a tonne of logs and spent the greyest weekend out in the studio with filthy hands, stoking the log burner, brewing ideas and drinking a shit load of tea. I don't think i've seen the sun since December.

Everyone should turn off the tv and have a hobby, keep your mind ticking.

Genius

2011-01-31T14:21:00.000-08:00

Inspired

pointless to (sort of)practical

2011-01-23T05:04:00.000-08:00

Went rummaging down in the barns at my Pop's house yesterday and found this rad ol' wooden sleigh! With a little dust down and some strategically placed scatter cushions I turned it into a little end of bed bench. Pleasing to the eye and a little more practical than a sleigh in a country with minimal snow. Ayo!

Cabinet of curiosities

2011-01-21T09:03:00.000-08:00

Sibella Court is an interior decorator from dahn under that I can't rave on about enough. Her borderline slapdash, organic, treasure trove style caught my eye when I was book browsing last summer. Sadly, I then went on to loose my copy of her book Etcetera and have been pining over it ever since. My memory of those images in her book though are crystal clear and engrained into my brain forever. It's like stumbling into a cabinet of curiosoties that you never want to leave.

Sunday baking

2011-01-09T12:16:00.000-08:00

A quick sunday treat. Comforting and perfectly partnered with a cup of fresh coffee. I read about pine nut cookies a while back whilst lurking for christmas gift ideas. Every recipe I found read 'almond paste' in the ingredients list. What is that? I couldn't find it so I used marzipan instead and found a suitable recipe. What can I say, they came out totally gorgeous! The light, crumbly exterior and delightfully chewy centre, sweetness from the marzipan and the deep nuttiness from the pine nuts partner together to make a heavenly biccie.

Pine Nut Cookies

Makes 15

200g pine nuts
70g icing sugar
80g marzipan
zest of one lemon
One egg, separted
65g self raising flour

1. Preheat the oven to 180c. Pop 50g of pine nuts, the icing sugar and marzipan in a food processor and whizz up. Add the egg white and lemon zest, whizz. Add the flour...whizz again.

2. Roll the dough into 2cm balls and roll in the whole pine nuts so they are covered, then place spaced apart on a piece of baking parchment. Bake for 20 mins until golden and have puffed up.

Nick a sly one when they're fresh out the oven...so delicious! I think they make a cute gift so these ones have been wrapped n' ribboned ready for the handover tomorrow morning.

Waste not, want not

2011-01-05T14:01:00.000-08:00

Next time you have brocolli there's no doubt that once you've used up all those fluffy florets, you'll be edging towards the bin, clutching an ugly stem that's destined for decay. But stop! Step away from the bin. Scuttle back to the kitchen counter my friends...make crisps.

You could absolutely add carrots, cauliflower stem, parsnips, sweet potato, beetroot etc. Just like those tyrells treats in posh pubs, except you made them and avoided wastage. Nice!

Vegetable crisps

Preheat the oven to 180c. Using your selected veg, slice them with a mandoline slicer (use a potato peeler if there's no mandolin kickin around) chuck them in a bowl, drizzle with olive oil and season well. I rubbed some garlic over mine too. Spread over a baking tray and bake, flipping them after about 1o mins. They're ready when golden.

Back it up

2011-01-04T10:52:00.000-08:00

Leather scraps are flowing out every drawer of my room right now. Chop it up, stick it on and stud it down.

Keep your eyes peeled in junk shops, haberdasherys, car boot sales and bargain bins.

The times they are a-changin

2011-01-02T14:30:00.001-08:00

Trying to understand the chemistry of food and mucking up the kitchen are great pleasures, but with less time to play, i find myself not just cooking but crafting and creating other mind medicines to fill spare moments. Mundane brain dead gaps are coming alive again.

My latest time killa filla is mask making.

Meiow.

Winter has been kind so far. Blinding bright, crisp days spent outside. Dark dud days spent wrapped up fireside, making masks.

B-e-a-utiful braised pork shoulder with apples and prunes, and sweet potato and beetroot...dauphinoise style

2010-11-17T14:22:00.000-08:00

This is one for the autumnal vibes folks.

The temperatures dropped for good and it's got bloody cold of late, so fill ya tums with some warm, honest grub. This is the kind of dish that will leave you contently tucked up in a chair with a fat glass of wine and a great read, or, in your bed, drifting into a peaceful slumber while the rain pitter-patters down.

I cooked mine in an aga, using the simmering oven which has a temperature of 110c/220f. Served with a dauphinoise style dish of layered sweet potato and beetroot. Both these delicious root veg have a sweeter edge than your average potato and partner perfectly with a creamy base. They trot hand in hand into the oven in harmony and come out soft and cooked under a crispy golden exterior.

Braised pork shoulder with apples and prunes.

Serves 6

Pork shoulder (1.355kg)

2 large shallots
2 medium apples

10 prunes
4 sprigs of thyme
2 bay leaves
1 tbsp butter

1 tbsp olive oil
600ml good quality medium cider
150 ml cider vinegar
S+P

1. Preheat the oven to 110c .Cut away excess fat and skin from the pork shoulder. Over a medium heat melt the butter and oil in a heavy based casserole dish and brown pork all over. Remove and set aside

2. In the same dish, cook the shallots until soft and a little golden, add apples then pour in the cider and vinegar.

3. Add the bay leavs, thyme and prunes, then add back the pork. Season and bring to a simmer. Pop the lid on then place in your preheated oven for 5 hours. That little swine will be falling apart come dinner time.

4. By the time it's cooked it should be literally falling apart, so shred it up and serve, or cut chunks off and serve.

Sweet potato and beetroot dauphinoise

Serves 3

2 sweet potatoes, peeled and finely sliced
2 beetroots, peeled and finely sliced
1 garlic clove, crushed
1 284ml pot of cream
Dash of milk
Parmesan
s+p

Preheat the oven to 160c. In a bowl mix the cream with plenty of parmesan, crushed garlic, a dash of milk and the s+p. In a small roasting dish make a layer of sweet potatoes, pour a little cream mix over then layer the beetroots and continue until they're all used up. Finish with porung the remaining mixture over the top and a good healthy serving of parmesan on top. Place in the oven for about 45 minutes or until soft underneath and golden on top.

P-P-P-Parsnip and apple cake.

2010-10-09T00:54:00.000-07:00

I can feel autumn closing in. Mother nature cracks her whip every morning as I walk out the front door and am greeted with grey skies, often rain, and far too often, wind (my nemesis) Sigh. I won't dwell. The sun is regularly making an appearance by lunch so I musn't complain. I have to say though, that i'm welcoming the winter months. Rain and wind are elements of these seasons we are completely powerless over, but what we can do is prepare ourselves. Hot creamy porridge starts the day on a high, hot home made soup full of vits and minerals makes an appearance round lunch and, for me, dinner is what I have to look forward too at the end of the day, usually warm and hearty. As the days get shorter and I find myself leaving the house in the dark and returning...in the dark, I cherish staying in and making some proper fuel food.

Now it's all good and well having 3 yummy sustainable meals a day, but no matter what any magazine/nutritionist/dietician/blahblahblah says, we all need a naughty snack time that is marginally more thrilling than 4 almonds, maybe half an avocado if ya lucky.

Making a parnsip cake was not my idea but my brothers friend Leo, chef at the Rusty Bicycle pub in Oxford, check it out if your in the area! When he got the idea into my head I couldn't shake it off, a moist cake similar to a carrot cake with a subtle sweetness. I used a no fail carrot cake recipe from bbc good food, chopped and changed carrot for parsnip and apple and threw in some walnuts for good measure. This is definately one for afternoon grazing.

Parsnip and Apple Cake

175g light brown sugar
175ml sunflower oil
3 large eggs, lightly beaten
100g grated parsnip (about 1 and a half medium parsnips)
40g grated apple ( half an apple or so)
100g sultanas
50g walnuts plus extra for the top
175g self raising flour
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tsp ground cinnamon
Half tsp freshly ground nutmeg

1. Preheat the oven to 180c then grease and line a medium round cake tin. ( Not quite sure of the width, just make sure its medium depth!)

2. In a large bowl mix the sugar, eggs and oil together then add the grated parsnip and apple, sultanas and walnuts.

3. Mix the remaining dry ingredients together then sieve into the wet ingredients, stir together until evenly distributed and then pour it into your cake tin. Bake for 40-45 mintutes, until a knife comes out clean when pronged through the centre. Remove from the tin and leave to cool on a wire rack.

I've done carrot in a cake, beetroot in a cake and parsnip in a cake, what ever next....??

Get in me goulash

2010-08-10T02:34:00.000-07:00

I don't know heaps about goulash other than that it's a traditionally Hungarian dish. Melt in your mouth meat that falls apart at the touch of a greedy little finger, veg, and sauce then served with rice or potatoes, with soured cream on top. From what I gathered you either go down a spicy smokey route or a rich winey route. I suppose at the end of the day it's a stew. Personally I couldn't decide the route for my goulash, chopping and changing the items in my basket whilst shopping, I seemed to end up at home with ingredients for both smokey and winey. I love smoke and wine anyway, so it's a win win in my eyes.

For the beef I used a small roasting joint, about 500g. Really it doesn't matter if yours is larger, at the end you are going to shred that bad boy up and mix him in.

The key to getting this dish right is all in the slow cooking. It really is one of the easiest ways of achieving great results, as all the flavours have time to intensify and fuse together to create a rich indulgent flavour. Tantalise ya tastebuds. Slow cook.

Slow cooked beef goulash

Serves 4-6

500-800g beef joint

1 red onion, peeled and chopped
1 pack bacon lardons
3 peppers mixed, de-seeded and sliced
2 courgettes, topped and sliced lengthways
1 can chopped tomoatos

1 jar grilled peppers, washed and sliced

Glug of red wine
1-2 litre beef stock (depending on size of beef joint)
2 tsp paprika
2 Bay leaves
Olive oil
S+P
Brown and plain rice
Soured cream
Coriander

1. Preheat the oven to 100c. Start by rubbing the beef joint in olive oil and salt, then in a heavy based casserole dish heat some oil and gently seal the beef on all sides. Remove the beef and set aside then add the onions, bacon lardons and paprika and gently cook for 5 mins.

2. Add back the beef along with all the other ingredients except for the stock and stir it up. Pour in enough stock to just cover the beef joint, put the lid on the dish then pop in the preheated oven for 5 and a half hours. For the last hour remove the lid and turn the heat to 120c. Check back now and again and have a stir around, check that the meat is tenderising nicely.

3. Take the goulash out the oven and remove the meat from the dish, shred it apart with 2 forks and then stir it back into the dish.

4. With white rice, the trick is to use 2 cups of water for one cup of rice. Once it's cooking, don't stir it as this brings out the starch and makes it gloopy. Just leave it alone on a medium flame the once there is just a littel water left in the pan, gently move the rice with a fork. My brother taught me that trick!! For the brown rice just boil it in some water until tender then drain.

5. Serve the goulash in bowls...rice, goulash, a dollop of sour cream and some fresh coriander. Deeeelightful.

Breakback into the blog.

2010-08-04T04:12:00.000-07:00

The last 5 weeks have all been about excess to the max. Sonja and I managed to squeeze in about 6 different holidays into one. We had city breaks, hangtime by the pool, playtime at the beach, camping adventures, plush hotels, and friends floors. It was a fanciful roadtrip around California meeting good people and opening our eyes to the neverending expanse of America. And along with good times, we managed to squeeze in an unfathomably large amount of food and drink. All rules go out the window on holiday and after week 2 it became the norm to have a massive breakfast lunch and dinner. By the end of the trip we had just about become accustomed to enormous portions, all the time.

I took photos as reminders of all the delicious dishes, some highlights include these places, check them out if you find yourself there!

Arigato Sushi in Santa Barbara - Grilled garlic kobe beef, green tea creme brulee and black sesame ice cream.

A wicked home smoked BBQ pulled pork bap at Hearst Castle

The Fat Angel in San Francisco - Ace food to share with the friendliest owners, happy to advise on dishes, we got rabbit pate and manchego cheese with firebrand bread, smoked trout salad, salami tartufo and wild mushroom and truffle oil flatbread

Nopa San Francisco - The starter of oven roasted calamari, garbanzo beans, english beans, frisee and lemon - SO TASTY.

Toast Los Angeles - Sweet potato fries!!!

Then of course In n'Out burger, english scrambled eggs and applesmoked bacon for breakfast, and plenty of gorgeous thai and vietnamese food - all so reasonable.

I seemed to eat endless chicken avocado sandwhiches/chicken salads/chicken avocado salad sandwhiches so at some point I will re-create the ultimate chicken creation, salad or sandwich. It has a lot to live up to...crunchy fresh lettuce, tender chicken and creamy avocado all have to feature.

Also on the list for making : fresh calamari, proper guacamole, sweet potato fries, some kind of smokey pulled meat and a spiced peasant chicken soup.

First up is a red pepper and garlic dip that came as an extra to a dish of baba ganoush we ordered at the very end of our holiday. At first I was convinced it was a carrot and coriander dip. How wrong could I be. Perhaps my tastbuds got warped from all the fat/booze/cigarettes I consumed in the 5 weeks away. Either way, it was sweet and garlicy and seems the perfect way to ween myself back into the kitchen after a serious cooking drought.

Red pepper, garlic and cannellini bean dip

4 red peppers
1 bulb of garlic
1 can cannellini beans
about 20 basil leaves
Juice of 1 small lemon
tsp dried oregano
olive oil

s+p

1. Preheat the oven to 200c then start blistering the red peppers straight on the hob. It should take about 10 minutes and you want them to be black almost all over. Then place them in a bowl and cover with cling film.

2. Smash up the garlic bulb and put the cloves in a dish, drizzle with a little oil and raost for 20 minutes until soft. Drain and wash the cannellini beans, tear up the basil leaves

3. Go back to the peppers with some rubber gloves on and rub the skin away, remove the seeds then rinse to remove excess skin. Remove the garlics from the oven and squeeze out of their skins.

4. Now all ya do is bung everything in the food processor and blitz to a paste, you could use a blender. To serve, smooth some over a plate, garnish with a basil sprig, some chilli flakes and a drizzle of olive oil.

It's also tasty as a pasta sauce, do what you choose with it!

2010-06-30T19:18:00.000-07:00

Im currently in California living life in excess. Food and fun are coming out my ears!

Pork n' prawn

2010-06-12T06:28:00.000-07:00

I have been such a slack hag about blogging for the last 2 weeks. It just so happens that I have actually been working, during the daytime. Makes an extremely welcome change, but when 6pm swings round and the sun is still shining on my happy face, the last thing I want to do is stare at a computer or go to the gym. What I want is a drink and a cig, so I go to the pub instead.

But, despite the lack of blogging, I have been cooking and creating. Cakes, salads, one dish wonders and of course...BBQ-ing has begun. This is England - If the sun is out, so is the barbeque, too often and english bbq involves the crucifying of meat until it resembles something that should be under the grill, not on top, and definately not on our plates. Chuck in some sunburn, binge drinking, and not enough clothing, and you have the supreme urban english bbq brawl!

Im no barbeque expert. I called my brother to ask how to turn it on, and skipped over to jamie o's to get a couple of recipes. Bay salt prawns and blackened texas pork fillets. A leap away from boring burgers and so so sausages. It's all in the preparation cus once it's on the bbq it's a case of turning skewers and drinking some wine.

We had red rice and I made a version of the salad using courgette ribbons, fresh peas, cannelini beans and mint with a drizzle of oil and a squeeze of lemon. Fresh.

Sweet and hot blackened pork fillets

For the marinade:

half tsp cumin seeds

1 tsp fennel seeds

2 cloves

1 heaped tbsp smoked paprika

juice and zest of one orange

small bunch of thyme leaves, finely chopped

4 garlic cloves, peeled and finely chopped

150ml ketchup

6 tbsp balsamic vinegar

4x400g free range pork fillets
s+p

Using a pestle and mortar, crush the cumin seeds, fennel seeds and cloves then mix in with all the other marinade ingredients. Season your pork fillets with s+p and then cover with the marinade for a couple of hours, or overnight if you have time.

When it comes to cooking, skewer the pork fillets lengthways so that you can turn them on the bbq for even cooking. Get the barbeque nice and hot and cook the fillets for about 20 mins, re coating them in the marinade each time you turn them. To serve, just slice 'em up. They taste deee-licious cold the next day too.

Bay salt prawns with fresh pea, courgette ribbons and cannelini bean salad

1 tbsp sea salt
10 bay leaves
Olive oil
up to 20 raw king prawns(depends on how many mouths your feeding)

2 courgettes
Handful of peas in their pods
1 tin of cannelini beans
Mint
Olive oil
Squeeze of lemon juice

Put the salt in a pestle and mortar and crumble the bay leaves in, leaving the stringy spine of the leaf out, then crush with the pestle and mortar until you have a green salt. Skewer the prawns, drizzle with olive oil, sprikle with bay salt and pat it all in. Good prawns.

For the salad, cut the top and bottom off the courgettes, then with a grater or mandolin slicer, make thin, lengthway ribbons of courgette and set aside. De pod the peas and drain and rinse the cannelini's then pop in a bowl.

When you are ready to cook, place the prawn skewers on the bbq for 2 mins each side. While their cooking chuck the courgettes on as well to soften slightly, remove and put with the peas and beans, then dress with olive oil and lemon and tear over the mint leaves.

Serve piled high on your plates!

Pretty poached pear

2010-05-25T11:34:00.000-07:00

I remember having brandy snap baskets as a child and they were, the best treat ever. Thanks mum. Overflowing with strawberries and laden with cream, they were the ultimate indulgence in my greedy beady little eyes. We always had the shop bought ones which were perfect, but there's always an overwhelming satisfaction in making something that you could of easily got down the supermarket, like bread for instance. Nothing beats that just baked smell wafting through the house, so make sure you invite everyone important over just as your taking that brazen beauty out from the oven so you can wallow in a pool of domesticated goddess bliss. You get a similar feeling when you make your own ginger snap baskets. Its a similar process to making pastry as the dough has to chill for at least 2 hours, but thats fine as you can get on with poaching your pears and then sit down and have a cup of tea and a read.

Ginger snap baskets

The original recipe can be found here. Also when measuring your ingredients, measure the flour and then the golden syrup, the flour stops the syrup sticking to the bowl.

110g caster sugar
half tsp ground ginger
60g softened unsalted butter plus extra for greasing
50g plain flour
50ml golden syrup

1. Mix the sugar, ginger and butter until combined, it will take a little work but keep at it, it's good for your arms.

2. Add the flour and golden syrup and mix to form a dough.

3. On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough in to a sausage shape about 3.5cm wide and wrap tightly in cling film. Pop in the fridge for 2 hours.

4. Preheat the oven to 180c and lightly grease a baking tray. Remove the dough from the fridge and unwrap the cling film. Cut two 5mm slices and place on the baking tray. Pop in the oven for about 8 minutes and when they look something like this they are done.

5. Leave to cool on the tray for about 15 seconds. Get a glass and turn it upside down, gently peel away the brandy basket and lay over the glass to cool. Shape how you like as it cools but be quick as they set fast!

Rose water and cardamon poached pears

I slightly changed the original recipe from come dine with me, and made a syrup at the end to pour over.

450g caster sugar
6 cardamon pods, lightly bruised
95ml rose water
4 ripe pears, peeled with stalks intact
10 drops red food coloring
1 clove
1 star anise

Decoration
tsp lavender flowers
White chocolate for grating

1. Peel the pears leaving the stalks intact and set aside

2. Fill a saucepan three quarters full of water and add the sugar, rose water and cardamon pods. Over a medium flame, bring the water to a simmer, this will make a thin syrup to poach the pears in.

3. Drop in the food coloring, stir, and then add the pears. Poach for about 15-20 mins, turning throughout to ensure even color and cooking. They should be soft when you give them a poke. They can be served hot or cold so remove from the pan and set aside, keeping the syrup.

4. With the remaing syrup, add a clove and a star anise and gently boil down for about 20 minutes to make a more dense syrup to pour over.

Now that everything is good to go and ready to assemble, place a ginger snap basket on a plate with a pear inside, drizzle a little syrup over and then sprinkle with lavender flowers and white chocolate. You could serve it with creme fraiche instead of syrup and you can have the pears hot or cold, would be delicious hot with cool creme fraiche.

Yada yada frittata frittata

2010-05-16T13:19:00.000-07:00

I seem to begin many a post with, "it's quick and easy". Making a frittata is very quick and very easy, and is another great dish for using up leftovers! Tada, i've done it again. You can make a massive one for dinner and if there are leftovers, eat the rest for breakfast with some yummy added extras of your choice. So it's a time saver too. I'm all for hassle free food.

You use one big saucepan so you have absolute minimal washing up too. Hooray! Please please pleeeease make sure you use a saucepan with a metal handle. If not, it will without a doubt, melt under the grill and you will be so.pissed.off. inducing the ultimate kitchen rage.

This frittata fed 3 hungry mouths but would definately feed more, possibly 8... we had it on its own but it would be so fantastic partnered with a big summery green salad. Generally frittatas are a savoury dish but last night I couldn't sleep and was mentally brainstorming about sweet frittatas. Delicious or vomit worthy? I struggled with this thought. I suppose it would be quite custardy and fluffy, with vanilla and cream perhaps and some juicy berries...and that actually sounds rather appetizing.

Back to the savoury guys. The frittata I whipped up consisted of a mega mix of veg, featuring baby tomatoes, purple sprouting broccoli, spinach, onion and basil. You can definately put some meat in too, a flavoursome sausage chopped up, chorizo, i reckon even some smoked fish could be awesome, borderlining on a fat arnold bennett omlette.

Summer frittata - (use fillings you have in your fridge!)

1 onion
handful of Purple sprouting broccoli, woody ends removed, sliced in half
handful of baby tomatoes, chopped
2 handfuls of spinach
half handful of basil leaves, torn up
8 eggs, lightly combined
Olive oil
s+p

1. Gently sweat the onion then add the broccoli to soften. Lightly combine the egg yolk and white and season with s+p. Add the tomatoes to the pan, followed by the spinach and basil. Once the spinach is beginning to wilt, pour over all the egg and turn on your grill

Let the frittata cook on the hob for about 5 minutes, until the edges begin to go golden, splatter over some worcester sauce and some cheese if you like, then chuck it under the grill. It will rise up a little and the top will go brown. Just give it a little poke to see when it's ready. Obviously not cooked if it's runny underneath the surface!! Use an oven glove when you touch the handle!

There are 2 ways to get your frittata out the pan - the good old plate method, lay a plate over the top, turn over and out it pops onto the plate. Alternatively you can gently shuffle it out but beware it might break if your too rough. Respect the frittata!!

Risotto rules!

2010-05-10T02:31:00.001-07:00

I LOVE RISOTTO

Risotto is a truly wonderful dish to learn to cook and enjoy. It's cheap and the possibillites are endless. You can cater for your veggie friends, your vegan friends, your carnivores and your pescatarians. I used to be wary of making it, i thought it took perfection and precision like a souffle, but oh how wrong I was! Of course there are guidlines to follow but there is so much hype about being stuck to the hob constantly stirring the risotto that people get put off. There's no need to be a nazi about it, but stirring the rice is an important part of getting risotto right. Jamie O once described it as massaging the grains to get the starch out of the rice, so that the next ladle of stock can be absorbed easier. I think it's a good way to think of it, massaging the rice. Without movement, the rice won't absorb the stock to become creamy, and your risotto will be a lumpy frogspawn sludge, gross.

The best way to learn anything is to watch someone else do it. I once saw a guy who made a wicked risotto and thats when I really got into it, plus my brother always made a killer one, so when I decided I wanted to learn the art of risotto, I watched my brother make it then the very next day made some myself. It came out perfectly and I haven't looked back since. All I regret are the many years I spent without being able to make it, boo hoo. Oh well, risotto is the future!!

For a basic risotto you need onion, garlic, risotto rice, stock and a splash of martini or white wine, from there you can add whatever you like. Just think of a flavour combo that you lust after and chuck it in your risotto.

Smoked salmon and pea risotto

Serves 3

1 small onion, finely chopped

1 garlic clove, finely chopped
225g risotto rice
splash of martini
1 litre veg stock
2 lightly smoked salmon filets
handful of peas, frozen or fresh
Olive oil
S+P

1. Place the salmon fillets in a dish and pop in the oven for about 10 mins until they are just cooked through. Set aside.

2. Over a medium flame, heat about 1 tbsp oil and gently sweat the onion and garlic. Once soft add the rice and stir around. You want the rice to absorb the flavours in the oil. When the grains start to go transparent around the edge pour over a large splash of martini and allow to cook away.

2. When the martini has almost all gone, add a ladle of stock of stock and stir. When that has been absorbed you want to repeat this until you have one ladel left. When you pour in the last ladel, add the peas so they heat and cook through, then flake in the salmon and season. Serve with a rocket salad and a slice of lemon.

ACE VEGAN CAKES!

2010-04-27T03:45:00.000-07:00

These are super tasty, delightfully chewy little slices of angel dust. And....they are vegan. I don't know how this happened but it did and they rule. Don't knock it till you try it. I will admit that I used to turn my nose up at vegan food and look the other way. Then last summer I got sick and had no other option for about a month and really enjoyed eating mostly vegan ( with a sly slice of ham thrown in now and again) Then after flying to america and requesting a non dairy, wheat free, vegan meal on the plane, I was traumatised by what was slapped down in front of me resembling wood chip for hamsters, that I was forced to fill up on bloody mary's. I got wasted and cried watching rom coms for 8 hours. After all this I went back to a full varied diet.

I would never go vegan - I am a meat fiend, but I have no problem with people who are, and actually have respect for what they are doing. Unless they begin preaching to me. One of my favourite food blogs is actually my friend Trinity's, Haiku Tofu. All totally vegan, and is a feast for the eyes and stomach.

I wanted to make a seriously seedy, chewy cakey thing. Something along the lines of granola bar, stuffed with all things good, and thats what this is. Carrots, beetroots and endless seeds. You can easily make this non vegan, just use unsalted butter instead of soya butter, and golden syrup instead of agave nectar. Add a handful of sultanas if you like, I think they would be a great addition. wkd

Carrot and beetroot super seedy slice

200g soya sunflower butter
175ml agave nectar
1 tbsp peanut butter
300g small oats
90g ground almonds
175g light brown sugar
100g finely grated carrots
100g finely grated raw beetroot
50g sesames seeds, toasted
60g mixed seeds - use whatever you like, sunflower, pumpkin, linseed etc
2 tsp finely grated orange zest
half tsp ground cinnamon
half tsp ground nutmeg

Optional - handful of currants

1. Preheat the oven to 170c and lightly grease and line a medium depth dish. Over a getle heat, melt the butter and agave nectar together. Remove from the heat and stir in the peanut butter.

2. Grate the carrot and beetroot and toast the seeds, then add everything into a big bowl and mix. It may seem really sticky and thick but it's supposed to be. Don't fret. Once it's all mixed together, scoop it out into the dish and press it down with a wooden spoon so even on top.

3. Bake for 25 mins until hard in top and a knife comes out almost clean. Cool in the dish. Then take it out, chop it up and eat it.

Summer spread

2010-04-20T07:37:00.000-07:00

The sun is well and truly shining. I can't sleep past 8.30am because the rays are shining straight through my eyelids telling me to wake the hell up and do something productive on a beautiful day!

Planning a satisfying meal is an often an important part of my day. I enjoy the routine of constructing a list, driving to the supermarket and shopping, almost as much as I enjoy cooking it all up and tucking in. Simple pleasure in everyday tasks.

Everyday tasks are 100000x easier to get done when the sun is out. This means that when the summer months hit i'm on such a high when planning a meal, that it's almost dangerous for me to drive. Windows down, stereo up, I have to cross 3 major roundabouts on my quest and swing round them without a care in the world. Lalalalalalaaaa.

My Dad and I have been brunching and lunching (but not quite dining yet), on the terrace. Protected from the wind and all day sun make it the perfect spot for leisurely lunch. I made a selection of dishes and they went down a treat. Partnered with oatcakes or crusty bread, olives and some other marinated treats, and finished off with some fat slices of fresh melon, this makes a lovely quite light lunch. Quite.

These all serve about 3/4 people

Sweet n' spicy red rice salad.

I made this before and added wild rice as well. It was awesome. Just start cooking the wild rice first then add the red rice and a little bit more water after about 20 mins.

200g red rice
10 dried apricots, roughly chopped
2 heaped tsp harissa paste
2 heaped tsp mayonnaise
Coriander
Squeeze of lemon juice
S+P

Get some water bubbling, add the rice and leave to simmer for 25 minutes. Meanwhile, mix together the harissa paste, mayonnaise and a squeeze of lemon. Roughly chop up some coriander and add to the paste then season. Taste and if it's too spicy for your taste add some more mayonnaise. Once the rice is done, drain and mix through the paste and apricots. Garnish with a few coriander leaves.

Griddled aubergines and courgettes with anchovies and toasted sesame seeds

Griddled vegetables are b.r.i.l.l.i.a.n.t. Along with a potato ricer, a good griddle pan should be the next thing you buy. If you ever find yourself about to present your guests with a boring salad, DO NOT! I can guarantee you will have a courgette/aubergine/pepper kickin around thats just calling out to be griddled and included in your meal. So simple but adds a lot. I served mine as a dish on their own with some salty little anchovies, nutty sesames, a drizzle of oil and some smoked pesto.

1 aubergine, sliced lengthways
2 courgettes, sliced lengthways
Olive oil
Salt
Anchovies
Couple of basil leaves

Rub a bit of oil onto both sides of the aubergine and courgette slices and lightly salt. Get your griddle pan hot and in batches griddle them until they are soft and have charred lines on each side. Toast your sesame seeds, drizzle the veg with olive oil, sprinkle with the seeds and anchovies and garnish with a couple of basil leaves. A smokey pesto goes great with this too, I had a smoked aubergine one, how appropriate.

Tomato, avocado and basil salad

Last but not least was a tomato, avocado and basil salad. Great colors and great flavours, can't go wrong.

Avocado, peeled and chopped
3 tomatoes, chopped
Basil
Olive oil
Lemon juice
S+P

Mix everything together in a pretty bowl and enjoy.

Sunday dinner

2010-04-19T06:36:00.000-07:00

So dinner on sunday night compromised of some tasty flavour combos. Salmon+chorizo, parsnip+fennel. Where I work we used to have a dish on the menu that was salmon with chorizo mash. I never tried it but thought that was a wicked combination, so last night I made my own version. A bit of brocolli and some alioli on the side. Not home made alioli, I didn't have time but must master it as it's so easy. Alioli is garlic mayo, juzt in case ya didn't know.

EVERYONE INVEST IN A POTATO RICER

I can't stress this enough. They make mash creamy and life easy, they look like a giant garlic press and do exactly the same thing. Just place your boiled potatoes/parsnips inside, squeeze down the lever and out comes lump free mash. Repeat then add some butter, give it a season and a stir and your done. So under rated!

Pan fried salmon with crispy chorizo, pasnip and fennel mash, brocolli and garlic mayo

For 2

2 salmon fillets
150g chorizo, sliced
2 parsnips, peeled and chopped
4 medium potatoes, peeled and chopped
1 bulb of fennel, sliced and chopped
Brocolli
Butter
Olive oil
Lemon
Alioli
s+p

1. Preheat the oven to a low temperature for keeping things warm, about 60c. Get some water boiling and gently boil your parsnips and potatoes for about 25 mins until very soft.

2. Over a medium heat, melt a knob of butter then sweat the fennel until soft, season, and set aside.

3. Gently fry the chorizo until crispy, place on some kitchen towel to drain excess fat and keep warm in oven.

4. Once the potatoes and parsnips are really soft and crumbly, drain, put back into the saucepan then add a good knob of butter, season and mash with a regular masher. Get your new best friend, the potato ricer, and squeeze everything through it until you have a creamy mash. Add more butter or a dash of milk if you like. Keep warm in the oven.

5. Get a pan of hot water going for the broccoli and heat a little oil in a non stick saucepan. Gently pan fry the salmon fillets until they are golden on each side, about 3 minutes each side.

6. Steam your broccoli for about 5 minutes. When you can pierce it easily with a fork it is done. Please do not crucify it!!

Plate up your mash with the fennel mixed in or put on top, you could mash it but I forgot. The taste is still there either way. Drizzle the broccoli with olive oil and season, top the salmon with the crispy chorizo and put a slab of lemon on the side of the plate. Yum.

Chocolate fridge cake

2010-04-17T01:56:00.000-07:00

Pudding that involves no cooking is the best. Like a stew, it's something you can prepare earlier and forget about until you need it. No bake cakes are also extremely handy when you have a dinner party and put away to much alcohol. No burnt fingers or charcoal pastry here friends! You are almost guaranteed a disaster free evening. I'm not promising you won't slip and drop your creation, that could happen whether it's hot or cold, but at least you won't be burning it to a crisp or screaming like a bebe over blisters and spilt pud.

In total it took me 15 minutes to make this - Chocolate fridge cake and frozen grapes - it was hassle free, looked swanky, and saved on washing up because you pile it all up on a wooden board, pop it down in the middle of the table and let people pick away as the please. Like gannets.

Another handy thing about this fridge cake is that not only is it convenient to make, it's also economical as you have the chance to use up lingering half packets of nuts/biscuits/dried fruit that you have hanging out in the cupboard taking up valuble snack space. Just cut and crush them up and throw them in. For that reason I haven't put quatities for the extras in my recipe, just listed what I used. You want it to be fairly bulky with chunks of biscuit and fruit to give texture. Just go with ya gut.

Chocolate fridge cake with frozen grapes

400g Dark chocolate
250g unsalted butter
Shortbread
Pistachios
Pecans
Dried apricots
Pack of grapes

First thing - wash your grapes, put them on a plate and place in the freezer. Line a bread loaf tin with cling film and cut/break the butter and choclate into pieces. In a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of simmering water, melt together the chocolate and butter then add all your extra treats. Pour the mix into the lined bread tin and refridgerate until needed.

To serve, tip the cake out onto a big board, slice a few pieces up and strategically place the grapes around it.

Stewed leeks and green fingered goddesses

2010-04-12T01:09:00.000-07:00

I have been slightly thrown off course recently and subsequently absent from the kitchen. Partly I blame the sun for making an appearance and the cold weather lifting, partly I blame my recent discovery that I am slightly allergic to dairy. My beloved dairy. By no means does this mean I will never eat it again but for the time being I am stubbornly making adjustments, mainly being that I have to stop putting cheese ON EVERYTHING and use soya milk and soya butter. Perhaps it's a good thing.

Stewing is a brilliant method of cooking as it's fairly fuss free. Once it's made you can put the stew to one side and get on with other bits and bobs. Most stews taste even better when they have been left over night, the flavours develop, deepen and become more intense, so you can even make them the day before.

This weekend a few of us went to North End Road market round the corner. You can buy anything there, and the vegetables are great as they're cheap and cheerful and you can go far with a little bit of cash. I got a bundle of leeks for stewin' and oranges for juicin'. Jess and I are also feeling green fingered at the moment and bought chives, sage, rosemary, tomatoes, pansies and jasmine, then spent the rest of the day potting plants and sitting the sun. Green fingered fever is spreading - our 2 friends who we were with also got mint for fresh mint tea and some other herbs, and made their own washing line in their sitting room with goodies picked up on north end road. We even got red lightbulbs, mine is gracing my bathroom giving it a brothel-esque vibe. Sexy.

I accompanied my whole leek stew with baked potatoes. Baking potatoes, scooping their insides out then mashing them up with chives, garlic, (soya, waaaa) butter (and cheese, if you can) and putting them back in their skins...is the best thing ever. Crispy on the outside and creamy in the middle, you have strong flavours and textures and it is completely versatile so you can mash it and accompany it with anything. Comfort food with a bit of kick. Koool.

Pearl Barley and Whole Leek stew with creamy Garlic Baked Potatoes and Watercress salad.

Serves 2-3

Stewed leeks

1 red onion, sliced
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
6 leeks, tops, ends and outer leaf removed
3 tbsp tomato puree
half tsp of paprika powder
3 tbsp red wine vinegar
1 litre veg stock
80g pearl barley
olive oil
s+p

1. In a heavy based dish over a medium flame, heat some oil and gently sweat the onion and garlic with the lid on.

2. Add the puree, stir, add the leeks, paprika and some s+p, and then spoon over the vinegar. Stir, cover, reduce the heat a tiny tiny bit, and soften for 10 mins.

3. Add 600ml of veg stock then reduce the heat and simmer for 20 mins half covered, until the stock has reduced and thickened. (Preheat the oven to 200c for the baked potatoes) Then add the rest of the stock and the barley and simmer half covered until the barley is soft and the sauce has thickened again, about 40 mins.

- While the barley is doing it's thing, get on with the potatoes.

For 2 creamy garlic baked potatoes

2 baking potatoes
3 garlic cloves, crushed
tbsp butter
chives, finely chopped
s+p

1. Prehat the oven to 200c. Scrub, salt and stab your poatoes and pop them in the oven for an hour, until they are soft inside and crispy outside.

2. Switch the oven to grill, scoop the insides out of the potatoes, rub the skins with a little olive oil and pop back in the oven to crisp.

3. Mash the insides with the garlic, butter and chives then season and fill the skins. Top with some cheese, a drizzle of oil and grill for 5 mins until crispy on top.

Serve the stew and potatoes with a fresh salad and a gin&tonic. Do love a good gin & tonic in the summer.

Rad soup

2010-04-06T02:02:00.001-07:00

Rocket is definately my favourite leaf. I love him. That peppery bite that compliments so many flavours is one I hold close to my heart. He's great as a salad so why not as a soup? I had my reservations, because that last line I just wrote is completely off centre. Imagine a tuna nicoise salad as a soup....yuk.

Despite stealing the trophy in the flavour department, at the end of the day rocket is just a piece of fancy lettuce, and basing a whole soup dish around a high water content leaf is not the best idea. A watery garden broth could be the end result.

So like with a watercress soup, I bulked mine out with a selection of other tasty and wholesome veg that were lying around - sweet potato and red pepper. I started out making this soup with it in mind as a vegetarian one, but when it came to tasting it at the end the impact was not as strong as I hoped so added some chorizo. The color and flavour of that spicy sausage fitted in perfectly with the soup and completely trasformed it.

Rocket, red pepper and chorizo soup

Serves 2-3

1 Onion, chopped
3 garlic cloves, finley chopped
1 sweet potato, peeled and roughly chopped
2 red peppers, deseeded and roughly chopped
5 spring onions, white flesh sliced
50 g rocket
100g chorizo, diced
700ml veg stock
Olive oil
S+P

1. In a heavy based saucepan over a medium heat, heat some oil and sweat the onion and garlic for 5 mins with the lid on. Add the sweet potato and soften for 10 mins with the lid on.

2. Add red pepper, spring onion and s+p and soften for a further 5 mins covered. Add all the stock and simmer for 15 minutes....with the lid on.

3. While the soup is simmering, lightly fry the chorizo in a saucepan, you don't need oil as it produces loads itself. You want to cook it a bit before you add it to the soup to release the amazing flavours.

4. Add half the rocket, blend with a hand blender, add almost the rest of the rocket and the chorizo plus the oil it produced, and blend. Keep a little of each to garnish your soups with. Serve with a big chunk of crusty bread, like usual!

No bake (no fuss) cheesecake

2010-03-26T10:41:00.000-07:00

So much baking lately.

It's my dads birthday today and I wanted to make something tasty that I've not made for him before. Cheesecakes are a no fuss alternative to baking a cake, but look and definately taste just as special. I chose to do a white chocolate cheesecake with blueberries and ginger smashed together. I think there is always the tendency for cheesecakes to be so super sweet that you gag and can't go back for seconds...but wheres the fun in that? The ginger here lifts the taste of the blueberries, which could otherwise get a bit lost under the rich white chocolate - it almost tastes apple-y. YUMMY

Mine looks a bit dribbly round the edge because my impatient self took it out too early to peak at it, then put it back in the fridge. Don't do this, patience is a vurtue...(blahblahblah..)

White chocolate, blueberry and ginger cheesecake

300g white chocolate
280ml double cream
400g cream cheese
50g sugar + 2 or 3 tsp extra for smashing with ginger and berries
2 pots of blueberries
1 tsp grated fresh ginger
85g of ginger biscuits, crushed
50g unsalted butter, melted

1. Lightly oil a cake or bread tin and line with cling film. In a bowl over hot water, melt the chocolate then set aside to cool

2. Whisk together the cream, cheese and sugar. Add the chocolate mix and stir in.

3. Using a pestle and mortar, smash 1 pot of blueberries, grated ginger and 2-3 tsp of sugar together. Spoon half of the cream mixture into the tin, evenly pour over the smashed blueberries, then spoon in the rest of the cream.

4. Even out the cream, mix the melted butter and biscuits together then press onto the cream to form the base. Refridgerate overnight and when your ready to indulge, place a flat plate on top and turn over and out, peel off the cling film and decorate with the remaining blueberries.

You could chop and swap most of the ingredients here to make different flavor combos, milk or dark chocolate instead of white, strawberries instead of blueberries. Or even a mix of berries. It doesn't even have to stop at berries! You could use passionfruit or mango, lychees, something citrusy, i must stop I'm gonna go into overdrive!!

Lapsang Souchong muffins with chai icing

2010-03-25T05:43:00.000-07:00

I really enjoy slightly savoury flavours in cakes, and I also try to steer away from really false interpretations of flavours in food. 'Cherry' flavour, for instance. What a perfect example. What's it all about? Eat a real cherry and you will be greeted by a gentle sweetness with a sour edge, that is perfectly balanced and leaves you wanting more. Synthetic cherry flavour tastes like some strange 90's lip gloss (on a keychain from superdrug) and leaves you wishing you hadn't even bothered. Meh..you live you learn.

I've always been a sucker for anything with a bit of a smokey or spiced flavour to it. Lapsang souchong is a black tea with an intense smokey flavour that comes from being roasted over pine and cypress. Once you know that and think about it when you drink it, you can really experience those aromas coming through. I don't drink it much, but the smell is so intense and exotic. I can imagine drinking pots if it, lying down on persian rugs in some mad palace in the middle of the rainforest. Dreamy.

My flatmate gave me the idea of making something with lapsang souchong, so again I have taken a flavour and made something cakey. Instead of cupcakes I made muffins, which generally aren't iced. To be honest I don't know if there are any other huge differences between cupcakes and muffins other than self raising flour in muffins and regular in cupcakes, no frosting or icing on muffins and loads on cupcakes. I haven't quite grasped the science of baking but I think I am getting there, the balance of wet to dry ingredients etc. For me, if the flavour is there then i'm happy.

Lapsang souchong muffins with chai icing

I decorated mine with little chocolate eggs, no major reason except I suppose it's nearly easter and they are so tiny and cute.

Makes exactly 6.

150g self raising flour
70g caster sugar
50g butter, melted
100ml milk
1 egg, beaten
80ml boiling water with 5 lapsang souchong teabags infused for about 5 mins.

1. Preheat the oven to 200c. While the teabags are brewing in the water, mix the egg, sugar, milk and butter together in a large bowl. Squeeze the teabags and remove then add the tea to the mix.

2. Sieve the flour into the wet ingredients and stir in until completely smooth.

3. Equally spoon the mixture into 6 muffin cases and bake for 20-25 minutes or until a knife comes out clean. Cool completely on a wire rack.

Chai icing

1/4 tub of mascarpone
100g icing sugar
2 tsp chai powder

Mix all the ingredients together then spread over the cooled muffins. Top with decorations, or lightly sieve some cocoa powder over.

Healthy hangover

2010-03-21T15:01:00.000-07:00

Gone are the days when I wake up groggy, disjointed and craving grease in my system. Oh yes. I think I have turned over a new leaf, because now all I can think about is getting something beneficial in my belly. Kind of...

Ok so today was one of those days, one of the few. Usually I need eggs, marmite and extra salt on everything, but you know what, who cares, everyone has off days. I am proud to say though, that today was not one of them.

My friend introduced me to Merchant Gourmet ready soaked lentils, and they are so great. I could even say they have changed my life but perhaps that would be over the top. All you do is drain, rinse, pimp and serve. Brilliant!

I sprinkled, crumbled and topped my lentils with pomegranate jewels, feta cheese and rocket. Slug a bit of olive oil and balsamic vinegar over the mega mix and you have yourself a very yummy and virtuous little dish! I think it looks quite fancy too.

Lentil, feta, pomegranate and rocket salad

1 tin of ready soaked lentils
Feta cheese
Pomegranate jewels
Rocket
Olive oil
Balsamic vinegar
S+P

Rinse and drain the lentils, put everything in a bowl, mix and serve!

To accompany this dainty delight was a good chunky roasted butternut squash, tarted up with poppy and sesame seeds and crispy chorizo. Just a quick backtrack - I am forever searching for poppy seeds and forever failing, so you can imagine my delight when I found loads in M&S. 'How novel' therfore I put them on anything and everything. So my sesame seeds now have a new partner in crime and these guys seem to find themselves getting in and on to all things edible. I'm not complaining. I love them!!

Roasted butternut squash topped with poppy seeds, sesame seeds and crispy chorizo.

I allocate half a squash per person but it's up to you and the size of it. So this recipe serves 2.

1 butternut squash, chopped in half, seeds removed
Chorizo sausage, chopped into chunks
Poppy seeds
Sesame seeds
Olive oil

Preheat the oven to 220c. Place the squash fleshy side up on some lightly oiled tin foil, make some cuts in the flesh and drizzle with oil. Sprinkle over the seeds and pop in the oven. Cook for about 40 minutes or until soft. Halfway through cooking add the chorizo randomly on top to crisp. The chorizo oils will fall into the squash and add more tasty flavour.
Serve with salad and pesto. Pesto is awesome with squash.

Pesto is awesome with most things.

Elderflower cupcakes

2010-03-17T02:45:00.000-07:00

Spring is here! Spring is here! I have been indulging in little jackets over t shirts, just one pair of socks instead of 3, and even showed a bit of bare leg the other day. Cheeky.

In a deliriously happy springtime daze i bought some potted rhododendrums and jotted down some ideas for springtime treats. Elderflower kept springing, haha, to mind and I couldn't fight it anymore so opted for elderflower cupcakes topped with fresh raspberries.

I made a small batch as I wanted 6 large ones instead of more smaller ones, but you can make smalled ones if you like. I also didn't use cases just put the mix straight into lightly greased silicone muffin cases and popped them out when they were done. All up to personal preferences on how you want them to look at the end!

I found that the sponges didn't taste as elderflowery as I had hoped but didn't want to add to much elderflower cordial as the mix would get to liquidy and not cook. Is there elderflower extract available anywhere???

Elderflower cupcakes with mascarpone icing and fresh raspberries

Cupcakes

175g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt
145g caster sugar
60g unsalted butter, softened
2 medium free range eggs
85ml milk
3 tbsp elderflower cordial

1. Preheat the oven to 180c. Place the flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl.

2. Mix the sugar and butter in another bowl, then add the eggs one by one and mix until smooth. Stir in the milk and the cordial then add to the dry ingredients and mix until smooth.

3. Spoon the mix into your chosen cases then bake for 25 mins or until golden on top. Leave to cool on a wire rack and get on with the frosting.

Icing

Half tub of mascarpone
300g icing sugar
2 tbsp double cream
4 tbsp elderflower cordial
Raspberries

Mix the mascarpone, cream and cordial together then gradually sieve in the icing sugar and mix. Give it a taste and if you think it needs more elderflower add it. Don't go overboard or it will go to liquid!!!

When the cupcakes are cool, generously slather the icing on them and top with some raspberries. These are naughty little springtime treats. Welcome Spring with flowers in your bedroom and the scent of baking throughout the house.

Help me.

2010-03-16T03:50:00.000-07:00

What do I bake.make.create for worlds best dad on his birthday?

Any suggestions welcome. xoxo

Week of the chicken leg.

2010-03-14T14:05:00.000-07:00

Chicken is easy to cook, easy to accompany, and easy to pimp out into an exciting dish. Spicy, sweet, smokey, whatever!

I have been known in the not so distant past to assume that chicken is overpriced and over rated. But, I will hands down never ever be persuaded to buy chicken breasts called 'basics' that are the size of a human brain, weigh as much as a baby and resemble some poor washed up jellyfish. Who knows what has been pumped into those plastic wrapped mutants. Maybe this is where my problems begin. Organic meat is expensive, but quality and peace of mind over quantity is what matters to me, especially with meat.

Anyway, it seems I have found my middle ground. Free range organic chicken with the fiddly bits. Fiddly bits being bones and skin. Legs and thighs are cheaper and just as tasty, plus once they are cooked the meat just falls off the bone anyway. Perfect for eating straight away or whacking into a casserole or pie. Prices soar when you opt for a skinless boneless piece o' meat. I think I am repeating myself from an earlier post but who cares. This is fact!

This week I have been celebrating the chicken leg.

First off was a simple and quick dish, great if your cooking for a few. All you need is

Grainy mustard
Honey
Olive oil
Garlic cloves, crushed
Chicken legs

Mix the mustard, honey, olive oil and crushed garlic together and pour over the chicken legs, leave to marinate for about an hour. Preheat the oven to 200c then cook the chicken for about 30 mins, until cooked through. Serve with salad and roasted baby potatoes. Spoon the juices in the bottom of the pan over the chicken as a sauce.

Next was a creamy chicken, asparagus and mushroom pie. Topped with torn ciabatta and sliced asparagus. It turned out ace but I got confused at the beginning and put all the liquid in backwards, so I'm not gonna write it up yet, not until I have figured it out properly. I definately recommend using ciabatta as the top for a pie though. Tantalisingly crisp on the outside and then soft underneath, it makes a refreshing change from potatoes and pastry, and is perfect to ease yourself out of the winter month foods while still keeping it hearty.

Rhubarb, apple and nutmeg custard tart topped with crushed pistachios

2010-03-07T10:12:00.000-08:00

Rhubarb and custard is a dribbly mouth match, and apples are also bloody great so why not chuck them in the mix?

I get the concept of a tart being you make a case, then fill it with whatever you want. Sounds great, and is basically like a sweet quiche. And I love quiche! So what's not to love?

To make this tart I took Jamies short crust pastry from this recipe, then added my own treats on top. Home made nutmeg custard conceals caramelised rhubard and apple, all encased in thin, crumbly, sweet, short crust. With a cup of earl grey at tea time or a dollop of ice cream for after dinner, this tart is a winner.

Now I am definately no expert with pastry but the one thing I do get is that you don't want to the butter to melt as you work it with your hands, so keep them as cold as possible. Grab some ice before you start or run them under a cold tap for a while until you start to feel the cold burn!!

For the short crust pastry:

100g icing sugar
225g plain flour
125g cold unsalted butter, cut into small cubes.
pinch of salt
2 egg yolks
2 tbsp cold water or milk.

With cold hands, rub the icing sugar, butter and salt together then add the egg yolks and seive the flour in. Mix with a spoon and then get stuck in with your cold hands again. When it looks like coarse breadcrumbs add the cold water or milk and mix with a spoon to distribute, then pat the mixture together to form a dough. Don't worry if it's a bit crumbly, just keep working it until it sticks together, but not to much or the pastry will be stodgey and chewy once cooked. yuk.

Lightly pat your dough with flour, wrap in cling film and pop in the fridge for an hour, now get on with your fillings...

For the Caramelised rhubard and apple

5 stems of rhubard. cut into 4 pieces
2 ambrosia apples, cored and sliced
1 clementine, zest grated and juiced
3 tbsp caster sugar

Preheat the oven to 180c. Chuck everything in a roasting tin and mix around then roast for about 30-40 mins or until the fruit is cooked and soft and the juice is starting to caramelise. Once cooked remove from the pan and set aside to cool. While the fruit is cooking start the custard...

For nutmeg custard

300ml double cream
5 egg yolks
3 tbsp golden caster sugar
pinch of nutmeg

Whisk the egg yolks and sugar together. Put the cream in a saucepan and just as it starts coming to the boil whisk in the egg yolks and continue whisking. Add the nutmeg and whisk a little more, then pop in a jug and put somewhere safe to cool.

Assembling the tart:

Remove the pastry from the fridge, roll it out on a lightly foured surface and line your tart tin. Place in the freezer for an hour, then preheat the oven to 180c and bake the case until golden, about 12 minutes. Cool in the tin then carefully remove.

Turn the oven down to 150c. Now we can put everything together! Randomly place the rhubarb and apple in the case, then pour the custard in making sure it's even all over. Sprinkle over crushed pistachios and then bake the whole thing for 35 mins, until the custard is just firm. Leave to cool and eat cold.

Holla if you need me...

2010-03-07T02:23:00.000-08:00

What a busy week. Working, thinking and overestimating how warm it is outside spring to mind. I have worn sunglasses 5 times this week, at least. At last!
The sun may have made an appearance, but cooking up a storm in the kitchen has not. What's worse is that I can't even remember what has happened this week, where it has gone, or what I have done. That's a lie, I do remember baking a coffee cake for my great friends Grandmothers 90th birthday. Perhaps I remember it because I was deeply traumatised by the whole experience at the time, singed into my memory and onto the tips of my fingers. My baking battle scars with me for life.
Cooking casually for people you surround yourself with on a daily basis, is very different to cooking for an occassion for someone who you know but not that well, but still really want to impress. It's not like cooking for a stranger, either. You can't cut yourself off and never see them again if you bake a crap cake. This is dangerous territory! I took the plunge and went for it, and subsequently concluded that baking with a deadline is fun and challenging, especially when you care about who it is going to. I made 2 cakes, one for back up. 2 sets of icing, to see which was tastier, and had plenty of moments where I genuinely felt like I was about to have.a.mental.breakdown.
I was happy with the finished cake and begged my friend to tell me honestly if it was alright or not. It's not like I can just take a taster slice out the side and ice over it. I was told it was great, delicious and got a massive thankyou, but you never know with these things, like I said, it's dangerous territory! I genuinely hope it was enjoyed.

I need to make this again in less of a panic so I can record how i made the sponge and which recipes I adapted it from, but the icing was lick-the-bowl-and-the-spoon delish, so here is the recipe for that. Sugar and dairy overload, the best kind.

1 tub mascarpone
1 142ml tub double cream
500g icing sugar
1heaped tbsp instant coffee dissolved in 1 tbsp boiling water
1tsp vanilla essence

Beat together the mascarpone and cream then gradually siev in the icing sugar. Add the coffee and vanilla essence and stir around until well mixed.

Holla of you need me to make a cake for you!

Wild one pot wonder

2010-02-26T06:01:00.000-08:00

I got wild rice on the brain and the tip of my tongue. I can't get enough.

Get.in.me wild rice.

Lately i've fallen out of the habit of making soup and into the trap of picking up something a bit more convenient along the lines of Covent Garden Soup. I think they're OK, but I like my soups thick and bustling with flavours that only a home made soup can offer. A cheeky deal on some strong flat white mushrooms and my frivolous new love affair with wild rice snapped me out of my lazy daze and back into the kitchen. Mushroom soup is not one I had mastered prior to this, I once made chicken and mushroom soup that had the strangest consistency, all I can say is dont blend chicken, cus it's texture is sick.

Nothing is blended in here, so this is more of a stew than a soup, and is a guaranteed one pot wonder. My favourite type of dish. It's smokey, spicy, and very very hearty. Plus, once it's all in the pot theres not much else to do, except sit around and enojy the aromas. Treat.

Smokey mushroom, wild rice and rosemary stew.

8 big flat mushrooms, sliced
1 red onion, chopped
4 garlic cloves, crushed
3 sprigs of rosemary
400g tin of cannellini beans
110g cubed pancetta
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp cayenne chilli powder
1 litre veg stock
70g wild rice
Olive oil

~This stew has a definate kick to it so if your sensitive use half a teaspoon of each spice.

1. In a heavy based casserole dish over a medium heat, sweat the onions then add the garlic, rosemary and mushrooms. Stir, cover with a heavy lid and sweat for about 4 minutes. (Shrooms have a very high water content, you want to keep the water they produce as it's a rich flavoursome juice and this is the base of the stew, so make sure your lid is heavy and nothing evaporates!)

2. Add the pancetta, paprika, cayenne chilli powder, cannellini beans and 300ml of stock. Stir and leave to cook until reduced and thickened then add some more stock. Repeat until all the stock is gone and you have a gorgeous stew with a rich juice. Get the wild rice cooking when you have used 2 thirds of the stock and add at the end. Serve with some bread, Sourdough goes amazingly with this, and a slice of lemon squeezed over.

Pizza tasting with Francesco Mazzei

2010-02-24T12:34:00.000-08:00

Last week I got my first invite to a food blogger evening at Pizza Express with Francesco Mazzei, which took place last night on Curtain road. He has devised some new additions to their menu all inspired from the region of Calabria in Italy, and we were invited along to try them out and have a crack at making them ourselves. A night fuelled by pizza and prosecco. How fun!!

The night started with a demonstration from Francesco and the head chef of pizza express Antonio Romani. They showed us how to create 2 of the pizzas, the Mia Soffia, a pizza with no tomatoes but slathered with truffle and mozzarella paste and laden with 3 different types of mushrooms; oyster, cup and portobello. Next was the Calabrese, the hottest pizza in Pizza Express, sweet roquito red peppers, hot green peppers, calabrese sausage and a soft spicy sausage. Both delicious and topped with watercress and torn mozzarella.

With our glasses full and dressed to the nines in pizza express gear, we all had a go at pushing and spinning out our dough to make a perfect base, and holy crap did they make it look easy. It seems that the motions are very important in getting that beautifully thin base with a crisp crust.

Spinning the dough helps to stretch it evenly without ripping gaping holes in it, so I went slow and got a base I was quite proud of, so kept that instead of using one of the pre-made ones they had as back up...C'mon guys wheres the faith!! I made a Calabrese and Roxy was the awkward vegetarian who hates mushrooms so made a calabrese with no meat. Noice.

We sat back, relaxed and waited for our pizzas to be cooked, then sat back, relaxed and indulged. Then we were offered Dolcetti, mini deserts with an espresso. A brilliant, simple, tasty and sweet ending to a very enjoyable evening.

Initially I would of thought that a chain restuarant as massive as Pizza Express would have covered all bases regarding new pizzas and exciting flavours, but Francescos new additions bring a fresh twist to the menu - Calabrese, the hottest pizza in the restuarant, and Mia Sofia - The white pizza thats still bursting with flavours of shrooms and 'erbs despite having no tomato.

I recommend!

Fragrant chicken broth

2010-02-22T03:49:00.000-08:00

I could do with a full body cleanse, in and out. A full body/organ scrub, steam and polish. Although its lighter, these days feel like they're dragging on longer and summer fun is sprinting further into the distance, taking the skip in my step with them. And the weather forecast is rain for 7 days.

Just.lovely.

I made this chicken broth last week. It's really simple to make and there is something very pleasing about its delicate taste. The warming sweet spiced broth, nutty wild rice, crunchy sugar snaps and tenderly torn chicken make an ace team. I made a mass that could of fed 4-6 folk, and due to our lack of freezer space I couldn't freeze the leftover broth so felt a little wasteful. BUT because you assemble it at the end, you can make just enough rice for however many are eating. Chuck in the sugarsnaps and chicken and your done. Simples.

Now i'd also like to add that wild rice is bloody expensive for what it is, because at the end of the day it is just rice. But it's got this amazing texture and flavour thats worth £5.70. Just think of it as an investement.
And ingredients like galangal and lemongrass can be found at your local thai supermarket, or Waitrose. Waitrose "cooks ingredients" section is great-I think I'm in love with Waitrose.

Fragrant chicken broth

Whole small chicken
2 litres good quality chicken stock, or home made stock if you have some kickin around.
2 small red chillis, one pricked all over to infuse, one finely chopped.
1 stick lemongrass, sliced in half
4 slices of galangal
5 spring onions plus extra for garnishing, chopped
Coriander
Juice of 2 limes
2 tsp fish sauce
bit of grated fresh ginger
Sugar snaps
Wild rice

1. Chuck the chicken in a big pot with the stock, lemongrass, galangal, pricked chilli, spring onions and a few sprigs of coriander and simmer with the lid half on for about an hour, until the chicken has been fully poached and is cooked through.

2. Halfway through, turn the chicken over. In a separate saucepan put on some wild rice to cook, it takes about 45 minutes. You want it to start splitting exposing the white inside.

3. When the chickens done, carefully remove from the pot and leave to cool. Drain the stock and add the lime juice and fish sauce, this is now your broth.

4. Using 2 forks, tear the chicken off the carcass like savage and set aside. Drain the rice when its cooked. Put the sugar snaps and some chopped spring onions into the broth over a low heat to warm through.

5. Put a pile of rice in the middle of a bowl, and then pour the broth around it and add some torn chicken. Garnish with some fresh ginger, finely chopped chilli and coriander, and maybe some soy sauce for a salty kick.

Beginners luck?

2010-02-13T10:35:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was the first time I ever attempted to make macarons. I woke up at 8.30, got some tea and went back to bed for 2 hours to research the tricks and tips of mastering these delicate treats. 4 Ingredients? Must be easy, these people are having a laugh and can't cook if they can't bake a biscuit with just 4 ingredients. Pah.

I now totally retract that thought. It took me 2 and a half hours to make just 5 presentable macarons but now I am totally addicted. The flavour options can be whatever you like so I did a couple of batches. Rose with white chocolate and pistachio, and orange blossom with white chocolate and black pepper. A perfect chance to use orange and black pepper!

These macarons have a delicate, crisp outside shell encasing a light and fragrant centre that just crumbles into your mouth under the most tender of touches. Beauties.

I came across some really useful tips from people who had tried and failed and tried and succeded and I sucked it up like a sponge. The recipe I settled on was this one, from Paritas world. She recommends watching this video. I second that, as watching someone using the correct folding technique was a great way to learn. I didn't age the egg in the fridge then bring it to room temperature and it was fine, just make sure they are fresh and at room temperature.

You really need a hand held electric whisk to make this, otherwise your arm will crumble along with your spirit, and you will be left with an eggy mess, a sweaty brow and no macarons. How dissapointing. You have been warned.

Rose macarons with white chocolate and pistachio ganache

Ingredients

40g sieved ground almonds

65g seived icing sugar

1 egg white

15 caster sugar
tsp rose extract
crystalised rose petals to decorate

Ganache ingredients
50ml heavy cream

60g white chocolate
20g crushed pistachios

1. Place some non stick greaseproof paper on a baking tray and set aside. Seive ground almonds straight onto the scale until you get 40g. You only want the finest pieces, no lumps! Then gently mix the icing sugar and ground almonds together. Again, no lumps please.

2. Whisk the egg white with the ELECTRIC WHISK until it is nice and frothy then add the caster sugar and continue whisking on a high setting until it is a stiff glossy meringue like mixture.

3. Slowly add some almond and sugar mix to the meringue and fold in, in one direction. You should repeat this about 4 or 5 times but no more. If you move the meringue around to much you will remove the air thats beaten into it.

4. Scrape the mix into a piping bag, and pipe small discs of similar sizes onto the greaseproof paper. Leave about 2cm between each one. Bang the tray on the counter to flatten them out a bit. (This didn't really do anything for mine but give it a go and see. Don't do it so hard that they fly across the room) Leave them to sit for 40 mins

5. Now I used an aga to cook mine in, and placed them on a rack on the bottom of the baking oven and baked them for 10 mins with the door to the oven slightly ajar. If using an oven follow Paritas instructions, which are as follows:

Preheat the oven to 160c and bake for 10 mins, then reduce the heat to 140 and bake for a further 4-5 mins.

6. Cool completely on a wire rack and get on with the ganache. Heat the cream for about a minute then add the chocolate and stir until melted, whisk with the electric mixer until its a paste then stir in the pistachios and place in the fridge to cool and set.

When all is cooled and set, put a blob of ganache in the centre of the bottom of one macaron and stick another on, so they're mirroring each other. Use a tiny bit of ganache to stick a petal on top of each macaron.

ACE!

Orange blossom macarons with white chocolate and black pepper

For the orange blossom and black pepper macarons, I substituted the rose extract for orange blossom extract, and the pistachios in the ganache for a mix of white and black pepper. Totally delish and they look fancy. These will be perfect for the many summer afternoons of casual tea time grazing I have planned.

Easiest salad.

2010-02-13T10:04:00.000-08:00

Beetroot, apple, sultana and pistachio salad with crumbled feta.

I reckon this would serve about 4 folk, bulk up the ingredients for more, reduce for less.

2 raw beetroots

2 apples

handful of sultanas

qaurter of a pack of feta

tbsp pistachios, toasted

tbsp sesame seeds, toasted

Juice of 1 lime

2 tsp olive oil

3 tsp balsamic vinegar

s+p

Peel and grate the beetroots, then peel, core and grate the apples and add the sultanas. Toast the pistachios and sesame seeds. Mix the lime juice,olive oil, balsamic together and lightly season with s+p then pour over the grated ingredients and mix. Crumble over the feta, spinkle over the pistachios and seeds.

Delicious with warm crusty bread, some good cheese and a couple of pickled walnuts. Love pickled walnuts.

Giant jaffa

2010-02-08T09:45:00.000-08:00

This.cake.is.delicious.

Sweet, light and all things right.

Last weeks style magazine graced me with a recipe for a seville orange and almond cake. What really drew me to it was that it contained no flour but ground almonds. Im not massively enthusiastic about overpowering almond flavours battling it out in a mine field of tastes, and to be honest if I was choosing a slice of cake in a deli, I would opt for some proper cakey cake, something that looks so appealing it makes your heart skip a beat and your eyes water with joy.

Making this cake has opened my eyes to endless possibilities. I followed the recipe but played with the flavours a bit by adding black pepper, although it didn't play with the flavour as much as i'd have liked so I have now renamed this cake Giant Jaffa. Blush orange and black pepper cake to come though so watch this space. The cherry on the cake (so to speak) was grating dark chocolate over the top. I had run out of greaseproof paper so couldn't line the cake tin when I baked it, and think this caused it to go so dark on the outside. Before you cut into it, it looks like your average chocolate cake, but once you slice into its dark exterior, you expose its gleaming golden innards bursting with zesty vitamin c infused sponge. You could almost kid yourself that its good for you. Almost...

I present to you...

The Giant Jaffa

Bit of butter for greasing
4 eggs, whites and yolks separated
200g light brown sugar
175g ground almonds
Half tsp ground cinnamon
Half tsp baking powder
Juice and zest of about 3 blush oranges and 1 lemon (approx 200ml)
Dark chocolate for grating

-Your cake tin must have a loose base or you wont get it out at the end!

1. Preheat the oven to 180c and grease a loose bottom cake tin all over. Hand whisk together the egg yolks and 150g of the sugar until smooth and pale. Stir in the cinnamon, ground almonds, baking powder, zest and half the juice.

2. In a separate bowl whisk the egg whites with 1 tbsp of the leftover sugar until it forms stiff peaks, like hen you make meringues. It will take about 10 minutes and your arm will ache, a lot.

3. Very gently fold the fluffy whites into the almondy mix. You want to keep it light and fluffy so dont stir away all the air you have whisked in.

4.Pour into the cake tin and bake for 45 mins. Remove from the oven and carefully pop it on a plate. Prick it all over with a skewer and pour the remaining juice over the cake, pushing it towards the small holes. Once cooled, cover with cling film and leave overnight to let the flavours intensify.

5. Grate the chocolate over the top. Giant jaffa. Stick that in your lunch box.

Chorizo, black olive and prawn carbonara

2010-02-06T14:11:00.000-08:00

Today was one of those days when I was too hungover to function and couldnt decide on anything without changing my mind about 500 times. First stop was Carluccios on a particularly treacherous heavy footed hike to work. Who knew choosing a panini could cause such high brain cell loss and emotional damage. Which sandwhich should I choose? Parma ham, or salami...or wait, whats that? smoked aubergine focaccia? Oh god. The simplest things are the hardest when your in this state, and with the pressure of being late for work and the possibility of food envy looming I broke into a cold sweat, made a random decision and left.

The rest of the day was, difficult. The last hour and a half felt like 4 days and all I could do was try to forward plan what to have for dinner, so as to avoid another clammy handed nervous breakdown in the aisle of Waitrose whilst trying to get my head around whether to get meat ot fish. The clock strikes 5 and I am sure. Oh so sure, that what I want, no, what I need in my life today for dinner, is pasta. Tagliatelle. I love swirling it round on a spoon with my fork to make an edible nest. Simple things please simple minds. And today, I felt verrry simple.

Im nuts for chorizo at the moment. Crispy on the outside and meaty in the middle with a light spice to compliment many a munch. What I made is like a tarted up carbonara, with some added extras. The ingredients for the sauce are enough for 2 people so just double or triple if it's for lots of folk and use the recommended amount on the back of the packet for pasta. Treat yourself.

Chorizo, black olive and prawn carbonara.

Chorizo, sliced then quartered
Pitted black olives, halved
Peeled and cooked prawns
Tagliatelle
4 tbsp double cream
2 eggs
Pecorino and parmesan cheese
Dash of white wine
S+P
Parsley to garnish

1. Get a pan of slightly salted water boiling and start the pasta cooking. Fry the chorizo until crispy then set aside on some kitchen towel to absorb any excess grease.

2. Whisk together the cream, eggs and wine, then finely grate in plenty of both cheeses, add more or less of what you like.

3. Heat the prawns a little. When the pasta is cooked, drain then return to the pan with the sauce, stir and make sure everythings evenly covered and the cheese has melted. Add the chorizo, prawns and olives, dish up and garnish with parsley and more cheese, season with s+p.

Toasted and roasted

2010-02-03T03:35:00.000-08:00

I had a strange moment last week. I can't pin point the day, but all I know is that I returned home with £15 worth of nuts and seeds. Wicked. So this weeks breakfasts are all about toasting these mysterious, crunchy little delights and decorating my porridge. Not only are they delicious but they are super nutritious, crammed with vits and minerals, fibre and antioxidants. Toasting nuts and seeds brings out their flavour and makes them more digestable but doesn't reduce any of their nutritional value.

Now some might say I go way overboard with porridge, pouring on so many toppings that I undo all the goodness of the nuts and seeds due to the sheer quantities, but breakfast is one of my top 3 favourite meals of the day, so I'm gonna dress it up how I want to.

Dried date, banana and pomegranate porridge with toasted pecans and sesame seeds, honey and cinnamon.

Dried apricot and currant porridge with toasted sesame, sunflower and pumpkin seeds, honey and nutmeg.

You can also chuck toasted nuts and seeds into stir frys, salads, bread...anything goes as long as you like the taste!

Bangin banana bread

2010-02-01T09:47:00.000-08:00

I've made classic banana bread before. It's a great way of using up battered or old bananas and makes a welcome change to toast or biscuits when the 4 o'clock hunger pang comes a knockin. (Damn them!) But, I believe you can either be a miserable cow picking at some rubbish special K-ardboard bar, or embrace the afternoon tummy troll and transform into a beaming babe by tucking in to something hot and buttered, and today it was banana bread gracing my tea plate. Straight out the oven, in my belly.

I was reading different peoples banana bread recipes, and one suggested soaking some sultanas in rum, yum. Another threw in the idea of roasting some roughly chopped hazlenuts, almonds, walnuts etc, then chucking them in the mix. I did a bit of both by adding dates, sultanas and pecans. I also substituted some of the light brown sugar for muscavado. I just cant get enough of that stuff, plus I think it added an extra caramelly texture to the outside crust.

Banana bread with dates, sultanas and pecans.

4 ripe bananas
75g light brown sugar
25g muscavado sugar
1 egg, beaten
75g unsalted butter, softened
1tsp vanilla extract
170g plain flour
1tsp baking soda
pinch of salt
25g pecans, roughly chopped
30g stoned dates, roughly chopped
25g sultanas
3tbsp rum

1. Soak the sultanas and dates in rum, cover the bowl with cling film and leave for at least an hour

2. When the fruit is done soaking, preheat the oven to 180c. Using a fork mash the bananas up, mash in the butter, sugar, egg and vanilla extract.

3. Roast the pecans for 5 mins, you will smell a deliciously deep nutty aroma. Your bringing out the flavour! Add them to the fruit, stir about then drain and add to the banana mix.

4. Place the flour, salt and baking soda in a bowl then mix in wet ingredients. Stir until mixed then pour in a well greased bread tin and bake for 50 mins. When it's golden and a knife comes out clean it's done.

Serve with a cup of tea.

Salmon ceviche with rocket and chorizo salad.

2010-01-27T16:57:00.000-08:00

The first time I came across a ceviche recipe was a Jamie one using small pieces of diced tuna steak. (responsibly sourced? of course) I tried it out and it was pretty good, but I couldn't help but feel it was a bit slimey in texture. Ceviche is simply a citrus marinaded fish recipe, which "cooks" the fish with the acidity of the citrus juices. I did a bit of simple research , ahem, and discovered it originates from Peru.

The second recipe I stumbled upon using this method was with salmon from a fabulous cook book called Falling Cloudberries, one of my faves that I read now and again to feel inspired. A scrap book of food memories, collected together with humble notes of their origins and creators, and published to share with the world. Even if your not a cook, it's a lovely book with a bohemian feel, pictures and stories are food for the eyes.

I knew the basics for it so made this...and it is oh so simple!!

Salmon ceviche with rocket and chorizo salad.

Squeeze the juice of 5 limes into a bowl, add 2 finely chopped red chillies, 2 cloves of finely chopped garlic, a bunch of coriander leaves and some s+p. Cut up some simple salmon fillet into fairly small pieces, chuck em in, mix around and then cover with cling film and leave in the fridge for 4 hours.

For the salad, grate lots of parmesan into olive oil, season, mix and dress the rocket. Gently fry some diced chorizo until golden, place on some kitchen towl to absorb any excess oil and sprinkle over the rocket. Serve with a warm crusty roll and some proper butter!

I can't contain myself with the thought of this outside on balmy summers evenings, from London to Los Angeles.

Luscious Lamb ragu with Gnocchi and Parmesan

2010-01-26T03:36:00.000-08:00

Someone was reading a magazine the other day at work and I was attentively playing the role of annoying individual who reads over their shoulders. A recipe caught my eye so I swiped the magazine out their hands, pocketed the recipe and before they knew it the magazine was put back in their hands. Quicker than a subliminal message.

I have seen a lot of ragu recipes that involve "diced" or "chunks" of meat. Is this cat food we are talking about? Meaty chunks? Diced pheasant and jelly?

No.

Personally I love the texture of meat when it's torn or shredded and was waiting to find something along these lines. And here it was, in my hands. Skip over to the present time 24 hours ago and here I am at my Dad's house in Chichester while this god send recipe is sitting on my bed...in london. So I just decided to remember what I could and made it up. It's actually quite easy.

Lamb Ragu with gnocchi

Half leg of lamb
Olive oil
S+P
1 tsp corainder seeds, crushed
2 leeks finely sliced
4 Shallots, diced
4 carrots, diced
420g can chopped tomatoes
450ml veg stock
300 ml red wine
1 Bouquet garni
2 tsp fromage frais/creme fraiche/plain yogurt/cream

1. Preheat the oven to 200c. Rub the lamb with a good slug of olive oil, a pinch of salt and the crushed coriander seeds, then pop in a roasting tray with sides deep enough to hold liquid. Place the leeks, carrots and shallots around. Drizzle with olive oil, shake around a bit so they're coated, and cook for 20 mins until the meat is brown all over, turning if necessary.

2. Turn the heat down to 180c. Pour in the chopped tomatoes and stock along with the bouquet garni and cook for a further 20 mins, then add the wine. Get some juices over the meat and now you can leave it alone to do it's thing for about 2 hours 30 mins. You want the meat to be really tender so the longer it cooks the better. If you have all day put this in the oven in the morning on about 80c and leave it all day, checking back to baste the meat with the juices in the tin so it don't go dry.

3. When it's looking tender and juicy, grab hold of the bone with a glove and gently pull away the meat, using a fork if needed. Bin the bone, mix and mash the sauce around a bit and stir in the fromage frais or cream etc. Looking tasty!

4. The sauce can wait around a bit so when your ready, pop some water on and cook your gnocchi, or alternatively you could have this with a baked potato or root mash, think creative! And a good grate of trusty parmesan always goes down a treat.

Absolutely nothing to do with food.

2010-01-25T10:50:00.000-08:00

I ordered this fantastic head dress off new fave website etsy in november last year and have only just got my clammy excited hands on it. Made by Suzanne Fellows, all the way from America, it's my dream come true!

BRILLIANT!

Back to food news, I have a gorgeous lamb ragu slowly tenderising in the oven and a happy fridge full to the brim with ingredients for a couple of days of hard core cooking.

Pumpkin and sesame seeded loaf

2010-01-23T05:47:00.000-08:00

I am proud to announce that this was my very first totally succesful loaf of bread. Simple and delicious, a light and fluffy centre with an intense crusty coating embellished with seeds like a starry night. I've had it toasted alone and accompanied by poached eggs and mackeral, delicious.

I've always thought bread making was quite boring and time consuming. I'm not gonna lie. It is. But there is a real satisfaction in retrieving a hot golden loaf straight out the oven that makes it worthwhile. The smell consumes you and a wave of pride washes over. It's great!!

Pumpkin and sesame seeded loaf

1 sachet of fast action yeast
1 tbsp caster sugar
300ml warm water
500g strong brown or white bread flour
1 tsp sea salt
1 tbsp olive oil
sesame seeds
pumpkin seeds

1. Place the sugar and yeast in a bowl then cover with the warm water. Leave for 5 mins. In another bowl add the flour, salt and olive oil. Add the yeasty mix to the flour and mix to form a dough.

2. Lightly flour a clean surface and turn the dough out onto it. Knead the dough for 10 minutes, until it springs back when you prod it. Really go for it, this is a crucial part as I have learnt from past experience and your efforts will pay off at the end, producing a light loaf instead of a doughy stodgey mess.

3. Place the dough in a lightly oiled bowl and cover with lightly oiled cling film. Leave to rise in a warm place for an hour until it has doubled in size.

4. Once risen, vent some kitchen anger on it and punch the air out of it. Knead it a little more and make sure it has deflated, then shape it.

5. If your using a bread tin and want a seedy crust, lightly oil the tin and pour in some sesame or poppy seeds. Turn the tin around so that all the sides are covered with seeds, then pop your dough in. Pop any seeds on top that you like Cover again and leave to double again. About 40 minutes should do. You don't have to use a bread tin, you can just shape it and place it on some oiled tin foil.

6. Preheat the oven to 200c and place the loaf in the oven for about 35 minutes, until it's golden and sounds hollow when you tap it. Leave it to cool for a while, or if you can't wait, hack off a slice, spread over some butter and relish in the glory!

Lets dine Rick Stein

2010-01-18T16:16:00.000-08:00

Rick Stein. What a guy. What a great guy. This seems like the perfect opportunity to slip this in. He is in fact the only celeb chef my dear friend and travelling gypsy companion, Banjo Pharrell, would bother to bat an eyelid for. Good taste, I suppose is all I can say to that. That article gets me chuckling every time.
This week has been one of few succeses. After flying high with the earl grey cake I should have seen that the only way was down. This came in the form of 2 failed attempts of home made crumpets. Tasted good, but didnt have that spongey texture, with tiny pockets to stash melted butter and marmite, apricot jam and honey. Along with that was a second batch of earl grey cakes, a bit overcooked. And a mac and cheese, a little stodgey. They all tasted great but weren't quite good enough. Not for blogging anyway.

So to pick myself up and throw myself back into action I went for something that was fail safe and guaranteed yum. This amazing recipe I have cooked up a few times and found it's a dish that can be served for 6 hungry savages or for 1 individual. Totally doesnt matter, just change accordingly. Once you've done it once you can go with your gut and your tastebuds with the proportions of butter mix and how much pastry you need.

Ginger and Currant Salmon En Croute.

1 or 2 550g Skinned salmon fillet
100g softened unsalted butter
4 pieces stem ginger in syrup, drained and finely chopped
25g currants or sultanas
Half tsp mace
750g chilled puff pastry
1 egg, beaten
S+P

The reason I say 1 or 2 fillets is that you can either make a sandwich with the fillets and butter mix, or you can just pop the butter mix on top of one fillet. Depends if ya feelin flash and can afford 2 fillets.

1. Salt the salmon and set aside. Mix the butter, currants, mace and ginger together to form a paste, then lightly season with s+p.

2. I often buy ready rolled puff pastry, so lazy. You get more from a block though. So on a lightly floured surface cut the pastry in half, roll one piece out so it's 2cm larger than the salmon. Lay the salmon in the middle and smear the butter mix on top. If you have another fillet, lay that on top. Brush the edge of the pastry with egg. Roll the second piece of pastry out to be 4 cm larger then the salmon then lay on top, making sure not to stretch and break it. Trim any excess off, fold in the edges and press with a fork. Make a decoration and put in the top, I am partial to a fish or some leaves, then place in the fridge to chill for at least an hour.

3. When the fish is nearly done chillin, preheat the 0ven to 200c and pop a foil lined baking tray in to heat up. Remove the salmon en croute from the fridge and brush all over with egg. Cook for 30-45 mins, until the pastry is golden.

I served mine with thyme roasted fennel (JOY) and new potatoes tossed in butter and dill. I over roasted the fennel though hence why it looks a little worse for wear.

Parma ham, mozzarella and rocket salad

2010-01-12T15:22:00.000-08:00

My initial plan with these ingredients was to make my parma ham, fig and mozzarella puffpastry tart then show you all how it's done, really quick and really easy, but then i realised I had bought a pack of funky figs so that was out da window. Out with the old and in with the new!

It is a good one so I will share it one day, but instead I made a tasty little salad, also quick, also easy. And about 10x better for you...

Parma ham, mozzarella and rocket salad.

Rocket
Parma ham
Mozzarella
Tomatoes
Sunflower seeds
Olive oil
Parmesan
Lemon
S+P

Toast the sunflower seeds in a pan until golden. Grate lots of parmesan into olive oil and mix then dress the rocket. Tear up the parma ham and mozzarella, chop the tomatoes and chuck on top along with the sunflower seeds. Season well and squeeze over some lemon.

You can add more of the things you like, less of the ones you don't, and up the ingredients for more people, lessen for less.

Tuck in and enjoy a salad with a little bit of everything. Maybe add some pomegranate seeds, salad rubies, oh yes that would be great, juicy little explosions!

Earl grey and Honey cake

2010-01-10T02:01:00.000-08:00

After a week of doing absolutely nothing I woke up yesterday with an urge to bake. A while back I saw a cake recipe that mega babe tattooed celeb chef Gizzi Erskine had done. A chocolate guiness cake, she has even iced it so it looks like the syrupy pint itself. How delicious! I am becoming more and more aware of booze being used in exciting recipes so this is one to add to the ever expanding list. Now, although I didnt make the exact cake, I used her method as I was intrigued to read that she had used yogurt in her cake to give it a fudgey texture, yummy!!

I was at work on friday night and had a cup of earl grey tea, no milk, just a dash of honey. Dream. Very british. Such a delicate taste with a subtle sweet twang that leaves you wanting more. Incorprated into a cake, this would just be an absolute January treat... and Gizzi's recipe seemed like the perfect one to adapt.

For the cake I substituted guiness for earl grey and chocolate for honey and made 2 sponges instead of one so I could put some frosting in the middle. I wanted a cake sandwich like a victoria sponge, but really cacked up the icing and ruined one.

The last time I produced rubbish frosting I blamed it on a hangover. This time I just have to admit im crap at making cream cheese frosting. A monkey could make it better. Anyway heres the delicious cake recipe, and it is truly deeeelicious!!

250ml hot water

5 earl greay tea bags
250g unsalted butter
400g caster sugar
100g honey
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 eggs

142g plain yogurt
275g plain flour
2 tsp bicarbonate of soda

1. Preheat the oven to 180c then grease and line your cake tin/tins. In a saucepan brew the tea bags in the hot water for 5 mins, remove the tea bags and add the butter. Melt completely then add the sugar and honey.

2. Beat the eggs, yogurt and vanilla extract together then pour into the tea and honey mega mix. Seive in the flour and b.o.s and stir until smooth. Pour into your chosen tins and pop into the middle of the oven for about an hour, or until a knife comes out clean.
(Dont worry that the mixture is runny, it is a very damp mix but just needs time to do it's thing on the oven. 1 hour later and the oven has waved its magic wand.)

3. Cool completely in their tins on a wire rack.

Essentially what we have here is a cup of tea in a cake except yogurt acts as the milk, and gives it a creamy aftertaste.

To frost, follow Gizzi's recipe on the same page as her guiness cake, the link is up above. Sprinkle with finely ground tea leaves, slice up, hand out. Cup of tea in one hand, slice of cake in the other, couldn't be happier.

Kurly kale with a kick

2010-01-05T12:24:00.000-08:00

Curly kale is a bitter and tough green veg. It's one of those foods that you can feel doing your insides good. Ruffage darling, its good for you, cleans you out like fibre, my mum would say. Oh. Brilliant.

Years have passed, time has ticked, and I have changed. and now I can proudly say I do like a good stack of greens, with a meal or on their own, drizzled with oil, sprinkled with salt and pepper and a good grate of parmesan. Although, a couple of years ago I was not one to be convinced about kale.

Lately I've been seeing old friends more and more and I love it. With it there has been a lot of catching up and food and drink and this and that...and kale. It has definately come up more than 3 times. Kale with garlic and chilli and parmesan! You have to try it!

Just finely chop up 2 large garlic cloves and a whole chilli, heat some oil in a pan, chuck it all in with some kale, chuck it around a bit, season and serve.

Have it alone or as a veggie friend for something meaty. I had it with sausages and an egg. Breakfast 12 hours late, or 12 hours early, whatever, it's lovely, simple and fresh and as I said, you can feel the goodness gracing your guts, a scrub from the inside out. Exactly what you need in these post christmas months!

Eggs on top of everything, just can't help myself.

BEER BUTT CHICKEN

2010-01-03T03:40:00.000-08:00

Over the festive season, our plan was to really mix things up and not have a juicy turkey or glutenous goose, but a mere chicken. Oh? That not so special poultry? Often dry, often tasteless and often absolutely unmemorable, you say? Amen!! I hear ya! But this time, you are wrong!

You are in for a treat friends! This was some proper get ya hands down and dirty food fun. I am now handing you over to my brother Ben, follow his wise words and you are in for some of the juiciest, yummiest, schhmokiest tasting chicken around...

It was surely an inspired person who discovered this little nugget of culinary genius, and my guess is that they were Australian.

Who else would have the unabashed wit to put a beer up the arse of a chicken, and then shove the whole bizarre package onto a roaring fire. Whoever they were though, they deserve a big poultry pat on the back, because this way of cooking a chicken is ace. Crispy skin, tender meat, novelty value - it's got it all.

You'll want to give your chicken a bit of a rub to flavour it up, and for this you can really do anything. We smashed up a few coriander and fennel seeds, some chili powder, a load of salt and pepper (salt's good for crispin), and a few slugs of Worcester Sauce.

Select your beer or ale (or Ro & I thought perhaps cider) crack it open, neck half of it, and then punch a few holes around the top.

Then the abuse begins.

Anyone who's seen Withnail & I might remember the scene where they cook their chicken sitting upright in their antiquated stove, and that's the pose you want your chicken to adopt. It looks really freakin weird, but it works. A treat.

If you're feeling particularly dextrous you can pop a couple of sprigs of rosemary into the mix as well, and stuff them into the cavity with the beer.

Wrap your beast loosely in some tin foil. You want to go for a kind of cone-like shape, open at the bottom so that the heat can get all around it.

With your handiwork completed, keeping the bad boy upright so the beer doesn't spill, you can then pop it onto the grill of a roaring fire, indoor or out, and let the brilliance begin.

Keep your fire reasonably well stoked, and don't be afraid of a bit of burning. The beer cooks the inside, while the flames work the outside.

An hour and half usually seems about right, take off his little coat for some final brownin and then it's time to dislodge the beer, and let your sodomised chicken rest for a good 10/15 minutes.

Carve up the breasts, tug off the breasts - the whole thing should literally fall apart. Get involved with your hands, get messy. It's awesome. To drink, I'd recommend a Fosters. Boom.

THANKS BEN! xx

Chicken casserole with the leftovers! thats below this post.

Sweet Chicken Casserole

2010-01-03T01:48:00.000-08:00

A casserole is a fail proof way of using up leftovers as well. After the madness of beer butt chicken we had delicious fire smoked chicken pieces to use, as well as a little bit of pork belly from another night. We were rolling in leftovers like little piggies! Something had to be done.

Personally, I find that with a casserole there are a few very simple but variable points to remember. 1, you need to bulk it up with appropriate veg. 2, you need some kind of liquid to cook everything. 3, smokey bacon is a beaut in any casserole, and so is some kind of booze.
Dont be put off by these points not telling you exactly what to put in, use your imagination and common sense. If it's a red meat use beef or veg stock and red wine, then root veg are a guaranteed treat, mushrooms, The veg need to be robust and sturdy with flavours that can hold their own in a mish mash one dish casserole! Then think what herbs might go and chuck em in.
Use similar guidelines for white meat but use chicken stock and white wine, again root veggies are a safe bet, but pretty much anything that won't disintegrate whilst cooking. Also, pitted olives can be lovely in chicken casserole, they give a mediterranean twist. Yay!

3 leeks
2 carrots
2 parsnips
1 onion
2 garlic cloves
1 swede
Handful of sprouts, topped, outer leaves removed
Smokey bacon lardons
Leftover chicken
1 litre veg or chicken stock
White wine
Bay leaf
S+P

1.If you haven't got an aga, preheat the oven to 200c, if you do, use bottom right. In a heavy based casserole dish, sweat the onions and garlic, then add all the chopped veg and bacon lardons and soften for a few mins stirring occasionaly.

2. Pour over stock and add the bay leaf, chicken and season. Cover and put in the oven for 30 mins. Pour in some wine and put back in the oven for about an hour or until all the veg is cooked and some of the liquid has gone.

Serve with a hot baked potato!

I just noticed I keep putting e's on the end of tomato and potato. 2 faves I don't know how to spell. save me

Leftover love

2009-12-30T10:27:00.000-08:00

I found my appetite a couple of days ago, at last. Weening my way back on to proper food and feeling an overwhelming need to use up some of the unused christmas food that had been lying around, I made a salad stuffed with something green....and lots of tasty toppings. The sad looking organic christmas veg box provided me with broccoli and onion, and a swift scrabble around in the fridge produced some celery, bacon lardons and leftover roast chicken. Good start. Then, a quick scan around the kitchen surfaces led me to the cheese board, ah the cheese board! Spilling with some of Neals Yards finest cheeses, I lifted the lid and was greeted by a spectacular stench, but undeterred I quickly grabbed the mouldy looking blue guy and popped the lid back on. Beautiful. This is what I rustled up for mid afternoon lunch..

1 broccoli, florets roughly chopped quite small
2 sticks celery, chopped
Half an onion, chopped

1 garlic, finely chopped
Smoked bacon lardons or bacon
Roast chicken leftovers, torn

Blue cheese
Walnuts
Olive oil
S+P

1. In a saucepan over a medium flame heat some oil and crisp up the bacon/lardons. Remove and set aside and turn down the flame. When the heat has reduced sweat the onions and garlic.

2. Add the brocolli and celery and let it cook for about 2 mins, stirring so it doesn't stick. Gently pour in a little bit of water and stir, this will steam the broccoli very slightly, leaving most of the crunch but adding some moisture to the whole thing. Add a little more water if needed.

3. Once the water has evaporated and absorbed, chuck it on a plate and adorn with the crispy lardons, torn up chicken, cheese and walnuts. Drizzle with olive oil and season.

It's a quick dish that keeps it's crunch with careful cooking, but has a softer side with the melty yum blue cheese. I'd go easy on the blue cheese, it can be overpowering. There are strong flavours going on with smokey bacon and broccoli, we don't want no flavour fights on our plates mates!

Where did christmas go?

2009-12-28T10:55:00.001-08:00

I sit here by the fire wishing I could look back over christmas '09 as a time full of food/family/fun festivites but in fact I look back and all I see is loss of appetite, sleeping sprawled on the bathroom floor and vomit all round. Vomit and food blog DO NOT go hand in hand. This may sound like a bad hangover but oh nono do not be mistaken, I would not take things this far around christmas, so as to jepardise my festive fun. I was in fact struck down by a stomach bug that left me with a jabbing in my abdominal as if I had been doing sit ups for 5 days, and a bad taste in my mouth. 2 other things that don't mix with christmas. I geniunely feel like I have been robbed of 3 of the best days of the year, but I suppose it's boo hoo me and now I must get on with things.

As I wrote before, I made some gifts this year, and i'm so happy I made the effort, because other people seemed so happy to receive the effort. There is something truly wonderful about handing over your own version of a loved ones favourite treat and seeing how they react. Satisfaction, gratification, anticipation, for them and for me! Oh the small things in life...

Triple chocolate peanut clusters

Chocolate and gingerbread falling stars

Nearly packed up and ready to go!

Peanut clusters are easy peasy to make, same principle as chocolate rice crispie cakes...melt the chocolate, stir in the peanuts (use salted if you like the peanut buttery kind of taste, unsalted if you prefer a sweeter nutty taste), scoop out with a spoon onto baking parchment and decorate with anything you like. Allow to dry in a cool dry place then package up and give out!

Sausage, artichoke, beetroot and bean stew

2009-12-22T10:42:00.000-08:00

Another hearty dish to add to the collection. I made this stew one wintery evening last week. Jess, Chris and I are all away from the flat over christmas so I needed to use things up, take out the bins and shut the place down. I had 2 cans of beans and chopped tomatoes, onions, garlic, beetroot and artichokes. Stew? Yes.
I say I was using up leftovers but I actually swung by waitrose on my way home from work and picked up some smoked toulouse sausages (which were totally delish!), some pork and fennel sausages, creme fraiche and parsley. Ok so maybe this is a halfhearted effort to use up leftovers, but it's the thought that counts...right?

The jerusalem artichokes are like a tastier alternative to potatoes in this recipe, just chuck them in and let them do their thing, softening as a stew cooks.

1 large onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 litre veg stock
4 Sausges, toulouse work really well, anything a bit herby.
6 Jerusalem artichokes
Pack of ready cooked beetroot
400g can of chopped tomatoes
400g can butter beans
400g can cannellini beans
Olive oil
S+P

1. Over a medium flame in a heavy based casserole dish, heat some oil and brown the sausages all over then remove and set aside. Turn the heat down, add more oil and sweat the onions and garlic for about 3 mins.

2. Pour in the chopped tomoatoes, beans, beetroot and artichoke then add the stock, season, then half cover and leave to simmer for 30 mins, checking back to stir now and again.

3. Add back the sausages on top, push them so they are about half covered. Remove the lid and leave to cook for another 30 mins or until the stew has reduced by about half and thickened.

4. Serve a pile of stew with a couple of sausages, a dollop of creme fraiche and some fresh parsley.

Chocolate covered candied peel

2009-12-19T02:58:00.000-08:00

Jamie Olivers magazine holds hundreds of inspiring and attainable recipes so when I picked up his christmas magazine a couple of weeks ago, I was happy to see gift ideas, Jamies having a frugal christmas too!? Not a chance.
On the same day as making gingerbread biscuits I prepared my candied peel using Jamies recipe.

4 oranges

4 lemons

750g granulated sugar

100g dark chocolate, could use milk, white or a mix though

A little note: Jamie used a small sharp knife in his recipe but I was being a bit cack handed so whipped out the peeler and peeled downwards to get long strips with very little pith, it was way easier but I reckon the peeler only works well on unwaxed fruits. Peeled on the left, knived on the right!!

1. Using a peeler or small sharp knife, remove the peel off your fruits avoiding as much pith as possible then cut into 5mm strips, place in a saucepan, cover with water and bring to the boil and simmer for 30mins.

2. Meanhile dissolve the sugar in 400ml of water, bring to the boil then remove fromt the heat.

3. Drain the peel then put it in the sugary syrup, bring back to the boil then simmer for an hour until most of the syrup has gone. Stir it now and again to make sure it doesn't stick.

4. Using tongs remove the peel, shake off excess syrup and place on baking paper to cool and dry for at least 24 hours.

5. Melt the chocolate in a bowl over a saucepan of boiling water then dip the crystalied yummies in it. At the end I had lots of little bits left so chucked them straight in the chocolate, stirred and placed them with the peel.

I boxed this up in my little takeaway boxes and took one off to a photoshoot a was working on, went down a storm. A very simple recipe that gives an end product that is elegant and delicious, and very very festive, can't wait to hand this out to people at christmas!!

Hurray for Hansens!!

2009-12-16T15:55:00.000-08:00

Ahhhh, tis the season and all that. I'm already feeling festivly full having consumed many a christmas drink and meal, but do not fear it has in no way dampened my festive cheer! The past week or so I have been planning on what to make as extra edible gifts for friends and family, and after flicking through some magazines and browsing the ever expanding ideas on internet, I threw together some of my own ideas via mental flow diagrams and star charts, jotted them down and came to a conclusion that I consequently changed after about 5 minutes. Fabulous.

In preparation for making a not so traditional russian gingerbread cottage, I made a big ol batch of gingerbread biscuits, stars and discs, to pack up in little chinese takeaway boxes, wrap in ribbon and hand out to those who I like and love.

I was also on a snowy quest earlier to find chunky glass jars to fill with biscuits, sweets and other tasty treats when I rediscovered Hansens. I.Love.Hansens. It gleams with culinary equipment and holds all the kitchen treasure you could ever need. Knives, pots, pans, cookie cutters, mandolin slicers and chunky glass jars, to fill with biscuits, sweets and other tasty treats. Here I met Mikel who showed me a swanky icing gun, which is now on my christmas list.

Gingerbread

250g unsalted butter
650g plain flour
200g dark muscavado sugar
8tbsp golden syrup
2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
5tsp ground ginger

1. Preheat the oven to 170c. Seive the dry ingredients into a large bowl. In a saucepan melt the butter, sugar, and golden syrup together.

2. Add the melted ingredients to the dry ingredients to form a stiff doughy mix that looks a bit like toffee...

3. Flour a clean surface and turn the dough out onto it, roll it out to a thickness of about 5mm and then go for it with the cookie cutters. Or freestyle it and cut your own shapes for an extra special personal touch!

4. Lay your shapes onto some baking parchment on a baking tray and pop in the oven for about 8 minutes or until they are golden on top. (Really dont overdo it with the cooking time here as they can go very hard very quickly and will continue to set as they are cooling.)

5. Allow to cool then pack and primp, with ribbon, tissue paper and anything else you can think of to add that lovely homemade vibe.

So this brings me to the end of the first chapter of my baked christmas offerings....

2009-12-11T06:23:00.001-08:00

My mum gave me this recipe for ratatouille ages ago and i've been meaning to make it forever. She said it was the best ratatouille she had ever made because it was so simple and delicious. I agree. It took minimum effort and I still have some leftover for today. To remove the tomato skins, pop them in a bowl and cover with boiling water for a couple of minutes, drain and then peel. Simple! Like a lot of dishes, I poached a couple of eggs to put on top.

Ratatouille

4 tbsp olive oil
2 onions, peeled and finely sliced
2 garlic cloves, crushed
350g aubergines thinly sliced
450g courgettes, thinly sliced
450g tomatoes, skinned and roughly chopped
1 green pepper, cored deseeded and sliced
1 red pepper, cored deseeded and sliced
Chopped fresh basil, parsely and thyme
2 tbsp tomato puree
s+p

1. In a heavy based dish heat the oil and cook the onions and garlic until they are soft and golden

2. Add the aubergine, courgettes, tomatoes, peppers, herbs, tomato puree and seasoning and cook for a couple of minutes stirring

3. Cover and cook for about 30 mins until all the veg is softened. You can serve hot or cold, with a poached egg, a chunk of lovely warm bread or a baked potatoe, and some grated cheese. always.

Eggy and pancetta crumpets

2009-12-09T06:37:00.000-08:00

Just made these.

Crumpets topped with crispy pancetta, poached egg and parmesan

Yummo. Toast the crumpets in a toaster. Put some pancetta on top and place under the grill until it goes nice and crispy, the pancetta fat drips through the crumpet, naughty. While thats going on down below, get the eggs poaching up above on the hob and when theryre ready put on top of the crumpets. Season with s+p, grate some parmesan over and use whatever sauce/chutney/relish you like. I had some leftover cranberry sauce that was good.

I think it would be delish to take the eggs out when they are slightly underdone, assemble the whole thing, and pop it back under the grill for a minute to get the parmesan golden, mmmm!!!

Blues bustin' breakfast

2009-12-07T03:14:00.000-08:00

Theres nothing like a good breakfast to get you going in the morning. Get the juices flowing in your mind and in your tummy, preparation for the food and information consumption of the day ahead. Skip it, and it's all downhill from there my friends. Whether you have 5 minutes to grab a quickie brekkie or several hours to lay on a sumptous sunday spread spanning breakfast/lunch and sometimes dinner, its always vital to give this meal of the day a little bit of love.

Breakfast is perfect to use up leftover veg from the night before, like bubble and squeak. Pop it in a saucepan with a dab of olive oil or butter, and add a bit of sugar or spice, an extra onion, some chilli, whatever! Poach or fry an egg, pile up some veg on a plate, egg on top, grab some chutney, ketchup or whichever sauces tickle your fancy and your good to go for the rest of the day. I made way too much braised red cabbage and apple once so kept it and had it this way for breakfast and it was an absolute treat.

I love asparagus for breakfast, cut into thin strips and fried lightly in sesame oil with s+p, they make eggcellent, hahaha, dippers. wow.

I had this awkward red pepper that I found lurking in the vegvbasket. It was perfectly ok so I popped it straight over the gas hob, blistered its skin and had it in a jolly medly of soft boiled egg, asparagus and home made soda bread from my friend izzy. We feasted and it was delicious.

Lately i've fallen head over heels with crumpets again. This happy affair happens around this time every year, when the rain sets in, along with depression and about 5 hours daylight. My dad says christmas cake is the thing that gets him through those the dark january/february months. Crumpets get me through. My big brother made some delicious eggy crumpets from Jamie oliver. Make up a scrambled egg mix, add some finely chopped chilli to it and then dip each crumpet in and fry. They crisp up beautifully on the outside and stay moist and crumpety in the middle.

Jess and I had a slap up breakfast at the weekend, featuring finely sliced leeks, baby tomoatoes and chestnuts, crumpets, poached eggs and crispy bacon with fig glaze on the top.

I love love love a good ol' big breakfast, with a personal twist, at home in front of the tv, with all the chutney and sauce you crave, and of course...bottomless tea and coffee, just like in america!

Quick and easy, sexy spinach salad

2009-12-04T07:59:00.001-08:00

I made a super quick super easy spinach and hot smoked mackerel salad a couple of days ago. I can't rant and rave on enough about the powers of spinach. Wilted with nutmeg and s+p, or fresh and raw in a salad, its delicious and nutricious and is generally....yum.
Jess was the one who told me that heating up smoked mackerel is seriously good, and she is right, it is seriously good. It's one of those things that is so simple but so effective. Heating up the mackerel makes it beautifully soft so its a melt in your mouth kinda treat. Here it is:

Salad

Ready cooked smoked mackerel
Baby tomatoes, chopped in half
Spinach

Dressing
Hoarseradish
Olive oil

Lemon juice
S+P

1.Turn the grill up to high. If you want to, remove the skins from the mackeral. Tear into smaller pieces and pop into a baking dish with the tomatoes and drizzle with olive oil and s+p. Cook for about 5 mins, checking back to make sure they don't burn.

2.Mix the ingredients for the dressing to taste, adding more or less of what you like. Put the spinach in a bowl, pour the mackerel and tomatoes over and dress with the dressing! Serve with some toasted soda bread or whatever you have around.

Whats brill is that the leaves begin to wilt with the heat but not so much that you get a sloppy mush which is often the case with spinach. This is a good dose of Omega 3 and iron. Eat ya heart out!

Wholesome christmas dinner soup/stew

2009-12-01T17:58:00.000-08:00

This time of year every coffee chain, supermarket or deli lunge at the opportunity of making christmas themed food in one way or the other. You have the pret christmas sandwich, the starbucks eggnoggingerbreadchocamochacandycane latte, the EAT christmas full works, and a whole lot more to satisfy everyones personal festive munchie needs. Everyone has their take on things and so I will have mine, and I think I have found a niche in the market!

I love making soup, once you have nailed the basics, you can add and subtract and put what you want in it. From the 1st of december I want to eat christmas dinner everyday, but that would never be pratical because of the time it takes to make and the amount of weight I would pile on. So, here is the middle man.

Serves 4

For the cranberry sauce
300g cranberries
120g sugar
3 tbsp water

For the soup
750g piece of smoked ham/bacon
25g butter
slosh of olive oil
1 onion, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
325g sprouts, outer leaves removed and bottoms cut off
fresh thyme
3 medium parsnips, peeled and roughly chopped
3 medium carrots, peeled and roughly chopped
handful of cooked and peeled chestnuts, chopped in half
7 dried apricots, quatered
Ready made stuffing balls of your flavour choice
3 tbsp white wine vinegar
1.5 litres veg stock
S+P

1. Follow the cooking guide on the back of your ham to figure out the time needed in the oven for it's weight and put it in.

2. Wash the cranberries, put in a saucepan with the sugar and water. Bring to the boil then simmer for 15 mins until soft. Set aside.

3. In a heavy based casserole dish, melt the butter with the olive oil on a medium heat then sweat the onions and garlic and add some fresh thyme. After 3 or so mins add the parsnips, carrots and sprouts and soften for 5 minutes stirring occasionly.

4. Stir in the vinegar, add the apricots and chestnuts, then pour over the stock and season with S+P. Cover and simmer for about 20 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, remove about a third of the veg, chop up into smaller chunks and set aside. Leave the soup to cook for a further 5 mins then pour into a blender and blend until smooth.

5. Pour the blended soup back into the casserole dish and stir in the vegetable chunks.

(Once you have done all this you will have a bit of time until the ham is cooked, so you can make pop corn chains or wrap some presents or something)

6. When the ham is cooked and is resting, pop the stuffing balls in the oven. Once there done, shred the ham with 2 forks. I cut it into 4 smaller chunks and shred those. Just made things a little easier to handle.

7. Serve the soup in deep bowls with cranberry sauce, a couple of stuffing balls, shredded ham and some fresh thyme sprinkled over the top. Season to taste and your good to go!

While I was making this I thought that maybe it would of been better as a sort of broth, with stock instead of blending the veg but I think it turned out pretty well just as it is.

Edible gold dust.

2009-11-30T15:27:00.000-08:00

All I want for christmas is the biggest most luxurious treasure chest hamper that man (or god) can make. Bursting with chutneys and jams, cured meats and cheese, tea and coffee and chocolates and glace fruits, I can see it glistening under the christmas tree lights like edible gold dust....

(Daddy, are you taking note!?)

Also a food processor.
And some other treats...

Enough of that subliminal christmas list and back to hampers! My brother recently moved house so I thought I would whip up a hamper for him. Ive always loved the idea of DIYing it, putting your own personal stamp on, and making it just how you like it, with goodies and treats you know the receiver will enjoy. I shopped around all day to find a good hamper basket and randomly, when I was crashing and burning and losing hope, I stumbled across some perfect ones in Whole foods. Cute braided wicker with brown buckles and handle. B.e.a.u.t.i.e.s!

I trundled on to Waitrose and picked up some victoria plum jam, irish smoked cheese biscuits, lavazza coffee, green and blacks chocolate, and some jamie oliver peppery olive oil. Then stopped off at the thai supermarket on the way home and got some wasabi paste. I popped in a jar of the caremalized red onion, pepper and chilli chutney I made a while back, and made some gooey choc orange and hazlenut brownies. I think it turned out well! The one thing I would of changed is the brown paper. I'm all for recycling with wrapping and tissue paper, but I think some nice tartan tissue would have made it festive!

Feeding time at the manor house

2009-11-24T08:20:00.000-08:00

A bit mad but wouldn't have it any other way.

Make cakes

2009-11-24T02:37:00.001-08:00

I think I mentioned a few posts back that I had made a couple of christmas cakes, it was really early and some people were confused when I told them what I had done that weekend. Now though I am laughing all the way to christmas, because these juicy (and heavy) treasures are sitting in their tins getting drunk and plump (like me at christmas) on the sherry I feed them each time I come home.

Carrot and orange cupcakes with cream cheese frosting.

I made these this weekend, this was originally a recipe for a whole carrot cake off bbc good food.
I adapted it slightly by using a very big orange so more zest, and used light muscavado sugar instead of light brown sugar, I love the deep taste of it. Plus, with such sweet icing I think it's nice to have a contrast in the sponge. Also I made cupcakes and a small cake instead as I had some cute gold cases leftover from halloween that I though would look good. How cute. I should have dramatically reduced the cooking time from the recipe because they are much smaller but wasn't thinking and they came out a little overdone. Ah well, we live we learn.

Here is the original recipe:

http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/4425/carrot-cake

Not so peasant pheasant

2009-11-22T15:17:00.000-08:00

Christ, I always have the best time when I come to my Dads that I often leave wondering what it is that draws me back to London. Most of the time it is my delicious friends.

On Saturday, I was absolutely chipper until I left work at 5pm to catch a train home. It was clear to me that this, was the most disgusting day of the year and possibly the beginning of the end of the world. Joy. Two hours later I arrived at the wrong station, late, damp, cold to the bone and swirling in a rage that was a mixture of miserable and angry.

Having shed a tear of self pity on the crap cold replacement bus (it was that bad) I felt lifted and my mood changed when I reminded myself that in an hour I would be in a country pub, with country grub, and a bottle of wine. And my Dad and Brother. Family and food, recipe for a brilliant night.

Sitting in the warmth of the pub, with a glass of wine in one hand, fork in the other, I am proud to say I was a new woman. This particular pub, the blacksmiths arms has a wicked local reputation for great food, and it delivers everytime. This time round I had scallops cooked beautifully in ginger and chilli. Melt in ya mouth delicious with a lovely light fresh sauce. I couldn't think a bad thought. Next up I had duck breast with wild berry sauce, dauphinoise potatoes and fresh veg. They also put these amazing little spring onion crispies on the side. They had been finely cut into strips then quickly fried. So delicious and an excellent flavour addition. One fault was that the duck could have been a little less cooked, but thats a personal thing and didn't spoil the meal in any way, so all in all big thumbs up!

I felt inspired by the berry sauce that was going on with my duck, so I took it, changed it and made something similar the following evening.

Pheasant cooked in brandy, orange and wild berry sauce.

1 or 2 Pheasants
4 rashers smoked bacon
3 large oranges, thickly sliced, keep the ends for the juice
100g wild berries, frozen or fresh
2 tbsp caster sugar
2 Bay leaves
Brandy
Olive oil
S+P

1. In a saucepan, heat your berries and melt the sugar, allow to boil for a couple of minutes then remove from the heat.

2. In a heavy based casserole dish heat some oil, brown the pheasants all over then pour over the brandy and let it partially burn off, squeeze over the juice from the orange ends and add the slices. Season with S+P.

3. Pour over the wild berry sauce, add the bay leaves then pour over some warm water so the pheasants are half submerged in sauce. Cook for about an hour, half covered. Keep checking back and spooning the sauce over the pheasant, I removed the oranges half way through and turned the pheasants a couple of times to get the juices all over it.

My dad told me that when the legs fall away easily it's cooked well, so I got stuck in, pulled the little leggies off with ease, carved the beast and served it with crispy roast parsnips and carrots and buttered cabbage. Deeeeelish.