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Sunday Cake
2007-03-05 14:17:00
Isn’t Sunday a good day for baking? Particularly when it’s been raining all day and you need a little cheering. I fancied baking a cake yesterday but hadn’t prepared for this so had to raid the fridge, where I found the plums and pear I’d intended for a fruit tart. I thought I’d see if they work together in a cake – and they do! This is a deliciously moist cake with a tang of the fruit and contrasting sweetness of the honey. It’s almost a dessert more than a cake and it would be delicious with custard or a dollop of cream.Pear and Plum Cake 140g self-raising flour140g softened butter140g golden caster sugar2 large eggs4 plums1 pear1 tablespoon of clear honeyBeat the sugar and butter until light and fluffy then beat in the honey. Beat the eggs together and beat them into the mixture little by little. Now fold in the flour. Stone the plums and cut them into eights then halve each piece. Slice the pear thickly then chop each slice into bite sized pieces.. Fold the fruit in...

A Melody of Flavours
2007-03-03 20:32:00
Is there any recipe more versatile and adaptable than vegetable soup? So much so that it’s hardly a recipe really. You really can use any combination of vegetables you like; whatever is sitting in your fridge, so it's a great way to use up leftover vegetables. You can add herbs if you like; or not - it really is up to you.The basic principle is:1. Sauté chopped vegetables in olive oil or butter for a few minutes to soften and colour them slightly2. Add stock, seasoning and any herbs you want to use3. Bring to the boil and simmer until the vegetables are cooked through4. Blend to a puree if you want a smooth soup, otherwise leave the vegetables chunky5. Taste to check the seasoning6. ServeFor the blending I use a hand blender directly in the saucepan but if you don’t have one you could just use a liquidiser.The quality of the stock will make a big difference to the taste of your soup. Homemade chicken or vegetable stock would be the optimum but more often than not I use vegetab...
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Deep Fried Courgette Strips
2007-02-28 22:34:00
I thought this would be something fun to try with the courgettes sitting in my fridge - and they're really tasty!Simply slice a courgette into thin strips using a vegetable peeler then deep fry them at a high temperature until golden. Lay them on kitchen paper to soak up excess oil.
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Lemon, Rosemary and Garlic Roast Pork
2007-02-27 20:13:00
Lemon, rosemary and garlic is a delicious combination and used this way, mixed with olive oil and smeared over, it really infuses the meat. Make sure you have leftovers as this pork is fantastic cold in sandwiches the next day!For crispy cracking ask your butcher to score the skin of the joint of pork you want to use. Make sure the skin is dry and rub it with salt. Mix the zest of a lemon, a pinch of salt, 2 crushed garlic cloves, the leaves from a sprig of rosemary and a squeeze of lemon juice with some olive oil. Smear this over your pork joint, massaging it in and pushing the rosemary and garlic through into the meat where you can (make some slits in it if you need to). Peel and quarter a large onion and sit the pork on top of it in a roasting tray. This will further flavour the pork and give you the base for a great gravy.Put this into the oven at a high setting, around 240, for 20 minutes then turn the oven down to 190c and cook for about 35 minutes per 450g. There should be no...
More About: Garlic , Lemon , Mary , Rose , Pork

Stuffed Mushrooms with Spring Onion and Cream Cheese
2007-02-26 22:18:00
Chop one or two spring onions and fry in butter for a few minutes. Mix this with cream cheese and season well. You could add a little chopped parsley too if you wanted. Fill large mushrooms with the mixture and drizzle them with olive oil. Bake in the oven at 200c for about 20 to 25 minutes. Great with couscous or rice.
More About: Mushrooms , Spring , With , Stuff , Cheese

Best of Brit Blog Awards 2007
2007-02-25 15:59:00
It's fantastic that blogs are being recognised more and more by the media. There are so many talented bloggers out there who put a great deal of time and effort into their blogs and that deserves recognition.The British Metro newspaper is holiding 'Best of Brit Blog Awards ' specifically for 'the cream of the crop' of British blogs. Vote here.
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Duck Eggs
2007-02-25 15:38:00
I picked these up from my local farm shop today and had them on toast. This was the first time I’d tried duck eggs and most certainly won't be the last - they are absolutely delicious. They taste richer and ‘eggier’ then hen eggs, and the yolk is larger and more yellow with a creamier taste.You can use them exactly as you would hen eggs but you should account for the larger yolk in recipes. Also, they contain less water than hen eggs so are more gelatinous with a risk of turning rubbery quicker than hen eggs so be careful not to over-cook them.I do urge you to try them; you won't be disappointed.
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Slow Roasted Shoulder of Lamb
2007-02-22 19:56:00
Fattier cuts of meat, such as lamb shoulder, are ideal for long, slow cooking and they have so much flavour. And of course the beauty of a slow-cooked dish such as this, is that it tastes amazing, requires no effort at all and can wait around in the oven until you’re ready for it.Brown a shoulder of lamb in a roasting tray over a high heat on the hob, with some olive oil. Make sure it is well browned as this adds to the flavour, as well as giving it an appetising colour.Next, throw in 4 or 5 peeled garlic cloves, a couple of chopped carrots and celery sticks and a quartered onion. Add a bay leaf, woody herbs such as thyme and rosemary (fresh or dried), a litre of chicken stock and a glass of red or white wine. Bring this to the boil then put it in the oven and cook it slowly at somewhere between 120c and 150c, depending on how long you’re going to cook it for, so 150c for about 4 hours, 120c if you’re going to cook it for most of the day. You really don’t need to be exact fo...
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5 Things About Me
2007-02-21 21:46:00
Here are 5 things you probably don't know about me:1. I love music and have a fairly wide taste but I’m a rock chick at heart. I particularly love Bon Jovi, who I’ve seen several times live.2. I was an extra in the film ‘BackBeat’, about the fifth Beetle, Stuart Sutcliffe, when I was a teenager with dreams of the stage. You could just see my arm for a second in a crowd scene. I knew it was my arm because of the brown stripy jumper I put on from the pile of sixties clothes we had to choose from. Hours and hours of waiting around from the crack of dawn for a one-second shot of my arm. God I was proud.3. I have an irrational dislike of Bagpuss. That cat freaked me out when I was a child.4. I have some Irish blood in me as my Mother is half-Irish.5. I was stung on the tongue by a wasp when I was a child when I was messily eating an orange in my school playground. The juices were running down my hands and I remember seeing a piece of orange flesh on one of my fingers which I gre...
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Fun With Pancakes
2007-02-20 21:22:00
Shrove Tuesday is a bit of an odd one for me. I feel like I should make pancakes or I’m missing out and yet it’s the only time of the year that I do actually make them. I’ve actually given the whole thing a miss for the last few years; Rob doesn’t eat them anyway so it seems a bit pointless making them just for me.But tonight I though ‘what the hell’ and made a batch using good old Delia Smith's recipe. I’m very pleased I did too – what fun I had! I managed to toss them and catch them in the pan. Then once I'd finished playing I ate them up. Instead of the English lemon juice and sugar I had mine with a drizzle of honey which was just lovely.
More About: Fun , Pancake , With , Cakes , Cake

Self Catering
2007-02-19 19:56:00
I ate so much when we were away! I think it must have been the country air ;-)
More About: Cat , Self , Ring , Cate , Teri

A Woodland Hideaway
2007-02-16 18:29:00
Well, we’re back home now after our break in the gorgeous county of Somerset. We’ve had a wonderful time and have returned feeling relaxed and refreshed. Our week has been extra special and very romantic, not only as it was Valentine’s week, but also because we stayed in a beautiful log cabin in Alpine Grove Touring Park. We arrived last Friday in rain and thick fog, which we suddenly came upon as we drove further and further up hill. It was literally like driving into a cloud; one minute it was clear, the next we couldn’t see a thing. This atmosphere only added to our excitement at the prospect of spending a week in a secluded log cabin in the middle of a wood, although I have to say the fog brought on a rather spookier feeling than I had anticipated. I was very pleased and reassured to find that the owners of the park would only be a couple of minutes walk away in their house a little way on from the log cabin.We were given a very warm welcome, which included a thoughtful ...
More About: Idea , Wood , Land , Away , Hideaway

Snow
2007-02-08 19:32:00
We get very excited about snow here in England. It doesn’t snow very often so it’s a big deal when it does. A very big deal. It hits the headlines, closes the schools and makes the transport network grind to a halt. But hey, I’m not complaining, I love the stuff. The child in me loves to watch the snowfall out of the window, then pull on warm boots for walking outside, looking back at the footprints they make as they compress the snow with a crunch. And the foodie in me loves the steaming hot drinks, the soups and the casseroles to come home to.P.S. We’re off down to Somerset tomorrow for a holiday so I’ll see you in a week!
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Tuna Steak with Chilli Lemon Rice and Balsamic Rocket
2007-01-27 20:47:00
Lemon and chilli are great flavours with tuna and this dish is zingy and fresh.Chop up a red onion and a pepper and fry them in chilli olive oil (or a chopped chilli in plain olive oil) for a few minutes. Stir in however much rice you want and the juice of about half a lemon, ensuring the rice is coated well. Add enough water for your amount of rice (usually twice the amount of water to rice), bring to the boil then put on a lid and simmer for about 10 minutes until the rice is cooked through. Drain the rice then add more lemon juice to taste and some chopped parsley.Pan fry the tuna steak for a few minutes each side (depending on the size of your steak). It won't take long to cook at all and be careful not to over cook it - keep it still pink in the middle.Serve with rocket drizzled with a little balsamic vinegar.
More About: Chilli , Lemon , Rock , With , Rice

Creamy Sausage Linguini
2007-01-06 23:03:00
Half an onion, then slice each half, and fry slowly until softened and taking on some colour. Remove the onion from the pan, then fry off a handful of pancetta (or a couple of chopped slices of bacon) and again remove. Now add 6 chopped sausages and brown them.Once the sausages are browned put the onion and pancetta back in the pan and turn up the heat to colour the onion a little more. Add a small pot of double cream (about 284ml) and the same amount of beef stock, along with the leaves of a couple of sprigs of thyme and a bay leaf. Season, using a good amount of pepper.Bring the mixture to the boil, then turn down to a simmer and cook until the sauce reduces and thickens. Remove the bay leaf and woody sprigs of the thyme.In the meantime cook the linguine, then serve it with the sauce.This is filling so should serve 4, or 2 very hungry people!
More About: Sausage , Usage , Sage , Cream , Guin

Heavenly Roast Chicken
2006-12-16 15:53:00
For me a roast chicken, along with the stock made from the picked-bare bones, is the best thing to come out of the kitchen. I simply adore it. No other food says home to me quite like this does. When the house is filled with the smell of a chicken roasting in the oven you know this is the place to be. It’s pure joy to me each and every time Rob or I bring home a fresh, free-range chicken from the butchers. It sits in my fridge full of possibility and with the promise of a simple yet fabulous meal. Without a doubt if I were asked to choose a last-request meal, this would be it.There are endless recipes for roast chicken out there and in my quest for the perfect roast chicken I’ve tried a lot. Stuff it, oil it, season it, turn it upside down for juicier breast meat. Chick en is usually the first thing I look up in the index of a new cookery book and it’s the foodie subject closest to my heart. Through all this I’ve come to find a method which I like and which gives me my perfec...
More About: Heaven , Chicken , Roast

Beef With Port And Red Onion
2006-11-13 19:14:00
Sauté about 500g of good casserole beef in olive oil over a high heat until well browned. Remove the beef from the pan then sauté 2 sliced red onions in the same pan until they start to soften and colour. Add 2 crushed garlic cloves and sauté for a couple of minutes more. Put the beef back in the pan and sprinkle over 1 tablespoon of flour. Stir well to mix then add a wine glass full of port and simmer for a few minutes to cook off the alcohol. Add 1 litre of beef stock, a little dried thyme and seasoning, then pop in the oven with a lid on at 200c for about two hours, until the beef is very tender and the sauce is thick and glossy.This is a deliciously rich casserole and best served with something for the sauce to coat, such as mashed potato or rice.
More About: Red Onion , Port , Beef , Onion

A Little Childhood Nostalgia
2006-11-09 18:42:00
Do you remember thinking when you were a child that when you grow up you?ll buy all the sweets you want? Me too, and that?s exactly what I did when I discovered A Quarter Of, a wonderful on-line company which sources and stocks all the old favourites.I was thrilled to discover this website which transported me back to my childhood. Browsing the site I squealed with delight at each new discovery. All my lovingly remembered sweets were there along with ones I?d completely forgotten about. I could hardly wait to place the order.But then came the dilemma ? what to choose? I had to give this some serious consideration and fight off the urge to order everything. Sherbet was always my favourite as a child, so I put a good selection in my basket. Rob?s requests were simple, winter mixture and bazooka bubblegum ?lots of it.There really is every sweet you could imagine here and in the unlikelihood that you don?t find something you?re looking for you can put in a request to see if it can be fo...
More About: Childhood , Nostalgia , Child , Little , Litt

What makes a good cookbook?
2006-10-17 00:03:00
Here I give you my personal opinion, not as a food critique, an author or a book reviewer, as I am none of these, but simply as a reader who likes to cook.Good photographyWell yes, there are good cookbooks out there with no photography. ?How to Eat: Pleasures and Principles of Good Food? by Nigella Lawson is one of them. But if a cookbook has no photography it needs something very good to make it strong and ?How To Eat? certainly has that ? a celebrity name attached as well as quality, bulging, content. But I think this is an exception to the rule.The all important cover and the glossy photograps inside catch your eye and draw you in. I want to see the food being described; I want my taste buds enticed through sight. And when I?m creating a dish I want to know how the end result should look.Clear instructionsIf it?s long-winded, doesn?t make sense the first time or is full of waffle I?ll be inclined to throw it to one side. I want instructions that I can easily follow when I?m in my...
More About: Books , Make , Cook , Cookbook

I Do Like To Be Beside The Seaside
2006-10-08 17:09:00
After a hearty breakfast this morning of eggs on toast, lovingly cooked by Rob, we drove down to Whitstable for some sea air and fresh fish.There is a wonderful selection of freshly caught fish at Whitstable fish market which looks and smells fantastic. This is the good stuff. The fish mongers will prepare the fish for you as you want, so if you’re a little squeamish you can get them to deal with the heads, scales and guts.You'll also find an array of cooked fish at the market such as lobsters and crabs brought in from Cornwall. There is plenty of sea food to be eaten and if you’re a lover of oysters you can’t possibly visit Whitstable Harbour without trying the famous Whitstable oysters. They are a truly divine eating experience. You get the very best taste of the sea which lingers in your mouth long after you’ve eaten them. But there is more to Whitstable than fish. Walking past the local shops we noticed a quaint sweet shop which was unfortunately closed. Two older gen...
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Another Weekend, Another Cookbook
2006-10-07 20:32:00
I?m starting to feel much better after what now appears to have been flu. But I?m taking it easy and continuing to rest this weekend.Once again there is a chicken roasting in my oven, which is a regular occurrence. Traditional roast chicken with proper home made gravy would be my last meal request, without a doubt.Rob picked up the latest River Cottage DVD 'River Cottage Road Trip [2006]' today, along with James Martin?s ?Great British Winter Cookbook? which I asked him to look out for - yet another addition to my ever growing collection of cookbooks. We both like James Martin and really enjoy watching Hugh?s adventures on River Cottage so we?re going to sit back and watch that now.I hope you?re all having a lovely weekend!
More About: Books , Thoughts , Weekend , Week , Another

Lemon and Courgette Risotto
2006-09-29 22:24:00
I have a cold and it was chilly and almost dark when I walked home from work so I wanted comfort food. I had risotto in my mind as I looked in the fridge and the courgettes seemed a good choice.The sharpness of the lemon awoke my dulled tastebuds whilst the creaminess of the rice and parmesan soothed, with the courgette offering a fresh bite.RecipeHeat 500ml of vegetable stock and keep on a low simmer.In a separate pan sauté one large shallot in butter until soft. Stir in 100 grams of risotto rice and coat well. Add a slosh of vermouth (about 50ml) and allow the alcohol to burn off then stir until absorbed by the rice.Dice a courgette and add to the pan along with the zest and juice of about half a lemon. Now add the stock, a ladleful at a time, stirring the rice continuously. Only add another ladleful once the rice has absorbed the previous ladleful. Keep stiring and adding the stock until the rice is al dente (which means it still has a bite to it). You may not need all of the st...
More About: Lemon , Risotto , Riso , Urge

Alchemy In The Kitchen
2006-09-16 12:23:00
I adore home made chicken stock and love making it. As it simmers slowly the house is filled with it’s wonderful smell, making it feel happy and homely. Something wonderful begins to happen as the goodness and flavour from the chicken bones and vegetables seep into the water.More often than not it doesn’t actually make it as stock in my house as I can’t resist having a bowlful just as it is. The soothing broth is heavenly and healing. I believe in its magic.Chicken Stock or BrothEither use a roast chicken carcase or a whole fresh chicken but either way please, please use a good free-range one.If using a carcase remove any garlic, lemon, herbs, etc from the cavity. Put it in a large pot and just cover it with water.Halve 2 sticks of celery, one carrot, one large onion and one leek and add to the pot along with about 6 peppercorns, a bay leaf and a good few sprigs of parsley and thyme.Bring to boil then very gently simmer on the lowest heat for about 2 hours. Remove any scum tha...
More About: Kitchen , Alchemy , Chen , Chem

Spaghetti Bolognese and A Glass of Red Wine
2006-09-14 22:18:00
Sauté a little pancetta until it releases it fat, then add a finely chopped onion, stick of celery and carrot and two of crushed garlic cloves.In a separate, non-stick pan, brown 500g of mince on a high heat until it forms a dark brown crust and add it to the vegetables once they have softened.Add a generous glass of red wine or even better, port (still using a wine glass full), a tin of chopped tomatoes, beef stock and a dash of Worcester sauce along with a little fresh thyme, a bay leaf, dried oregano and a good couple of tablespoons of tomato puree.Bring to the boil then turn the heat down and simmer gently for a couple of hours.Serve with parmesan cheese and a glass of red wine. Serves 4
More About: Wine , Pasta , Beef , Glass , Red Wine

My Kitchen Essentials
2006-09-08 13:08:00
ToolsMy cream Kitchen Aid mixer- this was a real treat, an expensive one, but a long-term investment and I get a lot of use and pleasure out of it. I use it primarily for baking - whisking egg whites, beating cake mixture, mixing cheesecakes, etcA hand-held blender - perfect for liquidising and blending soups directly in the saucepanSharp knives - I recently bought two Global knives. These come highly recommended by top chefs, including Anthony Bourdain. I have two cooks knives, a medium sized one for chopping vegetables a larger one for meatWooden spoons of various sizes - I use these all the time and have an extra long one for making gravy directly in my roasting trayA graterWooden chopping boardsDigital weighing scalesA colanderA sieve - perhaps surprisingly baking is not what I have in mind for this, but straining soups, gravies and saucesA Pyrex measuring jugA potato ricerPots and Pans A good, non-stick frying panA large frying pan with a lidA griddle panA tiered steamerA solid,...
More About: Thoughts , Esse , Essentials , Chen

My Bookshelves
2006-09-05 20:42:00
I bought 'Apples for Jam (Recipes for Life)' by Tessa Kiros today, a signed copy no less! Just like her previous book, 'Falling Cloudberries: A World of Family Recipes: Bk.2', this is beautiful to look through and I can?t wait to lose myself in it?s pages.My bookshelves are filled with various food books. I fear it?s becoming an addiction, I even felt a pang of guilt as I walked to the till to pay for the latest addition - a sure sign of a habit in need of curbing. I?ll be hiding them from my husband next! I just can?t help it ? I love books. I love the smell of the paper, the feel of the pages as I run my hand over them, the solitary pleasure of opening a new book for the first time. And with food books combining my favourite two interests they are simply irresistible to me.My favourite food writer is Nigella Lawson. I love the sheer unadulterated pleasure of food she conveys and I find a lot of comfort in her recipes. My favourite of her books are ?How to Eat: Pleasures and Pr...
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Autumn In A Bowl
2006-09-04 00:04:00
Sausages, sweet potato mash and onion gravy, a perfect dish to welcome Autum n .Fry sausages slowly in butter until sticky and lightly browned, then add a large sliced onion to the pan and saute until soft and golden. Turn up the heat, add a tablespoon of flour, stir and and cook for a minute or so, then add some marsala to sizzle away. Add a dried herb like oregano and a little beef stock. Leave to simmer and thicken whilst you mash some peeled, cubed and boiled sweet potato with butter.Serve in a bowl and curl up on the sofa while the Autumn leaves dance in the wind outside.
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