EASY BUT SPECIAL

These days I have so little time to potter in the kitchen, I want to get maximum bang for a minimum time buck (I have a feeling I'm sounding a bit like Jamie Oliver here!!!).  This french toast gives me bang (well great taste really) by the bucketload - it's a Nigella recipe, from Express, and I can't understand why it has taken me so long to try it - I suppose it looked just a bit too easy to bother with.

It is hard to imagine how the addition of just one ingredient can transform an old regular - but man oh man, one teaspoon of vanilla paste (or extract) makes all the difference, this is a "special treat breakfast", a "cheer me up supper", a "I don't have the energy to make a proper meal, but still want to serve something healthy meal", and this time of the year, it really is the perfect "I am so tired of heavy meals and chocolates option".

I love to serve the toast with berries, fresh or frozen depending on budget and time of year, but I always serve it with Glenisk Greek Yogurt (and I should admit much more than I used in the photo, I thought I shouldn't look like too much of a piggie!!).  I know I've mentioned this product before (and I'm not on their payroll) but it is so worth a try - it is thick, creamy and utterly delicious.


French Toast To Be Proud Of

2          eggs
2 tbsp   whole milk
2           slices of bread, it's best to use thickly sliced bread which is slightly stale
2 tsp      vanilla paste (I love this stuff, but 4 tsp vanilla extract would be excellent too)
1 tbsp    caster sugar
              butter and oil for frying

Beat the eggs with the vanilla.
Soak the bread in the egg mixture, allow to absorb it all.
Heat a knob of butter with some flavourless oil.
Fry until golden.
Sprinkle with the sugar (Nigella dredges the toast in sugar at this stage, but that would be too sweet for me)

The perfect treat for two people.

Enjoy.

CHOCOLATE REALLY DOES WORK IN THIS CHRISTMAS CAKE!

How long does it take to make a tradition?  Some Christmas traditions come to us through our parents and grandparents, some probably from the idealised versions we see on T.V. (do families really decorate the tree together while humming carols and sipping hot chocolate - or is the general experience more like mine, where I whine about doing it, hint for help but get told that I'm the "artistic one"!!!!!!  Baah Humbug) but what about the traditions we make ourselves?  I reckon that Nigella's Chocolate Christmas Cake is fast becoming a tradition here in Brownieville - Christmas wouldn't be quite the same without it sitting under the dome on the cake stand.  Regular Christmas visitors have been known to ask for it (they don't know about the puddings!!!!!!).

It is really easy to throw together, being what my mother would call a boiled cake - most of the ingredients are heated together in a pot (which means there is no need to soak the fruit) then you add a few more and bake.  I will admit that there is all the faffing about having to line the tin, but other that that is's "wham bam thank you mam"

The cake has a beautifully moist texture, the chocolate and orange flavours are subtle and actually add to the Christmassyness (!) of the cake.  It should be eaten within 2 weeks (no problem I promise!!) so is prefect for the last minute merchants amongst us!!  Please don't worry about all the prunes in there, nobody will notice, and think of all the good it will be doing to their tummies after the Christmas stodge!!

When I saw that Choclette has challenged us to include orange to a chocolate bake for this month's We Should Cocoa, it was a shoe in for this cake!

Chocolate Christmas Cake

adapted from Nigella Lawson's recipe                                      

350g            stoned prunes, chopped

250g            raising

175g            currants

175g            butter

175g            dark sugar

225g            honey

75ml            coffee liqueur

50ml            hazelnut liqueur

1                 orange, juiced and zested

3                 mandarin orange, juiced and zested (if large just use 2)

1 tsp            mixed spice

2 tbsp          cocoa powder (sifted)

3                  eggs, beaten

150g            flour

75g              ground hazelnuts (or almonds)

1/2 tsp         baking powder

1/2 tsp         bread (bicarbonate of) soda

Double line and butter a 20cm x 9cm deep round cake tin.  When filled I also tie a couple of layers of newspapers around the outside - belt and braces!! 

Put the flour, ground nuts, baking powder and bread (bicarbonate of) soda in a bowl and set aside.

Put the remaining ingredients (except the eggs) in a large saucepan and gently bring to boiling point, stirring regularly.

Allow to simmer for 10 minutes and set aside for 30 (or longer if it's handier)

While it's cooling I prepare the tin.

Add the beaten egg and the dry ingredients, combine well.

Pour into the prepared cake tin and bake for approx 2 hours.

You want a texture less gooey than a  brownie but more so than a normal cake.

Put the cake tin on a wire rack and allow to cool.

Eat immediately if you wish, but it will keep for about 2 weeks, depending on your will power!!!

WITH APPLE OR WITHOUT??

It looks burned, doesn't it?  Actually it didn't taste burned .... maybe it is the dark chocolate - very, very dark chocolate!!

I was watching a re-run of Nigella's kitchen, and her Chocolate Chip Bread Pudding just called to me, then I thought that it would be a good idea to incorporate it with Chele's  ingredient  for this month's We Should Cocoa challenge.  Like many fellow bloggers, I had fretted as to how I could add apple to a chocolate recipe, but I thought that some apple through this pudding would be delicious.  Unfortunately Brownieville Boy #2 spotted me adding the apple, and wasn't too enthusiastic!  So I compromised and added apple to just half of the pudding - and I have to say that the non-apple half was just a fraction nicer.

The pudding was light and fluffy, and deliciously creamy (despite containing only 125ml of cream) I would recommend that you give it a try. 

Chocolate Chip Bread Pudding

250g    stale bread, cut into 3cm cubes
100g    chocolate chips, or chopped chocolate
3          eggs
40g      light brown sugar
30ml    dark rum
125ml  cream
500ml  full fat milk
4 tsp    demerara sugar
1          apple (optional)


butter a pie dish (about 1.5 lt)
preheat oven to 170 C

Place the bread cubes, chopped chocolate and chopped apple in the dish, toss but make sure there aren't too many chocolate pieces on the top (to prevent the burned look!!)
Whisk the eggs, light brown sugar, rum, cream and milk together.
Pour over the bread and press the cubes down to make sure they are well soaked.
Leave to soak for at least 20 minutes.
When ready to cook, sprinkle with the demerara sugar and place in the oven for 40-50 minutes.
Allow the pudding to cool slightly before serving.
Enjoy.

A CLEAN(ISH) CONSCIENCE

I have an admission ........ I cheated ........ but then I felt so guilty that I uncheated - I hope that Dom can forgive me - but at least I did the right thing in the end!!!

You see it was like this .... Dom over at Belleau Kitchen had challenged us to randomly choose a cookery book from the shelf/pile and then to choose a random recipe from said book and then to cook/bake it - no messing.   Wellllllllllllll, I closed my eyes and grabbed Nigella Lawson's "Kitchen" - so far, so good (I had neglected this book and was pleased to give it a go), but then I randomly chose her Marmalade Pudding Cake - yuk, I really don't like marmalade, nobody in the house eats that type of cake.  I decided it would be a total waste (I don't like marmalade), it would end up uneaten in the bin (I don't like marmalade)- I just couldn't do it (I don't like marmalade).

I closed the book, closed my eyes and fanned through the pages and came to .....Indian Roast potatoes ...... Result ...... I love potatoes (well I know stereotypes are often untrue, but I AM Irish) and I love spice ..... Happy Days, Indian Roast potatoes it was.

They were a perfect choice, you just chop up your unpeeled potatoes into cubes and toss them in a plastic bag  to which you have added oil and spices (turmeric, fennel seeds, cumin seeds, nigella seeds, black mustard seeds, chilli powder) some garlic, lime juice and salt - toss the potatoes about until fully coated, roast for an hour and then serve with a chopped red onion as garnish.  I played about with the spices (just a bit) left out the raw onion - and they were delicious, and really popular.

BUT I just couldn't do it ..... I couldn't pretend that they were my random choice ..... I had to bite the bullet .... I just had to .... didn't I?...... I had to ..... my conscience demanded it!!!!!!!!

So Marmalade Pudding Cake it was, on the plus side it was easy to throw together, you just dump everything in the food processor, a quick whizz and it's ready to go in the oven, stress free really. 

As for the result, well - I thought it was OK. (which isn't bad as (you might not know but) I'm not that fond of marmalade!!), Brownieville Man loved it and Brownieville Physical Magician (aka my friend Amo, who gives me life saving massages) ate 5 slices in one sitting (slight exaggeration!!).  All in all - worth giving a go.


Marmalade Pudding Cake


250g           soft butter (plus some to butter the dish)
75g             caster sugar
75g             light brown muscovado sugar
150g           marmalade, plus 75g  marmalade for the glaze*
225g           plain flour
1/2 tsp        bread (bicarbonate of) soda
1 tsp           baking powder
4                 eggs
1                 orange - zested and juiced. (keep half the juice for the glaze)


* I used a jar of three fruit marmalade that I had left over from a Christmas hamper recieved the year before last!!!


Preheat oven to 180 C
Butter a 24cm sq Pyrex (or actually any) ovenproof dish


Prepare the glaze by putting 75g of marmalade and the juice of half the orange in a small pan and put to the side to heat later.
Put all the remaining ingredients into the food processor, and whizz.
Pour the batter into the prepared dish.
Bake for about 30 minutes, although could take 40 minutes.
Check it is done by inserting a piece of raw spaghetti to see if it comes out clean (if there is batter on it - it needs more time)
Heat the glaze over a medium heat, when melted, pour over the hot cake.
Serve while still warm with cream or custard.

Enjoy (if you like marmalade!!!)

LAZY BAKERS TREAT

Sometimes you need something sweet and tasty, but really don't fancy the whole rigmarole of taking out mixers and beaters and whisks - let me be honest here - sometimes I want to have my cake and eat it, without having put much work into the process!!!

This cake is just what the doctor (that very strange doctor that lives in my imagination and tells me to eat all the chocolate I wish!!!!) ordered.  Like Nigella's Guinness Cake this is a "one pot wonder", all you need is a scales, a large pot a baking tin and you're in business.

It started life out as the Birthday Cake in Nigella Lawson's "How to Eat", and although I still  make the original, the one I make more often is this evolved version below.  I have reduced the fat, by using a light condensed milk and by omitting the ganache (or sometimes just using 1/4 of the specified amount) - then I have replaced some of that fat (!) by adding chocolate chunks (and sometimes roasted hazelnuts).  I no longer faff about with splitting the cake in half and sandwiching with ganache - not really in the spirit of my lazy inner self!!

Although I usually make the plain, uniced version - for special occasions I whip out the icing!  This cake was made for a very special occasion -  my sister's significant birthday!!  Her little angel (he was so good he was given a "star stamp" at play school .... awwwwww!) helped me to decorate it with a delightful crater pattern, even going so far as to eat all the removed ganache - that's dedication!!

I don't usually need much help in the creating craters dept!!

Dress Up or Downable Chocolate Cake

225g      self-raising flour
40g        cocoa
200g      caster sugar
100g      butter
100ml    just boiled water
200g      light condensed milk
200g      dark chocolate (about 70% cocoa) - broken into pieces
50g        chopped roasted hazelnuts (optional)
2            large eggs, beaten

Preheat oven to 180 C
Prepare a 20cm springform tin by buttering it and lining the bottom with parchment paper.

Put the sugar,  butter, boiled water, condensed milk and 100g of chocolate into a large pot and put on a medium heat until melted, stir until glossy and smooth.
Remove from the heat and stir in the sieved flour and cocoa.
Finally add the eggs and mix well.  (Do not forget this part - if you do the result is disastrous!!!!)
Add the remaining 100g chocolate chunks and the nuts (if using).
Pour into the prepared tin and bake for about 45 minutes.
This cake needs to cook like a brownie - firm on top but still slightly gooey in the center.
Remove from the oven and allow to cool in the tin for about 10 minutes.
After this time remove from the tin and cool completely on a wire rack.

If you wish to make a ganache for the top just heat 100ml double cream and then add 100g chopped chocolate, stir until amalgamated and pour over the cooled cake.

This is my contribution to Forever Nigella # 2 - seduced by chocolate over at Maison Cupcake.

HAPPY WOMEN'S CHRISTMAS TO YOU ALL!

Happy Little Christmas everyone.  Time to kick back and enjoy the last hurrah.  I am a firm believer in squeezing the last ounce of Christmasness out of the festivities and today is the last little allowable squeeze.

Today (6th January) is known as Little Christmas or Women's Christmas, and the custom was that the women were rewarded for all their hard work during Christmas by a day when all the work was done for them ...nice!  Now I have to admit that this tradition has not been fully embraced by my family, actually it seems to have been fairly well neglected by modern day Ireland, but maybe it's time for a revival!!

I have decided to have a little review of some of the baking indulgences of the past couple of weeks, which nicely coincides with the Forever Nigella challenge over at Maison Cupcake whereby Sarah challenges us to bake/cook a Nigella recipe (without printing the recipe) with a changing theme (this month's is "seasonal Nigella")

These little puddini bonbons are prefect for using up any leftover Christmas pudding, great option if you don't live in a house with Christmas Pudding piggies!!!!

I actually had to buy a small pudding to make these sweets (which is quite something when you consider that I made EIGHT puddings, none of which I gave away!!!!!!!!!!),  they were very popular, the sherry, chocolate and pudding made a wonderful  flavour combination.

These Christmas Chocolate Biscuits were incredibly easy to throw together, actually the most bothersome part was the glaze which I wouldn't even add next time I make them.  You just put some butter, sugar, cocoa, flour and bread soda in the processor - whizz and bake.  Easy.

P.S. Aren't the Christmas tree sprinkles cute!



The piece de rèsistance Nigella's "Incredibly Easy Chocolate Fruit Cake" according to Brownieville Man the best Christmas cake of all time.  There is just a hint of cocoa in this boiled fruit cake, which is moist and almost pudding like.  The fact that it is a boiled cake means that it can be made a week or so before Christmas, great for the unprepared amongst us!!

Hope you enjoyed my Nigella Christmas roundup, I'm off to sit on the couch, eat cookies and paint my nails!!!!!!!!!!!

HAM FOR THE NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS

Jain over at Food For Thought has a wonderful blog with three elements that I love - Food (of course), Books (nearly as good) and Great Photography (and I mean great).  She reviews a book, picking out any foodie vignettes, then she cooks/bakes these dishes and photographs them (often in her magnificent Californian garden).  She has asked her readers to review their favourite Christmas books, and throw a bit of cooking in there too - no better woman!

There are two reasons I am delighted to write this post, firstly just love Alice Taylor's "The Night Before Christmas" and secondly I wanted to introduce any non-Nigella disciples (?!) to her Ham in Cola, which is the nicest way to cook ham ... ever.  I would even be so bold as to recommend it as a way to cook your Christmas Ham.

The Night Before Christmas is a quaint book about a child's Christmas in a backwater* in the south of Ireland in the 1940s.  Alice Taylor remembers with incredible clarity all the details of her childhood Christmases; heading off with her siblings to cut holly to decorate the house, helping her mother pluck the geese for Christmas dinner, hilariously helping a neighbour clean her chimney, waiting for Santy to arrive and the excitement of finding a school bag and a doll on Christmas morning.

Food (obviously) plays a huge part in Alice's Christmas memories - buying muscatel raisins for the Christmas cakes, the excitement of receiving a box of fancy chocolates from a cousin who had returned from abroad for the holidays, goose cooked on the bastable over the fire and of course the ham (which they started eating at breakfast time on Christmas morning)

"When we had the kitchen to ourselves, our first priority was to settle down to attack the big ham in the centre of the table.  This was the ham that had matured up the chimney and hung off the meat hook from the ceiling;  my mother had boiled and baked it in a shroud of breadcrumbs and honey, and now all her loving care paid dividends because it was beautifully moist and tender" 

Moist and tender but not huge!

  I was introduced to this book through my book-club a few years ago, and I now read it every Christmas - it is the most wonderful "get in the Christmas mood" aid ever (along with a carol service or a kiddies Nativity play, tearing up at the thought!!).  When you have spent the day queueing for parking spaces, queueing at shopping tills, queueing, queueing queueing, it is wonderful to come home and escape to a Christmas filled with simple pleasures and NO shopping!!!

*My only issue with the book is that it is set in the 1940s when there was electricity here in Ireland (I have asked someone I know who was a child then about their childhood Christmases, their memories would be of a far more modern type experience, none the less magical for that though!) Alice's memories seem to be of of an older time (there were some far flung pockets around the country that took an age to get "the electric") and are (for the reader anyway) more magical and nostalgic for that.

Now onto the ham, this is a wonderful way to cook it, it has been my method of choice since I bought How To Eat 100 years ago!  I have toyed with other methods over the years but like a faithful Labrador I always return!!!

Ham in Cola

2kg              mild-cure gammon*
2 litre           Coke (minus 2 tbsp for glaze)**
1                  onion
1 or 2           bayleaves (my addition)

100g            fresh breadcrumbs
100g            dark muscovado sugar
1 tbsp          mustard powder
2 tbsp          Dijon mustard
2 tbsp          Coke


* You can alter the recipe for smaller joints, less Coke and cooking time.
**The Coke must be full sugar, but can be any cheap brand.

Place the gammon (raw ham), chopped onion, and bay leaves in an appropriately sized pot, cover with the Coke.
Bring to the boil and then reduce to a simmer.  A 2kg joint needs to be simmered like this for 2 1/2 hours, smaller joints will need less time, but I would err on the side of over rather than undercooking a ham.
Before the ham is finished boiling preheat the oven to 210 C.
Prepare a roasting tin for the ham by lining it with tinfoil (very important if you don't want to spend 3 hours cleaning it afterwards!!)
When ready remove the ham from the pot to the prepared tin and allow to cool slightly (or completely if you want to preprepare the dish to this stage*)
Remove the skin, leaving a layer of fat.
Mix the breadcrumbs, sugar (I used honey this time), and the mustards to a paste, add the Coke a little at a time to bring the paste to a spreadable consistency (you don't want it runny).
Cover the fat side of the ham with the paste (and of course cook it fat side up).
Cook in the hot oven for 10-15 minutes. (I often roast mine at a slightly lower temperature for longer as we like our ham quite dry)
*If you are cooking the ham from cold it will need 30/40 minutes at 180 C.

Enjoy!

ANOTHER CHOCOLATE CAKE!

Apologies for the awful photos, they were taken when I was dashing around like a mad thing (and a glass of wine might have been involved)!!!!

On my post about the book club night I mentioned that I had baked another birthday cake,  thankfully it tasted an awful lot better than it looks here!  This is another recipe from Nigella's Kitchen, the Flourless Chocolate Lime Cake.  It was very well received by my fellow bookclubbers, everyone said that they really liked it (of course they were hardly likely to say it was terrible!!), my family on the other hand were not so enthusiastic, and found the lime an odd partnership with the chocolate.  I have to say that I enjoyed it, and particularly enjoyed the fact that it was just that little bit different. I promised Lisa that I would blog about the cake (she really liked it), and I am happy to oblige.

As you can see my version of the cake cracked badly when I took it out of the tin (and there was I feeling all proud about my non sunken loaf cake - pride, fall etc!!), I'm sure that anyone with any dexterity would manage no problem!

I had to play around with the accompanying Margarita Cream as I had no Tequilla, so it became a lemon and lime cream, I added lemoncello and some lime extract to 250ml cream and 50g icing sugar - it was delicious!  And the leftovers (which I forgot about and had gone slightly sour when I spotted the tub at the back of the fridge!!) made my best scones ever.


Flourless Chocolate Lime Cake

150g              Dark chocolate - chopped
150g              Butter
6                    Large Eggs
250g              Caster Sugar
100g              Ground Almonds
4 tsp               Cocoa Powder - sifted (I used Green and Black)
1                     Lime - Zested and Juiced
Icing Sugar to decorate.

Line or Grease a 23cm springform round baking tin
Preheat oven to 180 C

Melt the chocolate and butter in a bowl over a pan of simmering water.
When melted allow to cool slightly.
Beat the eggs and sugar until pale and moussy - about 5 minutes in a freestanding mixer
Fold the almonds  and sifted cocoa carefully into the egg mixture.
Then fold in the chocolate mixture, and finally the lime zest and juice.
Pour the mixture into the prepared tin and bake for 40 -50 minutes, until firm on top and still slightly wobbly underneath.
Remove the tin to a wire rack to cool.  After 5 minutes cover with a clean tea towel (this prevents the cake being too crusty).
When cold, remove the cake from the tin - carefully!
Dust with icing sugar and serve with a tasty cream.

Enjoy.

AN AWARD FOR NO SINKAGE!!!!?

I bought Nigella Lawson's most recent book Kitchen when it came out, but haven't dived into it with as much enthusiasm as some of the great bloggers I follow, I'm hoping it's (or I'm)  a slow burner.  That said I can't wait to try the sweet and salty crunch nut bars she cooked on her programme last week, but have to wait until I have enough people in the house to eat them all in one go - otherwise I know where any leftovers would go (straight onto my hips!!!!)

I am amazed that all the loaf cakes in this book, well all the photos of the loaf cakes in the book show cakes that  have sunk quite a lot - I thought it might be interesting to see if the recipe caused this or was it perhaps an editorial decision (to make the cakes more approachable) or some other reason.  Does anyone have any suggestions?

I baked the Coconut and Cherry Banana Bread from Kitchen, and am happy to say that there was no "sinkage"!!  Of course, I fiddled a bit with the recipe, I replaced the cherries with some cranberries and chocolate chips.  The texture was excellent, the coconut added an extra dimension.  The banana, cranberries coconut and chocolate were an excellent flavour combination.  It was a lovely "everyday" type cake, nice to have in the cake tin but without the risk of it being demolished in one sitting! 



Cranberry, Coconut and Chocolate Banana Bread

125g                     butter
4                           medium bananas
150g                     caster sugar
2                           eggs
175g                     plain flour
2 tsp                     baking powder
1/2 tsp                  bread (bicarbonate of ) soda - sieved
100g                     desiccated coconut
75g                       cranberries
50g                       chocolate chips

Line a 900g  (2lb)  loaf tin with parchment paper.
Preheat oven to 170 C


Melt butter in a large saucepan., then remove from the heat.
Beat the sugar into the cooled butter.
Mash the bananas and beat into the butter and sugar mixture.
Beat in the eggs.
Fold in the flour, baking powder and bread (bicarb of) soda.
Add the cranberries, coconut and chocolate and fold until everything is well incorporated.
Pour into the prepared tin.
Bake for 45 - 50 minutes, until bouncy on top.
Allow to cool for ten minutes, and then remove to a wire rack to cool completely.

As you can see this mixture made one loaf and 4 muffins.

The lovely (and hugely talented) Megan over at  Foodalution  paid me the great honour of passing on the Versatile Blogger Award to me some time ago - my son has recently given me a "how to move a tag" lesson and therefore I am delighted to accept and to be able to pass it on to some  of the wonderful blogs that I enjoy reading.

I believe that I am supposed to tell you 7 things about myself and then pass the award onto 7 blogs I admire.  So here goes:

1.  Other than food and cookbooks, I would spend all my money on books (novels) and C.D's (can't be doing with i-tunes!!!)

2.  I have recently returned to Yoga, and am loving it.

3. I badly need a new oven - but only like shopping for food, books and music so have been putting the purchase on the long finger!!

4.  I am a member of two book clubs and am contemplating joining an on-line one - just not sure when I will be able to find the time to read all those books!!

5.  I love reading about people who become self sufficient (or even partly self sufficient) and would love to be able to follow suit - just not enough to do all that weeding!!!!!!!!

6.  My perfect holiday is spent in a beautiful place with wonderful restaurants (surprise, surprise!!) with not a sun lounger in sight!

7.  My house is filled with musical instruments (and I mean filled!!) and I can't play one of them :-(

I am delighted to pass this lovely award on to the following blogs, I look forward to each new post from them and am pleased to recommend them to you.

1.    My Little Space

2.   The Art Of Being Perfect

3.   Dunn to Prefection

4.   Belleau Kitchen

5.   Ocean Breezes and Country Sneezes

6.   Baking Making and Creating

7.   From Beyond My Kitchen Window

  

In an embarrassment of riches I have another award to be grateful for (thank you so very, very much) The Art of Being Perfect  and  Cath at  Dunn to Perfection, both wonderful bakers (pop over to their blogs you will be impressed, very impressed!) have paid me the complement of granting me this award - thanks so much.

This time all I have to do is nominate 15 great blogs I have discovered and enjoy and inform them of this - easy peasy!!!  (If I have left anyone out I am truly sorry and please leave me a nasty comment!!!)

Happy Valley Cook

Cooking At Marystow

The Chocolate Teapot

Tasty Trials

Tinned Tomatoes

This Yorkshire Life

Second Hand Rose

The Goddess Kitchen

Stuff I Make, Bake and Love

Foodalution

Please Do Not Feed The Animals

Alwayz Baking

Cooking For My Peace Of Mind

Hanaas Kitchen

Adventures of a Blond Baker

All of these blogs are worth a visit - you'll thank me!!!

AUTUMNAL BOUNTY

Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness - been dying to use that line!!!!  But seriously Autumn really is an incredibly fruitful season, particularly when it comes to foraging for free food.  Although I was thinking that if you were counting man hours, and were charging yourself minimum wage this "free food" would be quite expensive!!

I have spent many hours devising a list of to do's for foraging the hedgerows, this is my considered offering!

1.  Do not go blackberry picking wearing your MBT's, you will be unbalanced and unable to reach as far for those elusive big fat juicy ones.

2.  Do not wear your new MBT's as you could head into a big pile of muck while reaching for a huge bunch of elderberries and totally ruin those shoes.

3.  Do not go blackberry picking when you have a hand modeling audition (not that I actually had an audition, but wouldn't be a good idea if you had!!!!!)

4.  This is probably the most important one .... After blackberry picking, do not under any circumstances visit a friend  in hospital and use the alcohol wash at the entrance ..... you will be very, very sorry if you do. (and embarrassed for whelping in pain when there are actual sick people round about!!)

5.  Wear heavy jeans, not a light pair of tracksuit bottoms - those nettles hurt!!

 

         My first days blackberry picking resulted in a large blackberry and apple tart, which went down really well ...... so well in fact that about twenty minutes after I photographed and served the tart -

 This is all that remained!!!!!  Well this empty dish and three very guilty looking people!

I also picked some rose hips, and having read on the internet that rose-hip syrup is absolutely magic stuff when it comes to attacking colds and flus I made a vat of the stuff! -  I gave it to son #2 last weekend when he showed flu like symptoms, he still missed school this week, so I won't be marketing my syrup any time soon!!

My next day's foraging yielded a huge bag of blackberries and some damsons and plums.  These blackberries ended up in a bottle of vodka - Nigella's blackberry vodka to be exact (I'll let you know how that turns out at Christmas) and a Blackberry and Lime Cake,  this cake is based on Sally's Lemon Butter Cake which I put on my "to try" list , then I read about it again on the wonderful Tea and Wheaten Bread blog Here (this post pushed it well up the list!!) and then I read EmmCee's enthusiastic Yum, Yum Post and I made it that day.  Sally's original cake was flavoured with just Lemon, but I wanted to use my (hard won) blackberries and I thought that Lime would be a good combination, and I was right, I can only quote Emmcee "Yum Yum"!!

I have (as usual) made some changes - this is how I liked it, but please look to to the other versions and choose your favourite.

Blackberry and Lime Cake

250g       butter
200g       soft brown sugar
250g       self raising flour
3             eggs, beaten
               blackberries - enough to carpet over the mixture
1             lime, zest for the cake and juice for the drizzle*
50g         icing or caster sugar for the drizzle

Preheat oven to 180 C
Line a 24x33cm (13x9 1/2") deepish tin with parchment paper

Melt the butter in a large pan.
Add the sugar, combine well.
Add the flour followed by the eggs and the lime zest.
Pour half the mixture into the tin and spread out as evenly as possible.
Sprinkle the berries over the mix and then spread the rest of the cake mix over the berries.
Bake for 20 to 30 minutes.

When the cake is cooked (skewer comes out clean) throw together the drizzle, by just mixing the lime juice with the 50g sugar.  Pour this over the hot cake (I used a pastry brush to get it everywhere)
Cool on a wire rack.

*I also made this cake with orange zest and juice, also wonderful, but I think the lime has the edge.

The queen of  foraging would have to be Darena Allen, and I have been turning to her book Forgotten Skills of Cooking with each new fruit collected.  I used her Raspberry, Boysenberry, Tayberry or Loganberry Jam recipe to make some Blackberry Jam (I know!!) Yet again I have changed the recipe, but I think it turned out very well!

Blackberry Jam

900g  (2lbs)           blackberries
450g  (1 lb)           sugar
450g  (1 lb)           jam (preserving) sugar
1                            lemon

Sterilise your jars by washing thoroughly (I pop mine in the dishwasher) and then heating at 150 C for at least 15 minutes.

Pour the sugar into an ovenproof dish and heat gently in the oven with the jars (same heat, same time).
Put the berries into a large wide stainless steel pot, mash and then heat for about 4 minutes until the juices begin to run.
Add the lemon juice and zest. 
Add the warmed sugar and stir over a low heat until fully dissolved.
Raise the heat to bring to the boil and cook steadily for 5 minutes, stirring constantly.

Test if the jam is set by putting a small blob on a plate you have had in the freezer,
Press the jam with your finger, if it wrinkles it is set.

Remove from the heat, skim and then pour into your sterilised jars.
Cover immediately.

Also made a blackberry and apple crumble.

And jars and jars of apple and elderberry jelly (word of advice - buy a proper jelly maker stand thingy, and don't try the upturned stool method, I spent hours cleaning up apple and elderberry juice!!!!)

Also made some damson, plum and apple jam, and some blackberry vinegar.

This weekend's project is some sloe gin .... can't wait for Christmas!!

BEAUTIFUL BANANAS

You know the story, your lovely ripe bananas have been neglected, they develop those black spots and you plan to do something with them and next thing you look and they are black smelly specimens fit only for the bin - well I have to admit I used them and what's more I'm glad I did!!  I'm not sure if it was the fact that the bananas were so sweet or that I used a really fantastic recipe (I'm thinking the latter!) but I made the nicest banana based buns/muffins/cakes/breads I have ever made.

No big surprise when I say that the recipe came from Nigella's "How to be a Domestic Goddess", she really does come up trumps time and time again.  They are her Banana, Cherry and White-Chocolate Cupcakes (I was out of dried cherries and used cranberries, they worked perfectly).

All I can say is that you should hide your bananas where nobody will find them, will them to over-ripeness (or put them in a paper bag with some other fruit) and make these little beauties - they are that good!!


Banana, Cranberry and White Chocolate Buns

125g         butter
200g         caster sugar
1tsp          vanilla
3              very ripe bananas - mashed
4 tbsp       sour cream
2               large eggs
1 tsp         bread (bicarbonate of) soda
1/2 tsp      baking powder
300g        plain flour
40g          dried cranberries, chopped
50g          white chocolate, chopped

Preheat oven to 180 C
Line a muffin tin with paper cases


Melt the butter, remove from the heat and add the sugar, vanilla and mashed bananas.
Stir in the sour cream and the eggs.  Mix well.
Add the bread (bicarbonate of) soda and the baking powder and stir in well.
Stir in the flour, cranberries and chocolate.
Blend being very careful not to over mix.
Divide between the muffin cases.
Bake for about 20 mins until golden and a skewer comes out clean.
Allow to cool on a wire rack.

Enjoy.

FOREVER SUMMER REVISITED

I have rediscovered "Forever Summer" by Nigella Lawson recently, it was one of those books that I bought, tried one or two recipes and then forgot about - this was a mistake as it is jam packed with wonderful recipes that work beautifully and more importantly are easily changed to suit your taste and what you have in the pantry.

I tried the pineapple salsa with some organic ham and a tomato salsa, it was just perfect and was the ideal dinner on a very warm day (warmth - seems like a distant memory now!).The pineapple combined perfectly with the coriander and mint to lift the ham to sublime!

When I spotted some yellow courgettes in my  vegetable basket, I knew that this was the first recipe they were destined for!

It is a light tasty soup, again perfect summer fodder.  It is based on a Middle Eastern dish, where they believe that "eating yellow foods will result in laughter and happiness" - how could you resist trying that!!

I blitzed a couple of portions (faddy eaters!!) and for some strange reason it tasted much more substantial and warming - go figure!!

This is a version of Nigella's recipe for Sea Bass with Saffron, Sherry and Pine Nuts,  this time I used Plaice in place of the Sea Bass and it was excellent, the light delicate sauce  compliments the fresh flavours of the fish.  Neither the saffron nor sherry dominate, they just compliment.  I have cooked this with Sea Bass before and couldn't recommend one fish above the other - both were just right.  The dish would have looked better if I had used the white half of the plaice, but I think there is more flesh on the dark side.

This is the Old Fashioned Tomato Salad, and although it tastes lovely, it wouldn't be great on the "taste/labour ratio" scale.  There was quite a bit of faffing about making the Salad Cream, and I would prefer a nice garlic mayonnaise.

I loved this Short Pasta with Asparagus, Lemon Garlic and Parsley, but then I love anything with asparagus.  It is a super simple dish where you gently fry some garlic in olive oil add steamed asparagus and lemon juice to taste.  Combine with your pasta of choice and sprinkle over some parsley, yumm!

Finally, The Rainbow Room's Carrot and Peanut Salad was totally addictive.  Amo and I ate the whole bowl in the belief that "it's a salad therefore it's low fat and healthy", obviously this thinking was aided by the glass of wine (or two) we enjoyed with the salad!!!!  Well I suppose it was better than eating a bag of peanuts (not lower fat though :-{{ )  Here's the recipe

Carrot and Peanut Salad

4 medium carrots, peeled

75g    salted peanuts

2 tbsp red wine vinegar

2 tbsp groundnut oil

few drops sesame oil

Grate the carrots coarsely.

Combine with the peanuts, vinegar and oils.

Devour as you choose!