WHY RANDOM IS WONDERFUL

Queen Delia comes up trumps again!  The wonderful Dom has challenged us to randomly choose a recipe from the gazillion recipes we all have, and just give it a go.  This dish is one of the reasons that Dom's Random Recipe Challenge is so wonderful.  This month Delia Smith's "Summer Collection" came to hand when I randomly chose my book, this is a book that I used alot when I first bought it, and I would still refer to it from time to time - well the book popped open at page 38/39, so my choices were the Tomato, Mozzarella and Basil Salad (which I have made time and time again) and to Marinated Mozzarella with Avocado (which I have skipped over time and time again!!).  The reason I skipped over the recipe?  I just couldn't get a marinated avocado salad to work in my head - I imagined horrible black pieces of slimy avocado ruining the beautiful cheese.  I should, of course, have trusted Delia, I think in all my time cooking, she has only let me down once (and maybe that was just my wonky taste!!!).

The salad was a beautiful smooth texture, which works well with a selection of salads, many of which will be crunchy.  The fruit and cheese melded in together, helped by the kick of the dressing.  I always remember Nigella's comments about avocados moisturising from within, whenever I eat them, and find myself glowing with health and smugness (for a few moments anyway!!).  Try this salad, it's a little bit different, totally delicious and will do wonders for your skin and hair - happy days!!

Marinated Mozzarella with Avocado

110g (4oz)       Mozzarella Cheese - the best you can get.
1                       Avocado - nicely ripe (I used two)
1/4                   Red Pepper - cut into fine slices
1                      Handful of basil leaves - Delia says to use 18!!
2                      scallions (spring onions) finely chopped

Dressing

1                     small clove of garlic
1                     tsp sea salt
1                     rounded tsp of dry mustard powder
1                     dessert spoon white wine vinegar
5                     dessert spoons of extra virgin olive oil
1                     dessert spoon snipped chives
salt and pepper


Prepare the salad about 2 hours in advance. 
Slice the mozzarella into 5mm (1/4 inch) slices.
Peel, destone and slice the avocado into thin slices.
Arrange the cheese and avocado in alternate overlapping slices on a pretty plate.
Now scatter the finely sliced pepper and basil over the salad.
Make up the dressing by either grating the garlic or pureeing it with the salt.
Mix all the dressing ingredients together in a jar.
Pour over the mozzarella and avocado.
Cover and allow the flavours to combine for two hours.
Serve and enjoy!

Thank you very much for the links and suggestions for my son's culinary adventure - unfortunately the stove in his apartment broke, pretty much immediately after I posted the recipes - and they haven't been able to persuade the landlord to replace it yet!!  Sod's (or Murphy's) Law!!

RANDOM AND THRIFTY

For this month's Random Recipes Dom has invited us to return to the first book we chose for his challenge and to once again randomly choose a recipe from it.  I have to admit that I had a bit of a job locating Bake by Rachel Allen (another resolution - sort out my cookery books!!), and I did feel some trepidation, as I have had both successes and a failure from this book - I needn't have worried, they went down a bomb!

My book opened at "St. Stephen's Day Muffins" (St. Stephen's day is on 26th December) and called for left over Christmas Pudding.  Regular readers will know that the Christmas pudding fiends in this house wouldn't leave as much as a crumb  (and if there were any left I wouldn't be allowed to "waste" it on muffins!!!), but this year I have been given a gift of a (bought) pudding, which had been tasted and rejected, so I was delighted to have a use for it.

These muffins were well liked, the extra brandy gave them a proper Christmassy flavour that goes down well all year round.

Christmas Pudding Muffins


1                      egg
75ml/3 fl oz       milk
25g/1oz            butter, melted
2 tbsp               brandy
125g/4.5oz       Christmas pudding (chopped up)
125g/4.5oz        plain flour
1 tsp                 baking powder
1/2 tsp              mixed spice
75g/3oz            caster sugar

Preheat oven to 180 C
Line a muffin tray with 9 paper cases

Whisk the egg in a bowl.
Add the milk, melted butter, brandy  and pudding.
Sift in the flour, baking powder and mixed spice into another bowl.
Make a well in the center and add the wet ingredients and mix together to a soft lumpy batter.
Spoon the mixture into the paper cases (I use an ice-cream scoop).
Bake for 20-25 minutes.
When a skewer comes out clean remove from the oven.
Allow to cool on a wire rack.

Enjoy

LIGHT AND RANDOM CHOCOLATE CAKE

Remember back in school, there was always a "cool" gang?  They always had the coolest shoes, their socks were always casually half mast and they had boys signatures on their school bags (I went to an all girl school with a strict uniform code - it was hard to be individual!!!!) - well recently all the "cool" bloggers have been baking up a storm from Dan Lepard's new book Short and Sweet, and I have to admit that I was feeling a bit left out (tragic I know!!!!). Well, all is right with the world and I can still aspire to the "cool" club, my son bought me his book for Christmas :-)).

Dom over at Belleau Kitchen challenged us to randomly choose a recipe from one of our new Christmas books and blog about it - nice one!  Then I thought my luck was really in when the book opened at The alchemist's chocolate cake which has half the fat and quarter of the carbs of a normal uniced chocolate cake, relying on blended tinned pears to provide the moisture and texture, and therefore being perfect for Chele's We Should Cocoa Challenge which this month involved chocolate bakes and healthy in the same sentence! I think I'm a bit late on Chele's challenge but am going to chance my arm!!!

The link to Dan's recipe is here, but I have to say that unless I were under doctor's orders I'd just have a small slice of a normal cake instead.

RANDOM NO CROUTON RECIPE

This month Dom and Jac * have teamed up to challenge us to pick a random veggie soup recipe and prepare it for your enjoyment (and ours of course!).  Dom has allowed us to choose our own method of randomising (?) our recipe, so I decided I would choose the first book to hand and cook the first soup recipe for which I had all the ingredients in stock.

I have been using Catherine Fulvio's Family Kitchen alot recently and her Roasted Yellow Pepper Soup and Tomato Soup looked delicious but there are pepper allergies in this house so I made her Tomato soup all on it's own, and combined it with her Soda Focaccia, and all I can say is it was the easiest,  tastiest lunch I have had in ages.  The sundried tomatoes in the soup really intensify the flavour - skrummy stuff.

*Dom and Jac - don't present a children's TV show!! They write two excellent blogs - really worth visiting if you haven't already done so.

Tomato Soup
from Catherine Fulvio

extra virgin olive oil
2 garlic cloves, sliced
2 sundried tomatoes, chopped
1 potato, peeled and chopped
1 x 400g tin chopped tomatoes
300ml vegetable stock
2 tsp chopped fresh basil
salt and pepper

Fry the garlic and sundried tomatoes in some olive oil for a minute.
Stir in the potato, tomatoes and stock and bring to the boil.
Reduce the heat and simmer for  10-15 minutes, until the potato is cooked through.
Add the basil and remove from the heat.
Puree the soup and taste for seasoning.
Add more stock if needed.

Serve and enjoy.

HAGGIS?? REALLY?? HAGGIS??

This month's Random Recipe Challenge was "I'll show you mine, if you show me yours", whereby Dom paired us up and another blogger gets to choose the recipe we'll cook (have a look at Dom's instructions, it's too difficult to explain!!!).

I was incredibly lucky to be allocated Lou, from Please Do Not Feed the Animals, a seriously wonderful blog.  Lou is the sort of person that I think I shouldn't like (she has a highly satisfying career, is an outstanding baker, has a husband who cooks up a storm, her kids could grace any add campaign, they are beyond gorgeous) but jealousy aside, she is a pure pet!  On top of all those wonderful attributes Lou is also Physic - well how else do you explain a woman from Scotland choosing what I'm sure is the only haggis recipe in my whole collection - yes you read correctly - Haggis!!!!!

Lou did offer to post me over some haggis (see what I mean, such a nice person) but I thought I'd seen some in M&S and reckoned I'd have no problem - ha, it's impossible to source haggis in Ireland.  I decided to go ahead with the recipe anyway and  I reckoned that black pudding would make a good substitute (with deepest apologies to all the haggis fans out there!!), so I went ahead and cooked "Haggis, potato, bacon and apple fry-up" without the haggis.

I should have mentioned before now that my chosen book was The Really Helpful Cookbook by Ruth Watson, this is actually an excellent book - but this recipe is obviously a filler - I'd guess that she made a dinner from left-overs the night before she submitted the book and had to throw an extra recipe in there, and in it went!  If some evening you have some left over haggis (or black pudding) and potatoes in the fridge, with some bacon in there too and some apples in the fruit bowl - you could try this, otherwise I wouldn't bother.

There is no point in giving you the recipe - you just fry up some onions, garlic, potatoes (black pudding if using) in some olive oil and add some crisp apple for the last two minutes - serve with some haggis (if you have some) - easy as that. 

A RANDOM BAKE!

The P.R. fairies must know that I need some cheering up, as I recieved a number of exciting packages over that past few weeks - Catherine Fulvio's new book (loving it so far), some yummy Skooby Dooby Doo sweeties (had to fight the kids to get near them!!) and a beautiful baking kit from Avon.

The "Avon Breast Cancer Crusade Baking Set", is part of Avon's fund raising for Breast Cancer charities, it is such a fun way to gather money for a cause that is very dear to my heart, that I am really pleased to encourage you all to participate.  The pretty kits are available from Avon representatives or online here.  The reason I am so enthusiastic about this crusade is that so many people we know recieve the dreaded diagnosis of cancer, yet so many of them come through to lead full and happy lives - how can we resist putting our hands in our pockets for such a worthy cause.  My mother has had two battles with breast cancer, and while it was not an easy time, it is just a memory now - and how much better is it to have memories of a cancer battle rather than memories of a loved one?

When I gathered all of my magazine cuttings and scribbled recipes in order to choose this months Belleau Kitchen Random Recipe Challenge I was feeling all enthusiastic - for once I was guarenteed a recipe that I'd just love - I wouldn't have cut out the recipes otherwise - right?????  Well actually I had forgotten that mid diet I often cut out recipes that promise fantastic flavours with hardly any fat/sugar, but which usually are all promise and no delivery!  Well, of course it was one of these pages that emerged from my stash - but as you know I am an honest person (!) so that is what I baked.  And I have to say "Thanks Dom" because there is no way I would have baked these little cupcakes other than because I was challenged to do so, and they are lovely - moist texture and tasty (although next time I'll add extra cocoa powder).

The light cupcakes were the perfect opportunity to use the sweet little silicone cupcake holders which come in the Avon kit (along with a pink ribbon and a heart shaped cookie cutter), and then it occured to me that I could send off a half batch of the cakes to my friends sister, who is currently undergoing chemo for breast cancer.  How perfectly whole and fitting is that?  I know that when Mum was going through her treatment she found it very difficult to be enthusiastic about food, but sometimes a little something sweet would be enough to get her through - so I hope that the cupcakes I sent over were of some small help.  Vanessa over at Prepped (she has just published a cook book - it's at the top of my wish list, looks fantastic) has decided to continue with her wonderful, heartwarming challenge Random Bakes of Kindness and these little confections are my offering - I hope it's not too cheeky to submit one lot of baking to two challenges!!!!

If you are watching the scales, I would recommend these cupcakes - they aren't huge, but they are full of flavour and I think one (or maybe two!) would be enough to keep you on the straight and narrow! 

Raspberry and Chocolate Cupcakes
from a Slimming World recipe

2              eggs
6 tbsp       caster sugar
1oz/28g    low fat margarine* (I used LowLow)
2oz/57g    self raising flour - sifted
1.5 tbsp    cocoa powder - sifted
1 tsp         vanilla extract
32            fresh raspberries **

Preheat oven to 180 C
Prepare 8 cupcake cases

Whisk the eggs, sugar and margarine* until pale and creamy.
Add the vanilla extract.
Fold in the flour and cocoa powder gently.
Place 3 raspberries** in the base of each paper/silicone cupcake holder.
Divide the cake mixture over the raspberries.
Bake 15-20 minutes until firm and springy to the touch.
Remove from the oven and allow to cool on a wire rack.
Enjoy!!

* This is the first time that I've used margarine in baking and it was fine - if you don't have any in the house I'm sure butter would work just as well and at only 28g it couldn't do too much harm to the diet!!

** I used frozen raspberries and while the cupcakes were delicious I think they would be even better had I used fresh.

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!!!)

GOOD FOR THE SOLE!

Dom over at the wonderful Belleau Kitchen has challenged us to cook a random recipe from our most recent cook book - great idea, how many of us buy/receive a new cookbook, devour the recipes and pictures and then cast it aside for the old reliables (kinda have to put my hand up on that one!) - Thanks Dom.

I was having a really hard time remembering which was my most recent acquisition (cook book wise) - I knew that I hadn't bought anything recently, but was it as far back as Christmas? - couldn't be, but then I couldn't remember anything more recent - it was really bugging me!!  But then the Lovely Louise came to my rescue, and gave me a "cheer you up" present of "The Food of France" (a journey for food lovers) by Maria Villegas and Sarah Randell.  This is a delightful book, brim full of interesting, doable recipes and mouthwatering pictures. (Thanks Lou xxx)

My luck was in when I opened the book, I actually had most of the ingredients (and just left out the ones I didn't have) - I thought I was just opening it to write my shopping list!!  My luck was still in when we tasted the dish - delicious, delicious, delicious!  I was told that it was "better than any restaurant" (what an ego booster!).  This dish would be perfect for a dinner party, it's really impressive and really easy, what more can you ask!

I have to say that the quality of the fish and prawns is really important here - the sauce is light and the fish has to be as fresh as possible.  As always my local fish shop (Connollys) came up trumps, not only was the fish delicious, but Kieran actually peeled the prawns for me!

I served the Sole Normande with samphire, which I tossed in the creamy sauce over a high heat for a couple of minutes - it was just perfect.  Asparagus or green beans would also to good accompaniments, anything green with a bit of crunch, actually.



SOLE  NORMANDE


12             prawns (shrimp) (I used more)
500ml        white wine
12             shucked oysters (I didn't have any, so left them out)
12             small button mushrooms (mine weren't particularly small, so I sliced them)
4              sole fillets (I used small, skinned whole Dover Sole)
250ml       cream (I used much less, about 120 ml)
1               truffle, thinly sliced (another ingredient I left out!)
1 tbsp       chopped parsley (the only ingredient I omitted, that I will add next time)



Put the wine in a deep frying pan (I used a wok) and bring to the boil.
Add the oysters (if using) and poach for 2-3 minutes, remove from the wine with a slotted spoon  and keep warm.
Add the peeled and deveined prawns to the bubbling wine and cook until pink and cooked through, about 3 minutes. Lift out and keep warm.
Poach the mushrooms for 5 minutes or until cooked through, remove and keep warm.
Place the sole carefully into the poaching liquid, and cook for about 5 minutes (depends on the size of your fish) until just cooked through -  remove the fish and put to one side.
Add the cream to the poaching liquid and bring to the boil, boil until reduced by half and thickened enough to coat the back of a spoon (I didn't reduce it by this much, as I was after a lighter texture)
Season with salt and pepper (be careful with the salt if you are serving with samphire, which is very salty)
Put the sole on a serving dish, scatter with the prawns, oysters (if using), mushrooms, and truffle (again, if using) and parsley and serve while it's still hot!

Enjoy.

CUPCAKES FOR A PRINCESS!

Really and truly this should be the best written, wittiest and most informative blog on the blogsphere ......  well if the amount of time I spend planning posts were anything to go by anyway!!!!  When I can't sleep at night, I lay there and plan all sorts of wonderfulness to amuse and entertain you all - then life gets in the way and I don't even cook!!

Brownieville Princess was anxious to bake the other day (one of the many "I'm bored" moments - all new to me, a particular female trait I gather!!)  Anyway with Dom's challenge in mind, I let her loose in the "cook book room" (I don't actually have a "cook book room", but I do have a room full of cook books!) to source a sweet treat - she lighted upon "Cupcakes from the Primrose Bakery", and chose the Chocolate Cupcakes.  These cupcakes would be great for icing as they remain nice and flat to accept whatever topping you wish .... unfortunately our impatience didn't allow the cupcakes to cool enough to ice ..... they were demolished in no time... at least I got to take a photo!!

Although they went down well with the children, I felt that they was a bit too much faffing about for what were very ordinary buns, nice but not really worth the effort - that said, the raw mixture was absolutely delicious!!

Chocolate Cupcakes

115g             dark chocolate
85g                butter
175g              soft brown sugar
2                    large eggs - separated
185g              plain flour, sifted
3/4 tsp           baking powder
3/4 tsp           bread (bicarbonate of) soda
250g              milk - room temp
1 tsp              vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 180 C/375 F
Line 16 cupcake holders

Melt the chocolate in a bowl over simmering water.
In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar until pale and smooth.
In another bowl, beat the egg yolks with clean beaters, and when you have done this for several minutes add the yolk to the butter and sugar and beat well.
Add the melted chocolate to this mixture and beat well.
In another bowl (see what I mean about the faffing!!) combine the flour, baking powder and bread soda.
Add the vanilla extract to the milk.
Add 1/3 of the flour mixture to the chocolate mixture and beat well.
Pour in 1/3 of the milk and beat again .... repeat these steps until everything combined.
In a clean bowl whisk the egg whites until soft peaks form.
Fold the egg whites into the chocolate mixture carefully, keeping as much air in there as you can.
Fill the prepared cupcake cases to 2/3 full and bake for about 20 minutes (depends on the size of your bun tray)
Insert a skewer to see if cooked through.
Allow to cool in their tin for 10 minutes and then cool completely on a wire rack.

The book says that they keep well .... I wouldn't know!!

BROWNIES 18

I think it's time to introduce you to the new members of the Brownieville world.  You already know me, my other half (Brownieville Man) my taste testers supreme Brownieville Boys #1 and #2 (although brownieville boy #2 would prefer to be referred to as "the talented one" or "the brilliant one" or even "the handsome one"!!! ) The new members of the team are Brownieville Brother-in-Law (BVBIL), Brownieville Boy #3 (not very interested in anything other than football!!) Brownieville Boy #4 (another fantastic taste tester) and Brownieville Princess (who will keep me baking or else!!!!!).*

Dom over at Belleau Kitchen has challenged us to bake a random recipe from our first ever cook book - well my first ever cook book was "Look I Can Cook" (the orange omelet being a particular favourite!) but that book has gone the same way as my youth and disappeared forever!!!!!  I imagine that I share Delia's "Complete Illustrated Cookery Course" with many others as my first cookbook that I still possess, so cheating a little I asked Brownieville Princess to choose a recipe for us to bake - she wasn't impressed that there were no cupcakes or muffins, and compromised with Delia's "American Brownies"..

I have to say that BVP chose well - these are good brownies, rich, chocolaty and squidgy.  These little treats head straight to near the top of the list, I'm thinking second or third place - I made a double quantity and they lasted about 10 minutes (I am cooking for alot of people these days) not bad going!!

*Brownieville Sister #2, Brownieville BIL #2, and Brownieville Boys #5 and  #6, and Brownieville Baby should also be mentioned!



American Brownies

110g             Butter
50g               Plain Chocolate (I used 80%)
2                   Eggs, beaten
225g             Granulated Sugar
50g               Sifted Flour
1 tsp             Baking Powder
110g            Chopped Nuts (I left these out BVP is not a fan)

Preheat oven to 180 C
Line a 7 x 11 tin with baking paper

Melt the butter and chocolate over a double boiler.
Stir the other ingredients into the butter and chocolate mixture.
Mix well and then pour into the prepared tin spreading out evenly.
Bake for 30 minutes (mine took 45!) until the mixture shows signs of shrinking away from the sides and the centre feels springy.
Remove from the oven and allow to cool in the tin for 10 minutes, then divide into small pieces (it's rich!) and transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.


Doubles well ..... Enjoy!

A GAME OF TWO HALVES!!

Dom over at Belleau Kitchen has come up with a genius challenge, whereby we are to choose an untried recipe from our cook books and give it a go.  To be more specific he asks us to take all our cookbooks from the shelf, choose one at random and then select a recipe from it again at random and being the brain-box he is, he has called it Random Recipes Challenge.  I would need to call in a moving company to make a pile of my cook-books (!) so instead I chose a selection of books that are untried either because they are new or because I bought them and promptly forgot them.

I was hoping for some nice cup-cakes or perhaps a wonderful new vegetable dish or even a practical mid-week dinner idea, instead I opened the page to the dreaded yeast bread.  Regular readers will know that I have a "thing" about yeast breads, all the kneading looking for spongy/springy textures - all that fuss when you can just throw a lovely soda bread together in no time, why bother!!!

The book chosen was "Bake" by Rachel Allen, and the recipe was for her "White Yeast Bread", which in itself was a problem as we much prefer brown bread.  I decided to compromise slightly and replace 200g of the strong white flour with wholemeal.

I'm afraid to say that yet again I failed in an attempt to have a perfect yeast loaf emerge from my kitchen.  The bread tasted fine, no better than one you'd buy in a supermarket, I think it would be best described as blah!!  This is a Link to Rachel's recipe.

As luck would have it, soon after making this bread, Rhylesgranny over at Tea and Wheaten posted her recipe for Honeyed Porridge Bread, which also is a yeast bread.  Her directions are so clear and simple that I felt confident enough to give it a go (and get that yeast "monkey" off my back!!!!).  This bread was so delicious (and easy to make) that I made it two days in a row!!

Thank You Rhylesgranny!

I want to thank Dom for this wonderful challenge (a step towards world domination perhaps!!!), not least because it indirectly brought me to try the Porridge bread - and of course a big thank you to Rhylesgranny too.  Looking forward to next month!