ALL LOVED UP!

It's that time of year again - and I was trying to remember my most romantic meal.  Hands down it has to be breakfast in bed, the fact that your loved one is willing to leave the warm nest extra early to make you feel cherished - what can be better??

What foods do I associate with romance? Chocolate, berries, cream and for some strange reason lavender (go figure!!) all come to mind.  I decided to stick with the first three on my list (and actually replaced the cream (not so good first thing) with some luscious greek yogurt.  So how do I get my chocolate fix at breakfast time?  Well I'm perfectly capable of diving into a chocolate cake at any time of the day or night, but I imagine that there are more normal people than me out there (?),  so I decided to experiment with my favourite pancakes; I added some cocoa powder to the batter (yuk!), then some chocolate chips went in (see the hardships I go through?!) but the texture wasn't wonderful, then the trusty Nutella came out - and yummmmmm, perhaps not the prettiest thing to come out of the kitchen, but man oh man were they delicious!  And how romantic to delicately nibble (yeah right) some chocolate pancakes, oozing with creamy yogurt and tangy raspberries - just a pity you have to get up and bring the kids to school!

I am of course linking this with the lovely Kate and Karen's Tea Time Treats Challenge because pancakes aren't just for breakfast!!

Loved Up Pancakes

Make up one batch of this pancake batter
Add one large tbsp of Nutella (I had to heat mine, the kitchen was very chilly that early in the morning!)
Fry in butter.
Cut into heart shapes, if you are so inclined.
Serve with a dollop of greek yogurt and your favourite berries.
If it's not a driving day throw a bottle of fizz in there too :-)))


Happy St. Valentine's Day.

"NEW YEAR. NEW YOU?"

Don't you just love a gift that you can benefit from for ages after your birthday/Christmas/any special occasion?  Well, I've already told you about the fantastic gift my boys gave me for my birthday last year - masterclasses with Michelin chef Oliver Dunne, and January brought the next class I'd chosen - "New Year, New You?" - just up my alley at the moment! 

It should be said at this stage that Olivers main concession to healthy eating was managing without his usual use of pounds of butter and replacing them with a whole bottle of olive oil!!!  That said the food was utterly delicious, if I could eat like this all the time I'd happily swear off sugar for life.

Pumpkin and Ginger Soup

This soup tasted so good, that I went out and bought the ingredients the next day and made up a batch (my attempt and the recipe are at the end of this post)

Stir-Fried Duck with Carrots, Sugar Snaps and Orange

This dish also works well with pork and would be perfect to throw together after work - although I can't imagine being able to chop the carrots as well as this!

Salmon with Sweet & Sour Peppers, Olive & Basil Crushed Potatoes

This was probably my favourite dish of the evening - those peppers are to die for, and the potatoes are beyond delicious, there are olives, shallots, basil and lemon juice in there - my mouth is watering at the memory!!

Fillet of Pork, Crushed Carrot and Swede, Chilli Wedge

I learned something new when Oliver was making this dish - what are generally called turnips in Ireland are swedes to the rest of the world! - you live and you learn!!  I felt this dish needed a sauce (maybe I'm not totally getting into the New Year New You vibe!!!!).  See how pink the pork is?  Delicious!

Beef Fillet with Potato Fondant, Tomato & Tarragon Dressing

These fondant potatoes were a total revelation - instead of frying them up to their oxters (technical term!!) in butter, these were cooked in a frying pan of water with a knob of butter and a splash of olive oil, and they actually taste just as good (well very nearly) as the real thing.

Now for my offering - I substituted the pumpkin with butternut squash and the soup went down a treat!

Butternut Squash and Ginger Soup

1kg               butternut squash, peeled and diced into small pieces
1 tbsp           olive oil
1 knob          ginger - about the size of your thumb
4 tbsp           white wine
750ml            chicken stock (from a cube is fine)
100ml            milk
pinch             sugar
                     salt to taste
1 tsp              Greek yogurt (per bowl)

Put the oil in a heavy based saucepan and add the squash, ginger and season.
Cook on a low heat with the lid on until the squash is soft
When it is soft, remove the lid and reduce until the liquid has evaporated.
Add the white wine and simmer, then add the stock and milk.
Bring back to the boil and then simmer for five minutes.
Blend until smooth - this takes longer than you expect to get a really silkey texture.
Serve with a spoon of Greek yogurt.

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.

LOVELY AND LIGHT LUNCH

As you know I am one of the millions who start every new year with the intention of ending it weighing alot less - some years it happens, more years not!  This year is no exception, and I felt it was a sign that this might be "the year" when the people at Low Low challenged me to give a Come Dine With Me meal to some friends and ask them to score the experience. (Although there is a flaw in their plan - who's friends wouldn't score them 10!!).

I invited some of my reducing friends (they'll be delighted with that title!) to lunch and set out to plan my menu. I wanted to try out the Low Low products, as I have been a fan of their packets of grated cheddar cheese for ages and have been known to devour a tub of the Cracked Black Pepper Cheddar Spread with a packet of crisps (but those days are gone - I promise!!!).  They had sent me some recipe ideas and I opted to try out their Carrot, Courgette, Pecan and Cheese muffins to go with a starter of  Carrot, Cardamon and Cumin Soup (I made these carrots (using less butter) and then added stock and blitzed).  The muffins were great with the soup, although next time I make them I'll omit the nuts and add some grilled (or fried depending on the will power) bacon or ham.

For the main course I served monkfish baked with some home made sunblushed tomatoes and preserved lemons and served that with Stuffed Tomatoes with Rice, I got this recipe from a Slimming World leaflet, toyed with it a bit and it is excellent - the highlight of the meal in my opinion.  The fact that you soak the rice in the tomato juices for such a long time gives you a lovely soft textured result. This will be a regular visitor to our dinner table from now on - maybe with some olive oil drizzled over (when I'm skinny and can do such things!!).

The other vegetable I served was a Low Low recipe for Cheesy Stuffed Portobello Mushrooms - now if this had been the real deal and I were serving them to strangers who would rate my meal, I might have left these out, they weren't a huge success, they tasted fine but laked severely in the looks department.

For dessert I served these cupcakes which were popular, and I think it was O.K. that after such a virtuous meal we indulged in some Baileys in our coffee.

Stuffed Tomatoes With Rice

adapted from a Slimming World Recipe

4            large firm tomatoes (I used beef tomatoes)

2            garlic cloves - grated

50g/2oz  risotto rice (uncooked)

6 tbsp     finely chopped basil (keep some to decorate)

3 tbsp     grated cheddar cheese (I used Low Low)

salt and black pepper

Cut the top off the tomatoes and set aside to use as lids.

Scoop out the pulp from the tomatoes and chop finely, put in a bowl.

Stir the rice, garlic, basil into the tomato pulp and leave aside at room temperature for one hour.

Preheat the oven to 180 C.

Add the basil and cheese to the rice mixture and stuff the tomatoes.

Transfer to a baking dish and top with the lids.

Bake for 35 - 40 minutes, or until the tomatoes are soft and the rice is cooked through.

P.S.  They scored me 10 (surprise, surprise) but refused a chance of international stardom citing bad hair days when I wanted to take their picture for the blog! 

GET AHEAD FOR CHRISTMAS 2012!!!!!!!!

I'm afraid that I'm going to use the "R" word - I know I won't be popular, but it's for your own good!!!  Most of us make resolutions (there I've said it!!) about being more organised - and I'm giving you an easy way to get the warm fuzzy feeling - prepare the fruit for next year's Christmas cake this week, imagine how organised and "Suzie Homemakerish" you'll feel - so what if you don't keep to the healthy eating regime or if you don't manage to hit the gym every day - you still know that your Christmas cake is getting more delicious by the day!

Why am I so evangelical about this year long soak for the fruits -  once again I managed to forget about the fruit that I had left to soak for a whole year (my last find was a jar of raisins that had been soaking in dark rum for a very, very long time - scrumptious)  - and I have to say that the result was the richest moistest cake ever (well equal place with Nigella's chocolate Christmas cake).

I urge you to pop over to The Pink Whisk's recipe for boozy fruit for your Christmas Cake where you will find the directions for this cake elixir.  It makes so much sense to prepare the fruits at this time - you probably have many of the fruits and the booze in the cupboard, what better way could you have to use them up?



 I want to thank you all for your support during 2011 and to wish you the very best for 2012.

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!!!

ANYONE HAVE A CURE FOR "TOOMUCHTODOITIS"?

I have been missing in action - sorry guys, I'm suffering from a very bad case of "waywaywaytoomuchtodoitis" which along with a chest infection has kinda floored me.  Luckily I managed to make the Christmas puddings before the malaise hit!

I have mentioned the importance of Christmas Puddings in Brownieville on a previous post - every year I make an obscene number (getting larger each year), every year I plan to pass on a couple as presents, and every year a certain person manages to demolish the lot (you are soooo mean - it's NOT me!!!).

Brownieville Man (for it is he!!) is probably the most generous person I know, he is always up first to pay the bill when we go to restaurants with friends, ditto when we go out for drinks (although we don't do that very often any more - old age?) BUT when it comes to my Christmas Puddings, he is just short of weighing them before he heads out, in case I offer some to visitors during the day!!!!!!  It is the truest demonstration of his abiding love for his sons that he allows them (almost)  free access to the pudding tin!!!

This pudding recipe comes from my paternal grandmother, via my mother, with many changes en route.  It is very, very easy - all it needs is time steaming away, and if you have a good sized steamer that holds plenty of water, you can just leave it without a thought!  Actually the shopping is the hardest part - just make sure that you use good fruit and that you don't use the tub of prechopped candied peel - it does make a difference to cut it yourself.

By the way, our resident pudding expert says that all the stuff about puddings maturing is codswallop, and the fresher the better - just in case you have some time to throw this lot together.

Finally, on Christmas day, just reheat by steaming for a couple of hours (do NOT use the micro, my Mum learned that one to her cost!!) then pour some Vodka over and set alight - enjoy the "oohs and aaaghs" - you deserve them! (Vodka gives a longer burning time than Brandy).

It tastes unbeliveably good at this stage - use good eggs and
then pick to your hearts content!!!!

Granny's Christmas Pudding

1 lb            bread crumbs - preferably made from a stale batch (or any good) loaf
1 lb            sultanas
1 lb            raisins
1/2 lb         currants
1 lb            brown sugar
1/4 lb         freshly chopped mixed peel
1/4 lb         chopped glace cherries
1/2 lb         melted butter
1/2 lb         sifted plain flour
2 tbsp        mixed spice
2 tbsp        cinnamon
1/2             nutmeg - grated
5                eggs
200 ml       Guinness (more as needed)
100ml        Whiskey
100ml         Brandy

Combine all the dry ingredients in a very large bowl, and mix.
Add the eggs, butter and alcohol and mix well - get all family members to help.  They can stir clockwise 3 times and on each turn wish for "Health" then "Wealth" and finally "Happiness"
Cover with cling film (touching the mixture) and leave to absorb the flavours for at least 24 hours.
Spoon into your pudding basins - I just use plastic ones with lids, I put some greaseproof paper on top of the mixture and then pop on the lid.
Steam (in a steamer, or in a large pot with an upturned saucer in the bottom) for 7 hours.

This recipe makes one 3lb and one 2lb pudding.

I've made 10 puddings so far - I think that there are 6 left!! But this year I have one aside to give to a wonderful friend - and "himself" will help me wrap it (metaphorically that is!!!)

 I am entering my Pudding recipe for Vanessa's Let's Make Christmas Challenge (her book is at the top of my Christmas List!)