Cookies!

I'm gonna admit I've never baked cookies before. I'm a cookie virgin. But oh my word am I converted! I may never buy store bought cookies again! Ok that's a lie when double stuffed Oreos exist. They're just too good.
We used this waitrose recipe but left out the orange peel & used dark brown sugar instead of light. 
They were truly yummy. Not the traditional hard cookie texture I was expecting but still yum! Plus how excited am I that I have a roll of cookie dough in the fridge for tomorrow? Just a wee bit.

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Confit Duck with Garlic & Rosemary Roasties

Oh Aye, I went there. 

I'm not sure what was going through my mind when at 9:30pm on a friday night I decided to make Duck Confit. Especially as I was making it for Sunday lunch! But as I slathered the legs in garlic, salt & covered it in oil to put them in the oven and slowly braise for 3 hours I knew there was no going back. 

Once the 3 hours was I let the confit cool a bit before putting the dish straight in the fridge. Theoretically Confit can last up to a month in the fridge, I'm not that brave and only left it about a day & a half.. I simply roasted the legs in a tin foil parcel slightly open at the top to allow the skin to crisp up. It fell from the bone, I have an awful habit of panicking and pulling meat from the oven too soon, I resisted this instinct and the legs were really great!

I then roasted some par-boiled potatoes in the duck fat with rosemary & garlic. I covered the potatoes in flour before frying in the oil, this creates a beautiful crunch on the potatoes. Seriously good.

I'm going to be honest I didnt really take note of exact times and temperatures on this one. It was very much fluid & improvised, although I know that I started the oven off just below 190 and raised it above 210 at the end to crisp off the duck skin and the potatoes. The duck was in for about an hour and the roasties for 40 of that. I very much stuck with the "until golden brown" rule when came to the potatoes.

The gravy was a base of onions, garlic & rosemary (to tie in with the potatoes) with a mix of vegetable stock & chicken gravy granules. sounds wierd but it tasted awesome and needs very little seasoning thanks to the stock. I would love to have served some vegtables with this but I didn't have any. some frozen peas & carrots would be great if you're going the traditional Sunday Dinner route.

This two day meal is actually very simple & not labour intensive at all! You are reading the ramblings of a very happy full person right now.

Macaroni Cheat

What do you get when you take a few normal Macaroni Cheese ready meals, add in some sauteed Leeks & Bacon and smother it with Chedder & cubes of Brie? 

Well apart from a Lactose Intolerant's nightmare you get this! 

What a way to brighten up a boring convenience meal eh? If you do happen to be Lactose Intolerant like me, or in any way watching your diet, I'd advise small portions. This is not for the faint hearted or colesterol shy as I like to call them.

North African Inspired Oxtail Stew

What do you do when you come across some reduced oxtail during  your search for cheap food? You buy it and then raid your store cupboard for something to do with it! Because at £1.50 you really have no other choice. If you're me that is.

So I come home, raid my recipe books & google to find something that matches what we have and come across this now I had to improvise a little bit not having star anise or shallots readily available & not finding the cinnamon sticks until after i'd added Cinnamon powder but i'm really happy with the result and that i've broken my oxtail cooking virginity!

Oxtail Stew

600g oxtail pieces
2large onions 1 White 1 Red
2 leeks
3 cloves Garlic
3 large carrots
7 or 8 new potatoes
1 butternut Squash
Large Pinch of Cinnamon
Large Pinch of Thyme
Large Pinch of Rosemary
2 crushed cloves
1/2 glass of Red Wine
1 Pint Beef Stock
500g Passata
2 tblsp Balsamic Vinegar
Salt & Pepper

I largely diced the onions and sauteed them off with the leeks, garlic, carrots, halved the potatoes & added the seasoning. I then added the meat, the herbs & spices & started the braising process with the wine & vinegar. After about 10 - 15 minutes I added the stock & passata and then left to simmer with the lid on tight on the a low heat for a good hour. 

After an hour I took the oxtail out, left it to cool & added the squash. I probably should have lowered the heat to the lowest setting and given it another half hour but never having braised before I panicked a wee bit. Still, the meat was cooked but just needed a bit of effort when pulling it off the bone. You live and you learn with these things.when the oxtail was cool enough I stripped the bones & added it back into the stew where i left it again for 10 minutes whilst it reheated through, this time with the lid off.

 

And there you have it, an adaptation of an adaptation but truly yummy. It even got the seal of approval from my housemate who was, to say the least, skeptical when I told him I'd made Oxtail never mind that I'd combined it with a Squash! I think its safe to say this is another successful addition to our list of things to do with a butternut Squash. I'm wondering if this obsession will ever end!

 

Gluten Free Chocolate Layer Cake

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I took a whim the other day and decided to make my brother a birthday feast. It involved this cake. Undoubtedly the best cake I've ever made. And it was completely Gluten Free! I grew up watching my mum struggle with Celiac disease and believe me the range of food available is leaps better than it used to be. Still, it's hard to get stuff like cakes and bread right due the lack of stretchy goodness given by Gluten. However nowadays tescos do a great range of GF flours and as long as you remember to keep the batter a bit wetter than usual any cake recipe can be adapted to suit your needs. I used a basic chocolate sponge of 200g flour/butter/sugar & 3 eggs and 2 tblsp of cocoa powder for each cake layer. A wee bit of vanilla can be used to loosen up the batter if necessary and add an extra depth of flavour. These cakes don't tend to rise as much as normal sponges which is pretty much how we can get away with having 2 large sponges like that. I have to admit though I makes a pretty big cake once you add the butter cream and the frosting! And then we have the frosting. Pretty much the star of the show and my greatest nemesis. I never get frostings right. Disaster is the usual ending! But this time it was kismet. The butter & sugar creamed properly for the buttercream center. The ganâche (made with 500g plain Gluten Free chocolate & just short of 250ml soya cream) set perfectly and I was even able to a use small amount of it to flavour the butter cream for the middle of the cake! Bish bash bosh and with the help of some vegan Chocolate buttons & a few curls we have cake. Very chocolatey cake. Enjoy.

Christmas Cupcakes

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My most successful cupcakes yet!
The cake batter itself is my new favourite recipe and is going to become my standard recipe.
The butter cream taste is still not perfect quite perfect, maybe because I ran out of Vanilla, Maybe I need to lower the butter content. Was a little too buttery for some tasters. But still. Amazing.
The recipes can be found below on the Channel 4 food website but is actually from a Christmas cupcake book I've been eyeing up. May have to invest now!
http://www.channel4.com/4food/recipes/seasonal/christmas/christmas-tree-cupca...

Christmas Cupcakes

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My most successful cupcakes yet!
The cake batter itself is my new favourite recipe and is going to become my standard recipe.
The butter cream taste is still not perfect quite perfect, maybe because I ran out of Vanilla, Maybe I need to lower the butter content. Was a little too buttery for some tasters. But still. Amazing.
The recipes can be found below on the Channel 4 food website but is actually from a Christmas cupcake book I've been eyeing up. May have to invest now!
http://www.channel4.com/4food/recipes/seasonal/christmas/christmas-tree-cupca...

Seriously Stuffed!

Tis the season that we all start thinking Roast Dinners. Many people have old favourites that they stick to but if you're like me sometimes it nice to give it a shake up. And stuffing is a great way to do that. This Apricot & Cashew recipe is great for lamb but you could use it for a darker meated bird instead.

Ingredients:
75 of apricots chopped
60g of cashews chopped
200g of dried bread crumbs
100g finely shredded ham hock
4-5 tblsp of water
Lashings of ground black pepper
Two large handfuls of parsley (chopped)
3 cloves garlic
A pinch of salt

Literally the method is getting stuck in and combing all the ingredients until they turn into that beautiful stuffing consistency. You can either stuff a breast or deboned leg of lamb or bake separately & serve on the side.
The stuffing should take between 30 & 40 mins on it's own at about 180c. This has instantly become my new favourite stuffing. I will definitely be breaking this one out on christmas day!

Seriously Stuffed

Tis the season that we all start thinking Roast Dinners. Many people have old favourites that they stick to but if you're like me sometimes it nice to give it a shake up. And stuffing is a great way to do that.
This Apricot & Cashew recipe is great for lamb but you could use it for a darker meated bird instead.

Ingredients:
75 of apricots chopped
60g of cashews chopped
200g of dried bread crumbs
100g finely shredded ham hock
4-5 tblsp of water
Lashings of ground black pepper
Two large handfuls of parsley (chopped)
3 cloves garlic
A pinch of salt

Literally the method is getting stuck in and combing all the ingredients until they turn into that beautiful stuffing consistency. You can either stuff a breast or deboned leg of lamb or bake separately & serve on the side. The stuffing should take between 30 & 40 mins on it's own at about 180c.

This has instantly become my new favourite stuffing. I will definitely be breaking this one out on christmas day!

White Chocolate Panna Cotta

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Ali once again had an inspired desserty idea when we were wandering around Tesco's shopping for our Sunday roast ingredients.
A quick google and we find this delicious recipe for White Chocolate Panna Cotta from The Greedy Gourmet which I've linked below. The recipe says it takes 6 hours but ours only took about 3 because the ramekins we use are quite small. Other than that the only difference we made was to cover the ramekins in cling film rather than cooking spray.

4 gelatine sheets/leaves
600ml (1 pint) double [heavy] cream
150ml (5fl oz) milk
60g (2 oz) caster sugar
200g (7 oz) white chocolate, broken into pieces
Coat a mould or individual cups with cooking spray and set aside.
Soak the gelatine sheets in a plate of cold water until soft, then set aside until ready to use.
Heat the cream, milk and caster sugar in a heavy-based saucepan over low heat to melt the sugar, stirring occasionally.
When the cream starts to bubble up the sides of the saucepan, remove from the heat and stir in the chocolate until melted.
Drain the excess water off the gelatine and add the gelatine to the cream mixture. Stir until dissolved.
Pour the mixture into the prepared mould or cups and refrigerate overnight or for at least 6 hours.
The panna cotta should have a slight wobble when ready to serve. Unmould onto a serving platter or plates and serve.

Find the original post at http://www.greedygourmet.com/2010/04/05/white-chocolate-panna-cotta/

The obligatory Halloween Cupcakes.

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This is my first ever attempt at proper cupcake decorations. Previously I've just used buttercream toppings or had topping disasters and just eaten the cakes on their own! But today was all about decoration so i'll justify my quick cheat of using Dr Oetker's cupcake mix. The mix by the way is a great timesaver! I tend to make my cakes too light & soft so it was nice to have a proper cake to work on for once!

I made a cream cheese frosting and & tried to colour it orange however as I discovered food colourings do not adhere to the rules of primary colours. Red & yellow does not make orange. It make either pink or dark yellow, I went with latter.

After letting them set I then moving onto the design. This is where I discovered that cream cheese frosting is not the sturdiest surface to create icing decorations. Won't be doing that again!

But I think I did alright considering. One of the spiders & the skull are done by two male friends who decided that decorating was easy. They learnt their lesson quickly!

It's going to take some practice but i one day I'll create a truly pretty cupcake! With no mistakes! ;)

Sugar Rush

This week I've been living on orange chocolate chip cupcakes with a Betty Crocker chocolate fudge frosting.

It was a last minute midnight baking session which resulted in pies, tortes & both mini & normal sized cupcakes and it was beautiful. I'm not going to post the cupcake recipe because it needs work and to be honest it's a very standard batter with added chocolate chips and orange essence (I wasn't confident in the real oranges on offer at Tesco for taste)

You'll see that the picture I've posted is of some free form mini cupcakes. It was these colourful creations that inspired me to buy a proper baking sheet which arrived this morning. So we laugh a little and then say good bye to free form cupcakes!

Also, on a sub-note I'm loving the Betty Crocker chocolate fudge frosting. It's better than anything I could whip up last minute at my current level of skill so is a great cheat! I am determined to perfect a from scratch version though. Just maybe not when I'm baking at 1am...

Apple shorts

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So we had some left over short crust pastry from a balsamic onion tart (recipe to come later) And what do you do when you have left overs? Make dessert of course!
I'm not sticking amounts down for this because it really depends on how many you make but the method speaks for itself really.

short crust pastry (not the sweet short crust)
Sweet Gala Apples
Caster sugar/Demerara sugar

Line individual ramekins with the rolled out pastry.

Thinly slice the halved apples and place in the ramekins until 3/4 full

Sprinkle some sugar over the apples. Not too much as Gala's are already quite sweet but the sugar will create a yummy caramel during cooking.

Cinnamon is also a classic apple partner that would be great in this. Again just a sprinkle over the apples. We don't want to hide their taste.

Cut out a lid with the remaining pastry and place on top of the apples. You can make a tight fit or leave it open the juices steam up. Either way you've got yourself a mini apple pie!

You can if you want sprinkle a wee bit of Demerara over the top of the pastry for added sweetness.

Bake for 30 mins in the bottom shelf of a 200c oven and When it's golden brown it's done!

And of course you can't serve apple pie without a splash of cream or a good dollop of vanilla ice-cream.

Perfect.

Autumnal Sausage Casserole

This was something we threw together last minute after discovering the casserole sauce we planned to use was A. Out of date and B. Tasted awful! So after a raid of the cupboard we came up with this, it looks like a lot of ingredients but really isn't when you're doing it. Plus, it was lush!

6 pork & leek sausages
6 Cumberland sausages
1 large white onion
1 large leek
1/2 small pumpkin
3 or 4 large carrots
500g sieved passata
500g chicken stock
3 medium cloves garlic (whole)
1 stir in chicken stockpot
2 tbsp onion gravy granules
25g (1 packet) lemon thyme.
1 tbsp paprika
1 small squirt HP sauce (or worcester sauce)

Wash & largely chop all veg.
Saute in a little butter & olive oil.
Brown off sausages separately but do not cook fully.
Add everything else in to the veg, leaving a bit of thyme to stir in at the end.
Simmer until veg is tender & sausages are cooked.
Remove cooked thyme stalks and add the remaining destalked thyme and some frozen peas if you have the inclination (we did) & simmer till the peas are cooked.
Season if necessary but to be honest it shouldn't need it - the stock pot is generally salty enough.
Serve with mashed potato or champ

Technically this a quick stew rather than a casserole as it's done on the hob & takes about an hour from start to finish. Great if you want a hearty stew but don't have hours of time!

Also you'll notice that you may have half a pumpkin left, if you roast it in the oven with a couple of carrots and some garlic then purée it with some oil & a little salt & about a tbsp of water you'll have a great purée to start off a risotto or if you skip the salt and garlic some nice pumpkin cupcakes! It is Halloween season after all!

So it's been a while

Yup it's been quite a while since I had the urge to share our culinary adventures with the world. Not because I haven't been cooking... Quite the opposite! Having moved into a new place with friends we've been literally feasting on new treats and I haven't had the time! Add to that some ridiculous laptop issues and a lot of partying I've been pretty lax in the blog department. But all that's changing now. I'll be posting from my phone now so I can literally post from anywhere! This should hopefully provide some interesting & shorter updates. Anyways i'll leave you with this picture of my attempt at lavender White chocolate ganache. It tasted awesome but didn't set properly. Too much cream not enough chocolate. Will get it right next time! ;)

Curried Butternut Squash Soup

Butternut squash soup

1 squash peeled and diced evenly
3or4 carrots
1 large onion largely diced
3 cloves garlic
1 pack unsmoked bacon
1 tbsp curry powder
2 pints veg bouillon stock
Handbook White lentils (we used black because that's all we had but they darken the colour and you really want this to be a bright vibrant soup)
Pepper to season (the bouillon & bacon are salty enough, no need to add extra)

Roast the veg & garlic for 30 mins or until until tender, remove any black or burnt bits as these will colour the soup a yucky black colour.
Cube and Brown off the bacon then set aside.
Add veg, bacon & curry powder to stock and bring to boil. Once boiling reduce down to simmer and blend. You can either blend it all together with a hand blender or remove the veg & bacon and put into a mini processor and stir the resulting paste back into the stock.
Cook the lentils according to the instructions on the pack and then add them to the already blended soup. This should add texture to the now thick & yummy mixture.
Simmer for a bit longer to give the lentils time to take on the flavours of the soup and then serve up with some crusty bread!

pilaf… sort of.

over the years as a student & regular broke person rice has been life saver. I've done everything with it including, in my more poverty stricken days, pairing plain basmati with baked beans, mushy peas and a battered fish steak (the cupboard was really really bare that day). Scarily enough i actually enjoyed it and it became a cheap regular meal as i kidded myself that the beans & mushy peas counted towards my 5 a day.
Lucky for you that is not what I'm writing about today. What I'm talking about is a yummy vegetable pilaf that I've made a few times which, although its been different every time due to it consisting of whatever been left in my fridge, is always delicious.
Pilaf is slightly different and much lighter than risotto which with the butter and cream can be quite heavy. its also cooked differently with instead of the constant stirring and gradual addition of stock you just bung it all in turn it on a low heat and allow it to bubble quietly.
one of my favourite variations included sweet potato, frozen peas & sweet onion paired with the slightly salty Bouillon vegetable stock cooked rice. Bouillon is by far my favourite stock to use and great to add into any recipe if like me you don’t like using salt as you get the intense veg flavour as well as seasoning.
I’m not going to write a recipe down for this. because I don’t have one. It literally is something that I just throw together with whatever veg i have and if the meaty mood takes me I'll either chuck in some chicken or cook off a pork chop. just follow the basic rules below and you can’t really go wrong.
1. vegetables – What Grows Together, Goes Together. seasonal veg will always mix well and similar tastes will compliment each other.
2. Unlike risotto don’t stir too much. Over stirring releases the starch and creates a stodginess you don’t want. Just keep it at a gentle heat and let it be.
3. Keep it simple. too many different flavours just kill off any clean tastes you’re looking for. less is more.
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Meatloaf

 I attempted this classic American dish the other day. It was fairly disastrous I'm going to admit. I definitely need to practise it and try and get the balance right. My problem is I'm afraid of over flavouring food so I completely underused my herbs and my quantities were all wrong hence it just turned into an eggy meaty bready mess.
I'm not going to give you a recipe because frankly I don't want to inflict that on anyone else. maybe I'll return to it in the future... maybe.

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Molegnese

Now you really have to bare with me on this one. I started out wanting to make a a simple Bolognese or a chilli con carne. on browsing my cupboard I realised I didn't have the ingredients to create a full version of either of these but I could with a bit of creativity get a bit of fusion going and see what I came up with. The finished product turned out to be a sort of chilli/mole (pronounced mole-ay) ragu.
Very early on I realised that with neither tinned tomatoes or cannellini beans in the cupboard I'd have to make a substitution. Baked Beans seemed the logical alternative. yes ok they're two very different tomato tastes, but I usually end up adding a bit of sugar anyway when I use tinned tomatoes and I always buy low salt/sugar baked beans so that's my justification. and to replace some of the lost tomato tang I added quite a bit of tomato & garlic puree.
I was saved from my Baked Beany mince (the huge amount of paprika I had added just wasn’t providing a kick) by Ali who rang me from M&S asking was there anything I needed. A quick order for chilli’s & salad and I was suddenly inspired. I grabbed some Cocoa power from the cupboard and my ‘molegnese’ was on its way.
Ingredients:
500g Mince
1 large Onion
Stock Cube
1 tbsp tomato & garlic puree (you can add separate garlic if you want, i didn’t have any)
1tbsp dried Thyme
1 tbsp dried Rosemary
1 tin low salt Baked Beans
2 heaped tbsp Paprika
a good glug of Worcester Sauce (I used Tamari Soy as I don’t have any but Worcester would probably work better)
1 tbsp cocoa powder (unsweetened, as pure as you can get)
2 red chillis
Fry off the onions until soft (I’m trying to use as little extra fat as I can so have been adding a bit of boiling water to semi stew the onions until they’re soft). Add the mince and fry till completely brown. add the stock cube and continue to fry until there is no excess liquid. stir in the tomato puree, herbs & paprika. Add the beans and top up with water (about the same as the tin)
Alternatively at this point you could substitute some of the water with some red wine this would add extra depth to the sauce)
Simmer the whole thing gently until is become a deep ragu-like mixture. Add in the finely chopped chilli ( i de-seeded one of them but chopped the second whole. leave for a about 10 minutes whilst your rice or pasta cooks and then serve.
You could serve this with either rice or pasta due to the fusion nature of the sauce. we chose farfalle (pasta bows) as we were also having salad and parmesan shavings and rice just felt wrong with that. another serving possibility would be to embrace the Mexican heritage of the mole and serve with tacos or in fajitas. this would also make a great burrito filling (trust me i will be trying that one out for my home-made boojums)
I’m going to make a note of the Rosemary & Thyme. I don’t know how much they added to the dish. I’ll probably try both adding more to see what that does and going completely without. With dishes like this where I’ve just thrown it together its all about trial & error and the fun part is perfecting the process.
I relish the fact that you've mustard the strength to ketchup to me.

Super Cook

This website is great if you have a load of ingredients and you don't know what to do with them. it finds recipes from all over the internet and gives suggestions both for meals you have all the ingredients for a for which you may need a few extra items. it is quite random though, i was recently suggested a recipe for posh dog food to use up my premium mince. those are some well fed dogs!

http://www.supercook.com/

A cannibal's favourite game is 'swallow the leader'