Recipe Book Challange #2 Hazelnut Tiramisu

I recently decided buying vegetables in the supermarket was starting to annoy me. Too much packaging, too expensive & they don't last any time all. There are some great markets near us but unless you are super organised it can be very easy to miss them. So i thought i would give delivered veg  boxes a go & after having a good browse on the web i chose Abel & Cole. Now i'm not one of these blogger that get present for saying nice things about places or companies (mainly because i'm small fry & nobody knows i exist, otherwise i probably be a present whore) but i can flat out say that i love A&C. We opted for the gourmet box for two people, which means the veg choice is slightly more interesting than the standard box & it comes every Tuesday & makes me cycle home that much quicker. It forces us to cook new things which is great & apart from the Houseboy having a Wednesday night freak out over an Artichoke (apparently not a weekday veg choice) all has run smoothly. I have to say, the box for two is more than generous, we have to make sure we eat veg everyday otherwise we fall behind & end up wallowing in greens. We have also tried the eggs, bread & milk which were all great. So i you want fresh vegetables on your doorstep once a week, hop on line or talk to one of their ridiculously chirpy & helpful people.

I was never really a fan of Tiramisu until the Houseboy & i spent a long weekend in Venice, we ate it sitting next to the water after eating huge plates of pasta & really i should have been way too full to even contemplate dessert but i gave it a go & it was delicious. Truthfully i don't think i will ever have such an amazing version again, but this recipe is good. I doubled the amount of cream & marcarpone (already accounted for in the amounts listed below) because i didn't want half pots left in the fridge (ooh will have to remember that excuse for the furture) & the ratio worked out perfectly.

This is from the Australian Women's Weekly After Work Fast cookbook, which the Houseboys parents sent us when we moved into our flat. Two recipe books down, a fair few to go... 

Ingredients:

• one tbsp instant coffee granules
• two tbsp caster sugar
• 160ml boiling water
• 80ml hazelnut flavoured liqueur (i cheated & used sherry because it was lingering in the corner)
• 250ml whipping cream
• 500g mascarpone cheese
• twelve sponge finger biscuits
• 25g coarsely grated dark chocolate
• 70g coarsely chopped roasted hazelnuts (i chopped mine quite finely though)

Method:

Dissolve the coffee & half sugar in the water, stir in the liqueur & leave to cool. Meanwhile beat the cream with remaining sugar until it forms soft peaks (it's easier to use electric beaters) & carefully fold in the mascarpone cheese. Dip the biscuits, one at a time in the coffee mixture & lay in a single layer in a shallow dish. Pour any remaining mixture over the biscuits. Carefully spoon the cream mixture over the biscuits & sprinkle on the chocolate shavings & nuts.

Recipe Book Challange #1 Blueberry Cake

We have no internet & it's like living in the dark ages, it's a bit stupid how much we rely on the net in our household & not just proving each other wrong on general knowledge. But thanks to Miss Whindler's dongle or bongle (didn't quite understand the whole thing) i'm back on line & posting. I'm actually embarrassed how long its been since i last blogged. No internet is a fairly good excuse but but the real reason is the Houseboy & i seem to be socialising way too much. Too much you say? Yes TOO MUCH. Leaving me tired, unfit & a skint, i am positively excited that the only thing on this week horizon is book club.

We recently watched the film Julia & Julia, which seems to be every food bloggers favourite film, understandably because it's about a blogger who 'makes it' after toiling over her blog cooking a recipe a day & writing it up. I'm not sure why it took me so long to get round to it, but i finally sat down & subjected the Houseboy to it (i reckon he secretly loved it) The result being that i have decided to set myself a wee challenge (not to the same ridiculous & knackering scale Julia Junior achieved) I have to cook a recipe from every cook book i have. One recipe per book per week, this will this force me to follow a recipe & use cook books i've not picked up in months years, some of them i have read countless time but not actually cooked from them. 

So the first recipe is a Blueberry Cake from the Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook, which was a gift from someone lovely. It's a dense vanilla sponge dotted with blueberries (technically my cake was a vanilla sponge with a layer of blueberries at the bottom, but hey ho) & a nice frosting. I would warn you that this is a big cake, perfect when you are having people over for afternoon tea - not just when there's two of you. Otherwise you are both fatties. 

Ingredients:

Cake

• 350g unsalted butter
• 350g caster sugar
• 6 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla essence
• 450g plain flour
• 2 tbsp + 2tsp baking powder
• 280mls sour cream
• 250g fresh blueberries (plus extra fir decorating) 

Cream Cheese Icing

• 250g cream cheese
• 100g butter (room temperature)
• 600g icing sugar

Method:

Preheat your oven to 170C (325F) Gas mark 3, & prepare a tin by lining with greaseproof paper on the bottom round the side.

Cream the butter & sugar together until light & fluffy, either using a hand held electric whisk or a mixer.  Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well and scraping any unmixed ingredients back in the batter. Then beat in the vanilla essence , flour, baking powder until well mixed. Add the sour cream & mix well until everything is combined & the mixture is light a& fluffy. Gently stir in the blueberries by hand until evenly dispersed then pour the batter into your prepared tin.

Bake for forty minutes* or until the cake springs back & is golden in colour.

While it's baking away make the frosting by combining the butter, cream cheese & icing sugar until smooth, using a food processor is fool proof. When the cake is fully cooled, take the cream cheese icing and cover the cake, lastly decorate with a few blueberries. 

I'm not sure why but my cake took FOREVER to bake - almost an hour & a half.. still came out nice & moist, also would to warn you it's a huge cake.

Something's Up

Hello Folks,

Something seems to be up with Blogger at the moment and some of my posts and info are currently missing. I will looking into this with a lot of hand flapping and shrieking and will hopefully have everything back to normal asap. I'l make sure the next recipe post is extra nice to intice you back!

Jenny

Chocolate Truffles

Ok, so this is the biggest gap between postings ever & i feel very guilty... but in my defence i have a very good reason for leaving it so long. Not only did we spend an amazing week skiing in St Anton, Austria with beautiful weather, great snow & the craziest après ski ever, but the Houseboy asked me to be Mrs Houseboy. YAY! All very very exciting & i've been running around like headless chicken. So there has been a lot of drinks & dinners & meeting people which is has been lovely but exhausting so the blog has been neglected a little, i also haven't had much time in the kitchen while i have realised i need to keep me sane. But we are getting back into a routine so will be hitting the kitchen hard, i'm dying to make banana bread, & have been dreaming of creating jaffa cake cupcakes.

Being a chocolate fan i have tried more than a few chocolate truffles, some of my favourites can be found at Rocco Chocolates & Charbonnel et Walker & the amazing William Curley but actually they are really easy to make at home & also make lovely gifts at Christmas or as a thank you. You can flavour them in so many ways, zest, nuts, mint, booze, or more unusual additions like sea salt or lavender. The main thing is trying to keep your hands as cold as possible otherwise you can end up in a sticky, chocolaty mess. Not necessarily a bad thing!

Ingredients:

•         400mls double cream
•         400g dark chocolate (i used 75% coco solids)
•         zest of two oranges
•         a pinch of salt
•         a splash of brandy
•         5 tbsps coco powder for dusting

Method:

Take the chocolate & break into small pieces, and place in a bowl suspended over a pan of simmering water (make sure the bowl isn't touching the water) & gently melt. While that's happening zest the oranges making sure you get any of the pith as it's bitter. Once the chocolate is melted, remove from the heat and stir in the cream, orange zest, salt and brandy. Place in the fridge & leave to cool for at least two hours or until it is fully set. Once the ganache is set you are ready to roll. Literally. Grab a teaspoon & scoop up some ganache & quickly roll into a ball with your palms. Make sure you keep your hands as cold as possible to stop the chocolate melting. I usually keep a bowl of iced water near by to stick my hands in (make sure you dry them fully before continuing) Take a bowl & add the coco powder carefully roll the truffle around the bowl coating it fully and shake off the excess. Keep the truffles in the fridge - they should last a week. They should, but they won't because they are so darn delicious.

 

My Holding Ring

Chicken in Spicy Yoghurt

We are on another attempted health kick. This, i guess, is when i should start advocating a healthy balanced diet etc etc but if you want that kind of chat then this may not be the place for you. If i'm having to eat healthy 90% (wishful thinking) of the time, then my weekly blog will be my calorie slip up. One of the reasons for the said health kick (apart from my favourite belt getting too tight) is the because The Houseboy is competing in his first half marathon in Bath and followed swiftly by his first full marathon in Copenhagen. Needless to say i will not be running but i will be standing at the finish line waiting for him with a shiny foil blanket thingy & a sandwich.

The Houseboy is a bit of a junk food prude & can ignore a plateful of biscuits easily, i on the other hand find it a little harder. For one, this is partly down to my workplace which seems obsessed anything to do with sugar. Cakes, biscuits, robinson's fruit juice, sugary tea... There is always something tempting lurking on the meeting table. Some things i can say no to - rich tea biscuits & ginger nuts to name the very few, but when someone brings in treats from Ottolenghi it's completely impossible to resist. I also have to confess now that i baked a carrot cake to take in tomorrow. The Houseboy is right - i am a feeder and i have no will power. 

                                                               Temporarily banned...

                                          

Don't be fooled by the substandard picture, this is actually a lovely recipe full of flavour & takes no time at all to rustle up. I originally saw a version of this on salmon & green chillies in place of harrisa paste & thought that i would try it out with chicken instead. You can omit the harrisa paste if it's not your thing.

Ingredients:

• 2 chicken breast
• one large yellow pepper
• 250g of spinach
• 300g low fat greek yogurt
• one tablespoon of harrisa paste
• 2" knob of fresh ginger
• two cloves of garlic
• one bunch of coriander
• s&p

Method:

Take the ginger, garlic & coriander - pulse together in a processor or mini chopper (or finely chop by hand if you're old school). Add the yogurt & harrisa paste, mix well, taste & season. Slice up the chicken and the pepper setting the pepper aside for a moment, take the chicken and cover with the yoghurt mixture leaving a couple of table spoons spare. Add to a medium hot pan or wok & begin to cook gently (you don't want to curdle it) until the chicken is cooked through. Throw in the yellow pepper & cook for a further three or four minutes (you don't want them to get soggy) and finish off by stirring in the remaining yogurt dressing. I served this with couscous but it would go equally well with rice. 

Ottolenghi Raspberry Cheesecake

                                                     

Smoked Salmon Pate

I feel like i've just completed a foodathon, but i'm not sure if sure if i came first or last...

We ate so much food over the weekend that i should really do a 24 hour self imposed famine like i did as kid for charity (was tough but a lot easier than a sponsored silence) It's probably not going to happen though. Anyway the reason for eating so much was a good one - catching with friends & going to a great restaurant. For the first time in ages we headed to The Hardwood Arms in Fulham which sports a Michelin star, a menu to make a meat lover swoon & a lovely atmosphere. It's well worth a visit - just make sure & book. After our fantastic meal we headed round the corner & over the road to Vagabond to samples some wines. A great place where you can buy wine by the snifter, the glass or the bottle its perfect or people who like me who love wine, but doesn't always know where to start. The Houseboy felt nice & smug when one of my favourites turned out to be an  South Australian Shiraz called Sitting Spider.

When ever i make pate, i always seems to do either chicken liver or smoked mackerel, but given the fact that that we still have a whole side of smoke salmon in the freezer the decision was a simple one. I originally found this recipe on the BBC Good Food site but changed it as i thought it didn't have enough smoked salmon in it & i prefer chives instead of fennel.  

Ingredients:

• 300g smoked salmon
• 150g creme fraiche
• 50g cream cheese
• handful of chopped chives
• juice of half a lemon juice
• a little cracked black pepper
 

 Method:

Take all the ingredients, place into a food processor & pulse until combined. It's that easy folks.

...Crisp Brawn with Jerusalem Artichoke Puree & Bread & Butter Pickles... 

  ...Ruby Shirt Steak with Potato,  Spinach & Mushroom Puree...

 

...And finally the Yorkshire Rhubarb Eaton Mess...

Apple & Raisin Cookies

So this weekend past i made ice cream, which happened to coincided with the coldest weather London has seen in a long time - great timing. The Houseboy was pretty against my choice of dessert, requesting a wintry pudding possibly featuring apples & pastry, but i couldn't get the idea of ice cream out of my head, so i just locked myself in the kitchen & got with it. The Houseboy despite his misgivings still managed to eat quite a hefty portion...

Apart from some weekend ice cream & soup making, cooking took a nose drive last week due to a nasty bout of flu which left me not giving a fig what i ate as i couldn't taste anything. The highlight had to be a Swedish/German dish cooked up by Miss Crabbie involving ham, sweet red peppers, cheese, cream & potatoes. It was delicious (possibly the last thing i tasted before my senses went into lock down) despite Crabbie claiming she forgot what she was doing half way through. This week will filled with more hearty fare to try & combat this cold (i don't why i'm moaning, it was waaaaay colder growing up in Scotland as a kid) so cottage pies, soups & goulashes will all be making an appearance. 

Everyone loves cookies, & if they don't, they're not worth knowing. This recipe was an attempt at recreating an Apple Strudel Slice which i saw in being sold in a dodgy shop in Battersea. I was going to buy the slice but then i read the ingredients list & realised it would take me several spin classes to work off the 'trans fats'. So i made these instead. They may have butter & sugar etc, but at least you know whats gone into them. Next time i make these i will be throwing in a handful of chocolate chips & hazelnuts instead of apples & raisins. Just to mix it up.    

Ingredients:

• 250g plain flour
• 1/2 tsp bicarb soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 100g caster sugar
• 200g soft brown sugar
• 170g melted butter
• a handful of chopped dried apple
• a handful of raisins 
• one egg
• one egg yolk
• one tsp vanilla essence 

Method:

Set your oven to 170C, grease a baking tray & set aside.

Take the melted butter & cream together until blended.

Add in the vanilla essence & eggs & blend till light & fluffy.

Carefully sift in the flour, salt & bicarb & gently mix.

Add the raisins & apple & fold in.

Place roughly one tbsp of the mixture onto the baking tray - don't flatten them.

Bake for 15 - 17 minutes.

Cool on a wire rack & keep in an air tight box.