BBQ Chicken Drumsticks

I know, a post. 

I'm almost as shocked as you are.

This post was on the site before the makeover, and now it's back (new and improved! with revisions and a picture!) and just as delicious as before.

Ingredients:
(I obviously made mine for just me, but all the below amounts are for 8 drumsticks/4 people - of course, it depends on the amount of drumsticks per person you want and how much sauce you like as to how you change the amounts. The more, the merrier, IMO)

One tin plum or chopped tomatoes (400g)
3 garlic cloves
Half a large white onion, finely chopped
Dark soy sauce (about 100ml)
Sugar
Honey (tbsp)
Salt
Black pepper
Olive oil
Chilli powder
CorianderTarragon
8 chicken drumsticks

As usual, use your best judgement when determining how much of something to chuck in if I haven't provided a guide. 


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Put everything but the coriander and tarragon in a blender. Blend. (Yes, it is this easy.)
Warning: my blended/uncooked sauce smelled like it was 90% garlic and wasn't hugely tasty when I tried it, but once cooked it was delicious!

Fry each piece of chicken on both sides to seal, and layer in a large over-proof bowl.Pour the sauce all over the chicken, and add coriander and tarragon over the top. Cover the bowl with a lid of some sort and cook at around 180 degrees for about an hour and a quarter.* 

About 20 minutes before they're due to come out, uncover the pot and turn the oven down a bit. 

It's all ready when the chicken juices are running clear when poked, as usual. The chicken/BBQ sauce mix should be stirred every now and then so the herbs mix around and the sauce doesn't form a skin, especially when it's uncovered.

If you just want the sauce, follow the steps but cook in a large saucepan - I can't guarantee it'll be as good without the meaty juices, but I'm sure it'll be just lovely as a dip.

Note - I've cooked this a couple of times, and have softened the onions in a frying pan with a little oil before adding them to mix and blending, or used different types of tinned tomatoes, or forgotten to cover the chicken/sauce mix in the oven, and it's always turned out alright. So don't panic; just enjoy.


*Again, if using more/less drumsticks/sauce, adjust times accordingly. 3 drumsticks with around 1/3 of the sauce the recipe makes took about 40 minutes to cook.

Green Veg Risotto.

Anyone who tells you risotto is difficult is a damn liar. Or in idiot. One of the two.

It is piss easy.

Admittedly, I've only ever made veggie risottos, but one assumes that as long as your chicken/prawns/meaty chunks of choice are thrown in where I've thrown in the veg, and are cooked through before serving, it's all good.

'Green' risotto is a little vague, but there's courgette, spinach, peas and broccoli in here. 

Various other risottos I've made include: mushroom & bacon (I guess that's not veggie, but bacon cooks quickly enough), courgette & aubergine, root veg (carrot, parsnip, a little potato), and beetroot - fresh beetroot, that you have to peel. So far all I've been able to find in the supermarkets here is pickled or preserved 'fresh' beetroot and I don't trust it.

A note: you can use any rice. Arborio is the normal risotto rice because it absorbs the flavours well, but chances are you haven't got any lying around the house, and besides that, it's more expensive than normal rice and we're in a recession, dammit. Plain old long grain is fine, honest. It'll still soak up the stock and the flavours, just not quite as well as arborio. We had some sushi rice lying about - which is also super absorbent - so I used that, but I've used long grain before and it's been just as delicious.

In some places I've put things in brackets because that's what we used (frozen veg etc) but you can use fresh, obviously. 

Serves 2

Ingredients

1/2 a courgette, diced 

A handful of spinach

A handful of (frozen) peas

4 large (frozen) broccoli florets

1/2 (red) onion, diced (you can use yellow onion either)

2 garlic cloves, crushed and chopped

Large handful of rice

Chicken or veg stock cube (I used chicken)

Water

Splash of white wine (optional)

Splash of single or double cream

Salt 

Pepper

Oregano

Butter

Olive oil

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Prepare your veg - everything should be ready just to throw in the pan so you can concentrate on stirring once it's on the go. Seriously, this is the only trick to the risotto. If you've got an arm that is capable of stirring, you're good to go.

Meanwhile, in one pan, put the stock cube in a pan with around a litre of water. Bring it to the boil then turn down the heat so it stays hot throughout cooking.

In another (a large, deep frying pan is best), let 2 biggish knobs of butter and a splash of olive oil melt into each other. Add the onion and garlic and fry for a couple of minutes, then throw in the fresh veg. Again, fry for a couple of minutes, until coated in the oil, then add the rice and make sure this is coated in the oil too.

Your frozen veg goes in now, along with the salt, pepper and oregano.

Once everything in the pan has a nice coat of oil on it, get a ladle and spoon the stock into the pan one scoop at a time - you add one scoop to the risotto, and let it soak in, stirring all the time so that all the rice has time to absorb it. When the water is almost completely soaked in, add another scoop until the stock pan is empty. It'll probably take 3 or 4 scoops for the rice to really start to fluff up, so don't worry that your rice isn't cooking, unless you reach the bottom of your stock and it's still not fluffy (in which case, just add more water...)

When you add the last bit of stock, also add the wine and cream, and stir well. In the end, the sauce doesn't need to soak in completely, as the dish should still be rich and creamy, but  also thick.

Add more black pepper to the top to serve.

Chicken & Chickpea Curry, & Saag Aloo

So Jenn and I cooked a curry. A big curry. Seriously, there was enough for 4 people but we destroyed it all anyway! We decided on a basic chicken curry as the main element of the meal, with sides dishes. This is a chicken curry recipe I learnt half of my mum, half of the good old "that spice smells indian-y, stick it in"

CHICKEN AND CHICKPEA CURRY


2 chicken breasts cut into bitesize pieces
1 red onion
1 tin of chickpeas
1 tin of chopped tomatoes
2 tsps coriander seeds
4 tsps garam masala mix
2 tsps dried chillis
salt and pepper

pre heat the oven to 180
Heat up 4 tbsps of oil in a frying fan and add the coriander seeds. gently fry for a couple of minutes then add the chicken.
Fry the Chicken until colored, but not fully cooked. It will finish cooking in the oven later.
Add the diced onion and fry until soft.
At this point add the spices, the garam masala, salt, pepper and dried chillis.
When the spices have coated all the chicken add the can of drained chickpeas, stir until the peas are coated in the spices then add the tomatoes.
Fill the empty tomatoe can up with water, swill it round then add to the curry. Give it a good stir and decant into a oven proof dish. Cook for half an hour.
When it has been in for half an hour serve. However the longer the curry cooks the better the spices will cook, so turn down to around 100 and you can cook it for as long as you need.

SAAG ALOO


1 large potato
1 bag of baby spinach
1 white onion
2 tsps coriander seeds
salt and pepper

Heat up 3 tbsps of oil in a frying pan and gently fry the coriander seeds. Half the onion, then thinly slice. Cut the potatoes into half cm cubes and boil in salted water until soft. Fry the onion with the seeds until they are cooked through and soft. Add the cooked potatoes and the bag of spinach and wilt. Once the spinach has wilted, stir well into the onions and add the salt and pepper.

Onion Bhajis & Raita

We had an Indian FEAST on Friday night. Vidi:

Clockwise from left: Sag Aloo, Onion Bahjis, Chicken & Chickepea Curry, Naans, Cucumber Raita, Rice.

In a fit of laziness, we bought the rice and naans and just warmed them up. I'm going to let Ana fill you in on the Curry and Sag Aloo (and hopefully, some better pics) at a later date, but Bhajis and (delightfully simple) Raita are below, both from a retro-tastic cookbook I found in a charity shop some years ago, simply titled 'Indian Side Dishes' (and apparently published in 1995, though it looks at least 20 years older).

Blurry Bahjis and curry; Sag Aloo; Raita

Onion Bahjis

2 medium white onions, quartered then sliced

1 egg

2 tsps plain or gram flour

1 tsp garam masala

Cumin 

Coriander

Salt

Add the flour to a bowl with the spices. Add the egg and stir to a gluey mixture, then add the onions, salt and coriander and stir. Add more flour if the mixture isn't stiff enough - the recipe says to add breadcrumbs but we had none handy...

Heat the oil in a deep pan until fairly hot, then form the mixture into balls with your hands and carefully drop them into the oil. Cook for around 5-6 minutes, turning occasionally, then remove and place on some kitchen roll to drain the excess oil.

We could cook around 3 balls at a time, and made 6 in total (of various sizes, but about a handful of mixture each time). 

The original recipe was for "Bite-sized Bajees"  - curious spelling - and was for 20 nibbles. It also advises that the pan and utensils are properly dried before use, as any contact with water will make the oil spit. Which is good advice and bears repeating. Also, use metal utensils, not plastic ones. Or at least don't leave the plastic ones in the hot oil for any great length of time. Seems obvious, but an old housemate ruined a good slotted spoon that way. Sigh.

Cucumber Raita

Serves... Well we made enough for 3 or 4, really. 

But we ate it all (indeed, we ate most of the food we made, which was probably ill-advised).

200ml (a.k.a. one small pot) natural yoghurt

1/3 cucumber, finely chopped

Salt

Pepper

The book did include mint in its list of ingredients, which I would've definitely put in for an even fresher dish, but again, we didn't have any.

Add all the ingredients to a bowl. Stir together.

Told you it was simple.

Lemon & Mustard Chicken

Yeah yeah, another chicken/potatoes/spring greens recipe. But y'know, spring greens come in big packages so you'll have to do lots of different things with them.
So there.

This recipe comes from here (if you need more spring greens recipes, while 'tis the season) and I pretty much stuck to it, as much as I ever stick to recipes (read the first instruction before I start cooking, then forget the recipe exists and do whatever I feel like.)

For those of you who are disinclined to click links, here's the recipe (+ the tweaks/tips I added).

(Serves 2)

Splash of olive oil
Knob of butter
2 chicken breasts
1 medium red onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, crushed
2 tablespoons honey
2 tablespoons wholegrain mustard
Large handful of spring greens leaves, chopped
Lemon juice
3 tablespoons double cream
Salt
Pepper
Thyme
Worcester sauce

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We served it with creamy mash (rice or couscous also come recommended) - peel and chop the potatoes and set them away to boil before you do this...

Add butter and olive oil to a frying pan (I used a grill pan. 'Cos I like the way the chicken looks when it's cooked in there). Flatten out and score the chicken breasts. Place them score side down in the pan. Cook for around 5 minutes, then turn them over and add the mustard and honey to the cooked sides.
Add the onions, garlic and thyme and cook for another minute or two, then add the spring greens, salt, pepper, and a squirt of lemon juice. Cover and cook for another 5 minutes or so.
When the chicken is cooked, take it out of the pan and plate up. Add the cream and  worcester sauce to the pan/rest of the mixture and stir in.
Serve on top of the chicken.

Eastern Grub.

Or more specifically, Eastern European grub.
One of the reasons I'm so horrifically overdrawn now is because I had a week off work just before I left Berlin, and so spent a few days in Poland and Hungary, and tried some local delicacies.
No recipes here, just a little travel/food writing. 

Alright, admittedly I mostly stuck to beverages in Poland . I'm a great believer in the free walking tour (I've been to a lot of European cities and they've all got 'em.) and the one I took in Warsaw included a trip to a vodka bar in the Old Town. 

This is the spread. 

Coloured (and slightly flavoured, I think) vodka, bread with lard (!) and pickles. Erm. Delicious?

I was anticipating that nasty, burning-my-oesophagus feeling from the vodka but NO. Probably something to do with this being good, actual Polish vodka as opposed to Morrisions own brand, or some such, but whatever. The tour guide said the proper way to take Polish vodka was with plenty of the aforementioned lard-y bread and pickles so as to avoid being ill the next day (*raises eyebrow*). I know I'm not a pickle fan so I avoided them but the lard bread? Y'know, when in Warsaw - it was actually delicious. Real pork fat with the occasional meaty chunk. Not healthy in the slightest, but that's never a deterrent for yours truly.

On to Budapest.
Sadly, I didn't get to try 'Langos', which I think is deep fried pizza-y thing the tour guide recommended (someone on Trip Advisor describes it as 'fried dough slathered with your choice of toppings including sour cream, garlic, cheese, onion, etc.' Sounds delish, and about how she described it too.) But we did end the tour at a canteen, which they said was a good, cheap place to get dinner; 'the sort of place the blue-collar workers go on their lunchbreak'.

Carb central.
I had pork in mushroom sauce. With rice. And fried potatoes. And bread. And baked onion rings. And the most disgustingly sweet wine ever (bleurgh).

Hungarian Cuisine actually sounds delicious - all paprika and herbs, and spicy creamy sauces and meat and veg and hearty deliciousness. I'm already itching to go back to Budapest - I only had a day there, and not even a full evening in which to experience the bars, which are supposedly some of the best in the world - so hopefully a return visit occur, and I'll be able to try some more yummy food.
Budapest also has 2 Michelin starred restaurants, at which (according to our tour guide) you can get a 3 course meal for around 15 quid at lunchtime.

And it gets LOADS of sunshine, and it's very picturesque, and the Turkish baths are WONDERFUL. Get thee to Hungary.


PS, for non-food based photos of my trip East, see here!

Creamy Tarragon Chicken (& Spring Greens with Bacon)

(Serves 2)

We have a lot of spring greens in the fridge. I came across the SG&B dish on the BBC Good Food site, so they can take the credit for that (though I'm still typing it out here), but the chicken and potato goodness was one of those 'chuck it in, see what happens' sort of ventures that I enjoy so much.

It turned out well.

My Mam (who is my only customer) said it was delicious and probably the best thing I'd ever cooked for her. So there's a good review for you.

For the Chicken

2 chicken breasts (or 4 goujons, as we used), cut into slithers

5 or 6 new potatos, cut into bitesize chunks

1/3 red onion, sliced

50g Philedelphia

1 chicken stock cube

1 tsb honey (ours has lemon in it, I recommend a few drops of lemon juice if yours is normal honey)

a few drops of worcester sauce

1 garlic clove, crushed

tarragon

coriander

salt

pepper

For the side

Half a head(?) spring greens, thinly sliced

2 rashers back bacon - the BBC recommended a smoked, thick cut bacon. But we like/only had normal, unsmoked back bacon. So there.

1/2 veg stock cube*

A knob of butter

Black pepper

*Again, the BBC says to cook the greens in veg stock water for 5 mins but I think this made it a bit soggy. Perhaps it just needs to really drain, for a few minutes even, but if you like your spring greens really crispy, in more of a 'crispy seaweed' sense, then forego the boiling/veg stock part and just hoy 'em in the frying pan with the bacon.

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Chuck the chopped chicken and potatoes in an overproof dish with the herbs, salt and pepper and rub the herbs into them. Add the onions to the dish, and put all the other ingredients (except the Philly) into a jug with around 400ml of water until the stock cube dissolves. Pour the mixture over the ingredients in the dish and stick it in the oven on about 200º for about 40 mins (or until the chicken is cooked and the potatoes are soft).

---

Chop the greens and pop them in veg stock water to simmer for 5 mins.

Chop the bacon and add it to the butter in a frying pan. Add the greens and fry away until everything is crispy. Top with black pepper and serve.

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When ready, take the dish from the oven and pop it on top of a medium heat hob. Add the Philly and stir it in, leaving it on the heat for a few minutes until it's mixed into the sauce and thickened it.

I had to leave the dish on the hob for quite a while as I found my sauce to be a bit thin, but I had put more water in than I've noted here so hopefully you won't have the same problem!

Enjoy!

Chunky Beef Stew (with Roasted Veg)

We had this on Tuesday night, when it was horribly windy/icy/snowy outside. It's a good winter/random cold snap in early spring warmer-upper.

(Serves 2)

For the stew:

Large handful of Mince

2 mushrooms, diced

6 baby plum tomatoes (or cherry tomatoes), halved

1/2 red onion, sliced

1 garlic clove, crushed

1/3 courgette, diced

A handful of Peas

Olive oil

Butter

Salt

Pepper

Chilli powder

Coriander

Thyme

Ketchup

Gravy granules

Roast

1 carrot, finely sliced

1 parsnip, finely sliced

5 or so new potatoes, halved or quartered depending on size

Olive oil

Butter

Salt

Pepper

Chop up the veg to be roasted, stick them on a baking tray with a couple of small knobs of butter and a sprinkle of the other ingredients, and bake on 180º for about half an hour.

In a big pan, add a knob of butter and a squirt of olive oil, then add the onions and garlic and the herbs and spices. Cook for a couple of minutes, then add all the veg (except the mince and peas - we used these from frozen but even if yours are fresh they shouldn't need as long). Cook these for another couple of mins, THEN add the mince and peas and cook until the mince is browned.

Add a squirt of ketchup and a sprinkle of gravy granules, then a small glass of water. Turn the heat down to simmer for around 15 minutes. Ours was at the perfect consistency at the same time the roasts were done - good timing!

Serve up - as presented above is well recommended, so it's like a bowl of soup with the roasts to dip in the tomato-y gravy. We also crumbled some cheshire cheese on top.

I missed good cheese. I love Cheshire cheese. Germany likes a waxy cheese. I detest waxy cheeses. We did not see eye-to-eye in the cheese aisle.

Smoked Salmon & Cream Cheese Parcels.

Ana here!

These little parcels are something I conjured up today when I was staring into the fridge. Also the fact that the smoked salmon was going out of date tomorrow really helped me what to decide what to have for lunch! you'll need some form of ramekin or small bowl around 3 inches deep and 5 inches wide, cling film and the following ingredients:

smoked salmon (around 8 slices per ramekin)
2 tbsps cream cheese
2 tbsps diced red pepper
a handful of raw baby spinach
lemon juice
salt and pepper

(I apologise for the lack of measurements, I forget to weigh everything!)

firstly, line the ramekins with cling film, then line with the salmon, covering the sides and the bottom. leave a couple of cms hanging over the edge. But leave a couple of slices free for the top!

in a bowl, mix the cheese, lemon juice and salt and pepper. start layering the cheese and fillings, starting with the cheese on the bottom of the ramekin. layer on the red pepper and squish them down. Spread on more cheese, the layer on the spinach. Finish off with the remainder of the cheese. Cover the cheese with the remaining salmon. Fold over the excess bits of salmon, press down and put in the fridge for a couple of hours. To turn out the parcel, simply lift them out using the cling film and whack onto a plate!. These are a really good starter, served with a small mixed salad however I was eating mine for lunch so had a pretty big salad!

An Update.

Jenn here.

I'm back from Berlin, as of a week ago.

As you may recall, I spent a lot of time cooking veggie in Germany - I know, veggie and Germany don't usually go hand in hand - and it's really upped my game.

If ever you find yourself in a food rut, I suggest cutting something that you normally eat out - meat, or dairy, or wheat - and cooking becomes a challenge again. I'm back to being more adventurous and trying out new dishes, new recipes. And I've found a load of veg that I'd never liked or possibly even eaten before that I now enjoy (sprouts, fresh beetroot, cabbage. CABBAGE.) and those that I'm still not really a fan of (chicory. *shrug*).

I got a recipe book as a leaving gift, except it's not a cookbook, it's more a notebook where each page has space for a photo, and an ingredients list, and instructions for me to fill in as I go. And I intend to instagram my way through the book. And this blog.

Layout and blog frequency overhaul imminent!

The Kitchen Cabinet

A quick note, to alert you to the new BBC Radio 4 programme, The Kitchen Cabinet, in which food personality Jay Rayner and a team of experts answer audience's foodie questions.

It's like Gardener's Question Time but for food - Episode 2 (in which they discuss Indian fusion cooking and 'the perfect tomato sauce' - never put tomatoes in the fridge) is on iPlayer right now (which, I am happy to add, is available to everyone. BBC Radio is internationally available, unlike the TV/TV iPlayer, which I miss every damn day.)

A Sprout Is Not Just For Christmas.

In case you're not up to date, let me explain:

I moved to Berlin, like, three weeks ago.

Cooking at home has been unadventurous thus far (combo of lack of space to store/make things and lack of money, plus need to meet new people and therefore going for food to socialise...), but cooking at work has been challenging and interesting.

I work at a small high-end fashion label here, and we take turns to cook (though I tend to volunteer most days!) and then we all eat lunch together. Lovely!

But also, on a Tuesday, we get a big box of veg for the week, and we eat veggie meals. We've bought things to go with the veg (rice, pasta, eggs, yoghurt, curry paste, etc) but sometimes we get things we don't know what to do with - we roasted fennel last week (my first fennel experience).

Last week we got brussel sprouts (or Rosenkohl, as they call them here) - what does one do with brussel sprouts, other than eat them with Christmas dinner?!

We finally ate them today, and added them to the (masses of) leftover spinach and feta pasta from Friday.

I've got a lo-ve-ly bunch of brussel sprouts, di-di di-di

Wash 'em and chop 'em up small, and heat up a frying pan with plenty of butter in it.

Add salt and pepper and add more butter if necessary...they should be soft but with a bit of crunch on the outside.

Serve 'em as a side dish or chuck 'em in some pasta or something... (I reckon they'd be great in a stir fry and will endeavour to try this at some point in the near future.)

Stewed Pork, Veggie Salsa & Flatbread.

I don't know if stewed pork is the right word. Or vegetable salsa, for that matter. But that's what I'm calling it.

They made flatbreads on This Morning, errr, this morning, and I was all "OOOO. I shall make that."

Serves 2, but there was a lot, and some leftover salsa...

Need:
One pork chop, fat/bones removed
One red onion
One courgette
Two cloves garlic
One tomato
4 medium mushrooms
Half a tin chopped tomatoes

Plain flour
Water
Coriander
Tarragon
Cayenne Pepper
Chilli Powder
Salt
Pepper
One vegetable stock cube
Olive oil
Honey

Lettuce + 1/2 an avocado per person to serve.

That seems like a lot, but a lot was leftovers/things that needed to be eaten!

Do:
Remove the bones/fat from the pork. Flatten and tenderise (translation - hit it with a rolling pin for a bit), and chop into cubes. Place in an oven proof dish.

Take half of the onion and half of the courgette and chop finely, adding to the dish. Crush a garlic clove into the dish (I used a garlic crusher as opposed to the garlic card. You want minced garlic, rather than puree, if possible, but finely chopped will do). Add sprinkles of salt, pepper, coriander, tarragon and cayenne pepper, then a drizzle of olive oil. Cover and place in fridge for at least an hour (I made mine at about 3pm and we ate about half 6...)

For the flatbreads, mix plain flour, salt and water. Roll out to desired size an shape - seriously, they can be any size or shape. I went for a naan-y look, and probably made enough dough for 4 decent sized ones rather than the 3 big ones I made, but you can always make more flatbreads than needed and eat the others cold for lunch the next day or something. Simple and versatile!

To the pork mix add a veggie stock cube and enough water to cover the ingredients (It'll make a watery sauce but we don't need to serve this...), then put in the oven at around 200 degrees - it should take about 25/30 mins for the pork to be tender. I had a sit down for 15 mins before finishing the rest, but then I had pre-prepared by flatbread dough...

Finely chop the other half of the onion, the other half of the courgette, one tomato and the mushrooms (you can use any amount of any of these, really, just we had mushrooms and courgette to use up and not that many tomatoes in the house...). Add the onion and the other minced garlic clove to a pan (I recommend a large saucepan rather than a frying pan) with olive oil. After 2 mins, add the other veg. Fry until soft, then add the chopped tomatoes. Again, this was a leftover, and if you only have full tins use one of those - I had to add a bit of water and some ketchup to get a decent amount of tomato-y sauce!

Add a big squirt of honey and salt, pepper, coriander and chilli powder and simmer, reducing the sauce so that all the veg is covered but it's not runny.

While the salsa is reducing, fry the flatbreads in a little olive oil - preferably in a griddle pan, for that nice patterned burn look, yknow.

Serve!

Double Cheese Scones

I had an urge to bake and a craving for savoury that wasn't satisfied by anything in the house.
Also, some goat's cheese to use up. Solution? Cheese scones.

I knew I'd made goat's cheese biscuits before, but I wanted scones, dammit, so combined two recipes (this one and this one, in particular) to make these - double cheese scones.

served with slightly garlicky butter

(born from an error when making garlic butter; the whole tub has a faint garlic taste...good job I love garlic)

225g/8oz self raising flour
pinch of salt
55g/2oz butter
25g/1oz mature cheddar cheese, crumbled
4 tablespoons (2 ounces) goat cheese, crumbled
150ml/5fl oz milk
butter for top

The measurements are as taken from the recipes, but because I am me, I just chucked some sieved flour in a bowl with salt, added butter and the chunks of goat's cheese and cheddar 'til it was breadcrumb-y and mixed in milk bit by bit 'til it was doughy.


Heat the oven to 220C/425F/Gas 7.

Mix together the flour and salt and rub in the butter and goat's cheese. Crumble in the cheddar mix that in too.

Make a well in the center of the flour mixture and pour in the milk (I used half semi-skimmed and half unsweetened soya milk, why not.). With a fork, mix together the milk and flour until all of the dry flour disappears.

Turn on to a floured work surface and knead very lightly. Pat out to a round 2cm/¾in thick. Use a 5cm/2in cutter to stamp out rounds and place on the baking sheet. Lightly knead together the rest of the dough and stamp out more scones to use it all up.

Brush the tops of the scones with a little butter - I added a dash of pepper too. Bake for 12-15 minutes until well risen and golden. Cool on a wire rack.

Fish In Bacon.

Does what it says on the tin - as published in some weekend magazine or other; simple, healthy and delcious.

This fed two of us:

2 white fish fillets (we had cod)
4 slices unsmoked bacon (the recipe called for 'thin bacon' or pancetta, but I don't like pancetta and I love bacon, and the cod/bacon combo was delish)

1/2 beef tomato
1 med courgette
1/2 yellow bell pepper

olive oil
thyme
black pepper
chilli (the recipe did call for chillies, but we wouldn't use them again and I had chilli powder in the house, so...)

------

Oven at 200 - ours is a fan oven, and the recipe didn't have an oven temperature on it (!) so this is an educated guess...

Chop up the veg. Place on a baking tray and sprinkle with the herbs+spices and drizzle on olive oil.
Place in oven for 20 minutes.

Wrap the fish in bacon and fry for a minute on each side to seal (I assume this part would work better with pancetta as our bacon just flopped about afterwards)
Place in an oven dish and bake for 15 minutes. (Veg and fish should be ready at the same time!)


served with a bit of salad and some crispy fried goats cheese (recipe as this link, but a warning: it is messy!)

Red Velvet Cheesecake Brownies

orig recipe from hellyeahrecipes - and for once i didn't change a thing.

notes? if you have already got cup measurers; they're a good investment. i got mine for a couple of quid at morrisons; and if you bake a lot, lots of recipes on U.S. sites will use cups.
a small bar of dark chocolate should be enough (i bought a huge bar of bourneville and only used 2 rows. more for me!); a 200ml tub of cream cheese is the right amount.

everything below is copied and pasted from the orig post; italics are my notes - find the orig post through the above link!

ingredients
1/2 cup butter
2-oz dark chocolate, coarsely chopped
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 tsp red food coloring
2/3 cup all purpose flour
1/4 tsp salt

8-oz cream cheese, room temperature
1/3 cup sugar
1 large egg
1/2 tsp vanilla extract


Preheat oven to 350F. Butter the bottom and sides of a 8 inch metal baking pan. Put a long piece of parchment paper in the bottom of the pan, letting the parchment extend up two sides of the pan and overhang slightly on both ends. (This will make it easy to remove the bars from the pan after they have baked.) Butter the parchment. i never bother with any of this cos i'm lazy - tin foil across the bottom of the pan will do the trick, right?

In a small, heatproof bowl, melt butter and chocolate together. Stir until combined and very smooth. Set aside to cool for a few minutes.

In a large bowl, whisk together sugar, eggs, vanilla extract and red food coloring. Add chocolate mixture and stir until smooth. Add flour and salt and stir until just combined and no streaks of dry ingredients remain.

Pour into prepared pan and spread into an even layer.

To prepare cheesecake mixture, beat cream cheese, sugar, egg and vanilla extract in a medium bowl until smooth. Distribute the cheesecake mixture in 8 dollops over batter in the pan.

Swirl in with a knife or spatula. i was concerned at this point that my batters were both pretty runny and the cheesecake mix was just going to sink but it seemed fine - swirling in is very much an aesthetic thing, and i was quite happy with my dollops.

Bake for 35-40 minutes, until brownies and cheesecake are set. A knife inserted into the cheesecake mixture should come out clean and the edges will be lightly browned.

Let cool completely in pan on a cooling rack before lifting out the parchment paper to remove the brownies.

- jenn.

Soup, Bread, Biscotti.

yes we're alive, and yes we're eating.

we're both halfway through final year so meals are quick and easy.

...this is a lie.

i got an espresso machine for my birthday (delonghi, bright red, highly recommended) and bought a pasta machine from ebay (also red, not quite mastered the art of perfect looking pasta yet, but the taste is pretty good) and have taken to making soup on a sunday for the rest of the week (which inevitably lasts 2 days because i like my soup thick and when it boils down to the right thickness there's not much left).

today, i went on a baking spree, which you'll be aware of if you follow me on twitter. behold:

fennel and caraway seed baguette

the fennel and caraway seeds came in my graze box last week - highly recommended, especially if you have a free code from a friend - and because i'm not a huge nut eater i thought i'd put them in some bread.

white bread flour

self raising (opt)

salt

pepper

olive oil

fennel and caraway seeds

yeast/yeast granules

water

i mixed white bread flour with self raising flour (because i didn't have enough white bread flour - about 350g of each, i reckon) and added salt, pepper and a dash of olive oil before stirring in the yeast/water mix. (no fresh yeast, just the granules - just as good!)

when the dough was together but a little sticky i turned it out onto the bench and kneaded it with plenty of flour on the bench and my hands, and tipped the box of seeds onto the bench, working them into the dough.

i then rolled the dough out into a baguette shape and popped it on a baking tray with some foil underneath, putting slashes in the top for decoration, and placing it under a medium oven for about half an hour (maybe a little longer - until brown and/or crispy on the outside.)

you could use almost any seeds for this - i have another tub of sunflower seeds i'm going to make some bread with next week - but the fennel and caraway give this loaf a spicy kick, and it tastes a little curry-y. delish.

potato, bacon and onion soup

serves approx 2, maybe more potatoes to soak up the water next time!

one large potato (baking potato sized...)

one large onion

3 rashers bacon

butter

creme fraiche

salt

pepper

vegetable stock

thyme

sage

water

finely chop your onions and bacon, and drop them into a large hot pan with butter. as they brown, peel and finely chop your potatoes and chuck this in the pan too, then add the salt, pepper, thyme and sage. fill about 2/3 with water and leave to simmer for about 15 minutes.

turn the heat down and use a potato masher to mash the potatoes a little, then turn the heat up again, adding the stock cube and creme fraiche, then let the water boil away until the soup is thick enough for you. i added a splash of cayenne pepper at the end to give it a kick.

jam and coconut biscotti

i got this recipe from google and it was from an american site - who knows how much a cup is? - so the measurements are completely made up (i worked off the amount of coconut i had, so let's assume 125g is 2 cups). but these are delicious.

125g dessicated coconut

approx. 40g butter

approx. 60g sugar

approx 60g flour

vanilla essence

1 egg

splash of milk (or 2 eggs, if you prefer. i'm like, an egg nazi. no more than one in anything.)

jam & almonds for decoration

these are so easy to make. essentially, you just have to mix well...

mix the sugar into the butter, then add the coconut and mix. add the egg, mix, then the flour, and mix. add vanilla essence and milk if the dough is too dry, until you have a slightly sticky but stiff mix.

put two big dollops on a tray with baking paper (or tin foil which is all we ever have in the house) on it and spread these thinly with a knife.

you can either use bigger dollops and make two thick strips straight away (you can see my two strips in the above pic), or you can spread a thin layer of jam* across the first two strips and then add another two dollops on top of this and spread these out over the jam. pretty sure you could put anything between the strips of mix...

i added almonds to the top and baked for about 20-25 minutes, until crunchy on top. biscotti should be crunchy the whole way through, but this has ended up with a crunchy top and a softer, biscuit-y based. which is perfect, because i couldn't decide between biscotti or coconut biscuits.

*i used raspberry and vodka jam, as bought from tynemouth market ages ago!

Onion Tart.

i really fancied making an onion tart but the internet provided little in the way of appetising recipes - plenty for onion quiche, but i wanted something significantly less eggy. finally i found and modified a recipe which suggested double cream. win!

ingredients

one large white onion

one large red onion

one 200ml tub double cream

one tsp honey

salt, pepper, thyme, worcester sauce & butter

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(also, plain flour, butter, milk, water, salt and pepper for the pastry; or you can buy ready made. homemade pastry is super easy and wonderful tasting and i love making pastry and dough SO MUCH; i probably make it at least once a week for something.

i tend to guess at measurements, but 5 heaped tablespoons of flour and 4 knive-fulls of butter will about do it, then sprinkles of salt and pepper, and rub the butter in til the mixture is like breadcrumbs. add a splash of milk and stir together with a spoon, then add water til the dough forms a ball. if it's too sticky, add more flour. knead on a floured counter for a few minutes, then roll out to desired size and thickness. EASY. it doesn't need to be cooked through before the filling is put in either! and if you grease up the tin with plenty of butter, the tart should come out really easily.)

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slice the onions into thin slices. add a large knob of butter to a frying pan, warm up then throw in the onions. after a minute, turn the heat right down and leave them to simmer away, stirring every minute or so.

make your pastry (or roll it out and line your tin if you're using pre-made); preheat the oven to a medium heat.

when the onions and browned and super soft, add salt, pepper, thyme and a little worcester sauce to taste, and stir in a teaspoon of honey.

tip around 2/3 of the double cream into the pan and let it thicken slightly.

add the mixture to the tart, and stick it in the oven until the pastry is brown and the top is bubbling.

i also grated some cheese on top about 5 minutes before the end, and served with green beans, parsnip and mushroom that had been fried in honey and mustard. gorgeous - the cream hadn't quite set, which was perfect because the dish wasn't too dry.

i have 2 pieces left, which i'm gonna serve with mash, green beans and rosemary and mint gravy tonight, and salad with honey mustard dressing tomorrow.

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i had a little pastry left over, so before i added the cream i plonked 3 little spoon fulls onto the rolled out scraps and made 3 little snack-sized onion pastry parcels - just an idea for leftovers!

Product: Garlic Card

this thing is genius; and i can't understand how it actually works, but work it does.

i give you the garlic card.

i bought it in the design museum when i was in london... (but you can buy it on amazon - it comes in a range of colours; i got red cos i have red chopsticks, also from the design museum. i see a theme developing here.)

...and basically, it purees garlic.

and you think "well that doesn't look like much!", but then you swipe the puree off the card with your finger, and into a pan/into a bowl and it looks like quite a lot of puree, AND THEN your meal is remarkably garlic-y.

i mixed it with pepper, oregano and soya butter.....

...then spread it on some bread and grilled. garlic bread! (perfectly garlic-y!)

served with fry-veg soup...?

i read this recipe on some site the other day and tried to recreate it from memory since i didn't bookmark it...

one large tomato, cut into chunks

one medium onion, cut into chunks

one large mushroom (or a few smaller ones), sliced

fry in olive oil until brown

add stock, mixed into a cup of warm water

add half a tin of chopped tomatoes

flavour with salt, pepper, basil, oregano and worcester sauce, and a squirt of ketchup if you are a fan of the sweet taste

put a lid on the frying pan and simmer until the sauce thickens (10-15 mins).

serve with crusty bread - or garlic bread!

a hearty but small tea or a great lunch dish!

NB: i also topped mine with thinly sliced goats cheese and pepper.

great tip!

in order to melt the cheese and keep the dish

warm while the bread finishes off browning, put

the pan lid on top of the bowl for a minute or two!

Salmon Balls.

salmon balls.

does what it says on the tin.

much like meatballs, but considerably more fishy and pink.

you will need

one small tin of salmon

plain flour

butter

salt, pepper and thyme

drain the salmon and mash it with a fork, in a bowl with the herbs. add some flour and shape small handfuls of the mixture into ball shapes.

heat up some butter in a frying pan.

drop the balls into the butter.

add to pasta - here i added sliced mushrooms, broccoli and spinach to the salmon balls, and then chucked in some cooked pasta with a cream cheese&milk sauce. add some worcester sauce for flavour and flour to thicken if necessary, then grate some cheese on top. et voila.