Tag Archives: recipe

Lemon and Rosemary Drizzle Cake Recipe

24 Mar

“You ran from Webmley?!”, exclaimed the friendly apron clad woman. Yes, we replied, seeing full well that she thought we were crackers. We had risen at 8.30am on a Saturday morning and ran through the windy sleet and snow to view a couple of marble tops that were listed on eBay not too far from where we live. Jack had forced me into my running gear and I plodded along the street behind him feeling a serious bout of misery coming on. It’s late March and barely above freezing. We had planned to frolick with friends this weekend but the weather is putting a stop to our will to venture out of our comfort zone.

We arrived home and I was thoroughly miserable. We cooked a delicious breakfast of eggs poached in tomatoes, which brightened up my mood slightly but it wasn’t until I stumbled upon a magical video by Nigel Slater that my day really started to kick into gear. I watched Nigel, sat on the floor with my back against the radiator, mouth open, and felt my spirits rise as I watched him work his magic and turn it into a lemon and thyme drizzle cake. He quite rightly exclaimed that he doesn’t feel right if there is no home baked cake in his house and I knew right then that this is what I would be doing with my day.

Unfortunately there was no thyme available in our local supermarket so we decided to substitute it with rosemary. We weren’t sure whether it would work but we at least knew that we liked the lemon and rosemary combination with savoury dishes that we have cooked before.

This cake turned out perfectly and I got the thumbs up from everyone in the house – one person even exclaimed that I could enter it into any competition and win! As well as substituting the thyme for rosemary, I also boiled the lemon syrup for much longer than the recipe stated. It was accidental – I forgot about it as it was bubbling away but I’m so glad that I did because it gave the top of the cake the most delicious crunch.

I think I have found my new staple bake.

Lemon and rosemary drizzle loaf cake recipe

Ingredients

200g/7oz butter – I used the new Clover block of butter
200g/7oz golden caster sugar
100g/3½oz plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
100g/3½oz ground almonds
4 free-range eggs
1 lemon, zest only
1 tsp rosemary leaves, chopped

For the syrup

4 tbsp sugar
2 large lemons, juice only
½ tsp rosemary leaves, chopped

Method

Pre-heat the oven to 160C/325F/Gas 3. Line a 900g/2lb loaf tin with baking parchment.

1. Cream the butter with the sugar in a food mixer until pale and fluffy. In a separate bowl sift together the flour and baking powder then mix with the almonds.

2. Add the eggs to the butter mixture one at a time, beating them in thoroughly each time.

3. Grate the zest from the lemon and mix it with the rosemary and stir into the cake mixture.

4. Gradually mix in the flour, baking powder and almonds.

5. Spoon the cake mixture into the lined tin and bake for 45 minutes.

6. For the syrup, dissolve the sugar in the juice of the lemons over a moderate heat and stir in the rosemary. Boil for 10 minutes until it becomes a thick syrup. As the cake comes from the oven, spike the surface with a skewer and spoon over the syrup.

Nigel Slater recommends serving with thick yoghurt. I can wholeheartedly agree with this.

Enjoy!

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EAT THE OLYMPICS RECIPE – Slovenian Kolacky

22 Mar

First published on Eat the Olympics on Thursday 22nd March

Sour cream Kolacky (Slovenia)

Ingredients:

1 cup plain flour
1/2 cup cold unsalted butter
40g sour cream
Jam (or your own choice) for filling
Icing sugar, to dust

Method:

1. In a large bowl, rub butter and flour together until it resembled crumbs. Stir in sour cream and mix well

2. Wrap the dough in cling film and refrigerate for 2 hours

Pre heat oven to 180 degrees C

3. Roll on lightly floured surface to 1/8-inch thickness. Cut with a large round cookie cutter

4. Fill center with filling, bring the sides up to the middle and pinch at the top

5. Bake 12-15 minutes, or until bottom of cookie is just beginning to brown

6. Remove from the baking tray and cool on wire racks. When cooled, dust with icing sugar to serve

Score: BRONZE

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Royal wedding lemon curd cake

2 May

So, the Royal Wedding. I have to say that I wasn’t overly excited and I didn’t have any plans until a couple of days before. I still wanted to watch it though – mostly to see what Kate would be wearing!

I switched the TV on and something odd happened. As soon as I saw Kate climb into the car to take her to Westminster Abbey, I started balling whilst laughing at the same time. She looked beautiful and I couldn’t comprehend how she must have been feeling.

We had a few friends over for a curry (not typically British I know) and I baked a Victoria sponge with a difference. Instead of jam and strawberries, I lathered on the lemon curd – I have a picky other half that won’t touch jam. I added an extra vanilla pod, which worked really well and the whole cake was demolished in a matter of minutes.

Ingredients

225g butter, softened
225g golden caster sugar
4 Burford Brown eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 vanilla pod, desseded
225g self raising flour
Drop of milk, to loosen
170ml double cream
4 tbsp lemon curd (or however thick you want to spread it!)

Method
Pre-heat the oven to 180degrees

1. Grease and line two sandwich tins with butter and baking parchment

2. Cream the butter and sugar together in a bowl

3. Add the eggs and mix well

4. Add the vanilla essence and vanilla pod and mix

5. Sift in the flour and fold with a metal spoon

6. Add the drop of milk to loosen slightly. The mixture should not be too stiff

7. Spoon the mixture into the lined tins and place in the oven. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean

8. Whilst the cake is baking, whip the cream. This is best done with an electric whisk. Turn the whisk on a high speed and whisk until the cream starts to stiffen. Do not let it get too stiff as you need to be able to spread it

9. Leave the cakes to cook on a wire rack once out of the oven. Wait until cooled completely before spreading the bottom layer with lemon curd and your whipped cream. Place the top layer on top of the lemon curd and whipped cream and dust with icing sugar.

10. Enjoy!

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Rhubarb cinnamon polenta cake

14 Apr

Ok, it’s official. I’m now in LOVE with polenta cakes. My recent visit to Petersham Nurseries and an impulse rhubarb purchase from the supermarket spurred me on to try Nigel Slater’s rhubarb cinnamon polenta cake recipe, which I got from The Guardian online. I normally play around with recipes but wanted this to be the same, even keeping in the orange zest that I might have omitted before.

The cake was a bit of a nightmare – the batter is very sticky and I used the wrong size cake tin at first. So definitely make sure you use a 20cm tin, no bigger. I also worried because I didn’t drain the rhubarb in a colander after taking it out of the roasting dish but it didn’t matter. I ended up with a delicious, moist, crunchy, course, sweet delight.

Ingredients

For the filling:

500g rhubarb
50g golden caster sugar
4 tbsp water

For the crust:
125g coarse polenta
200g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
a pinch of ground cinnamon
150g golden caster sugar
grated zest of a small orange
150g butter
1 large egg
2-4 tbsp milk
1 tbsp light muscovado sugar

Method

Preheat oven to 180C/gas mark 4.

1. Cut each rhubarb stem into two or three pieces and put them in a baking dish
2. Scatter over the sugar and water, and bake for 30-40 minutes until the rhubarb is soft but still retains its shape
3. Put the polenta, flour, baking powder, cinnamon and caster sugar in the bowl of a food processor. Add the grated zest and the butter, cut into smallish pieces, then blitz for a few seconds till you have something that resembles breadcrumbs
4. Beat egg and milk in a small bowl and add to the crumb mixture. Blitz until just combined
5. Press about two-thirds of the mixture into the cake tin, pushing it a couple of centimeters up the sides with a floured spoon
6. Place the rhubarb on top, leaving a small rim around the edge uncovered and cover with the remaining batter
7. Scatter over the light muscovado sugar
8. Bake on the hot baking sheet for 45 minutes
9. Leave to cool before removing from tin and serve with the juice left over from the rhubarb
10. ENJOY!!!

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Sticky Black Gingerbread

22 Mar

Another day, another recipe.

A girl that I used to work with made a fantastic batch of gingerbread for a Macmillan coffee morning competition that we held in the office last year. She took the recipe from the Leiths School Baking Bible and won the competition hands down. Her prize was a delightful bottle of Laurent Perrier champagne, lucky girl.

So, inspired by her fantastic baking, I decided to bake a batch myself. I have the book that she used at home and it had been sitting dormant on the shelf for a while so I put it to good use! I adapted my recipe to include nutmeg, which worked really well!

The result is a light, airy and fluffy gingerbread – It is best left for a day so that the flavour really has time to kick in.

Gingerbread

Ingredients

225g butter
225g dark muscovado sugar
225 black treacle
290ml full fat milk
340g plain flour
2 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground nutmeg
2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
2 eggs, beaten

Method
Pre-heat oven to 150degrees

1. Line a baking tin with parchment paper
2. Melt butter along with sugar and treacle in a saucepan. When melted, pour in milk and cool to room temperature
3. Sift flour with cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, bicarbonate of soda and then stir in eggs and melted mixture (once cooled!)
4. Pour into the prepared tin and place into the oven for 1 hour. Cover the top of the cake with parchment paper after 45 minutes in the oven
5. Check the cake after an hour – you’ll know that it is cooked when a skewer comes out clean
6. Leave the gingerbread to cool and then cut into slices

Enjoy with a cuppa!

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Two ways with Hummus – recipe

10 Feb

I just LOVE hummus. The humble chick pea is one of my favourite legumes because it is so versatile and tasty! I mostly add them to stews, my favourite being a curried chickpea and spinach stew. I haven’t made it for a while but it is sure to make an appearance on here soon.

My recent trip to Hummus Brothers inspired me to make my own hummus dishes. I made enough so that we could have it for dinner and then lunch the next two days! I have always previously used extra virgin olive oil in my recipe but decided to omit it this time and add a drizzle on at the end. I’ll give you the basic recipe for hummus below and show you two ways of serving, one for lunch and the other for dinner.

Ingredients

1 jar Tahini (roughly 250g)
300g dried chickpeas
70ml lemon juice (I used it from a bottle – very easy)
6 garlic cloves
1/2 tsp table salt (you may need more depending on how you want it to taste)
water (amount depends on how you want to consistency but it will be around 50ml)

Method

1. Soak the chickpeas in a large bowl of water overnight
2. Drain and place in a large pan of boiling water. Cook until soft (around 30 minutes)
3. Once soft, drain and place into a large food processor along with the lemon juice, garlic, salt, tahini and a drop of water
4. Blitz until smooth. You may need to add more water, lemon juice or salt to taste

Serving suggestion 1 – lunch

This is so cheap, delicious, easy to make and it will fill you up for hours!

1. Thinly slice a small red onion and marinade it in a splash (1 tbsp) red wine vinegar and a pinch of Cornish Sea Salt for a few minutes
2. Serve hummus with sliced baby vine tomatoes, cucumber, olive oil, paprika, lemon juice, onion and flat bread

Serving suggestion 2 – dinner

Again, extremely inexpensive and delicious. Serve with a side of tender stem broccoli

1. Keep some of the boiled chick peas back and set aside
2. Assemble hummus in the dish, drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle with paprika, add a squeeze of lemon juice and scatter the boiled chick peas over the top. Finish with half a boiled egg and a warmed flatbread

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Roast tomato, buffalo mozzarella and puy lentil salad

9 Feb

I had never cooked Puy Lentils until I made this salad. We have recently just moved into a new kitchen and the dried pulses now stand proud in kilner jars so that I can actually see them! The Puy Lentils sat neglected at the back of the cupboard in our old kitchen for so long – so I decided that it was time to put them to good use.

I roasted a whole chicken, along with some potatoes and served it with this salad. I roasted the tomatoes first in balsamic glaze, extra virgin olive oil and Cornish Sea Salt. There was also enough left over the lunch the next day, which was a huge bonus!

IMG_4939

Ingredients – serves 4 as a main or 6 as a side

200g Puy Lentils
2 tbsp fresh dill, chopped
3 tbsp fresh chives, chopped
1 small red onion
Glug of extra virgin olive oil
5 vine ripened tomatoes
Drizzle of balsamic glaze
Cornish Sea Salt
1 ball of good quality Buffalo Mozzarella
A few sprigs of rosemary
Glug (around 2 tbsp) red wine vinegar)

Method

Pre-heat the oven to 130degrees
1. Chop tomatoes into quarters, place in a baking tray and drizzle with extra virgin olive oil, balsamic glaze, sprinkle with salt and place a few sprigs of rosemary on the top. Roast for 1 1/2 hours or until soft. This is what mine looked like before roasting

2. Boil the lentils for 30 minutes, or until soft
3. Slice the onion very finely and place in a bowl with the red wine vinegar and a good pinch of salt
3. Drain the lentils and place in a large bowl along with the herbs, a glug of olive oil and the tomatoes
4. Drain the onions after a few minutes and serve on a large plate
5. Tear up the ball of mozzarella, throw it on a drizzle with extra virgin olive oil
6. Enjoy!

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Crayfish and Mushroom Risotto recipe

6 Feb

I bought a tub of Crayfish tails when I was trying to do my 6 weeks without sugar. I was going to use them for a salad but after giving up (let’s face it I only lasted 6 days!), salads weren’t high on the agenda anymore.

So I decided to cook a Crayfish and Mushroom Risotto. I didn’t have any fish stock in the store cupboard so I used Vegetable Stock instead but it was still absolutely delicious.

Risotto is so easy to make, although you do have to keep stirring the pan so that it doesn’t stick but it’s a delicious treat.

Ingredients (Serves 4)

20g butter
1 red onion, finely chopped
1 clove garlic, crushed
handful chestnut mushrooms, chopped in half
250g
100ml dry white wine
1 pint vegetable stock (I used Bouillon)
225g cooked crayfish tails
2 tbsp double cream
2 tbsp freshly grated parmesan
salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 tbsp flatleaf parsley, chopped

Method

1. In a large frying pan, melt the butter and sauté the onion until translucent (around 7 minutes). Add the garlic after about 4 minutes
2. Add the mushrooms and fry for a further 2 minutes
3. Add the risotto rice and fry for a minute or until the rice becomes translucent. Add the wine and simmer for 2 minutes
4. Start to add the vegetable stock, bit by bit. This is the secret to a good risotto! Stir constantly and reduce to a steady simmer. It should take about 15 minutes to add all of the stock
5. Add the crayfish right at the end, along with the parsley and double cream
6. Sprinkle with parsley, season with salt and pepper and serve

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Beer battered Squid and Baby Octopus

31 Jan

When we were wandering around Leederville in Perth, we stumbled upon a fantastic fishmonger called Kailis Bros. We stepped inside and saw a wide variety of fish on sale that had been caught that day.

We bought a few Red Snapper to BBQ but the Squid and Baby Octopus caught my eye. We got enough for a starter for everyone and it was very cheap. When we got back to the flat, we set to deep frying it. Serve with Mayonaise and a wedge of Lemon and you have a easy and tasty starter.

Ingredients

75g self-raising flour
100ml beer (we used Little Creatures Pale Ale)
Squid and Octopus to serve 5 people for starter
Salt and pepper
Sunflower oil (for deep frying)

Method

1. Heat the sunflower oil in a large pan
2. Sift the flour and a pinch of salt into a large bowl and whisk in the lager to make the batter. The consistency should be like very thick double cream
3. Season with salt and thickly coat Squid and Octopus with batter
4. With a slotted spoon, place the seafood in the hot sunflower oil and cook for 5 minutes until golden and crispy
5. Remove from the pan with the slotted spoon, drain and sit on a baking sheet lined with greaseproof paper, then keep warm in the oven if you have to do another batch
6. Serve with a wedge of lemon and mayonaise

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Pan Fried Sea Bass with Spinach and Tenderstem Broccoli

24 Jan

Before I went on holiday, I was told that they key to solving a problem that I’ve had with my stomach for a couple of years was to cut out sugar for 6 weeks. What I didn’t realise was that this meant cutting out most carbs (except Brown Rice, Sourdough Bread and a few Pulses), all fruit, tea, coffee, alcohol – and the list goes on.

Knowing that I was going to Australia, I decided to start the day I got back. I lasted 6 days without sugar and on the 7th day gave into a tripple chocolate chip cookie from Gails Bakery, oops.

If I wasn’t such a sweet freak and I didn’t live and breath food, this could potentially have been a doddle – but I just can’t give up the things that I love. However, the recipe below does prove that you can still eat a delicious meal – it’s just the pudding afterwards that is the problem!

IMG_4688

Ingredients (serves 2)

2 Sea Bass fillets
Pack of Tenderstem Broccoli
Pack of ready washed spinach
1 Chilli, finely chopped
2 Garlic cloves, finely chopped
Juice of 1 lemon
Olive Oil
Black Pepper and Salt to season

Method

1. Place spinach in a frying pan, season with salt and pepper and wilt. Once soft, add chilli and garlic and fry for 2 minutes. Take off the heat
2. Preheat a large frying pan. Rub fish fillets with Olive Oil, Salt and Pepper
3. Add fish fillets to the pre-heated frying pan skin side down and cook until the fish becomes white rather than translucent
4. Steam Brocolli
5. When the fish fillets are nearly white, flip over for a further minute
6. Serve and enjoy!

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