A lot to catch up on!

It has been quite the few months. My new cookery school is now up and running, and there are more recipes to catch up on that I could nearly spend a week posting to catch up!
We have completed four weeks of lessons. The first week was all about EGGS! My favourite ingredient. If you have eggs in the house, it is so easy to rustle up something delicious. Especially if they are delicious organic eggs.
The next week was all about fruit, and we made smoothies, stewed fruit and fruit salad kebabs.

The children tried all sorts of combos using the yummiest fruits and we learned all about how to peel, slice and cook them.

The next week was all about vegetables, and we made guacomole, we made different combos of winter vegetable puree. The students' favourites were butternut squash and celeriac. (My favourites too!)

Then last week we were cooking with beans and pulses. This was my favourite week, because we made Falafel, Hummus and homemade baked beans. The recipe for this is included below. I guarantee you that when you make these a couple of times it will be practically impossible to go back to tinned beans!

I know the photo could be better, but they are yum, and pretty quick to prepare.

Baked Beans

First heat up a saucepan and add a couple of tablespoons of vegetable oil along with a finely chopped onion, a grated clove of garlic and a teaspoon of fresh thyme leaves.
Sweat gently until the onions are soft and translucent.
Then add
1 tin of canellini or haricot beans, 1 tin of chopped tomatoes, 2 T tomato puree, 1 t caster sugar, 200ml vegetable stock, salt and pepper.
Stir well and bring to the boil. Lower to a simmer and allow to simmer for about 30 minutes or until the sauce has reduced and thickened.
Serve with just about anything!

I use canellini beans in this recipe, mainly because they are more widely available, but you could use haricot, kidney beans, chickpeas or whatever takes your fancy.

This week our class will be making homemade pasta and ravioli fillings.
Yum Yum!

The Kitchen Wizards

Hello everyone!

My website is nearly ready, but in the meantime, here are all the details for the classes.

The Kitchen Wizards Cookery School is for primary school and secondary school students, who want to learn to cook for themselves at home and entertain their family and friends.
We aim to make children confident and self-sufficient in the kitchen, learning about nutrition and being adventurous eaters along the way!
The classes are once a week after school for 1 1/2  hours and each term is 10 weeks long.
After each term, the students will host an evening for their family cooking some of the recipes they have learned.
Each ten week module costs €220 and all equipment and ingredients are supplied.

Classes are in

Ranelagh
Beechwood Community Centre, Mountainview road
Tuesdays starting 21st September
Age 6 - 12    3.30pm-5pm
Age 13 - 18  5.15pm-6.45pm

Baltinglass
The Lalor Centre
Wednesdays starting 22nd September
Age 6 - 12     3.30pm-5pm
Age 13 - 18   5.15pm-6.45pm

Blessington
St Kevins Community Centre
Thursdays starting 23rd September
Age 6 - 12 3.30pm-5pm

Age 13 - 18 5.15pm-6.45pm

To book your child into one of the classes, call me on 059 6473030 / 087 2109635

See you all soon!!!

Dog Day afternoon! (Blackcurrant jam)

Today was the our first full day with our new puppy Bruno. He is a border collie rescue dog, and pretty damn sharp! He is already coming to his name and sitting on command.
We spent as much time in the garden as possible in an effort to kickstart the house training. It is starting to click with him where he is supposed to go, now he just needs to go there!
Garden time meant that I had lots of time to pick blackcurrants. It is a time consuming but very enjoyable task. I am sure there is a speedy efficient way to pick them, but I have yet to stumble upon it. The dog was very involved, inspecting tne contents of my basin from time to time, and sampling the odd dropped berry. I think he just sucked the juice and spat out the berry. Either way I feel he has had a paw in the making of this jam! Bless his little cotton socks if he is not all tuckered out now and fast asleep with his new buddy.

With such a crop of blackcurrants, jam was really the best use of this bounty, so I fished out my Ballymaloe cookery school book. Honestly who else could you turn to when it comes to the self-sufficiency of jam making only Darina herself. There is something very reassuring about her traditional recipes. They are written with conviction, experience and gravitas. No mere mortal could ever question her judgement on such matters. Her book is comprehensive in its details. You are given clear instructions on sterilising jars,storage, equipment etc. I felt tremendously equipped.

After picking about half the berries on the bush, I felt I had more than enough, so proceeded to de-stalk them, a task ideally suited for someone whos' primary objective was to monitor the bladder habits of a 10 week old puppy. This process takes some time. For my 800g of blackcurrants, this took an hour and a half. The type of job that is supposed to be good for activating the creative side of the brain. Indeed I found myself dreaming up colour schemes for the new flower bed I will never get around to planting.

(This is not 800g but merely a pretty picture!)

Next, I located a few jam jars and cleaned them thouroughly. (Or rather, Declan cleaned them thoroughly!) They need to be sterilised and Darina details a number of ways to do this including putting them through the dishwasher. I filled them with boiling water and emptied them out and put them in the oven preheated to 180c to dry. They only take a few minutes to dry out, and then they are ready for filling.

So next. I used a wide heavy bottomed saucepan and greased it. Then in went my 800g of now washed blackcurrants and 530ml water. Accurate quantities are very important as jam making is as much chemistry as it is cooking. Or 'Alchemy' as Nigella calls it.
With blackcurrant jam you must let the berries cook down until they are burst and soft so they don't end up tough in the jam. This takes about 10ish minutes. In the meantime, put 1kg of sugar into a stainless steel bowl, I used the lid of roasting tin, and put it into an oven at 150c for 10 minutes. Add the sugar to the softened fruit and stir until dissolved. Bring to the boil and cook for 20 minutes stirring frequently.  You can skim the foam off as you go. To test that it is at setting point, you can use a candy thermometer, and when the mixture reaches 105c it is done, or you can every few minutes (after about 15 mins) put a teaspoon of mixture onto a cold plate and allow to sit for a few minutes. If it wrinkles when you push it with your finger, then you are ready to pot it up.

I skimmed off the last little bit of foam from the top and ladled the mixture into the jars.
I was not really prepared for potting jam, so I only had parchment with which to cover the jam. I got 4 pots out of this mixture. Can't imagine it will last too long, we do go through jam in this house.
Probably not a good sign!

When the last bit of jam that I put in a bowl had cooled, we tried it on some buttermilk pancakes. I had some batter left over from this morning, and made little bitesized ones just to test the jam.

I was terribly pleased with myself, with my new dog, homegrown berries and homemade jam on pancakes. Although my waistline is not really benetitting from such an exercise, this is the kind of cooking that kids love, and it teaches them really how much damn sugar there is in jam!

Bye for now and woof from Bruno x

Toad in the hole and Millionaire's squares

Well now that the house is back to normal with just the usual amount of chaos (!) and we have eaten the results of the cookery classes, it's time to start adding a few new ones to the blog.

Yesterday I made caramel millionaire's squares. I have never made them before, they always look delicious in cafes but are almost always a disappointment. I think they need to be eaten while still very fresh.

I got the recipe from the condensed milk tin and it could not be simpler.

Millionaire's squares

First make the base, you can make a shortbread biscuit base with 25g melted butter and 200g crushed shortbread biscuits but having no biscuits, i just made a pastry base and blind baked it first. (Recipe is in an older entry, you will find it if you search on the side bar)
Then make the caramel. I used a large non-stick frying pan.

Melt
150g soft dark brown sugar
150g butter
until the butter is melted and the sugar is dissolved.
Then add
1 tin of condensed milk.
Stir occasionally and wait for the caramel to start bubbling, take it off the heat and pour over the pastry/biscuit base.
Allow to cool and then put in the fridge until set. (It won't harden, but will firm up a little.

Melt 200g chocolate (milk/dark) and pour over the top, spreading evenly.
Put it back in the fridge so the chocolate hardens and cut into squares.

They are rich, but very tasty. I would say if you leave them too long the pastry could go very dry. Thar won't be a problem in my house, the kids have taken to checking on them every half hour to make sure they are still there for dessert after dinner!

For lunch today, we made mini Toad in the Hole.

The kids loved it, and Robyn made the batter. Unfortunately I didn't think to take pictures, but next time.

First put a little sunflower oil into each cup of a muffin tray.

Put it into the oven and preheat to 200c. You want the oil to reach that temperature too.

Next cook 12 sausages or 24 cocktail sausages until cooked. Cut the large ones in two.

Make the batter by whisking

110g plain flour

2 eggs

pinch of salt

300ml milk

until smooth with no lumps until the consistency of cream.

When the oven hits its heat, take out the muffin tray carefully. The oil will be very hot.

Put two halves of the sausage, or two cocktail sausages in each section and fill with batter. The mixture should  make 12 exactly.

As quickly as you can put the tray back in the oven and bake for 10-12 minutes until they are puffy and golden brown. They will rise up dramatically.

Robyn likes sitting in front of the oven and watches them rise!!!

Who needs TV?!

When out of the oven they collapse a little. If you leave them to cool for a couple of munutes they shrink and are easier to remove from the tray.

We had them with fried onions and onion gravy (instant) Not the healthiest combo, but it was just what we needed on a horrible rainy day.

Baking day. Cheese and Bacon scones, plain scones, banana cake, shortbread, chocolate muffins, and busy bees!

Well. I am done! Three days, 12 children, 50 eggs, 6 kilos of flour and one scarred kitchen later!

Todsy was the busiest day, I knew it would be. It always surprises me when I hear parents saying they bake with the kids, but don't make dinners. Baking is the hardest. The kids eat all the ingreadients as they go, usually end up wearing half of what they are making and want the results immediately!! Dinners are a far less excitable affair.
All that aside, today was fantastic. The chidren in the workshop were patient and keen and the results were great. Although I think my own daughter left out the sugar in the banana bread, I just had a piece and can pretty much say for sure that there ain't no sugar in it!

My favourite from today, (a view also held by an 8 year old participant called Hannah) were
Cheese and Bacon scones.
They were light, but savoury and were a perfect lunch for us when we took a break.

The ingredients are:

450g plain flour

1 t bicarb of soda
1 t cayenne pepper (optional)
1 t salt
30g cold butter diced
110g bacon grilled and chopped (I actually put the bacon in a hot oven for 8 mins)
110 g gruyere or cheddar cheese
1 egg
375 ml buttermilk

Preheat the oven to 220c and flour a non-stick baking tray
First, sift the dry ingredients into a bowl and stir. Rub in the cold butter until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs.
Add the bacon (finely chopped) and the cheese.
Beat the egg and add the buttermilk.

Add the egg and milk to the mixture and stir until it comes together.
It will form a sticky dough so flour your board well before putting it down to roll.

Roll out to a thickness of 2-3 cm and cut into the shape of your choice. We used circles and squares just for variety! Brush with a little beaten egg or milk.

Put them on a lightly floured tray and bake for between 12-15 mins depending on the size of the scones.
Leave to cool on a wire rack.
This mixture makes at least 12 scones

Plain/Fruit scones

These are really simple and if you make them in a large quantity they freeze really well.


Ingredients


225g self raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
Pinch of salt
50g cold butter diced
50g caster sugar
150ml buttermilk
1`beaten egg
50g sultanas

Preheat the oven to 180c and flour a non-stick baking tray
Sift the dry ingredients together and stir to combine. Rub in the butter with your fingertips until the mixture resemble breadcrumbs.
Add in the sugar and the sultanas if you are adding them and stir.
Mix the egg and buttermilk together and add to the dry ingredients, making a dough as you did with the scones above.
Roll out gently on a floured surface, cut into shapes & place on the tray. Brush with a little beaten egg or milk and bake for 12-15 minutes.

Leave to cool on a wire rack


We made chocolate muffins next, the recipe is in the posting a couple of days ago. The shortbread recipe is the one Daniel used to make strawberry shortcake, also in an old posting. (You can find all these if you search for them in the bar on the right.)

I am afraid the banana cake recipe is a little secret, only to be divulged upon completion of a course. It goes back years and I have to have something that's my own!

The busy bees on the other hand are a gorgeous little recipe and they need neither cooking nor chilling. The all important instant results! Perfect for making with really small children and really very nutritious. It is an Annabel Karmel recipe.

Busy Bees

In a bowl mix the following ingredients together in no particular order!

1 Weetabix crushed up
4 T peanut butter
1 T skimmed milk powder (such as Marvel)
1 T sesame seeds
1 T honey

Stir all the ingredients together and with your hand make little bee shapes, kind of like mini weetabix pieces.

Decorate with white buttons for the wings and choc chips for the eyes. If you dip a cocktail stick first into water then into cocoa, you can paint on stripes for the bees back. Apologies for the awful photograph.

So that was it! A successful few days. I will keep you all posted on the cookery school website, and once it's up, I will be back to family meals here on the blog.

See y'all soon!
P.S. Check out my kitchen after today!!

Kitchen Wizards Dinner day.... Lasagna, Parmesan Chicken goujons, homemade ketchup and egg fried rice.

Day two!
Well it was a great day. 5 very hard workers and keen eaters too. The perfect combination.
We started with the goujons so that they would be in  the fridge ready for us to eat at lunchtime.

Chicken goujons

6 chicken fillets (makes about 36 goujons)

Adults will eat 5-6 of these and kids usually between 4-5. You feed alot of people with this little recipe. Especially if you serve them with potato wedges. Then an average 'big person' would eat 4 goujons.

Cut the fillets into 6 strips. The thinner they are, the easier they are to cook. If you opt for fat chunks then you will be dealing with overcooked breadcrumbs and pink insides. Trust me..... cut them into thin strips!

Then, on a plate put 75g plain flour, a teaspoon of salt and teaspoon of ground black pepper.

In a bowl, beat 2 eggs.

In a large bowl/pyrex dish, put in a 200g packet of breadcrumbs (save yourselves the grief folks and buy the breadcrumbs.) and add 100g finely grated parmesan cheese. Season with 1/2 t each of salt and pepper.


Now you are ready to go.

First dip the chicken pieces into the flour, shake off the excess and then coat in beaten egg and then straight into the breadcrumbs. Leave on a tray coated in greaseproof paper until ready to cook. They can stay in the fridge for up to 24 hours like this until you are ready to cook them.

To cook the goujons, heat a frying pan with a couple of tablespoons of sunflower oil and wait for it to heat up so that when you drop a breadcrumb in, it sizzles without burning.
Fry the goujons for about 4 mins on each side. Check one to make sure they are cooked. They should loose their springiness as they cook and become firm, but I still cut open one to check, in case I poison one of my guests!

Serve with homemade tomato ketchup. This was a real hit with all the kids. I was surprised, I was expecting some faces, as it is has a real kick.

Tomato Ketchup

2 medium onions, chopped

2 garlic cloves, chopped
2 cans whole tomatoes, drained
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup cider vinegar
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 cinnamon stick
1 teaspoon chili powder
1 teaspoon dijon mustard
1 teaspoon paprika


Sweat off the onion and garlic in a couple of tablespoons of olive oil, then add all the other ingredients. I would let this simmer away on a medium heat for about 50 minutes. Then cool the mixture before putting into a blender or using a hand  blender , (like the one you use on baby food) to blend to a smooth creamy sauce.
The longer you leave this sauce to reduce, the more intense the flavour gets.
I have deliberately left out the salt and pepper in this as the flavours are pretty intense, and the more you can eliminate salt from things the better/

When blended, allow cool, before serving with absolutely everything! I would even include cornflakes in that list!


Lasagna

This is a recipe I make alot, but still need to refer to my little recipe notebook for the ingredients. Every cook has their own version and this is mine. I have flown by the seat of my pants a few times but it is always a little different if I don't follow the recipe. The spices are what it's all about here.

So..... the pasta

I usually make my own. Only because I am used to doing it, and any time I make lasagna I am using it as a method of escape! But it does taste better and is worth it, but only if you have time.
You can make pasta with a rolling pin, but you need to be prepared to lean on it seriously.
A pasta maker is not too expensive, and is really a great way of keeping the kids occupied, it's like a playdough product! And pasta is indestructible.

Anyhow, if you decide to buy lasagna sheets, skip the next bit. If you buy the fresh lasagna sheets from the fridge section, you can put them straight into the dish with the two sauces, but if you buy the dry stuff, then you need to cook them in boiling water first so they are pliable.


Ok. Now. Pasta!

You need 150g '00' flour (get this in Fallon and Byrne or Get Fresh or the like) or Strong White bread flour
100g Semolina
1 whole egg and 4 egg yolks

In a bowl, mix the flours together. Beat the eggs together and add to the flour.
Use your hands to bring the dough together. You are looking for a smooth elastic dough that is not sticky and behaves like a rubber ball! Knead until silky and divide into about 6 pieces. Roll out each piece and if you are using a rolling pin, keep doubling up and re-rolling until it is smooth and thin.
If you are using a machine, keep rolling through the machine on decreasingly low settings until you have a very thin sheet of pasta.

Leave to sit between sheets of greaseproof or parchment while you make the sauce.


Tomato sauce

In a pot put

2 chopped onions
2 crushed cloves of garlic
2 medium carrots chopped finely
2 sticks of celery chopped finely

with a couple of tablespoons of olive oil.
Allow to sweat until a little soft and add


2 T chopped sundried tomatoes
1 t grated nutmeg
1 t paprika
1 t oregano
1 t basil
1 t salt
1 t pepper
A dash of Worcestshire sauce

Then add 2 tins of chopped tomatoes to the mix and stir well.
Allow the mixture to come to the boil and simmer for a about 20 minutes or until the carrots have softened. Then using a hand blender, blitz the sauce until smooth.

In another large pot, pop in 1 kg or 2lbs of round steak mince to dry fry.
Put the pan on a high heat and stir the meat occasionally until it is cooked through. (It will look grey and umappealing but the sauce will bring it to life!)
When the meat is cooked, add it to the blitzed sauce and leave on a very low simmer while you cook the cheese sauce.

In a small saucepan, put 75g of butter and allow to melt and add 75g of flour. Mix until combined and cook out for a few minutes and add 500ml of milk gradually while whisking with a hand whisk.
Keep whisking on the heat until thick and smooth.
Then add 120g ish of cheddar cheese grated/ Whisk until all combined.

Now. Assembly!

In a large lasagna dish, put half the meat sauce in the bottom. Then layer on your pasta, covering all the meat. You can cut the pasta into whatever size or dimensions you need to compelete this task.
Then a layer of cheese sauce. Now the rest of the meat and now more pasta.
Finish with the rest of the cheese sauce and top with more grated cheese.

Bake this at 200c for 30 mins or until the cheese on top is bubbly.

The kids today did a wonderful job of their lasagnas. I used little foil takeaway boxes for each of them which is two servings and they made gorgeous pasta, yummy tomato sauce and perfectly smooth cheese sauce.
I am so proud of them all!


This is not a quick recipe nor is it convenient, but it is plentiful and fantastic to freeze.
I love when you can get those foil lasagna dishes and I make it in those, and freeze them. Great standby for when you have a pile of kids over and no time to cook.

The Kitchen Wizards Cookery School is open for business!

Well today was my first day of my new career. I have packed in my perfectly good teaching job to start my own cookery school. It is something that has been gestating for a good while now and I decided if I didn't make the jump now, I never would.
So today was day one of the summer workshops. I have three day workshops running just for the summer and in september I am kicking off the after school classes, which will be the bread and butter of the business.

I had 5 kids today and we covered 5 recipes that are all lunchbox friendly. The idea is that the children would do a bit of cooking at the weekend and have some yummy food for their luncboxes during the week. The salads are easy prepared the night before.

The picture is I know not brilliant, but from left to right, we made; Wizard drumsticks, Couscous salad, Pasta salad, Mini Quiches and White bread rolls.

The Quiche recipe and the White bread recipe is already on the blog, the other three are below.

Wizard Drumsticks

Marinade

150ml greek yoghurt

2 T redcurrant jelly
1 T wholegrain mustard
1 garlic clove crushed
Juice and rind of one lemon

Mix all the marinade ingredients together in the dish.

Remove the skin from 8 chicken drumsticks and coat them in the marinade. Leave in the dish to soak up all the flavour and to tenderise, preferably overnight, but a couple of hours does the trick too.

Roast in a roasting tin at 190c for 50 minutes.
Can be served hot or cold.

Couscous salad

200g couscous

250ml hot vegetable stock

First pour the stock over the couscous and allow to soak up for 3-4 minutes. Always stir couscous with a fork, it helps to keep it fluffy.

Then add;

2 red dessert apples diced
125g cheddar cheese diced
75g sultanas
8 T apple juice
1 T chopped parsley

Mix through and serve.

Pasta salad.

100g pasta shapes cooked and drained

2 T sunflower oil
1 t sundried tomato paste (jar of sacla)
1 t white wine vinegar
½ small carrot diced
1 tomato diced
50g cheddar or mozzarella cheese diced
Chopped basil to taste


Personally I prefer mozarella with this recipe. If you add the pasta hot to the rest of the ingredients, then the mozzarella melts a little and makes a sauce almost.
Incorporate all the ingredients together and serve.
 
Tomorrow is dinners; lasagna, chicken goujons, and butternut spaghetti.
 
See y'all tomorrow.
 
 
 

Croque Bateau and Chocolate Muffins for Alex.

We were down on the boat for the past week and weekend before. Hence the lack of posts.
Cooking on the boat is a little different from at home, mainy because the storage space is limited enough, so you have to know well in advance what you are making before the event.
These Croque Monsieurs are not technically perfect. I am not sure Julia Child or most of France would consider this an accurate representation. This is why I call it Croque Bateau, and anyway I think this way is nicer.
I don't do these at home as much as I do them on the boat. Anytime I do them at home, it reminds me that I am most definitely NOT on holidays and it does me no good.

They can be customised to have whatever topping you want. Mustard is a lovely addition as is Gruyere cheese or red onion.

Croque Bateau
makes 5 slices

First, beat 4 eggs in a decent sized dish, big enough to accomodate the slices of bread you are using.
Add a splash (1/4 cup is plenty) of milk and plenty of salt and pepper. (1/2 teaspoon of each perhaps.)
Beat well with awhisk and set aside.

Heat a frying pan and add a knob of butter and a little sunflower oil to stop the butter from burning.
Turn on the grill to high also and let it heat up.

Slice the bread you are using. I like the Tiger loaf they do in Tesco or a piece of Vienna loaf. But you can used any bread at all, with the exception of  brown soda bread, I expect it would not stay together.

Dip the bread into the egg a slice at a time and allow to soak up the egg on both sides. Not for too long or it will be too soggy and maybe disintegrate. You are talking 20 seconds on each side.

Lay 2 slices at a time in the pan and allow to cook to golden brown on one side and turn. This takes a couple of minutes only.
When golden side up and cooking on the other side, lay your toppings onto the bread. I use ham and grated cheddar cheese. Cover with plenty of cheese. Then remove to the grill tray and wait until all five pieces are done.
If there is any egg left in the bowl, I pour it over the cheesey side (making an unmerciful mess in the grill tray.

They grill under a high heat until the cheese is bubbly and golden brown.

Serve with a green salad (and a nice glass of white for the grown ups!)

Chocolate buns for Alex's birthday
This is my first blog request and it goes to Alex Twyford Mulligan who has a big birthday coming up in July! So Happy Birthday in advance Alex xxx
I make these a lot and have been popular with adults and children alike. This recipe is actually for a cake and so can be used as such in two 20cm sandwich tins or one 23cm springform tin.

This recipe makes about 12 cupcakes or 18-20 mini muffins.

Preheat the oven to 180c
Line your cupcake cases

First in a bowl over a saucepan of simmering water, melt

125g dark chocolate
3 Tbsp Milk

Then in a bowl or a mixer, beat until fluffy

150g soft butter
150g caster sugar

Add one at a time

3 eggs

and beat until combined

Then fold in the melted chocolate and
1 Tbsp of strong coffee cooled (this brings out the chocolatey flavour) and
1 tsp vanilla extract

Sift in and fold

200g plain flour
1 Tbsp cocoa powder
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp bicarb

Fold gently until combined.

(If you wanted chocolate chip muffins, add 150g chips to the mixture along with the flour. I would actually coat them in flour first so they don't stick together.)

Divide the mixture into the cases. Don't overfill the cases as they rise and are tricky to ice if they are too big.
I use one of those ice cream scoops that have a lever to scrape out the mixture. I use half a scoop for each muffin.

Bake  for 15- 18 minutes, but check them after 12 just in case your oven is more efficient than mine! You want a skewer to come out clean, that is when you know they are cooked.

Cool on a wire rack while making the icing of your choice.

Icing options

A nice simple and yummy option is just to pour over melted Dairy Milk chocolate.
For this many muffins you would need at least 150g. Although I would use 200g to be safe

You could make chocolate butter icing using 75g soft butter 175g icing sugar 1 Tbsp cocoa and a few drops of vanilla. Beat with a mixer until  smooth and fluffy

or my personal. favourite is Peanut butter icing from Barefoot Contessa (I literally just copied and pasted this from her page)

1 cup icing sugar


1 cup creamy peanut butter

5 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature

3/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/3 cup double cream

Place the icing sugar, peanut butter, butter, vanilla, and salt in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Mix on medium-low speed until creamy, scraping down the bowl with a rubber spatula as you work. Add the cream and beat on high speed until the mixture is light and smooth.


Enjoy the party Alex!


 

Pavlova buddies!

I made a pavlova today for all my friends in work, as a thank you for their lovely farewell gift. (I am leaving work you see) I had enough whites left over from all the patisserie cream, which was good and they were nice large eggs so it was a generous sized cake.
It went down well, so I reckoned i should put the recipe up, for you all to try it for yourselves! Technically this was not cooked with the kids, but seriously, it is a foolproof recipe, especially if you have a mixer.
I have no photos, i apologise but will add one the next time I bake a pavlova. This is my mother's recipe and I always have to call her for reassurance that I have the right quantities and oven temp! It's funny when a dish is linked to a person, it will always be theirs, and i always feel I need to make contact every time I make it. Although in this case it is because my mother is so good at it. I have yet to achieve the perfect form of a pavlova that she manages every time.
Maybe some day!

First, put 8 egg whites and a pinch of salt into a mixer, or into a bowl to be whisked with a hand held electric whisk, and beat for 4-5 minutes at least until in stiff peaks. Then add 250g of caster sugar gradually, a spoon at a time until the mixture is glossy and in stiff peaks. Turn off the mixer and add a further 250g of caster sugar and fold in.
You also need to fold in 1t of vanilla ext 1t of cornflour and 1t of white vinegar.
This addition is what stops the meringue from drying out and makes that marshmallow texture inside the pav.
When folding use a large metal spoon. Oh and by the way, the bowl you use must be spotless and grease free or the whites will not whip up properly.
(Also, I usually use golden caster for baking, but I use white caster for this to get the perfect white interior)

Thats it! Then dollop the mixture onto a parchment lined baking sheet, and form into a circle. Nice and deep. Although it rises in the oven, it collapses at the end in a heartbreaking manner. Don't despair, it will still be yummy. It will also crack and bits break off the side. Also stressful, but again, par for the course.

Allow 1 1/2 hours for baking at 140c and turn the oven off and leave it in the oven to cool. I didn't take it out until the next morning! It was just fine, albeit a little cracked like a drought-stricken landscape, but the whipped cream fixed that!
I whipped a whole 500ml of cream into a fairly thick whip, but not butter!
Then added 4, yes 4 punnets of raspberries.
This sounds extravagant and indeed it is. But there is no holding back when it comes to a pavlova, it is a diva of a dessert, it needs pampering.
It does serve up to 16 people depending on the lavishness of your portion sizes. But I reckon this one yielded about 12 very generous slices today.

Cake Thursday!

The office where my husband Declan works have introduced a lovely little practice of bringing in homebaking every Thursday. They take it in turns to bring in a cake as per the rota, and by all accounts they take their baking responsibilities very seriously. They even have a mini fridge too so they can keep everything fresh until coffee time in the afternoon. I think it is a great idea, more people should be doing things like it.
So it was Declan's turn this week. He had been toying around with a few ideas, but decided on this little fruit tart. I had made it before and brought it into school. It was a popular one, and most of it can be made in advance, only assembly required in the morning.
Declan is a very capable cook, and I know it sounds funny, but a great recipe follower. (Not everyone is!) He is faithful to the instructions and the results are always exactly as they are supposed to look in the picture. He has great patience for time consuming recipes. He makes the tastiest and smoothest mashed potato, I am convinced it is because of how long he perseveres with the masher, but he won't give away his secret!

Anyway, apart from the strawberry topping, there are two stages to this recipe, neither take that long.

Declan doubled the ingredients below to make one large strawberry pie and six small ones topped with raspberries and blueberries. But the recipe below is for one big one.

First make the pastry. I use my old reliable recipe that goes into the food processor.

200g plain flour
100g cold butter diced
1 beaten egg.

I whizz up te flour and butter until crumbly and then while still mixing, pour in the beaten egg until it forms a dough. Stop the machine as soon as it comes together.

Roll out the dough onto a floured board and line greased and floured tin with about 1/2 cm thick pastry.

Chill the pastry in the tin in the fridge while you make the patisserie cream.

You will need
5 large or 6 medium egg yolks
3/4 cup caster sugar
3 T cornflour
1 1/2 cups milk
1/2 t vanilla extract
1 t cognac
1 T butter
1 T double cream

First put the sugar and yolks into a mixer and beat until the mixture is very pale and thick. It needs about 4--5 minutes in the mixer. You could use an electric hand whisk or indeed a balloon whisk, but good luck with the arm muscles!!

In the meantime, heat the milk in a saucepan until just below boiling point.
Into the sugar and egg mixture, add the cornflour and mix on low speed. Keep on low and gradually add the hot, so as not to cook the eggs. When all the milk is added, return the mixture to a saucepan and cook on a low to medium heat, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon until the mixture gets really thick, like thick yoghurt. If it starts to curdle, just take a whixk and beat furiously until it becomes smooth!

When thickened, remove from the heat and add the vanilla, cognac, butter and cream, and stir to combine.
Pass the mixture through a sieve into a bowl and cover with cling film so that it is directly on the surface of the patisserie cream. This stops it from forming a skin.
Cool and then chill in the fridge until you are ready to use it,

In the meantime, bake the pastry blind.
I do this by covering the pastry with parchment, (you could use foil either) making sure it goes up the sides, and fill with dry chick peas.

Bake at 180c for 20 minutes then remove the paper and beans, prick the base a few times with a fork and continue to bake for a further 5 minutes. This crisps up the pastry and makes it light golden brown.
Take it out and cool.

To assemble, pour the cream mixture into the pastry shell and top with berries. You don't need sugar.

Then heat a few tablespoons of apricot jam in a pan with a teaspoon of water until it is liquidy, and brush onto the tart and fruit with a pastry brush to glaze.

Great for summer dinner parties and of course office coffee breaks!

Just before I go, I want to fill you in on Daniel's recipe for Strawberry Shortbread.

We were in my parents house last week one of the really sunny days, and Dad had the BBQ going. Daniel threw on a few shortbread biscuits.

Robyn was in charge of strawberries, Daniel did the biscuits and cream and I was on wash up. Nice!

Strawberry Shortbread

In a food proccessor put
75g plain flour
50g cold butter
25g sugar

Blitz until a dough forms, roll out, cut into fingers and bake at 180c on a lined tin for about 8 minutes until light golden.

Serve with strawberries (sugared) and cream.

Yum!!

A busy week. Lemon meringue bites, carrot cake buns, brown bread, roasted squash spaghetti & peanut butter cookies.

Our kitchen has been busy this week. Dinners have been mainly the old stand-bys from before, but I have one new one, courtesy of the Good Mood Food blog, I promise you will like it!  

I have a few baking bits and bobs to post too, things I have been baking for a while, but have not gotten around to putting on the blog. 

Brown bread.  

This is not soda bread, but a nutty wheaten loaf, easy to make and quick to cook. Just make sure you have buttermilk in the fridge, it makes all the difference.

First add the dry ingredients to the bowl. This is where you can add whatever takes your fancy. Bran is nice too and wheatgerm with honey is lovely. Experiment, it won't make any difference to the success of the bread, it will just customise the flavour.

400g course wholemeal flour

100g plain white flour sifted

75ish g mixed seeds.  I use poppy, sesame, pumpkin and sunflower. 

50g wheatgerm (optional)

1 rounded t bicarb soda sifted

1 t salt

Stir and and make a well in the centre into which you add;

1 T treacle

400ml buttermilk

1 beaten egg

2 T sunflower oil

Mix into a fairly wet mixture and pour into a well buttered loaf tin (13 x 23cm)

Bake at 200c for about 50 minutes, check it and put back for 5-10 minutes depending on your oven. It should sound hollow when you tap the bottom.

Cool on a wire rack.

This freezes well too, so if you are the only brown bread lover in your family you could freeze half and use half. It does keep well, up to a week in the bread bin, but you will be toasting it after about 4 days!!

Roast Squash Spaghetti

This recipe is from the Good Mood Food book. I envy his photography, this picture is a bit messy looking, but it is a yummy dish. He has a great blog (check it out) but I am a cook book fanatic so had to buy the hard copy!

A lot of his food is very tasty looking and healthy too, but the kids were not crazy about the sound of some of them. I am determined to prove them wrong!

This one was a major hit, notwithstanding the fact that I oversalted the spaghetti, but I will know not to the next time!

Ingredients are highlighted green.

First, chop up a butternut squash. I chopped it into large dice, about the size of half a cherry tomato.

Add the squash into a roasting dish or tin with a punnet of cherry tomatoes, a handful of bacon bits or pancetta lardons 

(you can get small packs of bacon bits in the cooked meats section ot the supermarket. Lidl do a very cheap two pack. They freeze well too)

Add in a glug of olive oil, about a tablespoon, a tablespoon of honey, salt. pepper, 1 t hot chili powder and 1 t cinnamon, 

Toss everything around in the dish and roast at 220c for about 30 minutes. 

15 from the end, put on the spaghetti in lightly salted water. (The dish is salty so don't go overboard like I did!)

When the spaghetti is cooked, drain it and pop it into the dish of veg, which should now be cooked. You want the squash to be a bit mushy on the outside to coat the spaghetti.

Serve with chopped fresh basil.

I didn't have any but it was very nice with freshly grated parmesan.  I would say this would be a lovely vegetarian dish, maybe you could substitute the bacon with feta or halloumi cheese. 

Next, 

Lemon Meringue Bites.

I am really proud of these, although the recipe is someone else's, It was all my idea to make them tiny finger sized, and they worked really well. A nice size to have with a cuppa, and easy to transport.

 

I made a few tartlet sized ones to use up the pastry as my mini muffin tin only holds twelve at a time and I could not be bothered doing batches. We had these for dessert, and I gave the others to friends, so everyone was happy.

First, make the pastry in the food processor. Mix 200g plain flour and 100g cold diced butter until fine like peas, and add a beaten egg. Whizz until it forms a dough and immediately stop,

Roll out the dough on a floured board and cut into circles a bit bigger than the muffin holders.

Chill the pastry and preheat the oven to 180c.

While it is chilling, make the lemon curd.

This is a Barefoot Contessa recipe (hence the cup measures) and it truly could not be easier.

First. in a mixer, put;

1 cup caster sugar and 125g soft butter

Cream these together and add'

4 yolks and 4 whole eggs (keep the whites aside in a bowl for later)

Mix until incorporated and add pinch of salt and 3/4 cup of lemon juice and 1/4 cup of zest. (about 4 lemons)

It will look curdled at this stage, but don't panic, it will come together over the heat.

In a saucepan on a medium heat, pour the mixture and stir with a wooden spoon until smooth and creamy.

Set aside to cool.

While it is cooling bake the little pastry cases blind 

(cover with foil discs and fill with dry beans like chick peas)

 It will take about 5-10 minutes until the pastry is dried out and light golden in colour.

Leave the oven on.

Take out and cool.

Next, make the meringue.

Whip up the 4 room temp egg whites with a pinch of salt and 1/4 tsp cream of tarter (Bextarter) until fluffy, then gradually add 1/2 cup of caster sugar while it is whipping until the whites hold stiff peaks and are glossy. 

Now to assemble!!

Fill the cool cases with curd, about a teaspoon and a half depending on the size of the cases,

Pipe or spoon the whipped meringue on top making sure it is stippled, so it browns.

Cook for literally 4-5 minutes, watching closely so it does not over cook,

The meringue will be still white and soft inside but the edges will have browned. 

These are so worth the effort. You can have the cases and curd done well in advance, so it'd be good for a party. If you want to make one whole pie, just use a 23 cm tin and blind bake for 20 minutes. Then fill the case with the curd and top with all meringue.

I had a good bowl of curd left and the kids had it on toast the next morning. I also folded some of it into whipped cream and served it with raspberries as a dessert the following night. That was also yummy.

Ok so what's next.

Carrot Cake Buns.

This is just a Carrot cake recipe in bun sizes, but almost across the board the buns are more popular as they are easier to eat!

First prepare by grating the carrot, zesting and juicing the oranges and chopping the nuts and the whole process will be much quicker.

In a mixer, or with an electric hand whisk, cream together;

285g soft butter

285g light brown sugar

Then add one at a time;

5 egg yolks (reserve the whites)

zest and juice of one orange  

Then add and mix gently with a wooden spoon;

170g self raising flour sifted

1 heaped t baking powder

115g ground almonds

115g roughly chopped pecans

285g grated carrot

1/2 t cinnamon

1 t mixed spice

1/2 t ground ginger

(You can mess around with the spices according to your taste, but they are fairly subtle, so don't be worried that they will overpower the mixture.)

When mixed well, beat the egg whites until stiff peak stage and fold into the cake mixture. 

If you are baking as one cake, put into a 20cm square tin or two loaf tins and bake at 180c for 50 mins. Check with a skewer after 45 to be sure.

If you are making cupcakes they only need about 12-15 mins max. Again, check at 12 as ovens do vary.

These cupcakes freeze very well. Defrost overnight, and they taste as if they are almost freshly baked.

The icing is only gorgeous!!!

Mix 100g mascarpone cheese, 100g Philadelphia, 85g icing sugar and 1 lemon (juice and zest.)

Please do not be tempted to get low fat cheese, i did once and it was an unmitigated disaster. I curdled badly and tasted awful. Never again! If you are in for a penny in for a few pounds I say!!

Ice when the cake is cold or it will melt.

Ok. Last one!!

Peanut Butter Cookies a la Daniel.

These are from my first cookbook, called Kitchen Wizard, a truly spectacular little book that is alas out of print.

I am calling my cookery school after it, and will be boring you with all those details in the not too distant future, but now, on the the cookies!!

Preheat the oven to 180c

Line a cookie sheet with parchment

In a mixer, or in a bowl with a wooden spoon, cream together

125g soft butter

125g peanut butter

125g soft brown sugar

125g granulated sugar

Mix until light and fluffy and add 

1 egg 

1/2 t vanilla

Sift in 150g self raising flour. 

The dough will be soft and you need to make little balls of dough gently in your hand and place them on the tray.

Leave space between them as they will spread out a bit.

Dip a fork into water and use to flatten the dough balls into little discs.

Bake for 10-12 minutes until light golden, (we let some of ours go a little too dark and they were bitter)

Cool on a wire rack.

Now!!! I am all tuckered out after that mammoth post. But it feels like I have covered this weeks highlights.

Talk to y'all soon!

Waffles for Breakfast

My mother gave me her waffle iron about ten years ago that she had been given by her good friend Diane. It came from America in the late seventies I think, and it is still the most dependable piece of kitchen equipment I have (with the exception of course of my Kitchenaid!) It is not electric, you have to sit it on the hob and turn it over from time to time. It has a thermometer, but as I am sure you can see by the picture above, it is illegible, so I have to guess when the heat is right. Often the first batch stick a little, but they cook fine and the kids always step in to do a taste test on the basis that they are not pretty enough to be served to guests!

Indeed we had guests last night, hence the big breakfast. The kids always use the opportunity to request pancakes or waffles, often together. Not the best for the waistline!

I use the mixer for this recipe, and go by american cup measures as it is much, much quicker.

The recipe says 6 teaspoons of baking powder, this is not a mistake! It needs a fair bit of raising agent to be spongy and bouncy.

Into the mixer put:

4 eggs

2 1/2 cups of milk

3/4 cup melted butter

3 1/2 cups of flour

6 t baking powder

1 t salt

Beat them together until smooth and there are no lumps. You can leave to stand for hours, actually it it supposed to improve the mixture, but I always make it just before cooking them. 

If you don't have a mixer, use an electric hand held mixer or just a balloon whisk. The mixture comes together fairly quickly, so it is not too labour intensive.

Heat up the waffle iron on a high heat, I butter mine a little first, and then use a heaped ice-cream scoop for each waffle mould. Then I tilt it around a little so the batter spreads and cook on a high heat for a few minutes before turning it over. You can check by opening the iron and lifting the waffles with a knife to check if they are golden brown.

As there is no sugar in the recipe, the waffles can be savoury or sweet. They go really well with scrambled egg and bacon or bacon and maple syrup. 

My favourite is what you are looking at above; berries and maple syrup. A close second is a good dessert option; strawberries and banana with a little ice cream.

But you can let your imagination go wild on something like this. The kids have come up with some interesting combos in the past!

I know waffle irons are not a common household appliance that most kitchens have, but if you have one lurking somewhere, get it out and try it.

You can buy electric ones, but I have no idea what they are like. 

Storecupboard stand-by; Tuna fish cakes.

Tinned tuna is not one of my favourite ingredients. It is ok in a wrap or in a pasta salad, but as a dinner option it is not something I ever really turn to. 

But my mind has been changed by these tuna  burgers. They are an amalgam of two recipes I found on the internet and the availability of ingredients in my fridge! Everyone liked them including me which was the biggest surprise, so they were deemed post-worthy!

(I leave a bag of breadcrumbs in the freezer and use them from frozen, it means I always have them when needed.)

I have no pictures, but they just look like regular fish cakes, you will have to trust me!

Tuna Cakes

In a bowl put

2 tins of tuna 

1 generous cup of breadcrumbs

1/2 cup of finely chopped scallions (about 8 scallions)

1/2 cup of finely chopped red pepper

1/2 cup finely chopped celery

1 egg

1/4 cup mayonnaise

2T sweet chili sauce

Salt

Chopped chives (They are only for colour, so are optional)

I think that was it. (It was a bit like Georges Marvellous Medicine, in that I threw anything that looked like it would help!

I mixed these well with a fork, to break the tuna up well and made them into patties. A half and hour in the fridge would make them a little more robust when frying, but I fried them straight away, so just treat them gently and you should be fine.

Put a small layer of sunflower oil in the pan (about 3 T should do it) and fry for a minute or two on each side, or until golden brown. They cook quickly so do this at the last minute when you have everything else done. 

I served them with mashed potato, but a nice crunchy salad and tomato chutney or salsa would have been nice too.

Weekday Barbeque

Our family are barbeque fans. Not sure I know many people who aren't. But when the weather gets anything above arctic, we take out the barbeque and cook al fresco.
There is something about the casual and relaxed style of cooking that appeals to us. Declan takes up his position at the BBQ completing the Holy Trinity of Man, Fire & Meat. He is a pro, even my Dad says so. The torch has been handed down.

This is a picture of last nights dinner. It was a little chilly but still sunny and I was really craving some sunny flavours. The meat consisted of homemade chicken burgers. (recipe is in an older post) and sausages. I made potato wedges and guacamole and put together a tomato salad and a plate of leaves. The two sauces are lime mayo and sundried tomato mayo.

The guacamole is just two avocados mashed with a mixture of lemon juice and lime juice and a little salt.

The wedges are chopped and coated well in olive oil and sprinkled with salt. They are lovely with some rosemary sprigs scattered on them, but my rosemary plant was decimated in the snow and frost, so I had to forego that addition. You bake them at 200 c for about 20-30 minutes in a baking tray. You need to move them around a few times while cooking to stop them sticking and to brown all over.

The mayonnaises are just mayo with lime juice and the other is mixed with Sacla sundried tomato paste. This is also a lovely dip for crisps and crudites.

I chopped the baby tomatoes and sprinkled them with salt and pepper and drizzled with olive oil.

Nothing complicated there at all. It is the ultimate fast food. The burgers freeze well so I would suggest making double the amount any time you are making them and freezing half.

The kids ate everything. Daniel was not convinced about the advocado but put some on his burger to try it. Went down well. I don't add chili to my guacamole, I love it as it is. This would put the kids off, they are still a little nervous of anything too hot.

I will post a list of salads to serve at a barbeque soon, there are a few real reliables, and they keep well, so they are not wasteful.