Pea and lettuce

This is a Jamie Oliver dish and it is surprisingly yummy. I say surprisingly because I was not sure how cooked lettuce would taste. Turns out, it tastes mighty fine. Jamie's recipe called for gem lettuce (which I think is baby cos lettuce) - but all I had was iceberg and it worked nicely. Jamie has other versions of this approach on his site - ie braised peas with spring onion. I'm also thinking that when summer comes along doing this with fresh peas, and adding in some fresh greens from the garden would also be pretty cool - there could be endless tweaks to the flavour. Imagine this with lemony sorrell and some fish... mmm yum - there will be experimentations I am sure!

Ingredients

a knob of butter
1 tbs flour
300ml chicken stock
400gm peas and 1 tbs mint leaves OR a 400g bag of mint peas
3 handfuls of finely sliced lettuce

Method

put the butter, flour and stock in a pan and stir until it makes a bubbling golden sauce. Add in the peas, mint, and lettuce, and cook until the veggies are tender. If you see your sauce drying up reduce your heat and add a splash more stock.

Easy peasy!! (yes, I went there!)

Monte Carlos

Love love love these biscuits! The recipe I used didn't specify how big to make the biscuits, so we ended up with rather large biscuits - but they tasted great nonetheless.  I was a bit worried they might have been a bit dry, but they were perfectly cooked & with a lovely soft melt in the mouth crumble. Next time I shall make try to make them in teaspoonsize balls. We used my homemade raspberry jam for this, which is tarter than store bought jam, and the tart fruitiness of the jam worked beautifully against the smooth creaminess of the buttercream and biscuit.

Ingredients

185g butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 1/4 cups self-raising flour
3/4 cup plain flour
1/2 cup coconut
raspberry jam

Filling

60g butter
3/4 cup icing sugar
vanilla
2 tsps milk

Method

cream butter and sugar until fluffy, add egg and vanilla. Add sifted dry ingredients and coconut, mix well. Roll into balls, place on lightly greased tray, and roughen surgace with a fork. Bake in a moderate oven 10-15 minutes. Remove to cool.

Filling

cream butter and blend in remaining ingredients, using just enough milk to make mixture spreadable.

To assemble

spread one biscuit with jam, the other with buttercream filling. Sandwich together. Serve with tea or milk, and sigh with happines!

Roast Beef with Yorkshire Puddings

Last night I made roast beef with yorkshire puddings - mmmm - it was very yummy. I had made roast beef before, but had never made Yorkshire puddings. When I saw the recipe for them on the  Jamie Oliver site, I knew I had to try them. I'm glad I did because, like all of his recipes (or at least the ones I have tried), they are delicious!!

Roast beef
Get a 1kg piece of roasting beef
Slather it in mustard
Chop up some chives, rosemary, and roll the roast in it. Preheat oven to 240°C . Place the beef in theheated oven, reduce heat to 200°C and cook for an hour for medium beef. Cook another 15mins for well done.

If you want roast veg, you can cook them with the beef.

Yorkshire puddings
2 large free-range eggs
100g plain flour
100ml milk

Put a muffin or cupcake pan in a 200°C oven.
Mix the ingredients to a runny batter.
Take out the hot pan from the oven. Drizzle some olive oil (or you can use the fat from roast beef etc if you have some and aren't making gravy) into the pan, then fill each about halfway with the batter. Place back in the oven and cook for 15minutes.

Gravy
Once you have removed all the meat and veg from the roasting pan place it on the stove at low heat. Add a dash of water to deglaze the pan, and a tablespoon of cornflour and whisk until the gravy is the consistency you desire. If you need more water you can add it at any time. Note - you can also use wine or brandy to deglaze the pan.

Rose Cream

I admit it - I made cupcakes from a cake mix. I did, however, top them with a wickedly delicious rose cream made out of my very own roses. It had such a lovely taste - creamy, and slightly turkish delighty. Very nice. I think this would make a delicious pannacotta too - one day I might get around to trying it.

Ingredients 
2 handfuls rose petals
125g sugar
500ml cream

Method
In a mortar and pestle pound the rose petals and sugar together until they form a paste. Add to the cream and beat until firm. Top your cake/cupcake/pudding with the cream and enjoy.

NB: You can add a bit of food colouring to make the cream look pinker if you wish. If you don't have any rose petals, or you want a stronger taste of rose, a few drops of rosewater will add more flavour.

Dobos Torte

The Dobos Torte is a many-layered cake, with a chocolate cream filling and icing, and a glaze of caramelised sugar.It is delicious, and it takes time to make. My best friend and I made one for my birthday, and it was super yummy - well worth the effort. This recipe lasts well - it was better the day after it was cooked, and still moist and yummy two days after that. Then it was all gone, so I can't tell you how long it might have lasted!!

Dobos torte, with slightly wonky layers and oozy chocolate filling,
served with cream and walnut toffee

I'm going to post this in stages, as it will help you better with the flow of what needs to happen.

Firstly make the chocolate cream filling/icing.

150g semi-sweet chocolate melted
6 eggs
1 cup of sugar
1 cup butter

Beat the eggs and 1 cup of sugar in the top of a double-boiler until the mixture thickens into a custard - it will have the consistency of a slightly thick creme anglaise. Remove from heat and beat in the melted chocolate and the butter (the heat should melt the butter into the mixture for you).

Set aside to completely cool. This is very important. We actually filled the cake when it was not completely cool, and it did ooze a little - as you can see in the picture. Had we waited we would have slightly thicker and more even filling.

Make the cake

5 eggs, separated
1/2 cup sugar
1/8 tsp salt
1/2 cup sifted plain flour

Beat the eggwhites until stiff.
Using the unwashed beater, beat the egg-yolks, sugar and salt, until the mixture thickens.
Fold the egg yolk mixture into the eggwhites.
Fold the flour into the batter.

Bake 6-8 layers - your batter should be 1/4 inch thick in a pan that is lined with baking paper - for 10 minutes each in a hot oven (400F or 200C) - they should only be lightly browned.
Turn out and remove the paper immediately.

Make the caramel glaze

3/4 cup of sugar
1 tbs of butter

put the sugar and butter into a pan. Over a low heat let the butter and sugar melt into a caramel. If it is heating unevenly shake the pan, rather than stirring, as stirring can sometimes make the caramel cystallise.

Put a layer of your cake on a piece of baking paper in a baking tray. Pour the caramel over the top and QUICKLY - before it cools - cut the caramel into as many slices/wedges you want the cake to have. You must do this, or you'll find it hard/impossible to cut the cake later. In between each cut you can run your knife through a pat of butter to help with any issues with stickiness. We had a fair amount of caramel run-off - which we then quickly added some crumbed walnuts to & used to snack on and garnish our finished dessert.

Assemble the cake.

place a layer of cake on a board/plate. Cover with filling, Repeat till you get to the last layer which is already covered in caramel. Ice the sides of the cake with the chocolate cream

Sit down and admire your creation. Then enjoy!

Paprikás csirke (Paprika Chicken)

paprika chicken, served with kluski/gnocchi and snow peas.

Paprika chicken is one of those simply yet amazingly tasty dishes. It is heavy in sour cream, so it's really not an everyday food, but it is a fantastic dish for a birthday treat! Seeing as I just had one of those, I had to celebrate and spoil myself :)

Real Hungarian paprika - that is, paprika grown and produced in Hungary - gives the best, most intense flavour and colour. If you can't get that, Hungarian-style will do.

I like to serve it with a little bit of green crunchy veg for texture - and snowpeas are my absolute fav for that!. makes for a lovely vibrant dish as well.

Ingredients

1 chicken, jointed (ask your butcher or use the equivalent in size of wings and legs from the supermarket) - keep the meat on the bone, it improves the flavour.
2 onions finely chopped
2-3 tablespoons of sweet paprika
1 tub sour cream
salt to taste

noodles to serve

Method

• Cook onions in a casserole dish in a little bit of olive oil until translucent.
• Add in meat and brown skin.
• Add in the paprika.
• Cover the chicken with water so that it is *just* covered - the more liquid, the runnier the sauce will be.
• Place in a oven at 180 degrees C and cook for 40mins-1hr until the meat is tender and falling off the bone.
• take out of oven, and add in sour cream, a bit at at time, until you get the flavour balance you are looking for. Season to taste.

Serve over noodles.

Pierniki - Polish spice cookies

I love these biscuits (cookies for the Americans!!)- their sweet spiciness is a must for Christmas. While it is not Christmas, I thought I would share these with you. 

* 1 cup Honey
* 6 cup plain flour*
* Pinch of black pepper (optional)
* 1/2 ts Cinnamon
* 1/2 ts Nutmeg
* 1/2 ts Cloves
* 1/2 ts Allspice
* 4 Eggs
* 1 cup Sugar
* 1 ts Bicarb Soda

Method

1. Heat honey in a saucepan until it begins to boil, and then allow it to cool to lukewarm.

2. Combine eggs and sugar in a bowl and beat together until thickened.

3. Mix all dry ingredients together in a separate bowl.

4. Slowly add the dry ingredients to the egg and sugar while mixing to prevent any lumps.*

5. Pour in the honey and mix everything until smooth.

6. Turn out the mixture onto a lightly floured surface, and roll out to around 1/4 inch thick. Cut into shapes as desired.

7. Place Pierniki onto a greased baking tray, then into the oven at 190C for 12 minutes or until lightly colored.

* Start by adding 4 cups of flour, and then adding more in until you have a soft but workable dough. Quantities will vary according to the size of your eggs etc. Do not to add any more than the 6 cups.