Fairy Cake Heaven

A shining star of wonderful gorgeousness

2009-03-08T20:29:00.003Z

I would like to publically apologise to the shining star of wonderful gorgeousness English Mum for not having her on my blogroll. I am a shoddy fellow Irish blogger and I sincerely apologise for my oversight and extreme shoddiness!! This mistake has now been rectified!!!

I also apologise to my readers for not updating my blog aswell, I am a bad blogger and have no excuse apart from laziness! I've been baking but not updating! The last scones were gorgeous though!!! I will be back soon....................................and remember I love you all!!!

Pesto, herb n cheese scones

2009-02-07T14:11:00.010Z

Now I don't often "post savoury" here but these are so good I had to share! I got an urge this morning to make scones but having a teeny bit of a cold I was too lazy and had to make do with some nasty white bread toast (that was sssssoooo good) and coffee! So after the caffeine kicked in and I'd read the March issues of Delicious and Taste Italia magazines I decided some savoury scones might in be order for lunch.

I've never made a savoury scone before, I've had them in Avoca but never actually thought about going and producing my own but now that I have the possibilities seem endless and I'm already thinking these would be nice with some olives in them, or leave out the pesto and herbs and do sundried tomato and cheese scones......................................yum!

So here's a basic soda bread recipe that can be turned into a loaf or made into scones, it can be flavoured or not and sweetened or not depending on your tastes.

For the basic recipe you'll need:

450g plain white flour
1 tsp bread soda/bicarbonate of soda
400ml buttermilk
1 tsp salt

To this you can add:

1 tbsp basil pesto (you could use any pesto you want here)
1 tbsp thyme leaves finely chopped
salt and pepper (only use salt if you've not used it already above)

Preheat the oven to Gas 8/230.

Sift the flour, salt if using and bread soda into a large bowl.
Add the finely chopped thyme to the flour.
Mix the pesto into the buttermilk and add to the flour mixture.
Mix well with your hands until you have a loose sticky dough.
With floured hands turn the dough out and pat into a round. Cut into wedges or into circles with a cutter.
Bake for 10-15 mins, the bottom will sound hollow when they're done.

I really think now the possibilities are endless for this recipe, any flavours could be added to the dough adding dry ingredients to dry and wet to wet if that makes sense.

Sunshine Citrus Muffins

2009-02-01T15:14:00.006Z

In an effort to inject some sunshine into a dull Saturday morning I decided to make these from one of my favourite cookery books - Baking From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan. I got this book in America and it's so beautifully photographed and the recipes are fantastic taking you from the basics of dough making right through to beautiful cakes, muffins and scones. The measurements are in cups you'll need a set of these if you intend to get this book and I would definitely recommend it.

Himself was still asleep when I made these and the gorgeous smell of orange and lemon wafted up the stairs and manged to wake him so he had to come downstairs, naturally to make sure everything was alright and not for a warm muffin fresh from the oven..................

These smell fantastic and made the house all summery and citrusy smelling, they are also great with cheese as I discovered last night after a few wines too many!!!

So you'll need:

115g sugar
grated zest of 1 orange
300g plain flour
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
pinch of salt (I didn't use this as I use salted butter in my baking, scandalous as that may be!)
250ml freshly squeezed orange juice
2 tbsp fresh lemon juice
1/4 tsp lemon extract (I probably used closer to 1/2 tsp as I wasn't being overly careful pouring)
4 oz butter, melted and cooled
2 large eggs
Optional: 150g moist raisins/sultanas (I didn't use these)

So, preheat your oven to Gas 5/190c. Spray your muffin tin with spray oil or butter the molds.
Rub the sugar and orange zest together (this is fantastic and makes the sugar smell A.MAZ. ING) in a large bowl. Whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt if using.
In another bowl or jug whisk the orange and lemon juice, butter, lemon extract, and eggs together. Add to the dry ingredients and mix.
Fold in the raisins/sultanas if you're using them.
Spoon the mixture into the 12 muffin shapes and bake for 20 mins or until a skewer comes out clean.

Serve on it's own with a giant latte or with some cheese!!!

Also on a totally non-recipe related note, at the moment TK Maxx have fantastic cast iron pans and skillets for next to nothing from a range called Old Mountin so anyone who is in the market for one this might be a good time to take a look!

I also got a gorgeous book called The Dairy by Leanne Kitchen (cheesetastic name or what) for €7.99 and a complete bargain as the recipes are wonderful and all surround anything dairy related and the photos are so well shot. There's a series of 4 books with 3 more after The Dairy called the Butcher, The Baker and The Greengrocer and they're already on my amazon wishlist!!!

Bread glorious bread............

2009-01-18T15:09:00.009Z

just dripping with butter................

How do you like my "rendition" of the bread version of Food glorious food? I have to confess I'm a bread fiend! Any type even the nasty white sliced bread from the supermarket, as long as it's fresh or warm or toasted with butter or like this mornings breakfast dripping with lemon curd!

I've made this bread a lot of times and it's the same recipe I use to make my pizza dough. It's from Jamie Oliver's first book The Naked Chef and it's such a versatile recipe with lots of possibilities for flavouring the bread if you want to. Me, I just like it fresh from the oven and don't even need to put anything on it!

In saying that though have been consciously trying not to eat bread for about the last 6 months going from eating a full loaf of my favourite sliced bread Big Toast Brown every week to maybe eating only a couple of slices of the husbags beloved white sliced type and sometimes none at all! This was something I had wanted to make all week, once I got passed my lemon/citrus and pear cravings on Tuesday and Wednesday, curd and pear crumble followed these.

So after all my rambling here's what to need;

1lb of plain white flour, I use Tesco Organic plain flour or you could use 500g plain flour an 500g semolina flour
3x 7g sachets of dried yeast
1oz honey/sugar
1 pint tepid water
1oz salt

Blend the yeast with the honey/sugar and half of the water together.
Make a well in the centre of the flour and add the yeast mixture.
Make a claw shape with your hand and bring the dry ingredients into the flour until all the yeast mixture is incorporated.
Pour in the rest of the water and mix together, don't be afraid to add more a little at a time if it's kinda dry as different flours can vary I think and use more or less water.
Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead for 5 mins until the dough has come together and is springy and smooth.
Oil a large bowl (or use the one you've made the dough in washed out with warm water and the warmth will help the rising begin, tip courtesy of the domestic goddess Nigella) and put the dough in, scoring the top as this will help with the rise aswell.
Cover tightly with clingfilm and leave to double in size, this will take approx an hour. I normally turn my oven on to heat at this stage as it warms underneath the bowl and again helps the gluten to develop and the dough to rise.

Once the dough has doubled in size, knock it back for about a minute or so. Shape into whatever shape you want and allow to rise so it is doubled in size again.
My loaf was made by shaping the dough into 5 equal sized balls and then putting them into a 10 inch springform tin, 1 in the middle and 4 around the sides so it's shaped like a flower.
Once risen, bake the bread at gas 7/225C for 20-25 mins or until the bread sounds hollow when tapped on the bottom (you'll need to take it out of the tin for this).
Allow to cool and enjoy.

We had this with an amazing chickpea soup below that's a meal in itself from the Jamie's Italy book that I'll blog about again, I've made it for my lunches this week and should get 2 days out of it. It's flavoured with rosemary and so fragrant and the best of all weight watcher friendly!

Apricot compote with cardamom

2009-01-10T22:05:00.008Z

So my first post of 2009 is a very simple one, a lovely compote that can be used to top anything you wish, porridge (as I've done here), ice cream, yogurt, made into a fool or eaten on it's own.

We've been thinking about trying to be more frugal about things this year, it being recessionary times and all and I also need something more exciting to put on top of my porridge in the mornings at work. I eat porridge every day, 1 because it's cheap and a bag of organic oats lasts me ages and 2 cos I don't get hungry til lunchtime which is a bonus when people are nipping out to the cafe around the corner and bringing back lovely toast and bagels and coffee.

I got the Ballymaloe Cookery Course book from my favouritest cousin C a few months ago and while flicking through it at bedtime (and only having made 2 things from it so far) the other night I saw the recipe for this apricot and cardamom compote and thought it might be nice. In advance the apricots I got were semi-dried and lovely and moist, if you get fully dried ones you'll need to soak them in plenty of water overnight before you make this.

So here's what you need:

500g dried apricots (the original recipe calls for 225g but this looked like a tiny amount in the syrup so I threw in a second bag of apricots)
16 cardamom pods (again I couldn't resist tinkering with the original recipe which called for 12)
2 pints water
200g sugar (the original recipe says 200-400g but I didn't want my compote to be too sweet so used less)
2 tablespoons lemon juice

Put the water, sugar, cardamom and lemon juice into a pot and bring to the boil. Add the apricots and simmer for approximately 30 minutes. Allow to cool and serve with whatever you want or else do what I did and put the apricots into jars and refrigerate. Enjoy!!

Oh and p.s I got a 50mm lens for my camera and a tripod for christmas and they're the business!! Not blowing my own horn or anything but am loving the first picture, it was a long exposure from above and it came out fantastically as my hands always shook before and I rarely could shoot any pics if the light wasn't perfect!! One of the best presents I got this year methinks!!!

Tagged!

2008-11-22T20:46:00.004Z

I haven't been tagged in ages so heres one from Lorraine, cheers girl

Six things you don't know about me.

1. My favourite drink of all time is a Harvey Wallbanger. This is what I'll drink at home before a night out or what I'll drink on a night out.

2. I met my husband in primary school, we didn't get together until 8 years ago though!

3. I'm addicted to tea and coffee. When I gave them up before I was so grumpy and mean my friends asked me to start drinking it again so I was "me".

4. My favourite color is green.

5. I start singing christmas songs in my head in July...........every year!

6. I love jelly sweets, any type as long as they're not fizzy ones!!!

and just to add a 7th about the pictures above and below.........

7. This is Co. Clare, where my heart and soul lie. If we could sell our house and I could convince the husbag I'd be there in the morning!!!

The people I am going to tag are:

1. Marian

2. Lynnie

3. Jen

4. Kate

and

5. Sarah

Give it a go people, it's always good to share on the internet with it's lack of stalkers and all ;-)

Oh cardamom how do I love thee..............

2008-11-16T13:28:00.013Z

let me count the ways. It's much much more than a thousand ways I can assure you!! You may or may not know my love of all things cardamom spiced and todays recipe from Rachel Allen's book Bake is no exception!!! As I type my hands smell of cardamom and yeast and I am feeling satisfied and home-makery as I'm making bread. I always feel like this when I work with yeast....like a real baker and I love watching my dough double in size and feel very proud indeed when it comes out of the oven all golden and beautiful.

I must admit of late that I've been feeling rather underconfident about my baking, I went back to weight watchers a while ago and I think I must have subconsciously decided that baking is bad and that it's too much trouble to point everything. I've lost a good bit of weight, mostly for holidays, but I intend loosing more but am not being as rigid and strict with myself since we can back and am enjoying my food more as a result. So when my bread came out so well I think I got a little of my baking mojo back, the smell and the texture were divine, it's breakfast bread at it's best!!

So anyway, this bread smells amazing, there's yeast as mentioned, freshly ground cardamom which smells amazing to me, I added some orange zest and am sure thart some freshly grated nutmeg or cinnamon could be added this to dough too to make it more festive and christmassy, it's very easy to work with and comes together very quickly. I've never made a plaited loaf before either so this is an achievement for me and I one I will definitely return to again! This is the perfect breakfast bread, reminiscent of brioche with it's lovely eggyness and texture but much less work!

Here's what you need, courtesy of Bake;

125 ml/4 fl oz water
75g/3 oz butter
50g/2 oz plus 1 tsp of caster sugar
175ml/6 fl oz warm water
1 1/2 tsp dried yeast/15g or 1/2 oz fresh yeast or 1 7g sachet of fast acting yeast
1 egg
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp freshly ground cardamom, I used about 40 pods as mine were kinda small but the recipe advises 28 pods
grated zest of 1 unwaxed orange
600g/1 lb 6oz plain flour, sifted

Place 125ml water and the butter in a saucepan, bring to boil and then set aside in a bowl and allow to cool.
Mix together the teaspoon caster sugar, 60ml of the warm water and yeast together and let stand for 5 mins until frothy.
In a bowl, whisk together the eggs, the 50g caster sugar and salt together then add the remaining 115ml warm water. Mix together until combined.
When the butter and water mixture is warm add the yeast mixture and the egg mixture and stir until well blended.
Transfer the flour to a large bowl and make a well in the centre, pour in the yeast, egg and water mixture and mix*.
*I used Rachel's technique of making a claw shape out of your hand and mixing the ingredients to a dough, it worked very well and was less messy than I find dough sometimes is. Just keep your hand stiff and go in circles in the bowl, I'm hoping this makes sense!
Transfer the dough to a floured surface and knead for 1o mins adding more flour if needed, I add 3 generous sprinklings of flour to my dough, it was smooth and pliable and felt loose after these and the 10 mins kneading.
Place the dough in an oiled bowl, cover and allow to double in size, this could take up to 2 hours.

Preheat the oven to 180/Gas 4.
Knock back the dough and shape into a normal rounded loaf plait by dividing the dough into 3 and rolling each piece into a long sausage shape approx. 1 1/4 inches wide and 12 inches long. Pinch the ends together and tuck under neatly and plait the normal way. Tuck the ends in and place on an oiled baking sheet to allow double in size again.
Bake for 30-35 mins until golden brown and the loaf sounds hollow when tapped on the underside.
Serve with lashing of butter and a cup o tea!!!

Oh and p.s I'd like to mention www.askaboutfood.ie a wonderful forum set up by John Maguire where us foodies can go to ask questions, there's also a new section where bloggers are asked to submit their posts too. Check it out at the link above!

Pumpkin Muffins and my first Dorie Greenspan recipe

2008-11-09T11:53:00.007Z

I woke up this morning and was desperate to bake something, anything as long as it smelled good and was warm and fresh from the oven. So sitting in bed I was looking at all my cookery books stacked up and the 2 books that I had bought in Orlando caught my eye, Baking:From my home to yours by Dorie Greenspan and Pure Dessert by Alice Medrich. I've wanted these books for ages and thanks to the wonder of everything being such good value in America and the giant Barnes & Noble in Orlando I was able to get both books for way less than I could have gotten them here or even on Amazon! I also got canned pumpkin puree in amazing Walmart and was itching to use it so pumpkin muffins it was.

I don't think pumpkin is used enough over here, there are so many gorgeous recipes outside soup which seems to me to be all Irish people make with pumpkin and I think there is nothing so nice as a silky smooth pumpkin pie delicately spiced and creamy. I'm hoping to make a pumpkin pie in the next 2 weeks so if and when I do I'll be putting it up here for you salivate over!!!

These were a dream to make and I've used my cups as the original recipe says but weighed everything aswell to make it easier if you don't have measuring cups, these are the measurements I've come up with and I'm not saying they're right but they worked perfectly for me. The muffins are wonderfully spiced with cinnamon, mixed spice, nutmeg and ginger which adds a bare hint of heat on the tongue. The only changes I made were to add mixed spice instead of all spice and I didn't add any nuts or pumpkin seeds either cos the husbag wouldn't be into that.

So here you are courtesy of Baking from my Home to Yours:

260g/2 cups all purpose flour, I used plain organic flour from Tesco
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp fresh nutmeg
pinch of mixed spice/all spice
100g/8tbsp/1 stick butter
100g/1/2 cup sugar, I used golden caster sugar
75g/1/4 cup ligh brown sugar (packed)
2 large eggs
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
180ml/3/4 cup pumpkin puree
60ml/1/4 cup buttermilk
90g/1/2 cup raisins or sultanas

Preheat oven to Gas 6/approx. 200C.
Whisk flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and spices together.
In a mixer at medium speed or by hand mix the butter until softened and light, add the sugar and mix well until completely combined. Add the eggs one by one and mix each one in completely before adding the next one.
Reduce the mixer speed to low and add the flour mix or fold it in gently if doing by hand, when fully incorporated add the raisins.
Divide the batter between a 12 bun tray, you should have enough for 15 buns if you fill each one about 3/4 of the way up.
Bake for approx 25 mins until a skewer comes out clean.

Nana Brid's Mincemeat

2008-11-02T16:12:00.008Z

So for my second post of the day I present to you my grandmothers mincemeat recipe. Now I may not eat Christmas cake or pudding but I love mince pies, hot, cold, on their own or smothered in brandy butter or cream. Divine. Last year I made mincemeat that was lovely but I can't remember what recipe I used. I don't really need a recipe to make this and it's easy to take ideas for flavourings etc from books etc but they all seem to contain apples and dried fruit.

So here's what you'll need, Igot 3 standard size jam jars out of the recipe and a 1 litre Le Parfait preserving jar which is a lot, you could easily halve the recipe either if you didn't want so much and it'll make a lovely edible gift too. The measurements are a bit all over the place with pounds and ounces but work with me................

2 lbs cooking apples
1 lb raisins
1/2 lb sultanas/currants
4oz butter
1/2 lb brown sugar
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp mace (I couldn't find ground mace anywhere so ground my own)
1 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp ground cloves
3 dessertspoons golden syrup, you could use honey here either I'm sure
grated zest and juice of 1 lemon
1/4 pint cider, I used an organic cider from our local shop but you could use any brand you like
1 tbsp sherry/brandy or whiskey

Peel and core the apples and chop into cubes. Add apples and all other ingredients to a large pot and mix well.. Bring to the boil and simmer for 40 mins. Allow to cool slightly and put into jars.

I sterilise my jars in the dishwasher taking them out when they're hot, you could also do this in the oven I'm sure but the dishwasher is nearliest the easiest option.

I'll be making mince pies closer to Christmas and brandy butter to go with them!!!

Christmas is a comin'

2008-11-02T15:37:00.008Z

and with 53 days to go (WOOHOO) it's time to be making puddings and cakes and mincemeat so they have time to mature and the flavours to develop!

This is my first post of the weekend, I can almost hear the shock as I've been so neglectful of my blog for the last few months, I even missed my 1 year blogiversary!!! But now I am back on the blogging wagon and rearing to go.

Christmas pudding is one the things I remember from growing up that meant Christmas was coming, the dark evenings and my mother mixing everything in her mixing bowl and the can or bottle of Guinness which reminds me so much of my paternal grandfather who used to drink it. This year we're not bothering with cake just pudding as I don't eat either and the husbag loves pudding, so much in fact he'd eat all 3 that this recipe makes!!!!

My recipe is inspired by the Avoca recipe but I've made some changes with the spices and the fruit using dried cranberries instead of currants cos I don't like them and also some dates and figs in place of half the raisins. I've added 1/2 tsp ground ginger aswell as mixed spice, cinnamon and nutmeg. And basically stuck to everything else.

So here goes, Christmas pudding inspired by Avoca

The recipe should make 3 2 pint puddings plus a little bit over which filled 2 3'inch individual pudding moulds.

450g sultanas
450g dried cranberries
110g dates, chopped
110g figs, chopped
230g raisins
110g glace cherries, I used yellow ones from my local fruit shop but you can use any colour
110g mixed peel (revolting suff I know but who am I to mess with tradition?)
225g chopped almonds
450g brown sugar, I used a mix of demerera and muscovado
275g breadcrumbs, I used brown bread
275g self-raising flour
350g butter, melted
6 medium eggs, beaten
zest and juice of 2 oranges
1 small can of Guinness, 330ml
2 tsp mixed spice
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp ginger

Add the fruit to the bowl, mix well and then add the sugarm breadcrumbs, lour, spices and almonds. Mix well and make a well in the centre. Add the melted butter, eggs, orange juice and zest and the Guinness. Mix well so there are no dry ingredients in the bottom of the bowl. If the mixture is a little dry add a couple of tablespoons of milk or more orange juice. Spoon into the pudding bowls and cover with the lid. Steam for 4-5 hours. When cold you can drizzle whickey or brandy over the pudding. On christmas day, steam the pudding for another hour and serve with brandy/rum butter or cream.

YUM!!!

I didn't think I'd have pics of this until Christmas but himself was making the "are you not letting me have pudding til christmas??" face and the puppydog eves I couldn't refuse and managed to snap a quick shot before the pudding was snatched away from me, being a non pudding eater it's very nice aswell, there's a slight bite from the almonds and it's lovely a moist.

Another missing DB Challenge

2008-10-29T23:37:00.003Z

I've been in Florida for the last 2 weeks so no challenge for me again unfortunately, I'll share some pics of Daytona Beach and Disney though, just to keep you going until I get back on the blogging wagon!!!

Christmas puddings and mincemeat planned for this weekend though! YUM!

So...............

2008-10-04T13:15:00.007+01:00

you might have noticed that there was no wonderful blackberry tart!!!! Much to my disappointment!!

During the week I had changed my mind and made a blackberry cake topped with meringue that I had seen on the cover of a magazine a few months ago, I was taking it out of the tin and IT FELL!!!! There was much screaming and gnashing of teeth but there was no salvaging it as it was smuched all over the top of my gas hob!! Thankfully I had a punnet of blackberries left so Monday night was the night, I was all set to go only to find my blackberries were gone mouldy!!! More disappointment and gnashing of teeth ensued (plus cursing m&s but I have since forgiven them as they had beautiful black Bursa figs in stock and we have them baked on top of porridge this morning) and I decided to make my big come back this week instead with a book review and some baked goods out of the book.

Rachel Allen's new book was out last week (it's not out until 6th October in the UK) and I have to say I think it's her best book yet! Now Rachel (lovely name ;-)) irritates me sometimes with her slight over-exuberance but I still watch her as she's one of the better Irish tv chefs currently I think, but this is her best book yet! Entitled Bake everything in the book is baked from the most simple recipe of baked figs to puff pastry and a wonderful gingerbread house which I am so making at Christmas (I'm singing carols already in my head).

This book is a lot better presented than Rachel's previous offerings in my opinion, the paper is lovely, matt and heavy, the photography is in a different vein too still being homely but more enticing focusing more on the food than the backgrounds, with the usual gratuitous Rachel shots sprinkled throughout. I've been reading through the recipes for the last few nights at bedtime and decided I had to make the Iced Orange Cake, one of 2 orange cakes in the book as I had some gorgeous organic, unwaxed oranges that I got last week and was dying to use as they smelled so wonderful and exotic.

So here's what you'll need for the cake

100g butter
2 eggs
Finely grated zest of 1 orange (I used 1 and a half as I wanted a super orangey cake)
100g caster sugar
100 icing sugar (I used 75g as I didn't want my cake to be too sweet)
125g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder

Preheat the oven to 180/Gas4.
Butter a 20cm springform/loose bottomed tin and line the bottom with parchment.
Melt the butter over a low heat and when melted set aside.
Mix the eggs, orange zest, caster and iricing sugar together until thick and fluffy.
Add the melted butter and mix.
Then sift in the flour and baking powder and fold together gently.
Pour the mixture into the tin and smooth the top.
Bake for 30-35 mins until a skewer comes out clean.

I glazed my cake with a honey orange glaze using 100g icing sugar mixed with 1/2 tbsp boiling water, 1/2 tbsp orange juice and 1 tbsp honey but to be honest it was gorgeous just on it's own and would be a lovely cake to have with a cup of tea in the afternoon. My cake sunk a little in the middle but it was my own fault as I just can't leave the oven closed coming up to the end of cooking time!! Twas divine though so serve with a dollop of yogurt or cream and enjoy!

Tiny update

2008-09-25T23:12:00.002+01:00

I got my blackberries today AND finally got my hands on Chocolate Desserts by Pierre Herme and Dorie Greenspan!!! Very exciting!

Hola...................................

2008-09-21T21:52:00.003+01:00

I'm back!!!!

My laptop is fixed, my time is my own and I'm at home watching the NFL and planning on making a seasonal tart next weekend! Smeara Dubha (or blackberries) may be included for those who don't speak Irish, thank god for Marks and Spencer and their supply of seasonal fruits!!! They had greengages a couple of weeks ago that I am interested in aswell, maybe they'll still be there come payday on Thursday but I think the season is kinda over for them, I might have to make do with some amazing figs too.

I will be posting for sure this coming weekend, I hope I haven't lost all my readers even though I know a friend my mums and my cousin have been checking in regularly (Hi Caitriona and Caroline) so even if it's just 2 people I'm happy.

See you all soon

rachx

p.s this time 3 weeks I'll be on holidays in Orlando WOOHOO!!!!

No Daring Bakers Challenge from me again

2008-08-31T19:37:00.000+01:00

cos my laptop is broken!!! It died on Wednesday night and it currently being shipped to the makers to see what's wrong with it. All my photos and music and everything else I keep on it is gone!!! am devastated and using our 50 million year old pc to write this, it's taken about 10 mins to load the page!!!! Boo hoo hoo

On another note, the weather is nice her again so if anyone's looking for me I'll be outside. Will post my challenge if I get any of my pictures back!!!

I know I haven't been around much lately

2008-08-24T20:56:00.002+01:00

and I apologise for my shoddiness, things should settle down a bit now. Am holding an asian inspired dinner party next weekend so am hoping for loads of pics, how does red prawn curry, butter chicken with rice and naan breads sound?

During my hiatus I've gotten Gorgeous Cakes by Annie Bell, Simple Essentials Chocolate by Donna Hay AND and ice-cream maker!!! Sorbets all round next weekend methinks!!!!!

Sugar High Friday #45 - Berries

2008-08-03T15:42:00.010+01:00

and a first for me, food processor shortcrust pastry!

I've been thinking about Sugar High Friday all month and had decided to make a blackberry cake topped with meringue but at the last minute we went to the organic farmers market this morning and got organic gooseberries that were freshly picked and also some organic redcurrants too. So I changed my mind about what I was going to make and decided on a gooseberry tart.

In the vein of recent reminiscent posts on Helens blog I have been thinking about my grandparents a lot and particularly my maternal grandfather Michael, he was a tall and wonderful man from a small island off the southern coast of Ireland called Cape Clear (or Oileán Chléire in Irish), he became a teacher and moved to Co. Clare, where my heart lies and this is where he met my grandmother Bríd and they married, moved to Dublin and had 4 children; my mother, my aunt who is also my surrogate mother, my uncle who lives in Australia and my second uncle who lives in the south of Ireland and is a bear of a man vey like my grandfather in height and looks who I am extremely fond of.

My memories of my grandfather, who died when I was quite young, are still very strong, I remember the day he died and how hard it rained, I remember him handing us biscuits that christmas from an assorted tin of biscuits which were and still are very popular in Ireland at christmas time. My main memory though is gooseberries, jam and eating them off the bush in his garden, the sharp sweetness, the lovely crunch when you bit into one and the prickly skin. I don't think I've had gooseberries since I was a child so grandad, this tart reminds me of you and how much I wish you had seen me turn into the married woman that I am today. Crap, I am also premenstrual and crying at something I don't think I've ever cried about before, so apologies if I've gotten a little deep in this post and we haven't even gotten to the recipe yet!!!

Firstly, the food processor pastry which have never made before and am sure purists think is scandalous but seeing as I felt lazy it was easy and is flavoured with vanilla which will compliment the gooseberries perfectly.

From Donna Hay magazine issue 38

250g plain, all purpose flour
1 tbsp caster sugar
1/4 tsp baking powder
180g cold butter, chopped
80ml iced water
1 tsp vanilla extract

Put the flour, caster sugar and baking powder into a food processor and mix.
Add the butter and process until it resembles bread crumbs.
With the motor running, add the water and vanilla essence and process until it all comes together.
Wrap in cling film and chill for 30 mins.

For the gooseberry tart, taken from Rachel's Favourite Food for Friends by Rachel Allen:

1lb of gooseberries, cleaned and de-stalked (is that a word??)
100g sugar
1 tbsp water

Put the gooseberries, sugar and water in a pot and heat for 4-5 mins until the gooseberries have softened. Turn off the heat and allow to cool in the syrup.

Blind bake your pastry at Gas 3/160 for 15 mins then egg wash and bake for another 15 mins, I used a 14x4 inch long rectangular tart tin. Drain the gooseberries from the syrup and place them in the bottom of the tart.

For the custard:

250ml cream
100g sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 eggs

Mix the eggs, sugar and vanilla together and then add the cream. Whisk until well mixed and pour over the gooseberries. Bake for 35-40 mins until the custard is set. Allow to cool and serve with whipped cream and a berry or 2 if you have some left.

This tart was gorgeous, light and custardy with a fantastic tartness from the gooseberries, the perfect combination of sweet and sour to my mind. A perfect summer tart I think, and the pastry was lovely despite it being not my usual method of making it. Special thanks to Susan from Food Blogga for hosting this month and also as usual to Jennifer of the Domestic Goddess for inventing this whole hoopla!

Daring Bakers Challenge 5 - Filbert Gateau with Praline Buttercream

2008-07-30T20:12:00.005+01:00

No Daring Bakers challenge this month which was Filbert Gateau with Praline Buttercream
From Great Cakes by Carol Walter and I am putting the blame firmly on family and friends who love me so much they can't be without me.

Please check out the blogroll here as there are some truly gorgeous cakes out there that are too good to be missed.

Ciao rachx

HHDD#21 - Tiramisu

2008-07-28T20:33:00.006+01:00

I am barely getting my entry in for this round of Hey Hey it's Donna Day, literally by the skin of my teeth. I've been thinking about this all month and I've had so much stuff on with family and friends that I've hardly managed to do any cooking at all.

So seeing as today is a very beautiful day and it's supposed to rain tomorrow we decided to dine al fresco tonight a.k.a sitting inside the french doors as we were too lazy to get the patio table and chairs out. So homemade beef burgers and salad with goats cheese it was followed by a very deconstructed and simple tiramisu flavoured with orange, chocolate and honey. This was gorgeous, mascarpone is so good and I managed to get organic mascarpone too, lovely organic oranges slightly reduced to make a syrup, and the best chocolate - Cadburys flake!!!

So here's what you'll need for 2 people:

12 lady fingers/savoiardi biscuits, 6 per person
125g mascarpone cheese
1 tbsp honey
juice and zest of 2 oranges
cadburys flake or similar crumbled
1tsp galliano (or vanilla extract)

Zest the 2 oranges and then juice them. Put the juice in a pot and bring to the boil. Boil the juice for 2-3 mins until thickened very slightly. Cool.
Mix the mascarpone with the honey and galliano.
Place 2 biscuits on a plate, soak with the orange syrup and top with a dollop of the mascarpone.
Place another 2 biscuits on top, soak and top with mascarpone.
Do this a third time finishing with a dollop op mascarpone.
Sprinkle with orange zest and crumbled flake.

This was gorgeous, I was marginally worried it wouldn't be but it was light and sweet and perfect to enjoy sitting in the evening sun.

Little saturday update

2008-07-26T14:23:00.004+01:00

In the last 24 hours I've gotten the Ballymaloe Cookery Course for €16 from the bookman and the Apples for Jam and Falling Cloudberries Boxset by Tessa Kiros for €24. Best €40 I've spent in a very long time!!!!

Bargain feckin tastic!!!!!

Food bites and other stuff

2008-07-21T20:34:00.008+01:00

So I was a tiny bit lazy this weekend and didn't feel like posting, but do you know the guilt gets to me and I have to put something up and seeing as I can't be bothered writing out a recipe here's some foodie bites to keep you going:

Firstly major news from the wonderful Kieran over at Ice Cream Ireland. Kieran and some others have managed to get funding for the 1st Annual National Irish Food Awards (Blas na hÉireann) which will be held in Dingle during the Food and Wine festival, this is amazing news and I wish them all the best, should they need a judge I am only too willing to lend my services ;-) .

Secondly, Deborah has started her new blog Tast.ie and also Spicendipity which is a shop selling gorgeous gourmet baking and cooking mixes of which I must try come payday this week. Dying to try the Oatmeal chocolate chip cookies and I definitely wouldn't mind the Luxury BBQ hamper so if anyone feels inclined to send me a present please don't be shy!?!?! tee hee

I also have to tell you about the new Bugatti range that kitchendresser.net have in stock, I am totally in love with these coffee cups and saucers and they have joined my ever espanding list of "must buy" kitchen implements. They also have the new Kenwood Kmix mixer which I am majorly coveting but my Kenwood Chef outweighs it in terms of muscle so I'll be sticking with that for now methinks but a girl can dream............

I bought a couple of new cookery books in Hodges Figgis sale today, Everyday by Bill Granger and Gorgeous Desserts by Annie Bell. Gorgeous Desserts is such a food porn book for me, the pictures are gorgeous and decadent and while the pics Bill's book are fabulous as always, desserts win out for me every time and I've wanted this book for ages since I saw Gorgeous Cakes in my cousins house (I will be buying this book a.s.a.p aswell), I will be heading to bed early tonight to plan what I'll be making first.

I had my aunts and mam over yesterday for afternoon tea which I've wanted to do for ages. My mam passed me the cups, saucers, milk jug, sugar bowl and cake plate from my grandmothers tea set and I finally got a chance to use the cups and saucers (after a friendly Mrs. Bucket (read Bouquet) type warning about no breakages and plastic beakers beforehand) and I must say Rachel Allen, although far from my favourite tv chef, does a mean afternoon tea. I made greek almond crescent biscuits, cardamom sour cream cake and lovely scones from a couple of her books which I seem to have accumulated over the last year or so. I have to say Rachel (love the name ;-) tee hee) has really grown on me and I've made a lovely mackeral dish and honey and lemon chicken from her books in the last few weeks and I was very impressed. Her recipes are simple and taste really good and I think these books are well on the way to becoming go to books for lovely home cooked food at the weekends for me.

I haven't bought anything off my "must buy" list recently, not since my creme brulee dishes which I still haven't used so this month I'm planning to buy a book stand for the kitchen and I always have trouble balancing my book and end up putting it down in eggs whites that have spilled on the counter. I'm also thinking maybe a bamboo steamer and maybe an ice-cream maker aswell as I've had to give the one I had a loan of for well over a year back. I'm thinking this one might suit my needs for now as I won't be making ice cream too often I'd say.

And in that note I may love you and leave you. Today's foodie news has been brought to you by Rachel and the fuit lemon (tee hee)

Perfect profiteroles

2008-07-14T21:11:00.004+01:00

I've been so bad not posting for the last 2 weeks and after the amazing reponse I had to my Daring Bakers Challenge, very exciting getting 50 comments and every time I got a new one I was emailing my husband at work to tell him!! I'm sure he was thinking how easily amused I am but what can ya do?!?!?!

So last weekend we were in London for our second wedding anniversary (we ate in the Jamie Oliver restuarant (meh! not that it was bad I was just slightly non-plussed and I really like Jamie's books and programmes) and had the most fantastic brunch here in Covent Garden, and this weekend we were at an engagement party for some friends who got engaged on a Caribbean cruise, with the most perfect amazingly romantic proposal, so congrats to S&E we are so thrilled for you!!!

The day before we went to London I was craving profiteroles, every since I made the profiteroles with the honey orange cream and cardamom icing I've been thinking about the texture of the choux pastry and the gorgeous flavours but seeing as my sister was coming for these I stuck to the traditional profiterole and filled them with sweetened cream and topped them with the most amazing chocolate sauce I got from m&s.

These were fantastic, light pastry and they cooked so well, I used a different recipe to the one I used for HHDD#20 and to be honest I preferred this one, it was slightly sweet and thicker than the one I made for HHDD. I used a recipe from a chef whose pretty big in the UK, James Martin, I have his Desserts book and am falling back in love with it. I made some desserts from it at christmas and wasn't impressed at all but I've tried a couple of different things since then an got the mille feuille idea from my last post from browsing his book and he is rising in my estimation again after me being sorely disappointed with him at Christmas.

So anyway, enough rambling here y'all are to make 24 generous sized profiteroles or 16 eclairs:

125ml milk
100g butter that's been cut into little cubes
3g fine salt
g caster sugar (I used golden caster sugar)
150g flour, sifted
4 medium eggs

Preheat the oven to Gas 7/220.
Put the water, milk, butter, salt and sugar into a saucepan and heat over a high heat for 1 minute stirring all the time. Take the pan off the heat and add the flour stirring all the time until the mixture is smooth.
When the mixture is smooth put the pan back on the heat and stir for another minute. (The paste will poach and the water will evaporate but make sure not to let it dry out too much or it will crack when it's cooking). Add the eggs one by one mixing each one in before you add the next egg stirring well until the mixture is smoothe and silky.
Spoon the mix into a piping bag and pipe the choux into whatever you are making profiteroles or eclair. Use a finger dipped in water to smoothe tops of your profiteroles.
When you are putting the choux into the oven throw a cup of water into a heated baking tray, this will create steam and help the choux to rise. Open the door after about 5 mins to allow the steam to escape and wedge the door open open a small ammount.
Cook for 10-20 mins depending on how big your profiteroles are or until golden brown. Mine took about 20-25 mins but my oven may have been open a but much.

Fill will cream either using a piping bag or cut the choux in half and spoon in, top with melted chocolate or in my case gorgeous rich chocolate sauce. Enjoy!!!

Daring Bakers Challenge 4 - Danish Braid

2008-06-29T09:47:00.013+01:00

This months Daring Bakers Challenge of a Danish Braid has been my favourite so far. I love love loved it!!!!! We made danish pastry which was something I had never done before and it was fantastically exciting to watch it take shape and then produce something as delicious as an apple strudel inspired danish braid. I also made fresh croissants which my husband was VERY excited about and croissants are one of my favourite foods all fresh and warm from the oven with a wonderful flakiness and the scent of cardamom and orange wafting through the house on the warm breeze (sounds all tropical doesn't it, not near it though just a day of no rain but no summer sunshine here in the Emerald Isle).

I made a couple of changes to the recipe to make it my own but not straying too far from the original so here they are:

I used 2 medium eggs and 1 egg yolk instead of 2 large eggs
I added a whole tsp of cardamom as I love it so much I just couldn't help myself
I had no vanilla pods so I just used the vanilla extract
I needed to add at least another 1/2 cup of flour as my dough was super sticky, this may have been due to the changing of the eggs but it all worked out fine in the end and the dough was a dream to work with
I added All Spice to my apple filling as opposed to cinnamon and vanilla, for those of you who don't have All Spice as I'm not sure it it's an Irish thing or an international/european thing it's a pre-blended mix of nutmeg, cinnamon and cloves
I also added 125g sultanas to my apple mixture.
I used a sugar almond crunch on top of my braid as my husband thinks he "doesn't like" nuts but I use them all the time without telling him and he never leaves anything behind!!!

I made my braid with the aid of the wonderful photos from Comida De Mama and found them extremely helpful in pointing me in the right direction in terms of tucking in the end etc, the YouTube video that Kelly posted was also very helpful in terms of advice in keeping the dough rectangular etc.

The pastry was in a word - Divine, I love cardamom and it gave the dough (and the kitchen) the most amazing scent. I think my pastry cooked very well and was flaky and not too crispy and I could really see the layers which was pretty impressive (I thought anyway).

Thank you so much to Kelly and Ben for hosting this months challenge, it's been the most enjoyable and most challenging challenge for me so far and I loved every single second of this, I will definitely be making this again as it's such a versatile dough and I even have the leftovers defrosting down stairs at the moment for todays dessert.

Just to advise you, I have kitchen measuring cups and use them anytime the recipe says cups, apologies to anyone who doesn't have these to hand but as far as I know there's 8 ounces in 1 cup and I'd go with this, so after all that here's the recipe:

Danish Braid inspired by Sherry Yard's The Secrets of Baking

DANISH DOUGH:

Makes 2-1/2 pounds dough

Ingredients
For the dough (Detrempe)
1 ounce fresh yeast or 1 tablespoon active dry yeast
1/2 cup whole milk
1/3 cup sugar
Zest of 1 orange, finely grated
3/4 teaspoon ground cardamom
1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 vanilla bean, split and scraped
2 large eggs, chilled
1/4 cup fresh orange juice
3-1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt

For the butter block (Beurrage)
1/2 pound (2 sticks) cold unsalted butter
1/4 cup all-purpose flour

DOUGH
Combine yeast and milk in the bowl of a mixer fitted with the paddle attachment and mix on low speed. Slowly add sugar, orange zest, cardamom, vanilla extract, vanilla seeds, eggs, and orange juice. Mix well. Change to the dough hook and add the salt with the flour, 1 cup at a time, increasing speed to medium as the flour is incorporated. Knead the dough for about 5 minutes, or until smooth. You may need to add a little more flour if it is sticky. Transfer dough to a lightly floured baking sheet and cover with plastic wrap. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Without a standing mixer: Combine yeast and milk in a bowl with a hand mixer on low speed or a whisk. Add sugar, orange zest, cardamom, vanilla extract, vanilla seeds, eggs, and orange juice and mix well. Sift flour and salt on your working surface and make a fountain. Make sure that the “walls” of your fountain are thick and even. Pour the liquid in the middle of the fountain. With your fingertips, mix the liquid and the flour starting from the middle of the fountain, slowly working towards the edges. When the ingredients have been incorporated start kneading the dough with the heel of your hands until it becomes smooth and easy to work with, around 5 to 7 minutes. You might need to add more flour if the dough is sticky.

BUTTER BLOCK
1. Combine butter and flour in the bowl of a mixer fitted with a paddle attachment and beat on medium speed for 1 minute. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and the paddle and then beat for 1 minute more, or until smooth and lump free. Set aside at room temperature.
2. After the detrempe has chilled 30 minutes, turn it out onto a lightly floured surface. Roll the dough into a rectangle approximately 18 x 13 inches and ¼ inch thick. The dough may be sticky, so keep dusting it lightly with flour. Spread the butter evenly over the center and right thirds of the dough. Fold the left edge of the detrempe to the right, covering half of the butter. Fold the right third of the rectangle over the center third. The first turn has now been completed. Mark the dough by poking it with your finger to keep track of your turns, or use a sticky and keep a tally. Place the dough on a baking sheet, wrap it in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
3. Place the dough lengthwise on a floured work surface. The open ends should be to your right and left. Roll the dough into another approximately 13 x 18 inch, ¼-inch-thick rectangle. Again, fold the left third of the rectangle over the center third and the right third over the center third. No additional butter will be added as it is already in the dough. The second turn has now been completed. Refrigerate the dough for 30 minutes.
4. Roll out, turn, and refrigerate the dough two more times, for a total of four single turns. Make sure you are keeping track of your turns. Refrigerate the dough after the final turn for at least 5 hours or overnight. The Danish dough is now ready to be used. If you will not be using the dough within 24 hours, freeze it. To do this, roll the dough out to about 1 inch in thickness, wrap tightly in plastic wrap, and freeze. Defrost the dough slowly in the refrigerator for easiest handling. Danish dough will keep in the freezer for up to 1 month.

APPLE FILLING
Makes enough for two braids

Ingredients
4 Fuji or other apples, peeled, cored, and cut into ¼-inch pieces
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 vanilla bean, split and scraped
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
4 tablespoons unsalted butter

Toss all ingredients except butter in a large bowl. Melt the butter in a sauté pan over medium heat until slightly nutty in color, about 6 - 8 minutes. Then add the apple mixture and sauté until apples are softened and caramelized, 10 to 15 minutes. If you’ve chosen Fujis, the apples will be caramelized, but have still retained their shape. Pour the cooked apples onto a baking sheet to cool completely before forming the braid. (If making ahead, cool to room temperature, seal, and refrigerate.) They will cool faster when spread in a thin layer over the surface of the sheet. After they have cooled, the filling can be stored in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. Left over filling can be used as an ice cream topping, for muffins, cheesecake, or other pastries.

DANISH BRAID
Makes enough for 2 large braids

Ingredients
1 recipe Danish Dough (see below)
2 cups apple filling, jam, or preserves (see below)

For the egg wash: 1 large egg, plus 1 large egg yolk

1. Line a baking sheet with a silicone mat or parchment paper. On a lightly floured surface, roll the Danish Dough into a 15 x 20-inch rectangle, ¼ inch thick. If the dough seems elastic and shrinks back when rolled, let it rest for a few minutes, then roll again. Place the dough on the baking sheet.
2. Along one long side of the pastry make parallel, 5-inch-long cuts with a knife or rolling pastry wheel, each about 1 inch apart. Repeat on the opposite side, making sure to line up the cuts with those you’ve already made.
3. Spoon the filling you’ve chosen to fill your braid down the center of the rectangle. Starting with the top and bottom “flaps”, fold the top flap down over the filling to cover. Next, fold the bottom “flap” up to cover filling. This helps keep the braid neat and helps to hold in the filling. Now begin folding the cut side strips of dough over the filling, alternating first left, then right, left, right, until finished. Trim any excess dough and tuck in the ends.

Egg Wash
Whisk together the whole egg and yolk in a bowl and with a pastry brush, lightly coat the braid.

Proofing and Baking
1. Spray cooking oil (Pam…) onto a piece of plastic wrap, and place over the braid. Proof at room temperature or, if possible, in a controlled 90 degree F environment for about 2 hours, or until doubled in volume and light to the touch.
2. Near the end of proofing, preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Position a rack in the center of the oven.
3. Bake for 10 minutes, then rotate the pan so that the side of the braid previously in the back of the oven is now in the front. Lower the oven temperature to 350 degrees F, and bake about 15-20 minutes more, or until golden brown. Cool and serve the braid either still warm from the oven or at room temperature. The cooled braid can be wrapped airtight and stored in the refrigerator for up to 2 days, or freeze for 1 month.

Also make sure you check out the other Daring Bakers challenges on the Daring Baker Blogroll here

*Update*: I also made my version of mille feuille using the very end of my pastry, filled with a lemon curd cream (using the recipe from here with the juice of 2 lemons and the zest of 1), sweetened with 1 tbsp honey and whipped and as many strawberries as I could fit in, in a word DIVINE!!!

Tastespotting is back!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2008-06-28T13:33:00.000+01:00

One word

WOOHOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Mini speckled chocolate cheesecakes

2008-06-22T14:40:00.008+01:00

After last weekend cheesecake sisaster I decided it was time to try again to assuage my cheesecake craving and get the creamy hit that I was looking for. I've wanted to make a chocolate cheesecake for a while and after searching the food blog search etc I settled on Nigella's chocolate cheesecake recipe from How to be a Domestic Goddess, but with a couple of changes.

This is a traditional cheesecake made with eggs and cream cheese and baked in a water bath, I decided to make individual cakes as this makes sure I'm not eating a mahoosive slice and saying it's just a slice (tee hee). I used crushed chocolate bits that I whizzed in the food processor as opposed to melting the chocolate and adding it to the mix to make a swirled cheesecake like the brownies I made before. I used ginger nuts for the base instead of digestives as I like the ginger flavour is brings to the cake.

I was delighted with the results, creamy and rich but with a bitter hit of chocolate and a lovely gingery flavour. I think my craving has been satisfied for now, moving onto something more exciting next which I've made already but will remain a secret until next weekend but just to tell you it was a dream to make and I love love love the new skill I've gotten though it too, dying to share with you all

Anyway, enough rambling here's the recipe:

125g biscuits crushed, ginger nuts or digestives work best
50g butter, melted.
500g creamcheese
3 whole eggs
3 egg yolks
150g sugar
175ml sour cream
1tsp lime juice
150 plain choclate, melted.

Heat the oven to Gas 4/180 and boil a kettle full of water.
Process the biscuits and mix with the butter, put this into the bottom of a 20 cm springform tin or 6 individual moulds if you have them, and chill this while you make the creamcheese mix.
Whisk the creamcheese until it's smoothe, add the sugar and then the eggs one by one whisking each one in well before you add the next.
Add the sour cream and lime juice.
Fold in the chocolate bits and pour the mix into your tin.
Put your springform tin into a large roasting tin and fill the roasting tin with water until it comes 2-3 cm's up the sides of the springform.
If using a 20cm tin bake for an hour, if using individual moulds approx 20 mins.
Sit on a rack to cool and dust with icing sugar when ready to serve.

This was gorgeous, creamy and chocolatey and bitter all at the same, definitely one to make again. Hope you enjoy it if you try it

A very disappointing honey cheesecake

2008-06-15T18:44:00.006+01:00

My name is Rachel and I am a honey addict!!! I love honey and would eat it on toast for 3 meals a day. It has a much rounder, smoother flavour than sugar and makes normal things like whipped cream just a touch more exotic. Because of this I have wanted to try the honey cheesecake from Bill Granger's Open Kitchen for as long as I have this book and as I've been thinking about cheesecake for weeks decided this weekend was the perfect time to try it. It's also been a while since I've featured a Bill recipe here. Alas, I was wrong!

This cake is made of ricotta and eggs, no creamcheese, no cream, no marcarpone. Now perhaps it was the quality of my ricotta which was some brand from Tesco and not the lovely ricotta from a deli that Bill always has on his programmes, perhaps not. The recipe was only slighty tinkered with which means I left out the marsala soaked raisins as bits in cheesecake upset me on a number of levels, perhaps not. Perhaps it's just the cake itself (which the husbag assures me it is ;-)), perhaps not.

The texture of the cake is slightly grainy, nearly like that of cottage cheese when you bite it - Not. Nice. At. All. Cheesecake should soft and smooth and almost mousse like in texture, and while this one manages to look delicious and soft and smooth, it's not!!! Boo to that I say!!!!

Here's the recipe should you want to try it, it does look pretty and I will definitely make honey flavour cheesecake again but not with ricotta!!!

60g sultanas (I didn't use these)
60ml marsala or cold weak tea (or these)
55g caster sugar
6 large eggs
finely grated zest of 1 orange
4 x 250g tubs of ricotta (or 1kg), mashed slightly and drained if it's got a lot of liquid in the tub as I did above.
90g honey

Preheat the oven to Gas 2/3, 160. Soak the sultanas if you're using them in the marsala/tea for 30 mins while the oven is heating.

Put the sugar and eggs in a mixer and beat for 5 mins until light and foamy. Drain the sultanas and fold through the egg mixture with teh zest, honey and ricotta.

Pour into a 9cm springform tin and bake for 80 mins or until golden. Allow to cool in the tin and serve with berries.

P.S check out the lovely sugar paste roses that my sister in law made for our wedding cake 2 years ago, still perfect and as hard as rocks. Thanks Jen!!! Rx

Tastespotting is no more.........

2008-06-14T10:38:00.001+01:00

what am I going to do in the evenings when himself is playing the PS3 and I have no archives to look at :-( boohoo

A bit of everything...........

2008-06-09T22:30:00.006+01:00

but mostly nothing!!!

This weekend and last weekend, save for having the family over I've made a good bit of stuff;

Choux pastry for HHDD#20, it was divine! I made eclairs and profiteroles and filled them with honey orange cream and topped with cardamom icing, the flavours were amazing and the husbag was putting whole profiteroles in his mouth. When I put the pics on the computer they were in a word........crap!!! To out it nicely, my normal turn of phrase would have been shite but seeing as I like to think my blog is international some of you might not know what shite is, said with an Irish accent of course so we'll stick with crap! No chance to take more pics as there was a choux massacre...............you can see the results above.

I also made chocolate tarts - chocolate pastry, lined with melted chocolate and filled with creme patisserie and topped with fresh cherries, blueberries and strawberries. Once again divine! I brought them to a friends house and never photographed them filled (these non-bloggers just don't understand this photographing food), the shells look nice though.

I also made fresh lemonade, the most divine refreshing and tangy lemonade courtesy of Laylita's Recipes and as always Tastespotting! I can not rave about this enough, we had lemon and lime on Sunday and orange and lemon on Monday as it was a bank holiday.

So. Good.

I changed the recipe slightly and used a whole litre of soda water, 1 lime, a lemon and a half and half a cup of sugar which is about 4ish ounces of sugar but you can use more to taste. I cannot stress though, that when you blend this you MUST strain it as there are loads of bits of the peel etc in it. I was very sceptical that this would be nice but it's WAY better than homemade lemonade with just the juice, much more flavour and tartness but still a lovely sweet balance. Check out the recipe over on Layla's blog on the link above, she also has Watermelon mimosa up at the moment which looks AMAZING!

I also made gorgeous Avoca salads, for those of you who have eaten there I made the broccoli, feta, cherry tomato and hazelnut salad and the balsamic potato salad - Divine!!! I will definitely be making these again soon as I've loads of lovely homemade fresh dressing leftover. YUM, expect salad recipes this weekend methinks.

Other than that I made beef skewers with peanut dipping sauce, sticky chicken wings, lovely mushrooms on toast, bellini's, Bill Grangers amazing scrambled eggs - you know the usual things people make at the weekend.

I'm hoping for something more productive this weekend with actual photos of finished dishes this time. I got creme brulee dishes today, that I've been waiting a couple of months for so maybe some lavender or rose creme brulee in the coming weeks, I am never going to get through my ever expanding list of things to make for the first time if I keep going!!!

On that note, I'm off to bed now, sogni d'oro (sweet dreams) rachx

Raspberry honey shortcakes

2008-06-02T16:44:00.006+01:00

I made these yesterday when some family were over for lunch, they were the perfect light ending to a lovely meal of salads and mushroom stuffed crespelle (read Italian pancakes) from the Ursula Ferrigno book I wrote about last week. They were divine I might add, no pics as people were here and do you know non-bloggers just don't understand the taking pics of food!!! I did manage to get some pics of the dessert as everyone was sitting outside drinking Bellinis (YUM)

This shortcake biscuits in this dessert are taken from the July issue of Delicious, the creamy aspect is marcapone mixed with fresh orange juice and honey and the strawberries are m&s's best. I also used a Merchant Gourmet dulche de leche sauce for these that I got in Avoca and is divine but if you wanted you could make this one as I have before

For the biscuits you'll need

115g butter
60g caster sugar
175g plain flour
2 tbsp honey (or maple syrup)

Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy, add the flour and honey and mix until it forms a ball of dough. Wrap in cling film and chill for an hour.

Preheat the oven to 190/Gas 5. When the dough has chilled, roll it out on a well floured surface until it's about 5mm thick and cut into 18 7-inch cookies or whatever shapes you want. Bake for 8-10m mins until golden brown. Move to a rack and cool.

You'll want to assemble these when you're about to serve them, mix up the mascarpone, honey and juice of roughly half an orange in advance, it'll be like thickly whipped cream. Pipe onto the bicuits, top with strawberries/raspberries, then add another biscuit, pipe again and top with strawberries/raspberries and finally another biscuit. Serve with caramel sauce or whatever takes your fancy.

Daring Bakers Challenge 3 - Opéra Cake

2008-05-28T20:04:00.008+01:00

So here we are again, it's Daring Bakers time, and this month I really was daring. An opéra cake is something I would NEVER have made, in my wildest dreams no matter how much I would have wanted to and read the recipe. I can now make my own nut flours - I made pistachio for this. I can make a sugar syrup, which hile not the most technical of recipes is something I have never made before. I have finally found a butter cream that I like aswell.

I'm not going to post the full recipe as it's posted on plenty of other blogs and you can see it here on Ivonne's blog Cream Puffs in Venice but here's what I did that make my cake different:

I made pistachio flour - ground pistachios pulverised with a tsp flour for each 100g pistachios - smells AMAZING and everyone should try this!!!! I will definitel be making nut flour again.

I used rose flavouring for my buttercream so 3 tbsp rosewater in total but to be honest I could have used more, I also coloured my buttercream with some cochinelle colouring to make it the rose pink.

I made a cardamom sugar stock which is amazing, I still have some left and keep smelling it in it's little airtight container in the fridge. Smells like pure heaven for a cardamom addict like me!!!

Initially, I wasn't mad about the mousse/ganache or the glaze as I thought they over powered the cake slightly on the first day, the next day however, everything blended together perfectly and the flavours had time to develop. The joconde (read cake here gor those not intiated to the opéra cake layers) had a lovely firm texture which I really liked and the pistachio flavour was gorgeous, really fresh and with the cardamom and hints of rose made me think of exotic far off places!!!

Special thanks to Lis, Ivonne, Fran and Shea for hosting this months amazing challenge - Bring on the June challenge I'm ready!!!!!

Food Bites and other stuff

2008-05-26T21:52:00.001+01:00

No recipe post until later this week so I thought I'd tell you all about some food related its and pieces to keep you going until then. The picture above is one I took across Galway bay to the Aran Islands a few weeks ago when we were down there for the bank holiday weekend, this is one of the most beautiful views in the world to be and when we drive along the coast road from Ballyvaughan to Fanore it's like my heart has come home!!!!

Firstly I have to rave about a fantastic kitchen accessory site I came across last year, Kitchen Dresser, this is a fantastic site with lovely bits and pieces for the kitchen and I check it regularly to see if they have new stock.

I recently bought these lovely plates, bowls and a jug from them that you can see in the picture above that are so cute and pretty and have a lovely vintage look to them. I also have to compliment them on their outstanding customer service, when my order arrived a plate in the set of 4 I had bought was broken, I mailed them and received not 1 but 2 mails back telling me I would get a new plate and it arrived the very next day. I am seriously impressed with Kitchen Dresser and will definitely shop there again, the postage is only €8 to anywhere in Ireland aswell so no excuse to get some lovely bits for your kitchens laydees.

My second piece of "news" is that tonight I had this for my dinner, bruschetta ai funghi. Lorraine is always encouraging me to get back into mushrooms, I have a slight aversion to them due to a traumatic experience in Biology class when I was doing my leaving cert that involved an hour long video of the most terrifying mushrooms and toadstools actually detaching from the ground and moving!!!!!!! HORRENDOUS!!! This was a gorgeous recipe and I added a tsp of cream and some fresh thyme to it, I can't recommend it enough and actually mailed Lorraine to say how gorgeous this was.

Another food related piece of news that I am sure most of you know about was the release of Kieran and Seans fantastic Book of Sweet Things that came out at the beginning of May and a fantastic book it is too. I made rum and raisin ice cream, it being my favourite flavour, and it was SSSSSOOOOO good!! And Fairycakeheaven got a mention in the book which I am well chuffed about.

I have to tell about another book I got recently too - Ursula Ferriogno's Complete Italian Cookery Course, I got this for all of €6 in TK Maxx and it's one of the best purchases I have ever made there, I've used this loads and because of the wonderful pictures I have made a few risottos and have even graduated to making them with whatever I have and not just using the recipes which I am very proud of indeed. This is a must have book for anyone into Italian cooking and I even prefer it to Jamie's Italy and Giorgio Locatelli's Made in Italy: Food and Other Stories which have until now been my go to Italian books after Lorraine of course.

I am sure there are other things that I have meant to tell you over the last few weeks, I bought Carrageen moss at the weekend so I'll be making Carrageen Panna Cotta or Souffle over the next few weeks, the recipe will be from a book my grandmother owned and is a very treasured possession.

On a non food related bit, this is my favourite song at the moment, I am loving Duffy andI think her album is fantastic, she's very reminiscent of Dusty Springfield I think and very soulful without being depressing too. Let me know what you think.

Also, check out Desserts Magazine, an online magazine with great recipes and submissions from bloggers I read all the time, Helen's macaron tutorial is also invaluable for anyone who wants to make macarons for the firt time or who just needs a few tips in making them, I still haven't gotten around to making some but as this weekend coming is a bank holiday I'm hoping to give them a whirl so keep your fingers crossed for me.

And on that note I'll sign off for the night, I need my daily dose of scandal from Perez Hilton. Ciao laydees (and any gents but I don't think there are any apart from Niall) Rachx

SHF #43 - Citrus - Pomelo and Lime Curd with Orange Curd, Orange Mousse and Lemon Lavender Butterfly Tuiles

2008-05-18T12:42:00.008+01:00

All I have to say about this is YUM!!! There was no way I was passing up a chance to take on the citrus challenge of the year!!! Tartelette a.k.a Heléne is hosting this round of Sugar High Friday and it's a doosie, what could be better than citrus (apart from almond and cardamom) but really this is wonderful as I got a chance to really let my creative juices flow!

For my creation I took inspiration from various areas, my pomelo and lime curd is from the Elle's New England Kitchen who got it from the New York Times and I found it on Tastespotting, so a round about way of getting there, the mousse is from Bill Granger's book Bills Food but with the lemon mousse changed to orange, the orange curd is is made the same way as the pomelo and lime one and tuiles are a recipe I have printed out and have no notion where it's from but I've tinkered with it a bit and used Chocolate Gourmand's method. Phew, there a lot of people who are responsible for me putting this together and thanks to all of them for their continuing inspiration and endless knowledge.

So as this is shaping up to be a long post I'll try to cut the chat to a minimum, so here's the recipes

Pomelo and Lime Curd/Orange curd:

1 pomelo
1 lime
3 egg yolks
2 whole eggs
125g sugar
Pinch of salt
4 tbsp butter at room temp

I washed my pomelo and lime as I couldn't get organic non-waxed ones. Grate zest from the pomelo and the lime and set aside.
Squeeze juice from both fruit into a sieve set over a bowl.
In a bowl, whisk together the egg yolks, whole eggs, sugar and salt. Whisk in the strained juice.
Transfer to a saucepan over a low heat and stir continuously until the mixture has thickened enough to coat the back of a spoon, approx. 10-15 mins.
Add the zest and transfer to a sterilised jar or bowl, cover and cool.
I transferred mine to martini glasses and the rest to a jar.

For the orange curd I used the juice of 3 oranges and the zest of 2.

Once the pomelo and lime curd was set, I followed the same method and spooned a layer of orange curd on top.

Orange Mousse:

zest of 3 oranges
60 ml orange juice
185g caster sugar
4 eggs seperated
150g butter, cut into shunks

Put the orange zest, juice, sugar and egg yolks in a bowl over a pan of simmering water and cook, stirring constantly, for approx. 10 mins until the mixture coats the back of a spoon (this is another curd method that I've used before but it takes way longer to thicken).
Whisk in small ammounts of butter until it is all incorporated.
Allow to cool.
Whisk the egg whites together in a mixer until stiff peaks form.
Fold half of the egg whites into the orange mixture with a metal spoon and then fold in the second half.
Spoon the mixture over the curds and refrigerate until firm.

For the tuiles:

40g butter
50g icing sugar
60g plain flour
zest of 1 lemon
1 tsp lavender syrup (I've been dying to use this since I bought it from Avoca, it's also available at www.foodhallonline.com)

Preheat the oven to Gas 6/200.
Place a flat tray in teh oven to heat with a non-stick sheet on it, I used a silicone baking sheet but I am sure well buttered parchment would do aswell as long as you butter again between batches or change the parchment for each set of new tuiles.

Cream the butter, sugar, flour, zest and lavender syrup together until it's light and fluffy. Add the flour slowly until just mixed in.
Heat a large serving spoon of the mixture in a bowl in the microwave for about 8 seconds so you achieve a pouring consistency.
Place a tablespoon of the dough on the heated baking sheet and spread out gently until the tuile looks quite thin.
Place in the oven and bake for 4-6 minutes.
Remove from the oven and cut into shaped or roll around the handle of a wooden spoon to make curls.

Feel free to cook your tuiles for longer but I like mine pale and chewy as opposed to darker and crispier. Serve with physallis and preferably after a bbq with friends!

This was a gorgeous recipe and one of the first I've used many inspirations and spent time on making notes etc. I really enjoyed making this as it's the first curd I've made that set up properly. You can't really see the layers in the photos but the mousse and orange curd were u gasp after the sweetness of the mousse and the first curd layer. I'm still eating the pomelo and lime curd on toast and trying to make it last as long as possible but the orange one is long gone as the husbag was eating spoons of it!!!!

I'm back with blueberries

2008-05-12T22:25:00.007+01:00

Hey all, am back from 2 weeks of being lazy and not doing very much cooking. Thanks so much for your concern in wondering had I fallen off the face of the earth, unfortunately not, but I was away last weekend in the lovely county of Clare hence the no posting but I didn't make am amazing fennel, parsnip and potato gratin that I will post about when I make it again but suffice to say it was divine and of my own creation aswell (go me).

There was a wonderful trip to the Milk Market in Limerick where I met the wonderful Maz from Style Treaty along with her boyfriend and parents and had a flying visit from Laura from EatDrinkLive and her gorgeous little girl. A foray into Cafe Noir which was lovely, fantastic coffee and fantastic cakes, what more could a girl and her wonderful cousin Cait want (Hi Cait and thanks to you for putting us up - Again!).

There were some lovely individual sponge cakes made with duck eggs I got in the market but these didn't get photographed either, very lazy of me I know but himself was eating them in 2 bites so I didn't have much chance!

So this is my return post, it's a kick back to a few months ago and the wholemeal pikelets which were lovely if I do say so myself. I bought some fresh blueberries in Tesco on Friday night reduced to a mere 93 cents a punnet so of course I couldn't help myself and bought 2 even though I should have gotten more and frozen them but my head wasn't working as efficently as it should have been after a week at work and I'll have to make so with what I got, both are now gone as I can't get enough of fresh blueberries at the moment - I think I'm addicted but am hoping over eating doesn't make any parts of my purple!!!

So picture this if you will it's Sunday morning, the sun is shining again but for how long so I decided a summery breakfast was in order and not having any buttermilk for buttermilk pancakes and not being in the mood to seperate eggs and whip egg whites I decided to make these as they are a very easy to make and the batter is quite thick but they're lovely and light when they're cooked.

I made a couple of changes and used a duck egg instead of my normal organic egg as I had 2 to use up, the last egg went into something else I'll post about soon, when I had the batter in the frying pan I popped a couple of blueberries on the top so when the pikelet was turned over they cooked into the batter and were divine, also I served these with a pomelo and lime curd (I finally made a curd that set up properly) I made on Saturday morning as pomelo's were reduced to an even more bargaintastic 35 cents in Tesco and the recipe for this will follow later on today as part of my entry for the Sugar High Friday blogging event.

So sit back, enjoy the sunshine, and have a leisurely breakfast, can't be wasting this sun now can we........................

Hay Hay it's Donna Day #19 - The Clafoutis Edition Event - Caramelised Apple Clafoutis at that!!!!

2008-04-27T20:04:00.007+01:00

So every time Hay Hay it's Donna Day is on I look at the event on Is My Blog Burning, think oooooo yes I'll definitely do that and then never get around to it!!! This month I was determined to do it cos I LOVE CLAFOUTIS!!!! or anything with a batter/cake like consistency, am easily pleased when it comes to desserts.

I have amalgamated 2 recipes, the batter mix from Donna Hay as posted on Bron Marshalls blog (and the lovely Bron is also this HHDD's host) with a couple of moderations and an idea from a Bill Granger recipe for a puffed apple pancake so this is a Caramelised Apple Clafoutis and let me tell you - 'tis divine!!!

So for the batter you'll need:

200ml milk (I used low fat but whatever milk you prefer)
100ml cream (this is to make up 300ml in total but Bron's original recipe used 300ml full fat milk)
4oz caster sugar (In the original recipe 4 tbsp sugar is kept back to sprinkle over the fruit before the batter is poured on but I just didn't use this as there's brown sugar on the apples)
1tsp vanilla extract
I used 1 large, 1 medium and an egg white I had left over from the Daring Bakers challenge but the original recipe uses 3 free range eggs
pinch of salt
8oz plain flour

Mix all the batter ingredients together using a whisk or in a mixer/processor. Heat the oven to 190/Gas 5.

For the caramelised apples you'll need:

50g butter
4 tart apples, (I used Braeburns but Granny Smith's would be lovely too) cored, peeled and cut into eights (or smaller if you apples are very big)
3tbsp brown sugar
1 tbsp lime juice
1 tsp vanilla extract

Put whatever dish you're using in the oven to heat it.
Melt the butter in a pan and add the apples.
Cook on a medium heat for about 5 mins
Sprinkle over the sugar and add the lime juice and vanilla extract and cook until the sugar is melted and caramelised.
Take the dish out of the oven and put the apples and caramel in the bottom.
Pour over the batter and put the dish in the oven and cook for 35-40 mins until browned and puffed up.

Seriously this dessert has taken over from Bread and Butter pudding as my favourite dessert, it's cakey and battery and there's a lovely hint of lime off it along with the creaminess of the batter and the apples are lovely and tart. I served with unwhipped cream poured over in my new GIANT cups I got for my birthday from my wonderful auntie T!!! DIVINE!!!! We also had the wonderful cannelloni that Lorraine blogged about this week, twas also gorgeous and the husbag ate half a dish of it!!!!

Daring Bakers Challenge 2 - Cheesecake Lollipops

2008-04-27T10:32:00.005+01:00

So this is my second month as a Daring Baker, and to be honest I think it hasn't gotten off to a very good start!

I intended to make these cheesecake lollipops 2 weeks ago and it didn't happen due to being out on the lash for my birthday. I intended to make them last week and it didn't happen due to extreme illness in the form of a crazy virus!! So this weekend was my last chance - late in the day but thankfully the cheesecake was a breeze to make taking about 50 minutes to do it's thing in the oven and with my history in cheesecakes I wasn't overly positive when it went into the oven but came out very well and is definitely be a recipe I use again as I loved the texture of the finished cake. I'm so glad I didn't have the problems with it some other people did with the cheesecake not setting as this would have most likely ended with me not making a second one and completing the challenge.

After couple of hours in the fridge the cheesecake was ready to form into balls, overnight in the freezer and the balls were ready to cover with chocolate, this is the finished product and as I write this I am STILL singing the Chocolate Salty Balls song from South Park - classy wha??????

So this months challenge was picked by Deborah from Taste and Tell and Elle from Feeding My Enthusiasms and is from a book called from Sticky, Chewy, Messy, Gooey by Jill O’Connor which I've never heard of before but if this recipe is anything to go by the recipes in it are yum and fun!

I haven't given the full recipe as it's on Taste and Tell but I couldn't recommend this enough and if you don't want to make the pops then just try the cake. I made half vanilla and then I added some lemon extract just to change it up, I think I preferred the lemon as it was fresher with the chocolate but the vanilla tasted like ice-cream which was good aswell and the husbag loved.

I've been tagged................

2008-04-19T19:00:00.004+01:00

By the lovely George from Culinary Travels of a Kitchen Goddess and Brenda from Tea and Wheaten Bread on the same round of tagging, George tagged Brenda and I and then Brenda tagged me aswell, mad isn't it!!!!

As both tags are the same, to describe myself in six words and then tag 6 other bloggers so here goes

Passionate
Fun
Talkative
Loyal
Protective
Shoe mad

Hope that will give you all an insight into my personality and the people I am tagging are

The Airy Fairy @ ~airy fairy cupcakes~
Lynnie @ Lyndar the Merciless
Katy @ Sugarlaws, one of the newer blogs that's going around the same length of time as myself, Katy makes gorgeous food and I'm still dying to make her Smoked Pheasant salad!
Victoria @ Ommnomnom, a new vegan Irish blog that has gorgeous recipes
Lisa @ Little Bits, Lisa was my Blogging by Mail match a month or so ago and she has the most lovely recipes on her blog.
and finally Maz @ Style Treaty for her endless inspiration and wonderful outlook!

And on another note, I don't think there'll be a food related post this weekend, I've got some crazy virus that's doing the rounds since Wednesday and it's taking me ages to shake it off so I doubt I'd have enough strength to stand in the kitchen to boil a kettle not to talk about make anything!! It's taken me half an hour to write this short post cos I keep having to stop aswell!!! Wish me better soon girleens............................

Oh and the pictures are of some lovely orchids I got for my birthday from my fantastic friend Jenny whose a florist! There is nothing like some flowers to make someone smile and these are absolutely gorgeous - Thanks Jen!!!!!

Oeufs en cocotte - Waiter there's something in my...................breakfast

2008-04-13T20:43:00.007+01:00

or baked eggs for those of us not sophisticated enough to be French!!! This is my entry for this months Waiter There's Something in my......................blogging event which is hosted by Johanna over on The Passionate Cook. I haven't entered this before but look at it every month and think I'll enter and then I don't and the deadline is passed so this month is it as I'd made these on Sunday. I admittedly had these for my tea but you can see why I didn't have breakfast below, these are my absolute favourite breakfast meal of all time!!!

I hadn't intended cooking anything today as my birthday party was last night, I wasn't overly hungover but had just decided there was nothing in particular I fancied making. But true to form I couldn't stay away from the oven for the day but did manage to make somthing simple and gorgeous!!!

These are lovely for breakfast, which is when I normally make them, or for a light Sunday tea when it's pushing 8 o'clock!

For 2 people you'll need:

4 large eggs (I used local organic ones but whatever you use yourself)
4 tbsp cream
salt
enough melted butter to coat the inside of 4 ramekins

I also decided to experiment and used in my eggs

1/4 tsp garam masala per ramekin
1 cherry tomato, chopped
1 spring onion, chopped
1/4 green chilli, finely chopped

Heat the oven to Gas 5/190.
Boil a kettle of water
Butter the inside of the ramekins with melted butter and add the tomato, spring onion, chilli and sprinkle with garam masala.
Crack an egg into each ramekin, sprinkle with salt and pour over a tablespoon of cream on each egg.
Place the ramekins into a deep tin/dish and pour the boiling water in around the ramekins so it comes half way up the sides.
Bake for 15 mins and eat alone or with some buttered crusty bread if you have it.

This recips is one I've used time and time again and the addition of the garam masala is amazing, I wish I had added the changes to my second egg. The husbag normally has cheddar grated into the bottom of his eggs. Just make sure you add whatever additions to the ramekins before the egg and cream as it can burn if it's on the top.

The Indian inspiration comes from Anjum Anand and the water bath idea is from Nigella's latest book Nigella Express as I had been making these before her book came out but never this way which seems to prevent the eggs getting that goldy brown crispy stuff on top of them which I really don't like.

Enjoy or to be all French about it Bon Appetit!!!

Oh and check out my new ramekins, they're from a range called Natural Elements and everything in the range is either lovely matt cream, the sage green you can see here or gorgeous dark matt wood, you can see some of it here on deCuisine.co.uk but I got mine in a shop in Navan called Sage & Stone that's just reopened after being refurbished and I'll be divorced if I buy anything else in there!!!

Finally..........................

2008-04-05T14:39:00.008+01:00

I found a madeleine tin in Dublin!!!! Kitchen Complements you are my saviour!!!!

I was in there to get some almond extract determined not to look at anything else other than that and as I was leaving after successfully avoiding all other tins, edible lustres and silicone rolling pins I happened to spy a madeleine tin out the corner of my eye!!! I was in shock as I been searching for a madeleine tin in vain for ages and was even trying to coerce my mother and sister into getting me one in New York next month (they weren't being coerced too easily though). But lo and behold there is was, as if a light was shining from on high and with that it was purchased (along with the almond extract and a palette nife but we won't talk about those)

So here it is, Saturday afternoon, the sun is shining, I'm after making the Daring Bakers cake again to bring to a friends house tonight (she's pregnant and I wouldn't like to say no as she might beat me or worse......................hi Sinead), the football is on the tv (go on the Pool) and I'm flicking through my Domestic Goddess book when suddenly I spy Nigella's rosebud madeleine recipe. So off I totter downstairs to make these with shouts from the husbag ringing in my ears at the ref, Arsenal players and whoever else should slight the godlike Liverpool players.

This recipe is so easy, these madeleines are so light and I would have eaten all 12 if I had no conscience, but unfortunately I do and it told me to only eat 3 (or 4), the rest are downstairs on a spotty plate calling me "Rachel, eat us, please, we're so pretty and light with hardly any calories!!!" The little feckers!!! Tee hee

So anyway here's what you need, if you can find a madeleine tin that is! I didn't make rosebud madeleines as rose isn't to everyone's taste so I made lemon madeleines with lemon zest and extract for extra lemony goodness!!!

50g butter
1 large egg
40g caster sugar
pinch of salt
45g plain flour
1 tsp lemon zest
1/4 tsp lemon extract
icing sugar for dusting

Preheat the oven to 220/Gas 7.
Melt the butter over a low heat and allow to cool. Put a tbsp of melted butter aside to grease your tin.
In an electric mixer beat the egg, sugar and salt together until thickened like mayonaise.
Sift the flour into the mix and fold in with a wooden spoon.
Add the lemon zest and extract and mix in.
Add the melted butter and mix in well.
Grease your tin with the melted butter you set aside at the beginning.
Spoon roughly a teaspoon of the mixture into each madeleine shape.
Bake for 5 mins but check after 3.
Sprinkle with icing sugar if you wish and eat them all!!!!

Vanilla, Honey and Saffron Pears with a Vanilla and Honey Mascarpone Cream

2008-03-31T22:01:00.011+01:00

My click entry - CLICK!!!!

These were our dessert on Sunday evening, I made Indian Spiced Lamb burgers with Herb yogurt which I'll write about later and they were the perfect light end to a lovely meal. They are also my first ever entry for Sugar High Friday that's being hosted in April by Amrita at La Petite Boulangette which is entitled “Asian Sweet Invasion”

This recipe is from a book called Best Ever Book of Wok and Stir-Fry Cooking and it cost me the grand total of €6.95 when I was in Waterford over the easter weekend. I got this book along with another one called Best Ever Indian Cookbook, I don't normally buy books like these but my aunt has the Indian one and being a very visual person I was pulled in my the fantastic pictures.
This was a last minute recipe aswell as I read about April's Sugar High Friday this morning and happened to have everything I needed in my press for once and they were asian influenced to go with the lamb burgers, maybe different parts of asia but asian none the less!!!

For 4 people you'll need:

5oz caster sugar
7tbsp honey
1 tsp finely grated lime zest
large pinch of saffron
1 vanilla pod
500ml water
4 large pears (comice or conference are best)

Put the caster sugar, honey, lime zest, saffron into a wok or large pot.
Cut open the vanilla pods and scrape out the seeds and add to the pot along with the emptied pods.
Pour the water and bring to the boil while you peel the pears.. When the syrup comes to the boil add the pears and gently turn them to coat all sides.
Cover the pot and allow to simmer gently for 12-15 mins turning the pears halfway through. Once the pears are done remove from the pot with a slotted spoon and increase the heat under the pot to high so the syrup comes to a boil.
Allow to reduce for 10 mins until thickened.

For the mascarpone cream:
125g mascarpone or half a tub
125ml cream or half a large carton
seeds from a vanilla pod
1 tbsp honey

Mix everything together well and serve.

I have to say this was one of the nicest dessert I've had in a long long long time!! It was light and the flavours worked so well together after me thinking it smelled a bit weird buring the cooking. We ate all 4 pears despite my good intentions of keeping 2. I also got to play with my new piping bag and in the top pic you can see my new pestle and mortar courtesy of a bargain in TK Maxx in Blanchardstown on Friday night, it's actually for my birthday in a couple of weeks but there's no sense wrapping it now I've seen it is there..............................................................

This is also my entry for April's Click (I hope it's ok to use 1 post to enter 2 events) and this months the theme is Au Naturel so I am entering this picture with the pestle and mortar and the pears as it stuck me as rather nice and as I'm learning more about my camera this is my current favourite shot.

Fingers crossed!!!!!

Daring Bakers Challenge - Dorie's Perfect Party Cake

2008-03-30T15:17:00.006+01:00

So this is my very first Daring Bakers Challenge, I was due to start last month but due to a combination of time and a cat who shall remain nameless I didn't manage to complete the chanllenge of Julia Child's French Bread. So here I am a virgin Daring Baker and this month it's all about cake, cake and more cake!!! If you asked the girl I sit near at work one thing about me she'd say "mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm caaaaaaaaaaake", this is a statement I come out with on a regular basis as Friday is treat day and I get myself some super fancy salad from Avoca on Suffolk Street and the most divine piece of bakewell to go with my afternoon tea, every Friday I say the same thing "mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm caaaaaaaaaaaaaaake". I am all about the cake baby!!!

I loved making this recipe, I did it on bank holiday Sunday, the day before Paddy's day and it was a lovely day of relaxation, the sun was shining and it wasn't freezing for once!!! Everything about this cake went well, the making, the baking and the creating. I'm not a big fan of butter cream but decided to stick with the original recipe this being my first challenge and meringue buttercream sounded lovely to me, I'm not normally a buttercream fan and still wasn't but I enjoyed this and even more on the second day as the lemon flavours had taken hold over night and cut through the buttery flavour. I still think if I'm making this again and I'll definitely make the cake part I would would fresh cream and fresh raspberries, but this is just a personal thing.

Here's the recipe with some amendments to allow for the conversion and any changes I made:

For the Cake
1lb 4oz flour (I used tesco organic plain white flour)
1 tablespoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
310ml cups whole milk or buttermilk (I used buttermilk)
4 large egg whites
3/4lb cups sugar
2 teaspoons grated lemon zest (I used 3 as I like a lot of lemon)
4 ounces unsalted butter, at room temperature
½ teaspoon pure lemon extract

For the Buttercream
8 oz sugar
4 large egg whites
3/4lb unsalted butter, at room temperature
¼ cup fresh lemon juice (from 2 large lemons)
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

For Finishing
Raspberry jam warmed gently until spreadable

Getting Ready
Centre a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 350/180/Gas 4. Butter two 9 x 2 inch round cake pans and line the bottom of each pan with a round of buttered parchment or wax paper. Put the pans on a baking sheet.

To Make the Cake
Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt.
Whisk together the milk and egg whites in a medium bowl.
Put the sugar and lemon zest in a mixer bowl or another large bowl and rub them together with your fingers until the sugar is moist and fragrant.
Add the butter and working with the paddle or whisk attachment, or with a hand mixer, beat at medium speed for a full 3 minutes, until the butter and sugar are very light.
Beat in the extract, then add one third of the flour mixture, still beating on medium speed.
Beat in half of the milk-egg mixture, then beat in half of the remaining dry ingredients until incorporated.
Add the rest of the milk and eggs beating until the batter is homogeneous, then add the last of the dry ingredients.
Finally, give the batter a good 2- minute beating to ensure that it is thoroughly mixed and well aerated.
Divide the batter between the two pans and smooth the tops with a rubber spatula.
Bake for 30-35 minutes, or until the cakes are well risen and springy to the touch – a thin knife inserted into the centers should come out clean
Transfer the cakes to cooling racks and cool for about 5 minutes, then run a knife around the sides of the cakes, unfold them and peel off the paper liners.
Invert and cool to room temperature, right side up (the cooled cake layers can be wrapped airtight and stored at room temperature overnight or frozen for up to two months).

To Make the Buttercream
Put the sugar and egg whites in a mixer bowl or another large heatproof bowl, fit the bowl over a plan of simmering water and whisk constantly, keeping the mixture over the heat, until it feels hot to the touch, about 3 minutes.
The sugar should be dissolved, and the mixture will look like shiny marshmallow cream.
Remove the bowl from the heat.
Working with the whisk attachment or with a hand mixer, beat the meringue on medium speed until it is cool, about 5 minutes.
Switch to the paddle attachment if you have one, and add the butter a 1/4lb at a time, beating until smooth.
Once all the butter is in, beat in the buttercream on medium-high speed until it is thick and very smooth, 6-10 minutes.
During this time the buttercream may curdle or separate – just keep beating and it will come together again.
On medium speed, gradually beat in the lemon juice, waiting until each addition is absorbed before adding more, and then the vanilla.
You should have a shiny smooth, velvety, pristine white buttercream. Press a piece of plastic against the surface of the buttercream and set aside briefly.

To Assemble the Cake
Using a sharp serrated knife and a gentle sawing motion, slice each layer horizontally in half.
Put one layer cut side up on a cardboard cake round or a cake plate protected by strips of wax or parchment paper.
Spread it with one third of the preserves.
Cover the jam evenly with about one quarter of the buttercream.
Top with another layer, spread with preserves and buttercream and then do the same with a third layer (you’ll have used all the jam and have buttercream leftover).
Place the last layer cut side down on top of the cake.
You can use the remaining buttercream to frost the sides and top if you want, I didn't as I am not a big fan of iced cakes but you'll have enough left to do this.

Serving
The cake is ready to serve as soon as it is assembled, but I think it’s best to let it sit and set for a couple of hours in a cool room – not the refrigerator. Whether you wait or slice and enjoy it immediately, the cake should be served at room temperature; it loses all its subtlety when it’s cold. Depending on your audience you can serve the cake with just about anything from milk to sweet or bubbly wine.

Storing
The cake is best the day it is made, but you can refrigerate it, well covered, for up to two days. Bring it to room temperature before serving. If you want to freeze the cake, slide it into the freezer to set, then wrap it really well – it will keep for up to 2 months in the freezer; defrost it, still wrapped overnight in the refrigerator.

Many thanks to Morven for picking this lovely cake and to the DB's for the challenge, roll on next month!!!

Cheesecake Topped Brownies

2008-03-24T14:33:00.005Z

So to carry on the lucious chocolate theme and also because I'm seriously back on the diet wagon and torturing myself with food I can't have I want to post these as I made them last weekend and they were amazing!!! I got this recipes AGES ago from La Tartine Gourmande who adapted the recipe and had in turn got it from Epicurious, I'd wanted to make these for ages but never got around to it and Paddy's weekend seemed like as good a time as any!

These are DIVINE!!!! I am in love with them and since they were all devoured I've been thinking about the lovely cheesecakey goodness on the lovely rich chocolate base. I wanted to eat them all myself but finally saw sense and only ate a few (read about 5 here). Also this recipe was in cup measurements, the original is here on Epicurious and another above on La Tartine Gourmande, I weighed everything but please remember it's approximate in case it doesn't work out
Here's what you'll need:

For the Brownie Batter:

3 oz 70% dark chocolate
100g flour, sifted
4oz butter, diced
165g caster sugar
2 large eggs
Pinch of salt

For the Cheesecake Batter:

8 oz cream cheese, softened
1 large egg yolk
75g caster sugar
1/4 tsp pure vanilla extract

Method:

Preheat your oven to 350F/180C/Gas 4 and line an 8 inch square tun with buttered parchment.
Mix all the cheesecake ingredients together and set aside
Melt the chocolate and butter in a double-boiler. Let slightly cool.
Beat together the eggs and sugar with a pinch of salt until light and pale in color.
Add 2 tbsp chocolate first, then fold in the rest of the chocolate, keeping the mix as light as possible.
Sprinkle the flour on top, and fold in delicately.
Pour the chocolate mix into the pan.
Add the cheesecake batter on top and make a swirly design in it using a fork or knife.
Bake for 30 mins, at this point the brownies will be slightly gooey still. If you prefer them more cooked, increase the cooking time by 5 min or so.
Let these cool in the tin before cutting them, you should get about 16 out of this recipe

Enjoy!!!!

Chocolate Ganache Cakes

2008-03-23T22:31:00.004Z

So this weekend myself and the husbag were away visiting my family who live in Waterford, my cousins are a good few years younger than me so I'd promised I would cook with them and cook we did. We made my smoked haddock fishcakes on Friday night with roasted root vegetables and Italian style broccoli and green beans, homemade pasta filled with ricotta and basil with a fresh tomato sauce and these AMAZING chocolate ganache cakes courtesy of Kieran.

What can I say about these cakes, I've wanted to make them since Kieran blogged about them nin January but the diet started then so they went in my del.icio.us and I kept looking for an occasion to make them and what better time than visiting my family whose 2 children, Lol and J are complete chocoholics!!!

These were a sinch to make, there's chocolate, cream, vanilla and cognac and they are one of the most delicious desserts I've had in a very very long time. The only changes I made to the recipe, were to use vanilla extract instead of a vanilla pod as I didn't have one to hand, everything else was the same and the original recipe is here. I also wanted to use my new individual mini cheesecake tins, which I could find nowhere apart from ebay until I stumbled upon them in a fantastic kitchen shop called Cook Shop in Cork on Saturday AND they were on sale so how could a girl leave them behind?!?!? Everything will be in miniature from now on.........................

Make these and relish in their amazing chocolatey deliciousness

Chicken Pot Pies - Mini Pie Revolution

2008-03-16T21:40:00.006Z

So it's the bank holiday weekend, we were out on Friday night and we're not going out tonight so I've spent a lovely leisurely day baking while himself played the ps3, however, I think I might be coming down with something though, maybe a cold, maybe a sore throat, maybe nothing, this may be due to me wandering around at 3 o'clock in the morning with no coat on Friday night, I blame the Harvey Wallbangers for that bad decision!!!

I made gorgeous cheesecake topped brownies today which I'll blog about again and something else lovely that'll be a suprise at the end of the month and also these pies for dinner that are for a blog event called the Mini Pie Revolution hosted this month by Ann at Redacted Recipes.

I make chicken pies on a regular basis during the winter and normally don't measure what I put in at all but have endeavoured to make this as accurate as possible. Also I don't bother to chill my pastry for the top of the pie which is probably breaking every pastry rule in the book, this is how my mother did it when I was small and it's the only time I don't chill my pastry and it turns out just fine.

For 4 individual pies you'll need:

1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
4 chicken breasts (I used free range), cut into bitesize pieces
3 carrots
2 medium onions
2 handfuls of frozen peas
2 tbsp flour
1 litre of stock (I used chicken but veg is fine too)
a good dash of soy sauce
1 tbsp fresh thyme/oregano
Salt and pepper

Preheat your oven to Gas 5/180C
Heat a pan and add oil, saute the onions on a low heat stirring every so often.
Add the carrots and continue to saute for a few mins until the carrots start to soften, add the chicken and brown.
Sprinkle over the flour and stir well to coat everything.
Add the stock and a hood dash of soy sauce, salt and pepper and herbs (go easy on the salt as the soy sauce can be quite salty).
Cook on the hob for 10 mins until the chicken is almost cooked.

For the pastry you'll need:

6oz flour
2 oz butter, diced
3-44 tbsp water

Rub the butter into the flour to create a breadcrumb like texture
Add the water and blend until dough forms (you might need more water but start with 3 tbsp and take it from there).
Roll out the dough on a floured surface, brush some water onto the edge of whatever dish you're using and put the pastry on. I like to leave mine hang down so it's kind of rustic looking but do whatever you feel suits your pie style.
Brush with beaten egg and bake 10-15 mins or until golden brown.

Rice Rice Baby................................

2008-03-15T22:10:00.005Z

Tee hee in my head I'm very funny, really I am and I'm singing da da da dala da da to the tune of Ice Ice Baby still!!! Also given the fact that I was hungover today for the second Saturday in a row (I'm a filthy stop out) this was the perfect accompaniment to the sprouts and broccoli with chilli, garlic and lemon that I had for my dinner cos I had no cash in my purse for take away and couldn't have been bothered getting out of my pyjamas to go to the bank!!!

But enough rambling, this is a recipe from Jamie at Home and is as easy as can be, myself and the husbag are big fans of rice pudding, he eats his with jam while I like mine plain, we're still big fans and after having this there'll be no more rice out of a tin for us!!!

You need

1.2 litres of milk
200g pudding rice
2 tbsp vanilla sugar

I used low fat organic milk and the original says full fat but as far as I'm concered there was no difference in taste at all, secondly I used 2 tbsps of normal caster sugar and the seeds of half a vanilla pod. I also cooked the emptied pod with the rice and took it out when it was done.

Put everything into a pot, bring it to a gentle simmer and put the lid on, stir occasionally and after 3o mins, homemade rice pudding WAY better than anything out of a tin. If the rice is a little thick then you can add a bit more milk to it to loosen it. Serve with jam or leave plain

When the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie..................

2008-03-09T16:02:00.010Z

That's amore............................and I really do love pizza!!

Not any pizza though, nothing bought from any shop (apart from La Cucina probably) but homemade pizza with fresh dough and fresh ingredients and a real feel of Italy that reminds me of our honeymoon where it took me ages to get the husbag to try anything other than pizza - good times!!! Then he discovered vitello, agnello and bistecca and there was no stopping him.

So anyway I digress, this is the pizza base I make most often, I used to make Jamie Oliver's but it's a bit too bready for my liking, this one is just perfect, it's from the October '07 issue of Taste Italia and works perfectly every time. This much dough is enough for 2 pizza bases but you can easily double the recipe if you want more

So here's what you need

15g fresh yeast/1 1/2 tsp fast acting dried yeast
add the yeast to 4 tbsp water and mix well
150ml water
250g stong white flour (I used 00 but plain white flour works just as well.)
1/2 tsp sea salt
50ml extra virgin olive oil

Mix the yeast with the water.
Sift the flour and salt and make a well in the centre
Pour the olive oil, yeat mix and some of the water in and mix with a wooden spoon, add the rest of the water gradually and mix to a soft dough.
Turn out onto a floured surface and knead for about 10 mins until the dough soft and satiny - don't be afraid to add more flour if the dough is too sticky or more water if it's too dry.
Oil a large bowl and put the dough into it and roll it around to coat. Cover with a tea towel and leave in a warm place for 1 1/2 hours until doubled in size.
Uncover and press the dough downh with your knuckles and knock out the air. Divide in half.
Knead on a floured surface for a couple of mins to knock out the rest of the air and roll out the dough until it's about 26-30 cm round.
Preheat your oven to Gas Mark 6/200 top with whatever you want and cook for 20 minutes.

We like various toppings, some of them authentic Italian and some not, the night we made these I used prosuitto and red onion with grated mozzarella and the pizza below has red onion, chargrilled peppers and buffalo mozzarella. The sauce I make myself with sauteed tomatoes and herbs and garlic but that's more of a case of whatever I have goes in really. Buon appetito!!!

Easy Sunday Breakfast - Wholemeal Pikelets

2008-03-09T10:56:00.007Z

So another Bill Granger recipe from me (Yawn I hear you say ;-)), I always make something nice for breakfast at least once at the weekend and seeing as I was severly hungover yesterday I decided I better get myself out of bed and make something nice for himself this morning.

I did want to make pancakes but I had no buttermilk (and it was raining so I decided I didn't want those pancakes that badly anyway) so pikelets it was. These are very easy to make and very light despite the use of wholemeal flour which I normally find can be quite heavy in pancakes, the addition of so much baking powder lightens these really nicely, hope you like them!

So here's what you need

125g wholemeal flour
2 tsp baking powder
2tbsp raw cane sugar
1 egg, lightly beaten
170ml milk
butter for greasing the pan
whatever toppings you like, I used lemon, butter and sugar but the husbag like maple syrup

So, sieve the flour and baking powder together, add the sugar and mix well.
Add the egg and milk and whisk until smooth
Heat the pan and brush with butter, and spoon tablespoons of the mixture on. Allow to cook for a couple of minutes until you see air bubbles on top and then turn over for another 30 seconds or so.

Enjoy

Mixed Berry Tarts

2008-03-02T19:56:00.010Z

This recipe is from the Avoca Teatime book I bought last week and my friend Sinead's favourite Avoca dessert, it's light almondy sponge and and berries are a lovely summery combination and let's face it when it's raining and windy outside we need all the summer we can get.

So here's what you need:

1 quantity of shortcrust sweet pastry so you'll need to half the recipe unless you're freezing a tart case like me
75g butter
75g caster sugar
1 egg and 1 egg yolk
drop of almond essence
65g ground almonds
40g plain flour, sifted
900g mixed berries - I used blueberries, blackberries, strawberries and raspberries
Apricot jam to glaze if you want

So, heat the oven to 180/Gas mark 4.
Line a 23 cm tart tin with the pastry (I used 6 1ocm ones ).
Beat the butter and sugar until it's light and fluffy
Beat in the egg, almond essence.
Fold in the ground almonds and flour and spread the mixture into the tart tin. Sprinkle with 75-100g of the berries.
Bake for 35 mins until light brown and firm to the touch.
Allow to cool. Melt some apricot jam and brush it over the top of the tart, cover with the remaining fruit, dust with icing sugar and serve.

I've had this in Avoca but mine was more almondy and I preferred it like this, I was probably a little heavy handed with the almond essence but I love it so a drop to me is like 1/4 tsp or more I'd say, use just a drop if you don't want a very almondy flavour.

As I sit here eating rocky road from Avoca in Rathcoole................

2008-02-24T17:47:00.010Z

I feel compelled to tell you about my new camera (and laptop tee hee) which is a Canon Eos 400d that I bought from Komplett.ie. It's my first "grown-up" camera, meaning a non point and shoot and it's THE BUSINESS!!! I am so impressed with the difference in my photos, there's a depth to them now which wasn't there before and was irritating the hell out of me every single time I took a photos of something I'd made.

I know some people might say this is a pretty basic digital SLR camera but for me it's fantastic coming from a point and shoot perspective (I still love you old camera but more for drunken photos at parties you see and you'll have a much better time there than in my kitchen, trust me!!!). It's easy to use and along with a macro lens I bought I saved about 400 squids which is a bargain and a half aswell. It arrived on Thursday and I had bought it on Sunday night late which is pretty fast aswell so a vote of confidence for Komplett too.

I might just set up a blog of pictures I'm so chuffed with myself!

And just so you know the rocky road was WAY too sweet and sickly for my liking but I bought the new Avoca teatime book when I was over there and all their dessert recipes are in it YUM!

Here's a couple of shots of the cats an some daffodils that have already bloomed in my back garden cos of the crazily warm weather we've been having

French toast with maple syrup

2008-02-24T17:18:00.005Z

I wasn't going to do a post this weekend cos I am feeling lazy and haven't made anthing nice in AGES and also I have a new camera and new laptop to play with so my time has been consumed by technology but ever since the husbag took me to Lemon for breakfast on my first day in my new job he's been talking about the french toast we had and I promised him I'd make it this morning.

French toast is a pretty easy meal in my mind, you beat the egg, dip the bread in it and then you fry the bread. Only butter will do for the frying, no oil as the butter adds to the lovliness of the fluffy bread which must be sliced bread, no lovely artisan loaves can be used for this.

So here's what you need for 2 people:

4 slices of bread (I used 2 brown for him and 2 white for me)
2 eggs beaten and poured into a flat enough dish, I use a pyrex dish lid
butter
and whatever toppings you want

Beat the egg, dip each slice of bread into the egg so each side is fully coated and then fry. turn over when the first side is brown and crispy (about 3-4 mins).
Serve sprinkled with icing sugar and maple syrup.

This is lovely with strawberries aswell or raspberries in the summer or even nutella.

No croutons required - Spicy Tomato and Fennel Soup

2008-02-16T15:12:00.007Z

So this is my submission for a new food blogging event called No Croutons Required. This event is the brainchild of Lisa from Lisa's Kitchen and Holler from Tinned Tomatoes, 2 blogs which I have only come across in the last couple of months but am already addicted (along with the other 100 blogs I read on a weekly basis). Pictures are what draws me to a blog and if they don't get me after the first couple of posts then I am inclined not to read any further but these are 2 well photographed blogs in my opinion!

This is another Bill Granger recipe so if you're getting sick of me going on about his fabulousness then look away................now. But seriously you don't want to really, this is an honest to goodness soup with just tomato, fennel, garlic and a small carrot in it and not much else really. I'd like more fennel but that's just me and I will DEFINITELY be making this again (and since I drafted this it's all gone even with me intending to bring it to work for lunch during the week!

Here's what you need

2kg vine ripened tomatoes
1/2 fennel bulb finely sliced
6 cloves garlic, peeled
1 small carrot, diced
60ml extra virgin olive oil
2 tbsp sea salt
pepper

Preheat the oven to Gas 6. Put the tomatos, garlic, carrot and fennel in a tin, drizzle with the olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper and cover the tin with tin foil. Put into the oven and roast for 1 1/2 hours. Then uncover and roast for another 30 mins. When done put everything into a pot/large bowl and blend. You could do it in a food processor either but I used my handheld blender thingy. Enjoy!

Guess what I got..................

2008-02-12T22:43:00.000Z

PASTRY SPOONS!!!

I got them in m&s at the weekend and am itching to make something soft and yummy so I can use them, maybe a souffle!!! Just thought I'd share that with you!!!

p.s I got stem ginger in syrup aswell after searching for it for weeks but that's a minor thing when you think about the AMAZING PASTRY SPOONS!!!!

Nigella's Lazy Loaf

2008-02-09T21:15:00.001Z

This is from Nigella's newest book, Nigella Express. This isn't my favourite of her books (or tv series) but the recipes are fast and anything I've tried has worked out wonderfully. This is SO simple, to be blunt you literally feck everything into a bowl, stir and put it into a greased loaf tin. With this homemade bread is accessible to everyone

So for the ingredients:

200g sugar free muesli (I like Dorset Cereals muesli)
325g wholewheat flour
7g sachet of yeast
2 tsp Maldon salt or 1 tsp table salt
250ml low fat milk
250ml water

Put all the ingredients into a bowl and stir. Transfer to a greased loaf tin and transfer to a cold oven turning the heat onto 110/gas 1/4 for 45 mins, this will allow the dough to prove.
When the 45 mins are up, turn the heat up to 180/gas 4 and bake for an hour. By this time the bread will be cooked through and when you tap on the bottom of the loaf it should sound hollow, if it doesn't sound hollow pop it back into the oven for a few mins without it's tin.

DIVINE!

Borough Market, London

2008-02-09T20:44:00.000Z

So other than Locanda Locatelli, this is the only other thing I wanted to do in London, not that the show and the shopping weren't fantastic but the food was the highlight of my trip!

Gorgeous mozzarella,and a GIANT chocolate stall, there were gorgeous chocolates and I bought some to bring home but they accidentally jumped into my mouth when I was on the tube!

I have to say we are SO deprived here in Ireland, there is NOTHING like Borough Market to my mind and the only markets that come close are the English Market in Cork and the ones on Saturday mornings in Galway and Limerick but there are just a fraction of what's available in Borough!

Mushrooms galore, the best brownies in the world, everything tomato

The food is A. MAZ. ING there is absolutely everything you could imagine available and I managed to sample a hot beef roll with freshly made mustard, the best organic chai tea I've EVER had, the BEST chocolate brownie in the world and a host of other cheeses and breads and dips and meats. I would have stayed all day and NEVER gotten bored but it was getting mental after 2 hours wandering so I left.

I have never seen birds in Ireland like this before even in a butchers and Baklava mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

I only came home with pictures of the market and 3 other shots aswell, how bad is that like??? So take a gander and share in the wonder that is Borough Market

Cheese city baby, amazing spices , dried figs

Locanda Locatelli, London

2008-02-08T12:19:00.001Z

Well I was in London last weekend and it was fantastic!!! Apart from going to Borough Market I've wanted to go to Locanda Locatelli for absolutely ages and this was my chance so I booked it and even though the meal was at 10 and I had a migraine this all melted away once we got in the door!!

Inside the decor is quite muted, warm creams and beiges with glass panels with what looks like water running down them (painted on) that seperate areas, gorgeous cream couches to sit on, music playing in the background, soft lighting and to be honest perfect for a romantic meal for 2. There were a lot of big parties though and Italians aswell judging by the shouting of Ciao over people's shoulders as they were leaving, which to my mind is always a testament to the authenticity and quality of the food.

When we arrived we were a few minutes early so we had a drink in the bar, the hostess came and got us and showed us to our table where we were given a basket of warm breads and cheese breadsticks.

As in most Italian restaurants I've been in the menu is split into different sections; Antipasti, Pasta, Pesce, Carne, Contorni and Dolci. I wanted everything and the waiters really knew their stuff even being able to tell us what particular boats they get their prawns from that day.

We had pan fried scallops with a saffron vinaigrette, salad of baby spinach with smoked ricotta, red onion and walnut served with a cabernet sauvignon dressing and I had home made pheasant parcels with rosemary jus which were AMAZING!!! I tasted the scallops aswell and they were on the creamiest celeriac mash I've ever had and am dying to recreate, the celeriac is in the fridge as I type!

Then for mains steamed fillet of hake with garlic, parsley and fennel salad, a fillet beef with patate arrosto (which I was told was the best fillet my sister had ever eaten), 2 prawns with linguine and I had roasted rabbit leg wrapped in parma ham on polenta with chargrilled artichoke. Seriously THE BEST DINNER I'VE EVER HAD!!!!!! I also had Cavolo Nero with pancetta on the side of mine and was almost tempted to lick both of my plates and would have except we were in a lovely restuarant and I didn't want to get thrown out!

Seriously I had died and gone to heaven and then came the desserts, I had green tea mousse with prosecco sorbet, there was also a tiramisu, an Amadei chocolate tasting (A. MAZ. ING) and a chocolate and coffee fondant. I had an espresso and we were done!!

Overall I couldn't but recommend Locanda Locatelli, everything from the staff, the food, the sommelier who recommended the most perfect wine to go with my rabbit, the atmosphere, it was exactly what I expected. The only things that disappointed me (marginally) were that they turned off the background music when we were about half way through our meal which made it feel like they were closing around us even though there were people who came in after us and a minor thing the tart of the day was all gone when we came to dessert which is to be expected when you're eating dessert at 11.45!!! I will definitely be going back again and have already informed the husbag that he'll LOVE the rabbit!!!

Oh and p.s I refrained from taking pictures inside the restaurant cos I hate looking like a tourist!!! The one above is the only one I got but hey, it says it all!!!!

MeMe (It's ALL about MeMeMeMeMeMeMeMe)

2008-01-30T20:58:00.000Z

I'm off to London for the weekend so there won't be any cooking for me but I will be eating in Locanda Locatelli (Hi Lorraine) and off the Borough Market, which I'm VERY excited about so that'll keep me sane. In the meantime Sarah from Sarah's Cucina Bella has tagged me, this is my first time being tagged and I'm pretty excited about it!!!!

So first, the rules:

1. Link to the person that tagged you and post the rules on your blog.

2. Share five random and/or weird facts about yourself on your blog.

3. Share the five top places on your “want to see or want to see again” list.

4. Tag a minimum of five random people at the end of your post and include links to their blogs. Let each person know that they have been tagged by leaving a comment in their blog.

And we’re off . . .

1) I was tagged by Sarah from Sarah's Cucina Bella

2) Five Random/Weird Facts About Me:

I went to primary school with my husband, obviously we weren't married then but we spent a LONG time looking at each other, 15 years to be precise
My cats all have voices and different personalities, one is the baby and she's all cute and clean, one is a rock chick and she's kinda cheeky and one is a moody man, tall (for a cat) dark and he's very proud of his tail and likes gravy
I have 3 tattoos and I'd like more, 3 more actually
I am a shopping junkie, I love the buzz I get from buying something new especially shoes and handbags and clothes and beauty products and maybe I have a problem!
My favourite drink is a Harvey Wallbanger

3) Top five places I want to see or see again:

Fanore, Co. Clare, Ireland - This is my favourite place in the whole world, it's so wild and beautiful and I sometimes get a physical need to go there and breathe the air. My heart is in the west! I would move there in the morning and live looking out over the sea of Galway Bay
Paris - this is my second favourite place in the world, I would also live here in one of those gorgeous old apartments with high ceilings and shutter and floor to ceiling windows.
Italy - We went to Italy on our honeymoon and it was fantastic, the people, the food and the whole pace of life suited me perfectly.
Cuba - I've wanted to go to Cuba for years, to live the life, drunk mojitos and drive an old car.
New York - I've never been to the US and every year I think "I'll go this year" but I don't, maybe this year?!?!?!?

4) Tag at least five friends

Kate from PinkWhisk
Sarah from Letters on Lunches
Kieran from Ice Cream Ireland
Lorraine from ItalianFoodies
Laura from EatDrinkLive

Smoked Haddock Fish Cakes with Italian Style Broccoli

2008-01-27T20:32:00.000Z

So I was going to finish the weekend's posting with another Bill Granger recipe for Ricotta and herb roasted chicken that I cooked last weekend but tonight's dinner was SO good I'm having to push Bill to one side in favour of a favourite recipe from my childhood.

My mam used to make these fishcakes on a regular basis when I was a child and I have never made them before but have been thinking about them for ages. We were out walking during the week and I asked herhow she made them and seeing as I had 2 fillets of smoked haddock in the freezer in preparation for when I got the recipe I decided I couldn't wait any longer for these.

Now I didn't measure all the ingredients but you need about half the amount of potato that you use of fish. So I had 340g of fish so I used about 200g of boiled, mashed potatoes.

Poach the fish in milk (you can use water too) with a bay leaf and some pepper. You'll know the fish is done when you insert a knife into the fattest part of the fish and hold it to your lip and it's too hot.

Put the fish into a bowl and flake it, add the mashed potato, pepper and salt (if it needs salt as sometimes haddock is very salty) and a 1/2 tsp of paprika (you can use 1/4 tsp of cayenne if you want either but my husband is not a fan of spicyness so the paprika gives the fish a lovely smoky resonance). Mix well and taste to make sure it's been seasoned enough.

Sprinkle some flour (I used wholemeal but white is fine) onto a plate and when you've shaped the fish into cakes drop into the flour on both sides so they have a light dusting.
Heat some oil in a pan (I used sunflower as it's unflavoured) and fry the fish cakes until golden on each side.I served these with some buttered sprouts (these are the only veg my husband really LOVES, how weird is that?) and Italian Style Broccoli I made using Lorraine's recipe for Italian Greens from ItalianFoodies. This is definitely my new favourite way to eat green veg as the kick from the chilli and the sourness of the lemon juice was perfect with the smoky creaminess of the fishcakes.

Also this is a picture of what I have to contend with EVERY SINGLE TIME I COOK!!! How can you say no to these eyes but she makes so much noise you'd feel putting her in the compost bin with the veg I am sure she doesn't want!!!! This is one of 3 cats we have and you are yet to meet, this is the most vocal and demanding of the 3 and if anyone is looking for a cantankerous cat who hounds you for food and makes SO much noise then call 086.....................................

It's a Bill Granger Weekend Part 2 - Lemon Pound Cake

2008-01-27T19:15:00.001Z

As I've been watching Bill Granger this weekend courtesy of Bill's Food on BBC and also thanks to some lovely Malaysian person on YouTube who has all of Bill's Food series 1, I was all inspired to make this lemon cake as lemon is one of my favourite flavours (along with almond and chocolate obviously). It was on Bill's Food a couple of weeks ago and looked divine in it's lemony deliciousness and best of all it can be frozen so I can pull up out again in a couple of weeks and enjoy more lemony goodness.

This is supposed to be a pound cake but it's more like a 1/4 of a pound cake as you will see from the ingredients:

250g butter, softened
250g caster sugar
2 tsp grated lemon zest
1 tsp vanilla extract
4 free range eggs
250g self-raising flour, sifted

Preheat the oven to gas 4/180.
Grease and line the base of an 8 inchsquare cake tin.
Mix the butter and sugar together until smooth, I used my Kenwood but you could do this by hand pretty easily. Then add the lemon zest and vanilla and mix again.
Add the eggs, one at a time, and mix well after each one is added.
Fold in the sifted flour, half first, mix well and then the second half and mix well until combined.
Spoon into the tin and bake for 40-45 mins or until a skewer comes out cleanly.
Cool for 10 mins and remove from the tin.

While this was cooking there was the most delicate smell of lemon from when I came half way down the stairs. The cake is moist but dense and smells lemony. It is almost like a lemon madeira but firmer and denser in texture. Definitely worth a try.

It's a Bill Granger Weekend Part 1 - Coconut Bread

2008-01-27T18:08:00.001Z

So Bill Granger is my new favourite tv chef. I love his laid back style and the way he's always smiling and he give off this air of total relaxation. I've been watching Bill's Food on BBC after Saturday Kitchen (which I've gone off a bit I might add, the lovely James Martin has come crashing from his pedastal) and am loving him, so I decided to bake a couple of his recipes this weekend; Coconut Bread and Lemon Pound Cake.

I made the coconut bread this morning when I was waiting for the husbag to come back from the shops with my Lavazza coffee cos I'd run out (shock, horror!!!!!) and let me tell you this bread is gorgeous and I also had left over dessicated coconut from Christmas and was looking for a way to use it up. Bill recommends it toasted with butter and a sprinkle of icing sugar but it's perfect all on it's own in it's lovely moist density.

So here's what you need:

2 eggs
300ml milk
1 tsp vanilla essence
1tsp baking powder
350 plain flour, sifted
2 tsp backing powder
1 tsp cinnamon
225g caster sugar
150g shredded/dessicated coconut
75g butter, melted

So preheat the oven to Gas 4/180.
Lightly whisk the eggs, milk and vanilla together.
Sift the baking powder, flour and cinnamon into a bowl and add the sugar and coconut and mix.
Make a well in the centre and add the egg mixture stirring until combined.
Add the melted butter and stir but don't over mix.
Pour into a greased, floured loaf tin and bake for 1 hour on until a skewer comes out clean.
Leave to cool for 5 mins before turning out onto a rack and allowing to cool.

Although there's cinnamon in this there isn't any hint of it in the final loaf so I wonder what it's purpose is but am sure it's there for a reason. My loaf tin is a pound loaf and this rose wonderfully but I needed to cover the cake after about 50 mins as it was very brown and not fully cooked in the middle so it probably had about an hour and 15 in total.

Murphy's Banana Ice-Cream with Chocolate Shavings

2008-01-20T12:26:00.001Z

Now I am sure I didn't need any more dessert this weekend after the baked chocolate tart but I promised the husbag that I'd make him banana ice-cream with chocolate chips and being the perfect wife that I am I couldn't let him down!!! ;-) tee hee and a girl can never have too much chocoalte either!!

So last week Kieran posted the most gorgeous sounding banana ice-cream with chocolate shavings recipe and I just had to try it. I have a bit of a love hate relationship with bananas, sometimes I can't get enough of them and sometimes I won't touch them. I think it's all the little stringy bits to be honest and I prefer them slightly under ripe as the flavour is different to a really ripe one.

So anyway enough rambling about my relationship with bananas here's the recipe, I have changed the order of the ingredients to reflect the order I used them in and the original is available in the link above.

2 large bananas (the original recipe called for 3 but mine we MAHOOSIVE so I used 2)
15 ml (1 tablespoon) fresh lemon juice
130g sugar
5 egg yolks
200 ml milk
240 ml cream
20 g good quality dark chocolate (I probably used a bit more as I threw in some extra chips once I had the first 20g in)

Combine the bananas with the lemon juice and blend or mash until smooth, I used a blender to make the bananas as smooth as possible cos the idea of lumps just doesn't do it for me but you might like your bananas a little lumpier.

Put the bananas in a small saucepan, add two tablespoons of sugar and cook over low heat, stirring all the time. Don’t over-cook them as once they're warm they should release a strong banana smell so you'll know then that's enough!

Beat the rest of the sugar and egg yolks together until thick and pale yellow.

Bring the milk to a low simmer in a small saucepan and then beat the milk into the eggs and sugar in a slow stream.

Put the mixture back into the saucepan and place over low heat. Stir continuously until the custard thickens slightly (around 65-70C) and coats the back of a spoon. Don’t over-heat the mixture because at around 76C you will scramble the eggs! I never use a thermometer for this part but if you have one then I'd say to use it cos it'll be much easier.

Mix in the bananas and transfer the custard into a small container, cover and put into the fridge until cool

Whip the cream until it forms soft peaks - don’t over-whip and fold the cream into the custard.

I have an ice-cream maker and very rarely use it as I'm just too lazy to put the bowl in the freezer overnight I guess. It's just as easy to stir every hour or so I find. But if you're using an ice-cream machine then put it in for about 15 mins and then put it in the freezer until it's solid

I used chocolate chips as I had some left over from christmas and mixed them in after 4 hours in the freezer.

This was the first ice-cream I've made with milk in it and it was lovely and light. Am definitely a fan of fresh banana ice-cream and will make this again.

Chocolicious Baby

2008-01-19T17:55:00.000Z

Seeing as my cheesecake was such a disaster I decided to make a tart, something I know I'm definitely good at and NEVER goes wrong for me.

So out came the books and surprise, surprise Jamie Oliver won out. A baked chocolate tart from the Naked Chef was just what I needed to get over my mother laughing at my upset and my husband trying to be supportive but it really not making any difference cos I am a cheesecake making failure!!! (boo hoo) :-(

So this is a baked tart, it's made with the same shortcrust sweet pastry I made a couple of weeks ago and I have had a tart shell frozen since then, thank god as my friend Cleo wouldn't have gotten anything other than a digestive biscuit if I hadn't had it in the freezer.

There wasn't any of my usual Green & Blacks cooks chocolate or even Lindt in my local supermarket so I ended up with Blake's Organic 71% chocolate which I have never used before but it worked out just fine.

So here's what you need:

1 tart shell, blind baked
140g/5 oz unsalted butter
150g/5 1/2 oz best quality cooking chocolate (70% cocoa solids)
8 tbsps cocoa powder, sifted
small pinch of salt
4 eggs
200g/7 oz caster sugar
3 tbsp golden syrup
3 medium heaped tbsp of creme fraiche (you can use sour cream here either)

Put the chocolate, butter, cocoa and salt in a bowl over a simmering pot of water. Allow to melt slowly, stirring occasionally until well mixed. In a seperate bowl mix the eggs and sugar until light and fluffy and then add the golden syrup and creme fraiche. Stir your chocolate into this mixture making sure to get all of it out of the bowl you melted it in. Once well mixed pour it into the pastry shell. Place into a preheated oven for 40-45 mins at 150/gas 2. During cooking a crust will form on top.

The book says the filling will shrink and crack while cooling. While mine shrank it didn't crack at all and it is rich and lucious and supremely chocolicious.

Just not destined to make cheesecake!!!!!

2008-01-19T11:26:00.000Z

This weekend I made Laura's Zest for Life cheesecake from EatDrinkLive. And guess what I failed!!!!!!!

The making was fantastic, I even made homemade lemon curd, I assembled everything and put it in the fridge last night at 10. I went down stairs this morning at 10.30 and removed the springform part of the tin and IT COLLAPSED!!!!!!! I am devastated!!! This is the second cheesecake I've made in a month that hasn't worked!!! What am I doing wrong??? Am I just not destined to make cheesecakes???? Boo hoo hoo!!!! Here's the pictures of the making so you can see.......................

Beef Bourguinon and Nutmeg Mash

2008-01-13T15:54:00.000Z

These are recipes from the ever enthusiastic Rachel Allen's book Rachel's Favourite Food for Friends. She's not someone whose books I would use very often but when I do the recipes do seem to turn out well. Also my camera ran out of charge so I only have pics from after instead of before ones too but I'm sure you'll get the idea.

Beef Bourguinon is a classic French casserole and this is a relatively simplified version but gorgeous all the same. This ammount of ingredients here is for 6 people but you could easily half it and make less but this is the type of dish that will be nicer the next day and if I don't have to cook one evening during the week then I won't be complaining!!!!

So here's what you need

2tbsp olive oil
200g streaky bacon cut into cubes
18 baby onions/shallots
1.5kg/3 1/4lbs stewing beef cut into cubes
pepper
40/1 1/2oz flour
400ml/14 fl oz red wine
4 cloves finely chopped garlic
1 bay leaf
1 sprig thyme
2 stalks parsley
small piece of orange zest
450ml/3/4 pint beef or chicken stock
18 small button mushrooms (which I didn't use as I don't like mushrooms so I added 2 parsnips cubed about 20 mins from the end of the cooking)

Preheat the oven to 160/ gas 3. In a large pan heat 1 tbsp of the olive oil and brown the bacon. Remove and set aside, leaving any fat in the pan. Add the onions and stir on a high heat until golden. Remove and leave with the bacon. Add the beef to the pan in batches and cook until brown. Season with pepper and put back into the pan and scatter in the flour, stirring all the time. Pour in the wine and the garlic.

Stir again and add the bay leaf, thyme and parsley (I had this tied together in a bouquet garni as it's easier take them out later on). Add the bacon and onions and enough stock to come 3/4 up the sides of the pan. Bring to the boil and put the lid on and place in a preheated oven for 2 1/2 hours until almost tender. Add the mushrooms if you're using them and cook for another 30-40 mins or until the beef is tender. Remove the orange zest and serve with the Nutmeg Mash below.

So here's what you'll need for the mash

1 kg/2 1/4 lbs floury potatoes
50g/2 oz butter
200mk/7 fl oz boiling milk
1/2 grated/ground nutmeg
salt and pepper

Clean the potatoes and put them in a large pot and boil them until cooked. You can test them with a knife or a skewer. Peel the potatoes while they're still hot and mash them. Add the butter but not the milk until the mash is smooth. Add the milk, you can add about half and then add more as needed, I like my mash very soft and silky but people like it different ways so whatever you like yourself. Add the nutmeg, salt and pepper and serve.

I wasn't mad about the mash to be honest, the barely there nutmeg flavour just didn't do it for me but my mam and husband were here and they loved it. So I think next time I'd do it with Garlic Potatoes as suggested in the book.

I'm adopted!!!!!

2008-01-13T13:52:00.000Z

A couple of months ago I was browsing food blogs of a weekend afternoon as I normally do and came across the Adopt a Blogger event on Dine and Dish and I signed up. Then I totally forgot about it and only remembered after christmas. So last week I had a comment from Kristen of Dine and Dish and also Sarah from Sarah's Cucina Bella to let me know that I had been adopted and my new adopted blog mammy was Sarah.

From looking at Sarah's blog I can see she's is a woman of many talents and to be honest I don't know how she does it as she has a cookbook coming out and also blogs on Fit Fare, Well Fed on the Town and Well Fed Network. I can barely have my full time job, spend time with my husband and blog once a week!!!!!! Sarah is also a writer, mother, editor and wife!!! Where does she find time to fit it all in??? This woman is an inspiration to me I have to say and definitely makes me think I could be doing more with my time so who better to match me with I think.

I look forward to reading all the projects Sarah is involved in over the coming months.

Lucious Lemon and Lime Cream Tart

2008-01-08T22:23:00.000Z

To follow on from my shortcrust sweet pastry and to stick with the Jamie Oliver theme this is the tart I made with it my pastry last weekend. Lemon is one of my all time favorite flavours (along with almond and cardamom) and this tart is creamy and luscious but sharp and tangy at the same time.

So you'll need

1 tart shell, baked blind and cooled
340g/12 oz caster sugar
6 large eggs
350ml/12fl oz double cream
200ml/ 7 1/2 fl oz lime juice
100ml/3 3/4 fl oz lemon juice

I also added the zest of 4 limes to this tart to make it extra limey as per Jamie's suggestion.

With this tart you need to remember as it has a very wet filling that the pastry will need to be brushed with beaten egg before you add the filling (egg washed) to keep the tart shell crisp. I normally do this at the very end of the blind baking but Jamie doesn't specify so whichever you want to do is fine.

Whisk together the sugar and eggs.
When they are mixed slowly stir in the cream and the juices. Put the cooled tart shell int0 the oven and pour the filling into it. If you pour it in while it's on the oven tray you shouldn't spill any of the cream mixture. Bake for 40-45 mins at 180/gas 4 or until the filling is set but still a bit wobbly in the middle. Let that tart cool for an hour before serving because if you don't then the filling will pour out and be gooey.

Dust with icing sugar and serve with strawberries or raspberries. DIVINE!!!!

The simplest shortcrust sweet pastry

2008-01-06T14:07:00.000Z

Seeing as it's January again and I've got the constant feeling of being full still from Christmas tomorrow is time to get back to my healthy eating and water drinking routine, so we had friends over last night for the last bit of indulgence before I get back on track and I made homemade pizza and then lemon and lime tart for a simple meal that still looked good and was tasty.

I'll start with the pastry as the tart was definitely the highlight of my evening. It's from Jamie Oliver's The Naked Chef which I think is Jamie's first book and everything I have ever made from this book has been gorgeous and it's one I go back to time and time again for the basics as there are fantastic bread recipes in it and also stock, homemade pasta and risotto.

The pastry is a shortcrust sweet pastry and is definitely the easiest one I have ever worked with out of Avoca, Rachel Allen, Gordon Ramsey and Nigella Lawson as it's so pliable and doesn't break to easily when it's handled so if you haven't made pastry before then this is a good one to start with I think.

This recipe says it will make enough pastry for 2 12 inch/30cm tart moulds but I used a 10 inch round tin and a 11.5 x 8.5 rectangular tin and had some pastry to spare. It's easy to make less or more of this pastry aswell as I have made the ammount for 1 tin before aswell and the recipe says you can make more too which I am sure would be no difficulty.

So here's what you need

250g/9 oz butter
200g/7 oz icing sugar (I find icing sugar makes a nice dough compared to doughs using castor sugar)
medium pinch of salt
500g/just over 1lb flour (I used plain white but I'm sure any white is fine as long as it's not self-raising)
4 egg yolks
4 tbsp cold milk or water (I used milk)

This pastry can be made by hand or in a processor and I used a bit of both as my processor is tiny and everything wouldn't have fitted in and mixed properly.

Cream together the butter, icing sugar and salt and then rub in the flour (or pulse if using the food processor).

I creamed in the food processor and then rubbed in the flour by hand. Normally if I'm making pastry I grate in the butter (I think this is a trick I saw Nigella do at some stage but can't remember exactly where it's from) and find this makes the rubbing in much easier than having to break down cubes of butter. Add in your milk or water and gently work together to form a ball. Then lightly flour the ball and form into a large, short, fat sausage shape then wrap in cling film and put it in the fridge for at least an hour.

The idea behind this pastry is not to handle it too much as then it will get too elastic and be all chewy and it'll shrink in the oven.

This bit of the recipe is a bit unorthodox I think as after the hour you take the pastry out of the fridge and cut thin slices off (approx 1/8 inch thick or thicker if you want but you'll need to adjust your baking times) and place them in the tin like a jigsaw. Push the pieces together with your fingers until smooth and either clean off the excess from the edges or leave it on.

Put the pastry in the freezer and allow to rest again for at least another hour. Putting the pastry in the freezer should allow you to bake it blind without the need for baking beans but to be honest I'd have to be pretty confident it wouldn't all puff up on me so I haven't tried it without the baking beans but I am sure if Jamie says it'll work then it will I just need more faith I think.

If you are using the tart shell for a baked tart then you should cook it at 180/gas 4 for 10 mins so it's lightly coloured and then another 5-10 mins with the beans removed. The recipe in the book talks you through baking the shell blind without the beans and in which case if you have more faith than me you should bake it at the same temperature for 12 mins if you are making a cooked tart so the pastry is only lightly baked and for 15 mins if you are making a non-cooked tart.

This is a pastry I think everyone can make and I hope that if you have thought that making pastry is difficult up to now that this is really simple and you can manage it for any kind of a sweet tart you've had in mind.

HAPPY NEW YEAR

2008-01-01T20:24:00.000Z

Happy New Year everyone. I hope 2008 brings everything you desire.

rachx

Dear Santa...................

2007-12-16T17:14:00.000Z

I hate surprises!!!! They make me worry, and sweat and feel nauseous!!! I have to know exactly what I'm getting whether it's christmas or birthdays or any other present giving occasion and I am good at guessing aswell so people can rarely keep anything from me!!! How bad is that?????

This year I've been good though!!! Normally I peek, but I am sitting here in the spare room on the PC listening to christmas songs and I haven't gone near the present stash!! I'm actually very proud of myself as there's a large white box and a bag from a very fancy shoe shop in the room next to me but this year I AM NOT LOOKING!!!! My husband is even gone out so I am extra proud of myself for remaining strong and not venturing into the designated present area.

So here's what I know about this year

A Kenwood mixer - my husband and my mam are going together to get me this. I am currently using my mams mixer which is about 30 years old and the only maintenance it's ever had is for me to rewire the plug a couple of months ago. There is no earth wire in the plug either!!! Nice and safe so a new one is in order and I can't wait, it's arrived already in a GIANT box with a lovely blender attachment.

A rectangular tart tin - I ordered this myself from Kitchen Compliments as I wanted a particular size. It's lovely and shiny and I am planning on using it for a sausage and sage tart on Stephen's Day.

Le Creuset bean pots - I bought these myself in TK Maxx and they're the one in the pic in baby pink, SO cute!!! Perfect for individual stews

I don't really know about anything else and that makes me nervous. I will never tell anyone if I don't like anything they get me cos I might hurt their feelings even though every year people try to make me promise to tell them if I don't like what they've given me!!! I am very hard to buy for................... apparently..................maybe I'm just fussy!!!!

I am also hoping for a pasta maker and some beauty products from Origins and Decleor and a surprise!!!

So what are you all getting??? Please do share.................

Christmas mixed spice Cookies

2007-12-16T15:14:00.000Z

Well here I am sick again!!! Only a cold this time thank god but I'm in bits. I'm starting to come out the other side of it though, can't be sick for christmas and all that................

So anyway enough rambling I have decided to enter Baking Bites Holiday Gingerbread cookie contest. Baking Bites for those of you who don't know is a baking blog written by the wonderful Nicole. There are so many links in my del.icio.us folder from Baking Bites and anything I have tried before has always been gorgeous. I am also envious of Nicole as she gets to bake way more than I do along with ride horses and salsa dance!! So Nicole if you want to swap and come and live in cold Ireland give me a call ;-)

So from my recovering sick bed I dragged myself to the kitchen as I had read all books and magazines in my ever expanding pile and Liverpool were on the tv so the sympathy from my husband had dried up strangely enough.

These aren't exactly gingerbread cookies, they're more of a sugar cookie but there is some ground ginger in them along with cinnamon and mixed spice and they do smell very christmassy. The recipe is a basic cookie recipe that I use all the time and here's what you need

100g caster sugar (I use golden caster sugar)
90g soft unsalted butter
200g plain flour
1/2 tsp vanilla extract (I have a organic one from Kitchen Compliments at the moment)
1/4 tsp mixed spice
1/4 cinnamon
1/4 ginger
1 medium and an extra yolk or 1 large egg
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp finely ground salt

The vanilla extract I am using is a lovely one and it should be in your local tesco as they seem to have it in mine. DO NOT pay any more than about €8 for this as I have seen it being sold for €13 locally which is a scandalous mark up!!! Healthfood shops also have this and tesco sell vanilla extract if you can't get this one, essence is really a much nicer flavour than the artificial flavour essence gives in my opinion so if you get it well and good and if not then the essence will be just fine.

Cream the butter and sugar together (I used my Kenwood but you could use a food processor or do it by hand)
Add the vanilla essence and the egg.
Sieve the dry ingredients in and mix until it becomes a chunky breadcrumb consistency.
Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and shape into a disk.
Wrap in clingfilm and leave in the fridge for an hour.

When the hour is up preheat the oven to gas mark 4/180 , roll out your dough on a floured surface and cut into the desired shapes and bake for 8-10 minutes or until golden on the edges.
I used stars in keeping with the christmas theme and star shapes are a particular favourite of mine.

Decorate as desired, I've left mine plain as you can see and am pleading illness for not icing them as planned. Check out some of the other entries here

Ho ho ho!!!

Roast Chicken with herb butter

2007-12-02T17:42:00.001Z

There is nothing more classic and somehow comforting to me than a roast chicken, I love how the meat is tender and falls part, the texture of it when I eat it - everything is good to me where roast chicken is concerned.

I usually rub herb butter under the skin of the breast and the outside of the drumsticks so the skin is crispy and the meat is SO tender as it's been cooked with the butter and there's also a lemon inside it to flavour the meat from within.

For this I used a free range corn fed chicken from my local major supermarket chain, I don't normally buy meat there but this was on special offer and looked lovely and fresh so I thought hey I'll give it a try.

This was delicious, moist, juicy, tasty and everything a roast chicken should be in my opinion. I served it with roast potatoes, butter carrots and sprouts. I also made gravy from the chicken juice by adding a stock cube and some soy sauce to it and reducing it in a pan.

A very easy Sunday dinner, throw it all in the oven at Gas Mark 5/190 for about an hour and 15 or until the juices run clear and serve with whatever takes your fancy. I sometimes do roast veg so it's all done in the oven aswell.

A tale of 2 christmas puddings continued...........

2007-12-02T16:49:00.000Z

So the second pudding I made was from Nigella Lawsons How to be a Domestic Goddess: Baking and the art of Comfort Cooking. It uses suet which I know some people don't like but I got Atora Light which has 25% less fat and is vegetable suet to boot, the thoughts of beef suet would put me off eating something I think.

So here's what you need for a 1 1/2 litre pudding bowl

100g currants
100g mixed raisins and sultanas
50g natural coloured glace cherries
50g dried blueberries (I couldn't find these anywhere so used dated instead)
50g prunes (I don't really like prunes so used fried apricots)
50g marron glace pieces (candied chestnuts for those of you who don't know and once again I couldn't find these so I used finely chopped almonds)
60g candied peel
150ml rum
90g self raising flour
125g white breadcrumbs (I actually used wholemeal bread as I don't like white)
150 shredded suet (Atora)
1 medium cooking apple, 120g grated
150g dark brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon mixed spice (once again I played around with the spices and used 1/2 tsp cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger)
pinch of salt
3 lrg eggs (I only has 2 eggs left at this stage so used the juice of half an orange)
zest of 1 orange

This mixture is way darker than my first pudding and smelled lovely, more christmassy overall I think.

I find puddings very easy to makem throw everything together and off you go. Nigella added cleaned £1 coins but I didn't bother, and you never know euros might melt if they're heated too much ;-)

You'll need to soak the fruit in the rum overnight and the next day

Mix all the dry ingredients together and then add to the fruit.
Butter the pudding basin and put the mixture into it
Cover the basin with a layer of buttered greaseproof paper and then 2 layers of tin foil and tie with string around the edge.
Boil or steam the pudding for 3 hours making sure the water doesn't boil dry.

To reheat at Christmas boil/steam again for 3 hours.

A tale of 2 christmas puddings

2007-12-02T15:52:00.000Z

So this year I ended up making 2 Christmas puddings, 1 because my mother won't eat anything with suet in it and 2 because my husband would be very upset if my mam got one made for her and none made for him.

I have used a recipe I got from the forums on jamieoliver.com and is supposed to be Jamie's nans recipe, it was also in delicious magazine a few years back but I don't have that copy so this is from the Jamie site.

So you'll need

1 teaspoon softened butter, for greasing
1 large egg (I used 1 medium and an extra yolk)
150ml of milk
400g dried sultanas and raisins
100g dried cherries and cranberries (I couldn't find cranberries so I used dried apricots)
125 dates,chopped up
125g butter
125g plain flour
125g golden caster sugar
125g breadcrumbs
2 tablespoons of brandy
a pinch of salt
zest of 1 orange
3 pieces stem ginger, finely chopped (I couldn't find this anywhere so I left it out)
1 teaspoon ground ginger

Now I thought that just ginger wasn't really enough spice (and as I couldn't find the stem ginger) to add to a pudding I improvised slightly and after the 1 tsp of ginger added 1/2 tsps of nutmeg, cinnamon and allspice.

Rub 1.5 litre pudding bowl with butter.
In a separate bowl beat the egg and milk together and put to one side.
In another bowl mix all the other ingredients together.
Pour the egg and milk mixture into this bowl and stir or mix with your hands until everything is combined.
Spoon this mixture into the greased pudding bowl and cover with a layer of buttered grease proof paper followed by a double layer of aluminium foil.
Tie these layers in place around the rim of the bowl using a piece of string.
Place the pudding bowl in a large saucespon and put cold water in the pan until it comes half way up the side of the bowl.
Bring the water to the boil then cover with a lid and simmer for 3 hours.

I haven't tried this pudding yet, but it's lighted than your normal christmas pudding, I hope to god it's nice but if not plenty of brandy butter or cream and we'll be set. As with the cake I'll update as soon as I know how it goes.

Christmas Cake, Nigella Style

2007-12-02T14:44:00.000Z

As I neglected the blog last week while participating in social occasions (the ballet, a bag party and also a tummy bug) there's a good few posts coming in the next week, mostly around the christmas baking I've done thus far so ho ho ho and all that.

This cake is from one of my all time favourite baking books, How to be a Domestic Goddess : Baking and the Art of Comfort Cooking by Nigella Lawson, I have made so many things out of this book and they never fail to turn out looking and tasting amazing.

I have never made a Christmas cake before this one and it's my baby, I am SO SO happy with it, it looks good, it didn't burn and smells drinkalicious!!!

So here's what you need for a 23cm round (20cm square) cake tin

700g sultanas
225g raisins
110g currants
110g glace cherries
110g mixed peel
120ml brandy or sherry
225g butter
195g brown sugar
1 tsp grated orange zest
1 tsp grated lemon zest
4 medium eggs and 1 extra yolk (the original recipe uses 4 lrg eggs)
2 tsp honey (the original recipe uses marmalade but I forgot to buy this so honey seemed a better option than blackcurrant jam!)
350g plain flour
1 tsp mixed spice
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp almond essence
pinch of salt

I used dried fruit from out local fruit shop, I have never seen it in there before and was very happy I didn't have to use anything from bags but if you're making this the end result will be just the same I'm sure as my mammy (Domestic Goddess extraordinaire) never used anything but bagged fruit when I was growing up and the cake was always gorgeous.

Put the fruit into a large bowl and soak in the brandy or sherry overnight.

The next day, heat the oven to Gas mark 2 or 150C. Line the tin with a double thickness of buttered baking parchment and then outside the tin a double thickness of brown paper, this should come up above the tin about the same depth as the tin itself. Nigella's recipe uses brown paper and then baking parchment inside the tin but I grew up doing it with the parchment on the inside and the brown paper outside the tin and it worked out just fine.

Cream the butter and the sugar and then beat in the lemon and orange zest.
Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well after you add each one, then add the honey or marmalade. I added my salt in at this stage and the almond essence aswell.
Sift the flour and spices together and add to the fruit. Mix really well so everything is combined and there's no pockets of flour left or uncoated fruit

Pour your mixture into the prepared, buttered cake tin and bake for 3-3 1/2 hours or until a skewer (read butter knife here as I had no skewers) comes out clean.

When the cake comes out, brush a couple of spoons of extra brandy over the top of the cake and wrap in it's tin immediately - this will trap heat and form steam and keep the top of the cake soft on the top. When the cake is completely cold, remove it from the tin and rewrap in greaseproof paper and foil and store.

Now, I haven't made any move to ice the cake yet but am going to top the cake following a different recipe for Certosino from the same book. This involves putting aprocot jam all over the top of the cake, then covereing it completely with dried fruits and nuts and glazing it with the remainder of the apricot jam so it looks all shiny and pretty, I will update the post at that stage

Koli Ishtew - Indian Chicken Stew

2007-11-21T22:43:00.000Z

I am an avid viewer of Saturday Kitchen, apart from the fact that I love James Martin (especially his gorgeous arms and hands) the recipes are always fantastic and there's plenty of banter, bad jokes and gorgeous recipes.

So a few weeks ago Atul Kocchar (and Donna Hay) was on and made a delicious looking Indian Stew. Atul has a new book out called Simple Indian which is on my christmas list and if the stew was anything to go by it's set to be a much loved and used book in my kitchen.

It sounds like you need a lot of ingredients but let me tell you it's definitely worth it, this was one of the nicest stew's I've had in AGES, warming and fragrant and creamy, I couldn't recommend it enough!!

So here's what you need and the original recipe is here:

Ingredients:

3 tbsp vegetable oil
2 boneless chicken breast, cut into four pieces, dusted with little flour, salt, freshly ground black pepper and ground cinnamon
2 star anise
2.5cm/1in cinnamon stick
2-3 green cardamom pods, lightly crushed
4 cloves
4-6 black peppercorns
1 blade mace
1 green chilli, slit open
20g/¾oz fresh ginger, peeled, sliced into matchsticks
2 medium onions, thinly sliced
8-10 fresh curry leaves
1 tsp ground turmeric
2 tsp ground coriander
½ tsp ground black pepper
¼ tsp ground cinnamon
400ml/14fl oz coconut milk
10-12 baby plum or cherry tomatoes

I cut my chicken breasts up a little smaller as I don't like them too big, I also used reduced fat coconut milk but other than that I stuck to the recipe as it is on the BBC site

Heat 1 tbsp of the vegetable oil over a low heat add the chicken fry gentlybut don't let it go brown. When the chicken is almost cooked take it off the heat and put it aside.
Heat the rest of the vegetable oil and add the cinnamon stick, cardamom pods, cloves, peppercorns and mace. Fry until the spices start to crackle, then add the chilli, ginger, onions and curry leaves. Now I couldn't hear mine crackle so I left them 3 or 4 minutes and then added the onions and fried them until they were translucent.
Add the turmeric, coriander, black pepper and cinnamon powder and fry for another couple of minutes.
Add the coconut milk and simmer.
Add the chicken and the tomatoes and simmer again, now the recipe says 3-4 mins or until the chicken is cooked though but mine was maybe 10 mins I think and the sauce thickened nicely in this time.

I served mine with basmati rice and I have to say it was SO fragrant and delicious, I will definitely be making this again.

Of Cardamom pillows and honey drops..............

2007-11-21T19:13:00.000Z

I was browsing blogs on Saturday afternoon as one does, and lets face it there was nothing better to do as it was pouring outside and himself was engrossed in a certain games console that is the third person in our marrige I think sometimes (along with Liverpool FC) when I came across this:

Oh wonder of wonders Ice Cream Ireland had set people a tasting/testing challenge to make various ice creams for their new book, sure what could be better than a challenge involving ice cream????? Nothing I hear you cry, nothing, and you're right nothing could be better than ice creamy goodness made by my own fair hands.

So I checked out the flavours on offer and lo and behold one containing my new favourite spice - Cardamom, and when combined with honey I would be in foodie heaven.

So off I started out on Monday night with my milk, suger, eggs, cardamom and honey. I made my custard and already it smelled divine and if there wasn't pictures to be taken I would have eaten it there and then!!!! Custard city baby!!!

Tuesday night I was home late but this was my priority, I sieved, whipped and folded my way to ice cream heaven, this really was the most fantastically smelling ice-cream imaginable, so into the freezer it went and already I was thinking about eating it on Wednesday when I came home.

So tonight is Wednesday night, I have a friend coming over at 8 for some tasting so I had to get my pictures taken before the delicious iced confection is decimated before my very eyes!!!

So here's my attempt, the light wasn't great and I broke my ice-cream scoop but over all not bad at all, the kitchen does indeed smell of Cardamom pillows and honey drops...............................

P.S my only thoughts were, I should have used my ice cream machine as the ice-cream seperated slighted as you can see in the two toned scoop at the bottom here, but hey I'm not picky!!! Oh and it melted like hell aswell but when the ice-cream is this good who isn't going to lick the plate???

Comfort food - Banana Bread

2007-11-17T15:16:00.001Z

Last Friday week in a certain large supermaket who shall remain nameless I bought 2 bags of bananas that were reduced as they had reached their "sell by" date thinking it was a fantastic idea obviously.

Needless to say they were never used so I made up my mind to do something with them and banana bread is something I've never made before.

I used a recipe from 80breakfasts as it's a blog I read all the time and remembered I'd seen this recipe ages ago and thought I must make that at some stage. I've measured everything to make it easier as opposed to using cup measurements but you can find the original recipe here should you want to use the original measurements.

3 or 4 ripe bananas (mine were very ripe but not black and I used 3 medium bananas cos I was a bit worried it'd be too banana-y)
2oz melted butter
200g sugar (I used raw cane caster sugar as opposed to white)
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract (not essence)
1 tsp baking soda
pinch salt
300g flour

I am lazy and played around with the instructions so here's what I did but if you want to follow the original recipe click on the link above.

Put your bananas (I used 3) into a food processor and blend
Add your melted butter, vanilla extract, egg and salt and blend for a couple of seconds
Add the sugar and blend and then the flour.

The mixture is quite stiff but still very easy to work with, I made 2 loaves 1 in a silicone mould and 1 in a loaf tin. Both came out really well and the loaf in the pics is from the silicone and so it's lower but still gorgeous.

Enjoy!!!!

Nothing so simple as stew

2007-11-12T19:42:00.001Z

When it's cold outside there's nothing I like more than some stew (or soup but that's another days posting) so being brass monkeys as the husbag would call it I decided it was a day for some beef stew. I also have an excuse to use my new Le Creuset pot!!!

You need:

1lb round steak cut into chunks
2 large carrots
1 large onion -I like to use red but use whatever you like personally
1/2 a butternut squash - use whatever winter veg you fancy this is just what I had today
1 litre stock
couple of tablespoons of plain flour seasoned with salt and pepper
herbs - I used oregano and basil as I like Italian flavours but you could use mixed herbs or a couple of different ones
Olive oil

I've also made some dumplings just to show off in my first post :) and popped them on top of the stew with about 30 mins to go and you them you'll need:

125g flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
15ml olive oil
2 tbsp oregano (I've used dried)
2 tbsp basil, dried again
125ml milk

So enough rambling here's the jist of it:

Heat some olive oil in a pot, I have 2 teaspoons cos I'm dieting and know the value of this
Toss the cubed steak in the seasoned flour and brush off the excess flour.
Put the steak into the pot and brown in batches, it's easier to make sure none of it gets too brown if you put in smaller ammounts
When all the steak is browned put it to the side and add some more olive oil to the pan, pop in your onions and saute for a few mins until softened, add your carrots and other veg and cook for another 5 mins
Put the steak back into the pan and add your stock and herbs, salt and pepper and put the lid on.

I cook my stews in the oven but you can cook it on the hob in the same way just keep it at a gentle simmer and stir every so often. Give it about 25 mins then pop in your dumplings.

I make these in a food processor, throwing in everything together. Knead the dough for a couple of mins and then shape into balls about the size of a walnut maybe. These are done when they've risen and browned slightly on top mmmmmmmmmm

Once you've checked everything is cooked to your liking, serve.

Now that this is written this looks more technical than it actually us, really just throw everything into a pot and cook until you're happy with it :)

Welcome

2007-11-12T19:40:00.000Z

I hope you all like this blog as much as I think I'm going to, I have the camera charged, the knives sharpened and the herbs growing and am all ready to cook up a storm.

Welcome to Fairy Cake Heaven