Spiced Baked Apricots

Desserts do not have to be complicated to taste stunning. This is a simple and lovely dessert which takes seconds to prepare and minutes to cook but the results is rich and homely. 

Delicious with yogurt or ice cream  Worth playing around the the spices too since I cinnamon or ginger would also work well

Spiced Baked Apricots

200g of dried apricots
1 tsp of cardamon pods
1 star anise
1 vanilla pod
2 tbsp of brown sugar
200ml of water

1. Remove the cardamon sees from the pods, discard the pods .  Split the vanilla pod lenghtways to ensure all the flavour can come out
2. Place all the ingredients into a pan
3. Bring to a low simmer for 5 minutes stirring ocassionally
4. To serve remove the vanilla pod and star anise.
5. Serve with plain yogurt or creme fraiche

Two Peach and Cardamom Tart

During the week in London I like to walk along to Lower Marsh Street Market its very small just a few fruit and vegetable stalls . So far I have picked up some tasty asparagus and apples. Last week, I was seduced by some delicious looking peaches but a bag of 8 peaches in my rucksack , travelling through the tube and the train they became a little bashed a bruised about half survived fully intact but half were well I think the technical term is “squished”

This tart then came out of a neccessity to use half mushed , half whole peaches pretty quickly and having not done a lot of cooking recently wanting to make something a bit impressive . It would be delicious served with vanilla ice cream or my preference Greek yogurt or creme fraiche

Two Peach Filling

4 peaches , flesh removed from stones and mushed with a fork
4 peaches finely sliced
4 tbsp of sugar
5 pods worth of cardamom seeds

Pastry Shell

100g of plain flour
50g of butter
10ml of water
20g of icing sugar

1. Mix together the flour and butter to form breadcrumbs
2. Add the water to form a shortcrust pastry
3. Place in the fridge for 20 minutes
4. Roll out using the icing sugar to prevent sticking
5. Line a 10in tart case with the pastry , pricking the base with a fork a few times
6. Bake at 190degC for 15 minutes, remove from the oven
7. Fill the shell with the peach puree (4 mushed peaches in a pan with the cardamon pods, sugar and 20ml Simmer for 15 minutes on a low heat til the peaches have broken down ) & the peach slices over the top
8. Bake for a further 15 minutes

Perfect pudding to following Salt Marsh Lamb and Grilled Salads

Elderflower Jelly

Having made some lovely Elderflower cordial last weekend after a long walk along the Kennet and Avon Canal towpath these were a delicious cool taste of summer , a look incredibly pretty .

Jelly is one of those minimum effort maximum impact dishes You could definitely eat these with some fresh vanilla ice cream.

Elderflower Jelly

1/2 pint of elderflower cordial
1/2 pint of water
1 sachet of gelatine
A handful of elderflowers removed from stalks

1. Bring the water to a boil in a pan
2. Scatter over the gelatine and whisk well
3. Add the elderflower cordial and allow to cool for 3 hours he jelly should have begun to set
4. Mix through some elderflower
5. Fill champagne flutes or wine glases
6. Refridgerate for at least 12 hours

Other Jelly Recipes

• Champagne Jelly
• Elderflower cordial

Rhubarb and Ginger Upside Down Cake

Rhubarb is in season , rhubarb is in season sing it to the hills . Last year I made a beautiful Rhubarb Tart . This weekend I pottered around making a rhubarb and ginger upside down cake .

Fantastically moist I was dubious the rhubarb would cook within the cake but it did giving moist chunks of rhubarb with every bite and hit of stem ginger.

Upside down Rhubarb and Ginger Cake

300g rhubarb about 3 sticks
75g brown sugar
3 balls of stem ginger – finely chopped

175g Self-raising flour
175g Butter, soft
3 Medium eggs
175g Caster Sugar

Method

1. Pre-heat the oven to 190 C. Grease and line a 7 inch deep-sided cake tin.
2. Chop the rhubarb stalks into 2cm pieces . Place evenly over the base of the lined cake tin and sprinkle the brown sugar on top.
3. Beat together the butter and the sugar until they are creamy and fluffy.
4. Add the eggs, and beat thoroughly
5. Fold the in flour, so you don’t lose the air from the cake.
6. Spoon the cake mixture on top of the rhubarb scaterring the ginger throughour
7. Bake for about 45 minutes.
8. Remove the cake from the oven and allow it to cool for 15 minutes. Turn the cake tin upside down onto the serving plate and gently remove it from the cake.

I have also made rhubarb and ginger muffins before delicious for breakfast in the past perfect to make listening to the Archers omnibus .

Rhubarb and Ginger Muffins

Make 20 Muffins

2 large stems of rhubarb chopped 1cm cubes
200g plain flour,
100g of butter,
100g of muscovado sugar
2 eggs
2 balls of stem ginger
75ml milk

Cream together the butter & sugar
Beat in the eggs
Fold in the flour and milk
mix in finely chopped rhubarb and ginger.
Fill the muffin cases
Cook at 175degC for 20 mins.

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Date Balls and Morrocan Cuisine

I have nasty cold which would make walking impossible its making breathing quite difficult so its a weekend in the City of Bristol watching The Mighty Boosh on DVD and watching the raindrops roll down the windoes

Headed out for some lunch though to St Nicholas Market , just 10 minutes walk from the flat and on the way back from Brisol Central Library for some books to aid my recovery

St Nicks is the location of our lovely slow market on the first Sunday of the month. ,the market is a fantastic foodie heaven 6 days a week ( Monday – Saturday ) within 100 sq feet a huge range of tastes and flavours more little food shops opening all the time as well as an olive stall and Gert Lush cheese shop plenty of resaurants with small tables , its a rennaisance of the last five years .

Some of the little cafes

• Royce Rolls – Fantastic homemade vegetarian and vegan rolls and cakes
• Bristol Sausage Shop , super sausage sandwich (at least four choices daily including organic pork and buffalo) featuring posh gravy and mash of the day.
• Portuguese Taste – Portuguese cuisine to eat in or take away, hot specials include duck stew and homemade albondigas – succulent, spicy meatballs.
• Spice Up Your Life – Indian & Oriental Cuisine offers quality Indian and Asian specialities
• Pieminister – award winning festival favourites pie , mash and mushy peas
• Jamaican – salt fish fritters and rice and peas

We went for Al Madina ,a souk right in the heart of the city Moroccan & Mediterranean Cuisine cous cous, traditional lamb and chicken dishes, meatballs falafels . Starting with fresh mint tea , take that cold virus, falafels were off , probably sensible a little falafel cold turkey is neccessary before the summer festival season and the ramping up of my addiction . Instead we both had warm spicy Morroccan chicken with the fluffiest couscous vegetables and olive just delicious. Wish I had take a sample of spice – analysis doubt they will be giving up the recipe easily

Though I was tempted by baclava for desert I am pretending to be good quite coincidentally I had been making date balls on Friday , these are very handy for breakfast snacking and quite meditative to make . You can add extra ingredients e.g. goji berries , sultanas spices (
cinnamon , cloves ) its worth having an experiment a girl I met as a
festival used to add guarana powder and sell them at festivals as an
energy ball

Date Balls

500g of dates ( if dried soak in apple juice for a few hours)
50g of sesame seeds
50g of dessicated coconut

1. Remove the stones from the dates, these is easily done squeezing between your fingers
2. Warm a frying pan on the stove , add in the sesame seed and coconutto gently warm shaking occasionally , the coconut will become golden brown remove from the heat when you see this begging to happen but leave the ingredients in the pan they will continue to brown
3. Food process the dates , add the toasted seeds and mix together finally by hand
4. Place the remainder of toasted ingredients on a plate
5. Removing a heaped tablespoon of the date/seed mixture roll it in your hands to form a ball approx 2cm in diamter
6. Finally rolling it around in the toasted seeds and cocanut to cover
7. repeat

Paddington Marmalade Souffle

Up in London today , had ought my ticket yesterday for travel today only to find on attempting to go through the barrier this morning , they had sold me a ticket for for the day before . Managed to get it correct though in these situations I am increasingly finding that looking as if you are on the verge of tears works better than calm rationality

It is the Easter holidays so the train was packed with young children on of whom decided to look out the window and I do not exaggarate climbed into my lap under the full adoring gaze of its mother . Now I admit as I am coming up to 30 there are times when this would probably cause my uterus to skip and beat , but when you are busy reading papers for a meeting its a little tricky so I gave up my seat. Intense meetings.

Leaving Paddington station went much more calmly , the train magazine featured an interview with Paddington Bear the character from my childhood who every English child knows loves his Marmalade sandwiches . Marmalade in case you are not familiar is a bitter orange jam/jelly eaten on toast for breakfast .

Thoughts of marmalde sparked memory of How to Cook… with Delia episode ,made a frighteningly easily and impressive looking Marmalade Souffle with just two ingredients egg whites and marmalade . Now known as the “Before she went a bit loopy and stared cooking oven chips Delia” , I couldn’t find a recipe online anywhere so this was my interpretation, very tasty and although Delia used sugar free marmalade I decided to live dangerously and use the full sugar stuff

The souffle was very tasty it puffed up well, but hard to photograph before it went pluuurrrrrfffff . It really reminded my of a bitter orangey lemon meringue ,makes me want to try it with a ginger preserve as well so watch this space.

In the meantime my calmness returned , I wonder what my trip to Bridgwater tommorrow could inspire ?

Paddington Marmalade Souffle

This will fill one 10cm diameter x 8cm tall ramekin enough for one person so multiply quantities to feed more, I have not tested baking this in a large souffle dish probably best to keep to a small dish per person

1 heaped teaspoon of marmalade
1 egg whites

Preheat the oven to 190degC
Beat the egg whites until fluffy and peaking
Stir in the marmalde , but do not beat or you will lose the air in the eggs
Fill the ramekins with the mixture , should be three quarters full
Bake for 20 minutes

Technorati Tags: Paddington Marmalade Souffle

Chocolate Tart and Treacle Tart – for Mothering Sunday

The flat smells of baking , its Mothering Sunday tommorrow so I am responsible for making pudding , it needed to be something that would be transportable so I decided on two tarts one Treacle Tart and one Chocolate Tart , these will be reheated tommorrow served with cream . The chocolate is for my grandmother who is a total chocoholic , hoping there will be some left for her to take home so they are both pretty big ones 24cm …. enough pastry left for some little jam and treacle tarts for treats in the week .

Also put together some bunches of spring flowers hyacinths , tulips and daffodils .

Pastry Tart Cases

To make a 24cm tart cases

250g of plain flour
125g of butter
Pinch of salt
20 ml of water

1. Crumb the butter into the flour , add the water to form a dough
2. Place in the fridge for 1 hour
3. Roll out the pastry with plenty of flower and line a tin
4. Place in the fridge to rest for 20 minutes
5. Bake blind , thats filled with baking paper and ceramic beans at 200deg for 15 minutes
6. remove the paper and beans and bake for another 5 minutes
7. Turn the oven down to 180degC fill with the fillings and bake for 20 minutes

Chocolate filling for 24 cm tart tin

500g dark chocolate, 70% cocoa solids, broken into squares
360ml double cream
3 Eggs, beaten

Melt the chocolate , and warm the cream .
Mix together and add the beaten egg
Pour into the pastry case

Treacle filling for 24 cm tart tin

400g of treacle
300g of fresh white breadcrumbs
1 lemon zest and juice
1 tsp of ground ginger

Mix together all the ingredients and fill the pastry case.

Flowers for mothers day , hyancinths , tulips and daffodils a spring bouquet

Valentines Dinner

This was the Valentines Dinner I had planned to be light and a lot prepared in advance but with some lovely colours bit risky as I had never made any of these things before . Quite successully secreted alcohol in both the salmon and the pudding .

Salmon cured in vodka and beetroot served with rocket and walnut with horseradish frais
Lamb Sweetbreads with Pomegranate and Spinach
Champagne Jelly

I will definitely make the salmon it cured perfectly beetrooty throughout and a good way to use a small amount of beetroot , I don’t drink vodka but in this dish it was just a tiny wisp as you ate the salmon which went perfectly with salad and frais . This recipe came from a few around for Beetroot Cured Salmon and raddichio Salad
and Vodka-marinated Salmon with Beetroot Salad

Salmon cured in vodka and beetroot served with rocket and walnut with horseradish frais

Salmon Cured in Vodka and Beetroot
fresh salmon – 200g thats two salmon fillets
raw beetroot – two small
sea salt 50g
brown sugar 50g
1/2 tsp peppercorns, crushed
vodka 100ml

Prepare the salmon in advance it should cured for 24hours minimum , this was perfect after 48hours
grate the beetroot and mix the other ingredients
cover the salmon in the marinade and refridgerate
to serve discard the marinade & thinly slice the salmon and serve with the rocket and walnut salad and horseradish frais

Horseradish Frais

fromage frais 100ml
horseradish cream 2 heaped tablespoons

Mix togehter the fromage frais and horseradish

Rocket and Walnut Salad

fresh rocket – 2 large handfuls
crushed walnuts 2 tbsp
olive oil 2 tbsp
fresh lemon juice – 2 tbsps

1. Toast the walnuts in a warmed frying pan for 2 minutes shaking well.
2. dress the rocket with the olive oil and lemon juice
3. toss the walnuts over the salad

Lamb Sweetbreads with Pomegranate and Spinach

The sweetbreads came from Alternative Meats a lovely company who have delivered a whole parcel of delicious offal to my freezer . Sweetbreads are the thymus gland of a lamb , these had already been soaked to remove blood and were delivered to me frozen , requiring only gentle simmering before frying. Next time I will give them something more full bodied to work with some mushrooms and thyme .

Lamb Sweetbreads with Pomegranate and Spinach

lamb sweetbreads – 400g
pomegranate seeds – 1 large pomegrante
fresh spinach – 3 large handfuls
pomegranate molasses – 2tsps
balsamic vinegar – 2tbsp

1. Season a little boiling water with salt and pepper
2. add the sweetbreads and simmer for a few minutes
3. remove and leave to cool
4. once cool the sweetbreads can be sliced in a half , and fried in browned butter ( that is butter heated until it has begun to turn brown ) til golden
5. serve with the spinach dressed with the pomegranate mollasses and tossed with the pomegranate sees

Champagne Jelly

This is a Delia Smith recipe I have tweaked its
a dish my mum regularly serves for Christmas dinner pudding an air of
decandance but light . The bubbles in the cava fizz pleasantly on your
tongue when eaten and it means you have nearly half a bottle of cava to polish off.

Champagne Jelly

For two large wine glasses

water 1/2 pint
cava 1/2 pint
lemon – 1 medium
caster sugar – 25g
powdered gelatine 2 x 0.4 oz packets (5 g)

1. Pour the water into a large saucepan
2. Pare the yellow zest from the lemon and add to the pan with the sugar
3. Bring the pan to the boil remove from the heat
4. Sprinkle in the gelatine whisking the mixture with a balloon whisk
5. Continue stiring till all the gelatine is dissolved
6. Add the lemon juice and strain through a seive to remove the zest
7. Leave to cool for one hour
8. Finally stir in the cava and place in wine glasses or bowls
9. This should be left refridgerated for at least 12 hours .
10. you can serve with a little whipped cream

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Coconut and Lime Macaroons

I am not a big chocolate eater but I do have a soft spot for a Bounty Bar ( featured here on the stunning Chocablog ) sadly its a bit cold and rainy to venture out.
Making some food for the weekend anyway so while the oven was in cooked some Coconut and Lime Macaroons & tribute to one of the best food blogs around Coconut and Lime

I think these look suitable Chrismassy as well like little snowballs ( and once that they are cooked like British snowballs which generally get a bit muddy ) , however I wanted them cooked well for that lovely toasted coconut taste.

Your hands get nicely messy making these but it means you can lick the tasty coconut limey mixture of your hands , its delicious actually and is making me think that a coconut and lime cocktail would be tasty

Coconut and Lime Macaroons

2 egg whites
100g caster sugar
160 desiccated coconut
Zest and juice of a lime
Method
1. Preheat the oven to 180C/355F/Gas 4.
2. Mix together the egg whites, sugar, coconut, lime zest and juice in a bowl ..
3. With wet hands, mold half a golfball sized balls, flatten slightly and place on a baking tray covered with greaseproof paper
5. Bake for 12-15 minutes in the centre of the oven until lightly golden.
6. Cool the macaroons on a wire rack, and store in an airtight jar.

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