Nadolig Llawen!

(...that's Merry Christmas in Welsh!)

First of all, I would very much like to apologise for my lack of posts in recent weeks! For those dedicated few who enjoy reading my blog, i've had an unfortunately large amount of work to do.

So Christmas time is almost upon us, I have scoffed most of my advent calendar, i'm living next to my open fire, and I am very looking forward to visiting the Birmingham German markets to top off my Christmas spirit. Some of the best things in life come from this market, bratwurst hot dogs, wheat beer, mulled wine and german cinnamon donuts make me über happy.

 My vat of tea, accompany my home-made gingerbread hearts.

So everyone is ready at my house to get started with my Christmas dinner, and it's all about the traditional! Every year I always eat with my family, always home made, with me attempting to help make the Christmas dinner while my mum cusses me for getting in the way. But this year, this year is the year I will finally get to help!

For one, this year, it's all about the home-made presents! So i've got some crazy-yummy gingerbread cookies going on! Along with some baba al limoncello, which, in English, are little balls of vanilla sponge soaked in a limoncello (Italian lemon liquor) syrup. And also some Gravadlax, you know, for a savoury option, which is an alternative to smoked salmon, and, in my opinion, actually a little bit nicer! I do have some none home-made stuff mixed in with it, unfortunately I didn't have the time to soak my fruit for Christmas cake/pudding, but it's the spirit that counts!

So wishing everyone a Merry little Christmas here is my recipe for the week:

Jess' Gingerbread Biscuits

Makes about 20 reasonable sized biscuits

225g plain flour, sifted well!

A pinch of salt

2 tsp bicarbinate of soda

1 heaped teaspoon of ground ginger

1/4 teaspoon of ground cinnamon

55g unsalted butter

115g soft brown sugar

115 golden syrup

1 tablespoon evaporated milk

Preheat oven temperature - 190C degrees, Gas Mark 5

- First of all sift your flour very well, there's nothing worse then getting lumps of flour randomly stuck in your biscuits, you can sometimes get away with it in cakes, but in biscuits, it's really noticeable, so big no no just chucking it in! Then add the salt, bicarbinate and spices together with the sifted flour. 

- Next, heat your butter, sugar and syrup until everything's well dissolved then leave to cool a little.

- Once all finished and cooked, mix the dry ingredients with the cooked mixture and evaporated milk and work into a dough. To make your life a little bit easier, rub your hands with a teeny little bit of an unflavoured oil (groundnut if you have it, if not, vegetable is fine) so the it doesn't stick to your hands too much.
 

- Cover it in a bowl and chill in the fridge for about 30 minutes, this is important to do! It doesn't keep it's shape very well if you don't do this, so have patience!

- Grease 2 good sized baking sheets while you're waiting for it to chill and set aside.

- To roll out your biscuits you'll need the following, a rolling pin, a relatively big flat surface, a little extra flour, some cookie cutters, or some imagination and a small knife.

- Sprinkle your surface with flour and the rolling pin and roll out your dough until it's about 5mm thick, then cut it. I think I may have mentioned this in an earlier point, but, as tempting as it is. Do. Not. Twist. The. Cutters! Even though they don't rise a massive amount, they do rise, and they'll rise crooked if you twist. Also, it'll bugger up the rest of your dough and they won't be all pretty and flat and stuff!  With regards to shapes, you can do anything, if you're feeling unimaginative, you can just do round biscuits, if you're feeling festive you can do Christmas trees, if you're feeling geeky you can trace the white tree of Gondor...not that i've ever done that. Hmm!

 All rolled out ready to go!

- The point is, you can do literally anything you like, which is why I like making them for presents, you can personalise them! 

- But back to the baking! Stick them on your greased sheets and bakes for 10-15 minutes, remove from the oven, leave to cool for a few minutes, and turn out onto a wire rack. Sprinkle with a little sugar and a ground ginger and you are sorted. Voila!

- Perfect every time! And damn sexy if I may say so myself.

Spread a little too much, oops!

These really are gorgeous, very moreish as well, I have to keep making them smaller and smaller every time I make them because I eat so many. And at a weird cognitive stance i've not quite figured out, if I make them smaller i'll trick my brain into thinking i've had more. If you want to make them a little more special - if you're making them for presents for instance - melt a little bit of good quality dark chocolate over them, it doesn't have to be neat, in fact, it looks a little bit more arty and rustic if they aren't perfect. 

Also, as it's the time for mince pies (hooray!), i'll leave you with some interesting facts about mincemeat. As most people have probably realised, modern mincemeat doesn't actually have any meat in it - I say that, bar properly made mincemeat anyway - shop bought mincemeat doesn't have any meat in it. The original word mince comes from the Old English word to mynce (originally from Old French mincier, stemmed from the Latin minutia, which means smallness) which obviously means to crush or chop into small pieces. And the word meat comes from the Old English mete, which basically, just means food. It doesn't just mean what we characterise as 'meat' now, it meant everything that we ate. Which is where the word mincemeat actually comes from, it actually meant 'minced food'. As a bit of a kick-in-the-teeth ironic sort of thing, the original mincemeat actually did also have meat in it, even though it did just mean minced food. And it was often a way of covering up beef or pork or venison that was starting to decompose...yum.

But there ya go! You learn something new everyday. Honestly, don't know if I would be able to hack having a bit of rotting beef stuck in with my mince pies, as willing and open minded as I am, I don't know if my sweet tooth would allow it to pollute such a long-standing favourite.

To the humble mince pie!

So,

Nollaig Shona Dhuit

 Joyeux Noel

Froehliche Weihnachten

Prejeme Vam Vesele Vanoce a stastny Novy Rok

Feliz Navidad

and

Shinnen omedeto. Kurisumasu Omedeto

Have a beautiful Christmas!

Peace
JR

Freezing it up.

Today is about Christmas. It's the 1st of December, so I get to open my advent calendar, which has been teasing me for weeks on my desk. Hooray!

I don't think i've really been a 'typical' student my entire time at University, for one, i'm a snob towards super noodles. I genuinely hate them, with a passion. And two, a ready meal had naught touched these lips until last year, of which I ate two spoonfuls, and gave it away... because it was vile. I know, I know, some may think i'm lying or turning my nose up at the standard food of a regular student, or that they think that perhaps they don't want to spend ridiculous amount of money buying 'proper' food. 

But, I can say in all honesty, since I have come back this year, I spend less on food for a week that a lot of my friends do in a day. And I guess this doesn't just go for students, it goes for everyone who thinks how they managed to spend £35 on one, regular (as in, non-dinner party) meal, or people who are trying to save money for a holiday, or a [insert random gadget here]. But there are so many things you can do to save money when you go shopping. And, to top it off, it actually helps if you're worried about putting on weight throughout the winter. This is mainly based on a non-vegetarian week for two people by the way, so if you're Vegetarian or Vegan, it'll be a little harder as the core substance of your meals will need to be a little more fresh.

First of all, one of the best things to do, is do all your shopping in one go (per week). And I know people are going to question how that can be so, things will spoil before you get to use them or so on. But, if you're clever about it, it does keep, I promise. Another tip, if you can, buy your meat from a butchers, it's cheaper, it's usually better quality than the supermarket stuff and you can choose exactly how much you want instead of having to buy an entire packet of something. Something to save you money, and to help overeating (which I completely do in Winter).

Before I say this next point, I would like to mention how unorganised I am in my general daily life, and I always have been, and it really pains me to say this, but it really helps....Plan. Your. Meals.

It's a bit geeky that I actually quite look forward to planning my meals for the week, I get bored very quickly with food, so I like to keep the variety up. If you plan what you're going to eat, you can plan what you need to buy, it's pretty logical really. So do a list before you go, it'll stop you from buying stuff you don't need, again, saving your money and your waist.

Thirdly, freeze it up, in a cheesy reference to my ambiguous title! This is kinda fun actually, as stupid as it sounds, I forget about the stuff I have in my freezer half the time, and I get all excited when I realise that after maybe two or three weeks, i've got enough food to last me an entire week in extra frozen portions. Which is always good. And i'm not a snob when it comes to eating frozen food...mainly because i've made it myself ha!

You know, this all stemmed from reading an article about these two guys who have set up a student cooking channel. But I propose every student hosts their own Come Dine With Me-esque night with a few friends instead.

As this is only a short post, I am neglecting a recipe for this week, I apologise! But I shall be back very soon and I shall make up for it with two recipes. I hope ya'll are enjoying the snow!

Peace

JR

Theobroma Cacao

Today is a day of many things...today I handed in my dissertation proposal, along with many others, and i'm actually very excited about it. Today, I spent over an hour reading about chocolate, which i'm actually addicted to at the moment (reading, not chocolate). I bought the most amazing book last year, the Green & Blacks chocolate cookbook. I think honestly that it's the most amazing investment i've made in cookbook terms, maybe minus my James Martin's Dessert book if i'm being truly honest. Today, is a day of celebration, because I got my first 500 views! *cue balloons, whistles, bells, drums, confetti and such like*. It's pretty sad that I got excited when I saw, I know, but...I don't care! Hehe. I'm actually having a lot of fun writing this, and hopefully some people are having fun reading this.

But really, there is something so satisfying about learning about all this stuff, through all the waves of chocolate that is found everywhere, it's so refreshing to find something that's really gone back to basics, learning about where it comes from and how it's made into the high percentage bars of chocolate that's sold on the shelf. 

For instance, I did not know that Green & Blacks was the first product to be awarded the fairtrade mark in supermarkets in the UK (and it was the Maya Gold flavour, nom). How's that for knowledge! In all fairness, it's on the 'About' page on their website, it's not like I did tonnes of trawling the internet. Also found that you have to melt chocolate at different speeds so as to not ruin the taste and texture, so, dark chocolate takes a little longer to melt than milk or white, but if you let it bubble it turns it gritty and rubbish, so you have to keep it on a double boiler, whereas milk and white just kinda do there own thing and melt within seconds, but, you shouldn't let those bubble either because the milk chocolate turns gritty and bitter and the cocao butter in the white chocolate splits and it goes super acidic.

I've always being quite partial to a bit of dark chocolate, it tastes better, you can use it in everything, savoury and sweet (my chilis just don't taste quite right without it) and it's just incredibly indulgent. I love it. And it always intrigues me how some amazing chocolatiers can manipulate it in such a manner, it's an art, as cheesy as it sounds. I must have spent about 3 hours looking at different specialist chocolatiers in the UK, one of the best being Rococo in London, and how they make all these different truffles and cakes and sweets. I hope that one day I can get to even a quarter of their skill! While we are in the realms of truffles, i'll leave you with a recipe for Green & Black's chocolate truffles.

NB: You can make these with pretty much all the flavours that they do, but if you want smooth truffles, Maya Gold, Mint, Espresso or just plain dark, anything over 85% is pushing it for the bitterness for me, but if it's your taste, go for it!

Green & Black's Truffles

From my trusted Green & Black's cookbook

Servings vary, depending on your desired size of Truffle!

275g dark chocolate, in whatever flavour you've chosen

250ml double cream

50g unsalted butter, at room temperature

Cocoa powder

For starters, put your chocolate (broken into pieces) in a large bowl. Bring the cream to a boil and pour it over your chocolate, when stirring, try not to let it slosh and make too many bubbles, or your truffles will have air bubbles.

Leave to cool for a few minutes and add the butter in 2 stages, after this, it should look glossy and beautiful.

Leave it in the fridge for at least 3 hours, preferably overnight.

Take the ganache out the fridge approximately 15 minutes before you want to make the truffles, it's hard to scoop out the bowl when it's too cold, and it's even more difficult to keep them together when they're melting.

Make sure your hands are cold and dry and dust them with cocoa. Then it's just a case of taking spoonfuls of mixture and rolling it lightly in your hands, keep it rustic though, it's how they were meant to be made! 

Put a few tablespoons of cocoa in a bowl and drop each one in, dusting any excess by kind of playing hot potato with them. Then stick them in the fridge. 

They're lush, and i've made them loads, the Maya Gold ones are especially nice!

There is very little troubleshooting with this recipe, as there aren't many stages or ingredients, but if your truffles look like theyre going to split (it sometimes happens because of the high fat content of the cream), if you have a food processor, give it a few pulses, if not, stir it vigourously for a minute or so and it should be fine!

But onwards with the post, if you ever want to check out the Rococo website (http://rococochocolates.com/), it's not very frilly or particularly exciting (in terms of bells and whistles and video) but it's got some good information, and if you're ever in the area, you can go look at all the yummy expensive chocolate. 

If your budget is a little less then what they're offering, try Hotel Chocolat (http://www.hotelchocolat.co.uk/), it's not exactly 'Bargain Basement' cheap, but if you want to treat yourself to some luxury without re-mortgaging your house, it's a pretty safe bet. I may have accidentily ordered four big boxes last Christmas (oops!), and me and my family (namely my Dad, I know you took all the good ones!) had a nice time picking on some really well made chocolate. It's good for Christmas presents too, it's a little bit different from Thorntons, and there are quite a few shops dotted around. The liquid chocolate that you stir into milk is pretty sexy too.

Well, as this is a celebration of not only reaching 500 views, but of chocolate in all it's glory, I shall leave you with an awesome recipe for crinkle cookies. They are like brownies in the middle and get a glaze on the outside not too dissimilar to Krispy Kreme Donuts, and well...it's hard to resist after that.

Jess' Trusted Crinkle Cookie Recipe

Makes 20 decent sized cookies.

175g good quality dark chocolate, broken into pieces

175g plain flour

4 tablespoons of unsalted butter

1/2 a teaspoon of baking powder

150g caster sugar

2 eggs

1 teaspoon of good quality vanilla extract

Icing sugar

Put your oven at 160C degree/gas mark 4.

Melt your chocolate and butter over a double boiler (with a bowl over boiling water) gently, and set aside to cool.

In a separate bowl mix the flour, baking powder and half a teaspoon of salt.

Beat the eggs and sugar together until pale, and add the chocolate mix and the vanilla extract slowly.

Add the flour mixture and mix thoroughly, cover the bowl then leave in the fridge to chill from anything from 2 hours up to 4 days...2 hours is fine though.

Take the mixture and shape into little balls, toss them generously in icing sugar and lay on a lined baking sheet, use the heel of your hand to flatten them just a little.

To get crisp edges and soft centres 12-15 minutes is fine.

Leave to cool a little, then transfer to a cooling rack.

 

This picture is stolen off the internet, but they do look exactly like that!

They are very nice warm, but I honestly prefer them when they are completely cool, even chilled a bit, as they go chewy and yum!

This is it for now, i'm afraid, go forth and try these, they don't take much effort, time or expense and they really are absolutely delicious.

Peace

JR

A Flying Visit

It has been almost ten days since my last post, please forgive my brief absence.

Alas! No rest for the wicked eh?

I've been super busy with all my writing and working at the bar and such like, so i've not really had time for much of an update! I'm still a little poor at the moment, what with being a student and all, so the adventurous baker in me has been duct-taped, bound and blindfolded like a kinky 60's porn film. Tastefully of course! Hmm...

But! I have still kept my routine going, i'm being organised, i'm keeping my lists, and i'm still cooking some pretty funky stuff. For instance, yesterday I used up left over pastry and cheese from my chicken pie to make sausage, beans and cheese pasties for lunch. Oh, the grease, it was so fun! It was like Greggs, only slightly nicer, and actually had filling. Unlike Greggs, however, they weren't pretty, and the filling I did stuff them with burst my beautifully crafted (ha!) seams of the pastry and it went all over the baking tray, oops! They were still yummy though, and, along with the other half, we polished them off pretty quickly. 

So onwards for my post, cooking successes this week have consisted of, aforementioned chicken pie, a spicy soy chicken nasi goreng-type stir fry with chinese cabbage, broccoli and sesame coriander rice and aztec wraps, which I actually now prefer to enchiladas.

It's going to have to be a bit of a short one today, so i'll press on to my recipe of the week. It's actually a request from a good friend of mine, so enjoy!

Cajun Chicken:

Serves 4

4 chicken breasts 

4 good tablespoons of cajun spice

4 tablespoons of cornflour

salt

pepper

olive oil

This is really simple, cut your chicken breast in half, so it is half the thin-ness of your original chicken breast, leaving it attached at on length. So butterfly it basically!

Coat your chicken generously with cornflour on both sides, shake it a bit to get the excess off (or it'll leave a not so awesome layer of spongey flour around the outside when it's cooked). Mix the cajun, a little salt and pepper together in a bowl, get each butterflied, cornfloured chicken breast and massage some of the spice into it, you don't need to be delicate, and make sure it's well coated.

Meanwhile, turn your griddle/frying on to a medium-high heat and put a good glug of olive oil in. If you're making for four, it's better to do two-in-a-pan at once, for one, it's quicker, and two, most people have pans big enough to hold 4 butterflied chicken breasts comfortably. 

So the chicken is coated in spice, now wait until your oil moves quickly around the pan and sizzles gloriously if you drop a dry bit of bread into it. and lay your chicken down on one side. Leave it to cook for about 2-3 minutes, depending on how thick your chicken is of course. keep an eye on it, because it's so thin it won't take long to cook. 

Spoon a little more cajun spice onto the top of the chicken and flip it when it's cooked half way over, it honestly doesn't matter if it doesnt stick entirely! This is the kind-of fun part, when the one side is sizzling away nicely, get a tablespoon, tip your pan and spoon the juices and loose spice over the top of the, what should be, slightly paler side of the chicken. If there are any bits of spice left sprinkle it on top of the paler side and spread it a little with the back of the spoon, it should stick to it quite easily now it's been in oil. 

Once it's been cooking for another 2-3 minutes, turn it over so the spice can infuse into the other side, cook for a further minute or so, stick it on a little kitchen roll to absorb any left over oil and voila. You are done!

This is just the basics of the meal, you can pair this with so much, sweet potato wedges go lovely with these, so does brown rice, spiced bulgar wheat is also a lovely combo. But it's entirely up to you, if you're feeling a little unadventurous after your endeavour you could just stick it with oven chips. Not that i'm dissing a good plate of chunky oven chips in the slightest of course!

I'm sorry it's been a flash-in-the-pan visit (is that too cheesy?....yes, I think it is) but I shall update something a little more exciting very soon!

Peace

JR

Autumnal Musings

I love Halloween, not for begging for sweets at stranger's houses (bit strange!), but for all the veg the comes into season. And for the excitement of being able to eat stews and soups without feeling guilty that it's 30°C outside, not that it ever gets that hot in England.

I've always been a bit of an Autumnal sort of person, and I don't think I really realised why until I started cooking properly for myself. Being a sucker for a bit of romance and all, there is of course the natural beauty of everything, but only adding to this is the wonderment of root vegetables that are available. I, for instance, decided that, for the first time, I would carve a pumpkin. Shock horror! It actually went alright, and although it looked more like a gurning old man (which, I suppose, is a little scary) the innards were far more rewarding. 

Using some bits and bobs I had in the cupboard, I ended up making a HUGE batch of pumpkin soup, which surprisingly came out quite well to say I wasn't working to a recipe. Working on the basics of my food knowledge (with a little help from my big sis'), I figured out some complimentary flavours to try and make it more than just pureed pumpkin. Frying a good bit of leftover onion, some ginger, some garlic and a few pinches of spices and seasoning, it needed little more. And to say I was going to throw away all the waste! It had a lovely kick from the curry spice, some mellow from the cinnamon and a fresh aftertaste from the ginger, oh, and it tasted like pumpkin of course. All topped off with a handful of toasted chilli pumpkin seeds gave it a bit of fire crisp aswell. 

Honestly? I was really chuffed!

I even had left over pumpkin to make some pumpkin pie, but I left it too long (and later realised I didn't quite have enough), so I concocted a banana and chocolate ganache cream pie instead.

Another reason for loving Autumn...it gets cold, so I can actually get away with using the excuse "It's too cold to leave the house". Loving it! And loving the fact that I can trawl the Internet looking for new and weird things to cook. I've actually come across a pretty cool looking cake called (aptly), "The King of Cakes", or Baumkuchen to the more European amongst us. I vaguely remember eating this at a fair in Germany when I was younger, mainly because it reminded me of a Kit-Kat when I bit into it. It's traditionally made on a spit and the cook paints the batter on in layers. If you take a cross-section of it, it really looks like the rings of a tree, which is pretty cool. 

It takes forever to make, so if you have no patience, it's probably not the best project to undertake, although you can do it in a regular oven, your tree rings'll just be horizontal rather than vertical, which i'm sure you'll be forgiven for! And if you can't be bothered, it'd probably be quicker to wait for the tree to grow and eat that instead, although I doubt it'll taste as good. I don't know who to thank for this strange creation, François Fournier? The good people of Salzwedel? Hungarian brides? Or good ol' fashioned Blighty in all it's Medieval greatness? Either way i'm glad they all exist to keep people like me entertained on a Sunday evening.

So. Tasks for the year now span to:

1) Make perfect, pretty Macaroons.

2) Make a makeshift Baumkuchen.

I know this post is a bit of a beast, but I have a lot of time on my hands seeing as it's 'Reading Week'. So i'll save your eyes and skip to the 'Recipe of the Week', dun dun dunnn! (Oh, the cheese):

Jess' Pumpkin Soup.

Feeds- 'the 5000'

The innards of 2 pumpkins  (seeds removed, washed and dried and put aside)

 2 Medium onions (white)

Fairly big knob of unsalted butter (Lurpak'll do).

3 Garlic cloves

2" Root of Fresh Ginger

2 Cinnamon sticks

1 Pint Chicken stock

Pinch of Curry Powder

Tablespoon of Chilli flakes

Good bit of sea salt and ground black pepper

Dollop of cream

Everything about this soup is easy, it takes a bit of  time to cook but it's really simple and you can leave it mostly alone. 

Firstly you need to chop the onions (pretty finely), the garlic and the fresh ginger. Fry the onions in the melted butter on a medium heat, then turn it right down so they cook slowly for about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and ginger, they should barely sizzle if it's on the right heat, really don't want it to burn or it'll taste horrid! Cook for a further 5 minutes and add the pumpkin, sizzle for a little while, then add the chicken stock, cinnamon sticks, curry powder and seasoning. 

Leave it for about 20-30 minutes to cook on low, so it's almost turning to mush, remove the cinnamon sticks and blend with a hand blender. Stir in a bit of cream if you want to make it a little richer, and leave cooking on a low heat whilst you prepare the pumpkin seeds.

Take a dry pan and add the chilli flakes and as many pumpkin seeds as you like, if you're a little timid with heat, add less chilli, if you like your food hotter than the sun, add more. Easy! Toast for a little while until slightly coloured and coated with chilli, and serve on top of the soup as a garnish!

I thought I would alternate between the sweet and the savoury with my recipes (just to be fair of course, I wouldn't want to hurt the other's feelings!)

It's been quite a successful beginning to Autumn, I can't wait until Christmas! There is going to be a feast and a half if i've got anything to do with it!

Peace

JR 

National Baking Week 2010

Is finally coming to an end for 2010! Unfortunately, I don't think I made quite as much of an effort as I perhaps could/should have. Funds are very low and I couldn't splash out on the ingredients I perhaps would have liked to. So I've had to make it out of ingredients I already have, which was a suprisingly substantial variety.

National Baking Week is all about encouraging people to start baking their own treats, whether it's just to learn a new skill, or to update some passed down recipes, it's always an awesome time to start getting your scales and muffin trays out. 

In the cooking community it's almost a mini festival in itself, forums exploding with recipes, family tips and tricks to make your baking the best and most rewarding it can be. It sounds so very bourgeois, but it's actually quite exciting, oh how adult of me! 

Nevertheless it's been fun, any spare moment i've had it's been spent either reading about recipes or new places I can find to get unusual ingredients. Great for the soul...not so great, however, for my dissertation reading, of which i've done not nearly enough. Saturday morning spent watching Saturday Kitchen, followed by Nigella introduced me to not only an amazing recipe for Grasshopper pie (thankyou Nigella, you goddess!), but inspiration to make an entire range of cocktail-based cupcakes. That bourbon biscuit bases...I literally could not help myself imagining bourbon cupcakes with creamy, minty, chocolatey icing. It's going to be immense!

I've found out some great little pointers to help me with future baking, example, tossing fruit or chocolate chips in plain flour before adding to cakes or muffins stop them sinking to the bottom, or to make your cakes rise enough, they have to go from adding the final baking powder (or the liquid to your dry ingredients) to the oven in under a minute...which is quite difficult. Or to not open the oven door for the first half of cooking time, because it will interfere with the rising of the cake. 

Simple things like that can make you give up on baking and think you're rubbish, but they are easily resolved and can give you confidence to try again. Baking your own stuff can save you a tonne of money once you've bought the basics (baking tins, scales, spatulas etc) and it tastes so much better. Running the risk of sounding like an advert, i'll carry on to the recipe of the week for me.

To honour National Baking Week, I'll keep the theme alive...

Scones (Courtesy of James Martin)

225g Self Raising flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

25g Caster sugar

50g Unsalted butter

150ml milk

1 egg, beaten (for brushing on top)

Pinch of salt

- Oven at 220C degrees/Gas mark 7

- Sift flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl, stir in sugar, add butter and rub quickly into the flour, until a fine breadcrumb consistency forms.

- Add the milk, slowly, working into a smooth dough. Leave to rest for 5-10 minutes before rolling

- Roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface until about 2cm thick-ish. Cut with a standard pastry cutter, and don't twist when cutting, it'll make them rise wonky.

- Once cut, brush with the beaten egg (for a shiny glaze) or dust with flour (for a matt finish) and place the scones on a greased baking tray, then bake for 10-12 minutes until golden brown.

- Cool slightly and serve with clotted cream, jam, butter, or whatever you like!

Honestly, this recipe is the only one I ever use when making scones, simply, because they are lush, and i've never needed to use another. If you're proud of your successes from National Baking Week, tell everyone about it in the comment box below!

Peace

JR 

Technology is Leading a Revolt

...against me and against my laptop, hence my substantial absence. It is seriously kaput.

But, it's been quite a food packed month and it's been fun! I think i had my proudest moment when i made these cute aqua cupcakes.

Just good quality vanilla cupcakes with some super creamy vanilla icing. Maybe not the most exotic flavour in the world, but they were damn tasty!

And a follow up on my jam, it's beautiful, maybe a little too sweet for me, i'll use less next time. But it's still lovely, I'm actually (almost) a bit reluctant to eat it. I want to preserve it in all its beauty. My first jam-making experience was a great success i think.

In other food-related news, it's the start of a new academic year for me and my Bangor friends. So that means students, it also means communal cooking, which I love! I've tried my hand at some things i've not had for a good while: blackened Cajun chicken, with greek potatoes and roasted paprika peppers, that was pretty yummy. I also tried my hand at some canneloni just the other day, nothing majorly exotic, beef and parmesan, but it was quite tasty in the end, so much better than any of the rubbish you get from a jar. I don't do things by half measures, so if you're gonna do something, and you have the time and the money, do it properly. It is so much more rewarding.

Change is exciting. I'll leave a recipe at the bottom of each of my posts from now on, so if you're feeling a little uninspired for food and you happen to read my rubbish little blog, you can maybe try it out? You really don't need to measure anything, you can change it to your tastes

Beef and Parmesan Canneloni:

with some cracking home-made garlic bread.

this feeds 4 medium sized portions.

300g lean beef mince

4 or 5 garlic cloves, depending on the size

1 small red onion

1/2 green pepper 

Small handful of grated parmesan (plus a little to sprinkle on top)

Canneloni pasta (about 12/13/14 tubes)

700g passata (either the big jars or 2 small cartons)

Small ball of mozzarella

1 Beef stock cube

1/2 small ciabatta loaf

1 tablespoon of butter (proper butter! Lurpak or the like)

Parsley

Paprika

Oregano

Pepper

Salt

Pinch of sugar

Olive oil

It's a lot easier to do all your prep before cooking so you don't have to faff around in the middle.

So, dice your red onion and pepper as tiny as you can, remember it's gotta fit into the tubes so it helps the smaller it is. Also, if you have a garlic crusher, perfect, if not, just cut that too. I find it's easier if you take the skin off the cloves, cut in half lengthways down the middle once so you have two flat sides to cut, slice into thin stripes, turn and cut into teeny tiny cubes.

Fry off the onions in a splash of olive oil on a medium heat until they're softened, add the peppers, add garlic and cook for about 30 seconds, don't overcook the garlic or have it on too high or the garlic goes bitter and tastes awful! 

Add your mince, the stock cube, about a tablespoon of oregano, paprika and cook until the mince is cooked through. Add the passata, the pinch of sugar (it balances out the flavours of the super tomato-ey-ness of it) and the parmesan and stir through. 

Get your oven proof dish, your canneloni tubes, a teaspoon and a little oil. Drizzle your oil over the bottom so it doesn't stick and turn your tube so the bottom hole is covered by the the dish and spoon the mixture into your tubes and fill the dish. Leave a little sauce in the pan and cover the tubes with the last bit, tear up the mozzarella, chuck it on, and sprinkle a little parmesan on top. Cover your dish with foil and bake in a medium to low oven for about 40 minutes. Whilst you're waiting for this to cook you can prep your garlic bread.

For this, it's really simple, get the butter, soften it with a spoon, add crushed garlic (1 or 2 cloves) a teaspoon of parsley and a pinch of salt (a little for taste, but mostly to help tie all the flavours together). After that, cut your bread however you wish and spread it on. When the canneloni's been cooking for 40 minutes, put the bread in and turn up the oven to about 190C degrees and take the foil off the top of the canneloni so the cheese can crisp up. Cook for another 20 minutes and then serve.

I'm sorry, i know i've gone on a bit, so i wholly forgive you if you've not bothered reading to the end!

But, go explore the exotic and the unusual, and if you find any interesting recipes, and you have time, please leave me a comment and tell me about it (and the recipe if you have it), i'd love to try it out!

Peace.

JR

The Gods of Chance

...Really were smiling down unto me yesterday afternoon!

Me and my other half went blackberry picking in the woods next to his house on the beautifully rainy afternoon, to console me for my rotten luck of being able to find no damsons this summer. I searched, and i complained many times when i realised that i would be without my beloved home-made damson jam for an entire year (unless, i resorted to the tooth-meltingly sweet store bought crap). So we set off, me looking like little red riding hood in my red coat, aiming to get enough to make at least one pot of bramble jam. Luckily, we got absolutely tonnes, enough for two, maybe even three pots.

AND, to top it all off, coming back to Mr Jess' house, his dad came across a person at work with 2 kg of damsons, after i'd searched all over for some. Lucky or what :)! Needless to say i made a BIG pot of jam to keep me going for a while, which is delicious, if i may say so myself :D.

As for the cake, after a few problems with bad feelings it was undercooked, it came out quite well, it tasted quite yummy, and it's long gone :)! Hooray!

And here it is...candles and all! Ready to be covered by the tin lid to go on the train just before i left.
 
Peace.

JR 

Mint Leaves Ahoy

So far today, I have stood and painted about 50 mint leaves with chocolate, and felt like i've achieved absolutely nothing. Oh dear lol.

I'm really not the most refined of cooks, and i'm ridiculously clumsy, and messy, so this job was not designed with me in mind. And, thinking I was being clever, I decided to try and shape them so they would look arty and nice for the top of the cake, alas, I didn't think of how I was supposed to chill them and couldn't get the extra long rolling pin in the fridge, so, it had to abandoned, and i hung them over knives and forks instead...not quite so cool.

But hey, hopefully they'll look okay and won't break in transit on my way back to Uni today :)! I'm betting 4 hour train journeys with 2 suitcases, a huge laptop and a backpack isn't the best environment to keep delicate things safe.

Hey ho, let's hope they make it :)

JR

So i set up a blog today...

Obviously :). It won't be a online whinge-fest, so hopefully it might be quite fun. 

I know it's not particularly original, but it'll be tracking my cooking ventures across the course of this year and beyond. So, gloves on and ingredients at the ready, i thought i would start tomorrow with a bang. I'm making my "Forest-Floor" decadent chocolate cake for my other half's 21st birthday on Saturday, hopefully he'll like (and be conscious for) it.

I'll keep my back story short, so to not bore you. I adore cooking, i adore food shopping and i think i might have an unhealthy fetish for cake...i think that's all you need to know for now.

Peace.
JR