Cooking the Books

Snow Flecked Brownies Sweet & Simple Bakes December 2009

2009-12-01T03:11:00.000-08:00

A very short post from me this month, have had a flu-y thing for a few weeks now.

This month saw a chocolate brownie with chopped white chocolate chips. They were dark and gooey, and pretty with the icing sugar dusting.

I’d not tried this particular variation on a brownie before and would have to say it wasn’t one of my favourites. That didn’t stop them being eaten but others fast enough though!

Thank you to Maria and Rosie for hosting and do click on here tomorrow for the snow flecked brownies round up form all the other Sweet & Simple bakers =)

Snow Flecked Brownies
Ingredients
375g best quality dark chocolate
375g unsalted butter at room temperature
1 tablespoon real vanilla extract
6 eggs (large)
350g caster sugar (superfine)
1 teaspoon salt
225g plain flour
250g white chocolate, chopped into chunks
2 tsp icing sugar, for dusting
Tin measuring approx 33cm x 23cm x 5.5cm
(1)Preheat the oven to 180C/Gas 4/350F.Line the sides and base of a 33 x 23 x 5.5com baking tin with foil or baking parchment.
(2)Melt the butter and dark chocolate together in a large heavy based pan.In a bowl or wide mouthed large measuring jug, beat the eggs together with the caster sugar and vanilla extract.Allow the chocolate mixture to cool a little, then add the egg and sugar mixture and beat well. Fold in the flour and salt. Then stir in the chopped white chocolate. Beat to combine then scrape and pour the brownie mixture into the prepared tin.Bake for 25 minutes.
(3)You can see when the brownies are ready because the top dries to a slightly paler brown speckle, while the middle remains dark, dense and gooey. Even with such a big batch you do need to keep checking on it: the difference between gooey brownies and dry ones is only a few minutes. Remember, too, that they will continue to cook as they cool. Cut into squares and dust with icing sugar.

Cannoli – November 2009 Daring Bakers

2009-11-27T06:30:00.000-08:00

It’s with much pleasure that I can tell you I’ve re-joined the Daring Bakers group! I have missed taking part in their monthly baking events, and am happy that my timetable hopefully now means that I can take part once again.

This months event was chosen by by Lisa Michele of Parsley, Sage, Desserts and Line Drives. She chose the Italian Pastry Cannolo (or cannoli if there is more than one). I have heard of them before in some of my Italian and American cookbooks. They are a deep fried dough shell filled with something creamy. I couldn’t help thinking of brandy snaps when I saw the pictures, or even my own when they were made. They are nothing like brandy snaps though, the dough being flavoured with cinnamon and Marsala wine.

The dough is pretty hard to work with, horrible to knead and getting it through the pasta machine the first few times was not east at all! If you persevere though it does become something more pliant and manageable, that can indeed be formed into cannoli. There was several stages to the making of this months challenge, the dough, rolling and shaping the dough, deep frying the shells, chocolate and nut dipping the ends, then the filling of the otherwise ready shells before being ready to eat them.

Lisa Michelle gave up the options of forming them into the traditional cylinder shells by using forms or just cutting out shapes from the dough. Not one to pass up the opportunity to buy a little bit of kitchen kit I purchased a couple of forms online =) So here you have then Cannoli. I filled mine with whipped cream flavoured with Amaretto liqueur and a little icing (confectioners) sugar, which reflected the chopped almonds in the chocolate shells. I did like them, they were very pretty, I’m not sure I’d make them again though, as I hardly ever deep fry anything, last time I used my machine would be about 10 years ago! I’m glad I did give them a go though, once the naughty dough was behaving it was a fun challenge. Thanks to Lisa Michelle for choosing. Please click here for the recipe if you fancy giving them a go.

And The Winner Is

2009-11-25T06:08:00.000-08:00

The winner of the double cookbook giveaway from Hachette for How To Roast a Lamb: New Greek Classic Cooking by Michael Psilakis and Chocolate: A Love Story: 65 Chocolate Dessert Recipes from Max Brenner's Private Collection by Max Brenner is Joyful of New Horizon Reviews.

Well done to you Joyful, I’ll email you for your details. Thank you to everyone who entered.
Many thanks to the lovely people at Hachette for donating the books for the giveaway.

Cookbook Giveaway!!!

2009-11-18T04:05:00.000-08:00

The kind people at Hachette publishers contacted me about doing a competition to win one set of two of their newly released cookbooks. They are How To Roast a Lamb: New Greek Classic Cooking by Michael Psilakis and Chocolate: A Love Story: 65 Chocolate Dessert Recipes from Max Brenner's Private Collection by Max Brenner. They both look like great books. Click on the titles to read more.

If you would like to enter into the draw to win the set of two books please just leave a comment to this post saying why you’d like to win them. This giveaway is open to readers in the US and Canada only as per the publishers request, apologies to my other readers. Entries to be in by midday on 24th November 2009. The draw will take place out of a hat on 25th November, and I will post to say who the lucky winner is. Good Luck!!

Home Cooking!

2009-11-03T04:25:00.000-08:00

Red Wine and Chorizo Risotto with Peas
Home Cooking by Rachel Allen was published this Autumn. It won’t be any surprise to regular readers that I’m a Rachel Allen fan. Have all her books, and have cooked from them all extensively. As much as a fan as I am I did wonder if she could come up with another good cookbook so soon after the magnificent Bake of last year. However, she has done it again, another lovely book jam packed with the kind of recipes you can easily slot into your weekly cooking. It’s her sixth and biggest book to date, nicely presented in a feminine fashion, with good pictures. It has a TV series on Good Food channel to go with it, but there is a lot more in the book than the recipes that appeared on TV.
It covers: Breakfast, Lunch, Sunday Lunch, Supper and Desserts plus some savoury and sweet treats . There is even a chapter on Baby Purees.

I don’t know about you but I sometimes draw a blank for inspiration midweek, when I’m tired but still want something good to eat for my family. I’ve been inspired though with Home Cooking, and the recipes I’ve made have produced comforting, homely, good home cooked food. Here is a taster of some of the things I’ve made. Have an amazing sounding orange and date syrup pudding on the cards next.

Roast Chicken
Easy and delicious roasted chicken.

Buttered Cabbage

Something I used to do a lot and then it fell by the wayside in favour of newer things. It’s back on the menu again now though.

Tarragon Cream Gravy
Creamy and just a little different from the norm. There are several variations for gravies and sauces to go with your chicken in the books.

Smoked Bacon Stuffing
Delicious! The stock I made with the leftover bits and pieces was all the better for a little of this stuffing. There are also several stuffings to choose from in the book.

Macaroni Cheese with Ham
I have a couple of macaroni cheese recipes that I make, but this was the one that got the little people cleaning their plates and asking for more!

Alphabet Soup
A lovely tomato soup to warm the soul. Could be veggie without the bacon. I found the pasta alphabet shapes in the baby aisle at the supermarket.

Chicken Curry
This is a cream and coconut milk free curry. It must be ages wince I’ve made a plain curry like this! It actually reminded me of a packaged curry that came in black boxes, when homemade curry was not the in thing yet. I added a few sultanas to make it more so. A gripe with this recipe, it only served two of us, and it would not have stretched any further!

Mayonnaise
A must in your repertoire.

Tartare Sauce
This version of this fish accompaniment has chopped hard boiled egg in it, which is a new one on me. It was a lovely tartare sauce though, given a little more body with the egg.

Red Wine and Chorizo Risotto with Peas (Picture at top of post)
I adore risotto and chorizo, if this hadn’t been good I’ve have been extremely surprised! It was a very pretty colour when cooked too, the purple rice and vibrant green peas with the drizzle of orange chorizo oil.

Mild Lamb Curry
I saw Rachel make this one on Market Kitchen. I did the very mild version with no chilli, and my non spicy little people ate it up. The novelty of poppadums and nan probably helped. We liked it too, you could always serve a spicy chitnry or pickle with it if you like it hot. I liked the aromatic gentleness of it.

Aromatic Crispy Duck
A really moist take on the Chinese recipe. You poach duck breasts and oven bake the skin = moist meat and crispy skin!

Strawberry and White Chocolate Tiramisu

This was soooooo good! Scarily addictive!!

Pork Meatballs with Tomato Sauce
A filling nice supper. I usually make meatballs with beef, so this was a little change.

Stir Fried Rice
Lovely! Sometimes I used leftover rice and sometimes cook and cool rice and keep it in the fridge till evening. A good stir fried rice like this is worth cooking extra for.

Cauliflower Cheese
A family home cooked classic, or it should be anyhow!

Here a link to Rachel Allen’s website for the White Chocolate and Strawberry Tiramisu recipe – scroll down and it’s there.

White Chocolate and Orange Cookies - Sweet & Simple Bakes November 2009

2009-11-01T05:34:00.000-08:00

This one really lives up to the baking group name as they were indeed very sweet and simple little cookies, but with lovely taste and aroma. A cookie dough laced with vanilla extract, orange zest and chunks of white chocolate. Yum! I brought these to a meeting I went to last week, and they disappeared so quickly.

I used bars of good quality white chocolate and chopped them myself, as I’m not too keen on the white choc chips that I can get readily here.Thanks as always to Maria and Rosie for hosting. Hope you get better soon Rosie. Do check here for other cookies after the 2nd of November.

White Chocolate and Orange Cookies
Makes 2 dozen
Ingredients
115g unsalted butter, softened
200g caster sugar (superfine)
1 egg
Grated zest of 1 orange (2 to 3 tsp)
1 tsp vanilla extract
200g plain flour
½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
¼ baking powder
¼ tsp salt
225g white chocolate chips
(1)Preheat the oven to 190oC/170oC fan oven/375oF/Gas mark 5.
(2)Beat the butter and sugar. Add the egg, orange zest and vanilla extract.
(3)Sift together the dry ingredients. Stir the dry ingredients and chocolate chips into the butter mixture and combine. Roll into balls. Use your fingers to flatten onto a non-stick baking sheet 5cm/2in apart. Bake for 8-10 minutes.
(4)Cool for five minutes and transfer to a cooling rack. When cool, store in an airtight container for up to four to five days.

Feast!

2009-10-14T06:47:00.000-07:00

When Feast by Nigella Lawson was published a few years ago, I was absolutely besotted by it, absolutely loved it, obsessed was probably nearer the mark. Yet when you find a new cookbook that delivers in such a fabulous way – can you blame me? I know from some of the foodie forums I belong to that I’m in no way alone here, and that is a bit of a relief I can tell you!

Joking aside Feast is my very favourite Nigella book to date. Don’t get me wrong I love all the others too, but Feast is my sort of comfort book, a go to book, and the Christmas chapter makes up a good bit of my Christmas repertoire (although many are now in Nigella Christmas, as they should be, too). I’ve cooked more recipes from Feast than any of the others I own, a good 130+ .

Maybe you are thinking why is there not more on my blog about it? Well, my obsession came to an end just before I began blogging, and I sort of cooked myself out of it. However, I’m very happy to report that it’s back in my reading and cooking pile and, because I’ve cooked many of the recipes I’m making before, it’s like greeting old friends, maybe not seen for some time, but so good to say hello to and meet again.

I bought Feast the DVD from Ebay a while ago. It’s from the TV series done for the US, and our all region DVD player happily plays it. I was watching the curry episode, and was inspired to cook the savoury dishes that I’ve cooked before, but not recently or together for that matter, as Nigella did them. Lovely spread of Indian food. A real treat, and the work load was spread out a bit, so it wasn’t to manic in the kitchen at the last minute either.

Chocohotopots
Here is a selection of the most recent of my cooking from Feast, with a new start to add to my recipe collection – Chocohotopots, I think of them of pot bound hot brownies, if ever you are in need of a quick chocolate fix, this is it! I am a chocoholic (and I don’t use that term lightly, it’s an extremely double edged sword), so it’s no surprise I like them, little one likes them, and even my Hubby, who doesn’t have a big thing for chocolate, thought they were the business. They only take 5 to 10 minutes to go in the oven too, such sweet chocolate-y reward for so little time and energy.

St Tropez Chicken
Wine-y, fragrant, a little sweet, and really delicious. Excellent with the smashed potato gratin and peas from the book. The first savoury dish I made from Feast, and still on I make for my family.

Petit Pois a La Francaise
This is a beautiful recipe, it tastes wonderful – the pea taken to a new gastronomic height! Again, something I’ve cooked often.

Nursery Fish Pie
Just what it says it is, a no frills comforting fish pie. My little one liked it too.

Chocolate Rice Pudding
Now, it’s not often I have a Nigella bomb recipe, but this was one for us, it wasn’t creamy enough or sweet enough for us. It could be tweaked a bit, but Hubby declared chocolate rice pudding as just wrong, so I’ll not play about with this one for them. I’ve eaten chocolate rice pudding in a restaurant on cold December lunch time after a morning Christmas shopping, and I did like it. If you do too I’d add more sugar and substitute some for the milk for double / heavy cream. Will stick with the devine chocohotopots for my lot though.

Mugali Chicken, Rice Pilaff and Muttar Paneer
I’ve made this a few times, I did it initially with chicken breasts, and they didn’t play anything like as well as the skinless, boneless thighs that Nigella suggests. It’s a really gorgeous curry, a teeny bit of fire from some chilli flakes, but other than that just glorious aromatic spices, and creamy / yoghurt sauce. Good as is, or if you like loads of sauce cut the chicken down to 1kg, both are good. You make it the day before too, so perfect for giving to friends too.
Rice pilaff is aromatic and softly satisfying rice, just what a curry feast needs.

Muttar paneer
I like this one, with or without the paneer. I’ve only made this one a couple of times, but frying the paneer is a dangerous activity. Both times I’ve had hot fat sparked onto my hands, I’m not willing to suffer that kind of pain for some fried cheese, so next time I’ll just to the peas on their own, Hubby thinks the paneer is a bit too like tofu for his liking =)

White chocolate, cranberry and pecan cookies
Oooh the beloved cookies, a lovely recipe, to cheer up, sweeten up and comfort, yum.

Raspberry Oatmeal Swirls
I make these for breakfast for us a few times each year. They are really lovely. Little one likes to mix all the layers together to make a pale pink glassful. They are almost like eating a pudding for breakfast, but my sweet tooth and I are very happy with this!

Sweet & Simple Bakes October 2009 St Clement’s Drizzle Cake

2009-10-01T11:50:00.000-07:00

When I checked to see this months bake I was pleased to see the St Clement’s Drizzle cake – one I have made so many times since I found the recipe earlier in the year. It is just so good. Buttery, fruity with the lemon and orange, and so moist and delicious.
It’s (food writer Jo Pratt’s) a spin on the more usual lemon drizzle cake, made with just lemon juice and zest. St Clement’s is a mixture of orange and lemon, there is a drink of the same name here in the UK.
It’s an easy cake, just creaming , zesting and mixing. I use my stand mixer as it takes about a tenth of the time it would take me to cream butter really well; but if I didn’t have the machinery I’d do it by hand held mixer or by hand. It’d be such a shame to miss out on this great cake. Then for the sweet and crunchy topping a little reduction of orange and lemon juice mixed with sugar to drizzle over the top. The hardenst bit about this cake is waiting for it to cool!
It’s my turn to be a hostess for a group I’m a member of later this year – and this is one of the sweet things I’m making. Do give it a go, you’ll find the recipe here.

Many thanks as usual to Maria and Rosie for hosting and choosing this lovely cake. Visit the Sweet & Simple site to see more drizzle cakes from the 2nd of October.

Sweet & Simple Bakes September 2009 – Jammy Doughnut Muffins

2009-09-01T11:24:00.001-07:00

August has been pretty frantic the whole month, apologies for the lack of posting, there are a few new book posts I’m cooking towards, but have just not had the time to write them up and blog them yet. I did manage the Sweet and Simple Bakes bake for this month though,

My write up is short and sweet this month. Jammy Doughnut Muffins. - jammy, cake-y sweet little muffins with sugared tops. My jam sunk to the bottom third of the cooked cakes, perhaps I was a bit generous with the jam! Many thanks to Rosie and Maria for hosting. If you fancy giving them a go you’ll find the recipe here.

Sweet & Simple Bakes August 2009 - Carrot Cake

2009-08-01T01:42:00.000-07:00

I’ve been an exceptionally errant member of Sweet & Simple Bakes, and I do apologise for that. I have managed to do this months bake though – hurray! It’s a sweet carrot loaf cake with a simple but scrumptious cream cheese icing.

Big cake, little cake

The recipe makes for an incredibly moist carrot cake. The icing is simply gorgeous! A lovely carrot cake to add to your repertoire.

My little helper was very keen to help, so a certain amount of stirring and beating of eggs was allowed. This was followed up by the appearance of one of her own baking tins, a small metal heart tin. I said we’d see how much mixture there was, and there was enough to fill up her little tin too. It baked with the big cake, but came it out of the oven much sooner. She was very pleased with her little heart carrot cake, and decorated it herself with pride. =) I was thrilled for her! Here is the link for the Sweet & Simple Bakes recipe with many thanks to Rosie and Maria for all their hard work =)

15 Minute Magic - Chocolate Amaretti Torte

2009-07-20T09:33:00.000-07:00

Moist gorgeous cake, deep chocolate glaze, almond cream and a sprinkling of Amaretti crumbs
Well, it’s been a funny sort of Summer. First before the schools broke up we had long spells of sunshine, and really, it was so horribly hot I was longing for a day trip to the North Pole, just to cool down a bit. This last weekend it’s tipped it down with rain like it was never going to stop, and it was actually cold with it. We British are rarely happy with the weather, and we do like a good moan about it. Particularly in Scoltand where 3 or 4 seasons of weather in one day is not unusual.

It’s made cooking a bit on the tricky side, who want’s light summery food when you are trying to keep the cold out of your bones, then you plan something comforting and it’s hot again. I’ve recently been re-reading Baking From My Home To Yours by Dorie Greenspan, and it’s lost none of it charm, just reading it can comfort. Dorie’s writing really appeals to me, because she is a very nice lady who loves to cook for her family and friends.

I’ve become and avid reader of Dorie Greenspan’s website and also David Lebovitz’s website and would recommend them both heartily. I do hope they don’t think I’m a weird internet girl who’s been at the whisky, I’m not; well I don’t think I am anyhow. My problem is I have lots of friends who like to eat, but no real foodies and it is so good to talk about food with other like minded food people - as well as cook it!

Anyhow, where I’m going with this is we had friends round at the weekend when it was wet and cold, and I cooked a roast chicken with Summery roast veg and gravy. For dessert I did the thing I almost never do. I cooked a pudding that I’ve not made before for the day. It was a Dorie recipe, but still that’s a risk I don’t usually feel happy taking, but for whatever reason I did it this time. It worked out a dream! I did 15 minute magic: Chocolate Amaretti Torte. I’ve made a couple of other ones before, one of Giada De Laurentiis’s and one of Rachel Allen’s, both of which were lovely. Dorie’s one is a flourless (if your Amaretti are flour free) and rich with almonds and chocolate. To top it off there is a chocolate glaze, followed by a gorgeous almond cream and a final flourish of Amaretti crumbs. A restaurant worthy dessert. In fact getting something this good when eating out is pretty unlikely. I’m giving it a post all to itself, because really it is so good, it deserves it!

You’ll find the recipe in Baking From My Home To Yours by Dorie Greenspan. If you do a search for it is ‘out there’ on the internet, as it was covered by the wonderful group Tuesday’s With Dorie, I’m not linking as I don’t know any of the bloggers who posted the recipe, but do search away!

More Entertaining

2009-07-13T08:30:00.001-07:00

A glorious treat, Pistachio and Raspberry Macaroons

Here is the next batch of pictures I’ve cooked from In The Mood For Entertaining by Jo Pratt. I’m still enjoying this book a lot, and still have so many want-to-make recipes. The layout and presentation of the book is really lovely, quite calming after a trying day. Here goes, hope you enjoy.

11.Raspberry and Pistachio Macaroons
These are amazing! Little macaroons (think macarons if in the US) filled with a high quality jam and a little cream. I’ve made macaroons before, but they have been coconut filled confections. I’ve always fancied trying this type, and certainly like to eat them, but having read the trials and tribulations of many a online blogger, I became a bit scared of them. I’m glad I gave them a go though, as these were really easy and very delicious. Easily on of my very favourite recipes. There are also hazelnut macaroons in the book filled with Nutella – their time is coming. Recipe link at the foot of this post.

12.Limoncello Jellies
From the Girls’ Night In chapter. Very pretty little jellies, I thought they were too sour, although I do have an extremely sweet tooth. Hubby who doesn’t have my tooth found them sour too, maybe it was the brand of Limoncello, next time I’ll taste as I go along and add a good bit more sugar.

13.Chorizo and Manchego Tart
This was easy and very yummy, I did have the intention of making individual tarts, as in the picture in the book, but on the night I made them time was so short I just did one big one. I served them with their perfect match:

14.Broad Bean and Pepper Salad
Now this salad should have had marinated anchovies in it, but I can’t go anchovies if I can see them, so just added more peppers. Fabulous Summer salad.

15.Blackberry and Lemon Curd Fool
I managed to get some local blackberries, and made them into this fool. Top rate fool, with sweetness, fruity-ness and zing from the lemon curd. There is a bit of cassis in there too, just to up the berry flavour, which is does admirably. These pink puddings should have been garnished with fresh berries, which I duly kept aside from pureeing, then we ate them the next day when I realised I’d forgotten about them, oops sorry about that…

16. Fruity Flapjacks
I made these with Missy for Daddy for Father’s Day. Easy to make and very fruity indeed. Just the thing to make with a little one: as long as you do the chopping and hot bits. Did Daddy like them? He did indeed =)

17. Pasta with Pesto, Saffron, Feta and Beetroot Topping
We had this one Friday night. Good pasta, I couldn’t go the Feta warmed through (which is odd as I love feta cold). The beetroot topping was knockout, a really inspired touch by Jo. I’m making this one again for us, still with the Feta for Hubby, I’ll probably go for a milky Buffalo Mozarella for mine.

18.Marinated Steak with 19. Asian Coleslaw and 20. Chilli Chips
The beef part of this should be Chateaubriand, I used steak as had some to use from the freezer. The chilli chips were lovely as was in Asian coleslaw, a peanut butter, rice vinegar and Fish Sauce spiked slaw – which I’ve made a few times now.

21. Passion Fruit and Lime Cheesecakes with Coconut Crumbs
These individual puddings were the recommended finale to the steak dinner above. They were really very good indeed, just the right balance of rich cream, cream cheese, sugar, tangy passion fruit and lime. The coconut crumbs were just that, not set like a cheesecake base, and easily contained by the glass ramekin.
For the link to the Pistachio and Raspberry Macaroons click here.

The Sweet Life In Paris

2009-07-08T01:10:00.001-07:00

The Sweet Life In Paris by David Lebovitz. This is another book that I pre-ordered months before publication. A new David book – how could I not?! It’s not a recipe book like his others. That isn’t to say there aren’t recipes in there, but it’s more a look at Parisians, Paris and the life of an American pastry chef in Paris, and how he has survived the good the bad and the unusual – with recipes included. Any readers of David’s fantastic blog will know he is capable of extremely witty writing and, it goes without saying (but I’ll say it anyway) fabulous recipes.
The reason this one hasn’t appeared on here before is that I was attempting to keep it for a trip we have planned, and it’s the perfect holiday book for (1) a foodie (2) a lover of Paris or (3) fan of David’s recipes / writing. Any one would be a good enough reason to buy it, I’m all three, so there was no question about it. I love Paris, it is one my favourite cities to visit, and being a thinker I have often wondered what it’s like for the resident non-Parisien, living there but not on holiday. What are the apartments like, the food, the codes of conduct? I would have certainly realised it would be different, but how different? You’ll have to read it for yourself to see. I hope I don’t frustrate you here dear reader, but I don’t want to spoil the read for anyone, just give an insight.
So after a day of making Ice Creams from his last book The Perfect Scoop I picked up the Sweet Life In Paris on my way top bed one night and started reading long into the night. Just before I put it down I flipped through to the recipe index at the back….chicken tagine with apricots and almonds…fig-olive tapenade….dulce de leche brownies. DULCE DE LECHE BROWNIES if ever a recipe title lured me in that was it, and the next day I made them. None of the brownie chocolate character was lost, but neither was the dulce de leche a perfect treat of a brownie.
Now I thought I was through with trying new brownie recipes, really I did, I thought I had all occassions covered on the brownie front. A Martha Stewart one for everyday, a Maida Heatter one for a tropical hit, two of Dorie Greenspan’s: minty ones for my minty obsession and French ones for dinner parties. Well, these new one’s have a place too either as a with tea/ coffee on their own or with a little cream and strawberries for dessert. Real Wows either way.
Here is the link for the recipe from David’s website.

In The Mood For Entertaining

2009-06-09T03:15:00.000-07:00

1.Spanish Nuts - just the thing fo a glass of sherry!
2. Raspberry and Elderflower Creams

3. Maple Glazed Gammon with warm Pineapple Salse and Crispy Potatoes

4. St Clements Drizzle Cake, a wow cake!

Well my latest cook book obsession arrived ten days ago, and I absolutely love it! The new one is In The Mood For Entertaining by Jo Pratt, a follow up to her In The Mood For Food in 2007. I liked her first book a lot – so pink and girly and fabulous recipes, but I like this new one even more! The recipes, layout, text, photography and the pretty hand drawings of foodie bits and pieces make for a stunning book. It’s divided into four chapters for when you might be in the mood for entertaining, I think I’ve marked more than half the book! Her recipes look so good (and the ones I’ve cooked taste lovely too), they are really do-able and as an added bonus, usually they are reasonably healthy too, result on all fronts.

5& 6. Pork Stroganoff with Red Pepper Rice

7. Pecan and Pear Tarts
I’ve decided to do another blog cooking project from this one, as I feel it’ll be the book of the moment for some time to come. I’ll number the recipes, just to keep track of what I’ve done. There will be othr books, as always. Hope you enjoy the posts.

8. Blue Cheese Macaroni Gratin

9. Chocolate Crunch Bites
Here is the recipe for her paella at UKTV Food, which is served cold in cupcake cakes in the book, I served it hot one night and then cold for lunch the next day, both were lovely.

10. Paella

Cookie Magic!

2009-06-03T11:24:00.000-07:00

Jammy Splodgers

There have been so many good new cookbooks coming out lately, I’m trying hard to work my way through my to-read pile. Don’t get me wrong, I love cookbooks (no surprise there then…), but of late my pile is so high and I just can’t seem to get to the bottom of it. Please tell me it’s not just me!

Mildon Flapjacks

Anyhow a few weeks ago after some internet bookshop surfing I came across and bought Cookie Magic by Kate Shirazi, a follow up to her Cupcake Magic. It’s a lovely little book, with a donation going to the Battery Hen Welfare Trust, and I do think that if I can donate to them by buying the book and have a gorgeous cookie book it’s got to be a good thing. Don’t let its size fool you, it’s a treasure trove to be sure. I have a number of cookie cookbooks, and this one falls into the use-me type. I would absolutely have bought this for the children chapter alone. It contains a number of home-made versions of bought biscuits such as jammy spoldgers and party rings the pictures just look so fabulous! Though if you don’t have little ones to feed there is a lot more in there for adults and children alike. My only irk with this book is the recipes all say "makes one batch" maybe it’s just me but I like to know a rough guide of how many delectable cookies I am likely to end up with. That aside it’s a prefect little cookie book.

Oo-oo Biscuits

Anyhow, normally I make chocolate biscuits first from cookie books, but I gave up cooking with chocolate during lent, so had to look at other first-bakes, and what a first bake they were. The Jammy Splodgers were delicious, and very pretty indeed. I followed this up with Mildon Flapjacks, which I’ve baked again since, we have a flapjack monster in our house (you know who you are sweetie!) and these had just the right crispy edges and slightly chewy insides. Then there was Oo-oo Biscuits, cinnamon, pecan swirls, crisp and yummy, then once lent had ended Chocolate Orange Biscuits a la Terry, these when they have been just baked, and let cook a little (say half an hour), but still squidgy inside were a chocoholics delight. When they are cold they are hard-ish cookies, still good but good in a different way.

Chocolate Orange Biscuits a la Terry

Next I have my sights set on cheddar and thyme savoury cookies and white chocolate and cardamon cookies, watch this space!

Chocolate Orange Biscuits a la Terry
From Cookie Magic by Kate Shirazi published by Pavillion in 2009
Makes 1 batch

125g butter, softened
200g caster sugar
1 free range egg
finely grated zest 1 large orange
225g plain flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
3 table spoons cocoa powder
175g Terry’s Chocolate Orange, in gravel sized chunks

Preheat the oven to 190/375/gas mark 5 and line 2 baking sheets with silicone liners
Cream the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. Add egg and orange zest and beat well. Sift over the flour, baking powder and cocoa and mix well. Lastly mix in the chocolate orange chunks. Form into balls and bake for about 15 minutes.

My note: my balls were like large walnuts in size.

Rita's Scottish Tablet

2009-04-09T11:21:00.000-07:00

I score the tablet and then break of the squares to give a smooth top half and natural bottom half to the pieces

When I was little I have fond memories of my Mum making tablet. Ooooh scraping the pan when the tray was setting! Now for anyone who has not heard of tablet, it has nothing to do with anything a chemist might sell or dispense. It’s a sort of hard-ish fudge, totally addictive. I have heard and seen it sold at cake stalls as Swiss Milk Tablet as well just tablet, I can only think this is due to the condensed milk in the recipe.

Newly on to boil
Now I started making tablet, fudge, toffee, boiling sweets and all manner of confectionery about 22 years ago. My maternal Grandfather made tablet for my Mum, she in turn made it for me, and now I make it for my family. It is something much like bread making – you get a feel for doing it, and learn to know what it should look like, at its various stages. The end result should be solid, but not rock hard, sugar-y but absolutely not gritty and a good fudge colour.

Half way through, getting darker
Last weekend one of my cyber cooking friends Sal, tried another friend Rita’s recipe for tablet. I had not made it for a few years, and it only took one look at Sal’s pictures to instil in me the burning desire to make tablet again, an hour later it was made.

Perfect
I tried Rita’s recipe – thank you very much Rita, and it is a first class recipe. The vanilla extract is added at the beginning, and this gives it a fudgy taste with a fully rounded vanilla flavour coming through. This is not good for you teeth, but still I give it to you here highly recommended!

Sweet joy -a trayful!

Rita’s Tablet

2lbs Granulated Sugar.

1 cup (8 fl oz) Milk

2 oz Butter. (Cut in to small chunks)

1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract

1x 397g tin Nestles Condensed Milk

(1)First, grease an 8 inch by 10 inch Swiss Roll tray with butter. Have a glass of cold water waiting in the fridge.
(2)Put all the ingredients (except the condensed milk) in to a heavy based pan (I use my biggest Le Crueset), and melt really slowly until there are no grains of sugar left. Avoid stirring vigorously as you will push grains of sugar up the sides of your pan and end up with a gritty tablet.
(3)Once it has melted, add the tinned condensed milk, and take to a rolling boil. Boil for around 20 minutes, being very careful not to burn and / or boil over. Test a drop of the mixture in a glass of cold water. It should ball, not dissolve. If it dissolves, boil another few (3 to 5) minutes and test again. Once the soft ball stage has been achieved, take it off the heat.
(4) Now beat the mixture with a wooden spoon until it starts to thicken - you will feel it thicken as you beat. This takes a few minutes. Once thickened, pour in to your prepared tray, than leave to set. Mark it before it is totally set and cold. Will make for easier breaking / cutting later.
My Note: If you have never made this kind of thing before, please be warned that boiling sugar is extremely hot, and can give you a nasty burn. Due care and attention is needed at all stages!

Nigella Express, nearing the end of the road.

2007-11-02T03:47:00.000-07:00

I’ve decided. I’m changing the number of Express Recipes for the project to 40. I’m sure I’ll cook more than that, because I still love the book - but at a leisurely pace, and after the 40 you’ll just see the lookers! A lot of the food I’ve chosen isn’t really what I’d have planned to blog otherwise, and indeed I’ve never blogged everything I cook, but I’d rather blog from different books, after all this is Cooking The Books, not Book! I hope that you won’t think badly of me for reducing the number of recipes, and I hope that I’ve not disappointed anyone. Having bought so many new books with the end of year influx of new books, I want to write about what is current in my kitchen, and I feel a bit limited by my self imposed constraints.

This said I will still continue until I get to 40, then move on to other kitchen adventures, with only the occasional revisit to Nigella Express.

28. Hokey Pokey
My Mum has told me that when she and her Sister where children and their Mum went out leaving Dad in charge he used to make sweets with them. Either Scottish tablet or this hokey pokey, which is also known as cinder toffee or in this locality as puff candy. It’s easy to see why it’s called puff candy, as it’s sugar and golden syrup boiled to a caramel then some bicarbonate of soda is added and it puffs up and causes air holes in the candy. You might be more familiar with what I mean if you think of our Crunchie Bar or Violet Crumbles in Australia.
I’ve come across hokey pokey before when we were in New Zealand, I remember a hokey pokey ice cream, which was a vanilla ice cream with very small pieces of honeycomb folded through it, mmm.
So I made this for my Mum and she was happy with it, it brought back totally different good memories for her and me too =)

29. Calamari
I have always loved calamari in batter with a garlic mayo or lemon mayo dip. When we are in Paris we have it for a main course in a little bistro opposite the hotel we stay in. I know it’s not very healthy, but every once in a blue moon it’s a treat. The flour and semolina that the squid rings are coated in has Old Bay seasoning added in, and it adds a savoury edge, though not a specific spice taste. I guess I should own up that I have only deep fried anything at home in my entire life maybe four times, so I’m no expert at deep frying! Still this was easy and pretty speedy too, even considering I had to sort out my own squid, as bought sliced is not available where I live.
We liked this, I think it could have been crispier, but that is, I’m sure, down to my lack of confidence deep frying. After I’d sliced the squid the hand that had been in contact with it became a bit sore, puffy and red. Ten minutes after we had finished supper I had a migrane headache. I must have some sensitivity to my beloved calamari, and I would never have thought that it could cause a migrane! It’s not fair (wail)!

30. Jumbleberry Crumble
This meant to be an on hand in the freezer pudding that just needs a few minutes assembling before being baked in the oven. I did use the suggested mixed frozen berries, but I just put the made up crumble in the fridge overnight, so it was very cold, but not frozen. Nigella made this on the TV programme to go with the book, but instead of the individual portions as in the recipe she doubled the topping mixture and altered the base quantities a bit. I made it as one big pudding, as crumble is Hubby's favourite pudding and a single helping might have seemed a bit ungenerous! I’ve given the quantities I used below, I think they are right to what Nigella made except that I added in a little more sugar to the berries, as I’ve found the boxed frozen berries to be green-rhubarb-sour in the past.
It was a lovely crumble, like the Blackberry Crisp previously covered in this project the fruit part had a wonderful colour, and I couldn’t help smile at the name ‘Jumbleberry’. I might just have to keep a box of berries in the freezer so that I have a fast pudding at the ready!

31. Banana and Butterscotch Muffins
These are a quick muffin recipe that Nigella came up with to use up the never-ending supply of over ripe bananas in her house. They are quick to mix up, as most muffin recipes are, and ostensibly a banana muffin but made something different with the addition of some butterscotch chips. Also good with white and dark chocolate chips the recipe says… They were good plain muffins, the only alteration to the recipe I made was to hold back some of the butterscotch chips and sprinkle on the top before baking in the oven. At their best very fresh.

Hokey Pokey
From Nigella Express by Nigella Lawson courtesy of here .
I was going to say that this isn't as fun as it sounds, but then I reconsidered. Hokey pokey is the Cornish term for honeycomb, and is wonderful eaten in golden shards or crumbled into the best vanilla ice cream. I include it here as it is the perfect present to take to a dinner party. Better than flowers, as they need to be put into a vase, better than chocolate, which people tend to smile politely at, but put away in a drawer. I've found no one can resist a bit of hokey pokey. The quantities I've specified don't make an awful lot - enough to fill a little tin 12 cm diameter and 6 cm deep / 4 and a half inches diameter and 2 and a half inches deep -but any more and you'd be sued by your dentist.

1/2 cup sugar

4 tablespoons dark corn syrup

1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

Put the sugar and syrup into a saucepan and stir together to mix. You can't stir once the pan's on the heat, though.
Place the pan on the heat and let the mixture first melt and then turn to goo and then a bubbling mass the color of maple syrup - this will take 3 minutes or so.
Off the heat, whisk in the baking soda and watch the syrup turn into a whooshing cloud of aerated pale gold. Turn this immediately onto a piece of baking parchment or greased foil.
Leave until set and then bash at it, so that it splinters into many glinting pieces.

Baked Blueberry Cheesecake

2009-04-01T08:24:00.000-07:00

Here is another lovely cheesecake to mark my second Blogiversarry, it's a month overdue, but we won't dwell on that bit =) This time with a fruity theme, from Rachel Allen’s Bake. It’s a creamy, fruity little number and very pretty too. You have to use first class blueberries here as the flavour really comes through. I seem to be having a cheesecake time just now!

Here is a link for the recipe.

I’m actively linking recipes at the moment, as I’m not sure where I’d stand with copyright posting unaltered recipes from books on my blog, even when I do credit them. Since it has come to my attention I’m not too keen to do it. Having said that I’m planning to contact some publishers to see if I can get permission to post recipes from some of the books I’ve been cooking recently. Watch this space.

Orkney Fudge Cheesecake

2009-02-22T02:07:00.000-08:00

Orkney Fudge Cheesecake

Sue Lawrence has long been one of my favourite food writers, she is a woman of great taste when it comes to good food. This recipe comes from her A Cooks Tour of Scotland cookbook, a book close to my heart, and one that I’ve found very interesting to read, a sort of short history of parts of eating in Scotland.

In 2006 when this book came out, it was clear to me that no diet or healthy eating regime was going to stop me trying this cheesecake. Sue says she would crawl oven broken glass for a slice, and that is definitely good enough recommendation for me! I’ve made it several times since 2006, once or twice a year, although not too often considering it’s calories and my Hubby’s penchant for it! I make it the day before to get the molten fudge bits. If you can’t lay your hands on Orkney fudge I’m sure any full flavoured fudge would be lovely. I do hope to get to Orkney one of these days, but in the meantime I’ll make their gorgeous, toffee, creamy, local speciality cheesecake.

You’ll find the recipe here at UKTV Food.

When It’s Snowing Outside

2009-02-07T07:39:00.001-08:00

Panforte
Well, I am a Nigella fan, and although I (obviously) have many other cookery writers that I much admire and enjoy their recipes, it is first and foremost Nigella books that it feels comfortable to come back to read and cook from. Although I’m so looking forward to new ones from Bill Granger’s Feed Me Now and David Lebowitz’s Paris book and Martha Stewart’s Cupcakes in April, May and June respectively.
I’m far from done with Nigella Christmas, so much of it is just perfectly suited to the Winter and colder Spring months that it wouldn’t feel right to confine it to the bookshelf just because it’s not December anymore. So here are a few more bits and pieces that I’ve cooked recently from Nigella Christmas by Nigella Lawson.

Chocolate Pudding for Christmas Pudding Haters with Hot Chocolate Sauce
A deeply comforting pudding with lots of good chocolate sauce. I made this as our pudding on Christmas Eve.

Chargrilled Peppers with Pomegranate
Fast to put together, especailly if you get your peppers from a jar or deli counter. I liked this one a lot, and it’s colours are gorgeously Bollywood and pretty. I think this would be a lovely buffet salad or even BBQ if you can get the pomagranate seeds then.

Triple Cheese and Onion Strata
A baked savoury sort of bread pudding. I think I put in too much baguette as mine was a bit dry I thought. I’ll need to play about with it; it was still all eaten though!

Spruced Up Vanilla Cake
I think of this one as fir tree cake, for obvious reasons. It was very cold and snowy last weekend when I made this, and it’s shape and the icing sugar snow was just beautiful. A sort of dense, but light cake with the strong aroma and taste of vanilla.

Rhubarb and Strawberry Compote
This is an unusual recipe, but very worth trying. It’s basically forced rhubarb simmered in strawberry jam. It works so well, there is still a faint tartness from the fruit, but the jam offsets it beautifully. It makes a lot of compote, so I used the rest for a rhubarb fool, which was so good. I make a fool of rhubarb that has fresh strawberries sliced into it in the Summertime, if you think the two together are a bit odd; give it a go – match made in Heaven.

Rhubarb and Strawberry Fool

Choc Chip Chilli & Loaded Potato Skins
This is a good chilli. I halved the recipe, but it would be good for a party, the chunks of beef and chorizo makes a bit more of it. It’s spicy enough, but not too much for a chilli shy girl like me! It went really really well with the loaded potato skins suggested, I didn’t bother with the bacon, I have made them with the bacon, but I prefer them without. Great supper anyhow =)

Chocolate Convered Clementines as used in

Panforte
I’ve had it in mind to make my own panforte for a number of years now. Really since I saw one of the River Café ladies making it on TV. I have that book, but haven’t gotten around to trying their one yet, but I hope to eventually. You know the problem, so many recipes and not enough time / energy. Anyhow Nigella’s is wonderful, many of the bought ones I’ve tried would nearly break your teeth, but not this one – fortunately! It’s chewy, nutty, fruity a little chocolatey and a lot spicy. I put in a very small pinch of white pepper as I was a little scared to use more. I also used some pistachios, as didn't have quite enough of one of the other nuts - I forget which one now. It would be beautiful at Christmas time on a platter, I’m not sure why it looks so good, but it does!

I made the Christmas Spiced Chocolate cake this morning, looking forward to dinner tonight =) More about that next time.

Bake

2009-01-08T08:51:00.001-08:00

Regulars to my blog will know that I’m a Rachel Allen fan. In the Autumn of last year a new book by Irish cook Rachel came out titled simply Bake. I’ve been cooking from it since it plopped onto my doormat, and here is a bumper post of baking from Bake to make your tastebuds happy, well if you are sweet toothed that is! Bake was one of the books (along with Nigella Chrsitmas) that I gave as Christmas presents this year, and they both seem to have been well received.

Poppy Seed Cake
This was a cake I made for my birthday last year, and I was so looking forward to it. It was really moist and the icing was lovely, but apparently neither my family or myself are very keen on poppy seeds! The birds thought they had a very tasty treat though.

Peanut Butter and White Chocolate Blondies
This was the first recipe I made from bake, lovely bars.

St Stephen’s Day Muffins
A recipe to be made on Boxing Day, which I did, made with some leftover Christmas Pudding. These were surprisingly good, a dash of whisky making them feel quite treat like, they kept well too.

Chocolate Lave Cakes
I made these for a Hogamny (New Years Eve) dinner. The molten bit in the middle was gorgeous, and they turned out fine. I’m going to add a bit more sugar next time as they were not sweet enough for us.
Coconut Roulade with Lemon Curd Cream and Raspberries
Absolutley stunningly good dessert. There are a couple of variations on this recipe – coffee and cherry-rosewater that I’m keen to try as well.

Quiche Lorraine
I’ve made a number of quiche Lorraine’s and had settled on Tamasin Day-Lewis’s one. I’m not really sure why I tried this one, but I did and it now reigns supreme in the quiche Lorraine stakes – the best!

Date Bread and Butter Pudding with Boozy Toffee Sauce
Different and good. A warning though the boozy toffee sauce packs a real punch and isn’t at all suitable for kiddie winks! She also has a white chocolate and apple bread and butter pudding that I’d like to try this Winter.

Oven Pasta Bake
This is a pasta bake where the pasta is actually cooked in the oven. A deeply savoury supper. My friend has also made this and gives it the thumbs up.

Lemon Cupcakes
A sweet little cupcake, these were good, but my favourite remains Nigella’s ones from Forever Summer.

Baked Rice Pudding
This was just exactly the nursery pudding that you’d want it to be, rich (though not really as no cream) and so comforting, actually I’ve wanted to make this again almost constantly since I made it in early December!

Dutch Apple Cake
A really fabulous Apple cake! It’s not a looker per se, but a must make recipe! I used Pink Lady apples, as cooking apples give me an awfully sore tummy. I’m sure any apple would be lovely.

Dutch Apple Cake
From Bake by Rachel Allen 2008
2 eggs
175g caster sugar
½ teaspoon vanilla essence
75g butter
75ml milk
125g plain flour
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
2¼ teaspoons baking powder
Two small or one medium cooking apple
75ml cream, to serve
15g caster sugar, for sprinkling
(1)Preheat the oven to 200ºC, Gas Mark 6. Grease, and line with parchment paper, an 8"x 8" square tin.
(2)Whisk the eggs with the 175g caster sugar until the mixture is thick and mousse-like and the whisk leaves a figure '8'.
(3)Melt the butter with the milk and pour onto the eggs, whisking all the time. Sieve in the flour and baking powder and fold carefully into the batter so that there are no lumps of flour. Pour the mixture into the prepared tin.
(4)Peel and core the apples and slice into thin slices. Arrange them over the batter. Sprinkle with the remaining 15g of sugar. Bake in the preheated oven for 10 minutes, then reduce the heat to 180ºC, Gas Mark 4, for a further 20 to 25 minutes, or until well risen and golden brown.
Cool in the tin and serve warm.

Happy New Year 2009

2009-01-01T09:39:00.000-08:00

A flower of hope for New Year

Well the day has dawned, with new hopes and fears along with it. We had a New Years Day dinner at lunch time, the only time of year we go to the extravagance of rib of beef with James Martin's truly unbeatable Yorkshire puddings, gravy, Nigella's roast potatoes, stuffing and vegetables. It's a fabulous feast, all the more special because it's a once-a-year occasion. Of course we couldn't have a celebration meal without a pudding now could we?! No so this year, although my main course is the same year in year out, the pudding can change. I chose a pavlova this year, Rachel Allen's pavlova with mango and crystalized ginger which I added some pomegranate seeds to. The recipe is from Rachel's Food For Living, and it's not like any pav recipe I've tried before, basically it's a measure and beat job, all in one. The recipe in the book is a dry in the oven for a few hours thing, but I have a fan oven(which doesn't allow for a slow cool down in the oven), and fortunately Rachel says how to cook it in one! It works and it's really lovely. My changes to the recipe are adding pomegranate seeds, Greek yoghurt and brown sugar to the cream.

All that remains for me is to say Happy New Year friends and readers, I hope it's a good one for you all.

With the ginger scattered over
Pavlova with Mango and Crystalised Ginger
Adapted slightly from Rachel's Food For Living by Rachel Allen
Pavlova:
3 egg whites
350g caster sugar
60ml hot water
1 teaspoon white wine vinegar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon cornflour
Topping:
10fl oz double cream
2 tablespoons light soft brown sugar
10fl oz Greek yoghurt
2 mangoes, peeled and sliced
some pomegranate seeds
few pieces crystalized ginger chopped
(1)Line a baking sheet with baking parchment. Preheat oven to 140oC. (This is for a fan oven).
(2)Place all the pavlova ingredients in a mixer bowl and beat with the whisk attachment for 4-5 minutes until really thick and glossy.
(3)Pile the mixture onto the lined baking sheet and make into a disc about 12 inches in diameter by 1 ½ inches thick. Bake for 1 ¼ to 1 ½ hours.
(4)When the pavlova is completely cold carefully peel off the lining paper and beat the cream with the sugar until in soft peaks, fold in the yoghurt. Fill the pavlova with this mixture then decorate with the fruit, scatter

Merry Christmas 2008

2008-12-21T06:41:00.000-08:00

Wasn't Nigella great in her new Christmas Kitchen programmes last week? Well, I thought she was. Jamie (oh the gravy!) and the Hairy Bikers (oh the florentines!) were great too. I also very much enjoyed Rachel Allen's Christmas Bake - two Christmas specials.

I have been asked by a number of readers what I cook of Nigella's on Christmas Day. Well, I do her maple roast parsnips, brussel sprouts with marsala and chestnuts, sausages in bacon and her Mother's bread sauce (Feast and Nigella Christmas). Also her brandy butter with the ground almonds in it, and this year the Ultimate Christmas Pudding from Nigella Christmas as well. On Christmas Eve I plan to do the Steamed Chocolate Pudding with chocolate sauce from the Christmas Day part in the middle of Nigella Chrsitmas.

I do also cook turkey, cranberry sauce, roast potatoes and other vegetables and stuffing, but from my notebook.

Well it's nearly upon us once more and whatever you all cook readers I hope all goes well in and out of the kitchen, and that you have a Happy, Peaceful Christmas time.

KJxx

It’s Beginning to Feel a Lot Like Christmas

2008-12-14T02:38:00.000-08:00

It’s so busy just now, my schedule is jam packed. It feels like there is no breathing space. Mind you schedule is maybe a bit overstated, I’m running round like a wild thing trying so hard to pack in more than I’ve really got time for! Festive moan over, I hope you all understand =)
Here is a brief post on some of my latest cooking from Nigella Christmas by Nigella Lawson.

Cranberry mincemeat
This is a mincemeat without suet, the first of it’s type I’ve tried, and the smell in the kitchen, no the whole house when cooking it it so christmassy. It tastes lovely too – not to mention the amazing colour. I’ve stashed mine to make mince pies next week.

Ultimate Christmas Pudding
This is the pudding in the making, will post about it after Christmas Day. Nigella describes it a light, and there are no nuts in it, so I think it will be.

Christmas Coleslaw
Nigella suggests this to go with a chilli, and I will try the chilli, but the coleslaw fitted in better with my time at the moment. My goodness was it good! I made a big bowl and hubby and I ate the lot! It was quite compulsive!

Gleaming Maple Cheesecake
A lovely cheesecake, you must douse liberally with maple syrup to eat, mmmm.

Loaded Skins
This one I’ve made loads of times since I got Nigella Christmas. I used to do stuffed baked potatoes all the time, and I stopped and then forgot about them. What a rediscovery! I like them best without the bacon, but if you would like the whole schbang go for the crispy rashers too.

Christmas Nuts
I have long been a fan of the bar nuts in Nigella Bites, these are a very worthy Christmas rendition, really really good! I’ve tried them on (obviously people without any nut allergies!) youngsters, oldsters and lots in between – everyone likes them!

My pretty Reindeer bowl
If you like Gisela Graham crockery, the platter used by Nigella on the front of Nigella Christmas and also the cake stand that she uses for her fir tree cake can be found at Sally’s Saucepans, I bought mine a little while ago, and there are more like me as at the time of writing they are out of stock, but if you want then do keep checking for more stock. Really reasonably priced too. I bought a number of Gisela Graham Christmas decorations this year to give as presents from Sally's Saucepans, and they are really fabulous!

More Nigella

2008-11-29T06:07:00.001-08:00

Here is the next instalment of my cooking from Nigella Christmas by Nigella Lawson. Now that Christmas is much nearner, indeed December is nearly here, reading Nigella Christmas is such a joy, not just for the recipes either, the pictures too, of both food and serving / kitchen bits and pieces. I’ve bought a few new bits of Christmas crockery recently, and will cover them all between now and Christmas, here are the first couple though.

Nigella’s Christmas mixing bowls in melamine. I wasn’t sure about the melamine reading about it online, but it’s actually every bit as good as it’s pottery counterparts. I imagined the melamine would be light, but it’s not, it’s substantial and also has a rubber (?) bit on the base to make them non-slip on a kitchen worktop. They are great in the different colours in each set as well.

Next is a Maxwell Williams round platter, a local kitchen shop to me had these on sale for half price, so it was only £8.oo – bargain I thought!

De Luxe Macaroni

Food wise I’ve made a hodge-pode assortment of recipes! Starting off with De Luxe Macaroni, I made a bit of a booboo with this one, because I halved the recipe, but left the cheddar at the full amount. I obviously didn’t plan this but we loved how cheesy it was with the (in effect) extra cheese and will leave it as such next time. If you are worried about the evaporated milk in the recipe don’t be, my hubby doesn’t like evap milk, but he had thirds!

Hot Scnocolate

Hot scnocolate next, very yummy and I made this on a day last weekend when we had snow, and it was delicious, the peppermint schnapps was pretty subtle in the drink, not very boozy tasting, but nicely minty.

Tiramisu Layer Cake next, a real party piece, creamy, chocolate-y and a bit of coffee, but it wasn’t overpowering - a good balance we thought. Next time I’ll decorate it with the chocolate coffee beans on top.

Apple and Onion Gravy

I did roast pork last weekend, and tried ont Nigella’s apple and onion gravy to go with it, she describes it as a mixture between sauce and gravy, very good it was too. I reheated the leftover sauce to go with some butchers sausages – fabulous!

Pecan Sprouts, I make Christmas Sprouts from Feast as my regular Christmas Day ones, and I love them so much. The pecan sprouts were lovely too, although I did decrease the butter a bit!

Gingerbread, here spread with some butter, I’ve made this one before as Christmas gingerbread cupcakes, and it’s as good as ever.

This morning I made the cranberry mincemeat (more on this next time) - our house smells so devine and Christmassy. Now time for some present wrapping…