In the Mood for Entertaining, still cooking

Maple, pecan and sultana swirls, ready for the oven
I’ve continued cooking from Jo Pratt’s In the Mood for Entertaining, and still loving this book. Doing more of the cold weather food now. I think mostly everything I’ve made from this book has been good, and lots more planned. If you are new to my blog do go to the books title in the ‘Books Cooked from so Far’ column on the right hand side and see other things I’ve cooked from this book.

Chocolate and Hazelnut Macaroons
I’ve developed a real passion for macaroons, they are just so delicious. These were hazelnut ones sandwished together with a little Nutella. Lovely.

Sweet Potato Hash Browns with Sausage and Tomatoes
This is more cooking than I can cope with of a morning, so we had this for supper one night instead.
Harissa Salmon with Minted Bulgar Wheat Salad
This was really good, not sure which bit was best, the salmon or the bulgar wheat. Either way they were fabulous together.

Chocolate Cookies
If you are anything like me you’ve probably tried a lot of chocolate cookies (and cakes too, but that’s another story) looking for the ‘perfect’ one. These cooled a bit but still warm and gooey from the oven are really perfect. Easy too!

Pork, Stilton and Port Pie with Root Vegetable and Mustard Mash
I made this for the gorgeous Hubby, because as Jo says boys do love their pies. It was a glorious pie, I liked it just as much as Hubby, the root mash complemented it very well, leaving only a little green vegetable to think about for a great meal.

Pimm’s and Strawberry Ripple Creams
I made these loads of times last Summer, we loved them. Very easy to leave the alcohol out of if you like, and for a portion of it I did so, so Missy wouldn’t get any booze! I topped hers with a little grated chocolate so I could tell the difference.

Lazy Tray Baked Chicken
Good Mediterranean inspired chicken bake, peppers, rosemary, garlic. Also has potatoes and carrots in it with a little honey to sweeten it up at the end. Yum.

Plum, Apple and Almond Crumble with Amaretto Cream
This one was lovely too. More complex flavour wise than you might expect, orange zest with the fruit, cinnamon in the topping and then the Amaretto cream. I added a bit of sugar to the cream to soften the alcohol, as is my wont.

Creamy Sausage and Mustard Casserole
I really wanted to make this when this book came out last Summer, but this was just to hot for the warm days of that time of year. Just perfect though for when there is snow on the ground and a nip in the air. Very good, so well complemented buy the salad.

Winter Salad Bowl
One of the things I really like about Jo’s food is she gives you treat food, but she usually also incorparates lots of vegetables as well, and this salad is a case in point. Five a day is easy with this sort of salad. It has a little chilli in it, but it’s easy to take out the little peoples portions before adding it.

Maple, pecan and Sultana Swirls
These are very easy indeed, primarily because they use bought puff pastry. You cut the puff pastry sheet into strips, then top with the filling mixture, roll up and bake. Easy as that. They were good hot but I actually liked them best cold, had a real Danish pastry feel to them like that.

Feta, Pea and Mint Tortilla
I didn’t plan to make this one, but happened to have the bits needed so went with it, really yummy, more so that the list of ingredients would suggest.

Granola
We are especially enjoying my take on Jo’s granola just now (recipe below). It’s so fruity, nutty and oaty with a lovely honey taste. This is the first granola I’ve tried without extra added sugar in it – just the honey here, and although I sort of missed it on first tasting, I’ve come to love it for what it is, a gorgeous breakfast, that is actually sweet enough. Our favourite way with it is atop Greek yoghurt, but I tell you it is good even just by the spoonful, both hubby and I might just be addicted to it!

Cranberry, Pistachio and Honey Granola
My spin of Jo Pratt’s recipe from In The Mood For Entertaining

175g runny honey
100g unsalted butter
325g rolled oats
100g flaked almonds
50g pumpkin seeds
50g sunflower seeds
25g desiccated coconut, unsweetened
200g dried cranberries
125g pistachio nuts
(1) Put the oven on and preheat it to 160oC /140oC fan / gas 2-3.
(2) In a big pan melt the honey and butter together, take off the heat.
(3) Add the oats, almonds, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds and coconut. Mix well and spread out on a big (non stick is easiest) baking tray. Cook in the oven for 30 to 40 minutes, stirring up every 10 minutes ( I use a non stick fish slice here) for even browning.
(4) Once cold place in a bowl and add the cranberries and pistachios. Will keep for up to a month in an airtight container.

More Entertaining

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.

In The Mood For Entertaining

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