Double Vanilla Waffles

Double Vanilla Waffles - filled with Maple Syrup

I invested in a new kitchen gadget recently. I’ve worked myself up to getting it for a good while now, but I bought a new item related cookbook which helped me think I would use said gadget, and now it has arrived! My waffle maker. So of course I had to use it right away.

I had a quick look through Waffles From Morning to Midnight by Dorie Greenspan (1995) and made the first dessert recipe that I came to that I had the ingredients for in the house. Double Vanilla waffles, so called because they have vanilla bean and vanilla bean extract added into the batter, there was also some browned butter for an extra flavour dimension. There is a vanilla pear sauce in the book suggested as a topping, which would have made a lovely combination, but with our first waffles from the waffle machine we wanted just maple syrup. Ah, like the frozen toasted waffles I remember when I was a teenager – but 100 times better! They were fresh, light, soft, and deeply flavoured with the browned butter and vanilla.

I haven’t actually managed to read the whole book yet, but I’m sure there will be more waffles here, and I’ll give a list of some more of the recipes from it then. I’ve added the recipe for the waffles here, as this book is out of print.

Double Vanilla Waffles

1 ¾ (14 fl oz) cups Milk
½ large soft vanilla bean
5 tablespoons (2 ½ oz) butter
1 ¾ cups plain flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
pinch salt
1/3 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 Pour the milk into a medium sized saucepan. Split the vanilla bean in half lengthwise and scrape out the black seeds into the milk, add the pod in too. Bring the milk to the boil and leave to infuse covered for at least an hour.

2. Place the butter in a small skillet over a medium heat. Cook until the butter melts and turns golden brown. It will give off a warm, nutty aroma. Take care not to let it burn.

3. Preheat your waffle iron.

4. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt and sugar to blend. Remove the vanilla pod from the milk and whisk in the browned butter, eggs and vanilla extract. Pour the liquid ingredients over the dry and whisk until just combined.

5. Spray or butter your grids of the waffle iron and cook according to the machine’s instructions. Cook in batches until the batter is finished.

Makes about 8 waffles.

Meringue with Strawberries & Chocolate

Meringue with Strawberries & Chocolate

This cake comes from Apples For Jam by Tessa Kiros. I seem to go in cycles of cooking from Tessa’s books (Falling Cloudberries and Twelve a Tuscan Cookbook being her other two). When I first received AJF I cooked about 20 recipes in close succession. Since then I’ve added one here and one there. The three I have cooked over and over are her Hamburgers with the lovely pink sauce, Peppermint Crisp (which is positively addictive!) and her gorgeous Mango Sorbet.

This recipe is a pavlova meringue mixture that has toasted finely chopped nuts and finely crushed biscuits folded into the raw mix before being baked. It didn’t rise as much as I expected it to, but the picture in the book is flat-ish – well compared to the normal pavlova anyway. Melted semisweet chocolate is then poured over the top before being topped with whipped cream and strawberries. It was good. We liked it and a lot of it disappeared very quickly but I’m not sure that it is separate enough from either straight strawberry pavlova or (Nigella’s Forever Summer) chocolate pavlova, which I always make with strawberries anyway. Though perhaps the nuts in the meringue give it its own identity. It was nice though, nutty, chocolate-y, sweet, creamy a bit crunchy and the juicy strawberries on top. It could have a place in the Summer time, when it’s hot and something a little different is required. If you make this, don’t serve it from the fridge (we found this out with the left over bit), the chocolate layer is a bit hard to crack with your spoon! Keith suggested it would be good with passion fruit, and I think he is right, I’ll give that a go.

I really want to make my regular strawberry pavlova again now I have the taste for it. It isn’t quite the season, but hey, why not! I bought Spanish strawberries and there was no hint of sourness to them. I have a bit of a strawberry habit, and often buy the out of season berries, but the year is wearing on and these were good – good enough to set up a craving for more!

Extremely Simple Beef and Ale Casserole with Dumplings & Prawn, Almond and Basmati Salad

I Haven’t Forgotten Jo Pratt! I’m managing to cook from other book as well, bit still this book has something here and there to lure you in. Many of the recipes are just so do-able for weeknight suppers. Here are two totally different dishes.

Extremely Simple Beef and Ale Casserole with Dumplings
From Jo Pratt’s In the Mood for Food. Comfort chapter.

This is unlike any other beef stew that I have made before, because the beef was not sealed first. I was a little sceptical, but I am sure it made no difference. Now this is a big bonus to me because I don’t like the sealing meat smell at all!

It’s basically beef with onions, carrots, celery and seasonings of demerara sugar, tomato puree, Worcestershire sauce and balsamic vinegar, plus the ale. I changed the dumplings from horseradish dumplings to parsley dumplings, because I am not so keen on horseradish and I thought little one would like the dumplings best. The gravy (sauce?) had a great consistency, the beef was so tender and all the vegetables were good, but I don’t think I like ale! I gave what was left to my Mother, and warned her it was quite strong with the ale. She left it in the fridge a day or two and said it had mellowed and was great! Still, I am going to add something different in place of the ale next time, either beef stock or wine.

Prawn, Almond and Basmati Salad

This was a really unusual salad. It’s from Jo Pratt’s In the Mood for Food, healthy chapter. It really does feel healthy when you are eating it, by which I mean light and fresh (as opposed to rabbit food!). It’s rice, sultanas, toasted flaked almonds, cumin, prawns, carrots, coriander and onion, with a light lemony dressing. The only thing I thought was a little odd was that the sultanas were cooked in with the rice (before everything else was added) and I thought it made them taste a bit weird. Next time I’ll just add them in with everything else. I thought it was quite pretty too.

Snickery Squares

Snickery Squares

This is another from Dorie Greenspan’s Baking form My Home to Yours. An egg enriched shortbread base, topped with caramelised whole peanuts folded into dulce de leche, and finally chocolate and a sprinkling of some more of the caramelised peanuts, but this time chopped finely (well finely-ish in my case).

They were enjoyable to make, and if you’ve made caramel before it should be easy enough. Actually, although I’ve caramelised nuts before these are definitely my best effort to date. I even managed to break them apart easily. The caramel to nut ratio in the recipe was perfect. My bought dulce de leche was a little more liquid than Dorie’s one, but they tasted lovely. If you like the bar that they are named after you are bound to like these upmarket biscuit versions. The same play between nuts, caramel and chocolate is there, and the shortbread base is a bonus! I think I might take the shortbread base and use it for my millionaires shortbread recipe, because it is really good.

What sets these bars apart for me is the caramelising of the peanuts, it makes something that you know will taste good into a real explosion of flavours. Even better the next day, when they’ve all settled together.

Taiwanese Style Neuromein

Taiwanese Style Neuromein

Another winner from this book that I like a lot - China Modern by Ching-He Haung. This recipe comes from the Traditional Home Cooking chapter. Noodles, beef a few seasonings, a bit of thickening before serving and hey-presto a fabulous dinner for a weeknight. It is actually so easy I can hardly believe how much flavour there is for so little work. Apparently I'm not too embarrased to pass it on though! We all need quick healthy - style meals for some nights.

The beef, chilli and noodles went together so well, I have long been a fan of the chilli beef in Chinese restaurants (beef deep fried until really crispy and doused with a sweet and sharp chilli sauce), but it’s not something that I’d do at home. I couldn’t find the two types of chilli sauce, so used a lemongrass-chilli one that I could lay hands on. For the beef you simmer together stock and seasonings with a few vegetables, and I did this bit a couple of days before we needed it for supper, and the beef was more tender because of this sitting period in the fridge. Just before serving you cook noodles, reheat the beef and liquid, thicken with a bit of cornflour then toss with the noodles and scatter with slices spring onions and coriander. Delicious.

Taiwanese Style Neuromein

1 tablespoon groundnut oil
2 garlic cloves, crushed and finely chopped
1 tablespoon freshly grated ginger
1 red chilli, deseeded and chopped
1 large shallot, chopped
½ onion, chopped
1 small carrot, chopped
200g stewing beef
400ml vegetable or beef stock
1 tablespoon chilli bean sauce
1 teaspoon chilli sauce
1 teaspoon soy sauce
2 teaspoons brown sugar

2 tablespoons cornflour blended with 2 tablespoons water.
180g dried noodles
I spring onion sliced
Coriander leaves, chopped

Place everything down to (and including) the sugar in a pot, bring to the boil and simmer for 40 minutes.
Cook noodles and add the cornflour blend to the beef, to thicken. Add noodles, sprinkle with spring onion and coriander and serve.

Chicken and Leek Pie

Chicken and Leek Pie

When I received Sophie Conran’s Pies last year this was the first pie I cooked. It has appeared at our table at least once a month since! It is definitely one of our favourite pies. I don’t know if it’s the chicken in its creamy wine sauce, the leeks or the subtle blend of rosemary and tarragon. Maybe it’s just the whole lot with the puff pastry. Whatever it is, it’s a lovely pie.

One of the reasons I was drawn to this book was its pink colour! But it has proved itself as a worthy member of my cookbook collection. I’ve only cooked four pies from this book so far, and that is probably because I keep coming back to this one. The other three are Spanish Chicken Pie, Creamy Chicken with Chanterelle Mushrooms and Classic Fish Pie. They have all been fabulous. I’m hoping soon to try a beef one – Beef with Button Mushrooms & Red Wine and another fish one too – Salmon and Fennel and (you guessed it) another chicken one – Devilled Chicken Pie. The pies aren’t all classic either, there are modern twists too like Pork and Stilton with Polenta Pastry or Chicken with Asparagus and Coconut Milk. A bargain at £12.99, although you can pick it up mostly for under ten pounds, I would certainly have paid more.

As an aside, Sophie also has a range of serving pieces (made by Portmerion), I only have three pieces, but I think they are beautiful. One of them is the round casserole on the front of the Pie book, which I am very attached to. My only disappointment is that there doesn’t seem to be a pie dish for 4 - 6, only individual pie dishes, and although they are cute, I would like a bigger one. Here is the recipe for the pie.

Chicken and Leek Pie

8 chicken thighs (I use 4 chicken breasts and roast for less time)
1 tablespoon olive oil
½ teaspoon dried rosemary, crumbled
salt and pepper
a knob of butter
3 leeks, chopped
1 tablespoon plain flour
150ml (5fl oz) whiite wine
150ml (5fl oz) chicken stock
150ml (5fl oz) double cream
1 large handful of tarragon leaves, chopped (I used a small one)
375g puff pastry
1 egg, beaten

Preheat the oven to 220oC (425oF/ Gas 7). Put the chicken in a roasting dish drizzel over the olive oil, rosemary, salt and pepper. Roast for 30 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool.

Meanwhile melt the butter in a large pot , add the leeks and fry gently for a few minutes. Sprinkle oven the flour and stir for a minute, Add in the wine and stock, simmer for 15 minutes. Stir in the cream and simmer another 5 minutes. Cut the chicken into bite size pieces, discard all skin and bones. Stir chicken into sauce along with the tarragon. Place in a pie dish. Cover with the rolled out puff pastry and brush with beaten eggs. Bake in the oven for 20 minutes.

White Chocolate and Raspberry Cheesecake

White Chocolate and Raspberry Cheesecake

This is another recipe from The People’s Cookbook TV programme. The lady who submitted this recipe honed it to perfection for her wedding day, where she made many cheesecakes for her guests desserts. When we saw the finished cheesecake on TV we just knew we had to give it a go. It didn’t win, but I really wanted it to!

One of our favourite cheesecakes is white chocolate and Baileys (my take on a John Tovey recipe), but it has a fair bit of Baileys and whisky in it, so I wouldn’t dream of giving it to little people! This raspberry one is very user friendly – uncooked and no raw eggs. Not that I have any issues with raw eggs, but I don’t have the courage of my convictions to the extent that I’m willing to serve them to any friends and family in the vulnerable groups. I’m drifting off though, this is a rich and delicious cheesecake, the raspberries seem to really pop with flavour against the creamy cheesecake, it reminded me taste wise of home made raspberry ripple ice cream. The colour of the raspberries suspended in the cheesecake mixture is so pretty too. The white chocolate is there and can be tasted - it was sweet but not too sweet. I think this would be a good BBQ pudding, and that's where I'll serve it next.



The recipe is a little vague, but I’ll tell you that I used 450g chocolate and a 250g box of raspberries. I did buy more to decorate or make a little sauce to go with the cheesecake, but unfortunately we demolished them earlier! The only place where I disagree with the recipe is that it says it would serve 6, I would have said 8, or even 10 if you have something substantial before hand - and I say this as someone who loves rich pudings! Here is the recipe:

http://uktv.co.uk/index.cfm/uktv/Food.recipe/aid/580382