Great British Pudding Challenge: Canary Pudding

The lovely Rosie of Rosie bakes a peace of cake hosts a great food event making people more aware of the Great British Pudding. I've been wanting to take part in this challenge in the past but never got the chance to. This month I was determined to make the Canary Pudding, the first part of this challenge was finding a pudding bowl! I searched and was almost giving up looking when I found little mini ones, so I bought 4 and poured some water in to find out what volume they held (1/4 pint) so the plan was to half the ingredients for this one and split it between the four pots. But what made it even more fun was being able to do 2 puddings with jam and 2 puddings with golden syrup!



Here's the original recipe as Rosie typed it:

Canary pudding

4-6 Servings

Ingredients
3-4 tbsp jam or golden syrup or lemon curd
For The Sponge
100g (4 oz) softened butter
100g (4 oz) caster sugar
2 large eggs
Grated zest of 1 lemon
3 -4 tbsp lemon juice
175g (6 oz) self-raising flour
½ tsp baking powder
Butter for greasing the pudding basin

Notes
The trick of easing a steamed pudding out of a basin is to grease the basin very well with butter and put a little circle of non-stick paper/greaseproof paper into the bottom of your basin before adding any mixture. When cooked run a rounded knife gently around the sides of the pudding to release it. Taking a plate large enough to hold the pudding and its juices, place this over the top of the basin and flip it over quickly. Shake the pudding basin with the plate firmly underneath slightly and the steamed pudding should come out with ease.

You will also need a 2-pint pudding basin (see Rosie’s top tip on how to prepare the basin above) a large circle of buttered greaseproof paper folded in the middle and the same with foil, a little string for tying down the foil.



Recipe
1. Place a steamer on to boil making sure you have sufficient water in the base and lower to a simmer when boiling. If you haven’t got a steamer, place a large enough pan with an upturned plate or saucer in the base, fill up with water half way, then place on the stove to boil, now reduce to a simmer (you will need a tight fitting lid when the pudding goes into steam).
2. In a large mixing bowl add the butter and sugar and beat until it is light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time and beat until all combined. Sieve the flour and baking powder into the mixture and add the lemon zest and juice, fold through gently with a metal spoon until all the ingredients are combined together. If the mixture seems a little stiff add a little more lemon juice to the mixture but don’t over do it and make it too sloppy.
3. Place the jam or golden syrup or lemon curd, whichever one you are using, into the base of the pudding basin. Spoon the sponge mixture over the top and level off the sponge with a spatula.
4. Place the buttered pleated greaseproof paper over the top and then the pleated foil over the top. With the string tie down the foil tightly under the basin rim and loop it back over to make a handle. Cut off and extra string that isn’t wanted.
5. Place the pudding into the steamer for 1½ - 2 hours until cooked through. A skewer inserted into the centre of the pudding should come out clean without any uncooked sponge mixture clinging to it when ready.

Thank you Rosie!!!! This was so much fun and incredibly tasty!

Daring Baker 2 - Perfect Party Cake

I completed this month's daring baker challenge about 3 weeks ago and have left it to the last minute to get the post written up.... typical me! I made it so early because I knew that this month held very little opportunity to get my youth group to help finish it off what with Easter holidays etc. We have a monthly fun night so it only seemed right to bring the Perfect Party Cake to that!!! This recipe was taken from Dorie Greenspan's book Baking: from my home to yours which I'm thinking I may need to invest in after this challenge and also from seeing what the Tuesdays with Dorie group do each week!

I just finished it 5 minute before I was meant to leave so I took a few rushed photos... the very first being this one with Stewie poking his head in to see what's happening!



I've read reports on other daring bakers attempts at this challenge and some even having to try it 3 or 4 times to get it right.... I must be very flukey cos it all worked first time for me! It was delicious, I'm really wanting to do this again and edit the flavourings for my birthday next month!



Daring Bakers - Dorie Greenspan's Perfect Party Cake

Servings: depends how much people would like but I got about 16 - 20 slices out of mine!

Ingredients
For the Cake
2 1/4 cups cake flour
1 tbsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 1/4 cups whole milk or buttermilk
4 large egg whites
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 tsp. grated lemon zest
1 stick (8 tbsp.) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 tsp. pure lemon extract

For the Buttercream
1 cup sugar
4 large egg whites
3 sticks (12 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice (from 2 large lemons)
1 tsp. pure vanilla extract

For Finishing
2/3 cup seedless raspberry preserves stirred vigorously or warmed gently until spreadable
About 1 1/2 cups sweetened shredded coconut


Recipe
1. To make the cake, center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter two 9 x 2 inch round cake pans and line the bottom of each pan with a round of buttered parchment or wax paper. Put the pans on a baking sheet.
2. Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt. Whisk together the milk and egg whites in a medium bowl. Put the sugar and lemon zest in a mixer bowl or another large bowl and rub them together with your fingers until the sugar is moist and fragrant. Add the butter and working with the paddle or whisk attachment, or with a hand mixer, beat at medium speed for a full 3 minutes, until the butter and sugar are very light. Beat in the extract, then add one third of the flour mixture, still beating on medium speed. Beat in half of the milk-egg mixture, then beat in half of the remaining dry ingredients until incorporated.
3. Add the rest of the milk and eggs beating until the batter is homogeneous, then add the last of the dry ingredients. Finally, give the batter a good 2- minute beating to ensure that it is thoroughly mixed and well aerated.
4. Divide the batter between the two pans and smooth the tops with a rubber spatula. Bake for 30-35 minutes, or until the cakes are well risen and springy to the touch – a thin knife inserted into the centers should come out clean
5. Transfer the cakes to cooling racks and cool for about 5 minutes, then run a knife around the sides of the cakes, unfold them and peel off the paper liners. Invert and cool to room temperature, right side up (the cooled cake layers can be wrapped airtight and stored at room temperature overnight or frozen for up to two months).
6. To make the Buttercream, put the sugar and egg whites in a mixer bowl or another large heatproof bowl, fit the bowl over a plan of simmering water and whisk constantly, keeping the mixture over the heat, until it feels hot to the touch, about 3 minutes.
7. The sugar should be dissolved, and the mixture will look like shiny marshmallow cream.
Remove the bowl from the heat. Working with the whisk attachment or with a hand mixer, beat the meringue on medium speed until it is cool, about 5 minutes.
8. Switch to the paddle attachment if you have one, and add the butter a stick at a time, beating until smooth. Once all the butter is in, beat in the buttercream on medium-high speed until it is thick and very smooth, 6-10 minutes. During this time the buttercream may curdle or separate – just keep beating and it will come together again.
9. On medium speed, gradually beat in the lemon juice, waiting until each addition is absorbed before adding more, and then the vanilla. You should have a shiny smooth, velvety, pristine white buttercream. Press a piece of plastic against the surface of the buttercream and set aside briefly.
10. To assemble the cake, using a sharp serrated knife and a gentle sawing motion, slice each layer horizontally in half. Put one layer cut side up on a cardboard cake round or a cake plate protected by strips of wax or parchment paper.
11. Spread it with one third of the preserves. Cover the jam evenly with about one quarter of the buttercream. Top with another layer, spread with preserves and buttercream and then do the same with a third layer (you’ll have used all the jam and have buttercream leftover). Place the last layer cut side down on top of the cake and use the remaining buttercream to frost the sides and top. Press the coconut into the frosting, patting it gently all over the sides and top.



Serving
The cake is ready to serve as soon as it is assembled, but I think it’s best to let it sit and set for a couple of hours in a cool room – not the refrigerator. Whether you wait or slice and enjoy it immediately, the cake should be served at room temperature; it loses all its subtlety when it’s cold. Depending on your audience you can serve the cake with just about anything from milk to sweet or bubbly wine.

Storing
The cake is best the day it is made, but you can refrigerate it, well covered, for up to two days. Bring it to room temperature before serving. If you want to freeze the cake, slide it into the freezer to set, then wrap it really well – it will keep for up to 2 months in the freezer; defrost it, still wrapped overnight in the refrigerator.



Playing Around
Since lemon is such a friendly flavour, feel free to make changes in the preserves: other red preserves – cherry or strawberry – look especially nice, but you can even use plum or blueberry jam.

Fresh Berry Cake
If you will be serving the cake the day it is made, cover each layer of buttercream with fresh berries – use whole raspberries, sliced or halved strawberries or whole blackberries, and match the preserves to the fruit. You can replace the coconut on top of the cake with a crown of berries, or use both coconut and berries. You can also replace the buttercream between the layers with fairly firmly whipped sweetened cream and then either frost the cake with buttercream (the contrast between the lighter whipped cream and the firmer buttercream is nice) or finish it with more whipped cream. If you use whipped cream, you’ll have to store the cake the in the refrigerator – let it sit for about 20 minutes at room temperature before serving.

A great challenge from Morven this month! Thanks! And thanks to Rosie for helping me work out the whole cake flour thing, you're a star!

You can check out all the other fab creations on the Daring Bakers Blogroll. There are some great cakes!

Pepperoni Rolls

I signed up for the March/April What's Cooking Recipe Exchange and was very silly to leave it until the last minute to make it... because tomorrow being the last day of the month meant there were already several deadlines (including posting the daring bakers challenge), so tonight was busy making this, Rosie's Great British Pudding Challenge as well as dinner (with a little extra for testing taste after reheating the day after for the upcoming Cook of the Year audition)

I was given the recipe that was sent in by someone in West Virginia: Pepperoni Rolls

I wasn't sure if I would like these because I'm not a big fan of pepperoni but hey it's good to try new things and be open minded. That said, I did make a batch of the bread recipe, so I adapted the final few steps of the recipe and split it into 8 and made 4 pepperoni rolls and 4 plain bread rolls just in case I didn't like it.... I just didn't want to waste good bread. I also don't have a dough mixer but used my hand mixer instead and it came out alright.

This was a great bread recipe by the way, quite easy to throw together and very tasty.



Pepperoni Rolls

Recipe 1
Easy Way: Buy a bag of frozen dinner rolls (I usually use Rhode's) and let them thaw. Pull them all apart. One at a time, flatten the rolls out using the palm of your hand until they form a flattened circle as much as you can make the dough stretch. Put between 5-8 pieces of pepperoni on the flattened out dough disk (you can also add cheese if you want). Fold over 2 of the edges, and then roll it up (similar to how you would a loaf of bread). Do this with all of the frozen rolls. Line up on a greased baking sheet & let raise until the desired size. (Let raise more if you want a lot of bread. I tend to just let mine go about 30 mins or so). Bake according to the directions on the bag.

Recipe 2 (Kitchen Aid's Basic White Bread recipe: Basic White Bread)

Makes 8 small rolls or 2 loaves

Ingredients
½ cup low-fat milk
3 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons salt
3 tablespoons butter or margarine
2 packages active dry yeast (7g each)
1 ½ cups warm water (105˚F to 115˚F aka 40-45˚C)
5 cups all-purpose flour

Recipe
1. Place milk, sugar, salt, and butter in small saucepan. Heat over low heat until butter melts and sugar dissolves. Cool to lukewarm.
2. Dissolve yeast in warm water in warmed mixer bowl. Add lukewarm milk mixture and 4 ½ cups flour to the yeast. Attach bowl and dough hook to mixer. Turn to Speed 2 and mix about 1 minute.
3. Continuing on Speed 2, add remaining flour, ½ cup at a time, and mix about 2 minutes, or until dough clings to hook and cleans sides of bowl. Knead on Speed 2 about 2 minutes longer, or until dough is smooth and elastic. Dough will be slightly stick to the touch.
4. Place dough in greased bowl, turning to grease top. Cover. Let rise in warm place, free from draft, about 1 hour, or until doubled in bulk.
5. Punch dough down and divide in half. Shape each half into a loaf, and place in greased 8 ½ x 4 ½ x 2 ½-inch baking pans, or spread out onto a floured surface and split into 8 equal sized portions. Cover. Let rise in warm place, free from draft, about 1 hour, or until doubled in bulk.
6. Bake at 400˚F (200˚C) for 30 minutes, or until golden brown. Remove from pans immediately and cool on wire rack.

Ed's Bar & Grill

Rob suggested going out for dinner last night and I jumped at the chance. We decided to try the newest restaurant in Banbridge: Ed's Bar and Grill I've held a few meetings in there with some of my volunteer youth leaders and so on but was excited to go for a proper meal and with Rob too because we usually get takeout instead of going out for food.



I was also excited because they have a great mix of a menu but not so mixed that it overwhelms you.... OK I did struggle a little to narrow down my choices to what I was actually going to have, but it gives me more reason to go back and try all the other dishes I like the sound of!

It's a fantastic atmosphere, perfect for families, parties, couples and lots more. The staff were very friendly and in fact while we were having our order taken a customer interrupted and handed our server the bill, he looked at us with that look of "I'm sorry" mixed with "What was that about?", but he was very professional and carried on with our order after that.



We were served quite quickly and everything was hot, fresh from the kitchen... in fact so hot that when I ate one of the chips I burnt my throat swallowing it meaning that today has been a struggle swallowing. But they were good chips!

I had some delicious "sweet and sticky chicken" described as marinated and seared chicken, in a sticky mild whole grain mustard and honey glaze....... how good does that sound?!?!?!?! And it was, absolutely delicious, but I would have like a little more of the marinade for some of the chicken that had none underneath... or even just for having as a dressing on the salad bed it came on.



My dear plain eating hubby had a plain burger and chips... that he says were very good, he was well happy with it.



I was very impressed with the friendliness of the staff, the great atmosphere, great menu, quick service, very tasty food... however there is one thing that has bothered me each time I've been there, which I'm sure some think is an excellent idea. They have nintendo DS and mini DVD players along with a selection of games and movies for entertaining your children during the meal. It makes me sad that families can't sit down to a nice meal together without distractions or having to be entertained, but then again I'm not a parent so I shouldn't judge. But a great place to go for a meal, I highly recommend it... but if you can't get to Ed's Banbridge, check out their Lisburn branch.

Sweet pepper pasta sauce

I love Dolmio's sweet pepper pasta sauce, it's my absolute favourite in the range... it's a handy thing to have in the cupboard for when I'm in a rush and just cooking for myself. Last time I made it I held onto the ingredients label and decided to recreate it for myself, so here's my sweet pepper sauce recipe, that I served with fusilli pasta and added some chopped, cooked pork sausage and grated mozzarella cheese and served alongside a mini wholewheat garlic bread that I found in the supermarket today! (I was rather excited about this find because a whole garlic bread baguette is a little too much and usually ends up going to waste!!!!)

Anyways it turned out to be delicious, might need a little more red pepper in future, but I think that's a personal preference.



Ruth's sweet pepper pasta sauce

Makes enough sauce for 2

Ingredients
1 red pepper, cut into 4 flat slices
1 yellow pepper, cut into 4 flat slices
1 red onion, cut into quarters
4 cloves of garlic, finely sliced
Olive oil
1 tbsp dried basil
1 tsp chili flakes
1 x 400g tin of peeled plum tomatoes

Recipe
1. Pre heat the oven to 180˚C. Lay the peppers and onion onto a baking tray and drizzle olive oil over the top. Roast the peppers and onion for 15 minutes.
2. Drizzle a little oil into a sauce pan. Turn the heat on to medium. Add the garlic, basil and chili flakes, and cook for 2 minutes.
3. Add the peeled plum tomatoes, the roasted peppers and onions.
4. Turn on your hand mixer and break down the veggies into a sauce, but not too much: you still want a few chunks - about 60-90 seconds should do it.
5. Allow to simmer for 5 minutes then mix with your cooked pasta.

(Sausage and cheese optional - but recommended for that extra dimension to the dish)



I'm entering this to Presto Pasta nights

Bacon buttie time!

I love having a bacon buttie! It's just fab, cooking the bacon, buttering the bread, mixing it all together.... so simple yet so delicious!

I was getting the bacon ready for one today and wee Stewie was being the cute pup that he is paying close attention to what was happening!



And this is him watching me eating.... it's so hard saying no to that cute face!


He loves sitting and watching me cook, think it's so he can work out whether or not it's worth his while eating his own food or trying to blag a bit of our food!

I'm entering these to Food bloggy pets of the month

I want to be a hairy biker!

I've recently fell in love with the hairy bikers... they usually have a slot on Saturday Kitchen and I look forward to this bit. They travel a lot and recreate the recipes they encounter on their journey and are hilarious to watch!

I'm adding their book to my amazon wish list now :o)

Enjoy the Taste of Scotland

I've spent some time researching the costs of flights to and from Glasgow today because I heard about an event called "Enjoy the Taste of Scotland". It sounds like a really exciting event where lots of the local Scottish food companies and producers will share their products for sampling and there'll also be some cookery demos by some top chefs. The event is being run by Tesco and aims to showcase more than 100 suppliers of Scottish produce & food, wine and much more. It's being held on 25th-27th April at Glasgow's George Square, from what I gather the 25th is for media/journalist type people, while 26th and 27th is a free for all, and it really is free for all with no cost for admission!

The website is here but it's not live just yet. Check back later for more details.

Really hope something similar comes to Northern Ireland soon! It'll be fantastic! In the meantime i'm real excited about going to this, and if you can go, you should!

Chicken, bacon and pea risotto

In trying to introduce Rob to different food and meals I thought risotto would be a good one as long as there was meat in it, he likes rice after all! So I decided to make a chicken and bacon risotto for him and then decided as I was cooking to throw some peas in because I know he likes them and getting him to eat veg at any opportunity all is a very good thing.

The problem was hiding the onion in the recipe. Usually when he's halfway through a cottage pie or bolognese he'll notice the diced onion and be all picky, so I decided to grate the onion and hide it, but this technique also gave me the opportunity to enter Joelen's new blog event: Tasty Tools. This month the tool to be using is the kitchen grater or the "microplane".





Chicken, bacon and pea risotto

Serves 2-3

Ingredients
2 tbsp olive oil
1 onion, grated
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
3 bacon rashers, cut into 2" pieces
8 oz arborio rice
2/3 cup dry white wine
700ml hot vegetable stock
2 chicken breasts, diced and cooked
300g tin of marrowfat peas (about 180g drained weight)
1 oz butter
salt and freshly ground black pepper
freshly grated parmesan cheese, to serve

Recipe
1. Heat the oil in a large, heavy based saucepan and add the onion, garlic and bacon pieces. Fry over a gentle heat for 2-3 minutes, until softened and the bacon is cooked through.
2. Stir in the rice and coat in the oil. Pour in the wine and simmer, stirring, until the liquid has been absorbed.
3. Add a ladleful of the stock and simmer, stirring again, until the liquid has been absorbed. Continue adding the stock in this way, until all the liquid has been absorbed and the rice is plump and tender. Add the drained peas and chicken pieces with the last ladle of stock and reduce the heat.
4. Stir in the butter, salt and pepper. Serve with freshly grated Parmesan cheese.

Cook of the year.

I posted a few days ago about RTE looking for people to enter a new show looking for cook of the year. I got a phone call from one of the show's organisers this morning talking through some of the details, but she also said they are still looking for people from the north to get involved! So if you live in Ulster please send an email to kathylittler@greeninc.ie and get involved.

You really don't have to be a master chef.... I mean look at me and I'm entering! You just have to enjoy cooking! It's just a bit of craic! So there's no reason not to!

See here for more details

Also, if you have some ideas and suggestions of a dish to bring to the audition, I would love to hear them. I have a few already but would love to hear some ideas from other people who love food too!

Coconut lime battered fish and chips

When I heard the ingredients for this month's Royal Foodie Joust I had all sorts of ideas of what to do with something from the sea, coconut and lemon or lime. I thought of Thai curry, coconut crusted fish, fish pie all sorts.

The past couple of years I've fell in love with a good Fish and Chips and came upon the idea of making a batter for some fish that included coconut milk and lime as well as chilli, garlic and ginger.

This was delicious!!! And it satisfied my craving for some fish and chips too!



Coconut lime battered fish and chips

Makes 2 portions

Ingredients
1 kg white fish fillet (I used haddock), skinned, boned and cut into goujons
1/2 cup flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 tbsp lime zest
1 tsp red chilli, chopped finely.
1 garlic clove, crushed
1 tsp freshly grated ginger
1/2 egg, beaten
1/4 cup cold water
1/4 cup coconut milk
half a lime
sunflower oil for frying

7 or 8 medium sized potatoes, cut into wedges
sea salt
crushed black pepper
olive oil

Recipe
1. Parboil the potato wedges for 15 minutes. Preheat oven to 200˚C
2. Heat the sunflower oil in a wok or fryer.
3. Mix the flour, baking powder, salt, lime zest, red chilli, garlic and ginger. Stir in the egg, water and coconut milk until smooth.
4. Drain the potatoes and spread over a baking tray. Drizzle oil over the top and sprinkle with the salt and pepper, then place in the oven for 20 minutes until crisp and brown.
5. Test that the oil is hot enough for frying by placing a drop of the batter in it, if it floats to the top the oil is ready.
6. Place the fish goujons one at a time in the batter than straight into the oil. Leave them to cook for 4-5 minutes then remove to some kitchen roll to dry a little.
7. Serve the fish and chips with half a lime to squeeze over the top.

Roast Beef

Today for Easter Sunday I made Roast Beef. Most people have made roast beef and i have but it's always been from pre packaged roasts, so it was fun to get a roast from the butcher and prepare it all myself.

I based this on Elise's Roast Beef, but had to make a few edits:
1. Our roast was 2.5kg so times were reduced and it was ready after 1 hr 25 mins in the oven(including the browning time which was reduced from 30 mins to 20 mins)
2. I trimmed the layer of fat off before roasting.

Thanks for this recipe Elise!!!

I even made the gravy which is a first too!!!! It was delicious, I kind of did it by eye and taste, I wish I kept a note of what I had done, but it was lovely.... just hope I can recreate it. But I used red wine and stock along with the juices from the beef and some corn flour.

Swiss Roll

This month for Master Baker the ingredient to include in a recipe is Easter Candy!!!! I was so excited when I heard this... mainly cos it meant more chocolate lol. I got my thinking hat on and thought of cookies and muffins, but sort of felt they were a bit to straightforward and I've made them before: I really wanted to try my hand at something new.

I've been wanting to make a Swiss Roll for the longest time for Rob: it's one of his very favourite treats and in fact he's taste tested the Swiss Roll from each of the local bakeries to work out which was his favourite. This did make me nervous but I still wanted to try make something I knew he would love, so I invested in a swiss roll baking tray and got to work.

I did make a raspberry jam one, but in order to include the Easter candy element I made another one with broken up Cadbury Mini Eggs.

Very tasty, very simple and very quick to make.



Easter Swiss Roll
Makes 8-10 slices

Ingredients
2 eggs
1/4 cup caster sugar
Few drops of Vanilla extract
1/2 cup self raising flour
3 tbsp nutella
75g crushed Cadbury mini eggs
Icing sugar to dust

Recipe
1. Preheat oven to 200˚C and grease a swiss roll baking tray and line with baking parchment
2. Add the eggs, caster sugar and vanilla extract to a bowl. Whisk together using an electric whisk until the mixture is pale and thick.
3. Add the self raising flour and stir in gently with a spoon.
4. Spread the mixture to fill the baking tray. Place in the oven and bake for 8-10 minutes until golden.



5. Leave to cool for a few minutes then turn out of the pan onto a clean surface with the golden side down and peel off the paper.
6. Spread the nutella all over the sponge, right to the edges. Sprinkle the mini eggs over the top, then roll up the cake.







Jam Swiss Roll
Makes 8-10 slices

Ingredients
2 eggs
1/4 cup caster sugar
Few drops of Vanilla extract
1/2 cup self raising flour
3 tbsp raspberry jam/conserve
Icing sugar to dust

Recipe
1. Preheat oven to 200˚C and grease a swiss roll baking tray and line with baking parchment
2. Add the eggs, caster sugar and vanilla extract to a bowl. Whisk together using an electric whisk until the mixture is pale and thick.
3. Add the self raising flour and stir in gently with a spoon.
4. Spread the mixture to fill the baking tray. Place in the oven and bake for 8-10 minutes until golden.
5. Leave to cool for a few minutes then turn out of the pan onto a clean surface with the golden side down and peel off the paper.
6. Spread the jam/conserve all over the sponge, right to the edges and then roll up the cake.


I recently found some dulce de leche in my supermarket... after seeing almost every food blog making great recipes with their Blake makes Peanut Butter DDL I was on the hunt for some DDL here in the UK, so the plan now is once we've eaten up these delicious swiss rolls to start making some treats with it! Can't wait!

Search for Cook of the Year

This was posted on a the jeenaskitchen.com forum:

"The Afternoon Show on RTE One is looking for a Cook of the Year. This is a nationwide (Ireland: North, South, East and West) search and we are looking for amateur cooks over the age of 18. The winner will take away prizes and cook, live on the show in the autumn. To apply, all you need to do is tell us why you should be the Cook of the Year and e-mail to kathylittler@greeninc.ie The closing date for applications is Friday 21st March and auditions will be held in the four Provinces at the beginning of April."


I've emailed out of interest and intrigue, and it'll be great to be challenged a little more in my cooking. Just thought I would share in case anyone would be interested.

Calzone

It's St Patricks Day and the food blog world has turned green, no matter where people are from they're making green eats and treats, "Irish" themed dinners and all sorts. Me on the other hand, I made Italian.

Maryann of Finding La Dolce Vita and Marie of Proud Italian Cook are hosting a great food event called Festa Italiana where we were encouraged to cook some Italian food.

I decided to try something new but also something I knew I loved and had a feeling would be something Rob would love too: calzone (a folded pizza).

I know I've made pizza dough before, but we had recently been given Jamie at Home and he had a recipe for pizza dough and even a great recipe for some tasty tomato sauce so it seemed fitting to give these recipes a go and try a different dough for fun.

I had a few problems with the dough rising according to Jamie's instructions so I stole ideas from the last Daring Bakers challenge (French bread) and instead of draping a damp teatowel over the bowl during the rise I put cling film over the top and a dry towel over the top of that.



Pizza dough

Makes 3-4 medium sized thin pizza bases or 2 calzones

Ingredients
500g strong white bread flour
1/2 tbsp fine sea salt
7g sachet of dried yeast
1/2 tbsp caster sugar
2 tbsp EVOO
325 ml lukewarm water

Recipe
1. Sieve the flour and salt together into a bowl. Make a well in the middle of the flour.
2. In a jug mix the yeast, sugar and olive oil into the water and leave to sit for a few minutes, then pour into the well.
3. Gradually mix the flour into the liquid to make the dough. When it has all come together place on a floured surface and knead until smooth and springy.
4. Place the ball of dough into a floured bowl and flour the top of it. Cover the bowl in cling film and drape a dry teatowel over the top. Set aside in a warm room for about an hour until it doubles in size.
5. Remove the dough to a floured surface and knead it around, pushing the air out of it.

You can either use it straight away or else store it wrapped in cling film in the fridge (or even freezer). I split the dough into 2 and made the round bases, and stored them stacked on a tray in the fridge with layers of oiled and floured tin foil between each base.

Tomato sauce

Makes 500ml of sauce

Ingredients
2 tbsp olive oil
4 cloves of garlic, finely sliced
handful of fresh basil leaves, torn
3 x 400g tins of whole plum tomatoes
salt and pepper

Recipe
1. Place the oil in a pan and turn the heat on.
2. Add the garlic, once it starts to brown add the basil and tomato (make sure you squash the tomatoes in the pan to get the juices out and make the sauce more tomatoey)
3. Season with salt and pepper, then leave to come to the boil.
4. Strain the sauce through a through a coarse sieve or colander and into a bowl.
5. The garlic and basil can be disposed of, make sure you push as much of the sauce through as possible.
6. Add the sieved sauce back to the pan and bring to the boil, then turn down the heat and simmer for 5-10 minutes.

This gives plenty of sauce that can be used for all sorts of things including pizza sauce - I'll be using the rest to make some bolognese later this week

For making the calzone I didn't want to just make a different dough and make the sauce, I also wanted to use ingredients that I hadn't used before, so I used a mozzarella ball, bought a mix of mushrooms including shitake (which I'd never used) and some pancetta. Rob just wanted his regular pizza toppings (chicken and bacon) but also asked for some red pepper! I was in shock, he's asking for veg now!!!! Long may it last.

Calzone

Recipe
1. Heat your oven to maximum (about 240˚C on my oven).
2. Lay your pizza base out and dress like you would for a pizza.
3. Fold over the pizza and seal the edges by creating pleats.
4. Place on a tray and cook in the oven for 10-15 minutes.

As easy as that!!!! And even more delicious!

Toffee yoghurt taco

I forgot to post this after last Saturday when we had friends over for dinner. We had made a bit of a mexican feast of tacos and fajitas and burritos to make up for ourselves. Well near the end of our meal Rob dared Paul to eat some toffee yoghurt with what he had on his plate and he did!



From what I remember it included hard shell taco, taco spiced mince beef, barbeque sauce, cheese and toffee yoghurt. If I've left anything out I'm sure Paul will correct me. But apparently it tasted good.

It sounded gross to me but then reminded me about how when i was a McDonalds employee I used to enjoy dipping my fries into my ice cream and still do occasionally now.

So what food combinations that sound odd together do you like then?

Asian Style Grilled Chicken

I spotted Katie at Good Things Catered had a great Asian style grilled chicken dish on her blog and I decided to give it a go, only with a few edits.

It was so tasty and full of flavour, and the chicken was very juicy and tender. A delicious dish and very handy for a weeknight dinner or for a busy family.

Thanks Katie!



Asian Style Grilled Chicken

Serves 2

Ingredients
1/4 cup soy sauce
2 tbsp brown sugar
1 Tbsp rice vinegar
1 Tbsp lime juice
1/4 tsp fresh grated ginger (I used a pinch of ground ginger)
1/4 tsp toasted sesame oil (I omitted.... cos i forgot it)
1/4 tsp hot chili oil (I used a few drops of tabasco)
2 medium chicken breasts, pounded to even thickness

I also added the following
1 tbsp honey
1 tsp chinese 5 spice

Recipe
1. Combine all ingredients but chicken and chinese 5 spice in large bowl and stir to combine.
2. Add chicken and toss to coat and submerge.
3. Place in fridge and marinate for about 30 minutes to an hour. (I left it to marinate for about 3 and a half hours)
4. Heat a little oil in grill pan to medium heat.
5. Take chicken out of marinade and place on grill breast side down. Cook without moving until grill marks have formed on the breast.
6. Flip chicken and brush top with more of the marinade mixture.
7. Cook breast side up until grill marks have formed.
8. Brush chicken one more time and flip breast side down.
9. Turn grill to lower setting and continue cooking until done.

Go ahead....make my day

Jaime over at Good eats n sweet treats has made me smile and give me a warm fuzzy feeling by giving me a "You make my day" award. I'm all blushful now!

I'm supposed to pick 10 people to pass this on to but I've got 12 on my list:
1. Cake Spy - Loving the most recent post Interview with a Cadbury Creme Egg
2. Rosie from Rosie bakes a peace of cake
3. Dell from Cooking and the City
4. Pixie in You say Tomahto, I say Tomayto
5. Meeta in What's for lunch honey?
6. Maria from The Goddess's kitchen
7. Happy Cook from My kitchen treasures
8. Deborah from Taste and Tell
9. Kate in Paved with good intentions (I know she's already received this several times already but she deserves it again!)
10. Jeena from Jeena's kitchen
11. Katie in Good things catered
12. Priscilla in Priscilla bakes

Ulster Fry

This time around Homegrown Gourmet is being hosted by Michelle at Culinography who decided that this time round would be a breakfast focus. I instantly thought of the Ulster Fry: a dish of fried food including bacon rashers, pork or beef sausages, fried egg, soda bread, potato bread and tomatoes. (Just a fried breakfast with an Ulster twist).

I decided to not only make an Ulster Fry, but to make the potato bread and soda bread from scratch as my entry for Homegrown Gourmet seeing as the ingredients are all locally sourced (in fact my potatoes were grown less than a mile from my house!!!!). I also used my mum's recipes again from the book I've mentioned a couple of times recently.

This is often very comforting for me because every Sunday after church Mum would fry up some potato bread, soda bread, sausages etc and we would have a little mini fry.... very often I only had sausages and potato bread or bacon and potato bread, but having made this today brings back lots of happy memories.





Soda Bread



Makes 4

Ingredients
12 oz soda bread flour
(I know not everyone can get soda bread flour, but you can substitute with 12 oz plain flour, 4 tsp baking soda and 2 tsp cream of tartar)
1/2 pint buttermilk
plain flour (for griddle pan)

Recipe
1. Sieve flour then mix well with the buttermilk quickly and knead into shape quickly, then cut into quarters.
2. Place on a floured hot griddle pan and leave to bake for 7-8 minutes on a medium heat. Turn and bake for a further 5-6 minutes.
3. When finished wrap the sodas in a damp tea towel to keep the edges from hardening.

When soda bread is being used as part of an Ulster fry it is often cut into 2 slices and fried in the pan on the cut side.


Potato Bread



Makes 4

Ingredients
8 oz potato
1 tsp salt
1 oz melted butter
2 oz flour

Recipe
1. Wash, peel and chop potatoes. Boil for 20-25 minutes, then mash.
2. Mix in the salt and melted butter. Then add the flour.
3. Using a little extra flour, flour a surface and then roll the potato mix into a circle about 1/2 cm thick. Divide into quarters.
4. Heat a little oil in a pan and fry each farl of potato bread for 2-3 minutes on each side.

Mum's Chicken Curry

Today is International Women's Day and in honour of that Zorra is hosting a blog event where you've too cook something yellow. I decided to make a recipe from my Mum's own cookbook that I told you about recently and made her chicken curry recipe.

Mum's chicken curry


Makes 2 portions

Ingredients
1 tsp butter
1 tsp oil
1 small onion, diced
2 chicken breasts, diced.
1 tsp curry powder
1 tsp flour
1 tbsp tomato puree
1/2 oz raisins or sultanas
1 small apple, cored and chopped
180ml stock
1/2 tsp salt

Recipe
1. Heat the butter and oil. Add the onion and chicken and cook for 6 minutes.
2. Add curry paste and gently cook for 5 minutes.
3. Add the flour and gently cook for 2 minutes.
4. Add the stock and simmer for 5 minutes until thick
5. Add the tomato puree, apple, sultanas/raisins and salt. Cook gently for 15 minutes.

Maple glazed ham

I recently read about the Root Source Challenge where that challenge was to come up with a recipe including Maple Syrup. As soon as I read it I started having dreams of crepes with bacon smothered with maple syrup, then thought of a gammon I had sitting in the fridge that I was planning to boil in coke (I know Nigella has a ham cooked in coke recipe but I didn't know about this until after I'd been doing it myself.... great minds think alike and all that!), so decided to twist and develop this idea a little more and came up with my entry for the challenge.


Maple glazed Ham

Serves 2-3

Ingredients
750g gammon
1 litre coke
Whole cloves
1 tbsp whole grain mustard
2.5 tbsp maple syrup

Recipe
1. Place the gammon joint into a pot that it fits into with not too much extra room. Pour in the coke until the meat is covered and boil on a medium heat for 1 hour.
2. Mix the whole grain mustard and maple syrup together to make the glaze
3. Remove the gammon from the coke and leave to cool for 5 minutes.

4. Remove any skin that is on the meat and slice a criss cross pattern across the top. Push a whole clove into each "x" made by the criss cross pattern.

5. Preheat the oven to 180˚C. Place the gammon in an oven proof dish or a foil lined baking tray. Pour the glaze on top of the joint, making sure it is covered. Cook in the oven for 15-20 minutes or until the glaze is golden.

6. When done, leave to cool for 5 minutes before slicing and serving.



A much tastier dinner for my palate after last night's salmon!