Curried Cod Fillet

The hubster has been out working a few more evenings recently, meaning dinner for one, meaning a choice of anything for dinner! I had a fillet of cod in the freezer and a recipe in mind just waiting for a special occasion like this!

Thanks to Jamie Oliver for this one from Ministry of Food!

Curried Cod Fillet

Ingredients
1 portion of cod fillet
2 tbsp curry powder
olive oil

Recipe
1. Roll the cod in the curry powder to coat evenly.
2. Heat a frying pan to a medium high heat and add some olive oil.
3. Fry the fish in the pan on each side for 3-4 minutes until cooked through.


Simple and beautiful.

Polo Shaped Rolo Cake

I love going through my rss reader and coming across a new recipe that makes me want to go make it immediately - this cake was one of them. Scottish food blogger, Jacqueline, of Tinned tomatoes fame posted this recipe for rolo cake topped with gooey snowballs who found it on The Caked Crusader's blog. I knew I had all the ingredients in my kitchen so it seemed to be my destiny to make this one.

I had recently bought a new bundt tin and decided immediately to use it for this one thus resulting in polo shaped rolo cake! Really tasty cake with the occasional surprise of crispy chewy caramel throughout. This is one you should bookmark and try out.



Rolo Cake

Ingredients
Cake:
200g unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 1⁄3 cup caster sugar
4 large eggs
1 ½ cup self raising flour
2⁄3 cup cocoa powder
100g Rolos, halved
Buttercream:
1 cup icing sugar
100g unsalted butter, at room temperature
½ tsp vanilla extract
2 tbsp cocoa powder

Recipe
1. Preheat the oven to 180°C
2. Grease a deep 20cm diameter bundt tin.
3. Cream together the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy, then mix in the eggs one at a time.
4. Gently stir in the flour and cocoa, before stirring in the chopped rolos.
5. Spoon into the prepared cake tin and bake for approximately 30-35 minutes or until a skewer comes out cleanly. The cake will settle on cooling but this is because it’s so rich and squidgy.
6. Leave to cool in the tin, on a wire rack.

Buttercream Frosting
1. When cool make the buttercream by creaming the butter until soft and smooth, then cream in the icing sugar a little at a time.
2. Beat in the vanilla extract and cocoa powder.
3. If the mix is a bit solid, add a dash of milk to soften and slacken.
4. Spread over the cake and decorate as required .


For another fun recipe using rolos check out these caramel filled chocolate cookies

Pancake Tuesday

In need of a pancake recipe for tomorrow? Try out either French Crepes



or a stack o American pancakes!



Or maybe you could use Nigella's pancake mix.... we love this one for it's convenience and ease of use

Instant Pancake Mix(From Nigella Express)
600g flour
3 tbsp baking powder
2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tsp salt
40g vanilla/caster sugar

Recipe
Mix everything together and store in an airtight container

When you want some pancakes whisk together....
150g pancake mix, 1 egg, 250ml milk, t tsbp melted butter

Heat your pan with no oil, spoon batter onto pan to cook. When bubbles appear on the surface flip them over to cook until golden on each side.

Nigella makes 15 pancakes about 8cm in diameter from this mix, but we like nice big pancakes and get 6 or 7 big ones out of it.



Happy pancake day!

Naan Pizza

Nigella published this idea before me but I had the idea before coming across it so I think I'm due a book deal and tv show of my own for that.

Today is international pizza day so it seems right to enjoy some in celebration of this dish that is a favourite worldwide. My nod to the pizza is one made with naan bread instead of dough, this idea is a great quick dinner and simple too. While I love it with tikka chicken and chunky tomato sauce, today was a frugal one with some leftovers acting as toppings - ham, fresh pineapple, sweetcorn and mozzarella.

Nutella Day... late

Yesterday was World Nutella Day..... I didn't get to make anything Nutella based but did today instead. A simple one, nutella and pancakes....



What do you like with your nutella?

Malteser Cheesecake

There's an amazing woman in my church who is one of the most amazing cooks I have ever met! She's an absolute star and cooks a nice hot lunch for about 20 of the older members of the church every other week and once went out of her way to make a special dinner for our youth group one Sunday.

She once made this cheesecake and when I asked for the recipe she confessed it was from a charity cookbook the local High School produced a few years ago. It turned out I had this cookbook!!!! Delicious cheesecake recipe was right under my nose and I didn't even know it!

This was so simple to make, had a fantastic thick biscuity base and lovely light fluffy cheesecakey goodness on top... not to mention the chocolatey maltesers!!!!!

Malteser Cheesecake



Ingredients
Biscuit Base
14 Digestive biscuits/Graham Crackers, crushed
1/3 cup butter, melted
Cheesecake mix
3oz (85g) icing sugar
8oz(225g) cream cheese
1/2 pint (230ml) whipping cream
135g bag of maltesers, crush most but hold a few over for decoration.

Recipe
1. Mix together the biscuits and butter until the mixture starts to stick together. If it is too dry add more melted butter. Press this mixture into the base of a 15cm cake tin. Put this in the fridge for half an hour while you work on the rest.
2. Whip the cream in a bowl until thick and put in the fridge.
3. Cream the icing sugar and cream cheese together and fold in the maltesers.
4. Take the cream out of the fridge and fold into the mixture.
5. Spread the cream cheese mix over the biscuit base and refrigerate until set.

Chocolate Bundt Pudding

We were at friends' house for dinner a few Saturdays ago and it's become a pattern for me to bring dessert to people's houses now when we're having meals... sometimes if we're not having meals! This time I had seen Patsy's blog post on a Choclate Bundt Cake recipe and was keen to try it, especially seeing as it was a "healthier" one. Plus who doesn't love chocolate cake? Well my husband but that's neither here nor there!

I halved the recipe below and used a smaller bundt tin and served it warm with warm chocolate ganache (recipe below too)

Chocolate Bundt Pudding

Ingredients
Non-stick cooking spray with flour
3 ounces dark chocolate, fiinely chopped
3/4 cup Dutch process cocoa
1 teaspoon instant espresso
1 cup boiling water
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 cups light brown sugar
1/2 cup canola oil
1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Recipe
1. Preheat oven to 180˚C. Spray the inside of you bundt pan with cooking spray in preparation.
2. Mix together the chocolate and boiling water in a bowl and cover. Set to the side for 5 minutes, then whisk until smooth.
3. In separate bowl, mix together the flour, salt and baking soda.
4. Using a mixer, mix the chocolate together with the sugar, oil and vanilla. Then gradually mix in the flour mixture until well combined and smooth.
5. Pour the batter into your oiled bundt tine and bake for 50 minutes, leave to cool a little but not completely.
6. Slice and serve with ganache

Ganache

Ingredients
170g dark chocolate
3/4 cup single cream

Recipe
1. Melt the chocolate in a small saucepan over a medium heat.
2. Stir in the cream until smooth.