Lemon Basil Shortbread

So this week was my last at university before starting placement until Christmas, accordingly we went to the pub to celebrate and the planned apple creation that was supposed to happen yesterday did not. Sorry world apple day, I let you down. I was to busy drinking this marvellous mulled cider, its funny how the first of the year always tasted so good.   

So after a busy week I thought it was time for a quick post before heading back up north for the weekend. I love shortbread. Its so easy, mostly three ingredients and can be done start to finish in 20 minuets. 

I like to add different things in with mine, lemon zest is always a winner. You can add anything really, thyme, chocolate, nuts, lavender & honey or even peanut butter. 

I chose to add Lemon Basil to mine as I found some growing in a container at work today, I didn't even know it was there until a customer asked what it was and I had to pretend to be a botanical expert convincingly. 

Its a really lovely herb, its flexible, so can go into sweet or savoury dish. It tastes as you would imagine, lemony and basily. Please don't worry if you can't find Lemon Basil, I'm not sure how widely available it is. You can use lemon zest and a few sprigs of ordinary basil as a substitute. 

I have included some pictures above of some seasonal things I've found this week. Well, its a picture of some leaves and a cup of mulled cider, I'm working on a alcohol free recipe for my pregnant sister in law (why else would you have alcohol free anything??) 

My song of the week is Laura Marling- New romantic

Lemon Basil Shortbread

Ingredients

200 g Plain flour

50 g Caster sugar

125 g Slightly salted butter, plus extra for the top

1 Small bunch of lemon Basil

Pre heat the oven on a medium heat.

Put the flour and the butter into a bowl, and rub together to from a crumb like texture. Add the caster sugar and the lemon basil leaves and mix thoroughly. You should be able to squeeze the bread crumb texture together to from a ball of dough, if its too sticky add some flour or if its too dry rub in some more butter. 

transfer the breadcrumb like dough into a baking tin and press down with the back of a spoon. You should see that the mixture firms up when doing this, make sure you get close to the edges as possible and really press it down firmly. 

Score the cutting pattern and sprinkle with the rest of the caster sugar. Bake in a medium oven for 15 minutes. 

Leave to cool on a wire rack and enjoy slightly warm.

Autumn Chocolate Cake

Have I said how much I love Autumn yet? This week was cold enough to wear my knitted roll neck jumper. (yay)

So, as this week has been the first proper week of Autumnal weather in London I decided to be brave and attempt to make a cake. I'm not brilliant at making cakes. I think it has something to do with being the polar opposite of precise. I just don't have the patience to be exact when baking and it is so often why my cakes fail. When baking a cake, you need precision, discipline and a good oven. I don't have any of those. 

This is why it is perfect for me, its based on a recipe by a lady called Jestei on Food52 (one of my favourite websites). I changed it quite a lot from Jestei's recipe, adding Earl Grey and Vanilla as flavours. I also made the icing with melted chocolate, icing sugar and olive oil. Chocolate and olive oil really work well together, so please don't knock it until you've tried it. Its one of my favourite flavour combinations, along with chocolate and earl grey. 

The baking tin I used was a fancy one I found while out shopping (in Aldi). I was completely over excited when they were selling them off in the bargain isle and brought several different ones. I was originally going to make a sweat bread in it after watching the Bake off final last week, but thought it might make a cake look a little less ordinary, so if you don't have to have a fancy tin to hand, a normal one will suffice. 

My song of the week, is really a song for every week, but its a good baking soundtrack....Flawless

Ingredients

6 Large eggs, separated

190 g Cocoa powder

200g Sugar

180g Butter

200g Good quality dark chocolate (use dark chocolate in cooking as it give it a stronger chocolate taste)

1 tsp Sea salt

1tsp Earl grey tea leaves or 1 bag (optional)

1 tsp Vanilla essence

For the icing

200g Icing sugar

50g chocolate

1 table soon of good quality olive oil

Melt the chocolate and butter in a pan on a low heat. Once melted together, leave to one side to cool. Whisk the egg whites in a clean large bowl, you can do this with a hand mixer to save time, whisk until firm peaks are formed. 

Transfer the chocolate mixture into large bowl and add the egg yolks, add the sugar and the vanilla essence. Boil the kettle and brew the tea in a cup of half full water, if using leaves you will have to strain before adding to the mixture, set aside for a few moments to cool otherwise you will cook the egg yolks. 

Add the cocoa powder to the chocolate mixture and the sea salt. Once the tea has cooled slightly add to the chocolate mixture. Fold in the egg whites with a metal spoon. At this point the mixture should be batter like, if it needs to be firmer add more cocoa power or if you like you can add a table spoon or two of flour. 

Pour into a greased baking tin and cook on a medium heat for around 30 minutes. The top of the cake should be crisp, timing is key with this as you still want it soft in the middle, but cooked enough so its not raw. Over cooking this would be a massive mistake, you need to look for something not to dissimilar from a brownie. 

Once its out of the oven, leave to cool completely on a wire rack. This is when you can make the topping.

Melt together the olive oil and the chocolate, mix in the icing sugar. Once the cake is cook completely pour over the top and let it dip down the sides. I chose to add a dusting of icing sugar on the top. 

Enjoy and please let me know if you do try any of my recipes, I love hearing from you guys! 

Curry & Beer

       

I love curry. I love it so much that I would happily eat it forever. Indian food is the ultimate comfort food, spicy, robust and social. You can prepare it a day or two in advance or make it quickly when you get home from work, but it always tastes better the day after you make it, having had time to soak and blend all the flavour. 

When I first started experimenting with curries, I thought that they were really complicated, almost exclusive, with alien ingredients and complex methods. It turns out actually it's very much like making stew. I'm not pretending that I know everything about curry making at all, in fact I know very little in the grand scheme of things, but I make simple curries that I like to eat.  

This recipe is an Indian curry, I find Indian curries easier because, being British it's what I'm more accustom to eating. It's based on a Murgh Korma from north India, very similar to the Chicken Korma from a takeaway. I'm not a huge fan of chicken in a curry, I much prefer beef or lamb as it gives a better texture and holds its own flavour well, but if you wanted to you could swap out the beef in the recipe for chicken legs or breast. 


My song of the week this week is by Lykke Li - Gunshot It's such a powerful song take a look, and also while you're there check out a very inspiring man called Javeed Moore, he came in to do a lecture at university this week, explaining how cerebral palsy effects his life. Javeed Moore

Beef Korma

500g Good quality stewing steak
2tbls sunflower oil 
1 Large onion
1 Thumb size piece of ginger
4 Cloves of garlic
1tsp Coriander Seeds
1tsp Paprika
1stp Tumeric
1tsp Garam masala
Large bunch of coriander
1 Tin of coconut milk (or unsweetened organic yoghurt)
1 Small green chilli (optional)
Salt and pepper to taste
Natural yoghurt to serve


Start by finely chopping the onion, garlic and ginger. Put a large heavy based pan on a medium heat and add the oil, add the coriander seeds, onion garlic and ginger, simmer for a few minutes until soft and translucent. 

Add the spices, salt, pepper and the finely chopped green chilli (if using). Let the mixture cook for about 3-5 minutes, making sure that you scrape all the spices off that may have stuck to the bottom of the pan, if it is beginning to brown to fast, simply add a few table spoons of water to soften the mixture. 

Once the spices have cooked through, add the meat that you are using and brown it off with the spices, this will take about 10 minutes. Add the coconut milk, or yoghurt a little bit at a time to stop it from curdling. I always taste at this point as you can alter the amount of heat, I made mine a little too spicy, so I added a drop of milk and some honey to tone down the heat. 

Pop a lid on and simmer on a low heat for as long as possible, you can eat it after about 20 minutes (this is when you could do the rice) or leave it for hours, it all depends on how much time you have. I like to leave mine as long as I can, adding some water occasionally if it gets too dry. 

Serve with rice, coriander leaves, a blob of yoghurt and a beer. 

Gluten Free Chocolate Cookies

I can't believe that it's now October. The leaves are really starting to fall here in London and Autumn is my favourite time of year. I've already packed my summer clothes away in a premature fit of excitement that soon it will be cold enough to wear my winter coat. I'm such a woolly jumper and Chelsea boots kind of girl. I love being able to go for a walk on a chilly day, stopping for a roast and a glass of red wine at a cosy pub. The perfect place to do this is The Spaniard on Hampstead heath, Charles Dickens himself immortalised the pub in the Pickwick Papers. Its the perfect country pub in the city. 

It suddenly occurred to me this morning that I don't have a cookie recipe on here. Cookies are the be all and end all in treats for me. If you have a cookie and a cup of tea, you don't need much else in this world. 

I think the fact that I woke up slightly hungover this morning also had a bearing on this too. I feel like I could eat just dessert and sweet based things today (if anyone wants to drop me the Peanut Butter Shortbread with Salted Caramel Ice Cream from Hawksmoor, I would be eternally in your favour). 

So, anyway, as I'm trying not to fall of the healthy wagon completely, I thought it probably should be something gluten free.  I always find it really hard to find really good quality gluten free baked goods. Let's face it, they just can't compare most of the time. A really nice flour replacement I found was Quinoa flour. It's really easy to make at home and has a really toasted nutty flavour. It works perfect in breads or even sweet pastry. Here is a really simple and clear recipe I used when making my own from Homemade Adventure. 

Here is my song of the day. Today it comes in the form of the Beatles, this video is the inspiration for my winter wardrobe. Get Back- The Beatles




Gluten Free Chocolate Cookies (Makes 12)

350g    Icing sugar
70g      Good quality organic cocoa powder
1 tsp     Vanilla extract
1/2tsp  Kosher salt
1/2tsp  Cinnamon
3           Large organic free range egg whites
350g    Chocolate (I used Galaxy Cookie Crumble, use your favourite)



Put the oven on a medium heat and line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

I used a standing mixer for this, but a hand held is fine. 

Add the icing sugar, cocoa powder, salt, cinnamon and the vanilla extract into the bowl. Add the egg whites slowly while mixing on a slow speed. The mixture should turn shiny and brown with a slightly silky texture. 

Chop the chocolate into small pieces. I prefer to use a bar of chocolate over chocolate chips as I find that they create a better consistency in cookies and they don't melt as much. Stir the chocolate pieces into the mixture by hand using a sliver spoon. 

Blob the mixture onto the lined tray, you should fit six on an average sized tray. Leave a little space between them as they do spread a little when cooking. 

Place into the oven and cook for around ten minutes or until they start to crack on the top. Let them cool on a wire rack. They may want to stick to the parchment paper so leave them until completely cool to try and remove them, or you will end up with twelve broken biscuits. 

Yotam Ottolenghi's Midweek Beetroot Salad

OK, first of all I have to say that how much I love Yotam Ottolenghi's food. His restaurant in Islington is all of the things you want from a restaurant. It's friendly, low key and the food is probably some of the best I've tasted. I was pleased (sadly, it was a Christmas day level of excitement) to see in this week's Guardian his Beetroot Recipes. 

Beetroot is, like many root vegetables, the sort of thing that can get very boring, very quickly. Apart from the usual pickled variety or in a special Sunday roast, I hadn't really experimented much with it. This simple salad is perfect for a midweek meal with some fresh bread, as a stater or in a lunch box. In mine, I swapped the Goats Cheese for some Mozzarella, but you could use any soft cheese and still get the same effect. I used vacuum packed ready cooked Beetroot to save time, I also griddled my peaches as I'm not to keen on hot and cold together. 

Sorry about the poor quality pictures, for some reason my phone camera was playing up and would not focus in the low light. I promise that this is just a one off. 

Ottolenghi's Beetroot and Peach Salad

Ingredients

1 Lemon, skin shaved off in one long piece
60ml Olive oil
4 tsp Cider vinegar
1 tsp Honey
1 Garlic clove, crushed
1 tsp Finely grated lemon zest, plus 1 tbsp lemon juice
Salt
8 Medium beetroot, stalks trimmed (a mixture of red and golden, or all red)
2 Ripe peaches, stoned and cut into 1cm wedges 
75g Rindless soft goat's cheese (or any soft cheese)
1½ tsp Aniseed, toasted and roughly crushed (or fennel seed)  
5g Basil leaves, larger leaves torn

Heat the oven to 200C/390F/gas mark 6. Put the lemon peel in a small saucepan with the olive oil. Bring to a simmer on a medium heat, then remove from the heat and set aside to cool. Lift out the peel, discard half and pat dry the other half, then cut into long thin strips. Set aside.

Put the infused oil in a small bowl and whisk in the vinegar, honey, garlic, lemon zest, lemon juice and half a teaspoon salt. Set aside.  

If you are using the vacuum packed ready cooked Beetroot, cut them into wedges, drizzle with olive oil, salt and pepper and cook in the oven for 15-20 minutes.

Wrap the beetroot individually in aluminium foil, place on a baking tray and roast for 45 minutes, or until cooked through (the cooking time varies a lot, so insert a small knife into a beet to check that it is cooked: it should go in with little resistance). Remove and set aside for 10 minutes, then remove the foil and peel the beets while they are still warm (wear plastic gloves or they will stain your hands). Cut the beets into 1cm-wide wedges and, if using both, keep the red and golden beetroot in separate bowls and pour half the dressing over each batch (otherwise, put all the beets and dressing in one bowl).

Then put a griddle pan on the hob on a high heat. Place the quartered peaches with oil in the pan, turning every 30 seconds. Once they have the lovely griddle marks on both sides, set aside to cool slightly. 

Layer the beetroot on a large platter, along with the peach. Try not to mix everything together too much, otherwise the red beetroot will bleed. Dot with the cheese, sprinkle over the aniseed and basil, finish with the reserved lemon strips and serve.

I hope that you are all having a nice week and eating well. It has been a busy week of baby showers, university and work again for me. If you try any of my recipes please let me know how they turn out, feedback is more than welcome.  Here is a link to another song that I'm loving this week, and every week. It's the master of everything, Elton John - Bennie and the Jets http://youtu.be/4hX5fRbsmE8

Heathy Breakfast Flapjack & Get Cooking More

Ok, I'm finally back home in London and back into the swing of University and work. Being back into my routine means eating healthy 80% of the time (this may not happen sometimes).  This means low sugar, no dairy and very few carbs. I've tried my hardest to stick to almond or soy milk, apart from coffee, as it just doesn't taste the same. This can make breakfast a bit tricky. One of my favourite things to eat is Bircher Quinoa porridge, with berries, nuts and almond milk. But eating the same thing can get very boring, so I've made some Breakfast Chocolate Flapjack. It's rich and chocolatey, and full of all the right stuff to get you going in the morning. Its really, really easy to make and is just a matter of chucking all the ingredients into a food processor and letting it set in the fridge over night. The recipe is below.

This week I read an article online stating that now we spend more time watching cooking programs on television than actually cooking. I found myself feeling a little sad about this as cooking brings me more joy than watching a program about cooking. I mean don't get me wrong, I would rather people be watching a cooking program such as The Great British Bakeoff, than some mindless soap. Even still, it made me wonder why have people lost the love for cooking? 

I know for me, that cooking brings not only a sense of achievement, but rather selfishly I love to see people enjoying my food. Nothing brings me more joy to see peoples faces light up and have a good evening over good wine and food. To me food is just more than fuel for the body, food is a social event. 

People often use the "we have no time", or "we can't afford" excuses and thats exactly what they are, excuses. Knocking up a traditional Spaghetti Carbonara (NO CREAM) takes the grand total of 10 minutes to make, a perfect midweek comfort food. A tomato sauce can be made in 20 minutes, plum tomatoes, garlic, basil and olive oil in a pan simmer, done. 

I want people to really find simple midweek go to basic meals. Some of my favourite meals are done off the cuff, making it up as we go along, using things from the back of the cupboard. Making food is about being creative and learning from mistakes. 

Next time you're out shopping, don't buy the jar of sauce or a chemically overloaded ready meal, get onto the internet and find a simple recipe that you can make quickly from scratch, you won't regret it, I promise. 

Chocolate Breakfast Flapjack

100g Walnuts

100g Almonds

100g Sunflower seeds

100g Soft dates

2 Table spoons of organic honey

1 Banana

1 Tea spoon of cinnamon

1 Table spoon of  raw cacao

1 Table spoon of coconut oil

Put everything together into a food processor, blitz until it forms a paste texture. There will be bigger nut pieces in there, but that makes it better. 

When the consistency is right, transfer the mixture into a lined tin and leave in the fridge over night. Cut into pieces and enjoy with a brew or on the way to work. 

Friday Stuff & Cakes

Happy Friday, everyone. We have made it though the week. This one has been full of trains,  university, colds and Derbyshire for me. Spending so much time on trains to and from london for university has given me a lot of time listening to music and reading. The song that has kept me going this week has been 'My Silver Lining', by First Aid Kit. It's soothing to the ears. The song is here if you haven't heard it yet:

 http://youtu.be/DKL4X0PZz7M

The boy and me have been spending some time in Derbyshire after a hectic summer.  One of my favourite things to do when home is to visit Chatsworth House. I didn't manage to get a picture of the house as it's unseasonably foggy today, but we did visit the award winning farm shop for lunch. 

The farm shop has won many awards and they sell produce made and grown on the estate. Selling everything from fresh flowers, organic fruit and vegetables, to local ale and even the venison that roam the grounds.

This Autumnal weather made me want to cozy up by the fire with an Earl Grey and piece of cake, so this afternoon I knocked up a simple Victoria Sponge. I'm currently eating a slice as I type, and I have to say that the sweet cornish cream I substituted for the usual butter cream inside is delicious. I've added the recipe below.

  

Ingredients

For the cake:

120g Soft butter
120g Caster sugar
150g Self raising flour
3 Large organic free range eggs
A few drops of vanilla extract

For the filling:

500g Fresh organic English strawberries
200ml Organic west country double cream
80g Icing sugar

Start off by putting the oven on a medium heat and greasing two 12" cake tins.

Put the soft butter into a bowl with the sugar, cream the two together with a wooden spoon. Once the mixture has lightened whisk the eggs one at a time, adding a spoonful of flour at the same time to prevent it curdling. Adding the last of the flour slowly, then the vanilla extract and give it one good last stir.

Separate the mixture evenly into the two cake tins, spreading the mixture to the edges. Put the tins into the oven-preferably on the same shelf, but if there isn't enough room don't worry to much about it.
Let them bake in the oven for about 15-20 minutes. You can see when the cakes are ready as they start to separate from the edge of the tin.

Once done turn them out onto a cooling rack and leave to cool thoroughly, don't be tempted to start filling the middle yet, as the cream will just melt everywhere!

While they are cooling, whisk the cream until firm then stir in the icing sugar. Cut the strawberries into half and take any green bits off.

When the cake is at room temperature, spread the cream over the base, and lay the strawberry's onto the cream, starting with the point towards the outside of the cake, then continuing into the centre. Add the top and sprinkle with icing sugar.

Enjoy like I have, with a cup of tea and a good magazine. Have a good weekend guys and check out the pictures of the Chatsworth Farm Shop below.