Apple and Cinnamon Soda Bread: Guest Post by Ruby Tandoh

 

Since reaching the final of series 4 of the Great British Bake Off, Ruby has been writing for The Guardian and working on her cookbook, Crumb, which is due to be released in Autumn this year. I was lucky enough to meet her last year through my position with the London Student, and, as we stood nervously in line waiting to meet Nigel Slater together in December, she kindly agreed to write me and Zosia a guest post. So here it is!  




Made with bicarbonate of soda rather than yeast, this gently sweet, crumbly loaf takes just one hour to make. It relies on the near-instantaneous chemical reaction between the soda and the acidic buttermilk for its rise, so make sure your oven's preheated and ready in advance so that the bread isn't left waiting. If you can't find buttermilk (although most supermarkets should sell it), use 200ml of sour cream topped up with 100ml of milk.

 Ingredients:
- 300g wholemeal flour, plus extra to dust
- 1tsp bicarbonate of soda
- ½ tsp salt
- ½ tsp cinnamon
- 2 small dessert apples, finely diced
- 300ml buttermilk
- 2tbsp honey

Method:
1. Preheat the oven to 180°C/fan 160°C/gas mark 4.
2. In a bowl, combine the flour, bicarbonate of soda, sat and cinnamon. Toss through the small cubes of apple then stir through the buttermilk and honey. You'll be left with a wet, sticky dough.
3. With floured hands, on a floured work surface, shape the dough into a rough ball. No need to worry too much about neatness here - it's a pointedly rustic-looking loaf (or so you can claim!).
4. Transfer the shaped dough to a baking tray, dust lightly with flour and score a deep cross into the top with a sharp knife. Bake for 50 minutes until golden.

More of Ruby's recipes can be found in The Guardian, or on her personal blog, Ruby and the Kitchen.

A Great Big THANKS and a Celebration!

So you remember the week before last when I got really excited because my vegetable chilli was featured in Sainsbury's Reader Recipe competition? Well, I WON.

Thank you so, so much to everyone who voted! I'm absolutely over the moon. You can now find me published on the Sainsbury's Blog!

See that? A record number of votes!!

 I really can't express my gratitude enough so I'll say again, thank you to all! 

I'm now going to celebrate with some fancy focaccia and a bottle of wine, so I shall bid you all a fond goodnight for now.

And Then Something Amazing Happened

Hello, lovely readers. I have some very exciting news - you remember my vegetable chilli? Well... it's featured in this month's Reader Recipes Competition in the Sainsbury's Magazine!

I had no idea until I was approached by a girl in one of my seminars, who double-checked my name and then told me I was in it. I was (/am) completely thrilled, and spent the rest of the seminar texting my parents from under the table because it was just too exciting. I'm in the same magazine as Mary Berry!

The chilli's so easy to make, and so perfect for this time of year as it gets wetter and colder and you need something to cheer you up inside and out.

I would be so grateful if you could click on this link - right here - and vote for me, as the recipe with the highest number of comments will be printed in full. Also if I win the cookbook I'll make things from it and then blog about it, so it's really all for you, dear readers. Thank you!

A Souperior Use for Tomatoes

Life is a bit mad, which is why posting has been a bit sporadic recently. I've been stalking the legend that is Nigel Slater during his visit to my tiny Cumbrian town, and interviewing the lovely Ruby Tandoh from The Great British Bake Off for The London Student. Also, I felt I should blog something savoury, which meant actually cooking something savoury and not just spending my days baking and eating cake.

Last week, Mum came home with LOADS of tomatoes from her friend at work, and they needed to be used. And so, my sister and I made tomato soup. And it was really good.

Ingredients (serves 4):
- 1.5kg tomatoes, roughly chopped
- 1 large red onion (or two small), roughly chopped
- half a red pepper, roughly chopped
- 2 cloves garlic, peeled and roughly chopped
- 1 litre vegetable stock
- large bunch basil leaves, torn

Method:
1. Put the tomatoes, onion, pepper and garlic into a large roasting dish. Drizzle with olive oil and add some salt and pepper and about a third of the basil leaves, then cook for 40-50 mins at 220°C, stirring every 15 minutes.

2. Tip the vegetables into a large saucepan, then pour in the vegetable stock and bring everything to a gentle boil. Add the rest of the basil leaves and simmer for 5 minutes, then take off the heat and blitz until smooth.
3. Season to taste, then serve with lots of bread. Easiest meal ever.

Proper Gluten Free Pasta

Firstly, apologies for the lack of posting this month! General end of term stress combined with moving out of this year's house (and, in my case, carting my possessions 300 miles up the country) has left us fairly exhausted. But this one's awesome enough to make up for it - I promise.

Since watching it done on Masterchef and countless other BBC food programmes, I've wanted to make my own pasta. At some point Zosia happened to mention missing ravioli since having to cut out gluten, and that was that. GLUTEN FREE RAVIOLI.

And you know what? It wasn't difficult. I didn't have a pasta-maker. And it was the best gluten free recipe I've ever made. Usually gluten free baking makes everything sort of crumbly, but this was properly elastic and smooth and lovely and I was so pleased. It was based on this recipe and took a little bit of time (and some extra man-power with the rolling out - thanks Harry!), but I'll definitely be making it again.

Ingredients (serves 4):
- 300g gluten free plain flour
- 1tbsp xantham gum
- 1tsp salt
- 5 eggs
- 1½tbsp olive oil

Method:
1. Mix together all the dry ingredients, then add the eggs and oil and mix until it stops resembling breadcrumbs and starts to come together (ideally, this would be done in a food processor).

2. Remove from the food processor, if using, and knead for a few minutes until a smooth ball has formed.
3. Wrap in clingfilm and put in the fridge for 15 minutes - or as long as you need to while you do other things (this is a good time to make your ravioli filling).
4. Remove from the fridge and divide the mixture into four (this makes it MUCH easier to work with), then sprinkle some flour onto your worktop and roll out one of the pieces of dough to about half a centimetre. Then, fold the dough 4 or 5 times and roll out again. Repeat this about 6-7 times, or until your arms give up!
5. Roll out your dough as thin as you can get it. Then, for ravioli, use a biscuit cutter (or a glass) to cut shapes.
6. Beat another egg in a bowl with a splash of milk (you can just use milk if you're all out of eggs). Take one pasta shape and put a teaspoon of your ravioli filling into the middle (I made a spinach and ricotta filling - half the amounts there served three of us, so adjust to what you need). Brush around the edges with a little of the beaten egg, then grab another shape and stick down firmly. If it's not properly stuck it'll burst in the pan, so get pressing!

7. Repeat the whole thing with the rest of the dough (I told you it was a bit time consuming).
8. Bring a big pan of salted water to the boil and drizzle in some olive oil. Carefully drop in the pasta and cook for 4-5 minutes (the cooking time depends on the thickness of the pasta: if it was tagliatelle or something without a filling it would be more like 3-4 minutes). The best way to take it out and make sure it doesn't break is to use a slotted spoon, though don't worry if you don't have one.

9. Serve up with a good sauce. I made this because it's one of my favourites, and it was great. Like, REALLY great. Go make it.

One ha' Penny, Two ha' Penny (Hot Cross Buns)

I've been meaning to make hot cross buns for years, but somehow never got round to it. The Easter holidays is always full of birthdays and revision for me, and so baking always seemed to get knocked down the 'to do' list until it was suddenly no longer Easter and I felt like I couldn't make them.
BUT NOT THIS YEAR!

Just look at all that sticky goodness. Also, I know they look a bit over-baked but I promise you they don't taste burned and are amazing and you should make them. So there. I adapted Paul Hollywood's recipe, because even though I'd never made them before I still can't just follow a recipe. And my version really is brilliant (if I do say so myself).

Ingredients:  (makes 12)
- 300ml milk
- 375g strong white flour
- 225g strong wholemeal flour
- 75g caster sugar
- 1tsp salt
- 7g sachet fast-action yeast
- 60g butter
- 1 egg, beaten
- 125g mixed fruit (raisins, sultanas, currants... that sort of thing)
- 75g mixed peel
- zest of 1 orange
- zest of 1 lemon
- 2tsp ground cinnamon
- 1tsp grated nutmeg
- sunflower oil, for greasing the bowl
- 50g plain flour mixed with 5tbsp water (for the cross)

- 2tbsp apricot jam mixed with 1tbsp water (for the glaze) 

1. Warm the milk until it starts to boil, then remove from the heat and let it cool to hand temperature.

2. Mix the butter, egg, flours, sugar, salt and yeast together in a bowl. No fancy rubbing or creaming or anything like that, just bung it all in and stir a bit. Try and make sure the salt and yeast don't go straight on top of each other though - salt kills yeast, so if you do that your buns won't rise.

3. Add half of the warm milk and stir, then gradually add the rest. You won't necessarily need all of it - just use enough to bind it all together. Also, don't worry if it's really sticky. It's meant to be. Trust.

4. Add the mixed fruit, peel, spices and zest, then tip out onto a lightly floured surface. Knead for about five minutes (holding the dough with one hand and using the heel of the other to stretch it), 'til smooth and elastic-y, then place it in a lightly oiled bowl (covered with oiled cling film) and put it in the airing cupboard/somewhere warm to rise for an hour.

Before and after rising. Possibly my favourite bit.

5. Divide the dough into 12 even pieces, and roll each piece into a ball. Arrange on a baking tray that's either been greased or lined with baking parchment, so that when they rise again they'll just be touching. Let prove for another hour (I got distracted and proving time here was more like two hours, but it was all fine, so don't worry if you do something similar).

6. Turn on your oven to 220°C at this point, then make up the mixture for your crosses - literally just stir the flour and water in a bowl. Grab yourself a plastic sandwich bag and spoon in the mixture, twisting the top. Cut a small hole in one of the corners, and use it as a piping bag. Pipe across a whole row of buns (rather than doing one at a time), then go the other way to give crosses.

  

7. Bake for 20-25 minutes on the middle shelf of the oven 'til golden brown. Enjoy the brief period of being able to tell your boyfriend you have a bun in the oven and making him laugh/run away screaming (depends on your boyfriend I suppose. Thankfully mine laughed).

8. In a small pan, heat the apricot jam and water 'til they're all mixed together and quite runny. Brush the buns with the glaze as soon as they're out the oven, then let cool and set before ripping apart to serve - if the people in your house can wait that long.

Happy Easter, all.

The most awesome macaroni cheese in the world ever.

This isn't really macaroni cheese because it's not made with macaroni. Just to get that out there now. But what else could you call it?

I never really liked macaroni cheese - to the point that when I told Mum I'd made this she was genuinely surprised. But I had an odd craving the other day, and I also had an awesome goats' cheese in the fridge I brought back to London from home. So I made this, loosely based on a recipe from Lorraine Pascale.

 

Ingredients: (serves 3)

- 9oz rigatoni or penne
- 4 spring onions
- 2 cloves garlic
- 1 tsp dried thyme
- 30g bag curly parsley                          
- 30g plain flour
- 30g butter
- ½ nutmeg, grated
- 2tsp French mustard
- 300ml double cream
- 100ml milk
- 75g goats cheese
- 50g parmesan
- salt and pepper
- 100g breadcrumbs 

Method:
1. Preheat the oven to 200°C. Chop the garlic and spring onions, and put into a pan with a knob of butter and the thyme. Cook until soft and starting to colour - about 8 minutes.
2. Put the pasta on to cook. Do for 2 minutes or so less than the packet instructions, as it'll cook more in the oven.
3. Put the butter, flour, nutmeg and mustard into a saucepan, and cook on a medium heat until the butter has melted and it's formed a sort of paste.
4. Take off the heat and let cool for a couple of minutes, then add the milk and cream slowly, beating constantly to avoid it going lumpy or splitting. *IF IT DOES SPLIT* let it cool more, then grab some extra milk and whisk in a little at a time until the sauce comes together.
5. Put the pan back onto the heat and add the cheese, along with about two thirds of the parsley and some salt and pepper.
6. Tip the pasta and spring onion mixture into a dish, and pour the sauce over the top. Mix well and top with the breadcrumbs, then bake for 20-25 minutes until golden and bubbling. 

 You can vary it however you fancy too - such as by adding leeks or pine nuts into the spring onion mix, or using a different kind of cheese. Whatever you have in your cupboard!

A Post-Snow Warm Up

As is the case for most of the country at the moment, over here we're covered with a blanket of beautiful snow. There have been snowball fights, snow angels and even a snow rabbit, and at the end of the day you need something warm and comforting to come back to - that preferably doesn't require a lot of effort. Enter bread and stew.

I always think of stew as being a bit bland and mushy, and generally not the most appealing. I don't know why because I've never really had it, but this blows the generic 'stew' idea out of the water. It's a take on one by Nigel Slater, and is full of spices and textures and goodness. And as for bread, I've adapted a family recipe to make gluten-free bread rolls. So. Much. Good.

Stew - mine's basically the same as Nigel Slater's recipe, but a vegetarian version with a few extra bits
Ingredients:
- 4 medium onions
- 3 small carrots
- 1 large stick celery
- 1 clove garlic
- ½ tsp mild paprika (you could also use smoked)
- ½ tsp cinnamon
- ½ nutmeg, grated
- 300g Puy lentils (green work fine as a substitute)
- 500ml veg stock
- large handful fresh parsley
- 1tsp sugar
- couple of knobs of butter
- crème fraîche (to serve)

1. Melt a knob of butter in a large pot or saucepan. Roughly chop two of the onions, along with the celery, carrots and garlic, and add to the pan. Cover and let steam for a few minutes, before adding the spices. Stir to coat and cook for a few more minutes. 
2. Add the lentils, stock and 500ml of water. Cover and leave for 30 minutes - stirring occasionally - until the lentils are all soft and nice. 
3. While that's cooking, stick another knob of butter in a small pan. Chop the two remaining onions into fairly large pieces, then add along with the sugar. Allow these to cook slowly and caramelise, and then finish with a grate of nutmeg. 
4. Add your handful of chopped parsley to the lentils along with some salt and pepper, then serve with the onions and a dollop of crème fraîche.

Gluten-free bread rolls - my Mum calls these 'milk rolls' for reasons which will soon become apparent. The gluten-free version makes 8-10 rolls, but you tend to get more out of the regular version.
Ingredients:
- 300ml milk
- 50g butter
- 7g sachet dried yeast
- 1tsp caster sugar
- 500g gluten-free plain flour
- 1tsp salt
- 1 small egg, beaten

1. Place the milk and butter in a pan and heat until lukewarm.
2. Sieve the dey ingredients into a bowl and mix together. Make a well in the centre and pour in the liquid along with the egg. Mix to a soft dough, then spend a few minutes attempting to knead some air in. If you're making the regular gluten version knead well until smooth and elastic.
3. Cover with a damp cloth and leave to rise in a warm place for 30 mins, until increased in size.
4. Turn onto a well-floured surface and have another attempt at kneading for a few minutes. Cut into pieces and shape into rolls.
5. Place on a greased baking sheet, cover and leave in a warm place for another 10-15 minutes. Grab another egg and beat it with a splash of milk, then use this to glaze the rolls. Sprinkle with various seeds to make them all pretty, then bake in a preheated oven at 220°C for 20 minutes.

Voila. I know the snow is causing a lot of disruption and all, but I kind of hope it stays a bit longer. 

Days like these are the best.

Chocolate-Orange Biscuit Bites: Guest Post by Jamie-Rose Duke

Hello all, this is Bryony and Zosia's friend Jamie-Rose Duke tip-tapping away here - hoping I can do their ace blog justice! 

If there's one thing I've learned throughout my near twenty years, it's that there's never a bad time to bake biscuits. Free fact of the day for you there. And over the Christmas holidays, not having had the comforts of my kitchen at home for three and a half months, I was keen to get my baking groove on. Now, as a bear of little brain and simple pleasures, such as myself, it didn't take me long to decide my main two ingredients: Chocolate (or cocoa, to be precise) and alcohol (or Cointreau, to be even more precise)

And you know what?

My chocolate-orange, crumbly biscuit bites turned out pretty damn well. And they're super easy to make!

You will need:

250 grams of soft butter

150 grams of caster sugar (although, light brown works just as well)

40 grams of cocoa powder

300 grams of plain flour

1/2 tsp. of bicarbonate of soda

1 tsp. of baking powder

The zest of 2 small oranges (or one large one) - be thorough with the zesting!

1 1/2 - 2 cap-fuls of Cointreau triple sec.

1. Make sure your oven is pre-heated to 170°C/ gas mark 3 (or around 150°C if you have a fan oven).

2. Cream the butter and sugar in a bowl until it's soft and smooth (no lumps of butter still visible!).

3. Next, add the cocoa and once that's mixed in, the flour, bicard and baking powder - remembering to sieve it all first!

4. Add the orange zest, mix in, and then the two caps of Cointreau (if you're not keen on adding the alcohol, then just adding the juice of the orange(s) is just as wonderful - I'm just quite a fan of triple sec!).

The first two photos on this guest post were taken by the beautiful Miss Bryony Bowie herself :)

5. When the mixture is complete, it's time to roll it into balls and stick them well spaced on baking trays lined with parchment. The balls should be about the size of a walnut and you should be able to make anything from 24-30, all depending on the size you think walnuts are.

6. Before popping them in the oven, gently pat down each biscuit-to-be so they're about a centimetre and a half thick. (I like to gently imprint a fork on the top, just to be fancy) And when that's done, bung the trays into the oven for about 15 minutes - again, you can judge this time for yourself depending on how ferocious your oven is. 

7. When they come out, don't be surprised if they don't look quite done, they'll continue to cook as they cool - which you should let them do on a wire rack, when they're cool enough for you to remove from the baking tray.

8. ENJOY THE BISCUITY GOODNESS. 

This recipe is inspired by one of Nigella Lawson's. Just with a few added bits and bobs :)

This Is Uni Christmas Dinner

There is something quintessentially British about a roast dinner, particularly at Christmas, and I'm sure I'm not alone in saying it's my favourite day of the year. We've just had our last weekend at university before the holidays, so we decided to make it our honourary Christmas so we could celebrate together. Earlier in the week we Christmas-ified the house, and yesterday Jamie and I went out to pick holly before I embarked on the epic mission that was the roast dinner. It was beautiful.

 Not just the food (though that was pretty darn good if I do say so myself), but the company and the laughs and the cracker-hats and just everything. It was a good day. BUT I'll stop being sentimental now and get on with the recipes - I'm going to go through all the elements (in the order I started making them), so this'll be quite a long post, but it'll be totally worth it, promise.

Meat substitute:

I decided to make some awesome veggie pies, because I couldn't find anything nice in tesco. This made enough for four of us, as I did gluten-free red onion and rosemary sausages for Zosia.

Ingredients:

- 1x 500g pack puff pastry                                            - 150ml white wine                         

- 25g butter                                                                  - 1½ tbsp plain flour

- 6 shallots, roughly chopped                                       - 250ml veg stock          

- 2 cloves garlic, crushed                                              - 75ml double cream                   

- half an onion (save the other half for gravy)              - sprinkle of dried thyme            

- 4 new potatoes, peeled and chopped                        - salt and pepper             

- 1 pack asparagus tips, washed and chopped              - 1 egg       

1. Melt the butter in a pan and add the shallots, onion and garlic, then cook until soft and just beginning to colour - about 8 minutes.

2. Add the thyme, new potatoes, asparagus (not the tips yet) and wine, and boil 'til the wine has almost gone. Add the flour and stir well.

3. Pour in the stock and add the tips of the asparagus, then season to taste. Simmer for 10 minutes, stirring fairly regularly so it doesn't stick to the pan.

4. Add the cream and cook for another 3 minutes. Voila, filling done.

5. Roll out the pastry to about 1cm thick, then cut into small and large circles (I used a cup for the smaller ones and a bowl for the larger). Put the smaller ones on an oiled baking tray, then pile on as much filling as you can stack up, leaving a rim around the edge. Wet the rim and then put the larger pastry circle over the filling, making sure it sticks to the rim of the smaller circle. If you like you can also make decorations for the top, and stick those on with water too.

6. Beat an egg, then brush the pies with it. This will make them all golden and lovely. Once that's all done, they want about 30 minutes at 200°C in a preheated oven.

Roast potatoes:

This, like the yorkshire puddings, is Andy's recipe - a mix of his ideas, Nigel Slater's and Nigella's. A mix which certainly works, because roast dinners should not be as good as Andy's are, so I'm copying.

1. Begin by heating about 1-2cm of vegetable oil in a roasting dish at 200°C.

2. Peel enough potatoes for the number of people, and put into a pan of cold water. Bring to the boil, and cook for a MAXIMUM of 5 minutes.

3. Drain the potatoes in a colander, then put the colander on top of the empty pan and place the pan lid on top for about 5 minutes, or until you're ready for them. This will steam dry them and make them extra crunchy later.

4. Sprinkle over some plain flour (or semolina powder if you have it - I was on flour) and some salt and pepper, then do the hokey cokey (aka shake it all about) and get them all scuffed.

5. CAREFULLY, place the potatoes into the super-hot oil, making sure they're completely coated. Really do be careful - I was rushing too much yesterday and I have the burn-marks to prove it.

6. Put the dish back into the oven and let the potatoes cook for 35-40 minutes, checking and turning them half way through.

I over-did them a bit, but honestly it just added to the crunch. YOU CAN'T LOSE WITH THESE.

Yorkshire puddings:

This was my first time making Yorkshire puddings, though I've had Andy's and Mum's homemade ones for years. Mine therefore weren't quite as awesome as hoped, but practise makes perfect.

Ingredients (makes 12 - you'll need muffin tins):

- 4 eggs

- 250g plain flour (I used gluten free)

- 350ml milk

- pinch sea salt

1. Preheat the oven to at least 240°C, and fill each muffin tin cup with 1cm of vegetable oil. Put the tins in the oven for the oil to heat while you prepare the batter.

2. Whisk the eggs, milk and salt in a bowl for about 5 minutes using an electric whisk, longer if by hand. The mix should increase in size and be all bubbly, then leave to stand for 15 minutes.

3. Whisk in the flour a little at a time 'til there are no lumps. You should have a smooth batter, and the oil in the oven should be beginning to smoke slightly. 

4. Evenly distribute the batter into the muffin tins (I found it was about 4tbsp per cup), being very careful 'cos they're pretty darn hot. Bake for 20-30 minutes, leaving plenty of space for them to rise. Do NOT open the oven door while they're cooking, or they'll sink and it will be sad.

No, mine weren't as spectacular as Andy's, but it was my first time. And also I was using gluten free flour which is a bitch to work with. So really, all in all: SUCCESS.

Roast carrots and parsnips:

1. Grab enough carrots and 'snips for the number of people, then peel them all and top and tail them.

2. Carrots - chop roughly in diagonal-ish chunks, then place in one half of the baking dish. Drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper and a handful of either tarragon or thyme. You can also add garlic too, if you fancy. Give them a good stir so they're completely coated in everything.

3. Parsnips - chop either into small chunks, or cut them vertically and keep them long and thin. Pop them in the other half of baking dish and do the olive oil/salt and pepper thing like with the carrots, then give them a squirt of either honey or maple syrup. Stir to coat.

4. Cook for 30-45 minutes at 200°C, taking out to stir every 15 minutes or so to prevent them burning on top.

I forgot to get a picture of them cooked, but you can see them on the finished plate.

Cheesy leeks:

This is my Mum's recipe adapted from a Jamie Oliver one, and for me no roast is complete without them.

Ingredients (serves 4-6):

- 800g leeks, washed and chopped

- 2 cloves garlic, crushed

- 30g butter

- tsp mustard (French is always best)

- 200ml single cream

- 100g cheddar cheese, grated

- thyme (6 sprigs fresh/decent sprinkle of dried)

1. Melt the butter in a saucepan, then add the garlic, leeks and thyme. Cook for about 10 minutes, until the leeks have softened and shrunk down.

2. Tip into a baking dish, then season, add the cream, mustard and half the cheese and mix together.

3. Top with the remaining cheese and bake for 20-25 minutes, 'til golden and bubbling.

This is not my picture. I forgot to take one... though in my defence I was incredibly busy. I'll update this the next time I make them, and for now you can have Jamie Oliver's as a rough guide (although I use a deeper dish and fill it more).

Greens:

You can use whatever you like for these - I used a pack of tender-stem broccoli, some green beans, a few handfuls of kale and some sprouts. Because even though I hate sprouts, it's Christmas, and in my house that means being given two sprouts and being made to eat at least one of them. It's all good fun.

1. Chop the broccoli, sprouts and beans how you want them. Melt some butter in a saucepan, then add the broccoli and sprouts. Cook these for about 8 minutes, stirring regularly, and then add the beans and cook for another 5 mins.

2. Finally add the kale, and cook for about 3 more minutes, until it's shrunk down. Then season well and add a good squirt of lemon juice, and serve.

Gravy:

I made up a pint of Bisto caramelised onion gravy, to which I added a teaspoon of marmite, a dessert spoon of cranberry sauce and (after frying in olive oil 'til soft) the other half of the onion left over from the pie filling. Waste not want not.

Merry Christmas, all.

Nigel Slater

Nigel Slater is my idol, and has been for years. I love his entire approach to food - it sounds like a small thing, but he taught me that I didn't have to follow recipes by the letter and that I could adapt them to what I really wanted to eat. As well as my mum, he was also the person that got me really into using fresh herbs. He introduced me to pesto, and began my obsession with cooking programmes.

Which is why it meant so much to me when this happened today:

I got twitter in May after I was told it would help promote my cooking, but wow. People, go, live your dream!

This particular recipe is an adaptation of Nigel's Ricotta Beefburger. Mine is made with Quorn mince, the addition of soft goats' cheese (replace about half the ricotta) and two/three eggs (because Quorn doesn't bind in the way normal mince does). In addition to this I also added a splash of balsamic vinegar to the sundried tomatoes, which worked well.

I wholly recommend making these, whether it's the veggie version or the original, as they were pretty darn brilliant and incredibly easy. Leftovers? Mr Slater covered that too. Now go and cook.

Bonfire Honeycomb

I made honeycomb on Thursday for the third time. Both previous attempts were made last year when we lived in halls of residence on campus, and were, as a friend would say, of questionable merit. The first time the sugar burned (the electric hobs took hours to cool down, so when I attempted to turn it off after the temperature needed for a 'rapid boil', it just kept on cooking. Cue making the whole of Runnymede JK smell of burned sugar. Still managed not to set the fire alarm off though, for which people should be thankful.). The second time I was overly cautious and it wasn't quite cooked enough. 

They always say it's third time lucky though.

I followed Lorraine Pascale's recipe because Zosia has her cookbook, but Nigella has a nice looking one too. Neither of them make loads, but that's probably a good thing as far as my teeth are concerned.

Ingredients (to fill a 20cm tin):

- 80g/3oz butter

- 160g/5½oz caster sugar

- 80g/3oz golden syrup

- 2tsp bicarbonate of soda

1. Grease the tin with vegetable oil (any flavourless oil is fine). The best way to do this is to pour in about a tablespoon and then use a pastry brush to distribute it and make sure there's no excess.

2. Gently heat the butter, sugar and golden syrup in a large heavy-based frying pan until the sugar has dissolved.

3. Turn up the heat and boil rapidly, WITHOUT stirring. Make sure the flames aren't licking up the sides of the pan, and if the mixture goes darker at one side then swirl the pan. Do this until it turns a golden-brown 'honeycomb' colour - Lorraine Pascale says this will take about 5 minutes, but I'd say it's more like 3-4. Don't let it go too dark or it will catch and become acrid, and no one wants that.

4. Add the bicarb and stir rapidly for a few seconds, then pour it into the oiled tin and leave to set. I tend to make mine in the evening, so it sets overnight. When it's all firm, you get to smash it up. I've found a really good one for this is our knife sharpener, but you could bash it with the end of a rolling pin or just about anything.

You can add it to puddings, or just put it in a tin and bring it along with you to watch the fireworks tomorrow. With a flask of tea. Or Baileys hot chocolate. I know what I'll be doing...

Yet another completely frivolous cake post

And here's the original pin...

 

 I completely blame Pinterest for this one. 

Even though mine looks a little gnarlier than the inspiration...

But there I was, pinning away as you do when I saw that picture. I showed the madre and she decided that maaaaybe that was a cake that should happen to our lives. 

So I decided that it would. 

Also when you give your little brother a fiver and ask him to go buy you malteasers and you expect him to come back with two, maybe three bags, you should revise your expectations. That resourceful child came back with five bags. I ended up using about four but STILL. Too many malteasers can be overwhelming okay. 

So to do this one, first off you gotta have a cake. Of course, I recommend chocolate cake. Specifically, Lorraine Pascale's "I Can't Believe You Made That Cake."

What you need:

Vegetable oil (to grease the tins)
200g of softened butter

200g of caster sugar

4 free range eggs

140g plain flour

60 grams of cocoa powder (I've used hot chocolate powder before for a sweeter cake)

Pinch of salt

2 teaspoons of baking powder

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees celcius and brush your cake tin with vegetable oil.

2. Cream together the butter and the sugar until they start to go pale.

3. Add two of the eggs and half of the flour. Mix well.

4. Add the other two eggs, the rest of the flour, the cocoa powder, the salt and the baking powder. Beat until the mixture is smooth. 

5. Spoon into the prepared tin, spread it out evenly then bake in the oven for 30=40 minutes, or until you can poke a fork into the middle and it comes out clean.

6. Leave to cool. (Always a really important instruction. Because if you don't, your cake will crack up and the icing will melt. Be patient...)

Now you gotta work on the malteasers bit. In the end I used about four big bags of Malteasers but at the end of the day it depends on the size of your cake. I'm gonna say its better to have too many than not enough, because then you can eat em.

(Also nope. Malteasers are sadly not gluten free. But I used them anyway. Because sometimes cake is worth breaking your usual rules for. I used gluten free flour and I only ate two slices. So s'all good)

ANYWAY. Buttercream:

190 g of softened butter

60 g of cream cheese (think Philadelphia.)

250 g of icing sugar

5 teaspoons of cocoa powder (add more if you taste it and think it needs more chocolate...)

 Cream together all the ingredients into buttercream. It is inevitable at this point that you will get icing sugar absolutely everywhere. That's just the way it is my friend.

Now take your cakes out of their tins and place on a plate. Spread the bottom one with a layer of buttercream. Place the second one top and spread with buttercream. It's important to create an even surface so your malteasers have something sensible to stick to so make sure you fill in the gap between the two halves of the cake properly.

Once all of the buttercream is on the cake, spread it out evenly across the whole cake, aiming to create a smooth, slightly domed surface on top.

Now it's malteaser tiiiime. Your aim is to create a line across the cake, from the bottom, across the surface and down the other side to the plate again. Place more lines on either side of this one until the cake is completely covered.

Push the malteasers into the buttercream ever-so-slightly, then place the cake into the fridge so it all sets solid and you're good to go.

Also I had this for breakfast Monday morning. Before having a very fun and dramatic asthma attack in hospital. Also now I'm on steroids. CHEST INFECTION FTW.

(This explains my lack of posting. Also the lack of savoury cooking because I'm too ill for that. Just cake.)

Sunny Sunday with the Madre, as you do.

I made this tonight, after a lovely sunny London day, involving random medieval art, cats in flatpack furniture and the Cutty Sark.

The Cutty Sark. (Plus bunny shaped cloud.)

And then we came home and I maaaaade Glamorgan Sausages with Red Onion and Chilli Relish. Courtesy of the Hairy Bikers. AND IT WAS AWESOMMEEE.

That recipe shows you how to make the stuff on the left. I'd write it out again but I didn't actually change anything because this was a new one to me... Okay, I maay have mucked about a bit with most of the quantities but I'm pretty sure the original recipe is miles better. 

All that was served with rocket leaves aaand roast potatoes. A la my Madre.

They look so crunchyyyy.

The trick is to peel em, boil em til they're ready to eat then you roast em. Put them in a deep oven tray, drizzle them with plenty of olive oil and then cook them at 200 degrees celsius for about an hour. Every now and then, take the tray out, give them a shuffle around and a bit more olive oil and they'll be as crunchy as anything. Simple really...