Tag Archives: Recipe

Sweet Palmiers

Recipe, WBIAGW, , , , , , ,

Today I’ve cooked up a batch of these for a BBQ were having tomorrow, the recipe is one I learned on my “Creative Canapes” class while on.honeymoon in Tideswell.

They’re delicious on their own, with a cup of tea or as a side to a creamy custard dessert.

Sweet Palmiers

200g Puff Pastry
60g sugar (it doesn’t matter if it’s granulated or caster, I used golden caster for these)
Half teaspoon cinnamon
One egg beaten
Water

Pre heat your oven to gas mark 6 abs then start by rolling your pastry on a lightly floured surface. You’re looking to roll a rectangle approximately 30cm x 15-20cm and 3mm thick (about as thick as a pound coin)

Mix the sugar and cinnamon together in a bowl, make sure it’s well combined and there are no lumps of spice.

Brush your pastry with the egg abs then evenly sprinkle the sugar & cinnamon over the entire surface. Once covered use your rolling pin and lightly roll over the surface to help the sugar stick to the pastry and sprinkle with water.

With the pastry laid out landscape in front of you with a sharp knife gently score 6 even strips along the length….I find this easiest to approximate the centre of the pastry and start there, score a line and then you know you need two lines above and two below equal distances apart.

Now, take the top section of pastry and fold it down over the next section down, do the same with the bottom section, folding it up over the next part. Brush the freshly exposed pastry with water and then repeat the folding to get the pastry to meet in the middle. Brush this too with water and then fold it over itself one last time.

Chill for 10-15 minutes… this really helps with the next step as if it’s not chilled it’s too squishy.

Lightly grease and sprinkle with water a baking tray.

Lay out the freshly cooled roll on a lightly floured surface and slice into 5mm thick pieces.

Evenly space these out flat on the tray squashing them slightly with the palm of your hand as you go.

Bake for about 8 mins, or until golden. Leave on a wire rack to cool.

These store well in an air tight container 2-3 days….. but in our house they never last that long.

These could also be made by mixing powdered ginger into the sugar in place of the cinnamon. Or you could use chocolate paste in place of both…. Or make them savoury by using pesto or tomato sauce… the possibilities are endless!

Cheat Use store bought puff pastry because there’s not enough hours in the day to be making my own all the time.

New Cookery Book

Books, Recipe, WBIAGW, ,

I have a bit of an addiction with cookery books. I know there is nothing in them that I couldn’t find online if I wanted and I do subscribe to several food blogs, but, there is something lovely about turning a page of a book to find inspiration overleaf. The irony is I very rarely follow a recipe. I tend to use these books for ideas and then adapt to suit our tastes or whatever I have in the fridge at the time. Ah well, here’s my latest bedtime read…

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…and yes I really do flick through these in bed. I know that’s not normal right?

Salted Lemon Asparagus

Recipe, WBIAGW, , , , , ,

So after a mammoth cooking session Sunday all that was left this week was to eat it! Today’s option was the cottage pie, made with shallots, minced beef, carrots and creamed potatoes it was a simple tried and trusted recipe and the only decision left to be made was what to serve it with. I went with green beans and this Salted, Lemon Asparagus.

Salted Lemon Asparagus

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Asparagus, as much as you need per person (and in my house that’s a lot, we love the stuff)
Lemon juice
Sea salt
Olive oil
Butter

Pre heat the oven to gas mark 5. Lay out the asparagus on a baking tray, it doesn’t matter if it’s overlapping at all.

Drizzle over a slash of olive oil, a good squeeze of lemon juice a generous sprinkling of the salt. Put knobs of butter on top and then pop on the bottom shelf of the oven.

It cooks in about 15 minutes. The asparagus should be still just a little firm.
Serve straight from the oven.

Delicious.

Cherry and Vanilla biscuits

Recipe, WBIAGW, , , , , , , ,

Today I’ve spent a very productive afternoon in the kitchen. I’ve a busy week coming up so decided to get ahead of myself again and make our meals for the coming week. So far I have meatballs for spaghetti and meatballs, cottage pie and a chicken curry ready to go, but, while I was at it I also made some Truffles, roasted lamb for today’s dinner and baked some biscuits. I love those biscuits, they’re quick and easy to make, if you’ve the ingredients at hand 20 minutes tops…

Cherry and Vanilla biscuits

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5.5oz butter / margarine
8oz plain flour
4.5oz caster sugar
1tsp vanilla essence
Glacé cherries

Pre heat oven to gas mark 4.

Sift flour into a bowl and add butter. And rub together until it resembles breadcrumbs.

Stir through sugar, vanilla essence and chopped glacé cherries (I have no idea how many cherries, I just chop and add until it looks about right) and then being together with your hands to form a dough.

Roll out on a floured surface until about a centimeter thick, cut into shapes and set out on a greased baking sheet. bake for 15mins (or until they just start to colour on the edges).

Finish with a dusting of caster sugar and leave to cool and firm. Or if you’re a fatty like me just scoff them still warm and soft from the oven with a cup of tea as per the picture above.

Alternative flavours

I’ve also made these with lemon flavouring and mixed peel, almond flavouring with no fruit and also just plain vanilla. All equally delicious and seriously moorish!

Balsamic Roast Tomato and Red Onion

Recipe, WBIAGW, , , , , , ,

Knowing the boy was staying with his Nan Friday night I wanted to cook something up that wouldn’t be on our usual menu. Anything green or with any spice is a no go to his 13 year old palate, hell at times it seems anything that isn’t processed within an inch of it’s life is too much for him to handle, fish comes from a box in breadcrumbs or batter in his world so I tend to cook more than the standard pasta or meat and 2 veg when he’s not around.

So with that in mind while in Sainsbury’s in the week I bought 2 beautiful fresh Tuna steaks. I ummed and ahhed over how to serve them and finally decided to pan fry them in lime and black pepper and dish them up with Crunchy Chilli Potatoes, Mangetout and Balsamic Roast Tomatoes with Red Onion, as sides go it couldn’t be simpler.

It was essentially a posh fish n chips with tomato sauce 😉

Balsamic Roast Tomatoes and Red Onion

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I made this to serve 2 but again this can be scaled really easily to serve more (or less)

Cherry tomatoes.
Red onion
Balsamic vinegar
Black pepper

Preheat the oven to gas mark 4 and at the same time heat a tablespoon of olive oil in heavy bottomed pan one the hob.

Throw in a hand full of cherry tomatoes (I used 4 per person).

Quarter a small red onion and add to the pan.

Cook until the tomatoes are going soft and the onion is starting to colour.

Put a tablespoon of balsamic vinegar in an oven proof dish and add the veg toss to coat in the vinegar, added more if necessary, sprinkle with ground black pepper and put on the top shelf of the oven.

Cook for 15 minutes or until the tomatoes are completely soft but still holding their shape.

Serve immediately.

Because this was going with Tuna flavored with lime I served on top of fresh coriander. Just yum!

Chocolate Truffles

Recipe, , , ,

This year for Christmas I handmade chocolate truffles as gifts for my friends, They are really simple to make and incredibly tasty.

Chocolate Truffles

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For one batch

150g chocolate
75ml double cream
2 shortbread fingers

Break the chocolate into chunks and set aside in a bowl.

Warm the cream until just below boiling, pour over the chocolate. This will start the chocolate melting.

Put the bowl with the cream and chocolate over a saucepan of simmering water (make sure the bottom of the bowl isn’t touching the water) and melt the chocolate stirring into the cream until smooth.

Crumble the shortbread and mix well into the chocolate cream mix.

If you want plain truffles set the mix aside at this point to set, if you want it flavoured add the extra ingredients now stirring through well and then set aside…

Different chocolate takes slightly different lengths of time to set so they could need to be left anything between 2-4 hours what you’re looking for is something quiet solid that holds its shape when rolled into balls.

Once it’s at that consistency use a heaped teaspoon of mix and roll to shape between your hands. It can be quite messy and the warmth of your hands can begin to soften the mix again.

Once all the mix is used roll in icing sugar, coconut, cocoa or chocolate flakes to finish dependent on flavour.

These store really well in an air tight container.

Flavour combinations I’ve used are…

White chocolate and glace cherry rolled in icing sugar.
White chocolate and dried apricot rolled in icing sugar
Milk chocolate and ameretto finished with chocolate flakes
Dark chocolate and dried cranberry rolled in cocoa.

If adding fruit use dried fruit, 25g is about enough per batch.

If adding spirits add a cap full only at a time and taste. A little goes a long way in this mix.

Vegetable Pastry Slice

Recipe, WBIAGW, , , , , , ,

Last night I had my friend Catherine over for dinner and it gave me the opportunity to try out a variation of a recipe I’d read online a while ago.

I hadn’t got all the veg in the house that I remember was in the original but I had enough that I thought it would work.

Here’s what I made

Vegetable Pastry Slice
(Makes 4 slices)

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One pack of pre rolled puff pastry
2 red onions
1 red peppers
8-12 Cherry tomatoes
Some  Mushrooms
Roasted red pepper pesto
Mozzarella
Cheddar

Take the pastry out of the fridge before you start, that way it will have warmed slightly be less cold before you’re ready for it and is less likely to crack when you unroll from the pack.

Pre heat oven to Gas mark 6 (or whatever that equates to in °c/°f)

Peel and quarter the onions and separate the layers and slice the peppers.

Chop mushrooms into quarters.

Heat some olive oil in a heavy bottomed pan and throw in the veg, after a couple of minutes throw in the mushrooms and either 2 or 3 cherry tomatoes per slice (dependant on taste). Remove pan from the heat when the veg is starting to look charred and the tomatoes soft.

Unroll the pastry, lie flat and cut into quarters.

Now take a sharp knife and score a line all the way around the rectangle about 1cm in from the edge being sure not to cut all the way through. (Don’t worry if you do a little in parts turn the pastry and smooth with your finger to rejoin the edges), and place on a baking tray.

Using the score lines as a guide spread the pesto over the inside of the slice.

Now spoon the vegetable mix equally on top of the pesto.

Milk or egg wash the visible pastry and put on the top shelf of the oven.

Cook for approx 10 mins or until the pastry is starting to puff.

Remove from the oven and crumble the mozzarella and as much grated cheddar as you like over the veg.

Season with black pepper and return to the oven for 5 minutes, or until the pastry has browned and the cheese melted.

Finish with a couple of leaves of fresh basil.

I served these with rocket, cherry tomatoes and olives with a balsamic dressing.

Variations, I think this would work with roast vegetables too and I’m planning on trying a similar method with ham, asparagus and cheese. In fact I think you could use this method to top the pastry with just about anything!

With thanks to our friend Jez Turner for the mozzarella, made with his fair hand.