Honey Mustard Ham

Hi guys, this is a recipe I made a while ago. My mum had brought me up a large gammon steak and it sat in my freezer for a couple of months as I simply had no idea how to cook it (I don't like pineapple). Come the Christmas holidays and there I am, trying to use up all the edible contents of my kitchen, still with no clue about the gammon. Cue Delia online and her gammon with honey and mustard recipe. Perfect, I thought, and then I realised that my steak was only one but much larger than her two (Liam was also eating it). What to do? What to do? I decided to follow her instructions and just increase the measurements to work for my steak. It was time to get my calculator out. I'm going to make things easier for you and say that if you have a steak that's for x number of people then just times the numbers by that. And maybe add a little extra, after all, more of this delicious sauce isn't a bad thing.

An Unbirthday Present

So, it is my birthday today - I'm 21! My family have a tradition of giving presents to the rest of the family on our birthdays (so on my mum's birthday my sister, dad and I each get a present as well), so today I thought I'd give you an unbirthday present. Although I cooked a healthier version of butter chicken and some delicious salted caramel fondants today, understandably (I hope), I didn't feel like writing a long post on my birthday, so instead I shall give you a piece of food trivia and a photo of me in my new hat, making the fondants. The hat has a huge pink pompom on it!! I love it!! I'll post the recipes soon - the butter chicken will appear as part of my Don't Say Never Trust A Skinny Cook series.

Trivia: Marc de Champagne isn't a type of champagne used in food preparation (like I thought it was) but rather a colourless brandy, made from the leftover grape skins, stalks and seeds from the first stage of champagne production, which are then distilled. If you don't believe me then you can google it!

Photo:

I hope you like your unbirthday present - does your family do anything like this?

Dumpling Recipe and Merry Christmas!

Boiled dumplings

Happy Christmas Eve and here's a early christmas present for you all: I've finally written this blog post about cooking dumplings with my cousin's Taiwanese wife, Charlene! We cooked together last Monday and it was great fun to make dumplings with someone who knew what they were doing. My sister looked after Charlene's two adorable little boys so we could cook in relative peace, although Charlie (aged 3 and a half) decided to "help" us with a very funny opinion as to how dumplings should be folded - in half and then half again before being squished into a ball - fortunately he didn't cotton on to the fact that we gave him the same wrapper each time, rerolled when he wanted a new one!

Charlie rolling out his wrapper

Included in this post are two videos on how to pleat dumplings but you can also get a dumpling press, from here or here, just make sure you cut the wrappers a few sizes bigger than the edge of the mould as it will sink in when you put the filling in it. I wound up using the largest of my round biscuit cutters with the middle sized mould. Interestingly, once Charlene had showed me how, I found it much easier to pleat them by hand than use a press as it doesn't matter what size your wrappers are.

Our Daily Bread

Now that it's almost christmas (whoo!), and you hopefully have some time off, why not try baking your own bread? It seems daunting but it's actually surprisingly simple. Just make sure you start in the morning and not at 8pm like I normally do, so that you have time to let it rise and cook without being kept awake. Even though the whole process takes around 3 hours, the hands on time is maybe 25-30 minutes. You could do it whilst cleaning, cooking something else, or as short breaks from revision and at the end of it you get delicious homemade bread. It tastes incredible with good quality olive oil and balsamic vinegar and I often find myself at midnight on the night I made it having a little snack!

a midnight snack to reward myself

Admittedly, I only started making my own bread once I got my KitchenAid (I think I need a name for it - any suggestions? The best name will get a special recipe named for them) but as that coincided with moving into a flat with a good kitchen, I don't think it was the only reason and you certainly don't have to have one to make bread. Your hands will work perfectly, as has been proved for 30,000 years (thanks Wikipedia!). I started by making brown bread, which I later learnt is very hard to master, but switched to white bread when I couldn't get brown bread flour one day. If you make your own bread, I honestly don't think brown bread is much "better" for you than white - there's only 6 ingredients in both and no preservatives. Anyway, I'm sure I read somewhere that brown bread is better in some respects but worse in others, so to be honest, it's your personal preference.

London

I've been juggling a cold with a lot of catching up with friends now that I'm home this week and haven't been paying you the attention you deserve. But. This is a quick set of photos to show you how I view London (clue: basically just an opportunity to eat) and to let you know that on Monday I made dumplings with my cousin's wife, who's from Taiwan, and one day soon when you wake up there will be a recipe and videos on how to pleat dumplings up for you to enjoy - maybe you could make a family project of it over Christmas? My first cousin/second-cousin-once-removed (not sure which way round they are), "helped" adorably by showing us how you should fold a dumpling (though without filling I'm not sure how great it was!). Also coming soon will be a recipe for bread that you can make at home. The reason these posts aren't happening immediately is two fold; firstly I'm shattered and secondly I need to send Charlene the photos from Monday first! However, I'm going away for Christmas, to a sleepy village where there's not much to do but curl up but by the fire and read/write blog posts/revise so I should finally start uploading more recipes.

Selfridges had giant bottles of popcorn on sale
Surely it would go stale before you could eat it all?

Red Velvet Cupcakes

So, it's terribly late and I've been rushing around all day sorting things out, but I did promise you the red velvet cake today. Therefore, with 10 minutes on the clock before midnight, I'm dashing this off. I apologise if this doesn't quite have my usual panache but I'm sure you can still tell it's me! And, to be honest, they say that a picture is worth a thousand words and this cake, if I do say so myself, is fairly spectacular. I also forgot to take photos of the snowman/penguin making process so I can't talk about that anyway!

Although all of these photos are of the cake I made for yesterday's christmas party, the recipe is actually for cupcakes, as I'm aware that students read my blog (hi there) and probably won't want to make a three layered cake and have access to all the tins etc. Cupcakes on the other hand only require cases and ideally but not necessarily a cupcake tray to support the sides as they cook. To make a three layered cake you just need to double all of the quantities and bake it for 25 minutes in three 8 inch cake tins. The mix makes 18 fairy cakes (the best size) or 12 american cupcakes (far too big, and anyway, you get less of them!). For the larger ones just add 3-5 minutes to the baking time.

Macarons

The finished macarons

So, I've been frantically, and unsuccessfully, trying to finish a few christmas presents before Sunday, so all my spare time has been spent doing those rather than blogging, but I did find time to make some macarons  on Wednesday AND THEY HAVE FEET!!!!!! For those of you not as excited as I am, they are a mark of a successful macaron and notoriously difficult to achieve - they're the ring at the bottom of the shells that you can see either side of the filling in the above photo. The feet may have been going slightly outwards and there might be a few difficulties with cooking times/temperature but I'm so happy that it worked and they tasted good. The last (first) batch I made nearly reduced me to tears, although that might have been the pricey Valhrona chocolate bars that I'd just wasted!

Ready to go in the oven

I'm not going to give you a recipe just yet as I haven't perfected them but I will practice more in the new year and tweak it before posting my version of the classic. To make these I followed Entertaining with Beth's video and recipe with Ladurée's macaron book for additional guidance in french (it counts as work then!) and so many sites telling me how not to go wrong that I've forgotten most of them, although I do remember Chocoparis' tips as being particularly helpful in telling me where I'd gone wrong so I could avoid it next time.

French Fougasse

Ready and waiting to be eaten

Fougasse is a delicious type of bread that you get in France, that is often stuffed with different fillings - my favourite is made with bacon and shallots. I used purchase this in Paul bakeries on trips to London and was disappointed when they changed it from being a large tear and share bread, to a personal sized tear and keep bread! I can't find it in Manchester and so I decided to make my own! (And for some reason I just read that in Jeremy Clarkson's voice!). What better reason to make it than for the French society's French food evening? Grace came over to help, and make her own contribution, a Moroccan salad, and between us, we made 6 fougasse that were so good we decided not to take many of them with us to the food evening (none got eaten there anyway as I arrived late and all the other food had already gone!).

Chicken And Cashew Nuts

So, you've all been waiting a long time for this dish and for that I apologise, I was trying to get a burn rate of less than 50%! My overriding piece of advice is to be careful when you make this - I've burnt myself with the oil twice in the five times I've made this. It was probably worth it though and that warning aside, let me tell you about the first time I ate this dish. It was in Thailand at the Rayavadee hotel, we'd just come back from a day of snorkelling around the islands (ok, I bobbed about them in a life jacket but that ruins the image!) and were relaxed and sun kissed. When we arrived at the restaurant I wanted something simple, without coconut milk, and chicken with cashew nuts caught my eye - it's one of my sister's favourite dishes, so I knew it tasted good. The sauce, which the chicken is cooked in, combined with the crunch of cashew nuts and the knowledge that there's three of your five a day (but doesn't taste like it) included, all combine to make this dish a constant favourite. 

The basis for this recipe came from The Wanderlust Kitchen, as did the tip for how to cut the chicken into thin slices. However, I have changed the recipe as it didn't include any vegetables and my family strongly believed that the best ones (from restaurants we've been to in Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam) contained lots of vegetables.

Still Alive And Cooking

Red velvet cupcakes

Hmm, it's been ages since I last posted and for that I apologise. I've spent most of the last week huddled up on the sofa, tissues and lemsip to hand, watching food network and Gilmore Girls reruns. I have, however, still been cooking, though somewhat half heartedly. Also, on Friday, I had an early 21st birthday party (less than a month until I actually turn 21!) at Cloud 23 in Manchester, where we had a cocktail masterclass that was So. Much. Fun!!! As well as the excitement/illness I've also had a few essay deadlines but they are no more! Unfortunately it's now procrastination, I mean, exam revision time.

My 21st

I have a list of recipes that I need to share with you over the next week or so: if I get my act together I'll write them tomorrow and set them to post a day at a time, so keep checking back - I'll set them for 11am each day so you have something to look forward to. The recipes include: macarons; red velvet cupcakes; fougasse (a type of French ciabatta that I made for a uni food evening); pizza; more bread; the ever promised and half written about chicken and cashew nuts; and pork potsticker dumplings.

Special Egg Fried Rice

The 'special' bit is that the dish is really easy to make but versatile. (shhh, don't tell anyone!)

So, I'm currently taking a break from writing a french essay and translation in order to write another type of essay! Hopefully this one will be shorter and more interesting than the one I have to submit (2,000 words on why I chose this way of translating it and not that one). This is my easy and lazy recipe for speedy asian comfort food, because, lets face it, you won't always have chicken and the necessary veg for more complicated recipes but you will always have rice, eggs and frozen peas, with a bit of soy sauce or kept manis to add flavour.

Raspberry And Nectarine Upside-down Cake

Well, it's been a while, I tried to write a recipe for vanilla ice cream the other day but realised I hadn't made it quite right and I want to make sure it's a good recipe before I share it with you. I've been home for reading week and, in honour of my dad's flying visit back, we cooked a roast - for which I made pudding. It's a great dessert as it involves both cake and raspberries; these are a few of my favourite things (when the dogs bite, when the bee stings ... sorry, got carried away there!) and because you have to spoon it into a bowl it counts as pud, unlike a proper cake. Unfortunately for me I decided to make the cake part by hand and remembered how much easier it is when you have machines to do it for you. If you make your own cakes with the bowl and spoon method then I commend you - you obviously have better arm muscles than I do (maybe I should work mine more at the gym)!

Creaming thee butter and sugar

You can use either peaches or nectarines for the other part of the fruit, depending on what you can get in the supermarket. I prefer to use fresh fruit but so long as you drained them well I see no reason why you could use tinned fruit instead. Even if the cake looks cooked before the 40 minutes in the oven is up, don't take it out, like my one yesterday, it will still be liquid in the middle! Just put tin foil over the dish to stop the top from browning any more. I make mine in advance and reheat it in a low oven whilst we eat our main course, it saves on stress!

Updates

So, the commenting issue has been partially resolved - I don't know if Gmail accounts work but if you select 'name and URL' (you don't have to have a URL) then you can post a comment. The other unforeseen thing is, as I changed my blog's name, you need you resubscribe to keep getting emails - sorry about that!

My next post will go live in a few hours and involves a delicious fruit and cake pudding, perfect for the cold of winter with a summer kick of raspberries and nectarines. Coming up, I'm making Chinese potstickers, a sausage pasta bake that's perfect for a no fuss meal, and something as yet undecided with chicken.

Do you have any ideas as to what I could cook with my two chicken breasts? Please leave your suggestions in the comments.

Until later!

Homemade Naan (Much Easier Than You'd Think)

I love the fluffy naan that you get in restaurants, but not so much the supermarket ones that you heat up at home. As I was making curry for my dinner party I thought I'd also try my hand at naan to recreate that gorgeous fluffiness at home. It was amazingly easy after researching a few recipes and combining the best ideas I came up with this, which seemed a simple and tasty way of making them. They went down well and I wish I'd made more/bigger naan!

Naan Recipe

Makes 5 at the size in the picture, you could make them bigger or smaller as you wish

Preheat the grill as hot as you can

If you can't get onion seeds (I couldn't) a nice lady in Waitrose said to use sesame seeds for crunch or a handful of chopped coriander leaves for flavour

As usual I used my Kitchen aid to knead the dough for simplicity

Ingredients

1½tsp dried yeast

1½tsp sugar

200g plain flour

100g strong white bread flour

1½tsp black onion seeds

¾tsp salt

¾tsp baking powder

1½tbsp vegetable oil

3tbsp plain yogurt

3tbsp milk

Method

In a small bowl mix the yeast and sugar with a tablespoon of lukewarm water and leave to activate for 10 to 15 minutes until frothy.

In the mean time put into the mixer bowl the flours, onion seeds, salt and baking powder.

When the yeast has activated add it to the mixer bowl along with the oil and yogurt.

Set the machine to knead the dough, stopping once it is soft and smooth, add some of the milk if the dough feels dry.

Cover the bowl with cling film and leave in a warm place for at least an hour, until it has doubled in size.

Heat the grill.

Divide the dough into as many balls as you want naan.

Using your hands, gently pull and flatten each ball into a tear shape about ½cm thick.

Dry heat a frying pan and then place one of the naan into it for 15 seconds or so to lightly brown one side. Place the naan, seared side down, onto a tray under the grill for 2 to 5 minutes until it has puffed up and has golden patches on the top.

Repeat with the other balls of dough.

Enjoy with curry.

Leek and Bacon Pasta Bake

This is a family favourite and I can't remember where it originated from but my sister can probably tell me! We normally cook this in France and have a few variations - chicken and broccoli, leek and bacon, pea and chicken, or any combination of those ingredients. I'm afraid this is one of my very vague recipes as I always forget to weigh the ingredients before I cook them. You just need to make enough cheese sauce to cover the pasta. Last time I made it I used half dried pasta and half fresh pasta and it tasted delicious.

Bacon and leeks

Leek and bacon pasta bake recipe

Serves 3 or so people

Preheat the oven to 180˚

Ingredients

2 leeks, thinly sliced

6 rashers of bacon, cut into pieces

Enough cooked pasta for 2 people

Knob of butter

Plain flour

Milk

Optional grating of nutmeg

Cheddar cheese or gruyère

Method

In a frying pan gently and slowly cook the leeks and bacon until the bacon is cooked and the leeks are soft and not squeaky.

Cook the pasta so that it's al dente.

Melt the butter in a heavy based pan and add the flour to make a roux (when it makes a sort of paste from the melted butter and flour).

Once the roux is made, slowly add milk, stirring/whisking all the time, until the mixture is smooth.

Bring to gently to the boil and keep stirring until the sauce thickens.

Take off the heat.

Grate a little nutmeg in (I don't know where to put in the nutmeg in a cheese sauce so I just add it near the end) and then pop the grated cheese in to taste. Stir until the cheese is melted in.

Put the leeks, bacon, pasta and sauce in an ovenproof dish and cook in the oven for 20 minutes or so until the cheese has melted and is beginning to brown on top.

Cheese sauce with nutmeg

Murgh Makhani

Also known as Butter Chicken, this Indian curry is generally mild, though in parts of Asia I've ordered it and it's most definitely been a medium-spicy curry! In fact, the sauce I used for the dinner party was also a medium curry, so I'd suggest you use less of the paste if you don't like spice very much. According to Wikipediea the authentic Delhi version of butter chicken is more spicy than the western kinds so that might explain the spice differences!

If you want a vegetarian curry then change the chicken to Paneer cheese (it's Indian cottage cheese, I bought mine from Waitrose). You don't need to marinate the cheese, just make the sauce and add the paneer about five minutes before serving it. It's called Paneer Makhani if you make it this way.

Paneer

Murgh Makhani Recipe

Serves 4

Serve with rice and/or naan (homemade is best!)

You need to marinate the chicken for at least 2 hours, but I normally do this overnight to help the flavours develop (ooh, that sounds very professional!)

Ingredients

Marinade

450g diced chicken

2tbsp butter chicken paste (mine is Fern's and I bought it from theasiancookshop.co.uk and souschef.co.uk - it's fairly authentically spicy though!)

2tbsp thick plain yogurt

2 crushed garlic cloves

1tbsp vegetable oil

Sauce

2tbsp vegetable oil

1 diced onion

100ml cream

1 tin of chopped tomatoes

2tsp sugar

100ml water

2tbsp butter

2tbsp curry paste

Method

Mix all of the marinade ingredients together in an oven proof dish and put in the fridge for at least 2 hours, preferably overnight.

When you want to start cooking preheat the oven to 200˚ and put the chicken in the oven for 25 to 30 minutes, turning occasionally.

Meanwhile, fry the onions in oil until soft and then add the curry paste, frying until fragrant.

Add tomatoes, butter, water and sugar and then cover the pan with a lid, cooking for 20 minutes.

Put the cooked chicken into the sauce, or gravy as it's also known, and cook for a few more minutes, stirring everything together - it'll really start to look good now.

Finally add the cream and check seasoning before serving.

How spicy do you like your curries?

Easy Peasy Tomato Sauce

I never seem to have pasta sauces in the house when I need them so I make my own sauce whenever I want a simple meal. It tastes amazing with homemade pasta (dried pasta also tastes very good) and takes maybe half an hour to make (if the pasta's already been done that is). Take a look at my other recipes for how to make your own pasta.

Pasta sauce recipe
Use a heavy bottomed pan with a lid and remember to stir it occasionally or else it sticks
Feeds 2 with one can of tomatoes, add another and adjust the seasoning for 4 people

Ingredients
1 onion, roughly diced
drizzle of olive oil
1x 400g tin of tomatoes
Crushed garlic
Seasoning
Fresh basil (optional but great if you have it)

Method
It's simple, really, just soften the onions and garlic in the oil, add the tomatoes basil and seasoning.
Cover and let simmer for about half an hour, stirring occasionally.
If you over-salt the sauce just add some brown sugar for a sweet counterpoint.

What's your go-to sauce? Is it homemade or shop bought?

Decadent Dinner Party Chocolate Tart

I hosted a dinner party last night. I'm currently curled up on the sofa remembering the awesome, if I say so myself, food, and less fondly, the amount of alcohol. I'm not hungover, before you say anything, but absolutely shattered and full to the brim. It was meant to be a meal for 7 but the day before people started dropping like flies so it wound up being the me, Grace and her boyfriend, Dom eating curries with pilau rice and homemade naan, followed by vanilla ice-cream (the first time I made it) and a double chocolate tart with amaretto, which is the recipe that I'm sharing with you today. The other recipes will follow.

The recipe is from Tom Kerridge's recent TV show and his version has sugar coated almonds and coffee cream plus even more chocolate. Whilst chocolate is never a bad thing there was rather lot of it - three quarters of a kilo to be precise! I kept the amaretto as it tastes really good, though you can omit it if you need to. Try not to be tempted to add more as the flavour really does develop over time. Also, the best/only type of amaretto sold in England is Disaronno Originale, a fact that I didn't know until I asked someone at Waitrose if they had amaretto and they pointed to the Disaronno right next to me!

Chocolate Tart Recipe

You need a 9" round loose bottomed tart tin for this - it turns out that this is very different from the 8" sandwich tin that I originally was going to use, so if you don't have one then I'm afraid you do need to buy one.

Ingredients

Pastry

175g plain flour

40g cocoa powder

80g icing sugar

140g cold butter, diced 

2 free range egg yolks (preferably medium eggs)

Filling

560g milk chocolate

195g double, or heavy double, cream

90ml amaretto

Method

Pastry

Sift the cocoa, sugar and flour into a large bowl (sifting really is necessary for this one - sorry!).

Add the butter and rub into breadcrumbs, or blitz in a stand mixer - be careful not to over mix it like I did!

Then add the eggs yolks and mix into a dough, adding cold water if it feels dry.

Wrap in cling film and leave in the fridge to rest for an hour (I left mine overnight and it was a bad idea - very solid and then poof, it was suddenly too soft to do much more than rush it).

Preheat the oven to 170˚C.

Lightly flour your work surface (or use The Mat by Sweetwise, like I did) and roll the dough out so that it is large enough to fit in the tin and about half a centimetre thick.

Gently place the rolled dough over the case and carefully press the dough into the corners of the tin (if there's a large extra long piece of dough then tear it off, wrap it in cling film and use that to press the dough into the tin).

Line with baking parchment and then baking beans and place in the oven for 25 minutes before removing the beans and parchment and returning the pastry to the oven for another 10 minutes to dry it out.

Once it has cooled firm the excess dough off the edges of the pastry case.

Filling

Using a bain marie (see Coeliac brownies post) melt the chocolate over a low heat.

Pour the cream and amaretto into a pan and heat until boiling.

Add the cream and amaretto mix to the chocolate and stir until incorporated.

Put the ganache that you've just made into the cooled pastry case and leave to cool.

Once the ganache has cooled, place into the fridge for at least 30 minutes so that it sets (In my case I had to put it into a cake carrier and then on my balcony as the fridge was too full!!).

Serve with ice cream (vanilla or coffee would be best).

Do you like double chocolate or do you find chocolate desserts too sweet?

Oops, sorry - this evidently refused to post yesterday!!

Gluten-Free Brownies

We all know someone who's coeliac or doesn't eat gluten, it's becoming a common phenomenon now.  I came across this recipe years ago when a friend was newly diagnosed and envious of all the cakes and sweet treats that everyone seemed to be enjoying. It's such a good recipe that it's now my go-to brownie recipe, although I rarely use gluten free flour as none of my immediate friends here are coeliac. The only problem is if someone is allergic to nuts as the way the recipe keeps down the flour is by using ground almonds. On the other hand, if you like nuts then add hazelnut butter in place of half the butter (keeping the other half) - it makes it taste of nutella!

New Name For The Blog

Hi guys, as you might have noticed, I've changed the name of my blog. The Interesting Food Blog was a good name (my sister came up with it) but unfortunately if you type that into Google you just get lots of awards sites, which are great but I have no hope of competing with the likes of Saveur and Delicious. given that they are magazines. Gourmet In The Making, is the new name and hopefully it's accurate - apparently my father said to my mum "I think Lily's turning into a foodie". Mum's response? "She always has been!". I may never compete with the top chefs (and I'm not sure I want to at this point in time) but I hope you enjoy my recipes and don't forget to like me know how they go (I believe the anonymous option for posting comments is working but the google one isn't - I'm still working on it).

Comments

Hi guys, I'm having some problems with comments not appearing on the blog and I know that some of you have had issues. If you could hold fire for a few days on any messages, now that I'm aware of the problem im working hard to try to fix it. Thank you for your patience.

Fajitas

I've been struck down by fresher's flu (despite no longer being freshers) so my cooking and blog writing has suffered a bit. I'm now well again and raring to cook some more. So far so good on that front: this week I've made scotch eggs, pasta, 4 batches of brownies, fajitas and tortilla española. In making all of that I have used up two dozen eggs! The meal I'm telling you about today is the only one that doesn't contain any eggs.

I'm not going to say that there's a recipe to make fajitas because there isn't, not really. Just choose the options on the list that you want, cook the chicken/quorn in the fajita seasoning mix and the relevant veg then place everything in bowls on the table. Voilà, one fun meal for everyone to enjoy. The photos were taken by Sarah, who stood on a chair, announcing she felt tall, in order to take some of the pictures.

Fajita "recipe"

Take your pick as which bits you want.

Put the tortillas in the microwave according to the instructions on the pack (normally about 30 seconds for 4).

I tend to serve two tortillas per person, heating the second ones as everyone finishes their last mouthfuls of the first.

Ingredients

Chicken (one small breast per person) or quorn (especially for Grace!) to the same amount as the chicken.

Fajita spice mix (mine's from Barts and I got it at Waitrose)

Shredded lettuce

Hot and/or cold sweetcorn (my sister will only eat it cold, ick!)

Salsa (Tracklemore do nice ones - I found it really difficult to find salsa in the small supermarkets near me and wound up buying mine in a cheese shop in Didsbury)

Chipotle sauce (Changos in Manchester does the best and they now sell it in store)

Grated cheddar cheese

Tortilla wraps

Mushrooms sliced and fried in butter

Melted red peppers and onions (2 of each plus butter)

the peppers and onions beginning to melt down

Method

Cook 2 red peppers and 2 onions, cut into long strips, in about 50-100g of butter over a low heat for 30 minutes, keep the lid on and stir occasionally, adding more butter if needed.

Cook the chicken/quorn in butter and add the seasoning to taste.

Heat/cut the rest of the ingredients as you wish and place in bowls.

Heat the tortillas in the microwave for 30 seconds.

Remind everyone that there's got to be enough for another round and tuck in!

What do you put in your fajitas?

Warming Leftovers Lentil Bake

My mum made this dish often in Singapore and I enjoyed it but felt the meal was too warming for the climate. I made it for my flatmate and a friend in Manchester and it was perfect for the colder weather! It's incredibly healthy with everything you need for a balanced meal - protein, vegetables, carbohydrates and dairy. It's easy to make in advance and reheats well (excellent when it's a recipe for 4 and there's only 2 of us). If you need to omit the meat that's fine otherwise it adds a nice bite and you can use leftovers from the Sunday roast. Also from your Sunday roast you can use uneaten potatoes and vegetables. Food recycling at it's best!

Lentil Bake

Preheat oven or grill

Use a Le Cruset style pan (mine is a size 20)

Ingredients

¾ cup of lentils

1½ cup tomato passata (otherwise puree a tin of tomatoes)

1 roughly diced onion

1 large diced carrot

1 diced red pepper

½ cup of sweetcorn

½ cup of peas

Green beans chopped small, if you have any leftover

Packet of lardon/diced leftover roast lamb or beef/4 diced rashers of fried bacon

2 baking sized potatoes, thinly sliced and boiled

Enough grated cheddar cheese to cover the potatoes

Method

Fry the onions, carrots, peppers and meat on the hob in a bit of oil until soft.

Add the lentils, passata, peas and sweetcorn and cover with a lid, simmering until the lentils are cooked and the liquid has all been absorbed (about 30-40 minutes).

Top with the sliced potatoes and the the cheese.

Place under the grill or in the oven until the cheese is melted and bubbling.

leave to cool for 5 minutes and then enjoy.

Macaroni Cheese: Comfort Food At Its Finest

Sometimes, you just want cheesy comfort food. No, I don't mean corny, I mean with a huge pile of cheese in it. If you don't believe me then look at the picture!

 I made macaroni cheese based on a Soho House found online, which used parmesan as well as cheddar to form a lovely crust on top of the dish. The original recipe, however, used a lot more cheese than my version as I wanted to make it slightly healthier (425g of cheese for four people? I don't think so). I also like to have a bit of bite in the form of piquant chorizo in my macaroni but Soho House's recipe was true to the original meal. I made it because, after a tiring first week, I wanted something deliciously filling and treat-like for supper. Unusually, (for my mac and cheese recipes at least) this dish is placed under the grill rather than cooked in an oven.

Macaroni Cheese Recipe

Serves 4-5.

Preheat grill as hot as possible.

Use English mustard to bring out the flavour of the cheese.

Make sure the pasta is cooked al dente and no further as it will continue to cook once it has all been put together.

Ingredients

350g macaroni pasta

35g butter

35g plain flour

500ml milk (preferably full fat but other types are fine)

1 chorizo ring, diced small

110g (sauce) and 80g (topping) grated cheddar cheese

35g (sauce) 25g (topping) grated parmesan

½tbsp english mustard

Salt and pepper

Method

Cook pasta according to instructions until it is al dente (with a slight bite to it). Drain well and rinse with water so that the pieces don't stick together as they cool.

Fry chorizo in a pan until fragrant and oily.

Whilst the pasta is cooking, melt the butter in a heavy based, grill-safe pan (I use a le cruset casserole) and then mix in the flour.

Slowly whisk in the milk and then allow to cook for 10 to 15 minutes, stirring all the time, until you have a thick-ish, smooth and glossy sauce, although it will thicken further in the oven so don't worry too much about that part of it.

Now add the sauce amounts of the two cheeses into the pan, along with the mustard and seasoning, and stir until the cheese is melted.

Add the cooked macaroni and chorizo to the sauce and mix well.

Mix the leftover (topping) cheese together and spread evenly over the top before placing the dish under the grill for 15 minutes until the mixture is golden and bubbling.

Leave to cool for 5 minutes and then serve.

What's your classic mac and cheese recipe?

Baking Society

The finished article

I started my second year of university last week and it's going well, although I'm still getting used to the early mornings! There was a Baking Society meeting this evening and I went along (last year it clashed with Italian classes). I made a passionfruit and lime sponge cake and it went down a storm. In fact, it went so well that I came first in their impromptu competition! The cake also got demolished within the hour so I have to apologise to Sarah and Grace as I promised them a slice - if you come over next Wednesday to watch Les Enfants Du Paradis then there will be a replacement cake waiting for you to help the three hour film go down more easily.

Passionfruit curd

The passionfruit curd was bought from one of the many markets in Central Manchester (one of the ones in St Ann's Square last June and also from the Christmas market) and is made by The Cherry Tree. I highly recommend them as it tastes incredible and they have other lovely flavours, like raspberry curd. My lime icing involves the zest and juice of 2 limes and then enough icing sugar to make a thick water icing (I do it by eye and so can't tell you the weight of the sugar). I got a new citrus zester today and they're really hard to work out the correct angle but once you do they're awesome and much better than my blunt grater!

A purple rose

I also made a purple sugarpaste flower to top my cake as I got annoyed by the society's email asking us to bake something that shows off our skills - a little intimidating, I thought. Sugarpaste roses aren't as hard to make as they look but they do require patience. In a future post I hope to explain how to make them, with photos of course.

The demolished cake