Tuesday 5 December 2023
Celeriac Soup Quick - made in the microwave
Monday 4 December 2023
Boiled Fruitcake Recipe - stores well.
Oven: preheated to 325 F : 170 C - for approx. 1 hr.
1. Ingredients
1 cup of water
2 cups of raisins
1 cup of demerara sugar (or other)
1/3 cup of shortening or butter
1/2 tsp. cinnamon, 1/2 tsp.allspice. 1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg
2 cups of self-raising flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp.bi-carb
1 cup chopped pecans (optional)
Method:
In a saucepan combine the ingredients in red.
Bring to a boil for 3 mins and let it cool.
Once the fruit mixture is cool/cold you can add 2 beaten eggs - though you can make this cake without eggs.
Sift the flour with the baking powder and bi-carb and stir gradually into the cooled mixture.
Beat the batter until smooth and stir in the nuts - if using.
Bake in a greased 9" cake tin (or lined with paper liner) - in middle of oven.
Test with a skewer which should come out clean, when done.
Tuesday 5 September 2023
One Pot, very easy soup - microwave
Ingredients
l spring onion - chopped (peel off any manky bits and cut off the root)
1 large carrot peeled and sliced
1 small/medium potato - peeled and small cubed
1 stick of celery - remove some of the strings if poss, and chop
1 large piece of garlic - peeled and chopped
few fresh tomatoes
salt, pepper, little olive oil, knob of butter, chicken stock (or equivalent)
handful of (novelty) pastas
Stock
Method:
1. Place all chopped veg in large microwaveable bowl, season to taste and add knob of butter and olive oil, season well - turn veggies over to mix together.
2. Place on high, stirring occasionally, until veg are almost cooked. (Sauteeing veg.)
3. Add enough hot stock to well cover, and cook for another 5 mins or so.
Add more stock - for the quantity of soup you want - and add the small pastas. Stir.
4. Cook again on high until the pastas, and veggies are well cooked and soft.
Add more stock if wanted.
I remove any floating tomato skins.
I like my soup quite thick with the ingredients, but enough soup too!
Add grated cheese if wanted.
SOUP DONE!
Enjoy!
You dont need to be exact about either quantities or timing.
Monday 26 June 2023
Quick (Chicken) Soup in the Micro
Ingredients: for approx 2 - 3 servings.
2 sticks of celery - chopped roughly
several white part of spring onions (scallions) chopped roughly
1 large carrot - peeled and cut into rounds
clove of garlic
leftover cooked chicken carcass/pieces if wanted.
small amount of sunflower or olive oil
chopped corriander to serve (if wanted)
In a microwaveable bowl place the chopped vegetables, sprinkle with a little oil and shake to cover veg, and zap for approx 10 mins.
- just until veg are beginning to soften.
Add the chicken carcass if using, and enough hot stock to well cover.
Zap for at least another 10 minutes, but you may want to cook longer - this is fine.
(You cant really spoil this soup.)
Remove the small pieces of chicken from the bones and put back into the soup.
Season to taste, and add chopped corriander to serve.
Saturday 11 February 2023
Date & Apple Breakfast (cake)
OVEN: 180 deg.C or 350 deg. F - for approx 30 - 35 mins. till 'cake' is golden brown.
DRY INGREDIENTS:
6ozs. porridge oats (rolled oats) (175g)
2ozs. wholemeal flour (50g)
1 tsp. baking powder
(WET) INGREDIENTS:
4 ozs butter (or margerine) melted (125g)
4 ozs soft brown sugar (125g)
3 tablespns golden syrup
FILLING:
8ozs. apple - dessert or cooking apple, cored, peeled and chopped (250g)
8ozs. de-stoned dates, chopped
both these can be chopped together in a food processor.
Method:
Grease a small loaf tin.
1. Add the cooled liquid to the dry ingredients, and mix WELL with a wooden spoon.
2. Place half of this oat mix (approx. 4 ozs) into the base of your tin - press down evenly
3. smooth the filling ingredients over next, and and place the remaining oat mix over the top - smooth nicely down, pressing gently.
4. Bake until golen brown. Cool, then cut into slices
- it is also very nice eaten warm.
this recipe is taken from The Apple Cookbook edited by Nicola Hill
(please note the photos are not taken by me but were downloaded from general images)
Thursday 19 January 2023
Air Fryers - comment.
I am a convert to low fat air fryers! I bought a small one some time ago from Lakeland, and hadn't bothered to use it much. However, recently I have been experimenting with it and find it terrific. (This can also be bought from Amazon)
I have cooked a six-chop rack of lamb, chicken, fish, vegetables - inc potatoes, and tried a cheese cake. All cooked pretty simply without any fussy stuff added - except seasoning and maybe some dried herbs (and a teeny bit of oil of course).
The recipe I found for the cheesecake was ok, but it didn't have flour in and found the cheesecake nice tasting, but quite soft. I yet have to try it out with flour.
This little machine must save on energy use as it cooks fairly quickly, and much faster than an oven would take to heat up and then bake or roast.
Try one!
Tuesday 8 November 2022
Chicken casserole - really easy - All-In-One Pot dish
Ingredients and method:
Use enough veggies for the amount of chicken you use.
Use any mix of veg to your taste.
I've used:
Peeled and sliced carrots : celery : spring onion : sweet potato/es - season.
Handful of (basmati) rice - if wanted
Lay two chicken breasts on top of vegetables - season.
Layer of thinly sliced peeled white potatoes on top - drizzle a little vegetable oil over the top of them - season.
Clove or two of chopped garlic (skinned)
Cover well with stock or water.
Make sure all ingredients are well covered .......... and a bit extra is fine.
Place lid on casserole dish.
Bake.
Oven 190 deg.C - until liquid is bubbling, then you can turn it down and leave it to cook for at least 1.1/2 hrs. (longer is fine). Just check you still have enough liquid.
Remove the lid and raise the heat a little to brown the potatoes.
This chicken casserole can be pre-cooked and zapped in the microwave to reheat.
Will keep refrigerated for several days - (if you haven't already eaten it all!)
Sunday 3 October 2021
Tomato Sauce - Microwave'd .... (Tomatoes from the garden)
This sauce is really easy.
Just remove any stalks and cut tomatoes in half or quarters.
Place in Microwaveable Bowl Add: sugar to taste (or honey), large clove of crushed garlic, dried basil, dried oregano - (to taste) - and some olive oil.
Add a small amount of water and zap on High until tomatoes are very soft.
Mix together and zap again until desired texture.
Season.
Add some fresh chopped basil leaves - if wanted. Stir in.
TASTE for seasoning.
This stores pretty well, covered, in the fridge, but can also be frozen.
Use as required with pasta or minced meat.
Saturday 13 March 2021
Ricotta Cheesecake - easy
Oven: Moderate - 160/180 deg. C
Ingredients:
500g (1lb) ricotta cheese
100g (3 ozs) white sugar
grated rind of 1 lemon
4 egg yolks and 2 egg whites - stiffly beaten .... (keep other two whites, covered in fridge, for another cake :o) )
60G (2 ozs) flour
150g (5 ozs) dried fruit of choice - I use sultanas floured with a little of the flour
biscuit crumbs
METHOD:
1. Sieve the ricotta, lemon rind and sugar into a largeish bowl and beat till smooth.
2. Add the yolks one at a time - beat in
3. fold in the floured dried fruit
4. fold in the stiff egg whites :
either grease a deep oven dish with butter or use a cake liner inside the dish
5. Add the crushed biscuits to base - quantity isn't crucial.
6. Pour the cheesecake mix over the crushed biscuits, smooth over.
7. Bake aproximately for 30 mins (test to see if cooked through)
8. Cool on wire rack. Can top with soured cream while warm - though not essential.
Monday 21 September 2020
Honey and Banana Cupcakes (or large cake)
Thursday 16 January 2020
Dont waste your leftover biscuits - Basic Cheesecake Recipe
If you have any leftover sweet biscuits that are just hanging around (!) - any assortment will do - dont wast them - you can blitz them to crumbs* and use them on the base of your cheesecakes. I dont add butter to mine, but just lay about 1/4" - 1/2" on the base of my buttered dish before pouring over the cheesecake mixture ....... We're really only interested in the cheesecake and not the base!
Oven: 180deg. C
Basic Cheesecake Mixture:
400g. - approximately 1lb. Philadelphia cream cheese (other cream cheese is fine)
beat until smooth (ish)
Add: 110g - 125g. sugar
2 beaten eggs,
grated zest of 1/2 - 1 lemon
1 tsp. vanilla extract
Mix together well.
Then: In a small bowl, about a tablespoon of either plain or self-raising flour.
Throw in couple of ounces of sultanas (or dried fruit of choice - amount isn't crucial as long as it isn't too much!), and coat well with the flour.
Add to the cake mixture.
Combine well and
Pour over your biscuit crumb base and bake for at least 1 hr. check after 45mins. to see if nicely 'set'.
Cool in the oven, with the door open, then cool at room temperature
.
If this is topped with soured cream - it should be stored in your fridge.
I do usually store cheesecake in the fridge anyway - as our kitchen is always very warm.
*place any unused biscuit crumbs in small container/bag and store in freezer.
.... Also your cheesecake may well sink as it cools - but dont worry - you can pour your sour cream into it, and just leave a nice margin all the way around.
Sunday 10 November 2019
Chicken - using the whole chicken without wasting any!
Enough water to well cover - plus some more.
You can add some stock powder or cube at this stage - (or even later - wont really matter)
Dont forget to skim your soup well - this makes for a lovely clear soup |
Saturday 2 November 2019
Autumn Apples
Quick Apple Crumble
Approx. 500g. apples
Core, quarter and peel apples, cut quarters in half.
Place them in an ovenproof dish and sprinkle over sugar (preferably demerara) to taste.
Add some dried fruit, eg. raisins, sultanas, currants, cherries, blueberries etc. - a mix of these are nice.
However, just sultanas or raisins are good too.
Some apples may need a little water in the bottom of the baking dish ..... others not.
Crumble:
100g flour
pinch of salt
75g sugar
75g hard butter
75g porridge oats
2 teaspoons of ground cinnamon
If using a food processor, blitz the butter and flour till breadcrumbed, and add the rest of the ingredients - blitz to blend.
Sprinkle over the apples and bake approx.50 mins or longer.
Oven: 190 deg. C (Gas 5)
APPLE CAKEs link:
https://beadbagsfoodee.blogspot.com/search?q=apple+cake
Wednesday 30 October 2019
Butternut Squash Soup - delcious and SO easy!
1 butternut squash
cloves of garlic - to taste
olive or sunflower oil
knob of butter (if wanted)
Maple Syrup
salt and pepper
small amount of water for roasting tin
1. The hardest part of using a butternut squash is the peeling**! I dont peel mine, just cut it up into chunky slices and remove the seeds*. This isn't that easy either - but is manageable. Use a spoon to remove the seeds.
**Ready-peeled supermarket squash is not very tasty.
* you can use the seeds too - just roast them with a little salt or fry them over. Store them in a lidded jar.
2. Place your butternut squash pieces in a roasting tray, with some water in the base, and drizzle some oil and maple syrup over the veg. Add the garlic pieces - peeled or unpeeled and seasoning.
3. Roast, turning the pieces over after about 20 mins - skin side up until the skin starts going golden/burnt (!) and the flesh is soft.
4. Leave to cool a little, then using a small kitchen knife, peel off the skin and place veg pieces in a liquidiser with the remains of the liquid, garlic etc., from the roasting tin.
5. Using some extra stock - vegetable or chicken - Liquidise - until the mixture is creamy smooth, and you like the texture of it.
I dont like my soups thin, so I usually make them the consistency of say double cream. Taste for seasoning.
6. When serving, serve hot - and you can add, sour cream, sweet cream, little knob of butter, chopped fresh corriander - - - etc.
This is a completely delicious soup.
Thursday 8 August 2019
Tomato Tart
Cooking time: 30 - 45 mins. (approximately)
Pastry Base:
1.1/2 cups of flour
1 tsp. caster sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
4ozs. unsalted butter - cold and cut into pieces (or grated)
6 tablespoons of iced water
1. Make your pastry, wrap in klingfilm and chill for about 30 mins ..... (the pastry that is!)
Tomato Topping:
1.1/2lbs. of small tomatoes - halved OR large tomatoes sliced
black pepper, added before putting tomatoes on top of Filling.
2. Place tomatoes in a sieve or colander and sprinkle a little salt over. Leave while making the Filling.
Filling:
1 cup of natural bio plain yogurt
1/2 cup of double cream
1 large egg - beaten
1 or 2 cloves of crushed garlic
Dried Basil - to taste
1/3 cup of Parmesan or Pecorino - grated
1/2 tsp. salt if needed, black pepper and good pinch of cayenne
3. Mix all ingredients together till creamy, and leave in fridge while rolling out pastry base.
4. Roll out pastry on a lightly floured surface, to fit your tart tin, with an overlap.
5. Remove Filling from fridge, mix together again, and carefully spoon into pastry base.
You may have some left over, but you can carefully spoon it over the tomatoes.
6. Drain your tomatoes on some kitchen paper and place - face up - on top of the Filling.
7. Pour any excess Filling over, adding a little more grated cheese if wanted.
8. Fold overlapped pastry in, and bake for 30 - 45 mins - (approximately).
Pastry will have become golden, and very slightly away from edge of baking tin, and, of course, the Filling will be 'set'.
Recipe tweaked from original by David Liebovitz.
Stewed Fruits and Crumble
This time of year is great for using soft fruit.
I tend to microwave any fruits I have leftover - or just 'slightly' over-ripening, with a little water (if necessary) and either sugar, honey or maple syrup.
eg:
Blackberries - rinse well if from your garden
Apples - peeled and roughly chopped
Plums - halved and de-stoned
Cherries- de-pip
peaches/nectarines etc. - you can skin these if required and roughly chop
Once cooked, add your sugar to taste.
Delicious served hot or cold with cream or custard :o)
You could also make the stewed fruit into a crumble:
Crumble Mix:
100g flour
50g butter - cold
50g demerara sugar
Method:
Add bits of butter to the flour and with fingertips crumble into 'bread crumbs'
Add the sugar
Sprinkle on top of cooked fruit - add a little ground ginger or cinnamon if wanted.
Porridge Oats can be added to the crumble mix, as extra or part of the flour.
*Link: BBC: Frozen Fruit Crumble
Monday 8 April 2019
Pesto Sauce - extremely easy - and delicious! (made with cashew nuts)
Ingredients
1 Bunch of basil leaves
clove of garlic (if wanted)
a handful of plain (unsalted) Cashews ...... OR Pine Nuts
grated parmesan or pecorino
Olive oil or Rapeseed oil
sea salt and black pepper
Mix all the ingredients together in your blend/chopper.
You may want to finely chop the cashews first in your 'chopper' to make them a little finer.
Store in a lidded jar in the fridge.
(I usually rinse the jar with boiling water before pouring in the Pesto Sauce)
Thursday 14 February 2019
Chickpea Curry - Mild (with or without spinach)
approx. 4 tbl. vegetable oil
2 medium red onions - peeled and chopped
2-4 cloves of garlic (your choice) - peeled and grated
2.1/2 cm piece of fresh ginger - peeled and grated
2 small crushed chilli
1 tsp. ground corriander
1/2 tsp. ground turmeric
1/2 tsp. ground cumin (Jeera)
1 tsp. salt
1 tin of chopped tomatoes (400g)
1 or 2 tins of chickpeas - drained and rinsed well
3 handfuls of fresh spinach leaves (if wanted)
1. heat the oil preferably in a wok and add the onions and fry till they are a light golden colour.
2. Add the garlic and ginger and cook through for a minute or so.
3. Add the salt and spices and cook for another minute.
4. Add the tomatoes and cook gently for about 5 minutes - stirring as it may stick - if it does, add a little water. Reduce the heat and simmer for about 10 mins.
5. Add the chickpeas and stir well ensuring they are coated with the sauce.
6. Turn up the heat then cook for 5 - 7 mins. (or a little longer) - stirring continuously. (Add little water if needed.)
7. If using the spinach, stir it in, cover and leave to wilt.
Serve with steamed or boiled Basmati Rice.
This recipe has been slightly tweaked, but is originally by Parveen Ashraf
https://www.parveenashraf.com/contact/ ............... - who has some super recipes on her website.
Wednesday 3 October 2018
Kitchen Pot Pourri
Wednesday 29 August 2018
Sweetcorn, Spring Onion and Philly Fritters
60g Plain Flour
1 tsp. Baking Powder
1/4 tsp. paprika
2 large eggs - separated
100g Philadelphia Cheese (with Chives is good too)
2 tblspns semi-skimmed milk
1 tin of sweetcorn - rinsed and drained - (approx. size 198g.can)
2 spring onions, thinly sliced
2 tablspns. sunflower oil
1. Mix the Flour, baking powder and paprika into a bowl.
2. Beat the Egg Yolks and Philly and add to the flour.
3. Add the Milk, Sweetcorn and Onions and mix together gently until the flour is incorporated.
4. Whisk the egg whites until stiff and fold into the sweetcorn mix.
5. Heat the oil in a non-stick frying pan and drop in large spoonfuls (approx.tablespoon) of the
mixture.
6. Cook until just going a nice golden brown and flip on to the other side and cook too. (Approx 30 - 40 seconds).
7. Remove from the pan on to a sheet of greaseproof paper or similar.
These fritters can be eaten straight away, reheated in the micro or kept covered and zapped the next day.
Serve with, chutney, sweet chilli sauce, or anything you may fancy!
This recipe originally comes from The Kraft Philadelphia CookBook.
Wednesday 25 July 2018
Fly Repellent Herbs - from your garden
As the weather here in the UK has been SO hot - it's obviously best to either keep food in the fridge, or if it's out in the kitchen, - keep it covered with a tea towel. There are just lots of flies around at the moment, and they seem to zoom in at the slightest whiff of 'food'! Even grease on a paper kitchen sheet seems to attract them :o(
I found a super article online about herbs that you probably have growing in your garden, and these (hopefully) will deter flies if you strew some around on your work surface, or hang them up in a bunch in the kitchen.
Useful herbs include:
Basil
Lavender
Rosemary
Mint, Catnip
Tansy - this resembles marigold flowers
Bay leaves
To check on the full uses for these herbs - click on this link
Wednesday 11 July 2018
Watermelon, Feta and Basil Salad
Watermelon - peeled and cut into bite-sized pieces - (remove pips!)
Feta Cheese
Fresh Basil leaves
Little dried basil
A Good Olive or Rapeseed Oil
Monday 2 July 2018
Mixed Bean Hummus
into the liquidiser ......
1 can of mixed beans - rinsed well and drained
clove of garlic
lemon juice - to taste
handful of chopped fresh corriander, and a little dried corriander if you have it.
tahini paste - (about a tablespoon / ish)
little salt and black pepper
Olive Oil - enough with the lemon juice to make a nice paste
few finely chopped olives - (black are good)
Pinch of paprika
Whizz ingredients together until as smooth as you can get it.
Taste for seasoning and texture.
Pour into a pretty dish and sprinkle with a little paprika, olive oil and the chopped olives.
Cover with klingfilm to store in fridge.
Sunday 10 June 2018
Vegetarian Pate - Faux Gras
Ingredients:
Saturday 12 May 2018
Very easy (all-in-one) Marmalade Sponge Cake
Monday 30 April 2018
Courgette (zuchini) Veggie Loaf
Saturday 3 March 2018
Banana Fairy Cakes (cupcakes) - easy all-in-one recipe
Wednesday 14 February 2018
Saturday 10 February 2018
Baked Custard
Sunday 4 February 2018
Date Syrup Cake - quick, easy and yummy
Oven: 170 deg. C
Bake: approx. 30mins/45 mins. or until cooked (!)
Ingredients - small cake:
60g butter
125 g date syrup **
100g plain flour
1 large teaspoon of baking powder
1 teaspoon of ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon of ground cinnamon
100g caster sugar#pinch of salt
125 ml milk
1 beaten egg
1. Melt the butter gently with the date syrup. Stirring. Remove from heat to cool slightly.
2. Sift together all the dry ingredients
3. Beat the egg and milk together.
4. Add the egg and milk to the dry ingredients, then gently stir in (or electric whisk) the butter and syrup. This should make a nice gloopy mixture. *
4. Pour into a baking tin (6" x 8" x 1.5") - use a paper liner, which saves you greasing the tin.
5. Test with a skewer to see if cooked through.
6. Cool on a wire rack.
*You could add some sultanas or raisins to this cake. Dredge some flour over them before adding in to the mixture.*
**This is also the recipe for a gingerbread cake, so you could replace the date syrup for golden syrup.
Wednesday 10 January 2018
Fairy Cakes/Cupcakes
Oven: 180 deg. C
Ingredients: - makes 12
7ozs. (200g) self-raising flour
1 tsp. bi carb.
3ozs. (75g) caster or golden caster sugar
3.5 ozs. blueberries (optional)
1 unwaxed lemon zest - finely grated
2 free range eggs - beaten
1/4 pt. (150 ml) low-fat natural yogurt (or double cream)
2 tblspns. semi-skimmed milk (or little more if needed)
2 fl.oz. (50ml.) sunflower oil
Lemon Icing:
3.5ozs.(100g) icing sugar
4 tsps. fresh lemon juice
Sprinkles
1. preheat oven. and line a 12 hole muffin/fairy cake tin with paper cups
2. Sift the flour and bi-carb and stir in the sugar, (blueberries) and lemon zest.
3. Make a well in the centre and add the eggs, then beat in the yogurt, milk and oil.
4. Stir into the flour and mix together - lightly.
5. Divide the batter evenly into the paper cups and bake for 16-18 minutes until the cakes are well risen and golden. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.
6. Ice with the lemon icing when cool.
Variation:
Sandwich a dollop of lemon curd in the centre with a blob of batter on top. (These are technical terms! :o) )
You could also use jam.
Sunday 7 January 2018
Cake Pops - with leftover (Christmas) cake - no cooking
- 12 round lolly sticks.
- Method