Cheese soufflé

Cheese souffle used to scare me, or rather souffle in general did. why? I don't know. But I gave it a go and you know what? Apart from trashing the kitchen it went to plan and tasted brilliant.  

Going in they looked ok

Came out looking monsterous.  Although a little dark on top they tasted great, One flowed like a volcano but still tasted ok 

Insides were light and fluffly.  my recipe to come I just wanted to share my excitement of beating my fear of souffles.

Fakeaway craze in slowcooker

Oh boy when people started talking about fakeaway being as good as a doner kebab done in a slowcooker I actually rolled my eyes. no way was this going to be anywhere near as good right? wrong!!!! it took 2 attempts but I was praised highly and it's been requested again for our home made take away family film nights.  A lot of people have shown interest so I thought I would share.  The first attempt I made was to dry so was pleased when this worked. 

Start with

• 500grams lamb mince
  1 teaspoon salt
  1.5 teaspoon onion powder or granules
  1.5 teaspoon garlic powder
  0.5 teaspoon pepper
• (I added in 0.5 tsp of smoked paprika and 0.25 teaspoon of chilli powder as my lot are heat wimps and wouldn't of liked 1.5 teaspoons of cayenne but feel free to adapt.
• 1 teaspoon oregano or
  1 teaspoon mixed herbs

Put the whole lot in a food processor or mixer or squidge lots with hands until you have a sticky mass that holds together really well.  Shape into a log or lump and wrap in foil,  put a few foil balls in bottom of slowcooker and add a splash of water.  

poke 3 or 4 holes in bottom of foil meat package and put it holes down on top of foil balls.  

mine cooked on high for 3 hours but your slow cooker may cook differently. left to rest for 10 minutes before slicing thinly and serving

• 
  

looks not to lovely right

looks bit bigger than regular slices but texture and taste are great

I stir fried with very little heat a pack of mushrooms, 2 chunky cut peppers and a red onion sprinkled with lots of oregano

salad is mostly just fresh cut but the softer red or white cabbage is achieved I discovered is finely cut with red onion and carrot, then salt and lots of lemon juice sprinkled over and stirred through thoroughly.  Left in the fridge for an hour or so and then sprinkled with parsley.  Was spot on.  All I was missing was garlic mayo and jalapeno chillis.  next time maybe ;o) 

slowcooker sausage with onion gravy

I was pondering on some sausages I bought last week.  So I went a searching the internet for a recipe and decided on one from netmums  I changed it a little but not to much 

Ingredients (serves 4)

1 tbsp olive oil

8 sausages ( we had 9 lamb and meat butchers sausages)

3 onions (in half then in thick, half moon slices), sliced

2.5 tbsp plain flour

500ml beef stock (or chicken)

3 tbsp chutney (or pickle - any type we used Christmas chutney leftover from Christmas)

1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce

1 tsp black pepper ( I used much less but to taste)

250g of small potatoes or cut into bitesize chunks 

250g chestnut or button mushrooms halved or sliced chunky

Set the slow cooker to HIGH

Meanwhile, heat the oil in a frying pan, add the sausages and quickly brown on all sides, then transfer to the slow cooker

Add the onions to the frying pan and cook, stirring occasionally, until soft but not brown - stir in the flour and cook gently for 1-2 minutes

Make sure you scrape all the flour from the bottom of the pan

Remove from the heat and gradually stir in the stock - bring to the boil, stirring continuously, until thickened

Stir in the chutney, Worcestershire sauce and pepper

Transfer to the slow cooker with potatoes 

Turn the slow cooker down to LOW, put the lid on and cook on LOW for 5-8 hours I cooked on high for 4 hours  adding the mushrooms around an hour before serving 

Serve with vegetables and mash

it's not the prettiest dish but it was a great everyday good tasting dish :o) Next time I will brown the sausages more and maybe add some more vegetables in the slowcooker.

Deliberating

2015 already.  I sit here typing at just gone midnight on January 1st.  I have my 2 beautiful granddaughters here on a sleepover and am thinking about new years resolutions as you do. 

 Yes I want to lose a shed load of weight, get fit, be prepared for Christmas next year, learn new skills and become amazing. All sound wonderful things don't they? But it got me thinking as to why our resolutions go out the window by mid January? I think we are all to hard on ourselves.

 My resolution is to be easier on myself and enjoy life more.  I don't spend half as much time on myself as I should. I have some lovely make up, hardly wear it.  I love to cook and create food that makes people smile, but find myself only cooking for the rushed evening meal, or not bothering to take photos and sharing. I love to read, I struggled to read 52 books this year.  I love to learn new arts and crafts but hardly dabble in new areas.  Love to papercut but I am to busy doing things for others.  Love to knit and am so out of the habit. 

So I hereby announce my new years resolution as I am going to take more time for me and enjoy more in life. I am no longer going to complain about things I don't do I am going to do them :o) I might need a kick up the rear now and again but let us hope this doesn't happen. 

When I started this blog I did say it wasn't just going to be for baking/cooking so lets see if I can blog more because I do enjoy it. But I think I do limit myself thinking I must come up for a new recipe before I blog.  Maybe I can share what other things I have gotten up to as well. 

But for now I will sign off and wish you a happy, safe and healthy new year.  Remember to be kind to others and yourselves 

Jules xx

Chinese style pork

This may not be the healthiest or best looking plate but oh my it was melt in the mouth and delicious.  I cooked it in the afternoon and reheated when I cooked the veg and noodles later in the evening.  Worked a treat and although the ingredients are a little vague I think you could use your own tastes to adjust them. I don't see why you couldn't use spare rib chops  or shoulder of pork.  You need a fatty cut for the melt in the mouth quality. Only other thing I would add is your pan needs to be big enough to have the meat in one layer and have a lid. Or you could cover tightly with foil maybe?

4 slices pork belly cubed

3 garlic cloves sliced

Knob ginger shredded

Cinnamon stick ( 3 inch bit)

Star anise 2 small

2 slices orange peel

Shasong wine big big slug

Dark soy sauce ( around 3 tablespoons  think)

one pack of chestnut mushrooms 250g smallish cut in half or if big quarters 

Heat oil and put in pork ginger and garlic. Stir briefly until coloured. Pour in wine and few tablespoons of soy sauce. Add in all apart from mushrooms. Put on lowest heat and leave to simmer for 40 minutes. Turn over and lay mushrooms on top. Lid on 20 minutes then lid off and simmer until liquids reduce to saucy consistency. 

Sweet vanilla popcorn

Something I tend to keep in my cupboard is a jar of vanilla sugar.  I rarely buy vanilla pods but when I do I tend to make the most of them and keep the used and dried pods in a jar of caster sugar.  After a few weeks I have a lovely jar of vanilla flavoured and scented sugar.  It's great for using in baking or anywhere you use sugar,  even just in your coffee.  I did go through a phase of having none as kids kept eating it but they are over that phase now luckily.  When the jar gets any used I just top up the sugar and give it a shake and put back in cupboard ready for the next time.

I was asked for popcorn today to eat while watching a DVD.  i wasn't in the mood for doing a caramel popcorn and went simple.  And it turned out great.

2 tablespoons oil, vegetable or sunflower is fine

100grams popcorn kernels

65 grams vanilla sugar

This turned out to leave a fair bit of the sugar in bottom of the bowl so next time will try just 50 grams 

Heat a large saucepan that ha a good fitting lid over a medium heat.Then add the popcorn kernels in one layer and put the lid on.  When the popping starts shake the pan every few seconds so none of the popcorn burn.  

When the popping slows down to one pop every couple of seconds or so we need to work a bit fast  and tip the popcorn into a large bowl and sprinkle on and stir through the sugar while it is all still warm as it will help the sugar stick to the popcorn.  

Then just sit down and enjoy it.  My youngest says the sugar in bottom of the bowl reminds him of doughnuts. 

From starting weighing things out to walking the bowl into the boys watching a DVD this took less then 5 or 6 minutes.  Would have taken me a lot longer to walk to shops to buy some and cost me  a lot more to buy than make.

Welsh Rarebit

Today apparently is Welsh Rarebit day. I can't remember where I read that fact but it was enough for me to start dreaming of it.  I don't think I have ever had it since my Nanny Kate made it for me when I stayed with her last. Must of been a good 20 years ago.  So a bit of research and adjusting to what I had I came up with this. Not maybe true to form but it was luxurious and sinful poshed up cheese on toast that should not be forgotten for another 20 years.

20g butter

20 g plain flour

100ml warm milk

150g mature cheddar, grated

1 scant teaspoon English mustard

150 ml ale, I used a local one

1/2 scant teaspoon marmite ( run out of Worcestershire sauce)

Start by making a REALLY thick white sauce by gently melting the butter over a low heat and then stirring in the plain flour and gradually add in the milk stirring the whole time until you have a thick white gloopy lump almost.  Stir in the mustard and grated cheese well to combine and take it off the heat.  Mine still looked a bit lumpy as cheese hadn't quite melted 

Then heat your chosen ale in a pan until it's reduced by half.  I then stirred the marmite through this until it had dissolved and took it off the heat to cool very slightly

Stir and beat the ale mix through the cheese mix and you are left with a lovely thick shiny mix.

In our case we toasted 3 slices of bread, although the mix would of done 4, on one side.  Turned the bread over and spread the Rarebit mixture over the bread and placed back under the grill until brown in places and bubbling.

I think I might of slightly overdone the cheese topping here. We used bread from an uncut loaf and not the 'plastic' slices of bread which seem to support the topping better. 

Happy Welsh Rarebit Day