Lemon meringue cupcakes

These were to good,  I ended up making 2 batches to deliver to 2 different people during course of the week . The base are just cupcake/fairy cake size so although they are rich and lemony with clouds of meringue they are not to much to get through. 

for the cakes

Oven was heated to gas mark 4/180 degrees

110g caster sugar

110g unsalted butter

2 medium eggs

110g self raising flour

zest of one lemon

put 12 cupcake liners in 12 hoes in a cupcake tray

cream together the butter and sugar until pale, light and fluffy.  Beat in the eggs one at a time until thoroughly incorporated before adding the next egg.  Then sift in the flour and lemon zest and stir through until fully incorporated

Spoon mix into the cupcake liners evenly,  and bake for 15 minutes until they are cooked but testing with a toothpick or cake tester comes out clean.  Leave to cool completely.

Then I used end of a piping nozzle to push through gently in the centre and then used a teaspoon to take this bit of cake out and filled it with half a teaspoon of good lemon curd.

for the meringue 

2 egg whites ( room temp)

110g caster sugar

Whisk up the egg whites until soft peak stage, then slowly add the caster sugar while still whisking until the egg whites are tick, glossy and hold a stiff peak.  I piped mine on top with a large star icing nozzle.  And then the fun bit.  I used my mini chefs blowtorch to gently and carefully caramelize the meringue on top to give it the cooked look.  You could also preheat a grill and pop under for a few minutes.

It's a very simple cake but it was I think the most talked about cake I have made lately :o) 

Here's an inner view

As these meringues are not 'cooked'  please be careful with the quality of the eggs you use and don't give these to any of the vulnerable groups to be on the safe side.

soy glazed chicken salad

Yesterday I bought Delicious magazine. The past few months I haven't really bought or read many magazines but this one caught my eye.  Looking through I found this recipe and as a bonus I actually had everything for it, well almost. Will type it out with what I had and did, if you want the original recipe then go buy the magazine ;o) 

To generously serve 2

2 free range chicken breasts, skinless

3 tablespoons dark soy sauce

2 tablespoons honey

2 tablespoons toasted sesame oil

2/3 cucumber, halved deseeded and cut into half moon shapes

1 & 1/2 big carrots peeled, then sliced into finish strips

1/2 iceberg lettuce finely sliced or ideally 2 little gem lettuce

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

juice 2 limes

1 tablespoon fish sauce

sesame seeds to serve

Directions also say large handful of mint and coriander with the leaves picked which I had but forgot to add. d'oh! Would of made this dish very special I think 

First thing first, had to put the chicken breasts between cling film and flatten a bit so they are about a cm thick. Turns out my chicken breasts were so big we ended up only using one of them after cooking them and have one left for dinner tonight :o)

Put the chicken in a dish, bowl or container and add the soy, honey and 1 tablespoon of the sesame oil.  move the chicken around and make sure its all mixed and coated,  leave it to one side for 10 minutes.

Meanwhile prepare your salad and place in a serving bowl along with your herbs. Set aside and warm up a frying pan over a fairly high heat.  When up to heat add the vegetable oil and cook the chicken breasts around 2 minutes per side until cooked and glaze a bit, Mine looked a little scorched in places but it wasn't and tasted great.  When it is cooked then put to one side to rest and cool before slicing into strips. 

For the dressing mix together the rest of the sesame oil, lime juice and fish sauce. Add the dressing and chicken into the salad and toss all together.  Serve sprinkled with sesame seeds if you have them and enjoy. 

This went down really well as it has a fair few contrasting tastes that really make this interesting to eat,  I was a little worried the dressing with the limes might of been a bit sharp for Luke but once it was all dressed and the flavours combined it wasn't to strong at all.  

Best of all from opening the cupboards and grabbing the ingredients to putting the salad on the table took 20 minutes.

Think I am going to try using the second breast I used with some egg fried rice tonight. With some veggies.  I bought 2 chicken breasts from the farm sop Sunday.  Once they were bashed out flat I could only fit one in my frying pan at a time, giant monster chickens on their farm I think.

Chinese style BBQ rub

We had a BBQ on Sunday and a rather interesting assortment of food on it.  But these were something I had worked out a rub for earlier on during the day. They are thin pork belly slices with skin on so it crackled :o) It is usual to be able to get a dark red gloopy version dubious looking and to sweet and aniseed flavour from most shops or butchers.  I wanted something similar but not so slap you round the face. so I made up a simple spice rub for the 6 small slices I had I mixed up 

1 teaspoon 5 spice powder

pinch of sea salt flakes

3/4 teaspoon of garlic granules

1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika 

rubbed it into the meat and put in a bowl covered for around 3 hours in the fridge.  Next time I might add in a teaspoon of sesame oil just for that extra flavour, but I lost my bottle that day!

They were a very nice addition and will definitely be using this rub again on other things to. 

Toad in the hole

Toad in the hole is one of our favourites.  Got to be done with gravy, preferably onion, and if my kids are anything to go by mash potato.  A while ago I was interested and tried a recipe from Jamie Olivers 15 minute meals where he warmed up a frying pain, sizzled some oil and rosemary and added the Yorkshire pudding mix and after a minute or 2 it went into the oven for 10-12 minutes I think it was. Which worked great we loved the additional flavour of rosemary and fast Yorkshire pudding.  So I had to give it a go with sausages to make toad in the hole. 

Preheat oven to around gas mark 6-7 

Add six fat sausages and sizzle in a pan. I did mine about 3/4 cooked.  Browned nicely and a little oil in the bottom of the pan.  The sausages I use tend to not give out much fat so I add a little which helps brown the sausages and grease the pan. 

My pan is not a big pan.  It's about the size of a dinner plate with deep sides.  Made by Viners and most importantly ovenproof.

How I make my Yorkshire pudding batter is put eggs in a measuring jug,  I used 2 eggs here which came up to the 100 ml mark so I added in 100 ml of milk and 100 ml of plain flour and seasoned and whisked up together until lump free.  Given size of pan I should of used 3 eggs but it still did it's job OK with 2. 

Pour the batter over the sausages making sure everything is hot and sizzling as you do so.

  Leave for a minute or two on the hob until the edges go almost frilly or start to set then put in the oven for 15-20 minutes

And you should have a beautifully risen and puffy Yorkshire pudding in a pan with the sausages fully cooked through either peaking out of the batter or almost looking like they are floating on top. Simple meal but family favourite, and certainly not hard as some people think. 

Vodka penne

Recently I have seen Donal Skehan on the TV and he is on twitter to.  And am loving his style of cooking.  So much I might of bought a book or two of his.  And very pleased I was I did to.  In one is a recipe for Vodka Penne, which turned out to be as quick as it took for the pasta to cook.  The recipe from the series is up here http://uktv.co.uk/food/recipe/aid/652044 Although I halved it as just Luke and I home that evening.  So I give you the ingredients as shown on the website and original recipe and will tell you how we got on. Now usually I will have vodka in the house but I had to go and buy some for this as it turned out I had blackberry vodka, skittles flavoured vodka and vanilla vodka.  Now I have plain glorious vodka!

• 350 g penne
• 25 g butter
• 125 g pancetta, or bacon bits
• 4 tbsp vodka
• 200 ml double cream
• 3 tbsp tomato purée
• 1 small handful fresh flat-leaf parsley
• freshly grated parmesan, to serve

As usual follow your pasta cooking instructions and in my case was boil in boiling salted water for 10-12 minutes, ours took 12. 

Meanwhile heat your butter on a medium heat and add the bacon pieces and stir and keep and eye on them until they turn golden. This took 4 or 5 minutes which was the longest bit to deal with.

Then add the vodka into the bacon pan and let sizzle for a minute or so ( we don't want to get drunk from it just celebrate its wonderfulness)

Then pour in the cream, tomato puree and parsley.  Stir to bring it all together and simmer for 5 minutes until the sauce has thickened.  Then season to taste.

When your pasta is cooked drain well and stir into the sauce thoroughly. Serve up in warm bowls with a grating of Parmesan and a little more parsley if you like.

Verdict on this was we couldn't place the vodka, and I may of put a little to much cream in, but it did add a something to the dish.  We added a little more pepper and all in all it was a very nice, rich bowl of pasta.  Will be more careful measuring out the cream next time.

I'm having photo problems,  I can put the same pictures on facebook and twitter and they will come out a lot sharper and clearer but now I put them on the blog and they seem to loose sharpness somehow.

Black pudding and duck egg scotch eggs

We were supposed to have a picnic on Sunday, we ended up having it indoors and the trip abandoned for various reasons.  But on Saturday we shopped for our picnic.  And at our local farm shop we found duck eggs and pork sausages containing black pudding.  What a combination huh? 

I made 3 and for this I used

3 duck eggs (boiled for 8 minutes, cooled and peeled)

6 sausages (they weren't that big but good quality so don't shrink much)

1 tablespoon chopped parsley

1 egg beaten

dried breadcrumbs ( I used half a tub out the cupboard as found them and trying to empty cupboards)

Preheat the oven to gas mark 5 and very lightly oil a baking tray

Scotch eggs traditionally are fried but I cannot be doing with the smell of deep frying in the house, it just lingers was to long

place the beaten egg and breadcrumbs in separate bowls

squeeze the sausage meat out of their skins or cut along the skins and extract meat and place in a bowl and squidge in the parsley. Divide to mixture into 3 and wet your hands slightly.

Take a third of the meat mix and flatten it our in your palms until it is big enough to wrap around an egg.  Place one of the eggs in the middle and draw up the sides around the egg and mould it round with your hands and sealing the gap and shaping it so it looks like a large meat egg.  Reapeat with the other eggs and then time to get gungy.

Rolls the eggs one at a time in the beaten egg and then in the breadcrumbs pressing them in gently but firmly. I do this with one hand so you have a clean hand for emergencies or passing things to the kids etc

place on your baking tray and I spray a fine mist of oil over them from a spray pump but it doesn't need it but it does help it go a golden brown a bit more I have found.  25 minutes in the oven and then take out of the oven and resist diving in as long as possible

For some reason they looked a bit bald in the photo but they weren't as bad as they look honest!

And an inside view,  it may look as if there is not a lot of meat around the egg.  The truth is the eggs are almost twice the size of the chicken eggs I usually use so believe me when I say there is more sausage there than there looks.

These are excellent warm or cool and great for lunches, picnics or for packed lunches.  So versatile. 

I think the trick to scotch eggs really is to use a decent sausage meat.  I buy sausages from our local butcher or farm shop and they are a high percentage of actual meat and always have a great selection of flavours.  In the farm shops case they are made on site from their own free range animals. I have had some great chats with the butchers and staff there over cooking methods, recipes and what a jacobs ladder is! Always happy to help and I am always pleased with the quality I get there, and they always have something on sale and samples in the shop to eat usually. 

Chicken tikka masala

This recipe got a lot of feedback from pictures posted and people who saw it being cooked so thought I had better blog it as it is probably the new favourite curry in our house for a curry hating Luke. I will give you full amounts here for the recipe but I halved it as was just 2 of us.  Despite the longish list of ingredients it was a surprisingly easy and not to fussy recipe 

it starts with 

8 boneless skinless chicken thighs 

place these in a shallow dish that allows them to be laid out in one layer 

Then blitz or blend together 

2 garlic cloves

1 inch piece of ginger peeled

juice of one lime 

I red chilli

2 tablespoons or coarsely chopped coriander leaves

1 tablespoon vegetable oil.

Use this to spread over the chicken, cover and marinate for 2 hours

meanwhile fry 1 chopped red onion in 1 tablespoon of oil over medium low heat until starting to colour and softened. While you are doing this preheat your grill and line with foil for easy cleaning and grill the thighs for a few minutes on each side until slightly scorched in places and nearly cooked.  Marinade needs to be brushed off before grilling but saved

then stir through the onion 

1 teaspoon turmeric

1 teaspoon cumin

and cook for 2-3 minutes 

Then things start to happen, into the pan add

1 tablespoon tomato puree

300ml cream ( 284 ml tub works to)

1 tablespoon lemon juice

marinade left over from the chicken

bring to the boil, stirring to mix well.

At this point it looks pale and uninteresting, but add in the chicken and spoon over the sauce and baste it and stir a few times while letting it simmer for 5 minutes

It goes from this palish colour

And brightens up to almost luminous.  Season near the end to your liking and serve with rice or Naan bread or whatever you fancy.  I sprinkled with added coriander

This was not Hot spice wise but it was very spicy and punchy with the lemon and lime and gentle warmth from the chilli and spices.  Very good curry for people who like flavour but don't want their socks blown off. The recipe is from Masterchef cookery course Learn to love cooking book. So far everything I have made from there has come out as it said it should and flavours have been amazing. It's not a book full of flash cooking in most cases but more a case of 'normal' ( how I hate the word normal! ) done very well.