Paella

This is a huge favourite in our house, although we don't have it often because of how fatty chorizo is, and the because it contains pork, chicken and shellfish, to us, its an extravagant treat.

Serves 6
500g risotto rice
100g chorizo (1cm cubed)
2 chicken breasts (2cm cubed)
3 smoked bacon rashers or pancetta
1 red pepper chopped
1 green pepper chopped
1 large onion chopped
4 cloves of garlic chopped
2 pinches of saffron
1 heaped teaspoon smoked paprika
1 cup of frozen peas
600g fruit de mer (translation- fruit of the sea, which is a mixture of shellfish can be bought fresh and is widely available frozen)
2 litres of chicken stock
salt and pepper to taste

• Heat a large heavy fry pan, I use my wok or my large cast iron skillet.
• Infuse the stock with the saffron.
• Add the chorizo to the dry hot pan and the fat should melt out of it. Once the fat has come out of the chorizo and it has started to crisp up remove from the pan and set aside, leaving the fat in the pan.
• Do the same with the chicken as with the chorizo, fry until browned all over and cooked through and set aside with the chorizo.
• Fry the bacon and onion until softened, then add the peppers.
• Add the garlic, paprika and rice and fry for a minute then pour in half the stock.
• Cook and stir every now and then for 20 minutes adding stock if the pan gets dry.
• Once the rice is almost cooked, add the chicken and chorizo back into the pan and the rest of the stock.
• After another few minutes add the fruit de mer
• Once all the stock has been absorbed into the rice add the peas at the last minute and stir through.

This picture was taken just before all the stock has been absorbed:

I often leave out the chicken and/or the bacon, or add other vegetables in the picture you can see I've added courgette and some large shell on prawns.

Happy cooking

xoxo

My basic white loaf

When I first started making bread, I stuck to white bread. I tried a few recipes and made a few changes and now, if I want to make a good old fashioned white loaf I use this recipe:

450g/1lb strong bread flour
300ml tepid water
1 teaspoon instant yeast
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon oil

• Activate the yeast in the water if necessary, see the packet instructions.
• In a large bowl add all your dry ingredients
• Pour in the water and the oil and bring it together slowly with a fork, once it gets to stiff to stir with the fork use your hands to work into a scraggy dough.
• Turn out onto a floured table and knead for 5-10 minutes
• You will see that the dough becomes smoother, less sticky and more elasticated.
• Shape into a rough round and place back in the bowl, cover and leave to prove for an hour, if the room is chilly it may take longer, so look to see for when the dough has double in size.
• The next step is called 'knocking back' this is because you deflate the air that is in the dough (knock out the air) and and it returns to its original size before it was left to prove (back to original size).
• Shape and place seam side down either in a greased bread tin, or on baking try or on a bread/pizza peel (sausage shaped to put into a loaf tin, bread rolls, plaited, or a large round, the list of shapes is endless).
• Cover and leave to prove once more. Half way through the proving time, pre-heat the oven to 220 degrees C. If you are using a bread/pizza stone out it in the oven when cold and allow to pre-heat with the oven.

I shaped my loaf int a round to give it a rustic look, and left it to prove on my pizza peel which I had floured before hand.

• Once doubled in size slash the top if desired and in the oven it goes.

•  Cook for about 30 minutes for a large loaf or 15 minutes for rolls, to check the bread is cooked, turn it over (take out of tin too) and tap the bottom  gently, it should sound hollow when cooked.

• Cool on a wire rack.

Happy cooking

xoxo

Chili and lime fish kebabs

I got some lovely rainbow trout and giant shells on king prawns from the fish monger, in my house we are big on fish, we moved to the coast and now buy fish from a fish monger with a stall on the sea front and a boat moored up near by.

View from my window to show how close to the sea we are:

Serves 6

16 tiger prawns

500g/1lb of fish, I left the skin on and cut into inch chunks.

2.5cm/1 inch of root ginger

4 table spoons of sweet chili sauce

zest and juice of one lime

2 garlic gloves

skewers, wooden or metal.

• I grated the garlic, ginger and zest into a large glass bowl, added the lime juice and the sweet chili sauce and mixed it all together then added the fish and prawns and gently mixed together.
• Put the bowl in the fridge for 30 minutes. Meanwhile if you are using wooden skewers soak them in cold water, this will stop them catching fire under the grill.
• Pre-heat the grill to medium
• I threaded the prawns and fish pieces onto wooden skewers, placed onto the frill tray and poured the remaining marinade over.
• Grill for a about 5 minutes, turning them a few times, once the prawns are pink, and the fish has turned opaque and firm its ready.

I served mine with stir fired vegetables and buckwheat noodles.

The picture is a bit blurred, but I am going to blame that on my eagerness to eat it!

Sour dough starter

Being the avid bread baker that I am, I have been intrigued by sour dough for some time. I tried a few years back, but kept forgetting to feed my sour dough and letting it die. All I can say on that topic is thank goodness that when I have had pets in the past they have been cats that meow and let you know they are hungry!

So hear goes nothing.
Step one, find a suitable container, many people suggest kilner jars. But in truth anything large enough and water tight will do. Something big enough to hold a litre as a minimum and I find that clear is helpful so that you can tell when the sour dough as doubled in size (thus ready to use). I am using a lunch box that was already in the cupboard so  didn't need to buy anything in particular. 1 litre capacity yogurt pots are great also.

The thing to get your head around is to weigh your water, same weight water as four, so use 50g of four and 50g of water. You cant add a table spoon if each as that will give you too much water. If you like to use measuring cups to make things simpler ( I use a measuring cup so I don't have to get my scales out each time), you will need to use half the amount of water to flour e.g. 1 cup of flour, 1/2 cup of water.

Lots of sour dough recipes say to start, then not feed until the fermentation has begun (bubbles have appeared) but I found that feeding before the bubbles have appeared not only did no harm to the process but also sped it up.

Day one:
50g flour (spelt and rye are good but plain white bread flour will work but take longer to ferment)
50g room temperature water.
Mix this together in your container to form a thick paste/batter without any lumps.

I used my 1/4 cup measuring cup and I filled it to the top with spelt flour, then half filled the same cup with water, this is only a guess but it seemed to be close enough.

Day two:
at the same time as the day before once again 50g of flour and water, mixed.

The first few bubbles started to appear.

Day three:

50g and 50g again (can you see a pattern forming :p) 

Now lots of bubbles are appearing and a tangy flavour should be detectable by smell.

A close up of said bubbles

Keep feeding you started every day at the same (ish) time every day with the same amounts for 6 days. By day six there should be lots of bubbles and the smell should be well developed. The starter should smell sour, beery and tangy, but it should not smell horrible. Also after a feed it should now be doubling in size (like in normal bread making) this can take anywhere from 2 hours to 8. I place an elastic band around my tub where the starter is at a feed, so it is obvious when it has doubled.

It should now be ready to make a loaf! I am going to try and get back to you

Happy cooking
xoxo

Best ever chocolate brownies

This is the best recipe that I have come across for chocolate brownies, they hold together once cut but are gloriously gooey in the centre.

Prepare a 20cm brownie tin my lining the bottom and greasing it well and pre heat the over to gas mark 4, 160 degrees C fan assisted, 180 degrees C non fan assisted.

185g butter
185g dark chocolate
85g plain flour
40g cocoa
50g white chocolate chips
50g milk chocolate chips
3 large eggs
275g caster sugar

• Break the dark chocolate into squares and melt with the butter in a heat proof bowl over a pan of simmering water, once melted take off the heat and allow to cool slightly but not harden. 

• Whisk the eggs and the sugar together until light and fluffy and doubled in size. I used my kenwood chef to to the hard work and it still took me 6 minutes! When the beater can leave a 'ribbon' on top of the mixture for a few seconds it is ready.

• Fold the melted chocolate chocolate and butter mixture into the sugar and eggs. Sift the flour and cocoa and add the chocolate chips (i used normal chocolate and chopped it into small pieces with a sharp knife) then fold this all together, being careful not to knock out all the air that you whisked in.

• Spoon into your prepared tin and bake in the centre of the oven for 25 minutes, the check the brownie, if when you shake the brownie pan the centre of the cake wobbles it need a few more minutes, keep checking with this test, once the centre is set and doe no wobble any more you brownie is cooked.

• Leave to cool completely in the tin, turn out and cut.

Happy cooking

xoxo

10 minute Carbonara

I have a few dishes in my repertoire that can be cooked up in a flash and that use store cupboard/ house hold staple ingredients. Here is one of them, carbonara

Serves 4

1 onion
4 rashers of smoked bacon or pancetta
200g mushroom
25g butter
4 cloves of garlic
4 egg yolks
4 handful of grated parmesan (1 per person)
400g pasta ( spaghetti is traditional)
salt and pepper to taste
oil to saute

• Put a heavy based fry pan on a medium heat and a large pan of water onto boil.
• Once the water has come to the boil add salt and the pasta.
• Then add the chopped onion and bacon to the frying pan, the bacon will release some fat, but some oil will need to be added to stop things burning/sticking before the fat has come out of the bacon.
• Give the pasta a stir to stop it from sticking every now and then.
• Once the onion has softened and the bacon is beginning to crisp us add the mushrooms and the garlic to the pan, when the mushrooms go in they will soak up any moisture in the pan so add the butter now.
• Meanwhile drain the pasta, reserving about half a cup of the cooking liquid to add moisture to the sauce if needed.
• Add the pasta, egg yolks and cheese to the the pan with the mushrooms, onion, garlic and bacon  which should now be off of the heat.
• The heat of the pan and the hot pasta is hot enough to cook the egg through but if you feel the need to make sure it is definitely cooked, heat very gently and stir continuously. Stir this all together to evenly coat the pasta, add some of the reserved pasta water to thin down the sauce if you feel that it is needed.
• Plenty of salt, pepper and parmesan to serve.

Variations:

You can leave out the mushrooms (just remove the butter too), onion, garlic, bacon to your taste but don't leave them all out or you will be left with nothing!

You can use whole egg rather than just egg yolks, but the egg scrambles slightly and gives a dryer sauce, rather than a smooth glossy coating that the egg yolk alone will give you, I always use whole eggs, because my family prefer it like that and I don't make enough meringues to use up the egg whites!

Add fresh basil for colour and flavour right at the end before serving.

Add a splash of white wine after the mushrooms have been cooked and allow to evaporate before adding the pasta, egg and cheese.

Use what ever cheese you have, strong cheddar works well.

If you like a thick and creamy carbonara, add 150ml of cream (whatever kind you have in the fridge single/double) Or half a pack of cream cheese, the ones flavoured with garlic and herbs go well add to the pan when you add the pasta, cheese and egg.

Replace the bacon with cured sausage, chorizo works really well.

Happy cooking 

xoxo

Preventing mould on fruit and veg

I buy most of my fruit and vegetables from pur local farm shop or the coop, and even though I am very happy with the quality of the food, I have a little trick which makes the food last longer, and prevents mould from growing.

Simply fill the kitchen sink with cold water 2/3 full and add 1/2 a cup of vinegar and stir around, then add all of our fruit and vegetables.



Then leave to soak for half an our. I then take the plug out, let the water drain away and leave them to dry slightly in the sink, then when I've got a spare moment i put them all away as usual, either in the fruit bowl, fridge or cold store.

As you can see I wash everything this way, soft and hard fruits and vegetables alike, even berries.
The vinegar not only cleans the food of the 'nasties' we are all told to wash off before eating, it also removes any yeast or bacteria that is already on the surface of the fruits and vegetables, this slows down the mould growth, because it has to start all over again.

Berries washed this way last up to two weeks!

I was thrilled to discover this method of washing the vegies, as I often had to throw things away because they went bad before I had managed to use them.

This also means, that at the market when they sell off older goods for a good price, I will go for the bargain, knowing I can wash it in vinegar and extend its shelf life.



Happy cooking
xoxo

Bake sale call for help

I was asked to supply a few cakes for my mothers bake sale, so first thing is to decide what to make. Many ideas came to mind, so I asked what is already being made by her or others so that we don't end up with 3 of the same cake. Already being made is lemon drizzle cake, chocolate layer cake, classic Victoria and Madeira.
First ideas:

• Brownies - everyone loves those and easy to portion 
• Banana cake - stays moist
• sticky ginger cake - also stays moist
• coffee and walnut cake - a good adult favourite 
• cupcakes - very fashionable at the moment 
• caramel slice - easy to portion, long shelf life
• chocolate orange cake
• cream and strawberry gateaux - beautiful but needs to be kept in the fridge
• carrot cake

I could make a never ending list really as I love to bake. I am going to look through my recipes and make a decision from there, any ideas or recipes would be appreciated.
Happy cooking
xoxo