The first in a series of kitchen basics, for those who need them. First up, the humble onion and how to chop him.
How to… chop an onion
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The first in a series of kitchen basics, for those who need them. First up, the humble onion and how to chop him.
Kitchen basics… perfect, not soggy at all, brussels sprouts.
Kitchen basics, for those who need them. Here we have the ever popular clove of garlic, and three ways to prepare him.
Kitchen basics, for those who need them. Here’s how to make perfect gravy from scratch.
Okay, let’s get one thing straight. There is far too much stress about cooking The Turkey on The Big Day. I know the food (and especially the turkey) are important on Christmas day, but PLEASE, it’s essentially just a big roast for more people than usual. We (and I include myself) need to keep some perspective and treat it as such! Christmas is the sum of so many things; family, nearest and dearest, a little time off work if we can get it, maybe some games and presents if we’ve been good boys and girls and of course delicious food and drink. The turkey is not the star of the whole day for me, my family are, but it should still be succulent and taste amazing.
Hazelnut and cranberry stuffing is both soothingly nutty and berrry-sharp, satisfying my tart loving tastebuds. The wholesome, crunchy textured hazelnuts marry perfectly to the sour cranberry pocketed explosions. Great with the turkey and possibly even better in the obligatory turkey sandwich later on. Here’s a little video if you’d like to watch and the full recipe with all the nutritional info is here.
*To test whether the turkey is cooked, insert a skewer into the thickest part of the leg – the juices should run clear.
Get experimenting with any dried fruit you have in your cupboard. Cranberries are colourful and Christmassy, but dried apricots or prunes will also work well.
Lemon meringue snowman cupcakes. Oh yes, this is what Christmas is all about. Novelty added to anything and everything. Shoe-horned even. These raise a smile amongst 40 and 4 year olds alike. Head or scarf first? You decide.
One year ago: Christmas Truffles
Two years ago: Chilli Beany Lamb Shanks from the Slow Cooker, Last Minute Christmas cake, Cornish Ginger Fairing Biscuits and Sweet and Sticky Ribs
Lemon cupcakes with curd centres and snowman meringue toppers
Makes 12
Ingredients:
Preheat the oven to 170C/Gas 3 and line a 12 hole cupcake tray with paper cases. Beat the 3 eggs, self raising flour, 150g castor sugar, butter/margarine, milk and lemon zest together until paler than when you started and light and fluffy looking. In a stand mixer about 3 minutes, with a handheld 4 -5. By hand maybe 7 – 8 depending on how fast you work.
Spoon evenly into the cases making sure you don’t let the mixture go any further than two thirds of the way up as you need to allow space for the snowy icing. If there’s any mixture left over just make some more when this lot are out of the oven. Bake for 15 – 20 minutes until a skewer comes out of the middle cupcakes clean and they are lightly golden on the top. Remove from the tin to a wire rack to cool.
Make the meringue by turning your oven to 160C/Gas 2 and then whisking the extra egg white to stiff peaks. Add the 50g castor sugar 1 tsp at a time, whisking for about 30 seconds between each addition. Then pop into a piping bag once it’s all combined and pipe 12 bodies and 12 heads onto a tray lined with greaseproof paper, stuck to the tray with a tiny dab of meringue left in the bowl. Don’t pipe too big as meringue expands in the oven. So about 2cm width for the heads and 2.5 for the bodies. Use your finger to squash any peak left as you pipe or you snowmen will have pointy heads. Pop into the oven and then immediately turn it down to 100C/Gas 1/4 for about 20 minutes. Have a prod to see if they are dried on the outside. Once they are turn the oven off and leave to cool in the oven for about an hour.
In the meantime use an apple corer to remove a little cake from the centre of each cupcake. Don’t drill all the way to the bottom. Then spoon 1 tsp of lemon curd into the now cooled and cored cupcakes then pop about one third of the cake you took out onto the top to form a plug. Whilst the meringue’s baking snap the pretzels up to make the arms for your snowmen. Also cut the orange jelly babies into quarters to make carrot noses. I made scarves by cutting the sweet belts in half lengthways and then in half widthways, but you could also plait sweetie laces too.
When the meringues are cool and out of the oven set up your decorating table – make your white snowy icing using the icing sugar mixed to a thick paste with a little boiling water. Poke pretzel arms into the body of the meringue snowman, draw two buttons onto his chest with the icing pen, then flood the cupcake with snowy icing and pop the body of the snowman on the top. Make the head by drawing two eyes and a mouth with the icing pen and adding the jelly bean nose which should stick well without anything as the inside of jelly beans are sticky. Drape the scarf around the neck then use a little of the snowy icing to stick the head on. Repeat until all the snowmen have a cakey home.
There’s so much said about mince pies, with most of the focus on the filling. Well, I’m going to have to confess that for me it’s all about the pastry. I care not for wafer thin pastry, sodden from huge dollops of mincemeat. No siree! I want thick shortbread sweet pastry wrapped around a smidgen of mincemeat. I even add a jewel of a glacé cherry before I crown with more pastry in the form of a thick lid. This recipe is an oldie but a goodie with just a hint of reinvention.
One year ago: Hot chocolate on a stick
Two years ago: Caramel, nutmeg and brandied raisin ice-cream
Shortbread pastry mince pies with bejewelled filling
Makes about 12
Ingredients:
Pop the oven onto 180C/Gas 4 and find a non stick tin – I use a Nordic Ware one but please don’t use anything you’re not sure of. This pastry has a habit of sticking into less reliable pans.
Take the butter, sugar, spice and flour and blitz in a food processor until combined – takes about 1 minute or you can rub in by hand instead if you wish. You should end up with a ball of dough. (Don’t add any liquid, if it’s not coming together use your hands to help it along.)
Take the dough and inspect to make sure all the ingredients are combined. If not, give it a brief knead with your hands. Then break off a ball of dough about the size of a ping pong ball. Squash it and work into a disc shape with your hands then line each tart tin hole with the disc, pushing carefully into the corners. If it breaks patch it up with more pastry. These are not dainty pretty mince pies so worry not about a haphazard appearance.
Fill the pastry bottom with 2 teaspoons of mincemeat and a glacé cherry, then take a slighter smaller ball of pastry and fashion into a disc for the lid. Press onto the top of the filled mince pie and squeeze the edges together until the little pie is airtight. The pastry is best when about half a centimetre thick all over – if that helps the description at all.
Continue until all the pastry is used up, then pop in the oven for 15-ish mins. Once lightly browned let them cool in the tin then gingerly move to a wire rack until the filling has completely cooled. Dust with icing sugar and then watch them disappear. I can highly recommend these for breakfast too. Especially before braving the Christmas shops. Oh and I wanted to share what’s happened to our Christmas tree. It got decorated by two Spiderman mad boys. Happy days.
Just in time for Christmas Donald Russell are offering up the ultimate Christmas Box, that’s £75 worth of turkey, sausage meat, bacon, pigs in blankets and a Christmas pud! The turkey is a bronze variety and is free range – it arrives frozen so make sure you get it out 72 hours before the big day. Delivered straight to your door too. I have two to giveaway!
There are lots of ways to enter – see the Rafflecopter form below. The first way is just to leave a comment on this post. Easy peasy. Closing date Monday 17th December.
How to enter:
Rules and things:
Good luck everyone!
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Mini potato cakes with a smoked salmon crown are the ultimate in posh party grub. There’s something deeply satisfying about the squidging and squashing of the potato cake mixture. And if you have access to a toddler with small hands you could make Borrower size ones.
Here’s a little video of the recipe:
Make 12
250g Vivaldi salad potatoes, parboiled and grated
20g parmesan, finely grated
Zest of 1 lemon
1 tablespoon flour
½ medium egg, beaten
1 tablespoon rapeseed oil
60ml soured cream
2 tablespoons chopped fresh chives
Freshly ground black pepper
70g smoked salmon, sliced
Whole fresh chives, to garnish
Firstly take 250g of Vivaldi salad potatoes, pop them into a pan of cold water and then bring them to the boil and simmer for between 8 and 10 minutes until they’re tender and cooked through. Drain them and then put them back into cold water to cool them quickly. Grate your cold potatoes (reason I use salad potatoes for this is because they’re going to hold their form better when you’re grating so you won’t end up with mashed potato.) Then add 20g of Parmesan, the zest of a lemon, plain flour and the beaten egg to the potatoes. Mix well.
When you’re forming these little rostis it’s a good idea to have some water to hand because having damp hands really helps to form them well. Squash a tablespoon of the rosti mixture between your hands, then fry in a tablespoon of rapeseed oil until golden brown. Let the rostis cool, then add a little sour cream, a bit of smoked salmon and some chives. Eat feeling very posh indeed.
Greek Gods Yoghurt have got a lovely hamper of Greek foodie goodies to giveaway. The RRP is£42 and includes 1 high-quality extra virgin olive oil, 1 jar of organic mixed olives, 1 jar of stuffed vine leaves, 1 jar of organic Greek honey, 1 Greek Delight, 1 nifty garlic zoom, 1 stylish lemon squeezer and two oil drizzlers. Quite a kit! They also have a coupon available so if you head on over to the Facebook page you can download a £2 off voucher for a 680g tub of Greek Gods yogurt. It’s currently on offer at £2 in Sainsbury’s, so it’s completely free of charge! Here’s a link to the Greek Gods Twitter feed, as well for any future money off vouchers!
There are lots of ways to enter – see the Rafflecopter form below. The first way is just to leave a comment on this post. Easy peasy. Closing date Friday 15th February 2013.
How to enter:
Rules and things:
Good luck everyone!
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Holly Bell 