Smoked Salmon Tagliatelle

INGREDIENTS:
300g smoked salmon
5 spring onions, chopped
1 glass of white wine
250ml fresh cream
Grated nutmeg
Pinch of dry dill


METHOD:

In a big pot of salted boiling water, add 8 big bundles of tagliatelle. This should be enough for two adults.

In a separate pan melt a tablespoon of butter over a medium heat.

Add the chopped spring onions to the butter. Allow to soften for a few minutes but be very careful not to burn them.

Add in the glass of wine and allow the alcohol to bubble off. The best way to test this is to smell the vapours and if you get a slight acidic smell at the back if your nose and throat, then it needs a little more time. But be careful not to suck in those vapours for too long or you'll be drunk before your first glass of wine with your dinner!

Pour in the cream to the sauce pot and reduce the heat slightly. If you allow the cream to boil, the sauce will be completely ruined.

Add a good pinch of dried dill and grate in some nutmeg. Only a little nutmeg at first because it is very strong and more can always be added later.

Reduce the cream sauce until it just covers the back of a wooden spoon.

Just at the very end add the smoked salmon and season to taste. The salmon only needs heating through but don't worry if it slightly changes colour.

Drain the tagliatelle and add to the sauce. Mix well to coat all the pasta in the sauce.
Serve with a lovely cold glass of sparkling prosecco. Soo yummy

I Kid You Not !

As Christmas approached, I decided that I didn't want to buy in any sweets or biscuits for the holidays.  I wanted to bake our treats and not end up having half eaten tins of biscuits sitting in the pantry until Easter which is what happens every year.  And I kept to this promise.  But unfortunately I forgot to tell my husband and one day he came home laden with a big variety of all that I was avoiding.  Then at Christmas we got even more as presents!  Ahhhh Pulling out hair time....  I tried to give away some of the Hubbies purchases, but no everybody had enough already.
So since Christmas I have eaten......TWO tins of Cadbury Roses, TWO tins of Quality Street, one LARGE Panetone, one small Pantetone, one tin of biscuits, two trays of mince pies, two packets of Lebkuchen biscuits, a kids selection box!!!!  I Kid you not.  I feel like such a pig.  After my Hubbie buying all that stuff, he said that he didn't like any of it and the kids weren't interested either.  I'm not one to say no to chocolate and I didn't want to let them rot in the pantry...Am I just making excuses for myself now?  I never thought that I would say this but if I never see another piece of chocolate again, it'll be too soon!

So off I went today for a super long walk with the kids and the dog in the lovely cold crisp day.
The river was very high after a week of very heavy rain and gurgling gently as we walked alongside.
I was surprised to see the first signs of spring emerging.

I simply love the colour of the tiny buds on these branches.  Such a lovely shade of lilac.

My son took this picture of some fungi that he found.  It's just amazing what beautiful colours can be found in nature.

And now that I've made the big confession to you about what a glut I've been, I'm going to continue walking off all of the excessive festive feasting.
I bet nobody else has made such a pig of themselves as I have.  Or have you?
Chat you soon,
Rosie

Wiggly Teeth Scones

Both of my kids are loosing their baby teeth at the moment, ahhhh. They are finding it hard to bit into most things so I have to be really careful about what I give them to eat.  We call these Wiggly Teeth Scones because unlike normal scones the outside is not very hard and the inside is lovely and light and fluffy.  Perfect for lunch boxes.  I got the recipe from a Good Food magazine a few years ago and they called them The Ultimate Scone.  I don't think that I would because they don't rise very high like most scone recipes but they are perfect for little mouths.

Ingredients:
16oz self raising flour
1/4tsp salt
4oz butter, cold
2oz golden caster sugar
8floz buttermilk
4floz full fat milk
2 handfuls of sultanas
1 egg for glazing, slightly beaten
a little granulated sugar for sprinkling

Method:

• Preheat the oven to 220°C
• Tip the flour into a mixing bowl with the salt and butter.  Rub the butter into the flour until it resembles fine breadcrumbs.
• Stir in the sugar and sultanas.
• Mix together the buttermilk and full fat milk.
• Pour in most of the milk into the centre of the flour mixture.  Not all of it because it may make it too wet.
• Using a round bladed knife gently work the mixture together until it forms a soft dough.  If it is too dry you can always add in more milk but be very careful a little can make it too wet.  If it is too wet add in another handful of flour and work it in.
• Take the dough out of the bowl and on a lightly floured surface knead 3-4 times to remove any cracks.
• Pat the dough gently with your hands to the thickness of no less than 2,5cm.
• Cut with a floured cutter and place on a baking tray.
• Brush with the egg and sprinkle with a little granulated sugar.
• Bake in the oven for 10-15 minutes.
• Serve with butter and jam to kids with wiggly teeth and watch a lovely jammie smile appear on their faces.

Cranberry and Raisin Oaties

Ingredients:
100g butter, softened
100g caster sugar
100g light brown caster sugar
1 egg
2tsp water
1tsp vanilla
250g porridge oats
110g self raising flour
1/2tsp salt
100g cranberries
75g raisins

Method:

• Preheat oven to 180°C
• Cream the butter in an electric food mixer until soft.  Add the sugars and beat until the mixture looks light and fluffy.
• While still beating, add in the egg, water and vanilla.
• Using a wooden spoon gently mix in the oats, flour, salt, cranberries ad raisins to form a stiff dough.
• Line two baking trays with baking parchment.
• Take pieces of dough about the size of walnuts, roll them in your hands to form balls and place them on the baking trays, leaving a space between each to let them spread.
• Bake in the oven for 20-25 mins until golden brown but still slightly soft in the centre.  If you like yours crunchy like my kids do, leave them in for the 25 mins or a little longer.
• Allow to cool on wire racks.  

Raisin And Walnut Muffins

This recipe is for all walnut lovers and forgive me for not trying this out first but I am not included in this category.  My mother makes these all the time and loves them.  It's an old recipe that she found on a Prestige baking tin.  It's a slightly unusual and very easy recipe.  Hope that you enjoy.

Ingredients:
325g Plain Flour
100g Caster Sugar
1tbsp Baking Powder
1/2tsp Salt
1 Egg
325ml Milk
75ml Vegetable Oil
50ml Sweet Sherry
75g Walnut Pieces
75g Raisins

Method:

• Sieve together the flour, salt, baking powder and sugar.
• Beat the egg lightly and stir in the milk, vegetable oil and sherry.
• Mix liquid into the dry ingredients.
• Do not over mix
• The mixture will appear slightly lumpy.
• Stir in the walnuts and raisins.
• Divide between the 12 muffin cups.
• Bake at 200°C for 20/25mins.
• Lift the muffins from tins and cool on a wire rack

Chocolate Chip Muffins

Yipppee, finally I've managed to make up a recipe for Chocolate Chip Muffins that are light and fluffy.  Any recipe that I've tried before I found to be either too dense and heavy, too sweet or too moist.   By mixing up lots of different recipes and tweeking here and there I came up with this one.  Which proved to be so popular with the family that I had to be quick at getting my photo before they disappeared.

Ingredients:
350g Plain Flour
40g Good Quality Cocoa Powder
175g Caster Sugar
1tbsp baking powder
Pinch of salt
300ml Buttermilk
2 Eggs, Beaten
85g Butter, Melted
1tsp Vanilla Extract
100g Milk Chocolate, Roughly Chopped (You can use dark chocolate here but I use milk because my kids prefer it)


Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 190°C and line a 12 hole muffin tin with cases.  I use cases because I find them much cleaner in the tin and when the kids are eating them.
2. In a large bowl combine all the dry ingredients, the flour, baking powder, salt caster sugar and then sieve in the cocoa powder.  
3. In a jug measure out 300ml of buttermilk and add in the eggs , vanilla and melted butter. Whisk together with a fork until well combined.  One thing that I learned the hard way was to take the buttermilk out of the fridge for about 15mins before baking because even if the melted butter has cooled, if it hit cold buttermilk it solidifies again. 
4. Make a well in the centre of the flour mixture and pour in the the liquid.  The key here is not to overmix. Gently mix until just combined.
5. Add in the chopped chocolate and give it only a light stir.
6. With a ice-cream scoop divide the mixture between the muffin cases
7. Bake for 25mins until risen.
8. Take out of the oven and leave to cool for 5mins before taking out of the tray and onto a wire rack.

Apple Tart

My brother was home from Germany lately and the one thing that he wanted me to show him how to bake was a good old fashioned Apple Tart.  He came out to my kitchen and we had a great afternoon baking together.  I was going to take pictures of the end result but my student ate it all before I got a chance to.  So here is the recipe that I promised him that I would put up.

Ingredients:
4 Large Bramley Apples
4-5tbs Sugar
1tsp Mixed Spice or Cinnamon or 3 Whole Cloves whichever you prefer
300g Plain Flour
75g Butter
75g Baking Fat such as Cookeen
1 Egg, lightly beaten

NOTE:  for the pastry there should always be half the amount of butter or fat to flour.  For this apple tart I always use a mixture of both fat and flour because I find that it makes the pastry lighter and crispier.  But if I was to make a quiche I would use all butter and a egg and egg yolk to bind instead of water.

Apple Filling:

1. Peel and slice the apples.  Keep back one apple to add later if you like a bit of a bite and not have them all stewed. Rinse them under the tap and drain thoroughly.  I do not add water to the apples when they are stewing as the apples themselves already contain enough juice and that along with the remaining water after rinsing is enough to stew them.
2. Add in the sugar, cover with a lid immediately and put on a medium heat.  Some say that you should add a little lemon juice to the apples to stop them from browning but I've found that as long as you put the lid on the pot as quickly as possible, this is not a problem.
3. After about 10mins take the apples from the heat.  Mix in your choice of spice and then taste a little to make sure it is sweet enough for you.  In this house we like it a little tart still.  
4. If you like a bit of a bite in your apple tart, then now is the time to cut up your last apple and add it in.
5. Leave to cool completely while you get on with the pastry.

Pastry:

There are two different ways to do the pastry.  By hand or in a blender.  It took me a long time to be converted to the way of the blender but now I would never look back because it takes a matter of only seconds in the blender.

Pastry By Hand:

1. Before you begin put a dinner knife, water and butter in the fridge for a couple of hours to become very cold.  The key to very light crispy pastry is that everything must be cold.  Even your hands!!!.
2. Weigh out the flour, butter and fat and place into a large bowl.
3. Rub the butter and flour together between your fingers and your thumbs until they resemble breadcrumbs.
4. Take the knife out of the fridge and adding a couple of tablespoons of water at a time, bind together using chopping movements.  It should not take very much water for it to come together.
5. Feel the pastry, if it is crumbly then it needs more water but if it is a little wet then add a little extra flour.  But never ever knead because this will only make the pastry hard when cooked.
6. Tip out of the bowl and roll into a ball.  Cover with cling film and place it in the fridge for a minimum of 1/2 hour.    

Pastry By Blender: 

1. Before you begin put a jug of water and butter in the fridge for a couple of hours to become very cold.  The key to very light crispy pastry is that everything must be cold.
2. Put flour and butter into the blender and whizz for 30sec until they resemble very fine breadcrumbs.
3. Drizzle water a tablespoon at a time through the nozzle with the blender still on.
4. Again this should take only take a few tablespoons in total but the only way to really know is to feel it.  If it is crumbly then it needs more water but if it is a little wet then add a little extra flour.
5. Tip out the pastry and dust with flour before forming it into a ball, covering it in cling film and place in the fridge for at least 1/2 hour.

Forming The Apple Tart:

1. 15mins before you want to make up your apple tart preheat the oven to 190° and put a heavy gauge baking tray into the oven.
2. Flour and butter your flan dish.
3. Cut away just a little over half of the pastry and roll out large enough to cover the base and sides of the dish.  Before filling it with apple, roll out the pastry for the top.
4. Put the pastry into the bottom of the dish and ensure that it is pushed right into the side, being very careful not to tear.
5. Brush the base of the pastry all over with the beaten egg.  This ensures the apple does not make the base soggy and soft.
6. Fill up the case with the apple and even out.
7. Carefully lift the top of the pastry by folding it over the top of your rolling pin and put it on top of the tart.
8. Cut the excess and seal the tart at the same time by pressing the rolling pin along the edge of the dish.
9. Make a hole in the centre of the tart to ensure air can get out and that the pastry doesn't puff up when cooking.  You can also make several fork holes around the top.
10. To ensure that the case is completely sealed, make little indents by pressing a fork along the edges of the dish.
11. Brush the top of the tart with beaten egg and sprinkle with sugar.  Decorate with any left over pastry.
12. Bake for 30mins on top of the hot baking try.  The baking tray makes sure that the base of the tart is cooked at the same time as the top.

Beef Stew

Ingredients:

700g Stewing Steak
2 Large Onions
5 Carrots
3 Parsnips
2tbs Balsamic Vinegar
1 Bouquet Garni
2pt Beef Stock
2tbs Flour or Cornflour to thicken
Salt and Pepper to taste

• Preheat the oven to 160/170C.
• Brown the stewing steak on a high heat in a large casserole pot.
• Reduce the heat to medium and add onions and carrots and fry for 5mins until softened and browned slightly.
• Add in the balsamic vinegar and continue to cook until the sharp smell has gone from the vinegar.
• Increase the heat slightly and pour the stock into the pot and bring to a rolling simmer.
• Mix the flour with a little water to a paste and add to the pot.  Do not add to much flour because the stew will reduce down in the oven.
• Take a piece of greaseproof paper that would be big enough to cover the top of the pot and wet it until it is soft and flexible. Cover the stew with this and then put the lid on top.  This will reduce the cooking time by half and intensify the flavour.

• Check the stew regularly and when the meat is tender remove the pot from the oven.  Reduce the stew a little more if desired on the cooker top.
• Season to taste and serve with steamed or mashed potatoes.

My Mums Best Nut And Chocolate Cake

This was a favourite of ours as we were growing up.  It was the cake that my mother made most regularly, apart from her delicious apple tart of course.  Oh I'm getting hungry already.  Must head to the kitchen and see what's in the pantry!

Nut and Chocolate Ring Recipe

150g butter, softened

250g sugar

3 large eggs or 4 medium eggs

300g self raising flour, or plain flour with 1tsp of baking powder

a pinch of salt

2-3 tbsp. of milk 

150g mixed nuts, roughly chopped

150g chocolate, roughly chopped

Method:

Place all the ingredients except nuts and chocolate into mixing bowl and beat with a handmixer for 2-3 mins until well blended. Fold nuts and chocolate into the mixture. Grease and flour a 25cm ring mould. Transfer the mixture to the tin.

Temperature:  160C

Time:  60 - 75 mins until a metal skewer comes out clean

Butternut Squash Soup

BUTTERNUT SQUASH SOUP
1 Butternut squash
4 Carrots
1 Onion
2 Clove of Garlic
1 1/2" of Ginger Grated
1 Big potato
2 Bay Leaves
A Good Pinch of Dried Thyme
1/2 tsp of Paprika
1Pt of Veg Stock
1 Pt of Water

1.  Peel and cube all the vegetables.

2.  In a little butter and oil sweat the veg slowly until caramelised and softened. This should take about 15             mins.

3.  Add in the stock , herbs, paprika, ginger and garlic.

4.  Cook for about 30 mins or until the vegetables are soft.

5.  Puree the soup with a hand blender and serve with a nice slice of buttered brown bread or crusty rolls.