Fruity Chocolate Brownies

I didn't realise how simple it is to make Chocolate Brownies and I got this recipe from Ruth Clemens runner up of the Great British Bake Off.  She is an inspirational baker and you can find her blog and recipes and http://www.thepinkwhisk.co.uk/

This was the first time I have ever made brownies and they were really tasty.  Next time I would cook the brownies for a little longer as I was worried they would come out dry and flaky rather than soft and chewy.  I would also remove the strawberries from the frozen fruit pack as it made the brownies a little slimy.

I even remembered to take some pics whilst I was cooking these.

Ingredients:
200g Dark Chocolate
140g Butter or Tomor if you want them to be non-dairy
225g Sugar
2tsp Vanilla Extract
2 Eggs
1 Egg Yolk
85g Plain Flour
200g Frozen Black Forest Fruit Berries

Preheat oven to 200'c
Line deep baking tray 23x23 with greaseproof paper.
Melt dark chocolate and butter on a low light until glossy and smooth.  I did mine directly in the pan, just make sure it doesn't burn.
Take off the heat and cool a little to the eggs don't cook when added.
Stir in the sugar, the mixture will go grainy, but that is normal.

Add in the yolk and eggs. When fully mixed add in the flour.

The mixture should be quite thick and glossy at this point.

Pour into your baking tray and top with frozen fruit.  I would recommend not using strawberries as they go mushy when heated.

Bake for about 35 - 40 min until the middle has stopped wobbling.  Check with a toothpick to make sure it is not too gooey.

Leave to cool.  Once cool slice and enjoy.  These brownies are sweet and sharp all the the same time.  They are really rich so you don't need too large a portion and will satisfy the biggest of chocoholics!

Mmmmm

Thank you Ruth from the Pink Whisk

Thai Fish Curry

I haven't written for a week and it feels like ages!  Rudi and I have been very busy eating lots of delicious meals at friends and entertaining over the past few days, so no time for blogging.

Last Wednesday we had my mum for dinner, which was first night Succot.  The Jewish festival where you sit outside under the stars and hope you don't get soaked or frostbite before the evening is up, but is lots of fun and a very cheery festival.

Thai Fish Curry is really tasty and if you make it yourself you can control the spice.  If you use green beans and green chillies make sure you chop them differently so not to blow the heads of your diners off the planet - sorry mum!!

Ingredients
Cod Fillets (you can use any white fish and you can get away with a cheaper cut)
1tbls Tamarind paste
Turmeric
Cumin
Coconut milk
200ml of Stock (I think pareve chicken stock tastes the best)
2 x Onions
Mushrooms
Green Beans
New Potatoes
Green Chillies (we like it spicy)
Lemongrass, Galengal, shallots (they come in a thai veg pack in Asda)
Ginger large knob

Roll fish chunks in turmeric
Fry over the onions for about 3-5min
Then sprinkle a tsp of cumin and 1 tsp of turmeric and fry over for another min or so
Slice ginger, chillies, lemongrass, galengal and shallots and fry over
Pour over coconut milk and stock and stir in 1tbls of tamarind paste
Add, chopped veg and whole new potatoes
Cover and leave to cook until the potatoes are cooked through.
About 5 minutes before the end add the fish
Serve with Rice or Noodles and enjoy.

Day 6 - Preparing for the Fast

With Yom Kippur approaching I am very concious we should have a filling and tasty dinner.  Over the years I have been given lots of different recommendations as to what you should eat to help you fast well.

I have found that chicken soup, simple roast chicken with rice or pasta and grapes is the most sushataining meal.  Grape are high in energy and water content so keep you hydrated for a little longer and rice and pasta are complex carbohydrates so burn off slowly.

This year I am substituting soup for chopped liver.  We buy  Louis Mann chopped liver as it is the richest in flavour and has the best consistency.  In fact we buy all out meat there as we think its the best quality all round.

Here is my method for simple succulent roast chicken.

Ingredients
Whole Roast Chicken
Fresh Thyme
Garlic
Black Pepper
Onion
paprika for colour
Slice up an onion and place in a roasting dish.
Check the inside of your chicken and remove any giblets, if your chicken is fresh and has not yet been frozen, bag up the giblets and freeze and keep for when you are making chicken soup.
Rince out the middle to make sure there are not reminents left.
Place the chicken on the roasting dish breast up and sprinkle over garlic, pepper and thyme. Turn over and repeat on  the other side.
You want to cook the chicken breast down for the first half so all the juice drips into the breast and makes it more succulent.
Add a little water to the dish. cover with foil and roast on a medium heat.  I like to cook my chicken a slightly lower light for a little longer so I use a 170'c oven for about 1h50 - 2h depending on the size of the bird.
After about an hour turn the chicken, baste and cover over.  About half an hour before the end uncover and let the chicken brown off creating a crispy skin.
The juice left in the bottom of the dish will make a delicious gravy.

Whatever you decide to make for dinner, enjoy.  Wishing everbody who is reading this blog (which is quite a few if the stats are accurate) an easy and meaningful fast.  May you be written and sealed in the book of life for a sweet year ahead.

Day 5 - Tastes better than it looks!

I intended to make lamb burgers and salad with some stir-fried veg, but after my manic and rather stressful day at work I came home and fell asleep!

I woke up half and hour later when Rudi got home and taking one look at each other realised we were both over stressed and just wanted to chill out, definately not a mood for creating anything fancy in the kitchen.  Like I said your mood really is reflected in the food.

After looking in the fridge we decided we would cook together and make a chinese themed dinner, with egg fried rice, stir-fried veg and lamb balls.  Quite adventerous I here you say, but it's one of those meals where everything can be thrown in the pan and cooked.

Rudi made the rice, while I took care of the lamb and veg.  For the meat I mixed some Mrs Balls Chilli Chutney and 5 spice with the meat and rolled into mini meat balls, which tasted great, but ended up more mince meat that meat balls.

Between us the kitchen looked a like a disater and at one point I wasn't really sure we would be able to pull off a dinner as thing after another kept going wrong.  Almost every ingredient we used ran out and we had to scrape the bottom of the jar or find a quick substitue to have enough to cook with.

In the end we threw everything in the wok together and hoped for the best.

I always feel a little disappointed with home made stir fries and as tasty as dinner was, I couldn't help but feel a little sorry for us both that it looked like a mountain of mess when we dished it up :(

I just kept telling myself , I'm sure Delia, Jamie, Nigella and the rest of the TV chefs out there must of had their share of disasters along the way!

Day 4 - Fish

I'm having a pretty lazy week in the kitchen and decided on doing another quick and easy dinner.  Between starting the new school year and all the Yomtovim there seems to be very little time for anything else.

This fish dinner is really easy and quick.  We have it with couscous and sweetcorn, which means the whole meal start to finish takes 7 mins!!!  Try it if you don't believe me.

Ingredients
Lightly smoked salmon fillets (you can use regular fillets, if you prefer)
Corn on the cob
Black pepper
Lemon juice
Couscous
Stock
Butter

Rudi taught me the simplest and most effective way of making corn on the cob.  Butter a piece of greaseproof paper and sprinkle with black pepper.  Twist around the corn so it looks like a xmas cracker and microwave for 7 mins.  You need to wrap each corn individually for the best results, if you are only doing one corn then micro for 5 mins.

For the fish heat a non stick pan with a little bit of butter
Squeeze the lemon juice over the fish and a light sprinkle of pepper
When the pan is very hot sear(fry in a very hot pan) your fish fillets, you might want to turn the pan down slightly at this point so the fish doesn't burn.
Keep and eye on the fish, it only needs a few minutes on each side.
Remember to cook with the kitchen door closed and the window open.  Even though it this dinner doesn't create that stinky fried fish smell as it is so quick, you don't want to take any chances!
The fish should form a hard crust on the outside and be just cooked inside.

In the meantime boil the kettle to make up some stock, you can use any that you fancy, we like the parve chicken stock for this as it has a distinct flavour, but is not too over powering.
Place your raw couscous in a bowl or oven dish and pour over the stock.  Leave to stand for about 5 min, then fluff up and serve.  Couscous doubles in size so beware when you are pouring it out the pack.  The water/couscous ratio is about 2:1, but the instructions are on the pack.

Hey presto a quick and easy dinner in 7 minutes.

Day 3 - Spice Night

Continuing with the spicy theme we had chilli con carne for dinner and it was delicious.  No piccies I'm afraid because I had to cook, eat and run before Adrienne (Rudi's mum) came to collect me for our Scrabble evening.

I wanted the chilli to stretch a bit further than usual so I added some mushrooms, so it was almost a spag bol/chilli combo.  Here is my recipe which I have taken from the best bits of everybody elses chilli con carne and made my own.

Ingredients:
1 med-large onion
1-2 cloves of garlic (depending on your taste)
green pepper (Asda had run out of green so I used yellow)
1 can of red kidney beans
red or green chilli peppers (it was raining and i didn't fancy getting wet from picking chillies from the garden so I added extra chilli powder)
chilli flakes
1-2 tbls tomato puree
1 can chopped toms in tomato juice
1 beef stock cube
A good shake of gravy powder
black pepper (the stock cube and meat are quite salty so I don't add extra, however it is what suits your taste)
The most important ingredient is lots of love.

I believe the mood you are in comes out in your cooking, so the happier you are to cook something the more delicious it will taste.  Honestly!

Fry over the onions and garlic on a medium heat until soft and translucent, if you find they are sticking to the bottom of the pan, your pan is probably too hot!
Add in green pepper and fry over for a few minutes (I also added my mushrooms at this point)
Brown over the meat, use your wooden spoon to break the meat up, or for fine mince use your potato masher!
You might need to turn the heat of the hob up as the meat can cool the pan if it has come straight from the fridge, but keep an eye on it, you don't want your beef to stick.
Add in the chillies (not the flakes and powder)
Add in the kidney beans and fold them into the meat, if you stir them they can break down and become mushy - yuk.
Add tom puree (I once heard you should add the tomato puree before the chopped toms, so the puree has time to cook off some of the acid and is a little sweeter, but I really don't think it matters, I've tried both ways and never noticed a difference.)
Stir in the chopped toms
Crumble in a stock cube, if you feel your meat needs extra sauce make the cube up with some water.
Sprinkle over the gravy powder and stir in quick so it doesn't go lumpy.
Add it chilli flakes and chilli powder and stir gently, remember you don't want to split your beans.
Put the lid on the pan and leave to simmer on a low light.  You can tell the meat is cooked when the sauce comes to the top with a little bit of an oily sheen.

We had our chilli with pasta shells, these hold the sauce as it gets stuck inside and was a welcome change as we had rice the night before...mmmm.

If you have any other chilli tips I would love to hear them.  I'm pretty happy with this recipe, but am always looking for ways of improving what I make.


Happy eating :)

P.S  Tara you brought a massive smile to my face by being the first person to follow my blog.  Thank you for all your support, my lovely cousin xxx

Day 2 - The Cheat's Eat

Last night was one of those days where you come home shattered and don't stop.  At times like these I like to treat myself to my cheaters dinner, which is delicious and packed with vegetables so I don't feel too guilty.

Its dead easy....

Heat your oven to 180'c
Cube up chicken breast one per person and place in a casserole dish.  If your chicken breasts are small just add more veg.
Add in any chunky veg you fancy, we like broccoli and green beans.
Pour over Nandos Marinade, they are quite spicy so beware! I use the sundried tomatoes and basil sauce because it has a good kick and is very tasty.
Put the lid on the casserole and cook for 45min.
Serve with rice.  Eat and enjoy.

A double cheat is using a riceboy, which makes perfect rice everytime.   We use the Riceboy Combo and find it makes slightly better rice than the smaller version.  Click on the link below to check out what I am talking about.  I know the smaller ones can be bought through Amazon.            
Riceboy

Simple and tasty, easy peasy dinner and you don't have to spend a fortune on take out.

Day 1 - First Ever Blog!!

So I just start typing...!

For those of you who are well versed in the world of Blogging you will have to bare with me, for everybody else you will just have to sit back and enjoy me stumbling through this very new and pretty scary world of blogging.

My friends have told me I need to make it personal "it's easy, you'll be fine" they say, my hubby says "just do it, it's easy"  so taking on board all their support and pearls of wisdom...here goes.

Why am I here you might wonder and how on earth did I manage to join the millions of other bloggers out there.  Well I dream of becoming a cookery writer and being famous for the culinary wisdom I am able to pass onto others, so what better way to start and with the support and love of my wonderful husband Rudi and cherished friends and family I thought I would jump in feet first and go for it!!!

Hurray!!!!

Here is some background about me....

I am 28 years old and have been married for 2 years.  Rudi and I just celebrated our second wedding anniversary and in our world we live to eat.  I absolutely adore pottering around the kitchen inventing new recipes as well as sticking with the old faithfuls that carry you through those weeks where there seems to be no time for breathing let alone eating.  I love to bake and am willing to give anything a try, but my real passion is mains.

I'm definitely a starter and main course type of lady....what are you?

I have never had a cookery lesson and have picked up all my tips from those around me.  My greatest teacher is my mum, but like all good students I have taken on board all her skills and made them my own.  I am also lucky to have an extremely talented mum-in-law who is able to guide me and advise me with her own wealth of knowledge as a caterer and trained chef.

And of course my inspiration and dedicated fan Rudi, who without his love and role as chief taster I wouldn't be half the cook I am today.

I could continue writing all evening,  but it is time to draw my first entry to a close and leave you with a few piccies of some of the cakes I have made to wet your appetites.

Good evening and happy reading, love Marsha-Rose