A Few More Cakes

Here are a few more pics of cakes I have made this month and another reason why I have been so busy.

I am starting to sell my cakes, so please feel free to be in touch, or pass my details on to your friends and family.

Carrot and Butternut Squash Soup

This is such a simple recipe and one that every soup maker should have in their repertoire.  I added a little zing to mine to enhance the flavour and it worked better than I could have ever imagined!

I have also discovered a new food toy... the Thermos food and drinks flask.  I now get to have a hot lunch at work everyday and this is the perfect way to warm up on a cold day.

Ingredients:
1 x large onion
1- 2 tsp powdered ginger
Sprinkle of chili flakes
800g approx of carrots
1 x large - x large butternut squash
1.5 litre chicken stock

To Make:
Roughly slice the onions, appearance doesn't matter as you are going to blitz it at the end and fry over until translucent. 
Add a the ginger and chili flakes and continue to cook on for a minute or so.
Add in the diced carrots and squash.  Stir into onions until glossy and softened slightly.
Pour over stock and continue to cook until the veg is soft.
Get the jdguger (officially the hand processor!) and blend until smooth.
You can add croutons or toasted pine nuts for decoration and another layer of taste when serving.
Eat and enjoy.

You can also use sweet potato instead of butternut squash, what ever you can get your hands on, it will still be delicious.

Green Beans - Thank you Maytal

To all my lovely readers I have not forgotten about you or my blog despite the lack of recipes lately.  As the countdown for Rudi's brothers wedding draws closer the days seem to disappear and even though  I have been busy beavering away in the kitchen making all sorts of tasty delights, I haven't had the chance to write about them.

Here is a very quick and delicious recipe that was passed to me from my dear friend Maytal who has shown me how to turn plain old green beans into a heavenly treat.

Ingredients:
Onions
Almonds
Onion stock
Green Beans (fresh or frozen)

To Make:
Fry over diced onions and  until soft and translucent.  Add almonds and continue to fry over for a minute or so.

Make up half a cup of onion stock approx 100ml - 120ml

Pour stock over onions and almonds and heat to thicken slightly.

Pour sauce over cooked beans and mix thoroughly.

Eat and Enjoy

Yes it is as easy as that!

Almonds and beans can be swapped for any nuts or green veg, but the original recipe is my favourite.  So far we have tried it with peas, cabbage, beans and spinach and all were lovely.

Beer Stew

This delicious recipe was passed to me from one of the lovely ladies at work.  After very serious work conversations, food rates extremely high on the agenda and we love sharing dinner ideas and tasty things we have made at home.

I particularly love this beer stew as it is hearty and sweet and makes the flat smell fantastic as all the meaty caramel flavours waft around.  It really is a delight to come  home on a drizzly day when the flat smells great and the oven has made it all warm and cosy.



The recipe below should feed 4-5 depending on portion size, but beware this is an extremely filling dinner.

Ingredients:
5 medium onions sliced
2 pkt chuck steak cubed (approx 1kg)
4 tbsp honey
1/2 pint beef stock
small bottle Leffe Brune or half big bottle (approx 1/2 pint) Must be Leffe Brune not Blonde
3-4 slices of bread
grain mustard

To make:

I like to use my le crusset cast-iron casserole so that I can make it in one pot and place straight in the oven.

Preheat oven to 160'c

Fry onions until golden brown, add 2 tbsp of honey and continue to brown until honey has dissolved.

Brown off meat in the same pot.

Add stock and Leffe Brune mix and bring to the boil.

Spread a thick layer of grain mustard over the bread and cover the beer stew creating a bread lid.

Place in the oven and cook for 20min at 160'c, then turn down to 120'c and cook for a further 6hours.

It can be left over night, or done in a slow cooker.

Remove from the oven stir in the bread lid.  If possible leave the meat to rest for an hour before serving if you have used a le crusset it should still be hot, otherwise it can be reheated.

Serve with green beans and roast pots or couscous.

This is a perfect winter dinner, it's easy to make and if you prepare it in the morning there will be no cooking when you get home.

Ammended Choc Brownies

A quick note about the chocolate brownies.

After much tasting and deliberating I have decided that the fruit might not be everybodies favourite option.

I made the brownies for our guest on Friday night and this time removed the strawberries, which as suggested made the world of difference.  The consistency of the brownie was perfect, but the fruit made them a little too sharp.

I think I will have to play around with which fruits suits us best, but in the meantime I am going to sprinkle coarsely chopped nuts over the top before baking.  Mmmmmm

Something from the Hubby

I have to say in our house I can't take all the credit for creating delicious treats in the kitchen.  Rudi is also a very talented chef and makes delicious lazy weekend breakfasts.  Today's brekkie was so tasty we ate it before we took pictures - opps!

This is what Rudi likes to call the 'Kosher Egg and Facon Croissant!'

Ingredients:
Croissant (from the kosher bakery they are pareve - dairy free, which means you can have them with meat)
Cold meat - we like the Yarden half and half turkey
Egg
Mushrooms
Spray oil
Salt/Pepper
HP or BBQ sauce

Cut your croissant in half
Fry an egg is spray oil (a healthier option to regular oil because you use a lot less)
Place it on the croissant.
Fry off the meat until it is crispy.
Load it on top of the egg.
Fry off the mushroom with a little salt and pepper, which will soak up the meaty taste from the pan.
Add them to the croissant.
Add a sauce of your choice.
Close the croissant.
Eat and enjoy.

This is a real sunday morning treat and soooo tasty, but you have to be careful as eating too many breakfasts like this will pile on the pounds.

If you feel like spoiling yourself one morning, I really recommend you try this :)

Tomato Soup with a Twist

This soup is one of the first things I ever made independently when I started helping out by making dinner at home and as with most of my recipes it is so easy!  I like thing to be simple and delicious.

Ingredients: 

Onion finely chopped

2x can chopped tom

2 tbls tomato puree

1 tsp sugar

1tsp cumin powder

2 pints chicken or vegetable stock (I like pareve chicken stock to get the meaty flavour but keep it vegetarian)

mini pasta shapes

salt/pepper

Fresh basil leaves to serve

To Make:

Fry over the onions until they are translucent

Sprinkle over the cumin powder and fry off for another minute or so.  The cumin is quite strong so don't over do it, you only want a hint to come through.

Stir in the chopped toms and tomato puree, then sprinkle over the sugar and mix in.  The sugar helps bring out the intensity of the tomatoes and it really does make a difference!

Add in the stock, salt and pepper to taste and leave to simmer for about half a hour to thicken up.

About 10 minutes before serving you can add the raw pasta to the soup and cook as you would if you had added the pasta to regular boiling water.  However we find that the pasta keeps swelling and drinks up any left over soup, so there is nothing for the next day, so I recommend adding cooked pasta to each bowl as you serve the soup.

I'll never forget how impressed my mum was that I pulled off a delicious dinner (this was just the starter), which really gave me the motivation to try out a whole range of recipes in the kitchen, so thanks mum, because with out your support who know what type of dinners I would be making for Rudi these days. :)

Better Than Mr Kipling - Bakewell Tarts

After reading the title you are either very intrigued or thinking I'm full of it!  It is in fact our friends that have told me that my Bakewells are better than Mr Kipling and some of them are real conniosseurs in the cake eating world! 

The secret is the almond essence that goes into the recipe to make them extra almondy and making them as little tartlet so you don't feel too guilty for eating more than one!

This super simple and super yummy recipe is as follows.

Ingredients: Makes 12 tartlets

75g caster sugar

75g butter/margarine

1tsp almond essence

75g almond essence

25g plain flour

1 egg

raspberry jam

flakes almonds 

12 mini pastry cases/ ready rolled shortcrust pastry to line 12 cupcake tin

If you are a die-hard pastry maker you could make your own to line the the tray, but I don't usually have time.

To make:

Preheat oven to 200'c

Cream marg and sugar until light and fluffy.  The secret is to get lots of air into the mixture at this point to make your Bakewells light.

Add in egg and vanilla essence until the mixture is smooth.

Fold in almond essence and then flour.  Make sure you lift and fold the mixture so you add lots of air.

In each pastry case add a tsp of raspberry jam (you can use any red jam or even lemon curd, what
ever suits your fancy.)

Cover the jammy cases with frangepan (almond mixture)

Sprinkle over with flaked almonds.
Bake for approximately 15min until golden brown.

Leave cool or serve at a warm temperature, either way they are irresistible (as you can see from the first picture one got nabbed before I even took the picture!)

Remember the jam will be BURNING hot straight from the oven, you have to let them cool before eating!