Almond Macaroons

I know, these do look rather lurid.   I was aiming for a delicate pink and actually made them on Valentine’s Day.   However, the danger of not having used food colouring before, soon tripped me up.  The recipe stated to add a little and then add a little more to get the desired colour.   I thought a teaspoon full at the beginning was the same as a little, when in fact, a little drop off the end of the teaspoon would have been closer to the right amount.    So, if you can, imagine that these are not orange and not something you would serve at a Halloween party, but rather, something soft, delicate and romantic, something to share with your loved one.   Unless of course you are reading this in October, and then you can add as much food colouring as you like.

I came across this recipe in the Metro newspaper where it had been taken from Mary Berry’s Complete Cookbook.

Despite the rather unromantic colour I would like to send these to Teatime Treats, a monthly tea party hosted by Kate and Karen.  The February theme is romance.  I am also linking them to Cookbook Sundays at Couscous and Consciousness and Sweet as Sugar Cookies for Sweets for a Saturday.

Ingredients – makes about 20 (10 when sandwiched together)

100g icing sugar

100g ground almonds

2 tbsp cold water

2 egg whites

1 tsp almond extract

1 tsp or 1 drop of red food colouring, depending on the occasion

Filling

45g butter

75g icing sugar

Raspberry jam

How to Make Almond Macaroons

1. Sift the icing sugar into a bowl.  Add the ground almonds.

2. Put the caster sugar and water in a saucepan and bring it to the boil.   Let it boil for a couple of minutes without stirring and then let it cool a little.

3. Put one egg white in a bowl.  Whisk until it goes stiff and then, as you whisk, begin to slowly pour in the sugar syrup.  It should form a shiny meringue mixture.

4. Add the other egg white to the icing sugar and ground almonds along with the almond extract and food colouring .   Mix well till you get a paste.

5. Add a spoonful of meringue and mix into the almond mixture.   Then add the rest of the meringue and fold in until it is all combined.

6. Cover a baking tray with baking paper.    Either place spoonfuls of the mixture on the baking paper or use a piping bag and squeeze small rounds onto the paper.    Leave for an hour.

7. Put the baking trays into an oven at 150C.  After 25 minutes turn the heat off but leave the macaroons in the oven for an hour.

8. Take the macaroons out of the oven and peel off the baking paper and put on a wire rack to cool.

9. To make the filling, soften the butter and then cream the icing sugar into it.   Spread half the macaroons with the icing.  Then spread raspberry jam on top of the icing sugar and sandwich with another macaroon.

 

Tepsi Baytinijan

So soon after making moussaka, I was quite surprised to find myself making another baked dish involving aubergines, although that is about where the similarities end between that dish and this one.   As you know, I like to enter the My Kitchen My World event each month and this month the country was Iraq.  Now, I don’t know much about Iraqi food and I imagine it to be similar to other Middle Eastern cuisines.   Even so, I wanted to try and find something that was distinctly Iraqi, at least in my mind.   As I researched I came across lots of information saying that other well-known dishes such as tabouleh and falafel are widely eaten in Iraq.  The only problem is, Iraq is not the first country that I would associate them with.  I came across the dish, tepsi baytinijan on Wikipedia, described as a very popular Iraqi casserole and decided to research it further.   It’s a dish of sliced fried aubergines,layered with fried onions and garlic, and usually potatoes,although I found one recipe which said carrots could be used instead of potatoes and so that’s what I did – I wanted to avoid it being too similar to moussaka. Chunks of fresh tomato are then placed on top and small meatballs are placed between the tomatoes.   It is then baked in the oven and served with rice and salad.   Or in my case, jacket potatoes, which admittedly is not very Iraqi.

Ingredients – serves 2

1 aubergine

2 medium-sized  carrots

1 onion

2 tomatoes

250g minced beef

2 garlic cloves

1 tsp chilli powder

1 tsp cumin

1 tsp ground coriander

1 tbsp tomato puree

How to make Tepsi Baytinijan

1. Cut the aubergines into slices about 1cm wide.  Slice the carrots about 1-2 mm wide and slice the onions.

2. Lightly fry the aubergines for about 5 minutes on each side. Put to the side and then in the same pan fry the onions and carrots until softened.  Add one crushed garlic clove a few minutes before they are ready.

3. While cooking the vegetables, make the meatballs.   Mix 1/2 a tsp of each spice and 1 crushed garlic clove into the mince.   Make into small meatballs.

4. Lightly oil an ovenproof dish.  Place the aubergines on the bottom of the dish.   Layer the carrots and onions on top.  Slice the tomatoes into wide chunks and put on top.   Put the meat balls between the chunks of tomato.

5. Put the rest of the spices and the tomato puree into  a cup.   Add 200ml of boiling water and stir till the puree has dissolved.

6. Pour the water over the dish and cover with tinfoil.  Bake in the oven  for 45 minutes at about 180C.

 

Inspired by Masterchef: Fennel Salad with Sea Bass

I really couldn’t decide what to make at first for my Inspired by Masterchef post after last week’s show.   I considered making a pearl barley risotto with fish, but I’ve already made a potato risotto with fish this series.   Also, the contestant who made it rather spoiled it by adding whiskey, so it’s probably not the ideal recipe they’d prefer to be remembered for.   Another option was beef with braised red cabbage, carrot puree, walnuts and rosemary.   I have to admit that this option came very close to winning out, but in the end, I opted for the fish with fennel salad, which has probably turned out quite differently to the recipe on the show.   It certainly looks very different.  On Masterchef dainty pieces of red mullet were arranged among fennel and tomatoes.   There certainly wasn’t a big pile of salad as on my plate.  There were also scallops with the dish on Masterchef, but as I’m allergic to them, they stayed well away from my plate.   So, as you can see, not really a winner for presentation, but it tasted delicious and made a relatively easy but very healthy midweek meal.

Ingredients – serves 2

1/2 bulb of fennel

2 tomatoes

4cm piece of cucumber

Juice of 1 lemon

1/2 tsp mind

1/2 tsp parsley

Salt

Black pepper

Extra virgin olive oil

2 sea bass fillets or other white fish

How to Make Fennel Salad with Sea Bass

1. Sliced the fennel very thinly.    Cut the cucumber in half and also slice thinly lengthways. Slice the tomatoes too and put all the vegetables in a bowl.   Add the dried herbs, salt and pepper.   Finally add lemon juice and olive oil.   Mix well and leave for an hour before serving.

2. Panfry the fish and serve alongside the salad with extra lemon wedges.

 

Cardamom and Pistachio Ice Cream

It is so long since I’ve used my ice cream maker.   I think it was in summer when I got it and I was so excited by it I made ice-cream every week for a few weeks and then somehow it got forgotten about.    Well, I suppose winter is not the idea time to be making ice cream, but Valentine’s Day was the perfect time to cook steak with a creamy sauce and make macaroons, which meant I had both cream and egg yolks left over.   This could have meant creme brulee and a chance to play with my blow torch, but as Kavey is running an ice cream challenge, Bloggers Scream for Ice cream on Kavey Eats, and the ice cream should be custard based this month, I knew that this time, it was going to mean ice cream.  I decided to make pistachio ice cream as I’ve never made a nut ice cream before, and I think cardamom goes really well with pistachios so I decided to flavour the custard lightly with cardamom.  If you’re not keen on cardamom you could use vanilla instead.  You can see from the picture that the ice cream is a yellowy colour rather than green, as pistachio usually is.   I’m not sure if this is because green food colouring is usually added or if it is because I lightly toasted my pistachios before grinding them.   They were still green on the inside but more brown on the outside and after they had been ground the ground pistachio was a brown colour.   Anyway, for me, this was not a problem.   The ice cream tasted deliciously rich and creamy and I would say that is the most important thing.

I’m also linking to Sweets for a Saturday.

Ingredients

200ml double cream

200ml Skimmed milk

1 cardamom pod, slightly crushed so the shell is a little cracked but not falling apart

2 egg yolks

150g caster sugar + 1 tbsp

50g unsalted pistachios

How to Make Cardamom and Pistachio Ice Cream

1. Roast the pistachios in a dry frying pan, shaking regularly to prevent any burning.    Take off the heat and leave to cool.

2. Combine the milk, cream and cardamom pod in a saucepan.   Heat gently.   As soon as it is about to boil.    Take it off the heat and leave for 15 minutes for the cardamom pod to infuse.

3. Beat the egg yolks with the sugar until light coloured.   If there doesn’t seem to be enough liquid, add a tbsp of cold water.

4. Remove the cardamom pod from the cream and milk.   Slowly pour the cream mixture into the egg yolk and sugar, whisking all the time.

5. Return the egg, sugar and cream mixture to the saucepan and heat gently, stirring.   It should gradually thicken.   Stop when it forms a custard that coats the back of a spoon.

6. Put most of the pistachios and the extra tbsp of sugar in a spice grinder or food processor and blend until ground.    Stir this mixture into the custard.    Roughly chop the extra pistachios and add to the custard as well.    Leave to cool and then put the mixture in an ice cream maker.

7. After churning in the ice cream maker it can be transferred to another container and kept in the freezer until you want to eat it.

 

Capsicum Subzi

Once again I was happy to be paired with an Indian food blog for Taste and Create.   Rasi of Vegetarian Food and Me has only been blogging for a couple of months but already has a wide range of recipes on her blog.   Of course I wanted to try something I’d never made before and this recipe for Capsicum Subzi caught my eye as I’ve never made anything quite like it.  I’d describe it as an Indian stir fry, and like all stir fries it is very quick and easy to make, but also very flavourful.   The flour and spices stick to the peppers and almost form a crust on them.  The only thing I changed was to use two thirds less flour as the original recipe called for 6 tbsp but I couldn’t see how a batter could then be made by only adding 2 tbsp of oil.  I also added less salt but would add even less next time as it was quite salty.   This is of course my fault as I should have added only a very very tiny amount before tasting it.    As this is so quick and easy and I always have peppers in the fridge, it is something I will make again and will try different variations of spices.    It’s also something I’ll bear in mind for those occasions when you really don’t want to spend time in the kitchen and just want to make something as quickly as possible but that is still tasty.

I am also submitting this to Lisa’s Kitchen for A Celebration of Indian Food.

Ingredients – serves 2

1 red, yellow or orange pepper

I green pepper

1 green chilli pepper

1 tsp mustard seeds

2tbsp chickpea flour

1 tsp ground coriander

1 tsp cumin

1/2 tsp chilli powder

1 tsp sugar

Salt to taste

2 tbsp oil

Juice of 1/2 lemon

How to Make Capsicum Subzi – Serves 2

1. Chop the  peppers into fairly large chunks and slice the chilli.

2. Heat a little oil in a wok.  Add the mustard seeds.  As soon as they begin to pop add the peppers.   Cook for a few minutes until softened.

3. In a bowl mix together the flour and remaining spices.   Add a little oil until you get a thick batter consistency.   Turn the heat down a little and pour this over the peppers and continue to cook for a few minutes.  Keep giving an occassional stir.   When ready, squeeze the lemon over the top.

4. Serve with rice or flat bread.

 

Potato and Pea Samosas

There are certain food like samosas that I am always happy to eat.  They’re one of my favourite starters when I go to an Indian restaurant and I always choose the vegetarian ones.  I love the combination of pastry, potato and spiciness, so no, you are not likely to ever catch me going on a low carb diet.  These samosas are a little different in that they use filo pastry rather than traditional samosa pastry.   They also turned out rather large.  When I began making them, I was expecting them to be like little nibbles but I would almost call these pasties.    My husband and I ate two each for dinner, along with some salad and we were full!   Luckily, the leftovers keep well in the fridge and if you heat them up in the oven the next day the pastry goes all lovely and crispy again and they are almost as good as when freshly made.   Just don’t heat them in the microwave.  I’ve warned you.  The recipe below will give far too much filling but don’t worry, it’s delicious as a side dish and can also be kept in the fridge and reheated.

Although this is a recipe I had always thought looked nice, I was actually prompted to make these for Dom at Belleau Kitchen’s Random Recipe Challenge.   As Random Recipes was celebrating one year we had to  go back and use the first book we’d used for this challenge.  Unfortunately I couldn’t find the first book I’d used and so rather than turning the place upside down looking for it, I decided to go with the second one.  After all, I’m seven months pregnant and I’m sure unnecessary exertion would not be good for me!  The book is Indian Food Made Easy by Anjum Anand and as I’ve made at least half of the recipes already from this book, I did have to pick a few times until I got lucky and picked one I hadn’t made before.

As samosas are perfect snack food I am also sending this to Lindsay at Vanilla Clouds and Lemon Drops for her Sweet Heat Challenge.   The theme this month is game food. Also to Siri’s Flavours for Potato Mania and Couscous and Consciousness for Cookbook Sundays.

Ingredients – makes 6

1 pack of filo pastry (6 sheets)

200g potatoes

1/2 tsp mustard seeds

1 tsp ground coriander

1/2 tsp cumin powder

1/4 tsp chilli powder

1/2 tsp garam masala

4tbsp fresh coriander, chopped

1 onion, chopped

1 small knob ginger, finely diced

1 chilli pepper, sliced

60g frozen peas

4-5 tbsp butter

Nigella seeds, poppy seeds or sesame seeds to decorate

How to Make Potato and Pea Samosas

1. Cube the potatoes and boil until soft.  Drain.

2. Put a little oil in a saucepan with the mustard seeds.   When they begin to pop add the chopped onion, ginger and chilli pepper.   Cook for 2 minutes on high then add the peas, the spices and a dash of water.   After about 2 more minutes add the potatoes and coriander leaves.    Stir well and cook for another 2 minutes.   Adjust any seasonings if necessary.

3. Melt the butter in microwave or in a small saucepan.   Lay a sheet of filo pastry out.   Spread butter on half of it then fold it over.   Spread butter on half of it again and fold it again.   Put a dessert spoon of filling at one end of the pastry.  Brush a little butter next to the filling, where the pastry is going to be joined.  Fold the corner over diagonally to cover the filling.   Fold again upwards and then once more to use up the whole pastry sheet. Brush a little butter on top and sprinkle with seeds to decorate.

4. Bake in the oven at 200C for 30 minutes.   Turn halfway through.

 

Inspired by Masterchef: Tortilla Espagnol

I’m not really a fan of normal omelettes.   For some reason I get bored before I’ve finished eating them.    Maybe that’s why I haven’t eaten one for a long long time.   I do however, love spanish omelette and probably make one about once a month.   Maybe it’s the added potato that gives it more substance.   Maybe it’s just that I love putting chorizo in it, and chorizo changes so many simple recipes from just nice to delicious.    In fact, I have previously blogged about spanish omelette and that is the way I normally make it.   I add peppers and onions as well as the chorizo, and I just dice the potatoes.   This time, Inspired by Masterchef, I decided to try and make it the way it was made on the show.   Instead of just dicing the potatoes, I sliced them thinly using the food processor, and instead of just pouring the egg into the pan on top of all the other ingredients, I mixed everything together in a bowl before putting everything together into the frying pan.    Because there were no extra vegetables to bulk out the filling, there was a higher proportion of egg in this tortilla and because of the way the potatoes were sliced, they interlocked more and so the tortilla held together better when it was taken out of the pan and could more easily be eaten with your fingers like a pizza.    This did also mean that there was  less texture to the tortilla and my husband missed the peppers and extra chilli that I usually add to my spanish omelettes.   I was happy with it and did feel it was a bit more authentic than my normal method, but whether it will change the way I make this dish for ever, is still not decided.   Next time I may try a combination between the two.

How you like to eat omelettes?

Ingredients

6 eggs

1 large potato

1 chorizo sausage

2 tbsp grated manchego or other hard cheese

Black Pepper

Salt

How to Make Tortilla Espagnol

1. Using the slicing blade on the food processor, slice the potato into thin slices.    Boil for 5 minutes then drain.

2. Chop the chorizo into small pieces and fry in a frying pan until it is becoming crispy on the outsides.

3. In a bowl, beat the eggs.    Season and add the manchego.

4. Remove the chorizo from the frying pan, leaving the oil in the bottom of the pan.    Add the chorizo and potato slices to the egg mixture.   Stir so all the potato is coated in egg.

5. Put the potato and egg mixture back in the pan that the chorizo has been cooking in.   Turn the heat down and cook over a low heat for about 20 minutes, until the egg has just set.

6. When ready, put a plate on top and turn the pan over to turn out the tortilla

 

Homemade Instant Noodle Soup

Soup is the perfect meal for winter, but you wouldn’t catch me eating a pot noodle.    Oh no, I like to make my own soup, and even an instant soup can be quick and easy to make.   The only way in which this is more time-consuming than making up a shop-bought instant soup, is that you have to spend a couple of minutes chopping up vegetables and squeezing a lime, but how long does that take most people?  I have to be honest, I would never have come across this recipe if it wasn’t for coming across the blog, Jo’s Kitchen and her new event, River Cottage Rocks.   Obviously she’s a big fan of The River Cottage.  Now, although I have a largish collection of recipe books, I don’t actually have any River Cottage ones yet, but I’ve seen a lot of recipes online and watched lots of Mr Fearnley-Whittingstall’s tv shows so I decided to have a look online for inspiration.    As the theme was ‘everyday easy’, I was looking for easy, quick after-a-busy-day-at-work type recipes and I soon came across about 4 different instant noodles recipes.   The recipe I made is adapted from this one for hot sweet and sour noodles.  I’m not really a fan of sweet and sour.   I like savoury things to taste savoury, so I of course omitted the sweetness, used a different selection of vegetables, more chopped chilli, fresh ginger and added lots of fresh coriander too to add extra flavour.   Well, perhaps the extra chilli was a mistake – it was very very hot!   But apart from that, it was definitely a success, very tasty, still crunchy vegetables, and the noodles I used, although designed to be boiled for 2.5 minutes were properly rehydrated after 6 minutes standing in the hot soup.  Definitely the way to go for noodle soups from now on.

I would also like to submit this to February’s No Croutons Required, hosted by Jacqueline at Tinned Tomatoes.   The theme this month is fresh herbs.

Ingredients – Serves 2

2 nests of thin dried noodles

1 green chilli, thinly sliced, some seeds removed

4 mushrooms, thinly sliced

6 baby sweetcorn, sliced

Handful of sugar snap peas, sliced

2 spring onions, sliced

Small piece of root ginger, diced

1 tsp vegetable bouillon powder

2 tbsp soy sauce

Juice of 1 lime

2 tbsp chopped coriander

How to Make Homemade Instant Noodles

1. Put a nest of noodles in the bottom of each bowl.   Divide the chopped vegetables between each bowl.  Sprinkle with bouillon powder

2. Pour boiling water over each bowl so all the vegetables are covered.   Leave for 5-6 minutes.

3. Divide the coriander between each bowl.   Squeeze half a lime into each bowl and add a tbsp of soy sauce to each and serve immediately.

 

Secret Recipe Club: Italian Chicken with Olives, Tomatoes and Rosemary

One thing I am always happy to find another recipe for is chicken.  It goes with so many flavours and can be used in so many different ways.   One of my favourite easy ways of cooking it is baking it in the oven with various vegetables, herbs and spices.   So, this month when I was paired with Birthe from New Yorker by Heart for the Secret Recipe Club, I began by searching through her chicken recipes.  As she has been blogging since 2006 and blogs almost every day, I could only look at a small handful of recipes and there were loads to choose from.   I picked this one in the end as it contained flavours I love and I knew it would be easy to make after work.   I also fancied something with chicken and olives.   I made one or two changes such as adding the sliced yellow pepper, using a fresh rather than dried chilli pepper and using dried rosemary instead of fresh, but basically the recipe was the same, although the original is here.

Ingredients – Serves 2

Enough chicken for 2 people (I used breasts but legs or thighs would be good)

Handful of olives

Handful of cherry tomatoes

1 tsp dried rosemary

1 garlic clove, crushed

1 chilli pepper, sliced

1 bell pepper, sliced

Black pepper

200ml chicken stock (or white wine)

2 tbsp flour, mixed with a little salt, pepper, dried thyme, oregano and basil

How to Make Italian Chicken with Olives, Tomatoes and Rosemary

1. Coat the chicken in the seasoned flour mixture.

2. Heat a little oil in a frying pan.   Add the crushed garlic and sliced chilli and after about 20 seconds, the chicken.   Brown the chicken on all sides.

3. Place the chicken in an ovenproof dish.  Surround with the olives, peppers and cherry tomatoes.  Sprinkle with the rosemary and season with black pepper.

4. Pour the stock into the frying pan with the leftover garlic and and chillies.   Bring to the boil and scrape any bits off the bottom of the pan.   Pour this over the chicken and vegetables.

5. Cover the dish with foil so it stays moist and doesn’t dry out.   Bake in the oven at about 200C for about 40 minutes.   Serve with potatoes or bread.

To see what other Secret Recipe Club members have made, click on the link below:

 

Lemon Cupcakes

One of my most exciting Christmas presents this year was a set of icing nozzles and  piping bag, not exciting because I’d requested it and looked forward to it, but exciting because it was unexpected and because it opened up a whole new realm of baking and cake decorating.   Not being one of the tidiest or neatest people in terms of food presentation, this is not an area that I would think I would naturally  excel in.  I cook much more savoury food and very rarely weigh or measure anything – I just throw in however much of something feels about right.    Although I’m not an expert at baking, I know enough to know that this approach is less likely to work when making a cake, although I still do make a few tweaks here and there when baking.   Anyway, as I hadn’t used it yet, I chose a recipe from my new book, Step by Step Baking by Caroline Bretherton, which I was lucky enough to win from Tinned Tomatoes just after Christmas.  The recipe was quite easy and the instructions were nice and clear.    As my lovely husband always complains if I use zest in anything, I omitted the zest in the cake mixture and the icing, but aware of the extent of my baking skills, I played rather safe and didn’t experiment with anything else, apart from cutting the recipe down and just making a third of everything.   This was fine apart from for the icing.    I managed to ice 3 of the cupcakes using the piping bag but found that a lot of icing which I still needed to use could not be squeezed out of the bag and so I had to spoon it out and spread it on the last four cupcakes instead.   If I’d made the full mixture I’d have had about 24 cupcakes and so icing the last four this way wouldn’t matter, but as I only ended up with 7 cupcakes, it was a bit of a shame.  Well, I suppose I’ve learnt the hard way to only use the piping bag for large quantities.   Even so, I was very pleased with my first attempt.   The swirl of icing did look a little shaky, not quite as assured as i would have liked, but I can’t say that’s not a fair relection of me as a baker.   I hesitate to say I’ve mastered a new skill, but I am definitely learning it.   Maybe next time I’ll be trying my hand at little rosebuds, who knows.

I am sharing this with Ros, The More Than Occasional Baker, for Alpha Bakes.   I am also linking to Tandy at Lavender and Lime for the Recipe Book Challenge and Couscous and Consciousness for Cookbook Sundays.

Ingredients – Makes up to 24

200g plain flour

100g unsalted butter

2 tsp baking powder

200g caster sugar

1/2 tsp salt

3 eggs

150ml milk

Juice and zest of a lemon

For Icing

200g icing sugar

100g unsalted butter

Juice of a lemon

How to Make Lemon Cupcakes

1. Sift the flour and baking powder into a bowl and then add the butter, softened and cut into small cubes, the sugar and the salt.   Mix together.   I used my fingers, a bit like making pastry, until it was like fine breadcrumbs.

2. In another bowl add the milk to the eggs and whisk together.    Then add this mixture to the first bowl, along with the lemon juice.    Whisk everything together.

3. Put the cupcake paper cases into cupcake trays and fill each one halfway with the mixture.

4. Bake for about 20-24 minutes at about 180C.

5. Soften the butter and cream the butter and icing sugar together.   Add the lemon juice and mix in well.

6. When the cupcakes have cooled, either spread the icing on top or use a piping bag.