o 400g blueberries o 1tbsp elderflower cordial o 100g light brown sugar o 175g self raising Flour o 1tsp baking powder o 50g chilled Butter o 1 medium egg o 75ml butter milk o 25g hazelnuts o 1tsp demerara sugar Preheat the oven to 180° place the blueberries in an oven proof dish and pour over the cordial. Sprinkle over 50g of brown sugar. In a large bowl sift the flour and baking powder, then rub in the butter until it resembles breadcrumbs. Stir in the remaining brown sugar. Beat together the egg and buttermilk then stir into the flour mixture to make a batter. Drop spoonfuls of the batter on top of the blueberries then scatter over the chopped hazelnuts and demerara sugar. Bake for 35 minutes until golden brown.
Raspberry and Orange Polenta Cake
o 200g butter o 300g caster sugar o 3 large eggs o 1tsp vanilla extract o 100g polenta o 200g ground almonds o 1tsp baking powder o Zest and juice of two oranges o 150g raspberries Preheat the oven to 160° grease and line a 20cm cake tin. Spoon together the butter and caster sugar. Spoon in the eggs and vanilla extract. Add the polenta, almonds, baking powder and orange zest and spoon together. Gently mix in the raspberries. Spoon into the tin and bake for fifty minutes until golden. Place the orange juice and remaining 100g caster sugar in a small saucepan and simmer over a medium heat. Make around twenty insertions with a wooden skewer and spoon over the syrup. Leave the cake to cool then serve with a spoon of mascarpone and a handful of raspberries.
Pancakes are usually savoury, Europeans have many recipes that are pancake favourites. It is served in some restaurants in middle eastern countries as a savoury dish with spicy vegetable fillings. The French eat lots of mushrooms in the pancake as a filling and combined with a slice of ham in each pancake this is easy to make.
Ham Pancakes
Pancake mixture • 1000g Plain Flour • 500g Butter • 3000ml Milk • 30ml Vegetable Oil • 8 eggs Filling • 35 Slices of ham • 1500g Mushroom • 400g Onion • 300g Plain Flour • 250g Butter • 150g Thyme • 150g Parsley The cooking method is to heat the butter in a mixing bowl then add the milk mix. Now add the flour then each egg and mix. Put the vegetable oil in a frying pan or skilit and heat under a medium heat for four minutes. In the pancake mixture there is enough for thirty six pancakes, begin by pouring enough for one fat savoury pancake into the pan. Leave the batter for two minutes then use a wooden slice to separate the pancake from the pan. Leave for a further minute then turn the pancake with the slice to cook the other side. It takes just over another minute then put the pancake onto a serving tray using the slice. Repeat the process another thirty five times and use a spatula to get the last of the batter out of the mixing bowl. A first time should get at least thirty pancakes right and it is important not to over size the pancakes as the filling would make the product to fat. Next the filling first put the onion chopped finely in a large saucepan with the butter and turn on a low heat. Next clean the mushrooms and cut them into quarters and slices. Turn up the heat and fry the onion for two minutes then add the mushrooms and fry for four minutes. Lower the heat add the flour and stir in using a wooden slice. Add both of the herbs and stir in again turning off the heat. Place a pancake onto a plate put a slice of ham on one side then put a filling on top enough to make a cylinder when rolled. Roll making sure the bare pancake wraps around last and place on a baking tray. Repeat the process using the same plate another thirty five times fitting six onto each baking tray. The trays need to go in the preheated oven for fifteen minutes at 180° then removed they can be served immediately as a starter or with chips as a main course.
Lemons are a fruit and are sour and bitter to taste. As lemon fruit juice is factory produced the need for a lemon is less. As a favourite cake lemon cake can be made more sweet with a sticky lemon topping.
First of all spread a little butter around the edge of four cake tins. Then carefully insert four cake tin liners into the cake tins. Now before the cake begins the pith has to be grated from the lemons. Using an ordinary grater scrape all eight lemons free of any pith. This is easy and fresh lemons have to be used. Next cut each lemon in half and squeeze the juice using a squeezing instrument preferably one that collects the juice. Put the pith in a pan add the sugar and heat until the sugar dissolves. Add the water stir then boil for two minutes, turn the heat down and boil for twenty minutes and it will turn a shade darker. To make the cake melt the butter with the lemon juice add the sugar stir then the self raising flour and stir. Add the eggs mix thoroughly and put equal amounts in each cake tin using scales to weigh the mixture. Bake in a pre heated oven at 180° for twenty five minutes or until the tops of the cakes are golden. Pull from the oven and puncture each cake with a wooden skewer about twenty times. Now using judgement pour a quarter of the sugar water lemon pith mixture onto each cake while pushing it around with a spatchalor. The cake must remain in the tin and is now ready. To remove from the tin pull a table knife around the edge of each tin. Then drop the cakes directly onto a plate then pull off the liner. The cake can be turned over.
Thai chicken tikka fried rice with vegetable tikka masala and bringel daal.
Thai chicken tikka fried rice
• 300g Brown Rice • 200g Chicken Tikka • Tbsp Vegetable oil • One pint of water • One small onion • One chilli
Put the vegetable oil in a medium sized pan then add the tikka pieces. Now turn the heat on medium and put the lid on. Wait a minute then using a slice turn the chicken slightly. Now add the onion first making sure it is finely chopped and return the lid. Slice again every minute for five minutes until the chicken is cooked. Add the rice and stir with the slice then add 100ml of water. Leave for two minutes then use the slice again and add another 200ml of water. Stir again with the slice after two minutes and now add the remaining water and put the lid on and leave completely for ten minutes. You might need to turn the temperature down if it begins to bubble over. When cooked put onto plates ready to serve.
Chicken tikka fried rice on the four plates
Vegetable tikka masala
• 150g Potato • 100g Cabbage • 100g Courgette • 75g Carrot • 75g Pepper • 75g Onion • 200ml Water • Tsp Vegetable oil • One jar of tikka masala
Add the vegetable oil to a medium sized pan turn the heat to medium and put in the potato peeled and diced. Cook for two minutes stirring with a slice then add the onion diced and the courgette diced. After a minute add the carrot diced then stir and place a lid on. After two minutes add the cabbage stir then add the water stir then replace the lid. Wait five minutes then add the tikka masala stir and replace the lid. Wait three minutes then stir replace the lid then turn the heat to low and cook for ten minutes. Stir with the slice and add the peppers stir again replace the lid and cook for five minutes then serve.
Vegetable tikka masala in four side bowls
Bringel Daal
• 300g Green lentils • 300g Aubergine • 100g Onion • 500ml Water • Tsp Vegetable oil • One fresh chillli
Add the oil to a small pan then add the chopped onion and put onto a medium heat for one minute. Stir with a slice then add the lentils and stir. Wait for a minute then add the water stir with the slice and replace the lid. Once boiling add the chilli chopped turn down the heat and leave for fifteen minutes then stir with the slice. Now add the aubergine chopped into medium sized pieces stir and replace the lid. Boil and stir using the slice for ten more minutes then serve.
I love chocolate buttons on a cake and I had an idea of using white chocolate buttons so an iced cake with buttons instead of a chocolate cake.
• 1.5kg Self raising flour • 1kg Ready made icing • 500g Caster Sugar • 500g Butter • 600ml Milk • 200g Milky way buttons • 3 Large eggs • 3 Cake tin liners
First melt the butter and add the sugar and some milk mix a little with a wooden spoon. Next add the three eggs and the flour mix a little more and put in the rest of the milk. Butter the tins and use cake tin liners then mix for the final time before putting the mixture into three separate cake tins. Bake for fifty minutes at 160° in the fan oven when finished turn out on a wire rack and leave for ten minutes having already taken away the tins. Now remove the cake liners carefully so it is neat then leave the cake to cool.
White chocolate buttons
On a clean surface cut eack cake in half sideways using a bread knife. Now on another clean surface roll out the icing using a third for each cake. The icing is less sticky when cold so it can be rolled to the desired thickness. First roll the icing disks for the center of each cake place in the centre trim then evenly place chocolate buttons on top to form a pattern now put the top back on the cake. Roll out a larger disk of icing and place on top of the cake then push it so it falls over the edges and reaches the base. Trim off any excess icing and then put chocolate buttons in a pattern on the top of the cake.
Turkey pie is often a favourite food and yet is rarely found on most menus. Using wholemeal flour makes this pie a healthy option and serving with potatoes and vegetables adds enough variety to feed the many.
To prepare this first find one large tukey roasting dish the kind used to cook very large turkeys. Next dice the turkey into small pieces on a cutting board. Now put the wholemeal flour in a large mixing bowl and add the lard. Mix both ingredients together with your hands until it resembles fine bread crumbs then add ten cl of cold water and continue to mix well then nead in the bowl and onto a floured surface where you can continue to nead until it is all one big dough. Divide into three if necessary and nead one at a time then rejoin in one lump prepare the surface with one hundred and fifty grams of plain flour. Now roll using a rolling pin into a shape that is ten inches larger than the size of the roasting tin and leave to shrink while the inside is prepared. The filling is cooked first in a large saucepan add the vegetable oil then the finely chopped onions frying for around three minutes and turning with a slice. Now add the diced turkey frying also for another five minutes turn with the slice. Throw in the remaining thirty grams of flour and stir then add the boiling water and throw in the stock cubes. If the water bubbles to vigorously then the temperature is to high. Now stir with the slice so it is just boiling and add a lid and leave it to bubble for ten minutes. Pour the mixture into the roasting tin and coat the surface evenly with the turkey mixture. Now carefully add the pastry top allowing it to creep up the edge then at the top trimming with a blunt knife any excess pastry. Once done create a long sausage with the excess pastry then flatten with the rolling pin. Now place around the inside edges of the tin so the overlapping pastry on the edges is double thickness. Bake in an oven at 170° for fifty minutes.
Potato wedges are like chips and are nice fried after being baked in the oven. The way that potato wedges are made varies depending upon who makes them once I baked mine but now I bake then fry.
1kg of potato 60ml vegetable oil
Clean the potatoes first then bake in an oven on three baking sheets at 170° for thirty minutes. Remove the potatoes from the oven and leave to cool. Slice each potato into wedge shapes a wedge should look ordinary. Now fry in five batches in a frying pan with around 20ml of oil in the first batch then add 10ml to the remaining four batches. Turn each wedge once when frying and either serve or keep warm in a warmer.
Chinese wok cuisine is not French but these dishes can be cooked fast. First peel an onion chop it then add a mixture of spices and fry for two minutes in a wok. Then add the chicken to the onion and it should be three cm peices and fry for ten minutes until golden turning with a slice every minute. Mean while boil rice in boiling water for ten minutes and place noodles in boiling water for two minutes. Find a serving dish and put half the fried onion and chicken mixture in it then place the noodles on top and put in the warmer. Put the cooked rice in the wok and fold the mixture together with the slice. In a frying pan put twenty ml of oil then heat on a medium heat before adding the rice mixture. Fry for three minutes then turn over the mixture with a slice and fry for three minutes on medium. Serve with spring rolls.
Chicken and vegetable chop sueyChicken and mushroom yellow fried rice
800g of long grain rice 600g egg noodles 500g chopped onion 400g diced chicken 40ml vegetable oil 1 tsp coriander 1 tsp km pepper
The dish is a firm favourite of mine and one that can be enjoyed with chips peas onion rings and tomatoes.
800g sirloin steak 1kg brussel pate 1kg filo pastry 1kg oven chips 750g onion rings 750g frozen peas four medium tomatos oil for brushing
Heat the oven to 170° then place the beef on a rack inside a roasting dish and bake for eighty minutes. After ten minutes add the onion rings on two or three trays to the oven for twenty minutes. Take out the onion rings and add the four tomatos sliced inhalf on two trays for thirty five minutes then take the tomatos out. Prepare the chips onto three trays ready and have the filo pastry ready to use. Take the beef out of the oven and place the chips in raising the temperature to 180° for twenty minutes. Using a calving set slice the beef into eight slices. Take a slice and carefully cover with pate on both sides and edges using approximately an eighth of the pate then place onto the filo pastry sheets and fold up neatly placing onto a baking sheet. Repeat the same process seven more times using around seven sheets of filo pastry for each sirloin and filling out two baking sheets. Brush each with oil so the Wellington goes golden in colour when done. Remove the chips and put in the Wellington reducing the heat to 170° for thirty minutes remembering to use the remaining oven space to keep the other food warm. While the Wellington is in the oven boil the peas drain and serve with the other ingredients when ready.
I did this very fast I had already boiled three eggs. Making this curry means having to take the shell off three eggs but it is worth it.
3 hard boiled eggs one medium sized onion tin of coconut milk salt and pepper coriander 1 teaspoon turmeric 1 teaspoon cumin half teaspoon ginger half teaspoon cinnamon half teaspoon
Fry the chopped onion in a little vegetable oil then add the spices and stir in. Still frying add half the coconut milk save some for later. Then fry for ten minutes on a low heat. Half the three eggs and drop into the saucepan cover with the curry mixture. Fry for one minute then serve.
Store the half tin of coconut milk in the refrigerator.
Quiche is a friendly food and here is displayed a tomato and bacon.
Tomato + bacon
Making short crust pastry simple then place in quiche dish. Add dry ingredients then pour over mixture sprinkle with cheese and bake for thirty minutes at 180°
Pastry 8oz plain flour 4oz butter a little cold water Dry ingredients 5oz fried onion 3 rashes bacon diced 2 tomatoes sliced Wet ingredients Two eggs 400ml milk 1oz cheese
As a restaurant trader for many years I have gained methods of dealing with the small dish on the menu. Every now and again their is a slow time where not a lot is happening and the slow cooker needs to come out. Portions can then be emptied into small plastic pots and frozen so when someone orders the fine dish on my menu their is plenty of carefully prepared containers of it.
• Two or three potatoes weighing approximately 8oz • Vegetable oil 1tbsp • Salt and pepper
Have two or three potatoes weighing approximately 8oz and clean them under running tap water. Put the vegetable oil in the oven dish. Cut each potatoe into six or eight equal segments and throw in the oven dish. Move the wedges around the dish a little to collect any vegetable oil. Then roast at 180° for thirty five minutes removing with oven gloves.
• 500g minced beef • 300g of plain rice • 300g of chopped onion • 1 pint of water
Boil the rice in a pan with a lid on using boiling kettle water for eight minutes. In the clean wok fry some mince meat with a large chopped onion and some slices of ginger. Add the cooked rice and stir with a wooden pan slice add a lid and fry for three minutes. Remove the lid and turn the rice over with the wooden slice replace the lid and fry for three minutes on a lower heat. Serve with soy sauce and chop sticks.
I love a homemade hash brown with my full english breakfast. Bacon sausage egg fried bread beans and mushrooms and my special hash browns. Coffee or hot chocolate breakfast is ready.
2-3 hash browns 1 slice bacon 1 egg 1 sausage 1 slice of bread 1 can baked beans 5 tbsp vegetable oil In a large frying pan add the vegetable oil and place under a medium heat. Add the hash browns and sausage and turn every minute until the end of the frying time. After 1 minute add the bread cut in half and allow it to soak a little oil then turn over so oil is on both sides, then turn every minute until the end of frying time. Add the egg and leave it to settle then add the bacon by making some room in the pan and turn the bacon over every twenty seconds until the end of frying time. Heat the baked beans on the plate then dish the remaining ingredients onto the plate.
I invested in my own recipe and this requires twelve hours of steaming, six to cook and a further six before serving. I use a half filled pan of water with the lid on and a dish that has high sides to reach for the top of the pan. The water boils occasionally but not going in the pudding it is cooked by the hot steam.
Gloucester sausages or jumbo sausages as they are more widely known are a favourite of any chip shop owner. Originating from Gloucestershire Gloucester sausages are always of jumbo origin and are traditionally accompanied by chips.
Three frozen jumbo sausages One kg of frozen chips salt and vinegar Pre heat the oven to 180-200° Next put the three sausages on a baking tray and place in the oven on the top shelf. Then put the chips on to two or three baking trays and place underneath the sausages. Wait for twenty minutes then turn off the oven. Prepare three plates and dish out the food serve with salt and vinegar.
Today is the day for steam pudding with a lovely fruit underneath, I love steam pudding on days like this. Steam pudding is easy just use canned fruit or quickly boil some chopped fruit. 1200g of flour 800g of butter 600g of sugar 500g tin of fruit 200ml of milk 150ml of canned fruit juice First butter a cake tin edges and place a cake tin liner in a cake tin. Then melt the butter in a mixing bowl and add the sugar, mix. Add the flour then the milk, mix add the canned fruit juice, mix. Add the canned fruit to the cake tin so it covers it and then add the mixture to the cake tin. Pre-heat the oven to a hundred and seventy degrees. Bake on a high shelf in the oven for 80 minutes then transfer to a wire rack. Remove cake tin liner when the steam stops forming after half an hour.
