Apple, Blueberry & Ginger Crumble

Crumble Time!

One of my favourite warm puddings is crumble, especially apple varieties. I usually like apple and raspberry but my grandma bought me a punnet of blueberries so i thought id give them a go this time instead, and they were very tasty, and give the crumble this beautiful berry pink colour.

 Ingredients:

For the crumble:
70g flour
40g caster sugar
70g margarine or butter

 35g Muesli

For the filling:
700g cooking apples, peeled, cored and quartered 

1 punnet Blueberries
50g sugar, to sweeten

 1 tablespoon ginger & lemon-grass cordial

1 teaspoon grated ginger

Preheat the oven to 190°C/375°F/gas 5.

Peel and core the apples, quarter and cut in to chunks.
Put the apples into a pan with the sugar, cordial and grated giner. Cook over a low heat for 5 minutes and place in a small ovenproof dish. I like to use Pyrex glass dishes, as you get the see the gorgeous colours of the fruit on the sides of the bowl. Now add the blueberries to the apples (or whatever other berries you fancy).
Place the flour and oats in a bowl and mix well. Cut the margarine or butter into small cubes and add this to the oats and flour. Mix with your fingertips until it resembles an even crumb texture. Add the sugar and mix through.
Cover the fruit with the crumble mixture. Bake for approximately 30 minutes until the crumble is golden and the apple hot.

 I used mainly cooking apples, but I added two pink ladies as well as I love the taste of them.

 My favourite part of the crumble (minus the taste of course) is the beautiful colours of the fruit when you use berries. I also like scraping off and eating the sticky berries on the side of the dish once everyone has had their portion.

Finally serve with Vanilla ice cream, custard or cream :) This was the picture before I attacked mine with whipped cream (Because we didn't have ice cream).

Minestrone Soup

For my lunch today I made Minestrone soup, which is one of my favourite varieties. I love the tomatoey (yes that is a word) juice with the chunky vegetables and the hint of the smoked bacon.

Minestrone Soup

Ingredients:

3 sticks celery

1 large onion

2 carrots

4 cloves garlic

2-3 tablespoons tomato puree

2-3 tins chopped tomatoes (depends how runny/thick you want your soup)

1 can cannellini beans

1/2 bag spinach

4 large cabbage leaves

2L stock cube (vegetable or chicken)

5-6 rashers smoked bacon

2-3 handfuls of pasta

Fennel Seeds, Chili flakes, smoked paprika (or whatever you like really)

 Fresh basil & coriander.

Cut bacon into strips, and saute in a frying pan with the onions until browned. Chop the celery and carrots into small chunks and add to the pan along with the minced garlic. You can now add your desired herbs and spices etc. Cook until slightly softened. Then add the chopped tomatoes, tomato puree and stock. Bring to boil for ten Min's. Now add the pasta, cabbage and cannellini beans and simmer for 20 minutes. Before serving add the spinach and season to taste.

Serve with warm crusty bread, chopped basil and coriander, and a shaving of Parmesan.

 Perfect for a cold night in, and made better if worn in a one-sie, or is that just me?!

Thumb Print Cookies

Thumb print cookies

I love this variety of biscuit. I really like how the sticky jam centre looks like a jewel, and lets face it, anything with jam in is always a winner.

Gregg's do a really awesome version of this biscuit called 'Jammy Star Biscuits' or as I like to call them 'Jammies!' But they haven't been selling them over the winter months, but hopefully they will re appear this summer. In the meantime this recipe is satisfying my needs.

3/4 pound (3 sticks) butter, at room temperature, 1 cup sugar, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, 3 1/2 cups flour,
1/4 teaspoon salt, Raspberry and/or apricot jam.

Cream together the butter and sugar until they are just combined and then add the vanilla. Sift together the flour and salt. Add the flour mixture to the creamed butter and sugar. Mix until the dough starts to come together. On a floured board, roll together ingredients into a flat disk. Wrap in plastic and chill for 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 350 F. (Gas mark 4)
Roll the dough into roughly 1 tablespoon sized balls. Place the balls on grease proof paper and gently (using your thumb) create a well in the centre. Drop 1/4 teaspoon of jam into each well.
Bake for 20 to minutes. Cool and serve.

I always end up adding too many ingredients to my recipes, e.g here, Jam!!

Christmas Food Planning

Yesterday I spent the afternoon looking through magazines and internet pages for the perfect festive food ideas. I came across these lovely ideas from Jamie’s Christmas.

1) Jamie Oliver's mum's retro triffle       2) Jamie's Winter chcolate bomb ( Looks amazing)

  

 Festive forks, the perfect snacks for hungry guests and family members.

 

 

Roasted Tomato and Onion Soup

Ingredients:

2kg/4½lbs large ripe plum tomatoes, halved/

2 garlic bulbs, cut in half horizontally

2 large red onions, peeled, quartered

few sprigs fresh thyme

1  1/2 tbsp Honey

sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

250ml/9fl oz vegetable stock (optional)

100ml/3½fl oz single cream (optional)

few drops Worcestershire sauce (optional)

          Method:

1.      Preheat the oven to 190C/375F/Gas 8.

2.      Place the tomatoes, garlic, onions and thyme into a large roasting tin and season, to taste, with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Drizzle with the oil, and roast in the oven for 40-50 minutes. Remove from the oven and set aside to cool slightly.

3.      I said use two bulbs of garlic, with the first, pull the bulbs from their skin and mash in with the soup. The other is purely to enjoy as a sweet little treat for all you garlic fans out there, though if you everyone is a fan in the house, you could always add it to the soup as well.

4.      Tip the roasted tomatoes and onions into a food processor along with the mashed garlic, and pulse until smooth.

5.      If the soup is too thick, pour into a large saucepan and loosen the mixture with either vegetable stock, or single cream. Add a little Worcestershire sauce to season, if you like.

This is a recipe I have addapted from Sophie Dahl's Recipe Book, which is really worth buying if you can.

Raspberry Ice Tea

 I have a new food/drink obsession. Raspberry ice tea.

I usually buy ice tea from Costa, but recently I’ve been looking for the best way to replicate it for when I’m at home (our nearest Costa is Mold which is about 11 miles away) so I came up with this combination

  Lidl Lemon Ice Tea (You can use and make or brand of ice tea) and Raspberry ‘Monin’ Syrup which I bought from Amazon for £6.49. It sounds expensive but it lasts for quite a while, and is well worth the price once you taste it.

Recipe:

Add about 2-3 teaspoons of syrup to your ice tea; then add ice and lemon and Viola, a yummy drink, much cheaper than the £2.60 I pay at Costa, and just as tasty and refreshing.

Raspberry & Peach Breakfast Rolls.

Ingredients:

  2 1/4 teaspoons yeast (active dry), 2 tablespoons sugar, 1 cup warm milk, 4 tablespoons melted butter, 3 egg yolks, 2 tablespoons honey, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, 3 1/2 cups flour, 1 teaspoon salt, 1 can

of peach halfs, 2 handfulls of raspberry's. ( I used frozen because we didn't have fresh, they worked fine , but fresh ideally as they dont make the dough as wet).

Glaze:

1 Cup of icing sugar, squeeze of lemon juice, and a little water

Microwave the milk and butter until the butter is just melted. Add the sugar and yeast and let that just sit for 2-3 minutes (this lets it cool down before adding the egg).

 Stir in the egg yolks, honey and extract. Pour this into a large bowl with the flour and salt. Stir until well combined. Knead the dough a few times until it’s in a ball shape. Place this in a lightly oiled bowl and allow to rise in a warm spot for 1 hour.

Roll out the dough into a long rectangular shape. Add the peach half’s and raspberry's. (You could replace the fruit for nuts, butter, sugar or spices, whatever takes your fancy).

Roll up into a long log and slice into rolls. Place the rolls in a well-greased pan, then add little flicks of butter, and sprinkle with brown sugar, (this will caramelise nicely)
 Bake at Gas Mark 4, (350 F) for 40-45 minutes.

Make the glaze by squeezing the lemon into the icing sugar; add a little water until your preferred consistency. Then drizzle over the rolls.

Yummy :)