Salmon and courgette tagliatelle

This is a quick Sunday night feast that is spicy, tangy, and not as naughty as it looks thanks to half fat creme-fraiche and a good serving of veg. Again, this recipe is for two so simply double for four people. 

Ingredients

Dried tagliatette (enough for two people, about 4 balls each), 1 pack smoked salmon, 1 small red onion, 1 small courgette, 1 large handful of baby spinach leaves, 1/2 lemon juiced, 200g pot half fat creme-fraiche, 2 cloves garlic, 2 inch cube feta cheese, 1tbsp olive oil, pinch red chilli flakes, 1tsp ground black pepper, 2tsp salt. 

Boil a large pan of water and add a teaspoon of salt, then the tagliatelle, cover and simmer for 10 minutes (or according to packet instructions) stirring occasionally to keep the strands loose. 

Whilst the pasta is cooking you can make the sauce. Heat the olive oil in a large pan. Skin and finely sliced the red onion, chop the courgette in to small cubes, add to the pot of oil and stir to coat the vegetables in oil. Reduce the heat to gently cook the vegetables until soft and sweet, stirring occasionally. Skin and crush the garlic cloves and add. Next give the spinach a big rough chop, don't worry about getting this even or very small, just break up the leaves a little, add to the vegetables. 

Next add a big serving spoon full of the pasta cooking water and stir well. Add the creme-fraiche, lemon juice, a teaspoon of salt and pepper and the chilli flakes. Stir well to combine. Finely slice the smoked salmon and add last to delicately cook. 

When the pasta is cooked drain well reserving a cup of the cooking liquid. Add the pasta to the sauce and toss very well to combine, allow to continue cooking for a couple of minutes to allow the pasta to absorb some of the sauce. If it gets too dry add a small splash of the cooking liquid to loosen it a little. The sauce should be thick and umptuous. 

Crumble in the feta cheese, give the pasta one final toss and serve in steaming piles. Utterly delicious! 

Vegetarian bean and lentil chilli with feta

I am a meat eater and don't get me wrong I love a good juicy steak, however, I make a lot of vegetarian and vegan food, there are so many interesting flavours and textures to be found in vegetables, beans and lentils. This deliciously spicy vegetarian chilli really hits the spot if you are after a warming and hearty dish. With the seas depleting of fish stocks and the rain forests disappearing to make way for ranches I think we could all go veggie a few days a week!

Ingredients

1/2tbsp butter (or oil if you prefer), 1 leek, 1 carrott, 1 stick celery, 170g fine green beans, 2 cloves garlic, 1 tin chopped tomatoes in juice, 1 tin drained red kidney beans, 1/2 stock cube (veggie cube or if you are not a veggie you could use beef), 1/2 cup dried red split lentils, 1tbsp lemon juice, 1tsp each of garam Marsala and chilli flakes, 1/2tsp powdered ginger, 1/4tsp ground clove powder, salt and pepper to taste. 

The topping to sprinkle over the finished dish is 2 finely chopped spring onions and about an inch cube of crumbled feta cheese. 

I served this with potatoes which were boiled until tender, drained, and then loosely smashed with a little salt and butter. However, you could use rice, cous cous or serve with some toasted wholemeal pita bread, it is a super versatile dish. 

Method: Top and tail the vegetables, wash thoroughly and finely dice in to bitesize chunks. Peel and crush the garlic. Heat the butter (or oil) in a large pan and gently fry the carrott, celery and leek on a low heat for 10 minutes, stirring frequently,  until softened. Add the garlic and cook for a further 5 minutes. 

Add the tinned tomatoes in juice, the drained kidney beans and the lentils, stir thoroughly to combine. Next add the stock cube and spices and around half a cup of hot water. Cover and cook for 10 minutes, stirring often, then add the green beans and cook for a further 10 minutes until everything is soft and the lentils have absorbed the juices. The chilli should be lucious and thick, if it looks too dry and a small splash of water. Finally add the lemon juice and season to taste with salt and pepper. 

Serve scattered with the chopped spring onions and feta cheese, this is really important so don't leave this step out, there is something about this fresh vibrant topping that brings the dish alive! 

Lazy Saturday crumbles

This is an easy one for a Saturday, for two lazy people! 

Preheat the oven to 170 Celsius. In two small ovenproof ramekins divide a cored, cubed eating apple (I left the skin intact) a handful of frozen blueberries, a squeeze of lemon juice

 and a sprinkle of white caster sugar. 

In a seperate bowl add 1tbsp each of fruit museli and white caster sugar. Next add 1.5tbsp butter. Then add 2tbsp plain flour. Use your fingers to make a rough crumble and pile on top of the fruit. This may seem like a lot of crumble but bear in mind the fruit will collapse as it cooks and the butter will melt down. 

Bake in the oven in a middle shelf for 25 minutes then gently break up the crumbly top with a fork to lighten it slightly and put back in the oven for a further 10 minutes until golden and bubbling. Serve with cream, ice cream, custard (as I did) or simply just as it is! 

Peanut butter brownies

Sometimes you start to make a recipe and realise you don't have all your usual ingredients, so frustrating! This happened to me a while ago when I was making brownies for my good friends Bronwyn and Rory, so I tweaked my ingredients and I'm glad I did, this is the best brownie recipe I've ever made! 

If you like your brownies dense and super fudgy these are for you! You can omit the peanut butter to make plain brownies, or perhaps replace with hazelnut spread if peanuts aren't your thing. I urge you to try these they are truly indulgent. 

Ingredients

450g unsalted butter, 700g dark chocolate (70% coco), 3 eggs, 2 tbsp cold espresso coffee, 1tsp good quality vanilla extract, 1 and 1/8 cup white caster sugar, 1/2 cup milk, 1 cup 00 grade flour, 1/4 cup coco powder, 1tsp baking powder, pinch salt, 8tbsp smooth peanut butter. 

Preheat the oven to 180 Celsius. Melt the butter and chocolate in a bowl suspended over a pan of gently simmering water to melt. As soon as it has melted, stir to combine and take it off the heat to cool. 

In a seperate bowl whisk the eggs, sugar,  coffee, vanilla and salt. Once the chocolate has cooled slightly tip in to the eggs  and stir very well to combine. (If you do this whilst the chocolate is too hot you will get scrambled eggs!)

Finally put the flour, coco and baking powder in to a seive and seive it directly in to the chocolate mix. Stir the flour in but don't beat it, you don't want to over mix, just gently fold until well combined. Add the milk and give it one final mix.

Tip the batter in to a buttered baking dish and smooth the top level.  Next, if using, put blobs of peanut butter over the top and using a knife swirl gently in to the batter, don't combine too much, leave the swirls visible. 

Bake on the middle shelf for 15 minutes, then turn the heat down to 150 Celsius and cover the top of the brownie lightly with greaseproof paper, bake for a further 10 minutes. Don't overcook it! A wooden cocktail skewer inserted in the middle should come out just clean. If it's still sloppy in the middle put back in to the oven for 5 more minutes. Remove from the heat and cool. Cut in to squares, ideally when still slightly warm and serve with ice cream and perhaps some toffee sauce. 

Hazelnut bomb chocolate brownie cupcakes with cream cheese vanilla frosting

I haven't posted a blog for a while because I was unwell last weekend, however I'm better now and back to baking!

Today was the six nations rugby England vs. Ireland and we had our friends over to watch the match and have burgers and beers. I didn't want to make a girly dessert as the lads were over, these cupcakes look a little dainty, however they pack a punch and are denser and manlier than normal cupcakes! I had some Hazlenut spread in the cupboard so decided to use this up and it worked a treat! They are more like little brownies with a secret surprise, a heart of fudgy hazelnut spread. It's fair to say that the guys enjoyed the food, and the rugby of course! 

Ingredients

Cupcakes; 100g plain flour, 50g coco powder, 150g White caster sugar, 50g unsalted butter, 125ml milk, 1 egg, pinch of salt, 8 teaspoons hazelnut spread. 

Frosting; 180g cream cheese, 25g butter, seeds of 2 vanilla pods, 3 cups icing sugar. 

Preheat the oven to 170 Celsius. In a large bowl add all the dry ingredients and butter and thoroughly mix until it resembles fine sand. In a jug whisk the egg and milk and gradually add to the dry goods stirring thoroughly to combine, but don't over mix. 

In a deep 8 hole rubber muffin tray add around a tablespoon of the muffin mixture to each hole, it should come up about half way up the tray. Next add one teaspoon of hazelnut spread to the centre of each muffin, and then top each one with another tablespoon of muffin mixture, this captures a little blob of hazelnut spread into the centre of each muffin when it bakes. 

Bake in the oven on the Middle shelf for exactly 22 minutes. They should have raised up slightly and the tops should have just started to crack. Please don't worry if they don't shoot right up, there is no baking powder on purpose in this dish to stop it raising too much so they stay denser like little brownies. Remove from the oven and allow to cool slightly before turning out on a wire rack to cool completely. 

Whilst they are cooling make the frosting by splitting the vanilla pods, removing the seeds, and beating them along with the icing sugar, butter and cream cheese until smooth and glossy. Chill the frosting until the cupcakes are completely cool. 

Dollop a big spoon of frosting on to each cooled muffin and arrange on a pretty tray ready for your guests! 

Caramel drop cakes

Years ago I used to work in a kitchen in the Hope Valley near Sheffield and we used to make drop scones for the hoards of visiting tourists who would devour them greedily in between their Peak District hikes. I haven't made drop scones in years and recently fancied something sweet one evening, so cobbled these together as an experiment, and you know what, they ain't half bad!! Part scone, part cake with a delicious caramel flavour, we had them warm from the oven with creme fraiche as dessert, and cold the next day as a snack with a cup of tea. However, these would be fabulous served with ice cream or custard, layered in to a trifle, or how about served with dark chocolate sauce and some chopped crystallised ginger! 

Ingredients

8oz plain flour, 6oz dark muscavado sugar, 4oz butter, 2 eggs, 2tbsp raisens, 2tsp vanilla essence, 1tsp baking powder, 1tbsp natural yoghurt. 

Preheat the oven to 180 Celsius and line a baking tray with parchment paper ready. In a large bowl beat the butter, sugar, vanilla essence and baking powder until smooth and glossy. 

Crack the eggs in to a small bowl and beat thoroughly, gradually add the eggs to the butter mix beating in between each addition until thoroughly combined, next add the flour a tablespoon at a time folding with a spatula until all the flour has  been used and the mixture is once again smooth and glossy. Finally add the raisens and yoghurt and fold one last time to combine. 

Using a large tablespoon drop heaps of the mixture on to the baking parchment spacing them out evenly. Don't worry if they don't look pretty, they will smooth and spread whilst cooking. Bake in the oven for 20 minutes until the tops become rounded, slightly glossy and begin to crack. Transfer to a wire cooling rack and allow to cool slightly before serving. 

Tagliatelle with mushrooms and cream cheese

It's grey, damp and miserable in London this week. Snow is forecast for tomorrow and I am craving lighter spring days with crocus flowers peeking up through the carpet of fallen leaves and the birds slowly returning to the trees. At the moment the alarm goes off with pitch black outside my curtains and by the time I've left my desk it's dark again, I feel like I've not seen the sun in weeks and I miss it. So the next best thing is heading home to a plate of sunshine inspired by a fabulous dish I had in Florence, Italy last June, if you need cheering up this is the dish for you!

Again this is for 2, but double the ingredients if you are cooking for 4.

Ingredients (2 people)

1 small red onion, 5 chestnut mushrooms, 70g soft cream cheese at room temperature, 2 cloves garlic, 300g fresh tagliatette pasta, 30g baby rocket leaves, 1/2tbsp olive oil, 1/2tbsp fresh lemon juice, salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste. 

Boil a big pan of salted water ready for the pasta. Cut the onion in to fine dice, finely slice the mushrooms and skin and crush the garlic. Heat the oil in a large pan on a medium heat and add the onions to gently sweat for 7 minutes, stirring often, until they are soft and translucent. Next add the mushrooms and garlic and cook for a further 6 minutes or so until soft. 

Add the pasta to the pan of boiling water to cook. 

Next add the cream cheese to the onion mix and gently spoon 2 tablespoons of the pasta cooking water in to the onions. Stir to combine until the cheese melts and makes a rich sauce. Season with salt and pepper and add the lemon juice. 

Next drain the pasta, add to the pan with the sauce and toss to combine for a minute or so until the pasta begins to absorb some of the sauce. Finally add the rocket and give it one final toss before serving.