Mini crumble pots…

Brambling in the field behind my house…apple from the garden….a simple crumble topping with butter, flour and sugar…. delicious autumn crumble pots to pop in the oven and serve bubbling with vanilla ice cream! Heaven!

Soundtrack: Rihanna and Calvin Harris- We Found Love

Recipe: Pork Ragout

Now, being left with diced pork shoulder and instructions to ‘make a casserole’ using apples, I was left a little flummoxed. Mainly because I had no such recipe, let alone any ingredients such as cooking apple.

So began my hour long search for a recipe that took my fancy… which lead me to the BBC Good Food Website and their recipe for Pork ragout with carrots & cumin.

Luckily, the spice cupboard was fully stocked, and so i could begin. however, I made a few amendments to the recipe and ingredients, to fit in with the groceries that I had to hand.

Ingredients

• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 450g/1lb pork shoulder
• 2 large onions sliced
• 450g carrots , sliced thickly and diagonally
• 2 tsp ground cumin
• ½ tsp ground cinnamon
• 2 tbsp tomato purée
• 100g currants

Recipe

1. Heat the oil in a pan
2. Add the pork and seal it (so that the side are coloured/browned), remove onto a plate & put aside
3. Fry onions in pan over a low heat until lightly coloured
4. Add the carrots, tomato puree, cinnamon and cumin, along with 500ml of water
5. Cover and cook for 25 minutes
6. Add meat and continue to cook on the hob until cooked through
7. Add more puree, spices, salt and pepper to taste
8. Although optional, I transfered the ragout into a casserole dish and baked at 180°C for around 20 minutes, until the meat was tender.

The recipe used pork fillet, which is a higher quality meat, which requires less cooking time. However, I the cheaper cuts, such as the shoulder, are just as tasty, if not more so; they just require longer cooking time. The comments on the website suggest  that these cheaper cuts of meat work better for this dish, as they are more flavoursome.

Enjoy!

Soundtrack: BIG JET PLANE – Angus and Julia Stone

Food Photos from Magnificent Morocco

In April this year, I had the pleasure of vacationing in gorgeous Marrakech, and the Ourika Valley, in Morocco. The sights were sensational, the weather wondersul and the food fabulous.

It was colourful, fresh, fragrant and we ate local traditional cuisine in the restaurants we went to, whether it be at the one of the many stalls that pop up in the early evening in the Djamaa El Fna Square, at one of the roadside restaurants in the Kasbah serving simple meals, or at the wonderfully luxurious restaurant Dar Moha (set in the grounds of the house formally owned by Pierre Balmain for all you fierce fashion lovers).

Take in the colours and try to imagine the aromas of this great country, and if you get the chance, GO!

The sweet, syrupy traditional Moroccan tea

Fresh Produce at a local market in Marrakech

Stall selling ingredients, such as dried apricots, on the Djemaa el Fna in Marrakech

7-Vegetable Cous Cous

Lotions and potions at a Herbalist in the Souks

Jars, Jars, Jars…including Saffron

Herbs and Spices

Chefs and fresh seafood and a makeshift restaurant in the Djemaa el Fna

Market in Ourika Valley

Glorious colours of fresh produce

Sitting in the burning sun on a boiling morning at the market

More earth-coloured herbs and spices, that flavour and colour the food so beautifully

Hard-working mule; the market also re-shoe the donkeys, horses and mules. They can also be traded there

Creamy Onion Risotto with Skate

Time consuming; yes, but worth it; oh YES!

Risotto is the type of thing that, if it could be left alone and not require any love and attention, would be much more popular than it is. An Italian classic, I have used it in this recipe as a side to the main event, a glorious serving of the fish, skate. However, it doesn’t need another element- just add chicken/turkey and some garden peas, and it would make a delightful main in its own right.

For the risotto:

2 medium onions
Amount of rice specified per person on packed of Arborio Risotto Rice x no. of people
Unsalter butter
Vegetable stock (I used a cube)
Parmesan

• Fry the finely chopped onions in a cube of butter in a large sauce pan, gently, for a couple of minutes
• Add the rice to the pan
• Having made up boiling stock, add one ladle to the rice
• Stir until the stock is almost absorbed, then add another ladle
• Never flood the rice, but continue adding the stock for around 20-25 minutes until the risotto is creamy, yet the rice remains al dente
• Season well with salt and pepper, and add some finely grated parmesan into the mix…

As described above, I served with some a fresh lettuce and beetroot salad, as well a healthy portion of skate.

For the Skate (My mum’s recipe; simple and delicious):

• Season plain flour with salt and pepper
• Cover the dry skate wing in this flour mixture
• Gently fry the fish in olive oil on both sides until the skin is crisp and golden, and the flesh is cooked through

Soundtrack: BTSTU by Jai Paul

A delivery from Absolutely Cakes

My brother is great!

Arriving in my university hall, in a delightfully wrapped parcel, on my 20th Birthday this March, were 12 gorgeous cupcakes!

I say cupcakes; they were absolutely HUGE, but that didn’t stop them being devoured in a record time.

The range was phenominal, the flavours delightful, the presentation adorable and each one was filled with a suprise, whether it be the Mint Innit!, with its minty extract inside, that keeps the sponge wonderfully moist, or the Terribly Chocolate Orange, with miniture orange peel pieces on top.

My absolute favourite, thought, was Lemon Lusciousness. I will let the people themselves tell you about said ‘lusciousness’… ‘divine vanilla sponge, lemon butter cream and a lurking lemony surprise with its lemon curd middle!‘. Now tell me, what is there not to love about that?

For more information about Absolutely Cakes, go to http://www.absolutelycakes.co.uk/……. I strongly recommend that you do, for more glorious photos of their delicious creations!

Soundtrack: John Mayer: Free Fallin’/Waiting on the World to Change

Blackberry and Apple Pie

Now, I just can’t help but think that, at this time in late summer, there is absolutely no excuse not to use delicious, free blackberries. Just head into the countryside, and pick hose brambles.

As it is early in the bramble season, the blackberries are relatively small and a little sour, so here they are eeked out and sweetened with delicious cooking apples.

• Thoroughly wash the brambles and tumble into your dish, covered with a generous helping of caster sugar.
• Add one layer of slices cooking apple.
• I used the pastry left over from Red Onion and Goat’s Cheese Tart (see previous post), or make a delicious fresh batch by using;
• 6 oz of flour to 3 oz of fat- a mixture to lard, butter and margarine
• Run together until the consistency of bread crumbs
• Add some water and mix together using a wooden spoon until the mixture comes together
• Leave to rest for 2o or so minutes
• Wet the edges of the dish using water, and roll the pasty on top of the filling, sticking it to the dampened edges.
• Pierce it where it lays over the funnel.
• Cook for 35 minutes at about 200°C, or until the pasty is golden, and the filling bumbling.
• Serve with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

Perfect for a late summer/ autumnal BBQ!

Red onion and Goats Cheese Tart

Mmmm. Perfect for a summer lunch, or as I had it, the side order for dinner, and it is incredibly simple too.

1. Make some shortcrust pastry
   • 6 oz of flour to 3 oz of fat- a mixture to lard, butter and margarine
   • Run together until the consistency of bread crumbs
   • Add some water and mix together using a wooden spoon until the mixture comes together
   • Leave to rest for 2o or so minutes
2. Roll out pastry (either into individual patry dishes or into a large pastry dish) and blind bake with parchment paper and baking beads for 10/15 minutes
3. Gentry fry large slices of red onions in a large frying pan
• Do as many as you feel is necessary for your tart
• If you are making mini tartlets, only one large slice is necessary per tartlet
• If making mini tartlets, keep each slice of onion together. This is not necessary if making the large tart
4. Add 3 table spoons of balsamic vinegar and fry with the onions
5. Place the onions on the pastry base and add pieces of goat’s cheese
6. Place in an oven at 180°C and cook until the pastry is nicely browned, and the goats cheese is becoming toasted and browned and bubbling

In my tart, I kept the onions whole. However, I recommend that they are broken up to give a more even covering!

Delicious and Easy Chicken Fajitas

These are so tasty, incredibly easy to do and you don’t even have to assemble them- leave that to the eaters.

• Allow one chicken breast per person, and slice each one into to multiple strips.
• Add slices of red onion, red or yellow pepper (or both!), and table spoon of smoked paprika powder, a pinch of cumin, a good swoosh of olive oil and season. Experiment with the amount of veggies that you put in to suit your taste- I usually go with one large red onion and one to two peppers, but this is no exact science.
• Mix this all together (with your hands- get involved) and leave to marinade for as long as possible, in the fridge.
• Put the chicken mixture in a frying and cook until the chicken is cooked through and golden. I like it also to be slightly charred.
• Heat your tortillas in a microwave for 40 seconds and serve with guacamole, natural yogurt and a tomato salad. Slices of avocado can also be really nice on the side.
• And there you have it, gorgeous Mexican Fajitas.

I promise, once you do this once, you will not need the recipe again- it is that simple.

• Alternatively, remove your cooked chicken mixture from the pan, place your tortilla in (making sure that some of the oil has remained in the pan so that it doesn’t stick or burn.
• Add a slice or two of mozzarella and some of the chicken mixture.
• Fold the tortilla over on itself.
• Cook on both sides until the cheese has melted and the tortilla has become a crispy golden casing around the delicious filling.
• You have just made yourself an enchilada! I think that this recipe is perfect  for the leftovers from last nights fajitas! Waste not, want not!

Soundtrack: Ven Bailalo by Angel y Khriz